Foreign Dominion

Chapter 16 - The Fighting Freaks Me Out

Engines purring and changing RPM. Tracks clanking and creaking against return skids and rollers. Turret hydraulics whining as gunners searched for targets. Loose hatches rattling on their hinges. The radio static over the headset. All of these were noises that Ayame was used to hearing in her M7. They were noises that were familiar and comforting. To most people, tanks might not be comfortable, but to Ayame, they were great armored boxes of steel where no one could hurt her. Rolling pillboxes that she had the power to command to her will. The only one who could hurt her in here was herself, and Ayame wouldn't let that happen. Not here. Not now.

It wasn't long before the radio static was drowned out by the voice of another commander.

"Locust here, location clear. No tanks sighted."

"Thanks, Iku. We're still en route."

Today's lesson was supposed to be about surrounding an enemy. Or at least that's Delilah had said when she and the Greyhound had disappeared into the woods to their start position. She'd left Ayame with two Stuarts and the Locust, apparently challenging Ayame to encircle her somehow.

When the M7 arrived at the clearing, each commander got out of their tanks to look over their map and discuss how to completely trap Delilah.

"Can we even find her, let alone get around her?" Maiko asked as she stared at the map.

"I'm not even sure it's physically possible to do such a thing." Said Ayame. "As soon as we see them, Mia will have a round into each of us before we fire a shot."

Iku felt more confident. "I mean, she asked us to, right? She wouldn't tell us to do something we couldn't do."

"You know, sometimes your hidden intelligence is surprising, Iku."

"Why thank you!" She beamed, blissfully unaware.

The impromptu meeting concluded without achieving anymore development on the matter. Ayame ordered the light tanks to search around, hoping to cover enough ground that finding Delilah would be inevitable. Thirty minutes went by, and yet there was nothing. No sign of Delilah, and no reports at all from anyone. The driver of the M7 cut the engine to save fuel, leaving electric and hydraulic power on the auxiliary motor.

In the thick forest, there was silence. Ayame had managed to tune the radio squelch like a violinist tunes their instrument, filtering out the static while still being able to pick up as many actual transmissions as possible. This wasn't really a show of her skill with the radio, but more a symptom of her boredom. She then set about messing with the flare pistol, making sure it was completely clean and in proper shape, should she ever actually get the chance to use it. It had been intended to use for illumination or signaling, but Ayame had never actually used it in a match before. There were supposedly smoke rounds for it too, but those hadn't seen the light of day. Smoke would have to come from shells, turret-mounted launchers, or hand-thrown smoke grenades.

"Hey, can I get a quick radio check?" Ayame asked into her microphone. There was peaceful quiet, and there was annoying quiet. This was the latter.

There was no response. Ayame checked to make sure she was transmitting through the correct set – she wouldn't have been the first commander to accidentally use the intercom instead of the radio. She'd set the toggle correctly and the radio was working, but there was nothing. After several more tries, she gave up and switched the active set to the emergency frequency. All tanks were required to monitor this, so someone would hear her.

"Hey this is Ayame, I might be having radio trouble, anybody hear me?"

"This is Kana in the M8, I hear you five by five."