AN:OKay, time for some slight Lore Reveal about Saunders and a motive as to why most of their military's female, as well as some early training!
My Armor is Contempt
Book 1:The Fall
Chapter 3:Muster the Armor
"Glory, Glory, Holy Terra! Glory, Glory, Holy Terra! Glory, Glory, Holy Terra! His Truth is calling all!"
-Saunders' 12th Mech. Infantry "Hellcats" Muster Hymn
The Next Day.
Saunders Schola Progenium Library, Local History Section.
Planet Saunders, Navadis System, Sabbat Worlds Eastern Reaches
"What...?" Kay stared at the pages of the History book, face morphed into a combination of sheer disgust and awe.
The Great Ravage. It had been a plague. A plague still on the planet, in the atmosphere...
Some villainous fuck from among Chaos's ranks had managed to create a plague that affected the entire population of Saunders to the degree of a declining birth rate that would've seen this world become an empty one. It affected the male gender hardest of all, causing untimely deaths in the young and painful, writhing deaths in the old, while some of the women on the planet were rendered infertile. Any male who survived or had the luck of a strong immune system was henceforth seen as a rarity. There had been a small Civil War fought for the declining male population of the planet, to ensure a return to normal. It was fought by the girls in basic armored vics and infantry formations.
Saunders had become a world whose birth rates consisted of around 95% females and now relied heavily on in-vitro fertilization and other medical advances to allow the birth of new members. Worst part was, if the child was born male and they were not from the descendants of those with immunity, they would die to the Plague's still-present effects, or survive only long enough to be damaged irreparably by it. She winced as she remembered certain discussions from back on Earth regarding similar situations. She disregarded the thoughts, reading on about the Plague and how it still affected the planet to this day. She actually couldn't believe her eyes. Who in good God's name even managed to concoct a plague like this?
"I'm... Surprised you're shocked by it, Kay." Naomi stated, "It's been standard knowledge for the last six millennia. Adeptus Ministorum and Magi Biologis of Mars saved our behinds with the in-vitro tech, damn near gave us something they considered tech-heresy as well if I remember right, at least before the Sabbat Worlds fell into the clutches of the Arch-Enemy again."
"It's..." Kay shook her head, unsure how to word it. How were these two so relaxed at the idea of soon fighting someone with the capability to create bioweapons like this!?
"Fucked, FUBAR, insane, crazy, wrong, all kinds of awful... I can think of a few more." Alisa quipped, smirking, "But it's also the reality we live with now. Your dad's one of the lucky descendants of the male immune population, remember?"
"Right..." Kay sighed... At least her dad and... Wait, "Where're my mom and dad?"
"Back in Argos, the capital, with your younger brother and your sister." Naomi answered, "Alongside our moms, of course. It's 'bout a 3 hour drive from here."
The girl felt like a weight the size of a tank had been lifted off of her heart. Her family was also here and maybe, just maybe, she could tell them of this entire clusterfuck, including figuring out whatever had sent her here, to Space Saunders. She'd resorted to calling it that in her mind, to not confuse it with her aircraft carrier school. Now that she'd also had some time to process the newly-acquired information across this week and a day, she felt more familiarized. A good thing, considering she'd just gotten her Captain's pins, but she still needed her family.
She'd tell Alisa and Naomi at some point, sure, but...
"What about family names, then?" Kay raised a brow.
Alisa rolled her eyes, "Blame that one on the Adeptus Ministorum serfs. Immediately after our little bout of Civil War regarding boys, the main Imperial Administratum office that came only got female first names from both the traitor forces and from our ancestry. They figured we don't use family names, for some fucking reason, and from there Saunders has no real family names... I think the only one that slipped through was the good old general Genetia Sophia Pattern."
... A female Patton, huh? "How come?" Kay asked.
"She married a Cadian who came here to train our Regiments." Naomi said, "Took his family name. Lucky for the guy, he had immunity to the Great Ravage."
Kay chuckled, "She sounds smart."
"Pattern is the mother of Saunders's Armored Warfare doctrines and one of the meanest bitches the Schola on our great planet ever created." Alisa smirked mischievously, "They say she was as mean as a cyber-hound, with the temper to boot. She loved the gals under her command like her own daughters but damn sure she reprimanded them as such, for anything up to and including cowardice... Though the latter usually fell to her Commissar to deal with."
"Didn't some historians say she carried a master-crafted Lucius Las-Pistol with pearl handles? Pretty sure we have it here." Naomi asked. The diminutive ginger answered with a chuckle.
"Ivory. She called out pearl handles as the stuff only pimps and munitorum-issue Commissars with no taste would use."
"You sure? I think you got things turned around last time as well, Ali."
"100% on it. We can go check in the Schola's little side museum to see the pistol if y'want."
The two turned to Kay, who shrugged and said "Sure thing." as she stood up and walked to place the book back into the slot she'd found it in. The trio proceeded toward the Museum section. Indeed, inside there was a multitude of artifacts of the Old Saunders. Old helmets resembling World War 1 American helmets, bolt-action firearms lined against a wall behind a pane of armored glass, as well as pump-action shotguns next to them, early Lasgun models and pistols as well.
Sat in the middle of an alcove, a pedestal with a glass box on top held atop it a very decorated Las-pistol. Around it, pict-graph walls depicted the great General, a woman with auburn hair and diamond-blue eyes, wearing a grin on her face and toting that single laser-based pistol in one hand as she faced down a horde of the Arch-Enemy's twisted troopers, painted in the distance and lacking details. She was aboard a Macharius Super-Heavy Vanquisher Tank and beside her, infantry bearing lasguns and banners faced the foe alongside other tanks and armored vics.
"Sorta looks like ya, boss." Murmured Alisa.
Naomi hummed, cupping her chin in a thinker's pose, "She does... Actually."
"Don't start with me, girls. I'm not sure I'm gonna even get to General at the rate we're going." And truth be told, Kay still wanted to wake up back home. The hope that she was still dreaming had dwindled away to nothing but an echo in the back of her mind, but it still existed. Uneasily, she shifted her stance, crossing her arms and leaning slightly back as she looked over the frescoes depicting the General's battles. She then turned to face the engraved pistol with gold details and the pearl broom-handle grip.
"Huh." Alisa read the holo-inscription at the side of the pedestal, then said "You were right, Nae. 's Pearl."
Naomi shrugged. She was the team's weapon connoisseur after all, Sharpshooting skills and the likes. Kay chuckled, looking over the weapon. Kay looked on, starting from the pearl grip that had a relief carving of the Aquila, as well as a golden eagle's head attached as a pommel. On the gun's body, the designs of intricate vines and flowers danced across the steel and alloy body of the pistol, its heat sinks rimmed with gold inlay, nine jags that pointed inward like a string of nine teeth from a Chainsword(The most brutal hand-to-hand Weapon Kay had had the displeasure of reading about) and with two words inscribed on the plates at the sides. Sabbat Martyr, she read them. Curious words, but she figured...
"Kay..." A girl's whispered voice called to her. The girl wheeled herself around, wide eyes locking with the painting depicting General Pattern once more. She hummed, now noticing the figure standing above the lines of Imperial forces. A winged angel in a blue armor and bearing a sword of arching lightning. She saw Naomi and Alisa's faces next, eyes filled with worry staring at their actual CO.
She hummed, "Sorry, I... Just thought I heard something... Did general Pattern fight alongside the Saint?"
"Was a major part of the crusade to bring the Sabbat Worlds' Eastern Reaches under the thrall of the Imperium." Alisa smirked, "Didja just notice the painting or what?"
"I just saw the upper part, yeah." Kay smirked. The two heard the deep, rumbling growl of a stomach and turned to see Naomi. The girl's face was a harsh shade of red and her eyes were wide, hands wrapped around her belly. Kay and Alisa exchanged a single look, much to Nae's chagrin, before both burst into a laughing fit worthy of stress relief. Kay's mind lingered on that whisper for a bit, but she chose not to think too much about it.
Kay patted her friend on the shoulder, tears still in the corners of her eyes from laughter, then said "C'mon, Hotshot. Let's get something in that gut of yours."
Lunch was, after all, almost upon them. Better to reach the cafeteria sooner than the others, though, to catch seats for the squads. The day passed uneventfully, the Mechanized Infantry training, the armored corps awaitin', the crews being trained each in classrooms and such. During the day, the Major and the command staff had announced that the training program for the latest Regiments was to be accelerated. That meant that, as soon as tanks arrived, the girls would be trained together in everything, including the classes they'd taken so far, aboard the tanks instead of just with theory.
Kay felt a pit in her stomach when she'd heard that announcement. So much so that, when she went to sleep in preparation for the next day, she once again woke with a startle. It was the middle of night in the barracks and all lights were out, but there was Kay, sat up straight, wide awake and in a cold sweat. Her heart rattled off like an assault stub rifle for the nth time this week alone.
She'd heard her name called again, this time a loud, piercing scream that shook her to her very core.
Then she saw fire.
A lot of fire.
So much...
Saunders's flag was burning. She didn't know what that meant, but by God and the Emperor, she didn't like it. It was burning bright, like it was a funeral pyre in that horrid nightmare. A landscape of death and fire and damnation. She swallowed empty, moving her hand to tug at a non-existent collar. Right, she was in her tank top when she slept. Tank top and shorts.
She needed to sleep right now, not shit herself over some dumb nightmare. Not like being where she was wasn't some freak-ass nightmare to her. A world of Only War, where the laughter of thirsting gods was the soundtrack to battles where millions of soldiers and machines clashed against one-another with impunity and no mercy. God-Emperor protect her, she slowly drifted more toward the Imperium's beliefs than anything just at the thought of fighting the monstrosities of the Arch-Enemy. Damn it all.
A month later
Saunders Schola Progenium Tank Range no. 05, two kilometers east of the main campus.
The girls that belonged to all tank school classes of the Saunders Schola had lined up neatly in many rows, Kay's officer cadre at the front and first to see the mirific beauty that lay ahead, Kay's mind wandering to the nightmare from a month ago. They'd been each given numbers and told that each number meant the tank they'd be serving in. None of them could believe their eyes, however.
Lined up in ten rows of a hundred, standing high and mighty, the Imperial Armor before them, painted in solid olive green, sat with its myriad cannon types raised almost in salute of their future operators. A thousand Leman Russ Battle Tanks of the Sabbatine pattern, vehicles with more rounded forward hulls and turrets than their Martian brethren, as well as of varied types ranging from the mighty Anti-Tank Vanquisher to the all-rounder energy tank, the Ryza-pattern Executioner and the Emperor-blessed Punisher Anti-Infantry Tank, as well as a series of case-mate style Destroyer Tank Hunters that occupied half a row.
The Major stood before the tanks and before her assembled officers, gunners, gunlayers, loaders, drivers and other crew. Behind her, by the tanks themselves, sat the blue-robed Tech-Priests of Sabbatine. The reclusive Tech-masters of the Imperium sat, huddled by the machines they'd presumably built with the aid of their servitors, each. Faint traces of red also permeated the formation of blue-clad Techpriests. Priests of Mars and Ryza also came to the sanctification ritual.
The Major cried loudly, "LADIES!"
The thunder of thousands of boots slamming together filled the massive mustering field near the Tank Range. The entire cadre of female soldiers cried "Ma'am!" as the woman. Kay beamed at the Imperial Armor, listening to the Priests singing a War Cant in murmurs. The Major took stock of the 30-odd girls in the officer cadre, then the lines behind them and stopped in front of Kay, the Captain. She smiled, then spoke through a Vox-caster microphone linked to a PA system around the range, "You stand before the mighty makings of the Mechanicus! These Machines of War will be your homes, your beloved and your crew will be your family!"
"The Omnissiah's own are here to bless these machines on their first activation! They will speak the Rites of Maintenance, they will help bring them to life and stoke the fire that burns within all of you!" The Major espoused proudly, "With Sabbatine, Ryza and Mars itself as our witnesses, daughters of Saunders, this is the ritual of Blessing! The Ritual in which your tank crews will be formed! The very ritual in which you, as a sisterhood of tankers will be officiated! Starting from today, you are no longer just students at our school."
She smiled at Kay and the other toppers of the Officer class, "From today, you will be taught warfare at its rawest! Taught to become the women that will bring the future of Saunders to bear! You will be the enemy's worst nightmare, the Emperor's blessed arms, the bulwark against which the tides of the Arch-Enemy will sunder, melt and SHATTER! You are Saunders's Tank Corps! The next great Regiment!"
"Hoorah!" The girls chorused, Kay smiling proudest.
"Our world suffers still from the Arch-Enemy's poisons! From the Great Ravage... You! You will be the sword of vengeance!" The Major cried, "As those before you have been!"
"Hoorah!" They answered, chests puffed out. The girls now wore tankers' fatigues, including the olive drab battle dress, the flak vests meant to halt shrapnel and the padded tank helmets that would protect them and allow them communication. It was murder on Kay's hair to wear one of the black, long-eared and reinforced helmets of the Tank Corps, but she didn't give a damn. She'd gone through too much with the new Saunders so far. She'd find her own damn way home if it would kill her, so the Emperor bless her.
"Beside you, beside the grinding treads, you will have sisters who will fight wielding naught but lasguns and the Iron Will of our people! You are their shield, as they are your Guard and as you are all the shield of all those faithful to the Emperor, to the Omnissiah and to Saint Sabbat Beati herself, hallowed be their names! Your Regiment coalesces today! It forms today! Your training will forge it into a war machine worthy of the name 'Imperial Guard'!"
"HOORAH!" They bellowed yet again. Kay looked to see the second gathering of girls to their far left. Amy, having just now gotten the rank of Cadet Captain herself, was the Infantry's commander and the one at the forefront of the 20,000-strong Mechanized Corps of the Armor Regiment. The Mechanized Infantry had also received a slew of new combat and transport vehicles, Chimeras, artillery pieces, scout vehicles. The entire Tank Range was filled with troops and War Machines.
"The Emperor watches over us, girls! HIS WILL!" The Major roared
"IT IS OUR DUTY!" The girls roared right back. Kay's throat felt a bit sore, but the pride in her chest... It was inspiring.
"HIS FURY!" Rosa called again, planting her Power Sword into the wet soil below her feet.
"IT IS OUR SWORD!"
"OUR CONTEMPT?!" The Major. The Major was a great woman. A wonderful commander, Kay had found out... Heh, if luck would have it, she'd be tasked as Colonel of the Regiment.
"IT IS OUR ARMOR!" The girls bellowed the finale of the Litany of War, pounding their chests with their fists, "HOORAH!" as the Major raised high her Relic Imperial Power Sword. One month of reading, one month of studying, one month of learning what needed to be learned. Kay was going to survive this. She was going to make it home and not even the Arch-Enemy himself was gonna stop her. The Emperor Protects.
"The Emperor Protects!" The Major roared, the girls roaring back those same words. Almost 30,000 Guardsmen lay lined up before her, Rosa thought. 30,000 of Saunders's finest young women. The time for baby-talk and studying in crowded class halls had come to an end. The time of training together, of wielding the blessed arms of the Emperor, of becoming a cohesive unit as Rosa had wanted for them from the start, had finally come.
She looked to the right, at an approaching young female officer wearing the flak vest, toting the lasgun and holding under her arm the helmet of the infantry. Her shoulders bore the rank of Major as well and she looked about as old as Major Rosa, with cropped black hair and dark-blue eyes. The two women smiled and nodded to one-another, before Rosa handed the Vox-mike to her. She tapped it twice, echoing through the PA system, before she smirked and started, "Alright, listen up! This one's for the Infantry! I am Major Marina, formerly of the same regiment as good old Major Rosa over here! I now teach the Mechanized Infantry classes... All of y'all know me for how much of a bitch I am in your theory courses. You also know my friend who teaches rifle qual for both sides. Yeah, us boots are usually the fuckin' pissed ones."
A few chuckles escaped the crews of the tanks and the infantry itself. Marina continued, "Anyways, the thing is, ladies, you will learn within the year that I am much worse. Starting today, your Regiment enters training as a combined unit... Make no mistake, this does not mean you are a Founded Regiment, ready for active duty. Fuck me, we'd be nuts to send someone out with as little training as you little runts have to Warmaster Slaydo's retinue. The man would order our planet bombed from orbit himself."
Rosa winced and averted her gaze. Kay noticed, while the others let out faint chuckled.
Marina hummed, "Anyways, I'll be leading the Infantry section of this training... Make no mistake, though, I will be coordinating us with Major Rosa and her Tankers. We'll drill you girls until you understand which side's up, what a fucking tank tread is and how to not suck at shooting a rifle on the move. The Mechanized Infantry makes up the bulk of this Regiment, as is standard for most of our regiments, but the tanks remain the spearhead and its strongest assets. We are their support, as they are our mobile cover."
A few more chuckles. Marina smirked, "You'll be taught maneuver warfare, cooperation and radio-communications between our two sides... You will do as you're told and you'll go back to your dorms seating your tits off, I can promise you that, because we will be drilling you in every single thing our petty minds can think of and we will punish you for failure all the same."
The Infantry Major looked around and pointed at the vehicles of the Infantry, "From basic Chimera to Hellhound and to Basilisk, you'll know the ins and outs of those vehicles like the tankers will know theirs... And like we all know our Litanies. I'm no major officer type to hold high-end speeches about shit, I'm just a footslogger like the rest of you. We get shit done... How about we start now, ladies?"
"HOORAH!" Chorused the Infantry. Marina smiled.
"Good girls. They're all yours, Major." She handed the Vox back to a chuckling Rosa.
She took the mike, then called out "To the tankers! We'll begin a counting of all numbers. Those of you who hear your numbers, push your way to the front and find your tank and fellow crew and rally behind your commanders. They'll be your closest family for the duration of both training and combat... Now..." She pulled out a list, "Tank Number One!" and Kay quickly stepped up. Behind her, from the same row, another girl appeared, a fellow blonde with a buzzcut and a bit of a mean streak. Colleen, Kay knew her. The rough-and-tumble boisterous counterpart to Naomi's reclusive self. Following up, twins rallied up behind her.
The twins had hair dyed a deep blue, to match their eyes. Sara and Mara. The only difference between the two of them was the cheek tattoos. Sara had a rose drawn on her right cheek, thorns and everything, while Mara had a small Imperial Aquila on her left cheek. Next in line was Jade, a more pale, shy girl Kay had only seen once, during a trip to the library. She wore glasses and had eyes of a deep grass green color, as well as faint freckles on her face and, last but not least was Ellie. A more peppy girl, but all the same a good crew-woman.
"Sup, boss." Colleen smirked, "I'm Cadet Corporal Colleen, your loader. Kick me in the shoulder or call me on the Vox and I'll have your shell loaded."
"Nice to meet'cha proper, Colleen." Kay nodded, smiling.
"Cadet Troopers Sara and Mara, ma'am." The 'eldest' of the two, Sara, spoke.
"We will be your sponson gunners." Mara finished.
"Glad to have you both, girls."
"H-Hi..." Jade shook slightly, "C-Cadet Trooper Jade. I'll be driving..."
"Easy does it, Jade." The girl patted the reclusive one on the shoulder.
Ellie jumped up, her nutmeg hair flowing with the wind, then said "Yo! Cadet Trooper Ellie. Gun-layer and shooter, at your service."
Kay nodded to all of them as the Major called out the other numbers, then said "It's a pleasure to meet all of you, gals. Looks like we'll be sticking together for the next couple dozen years." as she saw them. Colleen clapped a hand on the back of Ellie, to stop the hyper girl from bouncing around, then chuckled a bit as she saw the girl scoff and turn toward her, while Jade was shying away from talking to the twins, who seemed more open to meeting her than even she was. Oh, great... Kay was gonna have to deal with unifying this little bunch, wasn't she?
She looked over to Alisa, whose crew actually included one of the most hidden members of the team. Helmet-chan had actually made it out of Japan, it looked like. She tipped her tank helmet toward Kay, who smiled at the crew before turning to see Naomi. She was also stuck with a couple more hyper girls. After a bit of 'get-to-know-you' between the crews, the Major hollered "All crews, mount up! The blessings ritual will need you to start the engines while the Priesthood does its job."
Boarding the armored fighting vehicle was odd and annoying to Kay. She'd had to climb up the side to be able to reach the open top hatch and slide herself in. The others mounted up through side and front hatches and entered the vehicle. Kay looked toward the Vox-connector to her left and slid the connector wire of her helmet into it, watching as the others did the same for their own helmets. They only needed to really do this once, while the Vox was gonna connect to the tank's internal system.
She looked across the tank, seeing the girls take to their positions almost naturally. Colleen sat as the Gunlayer and Loader, to Kay's right, while Ellie bounced excitedly in her Gunner's seat. She looked back to Kay, then beamed brightly. Sara and Mara had settled into the seats of their Guns, the heavy bolters mounted into the side turrets of the vehicle and, of course, Jade had found, trembling, her own seat, her hands wrapped around the directional system of the tank, one that Kay couldn't quite make out.
"This is a big fucking tank..." Kay murmured.
"Heh, way bigger than in the pict-graphs." Remarked Colleen, checking one of the magazines, "Aw, Emperor damn, it's not loaded."
"Of course. We're just starting her up." Ellie remarked, looking down the scope of the cannon.
"I know, but I wanted to feel how hefty a real tungsten-core AP shell would be." The bodybuilding loader rolled her eyes, "Eh, whatever. We're startin' training, after all. Shooting and loading comes natural with it."
"Hoorah to that, Colleen." Kay remarked, looking through the tank's up-scope, the familiarity of being in a tank easing her into her position. She flicked on the Vox system's external transmitter panel to her left, finding the tank had power in its batteries, then said "Looks like the old girl has some juice in her left over from the trip." and smirked at the girls, "Think they paid for gas? Or did they refill on the way over?"
Ellie and Colleen chuckled from the turret, with Jay letting out a whisper of a laugh from the front. The girl also had to man the forward-mounted coax Lascannon that had been installed in the vehicle. The Vox crackled, Kay listening in. The Major's voice came through to all tanks with crystal-clear transmission strength, "All tanks, am I reading on this net?"
"Five by Five." Chorused all the Tank Commanders, as it was drilled into them during the Vox-command classes of the Major.
"Good." Rosa spoke contently, "The Techpriests have begun their final prayers and blessings, girls... You can probably hear them." And, indeed, over the com, binary voices sang in chorus the Rites of the Mechanicum for the new Battle Tanks. The woman then said, "Start your engines in t-minus thirty seconds, then the entire crew must speak 'Machine God, grant your child the strength to stride forth' to allow the tank's Machine Spirit to awake fully. IF all is well, the Turbines should start with no issue."
Kay looked to Jaden, who'd heard the word and was already counting down on her fingers. She listened over the interior Vox system, as did the other members of the crew. The young woman, shy as she was, took the job of a tank driver seriously. She was also trained as the vehicle's engineer, despite her spindly appearance. Drivers and their Machines had a certain bond unlike anyone else's. A Commander's bond was to her crew and her machine as well, just in equal degree. Twenty-five long seconds passed...
"Five," Jade started counting down, her voice now focused, unwavering, fingers wrapped around the starter circuit button of the tank.
"Four." Kay saw Colleen tense. Every crew member, including herself, followed.
"Three." The girl's thumb hovered over the button. One twitch and the ritual would fail... Kay didn't think there'd be such religious fervor to start a Battle Tank, but... Here she was.
"Two..." Jade gritted her teeth. Kay closed her eyes and recalled the canticle she had to speak for their MBT to start.
"One."
The clock ticked. All girls of the crew chorused, "Machine God, grant your child the strength to stride forth!" and Jade pressed. With a roar, Kay heard the rear turbines of the engine come to life. Like a beast from tales of yore, the vehicle's engine roared to life, power surging through the systems inside as the Machine Spirit awoke to the call and worked to properly render everything from the stabilizer to the ground pressure sensors and the NV systems. The vehicle began to vibrate lightly, to the Engine's thunder. The crew all cheered proudly, with Kay raising high her hands in cheer.
"Nice work, girls!" She smirked.
"Fuckin' A Startup, Jay!" Colleen called out to the driver. She sputtered and blushed at the compliment while Ellie and the burly loader high-fived. The twins looked to one-another, smiling brightly at one another and then, the entire crew looked up to their Commander, who gave a prideful nod. The chemistry between them seemed to be there. Thankful, Kay bowed her head and sighed in relief, praising the Emperor under her breath that she wouldn't have to herd these girls like cats.
The Major spoke over radio, her voice welling with pride "All battle tanks are active! No failures, no issues! The Tech-priests voice their blessings to you, ladies! Well done!"
Up next, came the training.
Oh boy, the training.
The first few weeks of training involved driving, command giving and the sharpening of the cooperation between the tank crews' members first, before anything. There had been some bumps, but thankfully nothing major. Kay had only had to break up one fight between Colleen and Ellie and it was about some of the chocolate pudding that Command decided to hand out to them. Kay swore, she'd never seen an arm twist that way. Nor had she thought someone as tiny as Ellie could beat a burly girl like Colleen in hand-to-hand.
Of course, the first weeks were the easiest. Up next, came shooting and calibration, as well as the cooperation with the regimental task forces at large. Ellie had taken to her role as gunner very well, her rather more hyper personality also translating to the amount of time it took her to make calculations regarding the distance and windage to the targets. Kay had also learned proper tank commands, from notebooks she had in her locker and from fellow tank commanders like Alisa and Naomi. The infantry damn nearly lost ten girls to a tank running them over once, but after a bit of disciplinary action and some rearrangements made by the Majors, the cohesion between Infantry and Tanks had grown substantially.
Following shooting was command. Kay was given command of a task force for the first week of training. Ten tanks. Their first training exercise involved outflanking and outmaneuvering enemy armor. They'd faced Alisa's tanks in that exercise. Lost a couple times before they finally got the strategy of rapid advance with a forward thrust while two side prongs go surrounding and outflanking the position. They then had to compensate for losses in another exercise. The other tank commanders had learned that Kay actually took no shit anymore. She was there to lead and she did, by the Emperor, she did.
Today, nearly twelve months after awakening on the planet of Saunders, in its Tank School, Kay had command of another task force in a multi-engagement training operation, this time going alongside a small Infantry assault against an enemy position, twice their strength and with twice the time to prepare in a defensible position. She spoke over coms, "Jackal Three, Jackal Actual."
"Actual, Three." Naomi replied coolly.
Kay wore a poker face. She showed no emotion as she ordered, "Take Two, Five and Six on the right via that depression in the field. Outflank and surround. You maintain sniping position, Five will blast them with the Plasma at the start."
"Roger." Replied all four commanders.
"Eight, Actual." Kay voiced again.
"Actual, Eight. Reading." Alisa. She was eager.
"Take the long route uphill with Ten. Act as a distraction. We'll take their Flag Tank. Fast and mean." Kay replied, smirking.
"Fuckin' A, boss." Alisa chuckled. The girl saw the two tank formations she ordered peel off via her up-scope. Alisa's climbed up on the muddy hill to the far left, while Nae took a hard right into a ditch to their right that was running with water. The Vanquisher 'Shade of Dusk' was Naomi's tank. A long 132mm Cannon jutted out the front of the battle tank's main turret. They'd had to sacrifice any infantry combat capabilities to be active-duty Anti-Armor, but by the Emperor and Saint, could Naomi hit a target. The Vanquisher suited her best.
"Talon Actual, Jackal Actual." Kay called over Vox. The Mech Infantry.
"Jackal, Talon, reading you five-by-five." Responded Amy from on-board her Chimera, "Road's bumpy as hell."
"Usually is, Talon." Kay responded, slightly tensing. That was a codephrase of a series of them that the two girls had agreed upon for the op, in case they found the enemy listening in via any Vox channel nearby. Enemy resistance en-route to the target objective was major, "How many hefty bumps?"
"Three." Three Salamander Scout Vehicles down by Ambushes. Kay hummed, then relayed three taps and tapped Colleen on the right shoulder with her foot. The girl loaded 'Armor-Piercing'. Saunders had a nasty way of doing OJT, or On-Job Training. This was, in a sense, a live-fire exercise for the Imperial Guard of the planet of Saunders. The 'AP' shells utilized in this training operation were, in truth, STAR Shells. Loaded with only enough White Phosphorus to mark a hit, but not enough to make a billowing cloud, the high-caliber shells were meant to 'burn' a mark into the side of enemy vehicles and explode harmlessly in airburst a few dozen feet above a targeted position, thus marking them as 'dead'. The objective here was HVT Hunt. Kill the Flag Tank... Or wipe the entire team.
Sensha-dō, but with the added beauty of actually seeing your Shell land and do damage. Kay felt right at home after so many months in training and so many years back in Saunders's Sensha-dō classes. Ahead of them, a forest of tall pine-like trees grew out of the rapidly-approaching horizon. Hidden among its shrubs and among the hammered tree-trunks, enemy Destroyer Tank Hunters and Leman Russes waited in ambush.
"Auspex." she whispered via in-tank comm, remembering the enemy couldn't listen to that.
"T-Tagging five... Two immediately south, two farther in, North-east... One last, unknown. Interference, I think." Jade replied, eyes focused through her Up-Scope. The poor girl was forced to be Auspex operator while driving. Most of the visual equipment for travel was, in fact, stacked near her, since Kay figured the Driver and Gunner needed to see best out of all the crew. The others had prism-scopes and attached NV and Thermal systems to their guns, including the twins.
Ellie spoke, "Gun's ready to go for the first," smirking proudly as he hands wrapped 'round the rotation mechanisms and her foot settled on the fire pedal.
Kay swung her Up-Scope back, to see that Jackal Nine and Seven, the tanks owned by Penny and by Mary, respectively, had followed in. She tapped five times in morse code over vox to them and the girls took up the flanks of the wedge formation, their weapons trained on their sides. Penny had taken one of the other Vanquishers, while Mary was in an MBT, much like Kay. Kay, however, was the 'Flag Tank' for the operation. Each tank trained its gun opposite the other and toward the presumed positions of enemy targets.
Kay swung her Up-Scope forward again, peering through into the thick forestry around them. She asked Ellie, "You got the first Destroyer in sight?"
"Aye, boss."
"We're loaded." Colleen said, looking through her own scope. She smiled proudly at the Commander, a string of pearly whites as clean as her shaven head.
"Good girl." Kay smirked, "Fire when ready, Ellie."
The Gunner grinned, gazing down the prism-scope of the tank's turret. She called out, "ON THE WAY!" as the crosshair settled on one of the most hidden, hull-down of the Destroyers. The stout superheavy lascannon in its case-mate hull was a dangerous weapon to any enemy armor, but thankfully Kay wasn't gonna see it used at its full today. Only a tenth of its power was required to burn the mark and confirm the kill. It wouldn't get the chance to.
The Leman Russ MBT Rumbled and recoiled. The internal recoil-compensation mechanism of the main gun screeched and the empty shell from the STAR round shot out into the shell-basket, clanging against the floor. A plume of brilliant white smoke grew upon impact, square on the driver's vision port. Kay had to wonder if the detonation hadn't partially blinded the poor girl.
Following up, Seven and Nine on her rear let loose. One was a killshot, the other had forced the Leman Russ that was hulled-down to actually roll back and avoid the strike. Kay called out "Leman Russ, coming out of Hull-Down position! Angle 320, Height Oh-point-one!"
"Angle 320, Height Zero dot One! Aye!" Ellie traversed the turret.
"AP, LOADED!" Colleen cried as she slammed the next shell in.
"FIRE!"
"ON THE WAY!"
The Tank roared and rumbled again, bucking slightly to the right on its narrow treads and kicking up dust. The shell smacked square into the forward Lascannon mount of the enemy tank, 'disabling' it as the plume of Willy Pete bloomed and putting the tank out of action. Three tanks down. Kay swiveled her scope around and looked for the next enemy position. A bright tendril of light washed out ahead of her and sheared a tree's midsection. She followed the trail, the sweet scent of Cordite filling her nostrils. There, hull-down behind a mound, "Destroyer! Angle 045, height oh-point-Three!"
"Angled, Aye!"
"LOADED!"
"FIRE!"
Ellie's voice was muffled by the roar of the Russ's Battle Cannon. Kay had always felt the tingles every time a gun had fired on board a Sherman. To feel a Leman Russ's gun, which was several times the Sherman's caliber, was a whole new experience to her. It was almost religious for the tank-lover. The tank destroyer was stuck square in the muzzle, partially denting the Lascannon's barrel. It was out.
The girls now passed by the Salamander Scouts that had 'burned out' on the road Each has a mark of White Phos or a cut from a Lascannon on its small frame, accentuated only by the burned-off. The girls that drove the things had parked them aside to free up the road, smiling and waving at the tanks as they passed by. They'd been knocked out of the combat order of the assault unit. Kay picked up her mike and spoke, "Talon, Jackal. Location?"
"Oh-Fifty-three, Oh-Sixty-Seven." The girl remarked. They were at meeting point Zulu, just beyond the forest. Good.
"Be advised:Possible last hostile unaccounted... Hold one." She looked over to Jade, foregoing the codewording for now.
"Interference from the trees." The Driver reported, "Clearing up... I can see it... Oh, shit! IMMEDIATE! RIGHT!" She barked, her breath hitching.
Kay brought about her scope, to see the enemy Leman Russ emerging from its hull-down and training its main gun. The blast of the cannon left a few bushes a bit more naked. Kay barked, "FULL HALT!" over Vox and the entire Column hit the brakes so hard, two of the crews bumped their heads into their scopes while the round of White Phos burst mid-flight in a tree. The rearmost Leman of the Formation let loose its main gun and struck the MBT between the Turret Ring and the mantlet, effectively knocking it out.
"Holy fuck..." Kay breathed out.
"That was fucking close..." laughed Colleen.
"Fun." The twins on the Bolter sponsons said in unison.
"I'm sorry!" Jade cried an apology, covering her ears in a panic "I should've seen it!" She chastised herself.
"Jade, relax. It's alright... No tech is infallible, as much as we'd like to think so." Kay smiled, "Now... Get us rolling. We gotta join the main assault."
Jade looked back at the crew, awed that she wasn't getting reprimanded. Poor thing must've had one helluva time in the training classes if she was like this, but to the others, she was already part of the crew. Part of the family. Colleen gave her a big, toothy smile to reassure her, then nodded, while Ellie gave a thumbs up and the twins nodded to her. She beamed, then turned back to the controls. Kay ordered the continuation of the assault over Vox and the column proceeded at high speed, past the forest and into the meeting point.
Two Chimera transports, loaded to the brim and hauling troops even atop their hulls, joined the formation. Amy asked over com, "Lose any?" with a hint of worry.
"Negative." Kay smirked, "Out on a trip," and Amy chuckled over the Vox, then shut it off as their transports settled in the middle of the attack formation. To the far left, Kay saw the faint smoke trail raised by Alisa's attack squad just past a hill. To her right, nothing. Naomi moved through the mud of early morning rain and ancient irrigation channels to not give her position, or that of her fellow gunners, away.
She saw the peak of the 'fortress' start to appear over the horizon. A construction of ferrocrete and adamantium with an ancient Vox antenna poking out from the top, surrounded by a dozen-odd bunkers in a star formation and a line of trenches. The Flag Tank sat in the far back, under watch of a dozen other MBTs, another pair of Destroyer Tank Hunters and dozens more infantry than they had.
Kay voiced over Vox "Okay! We're at Checkpoint! ALL TANKS! GO AHEAD!"
Alisa blared loud, guitar-heavy music over the radio as she and her fellow strike team crested the hill at maximum speed, bouncing off the top and landing on the opposite slope. Their Stabilizers kicked in as they fired erratically over the enemy's positions. The first salvo from the girls blasted a bunker, covering it in Willy Pete, followed by a shell missing broadly. The enemy took the bait.
Five Hull-Down Leman Russ tanks backed out of their cover to turn and engage. One of said tanks took a long-distance shot from about half a kilometer out just as, from the right, the Executioner crested the lip of the irrigation ditch with her three other escorts. The plasma cannon's muzzle flashed and an incandescent beam lanced forward, before dissipating mid-air just in front of an enemy Vanquisher. That was two tanks knocked out in the span of a second.
Kay's two flanking tanks moved forward while she halted theirs to allow the Infantry to dismount and begin the foot-borne assault. Mary's tank led from the front, its main gun roaring just before it got struck by a Phos shell and had to divert off the road. Penny followed up with her own gun, a shell striking the ground just in front of a Heavy Bolter nest.
The enemy Flag Tank had started a retreat, rallying its strike force to move back to a more defensible position. Kay scoped it in, then said "Enemy Flag Tank, angle Zero!"
"Angled!" Reported Ellie, scoping the MBT in.
"Loaded!" Colleen called out.
"Rolling, evasive!" Jade reported.
"Engaging enemy infantry." The Twins reported like one voice, the laser scopes of their heavy weaponry tracing across enemy infantry to show them as 'down'. The one weapon the team wouldn't use was the Heavy Bolters. Following in the wake of Kay's command tank were the Chimeras and their Infantry, surging into the enemy trenches and putting them out of action. Kay's tank angled. A shell bounced and exploded in the sky, ribbons of white Phos raining down onto the grass.
"Steady." Kay called out as they rolled past the 'wreck' of Amy's tank. Penny's tank took a side-shot and had been 'left for dead' as well, though she'd managed to take out a few of her own. "Steady." She spoke again, eyes locked on the prize like a feline ready to pounce on prey. Ellie's foot twitched near the pedal. She kept it off to ensure safety and no premature firing. The gunner licked her lips, eyes locked on the enemy tank as they gave chase. She grinned.
"FIRE!" Kay roared just as their tank bucked slightly to the right.
The shell went off, arched and struck the rear of the enemy Leman just before that, though. It stopped, KO. Kay looked over to their side, poking her head out of the commander's hatch. To her left, she saw a single Leman that had managed to stay put, its commander smirking as the cloud of white phos on the side of Kay's tank started to vanish. The blonde sighed, then smiled.
Klaxons blared from atop the Com Spire in the midst of Training Range number 05, signaling the end of the mission. From within the confines of the observation bunker in the compound, the girls saw the Majors and some generals emerge, wearing smiles on their faces. Two of the men in question clapped, while the Major raised up a Voxcast mike and spoke, her voice broadcasted through the PA speakers, "Final Training Operation, complete! Victorious are..."
The air grew tense as the woman looked at the commanders and infantry rallying up. The Major smirked, then said "By the skin of their Emperor-damned Teeth... Blue Team!"
Pride welled in Kay's chest as her crew emerged from the tank. The bellowing roar of victory cheers filled the massive training course. Helmets flew, Lasguns and fists were raised to the sky and the girls hugged. Colleen grabbed Jade by the waist, hoisted her up onto her shoulders and cheered proudly with the rest of the girls, causing their petite driver to blush healthily.
Kay exited her tank, bearing the widest grin ever and being more happy than she thought possible last year. She turned to see the commander of the opposing forces, a girl by the name of Ariana. She was the more prissy stuck-up type, being from the nobility, but she was a good sport. Fact evidenced by her extending her hand and smiling at Kay, her deep blue eyes glimmering as she spoke "Nice match."
Kay gripped firmly and shook, "Hoorah, sister. Fuckin' Hoorah!"
The Major whistled, loudly, into the PAs, to halt the celebration. "Sorry to cut you off, girls! But I have one final announcement! I think you all know what it is, so I'll just go ahead and say it. As per decree of Warmaster Slaydo and the General Corps of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and with the executive power vested in me by Lady General Lillian Pattern, headmistress of the Schola Progenium of Saunders..."
And another heavy, weighing pause later, the woman exclaimed, "Saunders Armor Corps, Regiment Thirty-Three! WELCOME TO THE IMPERIAL GUARD!"
The cheers grew a thousandfold, so loud Kay was sure they could be heard all the way on Holy Terra. Infantry and Crew climbed the tanks, waving the banners of Saunders, cheering, hugging and the likes. The Regiment broke into song thanks to Colleen, a loud, raucous, happy roaring song of the Saunders Armored, the damn Saunders Armored! Kay felt jubilation and fear unlike any from before, even as her Crewmates picked her up on their shoulder and chanted her name. She took lead from Colleen in singing... And she sang proudly, her voice warm, beautiful, joyous... Proud. Proud of serving, her friends, her people and the Emperor.
"OVER THERE! OVER THERE! SEND THE WORD, SEND THE WORD, OVER THERE!"
"THAT SAUNDERS IS COMING! SAUNDERS IS COMING! THE TANKS GO ROLLIN' EVERYWHERE!"
"SO PREPARE!"
"SAY YOUR PRAYERS!"
"SEND THE WORD, SEND THE WORD TO BEWARE!"
"WE'LL BE OVER! WE'RE COMING OVER! AND WE WON'T COME BACK 'TILL IT'S OVER OVER THERE!"
Twice they sang with much pride. Yes. Pride.
Kay felt pride... An unfathomable thing nearly a bloody year ago. Not anymore.
She'd come a long way from the scared little girl that hoped it was all a nightmare when she first awoke in Major Rosa's class.
She'd fight 'till she managed to find her way home... And now she had a way to fight and survive...
Even if it'd kill her, she'd be back, here and in her real home.