"Speech" = Allied frequency radio chatter.
"Speech" = Tiger-03's internal radio chatter.
He had done it!
It was just the beginning of the afternoon, and by some string of luck that he could only say was presented to him by God, Subaru had caught a glimpse of something amongst the massive maze of hills; a glimmer reflecting the sunlight. Whether it was a scope of a rifle or a set of binoculars, he didn't know, as it was quite distant - God damn sneaky sons of bitches - but it was, however, an evident sign of enemy activity. With a poker face, the determined Japanese American squeezed his periscope and sighed in partial relief, as if someone removed a weight from his back. While on the outside he expressed no emotion, on the inside he was internally commemorating, for such discovery served to qualm his nervousness from what he knew would be a massacre, and he would be on the receiving end. Would, as his post-mortem self knew what would hit them this time around. The North Koreans though, wouldn't.
Alas, although he had indeed discovered the position of his adversaries, his struggle was far from over. Everything up to now was just the easy part. The upcoming battle would be the hard part, and that thought alone was enough to send another strike of dread upon his inexperienced self. He blinked as he looked down to the ball gunner. Like the driver, he too, was standing, not totally inside the tank. Subaru grimaced as remembered how Davis had died: in an instant. So fast that he probably didn't even notice he died. One second he was alive and kicking, and the next, he was a corpse with his legs blown off. Subaru never saw what happened to the others after he had caught on fire, and once again cursed himself for failing at the most basic of his duties. On the bright side, he supposed it was for the best, he didn't want to see anyone dying. Not again. He couldn't make another mistake.
Quite the pressure.
Wasting no further time, he turned to his tank commander, avid to warn him of the unseen danger.
"Sergeant, I see something shiny to the right side. I think we have company!"
Staff Sergeant Powers, a man firstly keen to actions and secondly to questions, immediately grabbed his binoculars with the speed of a jet fighter, and further scrutinized the location that Subaru had pointed to him, in search of the threat. After a few seconds of seeing him slowly turning about like a hunter looking for his prey, Subaru wondered if he even had spotted them, and just as he was going to assist Powers in the process, he noticed that his NCO suddenly stopped, with a frown.
"I see them." He set his binoculars down, "Good eyes, kid. You may've saved us all."
"W-Whoa, wait! We have contact?" Davis, apparently surprised, inquired.
"Yes. Yes, we do. Everybody get your asses inside and close your hatches. I don't wanna see a soul out."
"Right, sarge."
The crew did as they were told as the Staff Sergeant, after confirming hostile presence, grabbed the communicator to warn the rest of the unit.
"This is Tiger-03 to platoon, we have contact to the right - we have contact to the right, over."
"This is Tiger-01 to Tiger-03, copy that. Platoon, hold."
Subaru let inertia do its work, feeling himself slowly lean forward as the tank braked, along with the entire platoon.
"What now, sarge?" Lloyd asked.
"Now we wait for the Lieutenant's call. Sit tight."
While they remained in place, Subaru watched from his periscope as the infantry had all but thrown themselves to the bushes along the pathway for cover, some of which were almost concealing the men entirely. It was quite impressive to see the art of the camouflage in practice. He watched as two infantry officers, from the looks of it, had walked up to Tiger-01. Likely to find out what was going on. His tank was stopped on a depression, so he could clearly see his platoon leader's tank infront of Tiger-02, still outside his hatch, conversing with both officers from earlier, his hand gestures indicating where the North Koreans were.
After a few seconds, one of the officers gestured for his squad of ten men to follow him and proceeded to move out to the right side, quickly dissapearing between the hills as if they had been swallowed. They likely were going to scout ahead, to see what the tanks could help with. Subaru couldn't properly fathom the level of courage the scouts that had departed needed to have for these kinds of situations. One wrong turn and they could consider themselves behind enemy lines or dead at at best, and at worst, captured. One certainly couldn't be envious of their jobs.
Unfortunately, his entire task force was way out of friendly artillery range, so their support was out of the question. What they could call were the flyboys, but even that would take some time... possibly enough time for the battle to be over by the time the air force reached their position.
"You think they've been found out?" Davis started, shifting in his seat.
Lloyd shook his head, "I don't think so. Otherwise we would hear them poppin'."
"Yeah, but they're taking so damn long."
"I reckon' that's probably because they's taking a look at what we'll be facin'." Lloyd coughed, "Must be 'lotta shit."
"They could've gotten captured."
"Captured? A whole squad, just like that, without any shootin'? Pft. Yeah, right."
"Those boys are the best scouts our battalion has. They know how to do their jobs." Powers interjected. "Now you two do yours. Knock it off and keep your eyes peeled, huh?"
The two tankers ceased conversation in acknowledgement, "Can do, sarge."
After about five more minutes, the evelen men had came back, and headed directly to the Lieutenant's tank to inform the situation. Subaru didn't have much an idea of what they were saying, but he was sure they were indubitably revealing more about the opposing force's position.
Subaru recalled that, from his... "last engagement" which ultimately resulted in his death, he was only certain of one thing: his enemies were dispersed in a rather large diameter around the hills, as he remembered his task force was previously ambushed from all sides, simultaneously. And to top it off, they had some means of anti-tank. With a snort, he concluded he would find out exactly which type soon enough. His train of thought was interrupted by the crescendo of the radio static.
"This is Tiger-01 to platoon, listen up. The fucks are around all over the hills. Any more and we would've been surrounded." The platoon leader paused as he passed the grim message. Just a few more meters and they would all have been KIA. It was rather a chilling thought to have.
Exhaling, the Lieutenant continued, "And we'll have to link up with the 2nd Infantry Division as fast as possible, which means we can't call for air support just now, we need to keep moving, so here's the deal: There's a fuckton of them on the eastern cliffs and they have four heavy ordnance anti tank, so we can't just waltz in by the front, we'll be going around to both sides. I'll go along with Tiger-02 and Tiger-03 to the East side, while Tiger-04 and Tiger-05 deal with the West side. We'll take point on the advance to cover our ground troops. Does anyone have any questions?"
"Tiger-02, negative."
"Tiger-03, no questions."
"Tiger-04, none."
"Tiger-05, negative."
"Alright. Load your explosives and smokes, boys. Focus on taking out the howitzers. Don't let them get a shot on you, and cover the infantry."
"Loader, put up an explosive." Powers signaled to Malcolm.
"Rog."
Subaru watched Malcolm do the exact same process of lifting the HE shell from the ready rack and load it into the cannon breech. Albeit he did so little on a more unhurried manner than he was on his last life. No rush, they still weren't in combat.
"Up." Ready to fire.
"Hoo momma, here we go." Lloyd perked.
"Davis, Subaru, remember: Pay attention to what I say, you both will do most of the shooting."
"Yes, Sergeant." Both replied.
"Lloyd. Don't get us stuck on a ditch."
"Ain't ya worry 'bout a thing, sarge. I'll just be runnin' 'em over!"
Powers merely nodded at his driver's antics, "Malcolm, you just keep that cannon loaded."
"Aye, Sergeant."
With everybody seemingly ready and morale high, faithful on the platoon's leaders strategy of attack, the now motivated tankers were already prepared, and awaiting further orders.
Subaru's previous mistakes may have cost him his life. But this time, he would live.
"To your positions!" The Lieutenant bellowed.
That was all that Lloyd needed to hear. He avidly pushed the transmission sticks forward, promptly sending the tank forward as they moved to behind Tiger-02 in a staggered formation, the infantry following. In order to avoid the ambush and the anti-tank barrage, they were on the process of flanking the entire eastern enemy position to later support the western side. You could say it was a pince movement, improvised, but after all it was on a static formation.
As the battalion couldn't afford to waste much time and, God forbid, alert the enemy of their sudden absence, the tanks moved quickly enough to gain decent ground whilst at the same time allowing the foot troops to keep up with them. In other words, the accompanying infantry were now running instead of just marching. Once they were in position, they would initiate the offensive and head on to their merry way. Sounds simple enough, Subaru guessed.
Gripping the turret drive firmly as he had beforehand, the Corporal calmly let the hum of the engine fill his ears. Its constant ressonance was strangely comforting to him, and as warm as the heat of a cracking fireplace on a cold night.
It was only when Tiger-01 stopped that they knew they were in position. All they needed to do now was strike. Subaru elected that now was the time for the hardest part. He, along with the crew, could only wonder how they would fare. Hopefully well enough, hoped the Corporal, staring down at Davis, the ball gunner had died because of his mistakes. Subaru wished his thoughts were merely self-deprecating, but they were facts; Not only Davis had died because of him, the entire crew... hell, the entire battallion did. The gunner was thankful to whatever being gave him this second chance, to fix things, and yet, his neglicence echoed from the depths of his mind, as if taunting him, getting the better of him.
He did swear to save his crew and himself. Even so, his recent nightmarish memories proved themselves to be nearly overwhelming.
What the fuck are you doing, Private?! Suck it up and keep crawling! He thought back to the yells of his Drill Sergeant. While in his boot camp days these screams brought him near extreme physical fatigue, now they surged fourth like morphine to placate his inner turmoil. He internally chuckled at the irony; one would never imagine such hard times would ultimately serve to calm down but here he was.
His Drill Sergeant had taught him that losing composure wasn't an option. Especially not in combat.
Especially not himself. He was granted a position that had four people depending on him, he would be damned if he didn't follow his Drill Sergeant's lesson to the end of his life... This life, atleast.
With Tiger-02 also stopping ahead of them, Powers picked up his communicator, "Lloyd, hold. Heads up, people. We're here." to alert his crew.
The radio sounded off its signature static again, "This is Tiger-01 to western detachment, we're in position. What's your status? Over." the platoon leader reported.
"This is Tiger-04 to PL, we're also in position and ready to shake 'em, over."
"Roger that, Tiger-04. All detachments, start attack on my signal."
Both tanks ahead turned in place to the left. Lloyd needed no further cue as he followed their lead, pulling on the left stick as the whole vehicle responded with a whine, rotating in parallel with the others until they faced one of the hills, which they would soon go over.
Subaru saw the infantry immediately settle themselves behind the tanks and bunched up together. They would be their only source of cover on the advance.
Sighing for what must have been the thirteenth time that day, Subaru furrowed his brows as he tensely waited. His father always told him that it was the intervals of waiting before a battle that struck a soldier the most, rather than the battle itself. Seemed his old man was right, once again. It truly was a nefarious experience.
Then came the fated order,
"All detachments, forward! Give 'em hell! Go! Go! Go!"
In a flash, the rank formation of tanks accelerated in conjunction, to battle. At that moment, Subaru felt a rush of many emotions at once. The gunner couldn't tell if it was the anticipation, the thrill of being in battle, or apprehension at the prospect of dying again.
He waved the distracting feelings off with a shake of his head and refocused on the arduous task to come. He had seen what a battle was like and its destructive potential, concentration would be of utmost importance in order to survive.
He reclined in his seat as the M46's begun to ascend the grassy terrain elevation. With their speed, it had only took a few seconds as they soon leveled to a halt.
Atop of the hill, between the sea of bushes, he could finally see in the distance; the culprits of his death, behind a large camouflaged field gun. Staring back at them in what appeared to be a mix between shock and panic, visibly dismayed at the fact that they had been circled and surrounded. Scared at the fact they would now meet their doom.
This time around, he would bring it to them.
In a frenzy, he didn't even wait for Powers or the Lieutenant as he traversed the turret to their direction, the reticles alligning right between a large group of Koreans and their ammunition box.
It seemed that Powers had already caught sight of them, as he didn't protest to the sudden uncoordinated action. Instead, he gave his gunner what exactly what he needed,
"NK Foot ahead, range two-hundred yards! Fire!"
He didn't need to be told twice as he squeezed the handle's trigger with all the force he could muster. "On the way!"
Subaru's retribution finally began as he fired the ninety milimeter for the first time in his second life. The M3A1 cannon roared like thunder as it propelled a high explosive shell soaring across the hills and onto his target.
Direct hit!
From the resulting explosion, he saw as the ammunition box he saw earlier was detonated from his first shot, its igniting shells flashed, and in a second discharged burning hot deadly shrapnel around the area in a massive ball of fire, swallowing every being within. Steel, dirt, limbs and carbonized bodies practically downpoured from the residing smoke and tumbled to the abyss of the hills below in a scorched mess.
The ones who were fortunate to survive turned out not to be quite fortunate. Several mutilated figures laid on the grasses now stained by blood and viscera, some clutching their stumps, screaming in pain. Others wandered about, looking everywhere, yet nowhere, apparently confused as to what had transpired, their momentarily indolent carcasses carrying them to an destination unknown.
Time seemed to slow to a near halt as Subaru saw the aftermath of his attack, astounded. Unlike his previous engagement, where he was firing blindly, now he could clearly see the affliction stamped on the faces of his victims, crying out in anguish as they slowly succumbed to their mortal injuries. He always believed one would die with their eyes closed, but evidently, he was proven otherwise. The eyes of the dead were open, unmoving, locked in an eternal gaze without a shimmer of life; empty. And were all staring at him.
"Oh, damn! You got 'em, Nat!"
"Target destroyed. Nice shot, Subaru."
"Good fuckin' shot, Tiger-03! You keep them stacking!"
The dazzled gunner could hear their voices, their tone was of cheering, but he couldn't fully understand what they were saying, still confined in his shell-shocked world.
He jumped in fright as multiple sounds of lead hitting steel at breakneck velocities echoed from inside his tank, immediately repressing his previous train of thought. The sound was all too familiar for him: They were under fire.
"Christ!" Malcolm jerked in surprise, along with Davis and Lloyd, who were taken in surprise by the sounds.
"Keep it steady, men, we're doing fine. Those aren't going to go through." Powers dissolved their worries.
"Incoming! There's more of them!" Tiger-02's commander had alerted on the radio.
More North Koreans had suddenly appeared like ghosts from beyond the hills. Despite knowing fully well they had been flanked, they advanced with no fear as they dispersed to different positions previously dug in by themselves, all the while shooting at them in retaliation. However, the strength of the armor proved to be mightier.
"H-Holy fuck that's alot of them!"
Tiger-01 began moving forward, "Keep going! We still got NK foot around! Flush them out!" as the Lieutenant ordered.
"Start shooting the thirties!" Powers shouted from his communicator. As they sped forward, along with Tiger-01 and Tiger-02.
With the infantry behind them, it was then that the three M46's commenced rapid fire of both cannons and their machine guns, spewing death at the opposing force in an unstoppable onslaught of fire.
Tiger-01 moved to the right as their turret remained trained on the soft targets ahead, relentlessly pouring shells at the entrenched reds.
Tiger-02 stayed on course, moving forward and steadily gaining more ground. A soldier had climbed their rear and manned the fifty caliber heavy machine gun affixed on the turret, further assisting the advance.
In the midst of the chaotic skirmish, within Tiger-03, Subaru found himself twisting his hand left and right incessantly as he repeatedly turned the turret to fire both ninety militer high explosive shells and his coaxial machine gun at the scattered, desperate enemy. A whirlwind of bullets soared from all three tanks to the descents of the enemy positions, some meeting their mark, some going right over their targets.
Then the reverberation of ricochets ceased. It eventually came to a moment that their superior firepower had effectively supressed the Koreans, of whom wouldn't dare to lift even their fingers out of their foxholes. It was then that the infantry behind them separated, advancing as fast as possible to flank the resisting hostiles. Subaru was confident that now, they had captured the hilltop.
But the American soldiers ahead never made it across.
For Subaru's dismay, parting projectiles from somewhere had mowed the GI's down in a flash. He watched as six men, who in the past second were healthy and sound, simply fell like sacks of potatoes and on the ground remained with their bodies riddled with bloody holes, never to move again. The others who witnessed the act hastily launched themselves to the deck for cover, as several streams of dirt kicked up in front of them like geyzers.
Seeing his comrades in arms die in such a manner instantly reminded him of Davis. Of his failure. Of his incompetence. The sight had made awakened something within him. Something fiery. Earning for revenge.
Anger. Rage. Indignation.
"Sergeant! Our guys on the left are being pinned down!" Subaru quickly called out to his tank commander, who had his eyes glued to his periscope.
The aforementioned tank commander immediately twisted his periscope to the left, upon realizing the predicament of the friendly foots, he wasted no further time in his providence.
"This is Tiger-03! Our foot is getting supressed on the left, We're moving to assist!"
"Copy, oh-three. We have you covered! Go!"
"Lloyd! To the left, full speed!"
"Roger! Roger!"
Lloyd accelerated the tank and pulled on the left stick. The M46 and the entire crew banked hard right as the tank swiftly turned west, reaching the troubled soldiers in record speed for a tank.
Several heavier rounds impacted the M46's homogeneous steel. The resulting echoes from within were nearly deafening. An cacophony so chaotic, Subaru worried the tank wouldn't be able to sustain its own armor for long. Had Subaru not been accustomed by the noise from his earlier experiences, he was certain he would soil his pants.
"Holy shit!" Davis exclaimed, jumping from his seat.
"Fuck! Fuck!"
"Keep it together! That's just an MG. Traverse right!" Powers's name rung true, reassuring his crew amidst of all the chaos, his voice managed to be louder, like a fulminating lightning resounding on a storm.
The Corporal did not question the command as he rotated the turret to the given direction, his reticles finding themselves a new target in the form of what looked like a dug in pillbox. Only the muzzle flashes of a heavy machine gun illuminating its innermost darkness gave its location away, otherwise it would be virtually invisible unless one scrutinized its surroundings carefully.
Having successfully identified what had reaped the six men's lives from earlier, he grimaced as he squeezed the trigger, his expression holding no further remorse for his actions.
"On the way!" The Japanese American signalized with much more vigor than before.
The recoil of the M3A1 gun shook the entire vehicle for the umpteenth time as it boomed.
Subaru had hit his mark once more.
He didn't know what the shell had hit, but it evidently detonated more than its own capacity. Bursting into flames, the pillbox exploded as fire gushed out like tentacles from the large improvised viewport. And out from the inferno came several burning NK's, writhing in agony as they were alight. Watching in indifference, the gunner merely finished the pitiful squirming figures by firing his coaxial. Instantly they ceased all movement as their life came to an abrupt end. They suffered the same fate as Subaru's previous self.
The friendly troops who were in cover, seeing their main obstacle destroyed, advanced further onto the battlefield. Tiger-01 and Tiger-02 were not too far off. Along with the advancing troops, they obliterated any resistance as swiftly as an eagle catching its prey.
"Good work. But the fight isn't over yet. We still need to take the hill." Powers reminded them. "Lloyd. Catch us up with the formation, pronto."
"Yessir."
Moving back to the formation, Tiger-03 was baptized by lead once more. Subaru wordlessly resumed the process of destroying the enemy along with the others in the formation.
The infantry also did their jobs well. Supressing, flanking and exploding fortified and entrenched hostile positions with grenades or satchel charges. He certainly didn't expect so many more of those, if he had been honest.
With some effort, they had reached the place where the NK reinforcements had emerged. Little by little, They were advancing, but they may have well invaded an ant colony.
"Where the fuck did these assholes crawl out from?! They're everywhere!"
"Then shut up and keep shooting them and I bet they'll stop coming!"
The North Koreans were in every crevice one could imagine, be it infantry, be it another pillbox, their resistance was fierce every centimeter of grass they crossed. So fierce that Subaru wasn't sure those were just North Koreans anymore. Casualties were starting to bunch up for the battalion and as the battle raged on, he feared that they would either run out of ammunition before the fight ended or have the advance halted entirely.
What preocuppied Subaru the most, however, was the fact that they had encountered no more than one enemy field gun, as he was certain there were more somewhere. Perhaps the enemy has hid them or moved them elsewhere. The thought gave him no comfort whatsoever.
"Up!" Malcolm yelled for the sixteenth time as he loaded another shell in the breech. Immediately leaning forward to reload the coaxial machine gun in the fastest time possible.
"Lloyd, hold!" The tank stopped.
"Traverse left! They're behind the logs!" Powers instructed.
Sure enough, as he rotated the turret, ten NK's were in the process of exchanging fire with the allied foots, behind a large tree log which had fallen over in the climax of the engagement, being used as improvised cover.
"Fire!"
"On the way!"
The effect was fatal. A squeeze of his fingers promptly finished them. The entire log shook from the shell's impact and tore in half, sending the unfortunate souls behind it to fall below. Ten were sent rolling like bowling balls along the hills as their bodies were continuously perforated by deadly forty-five caliber projecticles from the advancing GI's.
In the intense of battle, Nobody noticed that two NK's had crawled close to them from the right, grenade bundles on their hands.
Then when Powers rotated his periscope, his expression quickly twisted to distress, "Shit! Reverse! Reverse!"
Lloyd grit his teeth, quickly shifting gear to reverse as he slammed the pedal, the tank gently tilting forward as they moved back.
"Gun right!" Powers screamed to his gunner, "RIGHT!"
In alarm, the gunner quickly responded with traversing the turret to the right. Subaru widened his eyes in alarm as the NK's raised their arms in preparation for the throw. Fuck! The gun isn't going to turn in time!
"I-I can't reach them! The gun isn't going!" Subaru desperately cried.
"Fuck!"
"SHOOT THEM!" Lloyd shrieked.
"I CAN'T!"
The two Koreans suddenly dropped dead, the grenade bundles in their hands fell along, blasting their corpses to oblivion.
"I-I got them!" A saving grace. Davis, who was up until now only supressing enemy positions, shot the two dead with a volley from his thirty caliber.
"...Softies down. Good shooting." Powers nodded.
"Holy... Thank God! Tha' was fuckin' close!" Lloyd exhaled in relief as he braked the tank.
"Good one, Dave!" Malcolm perked, leaning back as he wiped his forehead from sweat.
"Nice shots, Davis. Way to go, buddy." Subaru commended with nudging Davis's back lightly with his foot, also content to be alive.
"Thanks guys. Thanks." Davis smiled.
The moment was shortlived however, as suddenly the whistle of something heavy resonated from the skies, meeting the ground.
It was as if the entire Earth trembled as the resulting impact brought up torrents of dirt and shrapnel gushing like water to all sides. If the crew thought the shooting from earlier was bad, they were in for a ride. Even from inside the tank, aside from the violent tremors, Subaru could feel the brutal shockwaves in his body, and bile nearly rose to his throat.
"Hoooooly Shiiiiiiiit!" The four most inexperienced of the tank screamed in unison as shrapnel and dirt from all sides showered the tank. It felt as if the barrage rocked the tank back and fourth like a dodgeball. For the men inside, it was akin to being inside a turbulent plane going through a hurricane.
"ENEMY ARTILLERY! SCATTER! MOVE YOUR ASSES! DON'T FUCKING STAY IN ONE PLACE, THEY GOT US ZEROED!" The Lieutenant yelled as loud as possible to all platoons. All units responded by dispersing to relatively safe locations.
"Lloyd, step on it! Get us out of here!"
"Already doing that, Sarge!"
They sped away in a frenzy as the voracious artillery salvo continued, those unfortunate to be close enough of an explosion met their end as red pastes to the grassed floor.
"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Malcolm screamed over the squall of raining shells.
"Not sure if ya haven't noticed, but we aren't in a darn sports car!" Lloyd retrucated as he shifted gear. "You try racin' with a tank!"
An explosion sounded right next to them, violently shaking the tank and causing it to bank left. Lloyd hit his leg on the transmission with a grunt before correcting his course with the sticks. Subaru, who aside from his death, had up until now had only experienced the equivalent of mosquito bites in actual combat, was admittedly demoralized.
"This is insane!"
"Jesus! We're gonna die out here!" Davis cried.
As if to emphasize the crew's despair, another shell thundered to their left. But Powers's morale stood firm, "Keep your heads on the game, gentlemen. We're NOT going to die here! Just think of moving forward until we're out of the gutter!" His voice boomed as he motivated his crew.
Yeah. Easier said than done, thought Subaru as he closed his eyes whilst covering his ears in a futile attempt to drown out the deafening blasts from hell.
Being on the receiving end of an artillery bombardment was beyond frightening. Something about the fact that he couldn't possibly triangulate where the next shell would land, and that they could die at any given moment, as chances of a shell hitting them were very, very high made him shudder.
And it wasn't just the sound of the explosions, either. The tremors and the shockwaves that came along with them were mainly the reasons that made it hard to keep it together. The tank and helmet could protect you to an extent, but in this case they were for naught. He certainly felt like throwing up, added with a painful sensation - like a sledgehammer had hit his head - of the nastiest migraine developing from this bombardment alone.
On what he would call a 'positive' note, he believed that in the event of consequent destruction, death would warrant no suffering as such as his previous life. Even so, the prospect was deeply grim for his freshly scarred mind, and he hoped with his heart that if a shell indeed hit, then be it only to immobilize the vehicle, sparing their lives.
The tank went up and down as they accelerated over the hilly parts of the ambient. The incessant rain of fire had given the surrounding environment a dreadful, almost apocalyptic like appearance. It was almost as if they had traveled in time back to the Great War. The once lush green grasses spread like carpets were now tinged black, and the atmosphere seemed much more dense, suffocating, a product of the smoke kicked up by the bombardment.
No one in the tank had seen or heard of the rest of the Tiger nor Infantry platoons. That, however, wasn't in the foremost of their thoughts as they were more preoccupied with surviving. The barrage seemed to be slowly fading as they got further but didn't completely let up.
As they drove further and further within the smoke, it seemed it had gotten unnaturally thicker, as if purposelly provoked by another factor. The sounds of the artillery seemed to be lessening in volume the thicker the smoke growed. To the untrained eye however, the eerie occurance was undetectable.
Soon as they distanced themselves, came the moment where the explosions had definitely ceased, and the crew expressed their reliefs.
Malcolm let out a long breath. "We finally got out of that shitshow, somehow."
"Let's just pray there's not a next time." Davis conceded, burying his head in his gloved hands.
To a particular driver, the strangely profuse concentration of smoke didn't go unnoticed. "Yeah, but I can't see dick ahead of me. That'ta mighty weird."
The rest of the crew conformed to his point. If anything, the smoke should have faded long ago. "Did someone launch the smokes?" Powers asked the crew.
"Not that I recall, Sarge."
"Me neither. I didn't launch anything." Subaru replied, massaging his temples with his hand in order to alleviate his headache.
"Malcolm?"
Malcolm only shrugged in response, "Didn't press anything here either, Sergeant."
The Staff Sergeant hummed in contemplation.
"They could be right ahead of us and we wouldn't see a thing." The Staff Sergeant stated. The ominous fact brought the crew to alert.
"So... you guys keep your eyes peeled. We're not out of the woods yet." He paused as he sighed, "They could be anywhere."
"Lloyd, hold."
As the tank stopped, Subaru blinked as he turned to Powers, "Sergeant, can I do a scan of the area?"
"Do that, yes. I'll try something meanwhile."
The gunner nodded as he carefully spun the turret in an arc of three-hundred-sixty degrees, searching for any potential threats along with the loader.
Powers grasped his communicator and brought it near his mouth, "This is Tiger-03 to platoon. We've cleared out of bombardment range and are in an unknown position. Does anyone read? Over."
Powers, along with the crew, waited for five minutes as no one responded. Only static met their ears.
"This is Tiger-03 to platoon... Does anyone read? Over!" He tried again.
To no avail. Once more, only the chitter of static was their response.
Powers clicked his tongue at the unsatisfactory results. The malfunction of the radio frustrating him. Looking outside his hatch's viewport, all he could see was the dimming white of the ominous smoke. Leaning back, he assessed their situation: They couldn't contact their platoon; were lost inside this strange smoke, mist or whatever it was supposed to be, and to worsen their conditions, it was turning to night, a time in which visibility would go to all hell.
"What now, Sarge?" Lloyd, perhaps the most talkative driver Powers had ever served with asked for the second time that day. He had a mind to tell him to shut up and continue to survey the surroundings as it gave him time to concentrate on a new course of action, but one look at his driver's exhausted eyes dissuaded him.
In fact, not only his driver, but the entire crew now looked to him, waiting for his call. They were young and unexperienced but they had been baptized by fire that day. They held on, in battle despite fearing for their lives.
Lloyd, his driver, despite being somewhat annoying, drove the best and followed orders to the letter. Where many would hesitate and make several, life-costing mistakes, Lloyd would brave on, and showed the potential to overcome obstacles with his own volition if neccessary.
He looked to Subaru. His gunner had single handedly saved not only themselves, but the entire battalion by merely seeing what Powers otherwise couldn't, an act that, in Power's perspective, would earn him a medal. He did his job spectacularly against the North Koreans, and seemed to have no difficulties with gunning.
Malcolm merely loaded the cannon, but in contrast to his previous loaders, he was perhaps the fastest on doing so. While he may not say much, he certainly helped.
Davis, the assistant driver, was the one who had previously saved them from possible destruction in the last moment. He appeared to be as old as a sixteen year old boy, meticulous and quirky he was. Yet he had shown talent in his post.
Their deeds might not have been the greatest, but Powers still found himself regarding them with newfound respect. They, his crew, after fighting and surviving their first engagement, deserved as much.
With another look to Lloyd, he answered,
"First things first, we get out of this smoke. It's turning night, so we'll be under the cover of darkness for a while. We'll try to reach the highest point of these hills and radio back to HQ for reinforcements." Powers explained as he looked between each of them. "We're seperated from the battalion, so we'll have to avoid getting into another fight until we link up with them. We could well be behind enemy lines, so we'll only move at night time and hide during the day. It's the best thing we can do.
The crew who were listening attently pondered for several minutes. It was Subaru who broke the silence,
"What if by any chance they find us, Sergeant?"
"Then we'll be on the run." Powers answered right away. "They won't catch up."
"But wha'bout if it's a plane, Sarge? Them NK could whistle where we are if they see us." Lloyd asked after Subaru.
"That's why we're only going to move at night."
"Okay then."
Davis who had a question of his own, raised his hand after.
"Go ahead, Davis."
"Um. Sergeant, What happens if we run out of fuel or... ammo?"
"We're going to have to conserve as much as fuel as possible or we'll have to blow up the tank so the NK's don't catch it for themselves." Powers answered. "As for ammo, that's the reason we'll have to avoid fighting. If we run out, we're down to our own guns."
Davis nodded.
Powers turned to Malcolm, "Malcolm, you got any questions?"
"Yeah. What do we do if the radio still doesn't work?"
The question was a good one, it made Powers contemplate the possibility. If the radio still refused to work at that, they would be left with a decision: Proceed with the mission or try to link up with the platoon. Faced with problematic, Powers frowned as he considered the two possibilities. The battle was likely over at this point, if they were to go back to the platoon, they likely would waste valuable time and totally burn out their fuel tank, which would force them to abandon the tank.
On the other hand, the former possibility was one with the most probable chance of success. Their standing order was to join forces with the 2nd Infantry Division post haste for an offensive in Seoul. As he concluded his analysis, it was clear which decision he would take.
"Then we continue with the mission and link up with the 2nd Infantry. If we go back, we're dead."
At the statement, Subaru stiffened and looked like he wanted to protest, as he was very against abandoning his allies. Ultimately, he settled down as he couldn't argue against Power's reason. Too much had happened in one day for him, he tiredly concluded.
Seeing as there were no more questions, the tank commander sighed, "Alright then. You boys ready?"
The other four crewmembers gave their affirmative.
Nodding, Powers gave the order, "Lloyd, move out."
"Rog'."
The M46 hummed as it moved forward into the night.
A few minutes passed during the differential mid night drive. The smoke looked like it was about to finally dissolve in the air alltogether. However, Subaru found the lack of the hull bobbing strange. It was as if they had gone from the hills to the smooth pathways they drove before. The realization made Subaru wonder how long they were on the move for.
"Uh, guys. How long ahead did we go?" He couldn't help but manifest his confusion.
"Not mighty far, I think." Lloyd said.
"Weird. 'Cause I don't think we're on the hills anymore." The crew looked to him with brows raised.
"What'cha mean, Nat?" Lloyd looked to him in confusion, then eventually his expression turned to thoughtful, "Wait. Now tha' ya mention it... I don' feel like I'm drivin' on hard terrain at all... More like, on a smooth road."
"We could've just gone down the hill when we haven't noticed and are on the paths again, people." Powers mused.
Lloyd vehemently shook his head in denial, "No. Nossir. I'm mighty sure I didn't feel anythin' like tha'. It really feels smooth; like-like I'm drivin' on New York's streets, Sarge. It'sa real smooth ride. Too smooth, I reckon."
"Wait, so what's that supposed to mean?" Malcolm asked, "You think we're in a city now or something?"
"I-I don't really know, it sure feels like it."
"I know we can't see and that we haven't bumped into anything, but that's just ridiculous."
"Like I said, I don't know how, and I'm darn sure that I know better at drivin' than ya do!"
"Alright. Alright, calm dow-"
As Powers went to defuse the situation, the thick smoke around them suddenly vanished without a trace. And in the place of hills, the crew could make out trees in the darkness. But what had caught their attention the most...
...was the sight of torches.
I'd like to thank the folk who enjoyed and supported this story. At first it wasn't quite well received and I honestly wasn't expecting it to reach 8 favorites and 12 follows. That makes me really happy, so thank you guys, really. And for those of you who haven't thought of this to be of your liking, I truly apologize for wasting your time.
I'd also love to hear more of your thoughts, so please review! This was my first ever written battle with a tank, so criticism is more than welcome as I hope to improve each chapter!
Thank you once again for reading this story and please, stay safe!
