Story [Issue 21] Birth of a Tank: "Reinforcements"

[Fjelstad1678 186]

 

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

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Darkness. It seemed like everything, yet, there was something more. As if I was in my own mind, and nothing else. Quiet. Just the echoing of my own thoughts disturbed the silence. Silence. Why did that word seem familiar? It was almost as if it had some sort of significance. Suddenly, as if on que of the word, a large rushing noise rung through the darkness and color burst in. I seemed to be outdoors in a old wrecked town. There were craters showered everywhere. I suddenly came to my senses and realized where I was, what was going on, and what had happened to me.

“Gee, that’s weird.” I called out from the respawn point near where the Freeze, Easton, and Darrel were defending.
“Yeah, and now that you got taken out, they’re rushing. I’m going to retreat to back where you guys are.” Shaft reported.
“Roger that, I’ll cover on your position.” I said. I turned the turret to face where the horde was going to appear.
“Please, let’s try not do that again.” Rachel whispered to me.
“Yeah, I didn’t care for it that much either. Let’s just forget it and carry on. We’ve got some crystals to defend.” I murmured as I blasted a shot straight through the lower plate of an advancing enemy, resulting in flames bursting out his top hatches. “Does that make you feel any better?” I asked. The most she could muster was a light chuckle, but it didn’t seem that genuine.
“I’m here.” The shaft called as he pulled up next to me. He slowly brought the gun to bear and began charging.
“You know, I don’t think I ever got your name.” I told him as a shot ricocheted off my turret cheek.
“The name’s Rick, but my friends call my Ricky. The freeze over there is George, but we all call him Joe. Pleasure to meet you.” He grunted out between rounds downrange.
“All the same to you, sir.” I said, missing a shot while taking a large hit in return. “You know, maybe we should take some cover…”
“Meh, if you say so.” Ricky grumbled out.

The battle continued to rage for what seemed to be hours. I had remembered a while back that the enemy could also respawn, so they would never really run out of attacking units.
“So, how exactly do these battles you have end? I mean, nobody ever really exhausts their resources. I’ve lost track of how many kills I’ve gotten and I have respawned at least twenty times by now.”
“Well, they usually end when either one side gives up and stops attacking, or one side ends up claiming the other side’s respawn point.” Ricky explained. “Basically, if the enemy takes over the respawn area and stays there long enough, the computers realize the area is unsafe and will respawn you a fairly large distance away to regroup.”
“So, really, this battle could go on for… days?” I asked.
“Yeah, and they usually do. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are still fighting here in a day or two. Well, unless we get some more team mates to help us start an offense.”
“I’m on it.” Rachel said out of nowhere.
“I guess I’ve got that.” I said with a smirk. Well, if tanks could smirk…
“Aanndd….. I’ve got it. We should be getting an Isida, 2 Rails, a Twins, and one of those experimental Ricochets.” Rachel told me, and I quickly repeated the news to the others.

“Woah, a Rico? Those things are supposed to be so cool!” Easton called out.
“Yeah, that lot should do it.” Joe called. “I imagine that Isida will help us dearly in this mess.”
“Speaking of,” Darrel chimed in. “Has anyone seen any enemies recently?
“Just noticed that m’self.” Ricky said. “Don’t know why they would stop. They could be regrouping, but that would be dangerous. In my experience, they would never stop now. I mean, they have us in a corner, why woul-...” he stopped speaking and paused for several seconds as if hesitating to make a conclusion.
“What is it?” I asked with urgency. “Is something bad going to happen?”
“Get up against sturdy cover, boys. Make sure you are on the side of it opposite the direction of the enemy base.”
“Wait, wouldn’t that be a little outdated? I think we could withstand that.”
“What, an artillery barrage? Have you looked at their tanks? They are completely outclassed by us. They just copy them from our older models. Just in case you didn’t notice, the five of us were able to hold back a horde of them, pure and simply because we are both better trained and more advanced than they are. We’ve crippled them enough in these wars that they really have no money or brains left for development. Artillery strikes are not something unusual for them.” Just as he finished explaining this, his theory was proven true as a distant thud was heard followed by a whistle. The whistle slowly grew to a shriek and the shell causing it landed about 5 meters from the cover I had be defending from, shooting concrete and shrapnel into the air around it.

 

“First round hit target area, they now know their aim is true. They will open up on us soon.” Ricky said to us all.
“Assuming they use their standard tactics, they will start advancing in the heaviest rain of shells they can muster.” Joe added in. Sure enough, several seconds later, several nearly evenly spaced thuds were heard followed by the whistling and screeching of shells flying in. After about 2 minutes, the shelling became nearly constant with a shell landing every 10 or 15 seconds. It seemed terrifying. The ground was getting torn to shreds and the constant noise made it hard to hear when somebody yelled “Reinforcements are here!” They were a true sight for sore eyes.
“Getting shelled up pretty good, eh Joe?” one of them cried out almost like a joke.
“So, how long have they been shelling?” another asked in a more serious tone.
“I’d say about 5 minutes. They should be lining up to push an attack as we speak. Boy, won’t you be a surprise.” Joe answered. As if on queue, Easton yelled out from his position.
“HERE THEY COME! BOTH SIDES!”
“Give me numbers!” Yelled back one of the Railguns.
“Golly, has to be at least 25 to each side. It looks like their entire armored forces are attacking us!”
“Nowhere near that.” the Isida muttered.

 

“Well, set up a defense, guys! Making it something loose that you can easily switch to an offense. We’re taking this back!” I yelled. Everyone muttered back in some sort of agreeance as they took up a position that best fitted their weaponry.
“Now, this is how this is going to work.” I said over the radios. “The second you see the first enemy, wipe them out. After we take out the lead tanks, it will slow their approach and give up opportunity to push. When facing the enemy, we are going to push to the left side of the battlefield. Those of you on the right should be the Freeze, a Smoky, and the Shaft. You just defend the respawn at all costs. The rest of you will follow me as I lead the push on the enemy to the left.” Just as with the plan, the second the first enemy showed a track around the corner, he was left a burning wreck. They continued to just slowly trod around the corner occasionally getting a missing shot off, and meeting the same fate. After about 2 minutes of this and no change of strategy on their part, I figured it was time to begin the plan.

“Alright. Base defense squad, are you ready?”
“I think we are, we are taking a bit of a beating, but we are holding up fine.” Just as he finished reporting a large shell landed right next to my left track.
“Alright, lets get this started. Oh yes, and please do mind the metal falling from the sky.” I said as I started towards the corner where the enemy continued to go out into the open from. They were starting to travel in pairs and groups of three though, which was fairly concerning. Once I made it down the main ramp, I started taking a huge battering. Because we were rushing an attack, we couldn’t cover the corner as well, and as a result, we got the occasional round punched into us. The Isida could not be happier to help though, and we all made it to the attack point more or less in one piece.

 

“Alright boys, once we round the corner, you can’t stop pushing. We need to make it to the next choke point in one go, or they will gain ground on us. Now, on the count of three… one… two… THREE.” In an instant, the Rails were around the corner and the large golden beams fired from them destroyed the enemies by the column. They instantly darted to the sides of the enemies to draw their fire from us as we rounded the corner and finished off the lot of them.
“That seemed too easy.” the Isida said as we took positions at the next choke point.
“Watch out behind you!” Rachel said to me.
“Turn!” I shouted to the rest of the attack force. There were at least a dozen enemies to the rear that had somehow managed to flank around us. None of them were slow to open fire, and to make matters worse, the familiar thud of artillery began to ring again with blasts falling all around us. Darrel was the first one to go down, and they seemed to be going down only a little faster than we were. We were getting attacked from both sides now, and from above. Of course we were. It was suddenly clear how basic a trap it was we had just fallen for. I began to talk in a tense voice.
“Lets go, boys. Things just got tight.”

 

~To Be Continued~

 

~Fjelstad1678~

Edited July 31, 2017 by Hexed

[hogree 4,179]

Quality work Fjel. Just felt like there should hvae been a slight more of a change in plot from the previous end of the article. It sounds like its just the same thing with quality writing over a relatively long section.

[doduobird 315]

Nice

[GoldRock 6,165]

A great read, I'm really enjoying reading this series ^_^

[Fjelstad1678 186]

Quality work Fjel. Just felt like there should hvae been a slight more of a change in plot from the previous end of the article. It sounds like its just the same thing with quality writing over a relatively long section.

I kind of felt that myself while writing it. Given how I had it at the moment though, I was not sure how else to leave it without continuing on for a decent while longer. As I have seen before, if you make anything too long on this forum, people tend to skip over it. I really will get it to a new spot next time.  ^_^

[TankCommando33 33]

It's great! Can't wait for Issue 22! ;)

[Fjelstad1678 186]

It's great! Can't wait for Issue 22! ;)

Actually, the next edition of this will probably be posted on the main page! Huzzah!  :D

[MrAmazingKiller 9]

What happened to "The Chronicles of a newbie" series by the way?

[Remaine 4,687]

What happened to "The Chronicles of a newbie" series by the way?

You're asking that here?

 

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It was an enjoyable and interesting read - nice one, FJ

[Lhamster 4,081]

What happened to "The Chronicles of a newbie" series by the way?

\/\/

 

Sorry about no 'Chronicles of a Newbie' this month, I've just not had the time to play, I think I only played twice in the whole month, so I'd only write 4 lines.

[donut70 97]

good job, quality writing, except the WOT( I assume you meant that by wagamin) shells should bounce more

Edited March 5, 2014 by donut70

[PeterYR 6]

Awesome! I can't wait for part 7!

[DeoxyriboNudeicAcicl 97]

niceeeee

[UAA619 97]

Great as always. I'd say,  up the excitement and action a bit more in the next part. Good job tho. :)  

[T.rex1 3]

Its great.Love reading the series.

Hurry issue22

[S0MI 8]

:)

[TTK_229 1,080]

Y u left fjel :c :c