The Panther

"JESUS CHR-"

*BOOM!*

Hans dropped to the ground as the Panther's 75mm gun discharged, exploding the Famo and its crew into a hideous shower of steel and body parts. They rained to the ground around Hans and Paul in unison, steam rising off both as the hot metal and limbs hit the cold ground.

Hans dared to lift his head and crawl to his feet, tentatively peering over the burning hull of the Panzer. The turret of the Panther was rotating left, away from him and towards the rest of the EAE forces. The armored behemoth was hand-painted in a green color, a trio of hedge-cutting spikes welded to the front of the hull. The turret finished rotating and the gunner opened up with the coaxial MG, cutting down an entire squad of soldiers.

The EAE broke off from fighting the NDM infantry and pulled back, rushing around the edge of the greenhouse dome and into cover. The Panther accelerated, easing forward as NDM troops surrounded it to give it cover. An Enclave soldier with a Panzerschreck fired off a round straight at the vehicle, which deflected off its front sloped armor and exploded in the air. He was about to move when he was cut down by a burst from the tank's hull-mounted machine gun, leaving him dead in the dirt.

"Where the Hell did they get that thing?!" Paul yelled.

"I don't know!" Hans shot back. "Just stay down!"

The two of them remained where they were, watching as the tide of the battle changed in the wake of the Panther's arrival. The NDM rallied around it, pushing the Enclave back to the front lawn of the botanical gardens. Hans and Paul retreated as well, having no desire to be surrounded and executed by the monarchists. They retreated to the concrete planters along with the remaining EAE soldiers.

The American Panzertroopers didn't seem fazed by the tank's arrival at all, however. They remained inside the dome, using hand signals to communicate as they spread out. The Panther crept forward, turret turning to the right, towards the Enclave troops. It stopped and turned in place, facing its frontal armor to the enemy. The turret continued to rotate, aiming at the dome. An American opened fire with his plasma gun, setting fire to the sandbags tied to the tank's side skirts and turning the sand inside to glass.

*BOOM!*

The Panther's main gun discharged, rocking the vehicle on its suspension. The shell crashed through the dome and hit an American Panzertrooper dead on, flashing through his power armor like it was glass and sending his torso, sans limbs, flying. The remaining Americans scattered, choosing concealment over cover as they hid among the crops within the botanical gardens. An Enclave soldier screamed into his radio nearby, demanding they get air support and receiving promises in return.

Hans turned his attention away from the Panther as the monarchists surged forward, emboldened by their armor support. They retook their old positions in the smaller greenhouses, trading heavy fire with both their fellow Germans and the Americans. Hans rode the FG42's trigger a little harder, sending longer bursts down range. Paul lied prone at his feet, leaning out around the edge of the planter.

Even with bullets flying all around him he couldn't help but focus on the Panther, trying to keep track of what it was doing. The imposing tank was reversing, turret turning left towards him and the rest of the EAE infantry. He watched, horrified, as the vehicle accelerated and smashed straight into the greenhouse dome, catching an American Panzertrooper by the leg and sucking him under, crushing him like a tin can. The tank plowed through half the crops the monarchists had planted inside, turning them and their wood planters to mulch. The vehicle came to a stop and fired again, the shockwave turning the dome into millions of shards of glass and sending them flying through the air. The shell it had fired hit one of the halftracks, shearing it in half.

The Enclave's assault was at risk of falling apart when Hans heard a vertibird come screaming overhead, passing by them all and banking to come back around. Hans recognized from reading Waffen und Munitionen magazine as a VB-04/76 gunship, sporting twin machine guns in its chin and wide side doors that could bear heavy weapons. On the left door was a standard minigun, unmanned. On the right, however, a custom mount had been installed, bearing four M72 Gauss Rifles. An American in the bug-eyed power armor stood behind it, hands on a spade grip that was linked to all four guns.

The sound of all four Gauss rifles discharging simultaneously was unlike anything Hans had ever heard before, the synchronized sound of their coils charging before sending four 700-grain tungsten slugs through the air at five times the speed of sound was a noise that inspired both fear and awe. The slugs hit the top of the Panther's turret and heavily dented it, landing close enough together to leave just one dent.

The driver of the Panther seemed to recognize the threat because the vehicle lurched rearward, towards the vertibird, forcing the pilot to bring the aircraft around. The monarchists on the ground split up, with half focusing on the Enclave infantry while the other half focused their fire on the vertibird gunship.

Hans reloaded and tried to aim for the soldiers firing on the vertibird, picking them out by looking for guns pointed skyward. A smattering of fire hit the top of the planter near him, peppering his face in little chunks of lead and concrete and forcing him down. He dropped the FG42, primed a grenade, and lobbed it towards the enemy. It detonated just as another soldier's plasma grenade went off, illuminating the soldiers it didn't kill and exposing their positions. The EAE kept up the fire, steadily regaining the advantage against the NDM infantry.

The gunship came around again, passing over Hans and the others. It left a whirlwind in its wake, the rotors whipping up a storm. It passed and turned, and the door gunner fired again. The quartet of Gauss gun slugs hit the Panther in the side, shattering the sandbags that had been turned to glass from plasma fire. Since the gun couldn't beat the tank's armor the gunner was aiming low, for the tracks and road wheels.

"I'M MOVING!" Paul shouted, moving forward as the EAE counter-attacked. With their Panther focused on the vertibird their remaining armor support consisted of one Panzer I and a few Panzerbots, which wasn't enough to contend with the EAE's overwhelming firepower. Green plasma orbs and red laser bolts flashed into the NDM's positions, illuminating them and providing clear targets for the other Enclave infantry. Hans moved up to join Paul and they kept up the pressure, shooting at anything that moved.

"HERE, LET'S TRY THIS!" Paul yelled. He pulled out the bundle of grenades they'd taped together in Muggelheim, yanked their cords, and lobbed the whole bundle at the Panther. It landed by its treads and detonated, the huge blast wave knocking off dozens of the sandbags lashed to its left side and even popping off one of the panels that formed the vehicle's side skirts. The Panther stopped, turned, and continued reversing, maneuvering around the edge of what remained of the dome.

The NDM's regained resolve was beginning to break as their soldiers fell and retreated in equal measure, their Panther reversing to keep up with them. The pilot of the vertibird gunship kept the aircraft close to the armored behemoth, too close for the tank's gunner to elevate the gun to engage the aircraft. They were helpless to do anything but take the hits. The remaining Panzer I lurked behind it, working to keep the EAE from getting too close to the Panther. Hans went prone, looking between the tanks for any Panzerbots or infantry moving. He was about to get up and move when he heard a noise that chilled his blood.

At its shrieking whistle he rolled onto his side and looked up, watching the mini-nuke scream across the sky. He scrambled behind the nearest intact concrete planter he could find and held his helmet firmly to his head. A second later the mini-nuke landed, its brilliant flash nearly blinding in the dim light of the dawn. The shockwave came instantly after, an invisible arm of pressure that swept across the botanical gardens and knocked over all those crouching or standing. All except the American Panzertroopers, who stood upright in the open, unmoved by the nuclear maelstrom.

When it was over Hans dared to rise into a crouch and peek over the planter. The NDM's Panzer I had been hit directly by the bomb, leaving just scraps of it remaining. In front of it the Panther remained, intact and unmoving. The steady growl of its engine was the only sound that filled the air. A small mushroom cloud rose into the sky over the smoldering remains of the light tank, the sun's light streaming through its black wisps.

"Get UP and kill them all!" an American Panzertrooper screamed, a plasmacaster held at his waist. He and the other Americans pushed forward, pouring lasers and lead onto the remaining NDM infantry, who finally broke. The Panther's driver hit reverse and the vehicle lurched away at top speed, followed by its infantry cover. The Panther reversed until it was a safe distance away, at which point it stopped, turned, and drove off into the narrow streets of Berlin. The Enclave's vertibird gunship moved to give chase but the driver of the Panther popped the vehicle's smoke dispensers, concealing in a thick mist. The gunship hovered for a few minutes, looking for the tank, before it waved off and returned to the gardens to provide overwatch.

Hans waited until the last of the monarchists had fled before he sat down and removed his helmet. The battle was over, leaving the botanical gardens in their hands. He looked around at the destruction and carnage, shaking his head. Two of the five small greenhouses had been obliterated, turned to rubble by grenades and gunfire. The remaining small greenhouses were damaged but salvageable. The main greenhouse, the dome, had been heavily damaged by both the Americans and the Panther, but was still reasonably intact save for the dome itself, which had been completely destroyed. A pyrrhic victory in his mind, with all the work they'd have to do to restore the greenhouses and their crops.

But it wasn't a total loss, all things considered. They'd knocked out several Panzer Is and Panzerbots which, along with taking the gardens, was good enough to convince Hans that the battle hadn't been an entire waste of time. These days 'good enough' was sometimes all one could ask for.

*BAM!*

Hans flinched and crouched as a single gunshot rang out, followed by another. And another. He stood and watched as the Panzertroopers walked among the NDM positions, executing the wounded. Hans watched them go, 14mm and 12.7mm pistols in hand as they put a single bullet into the heads of each wounded monarchist they found.

He turned to look as Paul approached, slapping him on the shoulder. "You know, before I found you work was easy. I didn't have pre-war tanks blasting at me. But I'm not sure what to think: that your bad luck is what brought that Panther here, or your good luck is what allowed us to survive a near-direct hit."

Hans slung the FG42 over his shoulder. "There is no good or bad luck," he said. "Only dumb luck."

"Ain't that the truth," Paul said as they began the long walk back to Tempelhofer Feld.

Merry Christmas to all!