Prologue
Bergen-Hohne Training Area, Germany
She moved swiftly, silently, and with a purpose. With the engine producing minimum power, she crept forward through the tree line. It was only a few hundred meters to the defilade, and she had checked the surrounding area for any onlookers. She knew they were behind the ridgeline, but she hoped they would keep to their usual tactics, otherwise this match would be over before it has begun.
"Keep the revs low, they'll hear us otherwise" She said, talking into her handset.
"If I take it any lower we won't be moving! I haven't changed the throttle from what you ordered."
It was hard to keep her cool now, the tension was mounting within all of them. "I can hear the revs climbing! So don't start thi..." It was then she realised. It wasn't the high-pitched whining of her own engine, more like a deep, throbbing roar. She turned. Her face went red, both with anger, and other, more personal feelings. She had failed. She had failed her team, and... the others. It upset her, as after all they had gone through, it would end like this. How could she face up to them again...? She had failed, but she accepted her fate. Looking up, and staring down the camouflaged barrel, she nodded her head with the slightest movement, and waited. The tremendous sound filled the valley, and everyone turned their heads, as the round that would decide the match and the fates of all involved, flew through the air towards its target...
Chapter 1
The dawn of a new era
HMS Ark Royal
At precisely 7:00am, the alarm clock buzzed its quiet, sensitive wake up call. It was a fine, delicate, exquisite piece. A gift from someone now in England. As always, Darjeeling pressed the off button gently, as not to damage this gift she treasured so much. She had her usual morning shower and got dressed in the school uniform of St. Gloriana: White shirt, black tie, light blue skirt, black tites, and the blue school jumper. After tying her hair in her own unique fashion, she heads towards her office to look at the days schedule. She was expecting the usual routine. Normal classes on a morning, followed by the afternoon doing their chosen selective, in Darjeeling's case, Tankery. She had a lot of work to do with her team. They hadn't yet won a tournament. They had come close, being in the semi-finals before now, but the top prize has remained out of their reach, and it was starting to bother her.
Finally, after a long walk through the carrier, she got to her office. She paused. Next to her schedule were two letters. One was marked from the headmistress, which wasn't all that unusual, but the other was from the Sensha-do federation. That intrigued her. Just then, there was a polite knock at the door. "You may enter".
"Miss Darjeeling?" Darjeeling was surprised to see who it was at the door.
"Rosehip? What can I do for you?"
"The girls asked if you would like to join them in the galley for breakfast?" Rosehip said, slightly subdued, and in awe of being near in person to Darjeeling.
"Tell them I would love to, and thank them for the offer. I shall join you presently" She started to turn around, but stopped halfway, before facing Rosehip again. "And you can run along and get your first breakfast now."
"HUZZAH!" And with that, Rosehip was of in her usual cheery, energetic self, running down and through the rabbit warren to the canteen to get her first fill of breakfast to gobble down before Darjeeling came, when she would get seconds and eat like the rest of them in an orderly, ladylike manner. Darjeeling decided to open the letters later after breakfast, so tucked the letters away and headed out her office towards the galley.
"Miss Darjeeling" She stopped. This time, Darjeeling wasn't surprised at who it was, and her face turned slightly. "Soooo. When are you actually going to win any tournaments Miss Darjeeling? All the other electives have won at least 3 of their tournaments or competitions. But you haven't won any yet, have you? You might want to start winning or, I don't know, something bad might happen."
The little giggle that came after mocked her, but she knew she was right. The head student baker of the bakery selective, known as 'Miss Bun', partly to take the mick out of Darjeeling, and the fact that she made the best buns in St. Gloriana, a fact she made sure everyone knew, had made it her mission to become Darjeeling's main rival, and has tried to get her to lose her cool, and hopefully see her either give up her position as captain of the
Sensha-do team, or, ultimately, get the tankery selective disbanded, and having Darjeeling work under her, making her repeat all three years of high school. She started walking away again, deciding as always to try and ignore them and not lose her cool, thus playing into her hands.
"Oh, by the way, just think. If you don't win anything, and you end up having to repeat, you'll be lonely forever, because who would want to be with someone who can't win at their chosen, cough, elective, if tankery can even be called that"
That last statement hurt Darjeeling. But she didn't let it show, and carried on walking, hoping she didn't stammer slightly. It was the one thing she kept at the back of her mind and to herself, and didn't tell anyone about. But somehow, she had found out.
The encounter had left Darjeeling feeling down with herself, but tried not to let it show, which she was good at now a days she thought, as she entered the galley to find her close friends. She found them near the counter, so knew who had been in first to get the table. As expected, they were all sat around drinking their favourite tea's, with no sign of an early breakfast, except the huge grin on Rosehip's face.
"Now we are all here, shall we eat?" asked Assam, getting up from her seat, and looking Darjeeling over, noticing something wasn't quite right, but not being able to figure out what it was.
"Yes, of course. Sorry I am a bit late, I just had some paperwork to sort out that I had left last night. Im sure there will still be some nice bits left." She said, glancing over at Rosehip with a slight smile on her face. They all noticed it was forced. Breakfast was the usual big Monday plateful. Bacon, Sausages, Beans, Eggs and all the trimmings of a Full English. Darjeeling waited until last, and didn't get as much as she usually did, blaming it on tiredness. She sat down and ate what she had with the usual elegance St. Gloriana commanded.
She decided to open the letters. Whatever they were, they couldn't possibly make her feel any worse, and she was in good company if they weren't good news. The letter from the headmistress was opened first. Darjeeling was confused. The letter wasn't addressed to anyone specifically, merely saying 'New students will be arriving from England soon to bolster the selective. Please make room in a spare dormitory for around 20 people'. She opened the letter from the Sensha-do federation to see if it would shed any light on the previous letter. She scanned through it to try to find anything important.
'To all team captains. With the changing times, we have decided to expand Sensha-do…. Therefore, we have decided to split the tournament into several parts…. One of two tournaments will be selected: the classic mode, or one using the new rule set…. Each stage will increase in decade. With the first stage being tanks from the 1950's, and the 5th stage, the final, with tanks from the 1990's... All teams will be given an allowance to buy tanks... Selective is now open to everyone and all schools that allow it will be able to have co-education teams...'
She thought for a second. 'Post war tanks... by decade... that would mean...' She remembered the UK's history of post war tanks, having some of the best and most powerful in the world. Unknown to her, Miss Bun entered the Sensha-do area of the galley and was about to shout a confrontation across the room. A slight smirky smile appeared on Darjeeling's face. She got up and walked to the lectern stand. Her friends were bemused. She stood upright and made a slight, polite cough to clear her throat. She had a beaming smile on her face.
"Ladies. I have an announcement to make."
This is the first Fan Fiction that I have written. It was originally an idea that popped into my head for a friend to write, and I started writing down a few ideas, that eventually turned into the prologue. From there I decided to carry on writing. I am new to anime, with Girls und Panzer being my first. I will see how this goes, and decide if I want to either carry on with this till a late stage, or even make a new story chapter after the conclusion of this one. I have a few ideas on where this will go and how it will turn out.
