With the sudden appearance of colonial secessionists attempting to join the UPP on Canton, one of UA’s outer rim colonies, USCM High Command was forced to rally their troops in response. The following skirmishes between USCM and UPP forces resulted in a brutal arms race between the two superpowers. One of the products was the third generation of Jackson medium tanks, the M22A3 Jackson. Pressed for time, they were quickly approved for live field testing during Operation Canton. Each crew was assigned a Tony, a synthetic model that’s a recent acquisition from Weyland-Yutani, specialising in mechanical maintenance and now tasked with supporting mechanised units in the USCM.
— Forward Operating Base Geronimo, 4th of May 2165, 09:55
The newest supply delivery to the FOB came with a brand-new M22A3 Jackson towed in together with its attached synthetic, Tony. After inspecting the vehicle inside and out, he was just on the finishing touches of calibrating the weapons systems inside the tank. In the distance, the two crewmen just left their briefing after being assigned to a combat deployment scheduled in three hours. Sergeant Aiden Chapman, the gunner and Corporal Henry Fox, the driver.
“Why do you think we got one of the new A3s?” Aidan jokingly asks the Corporal as they both make their way to the vehicle bay.
“Because we’re expendable? I don’t know, I wasn’t asked if I wanted to be a test pilot.” Henry replies, fiddling with the straps on his helmet. He’s met by a dumb look by his Sergeant, his eyebrows furrowed. “You really think they’re gonna assign us a synthetic if we’re expandable? Those probably cost more than the tank.”
“Bullshit!” Henry loudly snaps back, alerting Tony to their presence. He peers out of the commander’s cupola, noticing the two approaching marines. He effortlessly hauls himself out of the hatch and jumps eight feet to the ground, landing with a loud thud.
Catching the attention of the crewmen, both stop dead in their tracks. “There’s my guys!” he exclaims, approaching the two of them, first grabbing Sergeant Chapman’s hand, shaking it with both his hands “How you doin’?” And without even giving him a chance to reply. “Name’s Tony. Aiden, was it?”, he quickly moves over to the Corporal, patting him on the shoulder. “Henry, good to see you.”
Tony turns around towards the tank, proudly looking onto it, almost as if he was showing off his car. “So, there it is. 85 mm Rifled Cannon, 22 mm Gatling Gun and has a top speed of 60 km/h all while being armoured like a beast. All ready to go. Whaddya say?” firmly nodding as he looked towards the crewmen, gauging their reactions.
Corporal Fox was too timid to say anything, his eyes darting between Aiden and the tank in front of them. Sergeant Chapman slowly starts nodding as well. “Well, it ain’t a piece of shit.”, Tony points at Chapman “Haha, you get it!” as both of them laugh.
The synthetic walked back towards the tank as he gestures towards the crewmen to follow him “Come on, let’s get you two seated. I’ll tell you about the controls.” He watches as Sergeant Chapman scales the ladders and enters through the cupola. Just as Corporal Fox was about to climb up as well, Tony puts a hand on his shoulder. “You alright?” he asks, having noticed the Corporal’s timidity. He just nods subtlety at the synthetic.
“Look, you know how thick this steel is?” Tony says, knocking on the Jackson’s exterior, the percussion is dense. “Nothing gonna happen to us, we’ll be alright.” he reassures the Corporal. “Whatever you say.” Henry quietly says with another nod, climbing up the ladder following the Sergeant, after which Tony follows them both in.
As both crewmen get to their seats, Tony grabs onto the seat behind Sergeant Chapman, looking at him trying to make sense of the controls.
“You ever driven a Longstreet before?” Tony asks. Aiden nods. “Then you already know how to operate this too. All the buttons are where they normally are, see?” He gestures towards the different controls. “Jus’ the main cannon control’s different. But I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. The designers were a smart bunch.”
The Sergeant turns his head back towards Tony. “And who designed you?” Tony closes out the UI of the console. “The Company of course. I don’t know of anyone else bright enough to create something like me.” Aiden hems. “What stops them from just sending a bunch of you into combat then?” The synthetic ponders the question for a moment. “Well they didn’t design me for fighting, you know. I was originally meant to help out down at the colonies. Those eh, frontier ones. Lots of machinery, quite a lotta wear and tear. You know somebody from there?”
“Oh, my uncle’s a foreman on Sargon IV.” The Sergeant says. “Then I bet you know all about the colony life. Solid guys, those colonists. Just not the type to fight, like me. Fighting’s for you guys.” Tony replies with a grin, just as they’re both interrupted by a sudden forward jerk on the tank, slamming Aiden’s head onto the console in front of him. “Son of a bitch.”
Tony takes a look at the driver’s seat, Corporal Fox seemingly struggling with the controls. “Just a sec.” He says to the Sergeant, before climbing his way to the Corporal.
“Hey, you need some help?” he asks, Corporal Fox doesn’t reply at first. “I’m fine.” He dismissively replies, just as he fails the clutch again, another jerk forward. “The A3s got an automatic transmission. Tony points towards a switch on the wall. Just flick that switch over t-”. “Look, I know how to drive a tank, okay? I’m the fucking driver.” Corporal Fox snaps back. Tony quickly retreats his hand from the controls. “Hey, hey, I ain’t tryin’ to fight with you.” He subtly gestures towards the switch. “Just giving you some tips.”
Corporal Fox glances at Tony, before turning back around to his controls and silently flipping the switch before his next start-up attempt, now effortlessly putting the Jackson into motion.
— Route Moscow, 4th of May 2165, 13:32
The Jackson’s engine hummed loudly, it was leading a column consisting of itself and three additional M34A2 longstreet light tanks along a narrow road leading through a dense jungle. All on their way to reinforce an infantry platoon tasked with capturing an UPP outpost.
“HQ, this is M22A3 Jackson, callsign Spear, how long to our destination?” Tony lowered the microphone for a few seconds, awaiting a response.
“That’s three more miles down the road you’re driving, not long now. Expect an active firefight upon arrival.”, the radio crackles.
Tony turns his head towards the front compartment, “Fellas, three more miles and we’re finally gonna be able to limit-test what this baby can deliver.”
“Finally.” Sergeant Chapman replies, he looks down onto the driver for a moment, then towards Tony. “Hey Tony, you ever driven in one of these prototypes before?”
“Not this one, but previous Jackson models, you know. But I’m sure this prototype is not much different, just pay attention to the oil temperature, it’s kind of iffy, eh.”
Corporal Fox looks back worriedly, “Well that doesn’t sound very reassuring. I didn’t volunteer to do damage control on a tank.”
“Don’t worry about it. That’s what I’m here for. There’s nothing I won’t be able to fix if this piece of junk decides to fail.”, he says with a reassuring grin towards Henry. “Well if you say so.” Henry says, peering back through his driver's port.
Tony took off his headset and moved to the back of the compartment to inspect the various machinery. With the improved engine being one of the main selling points of this prototype, Tony took great care in studying the inner mechanisms of it, if challenged, he could probably even build one completely from scratch, the only thing stopping him would be the parts he’d need.
The crew enjoyed a few minutes of silence as the tank column moved along, the frontline started to become slowly visible at the end of the road. An allied infantry battalion was already exchanging fire with UPP forces in front of a heavily fortified outpost. The cavalry was just what they needed to break through.
“We’re approaching the- enemy, get ready!” Corporal Fox yelled from his driver’s seat, prompting both Sergeant Chapman to look down his sights and Tony to return to the radio and put on his headset to listen for any ally chatter.
The radio lights up, “M22A3 Jackson, this is Captain Johnson, 3rd Battalion, are you reading?”
“We hear ya, what’s up?” replies Tony.
“We’re not making any progress at the outpost, our men are pinned down. 1st Platoon is currently fighting at the outpost gates to the west. A few well-placed rounds taking out their machine guns should allow us to break through.”
“You got it, boss.” Tony perks back up from his station. “Boss says 1st Platoon is held down at the gates, wants us to drive up and help ‘em out .”
The driver and gunner both look at each other and nod. Tony relays the information to the rest of the column as the driver begins to make a left turn. With the affirmations from each tank commander, the column advances westwards and leaves the road.
The atmosphere inside the crew compartment starts to get more tense as the enemy’s bullets start to audibly impact the Jackson’s armour with a hail of plinks. The gunner rotates the turrets 90° towards the walls and uses the tank’s gatling gun to return fire.
Tony attempts to look through the side windows, but with the narrow field of vision, there’s not much to see besides the marines from 1st Platoon lying prone in the dirt, he looks towards Aidan. “Aidan, what are you seeing?”.
Sergeant Chapman temporarily halts his salvos. “A shitload of rifles.” - “A few machine gun nests in front of the walls.”, he turns the turret a bit. “Some snip- RPG!”
The driver doesn’t even have time to react before a rocket impacts the Jackson’s engine block from the side and shakes the entire crew compartment. The Jackson stopped dead in its tracks and so did the Longstreets behind it, the engine had broken down.
While the two crewmen are trying to recuperate from the shock, Tony was already moving into action. He grabs a toolkit and makes his way to the driver’s seat. As Corporal Fox slowly recovers, Tony speaks to him. “I’m gonna be back in a minute, engine’s hit, I gotta fix it from the outside. Sit tight, pal.”. Henry just confusedly looks at the synthetic talking in front of him, he doesn’t really seem to be registering anything at all.
Tony opens the driver’s hatch in front of him, peering out of the tank. He notices multiple UPP soldiers sporadically aiming at the disabled Jackson. By now, the Longstreet tanks behind the Jackson have already opened fire on the enemy in order to cover the tank in front, giving Tony a window of opportunity to repair from the outside.
He quickly jumps out and runs over to the damaged section of the hull, setting down his toolkit. What would look like a disaster to a human is easily fixable for Tony. “Alright, not that bad actually, we can get this working.” Even with the covering fire from the Longstreets, a few bullets manage to hit Tony in the back, which only momentarily interrupt him as he continues his work.
About a minute later, the engine starts humming again. He picks up his tools and climbs back into the driver’s hatch. “Engine’s up, let’s get moving.” The driver was still trying to get his bearings. “What?” Tony repeats himself, “I just fixed it, come on, let’s go.” The driver fumbles around on his display, turning the start switch. The engine rumbles. “Huh.” Turning his head around, he looks back and notices the bullet holes in Tony's jumpsuit, he pauses for a second. "Are you alright?" he asks worriedly.
Noticing Corporal Fox looking at him, Tony realises what he's referring to. "Ah it’s nothing, I'll get that fixed later." he replies, waving dismissively.
The tank and the column move forward, as they approach Bravo squad Sergeant Chapman spots the machine gun nests that were pinning down the entire battalion. “Nests spotted, 10 o’clock, 300 metres!”.
Tony sits back down onto the radio station and picks up the radio. “Machine guns spotted, 10 o’clock, 300 metres. Lock ‘em.” The Longstreets aim their turrets on the different machine gun nests.
“Loaded.”
“Fire!”
As the volley of tank shells hit the UPP forces, the ones that survived the initial blast scramble a hasty retreat as the hail of bullets from their MGs halt, allowing 2st Platoon to charge through the gates and take the outpost from the UPP.