At the break of the dawn.
I have finished whatever planning I had in mind in the war room, and when I woke up I started checking out the situation outside, the devastation ahead of us.
Disfigured corpses were lying in front of the citadel’s gates, and now that they were slightly lit by the rays of the morning sun they disgusted me even more.
This brutal scene was eerie, but it didn’t make me wonder if I made the right choices yesterday. Many of them would’ve died, just in a different way.
I leaned closer to the periscope and leisurely scanned the surroundings.
The stone walls were covered in dents and chips from gunfire, and their defenders were nowhere to be seen.
The clear area around the wall here and there had corpses of the allied soldiers lying around, together with arrows that stuck in the bodies, ground, and wooden structures.
The friendlies themselves were barricaded a dozen meters behind the tank, behind the houses.
I pulled away from the optics and looked to the left. Jester was still sleeping. His face was covered with the helmet, and his arms were crossed on his chest. He handled yesterday’s events quite well this time, though I still wonder how would he react to the now-visible sight outside.
‘Old man?’ I whispered. Nobody responded.
I climbed off the seat and crawled under the turret ring. It allowed me to look at the driver’s seat.
When I looked there, Old man half-turned his head at me and nodded, asking ‘what?’.
‘Anything to report?’
‘F*ck it all.’ He answered melancholically.
I crawled back to my seat and chilled until Jester woke up.
“Mhm…” (J)
“[Good] Morning.”
“Did I wake you up?” (J)
“No, I was just resting.”
Jester quickly removed the helmet from his eyes, but quickly turned away from the sights.
“Relax, we are in no hurry.” I opened the hatch and carefully peeked out.
One of the soldiers saw it, and hurried to the tank. He climbed on the engine bay and stared at me.
“What?”
“M-my lord, we were ordered to wait for your instructions.” He leaned to a side, letting me look at the soldiers. Many were peeking from behind the houses and barricades.
“Have the enemies retreated?”
“Yes, my lord. Our assault has failed and we were told to wait. Our archers made them abandon the wall, but if we try to climb, we would be met with a large force.” The soldier explained.
“I see. Alright, orders. Clean that mess up.” The moment I pointed behind myself, the soldier’s face distorted with disgust.
“Imagine if you have to crawl over it later. In a formation. Under enemy arrows. What is your opinion now?”
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“LADS! GO CLEAR THE DEAD!” He shouted and jumped off the hull.
I was about to dive back into the metal box, when in the corner of my sight I noticed a trooper in modern equipment. Our eyes met and he tapped on his ear.
I closed the hatch and reached for the radio.
“This is Beril-Main, go ahead."
“Rapier squad reporting for duty. Beril-Main, the city is cleared. All foes are holed up inside the perimeter.” (R1)
“Good. Do we know what is going on inside?”
“Yes. We do know that the enemies are not near the walls.” (R1)
“What do you mean?!”
“Rapier 7 is on the wall, looking around. There are no enemies near the wall.” (R1)
“And where are they?!”
“We… don’t know…” (R1)
“For God’s sake!” I facepalmed.
“You are recon, and you don’t know where they are?!”
“From what we know, there are only houses in there.” (R1)
“Fine… Let’s think of something…
Where the duke is located?”
“He is behind the barricades. A hundred meters away from your spot.” (R1)
“Brilliant. Absolutely f*ing brilliant.
Fine, get back to your stuff, Beril-Main out.
You heard this s*it, didn’t you?” I gazed at Jester.
“What, is it that bad?” (J)
“No, it's nothing important. We just don't have a f*ing idea where everybody is, and thus have to be constantly on our guard, wondering where the enemies are and when would we be ambushed. You do like it, right?”
“Sorry for asking…” (J)
I sighed. For a few moments I thought whether it made sense for me to go and search for Valencio. But, regardless of whether I like it or not, I still had to do something.
“I’ll go search for Valencio. You two, make sure the tank doesn’t go missing.”
“Ha-ha! As if it can!” (J)
I picked the rifle and climbed out.
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