Days Of Ruin8…Never Ending
I do not own Advance Wars or any of the series…if I did I would have attempted to make an anime out of it…probably.
Tabitha walked back into the abyss of the hanger, the hanger's concrete wall rising back to its original position. She walked over to where the hanger's door was controlled and pressed a slightly smaller button to the side of the other button. She looked towards the dark abyss and the factory lights flickered on. She grinned happily at the sight that was in front of her.
'I missed having power! I have five hours, but its all worth it in the end!' She walked over to a small stage with a podium overlooking the factory floor ahead. She swiped her card on one of the readers and operated the built-in touchscreen of the control and frowned a bit.
'Figures, they wouldn't have the blueprints for that for a factory in the middle of a wasteland…not a problem for Zene when he operates it. Looks like I have to do this manually.' She set to work organizing the supplies of the facility; automated machines were scrambling in and out of small doors bringing in barrels and sheet metal into the assembly area.
The generators came to life and power began to flow through the automated welding crew and overhead cranes. The cranes shifted their claws, dropping down to extract various turrets from storage containers. Metallic arms holding welding rods began reinforcing the panels of the moving turrets.
Five tanks rolled in from the back and stopped in the center of the floor, their sensors destroyed but their engines still functional.
'This will do. No use for sensors if we have a crew to operate this in the end.' Tabitha thought as the various displays on the screen shifted at the gliding motions of her hands. She was controlling various mechanical arms to lift up panels for the welding crew to work on.
The cranes placed the finished turrets off to the side and began to rip off the damaged sections of the tanks parked in the center. The damaged components were lowered onto conveyer belts to be transported elsewhere in the facility.
'Time to make the treads.' She was giving commands to the automated crew with swipes of her hand on the screen. The metal beings complied. They moved to dismantle the hulls of the tanks with their equipment efficiently.
'What else am I missing?' She thought. The machine was slowly forming, the treads were nearly complete, a few of the crew inserting the last of the gears on the treads.
Three hours had passed since the wall had risen. So far, the treads were complete and the hull was done. Two cranes were operating in unison to insert a large engine into the massive vehicle. The size of this machine would bring her enemies to their knees.
'Time to insert the controls.' Tabitha exited what she was currently doing on the screen and opened up a map, she opened up a screen by touching a section of the factory and a small window appeared on the screen. 'Install manual controls?' She opted on equipping the monster with manual controls, and then another window appeared. 'Choose crew size.' She soon selected a crew size of two operators.
'Hmm? Whats this?' She noticed an unknown option near the features that could be installed on the tank.
It was labeled 'Repair Function' She selected the option but was denied. A mechanical voice was heard –Authorization Required-
'Another prototype function? Yay!' She smiled at the thought of testing another of her now deceased father's prototypes. She swiped her card and the voice stated –Authorization Granted. Welcome Tabitha. Message Start-
'Message?' She thought as a screen appeared. It was a recording of her father, Caulder.
Caulder's voice had a hint of disappointment. "It seems like you selected my first failure, the repair function," he sighs, his face showing anger at remembering any failures of his.
Caulder coughs, clearing his throat "Ahem. As I was saying before, it is a failed creation, the particles it releases quickly shatter when exposed to the outside air. I could not perfect this function so it only has a one-time use. Not like you need it, you are my daughter, your skills should not require my assistance." He chuckled evilly as the recording shut down.
'Father…you left me with a memento…your first creation' She smiles slightly at how her father still acts, even in death.
The five hours were nearly up but the machine in the hanger was in the midst of testing itself. The turrets were testing their rotational limits and the barrels were lowering and dropping, testing the angles it was limited to. A few automated arms were still spraying green paint across the hull's rear.
'Just a few more tests and we'll be ready to leave' Tabitha thought as she glanced at the four silver canisters attached to the sides of the hull.
'Just a few more minutes to fuel up' Cranes moved forward hoisting up a fuel line which the more nimble arms directed the nozzle to the fuel tank. The nozzle was retrieved and the machines began to return to their original positions, some went back into the factory and the rest parked themselves against the factory walls.
"And done!" She said as she climbed onto the metal beast, positioning herself on the highest turret.
The men outside were ready to pack up and the trucks were stationed in the yard ready to depart. The ground began to rumble, a little harder than before but the difference was unnoticed by the men.
Zene recognized the mini-quake. "About time! Everyone get ready to leave this place!" He stood in front of the Factory wall expecting for Tabitha to come out with something good, since she spent five hours in there.
Everyone there was now prepared to witness the wall lower down, but that wasn't the only thing that came down when the wall came down. Wrenches dropped, cans clattered on the concrete, jaws fell…the only thing that lifted was the awestruck gazes of the men as they stared at what came out of the lighted factory assembly zone.
"The hell?" The men just stood there looking at the massive metal vehicle.
"What the…" John finally found out what it means to feel small when he saw the metal construct.
"My god…what is that thing!" Zene yelled at Tabitha with amazement.
Tabitha got up on the upper-most turret and stood with her hands on her hips. "A masterpiece!" She looked around the yard to find the mechanics prostrating themselves and she grinned joyfully at the feeling of superiority.
The metal beast drove past the stationary tucks and headed toward the factory gate. Tabitha called out to Zene. "Hey Zene! Aren't we going to leave? Our Five hours are up!" Her words knocked the men out of their trance and they began starting their engines and began climbing into their bikes and trucks.
Zene tossed his bike's keys to John as he climbed aboard the massive vehicle. "So what do you call this monster?"
"The War Tank" She replied.
"The?"
"Its special than the others." She said proudly.
"Others? You mean there're more!" Zene panicked at the sight of these war tanks in a battle with his men.
"Yeah, the other militaries got these too." She said plainly, while kicking her feet in the air as she sat on the turret.
"Damn…let's worry about other things for now. How do you run this thing? Its bigger than a house!"
"Don't worry! I made it so that two people could operate it. I'll run the thing along with the cannons and you'll use the machine gun." She said proudly. Zene knew her shots were better than his so he had to accept her decision.
Tabitha went down into the operation area of the tank and yelled back to Zene. "Tell us where we're headed! I'm fine with going south with this tank now!"
'South? What happened there?' Pushing aside those thoughts, Zene quickly told everyone that they are now going south to acquire supplies.
"Zene" She said sighing. "You know you could've use the radio in here." She said while pointing at the radio inside.
"I'll use those when we fight, but thanks anyway." Zene hopped into the upper-most turret with his seat adjusted so that his upper half was able to reach the turret mounted machine gun outside.
He put his ability into effect and let Tabitha do the driving since he was a bit unnerved at the thought of driving something this big.
The war-colored convoy set off to leave the darkened factory, kicking up dust clouds as they moved effortlessly through the wastelands.
About fifty or sixty miles south of the green force's position a few voices could be heard among the shots and explosions of battle.
A female's voice shouted out "Gage! I know we won, but why did we have to leave Will and the others?"
The man now known as Gage calmly replies, his sniper rifle in his grasp "Will has a town to return to and we have a country to return to. We have to help our fellow Lazurians fight the southern raiders. Will should be fine, he was the one who took out Caulder."
The two were unaware of the approaching green forces from the north as they defended the city from the bandits.