A White Christmas
It’s been a few days since me and Tanya had our chat. Turns out she likely did see god. I trust her enough to take it under serious consideration. She only gave me the outline of it, that there are seven pillars. One for humanity, one for life and death, and one for the mind i.e. inspiration creativity dreams, and the like. Then there is the pillar of destruction and the pillar of war and the pillar of monsters or animals Tanya said she wasn’t sure and the last is the most esoteric being Helios.
I figured I’d talk more about it later but we are busy. I’m currently heading to check in on Frank as he’s coming out of his induced coma. I briefly went out with Sherman to see if we could find another one of those creatures but to no avail. I walk past laughing and cheering men. It’s good to see morale is up despite the constant shelling and hellish temperature.
I enter the Kremlin and descend into the bunker where the wounded are. Everyone is smiling it would seem even the civilians are doing well in spirits. I eventually reach where Frank is resting. “Hey how are you feeling” he lifts an arm and feebly waves me away “It takes more than that to kill a zombie sir” I pull up a chair and sit next to him.
I place my helmet next to me and crack a smile “I feel it’s karma for you being terrible bate” he laughs and winces. “Fair enough but you did catch it right” I nod “knocked it out myself turns out its a crime against sentience” his eyes widen “No shit I had the same thought as it tried to make me lose weight”
I slap his shoulder “It clearly didn’t work” We both laugh for a minute. We talk for an hour or so before I turn in for the night. The next morning Tanya calls all majors to her command APC. Normally we’ve been using a tent because it’s easy to move around and it frees up the APC to lend a gun to defense.
I step inside the cramped compartment and see Major Willy along with Major o’neal who’s head of the engineers then there’s Major Parks who's in charge of all the medics then Major Leonidas and Major Cleomenes who are in charge of the other infantry units.
Tanya clears her throat. We all have our helmets off inside here and I can tell everyone is trying to not stare at her eye. “I was able to get in contact with Prime this morning. They are going to try to increase our supply drops from orbit. We should have enough satellites now that it won’t be an issue. In other news, we are no longer a bastard unit. In fact, our whole branch has changed”
She pauses for effect “We are the first unit officially designated as trans atmospheric marines” A few look puzzled but it makes sense to me. Command has always seemed to be building us up for something and the ISS confirmed it for me.
“With the new designation, we are actually short on equipment and troops. I’ve been told that once we are done here we will be redeployed and reorganized. What that organization will look like will be up to us though so that brings us here. Do we want to keep the standard layout or create something more flexible? We will also be allowed to submit designs for our ships and hard requirements we feel they need”
That’s a lot to take in. O’Neal raises a hand “If we will have ships we will need a captain who’s it going to be” Everyone nods. It’s a solid question. Tanya answers “I’ve been given a few choices but I think Admiral Cole will be our best choice” She tosses his file onto the data table in the center of us all.
Currently, he’s leading strike fleet shark. Our fleet is separated into strike fleets that perform offensive actions and bulwark fleets that perform defensive actions. The fleet is actually in route to the Barrents Sea with a battleship two carriers now being used to transport troops and eight destroyers with a screening force of twelve frigates capped off with a Wolfpack of six attack subs. Anything in that fleet's way is just waiting to be sunk.
His record is stellar and he’s decorated. He’s seen combat recently and completely out-maneuvered the NATO fleet sinking every ship. Apparently, he baited them by sending his escort ships to flank leaving his battleship and subs to head straight for the enemy fleet. The subs were disguised by the battleship's wake and when they closed the net the gunfire only lasted an hour at most.
I agree with the pick. Next Willy raises a hand “We should probably decide how we’ll operate so we can then decide how to organize” Again everyone nods. We then spend a solid two hours talking about how we’ll operate. In the end, we go for maximum flexibility because we’ll be cut off more likely than not. That then brings us to eventual mass training in small units.
We also agree that we’ll need dedicated fighters and drop ships. Finally, we reach the ships. We start small with what could be considered a frigate. It’ll serve a screening role so it’ll need lots of point defense for fighters and missiles. We skip destroyers for now and work on cruisers. They will need to be more of a bruiser role. Lots of point defense and some heavy guns.
For now, the frigates will have only point defense and missiles the cruisers will have both a top and bottom-mounted coil gun. I raise a hand “These are all well and good for fleet combat but we need something to actually carry the troops and equipment serving as a mobile base” Everyone stops their excitement about the ships and begins to think.
I continue “What I’m proposing will reach the dreadnought tonnage and I believe it should have on board refineries and assembly spaces so we can replace lost equipment and ammunition and possibly rearm and repair the fleet as a whole. It should have hanger spaces with enough space to rapidly deploy ground forces”
Everyone is quite likely thinking of the engineering hurdles but Tanya breaks the silence “A siege ship in essence… I believe I have our initial fleet composition and our hard requirements for the ships. One siege ship with two battleships for an escort three cruisers and ten frigates if we can manage but I’m going to tell Prime that we need the siege ship first”
Everyone nods in agreement. “That concludes that portion of the meeting now I’ve been informed that reinforcements will arrive in about a month's time from the south and then we can push north to strike fleet sharks. We just have to hold on a little longer… dismissed”
Well, it’s Christmas now and the Russian volunteers and civilians alike are celebrating and exchanging what gifts they can. Some even offer us gifts even though we don’t celebrate it. This gives them the opportunity to take the day to be with their families while we hold the line.
Recently artillery strikes have increased and we’ve had to move what we could underground. They have tried to push in with armor a few times but it’s ended with total losses for them. I’ve been out hunting those creatures a few more times and we’ve confirmed there is at least one more but that’s it.
It’s about ten in the morning not that you can actually tell anymore with the global ash cloud. I gaze up into the black-grey abyss and notice something out of place. White. In moments I realize what it is as enough white phosphorus is being dumped on us to white out the ash.
“All comm all comm button up for phosphorus” I call over the radio. We technically don’t need to call it with this weather because we can’t step outside unless we are buttoned up but there is always that one guy. I get a message from Tanya “I guess the rooskies wish for a white Christmas came true”
I continue on my way to where Sherman and my squad are waiting ready for another hunt. I climb up and we leave the base. Hopefully, we can catch the thing this time.
The atmosphere is erre as we trundle down the ruined streets amidst burned-out and collapsed buildings the only sound being the tank and the soft hissing of the phosphorus.
We trundle on. A few hours later I feel something watching us. I open the squad radio “Jed shout over external ‘DC stand down and present yourself’ hold fire for now” We slow to a stop and Jed does as I asked. A few minutes later a half dozen crawl out of the woodwork.
They look confused “Load a canister just in case” I whisper over comm to Sherman. Jed hops down next to me “I am willing to give you the chance to surrender and no longer have to fight and hurt we’ll even give you treats”
Jed relays for me and I watch their heads tilt to the side. Finally one of them says something “no more hurt” I nod and jed confirms it “we understand you don’t want to be here in this terrible place and don’t want to hurt you because of it”
they look to one another “can all of us come” I think for a moment pondering if they mean just these six or all their kind. I decide to go with both “Of course you can all come and if you have more friends hiding spread the word we have plenty for all”
They turn to huddle and I hear whispers which is a strange sight to behold. Giant killing machines whispering like kids. Finally one turns back to us “can we go tell our friends” I smile “we can’t protect them out here so please do” What I can only guess is a smile appears on their faces.
They scurry away nearly silently. It’s a little unnerving. I open a line to Tanya “We found six more. I had Jed yell at them and it actually worked. We had a short chat and they are spreading the word seems like we’ll be trading one problem for another I hope you have enough food”
Her response is even with no surprise “Good work stay in the field a little longer to coordinate with them if needed also sat scanning is picking up something strange approaching sector H-3-11 can you check it”
I reply in affirmative and climb back onto the tank. “We’re rolling Sherman best speed and guns hot the sats found something weird” I tag the location and we lurch forward. Jed pops a question “What if the creatures need to find us” I reply with full confidence “Oh they’ll never lose track of us”
We wind through the city and all the while I keep my eyes peeled. A while later we arrive at the edge of the sector. “Stop here well scout on foot” I jump off the track pod and the guys follow me. We creep up silently and manage to blend in with the hellscape.
An hour later we reach the far side of the sector and we all get into cover and look around. Brick breaks the silence “I don't see anything could be the sats picked up nothing” a fair guess given the conditions but I know better. I up the magnification on my helmet and peer into the dust.
I see a glimpse of a moving shape. “I see movement stay in cover” I keep watching and I see another closer now. Then I see the shape, six legs and what looks to be a cannon on top with several guns on the front.
“Contact looks to be a new walker sherman load APHE and be ready to roll well keep watch for now no engaging”
It gets closer it doesn’t seem all that fast. It also doesn’t look like it can maneuver quickly either. It steadily walks forward. About five minutes later it’s close enough to get a real look at it. Four ball turrets on the front. It looks like the cockpit is on the front but it’s hard to tell. It seems fairly heavily armored.
I scan around it and spot several more walker sight houses. I drop behind cover and check where my guys are. Jed is next to me wraith is up in a building. I shift to get a better look, rabbit is next to Barbosa and Brick is by his lonesome behind some rubble.
I mentally go over what we all have and we have very little that can do anything to heavy armor. I’d have Jed packing a rocket if he didn’t have the radio pack. That leaves Wraith if he brought the rail gun rather than his normal rifle. I decide to check “Wraith did you bring the rail gun”
I wait a second “Negative” I curse to myself “Copy that means Sherman is our only anti armor” I stick a probe over not wanting my head to be taken off. The walker is getting close enough that we need to decide whether we are bugging out now or fighting. I see more movement.
“Looks like dogs out there someone confirm” I wait for nearly a minute “Affirmative looks like robot dogs possibly carrying weapons” wraith confirms. “Fuck transmit all data to Jed to bounce back and let’s bug out. Sherman hope your ready”
Jed gives me a thumbs-up. I nod and flash my icon to signal our exfil and I move to get up with Jed then my spine tingles and I pull Jed back down with me. The round grazes his helmet. “We’ve been engaged Sherman roll up” I pull Jed and myself to our feet and we run with tracers chasing us.
I look to check on the guys and see Bricks head taken off by a cannon shell. Seconds later Sherman drifts a fucking tank around the corner and drops a shell onto two walkers gutting them.
I sprint over to Bricks body narrowly avoiding what’s quickly becoming a wall of lead. I do a quick check and he’s definitely dead. I grab an arm and leg and heave him onto my back and begin to run to Sherman.
Sherman is throwing everything he has to give us an opening. The missile pods are screaming and the rotary guns on top are spewing shell casings all the while the entire tank is rocking from the constant alternating fire of the barrels.
I’m the last on and I don’t bother getting a good position I just throw myself and Brick onto a track pod. Sherman throws it into reverse and we throw up debri as we race around the corner. Apparently, they land one more hit as I hear rabbit shout.
Moments after we round the corner a wave of artillery shells drops onto our previous position and blows away all the phosphorus replacing it instead with high explosives and napalm. “Rabbit you good”
I try to roll Brick off me so I can sit up but it takes Jed who’s sitting next to me to help. “Yeah they got my shiny legs though” I breathe a sigh of relief. We race back to our lines where unbeknownst to me another surprise was waiting.
A White Christmas
It’s been a few days since me and Tanya had our chat. Turns out she likely did see god. I trust her enough to take it under serious consideration. She only gave me the outline of it, that there are seven pillars. One for humanity, one for life and death, and one for the mind i.e. inspiration creativity dreams, and the like. Then there is the pillar of destruction and the pillar of war and the pillar of monsters or animals Tanya said she wasn’t sure and the last is the most esoteric being Helios.
I figured I’d talk more about it later but we are busy. I’m currently heading to check in on Frank as he’s coming out of his induced coma. I briefly went out with Sherman to see if we could find another one of those creatures but to no avail. I walk past laughing and cheering men. It’s good to see morale is up despite the constant shelling and hellish temperature.
I enter the Kremlin and descend into the bunker where the wounded are. Everyone is smiling it would seem even the civilians are doing well in spirits. I eventually reach where Frank is resting. “Hey how are you feeling” he lifts an arm and feebly waves me away “It takes more than that to kill a zombie sir” I pull up a chair and sit next to him.
I place my helmet next to me and crack a smile “I feel it’s karma for you being terrible bate” he laughs and winces. “Fair enough but you did catch it right” I nod “knocked it out myself turns out its a crime against sentience” his eyes widen “No shit I had the same thought as it tried to make me lose weight”
I slap his shoulder “It clearly didn’t work” We both laugh for a minute. We talk for an hour or so before I turn in for the night. The next morning Tanya calls all majors to her command APC. Normally we’ve been using a tent because it’s easy to move around and it frees up the APC to lend a gun to defense.
I step inside the cramped compartment and see Major Willy along with Major o’neal who’s head of the engineers then there’s Major Parks who's in charge of all the medics then Major Leonidas and Major Cleomenes who are in charge of the other infantry units.
Tanya clears her throat. We all have our helmets off inside here and I can tell everyone is trying to not stare at her eye. “I was able to get in contact with Prime this morning. They are going to try to increase our supply drops from orbit. We should have enough satellites now that it won’t be an issue. In other news, we are no longer a bastard unit. In fact, our whole branch has changed”
She pauses for effect “We are the first unit officially designated as trans atmospheric marines” A few look puzzled but it makes sense to me. Command has always seemed to be building us up for something and the ISS confirmed it for me.
“With the new designation, we are actually short on equipment and troops. I’ve been told that once we are done here we will be redeployed and reorganized. What that organization will look like will be up to us though so that brings us here. Do we want to keep the standard layout or create something more flexible? We will also be allowed to submit designs for our ships and hard requirements we feel they need”
That’s a lot to take in. O’Neal raises a hand “If we will have ships we will need a captain who’s it going to be” Everyone nods. It’s a solid question. Tanya answers “I’ve been given a few choices but I think Admiral Cole will be our best choice” She tosses his file onto the data table in the center of us all.
Currently, he’s leading strike fleet shark. Our fleet is separated into strike fleets that perform offensive actions and bulwark fleets that perform defensive actions. The fleet is actually in route to the Barrents Sea with a battleship two carriers now being used to transport troops and eight destroyers with a screening force of twelve frigates capped off with a Wolfpack of six attack subs. Anything in that fleet's way is just waiting to be sunk.
His record is stellar and he’s decorated. He’s seen combat recently and completely out-maneuvered the NATO fleet sinking every ship. Apparently, he baited them by sending his escort ships to flank leaving his battleship and subs to head straight for the enemy fleet. The subs were disguised by the battleship's wake and when they closed the net the gunfire only lasted an hour at most.
I agree with the pick. Next Willy raises a hand “We should probably decide how we’ll operate so we can then decide how to organize” Again everyone nods. We then spend a solid two hours talking about how we’ll operate. In the end, we go for maximum flexibility because we’ll be cut off more likely than not. That then brings us to eventual mass training in small units.
We also agree that we’ll need dedicated fighters and drop ships. Finally, we reach the ships. We start small with what could be considered a frigate. It’ll serve a screening role so it’ll need lots of point defense for fighters and missiles. We skip destroyers for now and work on cruisers. They will need to be more of a bruiser role. Lots of point defense and some heavy guns.
For now, the frigates will have only point defense and missiles the cruisers will have both a top and bottom-mounted coil gun. I raise a hand “These are all well and good for fleet combat but we need something to actually carry the troops and equipment serving as a mobile base” Everyone stops their excitement about the ships and begins to think.
I continue “What I’m proposing will reach the dreadnought tonnage and I believe it should have on board refineries and assembly spaces so we can replace lost equipment and ammunition and possibly rearm and repair the fleet as a whole. It should have hanger spaces with enough space to rapidly deploy ground forces”
Everyone is quite likely thinking of the engineering hurdles but Tanya breaks the silence “A siege ship in essence… I believe I have our initial fleet composition and our hard requirements for the ships. One siege ship with two battleships for an escort three cruisers and ten frigates if we can manage but I’m going to tell Prime that we need the siege ship first”
Everyone nods in agreement. “That concludes that portion of the meeting now I’ve been informed that reinforcements will arrive in about a month's time from the south and then we can push north to strike fleet sharks. We just have to hold on a little longer… dismissed”
Well, it’s Christmas now and the Russian volunteers and civilians alike are celebrating and exchanging what gifts they can. Some even offer us gifts even though we don’t celebrate it. This gives them the opportunity to take the day to be with their families while we hold the line.
Recently artillery strikes have increased and we’ve had to move what we could underground. They have tried to push in with armor a few times but it’s ended with total losses for them. I’ve been out hunting those creatures a few more times and we’ve confirmed there is at least one more but that’s it.
It’s about ten in the morning not that you can actually tell anymore with the global ash cloud. I gaze up into the black-grey abyss and notice something out of place. White. In moments I realize what it is as enough white phosphorus is being dumped on us to white out the ash.
“All comm all comm button up for phosphorus” I call over the radio. We technically don’t need to call it with this weather because we can’t step outside unless we are buttoned up but there is always that one guy. I get a message from Tanya “I guess the rooskies wish for a white Christmas came true”
I continue on my way to where Sherman and my squad are waiting ready for another hunt. I climb up and we leave the base. Hopefully, we can catch the thing this time.
The atmosphere is erre as we trundle down the ruined streets amidst burned-out and collapsed buildings the only sound being the tank and the soft hissing of the phosphorus.
We trundle on. A few hours later I feel something watching us. I open the squad radio “Jed shout over external ‘DC stand down and present yourself’ hold fire for now” We slow to a stop and Jed does as I asked. A few minutes later a half dozen crawl out of the woodwork.
They look confused “Load a canister just in case” I whisper over comm to Sherman. Jed hops down next to me “I am willing to give you the chance to surrender and no longer have to fight and hurt we’ll even give you treats”
Jed relays for me and I watch their heads tilt to the side. Finally one of them says something “no more hurt” I nod and jed confirms it “we understand you don’t want to be here in this terrible place and don’t want to hurt you because of it”
they look to one another “can all of us come” I think for a moment pondering if they mean just these six or all their kind. I decide to go with both “Of course you can all come and if you have more friends hiding spread the word we have plenty for all”
They turn to huddle and I hear whispers which is a strange sight to behold. Giant killing machines whispering like kids. Finally one turns back to us “can we go tell our friends” I smile “we can’t protect them out here so please do” What I can only guess is a smile appears on their faces.
They scurry away nearly silently. It’s a little unnerving. I open a line to Tanya “We found six more. I had Jed yell at them and it actually worked. We had a short chat and they are spreading the word seems like we’ll be trading one problem for another I hope you have enough food”
Her response is even with no surprise “Good work stay in the field a little longer to coordinate with them if needed also sat scanning is picking up something strange approaching sector H-3-11 can you check it”
I reply in affirmative and climb back onto the tank. “We’re rolling Sherman best speed and guns hot the sats found something weird” I tag the location and we lurch forward. Jed pops a question “What if the creatures need to find us” I reply with full confidence “Oh they’ll never lose track of us”
We wind through the city and all the while I keep my eyes peeled. A while later we arrive at the edge of the sector. “Stop here well scout on foot” I jump off the track pod and the guys follow me. We creep up silently and manage to blend in with the hellscape.
An hour later we reach the far side of the sector and we all get into cover and look around. Brick breaks the silence “I don't see anything could be the sats picked up nothing” a fair guess given the conditions but I know better. I up the magnification on my helmet and peer into the dust.
I see a glimpse of a moving shape. “I see movement stay in cover” I keep watching and I see another closer now. Then I see the shape, six legs and what looks to be a cannon on top with several guns on the front.
“Contact looks to be a new walker sherman load APHE and be ready to roll well keep watch for now no engaging”
It gets closer it doesn’t seem all that fast. It also doesn’t look like it can maneuver quickly either. It steadily walks forward. About five minutes later it’s close enough to get a real look at it. Four ball turrets on the front. It looks like the cockpit is on the front but it’s hard to tell. It seems fairly heavily armored.
I scan around it and spot several more walker sight houses. I drop behind cover and check where my guys are. Jed is next to me wraith is up in a building. I shift to get a better look, rabbit is next to Barbosa and Brick is by his lonesome behind some rubble.
I mentally go over what we all have and we have very little that can do anything to heavy armor. I’d have Jed packing a rocket if he didn’t have the radio pack. That leaves Wraith if he brought the rail gun rather than his normal rifle. I decide to check “Wraith did you bring the rail gun”
I wait a second “Negative” I curse to myself “Copy that means Sherman is our only anti armor” I stick a probe over not wanting my head to be taken off. The walker is getting close enough that we need to decide whether we are bugging out now or fighting. I see more movement.
“Looks like dogs out there someone confirm” I wait for nearly a minute “Affirmative looks like robot dogs possibly carrying weapons” wraith confirms. “Fuck transmit all data to Jed to bounce back and let’s bug out. Sherman hope your ready”
Jed gives me a thumbs-up. I nod and flash my icon to signal our exfil and I move to get up with Jed then my spine tingles and I pull Jed back down with me. The round grazes his helmet. “We’ve been engaged Sherman roll up” I pull Jed and myself to our feet and we run with tracers chasing us.
I look to check on the guys and see Bricks head taken off by a cannon shell. Seconds later Sherman drifts a fucking tank around the corner and drops a shell onto two walkers gutting them.
I sprint over to Bricks body narrowly avoiding what’s quickly becoming a wall of lead. I do a quick check and he’s definitely dead. I grab an arm and leg and heave him onto my back and begin to run to Sherman.
Sherman is throwing everything he has to give us an opening. The missile pods are screaming and the rotary guns on top are spewing shell casings all the while the entire tank is rocking from the constant alternating fire of the barrels.
I’m the last on and I don’t bother getting a good position I just throw myself and Brick onto a track pod. Sherman throws it into reverse and we throw up debri as we race around the corner. Apparently, they land one more hit as I hear rabbit shout.
Moments after we round the corner a wave of artillery shells drops onto our previous position and blows away all the phosphorus replacing it instead with high explosives and napalm. “Rabbit you good”
I try to roll Brick off me so I can sit up but it takes Jed who’s sitting next to me to help. “Yeah they got my shiny legs though” I breathe a sigh of relief. We race back to our lines where unbeknownst to me another surprise was waiting.
