It was a normal day onboard the Orlov, or as normal as it could get. The massive Titan wasn't going anywhere soon, and from the quick victories in Europe, the Pan-Asian Coalition was going to breeze through this war. Naturally, the soldiers aboard the Titan found modes of entertainment that were, for the lack of better words, stupid. Two privates from alpha squad were locked in an exciting knife duel while their squad members were busy collecting bets. Nearby, beta squad was taking bets on how long someone can put their hand on the Titan reactor core. Naturally, an idiot always stepped up and volunteered, which always ended up with that same idiot earning a free trip to the infirmary. Needless to say, the medics aboard the Titan were not pleased, but they were amused by some of the injuries they saw. Pvt. Vlad Segoivetski had a fork shoved so far up his rectum that they had to send him back to the military base in Moscow for surgery. When asked how it happened, Vlad simply replied that he took a bet and the questions stopped there. Perhaps the dumbest of all was gamma squad, where the soldiers had one shot of vodka too much and are now playing Russian roulette with their Takao T-20 automatic pistols. One would only gape in wonder at the stupidity yet could not help but laugh at it.
While gamma squad was ready to blow their brains out, the focus of attention was on the knife duel between Kush Arya and Zhang Yi. Apparently, the dispute started as a friendly competition on who could shoot down the most birds with their Park 52 rifles, something highly illegal due to the lack of resources for bullets. But when they realized that most of the birds have fled to the equatorial regions, the two decided to shoot the next best thing: ammo boxes. Obviously, the owners of the ammo boxes were not amused by the antics, and after destroying at least six boxes, all of which exploded in a beautiful shower of shrapnel and EMP, the two settled on shooting at medical hubs, which wouldn't be so explosive. Before they got a chance to get to the hubs, the medics chased them out, threatening to shoot them. So with nothing to prove who were the better sniper and the Titan not leaving Russian soil any time soon, the two fell into a verbal altercation.
That fell apart quickly and soon, Zhang pulled out his BJ-2 Combat Knife.
"This could get ugly," Ivan Morzhovy remarked.
"Nah," Chen Heliang replied, "I want to see where this goes. Hey Zhang! I got twenty rubles riding on you!"
"What if the commander comes in?" Ivan asked.
"He'll probably join the betting rounds," Heliang laughed as more people started placing bets.
The two brave combatants took their places and off they go! Kush came at Zhang with a nasty stab, only to have it parried away effortlessly. Laughing, Zhang swung low and struck at Kush's stomach. Evidently, the two had been superb knifers in training since neither was really getting to the other person.
"What the hell is this?" Heliang asked incredulously, "I want to see some blood here!"
Suddenly, Kush screamed and fell down, holding his left eye. Zhang stood over him, a triumphant smirk on his face.
"Hell yes!" Heliang jumped up and yelled at all the gamblers. "Where's my rubles suka!"
"We should probably call a medic," Ivan suggested.
"Huh," Heliang turned as he grabbed money from each of the gamblers.
" Kush's bleeding pretty badly," Ivan said, "Get him a medic."
"Nah, he'll make it," Heliang smiled.
Suddenly, the Takao pistol went off and Yuki Satsumi fell out of his chair.
"Yeah, I'm calling a medic," Ivan got up and left the recreation hall.
"Hey, Ivan," Heliang called after him, "Ask the guys in engineering if they have any rocket juice."
"I'm not going to help you die faster!" Ivan shouted back. The rocket fuel that the anti-Titan missiles use contained a large enough alcohol volume that once you took the dangerous stuff like the hydrazine and the peroxide out of it, you end up with distilled liquor. The drink became wildly popular in the armed forces, but it was still fairly dangerous. It was about eighty percent alcohol by content and most people that drank it either woke up with a killer hangover, or just never woke up at all. Even if someone could survive drinking it, the alcohol practically dissolved their livers. Thus, vodka became the more viable drink of choice. But even so, crew members tend to go after the heavy stuff at times, which usually led to another visit to the infirmary.
"What is it this time?" The medic asked, not even looking up from his medical charts.
"Knife wound, and a headshot," Ivan replied.
"Bring the knifed guy in here; put the dead guy in a casket." The medic replied dryly.
Just then, another shot went off, apparently gamma squad was still playing Russian roulette.
"Um, make that two headshots," Ivan hesitated.
"What the hell is going on in there?" The medic looked up.
"Normal day," Ivan replied.
"Ah, I'm coming with you." The medic got up and grabbed his Krylov rifle. "Hey, Tanya, cover for me."
The blond woman sitting nearby nodded and went back to her charts. Ivan could not help his eyes lingering on her. It had been so damned long since he saw any women. Most of the soldiers on the Orlov were men and the few women onboard didn't take crap from anybody. In fact, some of the most serious injuries the infirmary saw were due to the damage a pissed off female soldier inflicted when she heard a cat call. In fact, Wu Huoyiang got a knife wound so bad in his chest that he had to get a flashed cloned lung. Malmoud Ali got his neck snapped on the spot and Nikoli Yaroslayovitch lost his left testicle.
However, contrary to what Ivan thought would happen, Tanya looked up and smiled at him, sending a tingling sensation down his spine.
"So, how did it start?" The medic asked as he loaded a clip into his Krylov.
"Why did you bring your rifle?" Ivan asked.
"It grabs their attention." The medic responded as he clicked off the safety.
"Why is the safety off?" Ivan asked again, seriously questioning the medic's intentions.
"If necessary, shoot gamma squad, I am sick and tired of those idiots." The medic responded with a disgusted face. "I swear, almost every day, those idiots would pull something stupid. Do you remember what they did last week?"
"Vividly," Ivan replied. The week before, gamma squad decided to rig EMP grenades across the hallway of the Titan. The problem didn't cause individual damage since nobody wears their helmets unless in combat, but it did hell to the reactor consoles and lighting systems. Half of the reactor consoles shut down and the lights flickered off in the third level. It took nearly three hours for engineering to crawl through the auxiliary tunnels and fix everything. Strangely enough, nobody got in real trouble, but gamma squad was left with cleaning the waste disposal system for the rest of the week.
When the two got back into the recreation area, the place was a mess. Kush was rolling on the floor while his left eye bled; the two Russian roulette players were dead while their squad members were looking at the Takao, wondering what the hell was going on.
The medic raised his rifle and fired two shots into the ceiling, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Alright," he yelled, "What the hell just happened here, and I don't want to hear the usual shit about how you had too much to drink."
Silence.
"Okay," he sighed, "Try again. Who needs medical attention?"
Kush raised his hand, his eye still bleeding.
"Infirmary, now," the medic said in disgust, and pointing the Krylov to the rest of gamma squad, "You three grab the bodies and put them in caskets."
As the soldiers went about following these orders, the overhead radio sounded.
"We have specific orders from high command; the European counter assault of the mainland has begun. They have begun an assault at the port in Northern Bavaria where our sixth and tenth infantry divisions have been holding them for the past three hours. Also, reports indicate that an enemy panzer division is headed across the Rhine at the bridge at Remagen. The eleventh army is informing us that they have sighted European artillery and tanks near Leipzig and is preparing for a possible siege. Our intelligence informs us that the Europeans are expending roughly seventy to eighty percent of their troops to take back their homeland, leaving northern Africa lightly defended. The following Titans will be assigned to assist the defense of Europe: Krakov, Dekemetos, Tian Long, Shang Yiang, Siddartha, Kashmir, Vloromov, Sharrupek, and the Voss. The following Titans will be assigned with the tasks of carrying out Operation Motherland: Juche, Horohito, Tso, Saladin, Mumbhabi, Khanisha, Khanatis, Stromov, Orlov, Ming, Dvushcheck, and the Mir. All remaining Titans are to hold their positions and await further orders."
"I really need to start drinking again," the medic muttered as he dragged Kush with him to the infirmary. Ivan could not help agreeing.