As Steve woke up in the morning, silence blanketed the base. While it surely was comforting, as it meant no imminent danger, it also managed to sent a tiny shiver down Steve's spine. The thought of being so close to the front line juxtaposed with the calm morning was unusual to say the least. He quickly pulled himself out of the sleeping bag and stretched lazily, noting soreness in his throat and a rumble in his stomach. He quickly reached for his canteen, unscrewed the top and took a large gulp of water. The liquid soothed his throat a bit, so he then opened the pack of crackers from his ration. Just as he was biting into one, he heard an explosion in the distance – not too close, but not far away either.
It was then that he suddenly felt someone pushing him down on his stomach. The mystery person held him face down to the ground, with a hand on his shoulder and a knee at the lower back. Steve quickly turned his head to the side and in the corner of his eye saw Peggy towering over him. He could see determination and focus on her face, her muscles tense and ready to pounce on anyone who posed danger to her or him. The M1911 pistol in her hand reinforced that statement even further. While Steve did certainly appreciate the protective sight of Peggy, the knee digging into his lower back started to become quite uncomfortable. He groaned at the pain and tried to wriggle himself out, but that only resulted in Peggy gripping him harder. He hissed and winced, and suddenly felt her grip relax.
"Oh gosh, Steve, I'm so sorry." he heard Peggy say, her tone apologetic. "I heard an explosion and I thought..."
"No hard feelings." Steve responded, still slightly awestruck. "It scared me a bit as well."
He quickly stood up on his legs, wiping dirt off his uniform. To his disappointment his crackers ended up spread all over the ground.
"Are you alright?" she asked, glancing over him, checking for any cuts or bruises.
"I'm fine, maybe next time just tell when you're about to pin me to the ground. Oh, and you owe me those crackers too." he answered, with a smirk, pointing to the food spread near his boots.
"Look at you, the king of snark." she said, smirking herself.
"I'm learning from the best." he answered, chuckling.
Peggy smacked his shoulder lightly.
"I hate those things, so don't worry, I'll give you some later. Now, we still have at least an hour until we need to be ready. I'm going to nap for a bit, how about you?" she asked.
"Nap sounds like a good idea." he answered, slowly creeping back into his sleeping bag.
Two hours later, the regiment hit the road again. The Allied advance on Cherbourg was gaining more and more momentum, with the Germans retreating to the fortress bombarded from sea, land and air. Peggy knew herself how it was to be on the receiving side of such an onslaught, and repaying that dubious favor filled her with a weird sense of justice. Passing through the countryside, she saw how devastating their advance was. The sides of the road were littered with abandoned horse carts, trucks and cars. The fields were full of craters left by artillery shells and bombs and there wasn't a village nor a town with all buildings intact. Looking up to scan the horizon she saw hundreds of contrails, marking the sky like a giant spider web.
Interesting how something so sinister can look so beautiful. she thought to herself. She knew how it was, to fear the black shadows in the sky dropping death onto the land below. Her thoughts were then interrupted by a loud roar of an aircraft engine, as she saw two P-47 airplanes fly low over the column, heading towards their objective.
"Majestic sons of bitches, aren't they?" Howard chimed in.
Cry Havoc and let slip the birds of war. Peggy thought.
Half an hour later, the destination of their journey felt further than ever. Peggy was, frankly, bored. Aside from Howard, who had his hands full driving, the rest of the crew was mainly milling about, trying not to fall asleep again.
Then, Peggy felt that something was not quite right. At first, she couldn't exactly put a finger on what was wrong, but throught her years on the front line she learned to trust her instincts as much as her senses. She cast a glance around the scenery – to the left, a ruined house with a forest wall some 200 meters away, to the right a field with a large apple orchard hidden behind a high hedgerow. Even before she could examine it further, she saw a muzzle flash from behind the vegetation. She heard an explosion to the front of the column and saw one of the tanks swerve to the right, its engine engulfed in flames. She saw men climbing out of the turret, falling down on the ground and rolling away from the burning machine.
"Contact, 2 o'clock!" Peggy shouted, closing the hatch.
"What is it?" Steve asked, with fear in his voice.
"I don't know yet. Howard, get us out of the road!"
"You got it!" he responded, immediately turning the hull to the right and pressing hard on the gas pedal. Peggy, looking through her periscope, saw another flash coming from the same position.
"Dugan, smoke!"
"Clear!"
"Jarvis, on target?" she asked, shouting over the commotion.
"Target is moving... oh God."
Peggy immediately looked back. What she saw made her blood run colder.
It was a Tiger. Moving slowly forwards, turning the turret to lock onto another target.
The infamous war machine, the behemoth of war that consumed everything in its path.
Now, however, was no time for fear. It was time to fight, bite back and strike hard.
"Fire!" Peggy shouted. The gun recoiled and the brass casing of the shell slammed back onto the floor. The shell hit right on target – while it would not outright destroy it, it would at least blind the crew for a moment.
"Howard, flank it from the right!" she said, as she saw a shell fired from behind harmlessly ricochet of the Tiger's front.
"On it!"
"Load, AP! Jarvis, fire only on my mark!"
"Roger, Miss Carter!" he exclaimed, his voice pitch elevated.
The smoke cloud covered the enemy tank fully by now. It was both a blessing and a curse – the Germans couldn't see where the Allies were, but the reverse of that situation was also true. Seconds seemed to turn into minutes as Howard maneuvered the Sherman to get the best possible position.
Suddenly, the Tiger was visible again, piercing through the smoke like a phantom.
Sideways on to Peggy's tank gun, completely at her mercy.
"FIRE!" she shouted, so loud that she saw Dugan wince.
She watched as the red tracer of the shot connected with the side armor, penetrating it. Immediately after, flames shot up from the top of the enemy tank. A second or two later, the machine exploded, the turret lifting upwards and slamming down to the ground.
"Target destroyed." Peggy exclaimed, suddenly remembering how to breathe again.
The answer to that statement was only heavy breathing. Then, she heard Howard sigh loudly.
"Fuck me, we got ourselves a Tiger." he exclaimed, sounding tired.
"Indeed we did." Peggy retorted, reaching for her flask and taking a sip. "Now get us back in the column, will you?"
"Sure thing." he said, maneuvering their own metal beast to get back where they were supposed to be.
Riding back to the column, Peggy scanned it too see how big the losses were. She saw one tank still burning and another one directly behind it with a hole in the side of the turret. Outside of that, she noted no other immediate losses. She felt mildly proud of herself – while losing two tanks was an issue now, they would get reinforced. A loss of a Tiger for the Germans stung far more than a loss of two Shermans for the Allies. The tank soon got back to the spot in the column. The crew relaxed, only to be startled by a banging noise to the side. Peggy sighed quietly and peeked out of the turret.
Outside, she saw Thompson. At first, she was certain he would launch into a long tirade on how reckless and irresponsible she was. However, as she scanned his face, she noted a faint smile on his lips.
"Just want to say thanks." he said, sounding at least slightly genuine. "For saving our asses, Carter."
"You're welcome, Lieutenant." she answered, her tone neutral and stiff. "Anything else?"
"Just be ready to move. That's all." he said, and turned back to his tank, his head lowered.
"Did I just hear what I heard?" Howard asked, his face exclaiming disbelief. "Did Lieutenant Asshole just thank you?"
"It does seem like it." Peggy answered, looking at Steve. He was smiling from ear to ear.
She smiled back at him, when she heard a whistle.
"All right, let's go." she said, preparing for another leg of the journey.