Author's Note: I couldn't help myself… I mean I've got so many projects already, but this anime is just so awesome and funny I literally couldn't help myself. Before I start, I would like to clarify a couple things, as I will occasionally be dropping into Japanese terminology (or at least my attempt at Japanese terminology) where I deem appropriate. You won't find me referring to the sport the girls play as 'Tankery' but instead I will refer to it by its Japanese name. I will also use reference to another 'sport' or 'martial art' that will play something of a part, as a background element and something I may decide to utilize more at some point in the future.
Oh, and I gave everybody simunitions as Sensha-dō is dangerous enough without live rounds flying around, accidents with tanks can easily be fatal… just look at the incident in the original story.
Therefore, rounds fired by Federation certified tanks are a form of Simulated Munitions, similar to those first developed for military training. Simulated munitions are non-lethal ammunition that can function normally in military firearms and are often required to have identical ballistic performance to normal rounds.
Those unfortunate enough to be struck by tank rounds in the sport describe a hit as being like being hit by a baseball bat. A strong enough hit can break bones or leave minor burns from tracers but is unlikely to be fatal.
Despite this, open top vehicles remain illegal in the sport (With American teams adding roofs to many of their traditional mainstays like the M10, M18, and M36).
For maximum spectacle, most tanks are fitted with computer control pyrotechnics to show shot effects and to blow off fittings and tracks. With the carbon reinforced interior providing abundant protection from these strikes.
In addition, expect new schools and the appearance of even more characters. I have 16 separate OCs to add to the roster (which is already maddeningly huge with just canon characters).
Disclaimer: Girls und Panzer is the property of Actas.
BOYS UND SENSHA-DŌ!
CHAPTER 1:
Girl's School, No Longer
Sakai Akio slowly lowered his binoculars and let out a long breath. Beside him, Nishizumi Miho focused through her binoculars, her auburn hair waving slightly in the faint breeze.
"I see four Shermans, one-thousand meters."
Akio lifted his binoculars again and peered at the four green tanks, as they rolled across the dry rocky ground up ahead. He chewed his lip for a moment and nodded. "Yes, I'm surprised they haven't deployed more of them."
"They've spread out, trying to find us..." Miho said as she lowered her binoculars. "We should be fine dealing with the four of them here on our own."
"Right," Akio said as he moved up in a low crouch. "Shall we?"
"Hai," Miho said with a nod before scrambling to her feet and running over to the parked Panzer IV that was her tank.
Akio scrambled over to his tank. It was a strange mix of features of classic tanks. There was the three return rollers and lower hull of a Panzer III, the sloped armor of a Panther, and a Panzer IV turret almost identical to the one fitted on Miho's Anglerfish.
It was a Panzer III/IV, a conceptual tank that had been abandoned by the Germans in favor of continued production of the IV and development of the Panther.
As Akio clambered up the front of the tank, he brushed against the small crest that identified the tank as Shark Team. He pulled himself up and dropped into the command hatch, plugging in to the intercom a second later.
"Start her up Gunjin. Senmonka, distance one-thousand meters, shermans. Wait for my command. Keibiin, tell Miho-chan the moment we're ready."
"Hai!" The crew answered and Akio smiled as the Panzer III/IV rumbled into action. He watched the gun rise up to point at the two distant Shermans, still unaware of their presence. Glancing to his left, Akio saw that Miho's tank was also ready, and Miho had raised her hand to signal the fire command to him. As her hand dropped, he barked the order. "Fire!"
The boom of the two KwK 40 75mm L/48 cannons washed over him. He watched the two tracer rounds streak through the air to strike the lead two tanks. Smoke billowed from the two tanks as they rumbled to a stop, white flags marking them as knocked out according to their onboard computers. The remaining two rumbled forward, their guns aiming vaguely in their direction, hurling shells.
The Sherman shells fell short, their short-barreled 75mm guns not capable of the range of the German guns, or penetrating either tanks armor at their current range. Akio could hear Heishi swearing as he loaded a second shell while Senmonka tracked the next tank. The Shermans were gunning their engines, rushing toward them across the dry plain toward the ridgeline that Miho had selected as one of the ambush points.
"Gun up!" Heishi shouted.
Senmonka adjusted his aim and Akio lifted his binoculars toward the Shermans once again. To his left, there was a crack as Anglerfish team fired again sending a shell roaring through the air toward one of the Shermans. A second later another Saunders tank was stopped in the middle of the field, smoking.
"I have her." Senmonka said. "Ready!"
Akio took a long moment to think back to how he'd ended up there before bellowing the next command. "FIRE!"
The crack of the shishi-odoshi made Akio's head snap up as he stepped through the door to the garden. The cool west breeze made the vast array of plants wave and whisper in the wind. He bowed his head slightly as an older man looked up at him, his head partly hidden behind the large straw hat. A slight smile played across his face and Akio looked up into the face of his grandfather.
"Ojiisan..."
"Akio," His grandfather said faintly before pulling off his straw hat and turning to face him, a happy smile on his face. "You have come... It is good to see you. Come, the garden needs planting, and my old hands aren't as able as they were when they held a yoke and throttle."
Akio nodded once and bent down beside his grandfather, helping the old man to plant a set of flowers. As he worked, Ojiisan began to talk. "It has been too long since we saw each other... first, with you living in America and then going to the Shoryuhai. Have your fears lessened at all?"
Akio shook his head. "I have tried, Ojiisan, but the fear remains... I do not think I'll ever be able to fly on my own as you do."
"Did, Akio, did... I could not fly again, my hands are too old. Sentōki-dō is a game for the young." He smiled at those words and Akio glanced at his grandfather, noticing the eye patch he wore today. Most days, he did not, but the old war wound must have been troubled by the dirt and sun. "How goes your schooling?"
Akio flinched. "It doesn't, the Academy Ship Shoryuhai is being decommissioned."
"That is unfortunate." His grandfather turned to look at him again. "Where have you been transferred?"
"O... Ōarai," Akio murmured under his breath.
"Ōarai? I thought that was a girl's only school, surely there is not something you've been hiding about yourself Akio?" His Ojiisan said with a slight chuckle.
"They're changing to co-ed, something about fiscal difficulties." Akio said quietly. "I've been looking at the elective list..."
"Yes, and I would gather they do not have many that appeal to you, as a man." He said.
Akio bit his lip for a moment before nodding. "I... I'm going to take Sensha-dō."
His Ojiisan paused for a long moment then nodded once. "I see, well... if one cannot do one form of budō, then another may appeal." He straightened up and brushed his hands on his knees before looking at Akio. "Your grandmother was involved in Sensha-dō. Are you worried I would not approve?"
Akio glanced at the ground. "Yes, Ojiisan, you are on the Sentōki-dō Aces Authority board, I thought you might be ashamed since I—"
"Since you cannot do Sentōki-dō?" His grandfather shook his head. "I would not worry about that, your father was quite a fan of the sport of Sensha-dō as well, even when he flew for his school, and if you cannot be a pilot, why not a tanker? I suppose it is a good thing that I managed to convince the Sensha-dō Federation to allow men into their ranks... in exchange for letting Kuromorimine into the Aces Authority. I hope you will show them that aces are not limited to the air."
"Thank you, Ojiisan." Akio said with a faint bow. "I will not let you down."
"Ōarai is the national champions, I'm sure they'll take care of you, Akio." His grandfather said as he washed his hands with an old towel. "Listen to your captain, when you arrive. She is from a long line of tankers, and is an ace in her own right."
"I will, Ojiisan."
"Who all is transferring with you?"
Miho swallowed as she flipped through the papers that had been set before her by the Ōarai Student Council President. The announcement of the conversion of the school to co-ed in the middle of the year came as a bit of a shock. Already a number of the girls had grown excited about the arrival of a number of boys to their school. Ironically, with the Sensha-dō Federation announcing the allowance of men into the sport seemed almost perfectly timed to encourage the new arrivals to join Sensha-dō.
There were sixteen transfer notices on the top of the table, one for each of the boys that had elected to choose Sensha-dō as their elective. The group had a wide variety of interests outside of Sensha-dō. There was an automotive club member, a school regulations enforcement officer, five members of a model club, several members of their last school's Sentōki-dō club, a student council treasurer, a freshman, and a few others from a variety of different interests, ranging from kendo to photography.
Miho glanced up at Anzu and frowned. "I know many of our tanks are under-crewed. Leopon Team needs a radioman, Anteater Team needs a loader and a radioman, Turtle Team needs a radioman, Rabbit Team needs a loader for the 75mm gun, and Mallard Team needs a radioman, but that leaves ten more people without a tank. That's enough to crew two more panzers."
"True and we'll take the Student Treasurer for our team." Momo stated. "Unfortunately, we don't have the finances to purchase more tanks. Considering that Sensha-dō Teams normally have at least ten tanks, there must be a minimum of two more tanks somewhere aboard."
"Perhaps we could trade the Sentōki-dō aircraft we'll be receiving from the Shoryuhai." Anzu suggested before munching on a dried sweet potato. "There have to be places we haven't looked yet. This ship is nearly ten kilometers long and half a kilometer high after all."
"We will discuss that once the new students have arrived. Have you found a good way to divide these new students?" Momo asked.
"Since you have already agreed to take the former Student Council Treasurer... this Chishiki Akira, perhaps we shall put each with the group with which they would most likely fit in and befriend." Miho flipped through the papers a moment later and nodded to herself. "This one, Saito Yoshi is a freshman and he has good physical fitness scores... He will join Rabbit Team as the 75mm loader. Yakuin Takuma was a member of his old school's public morals committee, so he'll join Mallard Team. These two, Yuuta and Ryou, are gamers, so they will join the Anteaters and... This one is a member of his old school's Automotive Club, so he'll join Leopon Team. The others will need new tanks."
"Good, we'll see about the search for more panzers once they arrive." Momo stated. "The Sentōki-dō aircraft we will be receiving will be broken down and placed in long-term storage by the Automotive Club, unless one of their pilots can cough up the funds for hangar rental aboard."
Miho nodded and sat back. "It will be strange, having boys here."
"It is necessary. The additional income from their enrollment will help to ensure the school's future." Momo said. "Even your victory only bought us time, making the school co-ed will give us the funds to carry forward far into the foreseeable future."
Miho held up her hands. "I wasn't complaining..." She said softly and glanced back at the list of transfers. "I hope they will be willing to follow me."
"Are you kidding? Nishizumi-san, you're captain of a championship winning team... they'll listen to you!" Anzu assured her.
"I guess I'm just nervous."
"Stop that." Tsubasa growled as he glanced over at Akio in the seat beside him, nervously gripping the armrest of the plane and tapping his foot nervously. "Honestly, calm down... Everything is fine Sakai."
"Fine? We're a thousand meters above the ocean!" Akio Sakai stammered.
Mitsubishi Tsubasa groaned and pulled his arm as far from Akio as he could. "I wish you'd take something or get drunk before we have to fly anywhere. You're panicking, again! Now Sakai, calm down!"
Akio took a deep breath before turning from the window and began muttering under his breath while Tsubasa shook his head. "No wonder you never joined Sentōki-dō. Don't start hyperventilating, Sakai!"
"It's completely natural as humans aren't meant to be high up... we're plains apes, not monkeys... not monkeys." Sakai grabbed a paper bag from the seat before him and held it to his mouth, breathing in and out as he tried to keep from hyperventilating.
"I really should have ridden in the Hornet... then I wouldn't have to be stuck with your freaking out." Tsubasa said before glancing around the plane's cabin. "Hey, Senmonka... could you get him to calm down?"
"Is the window shade down?" Senmonka asked as he turned around in his seat.
"Yeah."
"We'll just have to distract him then." Ryou said as he closed his laptop. "Damn computer doesn't get a good connection for gaming... Did anyone else watch the Sensha-dō championship match?"
"I did!" Another boy called out and the small form of Saito Yoshi appeared in another row. "It was awesome... Ōarai beat the Kuromorimine High School despite being outnumbered two to one. They even managed to destroy the Maus Kuromorimine deployed!"
"They did?" Isamu Shodo asked. "I thought the only place you could kill one was the ammunition hatch on the back of the turret. What did they do?"
"IT WAS AWESOME. They used their Hetzer to force the Maus up into the air by ramming it, and then their Type 89 drove up on top of the Maus and pinned the turret in place while Ōarai's flag tank drove up on a ridge and shot down onto the engine deck." Yoshi said. "Ōarai has got an awesome team, I'm really glad I picked Panzers for my elective."
"Seriously... that sounds insane." Tsubasa said.
"I know... and their Captain is the best. She actually drifted her tank behind the Kuromorimine Flag tank at the end, it was awesome!" Yoshi said. "Hell, I think all the drivers drifted their tanks at least once, even their Porsche Tiger!"
"Isn't that the one with the electric transmission?" Tsubasa asked. "It sounds like it'd be cool to work with... I wonder how they drifted that Tiger."
Akio glanced around the group. "Seriously... they drifted tanks?"
"Yeah... and now he forgot about where he is." Tsubasa smiled. "What else do we know about Ōarai?"
"They were an all girls school so... there will be a lot of dating opportunities." Isamu said. "Girls that haven't seen boys for weeks and weeks..."
"And now we know why Isamu agreed to the transfer." Tsubasa said before leaning back in his seat.
Nishizumi Miho finished her homework with a flourish as she sat atop the Anglerfish, her team's Panzer IV. The tank had been through a whole war's worth of upgrades over the course of the Sensha-dō championship season.
Takebe Saori was draped across the engine compartment with her phone to her ear, and her red hair draped over the side of the tank like some halo. The five girls that formed the Anglerfish's crew had become close friends, in part thanks to their mutual experience in Sensha-dō, and in part thanks to the how well the five complemented each other.
Isuzu Hana, the tank's gunner, was a quiet and somber girl that practiced flower arrangements. Her family had turned on her for a short while when she announced she was joining Sensha-dō, but they had finally come around during the championship series.
Akiyama Yukari, the tank's loader, was a tank otaku. On finding a new tank or piece of equipment she would burst into an excited ramble about the particular weapon, part, or hull. Miho called it a 'Panzer High' and it greatly amused her friends. It also proved to be a useful source of information in battle as Yukari could list the dimensions of almost any tank making ranging targets much easier in the heat of battle.
Reizei Mako was a quiet and rather emotionless girl most of the time, who despised mornings to an extreme. She worked as the tank's driver and seemed to have an eidetic memory, capable of learning to drive the tank after just a cursory glance through the manual. Her good grades had been almost completely trashed by her inability to get to school on time, resulting in over two-hundred tardies before her record had been wiped as a thank you for winning the championship.
Saori was the radioman, and a bit of a gossip. She would daydream about boys and try to wake Mako up in the morning, as they had been friends since childhood.
Miho wasn't what one would expect from the team leader of a championship team in Sensha-dō. She was quiet, soft-spoken, and wanted friends more than most anything. Her family had been legendary Sensha-dō champions until she had lost them a match after abandoning her tank to save the crew of another panzer that had sunk into a river.
Her sister had led the team the final match of the championship series, and Miho heard that her mother had intended to disown her. She still did, but then Maho had told her to avoid speaking with mother at almost any cost.
Miho let out a tired sigh as she glanced over at the seven other tanks and crews that sat beside the ship's airfield in the setting sun. There was the Type 89 I-Go that the Volleyball team crewed, the Porsche Tiger that the Automotive Club worked on, the Hetzer Jagdpanther 38(t) that the Student Council crewed, the History Club's StuG III, the Game Club's Type 3 Chi-Nu, the Public Moral Committee's Char B1 Bis, and the freshmen's M3 Lee. They were eight tanks from a wide variety of nations.
The rumble of an in-line engine drew her attention skyward and she gaped as a Bf-109E-4B roared over the airstrip, its side painted with the unfamiliar insignia of the Shoryuhai High School. It broke into a wide turn and Miho let out a gasp as a second fighter plane roared low over the assembled tanks. She stared after it, a Bf-110G model, as the other assembled Sensha-dō crews clambered to the top of their planes to watch as six more fighter planes appeared, one after another.
There was a French M.S. 406, a Japanese A5M4, a Czech Avia B-534-IV, a Japanese A6M2-21 Reisen, an American P-40E Warhawk, and a Bf-109F-6/U 'Galland' Prototype. Each of the planes circled the airfield once more as a more modern passenger plane appeared and swung in toward the airstrip. The turboprop Bombadier DHC8-Q100 dropped onto the tarmac as two of the fighters flew just overhead like an escort.
"It must be the Shoryuhai Sentōki-dō team." Yukari observed as the eight planes flew past once more, and Miho waved toward one of the pilots that waggled his wings. "A pity this will probably be the last time they fly those planes..."
Miho shrugged. "Maybe we'll be able to start a team for them in the future?"
"That would be AWESOME!" Yukari said as the planes began to land one after another. "It can't be any more costly then Sensha-dō, can it?"
"Unfortunately the Sentōki-dō Aces Authority takes around a year to grant membership to applicant schools, even if we applied today the club wouldn't be able to participate until next year." Momo stated flatly.
"Aww..." Yukari said before slumping.
The passenger plane came to a stop before the tanks and Miho watched as the ramp lowered and the boys inside began to disembark, lugging bags and luggage as they did.
Momo lifted a speaker to her lips. "Attention please! Welcome to Ōarai, first I would like to thank you for agreeing to transfer to our school as we transition to a co-ed environment. Secondly, would those of you that have signed up for Sensha-dō as your elective please raise your hands."
Sixteen hands went up, roughly a third of the arriving students. A moment later Miho stood up on her Panzer IV.
"Welcome to the Ōarai Sensha-dō Team, I am the captain, Nishizumi Miho. We're a bit short of tanks for all of you, so I've made a few selections based on your records to fill in the gaps with the tanks we do have." She took a deep breath and flushed as she fidgeted before the crowd. "Chishiki Akira?"
"Hai!" An older student with curly black hair and glasses raised his hand.
"You will be joining Turtle Team... cou-could Turtle Team raise their hands." Miho asked and the three girls that were from the Ōarai Student Council raised their hands and the boy walked over to the girls and greeted them. "Next, Saito Yoshi?"
A rather small looking boy raised his hand, and Miho flinched inwardly hoping the boy was stronger then he looked. "You will be joining Rabbit Team."
The freshmen girls cheered as the boy hurried over to the M3 Lee looking a bit stunned.
"Yakuin Takuma?"
A boy with a helmet shaped haircut raised his hand. "Here."
"You will be joining Mallard Team." Miho stated and the boy walked calmly over to the Char B1 bis. "Next, Yuuta and Ryou?"
Two rather geeky looking boys leapt up, one of whom had an eye-patch.
"You will be joining Anteater Team." Miho said and the two boys ran over to the Type 3 Chi-Nu tank and hurriedly began to talk to the three girls there. Miho caught them sharing usernames, and they seemed to be stunned by each other's identity.
"Now, Mitsubishi Tsubasa..."
Tsubasa blinked and raised his hand. "Here!"
"You will be joining Leopon Team." Miho said from the top of her tank and Tsubasa actually whooped.
"YES! The Tiger P!" He ran toward the tank and hurriedly shook the hand of the tank commander who introduced herself as Nakajima Satoko. All four of the girls wore orange coveralls that featured countless stains, their faces seemed darkened by grease, and oil, much like his friends back home had been. Tsubasa quickly started talking to the girls, excitedly.
"So... we get to work with the Tiger? Does it really have an electric transmission?"
"Oh yeah, and the Maybach engine doesn't much get along with it..." Suzuki, one of the other girls said. "We have to baby it... We even had to do a bit of maintenance in the final match!"
Nakajima grinned. "Actually, we work with all the tanks... no one else in school is mechanically inclined, well except Miho but she's busy running the team. We'll be grateful for some help with that."
"Wait... all the tanks, what are you the Ōarai automotive club?" Tsubasa asked.
"YEP!" The four girls answered.
Mitsubishi Tsubasa grinned at that. "I was in my school's automotive club!"
"YES! A PETROL HEAD LIKE US!" Tsuchyia shouted.
Miho sighed as looked at the ten remaining boys looking a bit lost. "I'm sorry, but we don't have any open positions on the tanks yet... Once we find another tank or two you'll have your posts." She glanced over at the excited crowd by the Tiger P and smiled faintly. "Unfortunately the Sentōki-dō Aces Authority takes a year or more to allow a school to join, meaning that the Sentōki-dō aircraft will have to be placed in storage. The Automotive Club will be extremely careful with them to ensure they're able to function if we have need for them in the future... unless one of the clubs is willing to pay for hangar rental?"
When no one answered, Miho nodded faintly. "Welcome to Ōarai, if any of you need directions to your new apartments or housing, go ahead and ask. We'll be happy to show you around."
As the others left, the Automotive Club turned to the parked assembly of planes and Tsubasa ran a hand through his wild hair. "Great, just walk away and leave it to us then? Just like my last school."
Satoko laughed as she walked over to the nearest plane opened the engine housing. "It's the way of things... not that we mind." She whistled at the engine. "I'd love to put one of these in a car, just look at it a 1,175 horse power Daimler Benz DB 601Aa Inline."
"The F model has an even higher-end engine," Mitsubishi said. "So, let's bust out the tools and get these things to storage."
It took hours, but even Tsubasa had to admit the Ōarai girls were stunningly good mechanics. The Avia B-534-IV was disassembled within thirty minutes, and by the time darkness had fallen every plane was loaded up in a crate and ready to be driven to the cargo hold.
After they had driven the planes to the cargo elevator and headed down into the bowls of the ship, Tsubasa glanced around the massive cargo hold for long-term storage. As they drove to an open spot, he struck his head against a metal pipe sticking out from rather rotten looking crate.
As he rubbed his head, he looked up and gaped, recognizing the 'pipe' as being a gun barrel and a rather familiar looking one at that. "Satoko!"
A moment later they ripped open the crate to reveal a packed up tank turret, that looked almost identical to that of Miho's tank. As the group crouched around the turret, Satoko spoke up.
"That's odd. The traverse mechanism is different..." She frowned. "Hey, if there's a turret..."
"Where's the rest of the tank?" Tsubasa said.
"Well, we are in 'long-term storage' aren't we?" Satoko said with a grin. "Let's find it."
The five members of the Leopon team spread out through the hold, opening crates as they searched. After five minutes, Hoshino called out that she'd found another turret. Leaving the group puzzled until Satoko climbed over a wall of crates and gaped.
"I found them! There are two tanks back here!" She yelled. "Oh, this is going to be an all-nighter!"
Akio wandered through the streets of the Ōarai Academy Ship, his luggage dragging behind him. Each of the students had gotten a map and keys to their assigned apartment or other housing. As he walked, the streetlight overhead flickered to life and he frowned. It was getting late, and he was clearly lost on a ship the size of a small town.
After a few more blocks he stopped as he spotted a street sign with a name he recognized and turned on it. He walked by a dark bakery before finding the address he'd been given and started up the stairs. As he turned the corner he walked right into a teenage girl who let out a yelp and stumbled onto the floor. He froze as he glanced down at the auburn haired girl and swallowed.
"Nishizumi-san?" He stammered. "Captain, I'm sorry..."
She blinked and looked up at him before swallowing a lump in her throat and standing shakily to her feet. "It was my fault. I was not looking where I was going." She bowed slightly. "Are, are you lost?"
"I... I was, but I think this is the address I was given." Akio said as he showed her the slip of paper and Nishizumi blinked in surprise before smiling faintly.
"You must be my new neighbor then!" She said excitedly. "Your apartment should be just around the corner." She spun and hurried him over to a door. "Here it is."
"Thank you." Akio said as he fumbled with his keys and opened the door. Inside a rather bare one-room apartment lay before him. There was a bed at least, and a small refrigerator and bathroom, but little else. He dragged his luggage inside and set it atop the bed as Nishizumi watched him a bit nervously.
"I, I hope you are not upset I didn't assign you a panzer yet, Sakai-san." She said and Akio froze.
"You know who I am?" He asked.
"Hai, I memorized the roster of incoming students... I did the same thing for my classmates when I arrived so I could hopefully make friends more quickly." She shrugged slightly before her phone rang and she flipped it open. "Hello? Nakajima? Whaa? REALLY?"
"Nishizumi-san?" Akio asked.
"Where? I'll be right there... Did you call Yukari? She'll be excited, thank you." Miho shut the phone and smiled at him. "We have found two panzers for you."
"Really?" Akio stammered. "That was fast."
"They were in long-term storage, where we put the planes." Miho said quickly. "Do you want to come?"
"Sure, let me set my stuff down."
Miho swallowed nervously as she rode the elevator down to long-term storage, with Akio standing besides her looking almost as uncomfortable as she felt. The boy nervously ran his hand through his hair as the elevator came to a stop and the cargo door opened.
Yukari was bouncing up and down on her heels, her hands clasped on her cheeks squealing as they stepped into the cargo bay. Miho glanced up and gaped as she watched three of the Automotive Club members holding on to a length of chain that went round a pair of pulleys and down toward a familiar looking turret that was dangling over a rather strange looking hull covered in rust. The tank hull featured sloped armor like a Panther, but suspension like a Panzer III or IV, with three return rollers, a hallmark of the mark III, but the turret ring was larger and looked vaguely like a Panzer IVs except that it didn't seem to quite fit into the hull.
"A Panzer III/IV!" Yukari announced, "They're super-rare... The Germans never even prototyped it, so only replicas are around." She said. "And then there's the other one..."
"Other one?" Miho asked before turning to see a hulking green mass of armor plate and welded steel. She stared at it for a long moment. "A... a KV-1S?"
"Hai! It's not as good as the Porsche Tiger, but it's much better than most of the other tanks we have." Yukari said.
Akio stepped toward the Panzer III/IV as the automotive club lowered the turret into place. "Are these two tanks enough for the rest of us?" He asked Miho.
"Hai!" Miho said with a smile. "Nakajima-san, how are they?"
"They're in pretty good shape, just some rust spots from the age. It looks like they were disassembled and packed away like we did with the planes." Satoko answered. "And the new guy is working out great, he's been a big help."
"Good, that's why I sent him to your team." Miho said with a faint smile and turned to Akio. "So... Sakai-san, which of the two tanks would you like?"
"Me?" Akio asked.
"Hai, I think you can do it... right?" Miho said.
Akio looked at the two tanks and smiled as he glanced back at Miho. "I will take the Panzer."
"The Model club will take the KV then." Miho said. "Practice begins tomorrow afternoon at four. Don't be late!"
Author's Note: I know I did one of these already, but after showing what Ōarai is getting in terms of Panzers, I thought I should explain some things. In a few other fanfictions I noticed that most of the tanks that the authors gave the new teams were often times quite superior to other tanks in Ōarai's inventory.
Admittedly, it is hard not to be better than the Type 89 I-Go, but I chose the two new tanks for a very good reason. Each has major flaws.
The Panzer III/IV has 30mm less armor then Panzer IV that Miho uses, it's sloped but that's about all it's got going for it in terms of armor. It is faster than the Panzer IV and carries the exact same armament (the turret is actually a modified Panzer IV Ausf. J turret) but here come some of the other flaws.
The Panzer III/IV turret cannot rotate 360 degrees. Instead, it is limited to 270 degrees leaving a 90-degree dead zone directly aft, which it can't reach. Essentially, it is about as useful as Miho's Panzer IV but exchanges armor for speed and can't fully rotate its turret. In combat, it acts more like a Tank Destroyer then a traditional tank.
The KV-1S is a different beast with a different set of limitations. For one thing, it's one of those awkward 'fast heavy tanks' that makes most people laugh. It has weaker armor then the Tiger P, a weaker gun (76mm ZiS-5), and is only slightly faster than the standard KV-1.
The selection of the eight airplanes that landed on the Ōarai is meant to be a bit of a mirror of the 8 tanks that make up the Ōarai Team in the canon. It is also partly done to show those that have been putting together flying bands for 'Boys und Planes' for lack of a better term what a truly rag-tag team should be. No Fw-190D-9 for them… but early war stuff, heck the Avia B-534-IV is even a biplane!
Now, since I decided to include references to an airborne sport, I should say that you can expect there to be 'combined arms' matches and large scale exhibitions in this fanfiction where it's more than Panzers fighting each other. These matches aren't really for any titles however. Instead they're more for pride's sake.
If this goes on long enough I may decide to have the Sentōki-dō club be restarted, and don't be surprised when say Kuromorimine breaks out a Fi-156 Fiesler Storch during a grudge match, or Saunder's second in command to have a Piper Cub circling around calling out tank locations from the air.
Heck, we know Kuromorimine has a helicopter… they wouldn't have one just for show, would they?