Editing City Series:Volume5b Chapter18 (section)

===Heinz Berge’s Journal===

Nothing major to report today. My prosthetic limbs are functioning within acceptable bounds after emergency repairs last night.

At 05:23, Rot Löwe began undergoing repairs in the factory next to the training grounds.

At 18:59, the repairs and fine-tuning were tentatively completed. The complete replacement of the left arm and back will have to wait until tomorrow and I checked over the repair schedule and the repaired parts of the other Panzers.

At 20:05, I arrived at the army branch where recovery work is still underway. I confirmed yesterday’s report with the branch chief, explained the current repair situation, and took my leave. While there, I heard that HQ has given me a special one-rank promotion. It was awarded to me for my efforts in defending Paris.

Phillip Missel attempted to pin my Panzer in place with his dying body and expose me to fire from six sides. I used the Expert de Épée’s upper body as a shield to avoid the metal arrows and used subsonic movements to slay the other six. But due to Rot Löwe’s injuries, I did not participate in the rest of the battle.

The rest was settled by my platoon’s Panzers, which came running to assist me, and the Paris Branch Grösse Panzers I had trained. Approximately 3000 Resistance members died and our German troops suffered almost identical casualties.

The infantry division and armored division stationed near Paris are entering the city to assist in its defense.

That shows that Paris is considered a battlefield now. The branch chief says HQ and the Geheimnis Agency would like a report on the Attesor Project soon. I agreed to provide one in a meeting at the Germany Army Paris Branch at 16:00 five days from now. Also, I have heard rumors that documents on a new bomb developed by the Geheimnis Agency were stolen by the Resistance during the uprising. I predict that will eventually resurface as a problem.

At 21:30, I left the Army Paris Branch where I met a woman and her child. They were the family of the Klein Panzer Kavalier lost in Bourgogne. When he learned we would be returning to Paris before long, he apparently called his family to Paris ahead of him. I gave them his uniform and medals and left without saying anything.

At 22:45, I returned to the factory next to the training ground and checked over the remains of the Sourire we found in Bourgogne. Various speculations bore fruit and I grew confident in my thoughts.

I also checked over the remains of Expert de Épée that we had secured yesterday.

A few intelligence agents were already there to investigate, but once I explained what had happened yesterday, it was time to actually investigate. We had to check Expert de Épée’s memory bank. The heavy damage from me using it as a shield in the end had left the Studio badly destroyed and Phillip Missel’s Ton was unrecoverable. But the memory bank remaining in the head preserved his final records. That was likely sent to the Resistance throughout Paris using a communicator. It contained the words of the man who put together the battle plan, saw through to my Panzer’s weakness, and fought to the end. Hearing that would be how the Resistance managed to keep fighting throughout.

His final moments came in the form of a cry for his comrades to fire and one other statement.

I will Verbesserung it here:

<Someone – anyone – please tell her…to keep fighting.>

He met his end immediately after that.

At 23:30, I left the training grounds.

I suspect my Psyche Outer device has been malfunctioning of late and my journal entries have grown longer ever since Normandy.

That has allowed me to understand the memory of that scream, but I still have a question. Who are that woman and girl in that photograph? I can guess they are my family, but I cannot remember anything about them or their funeral since such memories are not combat relevant.

I can guess that I chose to join the Panzer Ritter Project because of my scream, but that tells me nothing about them. What did their deaths give me?

My thoughts turn to the fact that Phillip Missel did not scream. He fought to the end without screaming, but he lost to me, who does not know how to scream. I conclude that battle was a close shave.

I won because of my greater experience, not because of a scream.

Which leads me to a question: what does it mean to be the strongest?

I erased my emotions to fight, yet someone caught up to me while retaining their emotions.

Without emotions, I cannot draw any conclusions there. I will now go to sleep.