"Gunner, HEAT, PC!"
Outer Rim | Carlac | Early Morning | Fort Deepwood | 3rd Company Barracks
181st Armored Division | 2nd Bn. 3rd Co. 3rd Pl.
Keylee Linth
878
”So what did you say her name was again?” Kale asked; sat on a metal foldable chair, the Tank Driver’s young visage shifted not from the small pile of credits strewn on top of the empty munitions crate serving as a table as he held his sabacc hand in his grasp. In front of him was Stege, holding a sabacc hand of his own.
With a precise flick of his tongue the young Tank Driver shifted the cigarra to the corner of his lips, waiting for Stege to make his play, as Walkr, Braidn, Daerryl and Emerson - just a few of their brothers-in-arms from tanks numbering ‘331’, ‘333’ and ‘334’ in their platoon- all out of the game, continued the game as spectators as they watched the two closely, wondering who would walk away with the pot.
”Keylee. Keylee Linth,” the newly promoted Tank Commander muttered from his bunk bed; his back resting against his pillow and the wall behind him, he was busy reading up on the Imperial Army Armored Force Field Manual, and silently rehearsing the gunnery callouts as a Tank Commander as he laid on his cot, in his combat fatigues. He had just recently returned to his armored division’s current residence on Carlac, from the Maximilian Veers Maneuver Center on Adumar.
Sustaining casualties in the most recent, and biggest clash The Empire had with the Alliance, the 181st Armored Division was ordered away from the frontlines for the time being, to replace the vehicles they had lost as well as other equipment equipment, and to reach the division strength they possessed before the battle for Ilum.
Replacing the decommissioned war materials were one thing, and something easy to do at that for The Empire, as they were in war time production at the moment. The factories were churning out destroyers, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, weapons, artillery and munitions of all sorts for the Imperial war effort.
But the training of crewmen, to crew aforementioned vehicles, and within a short span of time, without sacrificing the quality of training?
That was no easy task to accomplish.
”Keylee?” Kale repeated the girl’s name, their supposed replacement for the gunner position of their tank. ”What kind of name is that?” he muttered with a chuckle as he drew away the cigarra from his lips.
”Well you can ask her that yourself when she gets here,” the TC commented with a chuckle, briefly pausing from reading the manual to answer him.
With some mild annoyance at the giant taking too long to play out his turn, the young Tank Driver bellowed the smoke after a hefty drag of his cigarra at Stege’s face, flicking off the creeping ash of the cigarra into an empty can of beer serving as his ashtray. ”Are you gonna play or what?” with his words the kid poked at the brawny Loader, sat across him at the improvised table.
”I’m gonna bomb you out, my friend,” the giant muttered to him; the grin on Stege’s face was shrouded behind the deck of cards he held in his hands before his visage as he drew a card from the deck on the table, discarding another. ”Oh you think so?” the young man snickered as he played his turn, trading two cards with new pulls from the deck.
”Oh yes I do,” Stege remarked with a snicker. ”You’re not clearing me out today, buddy.” the man remarked with a delighted tone of voice, confident in himself and the hand he had at that moment. Just a few more turns and with some luck later, and he’d be able to get the absolute value of his hand down to get a Pure Sabacc.
He could feel luck and fortune on his side today.
”We're gonna be one crew short unless she shows up within the hour,” Hall disgruntledly muttered to his brothers-in-arms, his eyes lingering on the screen of his datapad as he spoke. Fellow Tank Commanders from other platoons in their company had offered him a helping hand, telling him they could lend him a gunner from their own crew for the routine live fire exercise, seeing as the young Tank Commander was one man short from his crew.
”Might just have to make do with what we got, man.” Stege said with a shrug, not as bothered by the fact they'd be undercrewed unlike the newly promoted Sergeant.
”I know, I know,” he sighed a mutter. ”Much preferable with the replacement though. We’d get to see the greenie in action, too. See what she’s made of,” he commented as he flicked to the next page with the swipe of his finger on the touch screen of his datapad, roughly half way done completely reading through the Imperial Armored Field Manual for the fifth time. ”I hope she can make it before we roll out...” he trailed off at a mutter, reading on the manual and occasionally taking notes onto a different tab on his datapad.
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