//------------------------------// // Time to Leave // Story: Tigger Tank // by teamidris //------------------------------// Tigger opened the rear door and sprang out into the roar of gun fire. There wasn't time to be messing about removing covers and seeing which power relay was sticking. Instead she span around and bucked the general vicinity of the power cell as hard as she could before diving back into the relative safety of the tank. Jabbing her hooves back into the shifter stirrups she punched the auxiliary power button again and waited for the indicator bar to creep up. It hadn't been the quiet evening she had hoped for. Her arrival seemed to motivate the enemy and they were pretty keen to get rid of them before she could report their positions. They were in luck, because the initial firing of the tank's rail gun showed the main battery was indeed lying about its condition. "One, two, three, come on! I'm not going out like this! Not with a flat battery!" she shouted at the info panel as another projectile clanged off the front armour. If this carried on she would be lucky to back up let alone fire the rail gun again. It might have been the kick or the impact of the incoming fire that shook the whole machine, but either way the indicator shot into the green and the cooling fans started up. Delta looked up from the communication station. "Incoming!" he shouted, adding; "Right now, while we were down, they got on top of us." Setting the auto-target system to 'metallic' Tigger scanned the battle field ahead for Robot Horses and found no shortage of targets. There was even a command tank coming into view far off in the distance. The combination of both types of weaponry was bad news. If she used the main gun on the heavy target she would run the risk of a power outage that would leave her unable to fight the hoof soldiers. But if she didn't fire she risked its main weaponry hitting her. There was no option really but to remove the immediate threat a mere stone's throw in front of her. "Missile, set dead ahead, shrapnel, 300 steps!" she barked. Delta looked up with surprise at the very short fuse delay, but seeing her face he immediately cranked it in and slid the explosive rocket into its launcher. Tigger put the cross hairs onto a mech in the middle of the group ahead, selected 'missile' on the ordinance panel and pressed send. Everypony held their breath as the launch tube showed green and then orange before the whole tank shook to Tigger's touch of the fire button. Almost instantly the second explosion hit them. The leading mech soldiers' disintegration was followed by a rain of debris on the roof. "That should hide us for a second or two," She said out loud to herself. "Ready the rail gun. I want those capacitors charged and ready to go as soon as their heavy shows through the dust." Hopefully the opposing force believed that it was her blowing up? "Yes Sir," shouted back Delta as he threw the auxiliary power switch to the main gun. This wasn't exactly in the training manual, but nor was fighting with half the travel motors out. He held his breath as the power hummed into the rapid release storage batteries. "Come on, come on," he said as the indicator on his panel rose. Tigger looked down and smiled. "This is going to work. We should raise a full shot just before we see them." Turning back to the viewer she added, "Or at least, just before they can see us?" Ideally she would use technology to scan the horizon for the large metal threat coming toward her, but this would have to be done by sight. Hopefully the metal of battle machine parts strewn around them would hide their radar profile. Right now the debris was the only thing hiding her and she needed to keep it that way by not emitting energy waves. Delta's eyes were upon her as she stared into the periscope. The only noise came from the circulation fans and the super-coolant running through the gun coils. He held his breath and waited. There was no doubting she had found her quarry when her ears went back. With a grin she took the distance. "Ten thousand steps, ten steps compensation, full charge rail gun!" "Rail gun at ninety eight percent," replied Delta. As the front of the tank lifted slightly to aim the main weapon Tigger turned the trigger selector to 'automatic' and set it to trip at full charge. "Brace!" she shouted. Their whole world shook as the entire battery load was dumped into the coils surrounding the gem tipped projectile. Even at this range the effect was virtually instantaneous, a red trace lighting the ground ahead. A flash indicated it had found something solid in the distance and as the bright light receded the opposing tank could be seen split in two. Tigger hadn't time to be pleased though. Spinning the commander seat around she kicked both stirrups forward and felt the machine lurch under her. The remaining tracks scrabbled for grip on the dirt road before eventually finding their way. "Time to get out out of here," she called out. "Eye's wide open for ambush! They know where we are and they know we're off home."