Resistance: Fall of Man - An Oral History

[ColossusCrusher]

NO!
I find it impossible that a Terran Goliath can lose...fine, I don't.
Just give them a dose of Protoss Carrier...their range is longer than AA, so they are immune to the anti-air Chimera!
OR just nuke their asses.

But yes, Starcraft is godly.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Let's focus on the AAR, gents

 

[unmerged(51002)]

Just read this all the way through.

Wow.

 

[TreizeV]

The Battle of Germany, Part 2​

Cayenne, French Guiana​

​

[Major Wolff continues the interview, showing me battalions of newly assembled Tigers. With the loss of the great industrial areas such as the Saar River Valley, allied forces are forced to improvise, making use of de-commissioned vehicles and cannibalizing obsolete tanks for parts. In the end, the German Armored Corps have managed to rebuild and repair several hundred Tiger and Panther tanks from their efforts, ready for the next counterattack into Europe. Whispers of Operation ‘Morning Star’ are heard within the base walls, leading me to believe that the envisioned operation isn’t going to be exclusively American.]

Improvisation was always one of the great skills a Tanker had to learn with time. To make use of any material on hand either on or off the battlefield, as the situation permits, to keep your machine in running order. Aside from salvaging the tanks, the Oder battle allowed us to apply our skills to a degree like never before.

But wasn’t the German army adequately supplied for the battle?

Yes and no. We had the basic things, such as shells, along with fuel and food, but what about the parts for a gun that breaks down? Or replaceable engines for trucks and jeeps that bring those supplies to us? That’s one aspect of supply a lot of arm chair generals forget. Sure we have enough bullets to fire for eternity, but they do little good stacked up in a warehouse as opposed to being delivered to us on the battlefield.

But you mentioned the German army had plenty of everything.

Yes, but no one fathomed how long we would have to sustain operations. At first the general staff believed we had to hold the Chimera off for a day or two, before the armor and motorized divisions would counterattack, but that certainly wasn’t the case. The Chimera were supposed to bleed themselves dry, to be awed by the defense we put up. If it was any other human army I can tell you that they would have ceased operations, pulled back and reassess. That was the opening we were looking for, the weakness our Panzers would exploit.

But that was one thing the Chimera had over us. They didn’t have to pull back to reassess the situation. Each Chimeran soldier seemed hardwired with the other, instinctively knowing how the battle is going and what they needed to do even as they were fighting. We saw it many times, those four eyed freaks howling to each other as though for orders, then without uttering another sound, all of them would turn in synchronization to meet a flank attack we had just launched. A standard human regiment would take longer to react to the flank attack. You would have regimental HQ order a halt to the existing attack, and orders would have to be written up and relayed to all the various parts of the regiment on how to react. That is a lag time of maybe a few minutes under good conditions. The Chimera move perfectly with each other, neither requiring radios or chains of command. Its like they all know what to do already, and that is one advantage on the tactical level we couldn’t match. The other is numbers. That is what allowed them to continue their attacks without pausing or halting against our line, even as we launched flank attacks and slaughtered legions of them, they would always react appropriately and instantly, and there would always be too much to kill.

General Guderian realized this, even though many generals advocated attack, he recognized there was no way we could launch the Panzer counterattack now. Our method of war, of blitzkrieg Impetus and momentum, required keeping an opponent off balance, to shatter his lines of communication and chains of command. But what if the enemy never went off balance, never panicked? Not only won’t, but biologically can’t? There are no Chimeran NCOs, officers or generals. They all look the same, and yet, they move like they are taking orders from a higher power, they move with a singular purpose. Even if we launched our attack with our dive bombers and armored thrusts, we would have literally been stopped by the legions of fearless Chimera, that would literally fight us to a standstill until the treads of our tanks were jammed by their bodies and flesh. That was why Winter Storm failed, that is why to this day, offensive generals are having a problem coping with the Chimera.

If you couldn’t counter-attack, how did your generals plan the next step at Oder?

There was no choice but to keep to the plan. We had spent weeks moving the armored divisions in place, reactivating them, and doing all the maintenance to ensure the tanks were properly equipped for a Winter campaign. Besides, we had to relieve the defensive line at the Oder. Some of the men, my battery included, had been fighting for days non-stop now, and combat fatigue cases were getting larger each week.

Soldiers fighting a Chimeran Stalker in Frankfurt​

One advantage we had was in the Tiger Mark III. It was one of the most perfect tanks ever built by the UED. The Brits even respectfully called it the ‘Royal Tiger’. Very heavy armor, about 150 mm thick, and long range, perfect for a defensive action. Against us, the closest thing the Chimera could put out were the Stalker spider tanks, and the Widowmakers. The Stalkers fired heavy chain guns and missiles, but against the Tiger’s armor, it could barely put a dent into it.

I’m sorry, you mentioned Widowmakers?

Military code name for the Giant spider fucks that had eight eyes, about two stories tall, the size of a house. We don’t know where they came from, but we first sighted them during the invasion of Poland. To us, they were more dangerous than the mechanical stalkers. These giant organic monsters had the ability to spit globs of corrosive acid. I’ve seen many men disfigured or simply melted away by their attacks, which had even been known to pierce the armor of a tiger tank. Widowmaker, the most appropriate name anyone could come up with.

Chimeran heavy assault unit, codenamed: Widowmaker​

I cannot tell you the effect of Widowmakers on standard infantry. I’ve always seen, without exception, the men target the Widowmakers whenever they appear on the battlefield, ignoring all other Chimera units. Something about those monstrosities really affects the men in many ways.

To counter act the stress of battle, the General Staff had arranged several mini ‘furloughs’ from the line. Detaching combat battalions to safe zones far behind the lines, these camps had everything, hospitals, kitchens, sleeping quarters. I’ve seen my fair share of infantry that went there to smoke, drink coffee or talk uneasily about the future. This was where Oberst Dufving’s infantry stayed after their savage fight in the foxholes. I’ve seen the look on their faces as they passed us by. These men were just glad to be alive for one more day after facing the Chimera, some even felt astonished to be alive at all. I was learning to know them, and I always noticed something about these men, these young boys we’ve sent to fight. It is that when a friend is killed, it is like some particle of life inside of them had died. You won’t notice it at first, and when speaking with them, its like they are not affected. But given the days of brutality and horror, you just know that they are carrying the voices of their dead comrades with them, and perhaps they still might for the rest of their lives.

Did this have any effect on combat performance?

It depends, each man takes it differently, but even from what I have seen, I can proudly say that the Oder defense remains one of the most outstanding moments in the history of the German army. Everyone did their duty.

[Before I speak, Wolff replies]

You are probably wondering then, how was it that the proud German army had its ass handed to it by the Chimera? I can give you one reason aside from their efficiency, the fear, and the numbers. We simply weren’t prepared to fight a war that complete, that totally. Humans can commit themselves to a cause, whether it is an ideology or a good cause, but there are various degrees. One cannot be totally, completely committed to a cause. We may be soldiers, but we are also fathers, sons, brothers, friends. How would you fight an enemy that was none of those? Whose sole purpose in life, whose every breath and moment was devoted to simply attacking and infecting human beings? The Chimera no longer had a home to go back to, no relatives or friends to see when the war is over. For them, their entire being is devoted to the fight. It may be small words, but the difference between those two kinds of soldiers is immense, and we weren’t prepared to fight that kind of enemy. Psychologically and Physically.

Day by day, the crash of exploding shells, the quick, lethal screams of our 88s going over, the cries and groans of the wounded and the odor of burning flesh took a toll on the defenders. The men started firing wilder, rising from their slits, standing up and cursing the Chimera. It was difficult for us to even hold the wounded down, most of them being delirious with thirst and pain. Our morphine supply had run dry long ago, and water was exhausted along the whole line.

Fighting was heaviest around the city of Frankfurt, where the 1st Panzer division was forced to a standstill. We had some successful counterattacks, with the 2nd Panzer spearheading six miles into Chimera territory before being forced back, abandoning their tanks and guns. We had at least eighty tanks hold the line against a huge wave of Chimera, and we lost count of the number of enemy stalkers and widowmakers we put out of commission. Our infantry also fought back with incredible tenacity and resourcefulness. Our bazookas and guns took a heavy toll on the Chimeran infantry. Though we were short on trained manpower and ammo. Several companies were already lost, wiped out in the first few minutes of combat. We had one instance where a company of a hundred was reduced to less than twenty effectives after one tour on the front.

It was about a few days into the battle when they arrived, up till then, we’ve been having no problem with dealing with the enemy armor. Stalkers may have had accurate fire, but they were no match for our Tiger and Panther tanks. By then we had a whole mountain of burnt out and destroyed Stalkers on our front line. I can tell you nothing is more satisfying than watching a shell hit a stalker dead on, and seeing its body explode with the legs tossed up into the air. We had our own Panzer aces, there was Captain Michel Wittman. He built his reputation on the retreat from Warsaw, and it was never fully counted, but there were those who claimed he took out at least two hundred of those Stalkers by himself.

Still, we weren’t prepared for what came next.

You can always tell the start of an attack by a Goliath. The very ground you stand on shakes like a shell has been struck near you, but you sense no explosion. It is a long dragged out rumble, that you can feel stretching for miles away. The only resemblance to a Stalker these walking tanks had was the shape. Everything else…

Goliaths on the attack​

They towered over the entire horizon, like walking mountains. There must have been at least a hundred of them along the whole line. A Goliath is literally large enough to crush a Tiger tank by just stepping on it. The closest thing I can do to describe it is that it is a walking siege battery. Think of all the guns and artillery we had in our sector, and mount them on a walking platform several stories high, and you get a Goliath. They are the reason why we started losing cities within a day, some even within minutes.

Just as soon as they appeared, they began their barrage. Giant mortar shells started landing along our side of the river. I’ve seen entire companies completely destroyed by one blast. Even the Tigers and Panthers weren’t spared from the hits. It was at this point that some companies started collapsing. Soldiers who had endured the horrors of the Chimera now found themselves facing a new threat, it was too much and I’ve seen many men throw away their rifles and just fled west.

The men in our sector fought back, igniting the area around us with their flamethrowers and laying on heavy 88mm fire onto the first Goliath. Our shells bounced right off their armor plating like little stones. Firing was more chaotic now, people were panicking all along the line, even as they launched those damned Spire missiles.

We didn’t know it back then, but that was how they infected us. Each sector that had a missile landing inside of it, we heard nothing but screams, followed by silence as the Chimera quickly overran those sectors. We were lucky, little did we know, the wall of flames around our battery had saved my crew’s lives, and mine.

By now, General Guderian was on the radio, telling us the next phase. The river was lost, and the Chimeran infantry and those damned Goliaths were crossing in huge numbers. Berlin, a city with a population of several million was still being evacuated, we had to buy them some more time, so our families could get to the Rhine. Every second we held them back now was a second the army needed to evacuate a civilian. It was now or never.

For the sake of our country, for the sake of our children, Guderian gave the final word:

Attack.


To be continued

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

The intrigue grows bigger and bigger. For once it seemed we were checking them, and they just turn the tide of the battle with the Goliaths. How to stop those beasts?

 

[Enewald]

Charge!

Killing chimeras does never end...

The battle of Berlin?

Several millions dead, I assume...

 

[KanaX]

And I bet there's just no end to the Chimeran horde. They seem overwhelming in every aspect, and they produce more and more units with every passing moment. I wonder when the UED starts strategic bombing campaigns?

 

[ColossusCrusher]

Shit. Those could own Terran Goliaths...Yamato them!

 

[TheExecuter]

Wow...nice uber weapon. I'd be running too.

What do the spires do?

TheExecuter

 

[unmerged(59737)]

For want of a tac nuke….

How did America get stupid enough to think that this would just stop at the shores of the Atlantic?

 

[Capibara]

Excellent update! It must has been really depressing for the German Army to see all their efforts to hold the Chimera crushed in a matter of minutes thanks to the Goliaths. Looking forward to the next update! A last, desperate attack.

 

[stnylan]

I am getting a distinct impression of a battle of the line, of battles like that which were fought at Calais and the villages before Dunkirk, or the desperate German actions in April 1945. The keep the road open to the West for as long as possible, to let as many escape the Russian menace as possible.

 

[Chicken]

I really do enjoy this storyline. When I read WWZ, I really did have a great time just engulfing myself in the atmosphere that the book created. The only problem I saw in it was that some of the storylines could have been expanded a lot more. Hell, I could have probably read a 10 Volume Encyclopedic collection on the happenings in World War Z. I'm just that interested.

Here, you are writing based loosely on the style put forth in that book, except it seems to be down to a more personal level, and I love it. More focus on the grand scale of things, whereas WWZ was rather vague with geopolitical situations. But enough of my mumbo-jumbo. Great Read!

Keep up the good work!

 

[unmerged(62857)]

First of all, another great update TV! Thanks!

I think that someone has already asked, but have there been any Chimeran prisoners or technology taken for research purposes? If so, what are the chances of getting an update on the results?

Cheers!

 

[unmerged(87106)]

Those last two pictures are terrifying.

I like how you really get inside the head of those soldiers, etc.



asd

 

[TreizeV]

Kurt_Steiner In resistance, you get to take down a Goliath with just a Stalker :rofl:

Enewald Yes, i have something special planned for Berlin

KanaX They have, its just that stalker missiles are very effective anti-air platofmrs. That might explain how Europe couldn't rely on its Air arm for long in game history

ColossusCrusher Told ya so

TheExecuter Spires help carry the Chimera virus. Essentially a biomissile. More on the future.

Fulcrumvale Who knows. One of the game's mysteries is the exact motivation of the U.S government during these years. Some may even say it is a conspiracy we won't know until the second game unforutnately.

Capibara Yes indeed, maybe i can link an audio to 'ride of the valkyries' for the next update

stnylan That isn't far off from what I am trying to portray here, so thank you

Chicken While some of the geopolitical insights in WWZ were kinda a stretch, i enjoyed it overall. I don't know if my account is any more 'personal' than Max brooks. He does a fair share of interviews with average joe schmoe civilians and people from all walks of life. Something I do hope to do as we continue this tale.

Bafflegab Thanks baffle! As for the Chimeran prisoners and tech....i plan to explain that all in the future

asd21593 Thanks! I've got a library of good WW2 literature that helps give me ideas for these accounts. They help tremendously.

 

[ColossusCrusher]

So...after you take over Europe as the Chimera, will you load up as the Allies and kick them out?

 

[Ksim3000]

This update really does show the impact of the German technological scale compared to that of Russia or even probably Japan. Atleast the Germans did have a chance with their Panthers and Tigers. The Russians with rifles and bayonets as we saw early on really did not stance a chance. Still, you really did hit hard also the emotional and realistic psychological impact the Chimera and their tactics are having on the soldiers. It is very true. Whilst the Chimera have nothing to lose, the German and other allied soldiers at the front did.

Such a masterful tale. Looking forward to your next update as always. And still, a marvellous defence on the Oder.

 

[KanaX]

KanaX They have, its just that stalker missiles are very effective anti-air platofmrs. That might explain how Europe couldn't rely on its Air arm for long in game history

Ah, figures. Well, here's to a rocket-bombing campaign.

 

[unmerged(97871)]

Wow. This AAR is just amazing! Can't wait for the next update!

Keep up the good work, your writing is really superb!