Steel Beasts of Apocalypse
Chapter Pilot: Ambush
Her dreams are always the same.
A beautiful landscape stretches before her, a sight reminiscent of her highschool days. Beautiful grassy hills, various fields filled to the brim with bountiful crops, and in the distance, a small town by the sea, as beautiful as the first time she laid eyes on it.
Yet, perhaps the most eye-catching object in front of her is a massive, carrier-like ship anchored just a few kilometers off of the coast, its impressive size dwarfing both the town and the nearby hills despite the distance between them, not to mention the vast land that inhabits its deck; almost as if someone cut a piece of the earth and put it on top, with its own sets of hills, fields, and even a city.
For all the beauty that fills her vision, though, all but a single color are absent. However many times she sees this dream, everything is white and made of marble. The sky, the sea, the very ground she's standing on is like that, forever still like a picture, forever frozen in a time now long gone.
At least, until from the marble sky falls a shooting star, slowly descending and leaving behind it a trail of smoke. She can't help but look at it in wonder as it plunges towards the ground, and with a small giggle makes a wish on it.
'May these peaceful and fun days continue forever.'
Yet her wish will never come true, as the star explodes into a blinding light brighter than the sun, and in the split second before everything becomes black, she sees it.
Hell itself appears before her very eyes in the form of an infernal ball, an unbearable and excruciating burning sensation spreading all over the front of her body for an instant that feels like a silent eternity. The landscape is still silent and colored white, frozen in time as before but with one exception. Instead of grassy hills and bountiful fields, there's only death and destruction in this now hellish and charred land, the small town by the coast lying in ruins, and the magnificent carrier-looking ship barely visible over the surface of the sea. But that instance passes, and what remains of her is nothing more but a shadow burned to the ground, forever marking the spot of her last moments.
"…Haaaah!"
Suddenly taking a deep breath, the woman's light brown eyes fling open in terror and confusion, beads of sweat forming on her forehead as she starts whipping her head around and looking at her surroundings.
She just as quickly calms down, however, seeing she's still in the same decrepit room she fell asleep after her watch had ended, currently sitting on a dusty, red sofa and leaning on a rather large, black, decorative pillow on her left.
"Haah… just a dream…" she sighs quietly in relief and runs a hand through her short, light brown hair that barely reaches her shoulders, then slightly scratches the back of her head and stands up.
"Hnnng~… already morning, hmm?" she hums to herself after stretching her arms over her head and dusting off the back of her cargo pants, then looks at the watch on her right wrist for the time; it's 9:48 AM, almost five hours since her watch ended and she fell asleep. "Oh, it's already this late. Better go and join the others."
The woman first grabs the headset that hangs from her neck and puts it back on her head, then grabs her weapon that rests propped up at the side of the sofa, a very rare Howa Type 20 assault rifle, fully customized with a 4X scope, a foregrip, and a cute chibi anglerfish painted at the right side of its body.
Slinging it over her right shoulder, she then makes her way out of the room and into a dusty garage that has a tank of all things inside it, more specifically a Panzer IV ausf H painted in a woodland camouflage pattern, the same chibi anglerfish painted on her gun present at the turret's side skirts, along with the emblem of a very familiar school.
'Hah… how long has it been… Five? Six years since the world went astray?' she thinks with a quiet sigh, her eyes gazing at her former school's emblem, at least until a hatch is heard opening from the tank and out comes from the commander's cupola a woman of basically the same height as her, with curly, chin-length, dark brown hair and dark eyes, an energetic smile forming on her face upon making eye contact with the woman.
"Miss Nishizumi, good morning!" she says as she dusts off her gloved hands, then exits the tank completely and scales it down from the front.
"Yukari, I've told you calling me Miho is fine too," Miho giggles as Yukari steps down from the tank and walks closer to her, with a gentle smile forming on her face. "Were you doing an ammunition count?"
"Yes! We have forty AP shells and eleven APCR shells remaining. HE has remained the same at fifteen shells."
"Maybe we should put an order for more APCR shells soon. Hopefully they have some spare ones at the depot," she hums and looks around for a moment, contemplating a few things before pushing them aside for now. "Is Hana still on the roof?"
"Yes, she said she'll keep scouting the surroundings for a bit more, in case the convoy decides to appear earlier."
"Ah, Miporin, you are up!"
Hearing someone calling her with a nickname, Miho turns to look at the garage's entrance to the home and spots two more women passing, both wearing the same military uniform and light vest as her, though both are armed with different weapons. The first one, a woman with long ginger hair and light brown eyes has a customized SCAR-L slung on her shoulder, while the second woman, who has thick, waist-length black hair, hazel eyes, and looks like she's about to fall asleep standing, has a customized MP7 hanging from her belt.
"Ah, Saori! Mako! Good morning!" Miho greets her friends upon seeing them, with Mako lethargically waving at her, then stifling a yawn by covering her mouth with her hand.
"Did you sleep well?" Saori asks Miho as she and Mako reach her, with Miho nodding in response.
"Yes. The sofa was very comfortable even if too dusty," she giggles a bit, then grabs the sling of her weapon with her right hand. "I'll go check on how Hana is doing. Saori, check on the radio if we got any incoming messages from HQ, Mako, start preparations to have the tank moving; the convoy shouldn't be far from our position."
"Alright, Miporin," Saori responds, while Mako nods and grunts quietly. Miho then turns to look at Yukari.
"Have you set the detonator on the explosives' frequency?"
"Yup! Everything's set and ready to blow up at your command, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari grins and Miho nods.
"Good. Help Mako with the preparations, then get to your position," Miho orders Yukari, then turns around and makes her way back through the door she came from, then turns left and ascends the staircase leading to the second floor, as well the rooftop. She lazily glances at the walls around her, cracked and discolored from the long neglect, a few, dusty frames with pictures hanging from them, certainly of the family that once happily lived in here. For a moment, Miho wonders if they managed to survive the Great Catastrophe that forever changed the shape of the very earth they walk on, but this quiet thought quickly fades away, instead replaced by wonder at how her family is doing.
'I haven't talked to Onee-chan in months, and Mother is always so busy and can't talk… I really hope they are doing fine…' she mentally sighs, a hint of anxiety and worry quickly surfacing as she exits to the flat rooftop, which is walled all around and has a fairly large clothesline stretching from one end to the other, while the tiled floor is littered with ripped and sun-bleached clothes, as well a few white sheets that have yellowed from all the elements they had to weather all these years.
Miho walks over them and towards one of the rooftop's corners, where a tall woman with black hair that reaches down to her hips sits, one of her dark-grey eyes staring through the scope of her SVDM sniper rifle, its body placed on the short wall as she scans her surroundings, in the distance already seeing a faint cloud of dust rising up. Like Miho and the rest, she's dressed in a similar uniform, though hers seem to have a few flowers embroidered on the sleeves.
"Good morning, Hana," Miho says at the woman, who having heard her footsteps, turns to look at her.
"Good morning, Miho," Hana greets Miho with a smile, before she returns her attention back to the dust cloud. "The convoy is a little early. They should be here within five to ten minutes."
Miho hums in response as she couches next to Hana, looking towards the dust cloud as well.
"Looks like they are in a hurry with how much dust they are kicking up. You think someone tipped them off that they are being targeted?"
"It is possible, but wouldn't they simply take a different route then?" Hana hums and Miho looks thoughtful for a moment.
"Perhaps they don't have time to spare for detours…" Miho says back as she presses a button on her headset and a microphone extends from the right side. "Saori, can you hear me?"
Waiting a few seconds, Saori's voice quickly comes through.
"What is it, Miporin?"
"Tell Mako to start the engine and keep it running on idle, the convoy is coming in hot. You'll replace Hana in the gunner's position for now. The targets should be civilian cars, so tell Yukari to prepare a High-explosive shell. Under no circumstances should you attack the target car with anything but the coaxial, we need the briefcase in one piece."
"Understood, Miporin! Mako, start-"
As Saori tells the rest of Miho's orders, Miho presses the same button on her headset to cut the transmission and retract the microphone, then unslings her weapon and lets it rest on the floor next to her.
"Me and you will attack them from above after I set off the explosives. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to neutralize them," Miho says to Hana, who adjusts a few dials on her scope, while she retrieves from one of her pockets a detonator, checking the frequency to make sure it's set on the same one as the explosives.
"Mmh. They should be here any moment now," Hana responds as she keeps watch over the fast-approaching convoy, its various pickup trucks and SUVs coming into sight, speeding through the road that takes them directly in front of the house Miho and her friends are in. Though, as they reach a distance of roughly three hundred meters away from them, the lead car opens fire with the heavy machine-gun welded on its bed, 12.7mm rounds whizzing past the walled rooftop and either hitting the main body of the building, or harmlessly flying over it and hitting a nearby billboard. Hana of course immediately dives down to make sure no lucky shots strike her head, with Miho immediately doing the same, then quickly removing the safety from the detonator.
"It seems we were spotted!" Hana grunts as she places her sniper rifle on the short wall again and looks through the scope, taking a quick shot and nailing the gunner of the lead vehicle square on his chest, his body jerking back and collapsing down, though the rain of shots hitting the vehicle only intensifies as more of the convoy technicals open fire at their location, quickly forcing her to dive down for cover. "There's too much incoming fire, Miho! I can't take any shots!"
"Miporin, are you and Hana alright!?" Saori's concerned voice faintly bleeds through Miho's headset, who quickly presses the same button to respond.
"We are fine, but we can't attack from here, too much incoming fire! I'll try to time the explosives just as planned, but the moment I set them off I need you to get out and gun down any survivors! Remember not to destroy the target car!"
"Yes, Miporin!"
As the transmission cuts off, Miho looks at Hana and signals her to move away from their current location, then grabs her weapon and starts crawling along the wall towards the next corner of the rooftop, parallel to the road.
"I really didn't want the plan to go south from the get-go…" she groans as she reaches the corner and props herself against the wall, then tries her hardest to hear the approaching cars despite the cacophony of machine-guns and bullets striking concrete. "Not yet… not yet… now!"
As she hears a roaring engine from the road below her, Miho presses the detonator's trigger and closes her eyes, almost immediately a thundering roar assaulting her ears as multiple shockwaves pass through her, a ringing sound filling her hearing for a moment, before quickly being filled by the sounds of raining debris, collapsing buildings, and braking cars, as well metal crashing on metal.
VR-VR-VR-VR-VROOOOM-VRRRRROOOM!
taktaktaktaktaktak
Jus tas she had instructed Saori, the Panzer IV's engine roars into life, its treads clinking against the concrete of the garage and the asphalt of the road, so Miho carefully peers over the short wall and aims her weapon down on the street, seeing the tank exiting sideways on the road and pushing one of the wrecked SUVs aside and coming to a full stop, then rotating its turret ninety degrees, its first victim being one of the technicals just behind the target car, which has miraculously survived the explosives that have demolished the buildings next to it, as well have cratered the road in front of her.
BOOM!
The surrounding dust gets kicked up as the 75mm gun of the Panzer IV roars angrily, its HE shell striking the technical at the front and exploding, a fireball consuming the pickup truck and completely annihilating the engine block, as well killing the driver and gunner at the back.
ping! ping ping!
Bullets start hitting the tank's side from any surviving technicals and people who are still armed and can fight, though the only thing they can really do is simply scratch its paint as the coaxial machine-gun starts spewing bullets, either gravely wounding and killing any exposed people, or forcing them to quickly hide behind any cover they can find.
"Alright, there aren't that many people still alive," Miho says as she takes aim towards one of the soldiers hiding behind some low cover, pressing the trigger once and killing him with a headshot. Hana also comes and takes cover behind the short wall now that the machine-gun fire towards them has stopped, quickly dispatching any survivors she can see with deadly accuracy.
All in all, between Miho, Hana, and the Panzer IV, it takes less than five minutes to completely annihilate all enemies from the convoy, with Miho, Saori, and Yukari now slowly approaching the target car, while Hana and Mako have stayed with the tank just in case. The blue SUV is battered on all sides, its engine hood bent and smoke pouring out from underneath it. The girls slowly approach the broken windows with raised guns, finding only a single, bloodied survivor that's holding a back briefcase close to his chest, coughing and groaning in pain.
"Saori, pull him out. Yukari, keep an eye on our surroundings," Miho orders, and Saori slings her weapon and opens the door for the back passengers, while Yukari, armed with an M249 SAW machine-gun, turns around and starts scanning her surroundings.
"Cough cough! Let me… go…!" the man croaks as Saori grabs him by the shoulders and pulls him out of the car, letting him fall down on the dug up road. "Gah! Shit… cough!"
Miho uses her leg to pin him down by stepping on the briefcase he's holding, then aims her weapon at his face.
"Are you Itami Tanjirou?" she asks in a steady voice.
"Fuck… you…" the man croaks, looking at Miho with a pained, albeit hateful, glare.
"Are you with the Tosa clan?"
"Hah… hah… Did… that bastard… Kenji… send you…? Cough cough!"
"Final question. Were you heading for Pravda?"
The man immediately falls silent, looking at Miho in surprise.
"How did you-"
Bam!
Before he can finish his sentence, Miho pulls the trigger and kills him, blood splattering everywhere as a bullet hole appears on his forehead.
"Saori, grab the suitcase. We have what we came here for," Miho says and steps away from the dead man, with Saori quickly grabbing the black suitcase.
"So the Director was right… Pravda really is in trouble…" Yukari hums as everyone quickly runs back to the tank.
"I just hope the girls are fine…" Saori says, and Miho nods in agreement.
"We'll know soon enough, I feel. For now though, we need to get the briefcase back to base. Once inside, inform HQ the operation was a success and that we are coming back with the briefcase," Miho orders as the girls get in front of the Panzer IV and scale it, each one entering it from their respective hatches. Miho, after sitting on her seat, orders Mako to start making their way back to base, then takes a map and a marker to note a few things on it, while Saori contacts HQ and informs them of the operation's success.
"Miporin!"
Miho looks up from her map, then leans down a bit to look at Saori.
"HQ gave us new orders! We won't be returning back to base, but go to a set of coordinates and meet another squad, callsign Grim Reaper! They are a tank crew like us, manning a Panther!"
Miho raises her eyebrows in surprise, though it doesn't take her more than a moment to recollect herself.
"Anything else they said?" she asks and Saori quickly nods.
"After meeting them we'll receive new orders."
Miho looks a bit perplexed by this but doesn't question it.
"Alright, Saori. Give me the coordinates, I'll start plotting a course for us," Miho says and Saori passes her a small strip of paper with the given coordinates, quickly using her map to find the meeting place and find a route that leads there.
'Hah… to be honest, I really wanted to go back to base and relax a bit…' she sighs in her mind as she gives instructions to Mako on where to go, hoping that this detour won't be too eventful.