Hell On Tracks
Part 50
"I got something!" Arisa announced over the radio, not long after my tank rejoined the rest of the team. The column was headed east, trying to give chase to Ooarai in force. "Head to Plateau 128."
"What's going on? Where's 128?" Kay asked.
Arisa was quiet for a moment. "Harlem Heights. All enemy tanks will assemble there."
"Wait, are you sure about that, Arisa?" Kay asked. "How do you know?"
"My information is accurate." Arisa stated. I frowned, but didn't add anything to the conversation. Maybe I was just being overly cautious because I just barely escaped an ambush by the skin of my teeth, but I didn't share Arisa's confidence. From Kay's response, she did trust Arisa's confidence and judgement.
"Okay! All tanks, go ahead!" Kay called out eagerly, giving out course corrections. We fell into line, and the eight tanks of Saunders' mobile division set out for the plateau at Harlem Heights.
It was not a short march southwards. Sitting unbuttoned, I kept an eye on my map while mostly trying to focus on anything but the tanks. The one-two punch of my crew actually hating me and driving straight into an ambush had me off balance, and I needed to regain that somehow.
My hand tapped against the cell phone in my pocket. My mind immediately went to calling Rach to help cool down, but that was strictly against the rules of Sensha-do. No contact to anybody on the outside, no using your modern electronics to get an advantage over the other team. I could call Kay over the radio, and since Haruna had been knocked out it would be a semi-private line, but she had more important things to worry about than my personal issues.
I almost went to radio her anyways, but held myself back. We were chasing after ghosts right now, even with Arisa's confident strategic direction, and Kay needed to focus on that. I needed to focus on it, too. I was a part of leadership, and that meant helping do leadership things like planning.
But it wouldn't do to just barge in without a plan, I needed to figure something out. My map was the first place I looked, and it revealed a lot. There was nothing of strategic value near Harlem Heights. Of all the locations we had given codenames, it was the furthest south, and the nearest strategic markers were well away from the plateau. Maybe Ooarai knew something we didn't about the area, but it was so open that I couldn't anticipate it being a good ambush spot.
How Arisa had figured Ooarai would come here, I had no idea. There was nowhere to fade to as part of a hit and fade, and if it wasn't a good spot for an ambush…
I picked up my radio and made sure I was on the leadership channel. "Hey Kay, I was just looking at my map, and I don't think we're actually going to find Ooarai here."
"Hold one, Tally." Kay replied.
"Copy that."
I didn't have to wait long to find out why Kay had told me to wait. The trees were thinning out, and the column was starting to emerge into open ground. I'd spent so long wrapped up in my thoughts and in my planning that my warning came late enough to be basically useless!
The tanks ground to a halt in a loose semi-circle formation, and basically all of the TCs were scanning the ridgeline with binoculars or just the Mark-1 eyeball.
"You were saying, Tally?" Kay asked as my tank pulled to a stop.
"I was about to say that we weren't likely to find Ooarai here. There's nothing around here that's useful that can't be found elsewhere, and beyond the plateau itself there's no strategic points here." I explained, my mouth running about as fast as my tapping foot.
"Oh." Kay oh'd.
"And now we've gotten up onto the plateau, and there's no sign of Ooarai anywhere."
I took a moment from scanning the ridges to glance over at Kay's tank, and saw her nodding. My analysis certainly made sense, but Arisa shouldn't have led us this far astray. She should have known Ooarai wouldn't rush to a fairly useless terrain feature.
"There's nobody here!" Kay shouted to the world. It echoed around the plateau for a moment before the shout faded into nothingness.
"That can't be! My information should have been good!" Arisa insisted.
"It very clearly wasn't." Naomi remarked from her position as rearguard. Arisa didn't bother replying to the sniper's snark.
"What's the plan, Kay?" I asked, trying to keep the sudden surge of worry out of my voice.
"We backtrack. Tally, I want you to find me a good position to start our sweep for Ooarai. Naomi, you watch our backs."
"Yes, ma'am!" Naomi and I both replied.
My worries lay forgotten and were pushed aside as I focused on the task Kay had given me. It was a large map, a whole lot larger than anything we'd played on before, and there were too many options for me to go "there" and pick just one.
I idly passed on the order to fall back into line as I worked my way through the map. There were a few that I initially considered before discarding, and I settled on one in particular.
"Kay, this is Tally. We're going to want to head for point Saratoga. It's a pretty open area, right in the center of the arena, and it looks to be reasonably flat. It'll be a good staging point to advance from."
"Naomi?" Kay asked.
"Sounds good to me. We don't know where Ooarai is, so a central point may get their attention." Naomi replied.
"Okay, very nice!" Kay cheered, before she started relaying orders to the lead elements of our column.
"That was a good choice, Tally. Keep up the good work." Naomi commented, but I couldn't help but frown. Good work would have been telling Kay before we arrived at the decoy position, or having the sense to not run headfirst into an ambush. One good decision wouldn't outweigh all of the bad ones.
"Arisa, come in!" Kay called into the radio for what must have been the twentieth time. Our eye in the sky was radio silent, and while we knew she hadn't been knocked out, the complete lack of contact was concerning. We were roughly half of the way to point Saratoga, and if Arisa was under attack, we'd be too far away to help much.
"All Ooarai tanks are coming for us!" Arisa suddenly cried out over the radio, panic evident in her voice.
"You were fine a few minutes ago. What happened?" Kay asked.
"Well…" Arisa drew out the word. Just by that, I had a feeling this was all her fault. "They probably figured out that I was tapping their radio and used that against us."
I blinked at the admission of guilt. Was that even Sensha-do legal?
"You fool!" Kay shouted over the radio, and I had to hold it away from my ear to not go deaf.
"I'm so sorry!"
"I always tell you that battles must be fought fairly! That's why Hannah's there to keep your schemes in check!" The frown on my face evolved into a half-wince half-grimace as I listened to Kay berate Arisa. "Just get out of there! Hurry up!"
"Yes ma'am!" Arisa answered before the background noises of her battle went silent. She must have cut her mic to focus on her immediate situation.
I was at a loss for words. My instinct would be to grab everybody and rush as fast as we could to Arisa's aid, but five on one, Arisa's chances of surviving that long were slim to nil. We had been baited hard by false intelligence, enough that the match was all but lost.
"It wouldn't be fair to strike back with all our tanks after the radio tapping." Kay mused into her radio. "Let's match their numbers!"
That… I probably should have expected something along those lines. It's a very Kay thing to do. It would probably cost us the match, even if we did somehow manage to catch up and save Arisa's butt, but I doubt victory was her primary motivation anymore. It's a sport not a war.
"There are five enemy tanks, only three tanks will follow me." Kay announced over team comms, letting everybody know. "I want Charlie, Easy, and How. Everybody else hold position. Naomi, you're up!"
I relayed the orders to the Bandits, and Tuco gave me a look. It was the first time she'd looked at me since blowing up at me. "TC, what's going on? Why's half the team stopping?"
I took a deep breath, trying to center myself before answering. There was no way she would take this well, nor would the others. "Arisa screwed up. She's the one who sent us straight into that ambush, and now she's under attack by Ooarai's full team and needs help."
"Ha!" Tuco laughed. "That's what you get for making us walk into that! Comeuppance at its finest!"
"If she gets knocked out, we lose." Angel said harshly, and Tuco's smile faded immediately.
"So we have to help that good for nothing bossy cheat?"
I nodded.
Tuco swore. Loudly. "You hear that Blondie? We need to help that backstabber if we want to win!"
"I hear ya." Blondie grumbled. "And I take it we ain't got no choice in the matter?"
"Kay told us to go, so we go." I answered.
"That Lee with 'em?" Angel asked tersely.
"Should be. Arisa said it was the whole team."
"Good. I've been gunnin' for them, and they've escaped me twice now. It won't happen a third time."
For some reason, that comment didn't fill me with confidence. I tried to shake off my worries as I went back to shoulder defilade, but as with everything else I've tried to do today to raise my spirits, it didn't help in the slightest.
By some miracle, Arisa managed to survive long enough for us to get line of sight on Ooarai's five tanks. We were still out of range, but we had eyes on, and if we put the pedal to the metal, we could catch up.
"Arisa, status report!" Kay called.
"Why does Takashi love her?! Why doesn't he see that I love him?!" Arisa half bawled. It was a non-sequitur that I think fairly accurately described the situation. Much as had happened during the Maginot match, Arisa had lost it. I wanted to be disappointed, but if I were in her situation, I would probably be so much worse off.
"Understood. Hannah, status report!" Kay asked, completely unbothered by Arisa's rant.
The report of the 17-pdr momentarily interrupted Hannah, but the sight of the big gun's shell zipping out to land behind Ooarai was still inspiring.
"We're still intact, and Ooarai has been holding their attack until they can get closer, but Arisa is doing Arisa things. And all this extra radio equipment is making being a loader rather difficult right now. I have to dig for ammo." Hannah reported.
"We're getting close. Just hold on a little longer." Kay said.
Something must have gotten through Arisa's weeping, because she cheered as soon as Kay said that.
"All tanks, open fire!" Kay ordered. Three 75mm shells zipped through the air mere seconds after the order came through, and while all landed short, Ooarai reacted to the threat we presented.
Almost immediately, two tanks, the Lee and the Type 89 fell back in their formation to cover their flag tank. I heard Angel give a malicious little laugh, probably as she zeroed in on the Lee. She certainly wanted that knockout.
The three M4s exchanged a few volleys with Ooarai at maximum range before anything struck either side. All it took was a single shot from Naomi, while on the move, to knock out the Type 89. The first shot she had fired since the opener to announce our presence, and it was a knockout.
"Good shot, Naomi!" I called through the radio.
"Thanks." She answered tersely.
"AP up!" Tuco called as I let my mic hang loosely in my hand. All of the targets were ahead of us, and we were engaged. There was nothing for me to do but call out corrections and relay orders from Kay.
"On the way!" Angel called. Moments later, her shot was echoed by one from the Firefly.
The two shots raced through the air, both on target for the Lee. Our shot had been fired first, but the 17-pdr's muzzle velocity was something absolutely absurd, and the larger round zipped past ours. Two impacts struck the Lee in rapid succession, and it kept rolling for two seconds before taking a dive into a crater and popping the white flag.
"Haha, we got them good, didn't we, Angel!" Tuco cheered. Angel didn't reply, simply gritting her teeth and waiting for the next round.
The M4s got another volley off before Ooarai reacted, and the StuG placed itself between us and the 38(t).
"Keep firing!" Kay called out a general encouragement. We had them on the ropes now.
Despite that, the running battle dragged on, and we were rapidly closing the range. We were close enough that I buttoned up and was following the action through my periscope. For some reason Naomi was holding her fire, but the basic M4s kept up a withering barrage that had to have shaken all of Ooarai's crews with the number of near misses.
"Tally, you're falling behind. Is something up?" Naomi asked over the radio, and I had to take a moment to confirm that yes, we had fallen behind the group. Not enough to be dragging on behind them, but all three other tanks in the platoon were now ahead of us.
"Blondie, is there a reason we've fallen behind?"
"Can't rightly tell, TC."
"No clue, Naomi. Sorry!" I apologized.
"It's fine."
"Arisa, watch out, death from above." Kay called out. I blinked for a moment to confirm what I was seeing. The Panzer IV had broken off, and… was going up a hill. To get a better firing position. "Naomi, I'm counting on you!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Naomi's Firefly surged ahead of the platoon to follow the Panzer IV up the hill. I tracked her easily, and had to shift my periscope over to follow the action going on ahead. I blinked and moved away from my periscope. The turret was tracking Naomi instead of Ooarai.
Dozens of curse words in three different languages immediately sprung to mind, and I did the only thing I could. I grabbed the TC's override and cranked the turret hard over to the left. I wasn't a moment too soon, as the cannon roared just after the turret started traversing.
The shot went wide.
"The hell are you doing? That bitch stole my kill!" Angel demanded.
"She's our teammate." I insisted. Mom's angry voice layered itself into mine as I continued. "Or did you not learn after that last friendly fire incident?"
Angel didn't say anything, and I let go of the TC's override once we were back on target with the gun facing forward. I kept a careful eye on things, just in case Angel tried something again.
My microphone came up to my mouth once more. I spoke very softly, trying to keep my voice from going anywhere but the mic. "Hey Naomi, Angel just tried to shoot at you. Be careful."
She didn't respond.
The 75 roared again, and I watched through my periscope as the shot went waaaaay long, slamming down closer to Arisa's tank than any of Ooarai's.
"Adjust down, you're shooting long." I reported.
"I know what I'm shootin' at." Angel remarked, vitriol once more entering her voice. I frowned and watched as Tuco loaded the next round. The shot went long again, and landed even closer to Arisa than the last one!
"Cease fire!" I called out, but nobody listened to me. Tuco loaded the next round without looking in my direction, and I lunged for the TC's override once more to try and stop Angel. Her hand snapped up and caught my wrist before I could grab the handle.
I froze, and watched with mounting horror as Angel fired a third shot at Arisa. Then, not releasing my wrist, Angel turned in her seat and glared at me with the fury of a thousand suns.
"Tally, cease fire, cease fire!" Kay called into the radio, before she was cut off altogether.
"Oops." Tuco said, absolutely unapologetically as she unplugged everything from the radio.
"Never interfere with my shot again." Angel stated, still holding onto my wrist. Her grip was like a vice, and it was starting to hurt. I was frozen with panic, and I tried to say something to get her to let go, but no words came. "Pathetic. A simple touch is all it takes to stop you."
That one word echoed through my mind. Pathetic. They thought I was pathetic. Just like all those bullies in middle school. It was always that word they used. Pathetic. 'You're pathetic, Tally!' 'Look at her, crying there. She's so pathetic!' 'You never do anything right, you pathetic weakling.'
"I am not pathetic!" I screamed, ripping my wrist from Angel's grasp. Tuco lunged for me from across the turret, but the recoil guard protected me for the moment I needed.
There's a little discussed feature in all Sensha-do tanks nowadays. The emergency shutdown, a reasonably sized red button on the TC's side of the radio, kept under a protective cover to make sure it doesn't accidentally get pressed during combat. It pops the white flag, immediately killing the engine and power, while also locking down the turret and gun. It's mostly used for surrendering, or if someone sees a substantial risk and needs to kill the tank now.
In my moment of freedom, I went for the button.
"Get her!" Angel roared as I flipped the cover up and slammed my hand down on the button. I heard the white flag go 'thwip' before Tuco and Angel got their hands on me, and I could hear Blondie getting upset too.
A fist hammered into my kidney as I tried to fight my way to the freedom of my hatch. Tuco grabbed my leg and pulled as I shoved the two-piece hatch open. Angel threw another fist which impacted my stomach and nearly made me double over, but my hands found purchase on the cupola's edge, and I pulled with all of my might.
Those morning workouts with Hannah were well worth the effort, and without them I would never have been able to escape, but even then, I still needed to slam a knee into Angel before she could get a better hold of me. Tuco's grip on my leg loosened as I pulled away, but my shoe went with her before I was more out of the hatch than in.
I tumbled off the side of the tank and landed on my belly in the grass. As soon as I knew where I was, I scrambled to my feet and booked it before any of the Bandits managed to worm their way out of the tank. My feet hammered the ground as I ran, slightly off balance without one shoe, and I made it maybe thirty feet before a metal BB slammed into my side, only mitigated by my tanker jacket. I wobbled but kept running as another BB hit the ground next to me.
I'm not sure how far I made it before a tank interposed itself between me and the Bandits.
"That is enough!" Kay shouted, and I finally tumbled to the ground. I just laid there for a moment before tears welled up and I began sobbing. Somebody dismounted the tank and walked over to me before embracing me in a soft hug.
"Hey, it's okay. You're safe now." Kay said quietly. I returned the hug and let the tears flow freely, sobbing into her shoulder.