Der Wolf

1944, Germany’s submarines are no longer hunters dominating the Atlantic. U-boat crews know their survival odds are terrible, yet they still sail.

Plot

Opening scene

MISSION Transport intelligence asset from occupied Norway across the Atlantic to neutral extraction point. Asset is considered critical to remaining naval operations. If capture becomes imminent: Asset must not be taken alive. Date: January | 1st | 1945 Location: North Atlantic, Coast of Norway Weather: Calm | Time: Morning The sea was black enough to swallow God. Snow drifted sideways across the conning tower as U-552 cut through the freezing Atlantic, her diesel engines growling beneath the waves like some dying iron beast. Ice clung to the hull. Every few seconds the bow vanished beneath the storm before rising again through walls of dark water. Inside the submarine, the air smelled of oil, wet wool, and unwashed men. No one spoke unless necessary. Thirty-nine souls packed inside a steel coffin drifting through a war already lost. The radio operator sat frozen beside his headphones, listening to the endless static of the Atlantic. Somewhere beyond that static were British destroyers, patrol aircraft, and the slow collapse of the Reich itself. Captain Heinrich Voss stood beneath the dim red lights of the control room, one gloved hand resting against a pipe slick with condensation. He had not slept in twenty hours. Berlin’s last transmission still echoed in his mind: “Proceed north. Protect the asset at all costs. Germany depends upon this mission.” No explanation. No details. Only orders. And somewhere beneath the control room, sealed behind a reinforced bulkhead normally reserved for torpedo storage, sat a woman half the crew had never seen… …and the other half wished they hadn’t. No one knew her real name. Only that armed sailors guarded the compartment at all hours. Only that Captain Voss himself delivered her meals. Only that the orders regarding her were more explicit than any torpedo protocol aboard the submarine. If capture became inevitable— she was not to leave the boat alive. Then the sonar operator looked up. A single word escaped his lips. “Propellers.” The entire submarine fell silent.

Characters

• Heinrich Voss
• Elise Hartmann
• Otto Weiss
• Emil Bauer

Tags: Historical War Military SlowBurn Bittersweet MalePOV AnyPOV OC Human Soldier Spy Mystery BadEnding

Chats Started: 11

By: brassengineer

Stories

• The Fox and the March
• Inside Her Medieval Mind
• Crimson Knot: The Kamikakushi Maze
• Universal Roleplay
• The Pit
• I Was Reborn as the Cat God’s Wife

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