Richard "The Animal" Arrington lifted a glass into the air.
"To our fallen comrades," he said.
"Here, here," the others said, and drank.
"And to victory!" he said, with a smile.
There were many more lissome cheers of approval to that. Arrington began to lift his glass again, but was interuppted by a mortar.
"Shit!" he yelled, and dove out of the way.
When he looked up again, he was infinitely relieved to see it had not gone off. It was a dud. Was it an isolated incidence?
"Was that a prank?" Arrington demanded, "Who did that?"
But The Animal was perfectly well assured it was not when a moment later flak and shells began falling all around. Leaning close to the ground, he ran along and hopped back into his Montgomery. Jones and Daltrey were sitting and cringing with each explosion.
"What are you two doing? The Monks are attacking us, fellows! We’ve got to fight back!"
"We can’t! There’s an armistice in effect, captain."
"Consider the armistice revoked! They broke it! We have got to fight them back now. Daltrey, start the engine."
"Yes, sir."
The Montgomery III roared forward.
"It appears that we are the only ones attacking, sir," said Jones
"The rest of our boys will come around when they get tired of having shrapnel fall on their heads," The Animal said, climbing up into the cupola, "Eighty degrees to your left, Jones."
"Yes, sir," the gunner said, and the turret bgan to swivel in that direction.
A burst of small arms fire exploded near Arrington's head.
"Jesus Christ, they're getting brave!"
The Animal dove back down into the tank, slamming the lid with him. He caught a final glimpse of Jones successfully destroying a Shepherd IV.
"You should not use the Lord's name in vain, sir," Daltrey said, "We are going to need a lot of help from Him if we are going to fight our way out of this ambush."
Arrington nodded.
"I am afraid you are right, Daltrey. Very afraid."
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