The Ether Conflict
Chapter 36: The Battle of Whitehead part 1
Two days after arriving in the US
Whitehead, Arizona
Battle for the city's control under way, Time: 02:16 PM
Vzzit
"Ambush!"
Boom
Fwoosh
"We just lost one of the Strykers!"
"Get the rest of the infantry out there!"
"This is nuts! They are all around us!"
Vzzit
"We need to take care of that sniper!"
"We need to get out of here!"
"Delta-5, do you copy? Delta-5, respond!"
"Miho! Miho!" Hana yells at her, shaking her strongly to get her to focus. Miho just turns slowly to look at Hana with unfocused eyes, sweat forming on her forehead and rolling down her pale face, the outer layer of her hair having been cut horizontally. A gash settles on top of her left shoulder, blood running out of the wound and seeping on her uniform and shirt.
"Found the first aid kit!" Saori yells and grabs the white box with a red cross on top of it, trying to unstuck it from between two boxes with ammunition for the hull's MG-34. "Hnnnng... Got it!" she says and passes it at Yukari. Mako simply looks at Miho with a worried, and somewhat pale, face.
Yukari quickly passes it to Hana, who sets it on her lap and opens it. The sounds of gunfire, autocannon, and explosions fill the air of the narrow street they find themselves, with the radio filled with screaming and yelling on all channels.
Grabbing a cotton swab and drenching it in antiseptic, the tank shakes violently, causing Hana to bang against the gun's breech and let the cotton swab slip from her grip and fall down. "Dammit," she curses quietly, biting her lower lip slightly and rubbing her right shoulder.
"They are shelling the street!" Mako shouts as she sees a couple of mortar shells landing not far from the front of the tank.
"Delta-5,we need you to take care of the sniper, our guys out here are falling like flies!" a harsh voice yells at the radio, and since Miho seems to still be shellshocked and shivering quite a lot, Hana turns to Mako to give her orders.
"Mako, can you spot the sniper?"
"I'll try!" she says and tries to look through her vision slit for the sniper, but there's just too much dust and smoke in the air from the explosions to have a clear view. Rising from her seat and slightly opening her hatch so that she can get a better view, she instantly dives back when she sees a glint coming from a building in the distance, and among the pinging sounds of normal bullets, she hears the sound of grinding metal, as the hatch above her gets slightly dented from a sniper bullet.
"Mako, are you okay?" Saori asks quickly when she hears the grinding noise and sees Mako's face draining of all its blood.
"Y-Yeah," she stutters, then looks back at Hana. "E-Enemy sniper at the building at the end of the street, sixth floor. Distance, 540 meters."
"Aiming," Hana says as she raises the cannon and aims at the sixth floor of the building that's at the end of the street. Having taken into account the distance, she makes some minor adjustments and fires the main gun. The HE shell soars through the sky and lands between the sixth and fifth floor, the explosion causing the former to crumble down on the latter.
"Sniper eliminated!" she says as she starts using the coaxial to hit the enemy soldiers that are firing at them from the balconies, or at least trying, since the road is narrow enough that she can't raise the cannon enough to fire over the third, maybe fourth floor.
A rocket comes to them from one of the buildings on their right side, getting intercepted by the APS a meter above the turret, the explosion shaking the tank slightly.
"Huh?" Miho utters out of nowhere, feeling a slightly hot sensation on the top of her head. Trying to move her left arm, a jolting pain flares up on her shoulder, causing her to yelp and cup the wound with her right hand. "Ouch!"
"Miho!" everyone yells and turns to look at her.
"Thank God, you are alright, Miporin!" Saori exclaims. A few bullets bounce off the Panzer's armor, while another rocket gets intercepted by the APS, this time coming from their left side.
"Delta-5, we need you to move now!" the harsh voice comes through the radio and Miho raises her head just in time to see through her cupola a big explosion, the sound of it filtering through the radio for a moment, then changing to static.
"M-Mako, move forward!" Miho orders, still shaking and sweating, but having regained some of her color.
"Roger," Mako says and moves the Panzer forward.
"Finally, Delta-5! We thought you'd never move!" another man's voice says through the radio and Miho immediately picks it up.
"Delta Leader! What's the status of the convoy?" she asks quickly as she looks through her cupola's vision ports. "Mako, take a left turn here!" she orders and Mako does so, turning left on the upcoming intersection to get out of the killzone they have found themselves, and avoiding an unguided rocket which lands on the road and craters it slightly, throwing asphalt chunks and dust in the air.
"We've lost two Strykers already, and have been cut off from you. There should be a Stryker stuck with you," Miho hears the man say, and as she looks back at the intersection, she finds a Stryker turning into the street her tank is. That is, until a rocket connects with its right side and the whole thing goes up in flames.
"We just lost it..." she says quietly as she looks at the flaming wreck. The sounds of gunfire start sounding more and more distant and less frequent as the still surviving WCC forces start withdrawing from the ambush point.
"Damn. Well, the rest of the platoon has dispersed in the nearby streets, so we'll all meet at Relic Street, then push towards the town hall like the plan says. Keep radio silence for the time being, unless there is something important to report."
"U-Understood," Miho responds with a slight stutter, thanks to the pain she feels from her wounded shoulder. "Mako, stop here for a little," she orders and the tank comes to a halt, with Mako parking it at the side of the road, since it is considerably larger from the previous one.
"Good. Be on the predetermined point at an hour, max. We need to assault the town hall before they can fortify and alert the main force. Over and out."
As the radio transmission gets terminated, Miho sighs heavily and slowly removes her right hand to look at her wound. "I-I think we'll have to stitch it," she says painfully, her hands still shaking from the near-death experience she had just a few minutes ago.
"But, can't you activate your power and heal it, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks, as Miho looks around from her cupola's vision ports to make sure there are no hostiles in the area.
"She's right, Miporin!" Saori exclaims, and even Mako nods.
"No," she responds, and the others look at her confused. "Remember what the Director told me and Odysseus before leaving? Under no circumstances should we activate our powers while in the US. Institute spies will probably be tracking us as potential targets, so if I use my power, it'll be like putting a huge target mark on me and you. I know me and Odysseus were sent as bait to rat them out, but we shouldn't confirm their suspicions right away. "
Silence descends inside the Panzer IV, with only Hana producing some noise as she grabs a few things from the first aid kit.
"We can discuss this later; first of all we need to disinfect the wound and patch it temporarily, then find a safer place where we can stitch it," she says as she turns to look at Miho with a cotton swab drenched in antiseptic. "This might sting a little."
"It's okay," Miho says as she tries her best to remove her uniform's jacket, with Yukari helping as much as she can.
"I'm sorry. I should have insisted that you wore the vest," Saori says with a sad expression, but Miho smiles at her, trying to not show the pain she is feeling.
"It's alright, Saori. The bullet that grazed me was from a sniper rifle, so it would have probably ripped the vest too."
After removing her jacket, Hana slowly pulls at Miho's ruined shirt so that the cut in it gets bigger and starts swabbing the perimeter of the gash, with Miho feeling a very painful stinging coming from it. As she waits for Hana to finish treating the wound, Miho's mind starts wondering on how things came to be like this, especially since it seemed like a very easy mission at the debriefing back on both Blackout's base, and the Platoon HQ when they arrived in the city.
Several hours ago, Blackout's Main Base of Operations, Base's Director's office
In the base's Director's office, a single figure sits behind a simple desk, reading some kind of reports that he has set up in front of him, while occasionally glancing at his watch with an annoyed expression, sighing slightly through his nose. The room he is inside is simple, with white walls, a tiled floor and a few cabinets full of paperwork here and there. On top of his desk, only a cheap lamp, a few pens, and a pile of paperwork settles, with the man putting the reports he has in front of him in the pile, except for one he keeps in front of him.
"I understand that transportation in this day and age is somewhat difficult with how the world has gone to shit, but being late a whole hour is unacceptable," the man says, glancing at the two figures that stand in front of his desk. One of the figures is a short, Japanese girl with brown hair and eyes, standing at attention, while the other figure is a Caucasian girl with blonde hair and light purple eyes, standing with her arms crossed over her chest, "Miss Nishizumi and Miss Papaioannou."
"And as we told you, two of our squad members overslept, thus why we were late," Odysseus responds back to the man, then turns to look at Miho with a cat-like smirk. "Right, Miho?"
Miho says nothing in response, simply bowing a little at the man. "We are really sorry, Director, but we weren't told what time to report to you." Odysseus just snorts and rolls her eyes, looking back at the Director.
"I want neither your excuses, nor your apologies," the man says in an indifferent tone, picking up the report he has in front of him, as well as taking a few papers from the pile that settles at the desk's right corner. "War won't wait for you before it starts. Anyway, let's start the debriefing."
Both Odysseus and Miho nod, so the man starts explaining the current situation.
"Today, at around 00:49 AM, IST forces broke through the borders without a prior warning, annihilating any forces that had been stationed there. WCC command scrambled in action to stop them, but since HTS launched an invasion at the same time, the allocated forces against IST were not enough to stop them, only to slow them temporarily."
"Wait, wait, wait a second. Who the hell is IST, WCC and HTS?" Odysseus asks confused the Director.
"The other factions. IST stands for Independent State of Texas, WCC for West Coat Coalition, and HTS for Holy Trinity State," he answers and Odysseus widens slightly her eyes in recognition.
"Oh..."
"Anyway, continuing, it was later deduced that IST and HTS had made a non-agression pact between them, seeing that most of IST's forces had been moved to the borders of WCC. Here, take a look," the Director says and retrieves a map of the US with all the major roads and towns on it. Several arrows in red and black marker have been drawn, indicating the movements of the enemy. "As you can see, IST forces have been moving along two major roads, I-10 and I-40. Our tacticians belive the enemy is trying to rush their way towards Tucson and Flagstaff, then assault and capture Phoenix from both flanks. If they manage to capture the city, they'll have a straight line to WCC's capital, LA."
"The enemy must have one hell of a main force if they want to steamroll over allied forces with numbers alone," Odysseus whistles, looking at the map with an attentive eye.
"Won't they be open to flanking hits and get cut-off from supplies?" Miho asks, pointing on the map at the city of Phoenix. "If we let them take Flagstaff and Tucson, they'll probably get cocky and lower their guard. Then if we mount a strong defense in Phoenix, while sending two separate forces to retake Tucson and Flagstaff, or some of the towns that reside on the I-10 and I-40 to cut their supply lines, it should be fairly easy to defeat them and push them back."
"We thought of it, but most of WCC forces are trying to halt HTS's advance before they can get a lot of ground, thus they can't spare the necessary assets to do this," the man counters, and Miho nods understanding.
"Another reason is the equipment being used by all sides. They mostly are WW2, Post-WW2, and Cold War era when it comes to tanks, with very few being modern. For other vehicles, there are a few of modern times, but as their numbers are limited, they'd rather not risk losing them. The weapons and equipment used by the soldiers is mostly modern, but there have been cases of using Cold War era equipment as well."
"Hehe, this makes things a lot easier," Odysseus grins with satisfaction. "I suspect that the construction and maintenance of such vehicles is a lot easier and less expensive, correct?"
"Indeed. It is a lot less resource-intensive to build an M60 and its variants, than building an M1 Abrams or its more modern variants. But I digress, let's return to the briefing. Enemy forces have pushed all the way to Holbrook on I-40, while on I-10 they have pushed till Wilcox, and are currently moving towards Whitehead," the Director points at the town of Whitehead, which is situated between Wilcox and Benson.
"Whitehead? Never heard of that town or seen it in any of the maps," Odysseus says as she looks at the map.
"Because it wasn't much of an official town; it was built by a company on the grounds of a new experimental layout that would allow for more people to live on a small area. It seemingly worked, therefore was named after the company's CEO, William Whitehead." Procuring a layout map of the city, the Director puts it on the desk and unfolds it to show at the girls how the city looks like. "There are three areas within the city that can be considered as strategic locations for the control of the it. First and most important is the town hall and the plaza around it," he says and points at the center of the map. "Anyone who controls this area, has pretty much an open way of flanking the enemy advancing in the flanks," he taps at the side areas of the town, then at the four avenues that seem to be connecting all four sides of the town with the town hall. "Next important location is the hospital in the north part of the town. If you control the hospital, you can effectively cut-off any flanking attempts by the enemy. And the last one is the theater at the south part of the town. This can be used to make sure the enemy won't advance towards the town hall, since it is located at the rightmost side of the town."
"And where will we need all of this?" Odysseus asks with a raised eyebrow, finding this part of the debriefing somewhat unneeded. "Last time I checked, we were tank crews operating tanks, not generals making grand plans to win a campaign."
"But you are not simple conscripts either," the Director says and looks both of the girls in the eyes. "I don't care if the military bigwigs think of you as mere mercenary pawns, you are still Blackout's contractors and are expected to act accordingly. Even if you can't receive orders, you must be able to act on your own and finish your mission. Only if the circumstances do not allow for its completion, only then should you abort."
"That's all well and good, but the military brass probably won't like their units doing things on their own, much less mercenary ones that are there for money," Odysseus answers back, and the man simply closes the map he had laid in his desk, then puts it next to the pile of papers.
"If something like that happens, Blackout will deal will them. But remember, you'll have to uphold our company's reputation, so don't act out of line if you have orders." The man turns his head and daggers Odysseus with his gaze. "Especially you, Miss Papaioannou."
Odysseus says nothing, only snorting and rolling her eyes to the right.
"You might have had complete freedom to do anything you wanted back in Japan, but things are different at this side of the Pacific Ocean. If you act in any way that damages Blackout's image, I'll have you removed as leader of your squad and kicked out of Blackout. Understood?" he asks and Odysseus, albeit reluctantly, nods. "Good. Anyway, let's continue. Your tanks have already been moved in Whitehead. Normally, I'd have you be transported there by trucks or Humvees, but since time is of the essence, and one of you is elite," he makes a small pause, glancing at Miho for a moment, "I'll have you transported there by helicopters. Also," pausing again, he retrieves two white envelopes, one marked with Miho's squad's emblem, while the other has Odysseus' name written on it. "These came yesterday from Japan with high priority. You should read them while in transit."
Taking their respective envelope, both girls look at it, before looking each other in the eyes.
"What about our gear?" Miho asks the Director.
"You'll get geared here before leaving. As for your weapons and supplies you might need for the tanks, they have been moved to Whitehead with them. Now get going, I still have a ton of reports to read," he informs Miho, then waves his hand dismissively to have the girls leave.
"Before we leave, will there be any other squads from Blackout with us?" Odysseus asks and the man puts down the report he had just grabbed to answer her.
"No. Most squads have been moved to the North to combat the HTS, though there are a few moving against the enemy force on I-40."
"Thanks," she answers curtly and goes away, with Miho bowing slightly at the man and following the blonde. As the door closes after the girls exit, Odysseus immediately opens her envelope, removing a folded letter from inside and reading it quickly.
"Oh, would you look at that, my squad's going to gain Elite status if we preform exceptionally well during this campaign," Odysseus says with a mild surprise in her face.
"Really? That's great news!" Miho says to her with a smile, stopping briefly from opening her own envelope.
"Thanks!" Odysseus responds with a smile of her own, then waves her letter in front of her. "Too bad this is purely of a symbolic nature and doesn't give us any perks. You know, since we are not under Blackout's jurisdiction anymore."
"But you never know when our status as elite squads will come in handy. We might be an independent branch, but we still are a branch of Blackout," Miho explains at Odysseus, who puts the letter back to the envelope and then inside one of her uniform's pockets.
"I guess..." Odysseus says shrugging slightly with her shoulders, then looking at Miho's envelope. "Anyway, what does your letter say?" she asks with great interest.
"I haven't read it yet," she responds as she opens the envelope and retrieves the letter that's inside of it. But as she reads more and more of it, her face becomes more and more serious.
"Everything okay?" Odysseus asks when she sees Miho's expression changing into a serious, then a thoughtful one.
"Not really. The letter says Blackout has issued another mission for Ether Force."
"And where's the problem?"
"In around four weeks, all available fighting forces from Ether Force will be moved in Busan to help break the city's siege, then be used to strike at strategic locations to cripple the enemy's infrastructure in hopes of weakening them and eventually pushing them out of Korean soil altogether."
"Wait, how in the name of God will twelve tanks turn the tide of a war that is about to end?" Odysseus asks baffled, and Miho looks at her with a face full of reluctance and thoughtfulness.
"They are going to move Kasai and Kōrino too."
"Ah, now it makes sense. Well, let's hope the girls can withstand the horrors of war and not break apart," Odysseus chuckles darkly, a glint of insanity and amusement appearing in her eyes for a moment.
Miho says nothing in response, simply going back to reading the letter again.
I wonder if I can convince the Director to not send them, and instead postpone the plan until me and Odysseus are back... I'll need to get in contact with Yuki and the Director as soon as possible.
As both girls reach the building's front exit, Miho opens the door and-
-breakline-
"Miporin, I am getting a transmission!" Saori says loudly from her seat, bringing Miho out of her thoughts and back to reality. "It's really staticky, though. I'll see if I can clear the signal a little."
"This should do for now," Hana says to Miho as she puts a gauze patch over her wound. Having finished with treating it, Hana closes the first aid kit and passes it to Yukari, who takes it and waits for Saori to finish clearing the signal before she passes it to her.
"Thanks," Miho smiles to Hana, then grabs her headset and puts it on.
"This i...itting to...lable cha..els. I rep...smitting to all available channels, can anyone hear me?"
Hearing the voice, Miho immediately presses a button at the right of her headset and starts talking.
"Odysseus, can you hear me?"
"Miho! Finally, someone has responded!" Odysseus' voice sounds through everyone's headsets, followed by a long sigh of relief. "The damn radio has been acting up all this time and I couldn't come in contact with anyone, not even HQ."
"What's the status of your platoon?" Miho asks, and she hear sounds of small chatter filtering through Odysseus' mic, though they're quiet enough she can't make out what they are saying.
"Fucking gone! Only me and Echo-4 survived the ambush, and we have with us a single Bradley and two M113A3s." Another sigh leaves Odysseus' mouth, this time a frustrated one. "This is exactly why I didn't want to come into a fucking war once again! Just death and destruction waiting for you on every damn corner!" Miho hears her mumbling something in a displeased voice, but before she can ask her what, Odysseus starts talking again. "Anyway, are all of you alright? You nearly got your head blown off by a sniper."
"You saw it?" Miho asks in surprise.
"Yep, both shots. You are lucky that guy missed them. I've seen people getting ripped apart from sniper bullets." Miho senses a chill running through her spine, feeling her wound flaring with pain and causing her to wince slightly.
"Well, one of the bullets did graze me on my shoulder and gave me a gash, but no shrapnel got stuck in it."
"Talk about luck. Oh, right, almost forgot, but Echo-4 contacted the HQ and we were told to link up with Sigma and Hotel platoons, then push toward the hospital and capture it. It seems the enemy is trying to advance through the north to delay our own advance. I really think we are not facing a small reconnaissance force here-."
Suddenly, a loud explosion is heard from coming from Odysseus' side, prompting the blonde girl to start swearing.
"For fuck's sake, not again! Reiji, enemy troops at two o'clock, armed with a launcher! Annabelle, get us-"
As the transmission cuts off, an uneasy silence fills the air, only the sound of the tank's idle engine filling the interior. Everyone has expressions full of concern and worry, even more so Saori who is concerned over Tyler's well-being.
"Well... I-I'm sure they'll be fine. Odysseus is a capable commander and has been in situations like this before," she says to mainly calm down Saori and alleviate some of the atmosphere's intensity. "At any rate, we need to meet with the rest of the Delta platoon at Relic Street; staying here on our own is very dangerous. Mako, go two blocks straight, then make a right turn at the first road you see," Miho orders after grabbing the map that settles on the right of her seat and inspecting it for a few moments.
"Roger," Mako responds and gets the tank moving, while Miho goes back to inspecting the map, glancing at her surroundings through the cupola's vision ports every now and then. But as Mako slowly makes her way at said street and rounds the corner, the girls hear an explosion coming from further down the road, prompting Mako to immediately pull the brakes. A shell flies past them, nearly hitting the right side of the tank's upper hull plate.
"Mako, reverse!" Miho orders and the tank moves back, hiding behind the building's corner before the unknown enemy can fire again.
"That was close..." Mako comments after stopping the tank on Miho's order, having seen the shell flying less than a meter away from her vision port.
"Hana, keep the cannon aimed at the corner of the building. Yukari, get ready to load a shell based on the target," she says and the girls comply, then everyone grows silent for a few moments.
"Hmm... I don't hear any other running engine except from ours. Maybe the enemy is not pursuing?" Miho wonders aloud, doing her best to hear for any other sounds other than the Panzer's engine.
"Or the enemy might be a towed anti-tank?" Yukari suggests, which is another possibility.
"But, aren't towed anti-tank guns considered obsolete in this day and age, and only used as stationary defenses?" Saori asks, remembering what little she had read from a book about modern warfare and its evolution back in Blackout.
"If we were talking about the pre-apocalyptic world, then yeah, you are right," Miho responds. "But considering how things have become after the earthquakes, and the equipment used by the enemy, it wouldn't seem that unlikely to me."
Grabbing the city's map from her side and finding where they are, Miho quickly scans the surrounding area on it, then turns to Mako.
"Mako, reverse the tank until you reach the previous street, then turn on it and go till you almost reach its end."
"Roger," Mako responds and starts reversing. Miho rises through her cupola briefly to close its hatch, since she had forgotten about it because of the whole ambush and her near-death experience. Reaching the previous street, the tank turns right and starts traversing through it slowly, with Mako stopping only a few meters before its end, but still back enough so that the cannon's barrel isn't visible at the directions of the intersecting streets.
"Saori, grab your rifle and come with me. The rest of you, stay on your guard. If we, or you, get in trouble, break radio silence and alert our platoon of our position."
"Hai!"everyone responds and Miho pulls herself out of the tank, carefully descending from its front and down to the ground. Saori exits from her hatch, then grabs an assault rifle that she has somehow squeezed next to her seat and joins Miho. Both of them quickly make their way at the end of the street, backing against the building's corner. While Saori scans the nearby buildings with her assault rifle, Miho carefully peers over the corner.
"That's unexpected," she mutters to herself, as she finds a lone M60A3 in the middle of the next crossroad. The tank is covered in ERA armor, as well it has three horizontal, yellow lines going across the sides of its turret and the emblem of the WCC, which is all the states of America's west coast colored black in a yellow background. She can also see three people, probably crew members of the tank, two that inspect the front part of the tank's suspension, and one that is partially out of the commander's cupola, scanning the surrounding area with a pair of binoculars. All of them are wearing a military uniform and a helmet.
"Is something wrong?" Saori asks and she too peers over the corner. "Wait, aren't these guys allies? Why did they shoot us?" she asks a little bit confused, seeing the tank's markings.
"They might have thought we were enemies; they probably heard the Panzer's engine and pre-aimed at the corner, then fired the moment they saw us.
"So, why are they not moving? Staying in the open like that is very dangerous."
"It seems they have thrown a track," Miho says and points at the tank's track, which, while is fine, has come off the front sprocket wheel and is partially hanging in the air at a weird angle.
"Oh. Ugh, this brings back memories," Saori sighs in displeasure, remembering the hassle they had to go through every time one of their tank's tracks came off. "I feel like my arms are going numb."
Miho simply giggles at that, remembering the first time the girls had to put back a thrown track. It was during practice and it had rained previously, so the ground was muddy. While Miho had done it before during her time in Kuromorimine, and in a Tiger no less, the girls were struggling a lot. In the end, everyone except Miho and Hana were covered from head to toe in mud, thanks to constantly slipping and falling down.
"Come on, let's go back," Miho says to Saori and they both make their way back at the Panzer IV.
"What did you find, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks as Miho enters the tank and sits down on her seat.
"A friendly M60. One of their tracks has come off."
"Then why did they shoot us?" Hana asks.
"They probably heard our engine and thought we were an enemy, so they shot us the moment we came off the corner." Putting on her headset, she turns to Mako. "Mako, get on the intersection and turn left, then go towards the friendly tank. Hana, keep your guard up just in case, but do not engage unless I say otherwise."
"Roger," both girls respond, and as the tank starts slowly moving, Miho partially exits through her cupola. She silently prays that there are no snipers hidden in the nearby buildings, and somewhat feels her legs bending on their own, trying to completely pull her inside the tank. As the Panzer IV exits at the intersection and turns left, Miho sees the two men that are trying to fix the tank's track dump their tools on the road and running at the other side of the metal machine, while the commander dives inside the turret. As the M60A3 starts rotating its turret to aim at them, Miho waves her arm up in the air to indicate she's friendly.
The turret stops rotating and the commander gets back out, saying something at the men that have hid behind the M60A3.
"You sure gave us a scare," the man says loudly as the Panzer stops a few meters away from the MBT. The men that had previously been repairing the track return to their work, picking up their tools and getting on repairing the track as fast as they can. "Sorry for shooting you before, we didn't really know if you were an ally or an enemy. Being stranded in the middle of a crossroad tends to make you a little trigger happy."
"You were the one that told me to fire at will-Ouch!" the gunner shouts from inside the tank and the commander slightly kicks him.
"Anyway, glad you came out of the ambush unscathed, or at least in one piece," he comments, spotting Miho's ripped shirt and gauze patch.
"Yeah, I was lucky both missed my head," Miho says and the man slightly chuckles. "Your name was Miles, right?" she asks hesitantly, kinda remembering his name from the meeting all Delta's commanders had before the start of the mission.
"Ah, so you do remember me!" the man grins at her. "Sergeant Ryan Miles, aka Delta-4, at your service," he salutes her casually. "So, are you free after the mission?"
"Huh?"
"Commander, instead of flirting with her, why don't you come and give us a hand with the repairs?" one of the men trying to fix the track says panting.
"I can't Joe, I need to keep a lookout for potential enemies," Ryan responds and turns back to Miho. "So, what do you say? I know a guy that can get me some authentic scotch from England, really good stuff. A little liquor after a hard mission always helps. Or we can just hang out if drinking isn't your thing."
Miho just stares dumbly at him, having no idea how to respond back. Frankly speaking, she hardly ever had anyone flirt with her, even less so straight-forward as him. Being she had always been going to female-only schools, her experiences in that regard were really lackluster. The closest to flirting she had ever come was a love letter she had found in her locker during her time in Kuromorimine's middle school.
"Ryan, just come and help, or we'll be done with it tomorrow," the second man that is trying to fix the track says, standing up and pointing at Miho. "If you are so adamant about someone looking for potential dangers, then she can do it."
"Fine, fine, you got me there," he says and gets out of the tank completely. "Please keep a lookout for any possible enemies till we repair the damage," he says at Miho, then descends the tank and starts helping with the repairs.
Miho nods and dives back inside the tank to grab her binoculars, but the moment she sits on her seat, she finds four pairs of eyes gazing at her. Looking back at them with her own, confused expression, she silently stares back at them for a few seconds, trying to understand what they expect from her.
"Is something wrong?"
"Well...you see...I might have opened my hatch to let some cool air to enter, since it was getting really hot, and unintentionally might have heard what that man was telling you...ehehehe..." Saori says awkwardly and laughs a little.
"O-Oh, I see," Miho stutters slightly, a tinge of red sneaking on her cheeks, though it's barely noticeable.
"So?" Saori asks expectantly. Miho, although isn't sure, thinks she can see her friend's eyes glittering slightly.
"I-It's kinda sudden, don't you think?" Miho asks Saori rhetorically. "I just met him today at the platoon's meeting."
"Yes, but he is a good-looking and handsome man, not to mention he is clearly interested in you," Saori says quickly.
"I support it if he'll give us lots of cake and sweets," Mako comments with a thumbs up and a sleepy voice, causing everyone to chuckle.
"I'm sorry, Saori, but I'm not interested," Miho responds.
"Oh, that's too bad. What about the rest of you? Have you ever had anyone come and flirt with you or ask you on a date?" Saori asks the rest out of curiosity. In the meantime, Miho grabs her binoculars and partially exits from her cupola, scanning the surrounding buildings and streets for any dangers.
"I had a boy come and ask me out when I was in my second year of junior highschool," Yukari says first, and everyone looks at her with surprise.
"Really? Didn't you say you didn't have that many friends when you were younger?" Saori asks and Yukari nods.
"I didn't really know the boy, only that he was at the same class with me."
"The same class? You were going in a co-ed school before coming to Ooarai?"
"Yes. I came at Ooarai starting the first year of high school. That's when my parents moved their business on the carrier too."
"Oh, wow," Saori says, then returns to the subject. "Anyway, what happened with the boy?"
"I got so surprised and flustered, that I started telling him random facts about the M4 Sherman," Yukari says and chuckles awkwardly, scratching her left cheek in embarrassment. "So he kinda looked at me weirdly, then left."
"That's too bad," Saori says with a sigh, though a gentle smile forms on her face. "But I'm sure you'll do fine next time. How about you, Hana?"
"I always went on female-only schools, so I didn't have that many interactions with boys my age, and my family was really strict when it came to such things," Hana answers and Saori nods.
"What about now?"
"Now?" Hana asks cluelessly.
"Yeah. You know, about Reiji?" Saori says and winks at her. "The guy is really interested in you. Haven't you noticed?"
"I know we have been talking a lot more lately, but I didn't think it was because of something like that." Placing her index finger in her cheek, Hana adopts a thoughtful expression. "Then again, it'd make sense if that was the case, now that I think about it."
"So, you like him?" Saori asks and Hana looks at her.
"Well..."
As the girls keep talking, Miho keeps scanning the surrounding environment with her binoculars. A gentle smile forms on her face as she hears her friends chatting happily, free of any worries, at least for now. Things might have not started well, but she feels everything is going to be fine.
A few kilometers away from Anglerfish Team, north part of the town
Antelope Team
In the empty streets of Whitehead, five vehicles move in a column, two tanks, two APCs, and an AFV.
At the front leading the column is Antelope's black-colored Cerberus tank, sporting various scratches on its paintjob that show the steel's original, metallic grey color. Some of the NERA blocks in the front have been destroyed, while the machine-gun that's in front of the cupola is missing, like something blew it out of its place.
Standing partly out of the cupola, a blonde girl with light purple eyes looks at the buildings around her, trying to find where exactly she is on the map she is holding in front of her.
"Okay, we are still on course," she mutters on herself and marks a road on the map, then dives inside the tank and closes her hatch. Looking at the map one more time, she folds it and looks towards her driver. "Annabelle, keep going straight, and after passing four intersections, turn left and go straight. This should lead us straight at the hospital's parking lot."
"Copy that," Annabelle responds.
"Hah... I just hope we don't pass through another ambush point. With how shitty the damn APS is, I don't think we'll make it out alive if they have rockets," Odysseus sighs, gently massaging her forehead.
"I'm pretty sure we are not dealing with a small reconnaissance force here. Their troops are just too many to match up with the scout reports we got a glance at the temporary HQ," the loader says, looking at the ammorack on his right and mentally counting the shells in it.
"They probably came from other roads to avoid detection. After all, the idiots that command this army posted sentries only at the end of the town to overlook the enemy's advance on I-10," Odysseus answers back. "We'd probably have heard a bit more if we were in time for the briefing, Tyler..." she says with a miffed expression, "but nooooo, you had to take your sweet time with Saori... both yesterday and today..."
"Look, I'm sorry for "delaying" us all today, but can you stop this? Every time I talk to you, you bring this up and it has started becoming more than annoying. I don't know why you've been acting like a spoiled brat since you woke up, but even I have my limits," Tyler says with a serious expression.
"Knock it off you two, will ya?" Annabelle says loudly from her seat before Odysseus can retort. "Odysseus, what Tyler did with Saori is none of our business, alright? So stop bringing it up every time you speak with him and let him be."
"Fine, fine, whatever," Odysseus murmurs and starts looking outside her cupola's vision ports to take her mind off her aching abdomen that doesn't seem to want to leave her alone.
"And Tyler, be more lenient with her. You know this time of the month is difficult for her," Annabelle continues and Tyler sighs in response.
"Fine, I'll be more lenient with her," Tyler responds, going back at counting the remaining shells in the ammorack, before a question pops in his mind. "Say, what will happen with the ambush point? It's not like we cleared it from enemies, we simply passed through it as fast as we could."
"HQ has marked the location for artillery barrage and have also sent a few cleaning squads to mop up what will remain of the enemy. The same goes for the previous ambush point," Odysseus says, still looking outside of her cupola.
"But won't the enemy change locations? If I'm not wrong, you said earlier that the artillery batteries hadn't been set up yet," the gunner asks, and Odysseus points at him with her left hand without looking at him.
"Exactly, Reiji," she responds and Reiji looks back at her confused.
"So, there's no point in this. They'll just expend ammunition to hit enemies that'll be long gone."
"Aha, no point at all. You see, Reiji, when you are high and mighty and you are sitting on a chair inside some green tent X amount of kilometers away from the frontlines, you tend to forget the small details of the "big picture" you are looking at. The only thing you can see are wooden pieces on a map, a few painted arrows, and numbers on a piece of paper," Odysseus answers with a slight anger, remembering some of the impossible tasks her unit had been given back at the Third Balkan War. "In the end, we are nothing but disposable pawns," she whispers quietly, balling her right hand into a fist.
"Is that why you hate any form of military hierarchy?" Tyler asks out of curiosity, but then adds one more thing. "Except for your past, of course."
"I just never liked those guys. Sitting behind a desk back at their home, signing papers and sending people to die, like they are some sort of sacrificial lambs. And when said war that they have been "fighting" ends, they just hoard all the glory and medals, praised for their exemplary performance and iron will, while the simple soldier will get nothing and be forgotten, no reward for the hell he had to go through." Every word she utters is as cold as the Siberian wilderness, sending chills in everyone's spines. "I've seen what this hierarchy can do to people, how they, who are above, abuse its power to do whatever they want with those that are below." A few unpleasant memories from her time at the Reaper Program surface in Odysseus' mind, and her eyes start changing color, a small, hazy, blue fire appearing from the left one. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to calm down, she looks down at Tyler with a neutral expression. "But that's just my own biased opinion anyway. And the reason why I hate anything that gives people power over someone that much."
"Uhm...okay...thanks, I guess?" Tyler says uncertain, having heard more than what he thought his commander would answer to his question.
"By the way, can I ask you something Reiji?" Odysseus asks her gunner, who glances at her for a moment and nods, before going back at looking through the gunner's sight to scan for any enemies.
"What is it?" Reiji asks.
"Do you know why Hana has been giving me uneasy gazes the past two days?" she asks, and Reiji hesitates to answer for a few seconds. Although Odysseus knows the reason why Hana has been acting so reserved when around her, she still wants to hear it from Reiji himself.
"I told her you killed Mizuki."
Silence falls inside the tank, only its running engine and its treads making any noise.
"Well, I guess they'd find out sooner or later," Odysseus sighs, spacing out for a moment.
"We have been over this too many times to count, it wasn't her fault, Reiji. She couldn't have done anything else," Annabelle says as she turns the tank at the intersection Odysseus had told her.
"But that doesn't change the fact I killed her. Maybe if I had done something differently... maybe she would have been still with us," Odysseus says in a bitter voice.
"The past is the past. We cannot change it however much we try," Reiji says slowly, a hint of sadness in his voice. "And while I'll never forgive you for Mizuki, even I awknowledge that she couldn't be saved at that point. And if things had played different, yes she'd most likely be alive... but we wouldn't."
"Even if you say that, it still won't make me feel any better."
"It wasn't meant to."
"Anyway, do we even know what forces the enemy has on the hospital?" Annabelle asks to change the subject, and Odysseus ducks a little to look at her.
"Nope, HQ didn't say. I guess we'll learn when we get there," Odysseus responds.
"They'll surely have infantry. Maybe a few AFVs and IFVs too?" Tyler says and Odysseus shrugs.
"Most likely. Even if they are a small reconnaissance force - which they aren't - they should have at least transports for their troops."
Suddenly the radio statics and a voice bleeds through Odysseus' wireless headset.
"Echo squad, this is Sigma Leader, do you copy? "
"This is Echo-5, I hear you loud and clear, Sigma Leader," Odysseus responds on her headset's microphone.
"What's your current status?"
"Me and Echo-4 are approaching the hospital from south, ETA about five to seven minutes. We have with us a single Bradley and two APCs," Odysseus responds, looking through her cupola's vision ports at the hospital building that stands in the distance.
"Copy that, Echo-5. Intelligence show that the enemy is moving reinforcements at the hospital as we speak, so it is imperative that we retake it ASAP," Sigma Leader says.
"Do you know the enemy's strength?" Odysseus asks.
"Several infantry squads inside the hospital, equipped with rocket launchers and machine-guns. There are also a few AFVs, probably the transports for the troops."
"Shit..." Odysseus murmurs to herself, hoping the enemy won't have that many rocket launchers.
"Because of this, we'll begin the attack now to draw most enemy fire on us. Use this chance to unload your troops and assault the hospital and kill any enemies occupying it."
"Copy that, Sigma Leader," Odysseus says but the man at the other end of the transmission adds one more thing.
"HQ also ordered us to minimize damage to the hospital, since most of the patients weren't evacuated during the town's evacuation."
"You know that's impossible, right?" Odysseus asks on the radio but gets no answer.
"What happened?" Tyler asks as Odysseus switches frequencies to contact the vehicles that are with her.
"Guy told me that Command ordered us to keep the damage to the hospital to minimum, since it wasn't properly evacuated. What frequency did I give the guys?"
"Isn't that normal to do?" Annabelle asks with a raised eyebrow, and Odysseus is quick to respond.
"Not when there is a good chance we won't get out of the fight alive." Remembering the frequency she had given the other commanders in her armored column, she switches to it. "The enemy has dug in the hospital, their weaponry consists of LMGs and rocket launchers, and they have AFV support."
"But we can't just fire directly in the building and kill civilians," Annabelle retorts. Sounds of gunfire and explosions start sounding in the hospital's direction, signing the start of the attack.
Pressing a button on her headset, Odysseus starts talking to the other vehicle commanders.
"To all column elements, this is Echo-5. We just got into contact with Sigma-Leader. Long story short, we need to take the hospital before the enemy brings reinforcements and fortify this place. We'll be coming from the south side of the hospital, which means we'll be exiting to its parking lot, a perfect place to set up a killzone. Because of that, me and Echo-4 will enter first, while..."
While Odysseus explains everything at the other commanders, Reiji keeps scanning the big hospital in the distance, a white building with four floors (if we take into account the ground floor). In each floor, there are several small balconies, while in front of the building is a huge parking lot, littered with various types of abandoned vehicles.
"This is not good..." Reiji mutters as he keeps scanning the building, finding more and more enemies waiting for them. Several enemy soldiers are placed on the rooftop of the hospital, while machine-guns have been set up in the small balconies, and half a dozen AFVs and APCs are in the parking lot, their autocannons and machine-guns aiming towards them.
"Hey, Odysseus, I think they are expecting us," Reiji says at his commander.
"...so do not unload any infantry until I say so," Odysseus instructs at the radio, then looks through her cupola. "The hell? Wasn't Sigma's attack supposed to draw most of the enemies away from this side?" Odysseus asks rhetorically, then turns at Reiji. "Target the Bradleys first and leave the M113s for last. Also, if you see any infantry with a rocket launcher, gun them down with the coaxial. Annabelle, reduce speed and let Reiji aim for the Bradleys."
"Copy that," both Reiji and Annabelle respond. As the tank starts bleeding speed, Reiji aims the cannon at one of the Bradleys. "On the way."
Firing the cannon, the shell takes less than a second to make contact with the AFV, piercing right through its turret ring and killing both the commander and the gunner.
"Target hit, but still operational," Reiji announces, trying to re-acquire the wounded Bradley, but it pulls back in cover before he can fire.
"Up!" Tyler shouts as he throws in the gun breech another APFSDS shell.
"Ammo count?" Odysseus asks as she watches through the cupola the space in front of her litting up with 25mm tracer rounds, lights red and green hitting the road in front of her and her tank's armor. "Ugh, I really wish we had composite armor..."
"Ten APFSDS, ten HE-F, and nine HEAT-FS," Tyler answers back, picking another 130mm shell and waiting for Reiji to fire. "Even if I lift these things a thousand times, they still don't get any lighter."
Firing again, Reiji nails yet another Bradley, this time piercing through the angled front and hitting its ammunition belts and detonating them, causing its turret to fly off the hull and plunge into the ground. Echo 4's tank starts advancing next to the Cerberus, matching its speed to Blackout's MBT and firing its gun, hitting one of the enemy M113s. The last operational Bradley bears its sights on Echo-4, and a rectangular box that has two holes starts moving at the left side of the Bradley's turret, leveling parallel to the ground.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Odysseus says with slightly widened eyes, seeing a TOW missile leaving the missile launcher of the Bradley and moving towards Echo-4, striking it dead center on its upper glacis, penetrating and killing all the crew instantly. As Echo-4's tank slows to a halt, already smoking heavily, Reiji acquires the last Bradley and fires, scoring yet another kill as the shell penetrates and kills all the crew.
"For fuck's sake, not Echo-4 too!" Odysseus complains as she momentarily looks at the M60A3, a sizeable hole in its upper glacis from where black smoke exits.
"The APCs are moving out," Reiji informs Odysseus as he sees the enemy M113s turning around and leaving the hospital grounds towards safety. The wounded Bradley that Reiji had hit at the start of the engagement tries to make a run for it too, but the friendly Bradley, which is now positioned behind and to the right of Odysseus' tank fires its autocannon, scoring several hits and killing the surviving crew member.
"Let them be, we have other concerns right now," Odysseus says, looking at the plethora of guns and rockets aimed at them.
Beep-Beep-Beep
The lock-on alarm starts beeping, and from the hospital's rooftop a Javelin missile gets launched, soaring through the sky towards the Cerberus.
"Javelin incoming! Annabelle, floor it!" Odysseus orders and Annabelle does just that, the tank accelerating suddenly. As the missile reaches above the tank, it turns to dive straight for the turret. Reaching around 2 meters away from it, the missile suddenly swerves to its right and barely misses the tank, hitting the ground next to it and exploding.
"Jesus Christ, that was a close one!" Odysseus almost shouts as the tank slightly shakes from the explosion. "Thank the gods the Soft-Kill APS we have decided to work!"
Ping-Ping-Ping-Ping
Exiting from the road they are currently in and into the hospital's parking lot, a hail of bullets and rounds starts showering them, bouncing off of their armor, sparking with every hit.
"Reiji, start hitting them with the coaxial!" Odysseus orders as the gunners of the M113s open fire with their .50 cal machine-guns, always staying behind Odysseus' tank and the friendly Bradley. The sounds of explosions and gunfire that could be heard from the other side of the hospital previously have gone silent, which greatly worried Odysseus, though she has no time to think about it. "Prioritize any targets with AT capabilities!"
Reiji starts firing his coaxial at the balconies of the first floor, hitting several enemies and suppressing a bunch more. But for every one that gets killed, two more pop out, and things start getting more hectic with each passing second.
"Echo-5, we should retreat immediately! I'm unable to contact anyone from Sigma or Hotel platoons, and the enemy's numbers keep rising!" one of the M113s' commanders contacts Odysseus, more specifically the one that is hiding behind her tank.
"Good luck doing that when you have a dozen missiles and rockets aimed at you! Our only chance at surviving is killing enough of those guys, then unloading infantry to clear the hospital!" Odysseus shouts back as several rockets strike the ground around her tank and the nearby abandoned vehicles. "Hey, Reiji, can't you hit more accurately? You are missing most of your shots and not that many enemies get suppressed by them."
"Want to try aiming the coaxial when the tank is moving so erratically?" Reiji mutters, letting a short burst at one of the second floor balconies, the bullets striking the concrete and chipping away small chunks of it.
"Hey, want to try driving a tank through a lot full of abandoned cars while evading enemy rockets!?" Annabelle shouts from her seat, moving this and that way to avoid crushing any vehicles and lose speed.
"Echo-5, this is Sigma Leader, do you copy?" suddenly Sigma Leader's voice is heard through Odysseus' headset, which causes her to look away from her cupola's vision ports for a second.
"Where the fuck are you, Sigma!? We are getting hammered over here!" she yells at her microphone, and the man at the other end of the line cringes from the sudden volume change.
"We've retreated it from the hospit-"
"You did what!? Then why the fuck are we still trying to capture it!?" Odysseus cuts off Sigma before he can finish his sentence, yelling at him as loudly as possible.
"I was trying to contact you the moment HQ decided to order the pause of the attack to regroup, but we couldn't find a connection!" Sigma shouts back the same as Odysseus, and the blonde girl falls silent. "You are lucky we stumbled on the frequency you and the other vehicles with you use, or we would have left you there for dead." Sighing loudly, Sigma takes a moment to recollect himself and continues talking. "Command also tried contacting you and they couldn't get through, but that hardly matters now. Listen, Hotel platoon will try to attack the enemy from the north again, while we are coming to reinforce you, ETA five minutes." The transmission cuts off and Odysseus turns to look first through her cupola, then back at her crew.
"Everything alright?" Tyler asks, holding no shell on his hands since Reiji is firing only the coaxial.
"Sigma and Hotel retreated due to heavy enemy presence, they have regrouped and will attack again, with Sigma platoon reinforcing us," the blonde responds, then presses her headset's button to talk. "Listen everyone, we'll be getting reinforcements in five minutes, so hang on!"
"We won't be able to last five minutes!" one of the M113 commanders shouts, the sounds of explosions and bullets filtering through his microphone. "I've already lost my machine-gun gunner, we are sitting ducks here!"
A rocket hits Odysseus' tank square at the front of the turret, thankfully getting neutralized by the NERA blocks, but causing the vehicle to shake violently.
"That's why I'm lifting the restriction on weapons! Use everything you've got to kill the enemy!" she announces and silence falls across the line.
"But-!" the M113 commander tries to retort, only to get cut by Odysseus.
"I'll take responsibility for it, so unless you want these grounds to be your resting place, I suggest you follow my orders! Hit the hospital with everything you've got!" Not waiting for the commander to respond, Odysseus cuts the transmission and turns to Reiji, then to Tyler. "Reiji, start using the cannon, target any soldier with a rocket launcher! Tyler, you load HE-F. If we run out of them, use HEAT!" she orders and everyone looks at her.
"What!? You'll kill innocent people!" Annabelle immediately objects her orders, but because she takes her attention away from driving, she crashes on an SUV, the tank shaking violently again and almost stopping, the treads slowly eating and crushing under them the civilian vehicle. Seeing this chance, several enemy soldiers peek over the short wall that surrounds the edge of the rooftop of the hospital, aiming their guns and rocket launchers at the almost immobilized steel beast.
Boom-Boom-Boom
The Bradley's 25mm autocannon starts firing, showering the hospital's wall with HE-F shells, either suppressing the enemy combatants or killing them outright.
"... Awknowledged," Reiji responds as another rocket hits the remaining NERA blocks on the turret's front. Another rocket and they'll be done for.
"Dude, are you sure about this?" Tyler asks, not really wanting to do this but picking a HE-F shell to load into the breech nonetheless.
"We have no other choice..." Reiji says uneasily, aiming the cannon at a soldier who holds a LAW rocket launcher, aiming at them from a balcony at the third floor. "Orders are orders..."
"Wait, Reiji, don't do it!" Annabelle yells, stopping the tank from moving due to her panic.
Hesitating for a moment, Reiji finally presses the trigger and the APFSDS shell that was in the breech from before gets fired, passing through the balcony's concrete and hitting the soldier in the abdomen, cutting him in half with such strength that the halves get blown back, slapping against the balcony windows, while the shell passes through them too and enters the patient room, getting lodged in the ceiling.
"What have you done!? You might have killed one of the patients!" Annabelle shouts at Odysseus in anger. The Bradley keeps using its autocannon, even stopping to fire its two ATGMs at the building in an attempt to suppress and kill as many soldiers as possible, while the two APCs keep hiding behind the better armored vehicles to minimize the chances of getting hit.
"I don't care if I have to level the entire hospital to survive, Annabelle, I'm not putting a bunch of strangers' lives over my own!" Odysseus shouts back at her driver, then turns to her gunner. "Reiji, keep firing!"
"No!" Annabelle shouts and puts the tank on reverse. But in her attempt to throw Reiji's aim off, she unwillingly uses as much acceleration as possible, and the tank veers off slightly to the right, hitting the M113 that was hiding behind them at its right side, stunning its driver and causing it to spin clockwise enough so that its left side faces the hospital, while the Cerberus stops with its right side facing the hospital.
"The fuck are you doing, Annabelle!?" Odysseus asks incredulously her driver, just before hearing an explosion near them.
Boom!
Looking through her cupola, she finds the hit M113 in flames, black smoke and fire consuming it greedily. A hatch opens from its top and out comes a flaming figure, which drags itself out of the burning coffin, before falling off its right side. Odysseus slowly widens her eyes, a furious expression settling on her face. Her hearing goes out and gets replaced by a soft ringing, completely canceling her crew members' shouts, as well as the confused voices over the radio asking what the hell just happened. But despite this, it's as if she can clearly hear the burning man's screams of pain and agony, sending shivers down her spine. Like back that wretched day, when she lost everything. Opening her hatch violently, Odysseus climbs out of the tank, as its turret starts turning to face the hospital, jumping off the turret's left side and onto the hull, next to the driver's hatch. A few bullets fly close to her, but she gives it no heed as she opens the hatch and looks down at Annabelle.
"Eh!?" Annabelle yelps at first, fearing an enemy had somehow managed to sneak in the tank, but as she sees her blonde friend, an expression of incredulousness morphs in her face. "Wh-What are you doi-eeehhhh!?" she starts saying but gets cut off by Odysseus as the blonde grabs the back of her uniform's collar and pulls her out of her seat, then throws her off the hull's edge.
Ping-ping-ping
Several bullets hit the hull's roof and bounce off of it, so Odysseus dives off the hull's edge too to take cover.
"Are you out of your mind!? What was all of this about!?" Annabelle shouts at Odysseus with a painful expression, rubbing her left shoulder with which she landed on the hard asphalt of the parking lot. Odysseus simply grabs Annabelle from the collar of her shirt and pushes her back, causing her to hit her head at one of the suspension's wheels. Thankfully the helmet she had been wearing takes most of the hit's force, though it still makes her get disoriented.
"Reiji, throw everything we've got at the hospital and don't stop until its whole side is nothing but rubble!" Odysseus yells at her microphone, then turns back at her driver. "As for you," grabbing the disoriented Annabelle from her collar's uniform once again, this time she yanks her closer to her face, looking at the redhead with eyes full of anger. "That should be my line! Who the fuck told you to reverse!?"
"You would have killed civilians!" Annabelle shouts back at the blonde, then turns as soon as she hears the 130mm cannon firing. A great explosion consumes one of the rooms on the second floor, throwing chunks of concrete and pieces of metal rods everywhere, along with a mutilated body.
"Are you fucking serious right now!?"
"Echo-5, this is Sigma Leader. We are entering hospital grounds right behind you, check for friendly fire."
"This is Hotel Leader, we have arrived at the hospital through the north. We have no enemies in sight, proceeding to unload infantry."
Looking back at the street from where they had come, Odysseus sees four M60A3s exiting from it, followed by a Stryker, a Bradley, and two M113s. As the tanks spread in the parking lot and start firing their machine-guns at the hospital, the AFVs and APCs unload their troops, with soldiers disembarking and taking cover behind the abandoned cars or the tanks.
"The enemy seems to be retreating," Reiji says on the radio, noticing that the enemy is starting to withdraw from the rooftop and balconies, trying to make their way towards the west side of the hospital to retreat towards a safer area. Two of the M60 tanks turn and make their way towards the west side, followed by a Bradley and two infantry squads. The rest of the squads enter the hospital to help clear it of any enemies, while the tanks set a defensive perimeter at the parking lot.
Standing up and dusting herself a little, Odysseus grabs Annabelle by her hand and drags her a few meters away from their tank.
"Hey, what are you-!?" Annabelle tries to protest, but Odysseus pulls her with as much strength as she can put on her right arm, causing the redhead to lose her footing and fall on the ground face down. "Ouch! What has gott-" As Annabelle tries to stand up, she unconsciously lifts her head and finds herself face to face with the charred body of the man that had exited the flaming M113.
"A-Ah..." Annabelle manages to utter at first, her body freezing from shock and her eyes widening as much as possible.
"A-Ah... Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" she finally screams as panic overcomes her shock. Trying to push herself away from this horrific sight, she feels something weighing down on her back. Snapping her head back and up, she sees Odysseus pressing her right boot right against her, her face projecting a furious expression. "E-Elpida, let me go! Let me go, please!" Annabelle pleads, but Odysseus just puts more pressure on her foot, keeping her driver pinned down, even leaning forward a little. Sounds of gunfire start echoing throughout the hospital, but they do little to drown out Annabelle's screams and Odysseus' yelling.
"You want to play the fucking hero!? You want to protect the weak and powerless in this godforsaken place!? Then be my guest!" Naturally, all this screaming and yelling attracts the attention of the nearby tank commanders, who turn to look at what's going on. Even Reiji and Tyler get out of the tank to look at what's happening. "But do it without killing others in their place! Your retarded little stunt just cost the lives of almost a dozen men!" Pointing at the charred corpse, Annabelle doesn't know whether to scream in horror or stay silent in shock as she finally understands why Odysseus was so mad at her. Releasing a soft moan of despair, her eyes start watering, tears after tears pouring from them. "I-I..." she stutters, trying to form a sentence but no words come out from her mouth, like they've gotten stuck in her throat.
"You what, Annabelle!? Are you sorry for what you did? Are you sorry your damn naivety killed them!? Take a good look at him, Annabelle! Look at what you have done! This is all because of you!" Odysseus shouts and points at the black corpse, then at the burned APC which still smokes heavily, and it seems to snap something at the shaken girl.
"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean for this to happen! I didn't want this to happen!" Annabelle shrieks at the top of her lungs.
"Hey, what the fuck are you doing!?" Tyler shouts at Odysseus as he and Reiji get down from the tank, quickly running towards them. Lifting her foot from the redhead, Annabelle sits up and crawls a meter or two backwards as fast as she can. Pulling her knees close to her chest and hugging them, Annabelle puts her face in the space between her knees and chest, quietly crying to herself.
"Why did you do this to her!?" Tyler confronts Odysseus while Reiji kneels besides Annabelle to check on her.
"Hey, are you alright?" Reiji asks softly, but all he gets back as an answer is Annabelle mumbling "I'm sorry" again and again to herself and sniffing.
"Because her little stunt, Tyler, killed people," Odysseus says in an angry calm voice, frowning at her gunner.
"Even if that's the case, you've gone too far! What you did to her was unacceptable!" Tyler retorts, the anger bubbling inside him visible in his voice. Not bothering to answer, Odysseus shoves him to the side with her hand and walks towards Annabelle. Stopping in front of her, she glances at Reiji for a moment, before kneeling in front of the redhead.
"Annabelle, look at me."
Hearing Odysseus' voice, Annabelle unconsciously yelps in fright, her body stiffening and shaking violently, but making no effort to raise her head whatsoever.
"Annabelle," Odysseus says again in her frighteningly calm voice, which causes the redhead to start shaking even more, though she does raise her head to look at Odysseus. Odysseus remains silent for a moment, gazing at her friend's scared expression, like she is looking at some kind of predator who's ready to kill her. "Annabelle, listen closely. Next time you don't follow my orders and do whatever you want, I'll have you out of the team and sent back to Japan. Am I understood?" Annabelle nods shakily with quivering eyes, and Odysseus stands up. "Good. Now go back to the tank, we might need to move out. This goes for you two as well," she says quietly looking at her crew. While Reiji helps Annabelle to stand up and go back to the tank, Tyler approaches the blonde.
"After all the commotion you caused, you just expect us to do as you say? You've got a few questions to-"
"Now, Tyler. I wasn't asking you, I was ordering you. If you want answers, just ask me later." With a gaze that could erase you from the face of the earth instantly, Odysseus looks at her loader, being in no mood for answering questions. Tyler instantly falls silent, every hair on his body standing up.
"Fine," Tyler says, then goes back to the tank. Turning around, Odysseus simply looks at the ground, lowering her headset so that it hangs from her neck and furiously scratching her head with her right hand.
"Yeah, that's right Elpida, just go and bellow in her face like the retarded bitch you are," Odysseus mutters to herself in frustration, stopping her scratching and grabbing a lock of her blonde hair, then playing with it by wrapping and unwrapping it around her index finger. The gunfire coming from inside the hospital starts to lessen as the infantry keeps cleaning it from any enemy forces still inside it, and a few more gunshots later, they seize altogether. "Sigh. I guess Black was right, it seems I do love yelling at people when they screw up." Looking back at the hospital, she can now only see a white wall full of holes of various sizes, destroyed balconies, and mangled bodies and blood everywhere. "Well, it was either them, or us."
"Excuse me, are you Miss Papaioannou?"
Turning her head around to the one who called her, she finds a man dressed in a tanker's uniform approaching her, stopping around half a meter away from her.
"Who the fuck are you?" Odysseus says with an irritated tone, and the man looks at her for a few seconds, not expecting a not-so-nice greeting from such a young girl. "Are you going to answer me or not?"
"Ahem. I'm 1st Lieutenant Riley Scott, leader of Sigma platoon," the man introduces himself, but Odysseus hardly seems to care.
"So? Is there something you want from me? I want to stay alone for a little bit," Odysseus says to the man with no interest at all.
"If I remember correctly, Command ordered us to keep the damage to the hospital," he gestures at it,"to a minimum, so imagine my surprise when I see the whole south side full of holes made from a high caliber cannon and a 25mm autocannon."
"Ah, so that's what you wanted to tell me?" Odysseus asks with a raised eyebrow. "Well, if there are any civilian casualties, just file them as collateral and everything should be fine." Turning around, Odysseus starts walking towards her tank to see how Annabelle is doing, and try to salvage her horrendous attempt at reprimanding the redhead about what she did.
"Hey, I'm not done talking to you!" the man says loudly to the blonde. "Just because you are not from this country, or because you work as a mercenary for Blackout doesn't mean you can do as you like and endanger the lives of innocents." Stopping for a moment, Odysseus turns her head enough to look at the man from the corner of her left eye.
"Then you should have came earlier. If I hadn't ordered my gunner and the Bradley to use our main armaments, we'd probably be smoking wrecks with charred corpses inside, like this M113. Just count how many mutilated bodies there are in the parking lot just in front of the hospital and you'll understand what force the enemy had. Now, if you'd like to keep evading a bunch of rockets with a tank to save a bunch of sick people, that's your choice."
Seeing as the man has no answer, she turns around to walk away, but Riley quickly walks behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"That doesn't mean you can simply disregard your orders and do-"
Before he can finish his sentence, Odysseus turns around and uppercuts him out of nowhere. While the punch isn't strong enough to push him off his feet, it packs enough strength to make him stagger back a few steps.
"DON'T touch me. Only my friends and Annabelle can do that," she seethe quietly, killing intent leaking all around her, though this aura of death that surrounds her quickly subsides as she goes away.
As Riley rubs his chin, slightly cringing from the sudden pain, a private quickly approaches him.
"Lieutenant!" he says, standing at attention in front of the man and saluting.
"What is it, Private?" Riley asks, looking at Odysseus's form with a displeasing expression.
"Uhm... The platoon commanders are gathering in the hospital's reception to decide what to do next, and asked me to inform you," the private informs Riley.
"The hospital has been cleared already?" Riley asks in surprise and the private nods.
"Yes. It seems most of the enemies retreated before we could cut them off, and the ones that remained were too outnumbered to put up any meaningful resistance."
"I see. Then let's get going." Walking together with the private, Riley makes his way to the south entrance of the hospital.
"By the way, sir, can I ask you a question?" the private asks, and Riley turns to look at him.
"What is it, Private?" Riley asks, but the private hesitates a little.
"That blonde girl, who is she?"
"Why, are you interested in her?" Riley releases a quite chuckle. "Don't bother with her, she isn't worth the trouble."
"No, it's not because I'm interested in her, sir. It's just that I saw her crying. Did she lose someone from her crew?"
Riley looks at the private with a questioning expression. That girl, crying? The one who minutes ago was pushing her driver's face to a charred corpse and yelling at her? Riley just snorts and shakes his head with a slight smirk.
"That's impossible, Private. Monsters like her don't have emotions."
A/N: No, the story hasn't been abandoned. It's just that university took a lot of my time in the form of assignments. Plus I started a new Kancolle fanfic. Anyway, I hope the wait of over two months was worth it. As always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!