Tyranny of Steel

The Agents of the Joseon Kingdom had gathered outside the safe house, where they stood among the ranks of the Jagdkommandos. Though not all the German special forces were present, one of them had been sent inside the building to ensure that all vital documents were either recovered or purged, while three more were sent to set up a distraction in another part of the city.

The agents appeared anxious, and why wouldn't they be? At this very moment, they were being hunted by the secret police of their Japanese occupiers. If they were to be found, they would undoubtedly be tortured brutally before being summarily executed. Though they had faith in the Jagdkommandos abilities, there were only a handful of them, which was not nearly enough to contend with an army.

Colonel Andreas Ritter von Jaeger noticed his man had returned from inside the safe house, with a hand gestured that signalled they were clear to depart. Upon seeing this, he nodded his head before giving the order.

"Move out! Stay close to me. If you stray from the group, I will leave you behind!"

The thought of being abandoned sent chills down the spines of the Joseon Agents, and the Japanese traitors among their ranks. They quickly nodded their heads in understanding of their orders, and began to move out with the Jagdkommandos, who covertly led them through the alleyways of the city of Seoul, narrowly avoiding the Japanese soldiers who were on patrol.

---

Roughly five minutes after absconding into the night, the leading officer of the Japanese Kempeitai stationed within Seoul arrived at the safe house with his soldiers behind him, they had kicked through the doors of several dozen buildings within this residential district over the last hour, and had yet to find their targets.

When they entered the safe house, they immediately found traces of burned documents, stockpiles of food, and water, and other supplies that revealed the true identity of the building they were standing in. A member of the secret police closely investigated the scene before informing the officer in command of his findings.

"They appear to have just left moments ago. I don't know where they are headed, but we are close!"

The officer sneered in disdain before pointing at another one of his soldiers and giving him a command.

"Put the city on lockdown. I want every soldier within Seoul to scour the area for their location. They can't have gotten far!"

The soldier immediately rushed from his position and headed towards the headquarters of the Kempeitai, which had a siren used to alert the troops within the city. While this soldier had run off, the officer was about to follow in the exact direction the Jagdkommandos had taken. How did he know where they had run off to? He didn't. It was a matter of chance, and a small one at that.

However, in the next moment, a massive explosion occurred in another part of the city. It was not a matter of a few grenades being thrown into a building, but a substantial blast. It was at this moment that the officer realized the exact location that the enemy had targeted.

"The munitions depot! Fuck, the guerillas are attacking! Quickly, we must respond!"

The echo of gunfire occurred within the direction that the explosion had erupted in, caused the Kempeitai Officer to be certain that the guerillas were attacking. He had completely forgotten about the rats he was chasing, as assisting with combat operations against the Joseon Insurgents was his primary responsibility. With a click of his tongue, the Officer muttered beneath his breath.

"Tsk lucky bastards! This coincidence might buy you some time, but you can't run from me forever, sooner or later I will find you."

The officer did not even think of the possibility that this explosion was a diversion set up by the enemy to help the agents escape. Thus he was successfully deterred from the Jagdkommandos trail, who quietly made their way out of the city.

---

The three Jagdkommandos who had conducted the raid, where firing their Stg-27s on the automatic setting towards the enemy. Despite being a full caliber automatic rifle that weighed roughly ten pounds, the weapon was extremely controllable, allowing for well-placed groups when fired in bursts.

With their twenty round magazines, the Jagdkommandos were quickly able to mow down the enemy forces who came to intercept them, before silently running off into the darkness. Their objective was to regroup outside the city at the rendezvous point with the rest of their team. The leader of this extremely small fireteam began to curse as he rushed through the alleyways with his rifle in hand.

"I'm telling you, this Joseon pussy better be fucking worth it! The Colonel claims that the King has promised us peerless beauties as wives for this. However, I've got to tell you, I'm starting to regret volunteering for this operation!"

The other soldiers of the fireteam chuckled when they heard this before commenting on the local women.

"Have you seen some of these girls? One thing's for sure, they are prettier on average than our women. They also seem to like foreigners. I've heard of some of the guys on base already taking the local women as their wives. If our reward is going to be the most beautiful women in the country, then I'd gladly give my life in a chance to obtain such a treasure!"

The third soldier merely laughed in response to this statement before slapping the other guy on the back of his m38 pattern helmet.

"Fucking idiot! No pussy is worth dying for! I'm in this for the glory of the fatherland. We need that intel! Fucking christ these guys have automatic weapons now. How the hell did they advance so quickly? We are currently in a cold war with the Japs, but who knows when it will go hot? The more intel we have, the better prepared we are to make sure our boys come home in one piece!"

The leader of the small fireteam quickly began to scold the other two men but was cut short.

"Keep it down you fucking-"

Before the man could finish, the alarms rang throughout the city. Though without radiocommunications, it was impossible for the average Japanese soldier to know the intent behind them. Because of this, they merely reacted to the explosion and headed towards the location of the blast site. Upon hearing the sirens roar, the leader of the three Jagdkommandos commented on it.

"Shut the fuck up and follow me. They're heading for where we just were, so now's not the time for your bullshit!"

In reality, the sergeant was scared out of his wits. If the entire Japanese army converged on this sector of the city, there was no way they would escape. He was certain they were dead meat. However, in the next moment, more gunfire and explosions occurred in a different part of the city. Causing the three Jagdkommandos to stop in their tracks.

Based upon the sound of the gunfire, they could tell it was not in the direction where the others were headed. Thus, they were quite confused, until the sergeant broke out into laughter.

"Hahaha. Oh shit, that explosion set the local guerillas into motion. They're on the move as we speak. We might just make it out of here alive. Well, don't just stand there, move!"

---

As gunfire and explosions continued to crackle within the city of Seoul, the Jagdkommandos regrouped outside the city, within the nearby mountains. After confirming that they were not pursued, they began to head north towards the border of the Japanese Occupied territory, and what remained of the Joseon Kingdom.

Andreas was glad to see that all of his men had made it out of the danger zone alive, and complimented them on their efforts.

"Good job. I gotta ask, how the hell did you get the Guerillas to cover our retreat?"

The Joseon Guerillas operated as various independent cells within the city. Having been trained by the Jagdkommandos, they were left to their own devices, aside from resupply. Because of this, there was really no way to make contact with them during the mission. In response to this question, the leader of the small fireteam, which was sent to cause a distraction, shrugged his shoulders before responding to his commanding officer.

"I have no idea. I suppose they just saw our explosion and saw it as a signal to attack the Japs. Anyway, we should probably get moving. This battle won't last for much longer, and when they find out that we are responsible, they will send teams after us."

Andreas nodded his head when he heard this before giving the order to head north.

"Move out!"

Despite the Japanese soon learning that the Jagdkommandos were responsible for the raid on the munitions depot, due to the unique shell casings left behind. They would not be able to pursue the fleeing agents, as they had become bogged down with intensive urban warfare. By the time they were finally able to send out forces to hunt down Andreas and his team, the group was already safe in the north.