Hey y'all,

Ethan Black has created a couple characters that will be having bit parts in the PW main storyline.

So, in order to flesh them out, he's written a short story, chaptered up for yer convenience.

Welcome to a different world, in dire straits . . .


Coalfired Pt6

All names/characters/vehicles/parts/systems are property of their respective owners/manufacturers/creators/players.
This particular pile of words is property of Ethan Black.

March 11th, 2000.

"Shell in the air!" Leo yelled into the intercom as he squeezed the trigger in his paw. Fifty yards away, taking cover in a shelled-out bakery were a group of Red Army troopers. A split second later, the outer wall of the building exploded outwards with a flash and a billowing cloud of brick dust, a 76mm High-Explosive shell leveling the damaged building.
Ethan scanned the surroundings as Tonka crawled slowly up the street. It was a massacre.
While the defenders hadn't been expecting an armored column, command hadn't planned on such a high concentration of forces in Zmigrod. There was an excessive amount of footsoldiers in the Town, with prefabricated structures having been placed to watch the eastern advances.
The rabbit watched the street ahead of them, watching for movement.
"Third building on left, second floor. Nearest window. Movement. 1 HE shell." Ethan said quite calmly. There was a knocking noise, something had hit the top of the turret, probably a rifle round.
"Confirmed." Leo replied and loaded the selected shell into the breech of the Tonka's cannon. "Shell is live! Preparing to fire!"
"Shell in the air!" Leo called again, and the corner of the building, a four story tenement block collapsed into the street, taking some of the upper floors with it. Dust occluded their vision partially, but it was nothing to worry about.

"Starfire Charlie Four to FV101 RB Tonka. Come in, Over." Came the familiar voice of the operations leader.
"FV101 RB Tonka to Starfire Charlie Four. We hear you. Do you have orders, over?" Ethan replied matter of factly to the voice n the radio.
"Head north. We need your eyes on the road to Gostyn. Report any enemy movement. Starfire Charlie Four, over and out."
"Wilco Charlie Four, FV101 FB Tonka Out."

"Alright Andy, take us north. We're gonna recon the northern edge and road to Gostyn. Follow the east edge of the city. It'll expose us less." Ethan ordered, scanning their surroundings, his eyes resting on a road to their left.
"Righto, Boss" Andy replied, the small tank accelerating smoothly.
Leo brought the turret to face directly forward as the Tonka swung around a left turn, followed by a right, bringing them to the edge of a residential row of buildings. It was here that they came under fire from a machine-gun nest which had been tucked into a lower window of a terraced house.
"Same as last time, Leo." Ethan said directly, watching the surroundings and his tac screen, noting the positions of friendly vehicles dotted around the city as they spread out to subdue any defenders.
Leo called out and the tank shook. This round missed it's mark on the downstairs window of the house, but struck the front door, blowing smoke and debris out through the front of the building. The enemy machinegun went silent.
The Tonka took another hard right past the blasted house, before making a sudden and unexpected swerve to the left. Sitting square in the middle of the street was the squat and brutal form of a Russian T-90 Main Battle Tank.

Andy had swerved instinctively and banked Tonka around the monstrous vehicle, riding up the curb of the street and passing behind it. The T-90's turret wasn't quite fast enough to follow the sudden evasive maneuver, and Tonka slipped down the street behind it, passing between the T-90 and another one directly behind it.
The crew yelled in a chorus of surprise and anguish at the sudden appearance of a tank brigade in their path, including a third T-90 ahead of them who had it's back to them.
Andy accelerated and Ethan scanned their surroundings as the badger in the driver's position constantly made dangerous turns and sped between buildings.
Now infantry were appearing en masse.
"Twelve!" Ethan shouted. "Twelve T-90s!" The rabbit grabbed the radio. "Leo, keep loading HE. Fire for the tracks, Andy, keep MOVING!"
"FV101 RB Tonka to all vehicles, we have an encroaching TANK COMPANY from Gostyn! I repeat. TANK COMPANY encroaching from GOSTYN. They are IN the town with infantry SUPPORT! Count at least TWELVE T-90 MBTs, Upwards of one-hundred infantry!"
Ethan continued to relay information back to the command vehicles while Andy sped between buildings, old abandoned cars and even other tanks. Russian infantry scattered around them, the occasional round bouncing off of the small tank.
The T-90s hadn't dared fire yet, for fear of landing a shell right in a cluster of friendly troops, but the Tonka was about to reach the end of a long street, devoid of friendly infantry.

A T-90 roared into the street behind the Tonka, the turret traversing to lock them in it's sights. There was a short roar of it's main gun and a cloud of smoke as it fired after the light tank.
Andy pulled hard on the wheel of Tonka as he reached the end of the street and the nose of the tank lurched to the right, taking the paint off the side a T-90 which had raced to cut it off.
"Fuck!" Ethan screamed and Leo bounced his head off of the inside of the turret, his helmet softening the blow.
It was then that the 125mm HE shell fired by the first T-90 hit home, right on the front corner of the second T-90. The front sprocket was obliterated and the Russian tank shuddered, turning left tightly as it's tracks spun off of it's wheels, smashing it's front into a decrepit deli, it's turret jammed against the brickwork.

"Holy shit!" Andy called out, having just played bumper-cars with a Russian MBT, before guiding the Tonka down a sidestreet. He pulled the wheel to the right again and passed down the right side of the street, coming face to face with an M1 Abrams tank, one of the Starfires.
Leo shook a little as they moved further south past friendly units and the troops which had unloaded from their Strykers.
Tanks were taking up ambush positions with troops setting up in houses as flanker protection.
"Starfire Charlie Four to all units. Take up your positions and await enemy contact. Command totally dropped the fucking ball. We have at least TWELVE T-90s confirmed and over 100 hundred infantry. They know we're coming and I damn well know there'll be more than twelve tanks sent to stop us. Load HEAT or HESH, allow them to be disabled by troops before engaging them frontally."
There was a long pause. Tonka moved eastwards again, Ethan having received specific orders via his Tac-com.
"Take as many of them with you as you can."

Zmigrod erupted into battle. Tanks traded fire down old residential streets. Old grocery stores were smashed by shells and troops poured form building to building, scattering fire at each other. Leopard 2's scythed through Infantry with machineguns and HE shells, only to be hit with RPGs in the rear. Paladin 155mm SPGs were pulled into service as tank destroyers, slinging shells across the city or down streets. T-90 tanks dueled with M1 Abrams and losses were felt on both sides.
The fighting was bloody and brutal. Swedish-built CV90-120 tank destroyers racked up kills, only to be picked apart by fire, or trapped between enemies while flanking.
Tonka itself was charged with flanking tank formations. Speeding down (mostly) unoccupied outskirts, they came up behind the majority of the forces with were pushing their way into Zmigrod. Ethan scanned his Tac-Com. They were being overwhelmed. Tanks were disappearing. The Russians had vastly superior numbers in every aspect.
Tonka flew down a side-street and past a BTR 90, which Leo slapped a hole in with a 76mm HESH shell, it's hatches popping open as it's ammo cooked off. Passing northwards again, they took a left turn onto the main road north of Zmigrod. Most of the enemy had passed behind them now and they were behind enemy lines.
They came under fire again, multiple machineguns tracking them, as they beelined for what seemed to be a well established base. Two trails of smoke lanced out towards them, one exploding under the vehicle with little effect, the other skimming past.
"RPGs! Break right Andy!" Ethan yelled.

The radio continued to blare and chatter in Ethan's ear. The casualties were still mounting. Tonka turned right and onto a road that ran parallel to the Russian base and it was here that Ethan's mouth dropped open.
"Topols" He said simply, staring at the tips of huge missiles standing vertically behind a tall wall.
Leo turned to face the rabbit. "What?" He asked, eyes wide.
"Topol-M launchers. They knew all along." Ethan said softly.
"A. . . They had a spy?" Andy asked, pulling Tonka off the road and into some trees to avoid enemy contacts.
"They're all dead" Ethan said softly, looking to Leo with his eyes watering. "They'll hit Hannover. It'll all be over."
Ethan glanced at his Tac-Com. They were now alone. While infantry and crew were likely alive, they were the last vehicle operating. The Red Army had swarmed them. They knew the plan of attack before the crews from Hannover knew it themselves.
"It's over?" Leo asked, his features dark. "God fucking no it's not over."
The otter grabbed a canister shell and loaded it into the Tonka's cannon before staring meaningfully at Ethan.
"I won't let them."

Ethan nodded and cleared his throat, voice shaky. "Fox. Skirt around this outpost. Find a steel fence or a gate or something. Take us in. Take us right for those missiles."
"Yes Sir." Andy replied flatly and the Tonka began to pick up speed.

The troops at the eastern gate of the outpost hadn't expected a light tank to come out of the trees at them. One of them spat out a mouthful of his drink as the tank hit the gate at 70 MPH, demolishing it and sending it flying. The engine of the squat vehicle roared and it blasted past troops and ground crews who dove for cover or tried to slow it down with small arms. An RPG flew past the Tonka from a guard tower, but only managed to incinerate a shower block.
The light tank drew close to the firing area and the Topol-M launchers came into view. Four of them with their missiles pointed to the sky. Gasses poured from the boosters and lights flickered bathing the area in a red and orange glow as the Tonka turned it's turret.
"Honi soit qui mal y pense" Ethan whispered as Leo squeezed the triggers.
"Shell in the air!"

On the top floor of a tenement block in Zmigrod, a group of Red Army troops stood over a group of prisoners. An officer put his cigarette out on the windowsill, watching out across the city towards the north, wrecks burning in the streets and gutters filled with corpses from both sides.
"Welcome to a new age, my new friends." He said confidently, turning to a wolf who stared back up at him. "You are fortunate you were able to witness the final crushing victory of the great Red Empire!"
He laughed, the troops around him chuckling and smiling.
The laughs stopped, however, when the building shook. The officer turned to look back out of the window to see a dazzlingly bright white flash a split second before the glass exploded in his face.
Moments later, Zmigrod was gone.


Honi soit qui mal y pense.
Evil be to him, whom evil thinks.

END COALFIRED

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