With every passing moment, the captives were becoming more nervous.

“I need just one. The rest may go.” At that moment they all went blank.

Everyone looked at me in surprise.

“What? We are not barbarians to kill people who surrendered.”

“I will lead you to the camp.” A young soldier stood up. He was shaking but he tried to suppress the fear.

“That’s the spirit. Take the horse. We just need to arrive there, you are free to go afterwards.”

Without wasting a moment, the soldier jumped on the horse, and galloped down the road. I jumped inside, and the tank slowly accelerated after him.

We had to drive over the wagons once again, so we were quite behind him.

The soldier tried to gallop faster than us but the tank is much faster than the horse. We caught up to him very soon, making the poor soul stare in terror at the steel monster.

His high speed was only helping us arrive to the camp soon.

When the camp appeared in our sight, we stopped. The soldier galloped further but after he noticed that we stopped, he turned the horse away, and galloped in the direction of the capital.

I didn’t care if any of the captives notify the enemy. They would most likely consider us a nuisance, instead of a threat.

The camp was a few hundred meters away from us. It was much larger than that fort. The walls were reinforced with earthworks and a moat.

I was considering moving out to the capital 5 days before the allies’ arrival, and we have limited time to finish with this place.

The enemy started moving very soon.

Archers took positions, and a large group of infantry and some cavalry sortied through the gates. They marched towards us.

“Those guys are not fooling around, are they? I am on stand-by.” (J)

“Wait.”

I have no reason to hurry the event. I might as well besiege this entire place.

The camp was conveniently located on a flat terrain, surrounded by hills from all sides like a plate.

“We have good visibility, so we might as well siege this place. Load HE and fire at everything that tries to run away.”

While we were thinking, a cavalryman rushed away from the camp.

“Shooting!” (J)

BOOM

The cavalryman was engulfed in a cloud of dust. The shocked enemy archers started shooting at us but their arrows barely reached us, and couldn’t do anything to the armored vehicle.

“I feel sorry for them.” (J)

“Why? We are only taking down those who try to run away.”

“Poor bastards, to die without seeing our beautiful tank.” (J)

“It would be even more beautiful, if you clean everything later.” Jester grumbled something, and pushed his head back to the scope.

A couple of attempts later the enemy calmed down and retreated inside. The gates remained opened.

The next attempt at running away happened after the sunset.

I already dozed off, and was seeing dreams, when I heard a shout.

“Enemy horseman. Trying to leave.” (J)

“F*… I was about to fall asleep…” I made sure I am not going to be hurt by the recoil.

“Fire.”

“Shooting!” (J)

BOOM

“Are they stupid, or what…?” I looked at a white cloud of hot air. There is no way we wouldn’t spot them.

It took them a dozen attempts to understand that it isn’t working. Only then the enemy finally calmed down and stopped trying to send messengers.

I could finally fall asleep.

I played with Stella until the morning.

When I woke up, my back hurt from luxurious comfort of the Fatherland’s engineering marvel.

“S*…”

“At least you slept…” Jester had bags under his eyes.

“Sorry. Let’s switch places. I’ll set a smokescreen.”

“It’ll only draw their attention.” (J)

“Fine. At my 3. 1, 2, … 3!”

We rapidly opened the hatches, and switched seats.

When the first arrows started falling on us, the hatches were already closed.

“Good job!” (J)

“Nicely done!” We clapped our hands, and I started monitoring the situation while Jester dozed off.