The air in the camp was sharp with cold, but every breath Miho took felt hotter than the last. Her hands trembled slightly as she climbed down from the Panzer IV, the lingering adrenaline finally ebbing from her veins.
Hauptmann Winter headed straight to Oberst Kruger, boots crunching through the frostbitten mud, to report the encounter with the mystery tank that had fought like the devil.
"It was only thanks to those Mädchen that we returned without a total loss," he said.
Kruger gave a single nod."Verstanden, Hauptmann. We have orders from Heeresgruppe to counterattack at full strength and retake the position."
Winter's jaw clenched. "With all due respect, Oberst, that position isn't held by regulars anymore. We're not just retaking ground—we're walking into a test site."
Kruger's expression remained hard. "Which is precisely why we must strike swiftly. Hesitation gives them time. Time we don't have."
Around them, the camp buzzed with the urgent rhythm of recovery. Mechanics patched Panthers, welded schürzen into place, and reloaded ready racks with practiced haste. Oil-drum fires crackled, throwing flickering shadows across the tired faces of Germans and Romanians alike.
"Don't worry too much," Kruger added quietly. "We'll be reinforced by an SS Panzer division and two infantry divisions."
But his own concern ran deeper. He wasn't sure how the SS would react to the girls—or what bureaucratic chaos their presence might cause. More than anything, he wanted to keep them safe.
To the division, the girls had become symbols of something long forgotten. Not soldiers, not mascots—something gentler. A shard of innocence in a world that had burned it all away.
The late afternoon sun hung low over the snow-covered Romanian fields, casting amber shadows across battered tanks and skeletal trees. The cold bit deep, but for the first time in days, a rare calm had settled on the camp.
Near a flickering fire stacked with half-burnt logs, Miho sat perched atop a rusty fuel drum, her voice low as she shared a conversation with a young German Panzer commander.
Her gestures were precise and thoughtful as she described her past battles—facing down Soviet armor during her time at Ooarai. The commander listened intently, taking mental notes on the weak spots of Russian tanks, their formations, and maneuver styles. Respect gleamed in his eyes. Here was no mere girl, but a tactician.
Nearby, Yukari crouched beside a Panther surrounded by grease-streaked mechanics. Her excitement was infectious. Tracing the curvature of a shell casing, she rattled off insights about engine maintenance, suspension tuning, and emergency battlefield repairs. The men hung on her every word—amused and impressed by her deep, almost encyclopedic knowledge of their war machines.
A short distance away, Saori's laughter rang out. She twirled with a shy Romanian Vânători de Munte trooper, their clumsy steps echoing against the frozen ground. Around them, comrades played harmonica and accordion—an impromptu band conjuring joy in the winter gloom. The young soldier blushed under Saori's bright smile, and for a moment, the war was forgotten.
Nearby, a Romanian joked to his German friend, "Looks like we've stolen one of your girls!"The German snorted. "A rare Romanian victory."
Laughter followed. It was a welcome noise.
On a wooden crate, Hana sat with perfect poise, steam rising from the porcelain teacup in her hands. An older German Feldwebel sat beside her, quietly engaged in conversation. Her calm aura seemed to soothe the hardened noncom, who found himself smiling for the first time in weeks.
For a fleeting second, he saw in her the ghost of his son—killed days ago in the fighting. His chest tightened, and a tear nearly broke through years of emotional numbness.
Up above, nestled atop the turret of their Panzer IV, Mako slept beneath a blanket. Her cap was pulled low, her breath rising in soft puffs. The tank hummed softly beneath her like a mechanical lullaby.
From his position near the command post, Kruger watched the girls among his troops—laughing, sharing, simply being. Among men ground down by years of war, they were a reminder of something long lost. Something human.
The sun had just dipped below the horizon, and the bitter Romanian wind returned with a vengeance. The warm moment around the fire, the dancing, the soft conversations—it all began to fade as a low rumble crept in from the distant road, accompanied by the grinding churn of engines and the snap of heavy treads biting frozen earth.
Miho felt it first. The vibration under her boots. She looked up instinctively, her senses sharpened by training and battle. Mako stirred slightly atop the Panzer IV but didn't wake. The others paused too—Yukari stiffened mid-sentence, Saori blinked as the accordion music faltered. Hana lowered her teacup without a sound.
A Romanian sentry shouted from the southern edge of the camp, and then the vehicles emerged.
Grey hulls, dulled by road grime and pockmarked with frost, rolled into view—Sdkfz 251 half-tracks, an armored command car, and a column of Panzer IVs marked with angular SS runes and Balkenkreuz. Their crews stood tall and alert, faces hidden under helmet shadows.
The SS soldiers wore field-grey camouflage smocks over regulation tunics, the telltale cuff titles and insignia still visible if one knew where to look. These were veterans—hard-eyed, disciplined, and far colder than the frost biting the earth.
The camp quieted as if the wind itself held its breath.
Oberst Kruger straightened his overcoat and stepped away from the command post. Winter followed stiffly, his boots crunching over snow and dirt. The two men exchanged a glance.
"Das muss die Wiking sein," Winter muttered. "I was at least hoping for the Hohenstaufen."
Kruger didn't reply. His face was carved from stone as he watched the arriving columns of SS vehicles.
One brushed past a Romanian troops column almost running them over but still not caring when the soldiers protested.
Some of them kept glancing at the weird Panzer IV standing there as the Tigers and Panthers drive past. One SdkFz 251 stopped right beside it and the troops started to inspect out of curiosity.
One of the grenadiers poked at the cartoonish fish design drawing on the tank's hull, "Hey Gunther, look isn't it just like the Waal you drew on your mess kit?"
Gunther leaned closer, squinting at the bright pink fish. "Nein, mine had teeth. This one looks like it would ask for bread crumbs."
"Achtung, stop wasting time and move on. Schnell schnell." A commander ordered.
They both quickly got up on the halftrack and left for their designated position.
A few Panzer IVs and Panthers parked alongside the Grossdeutschland tanks. And very soon the eyes of the SS fell on the girls.