They were losing.

Now, that may sound outright dramatic when said aloud, but it was very much so the case. To the West, the Americans and British inched ever closer, and to the East, they were being totally demolished by the Russians. It was December of 1944, and Germany was getting desperate against the onslaught of the Allied powers that were rapidly closing the gap between themselves and Berlin. Germany's resources were dwindling, their forces diminished and spread too thin to fight the war on two fronts. In the intense warfare they were seeing, their Tigers and Panthers were no match for numbers they were facing, they'd lost their aerial superiority, and to the East, the wrath of the Red Army was cutting a bloody swathe towards Berlin...

So, now Germany had their backs against the wall, and were being forced to use every resource at their disposal just to hold back the tides of war a little longer. While it was a futile attempt, they were at least succeeding at giving the Allies a hard time. Now, at one of the Porsche factories, one last tank was about to see it's last mission...

"So... it's not my place to question this decision, sir, but... why isn't this... failure of a tank, being converted before it goes out?" One of the engineers asked the owner of the company he worked for. Ferdinand Porsche simply stood there, caressing his mustache as he gazed upon the failed Tiger that was of his design. It was true, that they should have converted this last hull into the Ferdinand, but to put very simply, there was simply no time, nor was there the resources to do so at this factory's disposal. So, in a desperate attempt to put as many tanks on the field as they could in hopes of turning the tides, this last remaining vk 4501 (P) was going to see deployment.

"Hitler's orders, he doesn't care what we're throwing on the field, as long as it's being put out there. To address your question about the conversion, it's as simple as that we don't have the resources to convert it at this factory, and we don't have the time to do it either. The 4501 will have to be leaving the factory doors within the hour." He said firmly, before turning towards his employee, his brow furrowed. "Quite frankly, were it up to me I'd have it converted, or have the engine improved, but we don't have time for that."

Looking back at the tank, he knew he likely wouldn't be seeing the big beast a second time. Giving it a slight smile, he turned about before stalking off back into the factory...

An hour was close to passing, now, and the boy was rather anxious. Were anything to happen to the tank before it left the factory, it was coming out on him. Needless to say, he wasn't very confident. This tank was plagued with a plethora of mechanical issues, least of which was the track belt. Sighing, he stepped out, lighting a cigarette as he breathed in a modicum of fresh air outside the factory. The Americans would be blasting the factory apart within the week, he reckoned. It was a damn shame, he thought. For a few years, things were great, as they'd successfully restored their country and military, and their economy was booming... Now everything was falling apart. All because the führer just HAD to attack Russia...

Maybe, maybe they could have won, had they not attacked Russia, or if they'd kept their allies in check. Maybe they could have beaten England, given enough time. France had fallen easily, and he'd had a feeling the Brits would have too soon crumpled... but no, Adolf Hitler had given the order to attack Russia, so now here they were with a war on two fronts, that was going poorly on both.

Honestly, it was frustrating. Oh, how he just wished he could go to another world, a world where there wasn't bloody wars between people. Stifling a small laugh, he knew how naive that would sound out loud. War was simply in human nature, that would not change no matter what world he'd be on.

Yawning, he began kicking back as he sat down in a chair beside the factory doors. The crew was supposed to be arriving in about ten minutes. So, until then, he'd just be kicking back and relaxing. Smoking his cigarette and drinking some wine as he basked under a green glow...

Wait a minute... green glow?

Shooting up to his feet, he heard a loud roar of wind from within the factory, green light shooting out from any opening it could find, in this case being the door frame of the garage. A loud bang could be heard from within the factory, as what must have been the strangest sounding explosion ever sent out a rippling shockwave that threw him away from the door, and debris was flung all around.

After about a minute of covering himself from falling debris, he looked back up. The doors to the garage had been blown off their hinges, and papers were flung about in every which way, but that wasn't his concern, oh no... His was much more relevant...

"Oh... I am so dead..." he muttered under his breath. The factory / garage itself was for the most part undamaged, no, what concerned him was what was completely missing. The Tank, the Vk 4501 P, was nowhere to be found...

"Yeeep... So dead."

Today had only been terrible for team RWBY. To start off they'd been called up to Ozpin's office before they could even eat breakfast, to learn that there was an important mission waiting for them. To further how terrible the day was, it just turned out, that that oh-so-important mission, just so happened to be a huge freaking trap. And to put the cherry on top, they were pinned in a crumbling building with communications down and ammunition spent to almost nothing.

Yeah, they'd had better days.

"Crap! Weiss, I'm out of ammo!" Ruby Rose yelled to her partner, whom had already exhausted herself casting glyphs on the seemingly endless tide of White Fang grunts.

"Does it look like I can help with that, Ruby?!." the Heiress, Weiss Schnee, yelled back over the roar of gunfire blazing around them.

Ruby herself barely understood just how exactly this all happened. One second they were walking down the street, everything peaceful, the next they were pinned in an old building with what's probably well over five hundred guns trained on them. Her cloak had been badly torn up from dozens of stray bullets and nearby explosions, and her aura was nearly nonexistent at this point. Laying back against her pile of rubble she'd been using for cover, she laid her head back and panted from her recent sprint to cover. She didn't notice as her bangs fell back, leaving her face uncovered to the sun above. Beside her, with her back up against a wall, Weiss was trying to do inventory of what little dust she still had, but found it difficult to focus when there were explosions echoing all around her and debris getting flung into her face constantly. Her jacket was about as battered as Ruby's cloak, and her aura was no better.

"I've run out of ammo, too!" Blake yelled, quickly throwing herself back into cover as she produced a shadow clone to take a hit for her. Not a moment later a distant sniper's gun flashed and a bullet blasted the head of her shadow clone to stony bits. Unlike the prior two, her outfit was relatively unscathed, though she couldn't say much more for her aura. Next to her, Yang, Ruby's half-sister, growled as her gauntlet only clicked when she went to fire a shot off at a distant grunt.

"Great, just Great! Dammit, what the hell went so damn wrong?!." the busty blonde roared, crouching back down into cover. Her hair had been shot a few times, leading to her losing about 3, 3 strands of hair! 3 strands of hair that she wouldn't be able to punish the attacker for! Oh, to say she was livid would be a Gross understatement! And her jacket too she'd had to discard because of just how badly it'd been destroyed. Her eyes were the deepest shade of red Ruby had ever seen, a red so dark it'd make her cloak jealous, and her hair was, quite literally, on fire. She supposed she'd have to thank Yang's semblance for that little effect, not that it seemed to bother the busty brawler.

Groaning to herself, Ruby was rather unsure about all this. She was supposed to be the team's leader, but how the hell was she supposed to lead her team out of this situation? There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, their backs were against the wall, and they were out of ammo. Eventually, their cover would get destroyed and they'd be left to the mercy of their countless attackers. It was not something she was looking forward too, and the best outcome she could imagine in this situation was them all just getting gunned down where they stood. After all, Blake had said the newer White Fang haven't been all that humane towards their prisoners or hostages.

Shuddering, she shook the thought away, merely focusing on the situation at hand now. They were out gunned, out manned... they were out numbered and out planned, and they were already making their all out stand, however futile it seemed. Looking to the skies, she merely prayed to whatever cruel god may be out there for a reason as to why this would happen to them, or at least a way out revealed to her...

Little did she know, her prayer would be answered.

To her left, a brilliant green light flashed, blasting apart a small area around it, and cleared to reveal a large, metal... thing? In all honesty, she had no idea what to call it. What she was certain of, was that it was big, had a big gun, and would definitely protect them better than their current cover. Coming up with a last minute idea, she called to her partner...

"Weiss! I need you to make us a corridor to that... thingy!" She yelled, to which her partner looked at her bewildered.

"What?!. What the heck is a 'thingy?'" Weiss yelled back, following her leader's finger to the metal beast. "What's that gonna help?!."

"Just trust me, Weiss! Whatever it is, it'll provide better protection than our current cover!" Ruby replied, to which the Heiress merely nodded, before gesturing for the rest of the team to form up.

After a few seconds, Weiss stabbed her rapier into the ground, creating two walls on either side of them leading to the metal machine. She collapsed afterwards, the blonde Brawler Yang Xiao Long catching her before sprinting with the rest of her team down the narrow corridor.

After crossing about a tenth of a kilometer, their corridor falling apart and bullets blasting through the entire way, they'd finally made it into the large machine, quickly finding various hatches they could climb in through. Not a moment later, the entire corridor fell apart, and a massive barrage of bullets came racing through, the girls, closing their eyes as they expected the worst...

Ping!

Upon the first round, they all opened their eyes, realizing that the machine didn't take a scratch. The shot was followed up by another, and another, and another until they could barely hear anything except the pinging of dust bullets off the front of the massive machine. Letting out a sigh of relief in synchronization, they all took in the insides of the vehicle they were in. The insides weren't very spacious, but they supposed their situation could be worse. There were racks around them, all holding what looked like the backs of large bullets. Some small words were engraved upon the back of each, what mainly stuck out being the letters 'HE', 'AP', and 'APCR'. There were a few manuals lying around, all of which read out the words "Panzerkampfwagon vk 4501 P, Tiger Porsche Prototype." Sitting back for a moment, Ruby decided she'd take a moment to calm herself. Her heart was beating faster than ever, and she sweating, "like a whore in a church" as her uncle Qrow had always said. Wiping her brow she picked up a manual and looked back to her team...

"Okay... despite all the gunfire, I don't think they'll be hurting us, not for awhile at least, while we're in here... So!" Ruby said, looking down at her teammates and towards the various areas of the vehicle. "This is a vehicle, right? It got's a gun, what looks like a steering wheel, and a bunch of ammunition, I say we use it!" Ruby said, pumping her fist in the air... and subsequently banging it against the top of the hatch above her, slightly bruising her knuckles. She earned a small chuckle out of Yang, and a curious look from Weiss and Blake. She gestured towards Weiss, currently in the driver's seat, or at least what looked like it, that she'd probably be driving, towards Blake to man the gun, and towards Yang to act as the loader. With a wide grin, she pumped her fist before cheering to her team.

"Alright, you guys all know what we gotta do! Now leeeeeeets Go!" she yelled, earning a 'Yeah!' from Yang and only silence from Weiss and Blake...

"Ummm... Ruby?" Blake asked. "How do we... y'know... operate this thing?"

"Oh... well... uh... I... I don't know..." the reaper admitted, before casting her gaze down in embarrassment. The heiress merely face palmed before looking around, and picking up a manual...

"Okay... Since none of us know what we're doing, why don't we, y'know, read the manuals?" she offered, earning small 'ooh's from everyone present. Reaching down and picking up the manuals for the others and distributing them to Yang and Blake, they all began to read while under fire from all sides.

They were glad the White Fang seemed reluctant to close the distance, though they were rather certain that either wouldn't last much longer, or they were bringing in heavier weapons. In either case, reading through the manuals took longer than they would have liked, taking up a good twenty minutes of their time, reading about their respective roles and Yang practicing with loading the shells. Eventually, it was time to start.

Ruby had decided that, since she was the leader of the team, she'd be commander of the "Panzer" as the manual had called it. A Vk 4501 P, or, as Ruby had come to find it easier to say, a Tiger Porsche. She didn't quite know how well it'd perform, but she knew that it mounted great armor, and had a big and powerful main gun. Giving a small thumbs up to Weiss, the girl in white thumbed the engine ignition, and pressed her foot down on the pedal. Immediately, the tank began to jerk into motion as it's engine roared to life. Putting her head up into the "commander's cupola," she looked on at the gathering of White Fang goons all still shooting at them from all sides.

It brought a smile to her face, seeing that now they could fight again. Looking down at all her friends once more, she could see the same thought was going through their heads as well. Dropping her hand down to where Yang could see it, Ruby signaled for her to load an HE shell, and yelled down to Blake where she wanted to fire...

"Blake, I need you to fire right in the middle of that large group of bad guys!"

"Ruby, will you ever stop calling whatever we're going against 'the bad guys'?"

"Nope! Now get ready to fire!" Ruby happily yelled back, earning a chuckle from the older girl. It took about 8 and a half seconds to load the round, courtesy of Yang having just learned how exactly to do it, and the movements still being awkward to her...

"Ready..." Ruby stated, looking out her cupola as the gun lined up with the large group of enemies.

"Steady..." Ruby said, looking down at Weiss as she looked impatient as hell to move...

"FIRE!"

The sound was unlike anything they'd heard. A sharp and loud crack echoed through the air as the High Explosive shell flew out from the tank's barrel, and impacted right between the mass of White Fang, some setting up anti-armor rockets. They'd never get the chance, as not even a nanosecond later, the round exploded violently within the mass of infantry, consuming them all in a damning explosion and tearing all unlucky to be caught to charred ribbons. Blake's eyes widened, seeing just how devastating the gun was, before hearing Ruby yell down to Weiss.

"Weiss! Full Speed Ahead!" Ruby yelled dramatically, and waited for the Panzer to go flying forward...

Aaaaand was sorely disappointed as she learned that the tank only had a top speed of around 28 km/ph. Still, they were going markedly faster than most normal people could jog. The remaining White Fang still attempted to shoot at it from it's side, but were then too blown aside from another shell of the Tiger. The fools were too tightly bunched together, Ruby thought, as a single shell must have killed at least thirty or more of them. She heard the screams of the wounded silenced as her Panzer crushed them to a bloody pulp under it's treads. the sound sent shivers down Ruby's back, never actually having killed another person before... but at this point, it was them, or her team.

The White Fang desperately shot at the Porsche Tiger from all sides, finding no penetration anywhere they fired. Some would get the idea to run, they'd be the wise ones as within just a little under two minutes, well over 350 White Fang terrorists were reduced to mere tatters and chunks of once-faunas, and at least one hundred more lie dying in the demolished earth. The crew of the tank shuddered, horrified at what devastation they'd wrought with this machine of war with only ten shots. Not wanting to dwell on their massacre, they swiftly booked it out of there, making a B-line back towards Beacon...

A/N

Oi, so... This is my first time writing combat is a style like this, and I dunno, but I'd say, since I couldn't find any other good examples that it went... moderately well.

As always, constructive criticism is always appreciated, Please Leave a review if you fancy it REALLY helps me out.

Commander Indrick Boreale, Signing off.