Leon was glad to play again. It had been a few weeks or so, but he was more than glad to get together with Eddy and Luna again. The British line had come out, and he wanted to get into the action.
They met again at the time that they had agreed to in private messaging.
Eddy was the first to say something; "How'd that history test go, Leon?"
Leon smiled, even though they couldn't see one another. "Ace'd it, I think."
"Good job frenchie."
The smile disappeared. "For the last time, my last name is Berthier. That's Breton. BRE-TON. Not French."
"Whatever... frenchie."
"Troll."
"Your servant, sir." Leon could imagine him bowing in mock respect.
Before either of them could go any further, Luna said, with the authority of royalty, "Gentlemen. Let us return to the game and stop all this rambling."
"Fine."
"Whatever."
"I have not had a chance to try out the new line. We... er, I, would like to sample it", Luna continued.
"Took them long enough." Eddy, being British himself, was understandably upset about the delay in the arrival of his nation's tech tree.
They each chose a tank; Leon decided to use the Matilda. It was a medium tank with the gun and ammunition of an artillery piece; it was decent at engaging anything slow or non moving, and the arch of it's shell allowed for some... special shots.
He looked at the platoon list and saw that Luna had chosen a Medium I; the lowest medium tier tank of any in the game. It had it's perks, but it's size was often it's undoing more than anything; it couldn't hide where an FT-17 or MS-1 could.
Leon chose to abandon the Matilda and buy - for free, since tier 1 tanks were free - an FT-17 for himself, then he hit ready.
Eddy had decided on a Medium III. Leon facepalmed. He could at least have tried to stay in tier 1 or 2. The enemy tanks would be higher tier... unless MM (Matchmaker) screwed up again, which it typically did.
Eddy hit the start battle button, and the screen changed to the pre-battle format.
At least we don't get hit with a tank too low for the battle it's sent into. The battle was apparently to take place on Malinovka again.
The screen changed again; they had arrived on the battle site. Leon looked around. His team seemed okay, but the other side had an extra tier 3 tank... and a tier 3 artillery.
Great. Thanks a lot, Eddy. His own team had two BS's (which were bs, in Leon's opinion) and mostly tier 2 vehicles to stop three tier 3 tanks and 11 tier 2 tanks and tank destroyers.
Matchmaker, when i find you, I'm going to smash your face in and throw you out the window of a ten story building.
The timer got to zero before he could try to plan things out.
One Panzerjager on their team immediately set out for the water (they had started in the south).
Leon typed; "Where r u going pz?"
The answer; "MM screwed us over so I'm going to save myself from a repair bill." He proceeded to drown himself in the lake.
O rly? Leon drove over to the lake; two of his teammates were cussing out the suicider, threatening to report him. They were going to like what he was going to do...
He stopped short of the water and shot the traitor in the rear.
The drowned player cried, "WTF!?"
Leon shot him again, and continued until he had no health left. He then answered, "That's what you get for bailing on us. Enjoy your repair bill."
Several teammates typed "LOL!" "Haha got what was coming to him" "Try bailing again, I dare you!"
"WTF MM screwed us over we can't win you guys suck."
Leon had other pressing matters by now, however; a Panzer 2 was approaching in the swampy area that divided the map into east and west.
He shot at it, but his shot bounced of the front armor. Fortunately a BS landed a shot, and a another Panzerjager on ther team hammered it until it died.
Suddenly his tank was hit; there was a loud crumpling noise, and his crew cried out about damage done to the tank.
Gah! I have to be more careful!
He quickly checked his position and the minimap; a T-26 had opened fire from behind a bush, but by doing so had reduced it's camoflage and made itself visible. Leon reversed, then fired at the enemy tank twice. The first shot was a bounce, the second tracked the vehicle and effectively nailed it in place. The two BS' on his team combined fire to take it out.
With that out of the way, Leon chugged over to a bush that provided better cover, and began sniping at tanks that had been lit up by a Panzer II. He hit a couple and bounced one before they faded from view.
"Uh guys help right is gone."
Leon looked again at the minimap; indeed, the right was swarming with red dots, and the green dots opposing them were few.
He tried to hurry over, but the FT-17 was a slow tank on a good day, and it could hardly go any faster if it was chucked off a cliff. By the time he was in position to engage, two of the three tanks still defending the sector had been knocked out. He got behind a bush and hoped it would provide the necessary cover.
Another enemy Panzer II came charging down the hill. He shot at it, missed, groaned, and fired again, this time hittting the tracks. The enemy tank kept coming, although it clearly hadn't spotted him yet. Leon shot again, missing. The Panzer II, still moving, fired in his direction. Several shots flew over the french-made tank, but none bit. It must not have his exact location, then.
The Panzer II started taking fire from Leon's left, coming from back towards the green base. It was hit, then, to Leon's great surprise, it began burning. It died shortly thereafter, the fire consuming the vehicle.
Someone said "w00t" on the chat bar. Eddy. Sure enough, the Englishman began gloating shortly there afterwards.
"Did you see that!? He's burned down to a crisp. Anyone for breakfast?"
If the toast includes metal and shells, then count me out.
A red message came up from the other side of the screen.
"Aw, son of a fucking bitch!" Leon felt like laughing. Eddy's tank had been destroyed, and as usual, he was pissed off about it. "Stupid fucking artillery!"
"Edward, please!" Luna said, strain in her voice. "I did not come here to have the air around me be fouled by your swearing."
"Guys, we have bigger problems," Leon said, glancing at the top of the screen. The score was five to eight, and not in their favor. "Save your arguements for later, if you have any by then."
An artillery shell exploded next to his own tank, and he decided it was a better idea to find a better hiding place than to argue futilely with his companions. He drove away from the bush and moved a decent ways back to another one.
A Cruiser III came up from the swamp and began shooting green players with his own scaled down but still very devastating derp cannon; a T-26 died almost instantly.
Leon took careful aim... at the cannon of the enemy tank. He had little to no chance of killing the enemy tank outright, but if it couldn't fire or was, say, tracked, it would be all the easier for the rest of his team to take out. His first shot missed; the second was met by the phrase, "That one bounced!" Not very encouraging. He saw it's turret begin to turn in his direction.
Fuck.
Shells struck the Cruiser in the side. The turret turned.
Leon fired again, this time at the tracks. To his relief, he was able to obliterate it's right track. His relief was short-lived; the enemy player decided that he was the more dangerous target. The turret came back at him.
He ran for it. The shell plowed into the ground just inches from his tank; it must have been armor-piercing, as it did not cause any damage.
"Run for it, Leon, I'll cover you," Luna said. It had been her tank that had attacked the Cruiser.
"Thanks." Leon managed to dodge another shell, but an enemy arty had clearly decided to join in the fun; a high explosive projectile blew off his right track and took out half his health. To make things worse, the Cruiser hadn't given up on him, and came in as it fired on the move. It hit another allied player, one-shotting him, then brought it's attention back to the tracked FT-17.
Leon fired frantically in an effort to at least damage the enemy tank; four bounces and another hit on the Cruiser's tracks were his only reward.
The Cruiser took careful aim; another shot from Leon didn't do anything whatsoever.
This is it...
Two artillery shells struck the Cruiser almost at the same time. One of them must have hit the fuel tank, as the opposing vehicle began to burn. More shells, from other green tanks, began striking the tank. It succumbed to the concentrated fire and blew up.
Leon leaned back in his seat and let out a sigh. He glanced up at the score; 10:10. It had been three minutes from the point the Cruiser had launched it's attack, and his team had managed to recover somewhat. Unfortunately the score did not include the quitter who had tried to drown himself, so the teams were still 11:10 rather than being completely equal.
A red bar appeared in the upper section of the screen; someone was capping their base.
Great.
He turned into the direction of the allied base and began the long chug; the Ft-17 hadn't been built for speed. The red bar filled rapidly. Two other players who tried to stop the cap were killed by artillery fire and by the capper's own gun.
Before long, the bar had filled completely; the words "Base captured" appeared on the screen.
Damn it! "Next time choose a more appropriate tank for the tier, Eddy," Leon said grumpily.
"I'm not going to cripple my experience and time by using a tier 1 or 3, unless I want to."
"Ass."
"Fuck you."
Leon angrily got off the game, threw off his headset, and walked out of the room.