A/N: It's been a while. Over a year in fact for this story. To cut a long story short, after the semester ended, my laptop's hard drive died, my phone's battery needed to be replaced, I got a new job (Gotta pay off student debt somehow), and a new semester started.

Also, I've been trying to raise awareness for a museum ship that needs help, the USS Orleck. More about that later.

Besides all that, this has been one of the toughest chapters I had to write for this story. I am very interested in what you guys and gals think.

-10-

Thirty Minutes of Violence

Shiho wailed as her legs were dragged through the mud. Alice and Naomi quickly pulled her to the right side of the tank. Nora sprayed her Type 89-1 in the general direction of the house and ducked behind the tank when the magazine ran dry. The millisecond of silence was shattered when bullets ricocheted off the tank, quickly followed by the supersonic crack of the rounds. Everyone flinched and shrunk behind the tank, and Alisa ducked down onto the ground and covered her head.

"Guns! Where are the rest of the guns?!" Nora shouted.

Naomi, while making sure she was still in cover, climbed up the side of the Sherman and blindly reached around for the bag of guns. She flinched as bullets continued to snap over the top of tank. Finally, she felt the bag and dragged it off of the turret. Some of the guns and ammunition spilled out onto the ground.

Immediately, Nora reloaded and began aimlessly firing over the engine deck. Shiho grabbed an MP5, yanked back the charging handle, quickly peaked around the front of the tank, and let out two quick bursts. A masculine yowl of pain was followed by a feminine echo. Looking beneath the tank, Alisa witnessed two black-clad mercenaries, not twenty yards away, fall into the mud. The woman wailed, but was quickly silenced when Shiho put a bullet through her head.

"Shoot to kill, or be killed yourself!" Shiho shouted.

Nora blinked. She flicked the selector switch to semi-automatic and, using the Sherman as support, shot twice at mercenary trying to use a ditch as cover.

He did not get back up.

Naomi and Alisa respectfully made their own individual face of disbelief and disgust as they picked up weapons from the bag. Naomi picked up a MK18 of some description with various accessories, and Alisa picked up a large pistol.

"No, no!," Nora shouted above the gunfire. "That's a flare gun." Nora took the flare gun and took out an MP7. "Take it off safe. When you're empty, push down on this tab and put a new mag in, pull back the charging handle, put the red dot on the target, and shoot."

She tossed the MP7 back into Alisa's hands and picked up her rifle.

The sun had vanished below the horizon and dark clouds covered the sky. Only muzzle flashes and tracers lit up the battlefield. The Black Knight mercenaries were relentless, and every burst of gunfire they took was answered by the Tankery girls.

A growing pile of empty STANAG magazines lay at Nora's feet as she fumbled around in the dark for a fresh magazine.

"Ugh, we're not going to last much longer," Naomi said as she dumped her rifle and picked up a pistol.

Shiho and Alisa continued firing until they were empty.

"Wait, stop!" Nora said before they could reload.

"Why?!" Alisa asked.

"Just stop!"

The four of them waited with bated breath. Bullets continued to impact the tank or whiz overhead. And then...

Silence.

All four of them looked at each other.

"Alright, get in the tank," Nora said quietly.

Alisa immediately climbed up and jumped through the turret hatch.

"Naomi, help me with her," Nora said as she helped Shiho stand on one leg.

Naomi stood above the assistant driver's hatch and pulled Shiho up with the help of Nora pushing from below. Shiho bit into her sleeve and whimpered to prevent herself from crying out. She let out a muffled scream as Naomi maneuvered her broken leg into the hatch opening.

Nora was just about to climb up the side of the tank when bullets tore through the air once again. Naomi literally dropped Shiho into the hatch, eliciting a shriek from the instructor, and dove off the side of the tank before taking cover next to Nora.

"Ah, shit! Alisa!" Naomi shouted. "Load a smoke and fire it towards the house!"

Alisa loaded the shell, transitioned to the gunner's seat, and manually turned the turret towards the house.

"Where do you want it?" Alisa shouted.

"Anywhere between us and that house!"

Alisa fired. The round impacted and quickly put up a wall of smoke.

Naomi used the brief lull of gunfire to grab a toolbox off of the back of the Sherman. She returned to cover next to Nora and handed her a hammer.

"Nora, start hammering the track connector into place."

"What about the bogey wheel?"

"Fuck the bogey wheel! We just need to be able to move!"

"Naomi, the smoke's fading!" Alisa shouted.

Naomi gave Nora a pair of nuts and bolts and a wrench.

"Screw these in when you're done!" Naomi ordered.

Naomi climbed into the turret.

"Move!"

Alisa climbed into the loader's seat and Naomi took her spot. Naomi looked through the fading smokescreen. The dark shape of the house blocked out the stars behind it, and muzzle flashes and tracers came from its windows.

"Alisa, load smoke!" Naomi ordered.

Alisa shoved the shell into the breach. "Clear!"

"On the way!"

Naomi fired the round straight into the house. The white phosphorous exploded into burning chaff, quickly setting fire to the house.

"One more smoke!"

"Clear!"

"On the way!"

Naomi sent the round into the second story, and it burst into flames.

"That's right!" Naomi spat. "Burn, you fuckers!"

Using what little light was available, Nora hammered the track connector into place. Then she felt a clean, sharp edge touch the right side of her neck.

She froze.

"Hey, girlie," a female Knight said, predatorily calm. "Why don't you stand up before you hurt yourself?"

Nora stood up slowly, hammer still in her right hand. She was about to turn around-.

"Nah, ah, ah, ah," the Knight said. "Don't face me." She leaned in close to Nora's left ear. "Now raise your hands slowly. Don't want to slit that soft neck of yours."

Again, Nora did as she was told. However, when her hands were just about to pass her shoulders, Nora swung her right arm down with all her might. The hammer slammed into the Knight's right knee. She screamed and her legs buckled. Nora spun around and caught a glimpse of the knife being thrusted at her. Nora swung her hammer in panic. She must have hit her target if the sickening crunch and the Knight's painful yowl were anything to go by.

"You stupid," Nora seethed. "Stupid bitch!" Nora felt warmth trickle down her neck. She briefly touched the right side of her neck and felt a clean gash. "You could've just slit my throat! You got the drop on me and everything! And what was your plan? Use me as a hostage for ransom or something? This isn't some-!"

Nora yelped when she saw the Knight go for her pistol. Nora smacked the gun out of the Knight's hand, and in her blind panic, swung the hammer again, into the side of the mercenary's head. The Black Knight's head was slammed into the side of the Sherman, and her body crumpled onto the mud.

And you got me monologuing.

Before Nora could release some of her tension, two black figures came around the rear of the tank. Nora threw her hammer at them, apparently hitting one of them, and picked up her Type 89 and let out a long burst into the two mercenaries.

Nora finally deflated, only to tense up once again.

"No." Nora frantically felt all over her body. "No, no, no, no, no!" She ran her hands through the mud. She went to the gun bag, pulled out the flare gun, and shot a flare straight up. The artificial sun lit up the battlefield. Nora looked around. There was no sign of the nuts and bolts for the track connector.

"Damn it!"

"HE, HE!" Naomi shouted.

Alisa was about to grab another shell out of stowage, but when the light of the flare reached into the tank, she froze. Next to the HE shell she was going to grab, there were several AP shells. On the base of the shell, all of them had the inspection proof mark of the Tankery Federation…

…except for two.

"Alisa!" Naomi's shout snapped Alisa back to reality. "HE, now!"

Alisa grabbed the HE shell and threw it into the breach.

"Clear!"

"On the way!" Naomi fired.

"There are more by the house!" Shiho said. "By the M22! You're going to have to take care of them! My gun doesn't traverse that far!"

An idea popped into Alisa's head. She grabbed an AP shell marked with the Federation insignia and loaded it into the breach.

"Naomi! Shoot the Locust!" Alisa said.

"Wha…Why?!"

"Just do it! Clear!"

"On the way!" Naomi fired and the shell left a very familiar mark on the light tank, a mark that they've seen in countless matches.

Then Alisa grabbed one of the unmarked AP shells and loaded it into the breach.

"Shoot the Locust again!" Alisa said.

"Why?!"

"Just do it!" Alisa shrieked. "CLEAR!"

"On the way!" Once again, Naomi fired. The Locust exploded into a spectacular ball of fire, smoke, and shrapnel, cutting down any Black Knights near it.

The light of the flare had died down, and a fire burned through the front armor of the burning husk of the Locust.

Nora poached a grenade belt off of one of the two Knights she sprayed down. Moving to the second Knight, Nora's body felt weak when she found that the Knight had STANAG magazines. She knelt down to remove the magazine pouches, her shadow falling over the Knight's mask covered face, erasing any reflection of the Knight's eyes.

Nora stood up and stumbled back several steps. Dazed, she pulled herself onto the engine deck and hid behind the turret as best as she could. She flinched as the tank blasted off another round, and then let the coaxial machine gun let loose a brief burst.

"Co-ax is dry!" Naomi shouted.

"Naomi," she said as loud as possible, keeping a low profile and knocked on the turret hatch.

"Reload the co-ax!" Naomi ordered Alisa.

Naomi looked through the turret hatch, but didn't stick her head out.

"These might be useful." Nora handed Naomi the pouches of grenades.

"Uh, thanks," Naomi shouted above the gunfire. "Is the track fixed?"

"Well," Nora said. "The connector's in place."

"Co-ax loaded! We're out of cans in here!" Alisa shouted from within the turret.

"Last box!" Shiho shouted as she slammed the top cover down.

"Nora, get .30 cal ammo!" Naomi ordered. "They're on the back!"

"Okay, but give me the smoke grenades. The one's shaped like cans!" Nora demanded.

Naomi quickly gave Nora three smoke grenades. Nora pulled the pins and threw one towards the house, one to the rear of the tank, and one to the front of the tank, setting a semi-circular smokescreen.

Small bursts of gunfire could still be heard as the mercenaries continued to fire blindly through the smoke. Nora dropped back down onto the ground and waited for the smoke to thicken. She took four ammunition cans off the back and placed them on the engine deck behind the turret.

Nora climbed halfway up the side of the Sherman when a sharp stab pierced her lower left back. Nora screeched. The metal blade grinded against her ribs and her spine as she was yanked back onto the ground and away from the tank. Her assailant kicked Nora behind the knee, forcing her to kneel before kicking her in the back to yank the knife out. Nora propped herself up with one arm. Looking behind her, Nora saw the predatory knight who tried to slit her neck laying in the mud with a fresh bullet holes in her head and chest.

Nora dragged herself up the side of the tank, and cried as she did so. She finally got onto the engine deck, and then rolled onto her back.

Naomi stood out of the commander's hatch, pistol in hand. Her mouth was moving, and her neck was strained.

What is she saying? She's shouting something…

Nora's heart punched her chest with each beat. Her breathes quickened through her gritted teeth. Her blood boiled. All the sounds around her enraged into a single, cacophonous roar.

Her muscles tensed. She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled towards the .50, knocking over the .30 caliber ammunition cans she collected. She pulled the retaining pin out of the mount and racked the charging handle. Naomi ducked back into the turret to dodge the barrel as Nora swung the heavy machine gun towards the Black Knights, the flames of the house burning in her green eyes.

Nora slammed her thumbs against the trigger. Her whole world disappeared. The impressive muzzle flash filled her vision. The sound faded into a whine, like white noise. Nora's face was twisted with demonic rage. A soundless scream threatened to tear her throat from her neck.

CLICK!

The dreaded sound of any shooter echoed into her ears. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, and her eyes were still blinded by the muzzle flash. Nora reached into her pants, gabbed the flare gun, and fired off another flare.

With another artificial sun in the air, Nora found a healthy belt of ammunition still feeding into the gun. She racked the charging handle twice and slammed the trigger once again.

Then – with a sickening realization – she could no longer feel her left arm.

The Sherman's .50 fell silent. Before the sniper could chamber another round, Kay kicked it to the side. Kay kicked the sniper over, and shoved the muzzle of her M4 into his face.

Lightening lit up the sky.

"DIE!"

Kay squeezed the trigger. The burst of bullets quickly climbed off target. But the sniper lost a chunk of his head.

Rain began to fall as Kay ran down the road towards her tank. She spotted a Black Knight, and riddled his body with bullets. Her rifle stopped firing before she let go of the trigger. Kay slowed to a stop in the middle of the road. She twisted the rifle around, trying to figure out what happened. The large gaping hole in the right side of the receiver and an empty magazine revealed her problem. Kay tried pulling the magazine out, but it wouldn't budge. After several more attempts, she finally ditched the rifle and pulled out her Glock.

Just as she began to run down the road again only for something to hit her left eye.

Kay put a hand to her eye and wailed. She dragged herself to the edge of the road and into a ditch. She tried opening her eye, but pain made her instantly shut it. She wiped at her eye.

"Please be mud," Kay panicked. "Please be mud, please be mud, please be mud, please be mud!"

Attempting to open her eye once more…

No luck.

Kay laid in the ditch, tears flowing down her temples. The sounds of battle gradually faded away, but Kay didn't notice as she wallowed in self-pity. The ditch she lay in was filling up with water, and her ears were partially submerged before she decided to get up.

Looking over the top of the ditch, the house was still on fire, bodies lay everywhere, and her tank was gone.

Kay hung her head.

She dragged herself out of the ditch and walked towards the burning house. May as well be warm while waiting for Maho.

A burst gunfire made Kay jump out of her skin. Pulling it out her pistol, she looked around sporadically. A flash of lightning revealed an arm holding a rifle poking out of a crater where the Sherman used to be. The rifle wobbled. The hand lost its grip, and the rifle fell into the mud. Before the arm fell, Kay knew definitely knew one thing.

That's our uniform's sleeve!

A/N: I would like to know what you think of this chapter. As previously mentioned, I had difficulty writing this chapter because I wanted to make it as believable as possible.

So, the USS Orleck. If you have been following my Kantai Collection stories, you will have heard me mention this ship before. Basically, the Orleck is a Gearing-class destroyer museum ship in Louisiana. They need donations to help repair and restore the ship after one of many hurricanes, and to find a better permanent location. Donations can be done on their website or sent in by mail.

Also, I have finally made social media accounts for Twitter and Facebook. The handles to them are in my profile. Feel free to send messages.

Well then, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year, and I'll see you guys and gals later.