Everything freezes for a second. The men are obviously ready to draw their weapons, but they still keep calm. You are ready to get your M9 up. It already has one in the chamber, you just need to flick the safety off, and you have 15 rounds at the ready. But you do not want to do this. This is not the enemy Lily raises her hands, away from her belt, and moves them towards the hood that is covering her head. Slowly she grabs the edges and takes it off, revealing her relatively short brown hair, and soon all of her head 'no. fucking. way' Lily is wearing her tough face again. She looks like nothing can hurt her. Proud and strong. She is staring the other woman, not into her eyes, but into her very soul. Lily remains silent. The woman approaches and speaks with shushed voice 'how did you get out of aberdeen' Lily looks over to the strange looking tank further in the hangar >just like you did, by the looks of things 'you abandoned the big stupid box?' Lilly narrows here eyes, and venom fills her voice >the "big stupid box" works 'Are we speaking about the same 75 ton jagdtiger right now' >you know very well who i am 'who the fuck managed to fix you up' Lily nods nonchalantly in your direction >Anon did. and the machine has 1800 horsepower, and a refurbished gun with several rings around the barrel. Including one from a class 5. 'sure thing, tell me the one with santa aswell' ¤ miss Nibelung speaks the truth. The mighty gun put one last shell in the beast. 'who's miss russia?' ¤ Soviet, not russian. and my name is Natalya Chelyabinsk 'calm the fuck down, Nibelung and a Chelyabinsk?. aren't you supposed to tear each other apart or some shit?' Lily and Natalya look at each other and just goes "nah". The other woman looks at them in disbelief 'well, fuck me backwards with a telegraph pole. i've seen everything now. Well, 'names Wendy. Thant hunk'a steel behind me is mine' >I'm Li- Lily gets interrupted + IS THAT AN MBT-70? ITS BEAUTIFUL! Miranda rushes past the two men and towards the old machine + i-it has such a long gun! it can even fire conventional armor piercing rounds! Miranda flies all over the vehicle, screaming about it like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread +YOU HAVE THE MTU ENGINE? it can do 45 miles per hours! Great cross country mobility because it has HYDRO PNEUMATIC SUSPENSION, just like an old Citroën! While she does this, Curiosity gets the better of you, and you lean a little closer to Lily and ask her "would this be considered rude or something?" >I... don't know. I've never seen this happened before. but calm down, we don't know about these guys Miranda flies down from the tank and throws her arms around the woman. +i-is it yours? 'why don't you calm down, kiddo?' the older man almost shouts 'the tanks belong to me and me alone, even is she likes to think otherwise' Lily's grip around your hand tightens considerably 'time for some introductions i think, i'm Victor, this is Chuck and Wendy' The younger man and the woman nods towards you >i'm Lily. This is Anon, Natalya, and Grey. And that's Miranda Victor speaks up 'So, i understood you guys were in the market for some missiles, right?' ¤ Yes. It is for the Spaceship. + a-actually, its starship! ¤ ...That. The gun is dry and the army will not make more missiles. I was on the radio with Wendy and i was informed you had a surplus of them here 'Well, sure, everything has a price, right?' Fuck. You have no money, and didn't really expect anyone to be asking anything for the missiles. Right, just play it cool "well, little one needs some ammo. What do you want for 'em. You realize the mistake you've just made. You have implied a connection between Miranda and the Starship. You're sill not sure about if he knows it. The reaction of Wendy indicates she noticed it aswell. 'Lily and anon, right? could you tag along with me for a minute over here' The rather curvy woman turns around and hints you to follow her. She opens the door to a small office, and hold it open so you can get in before her. 'Now you better tell me, forreal, what have you told this guy' Her back is facing you both, her hands on front of her, and the very faint sound of a safety being flicked off is heard. Lilly has reactions like a rattlesnake on crack and pulls has her Luger pointer towards Wendys face. >I have told him everything Wendy is surprisingly calm at gunpoint and gently sets her gun, a rather bland looking 1911A1, on the table behind her 'i'm taking it you trust this guy?' >with my life. He is going to... help me change 'You crazy or sumthin'? You told him-´ >Well, almost everything, but let's drop that. Guys out there, do they know? 'Old guy does' Wendy lowers her head and her voice 'fucking disgrace of a man, uses the poor gals out there as toys, and...' >right, he's on the kill list. Other guys 'honestly, chuck is a bit... slow. Poor bastard is really kind, and kinda knows how to use a wrench, but he was kicked in the head as a child or sumthin' >Killing american tank crews is nothing new to me. i'm going to go out and empty my magazine into his chest, any objections? Her head is lowered even more 'please don't do it miss. I dream of leaving this fucking shithole one day, and he's a good mechanic' >See, that's where Anon comes in. Sadly, we have more tanks than we have people to man them right now. I may have killed Natalyas crew. 'Hang on now, ya'll like me?' >Well, Jagdtiger is mine. Natalya has an IS-3, little Miranda has a Starship 'why'd you kill her crew for? i thought you were friends or some shit?' >They were hurting her 'oh. but that leaves the burn victim?' >she had a tank. But she survived its destruction, and now she's like that "sorry to interrupt here, but we have to get home before sunrise, and we kinda have to get those missiles" >so we just shoot the little fuck 'please miss, i want out of here' >think he is the only one that can get you out of here? Lily has taken on a very dominant tone, and Wendy, despite her size advantage doen’t dare to argue. >listen here, i’m almost beyond giving a shit about you, because you are seriously fucked in the head if you let him keep going ‘s-sorry, but i you know i can’t kill him’ Lily takes a step back, and inhales deeply. She is going to to explode unless you step in. Time to try the tough face on yourself “Listen here. We did not come here to cause trouble, but look at her. See? Does she look calm to you? She is going to cause trouble unless you cooporate here. And trust me when i tell you that i am much nicer to have this discussion with than she is. You are going to answer me, and you are going to tell the truth. Do you understand?” Tears are building up in her eyes, and she nods >not an aswer. Say it out loud Lily sits on the table behind Wendy, nonchalantly inspecting her pistol ‘i-i understand’ “good. Now, as long as you answer everything i ask properly, you can speak to me. If you don’t, i’m going to leave it over to Lily. I can not guarantee she won’t hurt you. Understood?’ She is silently crying now. And she nods again >she he speaks, you answer ‘i understand’ “great. First up, missiles. Are they here, and do they work?” ‘All here, several hundred of them, maybe even up in the thousands. I can’t guarantee if they all work’ “Good. Victor said something about payment. What was that? ‘I’m not sure, but…’ >Maybe you want to speak with me instead? She is crying a lot now. Not only has Lily but her tough face on, but Wendy knows she has fucked up, and is now confronted ‘P-please. d-don’t hurt me, but I t-think he wants one of… you in payment’ Lily shuffles around, and now has her face an inch from Wendys >He is going to get a chest full of 9 mm in payment ‘have mercy, please-’ >I’m not sure he’s going to live. Maybe get down on your knees and either beg or get really creative could change my mind Wendy is now properly scared aswell. Lily might be liking this a little too much “We’re not done here. How many of the vehicles here work?” ‘The only i am certain of is my own, the 70. Very little mechanical work left, but the damn computers is beyond what Victor can fix’ “We have an in-house geek with us, but it’s not happening tonight. Others?” ‘various states of decay. I suppose maybe between a quarter and a fifth can be rebuilt from the other vehicles we have here’ >canibalization. Great. Still leaves the problem with crews. Easily a hundred people needing to crew the soon working vehicles, nevermind meintainance and such “Well, this won’t matter much tonight anyway. I say we get the missiles, load ‘em into the cars for now” >and leave the old filth alive? ‘p-please don-’ >you gonna stop talking or am i going to have to make you stop talking? you speak when you are spoken to. The woman closes her eyes, and nods. “think he’s going to fix you is say… a week?” ‘Mechanical components, yes. Not the electronic computer stuff’ “well, we can handle that. Still leaves the question to his payment. Dead men have no will for money, but if he fixes the 70, i don’t have to. Think you can convince him to let us try 16 missiles and then come back in a week?” >he makes as much as a fucking step in the wrong direction and he’s fucking dead, got it? ‘y-you can kill him when the restoration is finished. But that leaves me without a comander’ >And you won’t give a fuck about him when he’s dead? just want to get yourself in good shape first? You are a fucking disgrace The woman is completely broken. She know what she had done and she was ashamed of it. Lily looks over to you. Her eyes are doing something. They want something. Permission? Permission to do what? you are a little scared by Lily at this point, but you are curious to what is going to happen. You nod slightly, and she smiles for a second, before getting serious again. >Alright, listen up now Wendy is still looking at the floor >You are going to look me in the eyes when i speak to you. You look away and i will hurt you The looks up at Lily, tears pouring out of here eyes, and almost shaking >Do you want to leave this hangar, ever? She nods, and quickly corrects herself with saying “yes” >Good, because i’m going to give you one, and only one chanse of getting out, but it has a few conditions. Are you listening She whimpers out a barely audible response >first, we leave with the missiles, and as much amminition we can carry. No payment. Second, the old man as much as touches anyone here again, he’s dead. Third, Natalya is out of a crew for the moment, and you are going to fix it. You have 30 minutes from now. Get going 'Y-yes' Lily gives Wendy her gun back, and she hurries out of the little office-looking room "Damn Lily, you even scared me there" >Sorry i didn't mean to scare you, and while she did deserve some of that, i kinda had to do that to get anywhere tonight "Well, you sure know how to make an impression. Anyway, think it's going to work?" >Think she is going to come back in and say she hasn't done anything? "not really, no" There is a bit of chatter outside, mostly Miranda fangirling over the MBT-70 As you are on your way out, Natalya approaches you ¤ what did you do to the poor woman? She looked like she had seen Stalingrad "Lily got a bit irritated, that's all" ¤ remind me not to irritate Lily in that case >Don't you worry. We're in this together, right? ¤ Yes "where did the rest of them go by the way?" ¤ Outside for a bit of a discussion i think They return some minutes later. Chucks face is kinda expressionless, and Victor looks irritated. He speaks up, and he is clearly not happy about how things have played out. ‘Alright, the missus here seems to have taken a liking in you. Help yourself to two handful of missiles, and be sure to be back within week. I don’t trust you for shit, but she does, and its her head that goes if you bail on me’ You can almost feel Lily vibrating with pure rage as he says the last parts. You hold her just enough for her to know you are there, lean in and quietly say “Let’s not do it now. Please. Let him fix the 70, and then we deal with him” Lily’s hand is very slowly moving towards her trustly pistol, lazily shoved down the front of her pants, concealed by her somewhat too large hoodie. “Lily. Do not get that gun out. Calm down” >... “Right fucking now” Lily finally gives in to your commands, and takes to heavy breaths to calm herself down. You stay close to her while loading up the missiles in the cars. You fit in nine of them in each car, while still concealing them from vision from the outside. That just left the issue of the crew for the IS-3. It has a crew of four, a driver, a loader, a gunner and a commander. Natalya has earlier taken up the role of the driver. You are still amazed as to how she actually fit inside the vehicle. Now, she can easily take up any of the vehicles roles, even if she would (like almost all of her kind) refrain from getting into the commanders seat. And while she is on the tall side, she is maybe not the strongest so getting into the loaders position would be a disadvantage. The topic is discussed some time, and it seems that no satisfactory solution can be found. Learning what each button does won’t atke that much time, but learning the ins and outs of the vehicle, work on the little faults, and more importantly, fuse the crew together as a team will take months in peace time. This process is however sped up in war. Then a solution appears. One that you would considered rather obvious, and yet has seemed gone completely over their heads. Yet it somehow seems inappropriate to ask. At the end of the day, there is something like 100 tank-spirtits or whatever they are called, Lily seemed somewhat reluctant to actually give them a name. Can they crew… each other? You remember how Natalya wanted to get out of the Jagdtiger after she was waoken from her drugged sleep. She did not want to be in there at all. Was that a tank taboo to be inside someone elses vehicle? You didn’t mind having someone else in your car or your house, when you had those. But they they have with their vehicles… is different. Maybe it’s a national thing. Maybe a russian-german thing? Maybe they have to be the same model, factory, name? >lost in thought again? “yeah, suppose so. Trying to find a solution to the crew problem” >it can’t be solved quickly. Not with a tank as rare as the IS-3 is. Everything has to be learned from scratch “actually, about that...” >i don’t like where this is going “can you sort of, crew each other?” Lily looks at you as if you would have suggested underwater knife fighting as a past time activity for a group of 7 year olds “whoa, i’m not implying anything here, that was a question since i’m not familiar with your… customs” Lily tries to say ten things simultaneously, but achieves nothing except look uncomfortable “hey, if it’s a death sentence, no need to go any further. But we kinda need that IS-3 rolling” >-i-i uhh.... think a crew of four of us is going to… “going to what?” >actually, i’m not sure, but it would be a… how do you say it… it’s called tabu in Gemran “you mean a taboo?” you say, punctuating the difference in pronounciation >yes, like that. It would be like… wife swappig or kicking your dog. It doesn’t actually hurt anyone, but should be avoided nevertheless “thats a very interesting way of putting it, i’ll give you that much” >i thought americans liked idioms? You are very confused by the words coming out of Lily. The absurdity of it all dazzles you a little, and it takes you a moment to regain focus. “i suppose we have to speak with Natalya about this. We’re short on heavy tanks, but if it’s as bad as you say… well, it’s up to her ultimately” Natalya was speaking to Miranda about battlefield target prioritization, and how to hide from aircraft, and the small girl tried to remember everything she was told, even scribbling things down in a small notebook >Hey Nat, could you come overe here a second? She comes over but quickly see you two are up to something “Right, due to my ignorance in the whole tank spirit buisn-” Two sets of eyes quickly snap to you with a look of severe displeasure “Right, sorry, bad wording, but i still don’t know what i’m supposed to call you after all” ¤ It would be best if you don’t. I mean nothing to offend you, but perhaps it’s easier not to forget if you do not know in the first place >She just means that if we do have a name, its easier to identify us. And while i trust you, and i’m sure Natalya does aswell, your tongue can still slip and this is a pretty touchy subject still Natalya nods, confirming what Lily just said “augh, alright. But let’s get to the point. I have suggested we can perhaps fix your crew issues with help from some of the people out on the lot” Natalyas reaction is similar to Lilys, with equal parts terrified, confused and appauled in her expression “RIght, it seems like this is something horrible to you, and even if you’d explain this for an hour i’d be left with even more questions than i started out with. But please just consider it, if that would mean getting the IS-3 combat ready. I mean it seems like most tanks here aren’t going anywhere tonight anyway” ¤ You must understand that… Natalya tries to speak, but is stopped halfway through her sentence “I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do, but just think about the alternatives, right” You walk out in the silent night. The Volvo is already loaded up with nine missiles and a few HE rounds, and the Mercedes isjust about ready. You look over the row of tanks. Have they reached the end of their lives, or just the end of the first part? It was such a case of decieving looks. These machines looked ready. Cold, hard steel formed into guns, turrets, tracks and engines. Sure there was a bit of rust here and there, but they looked like machines that nothing could stop. And in truth, none of them worked properly. Maybe the M60s would be taken back into service, they have relatively heavy armor, or well sloped at least. And the guns fired standard NATO ammunition out of the box. A few of them have been spoted wearing US army camoflage, suggesting they might be reappearing into service, or just used in trials against that new steel tank they were designing. Or have they started producing it already? ‘Yo dude, ya hear me?’ “huh, who’s that?” A figure is jumping down from one of the Pattons. Pretty tall girl, african american, and seemingly in a rush ‘shit ‘aint important right now, but we got more of those punk on the way. fucking loads of ‘em’ She’s right. There is a some noise, and when you climb up on the tank, you can gaze upon approaching hostiles. Down from the tank, and grab your rifle from the yellow box of a car. You have one magazine in the gun, and hastily shove the 4 spares in different pockets on you. You jog over to the hangar, but you are seen with the gun before you even start to shout. >Anon, whats up with the rifle? "We have a bit of company heading our way" >Do we care if these guys are torn to shreds? "What? no, not them! It's sky pigs things! lots of them!" >I'm not stupid, do we fight or fly? Lily wasn't stupid. She knew that the cars would have an easy time outrunning this fight. Her order of priority is her and you at absolute top. Natalya, Miranda and Grey comes second. Cars, missiles, ammo and the newly met people comes after that. The Natalya at least seems to have noticed that. Question is just if she think she's included in the first priority. "Get your guns and the we'll get an idea on what we are up against. We will decide what to do after that. move!" Your little group moves towards the vehicles, and get your weapons ready. Its a pretty mismatched bunch of arms. How Natalya managed to get an SVT-40 in the Mercedes you have no idea, but you're happy at least someone here has a rifle firing a full power cartridge. "Right, you two, i want eyes east. Radio in as so-" >You shut your mouth! And you two go east, i'll go with Anon. Grey, you can... augh, get in the Merc and be ready to get going Natalya and Miranda jogs away, and Grey shuffles over towards the cars "...what was that on about? i though i was in command here" Lily leans into you and stares into your eyes >You promised me. Promised! If you lie to me...