A New Toy

It was a warm summer night on the Oorai girl's high school city ship and Miho Nishizumi slept soundly in her bed. Even though it was still night the air was unbelievably warm and so Miho slept wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top while barely being covered by a bed sheet and every window to her apartment was at least half way open.

Miho was suddenly pulled from her deep slumber by a loud ringing. The first action she attempted was to reach over to her alarm clock and hit the snooze button. But it didn't work. She jerked her face up from her pillow and looked around her room to locate her alarm clock. The clock read 12:00 AM and next to it lay her still ringing cell phone, its screen glowing filling the room with a dull radiant light. She checked the caller ID and the name Nakajima was displayed in bold black font. Miho quickly flipped open the phone and answered.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hey Miho, it's me Nakajima! Did I wake you?" answered the voice of the commander of Leopon team. Even through her tired haze Miho could hear that the young grease monkey was excited about something.

"It's twelve in the morning! " Miho replied in an obviously sleep deprived and a little annoyed voice.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But you are not going to believe what I just found in deep storage!"

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you. You just have to see it to believe it. Can you come down to C deck?"

"Now? Can't this wait till morning Nakajima-san?" Miho replied in a mixture of surprise and annoyance.

"I don't think it can."

"Alright I'll be right over."

"Oh, and Miho-san?"

"Yes?"

"Bring Yukari-san. She's gonna have an epic panzer high!" Nakajima said before hanging up the phone. Miho groaned at the thought of having to walk all the way over to Yukari's house and then all the way down to C deck and finding Nakajima in the maze the ship called its deep storage area. But as if on queue, Yukari fell through the window and landed on the floor with a thud.

"Yukari-san?"

"Apologies Miho-san. The student council told me to tell you that they want to meet in the morning." Yukari spat out very quickly and a little embarrassed.

"So why were you climbing through the window?" Miho asked looking on at her friend with a look of surprise.

"I tried getting buzzed in but nobody was awake so I tried calling but my phone was dead." Yukari answered with an embarrassed smile on her face.

"It's ok. You actually saved me a lot of trouble. Nakajima-san wants to meet us in the deep storage area. She said that she had found something there and to bring you down with me." Miho responded giving Yukari a friendly smile that seemed to ease her anxiety. Seeing this Yukari returned the smile and Miho got up to change in the bathroom.

"So what do you suppose it is?"

"Don't know. She didn't tell me. But considering they also called for you, I would guess it's a tank."

"REALLY! ANOTHER TANK!?" Yukari nearly screamed with joy and excitement.

"Yep. Lets go find out what it is! Shall we?" Miho replied walking out of the bathroom wearing her own school uniform. The two exchanged smiles and nodded to each other as they turned towards the door and walked began to walk into the night.

The two had been walking for an hour before they reached the long-term storage area deep within the bowls of the ship. As soon as the two walked through the heavy steel door they found themselves n a maze of heavy wooden boxes and crates as well as hundreds of other items that were staked high into the air. The whole room was several acres large and about five stories tall, and it was easy to get lost in as Saori and several members of the schools Sensha-dou team found out earlier in the year.

Hoshino, the gunner of Leopon teams Tiger P, and another member of the schools automotive club greeted the two girls.

"About time you got here." Hoshino said walking up to them in her orange jump pants with the top half of her jump suit tied around her waist showing her white, grease covered undershirt; her . Miho, and Yukari followed Hoshino around the maze for another half hour before they finally met up with the other three members of the automotive club, Nakajima, Tsuchiya, and Suzuki who also made up Leopon team. The group moved behind a corner and turned on a set of construction lights.

Yukari nearly had a seizure when she saw the massive hulk of steel sitting before them. Hidden between two large stacks of storage crates sat the silhouette of an 86 tonne steel monster. It sat almost three meters high, four meters wide, and eleven meters long with four individual sets of tracks and a massive hunk of metal that looked as if someone had cut a giant steel ball and welded it to the front. Left of the machine sat a massive T5E1 105 mm cannon that sported a barrel almost as long as the tank itself, while the Ford GAF V-8 gasoline engine sat on a pair of wooden horses on the machines right. The tank was in almost pristine condition besides some rust spots and the gun and motor being removed, but otherwise it looked to be in running condition. Yukari let out a high-pitched squeal before jumping onto the top of the vehicle

"What is it Yukari-san?" asked Nakajima.

"It's a T28 super heavy tank!" she replied excitedly.

"A what?" everybody said, almost in unison.

"It was designed to punch through the Siegfried line in world war two! Only two were ever built before the war ended."

"Obviously not! Otherwise we're looking at a pretty damn good replica!" said Hoshino, her eyes fixed on the tank.

"Yukari-san, can you give me a rundown?" Miho asked calmly,

"Hai! The steel belt at the front is 305 mm thick, while the gun mantle ads another 300 mm with almost 150 mm of armor behind it, while the lower glacis is 130 mm thick. Each individual track is over 300 mm wide covered by a 100 mm thick skirt. Just above that is about 64 mm of armor but it's fairly heavily sloped. The top of the tank and the rear are both about 50 mm thick. The commander's coupla is 151 mm thick and also heavily sloped."

"Did you say three hundred millimeters at the front!? Our 88 mm on the Tiger P could never penetrate that!" said Tsuchiya in a rather surprised look.

"What about the gun?" asked Hoshino.

"It has a 105 mm T5E1 main gun wit a muzzle velocity of 1,130 meters per second and has a maximum range of 19 kilometers."

"Are you sure this is legal in Sensha-dou?" asked Suzuki

"Technically speaking it is designated as the T28 super heavy tank, so I don't see why not." Yukari replied.

"Can it run?" Miho asked.

"Probably, all we have to do is re-attach the gun and the engine and do a little cosmetic work. But we will have to move it out of here before we start work, and that alone will take all night." Nakajima replied.

"Maybe you should wait till morning and get some rest?" Miho suggested kindly.

"We could but I don't think that one is going to get any sleep." Nakajima said tilting her head towards Yukari who was busy inspecting the gun.

"Hai. I'll leave the decision up to you then. I have to meet with the student council in the morning so I'd better get some sleep. You can help them if you want Yukari-san." Miho said with a sleepy smile on her face.

"Hai!" Yukari yelled sticking her head in the commander's coupla.

"I hope you don't mind me leaving like this." Miho said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it. You do what you have to do. We can handle it from here. Besides, from what I heard the student council has some pretty big news. It would have to be to call you in on a Saturday." Nakajima said returning a smile.

"Thank you." Miho replied and the two exchanged a bow and she went back to her room as the rest of the group began the long argues work of moving the 95-ton bulk out of the deep storage area.

End Chapter 1