Kursk, for a Change

Posted on Tue Jun 9th, 2020 @ 8:20am by Lieutenant JG Gallia Norris & Senior Chief Petty Officer Fernando De La Rosa [Taylor]

Mission: Season 3: Episode 4: Cause and Effect
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Current and 1943
4634 words - 9.3 OF Standard Post Measure

It had been a very long time since Gallia had been in her tank, not since Liorga left, and with Sami having started classes there was no one left but her to crew the Lady Aberdeen, which is why she now stood on the frozen tundra of Kursk in the former Soviet Union, reluctantly climbing into the driver's compartment of Anje's tank, the T-34/85 named Mamacita by Fernando, who would join her as gunner, knowing soon they would be pitched up against the fearsome German 'Big Cats', Tigers and Panthers, and every other piece of armor the wehrmacht could throw at them, "If nothin' else, it'll be good huntin'." She said, getting adjusted to her seat as a driver and out of the commander's cupola.

A few minutes later Fernando entered. He was in a jaunty mood. He had been ever since Gallia called him and told him they were going hunting.... tank hunting. He smiled broadly as he saw the tank he had named Mamacita, idling waiting for it's crew. he looked around the frozen and desolate landscape but he didn't see anyone. "Hello? Anyone here? It's me Fernando."

He walked up to the tank and patted it's side. "Ah, Mamacita it is good to see you again. It has been far too long since we were together to fight the Germans. May we have good hunting today."

"In here, Fernanda!" Gallia called from within the tank's gut, "Haven't seen our top kick have ye?"

He climbed onto the tank and peered down the open hatch. "Hi Gallia. No I have not. Hopefully Anje will not be much longer. I am eager to get started."

"Aye, me too." Gallia chuckled, "Anje's been wantin' te dae Eastern front forever, this is her chance, so we gotta dae it right fer her."

"We will." Fernando agreed. He looked around, " We're doing the Eastern front and she is dwadling ." He said as he climbed into the tank to take his place as gunner.

"Sorry!" Anje called as she skidded into the holodeck, late for her own battle, "Got caught up and lost track of time. Sorry."

"Sorry, she says." Fernando griped, teasing Anje, "Maybe we should get a new tank commander. What do you think Gallia?"

"I know someone wit some experience." Gallia jokingly recommended herself as a potential replacement.

"Just drive already." Anje laughed, "All the struggling comedians in the galaxy and you two giving it away for free..."

"No respect. No respect all." Fernando grumbled playfully.

"Well, tha's okay, Rodney. If'n ye get hurt, we can call Dr. Boombatz for ye." Gallia joked, cranking up the tank, "So, we gonna sit here jackin' our bloody jaws or are we gonna hunt tigers?"

"No respect in stereo." Fernando fired back as he checked to make sure he had shells loaded a nd ready to use. "You're drivin, Red, get us pointed in the right direction."

"Ye know, wit all this 'red' business of late, I'm thinkin' on shavin' me head again." Gallia semi-seriously threatened, "Then ye lot will hafta find something else te call me."

"Yeah skinhead," Fernando suggested.

"And there's another reason for me to not agree to the Milla makeover." Anje laughed.

"Always knew you had good sense Anje." Fernando bantered with the tank commander.

"Fernanda, quit starin' at Anje, will ye?" Gallia chided, pointing ahead and to the right at a Stug-33 tank destroyer, "Put that trigger finger o' yers te good use."

"Yes, yes. I see it." Fernando answered even as he swung the turret, sighted and fired at the tank destroyer and watched as the shell landed right atop the tank destroyer.

As the Stug went up in flames they could see even more trouble ahead, a squad of Waffen-SS infantry, carrying a dreaded Panzershrek, the German bazooka, "Ah, shite." Gallia groaned, opening up on them with the coaxial machine gun before getting shreked.

"Can't have this." Fernando said to himself and fired into the mist of the infantry, sending them flying like leaves in a high wind.

"Fernando! I'm pretty sure that's a war crime." Anje laughed, "And save the big bullets please? There are far less of them and a whole lot of Big Kitties ahead."

"No, no Anje. That is being a problem eliminator." Fernando said with an accompanying laugh.

"Fernandah, tha's whet them machine guns is far, buddy!" Gallia joined in, "We got thousands a rounds far them, but only like 75 for the big gun, an' tha's a prowlin' panther ahead!" She emphasized her sentence by pointing head to a Panzer V Panther, one of the most fearsome of Germany's big cats with her 88mm main gun, "Gonna pull us in range."

"Not fair! I'm being ganged up on." Fernando said laughing though he knew Anje and Gallia were right. They needed to conserve their big shells and use the machine guns to make the enemy infantry resemble swiss cheese. "Lets do this!" He exclaimed as he was already sighting the Panther.

"Problem being, we'll be in his range way before he's in ours." Anje mused from the cupola, "We're gonna have to be sneaky to survive this."

"I dinnae think he sees us." Gallia offered, and it was possible, the T-34 had a lower profile than any of the German big tanks, and the terrain was working in their favor, as well as the wrecked hulls of several other tanks, including the smoking stug they'd just taken, "I think we're close enough, have ye a good shot, Fernandah?"

Fernando didn't answer Gallia, not right away. Not that he was being rude, he was tracking the Panther through the T-34's sights. Leading it the German tank just enough. When he was sure, he had it worked out he fired.

Anje watched through her scope, Fernando might have led the Panther a little too far, but the armor piercing 85mm round made a solid impact on the panther's massive 88mm barrel, the tank was not destroyed, but the main gun was now useless, "Good shooting, Tex!" Anje congratulated, laughing at the Panther's now stubby barrrel, "Now gimme one more, about three feet back from that last spot if you please."

"Your wish is my command Anje." Fernando replied, a smile on his face as she called him Tex. He readjusted his range accordingly and fired another 85mm round.

This round destroyed the turret, this tank was done for, apparently the crew had been stunned by the previous hit to the point where they couldn't get it together to pull out, now there was no time to pull out. The noise of the Panther's destruction brought his nearby prowling big brother's attention to them now, a King Tiger, "Oh, ublyodok..." Anje swore in Russian, knowing they were in deep trouble now, seconds later 88mm shells were raining down on all sides of them, "Pull back, Gallia! Fernando, fire as we back off to a safer distance."

Fernando didn't need to be told twice as he locked in on one Tiger , fired and moved to the next. He was just trying to stop them from firing. So the Mamacita could make a clean escape. 85mms rounds were falling like rain as they retreated and looked to get a tactical advantage over the Tigers. Only problem was now they Tigers knew they were here.

"And here they come." Anje sighed, seeing more Tigers, and more smaller tanks coming their way, but a sound behind her gave her hope, it was engines, other tanks, and if they were coming from behind, they were hopefully theirs. As if on cue six more T-34/85's came to join them, along with a Katyusha launcher, "Oh, sweet!"

"The Russian cavalry as arrived! " Fernando exclaimed gleefully. As he now took his time to pick out his targets.

"Better do it in a hurry, they're gonna be going fast." Anje laughed, hearing the unmistakable sound of the Katyusha, Stalin's organ, alongside and seeing it vaporize two German tanks in the far distance as well as a troop carrier, "Oh, yeah, Katy's hungry."

"Well, she can eat her fill then." Gallia laughed, "Fernanda, le's make shar we get our portion of the feast, hey?"

"Ask and you shall receive." Fernando replied as he sighted the nearest King Tiger and fired one of Mamacita's 85 mm rounds.

The round hit solidly against the ridiculously heavy front armor of the King Tiger, on a scale of one through ten, this armor went to eleven, but it failed to penetrate, "Oh, this isnae good." Gallia sighed, "Remember, Fernanda, a tiger's only got one weak spot and tha's his ass. We're gonna need te get round the back yard we are."

Fernando curse in Spanish as the shell b failed to penetrate the Tiger's armor. "Make it so Gallia. I'll be waiting to light them up." He promised.

"Right, hang onte yer bums." Gallia instructed, pushing the throttle on Mamacita to it's maximum output, it couldn't outgun the King Tiger, but it could surely outrun it, and slipped by with relative ease as Gallia began to make a hard right to get behind it, "Fernanda, now!"

Fernando didn't need any further prodding. As soon as Gallia said now, he fired one of Mamacita's 85mm rounds into the backside of the Kinger Tiger that loomed before them. "Bye, Bye. Tiger." He whispered.

The ensuing explosion blew off the Tiger's left track, crippling the tank, but that horrible main gun still functioned, so it was still trouble, "Another one, Fernanda!" Gallia said, another hit should do it.

Fernando swore at himself for not taking the Tiger out in one shot. He quickly readjusted as the Tiger's turret began to swing around. "Smile, you bastard!" He whispered and fired again.

This second round penetrated the Tiger's weaker rear armor, impacting inside of the magazine and setting off the ammunition inside, the Tiger went boom immediately, causing Gallia to cheer and applaud, "Way te go, Fernanda!"

Fernando smiled, "Thank you Gallia but it was a team effort. Thanks to your driving and Anje's leadership and directions we were able to do this." he answered honestly.

"Couldnae complete the deal withoot ye shootin' there, John Wayne." Gallia responded, moving full speed ahead towards a command halftrack as shells and the rockets from the Katyusha rained down from all directions.

"You are much too kind Gallia but it is appreciated." Fernando replied with a smile.

"Right, well, ye aren't the only one whet can shoot." Gallia bragged a little, opening fire from the hull mounted machine gun onto the command half track, the bullets didn't penetrate the halftrack's armor, but they did cause all of the occupants to drop what they were doing and get onto the deck, though the driver's assistant, the one manning the halftrack's dreaded MG-42, was clearly dead, a round having knocked his steel pot to the other side of the area and another having entered his temple, leaving a gruesome gaping hole.

"Good job, Gallia." Anje smiled, taking her PPsh-41 SMG from behind her seat and unbuttoning the hatch to step into view, the lightning fast SMG at the ready, "Okay, so, who wants to live?" She asked as she brandished the weapon at the enemies.

"Never said I was Gallia." Fernando replied as he watched Gallia, light up the halftrack, with well placed shots. Then Anje got into the action popping the hatch and brandishing a machine gun. "I'm glad you two are on my side." Fernando whispered. Knowing Gallia and Anje made a deadly pair.

The man in charge, a Brigadier General according to his insignia, kept his hands where she could see them and stood stock still, not about to do anything stupid and risk setting off this obviously insane woman who had just given up her advantage of being armored to talk to them. His adjutant, an Oberleutnant, had no such sense of self preservation, pulling his P-38 pistol, aiming it at her and screaming, "Sterben, Russische hure!"

Anje, turning to the sounds of being called a Russian whore, opened fire on the young officer waving the pistol and lit him up with the PPsh-41, he fell dead in an instant, hit nineteen times as he death gripped his pistol, firing twice, both bouncing harmlessly off of the tank's armor, "Well, that was stupid." Anje shook her head, "So, anyone else stupid?"

Fernando whistled as Anje's shooting. "I'm with two Annie Oakley's." He exclaimed and then just to get into the act. Lowered Mamacita's main gun so it was pointed directing at the General.

The General looked from Anje to the gun, "Please ask your crew to move that weapon, Colonel." He began, "I am cooperating, and would hate to become red mist because someone's finger gets itchy."

"Fair enough, hans hoch!" Anje ordered, causing the General to place his hands atop his head, "Very good. Fernando, you can move the gun away from the General now, he's cooperating."

"Ohhhhhhh." Fernando complained but moved the main gun away.....slightly.

"Right. Gracias,Fernando." Anje said, then turned back to the General, "Herr General,you are my prisoner. Please led the rest of your staff back into your halftrack and have your driver turn it off. If nobody does anything stupid, there's no reason for me to shoot anyone else."

"Of course." The General nodded, turning and barking orders to his men to cooperate with the Russian 'Colonel's' every order.

"Fernando, Gallia, grab your guns and that tow chain from the tank, we're going to pull them back to our lines and hand them over to NKVD." Anje ordered, "The rest of the unit can press the attack forward."

Fernando grabbed his Thompson machine gun and climbed out. he glared at the Germans but didn't say anything as he went to get the tow chain to affix to the front of the halftrack and tow it back to headquarters.

Gallia, for her part, came out with only a Tokarev pistol, confiscating an MP-40 from a German Corporal as she helped Fernando affix the tow chain to the halftrack, "I think we got enough power te get it home."

"Of course we do. Mamacita can tow that tinker toy." Fernando replied confidently. As he checked the tow line and was satisfied it was securely attached to Mamacita's towing hitch and the halftracks.

Just then something caught Gallia's attention, a sound causing her to turn towards the sky and scream, "SON OF A BASTARD!!!" before dashing back to the tank and sliding through the back escape hatch, "Come on, Fernanda, or they'll have te sift the dirt for ye fingerprints!"

"Shit! That Katyusha is firing too close!" Anje agreed, sliding back into her seat and buttoning the hatch back up, hoping Gallia could get the tank started and they could GTFO before they got rockets in their ASS.

Fernando scrambled in after Gallia and got into his seat. "Crazy bastards! Why the hell are they shooting at us? Don't they know we're on their side. Stupid asses!"

"It isnae intentional, Fernanda, them Katyusha's are natariously inaccurate." Gallia explained, not that it made the incoming fire any less frightening.

"Right, they're probably trying to hit someone way over there." Anje pointed, "Gallia, get us moving, huh?"

"Right." Gallia nodded, throwing the big armored vehicle into gear, and heading back towards their own lines, mere seconds before two rockets from the Katyusha impacted where they would have just been sitting, "Tha' was too bloody close!"

Fernando wasn't pleased with the explanation. "Let me accidently fire a couple rounds in their general direction. I bet their aim would improve then." He said to Gallia and Anje.

Another volley from the Katyusha, another near miss, though this time it only near missed Mamacita, hitting the halftrack on it's chain, wiping out the vehicle and all inside, "Damn it!" Anje swore, "There goes intel that could've ended this thing early!"

"Stupid fucks!" Fernando raged. He was going to kill someone when they got back to HQ. For not only endangering them but wiping out the halftrack and the German prisoners it held. "Please let me shoot." He whispered.

"Then the Commissar will shoot you." Anje replied, "And they aren't firing at us on purpose, though I'm going to pop smoke as soon as we can find some cover so they'll see it's us and move their azmuth."

Anje's answer just further inflamed Fernando. "See us?! How in the hell can they not see us?! We're in a freakin tank!"

"They cannae see us because they aren't even lookin', Fernanda." Gallia sighed, she was nearly as annoyed as he was with the friendly fire, "But there's some nice cover over there, Anje." She said, pointing to a thick canopy of trees half a kilometer ahead, "Want te hole up there?"

"Perfect." Anje smiled, "That should give us just enough cover to where we can pop our smoke and get someone's attention."

"I can get their attention. Trust me." He told them both. "Just one round and they won't shoot at us anymore. I promise."

"Killing our own people is a big party foul, Fernando." Anje laughed as Gallia tucked them into the tree canopy, it was relatively safe.

"Who said anything about killing them? I'm going to scare the shit out of them like they did to us. All's fair in love and war." He quipped.

"Once they see our smoke, the friendly fire will be over." Anje explained, "They'll recognize the color of our smoke, realize we're friendlies, and shoot somewhere else, though those rockets do have a mind of their own."

"Uh, beggin' ye pardon, Colonel, but if our people can see an' identifoy our smoke, cannae the Germans do the same?" Gallia asked, it was a legit concern, "Concern bein' that the smoke makes the friendly fire stop, which is good, but causes the unfriendly kind te come upon us, which isnae good."

"Hmm, right, yes." Anje nodded, then placed a finger to her lips, "Listen."

"I hear it, too." Gallia replied, it was the sound of marching boots, and singing, propaganda songs, "More Waffen-SS. Means another shrek, and lots an' lots a firepower. Fernanda, get on the hull mounted machine gun, I'm on the coax, Anje, if ye would, get your little subby ready in case we need ye te pop up and dae these guys the way ye did Lt. Dunkoff back there."

"Don't we have a radio?" Fernando asked even as he made sure the hull mounted machine gun was ready to fire.

"We do." Anje said, pointing it out to Fernando, "Do we want to call in fire support from the three blind mice?"

Fernando muttered in Spanish under his breath. "Do we want to sit here and risk getting hit by those idiots with rockets?"

"They quit firin'." Gallia interjected, 'That guy with the panzershrek is the current problem, that thing will reduce us to a smolderin' tin can in nay more than a second if we dinnae take him out before he does it."

'We kill him. Which means we need to leave Mamacita, go out, find him and kill him and get here to be ready to take out the rest of those high steppin assholes."

"We cannae all leave." Gallia said, "One of us hasta stay here, cover the others with the machine guns. Because otherwise we might find ourselves all shot down by an entire platoon, mebbe an entire division."

"I'll go." Fernando spoke up. "You can't go Gallia, we need you to drive and Anje can't as she's the commander. So that leaves me. To do this."

"Are ye daft,lad?" Gallia replied, shocked, "Ye arenae Rambo."

Fernando stared at Gallia, "No, I'm not daft. I'm not going to take them all on. Just on or two. Wish I had my rifle, make so much easier."

"I'll tell you what will make it easier." Gallia smiled, turning the tank as she did and bringing then Germans into her sights, a decent distance away though, "If'n I narrah them odds for ye." Waiting another second to make sure they were in range, she unleashed hell on the marching soldiers with the hull mounted machine gun, killing at least five of the ten in the squad.

As Gallia opened up with the hull mounted machine gun, Fernando used it to slip away and moved towards the Germans. He had his 50 with him. It wasn't near as accurate as his rifle but what it lacked in accuracy it made up in sheer fire power. he circled around the Germans to get behind them and catch them between the Mamacita and himself.

The Germans, working to get the Panzershrek into position and take out the Soviet tank, didn't even notice the lone soldier with his gun sneaking by, otherwise occupied as they were. The sergeant, bleeding from his right arm, was barking orders in German and the guys with the rocket launchers were trying to get a clear shot as the Soviets continued raining lead on them.

Fernando continued to move into position. Once he found a suitable spot the offered some cover, he got to work. He sighted on the pair of soldiers setting up the rocket launchers. "Surprise!" He whispered as he opened up on them.

The panzershrek team were both cut down, nearly in half, by the big bad .50, managing to fire a shot that hit three feet in front of them, making their cohorts dive for cover from the flying debris.

"Give it up! Your surrounded! Surrender!" Fernando yelled to the Germans as he let loose another burst from his fifty.

The German sergeant, having heard horror stories about being in Soviet Captivity, spun around and began spraying in the direction of Fernando's voice with his MP-40, even if he didn't have a visual on his target, causing Gallia to open up on the remaining members of the originally ten man squad with the hull mount again, one man was killed as he dashed for the panzershrek, apparently going to attempt to load and fire the weapon before they could get a shot off.

Fernando ducked for cover when the German started shooting in his direction. None of the shots were close but they did manage to keep Fernando pinned down.

Gallia's next burst dropped the Sergeant cold, causing the private who remained in the party alive to put his hands on his head, "Take 'im, Fernanda!" Gallia called from the tank, "He might be able to tell us somethin', not like a general woulda, but still."

Fernando jumped up from his hiding place and advanced on the German. "Alright, Gerry. Turn around and head back that way," He said then motioned with his machine gun. "We're coming back to you!" He shouted to Gallia and Anje.

"That means don't shoot there, Ms. Trigger Happy." Anje instructed her driver with a laugh, "You might hit Fernando."

"Yes, don't shoot... at least don't shoot me." Fernando said as he came into view. The German private in front of him. "One prisoner. Reasonably healthy, though he looks scared shitless."

"Of course he's scared, he's a child." Anje replied as the young German came closer to her sight, he might have been all of seventeen, might have been."What's your name, young man?"

"I am Hans Meir, I am eighteen and from Dusseldorf." He answered, "I am not a Nazi, I am a conscript."

"Well Hans, my boy. You've just become a prisoner of war." Fernando informed the young man.

"There is no helpful information I can give you." Hans sighed, "I am a private and a conscript, I know nothing other than where to aim my rifle."

"And weren't doing that too well." Fernando observed.

"I've no desire to kill." Hans replied honestly, "I was sitting outside reading at my university, between classes, when a large truck pulled up and two soldiers threw me in the back. Two hours later they handed me a gun and sent me here."

"Oh, aye, I've 'eard about those recruitin' trucks, they get about twenty two soldiers to the gallon." Gallia joked, though she felt sorry for the simulated kid.

"You don't have to worry about killing anyone. The war is over for you." Fernando said bluntly.

"The war is not over until I am back in Dusseldorf at my university." Hans replied, "Assuming it still stands."

Anje wiped a tear away from her eye with the back of her gloved hand, just before it had time to freeze to her face, leaning over to Gallia, "Did you program him into this or did he come with the base program?" She asked, the detail to this character was amazing.

"I didnae do it." Gallia shrugged, assuming Hans was part of the vanilla game.

"So, what are we going to do with him?" Fernando asked the women.

"Well, driving him to Dusseldorf is obviously out." Anje sighed, "And there's no way we can take him back to his lines safely. It's only about three miles, we can set him off walking back towards his people."

"Who'll jus' send him right back out again in the mornin'." Gallia sighed, there didn't seem to be a good answer for the Hans question readily available.

"Well um." Fernando kicked his foot in the ground. "Can we adopt him? You know as a member of the crew? Have him be the cook or something? Course he's gotta ditch that uniform."

"When we go back to HQ, they'll notice we came back with an extra." Anje laughed, then gave it some thought, "I wonder if we could get NKVD to include him in a prisoner exchange, get him home to get some of our boys home."

"That won't work." Fernando said, "It just puts him back on the front lines in a couple of weeks. If we can't adopt him, we say we found him. Dress him in some civie clothes."

"Might be the best option." Anje nodded, "See if someone can drive him to a nearby train station, probably only get him as close as Romania, but then he can catch another train there that will take him straight to Dusseldorf."

"If I turn up in Germany, they will know I deserted and I will be shot." Hans said matter of factly, he'd considered this particular option many times already, "I have decided to desert a hundred times a night since I was drafted."

"Okay, so that's out. I say we adopt him, dress him in civies. Come up with a cover story and have him be our cook." Fernando said again.

"Okay, sounds the best option." Anje nodded, turning to Gallia, "Is there any way we can pull this off?"

"Aye, it isnae hard te fool the A.I., Anje." Gallia said with a smile, "They'll be way more interested in us gettin' back intact with news of all our victories than they'll be in 'im."

Fernando put his hand on Hans's shoulder. "Welcome to the being part of the crew of the Mamacita." he said proudly.

"Danke, herr Sergeant." Hans replied, reading Fernando's Soviet insignia as best he could.

"You are welcome Private, um we need a new name for you." Fernando replied looking at Anje and Gallia.

"Right, we cannae have him bein' a Gerry here now can we?" Gallia asked, though she was sure she already knew the answer.

"Right." Anje nodded, "Okay, so now he's Ivan. Ivan Federov. Ivan Fedorov and you're from Chelyabinsk."

"What a name, sounds like a tennis player." Fernando complained. "And lose the German accent.''

"I will do as best I can, Herr Sergeant." Hans nodded, getting into the tank and waiting to go to his new 'home' until these people, especially kind for Bolsheviks, could get him to his real home.