Chapter 3: Mladshiy Serzhant Winds
“Roll out!”
Date: June 3rd, 1949.
Time: 11:24, Local time.
Location: Erlenberg.
Flow begins.
As always, the interior of our backup tank- the trusty T-34-85- was stifling to say the least. The little fans built into the hull weren’t really helping, but at least we could keep all the hatches open until the skirmish started. Until then, I let myself skim over the list of tanks we had as our current allies and enemies.
“Ugh, why are we here? I hate this place.”
“At least this is a tier six matchup for whatever reason.” I replied, which didn’t help Serzhant Rumcake’s grumpy disposition at all.
“Works for me. Winds, make sure you keep the shells loaded and I’ll do my job.” Our newest crew member, a one Efreitor Violet Dusk was taking the gunner’s seat- a position that we hadn’t had in our previous backup vehicle. “I did some research beforehand, and I believe I should be able to perform with competence.”
“Just shoot at the flat parts, Efreitor. It’s not too difficult. Anyway, we’re at the north spawn so we’ll need to circle around the hill down the nine columnish and hope that their TDs decided to head to the castle.”
The only two tanks I was worried about on the other team were the TOG II* and the deadly KV-2. Thick armor on both counts, being heavy tanks, and the latter had a ridiculous gun that could fling all of us into the sun with a glancing hit. At least our team had a plethora of VK 30.01 Hs, Ps, and Ds for no good reason.
“Their M37’s got a thirty seven percent win percentage, so at least there’s that. All we have to do is not get destroyed by the Jackson and the Wolverine.” Rumcake sighed, taking a look at the little egg timer balanced on the edge of his commander’s cupola. “Twenty seconds to start.”
Mladshiy Serzhant Cola poked her head into the turret interior right under my seat. “Good news, I popped off the speed governor.”
“I’m no driver, but don’t we need that to keep the engine from exploding?” Mladshiy Serzhant Tangerine asked, one hand pulling back one side of her headphones to listen to our banter.
Cola shimmied her way to her driver’s seat. “Safety’s overrated. You’ve got first-aid up there if you need it, anyway.”
“We had to remove it so the toolbox would fit.” I reminded her, giving the box a loud punch for emphasis. “Remember?”
The egg timer rattled to life and was immediately silenced by the hatch smashing shut on it. Likewise, the rest of us stopped the silly banter and made sure our stations were ready for combat. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Derpenberg. Let’s go!”
Our tank lurched forward and rumbled to life— I began to load the first of many AP shells, thanking the shell rammer for making my job a lot easier, the radio began to buzz with activity, and the gunner started rotating the turret in anticipation of our first target.
An impact from behind nearly knocked me out of my seat. Rumcake peeked through the little viewports of his cupola before squatting down and yelling, “Radio, tell the Churchill behind us to watch where he’s going. They’re going to dent the hull.”
Tangerine gave him a thumbs up and did some radio magicery to do exactly that.
The pre-battle traffic jam cleared without further incident or damage. We managed to make it three quarters down the enemy’s right flank before Tangerine shouted, “Our A-20 just made contact with their Jackson and a T-34 on the ridge up ahead. They’re using the crest of the hill to their advantage, so be careful.” A second later, she followed up with, “The SU-5 confirms multiple unseen contacts on the road behind it as well. Their gunner estimates four, maybe five.”
“Driver, prepare to angle the tank once we get into their firing range. Loader, prepare to load HE shells. No doubt their heavies are just sitting there and waiting for us to poke around that hill.” Rumcake hazarded a peek out of his hatch before closing it again. “I’ve got a weird feeling, so proceed with caution.”
The tank slowed down and began to turn slightly to the left. “Roger that.”
“Yes, Serzhant.” I re-arranged the shell rack next to me and placed one of our many HE shells at the top for easy reach.
Rumcake kept staring out of the tiny viewports of his cupola in order to find us a target. An explosion somewhere behind us, not from someone behind us firing, but of an ammo rack violently detonating. “Get us into cover, Cola. We’ve been scouted!”
“Artillery fire! Our VK got ammo racked, sir!” Tangerine notified us.
“Which one?” Rumcake turned around to look behind us. “They all look the same to me.”
“The H. We’ve still got two VK Ds behind us and a BDR.”
I stifled a snort. “That’ll teach ‘em for being big and square.”
“Do we know what gun the VK 30.01 H had?”
Tangerine paused to ask, then replied, “Not sure. He might have been stock.”
“Hmph...” Rumcake thought for a moment. “Get us into cover, Sparkle. Let them come to us.”
The few tanks behind us were scooting to take cover on our side of the hill before their artillery could reload and line up another shot. I couldn’t do anything but wait until the fighting started to do my job. Until then, I pulled out my little pocket manual of “How to replace a christie suspension and other cool things” and began to idly skim.
A shot bounced off our hull. Dammit. I crammed my pamphlet down the front of my fatigues and plopped an HE shell on my lap in anticipation of combat.
“Where’d that come from? Where’s our scout with the info?”
“The A-20 drowned trying to escape their TOG boat.” Tangerine yelled back. “The west flank is getting pounded, about eight tanks out there including the KV-2. The other three TDs are out by castle, so all we have here is the Jackson.”
“Where’s the TOG?”
“Gone, sir. No idea how we managed to lose the land whale.”
I cleared my throat and added, “I’d like to point out that the Jackson’ll body bag us before we get enough shots off to kill him.”
“Sir, our SU-5 requests someone go find them a target. It’s only got fourteen shells so blind-fire isn’t an option.” Tangerine did some radio things again. “West flank confirms six kills, three more in the area. They’ve taken heavy casualties, so we might want to push.”
“That leaves five on our flank, assuming their M37 was smart enough to sit farther in the back.” And then Rumcake got that look in his eye. “Everybody strap in, we’re going to scout.”
Without further prompting, Sparkle gunned the engine. “Feel the rhythm, feel the ride, everybody get up, it’s killin’ time!”
Our tank rocketed forward, and followed the road right around the end of the hill. That’s when we all collectively realized that it was a really shitty idea.
Shots began to hit our tank, most of which were penetrating our armor. “Holy shit! Targets: Jackson, TOG, a Stug, and a Panzer-uh- Panzer Souffle IV in the area!” Rumcake began to relay exact coordinates to Tangerine, but I didn’t have time to listen.
Violet cranked the turret to our right and fired the first shell right into the Stug’s exposed cupola. “Critical hit!” She yelled, ignoring the retreating wounded tank destroyer and turning the turret to face the Jackson. “AP shell, AP shell!”
“Right tracks are taking damage! I’m trying to get us out of these firing lines. C’mon, get behind this rock...”
I hastily- and gently- replaced the High Explosive shell back onto the rack, replacing its intended spot in the loading cradle with an AP shell. With practiced ease, I pulled the lever for the shell rammer and slammed the little hatch shut to make the gun ready to fire. “Loaded!” A second and a half longer than it needed to be, but it was probably alright.
We were still moving forward, which only stopped when the rear of the tank took a particularly hard hit that managed to knock me out of my seat. “Holy shit, the engine’s hit!” I caught sight of a very annoyed Sparkle crawling toward the back of the tank. “Toolbox!”
I dropped the object in question down to her while I pulled another shell off the rack and loaded it into the gun. Violet immediately fired, which kept me from trying to figure out what was going on around us lest I accidentally drop a shell and doom us all.
Too bad someone out there decided to try and do exactly that. An explosion rocked the turret of our tank and blew a small chunk out of the metal, giving me a brand new viewport to look out of- right in the middle of the ammo rack. I managed to keep the shells secure, but just barely.
“The ammo storage is hit! We’re lucky it didn’t blow. Where’s our support?” I fumbled with shells, trying to keep the gun constantly loaded while also keeping the shells from rolling all over the tank.
Violet angrily snapped, “What’s taking so long? Load, load, load! I’ve got a shot lined up and nothing loaded.”
I gestured at the haphazard pile of shells around me. “Do you want us to blow up?” Just to keep her quiet, I loaded the next shell and went back to trying to keep all of our ammunition sorted.
“The engine’s fixed, but it’s not working very well.” Sparkle notified us, getting back into the driver’s seat. “Let’s get out of here!”
Violet fired a shot at the Stug from earlier, reducing it to a flaming pile of scrap metal. “Enemy vehicle destroyed!” She cheered.
I caught a glimpse of the giant TOG II* slowly turning its turret to face us through the hole in our turret. We didn’t have the penetration power to dent the monstrosity of a tank at this angle, so HE shells it was. I searched through the haphazard pile of shells for a HE shell, pushing aside damaged shells as I went. Shell found, I placed it into the waiting cradle and slammed it home.
“That whale’s looking angry and it’s almost reloaded!” Rumcake warned us. “HE shell it for guaranteed damage since there’s a good chance we won’t pen him.”
I allowed myself a tiny grin. “Already loaded!”
“Aiming at his gun. Aaaalmost there...” Violet muttered, fiddling with the fine aiming controls. “Sh- brace!”
There was barely enough time for me to grab onto something before an impact reverberated through the hull with an earsplitting crack. I hazarded a peek out of the hole in the ammo rack, but we’d thankfully rolled into cover behind a rock. By the looks of the additional spent shell rolling around, Violet had managed to fire her shell right before impact.
As I hazily reloaded the next shell while trying to keep my balance, I noticed Rumcake crumpled against the turret wall. I checked for a pulse, which he thankfully had, but he seemed to be unconscious from the impact. “The commander’s knocked out!”
Tangerine let out a smoky cough. “The radio’s hit! We can only communicate to nearby allies.”
Just because we weren’t already in dire straits, rapid repeated impacts began to bounce off our hull as well. “What the flippity flappity fuck is going on back there? That better not be the sound of our left tracks exploding.” Sparkle yelled.
I hazarded a peek out the commander’s cupola after scooting Rumcake into a more comfortable position. “Is… is that a Panzer One-c?” I confusedly observed, watching as it futilely unloaded round after round of low-caliber ammunition into our tracks.
“It’s sort of cute in its ow- Wait, it’s keeping us tracked! Get us out of here before that artillery notices!” Tangerine got back onto the radio and gave it a motivational punch. “Wait, what do you mean the TOG drowned? How?”
It only took one shell for Violet to finish off the sad little outranked Panzer behind us. “Target destroyed.”
“Jackson in front! Someone do-”
An impact knocked me onto the ground.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Everything began to blur.
“The loader bought the farm!”
I made the mistake of inhaling first rather than sitting up, which caused a lot of dirt to take up residence in my nose.
Yet again, Violet was eagerly awaiting my report. “Welcome back. Enjoy yourself?”
Once my sinuses were relatively dirt-free, I decided that the best option was to stay quiet so that maybe Violet wouldn’t zap me with the spell again. Instead of a response, I crossed my forelegs and simply glared at her.
“Now you’re being foalish. How predictably mature of you.” Violet loudly exhaled and used both hooves to rub her temples. “You have literally told me next to nothing. Maybe I should just find another volunteer.”
Potential success!
Violet paced back and forth a few times, then sighed. “Don’t go anywhere.” She flung the spell around her head, under her tail, and right into my stupid grin.
Dammit.