Ch2
1958
The battle came to an end soon after the German heavy tank was knocked out of operation. The still-learning United Forces charged the fortification in a mass combined-arms movement. The one remaining medium tank and all the surrounding went-for-broke and rushed the thinned out SS defensive line with thunderous small arms fire and a fury of fire and earthbending. Passing the defenses, the combined forces pushed deep within the bunker, quickly swarming through and cleaning out any further resistance. Many SS troops fought to the death, but a handful of their soldiers and officers surrendered. The members of the Heer, the Wehrmacht, soldiers of the ordinary army of Nazi Germany, tired after years of operation in a foreign world cut off from home, laid down their guns at the sight of the US-trained troops pouring in by the hundreds. Like the mutual thoughts of Joe and Hiroaki, decades before, at this point they just wanted to go home.
After the battleground had settled and the gunfire ceased, the remaining German personnel were being rounded up and taken captive by allied forces. Uniformed soldiers and officers of the United Forces marched groups of surrendering Nazi soldiers out into the staging yard, where additional men from the US Army, arriving from Ba Sing Se, were getting ready to move the POWs to a port for processing. The soldiers, and particularly the officers and the SS, were to be tried in several courts in the coming weeks. They were going to come before a court of martial law in Republic City, before being sent back to the Mechanized World, where they would once again stand trials in the West German Capital of Bonn.
As squads of Wehrmacht and Waffen SS troops were being detained and formed in the background, at the defensive perimeter of the compound, the United Forces as well as the Earth Kingdom soldiers were looking through German weaponry, fascinated by what they had experienced and seen; albeit from the receiving end. There was a wide variety of small arms laying around for the troops to examine. Already, the Earth Kingdom soldiers were liking what they were finding. The MP40, the German submachine gun, was considerably lighter than the heavier Thompson M1A1 submachine guns they were carrying, despite packing a smaller caliber round. There were a few Gewerh 43 rifles laying around as well, and although these were also gaining fascination with the soldiers for holding ten rounds and feeding from an external box-magazine, they were more intrigued by the few Sturmgewehr-44s that were found among the dead Waffen SS personnel. The rifle, or assault-rifle for the matter, was slightly heavier than their M1 Garand rifles, but carried thirty-rounds, was capable of both semi and fully-automatic fire, and could fill the role of both a rifle and a submachine gun.
As squads picked through the weapons and corpses of the fallen German troops, others took interest in the machine guns employed against them. The MG42s, still smoking and still tick tick ticking as the heated and expanded metal cooled and shrunk, were one of two main weapons of fascination. The belt-fed machine gun had a terrific rate of fire, was man-portable as it only weighed around twenty-five pounds unloaded, and appeared to be cheap and easy to mass produce upon a closer inspection. The stamp steel receiver and bolt assembly was ingeniously manufactured to save weight and cost. A few soldiers burned their hands finding out, but the machine gun also featured the ability to quickly swap the barrel when it overheated, unlike the BAR and M1919 Browning machine guns they had been issued by the US.
And finally, the centerpiece of all the German weapons; the Tiger I tank. There were many enlisted and officers clambering all over the remains of the large steel beast. At numerous places in the frontal armor, the gun mantlet, and the side armor were the large gashes and scrapes in the thick steel; where the 75mm tank shells had bounced off or exploded with no effect. There were hundreds of even smaller scrapes, gashes, nicks, and craters where the many bullets from small arms had hit the tank with no effect beyond scratches to the paint. And despite the beating and the pummeling the Tiger had endured, the tank itself was still relatively undamaged and in one piece. There were no massive holes in the armor, just a broken track and a single small neat hole in the right side where the 75mm shell had cleanly pierced through and set the inside of the tank on fire. Needless to say, the Earth Kingdom was very impressed with the performance of the enemy armor, and although the mechanisms and inner workings were severely damaged and the weapon seemed complex…the Earth Kingdom; still looking for a tank to field in their modernizing army wanted a closer and more in depth look at the German WW2 armored vehicles. The officers of the Earth Kingdom ordered the gathered weapons, rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, pistols, and the Tiger tank to be sent to Ba Sing Se for further examination, study, and testing.
Not everyone was being shuffled into the formations of captured soldiers, though. The highest ranking officers of the base were kept isolated for further questioning. This was done, however, by just Captain Stevenson and a few other US military officers. There was even an official from the US government's Department of Defense there, acting in agency on behalf of the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration which was commissioned that same year in the mid-summer. The administration, 'NASA' was what they were calling it in short, was responsible for the initial leaps and developments for the transit through the rift; although as Joe had experienced, there was still much to learn and perfect. They had also played key roles in the research and development of rockets, continuing on the earlier tests of ballistic missiles the year prior.
Much of the specifics were classified, even to Joe, but it was important that this government representative be here for the questioning of this SS officer. The Waffen SS officer, still sharply dressed in his organization's staple black uniforms, sat cuffed at the wrists, with those cuffs bolted to the table, before the small party of US officers and government officials. Before them, although the war long over and the 3rd Reich long disbanded and obliterated from what remained of both East and West Germanies, sat this deadly and ruthless relic from the past. His shoulder boards and collar devices gave his rank to the US officers familiar with identifying Nazi ranks. SS-Obersturmbannführer Muller, his rank equal to a Lieutenant Colonel in US ranks, was the commanding officer in charge of this facility, and had been the seated CO for over a decade now, faithfully carrying out the orders that were passed on to him at the start of his mission. Joe was given the lead in talking with the Nazi officer, and he did not reffer to him properly by either rank or name; his disdain for the 3rd Reich remained with him, as it did with the present US members.
"Fritz," Joe began, "likely this is going to come as a shock to you, but you are not the only modern military power present in this world, nor have you ever been the largest. It is apparent that you and all your little nazis here had no idea that the US and Japanese fleets fought here in this world, ended one hell of a long ancient conflict, built up this world, returned to our original world, and came back over and over again to build this world up to a closer degree to parity, somehow without any one of you brutal bastards ever catching on."
"I have no words to say to you, American dog," the SS officer mumbled in German. He also muttered some choice words at his captors, as well in German, in defiance of his situation.
"Ha," Joe scoffed,holding back the urge to break this officer's face in with the butt of his 1911 pistol. "Yeah. I don't think you are getting how this works-. One, I-, We all can understand every word you are saying. Here, in this world, it doesn't matter what language you speak. I understand it. Two, you not speaking is actually what I want you to do," Joe informed, staring straight through the prisoner. "You see, these men here, he said, with emphasis, pointing at the entourage of men, particularly the men in suits, standing behind him. They are the reason you aren't dead right now-. Maybe, 'cept the fact that you failed to off yourself with that fancy looking Luger of yours on the table over there. But all of that surviving banks on you telling us what we need to know. If not, you no longer have value to any of us. And I think you know-...You of all people know what happens- No- What you did to people who outlived their value. So if I were you, I'd start talking."
"You have nothing on me," Muller replied, still quite resolute. "My orders from the party were absolute. You may kill me, but the Reich will fight on. They'll emerge here as reinforcements in the coming future. And you will regret ever coming here."
Joe laughed, with all the other Americans present in the secluded and cordoned-off office. "'The Reich will fight on,' he says. Get a load of this guy! What a nutcase!" He turned to the Lieutenant Colonel, "Look, Fritz-,"
"Obersturmbannfuhrer Muller, to you, Captain," the officer snapped back.
"Right," Joe said, nodding his head in sarcastic approval. "Look, Fritz-. Let's rewind a little bit, and give you the benefit of the doubt. What year do you think it is? Where we came from?"
"By our time keeping it should be 1958," he replied. Surprisingly to everyone, the SS officer was spot on.
"Okay, fine, you know the year. I'll give you that. But-. Now. Do you really think your thousand year Reich is still doing hunkey-dorey?" Joe asked, being dead serious in tone suddenly.
Lieutenant Colonel Muller remained quiet.
"We looked around your little facility, and saw some interesting devices laying around-. More on that later, as we think we know what exactly this facility was originally put here for. But, when was the last time you heard from Nazi high command? It's been a long while hasn't it."
"1943," the SS officer revealed plainly.
"As I said. A long while," Joe reiterated. "I hate to be the bearer of sad news, Fritz. But, the war ended for you in 1945."
"I don't believe you," Muller replied.
"We thought not," Joe answered, anticipating the answer. He turned to the door, at the two military police sentries posted at the door to the office. "Bring that other Nazi bastard in here!"
The door swung open, and into the room, another former SS officer, a former SS-Oberhauptsturmfuhrer, a captain, came in. He was dressed in his old dress uniform, and brought in specifically for this role. "We figure, you'd need to hear it from one of your own. Tell him, buddy."
"Obersturmbannführer Muller," the former captain began. "I am Oberhauptsturmfuhrer Bergmann. I served in the 2nd SS Panzer Division from November of 1944 until the unit's surrender in May 1945. The very end of the war. Nazi Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, and the 3rd Reich finally submitted to the Allied powers after a long and brutal battle to the end with the Soviets razing Berlin to the ground. Hitler, had shot himself with no further hopes for victory possible. Everything these men say is true, the war until now has been long over." The former SS panzer officer had several back and forth deliberations with his captured superior, who originally did not buy the idea that Germany had lost the war. Afterall, he had been here in the Bending World since at least 1942, when the war was still in favorable terms for Germany. Eventually the SS lieutenant colonel began to cave to the idea that all was indeed lost.
"Yeah," Joe finally reemphasized his presence, "But you see, colonel, the war ended in 1945. It's 1958. You've been fighting for the SS for thirteen further years. The fact that you wear that infamous and evil death's skull on that cap of yours is already enough to make anyone lean closer to the idea of hanging you. But, beyond that…experimentation, torture, terrorization, and abduction of the local populace and passing travelleres here? That's the last nail in the coffin for you."
"I have done no such thing," he tried to deny.
"No-, see there you go again, thinking you can lie your way out of this. You see, the Earth Kingdom, and the United Republic have been keeping some very close tabs on the disappearances of travelers in this area in the recent years, which is exactly what drew our attention to your bunker here in the Taihua Mountains. And judging by the brutal scenes we've uncovered here…the smell alone..paint a pretty clear image as to what happened to those people," Joe cornered the SS officer. The scenes he was describing, what they had found within the lower floors of the bunker came straight out of a horror film. Operating tables, still stained with blood, which also stained the floors and walls nearby. You could still see the drag marks of blood on the cold tile floors, which hadn't been cleaned off well, which led to a furnace room further in. It was a room, no one could stand to be in for longer than a few minutes. Joe had to refocus himself in order to continue his pressuring of the Nazi official. "My guess is, you boys got a little curious as to what enabled these people to bend the elements… And it looks like you tried multiple times to figure that out, and were disappointed multiple times." The American officer slammed his 1911 on the table before abruptly leaning back in his cushioned desk chair which belonged to the SS lieutenant colonel. It creaked sharply as the ornate chair rocked backward. "Look Muller, there is. a. lot. of evidence here to incriminate you for some serious charges. Are you familiar with the Avatar?"
The, now quiet, Nazi shook his head no.
"He's the embodiment of all the wrathful spirits of the netherworld, and a freak of nature embodied in the body of a young man too ambitious and passively peaceful for his own good. Even he would be very very angry at what you've done. He wasn't too fond of you guys when he stopped in Germany and learned and saw what remained of everything you SS fanatics did during the war," Joe paused, "But, somehow I still think he can't find it in him to advocate for you being executed. However, even he won't be able to stop what all the other governments are going to do to you. And I'm not even talking about the local Kingdom here that you wronged directly. I'm talking about the ones back home which still have the bitter sour taste of Nazis fresh in their tongue." Joe leaned forward to stare even harder, somehow, into the Nazi officer's soul. "They're gonna hang you, Muller. Hell, they'd soon find a way to revive you so they can hang you again, if they could. And I'm not talking about a short drop and sudden stop, for you. No, that's too easy. They're going to string you up. Hoist you high, slowly, like a flag, until death. And god dammit, I would love to see them do just that, Muller. I wouldn't feel an ounce of remorse. You're in some serious hole here, buddy."
The Obersturmbannfuhrer gulped.
"But," Joe sighed, "It pains me to tell you this. You have, no. idea. How badly it pains me to say this. But, remarkably, Uncle Sam may just let you off the hook here. How familiar are you with Operation Paperclip?"
The German officer was shocked too at what he was hearing. And the sincere and real expression of disappointment he could see in his, until now, rigid and stern, captor, really conveyed how real this was.
"You see. Despite what you did here. The US is very interested in what it was exactly in this bunker you were working on. How you got here. How you were able to move a small army's worth of SS and Wehrmacht troops here to the Bending World, without a ship or a plane. How you were able to move that Tiger tank here. You get the picture," Joe wrapped up his short summary. "It's the, how you did all that, that the US wants to know. Truth be told, you are worth nothing. A war criminal is what you are, but we know you know where the men who were smart enough to work on such a project are, among the non-uniformed men of this facility. Where they are hiding in the local areas, if they aren't here. You, as the stand-in supervisor they placed to watch over this operation, can point them out and give a little bit of back story about all this." Joe paused again, "And so. If I were in your disgusting and sly position, I would seriously consider taking that deal."
It didn't take Muller more than a second to weigh his options. "My unit was directly linked to an top secret and high level Nazi research group, which operated under the strictest secrecy. Group 937." He paused to look at each of the US men present. "How familiar are you with Die Glocke?"
"Most of what little I heard is myth," Joe grumbled.
"Because it was very well concealed, even within Nazi Intelligence. I can assure you, with everything achieved here that I have witnessed first hand, we have gotten much farther than myth would lend you to believe. I'm sure benders and this entire world were also myths until very recently, weren't they," Muller affirmed.
A select two top ranking US Air Force and US Army officers, colonels, motioned for the rest of the entourage, including Joe, to leave them alone with the SS commanding officer, the suited government official included with those that could stay.
The last thing Joe could hear before the sentries shut the door firmly came from the suited official, too eager to wait for the door to shut all the way before questioning. "Tell me more about The Bell."
2013
Exhausted from treading water and taking a quick rest from trying to propel herself further along toward her destination, Avatar Korra and her polar bear dog, Naga, bobbed up and down in the waves in what was now Earth Kingdom waters. Having snuck out of her home in the Southern Water Tribe, against the orders of her instructor Tenzin, she had stowed away aboard a steam freighter heading north toward Republic City. However, upon getting discovered by the crews, it wasn't exactly easy to keep a large animal, the size of a car, hidden as a stowaway. In a panic, Korra made a break for it, as the crews had initially panicked finding the pair of stowaways. There was chaos, as Korra and Naga rampaged through the ship causing much confusion and damage before the pair ended up jumping ship at the end of it. The pair plunged into the sea, and were unable to be recovered by the freighter. Truth be told, they were viewed as a menace. Stowingaway and then rampaging through the ship causing all sorts of damage, but that was not going to stop the crews from trying to save them. Someone falling overboard was a serious matter, and that panicked furry was definitely not something that called for a death sentence at sea. But the seas were rough and the night was dark. Eventually, the steam ship had to abandon the search and continue onward, but not before relaying the information that they had people overboard to ships following their same route.
Slumped over Naga's back as the two floated in the, now calm, early morning seas, Korra could hear the sounds of a ship approaching. The sound of waves being broken at the bow, drew nearer and nearer. In a half-lucid state from exhaustion, she could hear the sounds of a rapid bell ringing some several stories overhead. Through half-closed eyes, she could note that the silhouette of the large vessel towered over her. She vaguely remembered seeing something shiny glinting off the bow. A net was thrown over the starboard side and was dragged alongside the ship until it caught grip of the avatar and her companion, hoisting the pair out of the water and hauling them several stories up until they were pulled onto the main deck.
Upon coming to rest on the main deck, the crews that had pulled her up gave her space, immediately dispersing for the next few moments. The uniformed men rushed inside to grab blankets. Korra was now coming to her senses, feeling the deck beneath her. It was her first time outside of the Southern Water Tribe, and therefore it was her first time on this ship, yet it felt so familiar. The sounds of the clanking metal, the rumbling of the engines far below, and even the feel of the metal felt like she had been on, maybe not in this life but in a previous one. The bristling main guns that towered over her just head, facing forward toward the bow and the tall superstructure beside her, let her know this was a battleship.
A steel door swung open nearby, and out swarmed a group of sailors running toward her clutching blankets, towels, and other tools for aid. They quickly knelt beside the avatar and her companion, trying to quickly dry them off with towels. Korra waved their efforts off, and then used her waterbending to instantly dry herself from all water better than any towel could. She took their offers of blankets though.
The sound of a pair of service dress shoes, slowly clopped towards the group, the sound of the soles against the wooden deck. "What a great find and rescue for our last voyage!" the man said. Korra looked at the man who now stood over her. He was dressed sharply in a naval uniform, but one of the United Forces. "I am Captain Park, commanding officer of this ship."
"Where am I," Korra asked.
"Welcome aboard, avatar. This is the Battleship Yamato," Captain Park announced with a great sense of pride in his ship. "We are currently on route to our final port of call: Republic City."
"Final port?"
"Yes," the Captain answered. "She has had a long and remarkable service career since being launched in 1941. But now, 2013, it's about time that this remarkable ship finally be allowed to rest. We've just finished our final tour of duty off the coast of the Southern Water Tribe. She cheated the scrap yards for decades, so I was saddened when her final tour was coming up. But! The word on the street is, Yamato will become a museum ship in Republic City, having played many key roles in our history."
Korra couldn't care less. It was something to her that this man could ramble on and on this much about a large piece of metal. To her, the abilities of an individual bender were incomparable and superior to any sort of awe that machinery could produce. "When will we arrive in Republic City?"
"In the next two days," Captain Park answered. "We will let Tenzin know to expect your arrival-"
"Please don't!" Korra pleaded, suddenly cutting him off. Captain Park looked at her with slight perplection. "I'd….rather tell him myself..hehe," Korra informed him, rubbing the back of her neck. She was, afterall, disobeying his instructions to remain in the South.
"Very well," Captain Park acknowledged. "Come inside! It's cold outhere afterall. We have more than enough room for you and…" He droned off, trying to figure out what to call the polar bear dog.
"Naga," Korra answered.
"Of course. For you and Naga, down below. The galley is just about to finish a serving of Japanese Navy-style curry! That'll surely warm you up. It's a ship-wide favorite! In fact, our ship's rendition of it is well received fleet-wide! We are three-year reigning champions in the United Forces' food competition!"
"Yeah. We'll be in shortly," Korra accepted the officer's offer. "Just want to enjoy the views for a few more moments.
"Of course," the Captain said, before turning on his heel and disappearing within the massive warship once more.
2013
Uninhabited Egypt, Southwest of El Alamein
The clanking of metal tracks, the putter and whir of multiple heavy engines, and the rumbling of the ground, meant one thing: a heavy tank column. Pacing along the side of the road, Captain Junichiro Stevenson took the inactivity as a time to once again check his M16A4 service rifle. A second generation Marine Corps officer, Junichiro was on his last tour of duty, before he decided he would leave the Marine Corps. Walking along the side of the street, escorting the small armored column through the small unmarked town in the middle of what he considered to be purgatory, he couldn't even be granted a relative silence to his thoughts as the loud noises of the tanks drowned out any.
Although there were US forces in Egypt, most were kept with Task Force Sinai, a peacekeeping force working in the Sinai peninsula. To be this far in the Western Sinai desert, the US, and especially the USMC had no business being here on a military operation. But this was no ordinary op. Captain Stevenson had stellar performances in the field and had a grand repertoire particularly with the Earth Kingdom 1st Armored Division which had been operating alongside US forces in the Middle East for the past year. The commanding officer of the unit, an older and old-fashioned officer, Major Xi, took a liking to Stevenson's wit, decisiveness, and quick-thinking. For this operation, the Major had asked personally for Junichiro's presence on this operation deep into the Egyption Desert. And so here he was, him and his small platoon of marines, dropped in specifically for this Earth Kingdom operation.
Of course, appeasing allies wasn't the main driving force as to why Jun and, by extension, the US Military was here in Egypt armed and ready to kick doors in, but the final sign off on the approval came from some higher up in the Central Intelligence Agency. Now that alone made whatever this was way above the infantry officer's paygrade to question. The only piece of intelligence he had been given was that they were here looking to apprehend a weapon's dealer.
"Captain Stevenson," a young corporal addressed him as the squad began to enter the small and dense urban area.
Bringing his M16 to a low-ready position now that they were in a more densely packed area, Jun gave in to the enlisted man's desire to chat. "What can I do for you, Corporal Blackstone?"
"Just wondering if you were up for some talk," the corporal asked, always one to chat. He still did his due-diligence in keeping an eye on the roofs and balconies overhanging the column.
"If I were any other officer, you'd be getting chewed out when this mission were over. 'Specially with that kind of address to a superior," Jun prodded.
"Yeah but unlike the others, you don't come with a stick up you-know-where. The Corps forgot to issue you one."
Jun couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and take a moment to shoot this kid a look. The audacity and the set on him. "Alright, I'll bite. Go ahead and run that mouth of yours, just as long as you keep your head on a swivel."
"You're a man of history, right captain?"
"I am," Captain Stevenson acknowledged peering into an approaching building's second story through the ACOG sight of his rifle. "How about, you corporal? You ever crack open a history book?"
"War history," the corporal replied.
"Okay, so we see eye to eye on what kind of history we are drawn to," Stevenson replied.
"Okay," the corporal began, leading up to his question. He realized the safety of his M4 carbine was still engaged and quickly set the weapon to semi-automatic. "World War Two, and knowing where we are right now and what we're traveling with. Did you ever think that Tiger tanks would ever roll in Africa again?"
Junichiro looked back at the two heavy armored boxes which clanked along the center of the street. Indeed, visually they were Tiger tanks, but with several upgrades and lots of re-engineering to the original design since the Earth Kingdom adopted them for service back in 1964. "No I did not," he answered simply.
Wearing a battered down faded green and sand camouflage pattern, the Tiger tanks, officially designated the Type I Heavy Tank under the Earth Kingdom, were actually slightly bigger than the original Tiger I Ausf. E design used by the German Panzerwafffe. The engine was far larger and the tank, a WWII design being redesigned and built in the 1960s, no longer had the complex drive-shaft and transmission issues plaguing the original Tiger design. The turret rotated much faster, and the gun, still heavily based on the original 88mm Kwk 36 L/56, had modern stabilizers which allowed this revamped Tiger to fire on the move with acceptable accuracy. Undeniably, the Earth Kingdom's tank fleet, consisting of a large majority of tanks based on the Big 3 German tanks of the Second World War, were aging, despite redesign and retooling, in 2013. Optimized Panthers, Tigers, as well as some smaller Panzers, did not hold a candle against more advanced and more complicated modern MBTs, but for a country in the Bending World, this fleet of armor was a very adequate and almost unmatched in a land war as the era of technology in the Bending World was still a majority in the 1940s.
The commander's hatch of the second tank in the column clanked as it was thrown open, the vehicle's commander, or commandant, in Earth Kingdom Army lingo, was going to pop her head out to get better visibility.
"And Captain," Corporal Blackstone just had to ask, "What are your opinions on the First Lieutenant?"
"The first lieutenant?" Junichiro searched his mind to figure out exactly who the corporal was referring to. "You mean her?" he said, gesturing towards the second Tiger tank. "From what I've heard, none of you guys have a chance. I know just how much everyone has a thing for her. She'd probably deck you, corporal, in a one on one."
Throwing open the steel door of the tank's cupola and sticking her head out into the afternoon sun, Lieutenant Yasuho Aoshima wanted to get a better view of the surroundings. She shielded her eyes momentarily from the bright rays of the sun, as the contrast of the darker interior of the tank and the outside was stark and her eyes hadn't adjusted yet. Her skin was pale and smooth, and her hair was neatly kept; of a jet-black raven color. For the heat, her hair had been cut shorter, with the excess length tied in a tail which hung at the back under her peaked cap, two locks of hair framed her face. Everyone wondered how someone like her would end up as a tank officer in the Earth Kingdom Army. Not only that, she wasn't deployed to a rear-line supporting unit either, but rather was incharge of a Type 1 Heavy tank in the Heavy Armored Corps. And despite being rather young, at just 26, she was making waves as one of the Earth Kingdom's prominent tank officers.
"Commandant," her radio operator, Maho Koizumi asked just beneath her, "Could I get the run down on the target of today, once more?"
"Sure. Today's target is Maxim Lenkov," Yasuho announced on the intercom. "Son of a former Soviet-Union era colonel, he's been running around the deserts of the Middle East and Africa as a prominent arms dealer, selling anything from Kalashnikovs and RPGs to old Soviet armored fighting vehicles and even plans for missiles and rockets for high bidders."
"Why did the Kingdom care enough to send us out this far? And a small armor unit to catch him too," her gunner Eunji Jang voiced out.
"I'm not sure," Yasuho admitted, "But orders are orders.
For Yasuho, her crew of five were her closest knit associates. They fought together since being assigned to this particular tank and had already seen each other through multiple minor sorties. She was especially closest with her radio operator, and the driver: Hanako Fujioka. The quietest one of the bunch was the loader, Junko Kobayashi, who often spoke concisely and not more than she needed to when acknowledging an order. The five of them made up the crew of Tiger 118. Not only did Yasuho have a reputation, but the crew did as well, being one of an all-female tank crew as well.
Yashuo reached for the pistol holster which hung on her duty-belt. The brown leather holster encased her personal sidearm. It wasn't standard-issue at all, and handguns, or firearms in general, weren't issued to earthbenders at all, but it was hers to carry and she had been carrying it for sometime despite never firing it. Pulling the pistol out, she brought the Walther P-38 up for inspection. The 9mm handgun still bore its Reichsadler, or Imperial Eagle stamp, on its receiver, as well as its original SS markings. She pulled back on the slide and checked to see that the handgun had a round chambered and ready to go, before checking the safety, and carefully returning the sidearm to her holster.
She looked off the port-bow of her tank at the leading Marine Corps officer who marched alongside the column. He was talking with one of his enlisted soldiers during the mission, something she disapproved of. Yasuho took her work seriously, and in the field she was one to remain fully concentrated and often silent unless necessary for her to speak. Yet, she involuntarily made eye contact with the Marine captain who grinned slightly and made a comment toward his subordinate before returning his eyes forward over the sights of his rifle.
"Commandant," Maho once again called, this time with the radio's hand piece in her hand, "From Major Xi."
The commander of the lead tank, Major Xi, had been Yasuho's instructor and mentor up until now, ever since she was simply the driver of the Earth Kingdom's first service tanks: the Panzer IV. He was, by all accounts, strict and stubborn and very old-fashioned when it came to his military tactics and upbringing. He had come from a rather wealthy family of generals, with his lineage seeing officers in Ba Sing Se during the Hundred Years War. Considering that just over seventy-one years ago the idea of tanks, mechanization, cars, planes, trains, and anything that involved large pieces of moving metal was almost unthinkable beyond the Fire Nation, it was understandable how many older Earth Kingdom officers had largely unchanged war philosophies. For the drastic jump in technology, there was no way that the so-called old guard could possibly adapt, especially when they largely inherited their positions from their familial ties or status. Yasuho, being 26, and coming from a very modest..and tragic.. background did not appreciate this aspect of the Earth Kingdom Army. The tacticians were too old-thinking, and were not suited to a mechanized style of warfare. And the Queen, the top supreme ruler of the Kingdom, its armed forces, and its people in all districts, to Yasuho did a very poor job at her job as well. She certainly wasn't Queen Eilizabeth, or Emperor Akihito, at all. Of course, these thoughts she kept to herself. But she'd be lying if she didn't want a long-overdue change to come about in the leadership and management of the Earth Kingdom. Afterall, if the Earth Kingdom had been better managed, and crime and in-fighting were not as big of a problem, Yasuho would never have been in the military at all.
She wiped the ill-thoughts from her mind and tone as she clasped her holster shut once more and took the handset from Maho.
"You're falling too far behind, Aoshima! Tell that driver of yours to close the gap in the column!" She had barely brought the phone receiver to her ear and she was already flinching at the orders being barked at her from Major Xi up ahead. She looked out over the barrel of her tank at the lead, Major Xi was not topside at all, rather giving orders and observing through the view ports of the cupola with the hatches shut. Sure, a commander poking their head out topside would leave them vulnerable, but it also gave them the best situational awareness, especially in a confined situation like this city. 'He probably has both earpieces in his ears as well,' Yasuho thought. She had read that German tank aces never kept both of their ears plugged with their headpieces, so that they could effectively hear what was going on around them.
"Acknowledged, Major Xi, I will have her close ranks immediately," she confirmed on the radio. He had always been strict and nitpicky with her from the start. But seeing as she was now incharge of a tank of her own, in his defense he did give credit where credit was due.
She briefly lowered her head into the turret, back into the darkness, "Hana-chan!"
"Yes commandant!" the driver acknowledged.
"The Major's adamant again, please close the distance slightly. Apparently we are falling behind," she sang light-heartedly.
"Understood," Hanako acknowledged, putting more pressure on the accelerator.
"We should be getting close," Yasuho announced as she looked at her charts once again. "Look alive!"
"Contact front!"
Yasuho quickly peeked topside to look ahead, now keeping her head as low and flush with the armor as possible. The chatter of AKM rifles rumbled downrange. The Marines beside the column moved for cover, before efficiently returning fire with their rifles and carbines. A few of them took cover behind Major Xi's tank.
"Contact front! The building at the end of the street!" Yasuho could hear the Major give orders on the radio, "Fifty meters. Load high explosive!" There was a terrific roar which came from the coaxial machine gun, tossing a stream of tracers into the stone and clay building. An 88mm high explosive shell was overkill, in Yasuho's mind!
There was a distant pop followed by a sharp whistling streak. A streak of orange and trail of white rocketed towards them. An RPG! The rocket missed Xi's tank to the left slightly, and exploded near several marines.
"Fire!"
Boom! The 88mm gun fired, sending a shell straight into the building full of combatants. Dust and debris belched from the second floor where the ordnance detonated. Another rocket came at them, this time landing just before the bow. The Tiger panicked and tried to evade, but the streets were narrow and there wasn't room to turn.
"Aoshima! You're too close! Back up! Back up now!"
"Affirmative, Major!" she acknowledged, now on edge. She dropped below once more. "Hanako!"
"I'm on it, commandant," the driver said, quickly shifting through the gears, and hitting the gas.
Yasuho jumped topside again, turning to the tank behind her, the third in the column and motioning them to reverse. In the hull, Maho opened fire with the bow machine gun, an MG34. From the view port, she could see the Marines' confusion, seeing their tanks reversing rather than charging forward, or effectively returning fire. Yasuho did not want to retreat, but she had no choice. They were bunched up in this column.
"RPG!" Yasuho could hear. She looked to the person calling the target, it was Captain Stevenson. "RPG topside!" he yelled, opening fire with his M16. She quickly looked to the roof of the building to their immediate left-front, the one towering over Major Xi's lead tank. Sure enough, there was a combatant fielding an RPG on the second floor, sighting the side of the vulnerable Tiger tank. Major Xi, was still within, unable to hear effectively what was going on around his tank, and unable to see that assailant in order to react.
A terrible whistle and a bang! One rocket had punctured straight through the thick frontal armor of the tank, sending a jet of molten metal and explosives within, killing the driver and radio operator instantly. Yasuho watched, telling Maho to try to warn them as fast as possible but to no avail. They watched as Xi's tank had come to a grinding halt, just as the second RPG fired down from the rooftop, striking their lead tank through the roof armor; the weakest armor of the vehicle. Flames quickly erupted within the steel beast, erupting through the roof and out the gun barrel.
Yasuho quickly looked back at where the attackers were, and was greeted with the warhead of another rocket peering down on her tank! She quickly ducked into the turret, shutting the hatch on top of her. Outside, Junichiro had spotted the rocket-wielding combatant and had begun to fire on him with his rifle. The enemy flinched just enough from the hits of 5.56 and pulled the trigger of the rocket launcher reflexively. The rocket soared just over the top of the turret and exploded on the ground to the rear-right side.
Within the hatch, Yasuho focused her energy. Her hands locking and gripping at the air, moving in circles about her in the cramped space of the commander's position. Outside, topside, the metal locking pins which held the commander's MG42 machine gun in place on the hatch-ring came undone. She was a metal-bender! The gun swiveled about sharply and elevated towards the general area of the second story. Yasuho found what she knew to be the metal charging handle and the trigger, racking the belt into place. With a wave of her hand, the machine gun, topside and fully untouched, opened fire into the clay and brick structure. Twelve hundred rounds per minute of 8mm Mauser ripped through the building, sending all inside into a panic.
Now the leading tank, in the column of two, directions now fell into Yasuho's shoulders.
"What do we do now?" Hanako called back.
"Give me a second, I'm thinking!" Yasuho replied.
"We're pinned! Need to get moving!" Eunji further added.
Their prodding for instruction in addition to the constant sharp ringing from the bullets ricocheting off the armor. They needed to advance, but there was a burning metal corpse in their way.
"Maho, tell the Marines to pull back behind the tanks! We will create a path forward," she ordered.
"Understood!" the radio operator acknowledged, bringing the handpiece to her ear and mouth while continuing to fire the hull machine gun.
"Hanako, go around the downed tank!"
"There's no way around!" Hanako disagreed.
"Make a way! Now!" Yasuho commanded. Hanako finally gave in, hitting the clutch and shifting back to forward drive.
"Eunji! Junko! Swing the gun to the rear, we're bulldozing a way forward!"
"Understood, commandant," Eunji acknowledged. She reached over and pushed a switch with her palm, starting to traverse the turret around to face rearward. Junko quickly moved to shut the ammunition door. Outside the Marines pulled back behind the trailing tank.
"Advancing," Hanako said as she floored the accelerator. Smoke belched from the rear exhausts as they drove around the destroyed tank, heading straight for the buildings on the right hand side of the narrow street. The armor made contact with the weak columns and pillars which held up the two story structures. They crashed through the building with ease. The rumbling and crashing of all sorts of material around them as they crashed unto the steel roof was deafening. Following close behind was the trailing unit, followed by the men on the ground who filtered around the wreckage. The hull rocked as Hanako returned them back to the flat level ground of the street outside. Eunji was already swinging the gun barrel back to face forward once again.
"Load high explosive!" Yasuho ordered.
"HE, understood," Junko called back, ramming the shell into the breach.
"Jang-san! Engage hostiles on the right side at will!"
"Understood, commandant!" Eunji acknowledged, rotating the turret to face off the forward right corner.
Yasuho checked her charts, pushing the hatch open and pulling herself topside. They were just two blocks away, with the supposed target being directly ahead.
Back topside, Yasuho pushed the MG42 mount out from in front of her, not needing the machine gun for this. She had had enough of these insurgents of unknown background or allegiance. They wore no uniforms. They were either mercenaries, or radicals, or whatever…they were annoying, and she had had enough.
Boom! The main gun fired off! Followed by a burst from the coaxial machine gun. Bodies were tossed from the right side, and the crowds that came rushing out were cut down before they could fire off their AK rifles. Various armed combatants appeared on the left side as well.
Yasuho inhaled deeply, put her mind in a calm state of focus. Her hands and arms moved in sharp throwing motions. Quick and precise, with a cold efficiency. Her metal shoulder epaulets, which had seams which divided the shoulder boards of her uniform tunic, broke away one sharpened projectile at a time! The weaponized ornaments, sharp to a point like a dagger, impaled their targets deep. As soon as they had killed their targets, they were then quickly pulled back from their corpses and returned to their place on Yasuho's uniform. Her belt also held additional pieces of bendable metal; small and thin metal plates, kept in pouches similar to a pistol magazine carrier. Occasionally she pulled large chunks of the surrounding earthen structures down on the enemies in the street, to the awe of those who followed in her wake.
They came to a halt before a building which appeared to be the former town hall of this abandoned city. It was the largest structure by comparison to the ones they had been passing. This one they couldn't just send a shell through the window, as ideally this arms dealer would be captured alive, in addition to whatever it was he was selling off. The tanks had turned to provide cover as the Marines charged into the structure, all while occasional threats would present themselves outside.
Yasuho could hear the breaching of the rooms inside, as the men cleared one door at a time; the blast of a shotgun, the pop of a flashbang. But on the final door, there was the sound of the door being kicked open, some yelling, a brief pop pop pop of the US rifles, and what sounded like an explosion! Not liking the sounds she was hearing, she spun around trying to see what was happening.
Through the dirtied and shattered glass, Yasuho could see the men stumble out of the room, slightly shaken. But they were pushed aside by the target: Maxim Lenkov. Close on his tail was Captain Junichiro Stevenson, his M16 slung over his shoulder and giving chase. Behind the building, Yasuho could hear the sound of a jeep engine turning over. Not enough time to react as a tank unit.
"Maho! Up to the cupola, you're in charge!" she shouted pulling herself out from the cupola.
"Yasuho?!" the radio operater called back, already pulling herself up to the commander's slot. But Yasuho had already jumped from the tank and was now boots on the ground.
"Maxim! Stop!" she yelled, seeing the arms dealer jump into the back of simple army jeep. Of course he didn't. Him and his driver began to drive off.
Not going to let him get away, Yasuho stomped her foot into the ground, sending a sub-surface earthen-torpedo after the small 4x4 jeep. Upon reaching the fleeing car, a small but forceful pillar of earth suddenly shot up just behind the drive wheels, flipping the jeep suddenly, sending the driver and Maxim flying as the vehicle tumbled. Yasuho was the first to catch up to them. The driver was killed in the crash, but Maxim was okay, sustaining moderate trauma injuries. She kicked the Makarov pistol from his hand, and held his uninjured arm to the ground by her foot. The Earth Kingdom tank officer had drawn her P-38 and held him there until the Marine Corps captain caught up.
"Are you okay?" she asked Junichiro, who was still catching his breath.
"Yeah," he exhaled, "Get command on the radio, have them send for medevac. I have a few wounded. And there's this guy too to deal with."
"I'll get them on the radio right away," she acknowledged. His eyes looked into hers for a moment.
"You fought one hell of a fight back there," he said, now fumbling around for his zip ties. "You certainly live up to your reputation."
"I just do what needs to be done," she simply replied. Do you need anything else?" Yasuho was now returning her pistol to its holster.
"Nothing right now," Jun answered, "But-" he took hold of her hand just before she could let go of her pistol, pulling it out and taking the sidearm from her. He held the gun's side profile up to their eye level and flicked the switch at the rear of the slide up and down. "Next time, you're going to point a gun at someone. Safety off," he said, handing it back to her.
"Captain! You're gonna wanna see this!" a Marine called to him from the building.
What they had found in the weapons deal wasn't just simple guns and artillery. There were scattered schematics and research papers talking about the power of so-called spirit energy, something way above Jun's pay grade at the time, and well beyond his ability to comprehend. Yasuho as well wasn't brought up to speed on what they would potentially find. But the two were certain their higher ups had a keen interest in these pages. Multiple documents were found, stamped with various organizational symbols. The oldest being of the Reichadler from Nazi Germany, the SS Runes, the Swastika and Palm trees of the Afrika Korps, and Group 937. There were studies of potentially harvesting said energy, however it could be, and theories by Nazi scientists at the time that this could lead to production of potent wunderwaffe. The most recent of recognizeable symbols in the stack came from a potential recipient in Maxim's ledger of clients, one which made Yasuho's head tilt a bit of intrigue.
"Twin lightning bolts, and the upper half of a gear," Junichiro remarked.
" Future Industries," Yasuho identified.