Rough Riders
Chapter 8
Cold Front
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Schwarz, Texas
Camp Hollerith Military Base
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Early Evening
Tyler's hands shot up to protect his head at the sound of a shell detonating in the tree next to the A7V, showering the vehicle in splinters and wood chips before the branch they came from bounced off the roof. Even though he was inside the tank, his instincts took control briefly.
"Liz, return fire!" he ordered.
"On the way!" replied the Gunner. The bark of the 57 mm field gun rang out as their shell flew towards their opponent. The airborne projectile ricocheting on the roof of the target, ringing the vehicle's hull like a bell to the crew's displeasure. That is when Tyler saw it, the other team's flag tank hiding behind the tank Imperator had just shot. Grabbing the radio microphone, Tyler contacted two of the remaining tanks that were still operational.
"Payton, Mars, can either of you get a shot on their flag tank?" he asked over the sound of a 9.2-inch shell landing in between the two clashing sides.
"We can, but we're reloading at the moment. Give us a few seconds" came the response from Jake over in the Sturmpanzer II.
"I think we might be able to?" Payton replied. Her answer was more akin to a question. Payton Miller was the Commander of the newly acquired and newly crewed M8 HMC that had arrived at the base merely three days prior. Before Tyler was able to respond, the 75 mm howitzer of the M8 erupted, lobbing a shell in the general direction of the enemy. The shell flew wide and high, slamming into a tree to the right and behind the target.
Within a second of firing their cannon, a shell crashed into the M8, unveiling the white flag the tank held. The loud roar of the 150 mm gun from the Sturmpanzer II sounded off before the other team could react to the missed shot. For the crew of Mars team, their shell flew through the air straight and true into the flag tank, the Mark V, bringing a close to the today's practice skirmish. The team began to slowly make their way back to the warehouse to wrap up practice and head home. Despite that it was only a little before five o'clock, the skirmish was the only thing planned for the day so team was being let go early.
Climbing out of the A7V, Tyler immediately noticed the temperature had begun to drop rapidly. Even from inside the warehouse, the cold could still be felt by all. There was supposed to be a massive cold front moving through overnight, although it appeared to have arrived earlier than expected. In the back of the building sat the hulking outline of the FCM 1A. While the tank had arrived, the team was having a difficult time trying to recruit people to crew the heavy tank. It was probably too late to find a crew now, but the team was still trying. Pushing that thought from his mind, Tyler made his way towards the greenhorn crew of the team.
"What did y'all think of your first combat scenario?" Tyler asked the new members.
"It was enthralling!" exclaimed Payton. Energy and excitement just about flowed off her.
"Sorry about missing that shot on their flag tank during the skirmish" apologized Anne, the Gunner of the M8. Tyler shook his head with a small smile on his face.
"It's fine, you're all still new to all this and, through practice, could eventually become a crew of sharpshooters" he calmly replied. Anne visibly relaxed with that but still looked as if she was mentally beating herself up over it. "But if it's going to keep you up at night, we'll be working on maintenance and our gunnery tomorrow. You can go and ask the crew of the Sturmpanzer or the StuH for some help and advice on firing low velocity guns if y'all want, I'm sure they'd be happy to help."
"Pioneer" Payton almost shouted before Tyler could start to walk away. He stopped moving and slowly turned to face the energetic girl with the most confused expression on his face.
"What?"
"Our callsign. You said to think of a callsign for our crew, and we chose Pioneer."
"Ah, that's a good one. Which reminds me," Tyler said as he pulled a piece of paper that contained all the callsigns on it out and handed it to the new Commander, "it is recommended that you try to either memorize this or hold on to it until you do."
With a thanks from the crew of the M8, Tyler headed back towards his own crew to help finish cleaning up. The six members of Imperator made short work of the after-practice maintenance.
"Hey, what are you doing tonight?" asked Liz. Realizing that it was directed at him, Tyler paused to think.
"I didn't have any plans…why?"
"The Japanese National Finals start at six o'clock this evening. That is, if you still want to watch them."
"That sounds like fun, we should have like a little crew get-together to watch it" came the voice of Lucy with her head poking out of the hatch. Tyler could have sworn that he saw the smile on Liz's face be replaced with an unreadable expression for a fraction of a millisecond before the smile returned.
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Evening
After arriving back at home, Tyler quickly put on some warmer clothing before grabbing a key to the door and heading out. He had made sure to leave a note on the kitchen counter explaining where he was and what he was doing should either of his parents became curious. Before he left, he noticed an email from Johnston in his inbox asking him if he could do something for the Commander's meeting tomorrow. Ensuring that the door was locked and the tasks assigned to him by Johnston were completed, he started to walk down the street to the Morrison's residence. By now the sun was starting to dip below the horizon while the temperature continued to plummet. The journey to his friend's house was not long, they lived just down the street after all.
It was only just a couple minutes of walking on the desolate road before the lone teen reached his destination. The mid-sized, two-story house where the Gunner of the Imperator lived. The bottom floor was primarily made up of stone most likely from a local quarry, the pale, orange colored rock was a common sight in the town. The upper floor had a pale red painted wood that matched well with the stone below. Judging by the cars parked in the street in front of the house, Tyler assumed that he was the last one to arrive. He walked up the little path and knocked on the big wooded front door. There were a few seconds of silence as Tyler heard laughter loudly echo from inside. He reached up and knocked one the door once more after a few minutes had passed of nobody answering. This time the door opened to reveal a short, middle aged women with dirty blonde hair that had its fair share of gray streaks running through it.
"Well look who it is. If it isn't the team captain himself. Its been a while since you've last visited, stranger" spoke the woman, a hint of amusement in her voice.
"It is nice to see you too, Mrs. Morrison" Tyler greeted.
"Don't just stand there in the cold, come on in" Mrs. Morrison beckoned him inside.
"I hope you don't mind us all meeting here tonight."
"It's no problem at all. Any friend of Elizabeth or Jake are welcomed here at any time, or at least any reasonable hour" joked the mother. "Now, head on upstairs with everyone else. The pizza will be here fairly soon, so I hope you saved some room."
Mrs. Morrison walked back over to the living room as Tyler made his way up the staircase to join the others. At the top and down a little hallway was a moderately sized room which had a sofa, a few chairs, and a TV that already had the upcoming match on screen. In the room was the other five members of the A7V and, unsurprisingly, Jake and Mr. Morrison. It had appeared that Tyler had walked in during the middle of an interesting story being told by the father.
"…it was during the last match of our sophomore year" Mr. Morrison told the captivated teens, "As I watched her snipe at least seven tanks on her own…"
"It was only five!" came a somewhat distant shout from downstairs.
"…I thought to myself that she was the one I wanted to be with. I don't particularly know why I had that thought at that moment, but I did" the man continued on as if he wasn't interrupted.
"So, the reason that Liz is so into Tankery is because you fell in love with the person that broke your nose with a door" Otto summed up the entire story, face full of confusion.
"It was an accident, but yes, that is pretty much the reason why" answered Mr. Morrison. It was at that moment that the room noticed that Tyler had arrived.
"Hey, Tyler! I was wondering when you would show up!" Liz greeted cheerfully. Tyler smiled in return and took off the heavy coat he was wearing.
"Sorry for taking so long. Johnston sent an email with the information about the next match. He asked if I could make copies of the map for each Commander for tomorrow's meeting" Tyler apologized. Seeing that there was only one open spot left, he sat down next to Liz on the sofa and draped the coat over the back of the furniture piece.
"Did you walk here?" asked Jake incredulously. Tyler nodded his head.
"It's only a three-minute walk here."
"What can you tell us about the upcoming match?" was the question unsurprisingly asked by Liz. Tyler let out a sigh.
"How did I know that you would be the one to ask that" he asked to no one in particular. "Well, the match will be held on November 11th a little bit north of a town called Colfax, New Mexico. We'll be facing the South Shore High School Desert Rangers from southern Nevada."
As he was conveying the extremely limited amount of knowledge he had to his crew, Mrs. Morrison had joined the watch party in the room with the pizzas she had mentioned earlier. The conversation was put on the back burner as the Japanese National Finals match started on the TV. Tyler made mental note after mental note over the course of the entire match. Kat seemed to enjoy when the Jadgpanzer 38(t) went around harassing the opponent's heavy tanks and tank destroyers. Caleb questioned the idea of charging down the hill straight through the enemy units but was surprised when Oorai came out of the charge without a loss. Liz let out a loud laugh as the Jadgtiger drove into a ditch and flipped over, taking the vehicle out of the fight.
Time seemed to fly by and before everyone knew, the match was over, Oorai had emerged victorious after an epic final show down between the Panzer IV H and the Tiger. Eventually, the group of friends said their goodbyes and parted ways for home. Putting on his heavy coat and walking out the door, Tyler was hit with a mighty gust of freezing wind once he left the protection of the front porch. The temperature had probably dropped nearly twenty-five degrees between noon and when Tyler went to the Morrison's house, but it had plummeted another twenty after the sun had dipped below the horizon. It was interesting to think that only just five hours before it had been nearly eighty degrees outside, and now it was approaching the mid-thirties.
Tyler walked up the driveway and quietly entered the house from the back door. As he gently closed the door, he heard a rather loud noise coming from down the hall. If he didn't know that it was his dad snoring in the bedroom, it would have been easy to mistake that noise for the growling of a bear. The note the Tyler had left was still sitting on the kitchen counter, but there was a new addition at the bottom of the paper. Ok was the single word written. He was not really expecting them to care that much. Afterall, he was just the middle child. As long as he didn't die or break any laws and he kept up his grades, his parents did not really care what he was doing. Brushing the thought out of his mind, he made his way to his bedroom and retired to bed.
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North Hill Country High School
Monday, October 29, 2012
Afterschool
Sitting on a bench in the very little amount of sunlight that was available, Tyler sat studying the map for the next match. He along with the rest of the Rough Riders were awaiting Scalis and the bus to arrive. While it was certainly warmer than it was the night before, the temperature hadn't actually increased by much. To pass the time, and to distract him from the cold, Tyler had pulled out the maps and began looking over them to try and formulate a strategy.
Apart from the southwest and southeast corners, the rest of the southern portion of the map was marked off as being inaccessible. Quite possibly that area was the location of a Plateau or a Mesa where the group suddenly jumps up in altitude. That land feature extended from the southern edge and going north to practically the center of the match area. Sprinkled across the map were pockets of wooded areas, more than what Tyler would have thought for New Mexico. Not dense enough to be considered forests, but enough to provide a minuscule amount of cover and shade. Luckily for them, most of the trees looked to be on the western side of the map; with a particularly big one near their starting position in the southwest corner. In the center of the map was another one of those inaccessible areas. However, this one was significantly smaller in size with it being most likely a steep hill. In between it and the larger area was a narrow gorge where the trees seemed to be the densest. The entrance to said gorge looked to be closer to their starting point than it was to South Shore's.
Before Tyler could continue looking at the map, there was a sudden tap on his shoulder. Looking up from the piece of paper in his lap he saw a group of six people standing before him. The group was about half and half on girls and boys. His eyes focused in on the girl that looked to be the one leading this group of teens. She was probably around his height and had fiery red hair, a little duller in color compared to Lucy's hair.
"Are you the captain of the Tankery team?" she asked.
"Yes, that would be me. How can I help you?" replied Tyler.
"We would like to join the team!" the red head stated. Although the authority in her voice gave the impression that there was no chance in rejecting them, not that they would have anyway. The team could always use more people.
"Well, it just so happens that we have a tank in need of a crew" Tyler tried to state in a similar authoritative tone. Tried to. The girl and her friends grew excited to hear the information nonetheless. The girl's eyes went wide mere seconds after Tyler finished speaking.
"Where are my manners. The name is Cassidy. But you can call me Cass for short" she said.
Soon after the encounter, the bus arrived to bring the students to Camp Hollerith for practice. On the bus, the new members sat near Tyler and his friends and they shared information with each other. From what he had been told, all six of them were from the families that owned the large farms and ranches to the north and the west of Schwarz. It was actually when they watched the first match against Green Mountain that they decided to join as a group, but they put it off as they couldn't pick who would be the Commander. Tyler in turn, informed them the rules set by the military personnel and the duties that Cass was entrusted with. When the team finally entered the warehouse at the military base, Tyler lead the new crew to the vehicle that they would be using.
"And here is your tank" said Tyler, patting the side of the FCM 1A, "Now, I'll need you…"
"We've already chosen a callsign. Dreadnought" Cass interrupted. That threw a wrench in the gears of thought in Tyler's head which took a second to get out.
"That's a cool callsign, but what I was going to say is that you need to follow me to go meet with the other Commanders. In the meanwhile, the rest of you should start getting familiar with your new vehicle" he finished. With embarrassment on Cass's face, the two Commanders walked off the tiny office. There was a lot to do before the next match. And unlike the match against Green Mountain in Kansas, this time they would create a battleplan that wouldn't immediately shatter upon contact. Probably.
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I hope everyone reading this is having a great November so far, if not then I hope it gets better for you. This chapter was originally planned to be much longer, but I decided to move a little to the next chapter which will be the second match.
Starpottergeek: I have been planning some things that will be in the next chapter which relate to one of the things you said. But you'll have to wait. :)
Havel the Hebel: You can't have a World War One themed team without sufficient artillery.
Anyways, I will try to have chapter 9 posted before the end of the month. So until then, I hope you go on to have a wonderful rest of your day!