//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Hold the Line! 
// Story: Equestria's Struggle: Chronicles of the 20th ERAD 
// by ZatGeneral 
//------------------------------//

                                Chapter 4: Hold the Line!

July 4th, 8th year of the Age of the Princesses
Corporal Tanky
20th Equestrian Royal Armored Division, C Battalion, Artillery Platoon D.
                    
The scent of sulfur fills the air as the haze of spent gunpowder is blown away by the calm winds of the Alsace-Lorreigne.  The Trolls attacking blockhouse A-17 know that once the smoke clears, another blast from a lone VKV HT-8 will smite them like the hoof of Celestia. The Trolls advance, knowing they are only three hundred meters from reaching the first line of the much weakened Mareginot Line.  Suddenly and without warning, a horrendous and ear splitting thunder drowns out all other sounds of battle. The attacking Trolls find themselves consumed in fire and lead. Three Garbage Cans lay twisted and burst in the wake of the blast along with the broken remains of countless Troll corpses. 

“Come on! Come on! I need that shell NOW!” shouted Tanky.

Tanky’s commander, Mörser , didn’t seem impressed. “Excellent” shot, Corporal. Now if you would please SHOOT AT THE TARGET I TOLD YOU TO SHOOT!”

“Yeah yeah. I’ll get to it in a minute.”

“Corporal!”

“I’ll get to it in a minute, SIR.”

“Corporal! You will shoot at the target that I ordered you to shoot or so help me-“

Tanky, unphased by her commander’s attitude, continued to talk while looking into her sights. “You’ll do what exactly, SIR? Yell at me some more? And you know what? I’m not going to shoot at your target for two reasons. Do you want to know why?”

Morser raised an eyebrow. “Please… educate your commander Corporal.”

“Like, Boss Pony, Ma’am? We, like, got the shell all like loaded’n stuff brah.”
                    
“Thank you Brohawm.”

“Phssawh, it was, like, no problem at all brah.”
                    
“Anyway, let me show you the first reason, SIR.” Tanky began lowering the gun’s elevation, the VKV’s oscillating turret shifting downward.
                    
“Whoa, like, this is, like SO trippy bro!”

        “Dude! We could, like, totally, like, make this thing into, like, a roller coaster dude!”
                    
“Aside from turning the turret, was that so hard Corp-“
                    
A sudden groan began to echo into through the turret as it stopped its downward motion. The metallic protests of the turret became unbearable to Mörser.

        Tanky started to elevate the turret again. “See, SIR?” The stupid Porshoe made tank bunkers hardly work for Vladhoof tanks.” 

        Mörser lifted his headset and rubbed his ear. “I see... what about your second complaint, Corporal?”

        Tanky started to traverse the turret thirty degrees to the right. “My second “complaint” is that you ordered me to kill a single outlier... when we can use this gun to explodify more than one tank...SIR...  Like this.” 

        Tanky’s shot landed near two Garbage Cans and tore them to sheets of scrap. In their panic, the Trolls began bunching up more making them irresistible to Tanky’s itchy trigger hoof.

        “Is that shell loaded yet!?”

        Brohawm grunted a bit as he forced the massive round into the cannon. “Like, chill brah. It’s all like, loaded’n stuff.”

        “Broseph! I’m going to need another shell ready as soon as I shoot!”

        “But you, like, haven’t even, like shot yet, dudette.”

        “Bro, bro, the brah boss is like, going to shoot and then you, like, load bro.”

        Tanky sent another shot at the mass of Trolls, taking another two Garbage Cans down. “NOW BROSEPH!”

        Broseph started loading the next shell. “Dudette, you like, have to work on your attitude.”
        Tanky was looking for more targets while Broseph was loading the next shell. She turned the turret to the left to see a Garbage Can and all its turrets aimed at her tank. “Oh? You think you can take me on? That’s right... come to mommy...”

        The Garbage Can let loose all of its cannons. A hail of 20mm, 30mm and 50mm shells struck the bunker around Tanky’s VKV, obscuring Tanky’s vision with a small cloud of concrete dust.

        Broseph closed the breach to the cannon. “Like, I’m done dudette.”

        Tanky pulled the trigger despite not being able to see her target. She saw that her shell had actually penetrated the armor and exploded inside the Garbage Can once the dust cleared. The shards of that Garbage Can found their way into many Troll troopers. 

        “BA-BOOM BABY!” exclaimed Tanky. She started looking for more potential multi-kills when a Troll shell ricochet off the turret. A sharp ringing echoed through the turret as the area struck by the shell sizzled for a bit.
 
        “Like, what was that, bro!?!” 

        Mörser desperately scanned the battlefield, looking for anything that could have hit his tank so accurately. A second bounce shook the turret violently and Mörser was thrown back into his seat. As he sat up, Mörser saw something on the horizon from his cupola. They looked like metal boxes sitting on the hills from his position. He looked into the tank’s binoculars only to find that those ricochets weren't entirely harmless after all.

        “Corporal! The binoculars are down! I need you to use your range finder to identify unknown targets at Alpha Foxtrot Zero Niner Niner.”

        Tanky, still waiting for a new shell to be loaded, turned the turret to face the “unknown enemy” Mörser was blabbering about. The image was blurry but Tanky quickly adjusted the sights for a small zoom. 

        Tanky’s eyes widened when she saw what the unknown enemy was. “CRAP! Sir! We have enemy anti-tank guns on the hilltops!.”

        “Those can’t be Troll guns! They’re far too accurate!” 

        “What do you think they are!?!”

        “I don’t care what they are! Just shoot the damned things!”

        Tanky set her rangefinder to seven hundred meters. “I’m going to need that shell soon guys!”

        Brohawm quickly closed the breach. “You can, like, shoot, now, brah.”

        Tanky aimed at three of the anti-tank guns that were grouped closer together than the others. She sighted the gun, worked out the best gun elevation and mapped out compensation for shell drop. The turret’s metallic heave brought the tank’s might to bear. All that was left to do was pull the trigger.

        “Come on now... mommy needs a new set of sho-”

        Another shell struck the turret, forcing Tanky to pull the trigger. Her shot hit home, taking out the three anti-tank guns she was aiming at. But there was no shouts of joy from her. A round from one of the anti-tank guns struck the side of Tanky’s VKV Heavy Tank-8. The round bounced off, but it also damaged several of the hydraulic systems that allow the turret to rotate, elevate and depress. How Tanky and the crew knew the turret hydraulics were damaged was the near constant spray of fluid inside their compartment.

        Tanky tried desperately to turn the turret but all the tank responded with was with more bursts of hydraulic fluid and sickly groaning. “Come on! Come on!”

        “We gotta, like, bail bro!” yelled Brohawm as he climbed out the turret’s rear hatch with Broseph close behind. 

        “NO! I won’t give up! Not again! shouted Tanky as she desperately tried to haul another shell into the cannon. 

        “Corporal!” cried Mörser. “It’s done! We have to get out of here!”

        Tanky barely managed to load the shell into the cannon. She returned to her seat and tried to sight another target. The turret’s metallic groans of protest eventually gave way to something resembling lateral movement. The turret turned at a snail’s pace, but that was enough for Tanky to aim at the Troll Horde below. Her sights were terribly obscured by the hydraulic fluid covering the lenses. The sharp chemical stench was starting to make her nauseous. 

        “Corporal!”

She pulled the trigger, unsure how many Trolls she killed.  The recoil was enough to detach the VKV’s turret from the damaged hinges, releasing the last of the pressurized hydraulic fluid.

 The oscillating turret’s top half barely hung on to the tank. One set of hinges failed, the other would soon follow. Smoke began to fill the crew cabin. The hydraulic fluid had leaked into the engine compartment and combusted. The VKV was now a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.

Mörser knew he would have to act fast. He turned Tanky towards him, struck his hoof across her face and shoved a Neighjing Consortium Automatic Rifle  into her hooves.

“Corporal! Get yourself together! We. Are. LEAVING!”

Normally Tanky would be piping mad at somepony who just hit her. Whether it was the chemical stench or the suffocating smoke, she entered a relatively calm state of mind and followed Mörser out of the tank. She climbed out of the hatch on the backside of the turret, but slid out and fell with her usual grace. 

Rollover, the tank’s driver was outside of the VKV has he really didn’t have any reason to be inside a stationary tank. He helped Tanky to her hooves. “What have you done to my tank!?”

“We’ll explain later, Private! We have to move before this thing blows!” exclaimed Mörser.

Tanky took a few moments to look through the tank bunker’s firing slit. She watched as the Trolls made their way into the Mareginot Line’s trench network. Tanky couldn’t help but fire a few bursts of her NCAR at the Trolls. She watched as several of them fell to her fire. She must have emptied a whole clip before she finally heard her tank commander’s demanding shouts.

“Corporal! Move! You’re not here to play soldier! We need to get back into a tank Corporal!”

Tanky snapped to and darted towards the rest of her crew members. She saw them enter blockhouse A17 and flung herself inside.  She immediately got up and positioned herself on one of the blockhouse’s embrasures and started firing her NCAR. She didn’t have to aim, the Trolls advancing in waves as thick as rats. She could hear Brohawm and Broseph fumbling with their Mouser rifles. 

“Like, Bro! How do they, like, expect us to, like, shoot stuff if we can’t even, like, shoot a gun bro?”

Tanky sighed a little. “Your safety's on.”

Brohawm looked at the safety switch on his rifle. “Pshhhhawwww. I, like, knew that all along brah.”

Tanky relieved her stress a little by squeezing the trigger on her NCAR a little tighter than usual. She saw another batch of Trolls fall from that burst. Despite her commander’s protests and constant calling for a retreat, Tanky fought on knowing well that the more Trolls she brought down, the less her fellow Ponies would have to deal with later.

“Get out! Get out! Clear the room!” screamed one of the machine gunner soldiers. 

Tanky turned to see a hole get blown in the blockhouse’s concrete wall. She flinched and fell off the concrete step that allowed her to fire out of the embrasure. The machine gun soldiers seemed alright and had already made for the exits in the room. They had good reason to as Tanky found out. A Troll Garbage Can came crashing through the hole it made with a 105mm howitzer mounted in one of its turrets. Only the turret dotted front portion of the Garbage Can was in the blockhouse, but it was all the tank needed to massacre the defenders. 

Brohawm and Broseph were gone in a flash upon seeing the Garbage Can. While Tanky was dragged out by Mörser and Rollover. They hid deeper in the blockhouse, safe from the Garbage Can, but not from the Troll infantry that will follow soon enough.

“We need to kill that tank. Any ideas anypony?” asked Rollover.

“The armory might have some buckzookas or prancerfausts.” blurted Tanky.

“Fantastic idea, Corporal! Lead us to the armory then!”

Tanky scratched her head a little. “Uhh... I don’t know where it is...” 

“Private?”

“I didn’t study the map, Sir...”

“Shouldn’t you have studied the map, SIR...? After all you are our commander.” said Tanky disapprovingly. 

“Truth be told, I was quite hoping one of you would have studied it... But we’re wasting time babbling here. Everypony split up! Brohawm, Broseph! Head down the east corridor, Tanky search the area around the mess hall, Rollover and I will head down the west corridor.”

Tanky slung her NCAR around her back and started dashing towards the mess hall. She was stopped after turning a corner when she felt a sharp blow to the side of her face. The blow flipped Tanky on her back as she tumbled to the floor. Tanky quickly got back on her hooves and turned to face her assailant. Tanky found herself staring at one of the blockhouse’s steel doors. Tanky wasted no time getting her gun ready.

“I’ll get you for this!” shouted Tanky as she dashed around the door. As soon as she rounded the door, she pulled the trigger on her automatic rifle.

“Wait, Tanky! Wait!” shouted Chalkboard.

Unknowingly, Chalkboard and Carry All slammed the door on Tanky’s face only moments before. Luckily for Chalkboard, Tanky saw that she was shooting at friendlies and pulled her automatic rifle up in time for a burst to barely graze Carry All’s helmet. 

“Geez Louise!!! shouted Carry All as he stumbled back a bit. “You almost killed us!”

Tanky was stunned to see Chalkboard here. “Wha- What are you doing here, Chalky?”

“Our tank ran out of ammunition and the ammo depot at B-Fifteen was overrun with Trolls.”

Tanky could see the two drawing carts of 80mm shell clips and wearing belts of machine gun ammo for the HT-6. “Wait... The machine gun ammo, did you get those from the armory?”

“Sadly, yes. The ammo depot here was out of seven-point-seven five ammunition.”

“Seriously? The whole depot?”

“You wouldn’t believe how many trigger happy machine gunners we have stationed here.” groaned Carry All. “I’m pretty sure half of the defenders don’t know any trigger discipline.”  

Tanky was slightly embarrassed at Carry All’s comment considering her spraying earlier. “Fair point. Umm.. Where’s the armory, Chalky?” 

“It’s between the mess hall and the barracks. Honestly, did you study the maps of given to us, Tanky?”

“Uhh...” Tanky had no need to think of an excuse to dodge Chalkboard’s question. Several Troll warriors had appeared from the corridor tank was running down earlier. “Look out!” shouted Tanky as she drew her NCAR. Tanky let off a ten round burst and all three Troll warriors fell over dead. 

“We have to move! Come on, Carry All!” yelled Chalkboard as she pulled her cart forward and out of the line of fire. 

Chalkboard and Carry All started towards their tank. Carry All, being a relatively new and young recruit, was having difficulty keeping up with Chalkboard. Especially with Tanky sitting in his cart and firing her automatic rifle. 

“Eeeearrrgh! Eat it!”

“Is that really necessary, Tanky?”

“This is Tanky we’re talking about Carry All. She does whatever comes to mind.”
        
        Tanky expended round after round as the Troll warriors tried to rush around a corner. She expended so much ammo that the barrel of her gun began to glow red. The smoke coming from the barrel was enough to leave a small trail behind the feeling ponies.

        “Trigger discipline, Tanky! Trigger discipline! Short controlled bursts!”

“Yeah! Get some!” shouted Tanky just as she heard a loud click come from her rifle. “Huh? What the hay?” 

“I told you, Tanky! Short controlled bursts!”

“Shut up and keep running!” 

Tanky quickly looked at the gun and saw that the slide was empty. She frantically looked around for some ammunition clips, but the only 7.75 ammunition was in machine gun belts. She dug through the crate some more, only finding shells and machine gun ammo. Then something caught her attention. She picked up a Prancerfaust 41 and held it in her hoof.

        “What do you have a Prancerfaust Forty One for, Chalky?”

        “I thought it might come in handy for when-” A Troll bullet interrupted Chalkboard as it zipped by her face, barely missing. “I thought it might come in handy in a situation like this!”

        “Do you have anymore than this one?”

        “One more in my cart, why do you ask?”

Tanky pressed on the little lever near the explosive bulb and off it went. The warhead of the Prancerfaust found its way into the group of Trolls. 

“Do any of you guys have a gun I could borrow?”

Carry All drew his shotgun with his unicorn magic. “Here! Use this!”

“WHOA! A Wind-Chaser M-Ninety Seven? Where did you get this!?!”

“Less pointless questions and more trigger pulling!” shouted Carry All as he and Chalkboard veered right down a  new corridor.

“Ok yeah... right...” Tanky quickly snapped the shotgun to the end of the hall, the Trolls were fairly far away when they rounded the corner after them, but she still hit them with a single high powered slug from the Wind-Chaser. The force of the slug tore through two Troll warriors and finally lodge itself in the lower abdomen of a third warrior. Of course, Tanky wasn’t prepared for the recoil either and found herself lying on Chalkboard’s back. 
Carry All looked behind him only to see that Tanky had vanished. “Tanky? Where did you go?” His question was answered when he turned to ask Chalkboard where Tanky went.

Chalkboard turned her head to see what flopped on her back. “Tanky?”

“I felt like dropping in.” 

“Just shoot Tanky!”

“There isn’t anything to shoot at. I think we lost them Chalky!”

“Well thanks for jinxing it!” intervened Carry All.

“No seriously! It looks like there aren’t any more of them coming this way.”

“Hallway on the left Carry All!”

“Yes Ma’am!”

Chalkboard and Carry All blotted past several winding corridors before finally finding a massive set of steel doors. It wasn’t long before the evening sun found its way into Tanky’s eyes. She jumped off of Chalkboard and started rummaging through the cart looking for the Prancerfaust. 

“Hey, Chalkboard... What’s Tanky doing here?” asked Trail Blazer.

Chalkboard thought for a minute. “... Why are you here?” she ask while turning to face Tanky.

“Uh... my tank got knocked out.”

“Oh no.” gasped Trail Blazer. “Is the rest of your crew okay?”

“They’re fine. I mean we were all soaked in hydraulic fluid for a bit, but we’re fine.”

“Hydraulic fluid? You mean-”         

Carry All’s comment was interrupted by a deafening explosion. Everypony looked to where a large fireball had formed and see the turret of Tanky’s former VKV flying through the air. The turret let out a resonating gong sound when it impacted the concrete emplacements nearby.

“The Trolls hit something important and that caused the turret to lose power because hydraulic fluid was spraying everywhere and that leaked into the engine compartment which caused a fire. Then we had to leave because of that fire and now it looks like the fire caused the ammo to detonate.”

“You can write the book later Tanky.” grunted Far Shot as he started carting some of the 80mm shells inside his tank. “We kinda need a little help here if you wouldn’t mind.” 

“I really need to go though.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

Tanky poked her hooves into Carry All’s cart, thoroughly looking for some ammunition she could make use of. However, the results of her search were fruitless much like her first attempt of digging through the cart.

“My crew split up in an attempt to find the armory. I was “lucky” to have been assigned by my commander to look for the armor all by myself.”
Chalkboard seemed surprised by Tanky’s remarks. “Wait... You mean to tell me that no one in your crew bothered to look at the map?”

“To be fairly honest, I was kinda hoping the trolls wouldn’t be stupid enough to attack the Mareginot Line head on. Looks like I really should of looked at the map though huh?”

“To my knowledge, every tank crew got a map. What happened to yours?”

“I may have used it as a napkin on barbeque, pulled celery night...”

“Why am I not surprised Tanky.” groaned Chalkboard as she placed her hoof on her muzzle.

Tanky rummaged through the cart again and found the Prancerfaust Chalkboard was talking about. She attached the anti-tank weapon onto her belt and slung it on her back. “Sorry guys, but I got problems of my own. I mean, that was some runny sauce they were using. Good luck with your tank and all!” said Tanky as she made her way back into the blockhouse.

“Wait wait wait!” shouted Carry All. “Gimme back my shotgun!”

It was too late. Tanky was already out of earshot by the time Carry All remembered that he “lent” Tanky his Wind-Chaser.


-        -        -



Tanky was trying making her way back to the Garbage Can that crashed through the wall. She had already disposed of several Troll warriors that were unlucky enough to find her. It wasn’t difficult to find the way back to where she stumbled into Chalkboard and Carry All. All she had to do was follow a small trail of corpses she made while fleeing with Chalkboard and Carry All. The sounds of small arms fire echoed through the concrete halls of the blockhouse, making it difficult for Tanky to tell where the next batch of Toll warriors would spring from next. She checked Carry All’s shotgun.
 
“Crud… Only ten shells left…”
 
Tanky found her way into the hall where she discovered Chalkboard and Carry All not too long ago. She let out a small sigh and tightened the belt her Prancerfaust was on and stepped past the steel door her face was well acquainted with. She eyed the door warily.
 
“I’ve got my eyes on you…” Unlike before, the door wasn’t trouble, however Tanky’s face became acquainted with something softer and far more foul as she turned her head away from the door. She quickly leaped backwards and realized she had walked right into the rear of a Troll warrior.
 
The Troll stood there with a finger up his right nostril for a second before he realised that a little red Earth Pony had bumped into his rump. 

“Hey! Your gonna pay four that!” shouted the Troll as he turned his body around spraying his gun all the while.
 
Tanky dodged the incoming rounds by hiding behind the steel door.
 
“Bleh! Guh! UNG! Icky ick!” remarked Tanky in complete disgust as she took a moment to wipe her face in disgust. She then quickly drew the Wind-Chaser.
 
“I know your hear pony… Come out and I promise dat I wont hurt u…” beckoned the Troll before making a fatal mistake.
 
 As the Troll peeked his head past the steel door, Tanky shoved the Wind Chaser up his right nostril and quite literally, blew his brains out. Thick blotches of dripping crimson now covered a good portion of the ceiling.

  “Ung… and I thought Trolls smelled bad on the outside…” said Tanky as she carefully stepped over the corpse. “Okay… That stupid Garbage Can should be here somewhere…”
 
Tanky carefully and cautiously traversed the concrete maze trying to find the way back. She got lost for a little bit and wound up in one of the many infirmaries in the blockhouse. This one was clearly abandoned after the attack. She took her time collecting some healing potions and stuffing them into a duffle bag she found there as well.

There might be somepony that’ll need this. Tanky thought to herself.

She carefully searched the infirmary for anything that would be of use later. She took some antibiotics, plasma, and blood packs as well as a case of cola she quickly downed before she even set hoof out of the infirmary. Tanky also gave her face a quick wash as she really felt she needed it. When she exited, the sound of fighting seemed farther off. Either the Trolls were dead, or they pushed past the Mareginot Line’s first gauntlet of defense. 

After a few minutes of wandering Tanky found a place that looked relatively familiar. This was the hall where her commander dragged her though to avoid the Garbage Can. Tanky looked around to see the concrete embrasure she was shooting out of before the Garbage Can came crashing through the wall. She braced herself at the corner and readied her prancerfaust. But before she threw herself at the Garbage Can, she heard a voice, a pony’s voice.
 
    “No wait! You don’t understand! I can help you! If you would just stop your Trolling you would see that I can help you!”
 
      Tanky couldn’t help but take a quick peek. The pony conversing with the Troll warriors was wearing a cloak but Tanky could tell that the pony was male. She saw that they were standing by the Garbage Can and how the tank had moved to allow more Troll warriors into the blockhouse.
 
It all makes sense now…
 
If there is anything in Equestria Tanky couldn’t stomach aside from asparagus, it was dirty, rotten, good for nothing traitors and turncoats.
 
“How can a pony help? Their are not any ponies that can help us.”
 
“Listen, I work for a common benefactor. If you just listened to me for a second, I can give you information that can help you WIN.”
 
“I like wins”
 
“Yeah me two!”
 
“Alright! Party’s over snack’ums!” Shouted Tanky after she rounded the corner with her prancerfaust in hoof. She fired the prancerfaust and sent the warhead flying towards the cloaked pony and the Garbage Can.
                
 The cloaked pony dodged the warhead with relative ease, allowing it to strike the Garbage Can. The Garbage Can exploded violently, taking the two the troll warriors standing by it.
 
 Tanky drew the Wind-Chaser shotgun and fired a slug at the cloaked pony. Unfortunately, this turncoat knew what he was doing. He dodged Tanky’s feeble attempts at striking him down with the shotgun. After three misses, the turn coat leapt behind the burning Garbage Can.
 
 “Wood someone please kill this noob!?!” shouted the turncoat.
 
 The turncoat’s call for aid was heard by several Troll Berserkers who quickly charged at Tanky’s position with various blunt instruments while she was desperately trying to fend them off. One, two, three Trolls went down each time Tanky pumped the Wind Chaser and pulled the trigger. She was forced to retreat or risk becoming a puddle of Pony pulp. She ran back towards the armory’s general direction from what she remembered.
 
 Oh man… did Chalky mention something about right… or left?... Why didn’t I study the map?

Adrenaline was flowing through her veins as she desperately evaded bullet after bullet sent to her by her Troll aggressors. She quickly lurched left and rounded a corner only to be thrown back and out by a sharp blow to her chest. 
  
Did I run into that stupid door again?... Tanky thought to herself.

Tanky immediately knew something was wrong, she couldn’t breathe. She tried to get up to see what hit her but Tanky’s limbs didn’t respond. The lights on the ceiling were brighter than she thought they were. She mustered all the strength she could and tilted her head up to see what was wrong with her body. She was greeted with a smoking hole in her chest. 

“I like, totally got one, like- OH NOT COOL BRO!!!” shouted Brohawm as he peeked his head out of the armory to confirm his unknown kill.

“I’m like, so sorry! I-I-I like, don’t know it was like, you Boss!”

“Dude.. you are like, going to get some,like, serious doo-doo with the Army dude.” 

Tanky took another second to look at her grievous wound before the realization that she was shot by a Mouser rifle sunk in. Tanky’s first thoughts were about the surprising lack of pain. She could see the fairly seared flesh, elements of cracked bone and a small river of fresh blood starting to trickle down her uniform. She locked her eyes with a franticly apologetic Brohawm and mustered the very last reserves of her strength to mutter her last words.

“I’ll get you for this Brohawm...”

And with her vow said, Tanky’s flopped her head on the floor as her vision blurred and she blacked out but not before one last thought raced through her mind.

I was doing so good too... Daddy would have been proud.


-        -        -