Hellerian Heroes: The Armored Goliath

Chapter II: The road of war

After hours of driving down the steep roads of the Italian Alps, Captain Dark looked through his binoculars in hopes of finding the meeting point, but it was nowhere in sight.
He sighed and slid down into the tank, closing the hatch as he thought of what to do.
He grabbed the headset and put it under his peaked cap, turning it on as he looked through the slid from the commander's hatch,
"Bravo 1, are you receiving the broadcast?" Captain asked as he was trying to get a good look at the road ahead.
"We are receiving your transmition, Lead 4, loud and clear" anwsered a female voice on the other end of the line,
"Outstanding, how's the view on the village?
"No sir, we are currently waiting for you at Ponte Lambro, Caglio is 13 kilometers ahead, we are going to go up the hill just left of Sormano, we can get a good look at it from there" said the female officer.
"Outstanding, we'll be there in an hour or so, notify Captain Nemo of the advance made, and rest will be up to us,
"Understood" said the officer on the other end of the line "We'll be expecting you".
As time passed on the cold day of January, tank crew neared the meet-up point, and the new personnel were nervous of who may await them.
As tanks rolled into the city of Ponte Lambro they were met with a kubelwagen with the insignia of the Imperial Army coming at them very quickly.
As the car pulled over near the colum, the Sergeant in a uniform of 3rd Armored directed them towards the encampment of the Armored personnel that were awaiting them.
As the tanks stopped near the encampment, a Lieutenant emerged from a tent, adjusting the peaked cap and awaiting for the captain to arrive.
As the Captain walked up to the Lieutenant from his tank, he waved and saluted,
"It is nice to see you again, Lieutenant Sigrid" said the captain,
"Pleasure to see you again, Captain, i wish we could've met in better circumstances" said the Lieutenant with the smirk on her face.
"Indeed would be better, but i suppose we have a job to do, I got the word that we might actually see some resistance in the village" said the captain with a concerned look on his face,
"Indeed it is like that sir, but we don't know what might be waiting for us, these villagers can't be trusted, they may work for those partisans" said the Lieutenant looking down.
"Only thing we can do is head up to Sormano, we shouldn't make too much noise as they may alert others" said the captain.
Without anything to add, the Lieutenant and captain went to their tanks and got ready to move, they had a plan of bringing a puma and a Panzer IV along with them for some support.
The small Armored squad headed up the hills towards the village of Sormano, but not even few kilometers from the encampment, it got awfully quiet...too quiet even.
Captain felt uneasy and he was at high alert, as he was about to turn on a radio to contact the Lieutenant, a mine detonated ahead of them, hitting the Puma that rolled over it.
In seconds the puma was engulfed in flames, the silence was quickly drowned out by the screams of burning tankers inside the puma.
The captain jumped out of the tank, running towards them, disregarding his own safety to try and assist.
After him came the Lieutenant running as fast as she could,
"Bring a fucking shovel!" screamed the captain,
"Bring anything fucking solid!".
As the Lieutenant came back with the metal bar she found in the toolbox, the Captain quickly grabbed it from her and started pushing the iron netting on the puma, but in vain, few seconds later...the screaming has stopped, and only thing that was heard was the fire from the puma.
He got off and looked down as he threw a bar across the field.
"Fuck...i knew something was fucking wrong", said the captain while covering his face with his hands,
"Those fuckers are gonna pay for what they've fucking done".
Captain sat back into his tank after a short pause and ordered a move on.
The scenes of those young men burning and begging for help were engraved into the Captain's memory, he felt like he could've helped them, but failed to do so.
As they arrived to the village of Sorano, the tanks stopped along the road and set up an overwatch.
Not long has passed before the rest of the Armored platoon came rolling down to the village's outskirts under the command of Lieutenant Alora.
The captain stood on a rock along with Lieutenant Sigrid, watching the village as the partisans sat around and drank their beer outside the houses.
"They are not ready, we can get them off guard if pumas roll in first" said the captain,
"Indeed, Lieutenant Alora already had a plan od encircling the village and closing in on them" said the Lieutenant,
"So be it, order an attack" said the captain while slowly lowering his binoculars.
It was done so quickly, partisans barely had the time to even notice as the puma rolled in from the south and started firing with auto-cannons,
shredding everything in its path before more of the armored vehicles arrived and started rolling down the streets.
Partisans were caught unprepared and they didn't get time to reorganize before the tanks rolled in.
There were casualties in the dozens on the partisan side, and dozens more captured after they surrendered after a short and decisive battle.
"I believe Alora did plan it out quite well, huh" said the Captain as he turned around and walked down to the encampment and right back into his tent.
The Lieutenant smirked and headed right to the parking area to await the tankers arrival.
That night, tankers spent their time under the star riddled sky, with a bright moon and comfortable tents.
But Captain didn't get much sleep that night as he couldn't get over the deaths of young personnel who died in a fire that day, the screams filled his mind as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Battle of Caglio, January 5th, 1951.
Resulted in deaths of 4 tankers, including a Sergeant who commanded the puma.

[End of Chapter II]