Big Russian Boi comin' at 'cha!
(Also, Chapter 1 has been changed as of 21/05/2019 - the final section where it showed Ooarai getting the overseas request has been changed to Saunders getting it. A few small changes were made to some of the chapters between to accommodate this, but nothing significant)
June 7th, 2019 - Siberia, Course 14S-B
Mishka raised her binoculars to her eyes as she stood half out of her T-72B3M, dressed in a beige, olive and khaki woodland style ACU, her blue beret tilted slightly atop her silver haired head. Technically this variant of the tank was a 21st century model, buuuut since the T-72 was fielded in… well, '73, actually, it managed to squeak past the game's rules. The tank may have been a nice upgrade, over the standard T-72, which was the mainline battle tank that her blue team of thirty six used for nineties matches, supplemented by As, BAs and B3s and various other designations. But even so, the additional power did nothing to protect Mishka and her team from the simulated heat that beamed down on them from the ceiling of the underground facility they were practicing in. The course they practiced on was mimicking the Mongolian steppes, the kind of arena that the Russians expected their practice match against China to be in. Nothing but grasslands for miles with the occasional range of hills and cliffs. Engagements could be anywhere between the one and three kilometer range in these open fields, so she had to keep her tank crews constantly scanning the horizon for targets.
This was a threeway annihilation match and while war game rules were always in effect as usual, there was no accompanying infantry, simply due to the ineffectiveness of non motorized infantry on these vast grasslands. It would be a pure, tank on tank slug fest. Mishka scanned the horizon, two sets of hills ran perpendicular towards the center of the course, creating a choke point in the middle. From studying the map, she knew that on the other side of those hills were another pair of hill ranges. From the air, the course would look like a giant crosshair. The only defining feature of the map were the ponds that occasionally dotted the landscape, linked by rivers that collected in the middle, creating a ring around the only place one would find suitable cover, a small rural town lacking any tall buildings.
Mishka knew that the first objective of her opponents, Nisha's White Team and Natalia's Red Team, would be to take the town. Nisha's team was the smallest, only twelve tanks, but was equipped with the most modern tanks in order to offset the difference; T-80BVs. Natalia's Red Team however, while still smaller than Mishka's Blue Team at twenty four, fielded mostly T-55s and T-64s, though she knew that Natalia's personal command tank was her ultra rare O-279, or Object-279. A nuclear tank. The only one that the soviet union ever designed.
"Major? What are your orders?" asked one of her tank commanders via radio. Mishka looked to either side of her at her wing commanders in their T-72B3s. Snapping out of her brief trance, she raised a hand to her headset. She didn't mind losing to Nisha, but she'd be damned if she let herself be defeated again by Natalia.
"Smirnov, take your platoon west and up the hills, my platoon will follow behind at your flank. Popov, you will head down the middle, put your BAs or As in front, use their smoke screens if you need to, but I want you to tie down any enemy forces that enter the town. Smirnov and I will circle 'round, we'll catch 'em with their pants down."
"Da Komandir!"
"Da Komandir!" both of them chipped back enthusiastically.
Mishka smirked, she'd show Natalia and her Reds what it meant to be Blue. "Vse tanki, vydvinut'sya!" she ordered; All tanks, move out! Operation: Roulette was a go.
All three dozen of blue team's tanks roared to life, ready to get a move on. "What shall I put on Komandir?" asked Vera from within the turret, she could feel her leaning over, hand groping for the radio.
"We usually do Sabaton, but why don't we mix it up a little?" Mishka replied, "You pick this time."
"Oh you're going to regret that…" Vera whispered into her headset, "Tuning to our music channel… aaand…"
Quietly, so as not to interfere with orders, her headset began to emit a rapid flurry of guitar strums followed by a bit of clapping and hey-hey-hey chanting before; "There lived a certain man, who lived in Russia long ago; He was big and strong, his eyes a flaming glow…" Mishka facepalmed, cracking a smirk as the tanks began to gain speed, falling into formation at 60kph, or about 37mph. "Ra ra Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen; there was a cat that really was gone!" even though the lyrics were in english, Mishka could see a couple of the tank commanders that were standing out of their turrets singing the chorus whenever it came by, bopping a little to the beat. She chuckled again.
They were fast, fast by comparison to their World War Two comrades. Once the platoons had gotten closer to the hills after a few minutes of rolling, the three wedges broke off from one another, with the front most wedge of a dozen tanks, Blue C, heading straight for the town in the center. Blue B and A however veered left, heading for the hills south west of the town. Mishka had her Blue A platoon slow down to put some distance between her unit and Smirnov's, also ordering her tanks to spread out more, to have at least a fifty meter spread between each individual tank, about the same distance as an olympic swimming pool.
As they reached the hill, her turret hardly shook when it hit the incline as the tank decelerated suddenly and began to climb, as unlike the older T-72s in her team, her B3M variant sported the improved 2A46M5 125mm gun complete with sabot rounds, which came with the sophisticated 2E42-4 stabilization system, even more advanced than previous iterations, allowing for accurate fire even while moving at high speeds. Other upgrades to her tank when compared to the vast majority of the other T-72s under her command included thermal sights which were only found on B3 variants, while her B3M was unique in that her commander's sight, was not only now fully panoramic, but also had thermal and night vision. In addition, smaller improvements were made to the tank's drivetrain, engine, fire suppression systems and mine protection. But the biggest upgrade over the older, non-lettered models, was the addition of Relikt ERA - Explosive Reactive Armor - bricks along her tank's hull and turret and more advanced targeting systems, along with about a dozen smoke canisters mounted atop the turret. That meant her tank should - in theory - actually be able to take a hit, given that there was one very troubling flaw about the T-72…
At the top of the hill, Mishka saw what she thought was a recon force of Natalia's, two T-55s and a T-64, painted a light khaki just like her tanks, the only difference in color scheme being the two red stripes painted along the sides of the hull and along the turret, as opposed to Mishka's blue stripes. Mishka barked into her radio, putting on her game face; "Red armor at the top of the hill! Engage! Engage!"
Thanks to actually being on the hill, Mishka's T-72s were actually able to strike back as the Red tanks opened fire on them. It was twenty four against three, they'd either be destroyed or forced to flee. If they hadn't made it to the hill however, it was bound to have been open season on the T-72s, since the gun had abysmal vertical traverse, being only able to raise thirty degrees. One of Mishka's T-72s scored a hit on the rear of a T-55, the engine block detonating and bursting into flames and the white flag popped up above the turret. The red crew began to bail out of their tank, one of them throwing an emergency fire blanket over the flames in a vain attempt to put the fire out before they jumped off their tank with Tokarev TT-30 pistols in hand and ran away from the armored skirmish taking place.
Oh, right, that flaw that the T-72 had, other than the shitty gun elevation. The two older tanks began to make to flee, but not before the T-64 threw a vengeful shot towards one of the regular T-72s, striking between the turret and hull, piercing. Sparks began to fly out from the tank, violently. She heard the scream of the tank crew as they realized what was about to happen, they had a split second to decide whether to brace the coming storm or bail. They seemed to chose to weather it as the middle of the tank exploded in a fierce fireball, the turret of the tank being launched at least two to three meters into the air before coming crashing down next to the now turretless T-72, the middle of the tank now a raging inferno.
Mishka immediately jumped on her radio. "B4! B4 come in! B4 check in now!" she wailed, for a moment fearing the worst. She may not have had the time to personally hang out and get to deeply know each of her Blues, but they were her comrades. "Blue B, continue on, kick those red asses back down the hill! A1 through A4, hold, I'm checking on B4. The rest of you continue on."
"Affirmative." replied Smirnov, her eleven remaining tanks and eight of Blue A's tanks pursuing the fleeing Red tanks. Once the majority of the attacking tanks had passed, Mishka ordered her tank closer to the wreck of B4, clamoring with one of the turret storage compartments on the exterior of the dome, opening it and pulling out her med-kit. She leapt from the tank as it began to slow down, with tanks A2, A3 and A4 taking position nearby, their commanders also emerging from their tanks with their first aid kits and rushing towards the burnt out husk of B4.
It was a tense few moments, running towards the burning wreck when Mishka's headset crackled to life. B4's Commander, Katarina Mikhailov coughed into her personal radio, "This is B4…" a pained groan followed, "we're singed and bruised, eeurgh… but still in one piece." despite that, the tone of voice Mikhailov used didn't put Mishka at ease, it just went to show, even with all the safety precautions that they implemented into tankery, injury was still a very real possibility.
When she and the other commanders reached the tank, they found Mikhailov and her driver Aneta Petrov sitting against the lopsided turret that had slipped off the edge of the tank and was now wedged into the soft earth below. The two had an unconscious Ushka Vasiliev laying across their laps, with Mikhailov propping her up with a battered arm.
Upon seeing this Mishka grew a thick lump in her throat, she swallowed hard and pressed the receiver on her headset, sending a message back to the referee camp. "Medic! We need a medic out here!" she cried, rushing forward to check on the wounded crew." she slid to her knees as she reached the three singed girls, pressing her fingers on either side of Vasiliev's neck, checking for a pulse and much to her relief, finding one still going strong.
"She hit her head when the turret came back down, I think she may have a concussion." Mikhailov groaned out.
Mishka looked up from the unconscious gunner as the other commanders reached the tank, some of them having been followed by their drivers or gunners, forming a small crowd around the burnt out T-72. "And you?"
"Singed, bruised, might have a fracture or two." she replied, turning her head to look at Mishka, forcing a grin. "Nothing I can't handle."
Her girls were casual, real nice company to have around back at base, but they were also tough. They were no pushovers or wimps. The training regiment they had made sure of that. They were no Spetsnaz, not by a long shot, but each of them that had made it this far knew how to deal with pain. There would be no shed tears without the most grievous of wounds. They would grin and bear it. Or at least try to. As she was adjusting Vasiliev to allow one of the other tank commanders to apply first aid to her, she elbowed her driver in the chest.
Petrov screamed out in pain, sharp and short, shaking slightly as she reflexively put a hand over her chest, only causing herself to clench her eyes shut, choking back tears. "T-t-thanks!" she chirped with no cheer. "You just revealed to me… that my burns may be worse than I thought."
Where the hell was the damn medivac?! If Natalia were here, she'd probably do the barebones minimum and remind them that they were not the Wet Noodled West. Russia would not abandon tankery just because of some injuries… so what if a few players died, they did in every sport! Be that as it may, it didn't make it any less emotionally painful to see her comrades, her friends, in such pain, all because of a game.
"Oh! Ambulance is on the way!" remarked one of her commanders.
Standing to her feet, Mishka could see in the distance, speeding across the grass fields a white ambulance with its lights flashing as it raced towards them. More like ambu-semi. It was a double length heavy transport with one section of the truck dedicated to carrying a portable on its back to serve as a mobile infirmary, while the back was open and flat, with a heavy but short crane for collecting tank husks. Once it was close enough to begin slowing down, eventually stopping, three pairs of army medics climbed down from the portable infirmary, rushing towards the ruined T-72 with their heavier medical supplies.
The medics shooed the girls back, they needed room. All three of the medics produced a strong shot of painkillers that they administered to the wounded girls, or at least the two who were conscious; morphine or something of the like. They then helped them up, with one of the female medics picking up the unconscious gunner with both arms while two of the male medics did the same with the other girls. If it hurt, they either couldn't feel it, or didn't care anymore thanks to the painkillers. The lead medic gave Mishka a wave. "We've got this, return to your tanks." before turning to his comrades and ordering them back to the mobile infirmary.
Hesitantly, Mishka complied, turning about and ordering the rest of her girls back to their tanks. The four commanders rushed back to their tanks and Mishka re-tuned her radio back to her command signal as she climbed back into her T-72B3M. She tuned back in mid sentence.
"-destroyed the tanks, but there is no sign of the other Red tanks." said Smirnov. Mishka cocked a brow, then they had to have already been in the town.
"Blue B, take all the tanks you have on hand and head into town, A1, 2, 3 and 4 will make their way along the top of the hill and provide tactical overwatch" she replied.
"Affirmative! Moving now!"
If they were in the town, perhaps Blue C had gotten wind of them. She hailed Popov, "Lieutenant, status, have you located either of the opposing teams?"
"Negative, Major. We're holding on the edge of town now, should we enter?" Popov replied.
"Da, but move carefully. If Nisha is already in town, she will most likely be using buildings to hide her smaller numbers. Blue B has yet to encounter Red Team, so it is most likely that they too are also somewhere in the town. Expect close quarters combat." Mishka relayed, getting an affirmative from Blue C's commander. "I will have Blue B enter town soon, once they cross the river, they will try to meet up with you."
And with that, she ordered her four tanks forward, her T-72B3M accompanied by two T-72As and a T-72AV, the only difference between the two models being the AV was equipped with Kontakt-1 reactive armor bricks on its hull and turret. At the top of the hill, which ran the length of the course from the edge to almost the center, giving Mishka and her tanks a straight, high ground path towards the town, Mishka could see the entirety of the fields on either side of her. She ordered her tanks along the high ground in plain sight, knowing that most Russian tanks had issues with their vertical traverse and the likelihood of her being shot at was fairly slim unless her enemies were coming right up at them. At least from here she could call out danger if she saw it for Blue B and C. Yet curiously, still nothing. It was like Nisha to use guerrilla warfare, but Natalia wasn't one for stealth, often using heavier tanks and numbers when the match allowed for it, to overwhelm and overpower her enemies. Not so much this time… where was she?
Through the entirety of her journey across the hilltop, not a single spec of red or white could be seen, aside from the burnt out husks of the T-55 and T-64 that Blue B had scrapped initially. What was Natalia up to? Eventually she had to force her quartet of tanks to a halt as they ran out of hill top, now overlooking the town below. Not a single tower in sight, just rural housing, car lots and a few junk yards. Even so, it was fairly expansive. Raising her binoculars to her eyes, Mishka scoured the town, searching for a sign of conflict. Then she thought she heard something… she removed one earmuff of her headset. Gunfire. She looked towards the sound, lowering her binoculars as she saw a flash in the town streets. There they were. She raised her binoculars again, peering towards the flash. Six red tanks were caught in a bottleneck between a junkyard and thick cluster of houses against the river. They were trying to brute force their way through the street, crushing civilian cars under their tracks as they advanced on a house at the end of the street. Inside the garage of this house was a khaki T-80 with white stripes and reactive armor bricks decorating it's hull and turret. One shot from the T-80 knocked out the front T-64, the engine detonating as the rear of the tank caught fire, forcing the red girls to bail and the white flag to pop up atop its turret. Mishka chuckled quietly to herself, it was a turkey shoot for that lone T-80. The older T-55s and T-64s were unable to close the distance to do any real damage against the T-80's reactive armor.
"This is Blue B, we're crossing the bridge into town, we'll form up along the opposite side of the river before entering town." came Smirnov through her headset.
"Affirmative. I've spotted six - well, five-" another T-55 was hit by the opposing T-80. "Err… four now, Red tanks on the north side of town engaged with Nisha's forces. Still scanning for the other fifteen remaining red tanks." Mishka replied, looking to the south of town to her Blue C team, already across the bridge on their side and slowly entering town in a sort of wedge formation, wherever the street patterns would allow them. A flash of red caught her attention from just south west of them. Six Red tanks, three T-64s and three T-55s were trying to sneak around them, one of them exiting the town and running along the river.
"Blue C, you've got Reds on your left flank." Mishka warned… oh, oh one of the T-55s made the mistake of getting too close to the hill. Mishka noticed one of her T-72As move forward, getting an angle on the hill to it could actually line up with the thing.
"Affirmative, engaging." Replied Popov. Speaking of…
"Fire when ready." muttered Mishka quietly into her headset. Only two seconds later, tank A2 fired its powerful 125mm D-81TM smoothbore gun, the armor piercing round slamming into the rear of the tank with a thunderous crack, followed by an explosion as the engine detonated sending shrapnel up into the air behind the T-55. Fire spewed forth from the engine and the flag above the turret signaled the tanks' destruction. The red girls bailed from the tank, one of them pulling out a small fire extinguisher to douse the flames before they ran off into the town to hide from the fire fight that was surely to come. "Clean takedown." Mishka remarked to A2's commander.
She saw Blue C turn to engage the now severely out gunned Reds. They had tried to pull a little sneaky on them… and failed miserably. Mishka couldn't help but laugh, either Natalia was going soft, or her stubborn Red Army bravado was playing to her detriment right now. She saw another T-55 go up courtesy of a 9M119M Refleks laser guided anti-tank missile fired from Popov's T-72BA.
How were the Reds on the other side of town doing? Blue C had everything handled. She raised her binoculars up to her eyes, looking back towards the Red-White engagement. Huh. It was just one T-64 now… but the husks of another T-64 and two T-55s remained in the middle of the road. Where had the other T-64 and T-55 gone? She looked back up towards the T-80, sheltered in the garage. It still had ammo, as it took a pot shot at the heavily entrenched T-64, hiding among the husks of it's fallen comrades. Then she saw, just to the left of the building the T-80 was hiding in, a building, right next to the river, the missing T-64 and T-55 crawl out of the river, soaked to the tred and with snorkels up. The T-55 took point and with the elegance of a cat - a big heavily armed cat - crept up to the edge of the garage the T-80 was hiding in, lined up a shot at near point blank range, aiming through the wall of the garage and fired.
The front of the T-80 sparked… nope… that hadn't quite done it. The reactive armor on it had taken the brunt of the impact. The turret turned to return fire… it didn't get that far. The T-64 sped right past the T-55 and lined up a shot near identical to where the T-55 had placed its and fired a second round. The round found its mark, sparks flew from the T-80 and the left caterpillar was detracked. The front of the tank smoked and a small white flag popped up over the White tanks' turret. Impressive teamwork. Though, if it really took six Red tanks to take down just one White tank, with a favorable knockout ratio for the White tank, Then this match was already in the bag. Still though, using the river to sneak around was ingenious. Most Soviet era tanks had the ability to traverse through and under rivers thanks to their snorkels. It was an ability developed due to a perceived Cold War event, wherein if the Cold War went hot and Russia was to invade Europe, it was suspected that the Western Allies would blow the bridges across many rivers. Saying such, Russian tanks needed ways to fjord these rivers, preferably without having to rely on waiting for bridge-layers to come up to the front, just to let them continue their advance. They wanted a fast, lightning war. Sound familiar?
Mishka lowered her binoculars… looking towards Blue B, which had now formed up in a wedge, ready to move into the town and clear out Nisha's White Team. Though half of Red Team was now disabled… where the hell were the rest of… them…
Something slowly began creeping into Mishka, a realization. The rivers. She was too late to realize this. She could virtually hear the heavy metal Soviet Hell March as the missing nine Red Team tanks emerged from the river behind Blue B's position, their guns trained on the lightly armored rears of their tanks. They didn't need shiny up to date guns to hit their marks proper this time. Of the nine tanks, Mishka saw Natalia's command tank, her Object-279 Nuclear Tank. This weird AFV was a relic, a curio of a time past. The hull looked more in line with the cockpit of an American Blackbird spy plane than a tank. It looked almost alien in shape. As if that wasn't curious enough, but the tank sported quad tracks, rows of tracks all along the bottom of the vehicle, leaving no space between the leftmost and rightmost tred. This tank was one developed with nuclear war in mind, its shape, its armor, were all intended to protect the crew from the shockwave of a nearby nuclear blast and fighting in a nuclear hellscape with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear protection.
The tank fired its 130mm M-65 rifled gun at Smirnov's command tank, hitting it square in the back. The engine detonated, rattling the tank. The last thing she heard from Smirnov's tank radio was a short, cut-off; "Blya-" before static. With their field commander down, the rest of Blue B and what was present of Blue A, individually turned to return fire. But it was of little use as Natalia's ambush had worked like a charm, cutting through Blue A and B. "Blue B, Blue A, pop smoke and push into town, make for Blue C!" Mishka exclaimed
One of Blue B's tank commanders radioed back, "R-roger! But… how do we find out way?" she asked, none of the surviving T-72s would be able to see if they popped their smokes screens without already being on the move.
Mishka lowered her binoculars and ducked back into her tank, shutting the hatch behind her. She reached up to PK PAN sight, looking through it and turning the camera nestled inside the armored box atop the turret around to look down towards Blue team's position. "I'll walk you out." Mishka replied, turning thermal vision on, her view lighting up black and white, with the tanks below her lighting up white, while the surrounding area was less so… though the heat from the arid setting they were in made it a bit washed out.
"Popping smoke!" exclaimed the Blue B commander, "Where to?!"
"Blue B and A, turn your tanks ninety degrees right and full forward, A1, 2, 3 and 4 will meet you at the south river's edge and lead you to RV with Blue C. A7, you have a hostile on your right, turn turret to 3 'o clock to acquire, confirm." she pulled her gaze from her commander's sights and tuned her radio to her escort tanks. "A2, A3, A4, load sabot rounds and prepare to cross the river to meet up with the remnants of Blue B and A. Gunners, fire at will."
Mishka could hardly believe it. She'd fallen for one of those classic blunders. Not paying the fucking attention! fourteen of her superior T-72s taken out by only nine older T-55s, T-64s and a weird blackbirdy boy. She wondered how Blue C had fared… she turned her panoramic sights towards C's location, even as her own tank started racing down the hill. She could feel the thump of the tank's gun rattle the turret and reverberate through her. "WOO!" Vera hooted loudly, "GOT ONE! They're running scared Major!" Vera chirped. Good. "Two more two more T-55s and a T-64 have bitten it…" she paused for a moment, another thump from the gun. "Make that three T-55s. Major, all the Red T-55s have been knocked out. It'll be just T-64s from here on out. They're fleeing for the north western side of town, following the river." at least the Reds didn't get out of this without a scratch… but right, Blue C.
Mishka nodded with approval to herself as she saw the remnants of Blue C, they'd lost two of their older T-72 base variants to the six Red tanks, which looked like they'd begun to flee mid fight, exposing their weaker rear armor. The three T-55s and three T-64s were strewn out, four across the field between the river and town, while a pair of them had been knocked out in the actual town. Mishka could see where rounds from the T-72s had pierced right through houses to hit the Red tanks in their weakly armored sides and rears.
"Commander, seal up, prepare for underwater maneuvers." said Pollie through her headset. They were approaching the river. She made sure everything was sealed and that emergency oxygen was on standby.
"We are green across the board." Mishka replied as the tank slowed down upon reaching the river's edge. The tank slowly inched forward, tipping down as it began to lower itself into the waters. Eventually, the tank was completely submerged. For a moment, there was this scary, tense putt of the engine as it sounded like it stalled, or hydrolocked, had they stopped moving? Mishka peered through her PK PAN sight, just murky and muddy waters, thermals didn't help much, but turning it on, she could tell that the other three tanks were keeping close. They were moving, so surely they must have been as well, however slowly. It was stressful, knowing that there was even a slight possibility her tank could stall out and they'd have to bail from underwater. It was a tense few minutes as her tanks made the crossing, eventually, much to her relief, making it to the other side. She breathed a sigh of relief as she felt her tank begin to ascend, climbing the river bank before finally; "Underwater maneuvers completed." Pollie said.
Mishka peered through her PK PAN sight, making sure the coast was clear. The smokescreen to her left was still strong and she could see the first of her T-72s emerging from the smoke. Her escort tanks had also managed to successfully cross the river and were falling in behind her, water still rolling off their hulls, mudding the ground beneath their treads.
Once the remnants of Blue B and A closed in, Mishka emerged from the turret. Mud still clung to her tank in thick patches. She leaned over, pushing the commander's machine-gun and blast shield out of the way as she wiped off some of the mud covering the blue stripes on her turret. She didn't want to get accidentally shot by her comrades. Once that was out of the way, she raised a hand to her headset. "Blue Team, prepare to enter the town, the Reds' strength have been cut in half, but the Whites are still at nearly full strength. Also, be on the lookout for Red foot mobiles that bailed their tanks. They may be carrying anti-tank grenades. Take it slow and have machine guns at the ready."
All of Blue A and B formed up near Mishka's command tank while Popov took Blue C into the town near where they had crossed the river. Mishka would have the remnants of Blue B enter from here, while her Blue A would enter the town somewhere between C and B. They would form an unbroken wedge of tanks to drive out any Reds or Whites in hiding. "Vse tanki, vydvinut'sya!" she called out… and they pushed into town.
The roads were barren, occasionally peppered with debris from prior matches in the form of stray bars of metal, piles of rubble and craters blown in the road from exploded shells. Most of the buildings were in decent condition, though a few hadn't been touched up and were in various states of ruin, with a few of the houses having been completely leveled thanks to tanks being driven through them. The artificial lighting above them was starting to dim, simulating the onset of dusk. The time was being accelerated, she guessed that they would turn on the moonlights to simulate night soon, given how long they'd actually spent on the field.
Mishka sighed, opening the top of the turret mounted DShK 12.7mm heavy machine gun and pulling a string of bullets from a box mounted just next to it, loading the first round into the machine gun with a click before shutting the top of the gun and cocking it with a satisfying chck-chk.
"Komandir!" exclaimed someone to her right. Mishka tensed up, turning the machine gun towards the sound, almost ready to pull the trigger when she saw the blue beret atop the brown haired head of Natasha Smirnov. Smirnov yelped and ducked back behind the ruined wall of the house she hid in.
Releasing a long drawn out sigh of relief, Mishka followed up with a slight chuckle, leaning forward onto her machine gun with a shake of her head. "Natasha, come here." she beckoned, rapping on the top of her tank's turret. "Pollie, hold." she communicated into her headset.
Looking down on Natasha and her crew, who emerged from the ruined house, Mishka noticed how lightly armed they were. But more importantly; "Are you girls alright?" she asked.
"We're a bit singed and bruised, but nowhere near as bad as A4 got it. Though we didn't exactly have time to recover our weapons before bailing." replied Smirnov. That was fine, Mishka didn't think she'd need her weapons for a while anyways, if her tank got knocked out then that was pretty much it in her mind, game over.
Mishka leaned over the turret, straining to reach for one of the storage compartments nestled between the turret, sitting atop the edge of the hull. With a huff of hot air she groaned and gave up, climbing out of the turret and sliding down to get a better angle, catching herself with her heels before sliding entirely off the tank. She cracked open the little locker and produced a pair of AK-47s with folding frame stocks along with several banana magazines of ammo. She handed these to Smirnov, who gave one to her driver. She then swung around the turret to stand on the back of the tank, about to kick open the turret's rear locker, but then thinking better of it. She knelt down and unlatched the lid, opening it up and producing two pieces of an RPG-7. They'd have to put this back together on the field. She handed it down to Smirnov, who handed the pieces to her gunner. "Oh and don't forget." Mishka added, handing the grounded crew three warheads from the locker for the RPG. "Do you need extra medical supplies?" she asked, noting the bruises and singe marks Smirnov and her crew possessed.
Smirnov shook her head. "You may need them more, just in case Komandir. We sting and are sore a little, but it is manageable. Appreciate the thought, but you keep them." she insisted.
Mishka slowly nodded her head. "Alright. If you see Natalia's Objeckt, do not hesitate." she said, standing and climbing back into her turret.
"Da Komandir!" Smirnov barked back. "Come comrades!" she beckoned her crew to follow, the three of them ducking back into the ruined building they'd come from, she could faintly hear the back door open as they emerged from the back of the house and passed from sight. They were on the move, Mishka should keep going as well. She turned to face the front of her tank, bringing her HMG around and keeping an eye on the road. "Pollie, forward." she ordered, occasionally sweeping her gun across the rooftops and over the rare second story windows of houses.
Then she saw something. The barrel of a tank began to emerge from around the corner of an intersection. She held fire, until she saw the colors, she couldn't be sure. Then the treads began to appear and Mishka saw a white stripe running the length of the T-80Bs hull.
"Contact front! T-80A!" Mishka exclaimed, Vera lining the gun up with the side of the T-80, which now had passed enough to see the full turret of the tank, with it's commander up and manning the machine gun. The White commander heard Mishka's exclamation, looking to her left, down the road at the approaching T-72B3M.
"Shit!" she yelped, bringing her HMG around and opening fire at Mishka's tank. Mishka quickly ducked back into the turret, reaching up and bringing her own HMG around to about where the T-80 was and blind firing back from the safety of her tank turret. Her T-72 however already had the opposing tank in its sights, before the T-80 could turn its main gun onto the Blue Team tank. There was a muffled thunk from within the turret, while a ringing blast echoed in from the outside. Impact and the machine gun from the White tank stopped firing. Mishka peeked up from out of the turret. The machine gun was empty, the White tanker seeming to have ducked back into her turret. She held fire… the side of the T-80 now sported a black scorch mark where the T-72's round had impacted, for a moment she wasn't sure if it was a kill. Then the White commander popped back up from her turret to see Mishka aiming right at her. She squealed, grabbing her machine gun… then. Ping, followed by a hiss. The white flag shot up right next to her, causing her gaze to shift awkwardly to the signal of her tank's defeat. "Blyat!" she exclaimed, then remembered something… she nervously looked back at Misha just across from her.
Mishka smiled back at her… and then pulled the trigger, putting a blue paint round into the White commander's chest, taking her down instantly as she slumped against the top of the turret. The turret of the T-80 was turned to about 9 o' clock, so Mishka wasn't surprised when the drivers hatch of the tank sprung all the way open, allowing for the driver to bail out much quicker than usual without the gun in the way. The gunner had managed to get out of the tank and dove to the ground with a painful thud, trying to scramble away but to no avail.
Mishka gunned her down, safely atop her tank, the machine gun rattling as it spat about a dozen rounds at the White driver, dropping her to the ground with a new coat of blue paint on her back. Mishka paused for a moment, the gunner of the T-72 seemed to be taking her sweet time getting out, given that there was an unconscious commander blocking the hatch. She ducked back down into her turret. She wasn't sure what kind of game Nisha was playing, at least, White Team would be down two tanks now. "Komandir!" her radio screamed. "Blue C here, we have engaged White Team, two in a junkyard and one in a garage! We lost a T-72A to mines, they've dug in Komandir!"
This must have been the game she was playing at. A few of her tanks patrolled the streets while the rest fortified their positions, after all if she was small in number, putting the most amount of cover between her tanks and their tanks, would have been a smart move; taking choke points and power positions. This was going to get dirty. But before her tank could move again she had to clear the road.
"Pollie, dismount, Vera, keep us covered." she ordered, climbing back out of her tank, with the driver's hatch below her popping open, Pollie climbing out. The two of them brandished their Makarov pistols as Mishka slid down her turret and onto the road. She beckoned Pollie to follow her as the made her way up the road. It looked like the other White girl hadn't emerged yet, so she ordered Pollie to keep her pistol trained on the T-80 turret just in case. Mishka crouch-ran towards the front of the T-80, kneeling down next to it, pressing her shoulder against the side, she peered down the left side of the intersection in accordance from where she'd come, all clear. Further straight down seemed to also be clear and the right, from where the T-80 had come was also clear. She needed to clear the White casualties out from the road so her tank could move on, unless they wanted to take another road, but the last intersection was several blocks back. Seeing that it was clear, Mishka emerged from behind the tank and holstered her Makarov, bending down to hoist the White driver into her arms, dragging her to the side of the road and propping her up against a house wall. She then synced back up to the ref's channel. "Major Sorovich, reporting casualties on the road at my point, requesting retrieval team."
"Affirmative Major, evac is en route, continue on." replied the referee. With that, she rejoined her previous channel, shooting a glance over at Pollie to her left, who had climbed up onto the T-80, her pistol aimed at the turret hatch.
"Pollie!" Mishka called out, only to get the Blue girl to hold a hand up in a one moment fashion, while her other held her pistol towards the hatch. She took a step forward and Mishka could see her shut one of her eyes as she aimed down the sights of her pistol.
"Chert!" exclaimed someone from inside the T-80 before Pollie put four rounds into the hatch.
Pollie then lowered her pistol and jumped back down from the tank. "Annihilation match, remember?" jogging back towards their T-72 and climbing back onto the tank hull and slipping through her driver's hatch. Mishka sighed lightly, shaking her head. True, true enough. She stood back up, confident that the White driver would be safe here, jogging back to her tank and climbing up and back into her turret. "Pollie, forward."
By now the Blue tanks on her flanks would have passed her, but she'd heard nothing so far from the rest of Blue A or B. "Blue teams, check in." she called into her headset.
"Blue C, still engaged with those T-80s, lost another T-72, BA this time. We've knocked out the toughest target in the garage though and I've ordered four of my tanks into the junkyard on the flank we opened up, we're going to try to flush them out." replied Popov… then an explosion rang through the headset, it was muffled on her end however. "Chert! C9 reports another T-80 dug into another garage at the end of the road around the corner of the last T-80. Tactical analysis; they've dug in at every street corner and intersection around here. When we take out one strong point, there'll be another covering it."
"Popov, send a couple of your tanks the opposite direction around the junkyard, I need you to confirm something for me, I'm curious as to whether or not they've formed a defensive perimeter." Mishka replied, if her theory was correct that meant that junkyard was a valuable position for them… there was only one reason that could be.
"Affirmative, sending recon now. Will report as soon as I can. Out." Popov said, dropping transmission.
"Smirnov here, we've rejoined Blue B but we're mostly an infantry platoon now. According to B8, there was a run in with Natalia's Objekt and she took out another two T-72s. We're down to four tanks now. Most of us are only armed with pistols, but we managed to salvage a few AKs and three RPGs from tank husks." Reported Natasha.
"Copy that," Mishka replied, come to think of it, infantry could prove very useful in these rural streets. "Natasha, do you have any AT-grenades?"
"Uhhh…" Natasha came back, "Let me do a quick inventory…" she replied, which basically meant, as Mishka found out by being ear rapped, Natasha just bellowing without pausing to mute her mic; "DO WE HAVE ANY AT-GRENADES?!" Mishka's headset crackled and shrieked with static, a muffled response followed, at least Mishka thought it did… her ears were too busy ringing for her to fully make out that follow up sound. "Da Komandir, we have about a dozen."
Mishka had sunk down partially into her turret, forehead planted against the rim of her hatch. "Wonderful." she replied, blunt and without joy through grit teeth. "Ok, then I've two orders for you. Take your unit around the north side of town, then hang a right back into the center of town towards the junkyard in the middle, I want your infantry to clear out the buildings; many White tanks have taken up residence in their garages, use those grenades and your RPGs to flush them out. If they're too busy protecting the roads, you should be able to sneak up alongside them and chuck some grenades into their hidey holes."
"Affirmative Major… and the second?" Natasha asked.
Mishka cleared her throat; "CYKA, DON'T SCREAM INTO THE RADIO!" she hollered.
She heard Natasha squeal on the other side of the radio, it was a pitiful sound, followed by a whining; "D-da Komandir!"
With a sigh, Mishka relayed further orders to her Blue A team. "Blue A, begin to head east towards the central junkyard, we'll reinforce Blue C and attack from the flank. Finally; this goes out to all teams. Watch out for Natalia's Reds, they've taken heavy loses, but they're still kicking out there. If we're not careful, we could get caught in an October Threeway." she ordered, with Vera chiming in from below her in the turret.
"Sounds like a good time." she remarked, causing Mishka to roll her eyes. She sank back down into the turret, shutting the turret, relying on her PK PAN camera for now to keep an eye on things.
"Only if you like a Bolshevik uprising." Mishka replied. She then tensed up and jabbed a finger across the turret at Vera. "Don't say it." she tacked on, seeing the potential for a dick joke there and striking swiftly to prevent it.
And so in silence, her tank rolled on, meeting up with other tanks from Blue A while en route towards the junkyard. Down the road on either side of her she could see other T-72s spaced out per intersection. In total there were five avenues of approach towards the junkyard, meaning five blue tanks would be able to enter the road around the junkyard at the same time when they reached it. Checking behind her, she saw another Blue tank following her, a T-72BA, judging from the reactive armor bricks it sported and the pair of anti-tank missiles bristling atop the turret.
She turned the PAN sight back to the front, they were approaching the junkyard perimeter road. She needed that recon from Blue C now. Then she heard the report of a tank gun firing, followed by a muffled explosion that reverberated against her turrets exterior. That answered her question. "Blue C here, one of the recon tanks was just KOed!" exclaimed Popov.
"A4, go up a few blocks and use your judgement to find the corner of the junkyard perimeter road, then roll through those houses and put a round into the corner house garage." Mishka ordered.
"Da Komandir!" A4 replied. Panning her camera to her left, down the road, Mishka could see A4 turn up the road, slowing down as their commander popped up from the turret. She could see the commander pointing at the houses as they passed them, tilting her head as if to try and make out the road on the other side of the houses. She then jumped a little and pointed directly at a house several blocks down from Mishka's position. A4's commander sank back into the turret, which turned 180 degrees to face the back of the tank, the T-72BA turning and pushing forward, rolling into the house before it. Mishka saw the house start to give in, the roof collapsing as the tank crashed through the house walls. Then the tank stopped, she could see just the rear of the tank sticking out from the house, A4's turret pivoting back around to the front… a few moment passed before the tank shook and the sound of the tank gun's report reached her ears. A fireball shot up from beyond the rows of houses that were between Mishka and the supposed location of the T-80.
"Target down!" barked A4. "Moving forwa-" a loud crash and static followed and Mishka saw the house that A4 was sheltered in collapse as a round slammed into them. The house fully collapsed, allowing Mishka to see a white flag pop up from A4. Then a new radio synced up to Mishka's coms, A4's personal radios. "Enemy armor taking shelter behind old junkers at the edge of the junkyard. Don't think there's any getting through here without a fight."
"Affirmative, Blue B, Blue C, report." Mishka confirmed, then going in for a sitrep.
"Blue C, half my remaining tanks have been diverted to the eastern outskirts of the junkyard, they await orders to commence attack." replied Popov.
"Blue B, we've taken out the T-80 that was giving C trouble. Took some losses from machine gun fire from the junkyard, but all our tanks are still in working order." said Smirnov.
"Alright, Blue A and C, attack the junkyard with everything we've got. Blue B, act as our rearguard, make sure the Reds don't interfere."
Both of the other platoons confirmed. The attack was a go. Five T-72s emerged onto the junkyard perimeter road. Immediately they came under fire. A round slammed into the front of one of A's T-72s, putting it out of commission. Vera however was quick to return fire, a round from her 125mm gun slamming into the turret of the defending T-80, it wasn't a kill, but the tanks' reactive armor was heavily damaged and the crew seemed to panic a little, pulling back from their firing position. From the south, Mishka could hear Blue C engaging with the remaining White defenders.
"White defenders down! Moving in, sustained casualties!" exclaimed Popov.
Mishka and another of her tanks entered the junkyard. All sense of order then went out the hatch, there was no rhyme or reason to how the scrapped junkers were stacked, some of them precariously teetered, threatening to fall over. The dirt paths that wove through the yard had no logical convergence point. It was a maze. Now there were still points, plenty of them, where one could just look across a low wall of junkers and see another tank, fire and be done with it, but that one mountain of cars in the middle gave cause of concern. Upon entering the junkyard, Mishka could just make out the mock administration building in the middle of the yard, beyond the rows of junkers. It was a small, almost firehouse looking structure with dual garages. She furrowed her brow, the garage doors were shut.
"Vera, put a round into the garage over there, just to be safe." she ordered.
"Which one commander?" Vera asked, as the two garages were on either side of the structure.
"The closest one." Mishka replied, the extra penetration would be needed to deal any real damage against anything within. The turret rotated into position and fired, a round clearing through the garage cleanly like a needle through silk. Okay, maybe not so elegantly, but about as easy.
Light shined through the hole they'd made… there was nothing in there. Then the opposite garage had its doors kicked in. A T-80UM-2 rolled out from the garage. Its commander half out of the hatch.
"Nisha's Command tank!" Mishka exclaimed, "Aim, aim and fire!" she bellowed, but it was too late. Nisha's T-80 lobbed a round at Mishka's T-72, hitting the turret squarely. But… the round was absorbed by her tanks reactive armor. Now they could return fire. "Fire!"
Vera lobbed a round at Nisha's tank only for it to have moved out of the way as she had pulled the trigger. "After them!" Mishka ordered. So caught up in the chase that she didn't realize her headset had been blaring for the last minute.
"KOMANDIR!" Smirnov screamed into the mic, destroying Mishka's ears yet again. But it if it got her attention…
"What?!" she barked back, a little peeved now. This was the second time in less than an hour that Smirnov had violated her ears.
"God! I've been trying to get your attention! But now that you're listening-" she started, only for Mishka to raise a brow… was that-
An alien shaped tank plowed through the junkyard administry. Yep… that was the Soviet Hell March. The turret of Natalia's Objeckt rotate towards Mishka's T-72. "-well, the Reds broke through, we've kinda been wiped out. All six of their remaining tanks are entering the junkyard now… we did manage to take out three of them."
"Gee thanks!" Mishka exclaimed, not having time to be polite and closing communications. "Pollie! Move!"
"Okay, hold on." Pollie replied, turning the tank right towards the mountain of junkers.
"Wait, what are you doing?!" Mishka yelped.
"Trust me! Vera, fire at the cars! HE round!" Pollie barked.
Not knowing just what else to say at this point, slightly panicking, Mishka just nodded to herself. "Okay, yeah sure why not?"
A round from her tank slammed into the mountain of cars just as Pollie hit the gas. The HE round causing the car it slammed into to jump up just as Pollie wedged the tank under it and floored the engine. Mishka's eyes widened. She was burrowing under the friggin' cars! Mishka heard a round from Natalia's Objekt hit behind them… either the ground of some cars, she couldn't tell, she was too busy hyperventilating as her tank's hull creaked under the weight of a dozen-plus tons of aluminum. Only regaining her composure when her tank emerged on the other side of the mountain of cars, with Nisha's T-80 zooming past them, taking another hit to its side from one of Blue Team's tanks from the south, but surviving.
"Holy shit! You're insane!" Mishka finally wailed, finding her breath.
"This is news to you?!" Pollie replied, with mock surprise. Though… a creak from behind caught her attention. Mishka tried to look through the PAN sight, but found that the weight from all the cars had rendered it inoperable. With hesitation, she pushed out from her hatch and her jaw nearly dropped. Maybe it had been worth it to escape Natalia's Objekt, but the under-car burrow had severely damaged all the reactive bricks on the turret, torn the machine gun off, ripped up the snorkel and stolen her PK PAN camera, armored box and all! Then there was that creak again… she looked behind her and screamed, ducking back into the tank as the teetering mountain of cars began to collapse. She slammed the hatch shut behind her as cars began to flow past her tank. "MOVE, MOVE!" she screamed at Pollie who gunned it.
Her tank climbed up onto a nearby smaller hill of junkers, crushing most of them beneath its treads… resulting in said hill being more of a slight rise. This was good enough however as the mountain of cars spilled out into the junkyard, creating a junker wasteland. Once the ruckus had settled down and she was sure no cars would fall on her, Mishka re-emerged from the turret, surveying the catastrophe. Nothing but brown metal. For a moment she wondered where everyone was… then several tanks emerged from the landslide of aluminum and steel, crushing junkers and car frames alike under their treds… now… now it was a clusterfuck in the middle of a sea of rusted metal. Everyone was exposed, the admin building was gone, either collapsed or buried under all that metal. But now was the time. She saw her goal. Natalia's Objekt began to emerge from under all that rubble.
"Vera, ten o'clock!" Mishka exclaimed. Then without her direct orders, Pollie gunned the engine, rushing towards Natalia's tank. "And the craziness continues…" Mishka muttered, but closing the distance would held with her shot's penetration. Natalia's tank was still climbing out of the rubble, its gun pointed into the sky. Before the tank could level out… when it did, a loud crack and squeal could be heard, the metal underneath it being flattened, Mishka's tank was already within fifty meters. The Objekt began to turn its turret, but it was too late. "FIRE!" Mishka bellowed and around barked from her tank's gun, impacting the side of Natalia's weird looking tank. The round connected with the tank's turret, smoke and sparks flew from the tank… then a white flag popped up from the Objekt's turret. Mishka held in her jovial squeal, though in her head, it was party time. "Take that Natalia!" she bellowed in the recesses of her mind. "Fuck yeah!"
Then she remembered the match was still on… she quickly scanned her surroundings, spotting the burnt out husks of the rest of Red Team, flags waving above them. A couple of her Blue tanks seemed operational still, maybe three, with a single White tank left. She flinched. It was Nisha's tank and it was bearing down on her. The guns report didn't even register with her before the round struck the back of her T-72, causing a fiery explosion which rocked Mishka's world. She grasped onto the turret for dear life, sinking down slightly… then… with a pop and a hiss, a white flag shot up from her turret. She cursed quietly in her head. Oh well, at least she'd gotten the pleasure of taking out Natalia. But it was an annihilation match. It wasn't over till two teams were completely out cold. She reached down for her Makarov, getting ready to jump out of her tank.
"'Ey! Mishka!" she heard from her left, tensing up and pointing her pistol in the direction of the voice. Natalia had emerged but all she heard after that was the rattle of her PPSH-41 as she fired indiscriminately at her, painting her tank red. Mishka bailed out of her tank and slid down it, intent on clinging to the side of the turret for cover, she had no intention of jumping down onto the sea of rusty metal below her for fear of getting cut by that gross looking metal. The last thing she wanted was tetanus. She managed to grab hold of her tank's hatch. She was about to swing around to the back of the tank, was in the process actually, when suddenly her vision blurred… then darkened. She hardly had time to register she'd been hit in the face, or spit out the toxins she'd gotten in her mouth. Then she fell, fell right into that sea of metal she'd been trying to avoid. She didn't even register the pain she'd have felt when the jagged metal cut into her. She didn't even register the replying hail of sim rounds that answered Natalia's, nor did she register who carried her off the field…
Somewhere in Siberia, date unknown...
The first thing she saw when she finally came back too was blinding light. For a moment she thought she'd died, but the faint beeping that reached her ears - a sound that should have frightened her - brought her back to reality. The first thing she felt was pain, dull pain, but a persistent pain. No matter where or how she moved, she felt her abdomen groan in pain… than and her mouth was horribly dry, she could feel her tongue cracking slightly. Then an urge hit her… her stomach churned and she leaned over, yet to have sat up. She felt a hand grab her around the back of her head and pull her to the edge of the bed she realized she'd been laying in. At the edge of the bed she looked down, spotting a yellow bucket… then it happened.
"Herk-blauugh!" she tossed her cookies into the bucket, a sludge of red and pink… for a moment she thought she just puked up blood!
"Easy, easy…" said a calming voice, but it was one she recognized. She wiped her face and looked up. It was Nisha, her long black hair tied into a ponytail. She wore a toned down version of her White Army uniform, no hat or sword this time, no shiny medals either. "It's alright, you've been in and out of it the last twenty-four hours. They've inducing you to expel as much of the toxins you swallowed as possible… guess there's a little bit left." her tone was soft and soothing, not like how she usually sounded; collected and firm. It was how Nisha had spoken to her while Natalia was still asleep that one morning in the tower, when she'd offered to get her hot cocoa and a new coat, after Natalia had stolen hers. "On that note…" Nisha resumed, reaching over to a table next to Mishka's hospital bed, her hand returning with a glass of water. "Drink, you need to re-hydrate." Mishka quietly grumbled, she was right, but even though Nisha was only a year and a half older than her, she was acting like her mother. Actually, that's a lie, more like a nanny.
She began to sit up, groaning in pain, but man, that water was really appealing, so much so she'd bear the pain just to sit up. It was then that she noticed the bandages wrapped around her arms and her abdomen. She herself was only donned in her underwear, the same that she'd worn during the match. She pulled her blanket up a bit , covering her lower half, though upon flexing her legs a bit, she could feel bandages around her thighs and calves as well. "While you were out, they gave you over a hundred stitches." Nisha explained, causing Mishka's eyes to widen. "How's your vision by the way?"
"A-... a bit blurry." Mishka stammered out. Over a hundred stitches? "B-but I can see."
"Good… good. Doctor said you'd make a full recovery, but you'd be out of commission for a few weeks." Nisha said, raising her hand to offer Mishka the glass of water again. A few weeks?
Mishka looked back at Nisha, taking the glass of water and before going any further, downing the whole thing in a matter of seconds. Oh. That was good. Good fucking water. "A few weeks?" she asked.
Nisha nodded… she'd miss their match against China. She pounded, "Damn it…" she muttered.
"So… you still want to continue?" Nisha asked, tilting her head slightly.
Mishka nodded. She did. She wasn't going to quit tankery just because of some injuries. She was Russian. It would take more than a sports injury to get her to quit her number one activity for the past two years. "I'm sticking with this." she affirmed. But she had to ask… "How are the others?"
"There were two dozen hospitalized injuries this time. Most of them were minor, a stitch here or there, a concussion or two, only two were serious, one of them being yours." Nisha replied. Someone else had been injured just as badly as her… "The other is across the hall…"
"W-who?" Mishka asked.
Nisha chuckled once. "Natalia." she replied, "After eating several dozen rounds from my machine gun." she paused. "She didn't fall off her tank, but she'd probably damn near a tranquilizer overdose…"
Mishka cracked a slight smirk, she snickered quietly, causing her to wince, putting a hand over her abdomen. "She deserved that." she remarked in a whisper.
"After the sportsmanship she showed, I'd be surprised if they left her in command…" there was a tense pause for a moment… then Nisha sighed, "Who am I kidding, no I wouldn't be." as ruthless as Natalia was, something was keeping her in power. Either strings being pulled behind the scenes, or perhaps the head of Russia's Tankery Federation actually thought she was just the best commander he'd seen… it was unclear. "Anyways… get some rest Piroshki. I'll check on you later, but if you need something." she raised her hand, producing a small walkie-talkie, setting it next to Mishka. She then gave her a quick wink… that made Mishka smile. As hard-assed as Nisha seemed, even though she was part of another of Russia's tankery factions, she still cared about those who she ultimately fought alongside. It warmed her up inside. Knowing that at least two of the three major officers here actually gave a damn.
"Thank you Nisha." she whispered, feeling a bit drowsy.
The black haired girl nodded back. "Don't mention it… I'll see you later." she said, turning to leave, exiting the room and leaving Mishka to nod back off. She was still disappointed, upset she wouldn't be participating in the Russia V. China match… but she found some solace that the Red bitch across the hall, just might not be either. That was enough for now. With a yawn, Mishka finally drifted back off. She huffed out her nose, easier said than done… the beeping was making things difficult. She really wanted to shoot that damn heart monitor right now.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it was pretty much all action.
Anyways, quick update; I added a content roadmap on my profile, it's still a work in progress, but the next two fics I plan on writing are up there. Included are also subjects that I'd be interested in writing about, so if there's nothing you like on the roadmap, but you see something that I'm willing to write about that you're a fan of, by all means shoot me a PM to request something. I may be able to come up with something!
But if you liked this then please, add it to your favorites and follow the story - or me if you find anything on the roadmap interesting. Also, if you've the time, please leave me a review, letting me know what you like, or, didn't like. Almost all feedback is helpful in some way or another, either letting me know what's good, what's not so good and even just letting me know whether people are enjoying what they're reading. (Or not...) Just a quick review expressing potential curiosity helps.
And thus concludes my bout of self-promotion. Hope you have a fine evening-morning-night-day-afternoon-whatever.
Till next posting/post chapter rant!
PS: I draw the line at tanks going the speed of souped-up sports cars, but bullshit like Mishka's T-72... yeah, that's fine.