Hell On Tracks
Part 49
For whatever reason, I'm usually not in the midst of the early fighting in a match. I guess I just have the good luck of being in the platoon or pair that gets the less active flank. I had no such luck today, and as the lead element of First Platoon, we were right in the thick of it from the get-go.
We didn't run into Ooarai when First and Third platoons pushed through the forest, and we'd split up to maximize our search area as we chased after the smaller team. As First Platoon was moving into another thicket, Third Platoon called out a tank sighting, Ooarai's M3 Lee. One of our priority targets.
They were off to our left, and Blondie preempted Kay's call to have us turn in to encircle the Lee. She was certainly in an aggressive mood, and the rest of the Bandits were raring to go while I coordinated with the rest of leadership.
"Take that!" Tuco called out as the 75 roared and recoiled. I heard the shell casing slam back and fall into the bin at the bottom of the turret.
"Look at them, not even bothering to try fighting back. Cowards." Angel taunted under her breath, barely audible over the din of combat inside a tank. The 75 roared again, the shot going wide, and Angel cursed quietly.
"They're running! First and Third Platoons, fall in and give chase!" Kay ordered, her Sherman lurching forward and passing us to take the lead in the chase. Blondie stepped on it as soon as I relayed the order and we surged into position just to Kay's left.
Kay's style of TCing was rather different than my own, I idly observed. I was commanding unbuttoned, though only barely, roughly at shoulder defilade, while Kay was half out of the tank and gesticulating enthusiastically.
The first shot from the Lee soared well over Kay's head, and she actually taunted them with a laugh. "You aren't hitting us at all!"
"Kay, please keep your taunting off of command comms, I'm trying to work here." Arisa grumbled.
"I'm not sorry!"
Other than calling out adjustments to my crew, and occasionally coordinating with the rest of the command team, I didn't feel like I was actually contributing all that much. We were firing on the move, and the Bandits are plenty capable of handling that on their own, leaving me as a glorified spotter and radio voice.
Over the din of the running battle, where we proved nearly incapable of hitting the frantically dodging Lee, except for some scratched paint and an ineffective hit that skimmed the upper cupola that hopefully at least rattled the crew, I could barely make out the report of the 17-pdr.
"This is Second Platoon, we've made contact with enemy squadron rushing to reinforce the Lee. We're pushing through Concord to join you." Naomi reported. "Looks like the Panzer IV and the Type 89."
"Understood!" Kay acknowledged, before her gunner fired again. "Arisa, where do you think they'll turn?"
Arisa didn't respond for a minute. "Have two tanks head south-southwest. They'll turn when the two forces meet up, try and set up a full encirclement."
"Okay!" Kay cheered. "Charlie, Dog, go! Tally, you're up!"
"R-right!" I stuttered, letting my nerves show through. "Blondie, hard left, we're gonna cut off their escape." I said, before switching to platoon comms. "Haruna, with me."
"Following you." Haru acknowledged.
The tank lurched to the left, barely losing any speed, and our two tanks motored off to where Arisa predicted their chosen escape route would be. It was a quiet few minutes as we drove, though I could still make out the sounds of the running battle and hear things over the radio.
"They've turned, good call Arisa!" Kay called out. "Tally, they're coming your way!"
"Right, I see them." I said with a nod that nobody could see, before switching my radio to the tank's intercom. "Three tanks, twelve o'clock. Aim for the Lee."
"Gimme a stable firing platform." Angel demanded, and Blondie complied, pulling on the brakes. Not enough to stop us entirely, but enough for the stabilizer to work properly. As soon as it was, Angel fired. Sparks and a puff of smoke appeared on the Lee's frontal armor moments later.
"Direct hit!" Tuco cheered, watching through her own periscope before she got busy loading the next shell.
"Target's still moving. We must have grazed them." I reported, and I could hear Tuco pout over the intercom.
"Arisa's gunning is dead on today! Nice work!" Kay said cheerfully over the radio.
"Please, it's only been one good call. Praise me when I've won us the match." Arisa countered oh-so-humbly.
"AP up!"
"On the way!"
The tank rocked as the 75 roared once more, though this time Angel missed the Lee entirely. She cursed herself out, she should be hitting targets at this sort of range, even when both sides were moving.
This sort of range.
We were entirely too close.
"Driver, full stop!" I called out, failing to keep my sudden panic out of my voice.
I wasn't fast enough. The Panzer IV slipped between Haru's tank and mine, scraping the side of mine against their own flank as they shot past. We all pulled away from our combat positions momentarily to cover our ears against the horrendous screech of metal grinding on metal.
By the time we'd recovered, Ooarai's tanks were over the ridge behind us, and out of contact.
Kay cursed over the radio. "Don't mind their escape, chasing them too far won't do us any good. Let's take this opportunity to regroup."
All eight tanks in the mobile groups acknowledged, and I took the opportunity to haul myself half out of the tank, sitting on the brim of my hatch. Kay's tank pulled alongside, and she glanced down at the scraped paint along our hull.
"You alright, Tally?" Kay asked.
"A little shaken, but yeah." I admitted. "I wasn't expecting them to nearly ram us."
Kay let out a harsh laugh. "I don't think anyone was. Not even them. It just sort of worked out that way."
"I guess it did." I said, before taking a moment to breathe in and slowly exhale, letting out all of the tension in my body. Well, some of it.
"Keep up the good work, Tally!" Kay cheered with a big thumbs up before her tank motored off to another part of the temporary camp we were setting up. It was more of a loose circle of tanks on watch while a few people got out and stretched and nibbled on snacks, but it felt a little like a camp.
"Hey Tuco, Blondie, you two mind hopping out and checking on the portside tracks? I want to make sure they're still in good shape after that close encounter." I asked. It got a few grumbles, but both girls hopped out of the tank in short order and started investigating the damage.
A few minutes later, everyone was packing up and getting ready to roll out. Tuco and Blondie hopped back up onto the tank, ready to report. "Everything looks good. It might be a bit more vulnerable to a near miss, but that's not something we can really worry about right now."
I nodded to Tuco as Blondie dropped down into the driver's hull. "Sounds good. Thanks for checking."
"No problem!" Tuco cheered as she dropped down into the turret.
Once we were on the road, Arisa called in with an update. "They're going to try and set an ambush, at this junction." She rattled off a string of coordinates that I had to actively search my map for. After a moment, Arisa amended her statement. "Bunker Hill. Have a decoy move north along the road while the main force splits up and comes at them from both sides."
"Okay, got it!" Kay acknowledged. "Though, how do you know all that?"
"Women's intuition." Arisa answered cryptically.
I frowned as Kay laughed her evasive answer off. "That's dependable alright!"
My thoughts occupied me as Kay issued orders and we fell into formation. Something about Arisa's plan bothered me. She was supposed to be the one coordinating everyone, yes, but this plan felt more sure than anything I could come up with.
I tuned my radio to platoon comms before sitting up higher in my seat, getting well out of the tank. "Kay, I'm not sure about this."
"What do you mean?" Kay asked. "Arisa's been making good calls. Or do you mean being the decoy to bait them in?"
"Okay, yeah, that, but also… something about this plan just feels off. It's too sure of enemy movements." I admitted.
"What's going on?" Haruna asked.
"Leadership and planning stuff, I just needed as close to a private channel as I could get." I answered. "Sorry."
"It's fine. Give me a signal when you're done and I can tune back in."
"Thanks Haru, you're the best." I said, throwing a thumbs up in her general direction.
"You think it's too sure of enemy movements?" Kay asked after a moment of silence.
"That's the only way I can think to explain it. I can only ever give a guess of what our opponents are doing, and plan contingencies on how I think they'll react to our actions. Arisa sounded too confident in her plan."
"That's fair, but this is just Arisa. There's no way she can know exactly what Ooarai's doing, but the junction at Bunker Hill is a good ambush spot. It wouldn't hurt to expect one there, and we either catch them there like Arisa predicted, or we don't and it's only a little time wasted." Kay said, appeasing my worries.
"Are you sure?" I asked, worry still present in my voice.
"I'm sure. It's okay to worry about it, but the whole team's got your back here. Decoy duty doesn't mean expendable bait."
"Alright..." I frowned to myself, contemplating everything that had just been discussed. Kay had a point, but it didn't stop my gut from telling me something was off. Or maybe that was just the burger disagreeing with me.
Yeah, that was it. The general level of stress I've been dealing with recently and my lunch disagreeing with me must have me on edge and jumping at shadows. With that in mind, I gave Haru a wave over the top of our tanks, which she responded to with a thumbs up.
"All tanks, we're coming up on the Bunker Hill junction. Platoon Three, take the right flank, Platoon Two, take the left flank." Kay ordered. "Tally, Haruna, you two are going straight up the middle. Hold position while the rest of us get around the sides."
"Copy that." I acknowledged with a nod that I knew she couldn't see. With the risk of ambush present, I slipped down into the tank and closed my hatch before keying the intercom. "Driver, full stop."
"Why are we stopping?" Tuco asked.
"The other groups need a minute to get into position. Counter-ambush pincer maneuver." I explained.
"So we're coming at them from one side while another group comes from the other?"
"No, we're bait, going right up the middle." I said with a wince.
"WE'RE WHAT?!" Tuco shouted, and I instinctively made myself as small as possible against the far wall. Which wasn't very small since there's basically no room to maneuver inside a tank. "You're cozying up to the team captain and you couldn't even get us onto one of the groups that won't be getting shot at from all sides?!"
"Tuco, that's enough." Blondie tried to intervene.
"No, I'm on her side. I thought we were here to blow up tanks, not get shot to hell." Angel input.
"I had no choice in the matter!" I tried to insist as my crewmates in the turret both turned on me, but my voice barely came out in a whisper.
"Like hell you didn't. We all know what's going on with you shackin' up with our bimbo of a team captain. Or is it that you're in bed with her personal whore, that bitch in the Firefly? Nobody gets onto leadership that quick and easy without somethin' fishy goin' on behind closed doors. So why didn't you argue and get us out of getting shot up?" Angel demanded, a fire in her eyes that I'd never quite seen before.
The vitriolic words hit me like a 12.8 cm shell from a Jadgtiger. Anger welled up in my chest, and my body tensed, but I couldn't do much more. My body refused to move even as my mind went into overdrive, trying to deny everything Angel had accused me of and more.
My anger was soon overtaken by panic, but I couldn't act on that, either. I had no chance of scrambling for the hatch, to run away and never turn back. I couldn't even shed tears, or dissolve into broken sobbing as I probably would have done normally.
For the briefest of moments, I felt like a passenger in my own body as it refused to do anything I wanted to do. Darkness creeped into the edge of my vision, and I tried to scream. The sound echoed through my mind as everything went blank.
I came to not much later. I had no way to be sure how long I had been out, but I was leaning up against the turret wall, and Kay was calling over the radio to get Haruna's tank and my own moving. There was something damp on my face, and I quickly wiped away what had to be saliva with the sleeve of my jacket.
"Driver, get us moving." I ordered weakly over the intercom, trying to follow Kay's orders as best I could. Thankfully, Blondie didn't try to argue at all. I don't think I would have been able to take even a little bit of sass, let alone a full argument, without breaking down or worse.
The inside of the tank was as quiet as a running tank can get. Nobody was looking my way or talking, and from what little I could tell, Tuco had a scowl plastered to her face. For my own sanity, I looked away before she noticed me staring, and moved to look out of the vision blocks of my cupola.
I didn't have to look for long before a massive cloud of dust and debris appeared almost directly in front of us, driving off in the one direction we had been unable to block.
"All tanks, pursue!" Kay ordered with a cheerful voice. She was probably excited for another chase.
"After t-" I ordered quietly, before a radio transmission from Arisa cut me off.
"Charlie, Dog, hurry to point C1024R! Attack the enemy as soon as they're in sight!"
I blinked, and pulled out my map. Where the heck was C1024R? I searched the map for a hot minute before finally finding the point Arisa wanted. While it didn't have a specific code name, it was part of the area we'd labeled as Dorchester Heights. But if Arisa wanted us to go to that specific point on the map, that was where we would go. I took a moment to map out the route there.
With the route in my mind, I relayed the order, and took the opportunity of not being shot at to unbutton and get out of the confines of the Sherman's turret. Today was a beautiful day, even with all of the destruction and noise tanks caused just by moving around. A few scattered clouds did little to hide the shining sun and blue sky, and there was a gentle breeze causing the grass to sway ever so slightly.
The breeze was like a breath of fresh air, and it helped release some of the tension in my body. Not all of it, but enough that I could breathe and think clearly. I did my best to not focus on Angel's words, but a few of them managed to worm their way into my thoughts.
'Nobody gets into leadership that quick and easy without something going on behind closed doors.' That phrase, more than anything else, was the one that was bothering me. Not the clearly false rumors, but that I was up to something corrupt to have gotten this far.
Did I not deserve this position? If all of my contributions have been on the planning side of things, nobody would be able to see it, so of course they would think things are fishy. But…
I took a deep breath to clear my thoughts. In for four beats, hold for four, out for four. It helped, and I turned my attention back to the world around me. Haruna's tank had fallen in behind us, echelon left, and rolling hills with scattered bushes were scattered all around us. The terrain reminded me of the Palouse, back in eastern Washington.
It was also a perfect place for an ambush. Lots of good firing positions and lots of cover to hide behind. I had to keep an eye out.
"Platoon halt, we should be here." Haruna called over the radio, and I relayed the order to stop. My binoculars came up to my face as I began scanning the ridgeline above us for any sign of the enemy, and beneath my feet the turret began rotating as Angel no doubt did the same with her scope.
"Tally, I'm not seeing anythin-!" Haru reported, before being interrupted by someone in her tank shouting something that I couldn't quite make out. Not a moment later I froze as the distinctive shape of an M3 Lee revealed itself to me through my binocs.
"Target two o'clock!" I called, but I was far too late. Ooarai had the drop on us.
Four guns fired in rapid succession, and my tank rocked from a near miss. Haruna was not nearly so lucky, and she'd taken a few hits. Moments after I looked over to her tank to assess the damage, the distinctive white flag popped up with a tiny 'thwip!'
"Driver get us out of here!" I called into the intercom, letting my binoculars fall to my chest as I held on for dear life with all the sudden maneuvering. A shell impacted just behind us as Blondie gunned the engine and pulled us into a hard turn. Beneath me, Angel frantically slewed the turret around, but she was too slow to get a parting shot off before we crested a ridge and got to safety.
Just in the nick of time, too. Another shell, from something, landed right next to us and rocked the tank just that little bit more before we were fully into cover.
"Dog team, immobilized!" Haruna called out on her radio before her tank's power went down with the elimination.
Kay, Arisa, and Naomi all acted in a similar manner to how I felt right now. Shocked and surprised. All three made various exclamations and it took them a moment to calm down as assess the situation.
"Tally, are you safe?" Kay asked over the radio.
"Yeah, we disengaged. Barely." I answered, clenching and unclenching my unoccupied hand.
"Did you see what got Haruna?"
"I saw the Lee, and I think the StuG. There was a third tank, but I didn't get a good look at it before we were over a ridge and safe."
"Alright! Things are getting interesting!" Kay said cheerfully. "Arisa, which way do you think they will be going?"
"Give me a minute, there are a lot of options." Arisa snapped, clearly not taking the loss and the ambush as well as Kay and Naomi were.
"Okay, okay." Kay placated Arisa. "Tally, regroup with the rest of the team, we'll hunt them as one big company. No ambushes this time!"