31-05-2019, 02:48 PM
Ahead of her, Maria saw the castle wall explode. As she drove around the larger debris, she saw the Panzer emerging from the smoke where once a wall had been about 20 meters ahead. Her training had taught her that attempting something as foolish as a Bootlegger's Reverse was more likely to blow out all four tires than be successful. With that knowledge, she shifted gears and raced past the tank as it chugged past behind her.
The inexperienced tank driver attempted a hard turn. The online simulator he'd played in preparation for the assignment hadn't properly instructed him on turning a Panzer III while accelerating in real life. Forward momentum caused the Panzer to smash through a wall on the other side of the street. It broke through another 15 meters before correcting course back onto the street, whoever was manning the main gun trying to bring it to bear on the Ferrari.
Maria knew the castle's neighbors whose wall they'd just destroyed as she checked her rearview and saw the tank recover the chase. She knew everyone whose homes she was speeding past. They were, after all, Her People. She knew the road well enough to know that she was approaching a four-way intersection with a fountain in the middle just around the next bend. She had a number of ways to lose them from there. She'd be able to floor it and shake them completely around a couple corners. When she saw the barrel of the Main Gun had almost gotten into position to fire, she swerved again and up-shifted as another round roared toward the spot where she'd been moments before. Debris cracked the rear window, causing it to spiderweb. She imagined the rear-end was also damaged when the explosion caused her vehicle's rear wheels to rise off the ground as if she'd just run over something or someone invisible.
Focusing on the bend in the road ahead, Maria realized that running away wouldn't work. Thus far, they hadn't run into any traffic or pedestrians, but this was a residential area; any bystanders who might be harmed were People of San Finzione, and their future Contessa could not allow that to happen to them.
As the fountain grew closer, Maria saw cars driving past and abandoned the "just step on the gas and outrun it" plan. If whomever was driving the Panzer was as incautious as he had been thus far, there was no way someone wouldn't get hurt if he chased her across traffic. She saw the machine behind her strike the hole it had made in the road and roll through it, knocking what looked like a headless body off the rear. She knew there was a convenience store with a parking lot at the intersection where she could turn around and grabbed the e-brake, bracing for the turn at what would be, by the time she slowed enough to make it, still a couple Gs worth of force. She came to a stop in the parking lot, narrowly avoiding two teenagers standing in the middle of the lot; thumping their phones that had stopped getting signals a few minutes ago. They turned on the cameras and pointed them at Maria while she put the car in reverse and backed out at speed, turning back toward the castle and the metal monstrosity charging toward her. She began singing the national anthem under her breath as she flashed her headlights at the tank and gunned the engine.
"GLO-ry to SAN Fin-zi-O-ne! We EV-er FOR-ward go!"
Maria stepped on the gas and started accelerating toward the Panzer. The driver seemed to take her up on the unexpected offer to play chicken and the gunner was trying to correct for her new position.
"Our FER-tile soil, Our PEO-ple's toil, the EN-vy of each foe!"
Potentially Useful figured that at the rate the vehicles were approaching each other, another shot would probably blow them up as well. Maria continued the anthem.
"WE'll GLAD-ly fight." she sang louder. "For ALL that's good AND right."
Maria closed the distance as the tank driver did the same. She smiled as he took her bait. 60 meters and closing, 50 meters and closing.
"Both NIGHT and day, till ALL will say...
40 meters, 30...
"'SAN Fin-ZI-o-ne is THE LIGHT!'"
At 20 meters away, Maria turned on her high-beams. It was noontime, so it hadn't been dark enough to blind the driver completely. However, the high-powered halogen lamps suddenly firing to life in front of him distracted the driver enough to cause the tank to jerk to its left, into the sides of cars parked alongside the street. Maria adjusted course around it and zoomed past. Behind her, the row of empty vehicles was being destroyed as whomever was driving tried to turn the beast back around quickly.
Maria hit a button on the steering wheel.
"Ultimados!" Maria shouted as a light indicated that the car phone was now active and dialing the number. As she headed back through the earlier destruction, she heard the clicks and beeps as her phone communicated to the jammer that this was someone cleared to break a call through. It was answered on the first ring.
* * *
The inexperienced tank driver attempted a hard turn. The online simulator he'd played in preparation for the assignment hadn't properly instructed him on turning a Panzer III while accelerating in real life. Forward momentum caused the Panzer to smash through a wall on the other side of the street. It broke through another 15 meters before correcting course back onto the street, whoever was manning the main gun trying to bring it to bear on the Ferrari.
Maria knew the castle's neighbors whose wall they'd just destroyed as she checked her rearview and saw the tank recover the chase. She knew everyone whose homes she was speeding past. They were, after all, Her People. She knew the road well enough to know that she was approaching a four-way intersection with a fountain in the middle just around the next bend. She had a number of ways to lose them from there. She'd be able to floor it and shake them completely around a couple corners. When she saw the barrel of the Main Gun had almost gotten into position to fire, she swerved again and up-shifted as another round roared toward the spot where she'd been moments before. Debris cracked the rear window, causing it to spiderweb. She imagined the rear-end was also damaged when the explosion caused her vehicle's rear wheels to rise off the ground as if she'd just run over something or someone invisible.
Focusing on the bend in the road ahead, Maria realized that running away wouldn't work. Thus far, they hadn't run into any traffic or pedestrians, but this was a residential area; any bystanders who might be harmed were People of San Finzione, and their future Contessa could not allow that to happen to them.
As the fountain grew closer, Maria saw cars driving past and abandoned the "just step on the gas and outrun it" plan. If whomever was driving the Panzer was as incautious as he had been thus far, there was no way someone wouldn't get hurt if he chased her across traffic. She saw the machine behind her strike the hole it had made in the road and roll through it, knocking what looked like a headless body off the rear. She knew there was a convenience store with a parking lot at the intersection where she could turn around and grabbed the e-brake, bracing for the turn at what would be, by the time she slowed enough to make it, still a couple Gs worth of force. She came to a stop in the parking lot, narrowly avoiding two teenagers standing in the middle of the lot; thumping their phones that had stopped getting signals a few minutes ago. They turned on the cameras and pointed them at Maria while she put the car in reverse and backed out at speed, turning back toward the castle and the metal monstrosity charging toward her. She began singing the national anthem under her breath as she flashed her headlights at the tank and gunned the engine.
"GLO-ry to SAN Fin-zi-O-ne! We EV-er FOR-ward go!"
Maria stepped on the gas and started accelerating toward the Panzer. The driver seemed to take her up on the unexpected offer to play chicken and the gunner was trying to correct for her new position.
"Our FER-tile soil, Our PEO-ple's toil, the EN-vy of each foe!"
Potentially Useful figured that at the rate the vehicles were approaching each other, another shot would probably blow them up as well. Maria continued the anthem.
"WE'll GLAD-ly fight." she sang louder. "For ALL that's good AND right."
Maria closed the distance as the tank driver did the same. She smiled as he took her bait. 60 meters and closing, 50 meters and closing.
"Both NIGHT and day, till ALL will say...
40 meters, 30...
"'SAN Fin-ZI-o-ne is THE LIGHT!'"
At 20 meters away, Maria turned on her high-beams. It was noontime, so it hadn't been dark enough to blind the driver completely. However, the high-powered halogen lamps suddenly firing to life in front of him distracted the driver enough to cause the tank to jerk to its left, into the sides of cars parked alongside the street. Maria adjusted course around it and zoomed past. Behind her, the row of empty vehicles was being destroyed as whomever was driving tried to turn the beast back around quickly.
Maria hit a button on the steering wheel.
"Ultimados!" Maria shouted as a light indicated that the car phone was now active and dialing the number. As she headed back through the earlier destruction, she heard the clicks and beeps as her phone communicated to the jammer that this was someone cleared to break a call through. It was answered on the first ring.
* * *
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