I had dragged the speaker system for the radio out of the turret, where the entire crew sat atop, waiting for the morning report to be broadcasted. It was the next day. The vehicle had been restocked with turret drive in working order once again. Arkette had spent an hour last night arranging the shells; Ishi helped her study and remember which tip color indicates what shell type. I also now know that high-explosive is yellow, shrapnel is orange, armor-piercing high-explosive is red, and high-explosive anti-armour is blue. The static of the radio cut, and a quick, repetitive electronic chirping noise was heard for a few moments.
The now famous and instantly recognizable smooth male voice was heard, “Local forces in the Kastov-Von-Pesha region have stalled the Estal offensive into the region, heavy strategic bombing aircraft have been spotted making attack runs on military installations, yet our troops persist!”
The narrator briefly paused, the sounds of paper being flipped over was heard, and then the narrator chimed in once more in a less optimistic tone, “Yet more civilians have been enslaved for use by the Estal as indentured servants and as laborers, and many resistors within occupied territories have been shot en masse, and not buried afterwards, yet another grim day.”
The radio signal returned to static.
“When do we get to fight them? I signed up to kill invaders,” asked Arkette.
“When we get the hotline message to do so,” I responded, sounding impatient.
I felt as if everyone wanted to fight them, growing impatient. A buzzing indicating a hotline message was heard.
I jumped into the vehicle to pick up the communications phone, as the operator began to speak, “You are to join the 3rd Elite Rifle Regiment that is currently stationed in Eton, the regiment commander will assign you orders, understand?”
“I do, sir,” I responded.
The operator hung up after I responded. I heard the other crew members conversing above me.
“I find it somewhat amusing that the radio operator left it at ‘shot en masse’. I’m pretty sure it’s worse than that,” Ekni remarked.
“Care to explain?” Arkette pried.
“Apparently, they let logistical officers know a little bit more about the enemy than they do with soldiers or tank operators, mainly for morale purposes, I’m guessing. But anyway, based on what I’ve heard from a few discussions, the Estal don’t just shoot their prisoners, they tend to erm.. eat people who they can’t get any labor out of.”
“And how did you end up with this information, exactly? I don’t expect them to just give out this kind of stuff at random,” I asked, puzzled.
“Husband’s in logistics. I was able to chat with him before we shipped out. He was talking with someone about having to deal with a bunch of freshly-pecked Avali skeletons that they ‘confiscated’ from an installation they managed to take and they were pretty sure that they weren’t burned or shot either, just maimed and devoured.” He looked somewhat disturbed after explaining in full and rightfully so.
I saw that both Ishi and Arkette visibly recoiled after hearing what Ekni had explained.
“Ever more encouragement to go meet with our regiment at Eton. I guess we get going now,” I said, with everyone visibly agreeing.
Everyone began to pack up the scattered camping supplies, bedrolls and cooking equipment that were stowed on the back of the turret in the armored storage, and other odd things were stored within the turret. Ishi checked over the engine, making sure no lubricants or fuel had leaked overnight, and that everything looked as it should within the engine bay. Once we had completed the engine check and the packing of camping supplies, Arkette retrieved the hand crank and Ishi enabled the starter. Arkette once again helped the underpowered starter turn the engine over until it revved to idling speed. The crank handle was stowed, engine bay doors were closed, and we rolled off the top of the hill we camped in, surrounded by large trees coated in blue leaves.
The vehicle traversed over many rolling hills with ease, carrying us closer and closer to Eton. After a half hours’ drive, we left a forest composed of the same trees that surrounded our camp site, revealing the large village of Eton. The largest building in sight was the famed Eton Metals Plant, which flanked the town to the south towards the distant coast. This metals plant is the largest of its kind, producing many advanced materials used in household items and spacecraft which are now used to make armored vehicles and guns.
“I have always wanted to see the machines within that building there,” I said to Ekni and Arkette who were both peaking their heads out of their respective hatches with me, observing the sights visible from here.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“What kind of machines do they use in there?” Asked Arkette.
“My favorites are the precision laser etching tools that are used to make millimeter accurate cuts and indents in metal. The engine that is currently moving us is majority made with the same technology,” I explained without hesitation.
Arkette didn’t seem to understand much of what I said, or was just not interested.
As we entered the settlement, a green and white steel sign greeted us, saying: “Entering Eton, The City Of Steel”
Once we passed the sign, the road we traveled became flanked by four story tall vanilla-colored buildings, each with sloped roofs on all four sides. In the bottom of each building lay different services, everything from grocery stores to governmental offices, and above the service portions of the buildings are apartment blocks where many live. There are sets of tram rails laid down in the paved road we traveled, but no wiring above. Eton must be using older style trams. Ahead of us is the central crossroads, where the wide national road passes through the town and many vehicles wait their turn at the crossroads. Beyond the crossroads stood a much newer building than the brick vanilla-colored apartment blocks, an entirely prefabricated cement building that is painted off white, standing shorter than every other. An assortment of different tents lay to the side, with many people dressed in military uniform going about their business. Next to the city of tents, multiple vehicles stood. The most common one was a squared-off tracked vehicle with an angled front and an open heavy machine gun turret with a flat protective plate protecting the gunner from incoming fire. The tracks do not have return rollers, and are returned to the rear idler atop the road wheels. Two doors at the rear allow infantry to enter and exit the vehicle quickly. The vehicle that stood out the most was just like the other infantry carriers, but instead of a heavy machine gun turret, was a fully enclosed turret housing a large gun, just a bit smaller than ours. Beside this odd vehicle stood another one, this time with a short cannon housed in the turret. At the very end of the row of parked vehicles, stood two vehicles just like ours, both with the same insignia, yet both having slightly different identification codes.
“This looks like where we should be,” I said.
“They said go to Eton, we are in Eton,” Ishi replied.
After a few minutes, we were walking to the main entrance of the large building. Two large wooden doors stood before us. I held open the left door for the rest of the crew and once they had passed, I entered myself. The hallway we found ourselves in was long and covered the entire distance of this building. This is a “spine’ style of building, with all the rooms based off this one hallway. Nobody else was here, as it is still fairly early in the morning. We were to meet the regiment commander, so we searched for the main office. We eventually found the office a few doors from the entrance. I knocked on the dark gray wooden door.
“What is your business here?” I heard a deep voice ask.
“Commander Kotol, commander of armored vehicle 07. We were told to link up with the 3rd elite rifles,” I explained in a professional tone.
The door opened and I was greeted by a man decorated in a dark blue dress with a couple of medals pinned to the left side. He wore a large, traditional, tall, black, fur hat designed to cover almost the entire head when necessary, yet is currently folded up to only cover the top of the head. We are the same height, but he has much more muscle and weight than I do.
“You and your crew may enter,” he said as he led us into the room, which had many complex electrical instruments, including long-range radio units, radio navigation equipment, and a few large computers.
“Are you ready for your briefing?” He asked, as I surveyed the instruments within the room.
I snapped back to eye contact with the fairly intimidating older man, quickly saying, “Indeed, sir.”
“You will be given regimental markings later this afternoon, after you deal with something that has come up within the past few minutes,” he said grimly.
“What are we doing this morning, then?” Arkette asked.
“A group of Estal shock troopers have been spotted heading to an undefended farming commune a few kilometers north,” The commander said, walking to a map of the local area behind him.
“They will be traveling back along this road here,” he said, pointing to a section of light gray line within the middle of a field.
“What will they have?” asked Ekni.
“They will have four-wheeled supply trucks and two personnel carriers. Do not shoot the trucks, shoot the PCs’ with your APHE shells, it’s what they are meant for,” he explained like he had rehearsed this many times.
“And may I ask, how do we get there?” Asked Ishi.
“You will travel through this field along this river until you reach the road they will be traveling down, just follow personnel carriers three and five. They will be leading the mission. You will be escorting the logistics trucks which are rescuing the enslaved and returning them home,” he stated.
“When do we leave and where do we meet the friendly personnel carriers?” I asked.
“You meet them on the south side of this building, towards the metals plant. You leave as soon as you can. Also, from now on, you will meet with the combat instructor. Her name is Palva. Both of our hotline numbers are in that folder there. Take the entire folder with you and go over it while on your journey,” he said.
I grabbed the heavy folder and we left the office, leaving the building to find these personnel carriers we must link up with.