Seaforth's Ladies

by Sandy Addson

  WHAM!

  He whole walker shook and as it took a hit from something.

  “Call out,” Alex shrieked into the intercom as she crouched down into the walker crew compartment.

  “Good,” said Chantal

  “Fine,” said Sarah

  “Shit,” said Becky being more truthful than the others.

  “Echo7Beta, this is Echo7Alpha; status?” Lieutenant Johnson called out over the radio.

  “Were fine Echo7Alpha, no penetration,” Alex replied.

  “Good. We got the bastards that shot you, so back to work,” the Lieutenant ordered.

  “Ma’am. Thank you, Ma’am,” replied Alex, as she rose back up through in the command hatch. Only then did she see the large gouge taken out of Winnie’s right shoulder plate above the arm. Six inches lower and it would have taken off the entire arm. She tried not to think too long on the fact that if the round had been two feet to the left, she’d be dead.

  ‘Shit we just used up our luck for the day,’ Alex thought to herself as she re-manned the Browning, and started to once again look for new targets.

  Wind caused the artillery smoke to clear for a second, and Alex saw an important one.

  “Gunner, Pantherturm ten degrees right and twenty degrees up. Fire whatever is in the tube followed by WP. We need to keep that thing blind,” Alex said and she lined the turret up in her fifty calibre sights.

  As she depressed the trigger, the weapon’s half inch rounds started to spit out, sparking off the Panther turret. She knew that she wasn’t doing any damage but the tracer would make it easier for Sarah to spot the target.

  Alex had let off maybe twenty rounds when it became clear that she wasn’t the only one who had noticed the Pantherturm. Several rockets came out of nowhere to strike the turret. The explosions that the rockets made were nothing like what Alex had seen before. They were obviously shaped charges, but they seemed to cause the turret’s metal to spray up when they hit. Even stranger, the fifty calibre rounds she was still firing were no longer sparking off the turret but actually penetrating.

  Then the turret exploded; with such a powerful blast that it just disappeared. The only evidence of its existence were the gobs of thick metallic sludge that landed near Winnie.

  “Okay maybe there is something to the eggheads’ enzyme weapons after all,” Alex said aloud.

  “Uhmm Ma’am. There isn’t a target there anymore,” Sarah said over the intercom her own voice betraying her own amazement.

  “Agreed, I’ll find something else for you to shoot at soon, don’t worry,” replied Alex.

  “Jeez, where can we get some of those rockets,” asked Ida over the platoon channel.

  “Cut the chatter people,” ordered Lieutenant Johnson before Alex could do the same.

  Looking around to get a better feel for the battle, it appeared to Alex that things were going reasonably well. Two paths large enough for tanks and APCs had been opened though the dragon teeth. The assault companies were busy taking over the initial defensive line and the follow up companies were moving forward. The Fort Gerry tanks having moved through the Dragon’s teeth were spreading out and adding their own fire, decreasing the number of possible targets. Casualties were being taken but nowhere near what the cynics (like Alex) had feared.

  It was then that the Germans launched their counter attack.

  “Zombies, hundreds of them!” said a frantic voice over the battalion net.

  Alex frantically looked to see where the attack was coming from, but she couldn’t see them anywhere.

  “Behind us, they’re attacking the flanks!” shouted Ida over the platoon’s channel.

  “Thors! Thors to our front,” said another voice over the net.

  Alex swung around, to look behind her, let the tanks deal with the Thors for now. From Winnie’s high position, she saw what the Germans had done. In the area between the first line of defences and the second row of Dragon’s teeth they had dug large pits and stacked unactivated zombies in their hundreds. Then covering them with camouflaged grates they had waited until a time of their choosing to activate them.

  Seeing the zombies moving rapidly towards their support columns, Alex was galvanized into action. Scrambling out of the walker, she swung the Browning around to face the rear. Then with a foot braced on either side of the 75mm she opened up on a group of zombies nearest to the walker.

  Once again, the half inch rounds sped out toward a target. This time they tore through dead flesh, taking the German reanimated troopers apart and making sure they stayed dead this time.

  Suddenly the Browning ran dry. “Becky bring up another box of 50 cal,” Alex ordered over the intercom.

  When Winnies loader/radio operator didn’t appear with a fresh box of ammunition, Alex shouted the order again. It was only then that the sergeant realized that when she had leapt out of the command hatch her plugs for her headset had disconnected! Hoping to get her crewmates attention, Alex stamped hard on Winnies metal hull.

  Within seconds Becky emerged from Winnies with a fresh box of ammunition in one hand.

  As she reloaded the 50 cal she shouted at Alex “Message from the Leftenant. She said to stop acting like an engineer’s wet dream and get back into Winnie before a German decides to shoot your too tight ass off.”

  Alex realized that this wasn’t exactly an ideal position and once the weapon was reloaded, she swung around and scampered back into the commander’s hatch. Plugging back into the intercom, she asked Becky, “Did she really say all that?”

  “Well I might have added a bit, but she did tell me to get you back into Winnie,” replied Becky.

  Switching back to the platoon net, she heard the Lieutenant repeat, “I repeat all walkers turn and engage the zombies. We need to get them cleared out. Winnie take #2 section down the south flank, I’ll take #3 down the north. I hope no one else but Sergeant Mackenzie believes that they can fight the enemy outside their walker.

  “No Ma’am,” came the chorus of replies from the Guardians.

  “Good. Now attack,” said the officer.

  “Chantal, turn Winnie around and prepare to start working our way back down the line.

  “Yes Alex,” was the driver’s reply.

  “What do we have loaded Sarah?” Alex asked.

  “HE, Sergeant,” replied the gunner.

  “Excellent, as soon as Chantal gets us turned around; target the group that I’m putting the tracer into.

  With that, the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada’s walkers turned around and started their counter attack against the German zombie assault. Winnie advanced slowly putting HE shot into the outer edge of the Zombie line in the hopes of minimizing Canadian casualties. Each shell caused several of the German reanimated dead to be flung off their feet. Sometimes the corpses stayed down, unfortunately most of the time they got back up and continued to move towards the living. That’s when the Alex’s heavy Browning once again proved its worth. When the gun’s heavy rounds hit a zombie, they ripped off limbs and exploded skulls; in other words, the kind of tissue damage even a zombie had difficulty staying mobile with.

  Fanning out ahead of Winnie were the two Guardians of #2 Section. Like Winnie, Ida’s walker Tony, and Cindy’s Lancelot were also armed with 50 calibre Brownings, and these along with their flamethrowers were able to make short work of many zombies. Unfortunately, the light walkers had already been heavily engaged with the German defences and therefore had used up much of their ammunition.

  This soon left them with only their 30 calibre Browning and their fists as their only drawn out combat weapons. Both Ida and Cindy decided that their walker’s fists were the better, if gorier, choice. They waded into the centre mass of zombies swinging heavy punches and popping zombie heads like too many pimples.

  “Hey some of these zombies are wearing brown uniforms,” shouted Ida over the platoon network.

  “New German uniform?” asked Lieutenant Johnson.

  “I don’t think so, they’re no
t stylish enough to be German uniforms,” replied Ida.

  “Sarah, thinks they might be Russian,” Becky said over the net.

  “Good idea private, but next time go through proper channels, don’t just barge in on a conversation above your rank,” admonished the Lieutenant.

  “If they are Russians, that explains the numbers we’re seeing,” said Alex.

  And they were dealing with a lot of zombies, and the Canadian walkers couldn’t be everywhere at once. Fortunately, the column was far from helpless. From inside their Kangaroos the Canadians popped up with Brens, Enfields and every other weapon the infantry had on hand to lay down a line of fire that slowed the undead advance. As well the Alfreds lumbered out of their carriers and started to walk towards the zombies. As they did so the large mechanical infantrymen opened up with their Vickers and Browning machine guns cutting deep into the undead ranks and forcing the remaining German creatures to choose them as target. As the German zombies threw themselves onto Alfreds the robotic infantry’s human allies counter attacked. The Canadian infantrymen had found that a sharpened shovel worked best for bashing in a zombie’s head. They also found that the undead were nowhere near as scary when they were attacking something else as they were when they were directly attacking you.

  So, despite dealing with probably the largest zombie attack on record, the Canadians were holding their own. But in so doing they had to get out of their armoured protection and bunch up. So, when the sound of Moaning Minnies were heard over the battlefield an almost audible groan of frustration could be heard coming from the Canadians.

  To make matters worse, the cries of Thors had been well founded. Half a dozen of the large German heavy walkers were advancing up from behind a rise to start raining even more fire onto the support column’s exposed personnel. German walker design differed substantially from that of the Western Allies. Whereas the allies had adopted a humanoid appearance for their walker’s; the German designs still looked like tanks, only with legs instead of tracks. This gave the large Thors a bloated spider-like appearance, as their Tiger II inspired chassis and turret waddled into position on six large mechanical legs. Armed with a short 150mm howitzer the Thor were designed to destroy infantry, matter how much steel and concrete they were in.

  Not caring about their undead troops, the German rockets and artillery shells landed within the column. Infantry, both flesh and steel, were torn apart in the hellfire. Kangaroos and Universal carriers were blasted apart, their armoured frames adding to the metal slashing through the air. Mortar and antitank ammunition from the Seaforth’s support company also exploded from near or direct hits from the Thor’s cannons; adding to the chaos around them.

  The Fort Garry tanks tried to help, responding with their own 76mm canons but the shells just bounced off the front armour of the Thors. A tesla equipped Sherman from the Headquarters platoon, managed to take out one of the monsters with a Rift tech powered blast of manmade lightning: only to be destroyed in turn by a hit from one of the four Zeus class walkers that came lumbering up behind the Thors. These brothers to the Thors look much the same but the howitzer had been replaced by the same 88mm as the King Tiger had. Making them as good as destroying allied armour, as the Thors were at killing infantry.

  Both of these German walkers were however, vulnerable to allied walkers when they were crewed by people with guts and experience: which described Winne’s crew perfectly.

  “Chantal, break right! Make for the corner of the Patherturm position. Get ready for a lateral move right on my command,” Alex shrieked over the intercom.

  “Roger Alex,” shouted back her driver.

  “Echo7Alpha this is Echo7Beta, can you hear me?” she said.

  There was a short bout of static then Alex heard, “Echo7Beta this is Echo7Alpha I hear you.”

  Lieutenant Johnson’s voice was strained but the relief was palpable.

  “Leftenant we need to silence at least one of those Zeues now before they tear through the tanks. I don’t have time to describe how we do that. I need you to trust me and follow Winne’s lead,” Alex said bluntly.

  “Go Winnie, Sting will follow your lead,” said Lieutenant Johnson, her voice once again calm.

  It was then that Alex realized that the Lieutenant hadn’t been afraid of the shelling that they were caught up in. She had been scared because she’d not known what to do.

  Once they were clear of the artillery blasts, Alex once again popped the hatch on Winnie expecting to be able to grab onto the Browning to steady herself as she talked Chantal through the maneuvers that she intended to put Winnie through. Unfortunately, a piece of shrapnel had sheared the large machine gun off of the walker; costing Alex her most secure hand hold.

  “Sarah Load AP, we may only get one shot so it has to count,” Alex shrieked over the intercom.

  “Confirmed Ma’am,” said Sarah who then fired off the 75mm towards the German lines before shouting, “Load AP.”

  “AP aye,” replied Becky.

  “Ma’am once you catch up with Winnie, I want you to pop your smoke dischargers,” Alex commanded over the platoon net.

  “Roger Mackenzie,” complied Lieutenant Johnson.

  In anticipation of operating mostly in daylight, during the attack, the walker’s crews had removed the flare launchers and reinstalled the smoke dischargers. So, when Sting got to Winnies position, they were soon covered by a thick bank of chemical smoke.

  “Okay from here it gets tricky. We’re going to run in a straight line until we’re in line with the nearest Zeus’s side armour. From there we move as quickly as possible to get into hand-to-hand range. The legs of these heavy walkers are the weak spot so rip them off and pull it over. At this range a shot from your cannon may penetrate their armour but don’t count on it. Instead use it like the world’s largest door knocker. We want their attention and to have them traverse their guns at us and away from everyone else,” Alex hurried explained.

  “That doesn’t sound that safe Sergeant,” was the Lieutenant’s reply.

  “They can’t lower their guns enough to hit us when we’re up that close,” replied Alex with confidence.

  “Oookay,” Lieutenant Johnson said, not quite believing the Sergeant at that point.

  “One last thing. When you see Winnie, break left or right go the opposite direction. Lateral movement is our biggest advantage on not getting hit,” Alex said before she got ready to charge forward.

  “Roger that,” was all the Lieutenant said.

  Then taking a deep breath Alex turned her attention back to her front and switched her radio back to the intercom setting. “Alright Chantal flank speed forward.”

  Chapter Seven: Where Only the Gods Walk

  By the time Winnie had cleared the smoke screen he was moving at flank speed and Alex was only able to keep her position by bracing both her arms and legs against the movement.

  Looking up she kept an eye on both the nearest Thor and Zeus, watching to see where their turrets were pointed. The Thor appeared to be ignoring them as it continued to fire towards the Canadians’ positions. The Zeus on the other hand had seen them and was rotating not only its turret but its entire spider-like body towards them. The German walker’s turret was almost in line with Winnie.

  “Break right!” ordered Alex.

  Winnie suddenly stopped so hard it would have face planted into the ground if Chantal hadn’t extended his arms forward to break the fall.

  Boom!

  The ground to the right of the walker erupted as the shot missed. The Zeus’s gunner had of course been leading Winnie, not expecting it to come to such a sudden stop.

  Chantal then used Winnies arms to push the Walker back up. Once upright she started Winnie to ‘skip’ right in a lateral movement throwing the aim of both the Zeus’s turret mounted 88 and the bow mounted 20mm autocannon further off.

  After moving laterally for some twenty yards Alex ordered “Flank ahead.”

  Once again, the walker quickly changed di
rections and sped off quicker than the German gunner could track. Finally, when it was roughly in line with the German Zeus’s side, Alex shouted “Pivot!”

  Slower than before, so that it didn’t risk face planting, Winnie stopped and rotated towards the German heavy walker. Then opening him up once again Chantal had Winnie running towards the Zeus.

  As they charged forward the Zeus’s bow 20mm finally caught up with Winnie and peppered him with 20mm shells. While they created a holy racket inside the walker, none of the shells had enough power to penetrate.

  The main gun however; was almost in position to fire before Winnie could get below its depression.

  “Break left! Break left” shouted Alex frantically as she watched the 88 begin to line up with what seemed to be her head.

  Looking through her view port Chantal also saw the large gun starting to point at her. Without even stopping she threw Winnie into a lateral move left. In the hands of a lesser skilled driver such a maneuver would have caused the walker to trip over its own feet, or worst break something in the Grizzly’s knee or ankle joints. But Chantal was up to the challenge and the girls’ hours of maintenance on the walker meant that Winnie’s joints held: this time.

  The same could not be said for Alex however. She hadn’t been expecting the move and the young sergeant had been sent crashing into her hatch. She hissed in pain as she felt at least one of her ribs break; but she was still alive which was more than she could have said otherwise as the 88 shell whizzed by close enough for her to feel the wash.

  “Punch it Chantal,” shouted Alex through gritted teeth. Once again, the walker started to move forward targeting the closest Zeus which was now frantically trying to get its turret gun aligned with Winnie again. But Winnie won the race and got under the depression of the weapon and next to the heavy walker’s left front leg.

  Before Alex could even order the attack, Chantal had Winnie’s fists starting to smash into the Zeus’s knee joint. The first series of blows bent the armour, popping welds, providing Winnie with a hand hold. With the whine of hydraulics Winnie ripped the sheet of armoured plate off of the Zeus’s leg exposing the delicate working underneath. Using the armour plate like a giant chisel Winnie smashed open the hydraulic lines; hot oil sprayed out into the air covering both walkers and Alex with an oily film.