Chapter 6-Deception and Fire
The Chi-Nu backed off the hill as the hail of 47mm shells flew around it. One bounced of the corner of the turret while another off the gun mantlet. "That's a lot of tanks Mica!" Naoki loaded a shell for safety reasons.
"We're outnumbered, but not out gunned..." Mica pulled out a map of the outlying area. "So where here, at the base of the hill, the M15s are on the other side, basically all of them."
"So basically, they are trying to overwhelm us with their full force." Tsuki leaned over to peek at the map.
"Yes...now look at that woodland area." Mica pointed at a patch of green behind the last location of the enemy. "I wonder." Mica climbed out of the tank and moved up the hill with his binoculars. He went prone and barely peeked over the hill. "Oh dear, this isn't good."
Over that hill, the ten M15s had dug in, taking their positions behind houses and land masses. Mica zoomed in a bit more, it appeared that they had covered an entire 270 degree arc of fire. Covering every path into the forest behind them. "Interesting..." Mica muddled back down and climbed back into his tank.
"You see anything?" Alan put his hands on the driving wheel.
"Just an airtight defense line, no way through from the front, bet they have tank destroyers hiding in the forest behind."
"Then that's where their flag tank is!" Rin yelled from behind.
"Right, but they have enough tanks to cover every angle of approach, but there must be a weak spot, a place where they can't cover." Mica popped out of the tank and waved at Maya's tank who rolled up to him and came out of her hatch.
"What is it Mica?"
"Maya, I need you to take Marylin and move to..." Mica stared at the the sector coordinates and found a spot on the western flank of the Italians. "to...to coordinates: 5;C on the map, and then wait.
"5;C..." Maya looked down onto her map. "Direct or Scenic?"
"Scenic is safer, but just get there."
"Okay, I can do that." Maya's tank moved over to Marylin's and the two moved out west, buttoned up.
"So what now?" Rin called up to him.
"Rin, can you get me Arthur on the line?"
Meanwhile, in the east, Arthur led a line of three Chi-Ha tanks towards the Italian flanks. He heard that Mica needed him on the line and answered. "Yes Mica?"
"Arthur, change of plans, they've dug in, hard."
"Okay, seems logical, what do you need?"
"Take your entire group to..." Mica looked back at the map,"coordinates: 4;I and wait there for my order."
"Sure, no problem, we'll get there fine, give us a few minutes..." Arthur pulled out his map and looked at it, "and we'll...get there...soon enough!" He folded the map up and tucked it away.
"Good to hear." Mica told Rin to cut the line.
"Okay, so what now?" Naoki sat down.
"Now, we wait for the chance to strike." The five sat in the tank waiting for the others to report.
"What do we do? I mean, we're the only ones that are in our spot."
"Simple, our job is to simply pick them off."
"And we do that how..." Before Mica could respond, Arthur came over the line.
"Mica, me and the others are in position."
"Good to hear Arthur, good to know that you made it.
"I do have to ask, why here, we have no line of sight."
"Exactly, we wouldn't want you to get shot up now.
"Okay, Mica, how do we do this." Naoki looked up at him.
"One word my friend."
"What would that be?" Arthur asked.
"Arthur, have the others fire into the air." This order confused Arthur and his crew.
"W-why?"
"Just do it, I guarantee that it will work." Arthur stared at his gunner and loader.
"Okay Mica, hope you know what you are doing mate." Within minutes, all the tanks in that group started firing in the air.
"What did that accomplish!?" Naoki questioned while Mica told Rin to cut the line.
"That word I talked about?"
"Yes?"
"Deception my friend, deception, get us up on the crest of that hill." Hesitating, Alan pulled the tank into drive and had them on the hilltop soon enough.
"We're sitting ducks..." Alan mumbled to himself.
"Not necessarily." Mica raised the hatch and got out his binoculars. "Hmm...just as I thought..." Mica saw an unorganized defense force of M15/42s scattering to the east, leaving little in the west.
"Tsuki, target...west, two M15s."
"Roger..." Tsuki traversed the turret to the left. "Target sighted!"
"Gun loaded!" Mica replied.
"Fire till both are out." The Chi-Nu fired multiple 75mm shells, the sound was masked by that of the 47mm shells being fired by Arthur's group.
"Rin, get Maya on the line." Rin fuddled with the radio till she got the frequency.
"What is it Mica?"
"Maya...I need you and Marylin to move in..." Mica waited for a moment, watching the M15s in the distance being scattered.
"Move in when?"
"I think you should move in right about..."
"Targets taken out!" Tsuki yelled from below.
"Now! Move in now!" He signaled to Rin to cut the line.
"Alan, get us moving! Tsuki, Naoki! You better be ready to fire that gun!" The Chi-Nu lurched forward and had a burst of speed when they rolled down the hill. They join in with the other two Chi-Nus that moved in from the flank.
"Just about there..." The trio of tanks were then met the rears of the remaining M15s that did not notice the demise of their teammates nor the tanks behind them. "Pick your marks..."
The tanks turned their guns towards respective targets. It was a total of eight tanks, all the same model and lightly armed. "On my mark..."
The trio of tanks stayed silent. "Okay, three...two..." It was just then, one of the Italian commanders had turned around and found them. "FIRE!" Before the commander could warn her allies, they opened fire on the group.
The tanks were pounded with fire, their demise being a singular shot to the rear. Before they could traverse the hull or turret, they were knocked out. They never had a chance to even retaliate against their foes behind them. Before long, all eight of the M15s were knocked out, white flags and all.
"Whew, that was a massacre, they didn't fire a single shot off." Marylin cracked a smile.
"Now we search for the flag tank, they must be in that forest." The trio of commanders turned their attention to the forest that was nearby. "Be careful, they have the advantage."
Meanwhile, the Chi-Has were still firing. "Rin, tell Arthur to shut off the barrage."
"Sure can do, I was starting to get annoying, a lot."
"Good, now then, let's get into that forest..." He signaled to the other two to follow behind, within minutes, they parked outside the forest itself. Mica took a looks gulped, it was dense with tree and bushes. "Careful now..." The trio slowly made their way through, keeping an eye out for the Italians.
"We're walking in a trap, I know. I can feel it..." Alan mumbled. The Chi-Nus slowly dreaded through the forest, staying on high alert. The fact they had not received recent fire worried them.
"Where could they be..." Mica squinted his eyes and scanned his surrounded for out of place objects. Despite their best efforts, they found nothing other than tracks leading out of the forest. Somewhere, somehow, the Italians slipped out.
"Well that was pointless, half an hour spent looking for something that wasn't here." Naoki eased back.
"No, something is wrong, they knew we were coming, naturally, they escaped."
"Right under our noses, over the river and through the woods." Tsuki chuckled. The trio started to make their way out. They reached the edge of the forest when a shell slammed into Maya's tank, taking her out instantly.
"Um, Maya here, I think that's an out for us."
"Bloody hell, they've cornered us." The two remainders slowly backed up. They had no visual of the Italians, but the Italians lost their mark. "We fell right into their trap...like mice to cheese, Rin, get Arthur on the line." The two tanks stayed still while Rin fuddled with the radio.
"Yes Mica?" Arthur strangely whispered.
"Um, Arthur, can you help us out, they've cornered us in the northernmost forest."
"Would love to Mica, but, we got a problem."
"And that problem is?"
"Our little exhibition over here cost us lot of ammo."
"How much ammo did you waste?"
"Um, all of the ammo?" The line stayed silent for awhile. "Um, righto, I'll just cut the line and we'll stay over here in our little corner."
"He just cut the radio line, Mica." Rin took off her headset.
"I see that..." Mica stayed silent himself. Then he got an idea. "Get Claude on the line, will you?"
"Roger...and we're up."
"Mica? What is it? Are we finally getting to shoot something?" Claude smiled.
"Yeah, get Kurtis and head to the central hill." Claude checked his map for the position.
"Central hill, okay, we got it, just me and Kurtis? We're leaving the Type 89 here?"
"As much I don't want to, yeah, you are, once you're there, search for the tanks down near the forest."
"Um, roger, we'll get right on that, cutting the line." Mica slowly took his headset off and opened his hatch. He slowly peeked outside and watched for danger. Over to the left, he spotted Marylin's tank, engine shut off.
"What do you see up there?" Tsuki whispered.
"Nothing of too much threat...wait." Mica spotted a strange object, it looked like it was moving towards them. He picked up his binoculars and took a look. "What is that..." Adjusting his zoom, he came to a horrible conclusion. Coming towards them was a M16/43, though it had a peashooter, it was fast.
"What is it?" Naoki picked up a 75mm shell.
"M16/43, moving at high speed towards out position." Mica slowly dipped his head down, but kept his eyes above. The tank started to slow, and moved cautiously. He watched it come closer and closer. The tank's turret turns towards them, he looked at the 47mm gun on it.
"Mica...shell loaded, we could take them out whenever we want." Tsuki looked through the sights.
"No don't." Mica watched the M16/43 drive elsewhere, however, it was closer to Marylin's tank. "Don't do it Mary..." The tank's turret slowly turned towards the Chi-Nu. "That's not good..."
Very suddenly, the Chi-Nu's turret quickly snapped towards the M16/43 and fired into the mantlet of the gun. The round must have penetrated, since the white flag popped out from the tank. However, this left a sizable amount of smoke rising up. With that, a few rounds were plugged into Marylin's tank.
Naturally, with the white flag waving from their tank, Marylin spoke into her headset. "Sorry guys, I guess we've been taken out." This left Mica and his crew alone in the woods.
"Darn...we're isolated and cut off from our group." Mica popped down into the crew compartment.
"What now?" Alan looked back.
"What now? It's game over man! Game over!"
"Come on Mica, it'll be okay." Naoki patted Mica on the back.
"What can save us now?" Mica looked up some sounds. "Wait listen, you hear that?" From a distance, it sounded like shots were ringing out. "Alan, let's investigate."
"Um, you sure about that Mica?" Alan put his hands onto the wheel.
"Positive." Mica went out into the commander's hatch to get a better view. The Chi-Nu rolled forwards and got up to speed. Before long, they raced through the woods and reached the clearing. They were met with the rear of a Semovente 75/18. "Plug them!"
Tsuki pressed down on the solenoid and released a shell into the rear. The white flag come up along with smoke and embers. "Target down, reloading." Naoki went back into the ammo.
"What is going on..." Mica looked to the right and found distant tanks: three Semovente 75/18s and two M16/43s, firing at something. Suddenly, one of the M16s took a hit and the flag came up. It had appeared that Kurtis and Claude had shown up and were firing from cover.
"So what's going on?" Rin asked.
"Looks like backup has arrived." Mica smiled and ducked down. "But they can't do it all, let's help them."
Tsuki and Naoki looked back. "Sure thing, we'll give them a few shells." Tsuki looked back into her sights and Naoki prepared another shell. Mica went out into the open and watched their turret traverse towards the Italians. The gun fired a round into the side of a Semovente 75/18, white flag.
"Nice shot, reloading." The Ho-Ni IIIs took out another tank, the last M16/43. Meanwhile, the confused Italians started reverse back into the forest. But the Chi-Nu fired again, hitting another 75/18 with a white flag popping out.
The last Semovente was hit with two 75mm shells fired from Kurtis and Claude. Despite being concealed, Mica could see the white flag from where they were. "Rin, get those two on the line now!"
"Got it...and we're on!"
"Hahahaha! Nice job guys! We did it!" Mica laughed loudly.
"I know, that was close, a shot bounced off the corner of my casemate, probably took a piece off." Kurtis laid back.
"I probably got more kills than you Kurt."
"Oop, you mean your gunner."
"Shut up man."
"Haha, anyways, I'm cutting the line." Mica relaxed for a bit.
"Mica, getting transmission from Ryan, seems urgent."
"Patch him in." Mica's smile started to fade.
"Mica, they found us!" Ryan yelled.
"Woah, woah, who found you?" Mica put his serious face back on.
"Their flag tank, a P.40, I could see their flag from here!"
"Okay, calm down, calm down!"
"Oh god, their turret is turning."
"Calm down, they don't see you."
"My god, Mica-" Suddenly, the line was cut.
"Ryan? Ryan? Ryan!?"
"I can't get them back Mica!" Rin stared at Mica. Sweat started to come down the side of his neck.
"I think, we may have lost..."
"Mica, Ryan's got another transmission."
"Patch him in!" Mica bit his finger nails.
"Mica..." Mica started to sweat even more so when he heard Ryan's voice.
"We-we."
"You what!?"
"We, we took them out, plugged a shot, hit their barrel, knocked out their gun, that's an out." Mica's sadness turned to happiness and tears of joy.
"Ryan?"
"Yeah, Mica?"
"Remind me, to hug you and your crew tonight, we've won this time."
"Okay man, cutting the line." Mica laid back and tears came out.
"You okay?" Alan looked back and smiled.
"Yeah, course I am. We just beat Calvario Fiat."
"Yeah I know."
"We did it." Mica closed his eyes and laughed.
Author's Note: Well, I certainly hope you guys enjoyed that chapter. Honestly, this is probably my first attempt to make a battle as real as I could. Comparing this to Chapter One, it's amazing how far I've come. As for the next chapter, I can't say about that. Despite state testing is done, I still can't promise a release date. But I can estimate that will be within the month, but that's all I can say. Until next time.