Author's Note: Greetings to all my fellow readers. Since it's summer and I'm always usual home, I felt that since I have more time on my hands that I can be able to do two stories at once. The timing of my other FanFic might take longer to complete since I'm working on this one, but I felt that I can't let this story concept go to waste. Please enjoy this new story and I'll try my best to maintain the progress of both of my FanFic's in the future.
Thank you and enjoy.
INTRODUCTION
Here I am...
I never thought that something like this can happen. I pictured our mighty school vessel sailing to the next docking port on the main land, to be refueled and restocked in safety, but instead we took our chances at stopping something that we couldn't accomplish. Kuromorimine Girls High School: the most elite Panzerkraft school in the nation of Japan, has encountered a problem that we couldn't face on our own. It was a threat that seemed invisible until now, where it's visible to every eye that can see it. The might of our community has become broken and in disorder, our academy is unorganized and scattered and the will to do our best has become a thing of the past. I still ask myself how this all happened and all I can say is that it was our curiosity that drove us to step aboard that unknown threat of a school ship.
All of a sudden, when we returned home, it began to spread. Nothing was getting done and everyone was in their own hiding place. Many said that it was so-close to them, that it was waiting for them at their front door.
It probably was. It was swift, terrifying, and the sight of it was unbearable. Then, it got quiet. We fled from our home, thinking that their was no hope for anyone left aboard. We recently witnessed something that our team, our powerful and confident tankery team, could not stop. It's a nightmare right now and I feel that if we aren't saved, we will soon become the non-existent.
I still wonder exactly how many members of my team our still alive out there. I imagine how exhausted and scared they are right now and how their confidence at fighting this threat had long past depleted. I wonder how many girls out there are in the same situation that I'm in right now, trapped behind a stainless steel door inside a small dark enclosed iron chamber. I'm not one that's claustrophobic, but if I remain in the state that I'm in now, it will slowly begin to fiddle around with my sanity.
I don't know what to do? My teams scattered and my mother is missing. On top of that, the enemy threat is literally outside this door and if I open it, the threat will have no sympathy at dragging me out and making sure that I pay the price for what happened to it in it's past. I feel helpless, weak and petrified. There's no fight left in me, no will to want to try and eliminate this threat. I'd rather run away from it as fast as my legs could carry me than take it on by myself. My eyes hurt, my skin crawls and my conscience filled with fear.
I AM TRULY AFRAID...
-GRAVE ENCOUNTERS: A GIRLS UND PANZER HORROR STORY-
-BY: OVERWATCH TROOPER 12-
-RATED: FICTION T/M-
CHAPTER 1 - Lost At Sea
-One Week Earlier-
There was a violent storm on the sea the night before the sighting. The waves below the Kuromorimine school vessel struck the sides of the bottom of the ship's hull. The rain poured down on the surface of the ship's population, causing large puddles in the streets. Flooding in the hills of the ship, caused the green landscape of the woodland portion to become soaked in muddy earth and water. In the sky, clouds of black and grey shades formed while thunder and lighting flashed over the angry sea.
Maho Nishizumi, was standing at the closed window of her dorm when she heard a knock at her door. Slightly opening the door, she came face to face with Erika Itsumi, the Vice-Captain of the Kuromorimine Sensha-do team.
"What's the matter?" Maho asked.
"I was wondering if we could speak about something for a moment?" Erika asked in return.
"Is it about the storm?"
Erika nodded her head.
"Come in." Maho said while opening the door all the way.
The two settled themselves down in two chairs looking out the window of Maho's dorm. The rainwater splashing and spraying the glass lense of the window.
"Do you think that we'll reach land by morning, Kommandant? The storm is becoming heavier by the hour."
"This ship is strong, we will have no trouble at all."
Another flash of lighting was seen on the horizon, it appeared to have struck the sea from the distance that the two girls could see.
"I haven't seen a storm like this one in a while, it's a good thing that the bridge knows where their navigating us to."
"Don't worry, my friend." Maho said, "We'll be fine. It's getting late anyways, we will sleep through all of this anyhow."
"Yes, Kommandant." Erika replied.
"Is there anything else you want to talk about?" Maho asked.
Erika looked down at her wristwatch. The numbers, 9:00 PM,were flashing back at her.
"Do you think that we'll be able to practice tomorrow?"
"Probably not. With this amount of rain coming down, the training field will be a mess in the morning." Maho predicted.
"I guess that means more book work then."
"It's still education. It's better than having no education at all."
"You do have a point, Kommandant." Erika turned to Maho.
"Hm. You better get going. The staff don't like students in the halls a this hour." Maho got up from her chair and went over to her bedside.
"Right. I will see you in the morning." Erika said walking out of Maho's dorm.
The young Nishizumi heir went to the door and closed it behind her. While in her bed that night, Maho thought that she heard a hard screeching sound coming from below the floor but she thought nothing of it besides mechanical movement from inside the vessels lower decks below. When the next day had finally dawned, the students prepared to go to their first period classes when a voice came over the intercom.
"Attention to all students and staff, due to a mechanical failure that has occurred last night, our journey to our mainland port has been temporarily delayed. Please continue the ordinary bell schedule and attend all of your classes."
The students in the halls were stunned by the response. Though they all knew that there was a storm the night before, they never thought that their machines would fail to operate afterwards. When Maho got to her first period class, she noticed that everyone was looking out the window.
"Strange? What's got everyone's attention?" she wondered.
After walking over to the window, she found what the students were looking at. Most of the field where other sports practice was completely flooded with knee-high water. A few faculty members were shuffling around in the water, searching for something.
"I never thought that the storm was that bad last night." a student said in the cluster.
"Yeah!" exclaimed another student, "It's like a typhoon came through or something."
At the same moment, the teacher walked in and everyone went to their seats. When tankery practice came, all the girls went to the upstairs gymnasium and waited for Shiho to arrive. When she came in, all the girls sat in the bleachers.
"Students, as you know, the incident last night has caused a large amount of flood water to cover the entire ship. Even though the water level has fallen since earlier this afternoon, we are still going to avoid practice today."
Suddenly, a girl pushed open the same double doors that Shiho came through. The instructor turned and silently asked her what was the problem. After the two had finished talking, the girl left.
"Please excuse me students, I must make a quick run to the office. Please behave yourselves before I return."
Then she left the gym. The crowd of students began to chat amongst one another. Maho and Erika did the same.
"The whole day has been a little strange, don't you think?"
"Yes, very strange. Every class I've been in, there's been some sort of interruption of some kind."
Erika lifted her head in a downward direction.
"Who's the new kid?" asked Erika.
Maho turned around to see a girl sitting by herself. Her long hair was a black with a curl in front of each ear and she had a light blue eye color.
"I don't know? She must have joined our class today or something."
"She seems like a good tanker." Erika commented.
"What makes you say that?" Maho turned back.
"Her eyes look like they're determined to fight."
"We don't know that? I will talk to her though." claimed Maho as she got up to move.
Meanwhile, the front office was in a rush, sorting through papers and maps. Shiho was talking with two other woman as the chaos was happening.
"What do you mean 'Our radar navigation is offline'? Does that mean we can't detect anything outside this general area?"
"Yes." said one of the women, "Our troubleshooting team can't seem to find the problem."
"If we can't get the main turbines for the engine started, we could be in serious trouble." Shiho said impatiently.
On another end of the room, a girl came into the offices. After whistling for everyone's attention, all the staff asked what was wrong.
"There's another school vessel nearby! Come and see it!" she exclaimed running back the other way.
All the women hustled behind her to the observation deck. Surely enough, there was another smaller school ship floating next to them. On the side of the vessel was a giant emblem and the schools name. The words spelt, SEAWIDE JUSTICE GIRLS ACADEMY. The emblem under it was a black circle with two long yellow wheat stalks surrounding a yellow star and a yellow even balancing scale in the middle.
"Wait! Isn't that the missing girls academy from the Nineteen Eighties?"
Shiho's eyes wided, "I remember fighting their Panzerkraft team once." she said to herself.
"You know them?" the girl next to her curiously asked.
"Indeed. Kuromorimine used to take them on very often back in the day. Then they went missing back in Nineteen Eighty Six and nobody heard from them since. The media tried looking for them but they were nowhere to be found."
"Wow. Until now we've found them." the girl looking fascinated at the ship responded.
When she turned back, Shiho was gone. In the bridge, all the leading ship engineers were over by the radio, tapping into a station to communicate with the other vessel.
"Come in, Seawide Justice do you copy?"
There was no response over the radio but static.
"I say again, is there anyone on the line. This is Kuromorimine Girls High School vessel calling to Seawide Justice Girls Academy, do you read?"
Once more, there was no response except static over the radio. The room was completely silent say for the humming of electricity coming from the bridge's machines. The adults look at each other with blank stares.
"No surprise, that ship has been abandoned for about 20 years. What makes you think that they'll be someone aboard?"
"Question all you want, we need to investigate." Shiho turned and left the bridge.
The other women shrugged their shoulders. When she returned to the gym, the students crowded around her with curiosity.
"What happened up there, Mrs. Nishizumi?" one girl asked.
"What did you see, Instructor?" another girl asked.
"Girls, please calm down. Prepare yourselves, we are going aboard."
The girls looked at each other with confused faces. They had no idea where they were going nor what their discovery on the Seawide Justice school vessel would unleash.
