text: “Do you see any contacts Commander?” said the girl below me with her small, high pitched voice. I looked down at the time, thinking to myself how great it is that I hadn’t seen any yet. “No, I haven’t seen any contacts yet Klara.” I say, my normally smooth voice coarse with the harsh cold of the winter. I can hear her sigh, though weather in relief or disappointment I can’t tell. “Nona, how many hours can we wait?” I can hear Klara asking Nona. “I have no idea Klara dear, we have plenty of extra food so until morning I would say.” Nona says from the driver’s seat and I can see her fidgeting and constantly checking the vision port. I yawn and lean back, stretching out inside the massive turret of the KV-2. I open up the hatch and climb out, liking the cold outside better than the cold inside. I climb down and sit on top of the engine bay, taking out a closed cup of coffee and taking a drink after opening it. “Commander! Commander, the base is trying to reach us in the radio!” Klara is shouting as she comes out of the hatch of the KV-2. “Right, got it, thank you Klara.” I quickly hop up and swiftly climb into the tank, grabbing the earpiece and microphone as I adjust the dials on the radio. “KV-2 Number 5100, come in. KV-2 Number 5100 come in.” The man on the radio says as I finish adjusting the last dial on the radio box. “Da? What is it Lieutenant?” I say, forgetting about proper formalities with my tiredness. “Commander Katyusha, good, you have been recalled back to base to be moved to a primary base further inland.” He says, clearly cold and tired himself. “Copy that Lieutenant, we’ll be back at base in approximately two hours.” I say, glancing down at Nona who is already working with Klara to get the engine started once again. “Copy that Commander, have a safe trip back to base.” with that last transmission from him, the comms go quiet. I can hear the engine turning over and coming back to life as I take the headphones off and put them and the microphone back. Nona and Klara both get back in the tank and pull the hatches shut. “Nona, take us back to the base.” I yell over the sound of the engine. I feel the tank jerk forwards as she nods and then we start to slowly turn around. I wait until we are driving straight before I open the hatch and stand half out of the tank, leaning on the hatch as we drive along, the wind blowing gently across the snow covered plains, wide areas of lots of little snowflakes float across the plains. I close my eyes and enjoy the breeze, smell, and sounds as we drive along. Once we arrive back at base we are immediately told to load up on the train bound for the primary base 150km inland and to just ride in our tank. “Here you are ma’am, food for the journey.” Says the tall, slender woman as we pull our tank onto the train. I take the food and water and hand them to Klara who stores them. As the train starts to move, I feel myself starting to lose consciousness. By the time I wake up, we are at the primary base and Nona is driving us off the train, following a car of some sort towards the Great River. “Klara, Nona, what’s going on?” I ask the both of them and they merely shrug, saying they have no idea. We stop and someone gets out of the car, a short, chubby looking man who calls for me. “Commander Katyusha! I need you and your crew to step out and come with us.” He shouts up to me. “Come on girls, let’s go.” I get up and climb out, the others joining me. We’re led over to the car and asked to fill out some papers. I finish and set the paper down in the car and turn around to see the KV-2 backed up to the banks of the river. “HEY!! What they hell do you think you’re doing!? That’s my tank!!” I shout and the others turn and shout as well as we run over to our beloved tank. The tank starts to back up as we run towards it, someone climbing out of the driver’s hatch and jumping down as it slowly backs into the river. Klara and Nona both stop as the turret ring hits the water line but I keep running and get to the tank starting to climb on top of the driver’s hatch right as someone pulls a cord and the gun fires, the sound reverberating and the force of the back-blast throwing me clean off of the tank and flat onto my back in the dirt and snow as the KV-2 sinks entirely into the water, decommissioning the very last KV-2 in existence. I start to sit up, tears streaming down my face as I look towards where my tank had been, a large man comes up behind me and hauls me back to the car, calling for the driver to take me to the field hospital so I can be treated for any injuries.