Dust Devils - A Girls Und Panzer Story

Chapter 92

Smiling for the first time she got here, Valarie prepared to crawl out from under the tank. What stopped her was a quick screech before being immediately followed by the whole vehicle suffering a violent shudder. Then, she could feel the white flag popping out of the top.

Valarie let out a heavy sigh and allowed herself to drop face-first into the snow. Whatever was happening, it looked like it was over now. She couldn't hear any shooting, any engines, or anything for that matter. She wondered whether or not to even leave the spot she was in when the tank shuddered once more. Was it shot again? It couldn't have been, she thought. The tank was out, and the rules said an eliminated tank could not receive fire. However, whoever was out there did not care about the rules. Any of them. Moments later, the defenseless T-44 suffered a further hit. Then, one more. And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Then, nothing. After what seemed like an eternity of enduring a deluge of gun and cannon fire, it just ceased at the flick of a switch. Even the roaring wind had all but disappeared. Slowly, she crawled out from under the tank. When Valarie stood up, she was in another world. Not only did all the shooting stop, but so did the blizzard. In fact, it looked like there never was one to begin as the skies were as clear as clear could be.

Her attention was now turned toward the T-44. It was a near-total wreck. In all, she counted thirteen, and they have definitely left their mark. The armor was mutilated; chunks of it were simply gone. In other places, it was abnormally bent, bursting open some of the welds.

To see her tank, or any for that matter, in a condition like that was unnerving, terrifying even. Valarie's mind shifted to the crew, her crew. She realized at that moment she hadn't seen a trace of them, so she moved quickly and clambered up the tank to open the commander's hatch. Peering inside, she was stunned to see it was empty. Filled with confusion, she went inside. Everything was cold to the touch, as if it had never been used.

Amid this gaunt environment was a consistent beeping noise that Valarie had only just noticed. It was coming from the front, the driver's position. Crawling over there, she found that the beeping came from the driver's panel, which had all sorts of gauges and other information that reported the status of the engine. On this panel was a bulb that was flashing red and was the source of the beeping. But something was...off. All the writing on the panel, she couldn't read a word of it. What she saw wasn't a language. Gibberish was more comprehensible than the poor excuse of writing on that panel. And amid all this was the incessant flashing and beeping of the bulb. It was right in front of her face, so loud and aggravating. It was ringing in her ears. A ring that was getting louder...

So loud...

So damn loud...

.

.

.

With a jolt, Valarie was awoken in a daze. For a moment, she was puzzled over why she was submerged in pitch-black darkness when her faculties began to recover. After a bit of fumbling around, she switched on the lamp at the desk where she was sitting. On it were a multitude of papers and maps that, for a few hours, served as her pillow. Since last night, Valarie was not only pouring over the details for the team's upcoming match but also planning for practice. It must've been more of an exhaustive task than Valarie realized, as she had passed out right in the middle of work.

Feeling the strain of her limbs from sitting for so long, she stood up for a nice stretch, joints audibly cracking. Moving to her bedroom window, she pulled back the curtains to see the outside world. The ship was under a blanket of darkness that was on the precipice of being uncovered as dawn was no more than an hour away. Retreating back to her room, Valarie reached for her room to fetch her phone. She needed to get her bearings.