Two of Pepperoni's girls, Tortellini and Risotto, scuttled through the short trench the United Nations soldiers had dug out across the street in front of the hospital. They climbed over soldiers who were resting in the trench along their way. At the end of the trench was the door into a building, but since the trench was down in the ground one would normally be required to climb up out of the trench to enter. However, the soldiers had busted out the bottom of the doorway, making a ramp up into the building instead.

They stood up once they were inside the building, taking a quick moment to stretch. Risotto finished first and headed for the door opposite where they'd entered. Technically, she was still open to the enemy guns on the other side of the building, but if she stuck to the wall they wouldn't be able to see her without running out of their own cover. Tortellini followed her closely, punching her shoulder.

"Hey, fuck off. Or I'll tell Ciabatta you're being mean again. You'll make her cry."

"You'll make her cry. If you tell her, it's your fault."

They made their way down the street, hugging the buildings, until they could turn back to the main street through an alleyway. They came out behind a barricade, where two UN soldiers greeted them cheerfully. None of the men in the town were happy about the idea of young girls being sent to war, but on the other hand they were glad for something pleasant to look at. It didn't help matters that most of the Anzio girls were naturally quite flirtatious, but the commanders seemed willing to let it go so long as nothing developed.

Running back to where the Carro Veloces were parked, out of sight to the enemy holed up in the hospital, Risotto and Tortellini skidded to a halt in front of Captain Toscano and their own Lieutenant. Pepperoni smiled at how quickly they'd completed their mission.

"Report."

Risotto started. "The trench is a good depth, and it would be too wide to just drive across, but there's a bit of a lip. Dirt piled up from when it was dug out. Using that, I bet we could jump it easily."

Tortellini added her own observations. "We talked to some of the men in the tower on the South side of the street. They showed us the South wall of the hospital. It's mostly collapsed, but there's a reliable way in and out. If we can get there, we could storm the building without much risk, or just plug the hole with a CV-33. We might even be able to drive one in there."

"I also caught a glimpse of one of the men taking a pee. Full Italian."

The Captain frowned. "I don't think that-"

Pepperoni interrupted him. "Good work. Captain, is there a place we can go to iron out the details?"

"Right, follow me." He led her over to the half-collapsed building that was being used as their base of operations. There appeared to be little question as to its structural integrity. Only one half had collapsed, and they were going to be in the other half. "This should be good enough. It worked fine until it was shelled."

Pepperoni looked around the room. She could see blood on the floor down the hall through the door at the back of the room. "Do they have something like that stored away in the hospital? How'd they manage to shell you?"

"I'll be honest, we're still not sure where the shot came from. Most likely somewhere Southwest of here, but there's no way to know for sure right now."

"I hate to think they could fire again at any time." She shook her head. "Okay, so I'm thinking we attack after dark. That's just me, though. What do you prefer?"

Toscano sat down in a chair in the far corner. He let out a long sigh. "If you're going for the South side of the hospital, we're going to need to distract them on the other side. My men are exhausted, so I'd be glad for you to lend some of yours. How many do you need on your end?"

She cocked her head to the side. "Hmm. Considering what I'm doing… I just need one of the CV-33's in order to accomplish that goal, really. I'll put Ravioli on it. The rest of us will support your men."

He let show a small smile. "I'll admit that, at the point we'd reached, I'd have been glad for a cheerleader team. Getting you girls is short of a miracle."

"We aim to please, sir. Will that be all?"

"Um, well, I know you just got here, but I don't want you to feel like you can't report when my men act inappropriately. I've heard rumors about what's going on with your schools. I know none of you had a choice about coming here, so I at least think my men should be more considerate than what we heard about back there."

Pepperoni smirked. It was really Colonel Victoria who was being considerate. She sent them to support a unit comprised of Italian soldiers. They could all communicate better in Italian than English, let alone Japanese. "Sir, we come from an all girls school. One that borderline glorifies Italian culture at that. The amount of imported contraband pornography… It'd probably do them some good to see a three-dimensional penis for once."

"I hardly think that's a required part of being in the military. I'd prefer we try to avoid it."

"That's fair." She winked at him. "At least until after we've driven out our enemy."

"…" He stood up. "About that. I get that your training was probably accelerated. It might be better that you stay back and we handle it. You can give us supporting fire from the trenches and the tower while we make the charge."

"I appreciate the courtesy, sir, but… you know, we brought tanks."

"I'm not sure if those really count."

"Tankettes. My point is, we have mobile armor, we know how to use it."

"I hope you're right."

"Everyone, arm up. We're running support." Pepperoni watched as her girls quickly armed themselves and stood in formation in front of the CV-33's, waiting for her orders. "Good. Cannoli, Fettuccine, Tiramisu, Spaghetti, Margherita, and Panini. I want you all in the trench. Tortellini, Ciabatta, Lasagna, and Mozzarella, I want you in the buildings on the North side helping the captain's men draw as much fire that way. Risotto and Gnocchi, I want you in that tower on the South side. Let us know the instant we're in the clear to go."

"Yes ma'am!" They all rushed off to find their places according to her orders.

Pepperoni nodded to Amaretto. "We get the fun job." She turned to the last pair. "There appears to be a hole on the South wall of the hospital. Amaretto and I will be escorting you on foot, while the two of you will jump the trench and drive right up into the building. You ready?"

The driver nodded dutifully. "Yes ma'am."

The commander of the pair, Ravioli, took a deep breath. "Ma'am… we won't let you down." She was clearly more pensive than her driver, but she was clearly determined enough to do her job.

"Good. Rest here until dark. I'm going to check out the trench while we have time."

Ravioli watched the lieutenant leave, then turned to the two drivers. "I think it goes without saying, but I'm really not ready to die here."

Amaretto gave her a wide grin. "Go find a priest. Or, you could spend your time getting ready to kill instead. Might serve you better."

Ravioli frowned. "I…" She looked to her own driver. "Salami, what about you? You're scared, right?"

"I have an incendiary grenade. I'm not afraid of anything."

"Right, well, if you're going to use that… make sure you're only speaking for yourself, alright?"

"If I'm using it, you're probably already dead." Salami turned around and climbed into their CV-33. "I'm going to get some rest before it's time to move. Wake me when it's dark."

It was several hours before dark fell. Pepperoni was crouched down, running through the trench, and looking over the edge toward the hospital every few meters. It wasn't the hopelessly dark night she'd been expecting. All the town's lights had been cut, streetlights and building lights, but there were low lights set into the bottom of the trench that gave off a small warm glow. None of that really made a difference to her, as the entire place was still practically bright as day.

Not literally bright as day, but stealth was utterly out of the question if this was as dark as it got. "Shit. This is not gonna work." She popped her head up, getting a clear look at the hospital. Normally, she wouldn't see anything but what looked like an empty building, but this time she saw movement. She quickly ducked back down and grabbed her radio. "Captain, I'm seeing movement in the hospital."

"Really?" He sounded surprised, but continued anyway. "I'll say the mission is a go. We'll start the diversion in five minutes to give you time to get out of that trench, Lieutenant."

That was absurd. There's no way the plan could work with this much light. "Negative, Captain. I can see them, they can see us. Diversion will not work. I repeat, diversion will not work in this light. We need a new plan."

There was a pause before he responded. "It's pretty dark, Lieutenant. Are you sure?"

"Yes sir. It is not dark enough for this to work at all."

"It's plenty dark, but if you're sure about that…" His idea of what was plenty dark clearly differed from her own. "Lieutenant, where in the hospital did you see the movement. Maybe the gunfire will be enough of a diversion."

"Left… uh, South side. Hold on." Pepperoni looked back over the edge, her eyes darted around and fixing on every movement she could see through the windows and broken walls. "There's a lot of movement now. All over. At the very least, we need them distracted, but as soon as they see the CV-33, they're going to go after it. We need them reliably occupied. Can you d-"

A very strange sound caused her to stop mid-sentence. She wasn't sure quite what it was. A very loud thud followed by a wet squish, maybe a bit of something cracking. It was incredibly loud, and she thought it might have blown out her ears even. She looked over at Amaretto. She was about to try and ask her what that was, but her mouth wasn't working. It must have been an artillery strike, or some other kind of cannon, maybe even a flash grenade. Something that could stun her like this. She desperately wanted to know what had incapacitated her so effortlessly.

She heard Amaretto say something, but it sounded more distant. Like her driver was a dozen meters away instead of a few feet. "Lieutenant? Are you alright?"

Amaretto was getting a bit too close for comfort. Her face was right there. Too close, and… Pepperoni realized that she was lying on her back, staring up at the sky. Amaretto was leaning over her. What happened? Did an explosion knock her back?

"Is she alright?"

"Holy shit, that creamed her!"

"Her eyes aren't focusing, but she's breathing. Lieutenant, if you can hear and understand me, blink twice."

She must have been in shock. They were being good soldiers and making sure she was still able to function as the head of their unit. She gave them the two blinks they wanted. They all looked fine, so it must have just been her.

"Lieutenant, stay calm. You've been shot in the head. You're helmet probably saved your life, but you're in shock. We need to get you out of the trench now."

Shot? In the head?

Pepperoni reached up and grabbed her helmet, taking it off so that she could look at it. Sure enough, something had smashed its was through the helmet's side. An inch to the left and it would have gone through her eye. But it hadn't. She'd have to find a mirror afterward to see if it had made her any less pretty.

She put her helmet back on and pushed herself back up. She shook her head, doing her best to will her mouth to work. "Buuh… um uh…" She spat, trying to clear her mouth. No other sound was working, so… "Fuck!"

"Lieutenant?"

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Fucking fucky fuck!"

"Are you… okay?"

It felt like her mouth had loosened back up. She fixed Amaretto with a hard stare. "I'm alive. So now they're dead." She found her radio in the dirt beside her and clicked it on. "Anzio. Turn that building into Swiss cheese."

She could hear the enthusiastic 'Yes ma'am!' come from all around her. The next instant, every one of the girls under her command opened fire. Submachine guns lit up the hospital, peppering the walls rather uselessly, but it was bound to get the attention of anyone alive inside. She stood up, pulling up her own rifle and firing at the building with little regard for structural damage. Any movement she could have seen was totally obscured by the cloud of dust and debris from the sustained attack.

Puffs of dirt flew up off the ground in front of her. The enemy was firing back, but somehow she wasn't worried about getting hit. Beside her and Amaretto, two other girls had ducked back into the trench to reload. Pepperoni gave them a quick nod and, just as she was about to fire another spray of lead at the hospital, a peculiar object bounced into the trench next to them.

"Grenade!" One of the girls reacted quickly, grabbing the grenade and standing up to throw it back towards the enemy. A bullet whizzed by, splattering its way through her wrist. She dropped the grenade and fell against the back of the trench. The grenade landed right in the center of the four of them.

Pepperoni closed her eyes, expecting to be blown apart, or at the very least be filled with hot shrapnel.

She heard the explosion, though it was a bit muffled. She looked back to see the first girl's partner had thrown herself on the grenade. The amount of damage it had done to her body was more than Pepperoni had seen in any movie. The worst part was that she girl was still alive somehow, gasping for breath.

There was no way to tell if she was going to stay alive for any amount of time. Pepperoni ducked down and grabbed the girl cradling her arm. "Get her to the buildings on the North! Keep her covered!" She stood up and waved at the rest of her girls. "Get up out of there! Head to the CV-33's! We're moving up!"

Just as she finished shouting her orders, she felt a sharp sting as another bullet grazed the back of her neck. This wasn't the place for her girls. It was a mistake to put them in trenches. She jumped up out of the trench, and the rest followed her. Now it was time to make a mad rush to the tanks. And mad rush they did.

Gunfire ripped through the air, pounding the ground. The enemy didn't want them reaching the tanks. That was just too bad. Something hit the ground and exploded between Pepperoni and Amaretto. They kept going. The enemy fire hit home, and two of the girls hit the ground, rolling to a stop on the street. Amaretto cried out in pain, and suddenly she was limping.

"We'll cover you, Lieutenant!" The gunfire from the North and South intensified. The enemy returned fire on them, and stopped firing at Pepperoni. "Oh… shit. Pleasure serving with you, ma'am."

Pepperoni looked back just in time to see someone in the hospital fire a rocket launcher at the South tower. The building exploded, collapsing before her eyes. That was Risotto and Gnocchi somewhere inside the shattered tower, the bright orange fireball.

"Ma'am, get behind us!" A CV-33 rolled up beside her. Ravioli popped her head out the hatch and saluted. "Ready to attack!"

"Right!" She turned to the others who had made it this far back. "Fettuccine, Margherita, I want you two to get a CV-33 and start running back and forth taking our wounded away from the front. Amaretto, how's your leg?"

"Ma'am, fuck my leg. They blew up my friends."

"Then climb aboard. Ravioli, you have an extra gun." She helped Amaretto up on top of the CV-33. "Alright, let's get moving! I want all of them dead by daylight!"

"Si!"