Wailing Nights IC

OOC/Signup: wailing-nights-warfare-signup-ooc-t39762.html

It was night in a prairie area. Khorad was protecting Ariye while she was taking the enemy out. BOOM! BOOM! Sometime the enemy raise a white flag to surrender. They walked over unarmed. The enemy soldiers begged that Ariye would take them as prisoners and sparse their lives. All Ariye said was: "I dont take prisoners. It is either kill or be killed." She took out her pistol and shot a prisoner in the head. She went to the next and shot him. The third tried to run away. Ariye shot him in the leg, making him immobile. She took her knife out and went over to him. Khorad couldnt see them but he then heard a gagging sound. The next moment Ariye came out from the bushes holding a head in her hand. Then he panicked and woke up. It was all just a dream. But Khorad began to cry. Ariye climbed down from the top of the bunk bed. "Whats wrong Khorad?" She asked. Khorad to the other side of the bed away from her, still crying. Ariye moved closer. "Please Khorad tell me." "It was a nightmare. It was about last week. Ariye, please show some mercy. I hate to see you kill those who have already surrendered. Killing unarmed young men who arent even 19. I HATE YOU. YOU ARE A MONSTER." Khorad said. That hit Ariye hard. She looked down and said: "I...I was just protecting you." "Protecting me? No. That wasnt protecting. If you were protecting me, the enemy would have been armed. It is one think to kill a general but young men who are unarmed and have surrendered? Do you ever have empathy?" Khorad said. Ariye sat there. A tear ran down her cheek: "It is just so hard to change myself. Goodnight. We can talk about it tomorrow." Ariye gave Khorad a kiss on his cheek but he only turned away.
Ariye went back into her bed. She thought about herself: "Am I really that bad? Do I terrify Khorad so much?" She wiped the tear from her cheek. She couldnt sleep anymore. Neither could Khorad. Ariye pretty much hated herself. She wanted Khorad to be happy and protect him like when they lived in the same village. She stayed up all night.

“Well, what do you think?” Captain Gregory Mack stood beside his driver Private Kessler Rose, the two of them standing atop a hill looking over a wooded valley. Greg was holding his prized binoculars, which he handed to Kessler. “Where the river bends, right in front of us, take a look.”

Kessler took the binoculars and brought them up to peer into the distance, an image of three Imperial armoured cars popped into view. “Recon force, maybe a klick, klick and a half out there.” He lowered the binoculars and turned to his Commander. “Heavy armour can’t get down into that valley and hope to get out, the Folly would even have a hard time of it.”

Greg crossed his arms as a grin split his lips. “I figured as much, but with a spot of luck we won’t need to go down there, now take a look at where the crew is for those cars.”

Bringing up the binoculars again Kessler quickly spotted the crew, he counted a dozen in total, all huddled around a cooking stove. “Ya? So? It’s breakfast time, they’re hungry. In fact, I’m hungry.”

Greg let out a small chuckle and snatched his binoculars back. “I hear that, but first lets deal with those twits down there.” That said, he spun around to face the one thing he prized more than his binoculars; his tank, the Lovers Folly. It was a solid looking vehicle, with a prominent turret and low riding hull, covered in camo netting, branches and leaves to better hide it from prying eyes. “Lilly! It’s all on you girl, think you can do it?” Greg knew talking to his gunner in such a fashion was a possible ticket to the hot place, but it was a risk worth taking in his mind.

A moment later Recruit Liandra Sixta poked her had up through the open hatch, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and her green eyes narrowed slightly. “I’ve had that target sighted for ten minutes already! Give the damn order.”

Feeling a bit on the playful side Greg decided to mess with her a bit, “But Recruit Sixta, the effective range of your two-pounder is only nine hundred metres! How can you hope to engage those targets when they are well past this recommended range?” This prompted Kessler to slap his forehead quite audibly and Liandra’s annoyed glare became a full blown category ten death glare, if looks could kill it is entirely possible that Greg, Kessler and half the continent would be a smoking ruin at this point. It was an odd sight, Greg with a stupid grin on his face staring up at Liandra who looked like she was about to leap out of the tank to strangle the optimistic tank commander. Luckily it didn’t get that far, because Greg turned around again and said simply; “Send it.”

Liandra disappeared back inside the tank, and a split second later a solid thud echoed throughout the valley as the Folly’s main gun fired. Greg had his binoculars up and kept his gaze trained on the enemy crew, they had heard the shot a second after he did and they were looking around in shock and surprise when the high explosive shell landed nearly on top of them. The ensuing explosion killed all but two of them; Greg caught sight of more than a few torn off limbs and clumps of flesh flying off in all directions. He bit his lower lip as the smoke cleared and he noticed the two survivors, if you could call them that, one had both of his legs torn up and he was desperately trying to crawl away. The other survivor was just standing there, shell shocked, and it looked to Greg like he was missing half of his face. Letting a heavy sigh escape his lips he lowered the binoculars and shook his head, he knew those two men were doomed to a painful death.

Kessler gently patted his friend on the back, he knew killing was hard for Greg, not because he was weak or cowardly, he just thought too much. When most people kill, they only think of the bad they are eliminating, or they think of nothing at all, but not Greg. He could only think of the good he was erasing from the world, was that man an artist? A poet? Was a he a father? A son? Did he have a family? Was he a conscript? Why did he deserve to die? These thoughts weighed heavily on Greg’s mind, and it was Kessler’s job to make sure they didn’t become overwhelming.

It was at that moment Liandra poked her head up again, her lips twisted in a cruel grin. “Did you see that?! I swear I saw a head fly into the river! Out of range my perky little ass!” Greg turned to her and nodded slowly. “Good shot Lilly.” She returned the nod and stuck out her tongue before vanishing into the tank again. “That girl is a psycho.” Muttered Greg as he started to climb up the tank to take his place in the turret, Kessler nodded in agreement as he clambered into the drivers hatch. “Ya, but at least she’s our psycho.”

In the morning, Khorad didnt seem to talk to Ariye. Ariye made breakfast and after breakfast the started to walk towards the front line. They noticed Gregs tank atop of the hill. In the distance tanks were showing up. Ariye loaded her heavy anti tank rifle and aimed at one of the tanks. Boom! She shot a hole into one tank. Blood splattered out of the hole. She hit the driver. The tank turned, rammed another tank and ran off a cliff. Boom! Another shot. Ariye was slowly taking out tanks as they were walking uphill towards the Lovers Folly. After a tank was retreating Ariye was about to aim at it but thought about Khorad and put her gun down. "I am sorry Khorad. I just feel that I need to protect you because I love you." Ariye said. Khorad blushed. They got to the Lovers Folly. "Sergeant Khorad Unnessar and Brigadier Colonel Ariye Khameh are here!" Ariye said. Then Khorad said: "If you ask about how I am doing, I momentarily have personal conflicts with my superior." "Khorad. What all do you still want? I apologized. Please Khorad." Ariye said. Then Khorad said: "Your begging and kisses wont help. Because of you I have nightmares."

It was a lazy trip back to camp for the crew of the Lovers Folly, but it was a welcome respite none the less. Kessler kept the drivers hatch open as he drove along the narrow logging path, a content smile on his face. Meanwhile Greg was sitting atop the turret, doing his best to clean and oil his machine gun there, both of them stayed silent for the most part, every once in awhile one of them would spark up a tune and the other would join is as best he could. Meanwhile Liandra had wrapped herself up in as many blankets as she could find as was fast asleep in her gunners position. She looked deceptively innocent, fast asleep like that, and Greg couldn’t help but feel pity for her, if it wasn’t for her sadistic and cruel nature she would have been quite pretty.

But their peaceful journey was not to last, on a hunch Greg ordered Kessler to stop the Folly and turn off her engine. As soon as Kessler had done this Greg stood atop the turret and looked around carefully, a look of concern crossing his face. “Kess, do you hear that?” The tank commander said after a solid minute of near silence.

Kessler strained his ears, at first all he heard was the chirp of a few birds and the rustle of leaves as the wind blew through the trees, but then, he heard it. Barely audible but unmistakeable, the rumble of engines. “I hear it, engines, could it be our own guys? We are nearly friendly lines, once we crest that hill up there we should be in sight of the camp.”

Greg shook his head, “Afraid not, those are tank engines, no doubt about it. And we’re the only Federation tank supposed to be out here, where the hell did they come from though?” Greg started to stroke his small beard in thought, but Kessler answered his question or him, “They went around the valley we just scouted, at least that’s my bet.” Greg shook his head, “That can’t be it that would take far too long, Imperial tank doctrine is based around infantry support not...” A look of anger came over Greg’s face as a thought crossed his mind. “It’s a recon in force! An armoured spearhead of light tanks hitting the rear of the enemy lines; they are using my own damn tactics against me!”

All this commotion roused Liandra from her sleep, and she rubbed her eyes a moment, grumbling incomprehensibly while she gathered her senses. She looked around the interior of the tank, Kessler and Greg were outside, she could hear them talking in heated tones. Taking the time to unwrap herself from her cocoon of blankets, she was just about to crawl over to the commanders hatch when Greg jumped down and nearly landed on her head. Liandra was a bit shocked not by his sudden appearance but by the expression on his face, he was angry, he didn’t even bother to look at her as he started to bark out orders and prepared his tank for war.

“Kess, get us to the crest of that hill, stay as close to the tree line as you can. Lilly, load up AT rounds, I need you to be damn quick on this, we can’t stay still for too long or we’ll get nicked. Target priority is enemies that have us engaged, if you see a barrel swinging this way light them the fuck up. Ignore soft targets and any enemy armour that don’t have AT weapons of their own.” Greg took a moment to look at this crew, Kess had closed the drivers hatch and fired up the engines, Liandra already had a round loaded and was adjusting the sights on the main gun. He felt no small amount of pride for his crew, here they were about to engage multiple targets in a lone reconnaissance tank, and neither of them showed any sign of hesitation or fear. He opened up his hatch and chambered his pintle mounted HMG, his orders were clear, nothing more needed to be said.

The Folly lurched forward at top speed, cresting the hill in short order, and coming face to face with two Imperial tank platoons, complete with mechanized infantry support. The Folly was outnumbered four to one, not including the armoured cars, but Greg knew the Folly could pull this off. They held the high ground, they had speed, and the enemy units were ill equipped to deal with armour, sporting only a few recoilless rifles. Combine all these game winning advantages with the complete look of horror and surprise on the enemy tank commander’s face, and Greg knew how this battle was going to end.

No sooner had the enemy tanks spotted the Folly then Liandra fired off the first shell of the engagement, the forty millimetre armour piercing shell slamming into the turret of the nearest tank, nearly blowing it off and causing the tank to start belching out thick black smock. The enemy let fire their own weapons soon after, and tracer rounds start to zip past Greg, prompting him to responded in kind, peppering an enemy armoured car with heavy machine gun fire. Kessler wisely kept the tank moving at top speed, whipping along the top of the hill, he kept the as close to the trees as he could, knowing that the Folly’s outline would be hard to pick out against the heavy forest behind her.

The skirmish lasted only a few minutes, a combination of the Lovers Folly and a hidden anti-tank team, spelled doom for the Imperial forces. After the first few tanks started to burn the rest of the enemy force pulled out, Liandra managed to pick off a few armoured cars but most escaped. When the enemy fire died off Kessler slowed the Folly to stop, and Greg looked out over the hill, now littered with dead bodies and ruined tanks.

It was at that moment he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, he swung his HMG around to engage this new threat, but then he saw the federation uniforms. He cursed loudly and swung the gun aside. It was the anti-tank team, a man and a woman, both on the young side. Greg listened to their introduction, and knew he was in for a rough ride, a Brigadier Colonel with romantic involvement with her supporting Sergeant? If it wasn’t for the fact that he had seen firsthand that this pair was capable of fighting, he would have sped off right there and left them. “Right then, I’m Captain Gregory Mack, and this is the Lovers Folly of the 5th company reconnaissance and incu-” He was cut off by the loud thump of the Folly’s main gun going off, he spun around and raised his binoculars. “Lilly! What the hell are you firing at?”

Liandra’s muffled voice could be heard from inside the tank. “An Imperial tank! What else would I be shooting at?” Greg quickly spotted the burning tank off in the distance, being slower than the armoured cars it lagged behind during the retreat, allowing Liandra to get a clear shot at its rear, he saw the tanks crew start to scramble out the burning wreck and flee on foot. He lowered his binoculars with a sigh; those men were in for a long walk.

With that over with he turned back to face the anti-tank team. “As I was saying, thanks for the assist there, the Lovers Folly is at your service Ma’am.” He kept a friendly smile on his lips, but then a sudden thought occurred to him and he turned around again, “Don’t you even bloody think about it Lilly, you are not cleared to engage the fleeing crew.” Liandra let out a groan of disappointment, and a moment later Kessler spoke up, “Greg! She’s doing the whole pouting thing again! With the wide innocent eyes and batting of lashes! Make her stop!” Liandra responded with the typical ‘am not!’ and the two started to bicker.

With an audible slap Greg hit his forehead with his palm, he was never having kids. Doing his best to ignore his bickering crew he once again spun to face the Brigadier Colonel, looking down at her from his position in the tank turret. “Don’t worry about them ma’am, their just... Well, ya know... Just don’t worry about it.” He glanced between the two of them, wondering just what kind of relationship they had but decided to follow his own advice and not worry about it. “So what can the Lovers Folly do for you today?”

"We just thought we could assist you." Ariye said. Then Khorad murmured: "Yeah, right. Ariye just wants to still her bloodthirst." "What was that? Khorad. I am not bloodthirsty and I love you, I hope I wont give you nightmares anymore." Ariye said. She then gave him a hug. "I wont let anybody hurt you. You are mine and mine only. Khorad, do you love me?" She said softly. Khorad was comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Her soft boobs were relaxing but Ariye was getting a little creepy. "I. I admire you b...but you are kind of a scary people. Ok but please dont hurt any unarmed enemies anymore. I have a feeling you are a Yandere (girl who would kill to protect her bf from rivals)." Khorad said. Ariye grabbed his hands. "Lets go search for survivors." Ariye said as she turned to Greg. "What rank are you anyways because I havent seen you before? 5th company is so big."

Greg could only stare dumbly at the pair of them, this was a Brigadier Colonel? At least she didn’t seem to be ordering him about at random, but she clearly wasn’t leadership material, not in Greg’s mind anyway. So shocked was the Tank Commander by his superiors behaviour he almost forgot to respond to her question. “Captain, I hold the rank of Captain, and you’re looking at the 5th Companies reconnaissance and incursion section in its entirety.” He bowed his head respectfully, and tried to look as friendly as possible, despite his growing concern over his superior.

Meanwhile inside of the Folly, Kessler and Liandra had stopped bickering and were listening as best they could to the conversation outside. With the battle over, Liandra had squeezed into the co-drivers spot beside Kessler, both of them sporting amused grins on their faces. Liandra in particular found the whole thing hilarious, barely containing her laughter.

“I wonder how many people that Colonel had to sleep with to get her rank.” Muttered Kessler, as he looked at the Colonel and Sergeant through the driver’s periscope. Like Greg, he had serious doubts about this Colonel, unlike Greg; he didn’t have to deal with her as an officer, only as a woman, he was even tossing the idea around of courting her.

“Fifty thousand lives lost on the battlefield, or five hundred officers bedded, that what it takes to make a colonel.” Replied Liandra in her best know-it-all voice, she had wrapped herself up in her blankets again and was looking at Kessler, her green eyes looking him over as he peered through the periscope.

Kessler let out a small chuckle and glanced over at Liandra. “Figures you would know that. Sounds like this Colonel has a bloodlust too, you two could be siblings.” He shifted over to look through the periscope again, “Of course this Colonel has bigger assets than you do, might be why she is a Colonel and you’re still a Recruit.” With an annoyed look on her face Liandra quickly leaned over and smacked Kessler in the thigh, “Oh shut up you stupid lecher.”

Kessler sat back in his chair with a groan, massaging his bruised thigh, but he still had a grin on his face. “What! It’s true! She has a solid pair on her, such things are important ya know. You’re just bitter because while the colonel can clearly provoke the chivalry and protective nature of a man, you’re stuck with...” Kessler was cut off as Liandra slowly crawled over to where he was sitting; she gently began to run her fingers through his hair while she straddled him, her eyes losing all of their usual coldness and replaced with a glassy, lustful look. Despite the warning bells firing off inside his head Kessler found he was unable to put an end to this display. She leaned forward and brushed her lips up against his ear, whispering one simple word: “Lecher” And just like that she was back to her old self, she leaned back and crossed her arms, her eyes taking on that mischievous and malicious look while her lips twisted into a grin. After blinking a few times Kessler narrowed his eyes, trying to look disappointed even with a big grin painted on his face, “Point taken Lilly.”

After patting Kessler on the cheek in the most condescending manner possible, Liandra moved over to the co-driver’s seat and stuck out her tongue. “You men are all the same; touch the right places, say the right things and look as innocent as possible and you can’t go wrong.” Kessler rolled his eyes and looked through the periscope, “You know you’re a psycho Lilly?” Liandra just shrugged and went about wrapping herself in blankets again, “You might want to remember that next time you find yourself staring at my ass.” Kessler made a mental note to do just that.

"Its not like I dont hear you." Ariye said towards the crew. "If you are asking about how I got my rank, I am a good shot and show no mercy towards the enemy. And that gives my squeamish subordinate nightmares. I have known him since we were kids. I want to bring my people honor but dont know how without loosing my love." Ariye said. "The guy in the tank should watch his mouth about my cup size. These are only for Khorad. If any other guy tries to grab them, I will tie him upside down to a tree. And if someone runs from battle or their punishment, they will be executed for deserting. I will hold the head of the coward high up to show who the coward was. That way, those under my rank will know not to mess with me." Ariye said emotionless and cold. Khorad came from behind and put his arms around her. "Please dont talk like that. I could accept the fact that you are ruthless in battle but I dont like the way you can talk so easily about it." Khorad said.
Ariye didnt answer him but said to everyone: "When we get back to camp, you all can have some beer." She felt Khorads hands on her breasts and said: "So you do love me Khorad." She giggled and blushed. Khorad quickly let go.