After my previous battle, I concluded that while the firepower of the 152mm M-10 was impressive, the slow reloading time was undesirable and would eventually get me killed.

But what could I do?

Those 152mm shells were heavy, and while the crew was getting much better with reloading, the reload time was still in the 20-30 second range.

There had to be some way to improve upon this!

I looked around my hideout, searching through all the blueprints I'd collected.

Eventually, I found something that looked like it would do the trick: A tank gun rammer.

With a suitable blueprint, I set to work on this device.

This was probably one of the most challenging implements I'd ever fabricated, and it took me a while to build.

However, I managed to complete it eventually.

Mounting it was also a challenge, but I managed to get it to fit.

Now, the only thing that was left was field testing.

I liked the scenery there, so I went to Murovanka to test the device.

When I got there, I found a full team of tanks waiting to challenge me.

These guys didn't appear to have any unusual tanks, so they didn't look too tough.

Without further question, I aimed at a Panzer 38(t) and fired.

BOOM!

One down!

Unfortunately, the gun rammer didn't seem to be working.

It still took me a little over 20 seconds to reload.

There had to be a better way to do this.

In spite of this misfortune, I chose to keep battling.

There were no artillery units to worry about, but there were a few tank destroyers that I had to contend with.

Also, they had two KV-3s working for them.

One of them looked like the one I saw at the Steppes, but the second one had a different turret, shaped like a hexagon of sorts.

Perhaps the second one was a prototype variant?

Either way, these things were dangerous, so I targeted the one with the conical turret first.

He suffered massive damage, but he was still alive.

He had his gun pointed in my direction and was about to fire when…

BOOM!

Some unknown tank destroyed the second KV-3 with one shot.

The KV-3 that I damaged turned away from me, hoping to avenge his fallen comrade.

That gave me the extra few seconds I needed.

However, when I was aiming at him, some strange urge caught a hold of me:

I wanted that KV-3.

I decided to flank him before he could turn his sights back on me.

I knew that our mysterious guest might end up destroying that KV-3 before I could get to it, but I had to take a chance.

I hid Goliath in the village and went for the KV-3 on foot.

Luckily, it was still alive, and I saw the turret hatch close.

Perhaps they finished repairing part of their tank?

Whatever the case, I ran to it and jumped on it before it got away.

As usual, I opened the hatch and killed a couple of crewmen.

I fell back in case one of them decided to pull me inside the tank, just like Ensk.

One of them popped out of the hatch, so I shot him in the head.

The tank was still driving, so I held on tight, climbed over to the driver's hatch, opened it and killed him.

By now, I must have created plenty of fear and confusion amongst the survivors.

One other crewman popped out of the turret and tried to shoot me, but I was faster on the draw than him.

Jeez, how many crew members did this one tank require?

After that guy was dead, somebody threw a Tokarev out of the hatch.

The last surviving crew member came out a few seconds later and said, "I give up! P…please don't shoot!"

"Listen, you're going to do exactly as I say," I replied, "and if you try any foolish crap, I'm going to destroy you! Do you understand!?"

"Y-y-yes! Just don't shoot me!"

"OK, first, we've gotta get rid of these bodies!"

After burying the dead crewmen, I helped him to repair the tank a little.

Once that was done, I told him, "OK, now you're going to drive this tank away and you're going to keep driving until I say to stop! Is that clear!?"

He replied, "B-but…I'm just the loader! I don't even know how to drive this thing!"

"Well, okay, then I'll teach you!"

I gave him a little crash course on driving. He seemed to be a rather quick learner.

After that, I told him, "Now stay here and don't move until I tell you to!"

"Okay, okay!"

I ran back to Goliath and started it up.

Once I started it up, I tuned the radio until it was on the same frequency as the KV-3's.

I sent the following message: "Okay, pal, do you read me, over?"

"Yes…I read you. W-where do you…want me to go?"

"HEY! You forgot to end your call with 'over', over!"

"S-s-sorry about that! Please don't hurt me, over!"

"I won't hurt you for that mistake. Just keep driving east, you got that? Over."

"Yes…I understand. Over."

"OK then. No funny business! Out."

We had to leave this area quickly, lest the mysterious tank turn on me as well.

However, given the fact that it destroyed one of the KV-3s for me, I figured it was pretty likely that it was trying to help me.

I scanned all radio frequencies except for the one that the other KV-3 was on and tried to establish contact with it.

"This is a message for the tank that destroyed the KV-3. Wherever you are, please identify yourself!"

Nothing.

I tried again:

"I repeat, whoever destroyed that KV-3, please come out! I want to talk to you!"

Still nothing.

"Whoever you are, thanks for saving my life! I owe you one, buddy!"

Silence.

Hopefully, I'll cross that guy's path again.

In the meantime, I "escorted" that KV-3 towards my hideout.

It was a particularly tough journey, considering the potential for enemy tanks to come out of the woodwork and attack us.

However, the only tanks that ever bothered us were a T-34 and a couple of French tanks, neither of which did major damage to Goliath or the KV-3 before succumbing to the power of Goliath's 152mm howitzer.

At one point, the KV-3 ran out of fuel, so I did him a kindness and siphoned half the fuel from Goliath to keep him going.

We did find two fuel dumps along the way, so that was helpful, too.

Eventually, though, I just had to let the guy go.

Since we were getting pretty close to my hideout, I told him: "OK, this is where we stop, over!"

"W-what are you going to do to me now?" he asked, "over."

"Listen, I want you to get out of the tank and start running! If you try anything funny, I'm gonna blow you up, got it!? Over!"

"Okay...just d-don't hurt me, you promise? Over."

"I promise. NOW GO! OUT!"

Without further question, he abandoned the KV-3 and ran to parts unknown.

When he disappeared beyond the hills, I simply leapfrogged Goliath & the KV-3

back to my secret hideout.

I didn't know how I was going to fit both of these tanks in there, so I just threw as much foliage on the KV-3 as I could and parked Goliath inside.

Here, I not only did repairs and maintenance to Goliath, but also tried to remove the gun rammer.

I needed a better way to improve my gun's reload time.

Unfortunately, I couldn't remove it.

Apparently, the gun rammer was built too well.

It felt like I would either destroy the gun or the rammer if I tried to remove it myself.

Furthermore, I didn't have any blueprints for any other devices that would improve the reloading time of my cannon, so I had to leave the rammer attached.

I suppose it's better to leave it on anyways.

After all, anything I can do to shorten the reload time is beneficial, right?

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.