August 24th, 2017 - Nagasaki Province Tankery Field
Miho Nishizumi scanned the horizon from the commander's hatch of her ever-reliable Panzer IV 'still nothing?' she thought to herself, this was highly unusual, most new teams to Sensha-dō were usually aggressive and bold, which meant they usually lost, she had learned that lesson in her first match the previous year against St Gloriana, and yet her opponents were showing a surprising amount of restraint, no idiotic charges, no attempts at staging an obvious ambush, it was all very confusing, then again if she was the enemy commander she would also exercise restraint against the force she was currently a part of.
Miho lowered the binoculars which had been practically glued to her eyes since the match had started and glanced around in order to regain her situational awareness, to her left and right were the other 4 participants on her team, unlike usual however they were not her fellow students from Ooarai, they were representatives of the other well-known teams. To her left representing her old school, Kuromorimine was her older sister Maho in her usual Tiger 1, behind her was Katyusha representing Pravada in her standard T-34-85, to her right representing St Gloriana's and Saunders respectively were Darjeeling and Kay, also in their usual tanks. Miho was glad to be fighting alongside her friends again, but at the same time she knew this would most likely be the last time they would be fighting together, apart from herself and Katyusha, everyone else would be leaving high school and transitioning into university, for them this would be their last match, thankfully she knew that there would be no last-minute moments of glory-seeking, they had done enough of that in the match against selection university earlier in the summer, for them this would be on last battle before handing over to their appointed replacements at the start of the next school year, so she could expect them to fight at their best before they left. There was just one problem with that sentiment, there was still no opponents for them to fight.
"Has anyone got anything?" Miho asked over the radio, clearly puzzled as to why their opponents had not engaged them yet.
"No, It's all very confusing, I'd have expected them to have tried something by now" replied Maho, who had also lowered her binoculars and was currently pouring over a map of the playing field as if looking for the answer to their opponent's peculiar behaviour.
"Bah, they are just too scared of Katyusha to dare challenge me!" bellowed Katyusha, who seemed to be the least concerned as to what their opponents were doing.
"Have you ever heard of the proverb, Discretion is the better part of valour? wouldn't you say Kay-chan" was Darjeeling's soft-spoken response to the brash Katyusha, whilst also trying to provoke a response from the unusually quiet Kay, who hadn't lowered her binoculars since the start of the match.
"hm, I wasn't listening what were you talking abo..., Tank! to our right, among the bushes!" kay began lazily before regaining her familiar energy upon finally spotting a target, which prompted Miho to yank her binoculars back up to her eyes, then she saw it, the familiar shape of a Crusader III, positioned amongst a clump of bushes, so close in fact that she could even see the commander, but couldn't make out a face on account of the beret, goggles and scarf doing a pretty good job of concealing it, that and she didn't get a good look at it in the first place, due the Crusader, upon realising it had been spotted immediately making a run for it. Unfortunately for the crusader it had very few escape routes available to it, in front of it was a thick copse of trees complete with thick hedges and rocks, which was impassable, left was out because that was where Miho and the rest of her team were, on its right was another impassable copse of trees and to it's rear was open ground, which would leave it a sitting duck. The only avenue of escape left for it was to follow the same course as Miho and the rest of the compound team through a gap between the two groups of trees, but according to their maps, this route just lead to more open ground and steep hill, therefore the only chance of escape for the crusader was to try and outrun them, and Miho and the rest of the compound team knew it.
"Mako-san, follow that Crusader, don't let it escape" Miho ordered her driver, Mako simply grunting a reply and she manoeuvred their Panzer IV to pursue, as did all of the other tanks around them, whilst the Crusader continued its dash for freedom, with Miho and the compound team hot on its heels, barely keeping up with it, which was impressive. Roaring out of the gap the Crusader dashed towards the hill, before dropping into a wide trench which lay in front of the hill, at first, it looked like the crusader was going to simply, and probably stupidly charge up the hill, leaving itself exposed to the combined fire of five tanks, but as she closed on the hill the crusader still hadn't emerged from the depression.
"Mako-san halt!" Miho shouted, Mako, responding by immediately stamping on the brakes bringing the 25-ton panzer to a sudden halt, the other tanks doing also, she had to give her opponents credit, she'd nearly fallen for the bait, even with its 6-pounder the Crusader could still knock-out any of their tanks, even Maho's Tiger if it was close enough and especially if it had a shot at the thinner lower plate, which it would have from its position in the trench, whilst also being safe from return fire.
"Ok, Darjeeling, Kay, Flank right, Miho and Katyusha will flank left, I'll make some noise to cover you whilst you move, we need to deal with them quickly before the rest of them come to help them" Maho announced, speed was of the essence if they could remove one tank from play right now, they could dictate the course of the battle how they wanted to, and perhaps provoke a response out of Union, the team they were facing, Miho though was deep in thought, Union clearly weren't amateurs, they'd done their homework, but they'd let their Crusader get spotted, it didn't make sense, if they'd sent it to shadow them, it would have been behind them, yet it had been out in front, why though?, and the hill in front of them was bare, no cover for even a tankette, her pondering was interrupted however by Maho's Tiger disappearing in a cloud of smoke and fire.
July 20th, 2017 - Union school carrier
It was the grey light of dawn when Tom Lynch rolled out of the pit, that he referred to as a bed, quickly pulling on the uniform of Union Technical High School, a multinational mixed gender High School, or rather Japan's only multinational mixed gender High School, which was why a British national like Tom was attending. Quickly locking his door behind him, he braced himself for the next part of his morning.
"Good morning Tom, did you sleep well?" sarcastically asked the girl perched on the wall outside his apartment, her American accent cutting into Tom's still drowsy mind like a chainsaw, and he was sober.
"Good morning Kyla, yes I did sleep well" Tom answered, turning to face his friend, who was busy taking a bite out of what appeared to be a homemade breakfast burrito, "You had better have bought one for me!" He added, as usual, he'd skipped making breakfast due to having overslept, as always.
"No, why would I have" Kyla responded, before digging another burrito out of her jacket, and handing it carefully over to a grateful Tom, they'd known each other for over two years now and had developed a routine, She'd make breakfast for the two of them, as Tom wouldn't be able to make himself breakfast, due to him oversleeping, and in return Tom would handle dinner for both of them, as she would be too tired in the evenings, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement, one which had often been confused with a relationship, but in truth they were just really good friends.
"So do you have any idea why we've been called in," Tom asked swallowing a mouthful as they walked, whilst the new school year hadn't started yet, they had been called to see the headteacher, as to why though they hadn't a clue between them, and they were the new heads of Union's Technical Department, the schools most known and prized area of speciality, so they could be sure that it involved the department, as both of them, had been summoned.
Half an hour later the two of them found themselves in the office of their headteacher, Miss Kobayashi, although she prefered to be called by Suki, her first name, she was quite informal around her students, which was why she was liked by everyone at the school.
"Ah Kyla, Tom, sorry I've dragged you in here at this time, I just need to speak to you before you take control of the department, but first, Kyla, I need some information regarding the girls in the department" Suki explained, moving from her office window to perching on her desk, which only made them more curious.
"What do you need to know Suki? Kyla asked moving to sit further forward in her chair, Tom just sat back and watched not really interested, he wasn't the one being asked questions after all.
"I need to know whether any of the girls in the department would be interested in taking part in next years Sensha-dō Tournament?" Suki asked, causing Tom to suddenly take an interest in the conversation, whilst Tanks were considered feminine in Japan, he loved them, it was just something about the mechanical brutality that a tank encapsulated, he'd even watched last year's championship, plus they were cool as all hell.
"Well whilst I and a handful of others would be interested, there isn't enough for a team, even just for five crews" Kyla answered, the disappointment in her voice was noticeable.
"Well, that's unfortunate, I'm only asking because the league is pestering me to see if we can field a team, their short one for next year, and I was really looking forward to showing Shiho Nishizumi and Chiyo Shimada what I think of their styles, I guess I'll have to tell them no, but I'll leave that until I have everything else in order first" Suki sighed, It was well known that Suki had partaken in Sensha-dō, or as most people in the west called it, Tankery, and that she had experienced first hand the Nishizumi and Shimada styles. "But it can't be helped, so let's get down to business shall we" she continued getting back on topic, and so for the next hour they discussed general information regarding the technical department, what they needed to know and drew up plans for the year, all the while though Tom's mind was working, working out a way to solve the problem of the lack of interest regarding Tankery. A couple of hours later Kyla found herself waiting in her place for Tom to show up, he was never this late, she was hungry and tired, and starting to get annoyed. Finally, though there was a knock at the door, which Kyla quickly moved to open it, revealing Tom carrying a fully loaded rucksack.
"Sorry I'm late, I lost track of time, but I think you'll like what I found" Gasped Tom, clearly he'd ran from his place to Kyla's, a grin plastered all over his face.
The next morning found Tom and Kyla once again in Suki's office, both grinning away, which had intrigued her, as she knew from experience that the only time these two grinned like this, it meant they had a plan in mind, the fact they wanted to fill her in on it was all the more intriguing.
"So are you going to tell me what has got you two so happy about, or are you going to make me ask you?" Suki questioned.
"Remember how you said that you wanted to show up the big tankery families?" Tom queried taking the lead, pausing to let Suki, answer, which she did with a curt nod, before continuing "Well, I started thinking about a way to fix your problem, and I have, you see if you dig back far enough you find that the sport which is rather popular in this country, actually has a dark origin story. You see tankery wasn't started as a sport to teach girls skills beneficial for motherhood, actually, it was started as a way to train tank crews in the event of a Soviet invasion if the cold war turned hot, but in order to hide what they were actually doing the authorities who organised it only picked girls to partake in the sport, they did, however, leave a loophole in the rules which allowed boys to partake as well, but when the JSDF was formed the need for trained tankers was filled, but they couldn't well end the sport suddenly, because unexpectedly the sport had proved popular, even leading to other countries starting their own versions, so they left it running and covered their tracks as best they could" Tom explained, leaving Suki very confused.
"I don't quite follow" Suki announced getting to her feet.
"Well as it turns out the loophole about boys partaking in tankery is still there, meaning we can field a co-ed team, without breaking any rules" Kyla added pausing to let Suki take the information in before continuing, "and It'll be doubly insulting as the big families, hate the prospect of boys 'defiling' the sport more than they hate each other, and because you can't implement new rules that haven't been under a minimum of a years consultation, they can't plug it because no one knows about it other than us"
"So all we need you to do is ok this little scheme of ours, we can put the expense of buying the tanks under the technical departments budget because we'll need to buy scrap tanks to keep it off the tankery authority's radar, so we can call them long-term projects as we're going to need to restore and maintain them, and I'm sure we can recruit enough people to form a team from the department, that and that you don't tell the authority we can field a team until the last possible moment, that way we can be sure they won't ask too many questions" Tom concluded, Suki responded by walking over to the window, turning her back on Tom and Kyla in the process.
"You plan is the most despicable, downright dishonest and utterly disgraceful plan I have ever heard" Suki exclaimed, pausing to catch her breath, before turning to face them once again, "When do we start!" beamed Suki, wearing a grin as big as the ones Tom and Kyla had.
"Well were docking in Nagasaki in a few days to bring aboard the new students and there's a reclamation yard which just so happens to stock old tanks, permission to go ashore and collect some 'work projects'?" Tom requested, it was more of a formality, he already knew what the answer was going to be.
July 23rd, 2017 - Nagasaki
2 Days later Tom and Kyla found themselves walking through Nagasaki's oldest reclamation yard, their objective was simple, find 5 tanks that they could form a minimum team with, other than that they had the freedom to choose what they picked, the yard sold everything at scrap value according to its weight, and money wasn't much of a concern either, Unions technical department raked in a considerable amount of income yearly, and after nearly twenty years of doing so, Union's cash reserves were quite full, only Saunders beat them, but that was because they had wealthy benefactors. Immediately they found a large group of Renault Ft's, which meant they were on the right track but didn't stop to look, then they came across a row of British cruiser tanks, mostly old Mark IV's, better than the Ft's but still not what they were looking for, however as they were about to continue Tom noticed one of the tanks, covered under an old looking tarpaulin was bigger than the others.
"Hey Kyla, give me a hand with this will you," He asked moving to remove the tarpaulin, the ropes were old but still held tight, but with the assistance of Kyla's trusty pocket knife they soon gave up their prize, and what a prize it was, "Oh hello there" Muttered Tom, as he stared at the Crusader III, which despite the worn and chipped paint still looked in good condition.
"Tracks are in good condition, and none of the hatches are open so, it shouldn't be too bad inside" Kyla announced, moving to open the commander's hatch "yeah good inside as well, wonder why it's here, it looks pretty good" she added.
"I know why" stated Tom, drawing her attention to the now open engine compartment, "Its engines knackered, looks like a piston blew a hole in the crankcase, and the engine tore itself to bits" He explained, this made sense, crusaders used the Nuffield Liberty engine, a rather rare and expensive motor, the original owners probably couldn't afford to replace it and so had gotten rid of it, "rest of its fine though, all it needs though is a new engine, a service and some paint, and it'll be as good as new" Tom finished, lowering the engine covers back into place, 1 down 4 to go.
Then they came across a pair of rusted Cromwell's both of which would be suitable, if one wasn't missing its turret, and the other was missing most of its engine compartment, clearly someone had been through with a cutting torch and no skills of how to use it, they could have made one complete tank using the two, but they only had a few weeks to get 5 tanks ready and they didn't have the time, but they made a note of them, as they might be useful in the future, nearby also lay another tank with some potential, a rather worn out looking Stug IV, minus its suspension, again the lack of time meant they couldn't replace it, so they made another note and moved on. After about another fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, Kyla hit pay dirt.
"Hey Tom, look what I found" She hollered, which brought Tom over from a rather large pile of scrap, to find Kyla looking over a rather mauled, but otherwise intact SU-100 tank destroyer, minus its gun, which Tom had noticed lying off to one side which was how he'd know it was an SU-100 and not a SU-85, "Yes I know its a bit battered, but complete and it's Russian so it probably still works, the casemate roof is rusted through however, so we'll have to replace it and the protective layers inside, and most of the interior as well, but its in better condition than some of this stuff" Kyla added, dusting herself off.
"So that's Two down" Tom affirmed, before noticing a familiar shape poking out from behind a pile of scrap, near to where the SU-100's gun lay, "and I think I just found three" he announced, moving to confirm what he'd spotted, letting out a cackle of glee when he did, as there before him stood, under a protective tarpaulin, an iconic M4 Sherman, and by the HVSS suspension and front plate, an M4A3E8, An Easy Eight, the most powerful of the American Sherman variants.
"Nice, there's just one problem with it" Kyla observed, drawing Toms attention to a rather obvious issue, "there isn't a turret!" she highlighted, it was rather obvious.
"Relax, there's bound to be a turret for it somewhere in this place" Tom countered, and sure enough within five minutes, they'd found a suitable turret and gun to make the easy eight complete. That just left them looking for two tanks to find, and before them lay a row of sheds, and then Kyla asked a very interesting question.
"Hey, so since we'll both be partaking in the matches themselves, but what are we going to command?" Kyla questioned from inside one of the sheds, it had already been decided that they would command a tank each in the team, but they hadn't given any thought as to what they wanted to command.
"I don't know, something fast like the Crusader, but with a much better gun, I want to do some damage; Why do you ask" Tom replied, stepping out of another shed.
"Because I just found mine" Kyla grinned, throwing the shed door fully open, revealing the unmistakable form of an M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, the fastest armoured vehicle of WW2, "and if I wasn't being clear, Dibs!" she added, leaving Tom two options, argue with her, which would hand her the win on a platter, or walk away and hope that karma gave Kyla her just deserts, but from the lack of rust on the Hellcat, he doubted that as he looked for which shed to try next, leaving Kyla to inspect her prize, it was perfect, all it needed was some fresh paint, a service and a roof on the turret and it would be good to go, even the engine looked in a decent condition, and by the cobwebs she guessed it had been here for a while, which explained why no one had grabbed it. Tom meanwhile having checked two shed in the time that Kyla had been giving the Hellcat the once over, was starting to get annoyed, but as he flung open the doors of shed number three, he realised that since Karma couldn't get to Kyla via the Hellcat, it had decided to get her by proxy, which was a long way of saying, that karma had just firmly placed itself on Tom's side.
"Hey Kyla, you can keep the Hellcat!" He chirped, causing Kyla some concern, Tom only spoke like that when he knew something she didn't, and with him surrendering the Hellcat without a fight was even more concerning; quickly she found the barn Tom was in, and her concerns were justified, "Dibs!" Tom exclaimed as he perched upon the turret, of an equally well preserved and intimidating looking A34 Comet.
Authors notes
I hope you enjoy this little idea of mine that's been bouncing around my brain since watching the show for the first time in 2012 (and it's been bugging me ever since), I'm using a western school year system because I can't wrap my head around Japan's, and if you think the whole idea of Union finding good tanks in a scrap yard is a bit too unrealistic, its a show about high school students competing in tank battles, whilst living on giant aircraft carrier shaped ships, and Oorai found an even rarer Tiger P on their own ship, so please cut me some slack, besides I wanted cool/awesome tanks (we'll get to those later, promise).
But anyway please feel free to review as I find your opinions and views actually interesting and useful.