//------------------------------// // The Formalities // Story: Tanks for the Memories // by BillyMays //------------------------------// “Fire!” The Abrams main gun roared and scored another kill, the T-72s turret blown sky high. “Kill confirmed. Good shot!” Captain Alex "Blitz" Noah yelled over the noise of the engine. “Hoo-rah!” Sergeant Roger Kovarov yelled back with pride. The Abrams then shuddered as a shot landed next to them, all laughter lost and seriousness returned. “T-72, 3 o’clock, behind the ruined church,” Alex announced, “Looks like it’s dug in well.” An idea slowly formed in his head, “Sam, move us around for a better position, David load a High Explosive. Looks like it’s time to bring the house down on him.” A grin formed on Rogers face as he slowly got the idea, facing the turret towards the supports of the church tower. “HE Loaded,sir!” Private David Farfield shouted. “In position,sir.” Corporal Sam "Lead Foot" Evern yelled. “On my mark…” Alex slowly said, “Fire!” The main gun rocked back and the tower supports were blown to hell, the tower slowly collapsing upon the dug in T-72, covering it in massive chunks of debris, rendering it useless for the time being. A tired cheer went up inside the Abrams which was cut short by another explosion as the Abrams next to them went up in a ball of flames. “Holy shit, get us out of here!” Alex yelled in shock. Sam, all too happy to oblige, slammed into reverse pulling away just as the ground in front of them exploded, shells raining down upon the now dwindling tank company. “This is command, all tank companies pull back. Hostile armour is closing in and the Air Force will be clearing the area within the hour, out.” “You heard the man,” Alex yelled, “let’s get the hell out of here!” “Already one step ahead of you, sir!” Sam yelled back. The Abrams pulled off a 180 turn and began the long trip back to base followed by 10 or so others. “So how many confirmed kills does the Retribution II have now Blitz? “ Roger piped up. Alex chuckled lightly, he was never going to get used to being called “Blitz”. He wasn’t sure how the nickname came around but it stuck, but Sam’s nickname, on the other hand, came around due to him being one of the best drivers in the Marines and being able to push a tanks best speed well above normal. No one knew how he did it but he had his ways. “I’d say about 12 now Sergeant,” Alex replied, “We’ll add the mark when we get back to base.” “That was a fucking close one, that tank that went up could have been us!” David said worriedly. “Get used to it man, this shit happens all the time.” Sam joined in on the conversation, his eyes never wandering from the road. David just stared at the driver thinking about how heartless that sounded, sure it happened all the time but that doesn’t change the fact it could have been them and that good men died. “So you don’t care in the slightest!?” “Of course I care you twit, some good guys just died but we can’t mourn their deaths forever.” Sam replied, starting to sound annoyed. Alex knowing that this argument would last for a while, popped open the cupola and breathed in the fresh sandy air, while listening to the Retribution IIs engine roaring away. Thinking about home and how he longed just to be there with his brother and his wife Jasmine, he pulled out his lucky charm, a small stuffed fluffy hotdog. A lot of people were confused to why that was his lucky charm, plenty of people asked but he refused to tell them, he kept that story to himself. He wasn’t planning on telling anyone anytime soon. Alex put his sunglasses on as he looked away from the hotdog, now looking at the significantly smaller tank company. Fully realizing how many tanks were lost in the battle. He cringed as he realized over half the company was lost, he hoped the Deathwatch wasn’t amongst them. The Deathwatch was commanded by his best friend, Second Lieutenant Arran Offand, and he considered him family. They had known each other since Officer Candidates School and had gotten along like brothers. Alex decided to radio the Deathwatch and see if Arran was in one piece. “Hey guys, shut up down there!” Alex yelled down to the crew, as he closed the cupola. The argument which was still raging slowly subsided; Sam and David argued all the fucking time, their way of passing the time I suppose. “Retribution II to the Deathwatch, come in, over.” Alex said into his headset. A couple of tense seconds later a reply came back, “Deathwatch to the Retribution II, we’re here. Don’t worry, nothing but a scratch, over.” Alex laughed and sighed in relief. “Good to hear you’re in one piece Second Lieutenant, considering the losses I feared the worst.” Alex said to his friend. “Shit Captain, did you miss me that much?” Replied 2nd Lt. Offand, chuckling. “Piss off.” Laughed Alex. “This is the Black Bear, limit the chatter. You can catch up when you get to base, over.” The crew of the Retribution rolled their eyes at the sound of First Lieutenant Bunker’s voice; he was the commander of the “Black Bear” and was the biggest dickhead around. Bunker hated Alex and his crew with a passion, Alex and his crew had a mutual feeling towards him and his crew too. “Love you too First Lieutenant.” Snickered Arran. “I’ll talk to you when we get back to base Offand. Out,” Alex finished and then yawned, “Wake me up when we get to base. I need some shut eye.” He closed his eyes while tucking his hotdog away in his top pocket and placing his glasses in his collar and slowly drifted to sleep as the Retribution rumbled forward. ------ The rest of the hour and a half long drive back to base went smoothly considering the heat. Roger and David idly chatted away until Sam announced they were coming up towards base. “Alright ladies we’re just about there, Roger, wake up the Captain.” Roger softly shook Alex’s shoulder a few times before he finally awoke from his slumber. “…Hmmmm?” Alex mumbled, licking his lips and cracking his neck. “We’re here sleepy head- uh, sir.” Sam announced. “Ah, good I need to stretch these legs.” Roger said, shifting his legs around. “You and me both, man.” David replied, shifting his own legs as well. Alex gave a sigh of relief as he opened the cupola to see the bases main walls each corner adorned with a watchtower and a .50 cal. The company slowly formed into a column, The Retribution coming in last. Alex and the rest of the crew were thinking about finally relaxing when a strange noise come from the rear of the Retribution. Alex looked around to see Dark smoke coming from the engine. “Captain, the temperature of the engine is rising rapidly!” Sam yelled and swore as the Retribution came to a grinding halt. “Shit!” Alex cursed loudly, “The engine has overheated!” His headset crackled as he revived a message, “Well, Captain,” said a smug voice, “looks like you’ve finally pushed the Retribution too hard at last.” “What do you want First Lieutenant?!” Alex growled back. “Calm down Captain. I just wanted to know if your man and you would like a lift into base. We can’t have you sitting out there all day.” Alex sat there his fists balling up. He’d rather have a tea party naked, than let that dickhead give them a lift.The Retribution II had been running perfectly ever since being deployed this morning. All the other tanks –ALL of them- had needed to stop sooner or later for field repairs, but not her. So why the hell did she decide to break down now? Alex smashed his fist against the side of the cupola and said, “Damn it. Couldn’t you have waited just a few more metres?” He then replied to John, “Move on, First Lieutenant, before my gunner blows you to hell.” “Why the hostility Captain? Save it for the enemy. Black Bear is moving on. Maybe we’ll see you later in the mess hall? We’ll try and leave some food for you, but no guarantees. Bunker, out.” Alex threw off his headset and roared in frustration, “She couldn’t have picked a worse fucking time!” “Yes, she could.” Sam said, his voice almost a growl. “What?” said Alex. Sam was normally quiet, but it was the confrontation tone that really surprised him. “She could have picked a far worse time to give out on us and you bloody well know it, Captain. In fact she’s the last tank to give out in this entire company, and she waited until now, the safest moment since we deployed this morning. I reckon you should give yourself an uppercut just for saying that, sir.” Alex was speechless. “Yeah I think so, too!” said Roger with a firm nod. Alex looked down at David who just smiled in agreement. Alex slowly leant back against the inside of the cupola and just looked at the crew. He’d served with all of them for years now and not once had he gone off like that, looked like his age had caught up with him. He smiled weakly and said, “Sorry guys, looks like my age has finally caught up with me and I know I haven’t been in a good mood for weeks now.” Alex was 39 turning 40 in just a few weeks; he was the oldest in the crew, David being the youngest at 21, Sam 24 and Roger was 29. “Don’t worry about it Captain,” Sam said, a smile slowly forming on his face, “You just need a week’s R&R and you’ll good as new.” “Hah, yea make sure to remind me about that.” Alex said, laughing softly. Bending to pick up his headset as it crackled, he’d received a message. “This is the Retribution II, go ahead.” “Retribution II, this is the M88A2 Recovery Vehicle “Atlanta”, we’ll be pulling up to you now. Give us a minute to get the tow-cables hooked up and we’ll be underway, over.” “Understood, Atlanta,” he replied, “Let me know when you’re done.” Alex looked at the crew and with a thoughtful smile on his face said, “I think this would be a good time to have a stretch.” ------ “How many tanks did we lose, Major?” General Vandenburg asked his assistant. “In total General, we lost 11 tanks and 39 crewmen.” Major Phress said grimly. Vandenburg sighed put his coffee on his desk and sat down, looking at the Major with a frown. Doctor Hanguard’s experimental ‘shielding’ could have prevented over half of the losses, but it was still in its final testing stages and he could not risk putting innocent men’s lives at risk, not with tech like that. He didn’t understand it completely but he knew how dangerous that tech could be. “Major, send a message down to Doctor Hanguard’s lab and check his progress. I want an update by the end of the day.” Vandenburg said rising from his chair and picking his coffee back up and taking a sip, before putting it down again in disgust. “Also get me another coffee, this one’s gone cold.” “Yes, sir.” Phress said before briskly saluting and walking out the door. Vandenburg watched him leave with a slight smile on his face. 'Phress is a good man.' He’d been his assistant for just over 5 years now. His thoughts then returned to Doctor Hanguard’s work, and its ground-breaking field. Hanguard’s work was with protective shielding, the kind of stuff from Star Trek and such, but on a much smaller scale, i.e. Tanks, Humvees, and LAVs. The shielding while not permanent provided the vehicle with up to 10 minutes or 30 direct hits from a tank's main gun before it overloaded. While being extremely useful it came at a price, a large one, costing just over $100 Million, and that’s just for one of the fucking things. Equipping the entire US Military would go into the hundreds of Billions. Vandenburg looked at his watch and realized he’d spent just over an hour sitting here thinking. He silently cursed himself for letting himself become distracted and prepared for his meeting. ------ The Retribution II was towed away to the motor pool for some much needed repairs, in the meantime her crew received some well-deserved rest and relaxation. It was now 11 o’clock at night and Alex couldn’t sleep. He had tried to, many times, but he’d always end up dreaming about a flash of blue light and wake up sweating like a pig. “Fuck this shit.” Alex said, voicing his thoughts out loud. He hopped out of his bunk and decided to grab a coffee from the mess hall. While walking he pulled out his hotdog again, a tear slowly welling up in his eye as he looked at it. He quickly shoved it away again as to not start crying. He looked up and realized he was already at the mess hall; he opened the doors and smiled as he saw a familiar face. “Hey, Second Lieutenant!” Alex said as he walked over to his old friend. “Hey Blitz. Couldn’t sleep either, sir?” Arran said smiling as he turned around giving Alex a handshake. “Yea, kept having some fucked up dream, so I decided I’d grab a coffee and sit down for a while.” Alex said while grabbing a plastic cup. “Same here sir, having some dream with a flash of blue light.” Arran said, shaking his head and taking a sip of his coffee. Alex stopped halfway through pouring his coffee and stared at his friend with a look of surprise, Arran looked back with a confused look on his face. “What?” “I was having that exact same dream, man.” Alex said, slowly pouring the rest of his coffee. “Really?” Arran asked in surprise. “Yeah, some massive flash of blue light and then I’d wake up sweating like a pig.” Alex replied, taking a seat next to his friend. “Sounds about right.” Arran said after taking another sip of his coffee “This is probably some sort of coincidence?” Alex said not too convincingly. “Meh, probably, but I don’t believe the ‘two minds linked together shit’.” Arran replied dismissively, “I wouldn’t worry about it, sir” “Yea I suppose not.” Alex said, moving the dream out of his head. The pair sat there for hours talking idly until they both decided to finally head off to sleep. They parted ways but before going to bed, Alex decided to check up on the Retribution IIs repairs. Walking across the compound Alex noticed that the Mechanics were removing… armour plating from her turret? He stood there confused for a second thinking about why they would need to remove it; she had taken no damage there, maybe a few scratches, but nothing serious enough to remove an entire area of plating. What he didn’t notice was that 2 other tanks were going under similar ‘repairs’. He ran up and yelled to the Mechanics. “What that fuck are you doing to her?!” They all turned around; surprised that anyone would be up at this time and that they were being yelled at. “What, sir?” A mechanic nervously replied, rubbing the back of his neck. “I said, what are you doing?” Alex said, slowly getting closer to his tank. “Following orders, Captain.” Upon hearing his voice, Alex looked around to see Major Phress walk from the behind of the Retribution, he briskly saluted, Phress returning the salute, told the Mechanics to continue working and walked towards Alex. “Major, what are they doing to my tank.” Alex said. It wasn’t a question. “They’re getting her ready for tomorrows-” Phress looked at his watch and corrected himself, “-or should I say this morning’s test.” “Test, sir?” Alex echoed. He didn’t like the sound of that. “Yes, Captain, Test. I can’t reveal what kind of test, so don’t bother asking. You’ll find out in a couple of hours.” Phress said, slowly walking back he stopped and said, “You should get some rest, Captain. That’s an order.” “Yes, Sir.” Alex said saluting and walking back to the barracks. He didn't like the sound of this at all.