_____"We apologize for the interruption! Our facilities staff are hard at working restoring the connection... oh, what's that? It's coming back up! The game is on!"
_____The town begin to explode like so many matchsticks. Another shot from the Hellcat broke across the frontal plate, ricocheting high into the sky with a furious metal
clang, the sound ringing high into the sky. But the rumbling continued as shells came down, exploding around them with brilliant flashes of light. They saw the plumes of dirt as the T70 gunned it and headed for cover, just as a shell exploded across the engine deck of the big German cat and swallowed the rear of the tank in furiously billowing flames.
_____They weren't knocked out yet.
"They're burning! It's not looking good for the challengers!"
_____It was a perfect zen. Despite the far-off thump of cannon shells and the sharp voices picking at their tank headphones, the crew of the Soviet assault gun was far removed from the mayhem of the battlefield below. They had the radio turned down low, and the hatches were cracked open. A neat row of shells laid beside the gun's recoil guard. Ashley stared through her field glasses, waiting for it. Waiting...
_____Boom. Ashley saw the way the trees shook, the leaves bounced as the distant peal of a howitzer shook the land, muzzle flashes igniting like matcheads in the pastel-green landscape ahead of her. That had to be it. There was no way just one tank was hiding in that neck of the woods, no way. She started ramming shells with glee as Venla leaned into the sights. Yayoi even started the tank into motion, gently rockinng their sights from side to side, adding to the scatter of the lethal barrage that was to follow. With a cannonade muffled by the armor plate of them, the first high-explosive shell screamed into the air, followed by a dozen more as Ashley worked the gun near red-hot ramming rounds.
_____There was a dull pop in the distance, or at least what felt like one. As they expended their ready ammunition into the fray, Ashley's head emerged from the smoke-flooded fighting compartment just in time to see the final impacts, a slow march of dirt plumes and fire tracking upward, swallowing the enemy position entirely until the HE bursts were joined by the fiery blaze of "cooking" ammunition.
_____And just like that, they had gotten a kill.
_____"Just a little closer, comrades. We are almost behind them!" The T-34 struggled to keep pace with the zippy cavalry tank tearing up the roads, both tanks bouncing over rough terrain, tracks groaning, excited whoops escaping from open hatches.
_____BT-Chan went crashing over a bump as a shell tore through the hill just above their heads, impacting with an explosive
thump that showed dirt through the open fighting compartment. The screams of Berserker's commander filled the waves as the little backroad became a deafening scene of cannon-fire and rattling machine guns.
"AAAAAMBUUUUUUUSH!"
_____A well-aimed shot slammed into the base of the Russian medium tank's turret, and the transmission stopped dead in unison with the mournful sound of the diesel engine shutting off. Berserker slid to a mighty halt, smoke pouring from the hatches. But it was too late to run now. Two cannons banged in front of the dimunitive BT-Chan, and any semblance of cover or a smooth road was fast obliterated by the shower of explosive shells ripping across the grass, narrowly missing the tank in a hard turn.
_____But Archer-Team had been watching over them, and hardly a moment after the fighting started their own shells had obliterated the enemy position, an unbelievable crescendo of fire and steel uprooting their dug-in opponents. The BT was still charging full-speed ahead when they saw the shape of the enemy Sherman tank swallowed up in flame, and the slender shape of the flag emerging from the enemy tank's turret signified their sweet revenge for the incessant shelling.
_____BT-Chan rode up on the Panzer III's thinly-armored flank. A shot on the move slammed into the side of the turret and barely glanced off, but as their enemy turned to lay cannon upon them, BT-Chan was already screaming past. Rebecca hit the brakes as their little forty-five milimeter came to bear. Compared to the slow, steady bang of howitzers going off, their cannon sounded like a machine-gun. Bang! Bang! Bang! Empty casings littered the turret as Akiko shoveled six, seven shells into the gun as fast as it would eject, and each impact upon the Panzer's turret made the gun halt, before a lucky round lit the pyrotechnics package and swallowed up the entire turret in a glorious, welding-torch fireball.
"HIT! ANOTHER ONE! TWO TANKS KNOCKED OUT!
"The challengers have taken out the M4A3 and Panzer III! What an incredible comeback!"
_____It was euphoric, and an utterly glorious sight. A huge swathe of charred brush surrounded the site of the battle, where two medium tanks laid in their own craters as BT-Chan all but drove circles around them. The T-34 let out one last groan before it too, raised a flag in defeat, but they were still firmly in the lead.
_____Slowly, but surely, the M3 drove the enemy into a wall. Autocannon rounds pelted their front plate like BBs, while the Greyhound's haphazard shots went wide, no thanks to the rough ride of the wheeled vehicle upon a shell-struck battleground. At long last, the Americans had reached the battlefield, and their vengenance was immediate. The M8 skidded to a halt and fired a rocket, though it was high, far too high— and it only took a moment to realize exactly where they had been aiming when the aircraft rocket smothered their mountaintop in flame, and the clang of broken armor echoed across the peaks, as their Su-76i had become the latest victim of the raging battle.
_____Taking that shot, though, had made the little armored car a turkey for the big American riding down the road. Karin aimed the six-pounder cannon like a bootlegger pointing a sawn-off shotgun and blasted the M8 at near point-blank range. The armored car did a full flip before landing onto its side, crushing the body of one RP-3 rocket beneath its turret. There was a flash before thunder and fire swallowed up the poor armored car.
_____But Rough Rider kept on charging. "Suits them right," Frans snorted. "Bringing an armored car to a tank battle?" As the smoke settled, the crew of Rough Rider found themselves in an empty field, as the exhaust plumes of the little Panzer II charged over the next hill. Tch... we lost the flag tank, I see. Whatever. Bring us together with Caliburn then."
_____The M3 had picked up speed on the long way over, and a few moments later they steered onto the main road, hot on the heels of the Crusader. The Brit tank fired on the move, exchanging wild shots with their enemy's annoying little tank destroyer...
"By the skin of their teeth! The flag tank has escape,d and the Su-76 knocked out! What a shot from M8 team! We have some imcredible coordination for the home team today. With the M8 out, the challengers have numerical superiority!"
_____"Fire! Fire goddamn it!"
_____"Quiet down. I shoot when I'm ready," Ava said, cool-as-you-dare. Elena rammed fresh AP shells when she wasn't hanging on for dear life. Stella was charging through the gears, braking when it looked as if the T70 would fire. They had been lucky so far — the T70's 76.2mm gun was far more than their "decent" armor could handle at these ranges. But their gun, at least, could crack that tank-destroyer open at any range.
_____The thunder of tank-fire increased heavily when the M3 joined their left flank, and a plume of dirt and diesel fumes off to their right signified the arrival of their long-lost cavalry tank. Still driving with total disregard for safety, sanity, or broken gears.
_____"Listen, we've got them four-to-two. Don't lose it now. We've got momentum, and they're gonna run out of ammo or road sooner or late. Stella, break us off from
Rough Rider, we're going to push that TD's flank. Be ready to site possible ambush spots, the foiliage is getting real dense. Loader, AP!"
_____Caliburn snarled in response, and the engine pushed and pushed. Stella saw the gauges start to tick over as the heat in the engine compartment built up. They had been driving with the throttle open the whole match. How much longer would their steed hold out? The uncomfortable silence told her that thought wasn't a solitary one.
_____Nike threw a small canister out of the T70's turret. It burst mid-air into a billowing cloud of smoke, swallowing up Caliburn in entirely. Their commander's soft cuss was lost in the commotion that followed. "Shit, push it! Just hammer it through, she's setting up an ambush!"
_____Of course, it was that exact moment Caliburn blew a cylinder and the power was sapped from beneath Stella's fingers. Being run this hard had worn out the poor cruiser tank. They lost momentum in the thick of the smoke cloud and came to a slow, agonizing halt just in front of it, surely in their enemy's sights. it was then that Rough-Rider came crashin through, machine guns chattering, cannon thundering, shelling anything that looked big enough to hold anything tank-like.
_____Winter threw the hatch open. "Gunner, on my command!"
_____There was a malestrom of dust swirling around them. The heat, the oil, the grit stung her eyes something awful. The enemy tank-destroyer opened up on their charging comrade, and the round stuck high on
Rough Rider's front, tearing into it. A flag emerged above the M3, and its great, rattling machine-guns fell silent at last. Rough Rider had been slain in her tracks, but that was the opportunity they needed. "Ava! Right in the center of that muzzle blast, fuck 'em up!"
_____The T70's following round screamed high as the smoke cleared. Ava tutted under her breath, lowered the gun and shot the T70 through.
_____Lin was struggling to make out the little white flag on top of the TD when she heard the rattling of tracks behind her.
_____"Aw, fuck."
"FROM BEHIND! THE FLAG TANK GOT THE CRUSADER!
"What a nail-biter! It's two on one. The Panther is burning. Can Team Assassin close the distance in time?
