My first fanfic, so cut me some slack. I know already this going to be full of grammatical errors so feel free to call me out on any mistakes. No flames please and constructive criticism will be appreciated. Rated M for coarse language and some adult themes.
I do not own girls und panzer and the panthers OCs are based on characters from Harry Turtledove's The War that Came Early series, so not mine either. Now that the disclaimers are out of the way on with the story.
Chapter One: Crounching Panther Lost Panther
Poland, 5 miles outside Warsaw, September 8th, 1944
A lone Panther tank sat idling behind a tree line, inside the crew was in various mundane tasks of being inside a panzer. Checking the panzer's systems and machinery, making some small chat, and keeping an eye out for enemy troops.
Theo Hossbach was checking his radio set and fiddling with the vacuum tubes to get the clearest sound. After his he triple checked his bow mounted MG-34 to make sure it was in working order. While completing his, the driver Adi Stoss commented to his left "The Russians didn't push too hard while the Warsaw uprising was happening, now they seem eager to march into the city," "Seems they didn't want the old government's home army to capture the city, even though their allies. Just goes to show you can't trust the Bolshevik bastards," said the tank's commander Herman Witt from the turret. "If the home army had won they would have instituted a government more friendly to the capitalist west than to Moscow and Stalin wouldn't have that." muttered Lothar Eckardt from the gunners position. "Too bad though they had to close down all the bars and brothels during the uprising and now it seems like we won't be happen to hold the city for much longer." complained Kurt Poske from the loader's station. "Herrgott im Himmel! When you're not fighting or drinking you're chasing tail! I'd bet you'd even chase after Goering if he was wearing a skirt!," shouted Herman. "I'd never...well maybe? As long as he didn't give me the clap," he said in a lewd voice. At this the whole crew burst into laughter, so much the panzer itself seemed to rocking side to side. "I'd bet thirty Reichsmarks that you would try it once even with Herr Goering," commented Theo. At that second all sound stopped, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Herman broke the silence with "It speaks." "That one of the longest sentences you've said in days," shouted Adi.
Now for those that don't know the crew of this particular Panther Theo is the quiet thoughtful type that likes to spend more time in his head than in reality and uses words like he has a daily ration of them. Adi is the athletic yet knowledgeable driver of the panther (due to his college professor father) and is also a...well more on that later. Next is Herman who is the laid back, go with the flow commander who knows when to get serious at the right time. Then there's Lothar the smart precise college student draftee who acts like aiming the gun is like designing a building. And last but not least, the perverted son of a factory manager Kurt who with the amount of woman he "claims" to have bed would have enough offspring to form his own family panzerbrigade.
While the crew is still harassing Theo the three other panthers in their platoon pull up along the forest line. "Jesus guys, were guys doing 'it' like sailors in there? Only think I can think of to make the tank rock that much," questioned the platoon commander Adolf Fauber. "Screw you, Lieutenant sir. We were just laughing at our own panzer's playboy's dreams of chasing a certain Reich air marshal's tail" responded Herman in a seductive voice. "I don't even want to know. Looks like a thunder storm is coming with those clouds," said Adolf. With that all the tankers looked up at the cloud bank rolling in and let out a collective groan. The last thing they needed was for their tanks to get bogged down in the mud.
"Great how can his day get any worse?!" groaned Kurt. As if answering his belly aching another panthers commander shouted over the radio, "Enemy tanks spotted four T-34 mod 43 with the 76mm guns!" At this the panzer crewmen look across the treeline at the advancing soviet tank line barreling right toward them. "You just had to say it didn't you Kurt!," shouted Herman as he hit his head with a closed fist. "Fuck me! I didn't know it would actually do that! Why couldn't you do that when I ask for a beautiful woman to fall on my lap?!," shouted Kurt to the heavens. "Aww, can it Kurt, load AP!," said Herman. "AP loaded! Gun up!,"said Kurt. "Second T-34 on the left in my sights" calmly stated Lothar. "Fire!" shouted Herman. "Firing!" replied Lothar. The 75mm gun then fired sending the AP shell out of the barrel and towards the target while sending the spent shell and the smell of burning gunpowder back into the crew compartment. As Kurt was already reloading the main cannon Herman shouted "Scheiße missed! Adjust 2 meters to the right." "Recalibrating" said Lothar.
For the next 5 minutes, both sides launched shell after shell at the enemy. With no killing shots achieved as all the shots either missed or harmlessly bounced off each others sloped armor. As this happened those earlier foreboding clouds filled the sky, and it began to rain buckets and buckets of water. Then a bolt of lightning hit a tree the middle of the battlefield and set it on fire. Then another bolt hit a nearby bush. "I really hope you're happy now Kurt! With all the jinxes you gave us" shouted Herman. "It's not my fault all this happened! Besides at least we know what's happeni-," Kurt was then interrupted as another bolt of lightning hit the panzer straight on the panther's turret. A startling 1.21 gigawatts was transferred to the panther, it then proceed to shake and veins of lightning sparkled over the armored hull. Then a loud boom was heard as a bright flash of white light blinded every man in the field for a good ten seconds. When the light subsided and the panzer crewman on both sides could see again they looked on in stunned silence as all that was left at the spot where the struck panther was sitting was a circle of burning grass.
Location unknown, Date unknown
The struck panther tank now sat in a small clearing in a dense forest. For a while nothing happened, but then signs of life were seen and heard coming from the silent panther. First awake was Theo as he had not been holding anything metal and he wasn't in the turret when the lightning struck it. Theo then managed to shake Adi awake with a groan across the hull of tank. This was followed by everyone else in the turret waking up at the same time.
"What the hell happened," moaned Kurt. "I'm not sure I think we got hit by a lightning bolt on the turret and...guys you better take a look at his," said Herman as he looked out his commander's cupola to inspect the damage. At this all the other crewman stuck their heads out of their respected hatches and were greeted by the unfamiliar clearing they now found themselves in. They then all looked at each other and quick as rabbits diving into their rabbit holes ducked into their own metal home.
After shutting his hatch Adi said "That's impossible we were just at that treeline with the others! How could this have happened?!" Everyone looked at Lothar the resident scholar of their tank, but his face was a mask of confusion and fear as well. "Theo try the radio to see if it works and then try to contact anyone to see where we are," said Herman in a rush. Theo then preceded to check the vacuum tubes and try all the dials to see if it was still in working order. "Alright, looks like it was far enough from where the lightning hit to not be harmed by the electricity. I'll see if I can reach command or regimental from here," said Theo. " This is one of the first times I've seen you so talkative and at such rapt attention," said Adi as he looked over the radio set at Theo. "Well I've never been so scared shitless in my life either," responded Theo.
For the next few minutes Theo attempted to contact their superiors and then just tried to see if they could pickup a signal. Final after searching for what seemed like hours he found a radio program in a foreign language. "Sounds like Japanese," said Lothar. "Maybe it's Tokyo rose?," suggested Kurt. "That's in English! Dummkopf!," said Herman as he facepalmed. "Anyway Kurt check the shells make sure none are damaged by the Lightning." "Jawohl sir" said Kurt as he dove into the ammo storage. "Lothar make sure the Kwk 42 L/70 is fully operational." "Affirmative," replied Lothar. "Adi, you and I will check the engine and Theo," said Herman looking directly at him. "Check around us and see what you can see. If you see anything or anyone you high tail back here and tell us" " Ja Sir!" With a nod from Herman, Theo grabs a set of binoculars and his MP-40 of the rack that held it onto the tank's hull and proceeded to jump down from the parked panzer. After checking the mag, flipping off the safety, and racking the side he marched off into this unknown environment.
10 minutes later
After circling around their position Theo came upon a small hill in the terrain. 'Up their I could get a better view, have to be careful in case someone's over on the other side,' thought Theo. So Theo laid down on his stomach and crawled his way to the crest of the hill.
There he spotted (he hoped at least) some good news. There was another clearing and in that clearing was a detracked Tiger lookalike with a more forward turret, a Char B1, and a odd looking tank parked next to each other. At seeing this Theo immediately crawled off the hill and rushed back to his panzer. When he arrived he found the Panther purring happily and the whole crew was assembled by the engine deck. "I spotted a group of tanks in the clearing south of us!," stuttered Theo as he came to halt by his friends while hyperventilating. "Friendly,?" Questioned Herman. "Think so sir looked like a modified Tiger, a Char B1, and a tank I didn't recognize. Might be one from Hungary, Romania, or Italy though with the box like design," said Theo. "Why would we still be using a Char?," asked a puzzled Kurt. "If you haven't noticed the high command has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for everything they can use," replied Lothar. "Can we sneak up on them Theo," asked Herman. "I think so they were facing the east and their a path leading towards them from the west.," replied Theo. "I think we should do it Herman. After all if their facing east they're probably on our side," said Adi. "Alright mount up, we'll go so we can see who they really are. Just to be sure be ready to engage any targets," said Herman. "Ja sir!," responded the crew as everyone climb into the panther.
Adi then gunned the panther's Maybach HL230 engine out of the clearing, along the path, and finally into the larger clearing. There they spotted the tanks and their crewman. "Hang on a second, is it just me or do those tank crewmen look like school girls," asks a confused Adi.
Herrgott im Himmel - Dear god in Heaven
Scheiße - shit
Jawohl/Ja - yes
Dummkopf - Idiot