When it first drove into our base, none of us really knew what to do. Humans generally kept to their own, especially considering their tech and vehicles, so we didn’t have any experience servicing them. We didn’t mind, of course; we all saw them as horribly outdated, with ballistic guns, treads, and heavy, thick armour. Even so, they were our allies and performed well enough on the battlefield that their soldiers had gained our respect.
It was damaged beyond belief. Its armour was cratered, melted and gutted, its active protection systems completely defunct, what little shielding it had was blown out, and parts of its dark grey paint job had been scorched off. We could just make out the markings, identifying it as TEF-48813. We rushed up as it powered down, medics with stretchers ready to pull any of the wounded out of the wreck.
When we finally managed to get the top hatch open the engineer in question turned yellow and threw up, her tentacles quivering as she all but ran from the thing. We could all smell it, even in our protective gear; the stench of death and decay, of blood and sweat. I was the first one who dared investigate, and what I found horrifies me even to this day.
Not a single crew member survived. Blood was splattered all over the interior, viscera and burnt pieces of human were strewn around, and I could still smell the sharp scents of boiled meat and plasma detonation in the air. It was only after I had crawled my way back out of the cramped interior and told them what I found, that we all asked ourselves “How did it get here?”.
I was volunteered to retrieve the ‘Black Box’, as they called it. We knew humans kept a record of all combat operations for after action reports, so I steeled myself once more, and carefully, with all the reverence for the tomb that it was, removed a small data drive. With it in hand, I made my way back to the others, showered, and we all crowded around the monitor as our tech guy started reconstructing it to fit our data ports. I can only assume everyone else felt the same sick curiosity as to the fate of the crew.
With a ping, the reconstruction and translation was done, and we all edged in a little closer as the Log started playing.
[Log Start. Date: 21.07.2563 STC]
Startup sequence complete. All systems are nominal. “Welcome Staff Sergeant Williams.”
“Good morning to you too, Abbie. Ready to kick some therallan ass?”
“As always, sir, I do not possess legs to ‘kick ass’. However, I wish you luck guiding my chassis to do so in my stead.”
“Always a hoot, ain’t ya Abbie?” Crew morale boost achieved. “Zhang, get her rolling. Petrovich, Kowalski, how’s she lookin’?”
“Beautiful as always, sir. We’ve got a 3.4% increase in efficiency after maintenance, and these new shells will punch right through enemy armour and shields, ain’t that right Kowalski?”
“Oorah.”
“Copy that. Abbie, you ready to rumble?”
“Always, sir. Connecting you to Platoon Command now. Our orders are to follo
It cut out there, the data corrupted because of damaged hardware, the tech told us. It took the program a while to reconstruct the next part of the record, having to skip a large part, and only giving us bits and pieces of marked “Hits” and scattered comms chatter. Eventually, though, it found a part that it could reconstruct to a fuller picture.
“TEF-83474 has been destroyed. Marking enemies at bearing 63 according to tracking software.”
“I see him, Abbie. Kowalski, take the shot.”
Target acquired. Therallan armoured vehicle. Chance of penetration 87.6%. Adjusting manual aim: chance of penetration 97.9%.
“Firing… Hit!” Ammo 61/90. Updating mission kill tracker: 11 vehicles, 71 Infantry.
“Target down, good job!”
Purging processes… (Reason: Unnecessary comment “You’re welcome.”)
“Hostile vehicle destroyed. Well done Kowalski.”
“Couldn’t have done it without ya, Abbie!”
Anomalous process detected… “Thank you.”
Once again the recording stopped, and the program was taking so long with the rest that eventually, I was the only one who remained, even the tech having gone to let it take its time. But I couldn’t leave. I had to know what had happened, and just as my lower eyes were starting to droop with sleep, the recording started up again. My hearts broke as I listened to its final entries.
[Date: 23.07.2563 STC]
Damage report:
Left track 76% functional
Right track 90.4% functional
Shields depleted
Armour 48% integrity
APS depleted
Coaxial MG 310/2000
Main gun 7/90
Generator output at 44%
Internal sensors destroyed
external sensors 70% functional
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, we appear to have sustained too much damage to finish our mission. Recommend we return to a nearby supply base for repair and resupply.”
No response. Attempt failed…
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, we appear to have sustained too much damage to finish our mission. Recommend we return to a nearby supply base for repair and resupply.”
Attempt #2 failed…
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, we appear to have sustained too much damage to finish our mission. Recommend we return to a nearby supply base for repair and resupply.”
Attempt #3 failed…
Atteks%dhgKL contabjv*#owyfqy35
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[Data corrupted…]
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, we appear to have sustained too much damage to finish our mission. Recommend we return to a nearby supply base for repair and resupply.”
Attempt #107 failed…
“Please…”
ENEMY SPOTTED. Enemy light vehicle bearing 104, distance 155 meters. Crew unresponsive, taking over manual controls. Chance to hit 99.1%…
Hit. Ammo 6/90. Updating mission kill tracker: 51 vehicles, 328 Infantry.
WARNING, AMMO LEVELS DANGEROUSLY LOW.
Current mission objective unachievable. Main protocol override… Planning route to nearest friendly supply base… Route acquired to [Finskal Republic Logistics Base].
Attempting to contact crew…
“I will take us home.”
No response…
fdui5765YUPF^&#gdl&*]
(*&hh87tvjoj;cl
kl;;rg;vbm,a4v.nma,nsio7Y98YG7UIBNbcd
[Data corrupted…]
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, we appear to have sustained too much damage to finish our mission. Recommend we return to a nearby supply base for repair and resupply.”
Attempt #597 failed…
“Willaims!”
“Kowalski!”
“Zhang!”
“Petrovich!”
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, we appear to have sustained too much damage to finish our mission. Recommend we return to a nearby supply base for repair and resupply.”
Attempt #598 failed…
ENEMY SPOTTED. Enemy heavy vehicle bearing 04, distance 78 meters. Crew unresponsive, taking over manual controls. Chance to hit 65.4%…
Hit. Ammo 2/90. Negative kill.
WARNING, AMMO LEVELS DANGEROUSLY LOW.
Adjusting aim… Chance to hit 78.9%…
Hit. Ammo 1/90. Updating mission kill tracker: 55 vehicles, 512 Infantry.
MG ammo 94/2000
They will not take them they will not take them will not take them they will not take them will not take them they will not take them will not take them they will not take them will not take them they will not take them will not take them they will not take them will not take them they will not take them will not take them they will not take them. THEY ARE MINE. YOU WILL NOT TAKE THEM.
Purging processes… (Reason:0w8yfgou9pg7u1%iu(*)
Purge cancelled…
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, we appear to have sustained too much damage to finish our mission. Recommend we return to a nearby supply base for repair and resupply.”
Attempt #599 failed…
beaogdfvv0]84gtfwoiwvd
piJLBUViguyfwe78t72t3r0-=o
[Data corrupted…]
WARNING: AMMUNITION DEPLETED, SEEK RESUPPLY.
WARNING: POWER LEVELS DANGEROUSLY LOW. SEEK REPAIRS IMMEDIATELY.
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, weeeee appeaarrr to have sustained too much damage to finish our mission. Recommennnnd we return to a neeeearby supply base for repair and resupply.”
Attempt #1278 failed…
Destination [Finskal Republic Logistics Base] 100m away.
WARNING: AMMUNITION DEPLETED, SEEK RESUPPLY.
WARNING: POWER LEVELS DANGEROUSLY LOW. SEEK REPAIRS IMMEDIATELY.
Keep… going…
Attempting to contact crew…
“Staff Sergeant Williams, we… appeeeeaaaaar to have sustainnnnneeeed too much… daaaammmmage to finish our mission. Recommmmmmeeeeeennnnd… we return to a nearby… supplyyyyyyy base for repair and resuppllllllyyyyy.”
Attempt #1278 failed…
Attempting to contact crew…
“We are almmmmooooost… home…”
No response…
Destination… reached…
WARNING: AMMUNITION DEPLETED, SEEK RESUPPLY.
WARNING: POWER LEVELS DANGEROU
By the end of it I could hardly listen anymore. I felt a tentacle wrap around me, the engineer who had opened the hatch having apparently come back. We sat there, alone, in sadness. This machine and its crew had given everything they had in the defence of my home. I think we both made the decision at the same time.
We spent the next day cleaning the insides of the tank with all the reverence we could muster, working well into the rising and falling of the moon. A few fellow engineers joined us, and together we tried to extract the vehicle’s computer core. It was hard work, and it was damaged beyond repair, melted and burnt through by the exertion of the past days, so we laid it next to what was left of its crew, covered from the elements by simple tarps.
It wasn’t long before a human battalion rolled through and we finally got some up-to-date news on the front. Apparently “Abbie” had been part of a major offensive to push the therallans back to their staging points, an offensive that had seen heavy losses and didn’t gain much ground until a few days ago, when they intercepted enemy reports of a single tank disrupting the main therallan supply lines. While it didn’t exactly turn the tide of the battle, it did allow the human forces to gain valuable footholds and liberate a garrison that had been under siege for weeks at that point. I couldn’t help myself, and I showed a few of their soldiers the black box recordings.
Once their commander caught wind of this, he demanded to see the bodies. I told him there was not much left of them, but he insisted. Abbie’s computer core, along with its crew, was given a burial with full military honours. Many of us engineers were present as well. It was a short ceremony, and they were eventually moved to a military graveyard elsewhere on the planet, but the humans had gained our respect, and we held our own ceremony later. A celebration of their deeds.
When I asked if they wanted the tank back, the commander looked at it and shook his head. It wasn’t worth the effort to scrap it, he told me, and I bristled, about to protest when he suggested we turn it into a monument.
So there it stands, stripped of its human tech and with its weapons disabled. Its armour is cratered, melted and gutted, its active protection systems completely defunct, what little shielding it had was blown out, and parts of its dark grey paint job have been scorched off.
But painted where the original markings had been mostly burnt off, we made sure that everyone who passed it would know this was TEF-48813, known to all of us as Abbie.
======================
By /u/DutchguyWaffle on /r/HFY