Chapter 100: Ch 98. Dilemma of the tankmen

As the last of the fleeing allied soldiers were killed and routed, the enemy infantry hurried towards us.

The survivors who ran towards us suddenly found themselves caught between the hammer, and us, the anvil. It was clear that either we open fire now, or the enemy will charge and completely break through the blockade. They already did.

The enemy soldiers were running at us.

Tra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta

Bu-bu-bu-bu-bum

The machine guns’ fire was mowing them down relentlessly, but instead of turning around, wavering, or stopping, the infantry was running at us without minding the casualties.

They were running on the corpses that littered the foot of the hill. They were running, falling, crawling.

Like a mindless horde they were approaching us closer with every moment.

“200 meters!” (J)

Tra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ch-ch

“Sobaka!” [Literally, "A dog!" But here it has same coloring as another infamous Russian swearing, starting with 'S'.]

I checked the ammunition. We were almost out of rifle rounds. The heavy machine gun was already getting cold, and there was no opportunity to reload it after the archers started shooting in the general direction of the tank.

“Wonderful, I’ll go reload.” I picked the last large box of ammo and started reloading the PKT.

‘CLACK’

“GO!”

Tra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta

“Shooting!” (J)

I moved away from the gun.

“Clear!”

BOOM

“100 meters.” (J)

“Now would be a good time to get the hell out of here.” But right after I said that, I thought about the fact that the enemy seemingly didn’t care about the casualties.

When I climbed back into the seat, I noticed that the enemy soldiers were shockingly close to us.

But the longer I was looking at them approach, the weirder…

BOOM

… they looked.

They were not appearing normal. I was noticing crazed looks in their eyes, or them showing unnatural pain tolerance with continuing to push forwards while having severe bleeding from gunshot wounds.

‘The hell is going on…?!’

“I’m busy to be wondering.” (J)

“Sorry.”

I looked behind to find another firing position. There was only the option of falling back right now, and waiting for reinforcements. Valencio camped somewhat nearby, and our shots were so loud that even a dead man would wake up.

“Go back!”

“Nazad tak nazad, neh* orat’!” [Go back, then go back. No need to f* shout!] (O)

The tank slowly started moving back. But while we were doing so, some light infantry charged ahead of the main horde and started hitting the tracks with javelins.

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I prayed that the they won’t break the track links, but of course the things had to go wrong.

Suddenly, the tank stopped moving backwards, and instead started turning left.

“F*, F*, F*! DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO REPAIR?!” The crazy spearmen were scared away from the tracks by Old man’s screaming, but before long it did not matter.

‘Pom’

‘Pom-pom’

We started hearing pounds from outside.

Soon the tank was overrun.

Jester tried reloading the gun, but the elevation motor couldn’t handle the weight of people piling on it.

“S*, we are in trouble by the looks of it.”

“Autoloader refuses to work. Machine gun rounds are running out. Is it the time to panic?” (J)

“Bite your tongue, you idiot. Does the turret turn?” Jester tried turning the turret, and at least the horizontal aiming was possible.

“Loading HE!”

---

Jester’s POV

Suddenly she jumped off the seat and picked a shell from the turret load.

“What are you doing?!” I was amazed by her sudden actions.

But then again, repairing the autoloader would be a pain, so better to hand-load the freaking gun…

“Shoo! Get in the seat!”

“Shut the f* up and prepare to fire.” She opened the breach and somehow pushed the shell inside.

While Captain was putting in the shot, I readied the gun from my side for manual fire.

Until my hand stopped on the handle.

After she pushed in the shot, the breach closed and Captain moved away from the gun.

“Loaded!”

BOOM

From all sides I could hear pounding. By that time most of outside equipment, including the laser missile guidance was knocked off. We were blinded by a mass of human bodies.

But even though there was no way out for us, as well as no way to kill those on the turret and behind the tank without risking our lives, Captain did not look scared.

She frowned, she hissed as small arms shook after bearing the shells, but she did not panic.

“Loaded!” When she once again put in a shell, I pulled the handle.

BOOM

“This is bad… This is really bad…” I couldn’t tell for sure what happened, but the gun didn’t recoil normally, not to mention a weird shake we experienced.

“Well, end of the line.”

“JUST HOW CAN YOU STAY CALM HERE?!” I couldn’t even start getting it why she just leaned on the hull, and started looking at the watch.

But when the ground shook…

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