MI6s team of enhanced individuals are assisting in the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa, Operation Torch. The team’s mission is to infiltrate and disable a command bunker, and hold it until relieved. The team consists of Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Franklin Fort, hard bitten soldier and teleporter; and Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter.

Cap Matifo Peninsula, East of Algiers, Algeria, November 1942

With Madeline, Sven and myself crouched on top of the German observation tower I push out with my senses to check that there are no enhanced within. There had been no intelligence to suggest that there would be, and this location seemed a very long way from Europe where we had encountered most of the enhanced beings of the Wolfenkorps, so you can imagine my surprise when as well as my two companions my senses returned the location of a third enhanced just below us on the fourth floor of the tower.

I am surprised for a second time when a fourth enhanced appears several feet away from us, but I breathe a sigh of relief when I realise that Frank has joined us on the roof of the tower. I push out once more with my senses and discover that the enhanced on the fourth floor has some kind of resistance to physical damage, but stronger than that which we have encountered before on the Wolfenhund, I push further into the enhanced’s mind and discover that they are able to take greater damage before becoming incapacitated. Enhanced abilities similar to those of the Unterfeldwebel at Schloss Wewelsburg.

Sven transforms himself from a sea eagle into a thrush a flaps down towards the the large observation balcony on the fourth floor of the tower. Madeline shifts into her shadow form and slides down the outer edge of the tower heading for the other side of the observation balcony, while I follow Frank down the spiral steps cut into the top of the tower that lead down into the darkness.

From her position on the outer edge of the balcony Madeline can hear German voices efficiently passing information with regards to Allied troop movements to someone within the room. Sven lands on the edge of the balcony and finds himself looking at three Wolfenkorps troopers, two manning post mounted binoculars and the third relaying information into a internal comms unit. All three are being observed by a powerful looking Wolfenkorps Leutnant.

Frank and I have less success, after just half a turn of the spiral stairs we find ourselves face to face with a locked, solid steel door. Frank shrugs and heads back up the stairs, but I transform into shadowform and manage to slip under the door and continue down the stairs. After a full turn of the corkscrew stairs I find myself on a small landing with two doors leading further into the tower, I push out with my senses and confirm that the enhanced is beyond the left hand door. I return back up the stairs, unbarring the steel door on my way back up to the roof.

We regroup in a tight huddle and share what we have found in a low whisper. We agree that we need to make sure that there are no further enhanced beings within the tower before we proceed and so Madeline and I are tasked with scouting the rest of the tower while Sven and Frank rig up two rappelling lines to the main aerial mast. We quickly slide down the spiral staircase on the ceiling past the fourth floor and head for the third, yet again we find a small landing with two doors leading into the tower we listen and can hear the low murmur of both German and French voices. We carry on down to the second floor, the floor that seemed to be in darkness from outside, and discover again a small landing with two doors. This time we slide in under the doors, Madeline to the right and me to the left, and find ourselves in a large room that takes up the rest of the tower level. The room is filled with boxes of light machine gun ammunition but nothing else of any note.

We keep moving downwards. From behind the doors on the first floor we can hear the obvious activity of a busy radio room, messages seem to be received from further up the tower and relayed to other defensive positions across the battlefront. Almost all of the conversation is in French. We move down to the ground floor and can hear quiet talking from beyond the doors, but it is difficult to make out what is being said. The stairs continue downwards into the cliff face and so we carry on down, we find ourselves in rectangular room that contains more ammunition boxes for light machine guns. In the middle of one of the long walls there is a corridor that runs off for five yards before ending in a solid looking metal door.

I push out with my senses once again and get no returns. We decide that there is enough distance between here and the enhanced on the top floor for us to launch the attack and so we return back up to the roof of the tower. Just as we are getting to the ground floor of the tower we hear, or more accurately feel, the boom of an emplacement gun firing. A couple of seconds later a second gun fires. We realise that our intel was slightly lacking, the bunker has two gun emplacements. By the time we arrive Frank has rigged up two rappelling lines so that he and Sven can breach the tower from either side of the large observation balcony. We make the decision not to risk it too grenades and so I rig up a couple of our charges on three second timer fuses.

I place a third charge on the aerial mast, this one with a twenty second timer, and a further couple of charges with ten second timers that Sven has requested so that he can deal with the two gun emplacements. At zero five zero nine hours Frank and Sven are in position, Madeline sneaks down the stairs and waits in the shadows with her STEN gun covering the doors of the radio room on the first floor. Frank and Sven leap off of the roof of the tower and rappel down until they are level with the fourth floor balcony, Frank gets there a couple of seconds before Sven and throws in his explosive charge. His actions are quickly mirrored by Sven and a second later there is a double explosion. Frank and Sven quickly climb back up to the roof of the tower.

Outside the radio room Madeline can hear the Germans and the French arguing over who should go and investigate the detonation. Eventually the French point blank refuse, Madeline makes the decision to transform into her shadow form and hide on the ceiling just as the door of the radio room opens and two German troopers step out and begin to head upstairs. Madeline is only a little surprised that both troops are dressed in Wolfenkorps uniforms. The Wolfenkorps troops kindly left the door to the radio room open and so Madeline transforms once again in to her solid state and walks in. The two Vichy French radio operators are surprised to see a female British commando walk in, but their surprise is short lived as the die in a hail of bullets.

As Frank and Sven pull themselves up onto the roof of the tower I let them both know that I have heard gunfire from down the spiral staircase, at that moment the emplacement guns fire again and we are all momentarily deafened by the boom. Sven looks at both Frank and myself and says;

I have to silence those guns!

With that he transforms into a hawk, grabs one of the explosive charges in his claws and launches himself into the sky. Frank grabs his Lanchester submachine gun and runs towards the gunfire.

In the radio room Madeline hears the sound of boots heading back down the stairs at a pace and so she changes back into a shadow and slides out of the balcony and starts to head up the outside of the tower. Frank gets to the fourth floor, and following standard military protocol on clearing buildings, plants a big kick on the nearest door. It doesn’t budge. Madeline gets to the fourth floor and looks in to see if anything is alive, she is surprised when she hears a banging noise coming from the stairwell side of one of the doors, but the noise also startles the Wolfenkorps Leutnant hiding in the debris clutching an MP40. Madeline slides into the room and heads for a spot out of sight around the corner.

Sven flies swiftly to the nearest gun emplacement and hovers at the end of the guns barrel. He gently lands on the end of the barrel and, priming the charge, drops it down the barrel before flying off as quickly as possible. As he is flapping away he hears a voice shout;

Mon Dieu! C'était quoi ce bordel?

On the roof of the German observation tower I spot a hawk swoop in, grab the second explosive charge in it’s claws and head in the direction of the second gun emplacement. As soon as Sven has departed I trigger the charge on the main aerial mast and run for the stairwell. As I enter the stairs there is a large explosion from further down the headland as the first of the large guns is silenced.

Inside the fourth floor room Madeline quietly arms another explosive charge with a very short timer, she then quietly creeps to the corner and throws the charge towards the Leutnant. As soon as the charge has left her hand she transforms herself into shadow and slides up to the dark ceiling. I join Frank in the fourth floor stairwell just in time to hear the explosive charge detonate on the roof of the tower, but we are both surprised when we hear a second explosion coming from inside the observation post on the fourth floor. The sound of the explosion is closely followed by a cry of pain and the sound of someone scrabbling to their feet, a heartbeat later and we hear the distinctive sound of a German MP40 having it’s clip emptied in a spray of bullets.

Frank kicks the door again and this time is successful in kicking it in, he leaps through and comes face to face with the Wolfenkorps Leutnant across the destroyed room. Frank levels his Lanchester and hoses the German with bullets. They all bounce off of his skin, damaging his clothes but not scratching him at all. The two enhanced soldiers leap at each other and start to trade mighty blows, but they are evenly matched and neither can gain the upper hand. While they are engaged in a rolling fight I quickly rig up yet another charge on a short fuse.

I slip into the room and around behind the enhanced German Leutnant just as he swings a fist at Frank and catches him with a right hook, cutting Frank’s lip. Frank spits a glob of blood onto the floor and steps back into the fight. Seeing my opening I leap onto the back of the German, both he and Frank think that I am trying to grapple him to the ground. I’m not. As soon as I have made physical contact with the Wolfenkorps enhanced I ‘borrow’ his ability to resist damage. The German is quickly able to throw me off of him, but when I hit the ground it doesn’t hurt thanks to my new borrowed ability.

I roll to my feet and make sure that Frank can see that I have the explosive charge in my hand and I shout;

Frank! Disappear!

I throw the charge into the room and dive for cover. To my surprise Frank doesn’t disappear, but runs for the door and dives through it just as the pack explodes. I remember later asking him why he didn’t just teleport and he replied;

Sometimes I can’t!

We head back into the room and find the Wolfenkorps Leutnant unconscious. I have no idea how he was still alive after the three explosions but he was. It was at that point that we heard more gunfire from below us and we ran for the stairs.

As Frank and the enhanced German were locked in a fight Madeline was sliding in through the Radio room’s observation balcony. As soon as she was in she discovered six Wolenkorps troopers inspecting the two dead Vichy French radio operators. They seemed to be arguing over if they should report directly to the Oberst or investigate the explosions from above. They quickly decide on the latter and rush out of the room heading out of the room and into the stairwell, as they are leaving Madeline transforms once again into her solid state and drops from the ceiling landing on her feet like a cat. She raises her STEN and catches the last two soldiers in a spray of bullets, gunning them both down.

As Frank and I are running down the stairs looking for the scene of the gunfire we had heard we again feel, rather than hear, the sound of the second gun emplacement exploding. I hear footsteps behind me and swing round with my pistol aimed but am relieved when I find Sven running towards me, I let him pass and we carrying on down. Frank steps out of the stairwell on the first floor and finds that he is looking at the back of two German troopers crouched in front of an open door staring into a radio room. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth he opens fire and they both fall to the floor dead.

The remaining two Wolenkorps troopers covering the other door on the first floor spin around and open fire at Frank but he dives for cover into the radio room and they miss. That clears enough room for Sven to step off of the stairs and lob a grenade into the middle of the German troops. There followed a terrific explosion and a intense flash of bright light, Sven had thrown a phosphorus grenade. The burning shrapnel and intense detonation took care of the Wolenkorps troops.

I had carried on down the stairwell to the ground floor of the tower and could hear hushed French voices from the room there, I transformed into a shadow and slid under the door and into the room. I find four Vichy French troops with their guns aimed at the doorways, but they seem to be paying far more attention to the conversation than the doorways;

...restons silencieux, ils pourraient ne pas regarder ici!

I slide across the room and up onto the edge of the observation balcony, which has two light machine guns fitted in place, and prepare to materialise. There is a loud knock on one of the doors and Frank shouts, in a terrible German accent;

All clear! Open up!

With all eyes on the door, and the Vichy French relaxed that everything is safe, I transform back into solid state and aimed my pistol at the troops not moving towards the door. Two of the troops get to the door and open it. They find Frank standing there with his Lanchester leveled, Frank squeezes the trigger and the two troops drop in a stream of bullets. I put three bullets into the soldier that I was aiming at and then making the most of the surprise put two more into his comrade. Ground floor cleared.

We regroup on the second floor and crosscheck which floors we have cleared, when doing this we realise that none of us cleared the third floor. We all rush up stairs and Madeline slides in under the door while the rest of us start to discuss what we are going to do. That decision is taken for us when we hear the sound of Madeline’s STEN gun barking beyond the doors. By the time that we get into the room we find Madeline with a smoking gun in her hands and two dead Vichy French soldiers on the floor.

With the tower now definitely cleared and secured we push on down into the sub levels. Madeline and I take point in shadow form and once we have descended two long flights of stairs we find ourselves outside off an internal door, I push out with my senses but can not sense any enhanced on the other side and so Madeline slides quietly over the top of the door. She finds herself in a large ‘L’ shaped room that is empty with the exception of a pile of dead bodies in Vichy French uniform. A quick inspection leads us to believe that several of them have been executed with a single shot to the back of the head and the rest look like they have been mown down with machine gun fire.

We push on and find another staircase leading up into the peninsula, the staircase ends at yet another internal door. Once again I push out with my senses but this time I get a definite hit. There is an enhanced at the very limit of my range beyond this door, Madeline listens at the door and can hear a commanding German voice issuing orders for all doorways to be covered. We retreat back to the others.

... to be continued ...