Castle Wolfenstein 1.4

Escape from Castle Wolfenstein – Chapter 4

“Herr Major! What is happening? We heard the alarm and..” the guard was interrupted by the officer’s sharp voice. “Stay at your post soldier. There was an escape attempt, but we managed to wound the prisoner and have now put him back in his cell”
“Jawohl Herr Major!” The guard clacked his heels together and raised his arm in a “Heil Hitler” greeting. The major looked at him sharply and returned a formal, stiff salute, before continuing down the hallway. The guard briefly eyed the officer suspiciously. He hadn’t seen this officer before. Maybe an officer sent to inspect? Strange that I haven’t seen him pass this way before the soldier thought. Then it occurred to him that the officer could have arrived during one of his comrades’ shift.

Blazcowicz briefly looked over his shoulder. So far, so good! he thought as he reached a door with an arrow-shaped sign next to it. The sign read “Bahn” – BJ had found way to the tram that according to his sources led to the village just below the castle. He was glad that he had found one of Major Jürgen’s extra uniforms in a chest. He had also visited another radio room, where he had found a telegram. It had read:

To: SS Oberführer Blavatsky
From: Gräfin Helga von Bülow
Completed preliminary survey of excavation site. Evidence strongly suggests Dark Knight entombment. Request immediate dispatch of extraction team. Will await your orders before proceeding further.
Regards,
Frau Gräfin Helga von Bülow, Overseer for the SS Paranormal Division

BJ was still pondering over the cryptic message. What was this “Dark Knight” that the Nazis were so eagerly searching for? What did they expect to achieve with whatever this knight was? More puzzling was the “SS Paranormal Division”. Blazcowicz knew that the Schutzstaffel – the fearsome SS elite unit, had various divisions, but he had never heard about a “Paranormal” division.

His thoughts were interrupted when a guard suddenly addressed him: “Excuse me Sir, what is your business here?”
BJ had reached the castle’s tram station. A mechanic was busy polishing the machinery behind Blazcowicz and the guard.
“I have been sent by direct order of the Reichsmarshall to investigate certain rumours that hording of valuables is taking place here. I am here to inspect the castle” BJ replied in his fluent German, keeping his voice sharp, acting as much as an aristocratic German officer as he could.
The guard apologized humbly and backed away. BJ looked around. The tram was not currently at the castle’s station and the machinery wasn’t active.

Crap, the power has been shut down! I’ll have to switch on the generator to get that tram operational! BJ thought doggedly. This means that I’ll probably have to kill more guards – damn and double damn!

He opened a door with a sign with the word “Generator” and went down the stairs behind the door. He wound up in a dimly lit room. There was a mechanic checking on the machinery and when BJ looked around a bit, he noticed two guards polishing their weapons. The guards stood with their backs turned on BJ and the mechanic. One of them had put his helmet down on the table next to him.

BJ took a quick decision and withdrew his knife, quietly disposing of the mechanic. The guards hadn’t heard anything. BJ felt his heart pound and sweat broke forth on his forehead. If one of the guards turned, he would be in trouble, even though he could dispose of both guards with the pistol. His escape attempt had almost been ruined by the battle in the lower keep of the castle.

He snuck up behind the guard with the helmet and swiftly drew his knife into his back. The guard fell to the floor with a muffled scream and Blazcowicz quickly grabbed a nearby chair and smashed it into the face of the bareheaded guard, which had turned to face him. The guard fell to the floor with a moan and BJ leapt on top of him, placed his glowed hand over the man’s mouth and cut his throat.
The other guard was still alive, although seriously wounded. The American spy quickly put the guard out of his misery with the knife. BJ looked down at himself. Luckily the uniform hadn’t been stained. Blazcowicz proceeded to pull a handle, with a sign reading “Strom”, which BJ knew meant “power”.
The machine let out a vibrating humming noise and BJ knew that the tram would now be operational, but he also knew that he had to kill a few more guards now, because they would likely be too suspicious about the power suddenly getting turned on.

-

They were indeed suspicious about the sudden noise of machinery, because when BJ peeked out of the door to the power room, he found several guards looking around confused with their weapons at the ready. A stern, German voiced startled BJ.
“What were you doing down there, Sir?” the guard held firmly onto his submachine gun while staring fixedly at BJ.
“None of your business” BJ growled in English, whipped out his MP40 and killed the guard with a quick burst. His cover was now blown. Shouting from several guards reached his ears. He quickly fired at the nearby alarm to prevent anyone from activating it, and bright yellow sparks leapt from the green box as the thing was smashed.

A few guards came running towards the scene, but BJ mowed them down with gruesome accuracy. Blazcowicz fired a few more bursts before he swiftly moved closer to the tram and dropped down behind some machinery, avoiding a volley of bullets fired by the remaining guards. BJ quickly primed a “potato masher” grenade and flung it in the direction of the guards. He heard panicked shouts and quickly leapt out of hiding, picking off two more guards, who were retreating from the grenade, before he dropped down behind cover again. The grenade went off with a loud explosion that shook the floor under Blazcowicz. He hurried over to the small guard house and sent a deadly spray of bullets through the window, disposing of the last guard.

The tram was approaching and BJ could see two human figures on board. Uh-oh, here comes more company! he thought, gritting his teeth.
He quickly hid behind the door just in time to avoid being discovered by the two soldiers in the approaching tram.
The tram had almost reached the station when Blazcowicz sent a couple of bursts at the tram, perforating the two guards. They barely got a chance to even utter an exclamation of surprise.

I’m tired of looking at these dull castle walls.. BJ thought as he hopped aboard. Let’s go sightseeing in the village!
The tram rocked menacingly as it began to disembark from the castle.

Shouts rung out behind BJ. He spun around to se several guards with machine guns show up. The spy threw himself to the floor of the tram as the air became unhealthy with bullets.

-

Blazcowicz clutched the MP40 in his rough hands. He was sitting in an air duct. He had just arrived at the village‘s tram station and had been met with more guards. Now he was hiding in the air vent, waiting.

Somehow, they must have heard the shooting from the castle and now they where all alert down here. BJ's mind was full of curses.

When nothing happened he crawled a bit deeper into the duct until it went further down. He slipped down as quietly as he could. He landed with a muffled sound, then sat still with his submachine gun at the ready, while his heart was beating furiously. Ahead he could see another ventilation grate – the way out of the air duct. BJ crawled closer to it as stealthily as he could and quietly removed the crate.
“HALT!”
BJ was looking into the barrel of a machinegun.

The guards had been waiting for him. BJ swore out loud.
So close, and yet so far he thought disheartened as he slowly crawled out of the duct, not taking his eyes away from the menacing gun barrel There was a guard and two officers – all had their weapons trained on the spy. He slowly put his gun down and was just about to let go of it, when a machinegun burst ripped through the silence in one of the adjourning rooms drawing the attention of the Nazis. BJ’s reaction was swift and deadly. He tightened his grip on the machinegun and whipped it up again, swiftly thrusting the barrel into the chest of the soldier in front of him. A loud crack told BJ that he had just broken a few of the soldier’s rips. The guard let out a muffled cry of pain, and before the two officers could react, BJ painted the left officer’s uniform red with blood by emptying a few rounds into his chest, before he dropped down behind a massive desk. The other officer, blind with panic, fired a shot in BJ’s direction, but the Nazi had reacted far too slowly and BJ was gone from his line of sight when the shot rang out. With a roar of rage Blazcowicz hurled the MP40 at the Nazi officer, who dropped his pistol in surprise, and the spy disposed of the Nazi with his pistol.

After collecting what ammunition he could reap from the dead corpses, he moved to the adjourning room where he had heard the machinegun shot. He leapt into the doorway with his gun raised and a finger tightening on the trigger.

Much to BJ’s surprise, there was a man in gray attire standing at a radio desk, towering above a dead guard. He carried an American Thompson sub machinegun in his hands. He leapt back in surprise when he saw BJ and moved his arms out to the sides in a peaceful gesture.

His voice was hoarse when he spoke. He spoke in English, albeit with a clearly distinct German accent.
“Don’t shoot, I am Kessler!”

...

______________________________

I'm taking a break from the Wolfenstein universe (My repetoire of good Wolfenstein-based ideas is at an all-time low atm). I have lots of other things to do anyway - gotta deal with the improved version of Doom - Evil Unleashed that I threatened you with so long ago, and I gotta deal with my next Doom story (Which I have a pretty healthy supply of good ideas for atm). But don't worry, I'm a stubborn bastard, so this story will be completed one day.

Good Job dsm.

Improved version of Doom: Evil Unleashed? Sounds very interesting...is this a major rewrite, or more of a cleanup of dialogue, some action scenes etc?

Livo said:

Improved version of Doom: Evil Unleashed? Sounds very interesting...is this a major rewrite, or more of a cleanup of dialogue, some action scenes etc?

Some things will be added, some rewritten and some cleaned up. Firstly, I'm going to add a proper prologue (instead of the very abrupt beginning I have now), but there are also a few "writing technigue problems" that I have to fix.

Pretty fucking sweet story there.