Practically every member of Yayax Squad agreed that we should fight.
Even if W.G. and the Old Masters did kill us all, that would just prove one thing:
We weren't cowards.
There would always be people like us to take him down!
However, I feared that if Yayax Squad were broken, then no one else would be willing to stand up to W.G.
I just hated to think what would happen to the world if W.G.'s cadre took over, so I was determined to destroy this madman even if it meant death.
When we got to the Province where W.G. was located, we set up for what could be the Battle to End All Battles.
The area consisted of two small villages on either side of a "valley of death", plus more houses in the valley itself.
There was also one castle on each side of the valley.
Given this setup, each side had plenty of cover.
While everyone got into position, we heard a voice – most likely W.G. – speaking to us without the use of a radio.
"Welcome, Yayax Squad! I see you have accepted our little challenge! Come now, and prepare to face your annihilation!"
W.G. had a commanding voice, definitely male, spoken with what sounded like an American accent but with palpable traces of something European, more likely German.
Whoever he was, he was now going to face his defeat!
All of the battles that I had had up to this point, whether solo or with friends, could not compare to this one.
The Old Masters lived up to their name, driving some powerful tanks with probably the best guns: The IS-7, E-100, AMX-50B, T-54, Terrible 30, Terrible 95, etc…
Worse, some of our tanks weren't exactly at their level, Goliath included.
We had one of our most hectic battles as a result.
"There they are – shoot to kill!"
"Give me some covering fire!"
"Oh no, that one didn't go through!"
"Get me some backup NOW!"
"All right, I got one!"
"They made their last mistake!"
"Target sighted, engaging!"
"He's over there! Get him!"
"Watch out for that 704!"
"Shoot the gas tank!"
"Take them down!"
"Oh man, he's dead!"
"Get a medic over here!"
"One down! Find another target!"
"Help, they blew up our engine!"
"What's going on over there!?"
The presence of an SPG on their team was unhelpful, but we neutralized the weapon, which happened to be a GwTiger.
During the course of the battle, somebody blew up the castle on the opposite end of the valley.
Again, despite the intense difficulty, I survived along with most of the team.
Many of the surviving Yayax Squad tankers started cheering:
"All right, we did it!"
"Yeah, we got those guys good!"
"That will teach them!"
However, there was just one more problem remaining:
"YOU FOOLS! You haven't gotten away with this just yet! Did you believe that I would really permit you to escape your fate that effortlessly!? Did you ever stop to reflect upon who initiated this chaos in the first place!? I have not expended all these hours just to witness my grand plan crumble into dust! Now, it is my turn to strike! Come now, humans! Embrace your bitter defeat at the hands of me, the Warlord Greth'narq, and you shall forever understand that there can only be one true master!"
From the blown-up castle on the other side, I witnessed one final tank emerging from the debris.
Looking through my binoculars, I identified it as a Porsche Tiger, but it was unlike any Porsche Tiger that I had seen up to this point.
For one, it had side skirts over the tracks, whereas ordinary Tiger Is lacked these.
Additionally, it also appeared to be armed with a 105mm gun, normally impossible with a Henschel or Porsche Tiger I.
Most striking of all though, was its paint color: White.
All of a sudden, I got chills through my spine.
I've heard of this before.
In the days leading up to the collapse, and for days afterwards, I'd heard stories.
There were a few tankers – mostly Soviet – who claimed to have engaged a "White Tiger" in combat.
Unfortunately, few of them ever survived.
Those who did, however, described their weapons as being ineffective against this mythical beast, whereas it could tear through them like paper.
Initially, I held these stories to be untruthful, but as I traveled the continents and witnessed some strange things, I had given it another look.
Never did I dream of ever engaging it in combat, though, nor did I ever think it would be the Warlord Greth'narq, as I learned "W.G." was called.
Then again, I'm not driving a run-of-the-mill T-34, so I might just be able to put an end to him with Goliath, as I had done to ordinary Tigers.
Then again, maybe not, but that's why I have friends working with me now.
Speaking of which, we opened fire on that White Tiger just as it was heading down into the "valley of death", which would have been suicide for ordinary tankers.
A bunch of our shots missed, but a bunch of them, including mine, hit Greth'narq's tank.
However, the first volley appeared to have little, if any effect, and Greth'narq simply taunted us:
"HA HA HA! Did you truthfully believe that you could best me!? Your weapons are unimpressive! You cannot kill a god! Such a childish folly! There is no escape from the fate that you have wrought for yourselves! Surrender now, while I still possess the gracious mercy to do so!"
A god!?
Is this what he thought himself to be!?
If so, maybe he's right.
Maybe our fate is inevitable.
Even so, it would do us no good to sit there and bow to him.
No, we were going to fight to the last man - or woman, in Polyanskiy's case - if that's what it came to.
Besides, Greth'narq probably had an over-sized ego and was probably not immortal.
On the other hand, his first shot at us meant he was probably right.
"DAMN IT! He got Bergmann!" exclaimed Lambert as Bergmann's Tiger II was destroyed.
I didn't think Bergmann's tank had even taken that much damage, but then again, you know as well as I do that it did no good to question these things.
Rather, I just took aim and fired again, as did my surviving clanmates.
Once again, though, Greth'narq appeared to have taken little damage.
Instead, he destroyed an American tanker named Hendrickson, who was driving an M103.
"Foolish humans, this challenge is not in your favor! Why do you persevere!? Why do you continue to deny your inevitable fate!? Nothing can stop me! No weapon or implement can save you from this inevitability! I am still feeling merciful at this time, so I would graciously advise you to forsake your primitive vehicles of war!"
No way we're doing that!
I don't know how, but I'm pretty sure that we can defeat Greth'narq somehow.
We'll just keep firing!
And so we did, enduring another round of his taunting as we failed to do any appreciable damage.
"Your persistence is severely annoying! I have attempted to be generous with your kind, and yet you go on with your defective ideologies! Very well, then! If this is the manner in which you behave toward others, then I shall take pleasure in treating you likewise! Muhahahaha!"
He fired another shot and hit one of us…
Oh no! He killed Tregubov!
That bastard!
If Goliath's cannon wasn't hampered by its 20-second reload time, I would intensify my efforts against him!
We continued raining fire unto him as he advanced towards us, when suddenly, he did something unexpected:
"Ah…I see you have returned! You…the one who commands 'Goliath'! I should have foreseen that you were the impetus for this rebellion! It's such a shame that Agent 403's company could not keep you imprisoned for long! Come, do not deny yourself any further! If you forged an alliance with me, we could be unstoppable!"
"NEVER!" I shouted. "I joined the military to ensure that the ones I cared about were safe, and I'm going to finish this job!"
"Very well," said Greth'narq. "However, I doubt that victory was ever in your destiny! Prepare to meet your David, mortal!"
From this moment on, Greth'narq ignored all of my other teammates and started going straight for me!
I thought it was particularly nice that he should ignore the logical choice of trying to defeat us all and instead resort to a petty little feud with one specific target.
I hated this guy before, but now I really hated him.
I felt a slight amount of pity for him because his soul was filled with such unresolved anger, but I brushed it aside and concentrated on the task at hand.
As I fired my next shot at him, I witnessed his tank ascending the slope towards us!
Quickly, I backed away and just barely missed a shot that he fired at me!
Even though I was not especially religious, I thanked God that I was spared destruction.
Meanwhile, I heard my friends still pouring fire onto Greth'narq.
"What are you doing!?" he cried, "Stop interfering with my grand scheme! I shall have you and your unborn descendants castrated!"
By the sound of things, it seemed that my teammates were giving him a difficult time!
I didn't want to die before he did, though, so I backed off and sought cover behind another house, leaving a few anti-tank mines behind.
As I made it to the house and got ready to aim, I saw two of my teammates block off the path so that Greth'narq couldn't get through.
One of them was Mercier, a Frenchman driving an AMX-50/100, and the other guy was Scholz, who drove a Panther II.
I watched as Greth'narq emerged from behind the house where I was originally located and proceeded in my direction.
Aiming carefully, I fired at him and saw the mighty 152mm shell hit him.
Hell, I had to have been doing something with this.
After all, not even Tier Nine tanks were resistant to the blast effects of this round.
He detonated the land mines yet kept on driving, undaunted.
Though Mercier and Scholz's shots didn't seem to affect him much, Greth'narq was certainly obstructed by their tanks.
"How dare you obstruct my path!?" shouted Greth'narq. "I have only one human that I wish to interfere with, but I shall annihilate you too if you will not relocate yourselves!"
Mercier and Scholz held still, but only Scholz could fire as Mercier's autoloader took some time to reload.
Finally, Greth'narq just fired at the two tanks who were in his way, turning them into expensive piles of scrap metal.
I watched as he drove over their charred corpses with unusual ease, and then threw an anti-tank grenade at him.
"What sort of sorcery is this?!" he exclaimed. "How can you do this to my vehicle!? I shall have you vaporized for this!"
I got back into Goliath and headed back into cover.
Greth'narq blew up the house I was hiding behind, so I had to beat a hasty retreat.
While doing so, I had Goliath's turret facing backwards and deployed some more anti-tank mines while firing at him.
"WRETCHED HUMAN!" exclaimed Greth'narq, still taking fire. "Cease your silly games this instant!"
In his rage, he missed a couple more shots meant for me.
I drove in a sort of zig-zag pattern to throw off his aim.
Occasionally, I stopped to throw an anti-tank grenade at him.
He kept going, but I had a feeling that we were doing serious damage to him.
"WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!" he shouted. "How can you pathetic little parasites be prevailing!? This is not how it was dictated to be!"
Unfortunately, I was reaching a critical point.
None of my teammates would block Greth'narq's path for fear of ending up like Mercier or Scholz.
Sure, I did have anti-tank mines, but I was running low on these.
As I rounded a corner into the "valley of death", I ran out of mines, so I ducked into cover between some houses.
"REMAIN STILL, YOU VULGAR LOUSE!" shouted Greth'narq. "I am becoming weary from your trite tactics, and I lack the desire to allow any of you to continue living!"
As I witnessed that White Tiger rounding the corner again, I fired a shot at him again and backed away.
I left Goliath temporarily so I could go around the back of the house and throw an anti-tank grenade at Greth'narq.
Before he even had a chance to aim, I threw a second grenade at him.
"I shall never capitulate to you!" he exclaimed. "NEVER! I am the true one! Your planet shall fall under my dominion!"
I headed back to Goliath and tried to get to a new position.
However, in all his anger, Greth'narq must have gained a little power boost for his tank and had unexpectedly closed in on me.
"This is it, human!" said Greth'narq, his tank's cannon bearing down on me. "This is the end! Vengeance shall be mine!"
Knowing that I had nowhere to run or hide, I closed my eyes and prepared for the inevitable…
BOOM!
Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.