A/N: Hi everyone! First I apologize to those of you following A Certain Scientific Statistic. I lost my muse on that story after NaNo 2013 and haven't really gotten back to it since. Don't worry though! I've not abandoned it completely!

I recently purchased the Valkyria Chronicles PC port and I've gotta say that it was amazing. I watched the anime when it released back in 2008 and seeing the game that inspired it was really an interesting experience. Still, I was a bit miffed by how the Empire just gave up on the invasion. What with Girlandaio vaporized and the Gallian military almost destroyed the country was ripe for the picking.

So here's an AU. In VC2 Gallia sees peace for a couple years before undergoing a civil war. I've rewritten things a bit. The war with the Empire didn't end in October 1935 but continued after a short lull. Our protagonists, Army tank operators, will be showing us what happens in the second act of the war.


"Oh no, I think she saw us." I heard clearly the panicked whisper of Claise Knetzen which broke the silence hanging over the tank's interior. I glanced past my feet at the nervous tank driver, the blonde's eyes glued to the periscope which offered her the badly limited view any tank driver grew accustomed to.

"If she saw us we'd be vaporized already." I replied, returning my gaze to my own viewports. As Tank Commander I enjoyed a complete view of our surroundings, but I could hardly see a thing through the thick foliage surrounding us. It was a mixed blessing. We were almost entirely in the dark, but the forest also concealed our location.

"Nana, any luck on the radio?" I asked. Nana Colsworth muttered a few words under her breath, ordinarily inaudible over the rumble of the tank's engine but easily perceived in the current silence.

"No ma'am, everyone's quiet as the grave out there." I could all but feel the collective shiver which met with Nana's poor choice of words.

"Thank you, but next time please try not to inform us in a way which sounds terrifying." The girl gave a half-vocalized exhalation as apology and returned to the unassuming collection of dials and knobs which connected the tank to her allies.

"Comdi, she's gonna find us. What do we do?" Claise called out to me by my nickname, apparently an evolution of 'commandictator.' She was usually as stoic as a statue, but given the circumstances I could hardly blame her for her new-found worry. Yet even so she was still following orders and keeping the tank deactivated. I nudged her with a foot and continued my vigil on the surroundings.

"We're not equipped to handle this situation, and bugging out of this bush stand won't get us very far. For now we'll just keep our cool and listen for any updates." I said more calmly than I felt. The crew wasn't happy with hiding in the middle of the enemy where any wandering foot soldier could stumble upon us and shout out a warning.

"I've got something!" Nana shouted gleefully, only to be verbally pummeled by her crewmates' hushes. "High Com wants any surviving armor to make a fighting retreat. Priority targets are enemy armor and artillery."

"I wish our only enemies were armor and artillery." Reena Marques muttered from her spot behind the gun-sight to the tank's 75mm main gun. Even in the dim light of the tank's interior I could easily make out the bright auburn hair of the girl sitting below me and to my right.

"Okay, if that's the plan then we'll run with it." I said. "There's no telling what's changed out there in the past five minutes, but we're getting back behind our lines if it's the last thing this tank does. Artillery's gonna be a pain in the long run so they're our priority. Tanks in the way are next up followed by any other target of opportunity. Claise, start us up. It's time to move out."

The ragnite turbine spun to life, adding its voice to the chorus of 'Yes Comdi!'s which resonated through the tank. Almost as soon as the interior lights grew bright with renewed power a near-miss rattled the vehicle. I called for Claise to get us moving and she pushed her dual throttles forward. The tank lurched out of the small collection of bushes surrounding it while I flew from viewport to viewport in an attempt to see everything at once.

Despite the short period of time which we had spent hidden, there were already a great number of foot soldiers pushing through barren farm fields toward the Gallian fortifications ahead of us. I began calling out targets to Reena while Nana was relaying comments from fellow tank crews she felt were important.

Another near-miss kicked up dirt to my left, while a lancer paused in his steps and turned to face the Gallian tank rampaging around behind him.

"Reena, eleven o'clock - Lancer!" I called. The turret swung around as quickly as its hydraulics could push it. Reena tapped her foot against a button and the coaxial machine gun barked to life. I had already begun searching for a new target as the Lancer was dragged behind cover by his squad mates.

I spotted her almost too late to react. I shouted for Claise to turn right. Claise was likely mystified at why I was guiding her into what was likely an inescapable hole but she was a good tanker and the tank veered to the right. There was a moment's weightlessness as it fell into the hole followed by a sudden, disabling jolt which was greeted with shouts of pain and surprise from the crew.

A wall of blue light passed overhead so closely I could have touched it had there not been a hatch in my way. I could hear its passing even over the loud whirring of the Type 36's turbine. "Valkyria's back!" I shouted, though even Nana behind the radio could tell what had happened from the blue light which had momentarily flooded through the cabin's periscopes.

"We're not paid enough to fight that demon!"

"What I'd give for a Ragnide round or two."

"Valkyrias are bad for long term health."

The staggered replies from my crewmates would have been humorous had they not outlined how desperate the situation had just become. The fifty millimeters of armor plating standing between the crew and everything in front of the tank was all-but worthless against the incinerating beam which a Valkyria could project.

"Okay listen up." I called out. "I've already bribed the camp quartermaster into letting us into the bath house tonight and I'm not gonna let some human light-bulb stand in the way of me and clean hot water. We're gonna press forward and we won't stop until we hit Gallian fortifications." My half-speech was met with the fake jubilation which the Army's soldiers in peril were famous for being able to produce. Claise pushed the tank into a gallop almost before I could nudge her into doing so.

The tank's treads struggled to drag it out of the crater which had moments ago been its savior, but with a little bit of cajoling Claise managed to climb up and out of the earth. My eyes quickly found the human light-bulb who was even then blasting a Gallian tank out of existence.

"Reena, Valkyria at our four! three hundred meters! Let's see if she can fire that beam while dealing with tank rounds!" I shouted, the redhead flashed me a grin before turning to the task at hand. I spent a few moments getting a picture of our surroundings while the turret swiveled to bear on the Valkyria.

She must have had some supernatural sense as the Valkyria turned her gaze upon us moments before Reena fired an armor-piercing round directly at her chest. I watched in disbelief as the woman slashed the shell aside like an errant fly. We all heard the stories from veterans of the Naggiar Plains, but to see such power in person was still astounding to say the least.

"Oh crap, I think we only pissed her off!" Reena opened up with the machine gun and the Valkyria raised her shield almost dismissively to ward off the 7.92mm rounds flying at her.

"Keep it up, switch to HE!" The redheaded gunner flipped a lever without turning her head from the sights. The auto-loader 'thunk'ed loudly as a new shell was chambered. Only a fraction of a second passed before Reena launched the new round at the Valkyria. Again the supernatural woman made to slash it out of the air, only to be thrown back as the round exploded. My hopes for a dead Valkyria were short lived, however, as she seemed dazed at worst.

"I think we're keeping her hands full, don't give her a break Reena!" The gunner gave a grunt in affirmation but didn't take her eyes off her gun sight for a second. If the Valkyria could be kept from attacking the Gallians then the half-dozen remaining tanks of the battalion might yet make it to safety.

"High Com wants us to capture the Valkyria!" Nana shouted from her perch in the belly of the tank. I hesitated. Trying to capture that demon was suicide at best, and could easily lead to my crew's capture. We had heard stories of what Imperials did to their captured enemies, enough stories to know that dying in battle was infinitely better than living in enemy hands. I didn't know what High Command was thinking asking the same tank battalion which had just been demolished by the Valkyria to turn around and capture her, but I wasn't going to let whatever idiot was in command throw away the lives of my friends trying.

"Then High Com can come out and capture her themselves. Stay on course for the base Claise!" I shouted, aware of the treason in my orders. "Nana, put me through to the rest of the battalion. I've gotta warn them off this lunacy."

"No need ma'am, I've already put in our two cents." The diminutive girl smiled up at me. I was shocked. If she had followed my orders and let me warn the others then she could have claimed to be unaware of my intent and saved herself from the worst of the punishments for treason. It was touching to have her support.

I didn't have long to be pleased, however, as the Imperial armor which had spearheaded the initial attack was coming up in front of us. It was clear that only a scattering of them had radios, for while a few of the larger tanks were turning to meet the new threat springing up behind them the majority continued onward, blasély unaware of the threat to their exposed radiator panels.

The situation was enough to make me sick. Here we were with a dozen fish in a barrel all lined up to have their rears shot into fiery death and Reena was too busy keeping the Valkyria occupied to take advantage of the opportunity.

Two heavy tanks completed their turns, one of them sighting in on me and my crew. I sucked in my breath "Claise, dodge left!". The tank swerved wildly while an Imperial shell went flying through the air just to our left.

"Too close!" Claise called as she slammed her left throttle forward and the tank resumed its advance.

"Could you not do that?" Reena cried out in frustration. I could only guess the sudden move had thrown her aim off. A flash of blue light sliced toward us, but Reena had recovered and a new HE round gave the Valkyria something else to think about.

"Nana, who's in command of the battalion?" I asked. It had been Lieutenant Colonel Stanzen a short half-hour ago, but statistics did not favor his being one of the surviving tanks.

"It's Captain Miadel by seniority over Captain Vansburg. Miadel's been ordering everyone to turn and fight the Valkyria, but nobody's-"

"That's enough, ask Vansburg for support. Those heavies'll kill us otherwise." I'd just as soon add insubordination to the growing list of crimes I was committing if it meant we might get the survivors out of this mess. I was rewarded for my crimes moments later as two Gallian tanks to my left opened fire on the heavies.

Another Lancer poked his head out just ahead of us. I winced even before he fired the shell. The tank's hull thundered deafeningly against the blow, and Claise let out a yelp of surprise, but the lance didn't pierce Orphan's frontal armor. Without a moment's hesitation I shoved the hatch open and climbed out of my protective cupola to empty my standard-issue Gallian's five round magazine at the Lancer. Two of the rounds clipped him and he ducked for cover. I dropped into my own cover as automatic fire lit up the hatch. I sealed it shut behind me muttering under my breath about Lancers and where precisely they could put their lances.

A grazing shot from one of the heavy tanks rocked us. I winced as I saw it's mortar flash. We'd entered mortar range, and we were going to feel it.

The first shot went far and wide, the second not so far and not so wide. Their accuracy was improving, and we were getting closer by the second. A flash lit up to my left as an older style Gallian medium tank exploded. Five tanks left, including Orphan, I counted to myself. Five Gallian medium tanks going up against two Imperial heavies was a stretch under the best of circumstances, and with Orphan effectively muzzled keeping the Valkyria from killing them all and the others still bickering as to which Captain they should follow the conditions were hardly ideal.

A short flash of blue light blazed a line of fire just to our left.

"She's starting to get better at dodging my shots!" Reena shouted. The late Winter weather was bitingly cold, and though the tank's engine kept them warm it still did not explain the sweat beading on Reena's forehead. I felt a cold sweat sweep over myself as well, and I doubt I was alone in feeling the sudden chill.

"Okay, okay, we're only a few klicks out from the base. Once we get close we'll have fire support so just hang on for a little bit longer!" I kept my eyes pressed against the viewports but I'd done all I could do. My fate was in the hands of Nana, Claise, and Reena now. I just had to keep an eye out for any more surprises from the Imps.

I counted the seconds while we hurtled toward the base at Orphan's top speed of forty five kilometers per hour. Another Gallian tank exploded as a mortar round found its mark, and our own lurched twice as rounds struck far closer than I was comfortable with. A poorly placed shell from one of the heavies' main guns ricocheted off Orphan's sloped frontal armor and then we were past them.

Two of the other three surviving tanks tore into leading elements of the Imperial armor who were still unaware of the threat behind them, punching a hole for Orphan and her sisters to fly through. Reena sighed and fell back against her seat. The Valkyria had given up the chase.

We were safe, or as safe as any battlefield gets.


Next Chapter will be up November 29th

I hope you guys enjoyed the intro! I'm a big sucker for starting off with a bang, and lucky for me this universe lends itself to starting, progressing, and finishing stories with successively larger bangs!

Please review with any questions, comments, or criticisms you've got!