"This is so damn cool, y'all realize that, right?"
"You four really need to see the world if you think landing craft are cool. That's what I realize."
Eiko was nearly sick of hearing the rest of her crew be amazed at Dominion's landing craft. To her, they were normal – something she'd known all her life. To them, it was new and exciting. Amy was the worst offender.
"Eiko, you keep saying we're stuck here. You've got it totally wrong. We get to be here."
To Amy, getting to ride on the LCU-1622 was the newest form of being able to experience her knowledge of military equipment in person. Despite being massive, the LCAC was being used to transport a large amount of passengers and cargo to and from the shore, so it could only carry a portion of the team today. Instead, several tanks including the Ram had been loaded on the smaller yet still large LCU-1622. It was one of two LCU-1610-class landing craft that were operated by Nassau's Sealift Division, the other being LCU-1610 itself.
"No, we're definitely stuck here. The only thing slower than the LCUs are the LCM-8s. Meanwhile, the LCAC is ripping comfortably across the sea at forty-something knots." Eiko complained.
Mia looked back, past the stern loading ramp. "At least the view is pretty. And we get to see it for longer."
What she said was true; the view of Nassau against the blue of the sea and sky was something to behold. Her gray hull and superstructure stood out against the morning sun, while the green of her landscape and many colors of her town provided an excellent line of contrast up top. A small shape rose from the distant deck.
"Hey, what's that?" Mia asked.
From the turret of the Ram, Delilah pulled out her binoculars. "It's a plane of some kind. It's… ugly. Twin engine, twin tail, central fuselage. Amy, you know your stuff. Tell us what that ugly thing is."
Amy took the binoculars from Delilah. "That's an odd plane to see, but it makes sense given Nassau's type. It's an OV-10 Bronco. Haven't seen one in person before, like many things here."
Eiko sat up from the sun-warmed steel. "Unless it's doing a super-fast cargo run, it's probably set up to broadcast the match later."
"Broadcast?" Yelena raised an eyebrow. "As in people on the ship will be watching us live?"
"Yeah."
"Great, absolutely no pressure at all."
Delilah shrugged "We've been over this before. It's Anzio, and that means one thing, ladies. Tankettes."
"Yeah, I know it won't be as close as the Saunders match, but now everyone's watching live."
Amy sang a few lines quietly. "I can feel the pressure, it's getting closer now. We're better off without you…"
"If it wasn't for the fact that I knew some of your musical taste, I would say you're insane." Eiko said.
"Pfft." Mia looked at the coverall-wearing girl sitting on the engine deck. "That's because she is."
"Don't make me drift this beast again." Amy playfully warned.
Before Mia could think of a quip to respond with, the PA system crackled. "An estimated five minutes to the beach, make yourselves ready." The landing craft's captain announced.
"Alright, let's get this thing ready to move. Amy, warm up the engine. Mia, double-check that the travel locks for the turret are on. Yelena, help me pull out the chocks. Eiko, undo the tie-downs." Delilah instructed the relaxing girl.
Eiko lay where she was. "Uhhhnn."
"Come on, you have plenty of time to pull a Turret Lizard after we kick ass today.
"Fine, I'll shoot shit if you insist." Eiko replied sarcastically as she half-rolled half-slid herself off the side of the tank and down onto the deck.
Almost exactly five minutes later, LCU-1622 beached on the sand. Its bow ramp dropped rather suddenly and the tanks exited the boat. They formed up with the rest of the team before moving to their designated pre-match position.
Once they were there, the team began to make itself ready for the match. Each crew checked over their tanks. One by one, Ayame checked off the tanks on her list as the commanders reported to her their readiness. She was so engrossed in this that she didn't notice the AS.42 reconnaissance car speeding toward the team. Fortunately, Yelena did. She slipped off the Ram and positioned herself just in front of where she thought the car would stop.
Yelena had positioned herself perfectly. A short girl with light green hair in long twintails leapt off the car as it came to a halt, stepping over the windscreen and down the angled hood. She said something, but Yelena didn't hear what was said because she was too focused on the crazy hair to notice. When she did notice, Yelena realized that the girl was speaking Japanese.
That hair is insane, it's obviously dyed and well worked. Or maybe it's a wig? Wait… uh oh.
At no point had Yelena nor the rest of the Ram crew learned much if any Japanese. Everyone at Dominion and on board Nassau spoke at least basic English, most of them perfectly fluently, the same as their native language. Yelena was nervous for a half second until she sensed Eiko just behind and to the right of her, with Delilah following just behind.
Eiko said something that Yelena recognized as "Good morning" and something else that was completely lost on her. Crazy Hair Girl responded with a much longer sentence. The only thing that Yelena could parse from this was "Sensha-do" which obviously meant they were talking about Tankery.
Of course that's what she's talking about, given the setting.
"This is Anchovy, the captain of Anzio's Tankery team. She'd like to know who our captain is." Eiko translated.
"Uhh… I mean I guess I kind of am depending on what's happening, but officially it's Ayame."
"So the answer is Ayame."
"Sure."
"Oi, Ayame!"
Ayame and Anchovy spoke briefly. Eventually they shook hands and Anchovy turned to Delilah, who had by this point become the closest person to Ayame as Yelena had backed away slightly.
"She says that she wants to have a good match."
Delilah smiled and nodded. "Aye, you too."
Satisfied, Anchovy returned to her car. This time, she chose the sane form of entry and used the door to get into the passenger seat. The blonde girl driving started the car and drove off back to Anzio's pre-match area.
Ayame and Delilah returned to whatever they were doing previously. Instead of going immediately back into the Ram's engine compartment, Eiko stood in her spot for a moment.
"That hair is fuckin' awesome."
"It's a wig. And chill with the swearing, you're going to ruin Mia's innocence with all the stuff you've been saying all morning. It's been sounding like a Navy pub back in that engine bay."
"Bullshit, it ain't no wig. And hey, the tank is my workshop away from home. Language is whatever I want it to be in my workshop."
"Whatever, not like I truly care. And I'm sure that's a wig, the truly impressive hair was on the driver. Hers was practically yellow."
"Holy O'Fuck that thing is smaller than I thought it would be."
Eiko was staring at the distant CV.33 tankette through a set of binoculars. "Is that really what makes up most of their team? I mean, I know we went over this the other day, but damn, that's crazier than Anchovy's hair. How are they supposed to fight with that?"
Amy didn't miss her chance to make a quick joke. "It'd make a good tank for you, Eiko." She was surprised that Eiko didn't even respond to that. "I'm calling you short, Grease Monkey."
"Screw you too."
There it is.
"It's probably a really good recon vehicle. Small, fast, and easy to hide. If you bother trying to hide it, at least." Delilah commented.
"If it's so fast, why'd we have to sit here for so long?" Mia complained
"Who knows, maybe they're slow on the draw? Or perhaps they came from another direction?"
"However it got here, I'm not going to be the one to try and kill it. A CV.33's armor is so thin the round has a decent chance of counting as just going in one side and out the other. If that happens, they'd run away before we can get another shot off. Someone with a useful high explosive round will manage, but the 6 doesn't have much in that department."
"Alright."
Delilah toggled her headset. "Hey Akari, you want to do the honors? Use HE, the armor is plenty light."
Amy couldn't hear Akari's voice out of the headset, but the roar of the M8A1's 75mm gun was confirmation enough. The HE shell hit dead-on, flipping the CV.33 onto its side and causing the white flag to pop.
There was more conversation and the M22 sped off to Dominion's right flank, then further into the woods that was concealing them.
"What's going on?" Yelena asked.
"We're at the main strategic crossroads now, which is the most likely way for Anzio to attack. However, there's that other crossroads on the other side of the map. I'm worried that they might come through there, so the Locust is going to make sure that it's clear."
Mia sighed. "So we're back to waiting?"
"Pretty much. If the M22 doesn't return anything, we wait for Anzio to show up."
Fortunately, there wasn't too long to wait. The Locust was plenty fast and covered the ground in about fifteen minutes. Double-fortunately, it had something of interest to report back.
"They what?!" Ayame exclaimed, loud enough for everyone in the Ram to just barely hear her though the headset. "I thought they'd come this way!"
"Me too." Delilah said in a much calmer voice. "I'm not surprised they thought of that though, and it actually makes sense. Since their vehicles aren't near the performance of most of ours, they attack from a direction that lets them dictate how the engagement proceeds. I figured they'd try something like this."
"What should we do then?" Yelena asked. She answered her own question before anyone could respond. "It does depend on how much of the force is there. If it's only part of it, we need to split up to match their split."
Iku responded from the M22 that it seemed like most if not all of Anzio's team were there. They weren't moving, but then neither was Dominion. No sense making a more of a scene when the enemy isn't looking at you – or when you think the enemy isn't looking at you. Ayame, Hiromi, Delilah, and Yelena all conferred on the best course of action. They quickly decided that since Anzio wasn't appearing to be on the move yet, a quick response wasn't necessary. Knowing this, the heavier medium tanks – the M3 Lees, the M7, and the Ram – could all move to meet the brunt of Anzio's force. To keep their current position secure, the Stuarts would hold here. Since they could easily handle most anything that Anzio could throw at them (all the Semovente and the P40 were at the other crossroads) the Staurts would be fine, and to back them up, Ayame would leave them the M8. Because they were light tanks and therefore excellently fast, they could rejoin the Dominion force whenever they chose or were needed.
Next would be to decide on what to do with the tank destroyers. It was unanimous that they would be a much larger help on the other side of the map, since that was where the heavier tanks were and they would beef up the Dominion numbers in that location from four tanks to six. Hiromi pointed out that since the M3 Lees both had two guns each – a 37mm and a 75mm – that it was like they had two extra tanks. Yelena, while amused at the idea, had shot it down.
"I've dealt with a multi-gun tank before myself. I had a T-35 in a match once and it was the most nightmarish thing I've ever used. I couldn't understand why it didn't perform well, so I took command of it in a training session. I ended up sick from having to spin around and pick out targets for all the turrets and concussed from all the shells hitting us. That's the day I decided to start wearing a helmet. Oh, and we killed the same number of tanks as my T-34-85 did."
At some point in this conversation, someone broke in with the point that the two groups should have some kind of name to differentiate them on the radio. Suggestions were thrown around, with Hiromi suggesting the "Light" and "Heavy" platoon names that they occasionally used in training. Eventually, Ayame suggested "Pacific Fleet" for the current position and "Atlantic Fleet" for the crossroads that the M22 was currently monitoring.
"We really want to call our tank platoons 'fleets'?" Delilah asked, not totally convinced.
Ayame reasoned that they'd used naval terminology – destroyers and battle line – during the Chi-Ha-Tan battle, so there was at least a precedent.
"What about 'Task Force' then?" she said. "It doesn't sound as overly naval."
"Task Forces need numbers or further names." Yelena pointed out.
Amy was able to hear the entire conversation due to Delilah setting the radio to output through the intercom, and she gave her suggestion after searching her memory for the numbers of famous Task Forces. "How about we're Task Force 79 and the lights are Task Force 77? I mean, 77 was a Task Group but who's really keeping tr-"
Delilah cut her off "I like it. Can you think of another number? 77 and 79 have history, yeah, but they're really close."
"Uhh… We can be Task Force 38. 79 did get decoyed away at Samar after all."
"Excellent. Ayame, our group will be Task Force 38, the light tanks will be Task Force 77."
"Sounds wonderful. We've never done an operation with a name before, but how about we call this one Operation Husky since Anzio's an Italian school?"
"Amy's saying yes very enthusiastically over here, so it passes our nerd test."
"Alright then. Commence Operation Husky. Kana, you're in command of Task Force 77, I'm in command of Task Force 38. Panzer vor!"
Dominion's team split as planned: the light tanks and the M8 would hold the main crossroads under the name Task Force 77, while the rest of the team would move to the west and intercept the Anzio team at the other crossroads under the name Task Force 38. Task Force 38 rolled along at their highest speed. Even at full speed, it still took them the better part of twenty minutes to finally get close to the Locust.
"All right 38, get into position. Anzio doesn't seem to realize that we're here, so let's get ready to ambush them." Ayame ordered. She had the tank destroyers on the ends of Dominion's formation to keep Anzio from scattering too much, just as Delilah had told her on the drive there. In the center, the Lees, M7, and Ram took up concealed positions. Mia put her gunsight directly on the P40's front plate and had Yelena load APDS. There would be no question of whether or not the round would penetrate. This would be a one-shot kill. Meanwhile, Ayame's gunner sighted in on a Semovente. The gunners of the Lees split their fire, each gun targeting a different vehicle. On the flanks, the T49 targeted the P40 as a backup shot and the M8A1 prepared to hit the final Semovente. In their first volley, they should be able to take out the P40, three Semovente, and three CV.33s. That would leave Anzio with only five tanks left out of the eleven remaining, most of which would probably be the near-harmless tankettes.
Delilah counted down the time until the volley. "Three… two… one… FIRE!"
Eight guns sounded and eight shells all found their mark. It was hard to miss at this range. Amy guessed that it was just under 200 meters. Not point-blank, but still very close. Clouds of dust billowed up around the Anzio position. Each commander was straining with their binoculars. Inside the Ram, Yelena threw a fresh round into the 6-pounder's breech. Eiko had to restrain herself from firing a burst from her machine gun.
Dust and smoke that concealed the target cleared quickly, but the thirty or so seconds felt like half an hour. When it did, there were no white flags to be seen. In fact, there were no tanks for those white flags to fly from. It was as if rounds had hit the tanks and caused them to vaporize.
Something felt wrong.
"Tanks don't do that." Mia muttered as she frowned.
The bark of a .50 caliber Browning broke the silence. Akari fired her M8A1's roof-mounted gun at the remaining CV.33 out of frustration. It should've probably killed the tankette without a smoke cloud, but the effect was nothing like she expected.
To everyone's surprise, the little vehicle became swiss cheese. It was full of holes, holes that no match-legal tank should have. For a moment, Ayame thought that perhaps there had been some kind of terrible accident, that her guns had obliterated the Anzio tanks and Akari's shooting had riddled another one with bullet holes. That would've killed every student inside, but sense got the better of her. If that was true, then the match would've been called to a stop by the judges immediately.
Then something even more expected happened: the CV.33 fell over. Not tip over. Fell over. Tanks don't fall over.
There was silence. Some people might have figured it out, others might not, but no one could actually believe anything. Amy broke the silence and began to sing quietly, reciting a particular favorite song.
"Don't look so blue, my little decoy
You should've seen right through, my little decoy
You've never been so used, my little decoy
And so I'm using you, my little decoy"
The tanks were fake, decoys to trick Dominion into attacking.
Alongside the Ram, the M22 pulled to a stop. Iku looked confused as ever but volunteered to go ahead and see exactly what the decoy tanks were. Yelena slid out of her side hatch and onto the engine deck of the small tank. "I'm coming with you. This is beyond weird and I need to see it myself." She tossed her helmet into the open side hatch and the light tank roared off toward what was left of the "tanks."
Before the Locust came to a full stop, Yelena jumped off. She picked up a splintered piece of a decoy. It was nothing but painted wood. That was all. That was all it had taken to put the majority of Dominion's tank force far from the rest of the team.
Far from the rest of the team…
"Vot eto pizdets!"
"I don't speak Russian…" Iku said, somewhat disappointed in missing the juicy swearing that she assumed Yelena was probably doing right now.
Yelena whirled around and yelled to Iku. In her frustration, she didn't mentally switch back to English.
"Prinesi mne radio!"
"Speak English on the battlefield!"
"Get me a ra-"
A shot rang out. It wasn't friendly. A Semovente nailed the M22, a perfect hit. The light tank was out, and so was Yelena's ride back to her tank. She ran and threw herself to the ground, sliding behind the Locust. There was no telling what was going to shoot next.
Thankfully, the next shot was from a 6-pounder. Mia was certainly not a slow gunner, nor was she a poor one. An AP round made the Semovente's flag pop just as a CV.33 came up behind it. Seeing their comrade knocked out, the tankette's crew charged toward the Ram.
Inside the green behemoth, Amy floored the accelerator just as Mia fired the gun. Amy paid no attention to what she was actually doing, only to closing the gap between the Ram and Yelena. She saw the CV.33 appear from behind the knocked-out Semovente. In her mind, she might as well have been driving her Forester. The Ram shot forward, straight at the tankette. Machine gun rounds pelted the tank, Amy paid no attention. Mia was unable to fire another shot due to not having a loader to put in a new round. Instead, she sprayed the coax at the target. Eiko and Delilah blazed away with their guns as well. It wouldn't kill it, but it was something.
No one else on the team could get to their senses to get a shot off quickly, but it didn't matter. Amy rammed the CV.33 at full speed, the light vehicle spinning wildly before throwing a track and coming to a jarring halt. The Ram pulled into a neat slide, with itself between the CV and Yelena. Another machine gun joined the fray. Akari was still out of her hatch from earlier and let loose several bursts from her roof gun.
When Ma Deuce speaks, everyone listens.
With the bigger and heavier .50 caliber AP rounds hitting the side of the CV.33, the hit detection system registered the sheer amount of them as a kill. A flag popped, and the woods quieted down.
Well, quiet except the yelling of a certain Scottish tank commander. First the yelling was over the radio for her tank destroyers to rush across the map to Task Force 77; then it was at the Semovente. It started as Delilah generally berating the Anzio tank crews, who wisely chose to stay buttoned up. Eventually, Delilah's accent became thicker and thicker as she fumbled around in the turret for some unseen item.
"Do you think we should restrain her or something?" Mia asked.
"Nah." Amy said. "This is plenty entertaining. If you listen, her voice isn't getting deeper, her accent's just getting thicker. That means she's not really all that pissed, or maybe not even mad at all and is just screwing around."
"She's got the flare gun out."
"Wonderful."
Eiko grinned. "This is gonna be good."
By this point Delilah's speech had devolved into unhinged Scots and Gaelic obscenities. She loaded a round into the flare gun.
BANG!
A flare landed on the roof of the Semovente.
Yelena was thoroughly impressed. "Can we appreciate the fact that she knows enough of two different dead languages to switch between both of them on the fly?"
Another flare landed on the CV.33.
"Gu ifrinn còmhla riut, bidh na màthraichean agad a 'cadal le fir pòsta!"
"Did she just switch mid-sentence?"
"Holy O'Fuck she did."
Another voice joined in. "Okay, now it's time to kill things. Ayame, what's the status of Task Force 77?"
Everyone inside the Ram was surprised. Yelena looked over the gun at her previously deranged commander. "You… you were just… what?"
"It's like she's controllably bipolar." Eiko commented.
"Eiko, that's not how bipolar works…" Amy complained.
Indeed, Delilah's mood had seemed to change with the flip of a switch. In an instant, she went from horsing around and yelling to being a dead-serious tank commander. Yelena shuddered. This was the sort of mental compartmentalization that she'd talked about weeks ago.
While not oblivious to her crew's shock and amusement, Delilah was dealing with more important matters. She couldn't raise Ayame over the radio.
"Ayame! SitRep!"
Nothing.
"Delilah to Ayame, requesting a SitRep of Task Force 77!"
Finally, Ayame's loader responded. "Delilah, it's not good. Switch back to the team frequency, since we're all listening anyway."
"What's going on?"
Delilah's burning question was answered when she switched her radio to listen to the main team frequency. The instant she did, her headset practically exploded with noise.
"Tank destroyers here, currently engaged with two Anzio vehicles! We're halfway between the Task Forces!"
"Task Force 77, we have a large Anzio force in sight!"
Numerous other messages flew back and forth, some of them filled with language similar to what had just been flowing from Delilah's own mouth, some of them repeating what was already said. Realizing something (everything, really) was going wrong all at once and that Ayame was probably overloaded, Delilah ordered Task Force 38 to form around her. The tanks broke from the tree line and into the clearing where the decoys had once stood and where the Ram was now positioned among the knocked-out tanks. The three remaining tanks circled around the Ram while Delilah and Yelena tried to understand their situation.
When the M7 pulled alongside the Ram, Delilah's suspicion was proven correct. Ayame was sitting upright in her cupola, completely still and pale as paper. She was clutching her radio microphone, staring into nothingness.
"We're dead." Ayame said as she somewhat focused on Delilah. "We got completely drawn away by this stupid decoy and now the rest of the team is going to get crushed."
Mia leaned out her side hatch. "We're not totally done yet. Maybe Task Force 77 is going to take a beating, but we know where Anzio is. Additionally, we don't know what kind of vehicles the TDs are fighting and there's of course still us. We all have guns that are more powerful than anything Anzio has, with similar or better armor."
Mia's little speech seemed to help a little in that Ayame was moving somewhat, but nothing that would bring her back from whatever mental hell she was in. Mia tried to continue. "Listen, remember that this is all a sport. A game. I know it sounds rich coming from me, someone who kicks themself to be the absolute best, but I mean it. The worst thing you do is lose a match. It happens and it's not like anyone is going to-"
She stopped dead and mentally kicked herself for trying to keep going. There was a reason Ayame was like this, or at least it was one of the reasons, and that was the Vice President. The Bird. The girl that had emotionally and physically abused and manipulated Ayame after losses and apparently whenever she felt in the mood to.
In the span of time that Mia was trying to talk with Ayame, Delilah had come up with a decent picture of what was going on. To the east, the tank destroyers were currently fighting two unknown and previously unseen vehicles. They were larger, faster, and seemed to pack bigger guns than anything Anzio had been expected to field in this match. Further to the east was Task Force 77. They were being visited by the whole of Anzio's remaining team: two Semovente, four CV.33s, and the P40.
Being human and therefore only able to work on one thing at a time, Delilah performed a kind of triage to decide which group to instruct first. For the time being, Task Force 38 was safe and far from the action, at nearly full strength. Task Force 77 was farthest from her and looked like it would be overrun no matter what was done. Again, Delilah was a human and could not work miracles. If battle conditions were exceptionally poor and were a guaranteed loss, then that was the way things were. On the other hand, the tank destroyers needed immediate attention as they were currently engaged. Unlike Task Force 77, they weren't waiting for their death blows to show up but rather were currently fighting them. They may well be able to fight themselves out of their situation if given proper orders. Therefore, Delilah chose to assist the tank destroyers.
"Alright, tank destroyers, what do you got for me? You're engaged with two vehicles, have you been able to identify them at all yet?" Delilah asked.
Akari was the one to answer. "No clue. One is this really short and flat tank that's hauling major ass and keeping pace with us, no matter what we do. The other is some crazy truck thing with eight wheels and a bigass gun. It kinda looks like a bigger version of our M8 Greyhound, and it's keeping up with us, too."
Once again, Delilah had the radio over the intercom so everyone could hear. She was able to think of a possible identification for the "truck" that Akari was describing. "Does the gun have a muzzle brake?"
"Yeah, big thing."
"And does it almost look a bit too tall?"
"Yes, now that I look at it, this thing does seem kind of tall. Maybe as tall as a person and a half?"
"Then I think what you're looking at is an Sd. Kfz. 234/2 Puma."
Delilah looked at Mia. "You know anything about the Puma?"
The German gunner nodded. "Yep. Before I got into anything else, I was in a Pz III, which has the same 5-centimeter gun. Pretty decent unless you're going up against heavier targets, but lighter stuff you're going to rock its world. At that close range, the penetration is damn good. Not that it matters, the TDs have light armor by design. Make sure they're careful."
This information was relayed to the tank destroyer crews.
"Okay, next tank. They say it's low and flat with a high speed. Sounds like a Crusader to me. What's weird is that the Crusader is a British tank, it has no business being on Anzio's Italian team. Same deal with the German Puma, and it shouldn't even be match-legal in Japan since it's a wheeled vehicle."
Yelena shrugged. "Maybe they're cheating, but the judges haven't called them on it. So more likely they found a way around the rules. We are currently sitting in a Canadian tank on an American team, so a German tank next to Italian ones isn't too far off. The big thing is that Crusader. There's no BS-ing it onto the team. We've either misidentified it or they're not understanding what they're seeing."
"Then what the hell is it?" Delilah wondered.
All gaze fell on Amy, who was made to feel uncomfortable about being put on the spot like this. "Why are you all looking at me?"
"You're the resident mega-nerd, grace us with your knowledge."
"Well, I do have a guess."
"And it is?"
"A Fiat M16/43."
"No clue what that is."
"It's better known as the Celere Sahariano. It looks a hell of a lot like a Crusader because it was Italy's attempt to build one. They saw the cruiser tanks from Britain kicking ass in the desert, and they wanted in on that action. So, the Italians made something that resembled it, even down to also using Christie suspension. No one knows exactly where they got that from, maybe a reverse-engineered Crusader or whatever, but nonetheless there it is. The gun isn't as good as our glorious 6-pounder, but once again the TDs are at very close range in very lightly armored vehicles. If anyone lands a hit, they're getting an instant kill, and that goes for both sides."
Yelena nodded. "Makes sense. Do you have anything specific you can think of that they need to know?"
"Unfortunately not. It's a light tank, that's all I know off the top of my head."
This information was also radioed to the tank destroyers. Now it was up to them to fight their way out.
Akari felt the wind whip her hair as her M8A1 charged through the forest, tailing the Puma and Celere. No one was able to hit each when moving at this high speed, but this wasn't necessarily a shooting match. It was a fight of speed. Thankfully, the T49 proved to be the fastest by a slight margin and its driver was able to keep it under control. Meanwhile, the M8A1 was slightly slower due to its slightly worse power to weight ratio. However, the power to weight ratio wasn't the main problem here. The M8A1 could still keep up in terms of numbers and was doing so fairly well, but it was limited by its suspension. The Puma had tires to cushion the bumps, the Celere had the famed Christie suspension that was designed and proven to work at high speed, and the T49 was built with a similar but not identical system of coil springs. This system did resemble the Christie one in some ways but was built and assembled in a different manner.
Somewhat to its detriment, the M8A1 used a bogie style of suspension, inherited from the M5 Stuart light tank hull it was built from. Since the expedient conversion to make it a tank destroyer was all in the turret, everything lower than the turret ring was the same as a Stuart. The running gear was no exception, and it was known that VVSS bogies provided a rougher ride at high speeds as well as a reduced obstacle clearance. Back in the 1940s, the US Army had decided that the easier to repair bogies that also took up no hull space were better suited to their general use than overly complex Christie springs or new torsion bars.
That decision was biting back at the M8A1's crew, who was now bouncing very uncomfortably in their tank. The bouncing wouldn't help their attempts to aim, either.
"We just need to keep them away from Task Force 77!" Akari shouted into her microphone, trying to be heard over the rush of the wind.
"Which means keep them from turning any more right, yeah?" the T49 commander asked?"
"Exactly."
The Puma and Celere had been cutting a southeastern route toward 77's flank, just the kind of attack these vehicles had been built and designed to carry out. After making contact, the pair had moved to a more south-south easterly route, likely trying to run away from the Dominion tank destroyers before they closed the gap and were caught between Task Force 77 and the TDs.
With the new command, the T49's driver accelerated further, getting her tank alongside the Puma, which was the rearmost of the two Anzio vehicles. The gunner fired a shot that just missed the front right of the Puma. This forced it to turn more to the left, making the Celere follow suit or be separated. Even though it worked, Akari wasn't happy with this temporary solution.
They needed to stop these tanks, and they needed to do it soon. Fortunately, she had a plan. First, they'd need to get the tanks to slow down a bit so her gunners could get a better chance of a hit. Second, they would need to either immobilize or knock out both of the enemy vehicles before they were knocked out themselves. It would be a difficult balance. If they slowed for too long, the enemy could get shots off and use Akari's own ideas against her. If they didn't bleed off enough speed, no one would be able to hit and this chase would continue until someone either hit from sheer luck or another part of either team could intervene.
Just as Akari was finishing her high-speed discussion with the T49 on how to accomplish this, the two Anzio vehicles cut hard to the right. The M8A1 fell behind as it was now on a longer path, while the T49's driver had made good use of her training with Amy. The T49 pulled into a high-speed slide at the first sign of a turn, keeping its momentum and roughly following the same track as the enemy. This maneuver put the Puma on the T49's right side, the Celere ahead of the Puma, and the M8A1 behind and to the left of the Puma.
"Okay, get ready, because we're only going to get a small window of time to get all this right." Akari cautioned. She pressed the butterfly trigger on her .50 caliber Browning, and hot rounds flew at her target. The target – targets, really – were the wheels of the Puma. These could be shot out to slow down the armored car enough for a good shot. It seemed that this had some effect, but not as much as Akari had hoped for. The Puma had slowed down slightly. Interestingly, it was also pulling gently to the left.
The T49's driver took advantage of this gentle turn to slip in between the Puma and the Celere, narrowly avoiding an opportunistic shot from the Puma's cannon. The turret turned around, lining up for a shot on the Puma. At the same time, the Puma began to line up on the T49. Akari saw what was coming.
"Brakes now! Get out of there!"
It was too late. The T49 was much too close to the Puma; at most it was two tank lengths away. This was a range at which no one could miss.
A 5 cm shell hit the turret of the tank destroyer, knocking it out and causing the hit detection system to kill the engine and slam on the brakes. The T49 ground to a violent halt as the Puma and M8A1 roared by.
Akari was now seriously worried. It was only her against a pair of machines made specifically to kill her tank. She thought for a minute about what to do, briefly considering pulling back and letting the Anzio tanks go. This thought was pushed away quickly with two considerations: A) the team needed her to occupy these two and inflict whatever damage was possible so that it could regroup and hold off the other attack and B) that pulling away would still mean she'd be a target for several minutes before the enemy was far enough away for the M8 to conceal itself in the thin woods.
So now it was up to her and her alone to do whatever she could to stop these tank-killers. Thankfully, the second part of her previous plan could still work, with some modification. This would involve stopping both vehicles, except now she didn't have a second gun to work with. Somehow, one shot would need to stop both of them. Otherwise, an immobile yet alive tank would mean the other could circle around or run off.
Akari had her gunner take aim just ahead of the Celere. By this point, the turret of that tank was turned around and the gunner was taking pot-shots. A clank sounded the loading of a high-explosive shell.
"Ready… Fire!"
An explosion lit up the ground next to the Celere's left track. The track snapped and the light tank lurched right from the blast before settling on its left road wheels. Due to the previous turn, the Puma and Celere were practically on top of each other, and the now-stopping Celere found itself right in the way of the Puma that was now bearing down at full speed. Both tanks collided in a shower of sparks. The Celere was pushed around by the Puma, digging its right track into the dirt. This large amount of force rolled the light tank hard to its right side while still being rammed from its left. Within a few seconds, the Celere was pushed too far and dug deep enough into the ground to pivot on its road wheels and flip over, leaving it totally dead. The Puma slowed to a near stop before it dislodged itself from the wreck as the M8A1 flew past at full speed.
Only now did Akari realize the flaw in her idea. The Puma was behind her and was nearly stationary.
"Right stick!"
Even as the driver pulled hard on the right brake, the Puma zeroed in and fired. Firing from a stationary platform, there was little reason for the shell to miss.
Akari felt the 50mm shell slam into the back of her tank, instantly killing the engine and taking all power with it. The M8A1 came to rest and settled on its suspension, its flag flying high.
That was both of Dominion's tank destroyers down, with one light tank down and another with moderate damage.
"Holy shit…"
Nozomi lay flat on her belly in the underbrush, looking through her binoculars. She didn't like what she saw. Handing her binoculars to the girl next to her, she asked, "Are those what I think those are?"
The girl, who was her bow gunner, stared at the magnified image. "That's a P40, two Semovente, and four CV.33s."
"In other words, almost all of the Anzio team is rolling our way."
Nozomi's radio crackled with static.
"Tank destroyers here, currently engaged with two Anzio vehicles! We're halfway between the Task Forces!"
"Task Force 77, we have a large Anzio force in sight!" Nozomi added on to the other message.
The next person to speak was Kana, who requested more information on the Anzio force coming her way. As Nozomi and her bow gunner ran back to their tank, she explained that the rest of Anzio's known team was about to show up: four CV.33s, two Semovente tank destroyers, and worst of all, the P40 with Anchovy herself. Nozomi guessed that they were at most five minutes out, probably less.
Kana listened to the report and sighed. Much more equally matched forces had done battle with very bad endings. In the tank next to her, Maiko held her face in her hands. To her left, Nozomi mounted her tank. From their rearguard position, the other Stuart commander said, "Kana, there's no way we're going to win this. The tank destroyers are occupied. They don't know what they're even fighting yet. The Locust is out. The medium tanks are at least twenty minutes away, and that's assuming they're even underway yet."
"Should we pull back?" Maiko asked, almost sobbing.
"To where?" Nozomi answered. "If we leave, then we're giving up the best position on the map, and that's even assuming we can get away. Who knows exactly where the tank destroyers are at, and whatever they're fighting will give us a bloody nose."
"We could try and help them, right?"
"No." Kana shook her head. "For all we know, that's their goal, to draw us away when we go to assist. If they take this location, we're going to have a very hard time taking it back."
"So what are we going to do? You're the commander here."
"If we pull back, we lose this position for our team. If we try to take it back, we'll almost certainly get knocked out. If we run around too much, we might get taken out by the thing we don't know. If we stay here, we face down a force with a tank that outweighs one of ours by more than double its weight. There's a tiny chance that we turn Anzio back, but there's not going to be much of us left."
"And that means?"
"This is a fighting unit. I intend to go into harm's way, and anyone who doesn't want to go along can leave right now. I am not fighting Anzio. We are fighting Anzio. If we're going to get taken out no matter what, I intend to do it in a way that yields some chance of a benefit. Is everyone clear? Are there any objections?"
Around Kana, the three other commanders looked on in awe. This was the most serious they'd ever seen their friend, and she'd never displayed this kind of leadership before.
"No objections!" All three responded.
"Then let's roll."
In preparation for Anzio's arrival, Kana positioned her tanks as best she could. All three were in some kind of partial cover or at least concealment. Nothing was perfect and nothing allowed for a complete hull-down position, but it was what she could do. That was going to define the next fifteen minutes: the best Task Force 77 could do alone. 38 had just gotten underway but was going to have to pick their way through the forest and watch for the Puma in case it decided to stalk them.
"How are you all doing over there?" Delilah asked.
"We're doing alright. The Stuarts are in what cover there is, I'm behind the hill ready to drop some 75 on them."
"Sounds excellent. Anything else?"
It sounded to Kana that Delilah was asking for final words before her little force was eviscerated by Anchovy and her tanks.
Kana took a deep breath, collecting all the emotions, words, and thoughts inside herself. Calming herself down and focusing on each word to make it come out correctly, she started to speak from somewhere deep in herself that she didn't think existed.
"A large Anzio tank force has been contacted. They are fifteen minutes away and headed in our direction. They are going to bring four CV.33s, two Semovente 75/18s tank destroyers, and a P26/40 medium tank. Somewhere out there is a Puma running wild. This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."
Delilah was thoroughly impressed by Kana's calmness. "We're heading your way as fast as we can, but it's going to be a while. I trust that you guys can do this. Good luck."
"Channel your inner Johnston, girls. By the sound of it, you already have." Amy said to herself quietly from her position in the Ram.
Anchovy sat back in her commander's seat as she listened to her radio. Pepperoni's CV.33 was acting as a scout out in front of the group. She was trying to explain what it was she saw.
"There's three tanks ahead of me. I can't tell what they are."
"What do they look like?"
"They're green."
No shit. Who put that idiot on scouting duty? Oh… Right…
Just as she thought that, Anchovy remembered that she'd done it herself. Somewhat annoyed with herself for choosing what might be the dimmest person to ever participate in Tankery as the team's scout, she asked Pepperoni for more details.
"There's three of them, and they look pretty big compared to us. The front part is really sloped, and the turret looks a little bit small for how big the tank is. It also has a lot of angles and is a little bit boxy."
Now Anchovy thought. What was an American tank that was kind of big, had a slightly too-small-looking turret, a sloped front, and angles that make it look boxy? A Sherman with a welded hull? It had to be, what else was like that? But as far as Anchovy knew, Dominion had no Shermans in their lineup. Not that was much to go by, Anzio had brought some unexpected tanks with them as well.
Those had been welcome additions to her team, but Anchovy had no idea exactly what to do with them. It seemed like putting them at the middle of the map had been a good idea. Fortunately, that move had worked out by sheer luck, and the Celere and Puma had taken down both of Dominion's tank destroyers.
Moving back to the tanks at hand, Anchovy decided that what Pepperoni was seeing were in fact M4 Shermans that Dominion had gotten their hands on without anyone knowing. No one at Anzio had identification charts on them, but the mental image Anchovy had from Pepperoni's report was good enough to her.
With a decent idea of what she was going up against, Anchovy stopped her team just at the edge of the wood line. Here, the road spread from its wooded sides with little room on the sides to a wide dirt clearing that rounded the corner to the field. Pepperoni's CV.33 was already waiting, hidden behind the brush.
"From what we can see, Dominion has three Shermans across this field. They have a slight height advantage, but not only about fifteen meters. Maybe twenty at most. We're going to form two groups and push them off this point. We can prove that Anzio is not weak- I mean that we're strong!"
A small cheer came from the commanders of the tanks and tankettes, who settled back down into their positions and buttoned up their hatches as they got ready to attack.
Anzio's team turned the corner and spread into their formation. As they emerged from the tree line, everyone could see the Dominion tanks in the distance. Well, "distance" wasn't exactly true. There was about four hundred meters of separation between the two teams, not exactly a massively long range.
Anchovy squinted through her binoculars at the enemy. These tanks were not massive, but they did look like Shermans to her. She couldn't exactly remember what the one Saunders always used in their matches looked like, but these had to be it. While trying to make herself positive as to the identity of the tanks, rounds began flying toward her and her own tanks. Multiple explosions threw up clouds of dirt and smoke around her. These had to be fairly large shells, just like what Anchovy had seen of 75mm Sherman guns in other matches. Those tanks up there were definitely M4 Shermans then.
"Fire!" Anchovy called into her radio.
A hail of fire soared through the air. The CV.33s fired their machine guns in barking bursts while the Semoventes and the P40 fired their cannons in a near perfect volley. The cannon shots all hit close to the Shermans, closer than they were getting to the Anzio tanks with their shots.
Several volleys erupted from the line of Shermans. Anchovy was quite impressed with the loaders on the enemy team. They seemed to load rounds much faster than her own, and even got off shots Anchovy never actually saw. A cloud of dirt would burst nearby, but not one of the tanks had looked like they had fired.
Too bad that won't save them. We've almost been handed this one!
With a smile, Anchovy looked across her formation. The team had split into two groups. One was made of both Semoventes and two CV.33s, while the other consisted of her own P40 and the other two CVs. Just before Anchovy was going to look back toward the Dominion line, she watched a spurt of flame erupt from the gun of Carpaccio's Semovente. Anchovy turned quickly to see its effect on the target. It hit perfectly in the center of a Sherman, punching a hole in the front armor. A white flag, however, did not appear over its turret to mark the kill.
"Excellent hit! Just a bit better and we're not going to lose – I mean, we'll definitely win!"
As soon as she said that, something on the battlefield seemed to change. At first, there was some mood or unspoken emotion that felt like it shifted. It wasn't something that was tangible with the senses, but something was there. Then it became very much tangible. Another tank appeared next to the Shermans. It seemed to look like the rest from the top down, but the turret was very different. It was bigger and had a short, snub-nosed gun that reminded Anchovy of the one she had seen on Miho Nishizumi's Panzer IV D weeks ago.
Wait…
That Panzer had a short 75mm gun, and the one on that Sherman looked nearly identical. Anchovy looked closely at the other Shermans, which seemed to have smaller-diameter guns, albeit longer ones. The snubby one fired, and a large cloud of dirt formed next to a CV.33 as it rolled over and was knocked out.
Hold on…
That cloud was the same as the large ones she'd seen before. It had come from the snub-nosed tank and was very much like the ones the Panzer had made. That had used a 75mm gun, which meant that this had to be one as well.
Why does something feel very wrong?
The Shermans began to race toward the Anzio formation. If they had shrugged off that AP round by it going straight through, that meant they had to have very thin armor. Those guns were smaller than that 75, which meant…
Oh no…
Those Shermans racing toward her were not Shermans. They were something smaller, they were some kind of light tanks… Stuarts! Those were Stuarts!
Anchovy fumbled for her microphone. "Those aren't Shermans! Stop using full AP, use something lighter! They're Stuarts!"
Just as she warned her team, things started going very, very badly. Two CV.33s were hit, one by a regular Stuart and one by the snub-nosed not-a-Stuart.
Carpaccio's Semovente seemed to have heeded the warning and switched to a different type of round, because a Stuart took a hit and ground to a sudden halt. However, that didn't save it from a hit from a different Stuart that was getting practically within fist fight range. Another CV took an HE round from the snub-nose moments later.
This was decidedly not a good development; Dominion had taken four tanks for the loss of one in the span of two minutes. Looking at the situation, Anchovy knew she might have to turn back if things kept going like this. A round from the snub-nose clipped the side of the P40's turret. It made a terrible screeching sound as the steel of the shell scraped against steel of the tank before an eerie softening fluttering noise followed as it tumbled away into the distance.
If this was just the light tanks of Dominion, what kinds of horrors did the others have in store? Why exactly were these little light tanks so confident about being able to charge at them and seemingly not care about losses? Were they getting reinforcements soon?
Anchovy's eyes widened.
Oh, shit.
That dead Semovente and CV.33 from before meant that the rest of the team were probably on their way, with only the Puma to stop them. Now was certainly not the time to be taking losses like this if that was the case. So much for this beautiful plan.
"All tanks, stop and fire a shot! Then reverse back down the hill!"
Kana racked the bolt on her fifty. All her job would be now was to mop up this mess of an attacking force. It didn't matter if her own tank was knocked out, it just mattered that she got up close and personal with these tanks. Of course, range didn't exactly matter here. The 75mm M66 HEAT rounds the M8 was using had the same penetration effects at all ranges, and the range was so close that shell drop was hardly an issue. Simply put, it was a matter of putting the crosshair on a target and firing. That was easier said than done, especially since her tank's gun was not stabilized unlike those of the Stuarts, but it would be something to overcome.
Until now, the line had been advancing at only about twenty-five miles an hour. Unsatisfied with the level of destruction, Kana ordered everyone up to full speed. At first, she'd expected protests from her commanders about not being able to aim as well, but the responses Kana got back were overwhelmingly positive. She mustered all the feeling and courage inside her as she aimed her .50 caliber machine gun at the remaining CV.33 and verbally let loose with whatever she could think of.
"Come on you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?!"
Kana's fifty roared to life, a prolonged burst was sent toward the CV. The gun shook her whole body, her whole being, but Kana powered through with adrenaline. She walked the tracers onto the steel of the CV, some rounds pinging off and some counting as hits. Using the line of tracers hitting the tankette as a guide, the gunner sent a HEAT round downrange. It just barely hit its target, but it was a hit nonetheless. The CV.33 jerked to the side and stopped.
No sooner had Kana begun to celebrate her little victory than she felt the M8 slam backwards on its suspension. The flag popped, and Kana's battle was over. She watched the P40 and remaining Semovente turn away, weaving to avoid shots from the two Stuarts that were left. The P40's turret had turned around for a few parting shots, and one connected with a Stuart's track. With its road wheels dragging into the dirt, the Stuart whipped around and nearly turned over. Further across the field, the last Stuart chased down the P40 and Semovente, the latter unable to fire back due to its casemate gun. Kana yelled into her radio to not chase, but either the commander didn't hear or the radio had been disabled by the tank being knocked out because the Stuart disappeared into the woods with the two Italian tanks losing ground.
Moments later, a gun sounded in the trees and Stuart's commander reported being taken out by the Semovente. Apparently, the little tank destroyer had pulled some kind of crazy spin to bring its gun around and onto target.
That was that. The engagement was over. Looking at the results of the short battle, the kill figures were totally backward. For the loss of a Stuart (one was only immobilized and the other Kana didn't consider a part of the actual engagement since it had chased Anzio down after the victory) and the M8, Dominion had taken all four remaining CV.33s and Semovente. This was the bulk of Anzio's force, leaving them with only the damaged Puma, the last Semovente, and the P40. Additionally, Anzio had been driven away from an advantageous position and back into the woods. Meanwhile, Dominion still had two Lees, the Ram, the M7, and a Stuart.
In the distance, Kana could hear the sound of a radial engine. Within a minute, the Ram roared out of the trees behind her. Amy's uniquely insane driving had gotten the tank there before the rest of the team. She pulled to a stop beside the knocked-out M8.
"You okay?" Delilah asked.
Kana nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Can't say the same for our tank, though. We took a good hit from the P40."
"Aye, well hang in there for a bit. We'll finish this, no problem. I'll talk later about your insane fighting." Delilah said with a smile and a mock salute.
"Good luck." Kana returned the salute as the Ram pulled away to check on the immobilized Ram and help get it running again.
Finally, the rest of the team showed up and passed Kana's tank, waving to her and the Stuart as they went by.
Yelena's mind wandered as she watched the activity around the immobilized Stuart. Eiko was working fervently with its crew to get it back in shape to run. The glancing blow had not only split the track but had also sheared off the front most road wheel. Of course, tanks carry plenty of spare track and most carry at least one extra road wheel. Even with Dominion's money problems, the Stuart was no exception. After a short time, the repairs to the road wheel were done and the track was being put back together. Yelena's thoughts turned first to her experience earlier and then to their current situation.
Less than an hour ago, Yelena had been very nearly shot at. It apparently wasn't that close, because the judges hadn't called the match for someone being in danger, but it was still an intense experience. Not that it was particularly terrifying or anything, Yelena was used to rounds flying her way after years and years of Tankery. However, it wasn't until now that there had been rounds in the air while she was dismounted and fully outside of a tank. From the whole thing, Yelena could only really fully remember and picture herself diving behind the Locust and sliding in the dirt. She hadn't been hurt other than getting her overalls dirty, but they would clean right up with soap and water. There had been much more mud, dirt, oil, and filth on them at many previous times, and they'd always cleaned right up.
Maybe that was a small slice of what Ayame had felt when she'd been through the bombardment torture test before the Chi-Ha-Tan match. There was an element of fear present, after all, no matter how far back in Yelena's mind it was.
Thinking of Ayame, how is she?
Ayame was on the other side of the Dominion formation, sitting on top of the turret of her M7. She looked better than before, but still not great. When she'd found out about the decoy and everything going on at once, Ayame had totally lost it again. It wasn't as bad as other times, but she had completely locked up. Yelena knew that it was understandable. It's not every day that you get blindsided by a messed-up maneuver and two separate elements of your team being engaged all at the same exact time.
Thankfully, Anzio was nowhere to be seen now that the heavier tanks had shown up. They had formed up around the Stuart to keep it protected, with the Ram facing to the rear right flank, partially blocking a direct line of sight to the Stuart from likely lines of attack. Across the formation was the M7 facing forward, ready to blast Anzio if they came back up the road. The 75 on Hiromi's Lee was also facing that way, with the 37 turned offset to the left to cover that side. On the other Lee, this setup had been mirrored to cover the rear and rear-left.
Yelena focused on the sounds around her, trying to relax a bit more. She could hear the collective hum from each of the tank's auxiliary motors, the clatter of track links, and the voices of everyone talking about something or other. Above her, the wind made the trees sway gently. Relatively speaking, the loudest thing she heard was Mia drumming softly on the gun breech.
As she relaxed, Yelena started to feel something "off." She didn't know what it was, but something wasn't quite right. As she opened her eyes, the feeling grew stronger.
What was going on?
Yelena stared at a particularly dense group of brush to the right of the Ram. Still, this gave no answers. Something about that brush wasn't right, but Yelena couldn't tell what it was or how she knew.
It's just a bunch of leaves. You're freaking out again, just ignore it.
But Yelena couldn't ignore it.
Something happened in that clump of brush that Yelena could not immediately explain. Regardless of what it was, Yelena stood up and shouted.
"TANK RIGHT!" She screamed.
Mia popped her head up from the commander's hatch. "The hell you on about?"
"Traverse right now! That clump of brush, right there!"
Mia ducked back into her position and the turret swung to the right as Mia searched for a target.
"There's nothing there."
"There's a goddamn Puma sitting over there and it's going to kill us!"
Once again, Yelena had no idea how she knew it was there let alone the fact that it was a Puma. She clambered over the mantlet that was now facing her and onto the turret, taking hold of the .30 Browning that Delilah normally used. The commander was discussing something with Hiromi. Yelena fired a burst into the trees.
That got everyone's attention.
Both Lees turned their turrets to where Yelena was firing. Before they could get their guns all the way around, the Puma burst through the foliage.
The 50mm German gun roared, hitting the half-dead Stuart.
A string of German curses came from the Ram's turret as Mia lined up on the armored car. Before the loader could get a new round in, the 6-pounder answered the sound of the Puma's gun. It didn't take someone as skilled as Mia to put a shell straight into a target that close, and the Puma was flying its flag as quickly as it had appeared.
"How in the world did you know that?" Mia asked as everyone got back into their tanks. Now that the Stuart was out, they wouldn't need to take more time repairing it.
"I don't know, I really have no idea how I could tell. There was just this feeling that it was sitting there. Maybe it was just a lucky guess."
Delilah sat down in her seat. "Regardless of how you knew, you did. We can try and figure out exactly how later. Can you try and do it again while we move out?"
"Uhh… I've never done it before but sure."
The four remaining tanks moved toward the road where Anzio had retreated to. Delilah had them form up so that no one tank being hit would block all the others. Both Lees were up front, moving side by side. Since their main cannon could only face forward, they would be best used in the front of the group. Behind them were the Ram and M7, which kept their turrets slightly angled off to the left and right respectively.
Together, the tanks advanced along the road. Off to the sides, the underbrush was unpredictable. In some areas, it was clear enough that one could see for a good distance between the trees. In others, it was so thick that moving a tank off the road would be nearly impossible without looping around and coming from a direction with less foliage.
Delilah was extremely nervous about this, but there wasn't much of a choice short of sitting and waiting for Anzio to come back to the field. Without any scouts, the group was completely blind as to what lay ahead. Another complication was that there was nothing that could easily be used as supporting fire. Covering and supporting fire was something Delilah had come to rely on, even more so since coming to Dominion. The silver lining was that the number of tanks could be used together to leapfrog and cover each other. It wasn't unheard of. In fact, it was even official US Army doctrine. Even so, Delilah was somewhat uneasy about being unable to maneuver, unable to see, and not having any kind of designated support.
While Delilah was silently anxious, Yelena tried her best to keep up with whatever sixth sense she apparently had. There seemed to be nothing other than the Dominion team out there. After a good length of time trying to remain vigilant, the same uneasy feeling came over Yelena. It wasn't totally unfamiliar to her. She'd felt it many times before during matches both here and back home in her T-34. What was different was that it had never been this strong before today.
Yelena told Delilah to have the group slow down. Their speed dropped significantly. Everyone searched all around, but the foliage was incredibly thick here. Just before Yelena was going to suggest advancing to full speed so that they could simply get out of their position, something in her mind clicked.
"TANK LEFT!"
Amy slammed back on the tillers. The Ram lurched to an ungraceful stop, and the rest of the team stopped piecemeal. Everyone began to look left when a shot rang out from their right.
Next to the Ram, Ayame's M7 powered down as the white flag emerged.
Turning back to the right, a shot rang out from the left. This time, the Ram took the hit. Its white flag flew.
Up front in the left-side Lee, Hiromi saw what happened and immediately took command. She knew that wherever these tanks were, they were too well-hidden to be found quickly enough to be found and killed.
"Throw some smoke in their face! Get us out of here!" She yelled into her headset.
Inside the hulls of the Lees, the 75mm loaders pulled out smoke rounds and loaded them into their guns. Cannons roared, the gunners firing at full depression. Clouds of smoke billowed in front of the Dominion tanks as they charged at full speed into the white-gray wall.
Hiromi could hear the Anzio tanks moving out of their hidden positions behind them. She ordered another smoke screen to be put out. It just had to keep them obscured for a little while longer. Her map showed a thin area of foliage just ahead.
Come on, just a little more…
"On my mark, fire one last smoke round and load AP!"
Engines revved behind her.
Almost there…
"FIRE!"
More smoke filled the air. It was almost too thick to breathe.
"Haruki, stay on the road and don't get shot. Slow down a bit, we'll see you in a minute or two."
"Hai."
Hiromi's tank swerved off the road and into the narrow clearing. Brush almost immediately began to build up again to the right as the Lee surged forward, still at maximum speed. From the road, the sounds of a 37mm gun answered the report of the P40's 75mm. Thankfully, both shots were well behind Hiromi.
Hang in there, Haruki. We've got you. Just hold on.
As the wood line came closer and closer to the road, the Lee parked itself in a spot where the gunner could just barely see down a length of it. Behind them, the sounds of gunfire and engines drew closer. It was now or never.
A flash of steel passed into the visions of both gunners. Knowing that the olive green was Haruki, they held their fire until it passed. Another vision full of steel presented itself. Hiromi didn't even need to issue a fire command.
Two shots sounded, and the P40 stopped dead. Hiromi ordered her Lee to chase down the single remaining Semovente.
They came onto the road and accelerated, the bogie suspension of all three tanks having a hard time keeping up at this speed. All of the crews bounced around as the tanks fought for firing positions.
Up front, Haruki's Lee began to slow down. Hiromi couldn't tell if her teammate was trying to get a better round off or was trying not to break her suspension.
Between the two Lees, the Semovente jerked hard to the right. At first, Hiromi thought it was going to dive off into the woods. Such a maneuver would be a death sentence as any tank would get hopelessly stuck. Hiromi was proven very wrong. Instead, the tank destroyer turned 180 degrees around its axis, and began to reverse at an impossible speed.
Hiromi screamed for her gunner to fire. She never got the chance to.
Because the whole group had slowed down somewhat, the stabilizer on Haruki's 37mm was able to kick in enough to be accurate. The little gun fired, and a round landed square in the rear of the Semovente. It slammed backward on its suspension as the engine locked up.
While it was no longer an active threat, the Semovente was still directly in the way of Hiromi's tank. Her driver swerved to the left, the tall Lee nearly toppling over from the shifting weight. It came back under control after an agonizing few seconds and began to slow as the brakes kicked on.
Hiromi looked around her. Just behind her was the freshly killed Semovente. Further back was the P40. Anchovy was half out of her turret, staring amazed at the scene in front of her. Behind her tank was a thinning cloud of smoke. To Hiromi's front was Haruki's Lee. The commander was still gripping her hatch opening, even as the judges called the Dominion victory. She was breathing heavily and turned slightly to Hiromi.
"I never, ever want to get that close to an enemy again."
AN: All I can really say is "Wow." Three weeks after I posted last, I'm finally done writing and editing this. Before this note, it was just shy of twelve thousand words. That's massive compared to my usual two-ish thousand word chapters. While it was a new and exciting experience to write something this long, I'm not sure if I want to make it a habit. During editing, everyone said that it was a bit of a pain to work with since it was so long. I somewhat agree because I feel like I couldn't focus on everything when I went back to look things over. Let me know what you think as a reader, are longer or shorter chapters better to read?
I mentioned editing, and my usual thanks goes out my editors PolarBear and TSOW. Additionally, I'd like to thank Minuteman24 who also helped out in working on this beast. You were all a massive help with getting this done and there's no way it'd be as polished as it is.
While I'm doing thank-yous, to everyone on Discord that puts up with my strange and specific questions, thank you. I often come up with random things and you never cease to deliver an answer. Special thanks to CrabbyUnderARock, who came up with the outline for everything after the final ambush by the Puma when all I said was, "A Semovente and P40 on a wooded road against these four tanks."
And finally, I get to respond to reviews again! Rihnoswirl, thanks for your plentiful reviews and I'm glad you enjoy reading. Your feedback is very much appreciated and I'll do my best to include it in future chapters.