Chapter 7

The closer they got to the town somewhere in front, the harder their enemy began to fight back. The second stages of attacks of both the southern and southern armies had begun, and it was starting to be a continuous attack for them as well. They knew barely anything about either armies and not much more about their stages of attack. Their own regiment number they knew but a division as a concept was unknown to many. All they surely knew was irritation, danger, hunger, fatigue, and the group of comrades they had become acquainted to, from which someone disappeared every now and then.

From far north and south they heard only ceaseless rumble of cannons as both sides tried to soften each other up. Above them, air battles were fought when their own fighters went against Sirens' fighters. Sometimes they stopped to watch as a fighter in flames came crashing down. As they became more silent and grumpier, but their relationship to Sanders became closer. His position in the eyes of his men only improved. In battles, he was calm and calculating, so his platoon's casualties remained low compared to the casualties of many others. He did not put his men in danger unless there was a real benefit from it, and even then, he himself was with them advising and securing the situation. But most of all, he was appreciated for being like any one of them.

Cooper, on the other hand, became gloomier. Once a grenade landed next to him, but somehow remained unharmed. He did lose his hearing for a while because of that. Once they had to leave a wounded man as they retreated from a hill and after taking it back, they saw that he had been beaten to death. For that one man from Smith's platoon shot two surrendered Siren soldiers. The same man was torn in half a couple of days later when he took a direct hit from a shell. The siren soldiers were strange creatures to them. Their skin was white as snow and usually yellowish. They understood nothing about their speech. Most of them had light armor plating in their clothes but that was too heavy for a man to carry and their weapons were bizarre. They ranged from traditional bullet weapons to some sort of plasma rifles. Unfortunately, those weapons didn't work if any of the men tried to shoot with one, but they were good trophies to take back home.

Brown seemed to enjoy the war. He no longer showed any symptoms of fatigue and tried to keep other in a good mood as well. However, he spent a lot of his time talking with the Ship-Girls and especially Helena. He had grown quite fond of that quiet and shy girl. During the battles he killed coldly, his reputation spread, and many new and older officers realized he wasn't as exemplary soldier as he should have been. Namely, he still didn't show respect for military ranking. He had not yet met such an important man that he wouldn't have spoken informally to.

Despite all warning Hubbard had gotten himself beaten up by one of the Ship-Girls for his outrageous attempt. From that, he got a memory in form of a black eye when he had tried something with a battleship-grade Ship-Girl. If there was anything good about his attempt, it was that no one else dared to try messing with them.

XXX

-"Enemy is directly in front, on a hill 'bout 300 yards away from us. Two stronger bunkers have been found there. Our artillery, known as those Ship-Girls, will bomb the place for five minutes and then it's our time to attack. So, the moment of attack starts around… twelve thirteen."

Lieutenant Smith briefed her men in a quiet voice. The men listened to their lieutenant anxiously and looked at the hill between trees. A rather steep slope led to the hill and the forest near it had been felled.

-"Wouldn't it be better if bombers just blew those bunkers to hell? They don't seem to have any anti-air defenses there."

-"You're right but that was the first thing that was tried. Even armor piercing bombs did fuck all to them. Of course, the best situation would be letting those girls shell it to hell, but they'd have to get to that forest border to do that and then they would be easy pickings for those machine guns."

A scout about 10 yards in front of them whispered:

"I'm seeing movement on the hill."

-"Copy that."

Somewhere to their left, the artillery observer spoke on the radio. His voice sounded like a strange spell to them because that call would mean the start of the cannon fire.

The clock struck 12:08 and whole world tore when those cannons opened fire. The loud cannon fire filled their ears and the earth beneath them shook. The cannons seemed to compete for the title who shot the most at their enemy. The soldiers pressed themselves against the ground while shells whistled over them in large arches. On the hill, dirt, rocks, wood, and smoke flew all around the place. Flames illuminated the smoke when a shell hit the ground.

Somewhere behind lieutenant Smith's platoon Sanders and Brown watched the firestorm.

-"Well, what do you think?"

Sanders watched the explosions for a moment while sitting on one knee.

-"Goes a little too far…"

-"Yeah, that's what I thought as well."

Smith watched her wristwatch and its ticking. 12:09… 10… 11… 12…

12:12. Smith calmly waited for his watch to strike exactly 12:13 and at that moment the cannon fire behind them ceased and the last few shells flew over them.

-"First platoon, let's get moving!"

Smith started to crouch run towards the slope and her men followed her. To their right rifles were already banging and they accelerated their pace. As they left the cover of the tree's bullets began to whistle past them. The scout in front fired his submachine gun incessant. The platoon ran forward only occasionally, pausing to take cover and Smith hoped that they could get up and through the hill's defenses in a one nice push.

However, halfway up the slope their pace came to a complete halt. Some were still trying to plunge forward and other were crawling, but everyone else were already stuck in a losing firefight. Smith was maybe 5 yards ahead of the others and continued to crawl forward, shouting to her men to start moving. They were taking cover behind tree trunks and rocks. The enemy's machine guns didn't shoot short bursts, but they allowed the belts go from start to end without breaks. The entire regiment attacked the bunker line and somewhere further right the other regiment's attacking sounds could be heard. The barrels of hundreds and thousands of guns glowed in heat and the same number of hands reloaded and continued firing. Tens and hundreds died; hundreds got wounded. There was real strength in the attack, but similar strength was in the defense.

Smith looked around and realized that a charge in this kind of situation would have marked the end of her platoon. The energy of the attack began to fade away fast as soon as they stopped and not many men were ready to put themselves into a bigger risk now that the attack had stalled.

She shouted to split the platoons in two and have the other half shoot covering fire as the other crawled forward. Now she herself was 15 yards ahead of the others and heard some platoon leader order covering fire as he ran and plunged himself next to Smith. The man threw himself next to Smith and rolled on his back. He let out a terrible gargle, a burst had pierced his chest.

-"Higgins?" Smith called the man's name, but he didn't react.

Smith tried to shake the man, but he didn't react, so she deemed the man dead. All of a sudden, a bullet scraped against her helmet and she pressed herself against the ground even harder.

"God fucking damn it!"

The death of Higgins paralyzed the men. Still Smith tried to encourage the men by all means possible and push forward. Minutes passed and the situation worsened. 11 bullets pierced one man that tried to rush forward. Smith heard her name being called behind her and she saw a courier's face behind a tree trunk. She carefully crawled back towards the trunk and stayed prone.

-"Can't you push through?"

-"What do you think? The best god damn platoon leader died just a moment ago and I've lost four or five men already. Not gonna happen without some backup." Smith spat out.

-"The whole god damn battalion is occupied already. We reported the situation to the commander already, but he said to keep trying. The sixth company has taken even worse casualties."

-"Well, I'll do what I can."

The courier nodded and took his leave. Smith saw Sanders waving at her and she made her way towards him. Last few yards she sprinted, jumped over some tree trunks, and landed in a small pit next to Sanders.

-"It's useless to push. The men aren't going to follow you into that hellfire. If we managed to destroy one of those bunkers, then you might have a chance.

-"Well by what miracle can we destroy it?"

Sanders looked around for a moment before turning back towards Smith.

-"If one of those Ship-Girls could be taken close to it then it could probably be blown up."

-"Well then tell me where would be get one of them here. I bet them commander won't just be giving away those girls and be ready to throw them into situations like this. The loss of that one Brit was a heavy blow to them already." Smith snarled. She wouldn't have liked to resort using the Ship-Girls because losing one would mean being chewed out by higher ups.

-"They can't be too far because they just bombarded this place."

-"True that, but how the hell did you think of getting permission?"

-"Sometimes you just have to take the reins into your own hands. It'll be easier to apologize than to ask for a permission. I'll go ask if one of them would come along. Many of them already know me."

-"I'll come with you."

XXX

It was not long before Sanders and Smith found some of the Ship-Girls.

"What happened?", "Why are you here?", "Did the attack go badly?" Were some of the questions they were bombed with when they reached the Ship-Girls.

-"Well, we are not here for fun." Smith answered and lit her cigarette.

-"And you wouldn't be here either if you didn't need something." Said Pennsylvania. She and her sister had been assigned to this bombardment squad. There were others, like a girl named Tennessee and another named Oklahoma and then some cruisers as well.

-"It's a difficult situation and some serious firepower is needed. We need one of you to come with us and blow up that bunker."

-"Great plan." Tennessee responded mockingly "Besides that bunker withheld a drop from AP-bombs. I don't think we can do much better."

Smith growled at the backtalking girl and said:

"Maybe so, but if you get close enough you should be able to do something to it. We'll take you close to it."

The Ship-Girls looked at each other for a moment before Pennsylvania said:

"I'll do it."

-"What? Don't be silly you could get hurt." Arizona told her.

-"Yeah no shit she could get hurt." Tennessee sneered.

-"It's better to do well at once. I have the biggest cannons so they should do some damage." Pennsylvania said calmly. You could have noticed the concern in her voice when she spoke but none of them were attentive enough at the moment.

-"Wrong. If you don't remember we all have 14-inch barrels."

-"Yeah, but it doesn't matter if you're not willing to use them."

That hit a sore spot. Her face turned serious from her mocking look. Not many could talk about being better in battle than Tennessee, but Pennsylvania was one of those few that were either slightly better or at least equal.

-"I'll take you there." Smith said after noticing the situation that began to escalate.

-"No way. I'll go." Sanders denied her.

-"This is my task, not yours."

-"Someone has to get them men moving when the bunker blows up, that's your job. I'd get my own platoon moving but no-one else."

After a small silence Smith said:

-"Does it have to be you? Can't anyone else go?"

-"Well, I don't think there are many volunteers."

They jogged back to the tree line and all the Ship-Girls followed them. Smith was grim. To her, Sanders' proposal felt like an insult because it seemed to mean to her, her own failure. She growled but agreed to Sanders' decision. Sanders on the other hand felt slight irritation from her ambition but when he spoke, he was calm as usually. He prepared by replacing his magazine on his submachine gun and instructed both Cooper and Hubbard to keep shooting no matter what when they went.

Smith began to hesitate. The thought came to her that she would get a Ship-Girl killed and another officer.

-"What if her cannon doesn't do anything? It's better if I try without you going there."

Both Pennsylvania and Sanders ignored her and prepared to leave. Pennsylvania was being hugged by her sister Arizona that was sobbing.

-"What if you get hurt or killed there, Penny?"

-"Nothing will happen to me. Just wait here."

-"… See ya later then." Sanders said to Smith.

XXX

Smith had decided to charge ahead even if Sanders and Penny were killed

Sanders and Penny crawled in a row under end next to fallen trees. The dense branches of the trees gave excellent cover for them. At first Sanders had thought about going behind Pennsylvania, to give her covering fire better but after realizing she was only wearing a jacket with tights, he rejected the idea. It would have been inappropriate. Sanders stopped peeked over a trunk and looked back towards Penny. Her green eyes studied the terrain.

-"We need to sprint to the next trunk."

-"Right behind you."

Penny peeked over the trunk, but she had to pull her head back behind cover almost immediately because a burst came towards her. She looked at Sanders that took deep breaths before saying:

"On the count of three. One… Two… three!"

Both got up at the same time and in a flash, they were already running towards the pile of trunks. The machine gun didn't have enough time to turn back towards them so when they both got behind the trunks, they were unharmed not counting their torn clothes. Again, they started to crawl forwards and pressed themselves against the tree trunk when a bullet struck near them. The tree had conveniently fallen next to a small rock that they used as cover. Penny looked at the bunker and nodded to Sanders. They both rushed forward but their sprint ended before they managed to take 4 steps when some bullets whizzed around them and they had to take cover behind a small lump of earth. Pennsylvania waited for the bullets to stop flying past her and she dashed behind another lump in front of Sanders. There was maybe 30 yards between them, and the bunker and the rock was now really close. One more rush and they would be in cover behind the rock. As Penny prepared herself to her next dive, she spotted a Siren on top of the hill throwing something towards them. As soon as the object left the Siren's hand, a burst of submachine gun bullets pierced through its chest and the Siren fell to the ground. The grenade landed a short distance away from Penny. She pressed herself against the ground and gritted her teeth. The grenade exploded and threw shards, small rocks, and earth on them. Sanders blinked his eyes as his ears rang. Penny shouted something at him, but the explosion affected his hearing so much, that he only heard parts of it:

"Co… on! Qui… … tha… ...ock!"

Sanders was confused but he quickly understood the need to get behind the rock. As they ran towards the rock, Sanders stopped to shoot two Siren troopers that had exposed themselves to fire at them. However, neither of the troopers had time to shoot a single shot before bursts from Sanders' submachine gun ended them. Penny threw herself against the rock and shortly after Sanders did the same. She turned to look at Sanders and told him to cover his ears, but the lieutenant did nothing but blinked his eyes rapidly. She grabbed a hold of his hands and brought them to his ears, after that Sanders realized that another bang was coming. He turned his back slightly towards Penny and she took it that he was ready.

Pennsylvania stood up and summoned her rigging. She loaded armor piercing shells into her turret A. Her B turret she loaded with high explosive shells and turned all her barrels towards the bunker. With her rigging summoned, her weight had multiplied, and her shoes sank into the soft, wet ground. Sanders turned to look at her but after seeing her getting ready to shoot he quickly turned back around. For a moment, everything seemed to calm down. The sounds of the battle ceased, and unnatural silence took its place. First, a massive wave of pressure threw all junk out of its path as Penny's cannons fired. Large clouds of smoke erupted from the ends of her barrels, followed by a deep rumble that shook the trees and the ground. The shells Impacted with the bunker and a couple of them flew right through its loophole and inside. A large explosion of fire tore the roof of the bunker in half and crushed soldiers that had not been blown into smithereens underneath it. Smith, who had been in front of the bunker some distance away, stood up and yelled:

"Charge! Let's go!"

Penny sat against the rock, sighed, and glanced at Sanders. Both of their faces were dirty due to the soil and dirt thrown by the explosion. The men, now in front of them set out to push the line in a hurry, but they were no longer in a hurry anywhere. They had completed their task, and with good luck, the whole line would quickly collapse thanks to the breakthrough. Men passed them on either side of them and some shouted goodwilled comments at them. After a while they saw the Ship-Girls coming towards them. Arizona came running, crying with joy at them and threw herself on Penny squeezing her into a tight hug:

-"I was so worried about you! Every time you disappeared, I feared the worst and… and… and…"

Penny patted her back and tried to calm her down. By the time the other Ship-Girls arrived to them, Arizona had already calmed down a lot. Tennessee patted Penny's shoulder and said:

-"Nice job. Let's drive them backwards some more."

She turned to Sanders and said, "It's probably better that you stay here for a while."

His ears hadn't stop ringing and therefore he didn't hear a word of what was said and only replied:

"My ears are ringing so I can't hear anything. I'll rest here for a moment; I've been in worse shape before."

-"Yep, We've seen." Pennsylvania said with a small grin. The other Ship-Girls looked at each other confused for a moment before going after the soldiers to assist them in driving out the Siren troops, leaving the four behind.

XXX

After the men drove the Sirens from the vicinity of the fallen bunker, the entire line quickly collapsed. However, it was not easy, the Sirens fought to hold their positions to tooth and nail. Even after being surrounded they fought fiercely back, and no prisoners were acquired. Many men died and many Ship-Girls were wounded before the line was finally overtaken. While fighting, the fighting strength of Ship-Girls came clear to the men. Even after losing limbs, the girls continued fighting without letting the loss of limbs bother them. The lack of tanks came as no surprise to anyone as they would have been great target practice to the girls. Nor did that that Brown had formed some sort of a strike team with Helena and together they often were the first ones to head into battle.

-"You don't know but I thought you were a goner when I saw that grenade fly towards you. That's when I though that I need to start looking for a new platoon leader for us, because I don't accept any cunt to take charge of our platoon." Brown spoke to Sanders whilst they sat watching the havoc after the battle. "I even told Lena to let me know if she found any valid replacements for you." Brown joked as he told events from his point of view.

With a small smile, Sanders looked around, while listening to Brown.

"Some damn sergeant came to thank me for a job well done when me and Lena had cleared one bunker. I just told him: 'Don't try to flatter me because I'm not trying to play a hero like you are. After all we are here to kill, so let's kill'"

Their company had got three days off to rest. The third platoon was near them lying around the place, or at least for the most part. Hubbard was of course missing because he ran a trade with everyone that was willing to trade with him. He knew how to persuade people into grossly bad exchanges when they thought they had won against the cunning trader. Many times, he also did not march with them. At the beginning of the march, he disappeared to somewhere and, in the end, he appeared swaggering with the things he had gotten. If someone asked about his civilian life, he just said that he sold horses, but no one knew if it was true of not. And no one ratted him out because often he shared the things, he had brought with him. When he arrived, he shouted at them from afar. This time he had brought butter and flour with him and it was decided to make pancakes from them. The men quickly lit a campfire and eagerly began to fry the pancakes with every suitable metal piece that could act as a pan. Sanders and Brown didn't join in on the pancake party because some of the Ship-Girls came to see them.

-"We heard that thanks to you, you got thought the line here." Brooklyn said to Sanders.

Sanders breathed out in amusement and for a moment the edge of his mouth curled into a small smile at the praise he got but quickly he covered it up and replied:

-"I didn't do anything so special. It was Pennsylvania that destroyed that bunker."

-"Good looking, a good fighter and even modest. He's like made for you Atlanta!" Hornet exclaimed.

This turned Atlanta's face beet red, and she started to chase Hornet around.

-"Don't do that, you'll embarrass Atlanta." Yorktown said, but only with difficulty she managed to restrain her own laughter.

After Atlanta failed to catch the much longer legged and faster Hornet, she settled for murmuring at her from a distance. They talked about how their repair ship had been pretty annoyed at all the damage the Ship-Girls had received. At some point their conversation turned into a comparison of their frags, which was won by Horned and Phoenix who both tied with 27 points.

-"How many did you get?"

-"12? I only got 7!"

-"How many did you get, Ned?"

-"Ha, I don't count. Why would I? What would I get from it? Nothing, that's what."

-"What about you Arizona?" Cleveland asked the quiet girl.

-"Don't start asking from her. she doesn't like it." Pennsylvania cut in.

-"Huh? Why? What's wrong with killing bad guys."

-"Maybe they are not all bad." Arizona said.

This surprised many of them.

-"How so? After all, this war was started because of them and to my knowledge they have done no good."

Arizona was silent and watched the skyline and the tops of the trees in the distance until she sighed and said:

"The ordinary soldier has not been evil in many wars. It's those decision makers and those who are not involved in battles themselves except on paper."

No one answered her and silence fell upon them until Brown said with his naturally cheerfully tone and without intend to offend:

"Let's not spoil the mood now. In war, you must have fun! Hey, listen, I was wondering that…"

XXX

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A/N: Yeet, another written. Not much to say other than that I try to write these every now and then. I wouldn't expect cyclic Schedule. I got Valentine's Gift from Atlanta and I do not regret anything. A new Russian event is looking really nice, never really used the Russian ships but I might need to level them up now. Maybe I'll introduce some of them here but all in due time.

Like every time reviews are very much appreciated no matter what ya want to say.

See ya hopefully next time! Some Dood out!