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0100 hours.

Susan's Leap.

The rhythmic bass rich purr of my Puma's V-12 diesel engine had lured me into the comforting embrace of sleep, yet again.
I had barely afforded myself any sleep last night. In my sheer excitement for today, i had spent neither a passing glance nor care at the clock in my Motel room.
I Poured over the Vast unfolded maps of the entire combat area. Studying the terrain and all obstacles and cover upon it.

I must say. Today. Or rather, this morning, due to it being the second day officially as of fifty two seconds ago, of our six month 'Battle'.
As the bi-yearly TV announcement puts it...

"Six thousand eight hundred people... Twelve teams... Restored/Recreated Weapons of War... One mission... To survive and wipe out the enemy teams... For the, Half a million cash prize.
Join the 'Assault of the Paint & Fury' Paintball Tournament. Today! Don't Delay!"

And who in their right mind wouldn't snap at the opportunity to legally own a fully operational Armoured car?
Moreover one as sexy as the SdKfz 234/2 Puma?

And to top it off! the chance to earn half a mil cash?
That's what i thought.

And that bring us here. To the present. Me. Riding 'Hot-seat' in a ten and a half tonne armoured car, slugging my, loader, in the shoulder, Once Again, For not having his sound-canceling headset on Again, So i can tell him to load the APCR!

After he snaps from his bout of sleep, and pulls his headset over his ears. He turns to face me.

"Welcome back to the crew Andrew. Pleasure you could join us." I Said through a glare of daggers, causing his lithe form to shift in his seat uncomfortably.
"Then again. I cant say much... I was out-cold fifty six kilometers ago" I said breaking into a laugh as Andrew slugged me as hard as he could in the cramped space.

"Righto, Andrew. We need 'Armour Piercing Composite Rigid' in the breach, now. The Snakes use Jumbos and Pershings. and i don't want to spend time screaming into your ears to switch-out then." I turned from my periscope to see Andrew nodding like a bobble head and ramming a brass casing into the cannon breach.
As i unhooked the locking latch holding my positions hatch, i heard Andrew complete the process with "Load, Up. Clear." and i pushed my hatch up and out, before pulling myself into the cool fresh air of the night.

Another several minutes of peaceful driving pass, before i had to get all serious again. I Popped back inside the turret to retrieve my binoculars.

"Driver, in the next two hundred meters. park in between those trees on your left."
"Sure thing!" I Heard Jackson or 'Jackie' as we call him, Call into the headsets.

Just as i returned to my position half outside the turret. we arrived at our destination with the audible but faint squeal of rubber tires. "Jackie. Forward, slow, six meters. Get us in between those trees. be careful. theres a seventy foot drop just past them." The Awkward silence eventually broke with my radioman, who was probably reading one of his many on-board comic books right now, commented. "Lancer-01, going to where no man would ever dare go before..." I turned in my limited space afforded to me by the hatch. and stared daggers at the engine deck behind me, where my radioman sits. As if my glare alone could cut a hole through the steel to him.

"Stow the chatter Tom!" I barked into my throat-mic. Tommy Picstaal my radioman fastest ears in the southwest. he can decode messages and write them down faster then most people can even think 'What the heck is the cacophony?', but he's prone to complaining frequently and is often babyish. as such his nickname is 'Tommy Pickles' when he starts acting up. and due to the name similarity. its a reference to the main character of the TV show rugrats. His nickname is more a playful jab.

I turned back around grunting in frustration when my trench coats belt loop snags on the hatch latch.

Once again facing front. I Look over the Area we managed to park in. The Moon casts the only light in the location. illuminating everything in a pale off-white hue. we had parked precariously close to the edge of the cliff.
but we reaped the benefits of the two trees we had squeezed ourselves in against. That being, our camouflage bushes we covered our normally tan and olive green tiger striped armoured car with. from the enemy positions 1.2Km away we'd look just like an overgrown tree.

The heavenly glow of the moon lit the entire field before us in a ominous hue of near pure white. the only thing giving the 'Enemies' well camouflaged camp away. was the orange glow of a few dozen small fires.

"Tommy, Radio central. coded message entailed. 'Attention, Lancer-01. Armoured Worms compost bin located. thirty two inches past the router. measure twice cut once. waiting to catch thieves red handed. Standing-by' End message"

Armoured worm. this years designation for the 'Snakes' or the 'Brotherhood of the Serpentine' their aggressive fighters. not much in the thinking department. their command structure mostly consists of infighting about how they should 'Crush' their enemies. make no mistake however, once they decide on a plan, their a force to reckon with. their force consists largely of artillery and heavy tanks, supported by infantry with heavy armour big, and often belt-fed guns and auto-cannon armed armoured cars.

Compost bin. this years slang for their FoB or 'Forward operations base'.

Thirty two inches past router. inches being this years term for clicks or 1X1KM squares.

Router. this years term for path of planned future travel.

Measure twice cut once. term for 'Plan carefully and don't make a mistake.

and finally

Waiting to Catch thieves red handed. a term for the Snakes Arch rivals the 'Mist Cougars' every year for the last six years the cougars have been making it their personal mission to eliminate the Snakes first and early.

"Alright Jackie, pull us back ten meters and cut the engine for the night. the lot of you. get your sleeping bags brush your teeth and by then i should have the Swags setup on the engine deck."

Once the vehicle skidded to a halt once more, inside of a thicket of bushes everyone jumped to work, doing their own thing. and after about ten minutes everyone arrived back at the engine deck of the Puma to find their Swags -

• Set up and comfortably warmed by the heat from the engine deck.

As i lay in my tiny little tent i glanced at my watch, its glow in the dark arms illuminating 3:14AM. with a groan i zipped up my swag and went out like a light.

I heard my driver punching the side of his tent, and he says quietly "Get some sleep Lancer. i hope your ready to strangle the snake tomorrow!"

little did we know we wouldn't get much sleep tonight...