A funny thing happened:

The unknown Soviet tank had destroyed Goliath, but at the same time, I had destroyed him, too.

Once again, though, my armored suit prevented me from taking critical damage.

I was pretty mad at what happened, but Goliath had been destroyed and repaired once before, so I knew just what it needed.

While I was repairing Goliath, a thought came to me:

For some reason, it seemed as if most of the trouble I had in battle was due to enemy Soviet tanks.

True, other tanks did cause problems for me, and of course there was that incident at Ensk, but that was different.

I thought of Malinovka, the Ural Mountains, the Steppes, and now this:

I never thought my own country's tanks could be so problematic.

Sure, I knew they were good, but I never dreamed that they would turn against me like this.

Then again, Goliath had dished out its own share of annoyances.

Whatever the case was, no one else came to the scene, so I finished up Goliath's repairs without much trouble, and before going home, took some time to find out who my foes were.

My research showed that they were the Molotov-Ribbentrop Coalition, a group who agreed that Operation Barbarossa was a big mistake and wanted to restore the friendship between Germany & the Soviet Union.

To do this, they were going to split the world in half, setting the line at Poland. Germany would get the West, while we got the East.

The very thought of this sickened me.

Never in a million years would I let Germany take any part of the world beyond their own borders, especially not after what they had done to us in the First World War and especially after I heard how they treated Soviet POWs.

But all that aside, here's what I found out about their new tanks:

They had a strange tank destroyer called an SU-85I, which certainly looked similar to the SU-85, but was based on a German chassis.

Their two artillery guns were a Hummel, a German SPG, and an SU-8, a Soviet SPG based on a T-28 chassis.

The unknown German heavy tank was called a Panzer VI, better known as a "Tiger".

This one mounted an 88mm gun, similar to their flak guns.

Didn't I also see a Panther with something similar?

What really caught my attention, though, was that Soviet heavy tank that got off one last shot before being destroyed:

It was called the "Iosif Stalin", after the Soviet Union's leader, or "IS" for short.

I crumpled the handbook a little when I saw this name.

As much as I hated the Germans, I didn't agree with Stalin too much, either.

Then again, I didn't exactly agree with the old Lenin government.

Somehow, I had the distinct feeling that Russia had gotten a poor lot in life when it came to governments.

But what about the United States?

Were they really any better?

I mean, Soviet propaganda often decried the US as being a nation of mindless, decadent warmongers who, among other things, lacked emotion and only cared about money.

While I questioned whether this was true, I was not allowed to do so openly because I also valued my life.

But I've been rambling too much.

Since none of that matters anymore, let me get back to tanks:

There were two different versions of the IS: The IS-1 and the IS-2.

The IS-1 ordinarily mounted an 85mm D-5T, but was also capable of mounting a 100mm D-10T or an 85mm D5T-85BM.

As I had also learned, the T-34 was also capable of mounting the latter two guns if it had the correct turret mounted.

Maybe that's why I saw elongated guns on those two T-34s!

The other IS, the IS-2, mounted two different types of 122mm guns: The D-2-5-T, which I was familiar with because of the KV-3, and the D-25T.

The tank I had encountered was the IS-2.

I was right. These things were nasty.

I didn't care, though.

Common sense would have told me that I should get a new tank by now, but I didn't really feel like it.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that Goliath has its limitations and that the other tanks were improving in terms of armor protection and firepower.

However, Goliath is special.

This was the first tank that I really cared about in my entire career.

Unlike the T-46 or T-28, this tank was more than just a firepower upgrade.

This was the first tank that really protected me from "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", as Shakespeare had once said.

That protection kept me alive long enough to do some major damage, too.

Plus, Goliath never threatened to demote me, forced me to do menial labor or tried to have me shipped to the Gulag for trivial matters.

It was like we were destined to be together.

But, that's enough chit-chat for now!

Since no one else arrived in Murovanka during this time, I left and made it back home safely.

Oh, and one more thing:

The handbooks I picked up mentioned an IS-3 at one point, but I couldn't find any entries for this one, so I assumed that it was a misprint.

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.