OK! So I'm trying something different this chapter, less third person-ish and more... Novel like, let me know if you like this please. Thank you!

The Eastern Front: February 7th 1942

30 miles west of Volgagrade

Orussia was a cruel place. 'Eternity can be so cold here' One Orussian Imperial solider thought, they had piled up the dead just to shield themselves fr om the cold. The ungodly wind, cutting into Nakita as he was making a short run from the trench to the forward observation post until he wonderd if he would ever stop shivering. Despite popular belief by the west the Russians suffered and died just as much from the cold as the Germans did back in America and Canada' world. They may have been acclimated better but it was unforgiving to all life. Nakita had never shivered so much in his life and he grew up in Siberia; but shivered was putting it mildly as spasms shook him to his core, he shudderd so violently and with such little hope the convulsions would ever cease. He began too wonder if he might die from exhaustion, there was no source of warmth in his filthy dugout that he shared with two other Orussians and one Karlsandian. The Karlsander was covered in so many layers of clothing that was scavenged from those that were not riddled from the onslaught of Neuroi bullets and a few deserters who were executed. But now the soliders fighting here who had the small comfort of extra clothing no longer looked like men, they looked like swollen harry ticks. Nakita tried to speak to his three foxhole mates but his voice stuttered so much from the cold he gave up. He only had platatudes to offer anyway, without Witch support Hope was nearly gone, and when the next wave of Neuroi came... it would be all over and they would be swept from the face of the earth.

Certainly the Motherland stretched endlessly, Orussia was a Hell of frozen never ending space and Neuroi without number, thousands are just beyond the darkness from the very hole he lays. The Humans had stacked up a dozen or more of the 'pliable bodies' in the vain hope that they would offer protection from the howling wind that roared across the plain and knifed through every layer of rotting and fetting clothing they had. One Orussian corpse with which they had used to build their cover, had frozen with an arm protruding, it had too have been blown off in a Neuroi attack and the sharp bone stump dug into Nakita' neck forcing him to shift into a more comfortable... or exposed position. He couldn't see the faces of his country men who had huddled there with him and didn't know their names this wasn't even his unit, he'd been separated from the engineers for three weeks, and he was transferred to this place, this makeshift last line of defense before the Neuroi had a clear shot to the final stand. But that hardly matters, he now fought with one of the few remaining Karlsland Heer solider in Orussia and didn't think he'd ever see his Comrades again. He'd come forward to encourage these men and increase their diligence, but that was reduced instead too curling in a small ball and trying not to moan in freezing pain. The cold coupled with the fact that death is right over the horizon and nothing could ever stop them only made the suffering worse. Nakita knew that far in the rear across an impenetrable sea of frozen mud laid a mountain of provisions and Arctic wheather gear that would never reach their position as it was all being used for the defense of Volgagrade. He knew, because he had helped build the great depots himself! And seen them filled with thousands of hooded lambs wool jackets; and mountains of thick blankets. With insulated warm boots and soft cat skin gloves. Yes thinking and knowing all that comfort would never reach them only served to to keep warm the hate and contempt of the Tsarist government as well as knowing that the Witches would get first pick of gear. He didn't have a huge hate for Witches, hell it was a witch that saved him in Petersburg, but right now anything that could take a second away from the thought of freezing was welcome. If the Communist revolution has held ground he thought then he knew for certain they'd at least be warm before they died. Instead they were forced to piss on their cracked and blistered hands, it was the only way they had to even briefly warming and cauterizing the fissures and scaps filled with infected frozen puss. Their wounds had almost made it impossible to hold a rifle let alone fire one. One of the men in the hole Nakita thought somebody had called Franz began to sob, nobody moved too comfort him, every breath produced a rattling sound deep within his chest and sometimes an explosive burst of coughing that sprayed them with mucous. The young boys wailing and coughing increased.

"Mutti! Mutti!" He cried ensesently Nakita painfully levered himself too pierce over the rim of hardened frozen soil and bodies.

"Look alive my Komrades!" He Gruffly said, "Neuroi will be attacking soon check your communication lines!" A white haired Orussian Sargent picked up the phone and held it close to his ear, he dared not touch it to his skin or else it would stick to his skin.

"Lines are fine" he grunted. The dawn was near enough now that Nakita could see steam pluming from his mouth what remains of the dense forest of blood and mangled bodies once more resolved itself into an open field littered with near uncountable bodies of dead, the few remaining Karslanders but mostly dead Orussians. The shell holes as well as holes made by the Neuroi were now visible to, thousands of them curiously delicate if viewed with the detachment of humanity. Against the vast canvas of the snow cover steppes, Nakita was gathering his strength when the vague horizon that blurred between white bloody ground and gray sky was unexpectedly thrown into sharp definition. A solid Black line appeared extending as far as the he could see, when the Neuroi screech reached him. Nikita grabbed the phone from the hands of the Sargent and began cranking the handle to generate a charge, when a small impossibly distant voice answered. He screamed into the mouth pice demanding what artillery support was available, the connection was poor and the line crackled and hissed with static to the point he believed they could not even hear him on his side of the line. That far away tinny nearly none human voice repeated the same useless mantra again and again. "What was that?! What was that?" Nakita called out his identity and rank, demanding an artillery barrage, only to here the same words on the line. The Young Karlsland boy began screaming for his mother reminding Nakita of his own son Sergei for just a brief moment, he would turn Four in three months. The Karlslander' grief, rage and terror cut into Nakita' soul far worse then the cold which seemed impossible. "MUTTI MUTTI! NEIN NEIN!"

Lieutenant Nakita readied his Rifle while the two other Orussians wrestled franticly with the spandow attempting to thred a new belt for their MG with stiff shaking hands. The Black line on the horizon now had red to it as it grew thicker as more and more Neuroi invaders poured over the jagged lands. "Черт there are millions of them!" Cried the gunner, his voice cracking with terror as the Neuroi all screeched at once, causing the Orussians to cover their ears to try and alleviate the sheer agony they were suffering. The resounding tremors of the Neuroi advance reverberate right through their bodies, only adding to their terror and death.

"We must go Lieutenant! We have to run NOW!" Cried.

"WE NEED ARTILLERY!" Nakita screamed out in both desperation and to make sure it could be heard trough the louadness of the Alien attack as he held his hand on the MG feeder who was only seconds away from fleeing his post as where hundreds of others around them only to meet the same fate of a bullet of bullets ripping them apart. "FIRE!" Nakita shouted pointing at the Neuroi who advanced like a surging black tide; the MG crew began to fire, the harsh industrial hammering coming in short bursts that did nothing to halt the advancing hoard. While the Neuroi killed another hundred men in less then ten seconds.. most of those were men running away in terror.

"Where is the artillery!" He roared into the phone.

"WHAT WAS THAT? REPEAT!?"

The Neuroi was now upon them.

"Mu-mu-Mutti." A single shot rang out sounding flat and insignificant in all this chaos, it was so close that Nakita jumped, not knowing for an instant that a warm shower of gore had just sprayed him. The the young Karlsland boy was dead, his body twitching in inhuman spasms, one side of his head was missing; blow off by the pistol he had placed within his mouth and triggered when his mother failed to save him from the monsters rushing at him. The Neuroi were now a right on top of their position. Nakita tried one last time for artillery, though unlike the other times he spoke calmly and clear, as if he were ordering something in a quite restaurant. "Where is our Artillery?" "Repeat your last over!?"

Knowing nothing could be done, and filled with terror himself Nakita took out his issued sidearm, stood up from his trench as bullets were flying from behind and ahead of him, he cussed and flipped off that endless sea of Black on the eternal Orussian Steppe and began to promptly pull the trigger firing at those monsters who dared to desicrate mother Orussia. He was allowed two seconds to look behind him, and all he could see was either brave men firing with no effect and field guns doing little, or men who were running away. Nakita didn't blame them for running anymore, and if he had time to be honest he'd think about it as well. But he thought. 'What's the point, better to die here then to die a few yards away.' The shear size of the Neuroi force with weapons fire drowned out the sound of the first barrage of artillery so that Nakita didn't realize that the much wanted artillery barrage was on it was. Until the first shells shrieked over head to explode in the center of the Neuroi mass half a second later. Enormous fountains of fire and ice and the screams of Neuroi invaders erupted just behind the breech of the attack. Silhouetting the front ranks in curtain of flames, but the Neuroi rushed on regardless until five Neuroi Heavy walkers suddenly disintegrated in a shower of shards . "Land Witches" he said as he heard the sound of engines from behind and the voices of girls. But the MG' didn't hear nor pay attention to his words as they kept fireng, yelling and cursing at the enemy in their native tongue.

"Stop! You'll either overheat the gun or melt the barrel." Nakita said regaining some of his wits. He hoped down from his exposed perch and holstered his pistol, a frightful den, the sound of a world driven in two shook the mud beneath their feet as the big guns fired back their barrage trough the still densely packed Neuroi invaders. Nakita knew Artillery was a small blessing in their own way when they fire into the Neuroi, but it was more for their sake then it was to attack the Neuroi. He wondered though, how many Neuroi were destroyed with those barrages; ten? Fifteen? Two hundred? Then it was time to continue the attack, with land Witches finally arriving to support it was the thing needed to get their moral back into the fight. The Neuroi attack had been stalled but it would be only a matter of time before the Neuroi attacked again, how long did they have? Seconds minutes? Hours for Neuroi renforsments? This was a small outpost just ahead of the final defense line before Volgagrade.

"URA!" The seven Witches yelled as they advanced towards the Neuroi, if Nakita hadn't seen first hand what Witches could do he would have thought they wanted to die! But then again who was he to judge when what he and his fellow countrymen were doing was even more suicidal and besides, he saw what Witches can do. Salvation had come... but as he let out a sigh of relief, a new horror was spotted and it paralyzed the man, his jaw actually hanging slack and his eyes bulged. One of his fellow Orussian hole mates had howled like a dog in terror and ran for his life, stumbling over the corpse of the dead boy and the bodies of their fallen comrades. A Neuroi the size of a battleship was appearing in the sky, its shrike louder then all the noise this battle had produced. For a split second A bright red light had engulfed the Witches who were equally surprised or terrified by this new Neuroi that they didn't have time to react. When the red light faded a split second of nothingness then an explosion and the Witches gone! Vaporized by the lasers of the Neuroi, a deep scar in the ground where thick frozen solid ground and mud once was. Nothing but hot steam came from the ground now, at this site every Soldier that wasn't frozen in fear and shock ran for their lives, away from this new monster only to be mowed down by the surviving land Neuroi. The new Neuroi, now had its sights on Nakita, even though it's impossible to tell, Nakita new that he would be the next victim of this new evil invader that had so easily wiped out Humanity's best hope of stopping them. Red lights engulfed Nakita and then darkness.

Orussia the Eastern Front February 28th 1942

The center of Volgagrade

"Comrade Lieutenant! Comrade Lieutenant wake up sir wake up! Your scaring the others!" Came the response of a Sargent waking up Nakita and pulling him up by the shoulder from the nightmare that had haunted him. The Red light of the Neuroi had died considerably to a soft but blinding yellow, "Markov?!" Nakita was disoriented his heart still raced almost as bad as that day outside Belgrade. "Markov is that you?"

"No sir I'm Sargent Makarov, I've been attached to your unit." The Sargent responded. Finally He remembered, he was no longer at the final defensive line, but here in Volgagrade where the Tsar himself chose to make a last stand. Here in Volgagrade he was in the company of the people of wonders! It had been nearly two weeks since that battle and it was during that battle that the people from the future arrived. Nakita would never forget it, though a form of half formed thoughts and feelings flew through his sleep deprived mind. But two things were certain. He was alive and warm! And he couldn't get over the fact that people from an alternate future had come to help save the motherland. When that Neuroi was preparing another volley it was suddenly hit by some rockets, as Nakita looked to where the fire had come from, he saw Studabaker trucks filled with more Russians and a at least three handfuls of different solider in uniforms and gear he never recognized with flag patches that resembled Liberion he saw on the lend lease boxes. And shortly after that Witches! Both land and air. Nakita couldn't help but collapse in his hole and weep uncontrollably at salvation.

As the line was filled with reinforcements the batterd defenders where sent to Volgagrade, there they had learned about what was happening and what they would do.

And cut! We finally see the Eastern Front. I went with a different approach on the story. Do you like it? Anyway more later from this flashback. Hope you enjoyed it!