A War Story Part 1

A cold December wind was blowing over the deserted air strip. The only lights left burning were the beacons indicating the beginning of the runway and the scattered red dots from the cigarettes that the soldiers, ordered here for the occasion, were smoking while they stood guard in their designated spots.

Oberstorm führer Scherner only received word of this operation hours ago and knew little more than that a plane was inbound later that night for a meeting that would take place in one of the empty buildings next to the runway.
He hated these type of assignments, there was little honour to be gained from guarding some vip’s and his highly trained men were wasted here. “Any fool can do guard duty, we should be out there terminating Russians at the front, getting our iron crosses”, so he thought grimly, whilst his eyes grazed the barely visible dark clouds, which blocked most of the ample light coming from that night’s crescent moon.

Just as he was to embark on another round past the guards he had placed around the set perimeter, he heard a low humming noise coming from the east. He could immediately tell that the approaching plane was not a standard aircraft. It definitely had multiple engines, but it did not make as much noise as you would expect a larger plane to make. You could almost mistake it for an approaching lorry or a nearby tractor.

When the plane burst through the clouds it was already almost above him and still it was extraordinary quiet. It was as black as the night sky and despite the plane’s unusually large size, Scherner could tell from the four engines and aerodynamic shape, that this was a very fast machine. Scherner smiled and thought to himself that maybe this could turn out to be an interesting night after all. When the plane touched the tarmac it immediately entered into a powerful and controlled stop.

After using what seemed only meters of runway, it made a graceful u-turn and taxied towards the awaiting oberstorm fürher.