A/N: I wrote this while I was sick as hell, might not be as good as some other chapters already published.
"Steady now, our cover is good, and these Terrorists seem the part bad with their guns at best." a figure said, looking down at his crew. They all heeded his commands with confident smirks on their faces. One of them, a boy likely no older than 19, dumped the used shell and loaded a new 76 mm round into the breech the fastest he must've ever seen, being only some 3 seconds.
"General, these men are attacking us with Allied tanks... how the hell did terrorists get hold of Allied tanks? Specifically, how'd they muster this many? I've already counted at least six M4 Shermans, a dozen T-34s, and a Matilda." The gunner queried.
"A good question, sergeant, but I don't hold the answer to that question. For now, just focus on shooting." The General said before taking a look out of his commander's hatch. "There, to the Southeast about 200 meters, the Matilda is showing its rear." His statement was met with a quick nod, and not two seconds later, a loud boom, accompanied by the Matilda's engine exploding from the shot.
"Nice shot, son. Now, lets see..." he said, before peeping his head out of his hatch and looking through his binoculars. "Dear God, there's a lot of them! Wait... Sergeant, did you hit anything over two kilometers away?" The general said down to the gunner. The man shook his head before giving a simple thumbs down to signal no. "Then why the hell are there three T-34s, a Churchill III, and two Matildas blown to bits over there?" the General said, just before watching another T-34 blow up.
"Dunno, sir, but once we're through here should we ex-" The man was cut off from a loud boom to their left, doing actual damage to their side. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!."
"Calm yourself! Gimme a moment to see where that shot came from..." the General said, before looking back out the hatch around. After a few seconds, he found it, though he wasn't pleased...
"How the hell did I not notice- Okay, now I feel outright stupid. Driver, get us to coordinates 9.5 by 11.2, that shell came from a T28." The General said calmly, before the gunner looked back up at him.
"How in God's good name did that thing get here?" he asked, bewildered and feeling stupid for not noticing such an obvious target.
"Dunno, but I don't wanna get crushed by a 105 mm shell. If you can, shoot it's track, halt it in place." He replied, affixing his M1 helmet to be more comfortable. "Now, Driver, Move it!"
Ruby kept her gaze steady through the forest. Intelligence had definitely been wrong, as on their way to the battlefield they'd encountered two Panzer IIIs. They'd asked Rommel about them, but he'd stated to just take e'm out. So they did, blasting each with an HE shell and reducing them to tiny bits. Ruby found herself more comfortable, somehow, commanding this tank than she did her team, in a way. That's not to say she was uncomfortable leading her team, and it was kinda odd, because she still technically was leading them. She shook the odd thought off, before looking ahead once more, scanning the forest for any hostiles.
Two minutes later, she could finally make out the battlefield properly. The last Matilda was well entrenched, but they also saw it was under heavy fire from field guns and artillery. 12 T-34s still remained, and the M4 Shermans, thus far, hadn't been hit. She contemplated and weighed her options for a moment, before looking down at Weiss.
"Weiss, any idea on how fast the Supercharge will make us?"
"What? The Supercharge? Well... I'd guess pretty fast... but the Engineer said no more than 5 seconds..." Weiss replied, unsure of how to proceed.
"I wanna make a B-line straight for that Matilda. Ram into it and shoot one of those Shermans from behind, blow up their engine." Ruby said, before peeping through her hatch. The Shermans had dug in, using craters and even their fallen comrades' tanks as cover, but for the most part only had good cover from one direction. She grinned, before signaling for Weiss to move forward.
"Weiss, on my mark, activate the supercharge." she said calmly, before holding up three fingers for herself. they were steadily encroaching on their target as Ruby began her small, mental countdown. The Matilda II (sorry for not clarifying model earlier) hadn't noticed them yet, meaning they'd have the element of surprise...
Three...
The Matilda fired, only seeming to hit the battlements to no effect.
Two...
The tank shifted ever so slightly, leaving them to hit perfectly head-on.
One!
"MARK!" Ruby yelled, and immediately Weiss pressed the button. the change was a gradual, but VERY fast one, lurching them from 28 kmph to a staggering 100 kmph within a three seconds. The distance was closed almost instantly to their perspective, and within four seconds, they'd collided with the Matilda. The 60 tons of Der Verteidiger easily overpowered the 25 tons of the Matilda, sending the latter tank reeling a few meters and even gaining some air time as the tank was rendered useless from such a heavy blow. Ruby signaled for Weiss to stop the supercharge immediately after, ending the supercharge at 4.9 seconds.
"OKAY! Nice! Now, Blake, the Shermans!" Ruby yelled enthusiastically. Blake merely nodded before taking a shot at one of their targets and blowing their engine apart. She pumped her fist as she watched the tank get blown to bits, though not a moment later, they faced some counter-fire from the remaining tanks on the field.
"Weiss, back us up a bit and face e'm with our front! Their biggest guns here right now are no match for our 200 mm of frontal armor!"
"Ruby, need I alert you that our little ram did damage to US as well?" Weiss said quickly and loudly. Ruby merely waved it off.
"For now, we're fine. Once the battle is finished, we'll bring it to the mechanics for repairs."
Nodding back, Weiss quickly pivoted the Panzer to face their opposition, just as Blake fired another round, Hitting a sherman but not blowing it up. Immediately as they turned a shot hit them head on, but bounced as the 75 mm bullet found no capacity to penetrate such thick armor.
"These Fangs don't know the first thing about tanks! Granted, we've only had one battle and half a day to train, but still!" ruby beamed, watching as another T-34 was blown to bits by a precision shot from Rommel and his crew.
"Quite the entrance you made there, Damen." Came a cool voice over their radio. Rommel had taken the radio over for a moment on his end, it'd seem. "This battle will be tied up shortly, but there is another matter I must discuss with you while we fight off these terrorists."
"By all means, Field Marshal. These guys down here shouldn't prove too much a challenge, what is it?" Ruby replied, though was immediately met with a rather poor response.
"The deaths of many a soldier of all humanity's history, be it on your world or mine, has been from them underestimating their opponents. Do not forget that." Rommel stated sharply, causing Ruby to slump a bit. "Now, onto the other matter: The guard spotted a Sherman on the run to the Northeast, and identified its model as an M4A3E8. Normally, they would have fired at it, but they noticed that other tanks were already firing at it. I'm going intercept that tank while you finish up over here. Ist das Klar?"
"Sir, yes sir!" Ruby replied in a happy tone whilst giving a mock salute, not that he could see it. Looking back down at her crew, she gave Blake a small thumbs-up, before returning to her hatch and marking another target...
"Kommandant?" the communicator, Hansel addressed him. "Wird dieser Panzer, den wir abfangen, ein Freund oder Feind?" Rommel simply smiled before looking out his hatch. The same thought had crossed his mind as well, though with the insane luck this runaway panzer was showing, he had a tiny inkling of an idea as to who it was.
If he was right, things would go just fine. If he was wrong? Well, he was at least certain, because of the circle with a star in it, that these troopers were Americans and wouldn't shoot someone who'd just helped save their skin. The White Fang had since defiled the tanks he'd already seen with their stupid insignia.
"Vermutlich Freunde. Wenn auch Amerikaner hier gefallen wären, bin ich mir sicher, dass sie sich freuen werden, jemanden aus unserer Welt hier mit ihnen zu sehen." Rommel replied, before looking out his hatch as they just exited the town through the North gate. Fortunately, forestation wasn't quite as dense North of the town, so he was easily able to pinpoint where they were, and set a B-line straight towards them, and cut off their pursuers...
The General growled under his breath before taking out his handgun and popping himself out of the hatch. Almost instinctively, he reached out with his gun and fired, nailing one of the terrorists pursuing them in the face. The man's body slumped down back into the tank, a hole present in his forehead. "Hmph! Seems these terrorists' crap light-shield thingies aren't very helpful if they don't see the blow coming!"
He wouldn't admit it, as that would effect the troops' morale negatively, but this situation was getting desperate. They were being chased by some 15 tanks through woods with very little, if any, cover. He would've thought that such a chase would be an amusing sight, if not for the fact that he was being chased by tanks that were made to be HIS support on the field. He was about to look back to his surroundings for a moment, before the Sergeant by him started stuttering...
"P-p-pa-p-p-pa-pan!-"
"Out with it Sergeant! What's so-"
"Panther! Panther!" The gunner yelled, immediately garnering his attention. Looking out in front of their Sherman, low and behold, was a German Panther tank, that had set itself up in some tall grass. Upon a closer look, he'd also noticed it bore standard Wehrmacht markings. He breathed a sigh of relief, before looking out once more... and noticing their gun aligning on it...
Thinking fast, he reached down and slapped the sergeant hard across the face, yelling at him as he did so, "WHAT ARE YOU, AN IDIOT? ITS GUN IS AIMING PAST US, IT'S AN ALLY!" The Sergeant quickly corrected himself, before moving his free hand up to rub his cheek he'd been roughly slapped across. "Private Peters, move us into the tall grass with the Panther, keep our front at an angle to the enemy once in!" The man in question only nodded before turning the tank into the tall grass beside the Panther in such a way that the Panther was in front of them, but they could still shoot out on the oncoming attackers whilst keeping their front angled.
The Panther fired first, taking out a T-34, and was immediately followed by the General's gun knocking out an enemy Sherman. Return fire immediately followed but most shells missed, and the ones that struck home bounced off harmlessly.
The cycle carried off for about forty seven seconds, before finally, all the enemy tanks had been wiped out. Wiping the sweat off his brow, the General whistled a small tune to himself as he pushed open his cupola and poked his head out about halfway. He was surprised to see the top hatch pop open, and see a finely dressed officer rise out fully. But he knew, oh he definitely knew, not just anyone wore a hat in such a way. Oh nonononono, NOBODY wore that hat in such a fine way as the man himself, an old rival of his from the Africa Campaign. The One, the Only...
"The Desert Fox himself, Erwin Rommel!" He said out loud to nobody in particular. Rising fully out of his tank, he looked the man straight in the eyes with a toothy grin before vaulting himself out to greet the legend himself on foot, being met with the same action from the German Field Marshal.
"Ah, eine sehr angenehme Überraschung!" Rommel proclaimed, before firmly shaking hands with the American General.
"The pleasure is all mine, Rommel! Thanks for the timely save there but unfortunately, we've got a big, 95 ton problem headed our way shortly with a 105 mm gun." he replied, gesturing back the way he came. Sure enough, it was headed their way. Albeit slowly. Very slowly. It was also firing while moving explaining why exactly they hadn't been blown to tiny bits yet.
"Was ist das für ein Ding?" Rommel asked, taking on a confused look as he looked at the strange thing.
"It's a T28, intended to break through the Siegfried line, but by the time it was finished we'd already broken through."
"It looks like a beetle." Rommel deadpanned.
"Yeah, I kinda gotta agree... too slow, too." the American agreed.
"Definitely not fit to blitzkrieg."
"Oh most certainly not... but it's still valuable, and does have a powerful gun... lets kill it's crew before they get a lucky hit on us, eh?"
"Yes, of course." the German finished, racing back into his Panther as the American General raced into his own M4A3E8 and told the driver to move on the T28.
The T28 fired another round, barely grazing the side of the Field Marshal's Panther as the two rapidly encroached on the large, beetle-like American Super Heavy Tank Destroyer. Rommel raised a hand out of his cupola, gesturing his hand in a way that said "forward", but adding to it two fingers retracted while his index and middle finger spread apart, before coming back together and forming a fist. He was fairly certain that almost none of that was correct terminology, but he understood the plan nonetheless, communicating it to his crew.
Looking back up out of his hatch, he saw their commander and their machine gun operator had exposed themselves. Taking his pistol in hand, he waited for just the right moment. After another shot was fired, missing either tank if only by a few millimeters, and the sound of two tanks swerving hard to either side echoed, he raised himself out of his hatch, noting that the Field Marshal had done the same, leveled his pearl-gripped M1911 on the machine gun operator's head, and fired.
The sound of two handguns echoing brought a smile to both commanders' faces, as their intended targets, being the commander and machine gun operator of the enemy tank, both slumped back into their tanks, their bullets having found their marks going in one way and out the other of their targets' heads. Their tanks swerved to a stop, and the two leapt out of their tanks onto the back of the T28, swiftly racing up and dropping down into the tank, spitting hot led into the crew inside still too shocked from their comrades' deaths to properly raise their auras. After a moment or two, and some small poking of bodies to make sure they were actually dead, the two nodded in satisfaction, before rising out of the tank together and simply nodding towards each other.
"Well, That's was the closest I think I ever got to an enemy intending to kill him. Nice work by the way, Rommel." The American General said, tipping his M1 helm to the German field Marshal who mimicked his action with his Field Visor...
"du auch, Patton." Erwin replied, gaining a ghost of a grin from the General, now officially recognized as General George Smith Patton Jr.
She would have to have Yang punch her across the face to drive this lesson home, because she'd underestimated her opponents, and now their track had been blown out, and four enemy tanks, two M4s, and two T-34s had escaped, and lit their engine on fire in their escape. Yang had set out the fire with the extinguished, but said the engine had taken considerable damage. They could still move, but if they pushed over 16 km/ph they risked further engine damage. So, after repairing the track with considerable effort, they began their sort of crawl back to town. They didn't know how Rommel would react to this result. Sure, they'd only just gotten into fighting with their tank for the second time and they were, by all means, newbies with their tank, but they also didn't know exactly how he'd react to four tanks escaping.
After about fifteen minutes, they'd managed to return Der Verteidiger to its garage, and immediately raced back to the house. Today had been very stressful, as today had been the first time they'd had serious opposition with their Panzer, being other tanks. All they knew for certain about today, is that a lot of people had been killed...
"...60 total casualties, among them 56 wounded and four dead among the guard. Among civilian populace, casualties are at 30, with six dead, two in critical condition, and 22 wounded." The Field Marshal finished reading the report, before dropping the files back down on the table. All of RWBY was present and standing at attention in the back of the room where they'd been told to stand with the other tank crews.
"Well, it could have been much worse, I suppose." General Patton mused. "Still, the loss of civilian life is regrettable. Had I arrived earlier, maybe I could have prevented this... or at least lessened the blow." He looked at both his crew, Rommel's, and the crew of little girls, the youngest of which couldn't have been even 15. "Nevertheless, Today was a victory overall. A total of 90 casualties, of them, ten deaths on our side, and from the confirmed kills on tanks, a total of 187 killed, 1 captured."
"Excuse me, but... one single enemy was captured? How?" Ruby spoke up, with both Generals looking at her with some mild curiosity.
"Well," Rommel spoke up, "the guard had reported that the gunner of the Panzer IV killed the rest of his crew, reportedly, he, and I quote, "wasn't being paid enough to deal with this armored nonsense.""
"So we captured a mercenary then? Now I'm confused, are we fighting terrorists or Mercenaries?" The other General asked, causing Blake to quickly speak up.
"The White Fang are a group of extremist Faunas that are willing to use violence and terror tactics make humans respect them out of fear... So in the sense, yes, I suppose they are Terrorists, but... I've never heard of them using Mercenaries before." She spoke quickly, earning some interested looks out of those present in the room outside of her own team.
"How do you... It doesn't matter. Rommel, can we question this prisoner?" Patton asked, earning a small shake no from Rommel.
"Not at the immediate moment, no, as he's currently being run through security procedures. Lieutenant Mira personally oversaw the moving of the prisoner, saying she recognized him. She stated that we could question him come 0300 tomorrow morning."
"Alright... that's 8 eight hours away now. I suppose in that time we can prepare some questions and think up some methods to get him to talk through... psychological means, should he prove resistant to initial questioning." Patton nodded once ending his statement, getting the same from Rommel to show their agreement. Looking to the crews, he waved his own and Rommel's off, but halted RWBY before they could leave.
Looking to Rommel, who had joined him in front of the girls, they both stared down the girls for a moment before Rommel merely closed his eyes and began to speak.
"Now... I know I ordered you to beat back the remaining offenders, but-"
"You four let four enemy tanks, FOUR enemy tanks get away, what explanation could you possibly have for such a failure?!" Patton chastised them loudly, making them shrink back slightly.
"Well... I-"
"I take full responsibility for this failure, General." Ruby interrupted Weiss, taking a step forward to face the General. "I was careless, and underestimated the foe. My team are not to blame for my failure." Beads of sweat shot down her brow, knowing her statement likely garnered a silent panic out of her team. Patton approached her, hot in her face and sized her up.
After a few tense moments, the General backed off a bit, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Miss Rose, if I'm not mistaken? Your orders, carelessness, and failure to understand the weight of the situation could have gotten your entire team killed, and left an opening in the town that those remaining could have punched through... But I appreciate it when a commander owns up to their responsibilities and failures. You will be reprimanded for this, but seeing as you're only in your second day of training..."
"You will serve latrine duty." Rommel said. "The barracks of the guard have their latrines, and they must be cleaned out. for your failure, and in light of you taking sole responsibility of it, you will do it alone, tomorrow morning at 0430. Am I understood?"
"Yes, sir, Field Marshal." Ruby replied in monotone.
"Good. Now, return to our lodging, I shall prepare dinner once I return. Dismissed." He said, immediately followed by them falling out of formation and returning to Rommel's house...
After a few minutes, being sure they weren't in range to hear them. Patton merely looked to Rommel, before twitching his head in the direction of the Troops' Messhall. The Field Marshal nodded in agreement, before making their way down...
"Did I ever ask about how you arrived here, Patton?" Rommel asked, cleaning his face off with a napkin.
"No, You haven't. You want to know?" the man replied.
"Yes, most certainly. I'm wondering if our conditions were similar."
"Well..." Patton Began, "To start, Hitler has commit suicide, to get you up to recent news."
"Has he now?"
"Yeah, Soviets from the East pushed into Berlin. The German 9th Army made a large rescue operation, making a corridor for civilians to escape through to the west. Downright Heroic, that... But I digress, it was December 9th, 1945, we were near Neckardstadt, in an automobile after the war was won for the Allies... I saw another automobile on a collision course with us, but it was too late to stop. Just as I braced for the impact, I was enveloped in some Green light, and transported here. I woke up in the middle of a forest, and that M4A3E8 Sherman was next to me, it's engine sleeping and the entire crew unconscious save for the commander what was killed, a bullet through the head did that. I roused the troops, we buried the commander respectfully, and followed the river for a few miles before we were ambushed." Patton stated, taking a bite of some of his mashed potatoes.
"1945? It's only been two months, here." Rommel stated, confused.
"I was just as confused at first, seeing as my crew arrived her mere moments after I did, judging by their unconscious and still fresh looking states, but they said it was 1943."
"Wie seltsam..." Rommel stated, before looking back down and plucking up a small bit of beef with his fork and chowing down. Indeed, this was a very strange world they'd found themselves in...
About an hour and a half had passed before Rommel had arrived and made them their dinners. Patton had joined him, but was supposedly sleeping in the room across the hall from Rommel's upstairs. They supposed it wasn't too terribly unexpected, though they were rather unsure of how much different their training would now be with TWO Generals...
"Hey, Ruby..." Yang called, looking up at her from her mattress. "You didn't have to do that, y'know. we would have gladly shared this with you..."
"No." the younger girl replied with great simplicity. "The failure wasn't any of yours. I lost my cool, got too excited... and could have gotten you all killed like that... we're lucky I didn't." Ruby tightened her fist, tighter and tighter, until finally, the other girls saw some blood start to drip...
"I will commit this to memory... I'll do this so that I never forget, and never make such a stupid, obvious mistake ever again, so I don't endanger you all ever again. I'll be the greatest armored commander this world or theirs has ever seen, Better than Rommel, Better than Patton! This, I swear..." Ruby gritted out while grinding her teeth together. She was surprised when she felt three hand gently land on her shoulders...
"Don't worry, Rubes! We'll be with you all the way! By the time we're done here, that German 75 mm loader will wish he could load his 75 as fast as I can load our 88!" Yang supported loudly.
"I won't leave your side, Ruby, and I'm not gonna let you pass me by in our respective skills. I'll be the best gunner there's ever been." Blake said cooly, but with some fire in her voice.
"Don't think I'm gonna let you outpace me, dolt! I'm gonna make sure I'm always two steps ahead of you in skill, and I'll make sure that no one can hold a candle to MY skill as a driver!" Weiss said haughtily, but with obvious care and friendliness in her tone.
Smiling to each of her friends, she quickly wrapped them all in a hug, before breaking off and looking to them each...
"Hey, I've an Idea!" Yang said enthusiastically.
"I don't think I'm gonna like it..." Blake mumbled.
"C'mon, guys! Y'see, Ruby broke skin to signal her promise to herself AND us..."
"I think I see where this is going..." Blake stated, connecting the dots.
"Well, we made a promise both to ourselves and to her, we should give her the same respect, right?"
The group was silent for a moment, each contemplating while Ruby let her bleeding hand dangle. The silence was broken eventually by Blake putting her hand out, with the telltale marks that she'd bit into her own flesh with her nails evident from the blood rolling down it. Ruby's eyes widened, as Blake held her hand out, and nodded to Ruby to ask to join. She did just that, followed soon by Yang, and not a moment later by Weiss, each brandishing a bloody hand. They repeated their promises in unison, though each more official like, before breaking off, cleaning and bandaging their respective self-inflicted wounds, before tucking in for the night...
Unbeknownst to them, Rommel looked on through the camera he'd placed in that room prior to their arrival with a very smug, calculating and yet endearing smile, Patton watched with idle interest...
"They really are dedicated, aren't they?" Patton commented idly.
"Yes, I believe so... Let's hope they channel that dedication properly." Rommel stated, before closing the terminal and reclining back in his chair.
"Dedication can be a dual-edged sword, Rommel. We'll need to hone what they've got and temper it with a cool head, and tactics and strategies if they're gonna survive their little crusade they've declared."
"I know... but for now, I believe they have the right idea in retiring for the day..." Rommel commented, before opening the door out from the computer room of his and opening his own door to retire for the night. "Gute Nacht, General."
"Likewise, Field Marshal. Likewise." Patton replied, before stalking back into his own room and quickly falling asleep in the comfortable bed given to him...