Tank

A tank unit is send on a deadly mission.

Tank

Midian Celcius

 

2103 - Battle ravaged the United States, Eurazia has crippled the proud country in a war about oil. Thew  wells were in hands of the Emirate Federate, Eurasia got oil from them but the United States got an embargo forbidding fuel export to their lands. Also two A-bombs hit the States one at the east and one at the west coast. America retaliated, threw an a-bomb on Europe, Asia and the Federate Emirates. Both desperate in need for fuel they worked to get their airplanes flying again. The Midwest was the only place were life was possible.  This is the story of a tank unit of 4 people in search of insurgents and water. Australia and Canada were neutral. ‘Damn it’s hot.’ T-girl said, her shaved head with the green hair on top stood out just like her piercings. You would said with her slim posture and small breasts she was a teenager acting out but she was in her thirties. How old nobody got to know. ‘She drank from her flask.’
‘Whisky? I asked.’
She gave me the flask, I took a nip, it sat my mouth and stomach on fire, I gave I t back.

‘It’s pure alcohol, I ai’nt wasting space on non-alcoholic s**t in this flask. We both lit up cigarette.

‘Hey Trev, be a dear, ask Collins if he sees some angry birds. I bang the lit and yelled: ‘Angry birds?’

‘Nothing, they must be running out of fuel themselves Eurasian b******s.

Clint sat next to Trevor on the tank. Trevor was a frivolous womanizer with a goatee and mustache, he was their sniper and could hit something from 1 968 yard away. Nick was their medic, he manned the turret on top of the tank. Nick was a long haired man was a navy boy. He loved metal like T-Girl, the driver’s nick name. Inside I was, Mike Collins, I manned the turret shooting grenades. Trevor had his surface to air missile at hand. But against F-17’s they’l l amount to s**t and they know that, so they managed to stay out of the cross hairs. The guy needs a drink T-Girl yelled . According this updated map from central command there is a manned outpost with water two clicks to the east. ‘Those reconnaissance boys better weren’t drunk our stoned when drawing that map.’ said T-Girl, she turned east drawing on her cigarette. I looked at her tattoo with a skull with a  knife through and  blood spatter. Very nice. She laughed when she looked first at me, my hat said ‘You know what? Just f**k it.’

‘That’s sums up life she said. We both were mischievous and got a bad rap at the army, being drunk and in a fight, mostly the two at the same time. T-girl stabbed a guy once with his own knife. I testified for her since then we were very close. We got in the same tank unit. There still were a lot of anarchistic paratroops fighting for power, and Eurasian insurgents. ‘Collins grab a binocular and take a look at the top. ‘Yes, sergeant.’ I said mockingly

She hated the fact I was a lieutenant. I didn’t cared for it much except teasing her, I never stood on my stripes, we were equals in this stupid war. I looked at the edge of mountain and saw shiny object. ‘There is definite a base their but it’s not our flag, it’s the one of the Anarchists, they had a black flag with a big red A in a circle.’

‘F**k it, whe need water. Gentleman prepare for an attack. I went down again.

‘Fire when I say so.’ I said we drove closer but where still not in shooting range. A shot, a bullet missed Trevor by a few inches. He took his sniper rifle, aimed and fired back. The man in the scope died. ‘Alright give them hell.’ I said I blew up the main room. Trevor shot with M-16  at approaching men, Nick got the turret and started spreading fast fire, all the attackers died. They were poorly trained, the tank drove left and we inspected the buildings. Nobody came out. We jumped out, all with a Uzi fitted for 90 bullets and a M-16 with 3 grenades in it. We comb the camp through. There was nobody. ‘Why do I feel this were just guards and the main force is coming. ‘Because I am seeing the advancing from out the south. ‘Get oil and water.’ said T-Girl, then we are gone. I checked the armory and took a bag with ammunition and grenades. Trevor had two 10 gallon botlles with water. Nick had  4 big jerry cans. ‘We  best lay our defense hear, they have a gun turrent and  two mortars.

‘Trev, snipe their drivers. Those jeeps are too fast to outrun with a tank, the will block us.’

‘Rick on the turrets, T-Girl you and me mortars.

Trev sniped the four drivers in no time, they were pushed out  and their compatriots took the wheel.

‘Alright gentlemen and woman blast away. Nick started to fire the turret, it wrecked the jeep in front, we put mortar shells in the rusty mortars and put our fingers in our ears. They  were right on target, the jeeps most to the back exploded, two jeeps fanned one in front opened fire, we reset our mortars, and put two shells in again. The right jeep blew up. Trevor sniped the driver of the one in front firing at us. Nick moved the turret to the left tank it exploded. Then we saw a wagon stopping outside there came a lot of troops. The ran over the hill towards us, they had portable machineguns and mortars. Trevor shoot as many as he could. ‘Keep your sniping for someone important.’ T-Girl said, we moved the mortars and fired again and again. A lot of troops perished, Nick started to shoot the moving men, they fell like flies. ‘They must be desperate. ‘What do you think, it’s the only outpost in this middle of nowhere.’ said T-Girl, I took my M-16 and unloaded on the few that remained. An easy win. They weren’t all like that. We buried two team mates, Bonny, or explosion expert and Dan, deadly in hand to hand combat. T-Girl and me were that also, and I knew my explosions but this wasn’t about skills, it was about brothers in arms, about close friends.

We said up base in this camp and made use from the supplies. We dropped a lot of food cans in the tank, more water, and oil. Also a lot of ammunition. We could take the time for it now.

I took the guard duty. I snorted amphetamines and kept doing it every two hour. I looked with an night scope. Nobody was to be seen. Until a giant sandstorm hit the valley, I covered my face. In the storm I saw jeeps approaching. ‘Sandstorm, approaching jeeps I yelled.’ I took the automatic machineguns on the guard tower and started hitting them hard. The black flag with the red A left no clues anymore this weren’t allies. I blasted away. T-girl and Nick covered the mortars Trevor the turret,  It was hard to say with this storm how many were coming at us. ‘Everybody to the tank I said, there everywhere, we can escape to the south.’

We drove away at top speed, I left a little surprise at their headquarters several jeeps stopped there. The camp exploded and went up in flames.

‘You b*****d.’  laughed T-Girl

‘Hey, they can sleep under the star-spangled sky.’

She laughed. We drove to a mountainous region. We should hit Central Command tomorrow if we follow this road, I let T-Girl see it. Alright, I can manage that at top speed. We went on. ‘Rocky ride.’ said trevor, Nick with his young teenager appearance said, is it ever been different? He went through his sweaty hazel brown hair which had the same color as his eyes. He was the silent brooding type, thinking about who would be next to die under his watch, when he didn’t had time our supplies for a proper treatment, luckily they had a lot of supplies stolen from the compound. In the next evening they reached a great fortified compound with an American flag on top of it.

They checked at the gate. ‘I am lieutenant Jones, I said, we are here for our next orders.’

How right in, Sir. We stopped at the main building. I went in. The general, a grey broad-shouldered man said:’ good grief, son, you like if you came out of a mine.’

‘It was a rocky road.’

‘Take a Scotch, he said. We still have England, Schotland and Ireland backing us, so we won’t run out of Scotch. I poured a bit in my glass and tasted it. ‘Glenfiddich, 1937 rare.

‘My, you are an expert. That’s great to see.’ he laughed ‘well lieutenant I don’t have to tell you how this war is developing. We found new oil digs but the must be defended against insurgents, it’s a large territory, and the fastest way to guard them is by tank,  without our fliers. So I command you to take control of region Alfa. He showed it on the map. It’s were Texas used the be. It was firmly in control of the government, who said up office their and US troops defended it heavily. But we needed to go through to states to get there, Nebraska Kansas and Oklahoma.

‘My, God, that’s going to be quite a right. We can put your  tank in a wagon and bring you as far as the border of Nebraska, then you are on you own. Godspeed, son.’

I saluted and marched away. I told the others. That’s plain suicide. Trevor said, Nebraska and Kansas are nobodies land. We could encounter just about everyone with a grudge against America.

‘Orders are orders,  if you choose to appear for court martial I wish you luck.

‘You bloody well know I wouldn’t abandon your sorry asses. We went to drink liquor in the mess. T-Girl had grilled the mechanics to don’t mess up here tank. One made a comment and she punched him out. The others worked hard and silent on the machine.  T-girl had a bottle of scotch and drank it with an alarming rate. She got real worked up when drunk. We had to spent the night here, because the truck that would carry us to the border needed to be fixed.

 

Next day at dusk we left with no headlights on. At midday we reached our destination.  T-Girl drove the jeep out the wagon. We took our positions and said goodbye to the soldiers. Before us lay the the flat plains of Nebraska, on the horizon lay a city. Probably abandoned or crawling with scavengers, we avoided cities. On day tree, we reached the capitol Lincoln, but Omaha was the city where still army was present. We drove south east and entered the city, a guard halted us. ‘We came from Central Command, we need to reach Texas for patrolling duty, could we spend the night here?

‘I’ll check with the chief in command; a muscled man with a scar on his face said:’ so you want to go to Texas, might as well shoot yourselves now. Here everything is humpty dory but in Kansas it crawls from insurgents trying to wipe out the soldiers at Oklahoma. They want to destroy the last oil supplies.  But you are welcome to sleep here. We also have a bar, I should say get wasted, It might be your last night alive.

 

We drank a lot. And hit the brig. At dusk T-Girl woke us all. I crawled into the tank still hazy from yesterday’s binge drinking. I smoked a cigarette and gave one to T-Girl. We drove through the luscious farmland, following the Republican river. I said:’ stop now!’

I went out and dusted some sand from a device, ‘antitank’ I said, I managed to disable it. I patrolled the road up ahead, there were several of them.

‘Alright we leave this road and drive to the grass, there they can’t sneak mines in the ground without bruising the grass. We drew further suddenly, two tanks appeared. ‘Insurgents I yelled. I hit one tank with a shell crippling the caterpillars. It couldn’t ride anymore, ‘Everybody in the tank!’ I yelled

The other tank hit us, we shocked. I opened fire on the first thank, I targeted the drivers hole. I fired.

The explosion was great, I probably hit an oilcan. There was no sign of life more from the tank. I kept firing at the other until it burst on fire.

We drove further, but the tank we thought disabled fired us at the back, damage was minimal we turned and I shot a finishing shell. The tank went on fire. An armada of jeeps came at us. I fired, two jeeps tumbled over, the man inside them that weren’t killed started shooting. Trevor cover Nick, Nick man the gun turret. Trevor shot a burst of fire with his M-16, Nick manned the gun turret and mowed the men down. Then Nick and I opened combined fire on the jeeps, we managed to put 35 out of commission but there were still more than hundred men on the field. We opened fire on them I shot  at them, an explosion took out 4. I left the jeep with my M-16 and fired continuously.’ They fanned out, we all covered a direction. I was hit in de shoulder Nick would look at it. ‘It’s nothing serious, shoot damn you, I order it.’

I shot a grenade, 5 insurgents went down. I jumped from the tank, at the back covered and  shot from the side the men who were  closest. Nick kept firing the gun turrent. Ammo he yelled, I fired another 5 b******s, climbed the tank and entered it,  coming out with ammo for the turret. Nick immediately started firing again. Take out their mortars before the can use it, Trevor sniped the operators. T-girl shot a grenade at them, I fired my M-16 and Nick riddled them with bullets.

After a battle of 3 hours we won. Nobody was left alive from the insurgents. But for us lay Oklahoma, a dangerous place. The White Tigers, a bicycle gang ran the region we drove right through the center on the flat road, we reached Oklahoma City in a few days. Bikers appeared out of nowhere, they started shooting. Trevor was hit in the head, Nicked checked him and said with a grim face: ’No.’

I went berserk I jumped of the jeep and killed everybody in sight. I fired a grenade in the building were they kept coming out from, someone got blasted out of the window, all their bikes I destroyed by throwing a hand grenade. I slashed throats with my knife and fired my handgun. ‘Come back, John, you need to keep close. Nick rattled the turret and T- girl shot houses with biker’s in. It was a street to street battle. One had a bazooka, I mowed him down before he got the use it. I was out of ammo. ‘Ammo a yelled.’ I was shot in the stomach.

 

I awoke in a hospital, I saw the stiches.

Nick said, thank God for this hospital, it had the right supplies. You will live if you take it easy. ‘Son, this is war, we don’t have time to take it easy.’ I said

‘I stood up with an itching pain in my stomach region. I drank a bottle of Scotch. We drove further. Finally we saw Texas.

‘Well isn’t that a sight for sour eyes.’ I said. We were ambushed. ‘American our insurgent.’

‘American, I said. I showed my tags. Alright lieutenant, we are glad you made it. Or commander was killed during an inspection by insurgents. ‘How is the oil distribution?’

‘We can bring the oil on the ground, but the roads are dangerous by rebels and insurgents. However all the planes are pretty much over here.

‘I am in command now.’

‘Yes.’

‘Good, gear up those jets with a-bombs, I want Europe bombed 5 times, Russia 5 times and Asia 10 times.’

‘Sir, are you serious?’

‘I am always serious soldier, I gazed at him with my dark penetrating eyes.’

‘Yes, Sir.’

We rested after burying Trevor. We said or prayers and went to drink in the canteen.  We ate the best food since we left central command. We all were brooding. The death of Trevor on our minds. I was furious, I would patrol this region and kill of every rotting b*****d that worked for the enemy.

 

I put op the world map and drew circles on it. Gentlemen, you’ll be in the air soon, these are your targets, you all have a number, pick that target, you will launch a nuclear weapon. Don’t show mercy because they won’t show you any either. I give each two jets just to guard you from counter attacks, by tomorrow I want this war to be over.

We patrolled and blasted some insurgents with jeeps, I shot them all in one blazing fire. Nick started his turret  when he saw more jeeps, 14 of them. The jeeps exploded, I went back in the tank when I saw a tank coming over the brim. I fired several times at the dreaded machine. It started to burn but still returned fire. I hit him one more time, they were crippled and I went out, sneaked towards the opening of the tank and dropped a cooked grenade in it. It exploded. Suddenly I saw 15 tanks coming closer. I woke the flyers. Your mission:’ stop those tanks, by every means necessary.’

5 crawled in their jets and took off. Their rockets made short work of the tanks. In the air we saw enemy planes. ‘What the f**k.’ I said

A deadly air battle began. We prevailed with the loss of one yet.

I took amphetamines, I wouldn’t sleep that night. We all manned the tank and kept in contact with base via radio. 10 incoming insurgents in jeeps with a truck after them. We coursed towards them. The jeep we blew up, they jumped out of  the truck, Nick rattled them with the turret. I shot my M-16. We fought through the night buying are fliers time to fly to Eurasia when it was light over here and dark there.

 

The jets went on route. The bombs were thrown, enemy fighters killed; later that day I got a phone. It was the president. ‘Eurasia has fallen, they want to negotiate peace terms, the war is over.’

‘That’s great news, mister President, what are or orders?’

‘For those who enlisted during the war, make a life you want to live, all men that are soldiers should wait for the colonel to come. He will be there at noon, you can  leave then. With the tank  we drove drunk on the road in the horizon we saw a jeep approaching, the two other jeeps attacked form both sides. I took the sniper rifle and hit both drivers. Men jumped out. Give it hell, T-Girl,  she drove as fast as possible, Nick used his gun turret. The left jeep exploded, the right followed by the bazooka I collected from the White Tigers. We stopped in front of the jeep. I saluted. Lieutenant Walker sir ‘ are you alright?’

‘Yes, thanks to you.’

‘I saluted.’

He saluted back.

 

T-Girl said:’ now the war is over, may I request a special permission.’

‘Yes.’

‘I want to kiss you and get in bed with you then.’

‘Permission granted.’ she pulled me to her chest and kissed me eagerly.

 

And that was the story about or tank division.