[A/N]: This is a story that a dear friend of mine started, and wants me to help her finish and publish. I hope y'all enjoy, and please leave a review if you like it!

Loneliness, an empty void that seems to consume what little fun I have in my life.

Pain, my limiter on what fun I can have, and a constant reminder of why I am where I'm at.

Guilt, I shouldn't have survived the car crash that took my parents, but instead of dying like they did, my right leg was crushed and severed at the knee.

Here I lay, stuck in an orphanage, no blood-related family to speak of, and a prosthetic at the foot of the bed. The one thing that keeps me going is my undying love and respect for tanks. The pure power and demand for respect has always drawn me out of my bed during the weekend to take a walk down to the school, where the students allow me to work with them doing maintenance.

Today's one of those days, a Saturday, and it's early, too early for anyone else to be up, the sun hasn't even started to lighten the horizon.

My phone vibrates under my head as my alarm goes off and I quickly turn off the alarm before sitting up and swinging my left leg out, leaning forward to the foot of the bed to grab my prosthetic.

I slip the stump into the rubber cup on the top and secure it with a neoprene leg off an old wet suit I had. Once the prosthetic is secured I grab my change of clothes off my foot locker and get dressed in the jeans and black t-shirt. All the other kids here know I do this daily, so even if anyone wakes up they don't say anything.

I slip my Carhartt jacket on and lace up my boots, quickly stuffing my wallet and multi-tool in my pockets before opening the window, the mesh screen having long since been removed by yours truly.

I climb out the window and hang with one hand while closing it with the other.

Once I feel it click shut I plant my feet against the bricks and push off while turning around.

I land with a roll and jump up, sprinting towards the wall in order to get enough momentum to get up and over it.

With a practiced ease I jump up, grab the top of the wall, and pull myself over, landing on the sidewalk on the other side and casually walking down the street.

I've made this walk so many times it's almost second nature, down the street three blocks, hang a right, down two more blocks, left at the convenience store, and one more block to the school, then walk around back of the tank garage and scale the chain link fence. Inside the back door to the garage, and then get to work tightening tracks, cleaning gun barrels, and topping off any engine fluids.

Something about being around these large, menacing machines makes me feel safe, safer than in the orphanage, or even the police station. I don't feel shy, or lonely, and my guilt goes away.

I remember going to the museum with my dad, and I would climb all over the tanks they had there while my dad would read the manuals. I still have the last picture we took together, taken by a random passerby that we flagged down. In the photo I'm straddling the main cannon on a Pzkpfw V ausf G, with my dad sitting on the turret roof beside me. On that same trip he bought me a model of the panther, and we assembled it that night.

The crash happened four days later, T-boned by a semi truck driver that had fallen asleep at the wheel.

I stare at this same photo now, sitting atop a panther nearly identical except for the markings and camouflage. It's my favorite tank, sheerly because of the memories associated with it. It's in the best condition of all the tanks, despite the fact that the school tankery team almost never uses it. It sports a white American star on each side of the turret, with a simple OD green identical to the dozens of Sherman tanks lined up in the garage.

I'm jolted from my memories by the remaining lights turning on, followed by a familiar voice that yells across the garage. "Howdy there Chris! You're up early as always!"

My full name is Christina May Schultz, but everyone here at Saunders just calls me Chris.

"Hi Kay! I was up at the same time as always!" I yell back, watching the blonde as she walks across the garage, a plastic bag in her right hand.

"I brought you a few energy drinks, I figured you can take 'em home if you don't drink them here."

I flinch at the word 'home', nobody at Saunders knows about my past except for Alisa, and that's only because she stuck her nose where it didn't belong and I had to beg her not to tell anyone else. But I intend on changing that here very soon.

"Kay, you didn't have to. Working on these vehicles is enough of a reward for me."

She waves me off, scaling the front slope and sitting down next to me. "I know it, but this is a personal thank you from me."

She hands me the bag, and I pull out two cans of fruit punch flavored energy drinks.

"Well then crack one open and enjoy it while I tell you a story. Because I'm not allowed to have these at home."

Kay takes one, and we both take a good swig before I start.

"There was this girl several years back. She was top of her class, loved everything about tanks, and visited the museum practically weekly to climb around her favorites with her dad. On her thirteenth birthday her dad bought her a model of her favorite tank and they built it that night, painted it and everything. She felt like the luckiest girl alive. Then, four days later, her life got turned on its head, her family got into a car crash with a semi truck. Both her parents were killed and she lost part of her leg. After she got put in an orphanage the only comfort she could find was in tanks, so she found the closest tanks she could and convinced the owners to let her work on them, even though they were private property."

I show Kay the picture of my dad and I, a smile on my face. "That's my dad and I with my favorite tank." I pat the cold steel next to me with my other hand. "I've always enjoyed being in the presence of a Panther, it's comforting."

Kay looks like she's starting to catch onto what I'm telling her, so I throw in the final piece to the puzzle.

"And then," I put my foot on the gun barrel and hike up my pant leg to reveal my prosthetic. "Four weeks later, I'm rushed into the emergency room missing half my leg. When I wake up I'm told that my parents didn't survive the crash, and that once my injuries are healed I'll be sent to an orphanage."

Kay stares at my leg until I roll the fabric down, taking a deep swig of the caffeinated beverage in my hand once I'm finished.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kay asks, bearing a hurt expression.

"I didn't want you guys to pity me. Alisa found out pretty early on, but I begged her to keep quiet about it until I was ready. I just wanted to be treated like a regular person, and not like some poor girl."

Kay nods slowly, understanding what I'm getting at, then she cracks a smile and snorts. "Now I understand why you hate those foot triggers in the Sherman."

That causes me to laugh, spraying energy drink out my nose since I'd just taken a swig, which only makes me laugh harder.

"Yeah! That's exactly why!" I manage to squeak out, laughing so hard my eyes start to water.

"I'm gonna guess you don't much care for driving either." Kay smirks at me, a glint in her eye that tells me she's up to something.

"Nah, it's kinda hard for me." I chuckle, finally coming down from my laughter fit after several minutes.

"Hmmm…how about we take this beast out for a joyride?

I suddenly stop giggling and look at her. "Are you serious?"

"Of course! Once we get a full crew here we could even take it out to the range!"

I knock back the rest of my drink and toss the can to a nearby garbage can.

"Well what're we waiting for? Let's get this girl ready to rumble!" I say with a sudden burst of energy, jumping off the turret and landing on my feet.

Kay laughs, climbing down and grabbing a refueling nozzle while I stash the bag of drinks and climb onto the engine deck. I unscrew the filler cap for the fuel and take the nozzle, jamming it into the hole before holding the handle down while it pumps gallons of fuel into the bone dry fuel tanks. Kay grabs a helmet and throat microphone from the equipment storage room on the opposite side of the garage and gives them to me once I'm done filling the tank.

"Here, put these on, so we can talk and the helmet'll protect your melon."

I fit the microphone with her help and slip the helmet on before climbing into the commander's hatch, practically vibrating with excitement while Kay puts on her own equipment and climbs into the driver's hatch after opening the large bay doors.

I check my watch while Kay struggles starting the Maybach engine.

'0746, most of the others should be getting up right about now.'

I grab the handset hanging off a hook beside me after Kay gets the engine started, the rumble of the twelve cylinder engine makes me giddy. "Yo Kay, we got any blanks in here?"

{Yeah I think so! They should be by your left foot in the hull. Why do you ask?}

"I was thinking we could help the orphanage wake up."

I can hear Kay laughing even without the intercom system. "Let's do it!"

I heft the blank shell out of the stowage and hold it in my lap while we rumble down the streets, giving directions to Kay along the way.

Finally we clatter to a stop in front of the orphanage, and I peek out the hatch to find the lights are all off.

'Perfect'

I duck back down into the hatch and open the breech with my right hand while cradling the long 75mm shell in my left arm like a child. Once the breech is open I slip the shell under the recoil guard and hold it in place with my left hand while I loop my right arm over the recoil guard and shove it home with a closed fist as to not possibly lose my fingers when the breech block closes.

"Gun loaded!" I tell Kay while I lean forward and brush my fingers on the electrical trigger. "On the way!"

I pull the trigger and relish in the feeling as the gun fires, ejecting the empty shell when it recoils. The spike of adrenaline does a better job at waking me up than caffeine could ever hope, and I quickly stand on my seat so I'm half out of the hatch. A light finally turns on in the room that I sleep in, followed by the window opening and a girl sticking her head out.

"Good morning Serena! Tell Miss Ratched I'm going to be out late again!" I yell as I wave to the ravenette and grab the handset.

"Alright, let's roll outta here."

The tank lurches forward, forcing me to grab the cupola to avoid being thrown around, followed by Kay apologizing in my headset. {Sorry 'bout that! It's been awhile since I last drove this thing!}

I honestly couldn't care less, climbing on one of these things is fun enough, but actually getting to ride around in one and even fire the main gun? I'm in heaven, I haven't had this much fun for years.

"This is AWESOME!" I cheer, letting the wind whip around my long hazel hair.

{I'm gonna take us into the forest, then it's up to you to navigate.}

"Oh, alright! Is there a map in here somewhere?"

{There should be one in the map case by your left shoulder if you're sitting.}

I drop down into the hatch and open the map case, sure enough there's a hard plastic map of the woods. We weave through the streets for several minutes before reaching the edge of the woods.

"Alright...we should be somewhere around H-13 if I'm reading this correctly. Proceed forwards, we'll reach a dirt road in a hundred yards, then follow that left."

{You got it!}

I swing the hatch cover over so it's in the open protected position to keep branches from smacking my head while we rumble through the trees, crushing bushes under our treads, and we reach the dirt road just as I expected.

{Wow, I'm surprised. Where'd you learn to read a map?}

"My dad taught me."

We turn left on the rocky road, and I feel us accelerate, the torsion bar suspension providing an exceptionally smooth ride over the rough terrain.

"Any place in particular you want to go?" I ask, looking at the map and scrutinizing the terrain with an attention to any steep areas.

{Yeah, let's head to the range, I can have Naomi meet us there with some live ammo.}

I locate the firing range and trace the roads leading from it, finding one that links up with the road we're on.
"Fork in the road, hang a right, then stay on that road."

{Roger that! Full speed ahead!}

I can almost see Kay's maniacal grin in my mind when she shifts into the next gear, accelerating even further. The trees rush past in a blur when we hit level ground, thus giving the engine less to fight to keep the vehicle up to speed.

The thick trees give way to an open field, a line of firing berms sit a hundred yards from the tree line, overlooking the firing range that stretches out for three miles across the low rolling hills.

We roll to a stop at the base of a berm, and Kay powers down the engine before climbing up to the turret and standing in the loader's station.

"Hop in the gunners seat and traverse hard left, ninety degrees."

I do as instructed, grabbing the manual traverse handle and cranking it counterclockwise, watching the azimuth scale on the turret ring and stopping when it reaches 9 o'clock. By the time I'm done I'm breathing heavily, but it's to be expected since I've never really done this before, aside from a couple months ago when Alisa let me ride along to the range and help load the 76mm on her M4A1(76).

We wait for ten minutes or so until a pair of 2.5 ton trucks and a Sherman firefly come rumbling down the road, four people sit on the back of the Sherman until it rolls to a halt on the berm to our left, then they jump off and start casually chatting with each other while a truck backs up to the right side. Kay unlatches the hatch on the rear of the turret and pushes it open as the truck snugs the tailgate against the side of the tank, allowing the ammunition to be passed from the bed straight into the hatch without any extra effort.

I do my best to stay out of the way while Kay and another girl from the truck load the heavy shells into the stowage, and after a while I opt to sit on the turret roof, anxiously waiting for Kay to tell me she's done.

I watch Naomi give her crew orders and jump off the tank, putting a stick of gum in her mouth while she walks towards me.

"Hey Naomi! It's good to see you!" I yell at her, throwing in a friendly wave.

"Hello Chris! Any reason why you've got a headset on?"

I shrug, and Kay sticks her head out of the commanders hatch.

"I've got the answer to that! Even though she's not part of the school she's an honorary member of the sensha-do team!"

I practically snap my neck looking over at her. "Wait WHAT?!"

"Yeah! You've helped us so much that you've earned a spot! And after how well you did earlier giving directions I figure you'll make a great commander!"

"But that was just one person, not an entire crew!"

"And that's why your crew is already here!" Kay motions to the four girls standing off to the side by the firefly, who start walking over.

I put my head in my hands, take a deep breath, and straighten up. "God dammit Kay…" I groan out, standing up on the engine deck before jumping off, landing next to Naomi, who offers me a stick of peppermint gum.

I shake my head no and try my best to smile towards the approaching girls, whilst the phantom pain starts to come back in my leg.

"Shit I forgot my pain meds this morning…" I mumble, favoring my left leg. Unfortunately Naomi hears me, and calls me out. "Pain meds?"

I nod, motioning for her to wait a second while I introduce myself to the girls.

"Hey y'all, I'm Chris."

The shortest of them holds her hand out. "I'm Megumi, your radio operator. Nice to meet you."

I shake her hand while the second girl introduces herself, I gotta admit I like her hair color, a deeper brown than my hair.

"I'm Sako, your driver."

Then the ginger of the group thrusts her hand out. "I'm Tamaka, just call me Tama. I'm your loader."

I shake her hand while the last of the girls steps forward, giving a polite bow. "My name is Tetsuki, I'm your gunner."

I bow back and look them over, they all have a dedicated look to them, but my attention is quickly drawn away from them by the pain in my leg. Then I get a funny idea on how to break my past to them.
"Hey Naomi, mind helping me take off my boot for a second? It's loose enough, just pull."

I hold out my right leg while balancing on my left, and Naomi shrugs, kneeling down and grabbing my boot. I take a glance up at Kay, who's watching with great interest and wink at her before looking down to Naomi. "Just pull, really hard."

Naomi pulls hard, and my prosthetic slips off, sending her sprawling on the dirt, holding the polymer, titanium, and aluminum prosthetic. With the look on her face I can't help but laugh, and Kay joins in with me while Naomi looks between me and the fake leg in her hands.

"How long have you had this?" Naomi asks, hauling herself up and brushing herself off.

"Ever since I was fifteen, so before I met you guys. I'm surprised you didn't notice."

Naomi hands me the prosthetic before I hop over to the Panther, jumping up on the engine deck before rolling my pant leg up and fitting the prosthetic back on.

"And how'd that happen?" Tama asks, a quizzical expression on her face.

"Car crash. Semi truck hit us, took my parents too."

"So you're an orphan?"

"Yep! The orphanage is only a few blocks from the school."

Once I'm done rolling my pant leg down I stand up and look down into the commander's hatch. "We loaded?"

Kay ducks under the gun breech and puts the shell she's carrying into the ready round storage. "That was the last one!"

I straighten up and wave my crew over. "Let's mount up! It's time to kill some shit!"

They all jump into action as Kay climbs out the rear hatch onto the truck, all of them clamber up onto the steel and drop into the hatches. I'm the last person in, but only because Tama and Tetsuki climb in through my hatch.

"Alright Sako, fire it up!"

"Yes ma'am!"

The engine whines for a minute while the inertia starter spins, then the engine turns over with a mighty roar that drowns out the sound of the trucks. I wait for a minute to let the engine idle before turning on the intercom. "Driver, forward slow, halt once we're on the berm."

If anything, I guess all those hours I spend playing Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead are finally going to pay off.

The tank slowly rolls forward up onto the berm, halting once we're level as I ordered.

"Load AP, standby for target."

Tama grabs one of the long shells from the hull stowage and expertly slams it in the breech.

{Gun loaded!}

I stick my head out the hatch and use a pair of binoculars that I had found in a case under my seat to scan for targets.

I find a stationary target that looks like a tiger I partially obscured by some bushes.

"Gunner, target tank, eleven o'clock, six hundred meters."

The turret slews left slowly, with Tetsuki looking through her telescopic gun-sight until she finds the target.

{On target!}

I grin, I've always wanted to say my next words. "Feuer frei."

The gun thunders, and I can hear the clang of the empty shell casing being ejected inside the tank.

Suddenly there's a nice neat hole in the center of the target, about the size of my fist.

"Good hit, bulls-eye."

I can hear Tama grab another shell and slam it into the breech while I scan for another target. I find one way out in the distance, and make my best guess on the distance.

"Gunner, target tank, twelve-thirty, two thousand meters."

The turret slowly turns right, and I can tell that Tetsuki is having trouble finding the target at the extreme distance.

"Tetsuki, use the coax, I'll guide you onto the target."

{Yes ma'am!}

The coaxial MG-34 fires five round bursts every time Tetsuki makes an adjustment, so I can guide her aim. After some trial and error she finds the target.

{Target acquired! No guarantee I can hit it at that distance though.}

"There's only one way to find out. Fire."

The gun kicks back inside the turret, slinging the empty casing out the breech which drops into a collection bin on the turret floor.

I watch the shell fly out and land a little short, just a hundred meters.

"Little higher, that hit low. Reengage."

Tama once again hustles, and gets the gun loaded before I'm done speaking.

{Clear!}

Tetsuki elevates the gun a little and fires. I watch the shell scream out and punch a nice neat hole in the center of the target, only visible thanks to the white rock behind it.

"Good hit, keep it up."