From up above the clouds, everything seemed peaceful. It would have been a relaxing sight for Goggles, hadn't she known that a battle was just around the corner. A battle where she would be up against another plane, and where her whole team would depend on her dealing with that plane.
'Maybe it's just a spotter plane,' she tried to calm herself down.
She tried to shrug off her worry and get into the right mindset for a battle, focusing on the weather conditions and her instruments. It was time to peek out of the clouds again. She had to risk another glance at the enemy plane. But even if it did anything suspicious, it was too late now to report that activity to her team. Everyone, including her, had turned off their radios already. Goggles was completely on her own. Only one of the planes would survive this encounter, so much was for sure. She could only hope that it was her.
Readying her cannons just in case — even though she knew that their usefulness was limited in this situation — she dove and took an anxious look around as soon as she had emerged from the clouds again. What she saw almost made her engine stall. The hostile plane had gotten much closer all of a sudden; in fact it was approaching at a breakneck speed. That alone would have been intimidating to the Stuka. But what made her panic in that very moment was the fact that she recognised that model.
A Spitfire.
Goggles yelped, and didn't hesitate a single second as she immediately turned around. She didn't have the ghost of a chance against that plane. There was nothing on her mind but sheer terror as she flew away as fast as she could, not even looking back once.
###
'Remember, they are … probably remote controlled. If we can find the command tank and kill it, this can be over very quickly.'
Eohelm's words echoed in Awol's mind as he watched the northern part of the base through his artillery sights. His gaze was darting around, looking for anything that moved. But the distance was great, and he could barely see anything at all. A column of heavy tanks could have probably sneaked past his sights without him noticing. Frustrated, he kept looking for a while longer, but then switched back to his normal sights. There was something that was distracting him immensely. He looked at the Sturmpanzer II next to him. Arty was humming some kind of unrecognisable melody.
"Please stop," Awol said.
Arty twitched and went quiet at once, looking at the Wespe with an almost shocked expression.
"Sorry," she said quickly. "I'm just nervous …"
"It's okay," Awol replied. Even if he didn't show it as obviously, he was nervous as well, even more now than before their previous battles. He threw a worried look down the road that lead down from the South Plateau to the town. A good scout could probably spot them all the way from down there. Without their radios, they wouldn't know that a tank was on its way to them. The only one who could warn them — their only defence — was a little tier 1.
Noob was hiding behind a bush, not far away from the two SPGs' position. The Leichttraktor had turned his turret around and gave his team mate a thumbs-up with his cannon as he noticed Awol's gaze. Awol couldn't help but smile, but his smile grew tormented quickly.
A sudden faint noise above them kept him from dwelling on this thought any longer. It was the noise of an engine. Awol raised his gaze to the sky, but couldn't see anything except the dark clouds. The noise grew louder however. He shuffled on his tracks anxiously, looked at Arty, who was inching backwards as well.
Could it be Goggles? But why was she returning to the base? Awol had an incredibly bad feeling about this. The noise passed right over the low tiers, and then grew quiet again as it receded southward, away from the base.
"She's flying away …!" Arty gasped. She was looking at Awol with an aghast expression. "Why is she flying away?"
"I — I don't know," Awol said, his voice trembling with concern.
A moment later, they could hear engine noises in the sky again. Awol was breathing a sigh of relief.
"She's coming back," he said, but Arty started frowning deeply.
"That's not her," she said quietly.
Only now Awol noticed that the noise was coming from the north again. His optics grew wide as he spotted a silhouette in the distance. It was growing quickly. Awol started rolling backwards instinctively, his gaze glued to the plane that was approaching the base.
"… no …" he whispered, now realising the full extent of what he had witnessed moments ago. Goggles had been running from whatever was flying towards the base right now. She wasn't going to come back. She wasn't going to "take care" of that plane … and it was now coming for them instead.
He watched the plane fly a tight circle above the base, as if it was looking for something. A tank cannon was fired, in a futile attempt to shoot down the nimble aircraft. Then, suddenly, the plane made a sharp turn. Awol realised too late that it was coming straight for his and the other low tiers' position to run.
It was a matter of mere seconds until the plane right was above them. There was a terrible whistling sound — a blinding flash of light — a deafening crash.
###
Eject stared at where a giant explosion had happened behind him just seconds ago. He could feel the blast wave, even here at the other end of the base. The cliffs were blocking his line of sight, but from what he had seen, he could assume that the plane had dropped a bomb somewhere near the South Plateau, or even right onto it. His expression grew grim.
"Straight for the arty," he murmured.
If the bomb had hit its target, there was a very slim chance that the low tiers had survived. But there was nothing Eject could do about it right now. There was also no time to mourn. The plane was out of sight also. Hopefully, it had only carried a single bomb. Eject turned his turret back around, directing his gaze back at the road before him. Fox was positioned a little way ahead on the other side of the road and had angled his hull behind a shoulder of rock, his cannon facing the valley that formed the northeastern entrances to the base. The King Tiger hadn't looked back like Eject did, but he was quietly hissing something. Behind them, a Jumbo could be heard cursing loudly.
The sound of cannons suddenly tore through the air. It came from the west, where Rex, Rill, and Barfly were watching the other valley. It had begun. Eject didn't take his optics off the valley, and a moment later, the roar of an engine announced a tank approaching fast. Eject made sure that he had loaded a shell and waited for the unknown tank to appear in his sights. He almost pulled the trigger out of reflex when a dark green light tank came dashing towards them, but recognised his team mate in the last moment.
"Incoming!" Alex shouted as he raced down the road towards the heavies. Almost at the same time, a shell whizzed past him, only missing barely. Eject adjusted his sights and now saw two Russian tanks appear in the valley. Fox opened fire on them immediately. His shell ricocheted off his target's sloped armour, but it at least distracted the approaching enemies from chasing the light tank any further. They took cover behind rocks immediately and started shooting back.
"They've become smarter!" Fox growled, loud enough for Eject to hear him clearly this time.
The T29 focused on aiming instead of answering. He fired, and a turret was sent flying, crashing into the cliffside.
"Not too smart to die," Eject said.
He started reloading his cannon and made sure again that his hull wasn't showing from behind his cover. A shell bounced off his thickly armoured gun mantlet, causing only another scratch on it. Another shell flew past his turret, but from behind him, telling him that Crowley had a line of fire too, although Eject wasn't sure how much the medium's gun could achieve in this situation. A moment later, Eject noticed something moving further down the road. Upon a closer look, it turned out to be a light tank, but this one was definitely an enemy.
"Fox, look out!" Eject shouted. The King Tiger fired a second later, blowing up the remaining tank destroyer, but not the light tank that was now less than a hundred meters away.
"Dammit!" Fox hissed, having noticed the other enemy too late, as he had been too focused on killing his original target. The light tank simply drove past them, going for the easternmost road while the heavies could only watch, their cannons reloading.
"Alex?!" Eject said and threw a quick look around, but his team mate was already gone. Sending him to catch the enemy light was not an option. Shifting on his tracks with indecision for a moment, he considered going after it himself. But then, more tanks appeared in the valley.
'Someone else will have to take care of it,' he thought and took aim at the new enemies.
###
When Awol could see and hear anything at all again, the first thing he saw through his cracked optics was that the road before him had turned into a smoking crater. The path was gone. Even the surrounding cliffs looked like something had taken a giant bite out of them.
And Noob … was simply not there anymore.
Awol couldn't process what was happening.
"Noob!" he screamed. Where had he gone? How could he … He had to be somewhere. He had driven away in time. He was just down the road … Awol switched to his artillery sights and frantically scanned the surroundings, but there was no Leichttraktor. Nowhere. He could hear Arty whimper in pain next to him, but he himself was only remotely aware of the excruciating, burning sensation spreading from all over his frontal armour.
"Noob …"
After what felt like an eternity, he was suddenly nudged in his side. His gaze jerked to his left and he saw Arty look at him urgently.
"They started shooting!" she said, gesturing north. "The enemies are here, we need to help!"
Awol was silent; he just stared at his team mate.
###
Arty didn't know what to do. The Wespe next to her seemed to be completely shell-shocked; he didn't say or do anything even as she repeated her words. Of course Arty was deeply shocked and disoriented as well, but it was crystal clear for her that they couldn't just sit around and do nothing. She tried nudging Awol again — with no result.
Her gaze darted past the other SPG when she noticed an engine noise coming from the east. At first she thought that someone from her team had come to check on them, but this irrational hope was smashed almost immediately as an unfamiliar looking tank skidded around a bend in the road and raced towards her and Awol.
"Run!" Arty cried. A shell that only barely missed the two SPGs emphasised her words. She hurried to turn around and sprinted off, seeing from the corner of her optics that Awol finally seemed to have woken up from his dazed state and was running away as well. But while Arty was fleeing down the road towards the town, Awol had taken the route towards the beach.
The Sturmpanzer almost went airborne for a moment as she drove into the crater in the road. Climbing the other side slowed her down terribly. She threw a fearful look behind her as she was finally back on even ground. The light tank was out of sight again, but she could still hear it. She didn't know if it had gone after her or after Awol, but then there was a loud bang behind her and a shell buried itself into the ground just mere meters to her left. That answered her question. Another look behind her told her that the light tank had a line of sight on her again. It was gaining ground quickly. Arty screamed as a shell grazed her side. The town was in sight, but she doubted that she would make it.
The light tank was suddenly next to her, and she could clearly see its complete lack of any expression as it sped past her and then made a U-turn, sliding to a stop to cut the Sturmpanzer off. Arty's optics grew wide and she hit the brakes. The light tank's cannon was pointed directly at her now. It fired, the shell blowing off a good portion of Arty's right cannon shield cutting right through the thin armour behind it. It only barely missed her ammo rack. Yelping from the pain, Arty however had the presence of mind to shoot back … but missed completely.
Before the light tank could shoot her again, someone else interfered unexpectedly. Three shells came flying towards the light tank. One of them missed; the other two smacked into its side, one of them even passing right through the whole tank. The light didn't make a single sound and turned around at once, fleeing to its left, then making a sharp turn and disappearing between some buildings. Arty looked to her own left, where three tank destroyers had appeared. Her expression brightened up with relief. She beamed at the Jagdpanther, the Ferdinand, and the AT-2 that had just prevented her demise.
"Quick, hide in the town," the Ferdinand said in a rushed tone. "You'll be safer there than here in the open."
"We'll take care of him," the Jagdpanther added.
The AT-2 just grinned at Arty.
She quickly nodded and drove on. Behind her, the tank destroyers went after the light tank. It took a couple of seconds until Arty reached the first buildings. She didn't stop until she was surrounded by them on all sides. Rolling to a halt eventually, she looked around, then checked her artillery sights to see if she could shoot enemies from her new position. Somewhere behind her, to the right, she could hear shots. It seemed like her tank destroyer team mates had found the light and were indeed taking care of it.
Letting her gaze wander, she took a look at what was happening in the northern parts of the base. She could see explosions and movement; it was hard to focus on one particular target. Arty tried anyway, and after several seconds, she was confident enough in her aim to shoot. There was an explosion, followed by a thick cloud of smoke. With a small "Yes!" Arty reloaded her cannon and took aim at the same spot again. She didn't notice that a certain light tank had slipped away from its pursuers and was sneaking up on her in that very moment.
###
"A tracer!" Sky shouted and pointed at the direction of the beach.
Eohelm's gaze followed hers, but he was too slow to see what she had seen. Instead, he caught a glimpse of another tracer that originated from the more southern parts of the town.
"Two tracers," he said with relief. "They're alive."
He looked at Sky again; she slumped noticeably. Eohelm could only imagine the relief the Pershing must have felt right now. Since the detonation of the plane's bomb, she had been completely frozen in place and unresponsive. But that had finally changed just now. She looked around, taking in her surroundings again. Then her turret suddenly traversed quickly, her cannon pointing down one of the streets in front of her. Eohelm couldn't hear or see anyone approaching, but he knew that Sky had a special talent for knowing when a tank was close, so he aimed into the same direction as she did. And truly, he didn't have to wait for long until an engine could be heard. It sounded like it was being pushed to the limit — which suggested that whoever was approaching was in a great hurry.
"Don't shoot! It's me!" a familiar voice shouted, and moments later, Alex appeared between the buildings. Sky and Eohelm lowered their cannons and let him reach them.
"Report," Sky told him the moment he halted in front of her.
"West team had to fall back to the town and a couple of enemies made it to the beach," he said while catching his breath.
Eohelm listened to the noises around them. The shots were much closer already. If the heavies fell back any further, they would soon end up meeting. This wasn't going as planned.
"How many exactly at the beach? What type?" Sky asked tensely.
"Two mediums," Alex replied.
Sky turned around, setting herself into motion.
"Where are you going?" Eohelm asked, rolling after her.
"I'm going to kill them," Sky growled.
"Wait …!" Eohelm said. "We have to stay here in case —"
"This is more important!" Sky replied sharply.
Alex was looking back and forth between them, then rolled after Sky as well. He went on hurriedly.
"East team took out two of them but they're getting pushed back. A light tank and an ISU-152 managed to get past them and are going down zero line," the light tank said quickly. "Pepper will take them out if they try to take the road to the town, but it's possible that they're going for the South Plateau."
"Do you have any good news as well?" Sky asked him without looking back.
"What are your orders?" Alex asked in return, ignoring the question.
Sky didn't stop, and didn't answer either. Eohelm cautiously watched their right as he followed her. They left the buildings behind and entered the open space that lead to the beach.
"Sky …?" Alex asked, more urgently this time.
"I …" Sky said, her voice even tenser than before. "I don't know!"
All three tanks flinched as they heard a booming noise above them. It seemed like the enemy plane had returned — it was gliding across the sky, passing over the base at a low altitude. Eohelm tensed up, his gaze darting back to the buildings automatically. They had been in cover there, but out here the plane would easily spot them. And Eohelm didn't want to find out if it had more in store for them.
The Centurion directed his gaze back at Sky, who had slowed down for a moment but was back at going at full speed now, single-mindedly heading for the beach where Awol might have been located. The SPG was her brother, and Eohelm knew that nothing could have held her back right now. But they also had other team mates, and those were in dire need of orders. He looked at Alex, and made a decision.
"I'm taking over command," he said firmly.
"What …?" Sky gasped.
Eohelm ignored her interjection.
"Alex, go find the TDs. Tell them to go join Pepper. If the enemies flank us, we'll be in trouble. Tell the east and west team to hold their positions, Sky and I will come to support them as soon as we took care of the beach. If you see the SPGs, tell them to go back to the South Plateau."
Sky had turned her turret around and was staring at him, but then slowly nodded. Alex saluted and quickly raced off southward.
###
Almost soundlessly, the enemy light tank was rolling through the streets of the village. It slowly crept around a building corner, focused only on its target — a completely oblivious Sturmpanzer. The SPG was standing in the middle of the street, cannon raised high as she was aiming at something. The noise of her engine had drawn the light tank to her like a moth to a flame. Now it took aim at her, being completely unaware that it was right in the centre of someone's reticle itself.
A cannon roared. The light tank blew up like fireworks. Arty flinched and turned around with deep confusion and fright spread all over her features. She found herself looking at a reloading Jagdpanther, hidden half behind a building.
"Fang …!" she gasped.
The addressed tank destroyer gave her a curt nod.
"Let's not have this become a habit," he said and drove out onto the street.
"Sorry, I'll be more careful," Arty said sheepishly. Behind Fang, the other two tank destroyers appeared. It had taken them a moment to catch up with the faster Jagdpanther.
"What now?" the AT-2 asked. His cannon moved about quickly as he was looking around.
There was a drawn-out "Hmm" from the Ferdinand.
Fang looked north, where the hostile plane could be seen flying a big loop. It would be back in a few moments, probably. When that happened, Fang didn't want to be out in the open. As for the ground, the noise of the fight had stopped coming closer, which probably meant that his involuntary team mates were able to hold the attackers back for now.
He was about to make a suggestion when something moved in the corner of his optics, somewhere behind Arty. Without a single thought, his cannon jerked around and he fired. There were two loud yelps, one from the startled Sturmpanzer, and one from the light tank that Fang had just barely missed.
"Look before you shoot!" Alex wheezed. He was staring at the little crater right in front of his tracks for a moment.
"Think before you sneak up on us," Fang replied coolly.
Alex shook off his state of shock, then quickly resumed rolling past Arty and towards the tank destroyers.
"Arty, the town isn't safe for you," he told the SPG as he passed her by.
"Where should I go instead?" she asked.
"Return to the South Plateau," Alex replied. He turned to the tank destroyers again as he reached them.
"You need to support Pepper," he said without stopping, instead accelerating already to continue his mission of passing on orders to the rest of the team. Fang turned on the spot, following the light tank with his sights.
"What about the heavies?" he asked.
"Just do it!" Alex replied impatiently as he raced off.
Fang looked at the other tank destroyers; the Ferdinand nodded pensively, then turned towards Arty.
"You're coming with us," he said.
Arty blinked at him.
"But Alex said —"
"If you do that, you'll get yourself killed."
As if to emphasise his words, they could hear the enemy plane fly over them. It circled above the path to the South Plateau for a few moments before it veered north again.
"You might be able to hide there, but you'll never make it that far," the Ferdinand went on matter-of-factly.
Fang didn't feel like wasting their valuable time with a discussion, so he drove out to Arty and gave her a not-so-gentle shove.
"Come on now, you'll thank us later!" he said. The SPG looked shocked at the rough treatment, but finally nodded and started moving.
###
Dirt and pieces of brick rained down on Rill's turret and hull. The wall he was standing behind was suddenly mostly gone. Squinting through the cloud of dust, he quickly trained his sights on the enemy tank just across the street, and fired before it could take cover behind the neighbouring building again. There was no sound of pain, no agonised expression as it took the hit. No telling if it had taken serious damage, or any damage at all. The only indicator of its health was that it was still moving, backing up behind its cover.
Rill backed up as well, bringing more walls between himself and the enemy tanks as he reloaded. A shell hit the ground where he had been just moments ago.
They were up against four enemy tanks — three heavies and a medium. Rill and his two team mates were firing their cannons relentlessly, but the hostile tanks just seemed to keep coming. Whenever they took one out, a new one was already waiting in line.
'Just how big is this team?' the KV-4 thought. He alone had killed three tanks by now; Rex was killing another one in that very moment. They had no other choice but slowly let themselves be pushed back into the town, backing up little by little with every shot and every new enemy tank appearing. Some had already slipped away onto the beach, and unless Eohelm and Sky could take care of them, they would soon flank around. For now, the west team could still hold the enemies back, but Rill wasn't confident that this would be the case for much longer.
###
Sky had started trading shots with the two medium tanks that had climbed up from the beach. It seemed like they weren't going for the arty, but instead trying to flank the town. That was one problem less; Sky was sure that she could take care of them. A shell bounced off her armour harmlessly and she placed one of her own right between the turret and the hull of one of the enemy tanks, taking out its turret ring.
Eohelm was backing her up, positioned at the other side of the building to Sky's right. He was firing at the mediums as well and had managed to track the other one.
Taking cover, Sky reloaded. She was about to roll back out when she noticed the almost ever-present roar of the enemy plane's engine approach them again. She assumed that it was just going to fly over them again, but she was very wrong. With the building blocking her line of sight on it, she didn't see it coming, but she clearly heard the whistle. It was terminated by a bang — so loud that it was physically painful — and an explosion of debris pelting the Pershing's side with the force of what felt like a train hitting her. A thick billow of dust was rolling across the ground, obscuring the surroundings from Sky's view. For a moment, all shooting ceased.
Sky coughed and shook her turret; remains of the building next to her and dirt slid off it. As she took a hectic look around, she realised that most of the building had collapsed.
'Eohelm …!' she thought with alarm. Under the resuming enemy fire, the Pershing backed up and drove around the back of the ruins. Eohelm was there, half buried under debris. It seemed like the bomb had barely missed him, hitting only the building instead of the tanks. But he still wasn't moving.
"Eohelm!" Sky shouted. She bumped into the motionless Centurion. His cannon was drooping, but he didn't seem severely wounded. The blast had probably just knocked him out. Sky bumped into him again, trying to get him to wake up, but to no avail. She cursed, then drove past him and re-engaged the enemy tanks. They obviously hadn't expected her to pop up at the other side of the building and she managed to land a good shot on the tracked one. But as soon as they seemingly realised what was going on, both of them took aim at her.
Screaming out with pain and frustration as a shell penetrated her hull, she directed a string of curses at the enemies as she fired back. Of course she didn't get even the hint of a reaction. Instead, she noticed movement behind her. There would have been no way she could have turned around her turret in time to face the quickly approaching tank, but luckily for her, it turned out to be Alex.
"Report!" Sky said, ducking away under an enemy shell.
The light tank came to a skidding halt behind her.
"They can't hold them back much longer! There's — so many of them!" he said in a hounded tone. "Enemy tanks are slipping past, they're in the town!"
Sky's expression darkened with every one of his words. She anxiously threw a look behind her.
"Orders?" Alex asked. His turret was traversing around hastily, sights scanning the border of the town. Above them, the plane could be heard circling again.
"Fucking hell …" Sky hissed to herself. They had to get away from here if they didn't want to turn into plane fodder after all, but could she and a light tank deal with the enemies in the town on their own? After a moment of frantic thought, she turned to Alex. "Follow me," she said and started affixing her towing ropes to Eohelm's hull. As soon as she had done that, she backed up, pulling him along until they were out of the line of fire.
Alex backed up with her, all while looking at her with worry written all over his features. It was obvious that he wasn't sure whether he could trust her judgement. Sky couldn't do anything about that right now. She turned around and started hurrying back into the town. It would only be a question of a couple of minutes until the enemy medium still capable of driving would realise that she was gone. That was a tight time frame to take care of whatever number of enemies would await them in the town. But it was either that or waiting until said enemies showed up to shoot her in the back.
They reached the town's buildings a few moments later. Sky's inner tension grew even more as she followed Alex through the streets, looking for the enemies he had mentioned. The search was ended abruptly by a shell appearing seemingly out of nowhere. With wide optics, Sky watched flames shoot out of every gap in Alex' armour. The light tank died with a terrible scream. Sky hit the brakes and swung her cannon around to the origin of the shot. A T30 had appeared further down the street, its reloading cannon pointed at the Pershing now. Sky pulled the trigger on impulse. Her shell hit the spare tracks on the tank destroyer's hull, which caused it to ricochet despite blowing them off. She looked to the left as a T28 suddenly popped up in the neighbouring street.
She kicked her engine into reverse gear, bumping into Eohelm. Her gaze darted back and forth between the two approaching tank destroyers, and she had no doubt that her time was up.
###
It was a fact to Rill that this fight was lost. He backed up behind the next available cover and threw a look to his side, where Rex was slowly rolling backwards as well. The VK suddenly took a shoot to his cannon.
"I'm done!" Rex yelled a moment later. "Aus, Ende!"
Rill grimaced. That was a very lucky hit. Either an accident or an act of incredible precision. The latter seemed unlikely, considering the poor accuracy that these enemies had shown so far throughout the whole battle. Unless … He looked at the direction the shot had come from. Another enemy tank had just appeared further in the back. The FCM 50t's cannon was still smoking. It backed up slightly behind one of its team mates. Rill didn't hesitate and shot it before it could disappear completely. The thing that caused him to do a double-take was the fact that the French tank yelped as it was hit.
'The command tank.'
Maybe the battle wasn't lost after all. Before he could inform the others about his discovery however, Rex announced their retreat.
"Fall back!" he shouted. He had already turned around and was rushing down the road.
"No, wait! Kill the FCM!" Rill shouted back. Rex didn't look back. Rill added, "Barfly!" But the Easy Eight didn't respond either. As Rill looked behind him, his team mate was already out of earshot, having turned around as well to do what Rex had told him.
The KV-4 stayed behind and tried to reload, but had to find that there was nothing left to load. He had used up all of his ammo. He cursed under his breath. There were shells whistling past him. The enemies were closing in. Rill had no choice but to follow his team mates. He couldn't turn around without exposing himself, however. Keeping his sights trained at the tanks in front of him, he accelerated backwards.
He didn't make it very far before he suddenly bumped into something. Flinching, he looked behind him and found himself standing back to back with Eject, who seemed just as startled.
"I take it we've lost," the T29 said soberly as soon as he had recovered from his moment of surprise.
"We can still win if we —" Rill said, but Eject interrupted him.
"Fox and the Shermans are clearing an escape path for us, this might be our only chance at making it out of here alive," he said grimly.
Rill nodded and the two heavies set themselves into motion.
###
Sky was staring at the two tank destroyers like a deer caught in the headlights, when all of a sudden, the T28 burst into flames. The T30 had reached the conjunction and turned its turret around to look at the cause of its team mate's sudden death. Sky followed its gaze and was too surprised to even breath a sigh of relief when she saw Pepper drive out from behind the burning tank destroyer. The Leopard 1 was sprinting towards the conjunction, evaded a shell from the T30, and circled it until he had reloaded and could take it out as well.
"We have to run!" he said to Sky as he stopped in front of her.
The Pershing gaped at him like he had just said the most alien thing she had ever heard.
"N-No!" she said.
Pepper gesticulated at the streets behind her wildly.
"Now is not the time to be obstinate! The battle is over!" he said urgently. Sky scrambled for words, but Pepper obviously had no intentions of having a discussion. "Suit yourself!" he said and raced off.
"Wait!" Sky yelled after him. She stared at the cloud of dust he left behind, then turned around as fast as she could as a shell hit her turret. The medium tank from the beach had caught up with her. She shot its hull, taking it out. With a wild glare, she traversed her turret to aim down the streets as she felt more tanks approaching.
"Who's next?! Come and get some!" she spat.
"Sky!" Barfly's voice shouted. He appeared behind a bend in the street, Crowley by his side. Sky lowered her cannon, but the grim look didn't disappear from her features.
"Sky, come with us!" Crowley said as they reached her. "We have to get out of here!" The two Shermans nudged her, trying to get her to turn around. Sky heard engines down the road, and her determined expression started to crumble. She looked past her team mates, where pillars of smoke were ascending to the dark clouds. There were cannon shots somewhere to the east. As much she didn't want to admit it, the base was lost. She dropped her gaze and turned around, towing Eohelm behind her as she joined the fleeing tanks.