Quoted By:
The Luftpanzer III was little more spacious than the old Luftpanzer II, but the compact fitting of the crew did mean that you could reply to Suszter’s comment by but clambering down to the turret floor behind him.
<span class="mu-i">*WHOCK*</span> You clouted him over the head with a half-held blow, and he snapped around in surprise.
“Agh! What the hell?”
“Shut it,” you replied curtly. “Not with this girl.”
Suszter did zip it, crossing his arms and sulking in his seat. Not your usual driver, but Lawrence wasn’t mad enough to volunteer for test runs. That, and one developed a fondness for having a substitute that let you have a memorable parting with a lady while he was in the tank at the same time. Just in case you needed a repeat, impossible as that was. The lewd inclination wouldn’t be tolerated with Linda.
“What’s going on back there?” Linda asked when you put the headset back on, “Don’t jump around, this thing’s lighter than you think.”
“Just had to fix something.”
Linda had no further inquiry. “Separation now, payload. Hold on to something.”
“Roger that.” To your men. “You heard the lady. Tighten those straps.”
A lurch as the glider was freed from its tow, and began to drift freely. It took a strong stomach to not feel ill at ease, shut inside the panzer while falling from the sky. Any other time, you could at least look out a window. Here, all you had was the dim glow of the Luftpanzer’s interior lamps.
Silence as you all waited. Nobody wanted to admit nervousness, until Linda’s voice crackled on again to announce that the ground was coming up.
“Brace,” she said, “It’ll be as soft as I can make it, but I don’t know how it’ll feel back there.” When the glider slid down, honestly, you could barely tell. Linda’s talent for aircraft maneuvering was hardly understated, to be able to touch the ground so subtly with this boat. “Landing check. All alive?”
Linda had said before that a person developed a sense for comedy when in the work of prototype testing, but any jokes from her in tests were always dry. “Affirm. Excellent landing, compliments from the crew. Free the locks. Let’s see if this rapid deployment system is as automatic as the eggheads say it is.”
<span class="mu-i">*CL-CL-CLUNK*</span> “Lock release confirmed. Check?”
“All of them did it this time. Better not count on that. Freeing cable now. Open the doors.” No more communications with the pilot- the door fell open with a clatter, a system that you thought didn’t need to be automatic, but the point was to let the tank roll out without you having to leave.
“Driver, how do the systems feel? Should be just fine, but never hurts to check.”
“Nothing overrrrly unmanageable.” Suszter said.
“That preexisting?” You questioned.
“Morrrre than likely.” Dhegyar did love to accentuate that syllable.
