December 31st, 2016 08:30 Hours
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Two years after his dishonorable discharge, Luca was now a member of Tactical Solutions. He had come to the realization that illegal drag racing would no longer be a sustainable way of paying the bills after a few close calls with the law. Regardless he still felt free ever since his ex had dumped him as he was free of the unrealistic expectations of becoming an officer. He rose from his bed and walked into the kitchen. He looked in the fridge and there was only enough milk left for a bowl of cereal and some stale off brand cereal that he had never really bothered to eat with all of the other options he had available.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures." He muttered before grabbing a bowl from the cupboard and pouring himself a bowl.
Shortly after signing up, Luca was assigned to Fort Augustus near his hometown of Saint Isabel, Kesalia. While he bided his time he decided to open up the newspaper and read the latest news about the world. As usual tensions in Ruvania were beginning to rise and even the people of Ruvania's neighboring nation to the south, Atril was panicking which didn't surprise him. After he finished his cereal and cleaned the bowl, Luca put it back in the cupboard. He then looked at his watch and realized that now he had to get going. He quickly changed into his MARPAT uniform and hopped into his RB25 swapped Nissan Fairlady Z.
He waited for his car to warm up before putting it into gear and heading onto the road. When he reached the fork in the road he turned to the right and took the scenic route which lead to a nice stretch of twisty country roads near the family farm which allowed him to test the handling limits of his car and at times even scare himself a bit. When he turned onto the highway he slammed on the gas and before he knew it he was already exceeding the speed limit.
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09:30 Hours
After some spirited driving, Luca finally arrived at the base in which he was assigned to. The road leading there was quite bumpy due to it being unpaved which forced him to drive slowly but he soon made it to a paved section which contained a small administration building with a parking lot. He took the open space in between W140 S-class Mercedes and a heavily modified purple Honda S2000. When Luca exited his car he nodded in approval at the Honda and walked into the building where he would catch a glimpse of who he immediately assumed to be the owner of such a car. The owner was a woman with white hair and blue eyes. She was was rather tall, standing at around 6'4 with bronze skin. It was safe to say she was strong enough if she was serving with a group of misfits like him.
"Hello." The woman said with a noticeable Eshilean accent.
"An Eshilean?" Luca chuckled, "What brings you all the way over here?"
"Wanting to get away from it all... get back in the life." The woman chuckled, "That is a nice motor...you pulled out the old V6 and put an RB in there I see."
"It's a 1991 Fairlady, SDM spec so it's right hand drive, and thanks." Luca smiled, "I'm Alessio, Luca Alessio by the way."
"I am Zoe... Zoe Peretz."
"So what part of Eshil are you from, Peretz?"
"I was born in Eshil but raised in Jaffria." Zoe replied.
"I see. So what made you want get back into this shit? I mean Jaffria has mandatory military service after all so I'd assume many of your fellow countrymen and women would just do their time and dip."
"As I said. I wish to contribute... my family was not very happy about my decision to join this cause. Considering the unrest in Ruvania. They actually prefer that I would have stayed in Jaffria and married a nice man and settled in a Kibbutz."
Luca couldn't help but chuckle at the circumstances that he and Zoe were in. Luca was here because he needed a steady stream of income and it was something he was good at while Zoe was here because she merely wanted to prove that she wasn't just a typical trust fund baby. Once Luca had signed in he was handed his gear, an M14 and Colt M1911A1.
"Well it was nice meeting you, Zoe. I need to go out and check on my mount... I hope we can talk again soon."
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"Yes, Likewise." She smiled.
Luca headed out to the motorpool and began inspecting his new mount. It was an old Kesalian Marine Corps M60A3 that had been modernized with the bare minimum to make it less likely to get blown up mere seconds after entering the battlefield if he and his crew were lucky. It was not even close to matching even the Abrams tanks Kesalia had in its inventory or the other new tanks that were entering service. As Luca checked the roster he saw that he indeed had a driver and loader but was short a gunner. He headed back into the building and spoke with the administrator.
"Hey, Kendrick... can you tell me what happened to Charles? He was supposed to be my gunner. All I've got is a Stanley 'Strider' Kramer for my loader and Jeremy 'Spudz' Long for my driver. Do not tell me that Charles bailed on me."
"Last minute contract switch, Alessio. He was sent back to Paradiso to work with the tank unit down there so you're SOL unless you can find a new gunner. Just find someone else, how hard can it be? He also claimed that the gig in Paradiso pays better too."
"Great words of encouragement. I just blew sixty grand on that goddamn M60!" Luca replied, slamming the clipboard on the desk.
"Oh boo-hoo my heart is bleeding." Kendrick sighed, rolling his eyes... "Look dude you're a private contractor. We may have served together but you don't exactly have the greatest reputation with the Marines. Quite frankly your ass should be in jail on an assault charge for what you did to your commander two years ago. I mean seriously you beat the shit outta the guy because he called you a pasta picker or something. I know farming is some hard work... we've known each other since you enlisted. Carolina was a prick but there's going to be other assholes like him."
"You should never mock the working man." Zoe added as she placed her clipboard on the desk, "My parents worked very hard raising my sisters and I. He worked himself into an early grave if I'm honest."
"Jesus, don't make me cry." Kendrick sighed.
"Well shit, I've only spoken to you five minutes and you're already hitting me right in my feels" Luca sighed, "All right. I'm short a gunner right now as we speak... now considering that you're a contractor here I'm assuming you saw some military service in the Jaffrian Army right?"
"Indeed I was. I was a gunner in the Magach 7C which is basically this thing on steroids as well as the Merkava Mark III. I know tanks rather well and am quite passionate about them."
"Holy shit that is exactly what I was hoping to hear." Luca laughed.
"I just hope you're actually good at shooting tanks...instead of just people." Kendrick teased.
"Har, har, har." Zoe rolled her eyes.
"You two can kill each other later. Tomorrow we'll head to the firing range and see how good you are." He winked.
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January 1st, 2017 05:30 Hours
The following morning, Luca arrived to meet the rest of his crew. Aside from Zoe the rest of them were guys around his age all Kesalian.
"Sir are you sure you want a female gunner? You know how vital a quality gunner is, right?" The driver said.
"A tank is only as good as its crew, Spudz. We're gonna see what our gunner here is like and then we'll either give her the boot if she fucks up or keeps her if she's good. Same exact procedure regardless of gender. Now mount up!"
Luca and his crew boarded their tank and got themselves situated before Spudz started up the tank. With the M60 warmed up, they followed behind a column of Kesalian M1A2C tanks.
"Comms check..." Said the leader of the column, "This is Major Tanaka. I hope you mercs can keep up in that M60. You know how with that old POS... you might break down before you even make to the range."
"We're just fine." Luca replied, giving the finger to the column leader.
When the tanks arrived at the live fire range. Luca ordered Spudz to stop at the crest of the hill and turned out of the commander's hatch to survey the area with his binoculars.
"Loader, load Armor Piercing." He ordered.
"Sabot up!" The loader replied.
"Zoe target that T-55, nine-hundred meters out and fire on my command."
"Roger!" Zoe replied.
"Fire!"
"On the way!"
Zoe fired the main gun and the round impacted the target. She then watched through her optics as the M1s hit the remaining targets with superior precision which made her somewhat envious.
"Bloody fucking hell, this piece of crap is way outta date! I can make it work but damn." She pouted.
"Don't worry about it." Luca shurgged, "Yeah it's old as dust and the fire control system is shit."
"Or maybe she's not as good as she-"
"Spudz shut the fuck up before I kick the shit out of you." Luca growled, "She scored a bullseye on that T-55. I saw it with my own two eyes."
"Stop being a dick, Spudz... this Kosher chick has potential." Added Strider.
"Okay, Strider next target is a soft target... a transport truck. Load up a High Explosive round."
"Roger that!" Strider replied as he loaded the round, "up!"
"Zoe the target is about a thousand meters out... this won't be easy especially since it's moving. On my command prepare to fire."
Zoe judged the target and the windage and awaited Luca's command.
"Fire!" He ordered.
"On the way!" She shouted, squeezing the trigger.
The round impacted the transport truck, obliterating it and surprising the Abrams crew next to them. Zoe's marksmanship was impeccable considering the age of the tank they were using in comparison to the highly advanced M1A2s.
With the firing range testing concluded the sun was now over the horizon as the tanks returned to base. When the tanks arrived at their parking spots the crews dismounted and headed to the mess hall for chow. Zoe had a disappointed look on her face due to some of the rounds she fired not hitting close to center as she feared what Luca's reaction would be given his previous comment.
"So am I out or am I in?" She asked, her voice filled with concern.
"Are you kidding me?" Luca busted out laughing which took the nearby tank crews by surprise, "You're in, girl! I'm not an idiot... you'll get better with time. Plus with your experience on the Merkava, you should have no issues brushing up on your skills even if we're using this dinosaur."
"Then why did you buy it?" She asked.
"The armor is decent and that 105 is not complete trash. Plus the Kesalian military won't sell a humble mercenary like me an M1."
"So I guess you hired guns aren't so bad after all." Added a nAbrams crewman as he walked by, "By the way don't break a nail, sweetheart!"
"Don't worry about it..." Luca shook his head, placing his hands on Zoe's shoulders as he sensed her anger building, "Kesalia only recently allowed women into the Armored Corps so you have some dudes that are still pretty pissy about it. Eventually they'll accept it...as of now you'll just have to deal with them giving you shit."
"I see..."