The tank crew awakes in their new rooms and heads to the chow hall. They are dressed and showered, arriving almost in unison, fully alert and awake, surprising the tired ship crew who are having breakfast.

“Morning. How did you guys sleep?”

“Soooooo good. You don’t even know!”

“What Shela, no late night cuddles with Meke?”

“She got in bed, gave me a hug and kiss, then rolled over and I lost her.”

“Ha now that's funny. Mrs. lover girl wanting some alone time. When she gets it she just sleeps. Wow.”

“Stop making fun of me! Servan! Say something.”

“You dig your own holes, I won't help you.”

“You all are so active in the mornings. I don’t know how you all even function.”

“Commander! Good morning!”

“Morning commander, here coffee, black, 2 sugars.”

“Thanks, morning. 2 scoops, what are we rich now?”

“No, they have a lot of it. We don’t need to ration supplies anymore.”

“We can get our own soap now! I’m so excited!”

“I think we did okay. I got my own as did Farah and Servan, You and Meke shared but you're a couple so that fine.”

“Couple of weirdos, am I right?”

“Noone asked you, Farah!”

“Anyways, be ready in 5. We need to get orders.”

“Yes sir!”

“Also Shela, have you had a chance to do maintenance on the tank?”

“Yeah it took a bit for the engineers to like me but it's done. I added a reinforced bottom hatch and some mini hatches as you requested.”

“Is it still water tight when sealed?”

“Through my testing it is but if the port holes are damaged it will break the seal. We can use a shield to cover it but that would be ineffective in combat.”

“What would you recommend?”

“Do we need to keep the holes?”

“Yes it will give us more versatility to use magic and weapons, it is all to increase our value to high command.”

“Then we need something to completely patch and close them in case of emergencies.”

“Should we bring welding tools?”

“I don’t think that is wise, extra weight wouldn’t work well, plus it could explode so I would rather not?”

“Any ideas guys?”

“I don’t know. We can use heat from Farah but welding it would ultimately destroy it. Meke can use earth to plug it but its still somewhat ineffective.”

“That is a good backup plan. Anything else?”

“Sorry to interrupt but this conversation is interesting. What is the desired effect and the purpose?”

“Ah Johnathan, Sammy, this is my tank crew. These two are some of the engineers I've been working with to repair and fix up the tank.”

“Nice to meet you all. As she said, we are the ship's mechanics. Although many others still dislike and don’t trust her or you all, we are pretty easy going.”

“Orders are orders. We don’t have to like eachother or get along, so long as we do our jobs that's all that matters.”

“The captain says the same thing. You too are a lot alike in that aspect.”

“Thanks. To answer your question, we added a top hatch to the bottom of our tank and some mini hatches.”

“Hatches on the bottom? Why?”

“To allow for weapons and magic to be fired from above the enemy.”

“Okay, makes sense I guess. Then the problem becomes?”

“How to seal it if we need to cross water.”

“I can see that being a small problem.”

“Tiny.”

“And you can’t weld it?”

“No. We may need to open it during our deployment at a later time in the field.”

“Just a thought but what about sealant?”

“Ah, I didn't think about that. Nice Meke!”

“Sealants won’t work because they need some form of substance and activation chemicals.”

“But what about an earth based mud clay hybrid?”

“In ancient times they used something like that. But I don’t know where you would store that in the tank or where you would heat it.”

“We have an earth and fire mage so we should be okay.”

“What about the ratio?”

“Ratio?”

“If it is mud and clay based there could be problems.”

“What kinds of problems?”

“Being watertight is much easier to do than being space tight but the sealant has to withstand the pressures of the world.”

“If it is too hard it will crack and become brittle and leak, if it is not hard enough it will just dissolve in the water over time.”

“What about a more flexible sealant?”

“What do you mean commander?”

Can we not run magic power through it like an electrical current? If we can, it can hold the correct shape and solidity. Magic power should also negate the waters' dissolving effects and the pressures of the world.

“Wow! Nice job! I didn’t think of that! We just need to test some various things before our deployment.”

“We are getting orders. You are going to have to do it later.”

“Then we can do it during the mission.”

“Very well. Let's go.”

They enjoyed a peaceful morning which only came to them towards the ending of their first major deployment. Ship life is a different yet enjoyable peace. Their conversations with the various crew members have gotten more relaxed and honest. Their work around the ship has been a beneficial help to their overall reputation. Servan isn’t much in the way of words but he and Meke help move things around the ship. Shela works on the tank which free’s up the ship's engineers easing their frustrations at their assignment to also fix the tank. Farah uses her intense flames from her fingers focused into a small point to make a powerful flame torch to weld and fix things. Talos is usually in the command room making plans. They enter the bustling command bridge of the ship and ready themselves before the capitan.

“Good morning Captain!”

“Morning Farah. Did you sleep well?”

“Better than Shela did apparently.”

“Stop it! They are picking on me!”

“Ignore them Captain. Anyways, have we arrived at the destination yet?”

“It took us almost a week but we have arrived at the world of Valonda.”

“Anything on the scans?”

“We are currently doing a full scan so it will take some time. We are maintaining our current position in the systems while scanning them.”

“Captain, I am picking up transmission from the world. They are communicating about being scanned and are trying to deploy measures to stop being scanned.”

“Continue the scan Adjutant. Keep up your defenses and scan them as detailed as possible.”

“No matter how many times I hear the cold robotic voice of the Adjutant, it always makes my skin crawl.”

“She does good work but she is working on delivering her voice without sounding so robotic.”

“Still though.”

“Captain,their defenses are coming online.”

“No matter, ignore them and focus on the scans.”

“Roger Captain.”

“Have they completed yet?”

“Yes. Scans have just finished. Compiling data now.”

“What do the scans show us?”

“The resource level is rich and 12% depleted with many rare resources. The technological level of the world is pre-modernized, being ballistic and kinetic focused. The AI level of the world is nonexistent and they focus on using radio signals.”

“Is the world something we can ignore?”

“High command has issued a conquer order for the world. Assistance will be provided if needed.”

“We will take it due to the conquer order. Let's try for a more diplomatic approach and take it with kindness. Adjutant, what do you recommend for a more diplomatic kind meeting?”

“Calculating options. Option 1. Take over more poverty stricken people and restore their health and improve their current living situation and lifestyle. Estimated time to completion, 6 months 12 days. Option 2. Conquer a more evil tyrannical nation state and free the people allying the world against them. Estimated time to completion, 2 months 22 days. Option 3. Make friends with different nation states providing information and technological equipment which can be lied about to gain their cooperation. Estimated time to completion, 2 months 9 days.”

“Interesting options Adjutant. We will think about them and come up with some other proposals then we can-.”

“Captain, they are deploying weapons against us.”

“Wait, what? What kind of weaponry are they deploying?”

“Primitive Ballistic Missiles.”

“From their orbital defense platforms?”

“No.”

“From their space station?”

“No.”

“Where did they deploy from?”

“The world. I have identified 7 major nation states with 2 of them deploying primitive ballistic missiles and 5 of them on standby.”

“How many do they have access to?”

“I detected 12 more missiles. There are 3 specialized weapons in development.”

“So they attack us with their super weapons. To accomplish what? We are in space. They are not. Why would they think they have anything that could harm us let alone scratch us?”

“They must think they are protecting their world.”

“Oh hell no, that isn’t how this works. They attacked us first, they deserve to be wiped out. There will be no diplomacy, only war! How long until they impact us?”

“Calculating. Calculating. Approximately 8 minutes.”

“Let them hit the shields. You guys will go down in the drop ship, you should get there in 12 minutes. The drop ship will fly around doing aerial bombardments while you guys hit them hard and roll through their major defensive line and base. Dismissed”

Excited, the crew rushes to their rooms and gets suited up before meeting at the tank and boarding. Shela having undergone 40 hours of tight tank maneuvering only slightly dinged the drop ship as she backed the tank into it.

“Come one Shela! You’ve done this for like 100 hours and you still hit things!”

“Shut it Farah. There aren't any mirrors on a tank! This isn’t easy to just willy nilly back up and park.”

“Give me the comms Servan. This is Rabbit 01 to Drop Ship 01. We are ready for dust off.”

“This is Drop Ship 01 we have a go!”

The drop ship leaves the bay and begins heading towards the world, as they approach they see the missiles detonate on the ships shields in the far distance. Breaking through the atmosphere the drop ship shakes violently as its shields take some incoming fire.

“Ohhhhh mmyyyyyy goooooodddd whhhhy issss itttt shakkkkinnggggg!”

“Grit your teeth Farah or you're gonna lose your tongue!”

“This is crazy!”

“Are those explosions shaking the ship!”

“Deal with it guys were past the turbulent dive into the world. Now it's just incoming weapon fire.”

“Ahhhh I hate this! I don’t want to skydive in a tank!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Drop code came through. Everyone, brace for impact! It is going to be a quick drop. Servan bubble the bottom to reduce the impact! Shela in 5 full reverse!”

“Roger!”

“5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Doors open Go, go, go, go! Brace!”

“Full Reverse.”

The dropship hovers a few feet from the ground as it opens the hatch and the tank comes flying out the back hitting the ground with a large thump and bouncing! The drop ship immediately speeds off to go to its combat area. The tank immediately takes incoming fire from defensive weapons and enemy armor units.

“Evade them, Shela. Meke shields up to full. Farah, fire at will!”

“Roger!”

Their tank weaves and dashes around easily dodging their weapons and explosions, when they do hit the shield takes little to no damage. Shots ring out, echoing across the sky, as they impact all around their tank.

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“No seriously. What is this?”

“It seems like the enemy is far weaker than expected.”

“Their tanks are much slower than ours. Our small tank gun is dealing stupid huge damage to even their biggest tank!”

“God help them when I use my Farah Shot. I might take the entire city down!”

“This is in our favor. Report the situation Servan. Farah began to use Piercing Farah Shots at any armor in front of their walls. Let's rip them apart.”

“More like punch holes in them and not rip them apart.”

“True, true. Treat them like a nice block of cheese. Add the holes wherever you can.”

“Roger!”

“Commander, the ship has returned our message.”

“What did they say?”

“There are four major fortifications with two of them being in front of us. We are to push through each one and take their main base then their capital.”

“Alright team. Orders are orders, let's go! Shela full speed!”

The enemy pushes against them from inside their defensive line. Their deep trenches are being manned by thousands of soldiers as they had prepared for battle versus another. They shoot their basic munition kinetic weapons while tossing grenades and firing various kinds of rocket propelled grenades. They pop against the shield while the small bullets pass through the shield and slide off the slanted armor dealing no damage. Their firepower is like dropping streams of water and ice onto a floor, over time with hundreds of years, it may do some kind of damage.

“Look commander! They came to greet us with their entire army!”

“It seems like they wanted to roll out the red carpet for us.”

“More like fighting another army but we happened to show up.”

“We are an entire army!”

“I like the enthusiasm, Farah! Keep it up, glory for the empire!”

“Roger that!”

“I see artillery like guns on the sensors. They are way off in the distance but should begin opening fire on us shortly.”

“Just adjust the shield to make sure we can tank the hits and push onwards.”

“Out tank tanking hits, who would have thought.”

“Shut it Servan. Anyways, how does the path look?”

“Looks like deep trenches, razor wire,and tank blockers.”

“Keep her steady Shela, roll right over their defenses. Servan shields the bottom of the tank so we can roll through it. Farah, drop some fireballs into the trenches as we cross over them using the bottom hatch and ports. Meke, make small dissolving earth paths so we can cross over the trenches.”

Roger!

They begin their slow steady push forward. Shots hit all around from the multiple barrages coming from their armor units, and soldiers with rpg’s. They dodge incoming artillery fire while rolling over trenches and firebombing the inside, cooking the trenches causes the soldiers to flee or burn to a crisp. After they passed over the third layer of razor wire and burned trenches the enemy soldiers began to pull far back and use heavier weapons. After sometime crossing all their defensive lines and waiting outside their first fortress they stop for a break.

“Here Servan put this on the tank.”

“Wow Farah.”

Looking at the sign Farah has been making as they got closer to the enemy walls and their weapons stopped, Servan has a good chuckle.

“What did it say?”

“It was just a picture of meat and cheese with the words “gone to lunch.””

“Really Farah?”

“Commander, it's good for our morale! It also angers and breaks the enemy's morale at the same time. Plus its lunch time.”

“Fine. Everyone, let's have food. What do we have?”

“We have two white pasta, three yellow pasta, two pork, one beef, three tork, two scoulpa, and four green rice.”

“I'll take the white pasta. Farah, here heat this water jug.”

“What am I, a stovetop?”

“No, a furnace.”

“Commander!”

“So how do you guys feel about our tank?”

“What do you mean commander?”

“I feel like we need to do some more exciting things in our tank.”

“We always engage the enemy in our tank.”

“And me and Meke use it for personal time so it has seen some exciting things.”

“Really! No. Not in the tank. Bad. Shela, bad!”

“Ignoring that remark for all of our sanity. I mean we haven’t really accomplished anything crazy or challenging. Like what if we were to become a tank sub or flying tank on the battlefield?”

“Yeah right, you hear this guys. A flying tank!”

“No really, there may be a time we need to fly.”

“More like falling to our deaths off a cliff or from a plane!”

“Yeah totally, a skydiving tank. Wouldn’t you like to see that Shela?”

“Tank jumping from planes, oh yes totally a new national sport.”

“Im serious guys, we are patching the tank bottom for diving under water if need be.”

“Yeah that sounds pretty normal.”

“Turning the tank into a submarine is normal but jumping from a plane isn’t?”

“Nope. You just don’t understand, commander. This is a tank, it can go across almost every terrain type. It can’t fly.”

“I guess. Anyways, please finish up quickly. We need to hit the enemy hard.”

“Roger that!”

They finish eating and take down their sign as they begin pushing against the enemy once more. They fire a Piercing Farah Shot ripping through their walls and impacting into some quickly created fortifications. As they began to push through the wall their enemy detonated the entire wall crushing the tank in a major pile of rubble. The enemy cheered and relaxed but ultimately their faces filled with horror as the tank rolled right through all the rubble as if it didn’t even affect them.

“Our rabbit tank!”

“Commander.”

“Crush them all. Farah if you would.”

“Roger that!”

Farah sent a barrage of fireballs in a cone outwards bombarding the entire city in a moment burning many people and buildings alike. The city becomes a sea of fire from the burst of fireballs, the sizzling and crackling of the city as a roaring flame. They push through the city getting some heavy armor that began fleeing the combat area when they left the rubble.

“Farah on your left. Get them!”

“Farah Shot!”

Explosions rack the armor units as their armor is pierced by the tank shell then the fireball explodes inside detonating their tank shells from the intense heat.

“That looks like the last of them.”

“No more hostiles detected on our path.”

“Good, continue forward!”

They begin to push against the enemies second line which has more armor and weapons than before. They send everything they can at them from their large gate almost as a wave of armor. Farah unleashes tons of firebombs at the weaker tanks while focusing on the bigger ones. After they break the enemy's armor wave they start heading towards their gate.

“Wait. Hold on. I can't go any further! Commander, I need to poddy.”

“Alright, Meke bathroom breaks. Everyone go do something, Farah's first.”

Meke pulses his magic under the tank to detect any buried devices, when it's free he uses his magic under the tank to dig out a fortified earthen cube by displacing the earth forming thick walls to protect them. Farah opens the hatch and drops the ladder, taking their bucket of bathroom supplies and the light she climbs down. After some time she climbs back up with joy and releavement on her face. They head down one after another as Meke flushes the earth downwards to keep the area clean and smelling nice. After they all return to the tank they resume their conquest. They blow apart the gate and storm into their fortifications wrecking their defensive line and taking the second area. They push past the destroyed charred burning city to their last destination where they see a friendly overhead engaging the various air units. The drop ship flies overhead releasing tons of big weapons on the city and its walls fall with ease. Their tank storms their capital building, opening fire on it with firebombs spreading a sea of flames inside to burn out the soldiers inside. The nation surrenders just as the other local nations surrendered before the dropships overwhelming firepower. They standby and wait for other orders to come through as they stand proud in front of the city.

“I reported our current situation to the captain. New orders are coming through. We are to drop at the eastern nation's fortress from orbit and the drop ship will be heading to the far west.”

“Orders heard. Standby for dropship.”

“Roger.”

“Commander, do you want to resume our game?”

“Ah, the Northern Chess game we started on the ship.”

“Yeah, I imputed all the pieces into this PDA game so we can play.”

“Sure. We have free time.”

“I never understood why you play Northern Chess over standard chess.”

“I explained it to you last time, Farah.”

“It’s just chess with a wider board and additional pieces that's it.”

“It’s more than that! Having 2 additional castles, knights ,and bishops is a big deal.”

“But you're missing a bunch of the pawn pieces. What's the point if you have six pawn pieces? They can’t protect anything.”

“That's what makes it more interesting.”

“Meke what do you want to do later?”

“We haven’t had much alone time on the ship since you have been fixing the tank. Let's go on a mess hall date. I'll treat you to some free coffee.”

“Sounds wonderful!”

“Dropship has arrived.”

“Load the tank Shela.”

“Roger that!”

The tank is loaded into the drop ship and they begin to communicate with the dropship crew.

“Welcome back Rabbit 01. Hope your mission went well. We finished our bombing runs.”

“We also finished our assignment before you arrived.”

“Really? That's surprising!”

“We are awesome aren't we?”

“It is highly unexpected for a light scout tank but good job guys!”

“Don’t you worry about us, we can handle ourselves!”

“Okay, that's good. Anyways go relax before we arrive at your next AO. Dust off!”

The drop ship breaks at a gradual speed before hitting a very quick pace out flying the other aircrafts chasing it. They open fire with various kinds of kinetic and ballistic weapons like bullets and missiles. They detonate on the drop ship’s shield dealing no damage while it fires its back defensive emp laser gun which disables the aircraft causing them to just fall from the sky. They begin to climb high into low orbit and approach their new AO from high above.

“Wow we are so high up!”

“Are we returning to the ship?”

“No remember, we are going to do a low orbital drop in our tank.”

“When did we talk about doing an orbital drop?!?”

“When we talked earlier about flying tanks. Don’t you remember, Shela?”

“I thought you were kidding about the skydiving tank thing!”

“Well it’s too late to complain now, look, the hatch is open. Farah begins building magic as we fall.”

“Noooooooo! You Son of a B-”

The tank is sucked out the back of the vertical climbing dropship and plummets down towards their target far below, the capital city of the Free Fenkell Cities. The crew screams and yells hard but nothing is heard in the vacuum of space, as they begin to get closer to the ground they scream less while they prepare for their landing.

“Farah when we go to hit the ground, Meke is going to create a large shield and air pocket to cushion our fall, when that happens Farah, detonate a large fireblast making it seem like we were a super large nuclear missile or something.”

“Roger that!”

“What about me?”

“You, Shela, just focus on not dying from the fall, we need you to drive the tank.”

“Okay sounds good. What!”

“Brace for impact! Farah Go!”

“Farah Shot!”

The tank hits the ground cratering it sending out a large wave of fire from the compressed fireblast. It rushes and slams into buildings tearing them apart like a tsunami of fire and flames.

“Our orders are to fight anything and everything that approaches our landing zone until they surrender.”

“Everything? Everyone? Even the people?”

“Farah, target in front. Fire!”

“But it’s not a hostile target.”

The city burns in a bright red all around them as emergency crews begin to rush to the area.

“I don’t like this commander.”

“I understand we want to win this war but this is.”

“Orders are orders.”

“How can you say that commander!”

“Orders come through from command. It is a soldier's job to follow them. You follow them without question.”

“Commander I can’t!”

“Follow my command Farah. Shoot!”

“Commander!”

“Going against the will of the Empire is treason Farah.”

“I can’t fire upon innocents!”

“Those innocents will grow to resent the empire and will even rise up if given the chance.”

“Still though!”

“Do you all like living in the Empire?”

“Well yeah, who wouldn’t?”

“It is a good place to be.”

“Yeah it is.”

“The Empire is the greatest and strongest of all places to be and live in. They offer the best possible life, health care services, freedoms, and options available to an individual out of every other nation thus far. This comes with unfathomable benefits and opportunities from all aspects, but the cost to pay is high. Being conquered means losing everything, and learning something new. People are displaced to prevent uprisings, people are treated as people and not as a conquered group of slaves.There is so much that happens when you succumb to the will of the Empire. We as soldiers of the Black Army and of the Black Fleet will commit any and all sins for the Empire to protect our way of life and freedoms.”

“Still though, I can’t just fire at rescue crews trying to save people.”

“Farah, who is the one giving all the commands of the tank, good or bad?”

“You are Talos.”

“Who has to live with these decisions? No matter how good or evil they are. No matter if you like them or hate them.”

“You do.”

“Then ignore your feelings, ignore your righteous and virtuous desires. Just pull the trigger without thought and shoot hard, Farah.”

“Heard.”

They cry as they begin disabling the emergency crews rushing to the area. After a long slow moving 15 minutes, the enemy nation surrenders completely. Their capital is a wasteland, their military and people shattered, they are ruined in moments. Command sends over orders to the tank and they leave the cratered city allowing the enemy to send rescue crews. The people glare at them in their tank. They shout and spit in languages they don’t know with hate in their eyes. They enter the large open fields to the south of the city and wait.

“Orders are to wait here then board the dropship.”

“Okay.”

“Look out of the tank at these beautiful fields.”

“They are pretty. So what?”

“They are safe because the enemy didn’t roll over them with their armor. They are safe because the land isn’t filled with tank fire and impact craters. They are safe because the war ended.”

“Still though, commander.”

“Look, I know. Farah I know how you feel. I know how you all feel. You all have certain feelings about this mission, about the empire, about me. Just bury them in this flower-filled field and move on.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“But it is that simple. You didn’t do anything wrong, you were just a soldier following orders.”

“Just a soldier following orders?”

“Yes, just blindly following orders.”

“Yes you're right, I just slept through everything and blindly followed orders.”

“Sure, you did. You followed orders and that was it. Look at these fields.”

“Yeah.”

“One pain lessens another. One bad situation can stop a worse one. A single bombed drop will save millions if the war ends and the fighting stops. Just look at those pure blissful, alive flowers.”

Silence fills the air as they await for and load into the dropship. It is a long, quiet, journey back to the ship and Talos dismisses everyone while he gives his report.

“Tank commander Talos reporting in.”

“Welcome back. Where are the rest of you all?”

“I dismissed them for the night. Here is our completed mission report.”

“Let’s see, let’s see. Ah, okay.”

“What does it say?”

“They had to do some intense things. They followed orders.”

“Are they going to be okay?”

“They will, they just need to process this all. They aren't strangers to combat or death but when it comes to sins and atrocities they are.”

“This is not a job for the faint of heart, we ensure absolute superiority in all things with the boons and blessings of all the Empire and its people.”

“I explained it to them. I will let you know if they need anything and when they are ready.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

Talos returns to this room, showers and changes before heading to the mess hall surprisingly meeting the others

“Welcome back commander.”

“Thanks.”

“How was the report?”

“Good. It went well. They understand and worry about you all.”

“Yeah.”

“How are you all?”

“Me and Meke are fine. We understand. The girls however.”

“Yeah”

“You two know them best. Make sure they are okay to continue. Anyways, let's go eat in silence with them.”

“Yeah.”

They eat their meal in silence, while the loud bustling mess hall continues on their table of quietness as seen by all. They know of their mission and of their duties, and ignore them to allow them to heal. They finish their food before smiling and returning to their rooms, Meke goes with Shela like they always do, Servan goes to comfort Farah, while Talos heads to the mission room. They spend the next few days slowly regaining themselves before they are good to go with their new orders. They meet in the briefing room with the Captain and Vice Captain since this mission is a very different kind, what the ship doesn’t normally deal with. Infiltrating a modern fantasy world as spies to conquer it with their skills and powers before bringing down the Sword of the Empire.