The tank is on the move.
I relished the wind’s gentle caressing and clanging of the tracks as the machine covered kilometers of the road.
“Brace yourselves, we’ll drive over a dent.” (O)
‘Pum’
“It was not so bad.” Jester was sitting inside the turret while I sat on top and held the kord’s handles.
“You said that like you really do enjoy it.”
“Nah, just used to it. Speaking of which, are you not looking like you are fine as well? Captain, what was the worst of the roads you saw?” He peeked outside.
“Well, it was few years ago when my grandfather died. I had to drive all the way to Tatarstan and on the way back I missed the correct turn and ended up on a highway a bit to the north. One moment I was driving on a smooth highway, the next I was driving 120 on a dirt road, or an unfinished highway. You don’t want to know how my a* felt. Had to repair the suspension… Also, there was a time when I…”
One eternity later.sfx
“… and for that reason I prefer to avoid the snowed fields. Hey, Jester, were you f* listening?”
“Y-yes… ‘uwaah’. I’ll be sleeping.” He closed the hatch.
“Got it, if I’ll need you, I’ll be kicking you.” I shouted inside.
I lazily looked around. When I looked in front of us I saw something but before I could order to stop the vehicle, we hit an escarp.
‘PUM’
“F*, why the f* is that f* piece of f* s* is there?” I said and then started swearing.
“Kakogo h*, skazal poruchik Rzhevskiy i gryazno virugalsya.” [‘What the f*’ said lieutenant Rzhevskiy and sworn. – Poruchik Rzhevskiy is a character of Russian jokes, known for his obscene actions/phrases which comically exaggerate Russian hussars.] Jester showed his head.
We bumped into the obstacle and were shaken quite badly. The mechanical parts would not be damaged, after all I was not sent flying, but I would not be surprised if one of us has bruises.
“Sorry, did not see it in time…” (O)
“Don’t sweat it, I missed that thing as well.”
“Are we stopping or going on?” (O)
“Forward, slow.”
Only after we were sure the suspension is fine we continued the march.
I was observing the surrounding area when on the edge of a forest I saw a number of figures looking at us.
“Prepare for engagement. Old man, slow down!” Jester and I dived inside.
“Where?” (J)
“2 to 3 o’clock. Wait for the exact azimuth. Load HE, wait for the next orders.”
‘Buzzzzz’
‘Whuuuu-ch-whuu’
As the stabilizer was turned on, the gun twitched and the breech started gently waving up and down when the tank hit dents and rocks.
“Heading 164, range 200. Infantry.”
“Ready.” (J)
We continued moving as we waited for the contacts to act. It is not the wisest move to show them our side but we are not even sure what is going on now, there are hostiles around but the allied forces should be nearby as well.
The contacts started moving and ran out of the forest. They were… weird.
“What the f* is going on…?” (J)
“Hold fire, we need to make sure what we are dealing with.”
They don’t look human to me… they are armed and running at us.
“Fire.”
“Shooting!”
BOOM
The shot landed right in the middle of the attackers but the majority of them were alive.
“Fire coaxial.”
Tra-ta-ta Tra-ta-ta
Bu-bum
We fired short bursts but the contacts did not retreat but instead accelerated.
“Old man, faster. We need to get out of here before they bring AT.”
Bu-bum
Tra-ta-ta Tra-ta-ta
Before the enemy disappeared from our sight we killed a lot of them. When we catch up to the vanguard we need to ask what we encountered.
When the sun started setting I faced a dilemma. If we camp here we might be attacked, if we try to catch up we will be tired.
“What…?!”
‘WHIEEE!’
‘PUM’
In a split second something jumped out of the bushes and right when it was lit by the lights, it was smashed on the front plate. Old man stopped the tank almost on the spot.
“Grab the rifle. We need to take a look.”
“Right behind you.” (J)
The two of us climbed out and looked at the corpse.
“What the f* is this…?”
“No idea, though it surely resembles the attackers from before.” (J)
The something had a greenish skin and large tusks on its face. I started kicking the body to get it off the armor.
“Hey, you! Yes, you, lazy a*hole! Are you going to stand there or do something?” I barked at Jester when he dozed off.
“Captain, do you even see that it does not move…?” (J)
“SHUT UP AND WORK, YOU LAZY PIECE OF S*!”
“Yes, as you command.” I kept on kicking but it…
‘Kick’
“Wha…” HOW DID IT ROLL DOWN AFTER ONE KICK?!
“I did as you ordered, sir. Are you going to sit there or do something?” Jester…
“Jester, do you have a death wish or something…?” I took out Makarov.
“W-wait…!” (J)
“You don’t have any issues cleaning the armor after this, right?” He fervently nodded.
“Out of my sight.” In a blink he vanished and shut the hatch.
“Forward.” I returned to my position right outside the hatch.
Less than an hour later I saw a large number of lights in the distance.
Ah the generic mob the goblin got squashed be a tank what a nice picture .........goblin slayer is amazed
Regrettably, it was an orc.
@AFP_Writer What? Well sorry didn't know you used the western style of orc .....when I hear green skin and tusk the thing that comes first are the hateful gobs
@Maple My gobs have no tusks and are smaller.
@AFP_Writer you sounded proud tbh
@Maple You misheard
@AFP_Writer is that so? btw are you going to take a break from WS and prioritize this?
@Maple No, I just wait 'till I go to have my car repaired. There will be at least an hour when I will write WS.
Also, don't laugh, I plan to start a THIRD novel.
@AFP_Writer ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) roger I won't laugh but plz I want the summary
@AFP_Writer also fourth
@Maple I choose between two options: a school-life esque novel about GL relations of a popular girl and the school prez, and an action-oriented novel about NATO multinational task force isekaid into WWII.
@Maple If you find a single person, aside me, who cares about Silver Moon, then I will be laughing. 'Cause it is impossible.
@AFP_Writer I the former is REALLY REALLY tempting but I've been craving for some action
@Maple The NATO novel would be 90% about action with little slice of life. It will be based on my Men of War 2 games. The school novel is based around the everyday life of school prez who really, really, really, REALLY simps for popular girl.
@AFP_Writer ........well
@Maple changed my mind I want the simping prez
@Maple It will be primarily on patreon, so don't be too worried. Also, I have a lot of things to do before it.
@AFP_Writer patreon only?!
@Maple I plan to have it uploaded on patreon and after some time post here. Like, I am just a poor student who already wrote 1.5 full novels and still had 0 from it. Do I not deserve a chance? I post here for free but I just want to post chapters in advance on patreon.
@AFP_Writer I'm fine with it and also fine in waiting for free chapters but don't ever go to WN or I will hunt you down
@Maple I am just an amateur. If I ever end up making a WN then it will be just uniting the existing content and adding pictures. Actually, I had plans of turning Fuji's V1 into an actual E-book. Still not done.
@AFP_Writer ah not that kind of WN what I'm saying is the Webnovel site which is full of plagiarism and money needing writers and is not friendly also Chinese operated site
@Maple Imagine the pain in the a* of uploading both here and there. I don't even update patreon page since september...
I will be going so don't expect replies. Chiao
@AFP_Writer I know also don't worry about getting plagiarized I will tell you when I found one and is it really hard just to transfer data across multiple sites?
@Maple The transfering between scribblehub and patreon really showed me that yes, it can be quite troublesome.