“So we haven’t won?” ¤ Win… All of them are dead and we are alive “We?” ¤ what we had, minus what we lost “How much?”’ ¤ The 103s are two different kind of fu- Natalya looks down at Miranda who is sitting and eating, watching some TV-show and corrects her language accordingly ¤ The M-103s are two different kinds of damaged. The IS-3 is… very close to being a write-off “Right… what about you guys?” ¤ The IS-7 is more than i could have ever hoped for. Unscathed. Starship is somewhat damaged from the blast, but much of it is an easy fix. The Maus… proved to been a bunker on tracks and laughed the whole way through. As did the ferdinand, with the loss of the main gun “Right. What about the Jagdtiger?” ¤ I… don’t know what kind of ammunition you had in that, and neither did they “What do you mean” ¤ It completely engulfed a Class 5 with fire. And this wasn’t normal fire. it didn’t sing, like fires do. It screamed “I think… that was a fluoride-metal fire” ¤ Whatever it was, they didn’t like it. And sent a lot of pain going that way. It’s working, mostly, but it’s not looking pretty “What else have i missed?” ¤ We’ve split up. Wendy is heading what’s left of the Old guard now. But it seems it's not really any resistance left. All of them seems to have fallen back to the coast, so we stuck with Lily. Despite the agreement “Agreement?” ¤ Don’t stay for someone left on the road. And as much as i’d like to say it’s because we’re friends, our reasons are far more egoistic Helen bursts in the room and looks like Natalya has spilt state secrets. ‘Didn’t we agree-’ ¤ Maybe he deserves to know, maybe my conscience is more fragile than my skin. I’m telling Natalya turns to him and narrows her eyes ¤ In confidence, naturally “Yeah, of course” ¤ With Lily’s disappearance, rumours started arising “Such as?” ¤ Getting out of the Jagdtiger. But the surprising thing is none of them seemed to have anything to do with you “Eh?” ‘Ehem’ Helen steps in ‘It’s said Lily has, or knows how to get some device or another, a glorified torch, a sawzall or some magic doohickey that can… what’s the term i’m looking for?’ ¤ Get us out. Without the fuss of taking steel from an “enemy” and one from their own steel, and you know the possibly lethal consequences of trying that “Why would she bother with all this shit with me if she could get out in another way?” ¤ We don’t know. But… Natalya looks over at Helen, who nods in return ¤ We have to the best of our abilities discussed this with our german friend ‘...Collegue?’ ¤ Friend Helen shrugs ¤ With our german friend. And we have agreed to cooperate… above our other colleagues. Because if Lily did have a way to do that, we- ‘We’re going to keep it a secret’ “Really? I’m sure many would like the chance-” ‘Yes they would. Which is why they are told these when this nears its end. This could cause all sorts of instability, not to say a decrease in performance’ ¤ I was about to say that, perhaps not as bluntly… “Honestly, if she didn’t do it to me, i kinda doubt you’d have to put any of this into practice” ‘Yeah yeah, we know it’s far fetched, but, if something pops up…’ “I’m not going to spy on Lily if you ask that” ‘That wasn’t really what i said, considering your loyalties lies primarily with her. Just don’t throw it around if that topic does come up’ “That’s… fair enough. By the way, how long do you think until Lily wakes up?” ‘No way to tell. She held on on over five months. Grey did what, two? Lily has proven herself to be very resilient’ “Yeah” Anon stands up and goes into the room where Lily was. It hurt him to see her like that. He could stand a few moments before his eyes started to water. He went up to her, sat down on the chair next to the bed and started talking. His words were soft, lingering. He spoke for a few minutes, tears slowly pouring down his cheek. Later, he reluctantly stood up and turned to head out. But he didn’t. He hesitated. He turned back, dug under the cover so he could hold her hand, even if it was just a moment. “Ow!” Anon recoiled back. Seemed like some static electricity. He sat there and held her for some minutes. Her hand felt different. Her skin felt almost paper like, it was coarse, not at all what it should be. But it was Lily’s hand When he left the room a little later, Helen stood outside “By the way, think we could sit down now, and explain to me what happened in the battle?” ‘Yeah, suppose we can’ He walks through the living room, past Miranda paying some airplane game on the TV. He nodded to her as a greeting. Into the kitchen, and to the bench for a well deserved cup of coffee and some biscuits. Irma and Helen were already seated at the table. Boots were approaching from the hallway. Natalya soon turned up as well. Anon sat down with them and Helen started going in about the setup, how they landed. However, he found it increasingly hard to focus with Irma who was strangely staring at his hand. It got to the point where Irma interrupted Helen, speaking german. This turned her attention to his hand as well “What is it?” ‘Deine Hand’ Irma replied in German, but the last word was obvious. Sure, his little and ring finger twitched a little, but he was exhausted after all. “What about it?” ‘Hast du sie berü-” Suddenly his head started to feel heavy. His breath got deeper “What’s going on? Something in the coffee?” ‘Mein gott’ “What’s happening?” Natalya jumped of from her chair and rushed over to him ¤ Lie down “What?” ¤ The floor, on your back. Now He couldn't do much and Natalya forcefully pushed him to the floor. Helen came around with a wooden spoon, which was put in his mouth, sideways. He tried to take it out his arms wouldn’t do anything. Like he had lost them ¤ Bite. This is going to suck, and this might just help a little “mmmpf?!?” His vision started to fade, and soon it was all black ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ About five months earlier, March 29th You sit in the one place you actually felt safe in. The Jagdtigers commander seat. It had proven time and time again to be something you could trust to keep you safe. Especially with Lily by your side Right now, everyone was looking at the sky. Whatever they came in was on its way down. A long fiery tail followed the grey lump hurtling towards the earth “Guess we were right after all” >Yes. Are you scared? “Yeah” >Good. That will keep you on your toes “We’re gonna make this” >Are you trying to comfort me? “Alright then, first one burned to a crisp bottoms tonight” Lily laughs >That’s more like it With that out of your systems, a tone of seriousness fell again. Their vessel did slow down as it approached the earth surface. Probably a wise thing, even if they did land on salt. It looked like nothing else as it bunched through the low clouds. You expected the earth to shake and tremble as it hit the ground. It did, but it wasn’t that much. Definitely less than a meteorite. Probably. What about a nuke? You would find out soon. Lily picks the up radio >Hunter to starship. Floor it The M60A2 roars to life and speeds away from the line of tanks. When it has left comes a whirr of two drones, radio controlled hexacopters. For radio communications? Radio feed? range measuring? You weren’t sure. The radio chattered with an increasingly nervous Miranda. First on how much dust there was and how the sight was limited. Then how the dust settled. How grey shapes appeared. How they started moving, spreading out. Her tone changed from nervous through scared to terrified. Natalya’s calm voice and stern words managed to keep the little one heading in the right direction for another few minutes. And then she stops + I’m here now! Twelve kilometers! There are so many of them! ¤ Calm down. Is it loaded? + No ¤ Load it Miranda orders the shell to be loaded. It took a little while, but a nuclear warhead is always going to be treated a little more carefully than others. Lily sat next to you and listened to the radio conversation. In a break of character, she interrupted it. Just a short message to Natalya, saying she wanted to give the last order. + Loaded! >All aimed, wind, velocity, range? + Yes, i have it all figured out >All ready? + Tank turned other way, engine idling and ready to run away. A-and the safety is off >Good. Fire The short 152mm gun recoils back against its hydraulic buffers as the shell leaves the barrel. Just as it did, the engine works its way up the rev range and speeds away. Every feet it got away from the blast would be better. This was however not a very fast starship. It got half a mile away before the blast. Then came the flash. It was bright, brighter than anything you had ever seen before and hotter than the temperature of the sun. The heat evaporates or melts anything underneath it, turning everything living into charred black, unrecognizable shapes. Then came the blast. Whatever wasn’t burned to death now got torn to shreds, crushed or got tossed up to several thousand yards away. As the shockwave turned whatever the heat didn't evaporate into a dust cloud, a mushroom made out of atomic fire and superheated air rose above their landing site. It was so beautiful. The colors ranged all the way from “Molten steel white” through “sunburst yellow” into “napalm orange” and ending with “firestorm red”. The colors danced on your retina as you saw your enemies get consumed by nuclear hellfire. Lily shouted something but you didn't hear. Nothing she would say could drown out their screams. You should have listened as you saw the approaching shockwave too late. It didn't move the 70 ton jagdtiger more than an inch, but your head was peeking out of the commanders hatch and banged into it as it hit. A stinging pain took you out of your game for some little while. Maybe a little more, as the cloud was mostly dissipated as Lily got you back. >wake up, Anon! That was great! I’ve had a lifelong dream of nuclear bombing the united states! “Beautiful…” >I don’t even care if you dont mean me right now. But get up, it’s not over yet The landscape is still sand around the peripheries, but with a crater in front of you. The creatures emerging from it looked similar to what you had fought earlier. But they were scorched, charred. And they walked slowly, as if they were in great pain. You surveyed the entire thing through your binoculars. More and more crawled up out of the crater, all following the fleeing M60A2 “They are irradiated as well, aren’t they?” >Absolutely. Even more of an incentive to kill them. At range “Yeah. Radiation poisoning sucks big time. How far away can you hit them?” >we have the wind coming from directly behind. It's weird, because direct fire is usually two kilometers, max. But they are so tall i can see them over the horizon. Six, seven kilometers away maybe? “If we only had... wait we do” >What? “Air support!” You reach for the radio for yourself, tuning it to 105.5 “Hello? Eric?” ‘You’re crazy man’ “And you doubted me. No new bombs for now. Still got planes for me?” ‘We do. We’ll get the birds in the air soon. Hold on’ You put the radio back in its socket, smiling “We have air support!” >I hate planes “They shoot at things we shoot at. Let it fly for today, alright?” >Really? “What’s my p-” >Don’t even dare. You wouldn’t even dare You don’t get to reply before the radio wakes to life. Again. It was once again Miranda, and she did once again sound distressed. Lily takes a quick look over the tank and jumps out “What are you doing?!” >Just having a look, wait here! She leaps off from big tank destroyer, even sliding down the front glacis with plate and running of to the Starship. You sigh, looking out over the extraterrestrials approaching, admittedly from very far away, outside of effective gun range, but still approaching. And this is when Lily decide to go and look at something ‘Man…’ The loader sitting behind you finally opens his mouth “Yeah?” ‘How come she doesn't either insult or threaten you when she speaks to you?’ “She does threatens me” ‘Yeah, but she doesn’t do it with dead eyes. Or a cold voice’ “That’s true” ‘How’d you do it man?’ “Most of this thing is my handiwork. I ripped up the floor and replaced the torsion bars. I got the engine in, refurbished most of the interior. And sorted out most of the drivetrain components” ‘Sure fucking thing’ “Let’s try something. If you think i’m full of shit, try to call her ‘Lily’. Just like i do, see what happens. And if you don’t, i’d suggest you be quiet and load what i tell you to” ‘Who are you even’ >Florian Geyer, to you Lily says, as she slides down on your left >And it seems we have something much bigger coming this way. Class five was what, few hundred meters in length? “Something like that, yeah” You shudder. The one encounter you had had with a class 5 was not something you wanted to do again >Seems we have big daddy here. Estimated at over 500 meters in length “Five hundred!?” >Oh yeah, but probably nothing a little bit of armor piercing can’t solve. I hope “We have the chemical hellfire as well” >We do… Lily picked up the radio, shouted at the man in the front to switch it over to the open channel >This is Hunter to all vehicles. No order to fire will be given, I want every tank and gunner to fire as soon as a hit is probable. I repeat, there will be no order to fire. You're free to engage at will She sets the radio down again and sighs heavily >We have by far the most responsibility here “Yeah” >Not like that. No one is expecting little tank to down a Class 5. No reason to waste ammunition if you can kill other things “I say our best bet is still trying to soften it up, and then pour that chemical in it” >And how do you plan that? “I think- wait a second” You turn around and look through the binoculars. You had finally mastered the stupid stritch system, or whatever it was called. Something Lily used for rangefinding if you had a special little triangles on your binoculars, and knew the size of the target “Class 4 at… 4500 meters” >I didn't hear an order to fire “Didn't you just say-” >You're still the commander Lily added a teasing voice at the end “You reckon you can hit it at that range?” >I can hit a car at two, maybe a house at 4? “Ehem, Loader! Sabot!” The men behind you react instantly and a projectile with its sabot is soon joined in the breech with its powder bag. ‘Loaded!’ “Target is now at 4400 meters, hold fire” >Yes sir You felt a little tingle from just hearing her say that. She didn't have to, but she did. Silence dominates for a few minutes as the target slowly walks into the firing line of the tanks “Ready?” >Always “Good, yo-” A thunderous boom is heard. But from outside. Both you and Lily can see the Class 4 being completely torn to shreds by a cannon hit. That was definitely not Lily. You would have noticed the gun firing. It's a hard thing to miss. You open the hatch, seeing smoke rising from the IS-7’s muzzle brake. A short radio message came in: ¤ Odyn. Null. “What was that?” >Natalya wants to play games. Then let's dance. Sir, give me a target “Right” You picked up the binoculars again, looking for whatever looked biggest “Class 4, three degrees left. Maybe. Range is… 4300” Lily turned the dials to the gun with utmost precision. It took her a few seconds to get get dialed in >I have it “Fire and adjust” The firing pin falls, launching away the 17 lb penetrator at almost five times the speed of sound. The fins kept it on course, and it went straight through the creature and buried itself in the salt. It fell down, never to get up again Lily took the radio for herself and hissed into it >Ein. Odyn She puts it back into its socket with a little more force than necessary “Ein means “one” in German, right?” >Yes “And the other word?” >Odyn. Ukrainian for “one” “You're keeping scores” >Yes WE are! She turned around to the loaders and shouted >That means I'm going to lose against a Soviet if you slack off! And please give me a new target You chuckle a little to yourself. This was now not only a fight against the enemy, but a competition against Natalya. thirteen beats fell before the got within 4000 meters of the defenders before you had to slow them down “Get serious, you two. We have other machines that can take the class 4s. We need your guns for the 5s” As soon as you have finished that sentence, the gun fires again, sending a 25kg shaped charge projectile away down the flats and exploding a few seconds later. Lily looks over the smoking gun breech like a schoolgirl caught misbehaving before she grins and picks the radio up >Sieben. Semy You pray to anyone who is listening that Natalya would behave and not keep up this game up. One second quiet, two, three… >She won’t fire “Maybe she-” >She might be topping up the autoloader “Is it autoloaded?” >It has assisted loading. Think of it as a rifle with a magazine cut-off and you’re close enough “Great. But enough of that. Know how to kill the big ones?” >Yeah, i discussed this with Natalya a while back. First one to hit leads, the other follows “Is it always a competition between you two?” >We’re good friends, and we’ve both thrived in extremely competitive environments. Not like we can drop it, but we can do it against each other, but for just bragging rights “Survival first, bragging rights later, okay?” >You wouldn’t last a week where in- She stops herself mid-sentence and shudders >The first shot goes where the bottom jaw attaches to the head. High explosive, follower repeats. It’s up to leader to get another round on target. This and all following shots will be aimed at the creatures “shoulder”. When lead is satisfied with the armor saturation, she will switch to a Sabot round and make a very small hole, which the follower will attempt to hit with a Solid, full caliber AP shell. The finishing blow will be the semi-armor piercing N-stoff container. It will end up being far less rounds fired per beast, meaning we can kill more Lily sounded like she recited a manual written for efficiency. Something objective, cold and analyzing. A manual for setting out pesticide or putting out mouse traps. She was definitely not playing games anymore. “Great. That means we gonna live?” >It means we’re going to fight