Forlas - 01
Forlas walked the exterior of the building, a strange affair of concrete and glass, an ugly mass compared to the swath of sitka trees it was surrounded by. The signage was faded after years of rainfall and lack of upkeep, she could make out enough words to spell out "Library." She stopped in front of the hastily fabricated door made of the same sitka. Abreast of the door was a pair of guards; The heavy rain ran down their Spangenhelms and into their doulbets, and without a signal fire, was surely soaking them to the bone.
Despite the weather, they stood at rigid attention, eyes slowly moving back and forth along the permitier, as to pick out the possible hurried movement of an invader. Luckily for Forlas, they were told of her arrival, and recognized the crest of house Taber. The left guard shouted "Vi apertos!" and the roughly carved gate marked with a shield flanked by two cresent moons was pushed open, and Forlas walked inside.
Rosvaria - The Ambush - 01
"It's a good day," Lt. Tayah Pavlichenko thought to herself.
Despite being close to the enemy territory, she and her crew had been enjoying a moment of rare calm. The sky was a wide piercing blue so clear it looked sharp enough to cut yourself. She was resting atop their K68, "[[Two for Flinching,]]" her hands folded behind her head, admiring the weather and pretending the war had forgotten about them. She took a drag from a fresh Rosvarian cigarette and savored the smoke. At this point, it was the little things in life that gave her joy.
Then she heard Pvt. Ness swear again.
He was in a losing battle with the drone jammers, one swear at a time. Tayah had been counting the curses in her head since he started the repair, and he was closing in on her personal record.
"Private," she said, not bothering to look down, "if you're going to curse the hardware, at least be creative with it. Say something I haven't heard before."
Ness sighed, hunched over the mobile repair station. "Sorry, Ma'am, but at this point these boards are more my own creation than the factories' back home. I know we're short on supplies, but this is basic shit."
From the turret hatch, Pvt. Rema called out, "If they wanted your thoughts on the hardware, you'd be in a factory, not out here with us, missing all the fun."
Ness laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Fun? From what? Hosing off what's left of some poor infantry sap because they happened to be standing near us when a shell hit?"
Rema went quiet. This was his first sortie, he hadn't even fired his rifle since basic. He still believed in glory and bravery, and that willpower alone will stop a bullet going through your chest.
Rosvaria could replace people faster than it could replace hardware. Everyone knew it. Nobody said it out loud unless they were too tired and broken down to keep pretending otherwise. This was her 5th crew in four years. Every loss, she was the one who lived. After the third time, she stopped chalking it up to luck.
A sudden thought dragged her away from her melancholy. This far from the main front, larks and sparrow chattered away without a care for the ongoing war. On her first deployment, she remembered throwing rocks in trees to get them to shut up so she could have some quiet rest. Now, there was eerie silence.
"Rema, clear the entry, Ness, pack it up, we may have trouble." She said in a quick blunt tone, as she flicked the half finished cigarette aside. Hastily jamming circuit boards and wires into his kit, Ness tossed up the bag with an explosive effort up to Tayah's arms. She could hear the crunching of expensive components jostling around like a bag of chips as she dropped it down the main hatch. Oh well. Grabbing his rifle, Ness started to run up, and climb up the side, his hand outstretched to grab Tayah's.
The marksman must have been aiming for either the engine block, or the munitions pile to either destroy or disable the K68. To do so, a regular bullet wouldn't do. An anti-material round can punch through 3 inches of solid steel, what it did to Ness was dehumanizing.
The round caught him square in the chest, everything above the ribs was just.... gone. He went from a promising solder to a bloody mess in less than a second.
His blood and brains plastered Tayah like someone took a paint roller of gore to her face and upper body. "Fuck!" She caught herself on one knee, her hand still outstretched in the attempt try and drag him up. "Get us moving Rema, now!" she yelled as she scrambled her way down the entryway.
As she jumped off the ladder, she heard the engine roar to life, all 1000 horsepower ringing in her ears, drowning out any internal thoughts. She tossed aside her helmet, still streaked with what remained of her Sergeant, and grabbed her cans. Her voice crackled to life over the internal communication system, distorted by failing hardware and adrenaline. "Rema, pin it to the north, as fast as she goes. we got Crows to our south."
Even through the static, she could her his breath hitch, and his voice full of worry. "LT? Crows to the south, what the fuck happened? Where's Ness?" As soon as Tayah opened her mouth, she knew the tone would be off, "Sgt. Ness is dead, a sniper got him. If we don't move now, we're next. They definitely aren't the only bad guys out here. Can you get us home Private?"
His reply was shaky, ending with a hint of calmness to it. "I'll get us home, and then we're going back to kill the bastards who got Sarge."
She could feel the tread bite into the grass, tearing up what remained of the meadow, the sudden acceleration causing her to halfway stumble back. "Make it so." She replied, as she contorted herself into the gunner's seat, her muscle memory taking over, as she flipped on the [[Shtora]] jamming system, and commanded the computer to load a new HEAT round. Nine agonizing seconds went by as they tore off at 25 miles an hour, hoping to make it to safety. "Inhale, count to four, exhale, count to four." she muttered just low enough to not be picked up by the microphone. It wouldn't do well for Rema if he knew she was worried.
*WHIR* *CLACK* *HISS*
The familiar sound of a HEAT shell being loaded drew her back into reality. Her tension slowly slid off her, like the compressed air draining away from the stabilizer system. She was in a tough spot, but she'd been in worse.
The rocket came from the treeline, its fins catching the calm summer breeze, stabilizing during it's beeline to it's target. Warning bells sounded all around Rema and Tayah, she had a split second to think to herself "I hope our ERA works." before her world went black.