Chapter 1
First Time for Everything
Amy and the other members of the Student Council were sitting in her office, looking over the papers on her desk.
"So this is it? This is all we've been able to find to field a 'proper' tankery team?" she asked her friends and subordinates as she looked over the roster.
"I'm afraid so, Amy," Elisabeth said sadly. "Crystal King, an amateur radio operator. Megan Wilson, a loader from a middle school team. Eliza McKay, your cousin, also a loader. Angela Campos, a very diplomatic, but obvious leader type. Lea Schultz, a little on the small side for a tanker, but she has spunk and drive. Dawn Volking, a quiet yet determined and experienced tank commander; she actually brings four other experienced middle school tankers with her. And then there is Willow Gonzalez, I've never met a girl with more leadership qualities, other than you, but she only brings two other tankers with her."
"Thirteen volunteers? That's it? This project is doomed," Anna moaned, putting her head on her crossed arms on the President's desk.
The four sat there wondering how they would pull this off, as they didn't have enough people, even if they had joined the team. They only had another week to come up with enough to field the tanks they were going to get. They had a list of tanks, finally, and it was eclectic as hell, as if they were actually part of someone's private collection and not actual tankery tanks. Amy shook her head trying to figure out how they could make this work.
'Thirteen people, seventeen if we join, and we need forty!' Amy thought sadly.
Suddenly Mary sat up straight in her chair, her eyes widening as she scrambled for the tankery rule book for Japan. Her friends looked at her, wondering what was going through her head as she started to flip through the book, obviously looking for something.
"Come on, where is it!" she muttered to herself as she kept flipping through the rather thick tome. Amy and the others gazed at her, slightly amused and slightly exasperated with their sometimes scatter-brained friend. After several minutes of searching, she stopped flipping and started reading, occasionally turning a page as she muttered under her breath.
"AH HA! I KNEW IT!" Mary suddenly shouted as she slammed the book onto the desk, a wide grin split her face.
"Knew what, Mary?" Amy asked patiently.
"The answer to our problems! We've been looking at this entirely wrong!" Mary answered excitedly.
"Mary, while we love you as a friend, if you don't explain what the blazes you're talking about, I'm about to drag you out of this office and give your backside a tanning," Elisabeth threatened.
"It's so simple though! I don't know why we didn't think of it sooner!" Mary kept going on.
"MARY! ANSWER NOW!" Amy ordered, while Anna started to giggle at how their friend was going on.
Mary squeaked at the sudden yelling before she grinned wryly and answered her friend and boss. "Amy, the rules say that JAPANESE school ships are required to have female only tankery teams, as it is a female sport there, it says NOTHING about non-Japanese schools that are participating in a Japanese tournament being limited like that."
"Are you CERTAIN?! We don't have to have a female only team?!" Anna asked incredulously.
"Nope! We don't; we can have an all male team if we wanted to!" Mary told them. "Mind you, I think that would be a BAD idea from the PR side of things, in fact, I recommend that our Captain and Vice-Captain be female, even if their crews aren't wholly female."
"Well then what the bloody hell are you still sitting here for?!" Amy said sharply. "Go out there and recruit more tankers!"
"Yes Ma'am!" Mary said as she left, a wide grin on her face.
Around Levinta High School, students sat together during the lunch break. Most were talking about the upcoming school year, what their plans for the year were, and what elective classes they were taking. Small groups of students were gathered, talking amongst themselves excitedly about the new tankery class that was announced, at least the girls of the group were, the guys on the other hand were grumbling, not understanding why they weren't allowed to join when other nations allowed it.
"Listen David, I know you want to join the team, but it's just not possible right now," Angela Campos, a tall-for-her-age brunette, said to her shorter and lighter-haired friend.
"But I've checked the International Rules! There is NOTHING preventing us from joining except for bias!" David countered, obviously upset that he couldn't join his friends in tankery.
"He does have a point," said a taller and darker haired boy.
"That's not the point Nicholas," a very short, dark haired, pale young woman said. "If we have to form a female only team, then there MUST be a reason for it."
Both boys grumbled until a husky skinned pacific islander young woman spoke up. "Lea is right you two, there is a reason."
"Would you care to elaborate, Willow?" a rather stocky and dark haired young man asked her.
"Certainly Shawn. Dawn can back me up on this, but I've heard that we might be participating in the Japanese High School Tankery Tournament that is going to be opening up here in a couple more months," Willow told her friends.
"She's right, and the Japanese only allow women tankery teams for some reason," a pale, brown haired, glasses-wearing girl said. "So unless something changes, it looks like it will be us girls representing everyone."
"I still say it's not fair! Why are only girls allowed to participate in tankery in Japan?! What's wrong with us boys fighting alongside you?!" David ranted.
As Willow was about to say something, a tall, lanky, dark haired boy ran up to the group of friends. "Hey, hey! You guys are NOT going to believe this!" he said, gasping slightly as he had ran the entire way here.
"What has you all in a hurry Cale? Did Mary FINALLY agree?" Nicholas teased his friend.
Cale blushed before shaking his head. "No, damnit! And stay out of my love life ya bastard! This is something important to ALL of us!" he yelled at Nicholas.
"So what is it Cale?" Dawn asked encouragingly, trying to coax the information out of the excited young man.
"Well, as ya'll know, Mary and I have been friends for a long time." Cale started.
"Right, friends," David teased, only to be hit in the back of the head by both Willow and Angela.
"Stop it, David!" Angela scolded.
"Yeah let him finish," Willow added.
"Anyway, she knows how much I've been wanting to do tankery, and she just came and told me something wonderful!" Cale continued, ignoring the interaction between the three close friends.
"Cale, I love you like a brother, but if you don't tell us what the heck your girlfriend told you, I'm going to remove that which makes you a man," Lea threatened cheerfully.
Cale blanched at the threat and smiled weakly. "Well, if you want to touch that, you'll have to buy me dinner first. Also Mary told me that there is no restriction about who can join the tankery team anymore," he said slowly.
Before anything else could be said by anyone, David took off like he was shot out of a cannon, running faster than any of his friends thought that he would be capable of, considering he was the second-shortest one in the group.
"Wow, he can really run fast when motivated," Dawn commented casually.
As if by magic, her words caused the other guys in the group to take off running, aside from Cale, for the main office, following the trail of shoved students and knocked over trash cans that David had left in his rush to sign up for tankery.
"Aren't you going to join them Cale?" Willow asked.
"Nope, not one bit, Mary had a pre-filled out sign-up form for me, all it needed was my signature, so I'm the first one to sign up for the guys. Of course there will be an announcement about it later today as well, so hopefully we'll get enough people. Evidently, again according to Mary, we need something like 40 or so people to sign up to outfit the tanks that we are supposedly getting," Cale told them.
"That's a lot of people! How many tanks are they expecting to field?" Angela asked.
"Eight tanks all-told," Cale answered.
"Will that be enough?" Angela asked.
"It will have to be Angela," Willow said, almost forcefully.
A few days later, on Friday, found the group of friends interested in tankery sitting in the one shared class that they had, World History. As the teacher was outlining the syllabus for the upcoming year, the school's broadcast system chimed, calling for the attention of the whole high school.
"Attention, will Willow Gonzalez and Lea Schultz please report to the Student President's office. I say again, will Willow Gonzalez and Lea Schultz please report to the Student President's office, that is all."
The teacher paused and looked over at the assembled class. "Well, I think the two of you had better hurry, it sounds important," he told the two students that were called.
"Yes sir," Willow said as she and Lea stood up and left the class, leaving their friends to wonder what was going on.
As the two women, almost polar opposites in attitude, walked down the hallway, Lea looked up at her more serious friend.
"So any idea why they would call us?" she asked.
"If I had to guess, it might be about tankery, but other than that, I wouldn't know, unless you've done something lately to upset them...again...," Willow answered.
"Ahhh come on Willow, that's not cool!" Lea whined as she danced around to walk backwards in front of her friend. "I haven't done anything lately!"
"Wasn't it you who was bragging the other day about painting all those symbols and crap that were covering the statue of the founder of our school?" Willow prodded her.
"Hey now, keep your voice down!" Lea said, glancing around sharply. "Nobody knows about that!"
"Nobody knows about what Ms. Schultz?" Elisabeth Mayhew asked suddenly from behind Lea.
Lea stiffened, almost causing Willow to run into her if she hadn't seen the vice president behind Lea. Lea slowly turned around, trying to hide how nervous she really was.
"Ummm nothing important Ms. Vice President," Lea said quickly.
"Well its good that you two have gotten here so fast. Come inside, there is much that needs discussing," Elisabeth said as she opened the door to the Student Council's office.
As they followed her into the office, Lea was very nervous, hoping that Willow's comment hadn't been overheard. Willow, on the other hand, was cool and calm as they walked in, ready to take on whatever was thrown at her, just like she had in junior high school when she had led her friends from victory to victory in their mock battles against other students.
Inside the office, off to one side, sat a couch where Mary and Anna sat casually, chatting between themselves quietly as they were looking over some papers. At the far end of the office, Willow and Lea saw a rather large desk. Elisabeth moved around the desk to stand behind and to the right side of Amy, who sat in a large, comfortable office chair, her elbows on the desk top, with her hands in front of her face and her fingers interlaced, the light from above her glinting off her glasses, hiding her eyes.
"Whoa, Gendo Ikari much?" Lea whispered to Willow, causing her friend to elbow her lightly.
"Thank you for coming so quickly ladies," Amy said seriously.
"Like we could refuse," Lea muttered while Willow cleared her throat and looked the President directly into the eyes.
"What is it that you need from us, President McKay?" she asked.
"Well we finally have received enough volunteers to man the tanks that we have been generously given by a benefactor of the school, and we want you, Willow, to lead the team," Amy answered.
Willow blinked, not expecting that, then looked down at Lea standing next to her, then back up at the President. "Then why is Lea here with me?"
Amy looked back over her shoulder at Elisabeth, who cleared her throat and answered for her.
"We feel that Lea should be your vice-captain, as it would be a good way for her to curb her more...impetuous...adventures if she were given some responsibility. Additionally we know that she is a skilled tank commander from her middle school days," Elisabeth told them.
Lea stood stunned, while she had commanded a tank in middle school, she had never been anything higher than that. "Ummm… I don't know what to say…," Lea trailed off, uncertain how to take what she was told.
"We have faith in you Lea, you're one of our better options for the situation we are in," Amy told her.
"Situation?" Willow asked, not liking where this was going.
"Yes. We are being allowed to join in the Japanese School Ship Tankery Tournament this year as it's the only school district that isn't in the middle of their tournament or whose tournament is complete," Elisabeth explained.
"Somehow I think there are a whole lot of conditions with this situation," Willow said wryly, causing Lea to grimace in agreement.
The members of the Student Council looked at each other, and the President nodded to them. "You're right Willow, there are a few conditions to us being allowed to enter in the Japanese Tournament. There are also some conditions in us being able to form a tankery team as well," She informed the pair.
"Oh come ON! That is SO not fair! Why do we have to have conditions in order to do something like this?!" Lea ranted, obviously pissed at them.
"Because that is the way of life, and what we had to do in order to have a tankery team this year," Amy answered coldly.
"Lea please! Let the President at least tell you what the conditions are first!" Mary pleaded from the couch.
Lea was about to snap out a response angrily when Willow put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her cold. She glanced up at her taller friend to see her shake her head slightly. Willow then looked up at the President and raised an eyebrow.
"What are the conditions that we have to abide by in order for us to play?" Willow asked them.
Elisabeth stepped forward and cleared her throat. "The biggest condition is that we have to have a female Captain and Vice-Captain for political reasons. The Japanese schools only allow tankery for girls, and to keep them from having too large of an issue, we have to have girls as the overall leaders. The second condition from the Japanese is that we have to team up with last year's champion of their tournament. They will have only a couple of tanks more than us, and we'll have to be going up against opponents who will have far more skill and tanks than both teams combined," She told them.
"Man that's going to suck," Lea muttered.
"Why do I have a feeling that those are not the only conditions to be placed upon us," Willow said wryly, prying for more information.
"Because they aren't," Amy told them. "Our benefactor has conditions of his own. The first of which is that we have to use the tanks that he provides only, not any other tanks. The second is that we shall wear the uniforms of the Australian Royal Army from World War Two, to include a rank structure and everything. His third condition is that all members of the tankery team will be entered into the Australian Royal Army as reserve members for as long as they are in tankery, and upon graduation from either High School or College, shall enter the Royal Army active duty service as tankers."
"Wait a minute! We have to join the military in order to be in tankery?!" Lea exclaimed.
"Yes but only for three years after you leave school," Elisabeth told them.
"Do we have a choice in this matter?" Willow asked.
"None," Amy answered. "However, as reservists, you will be given a monthly paycheck, and our benefactor has arranged for a Sydney reserve unit to provide us with logistical and maintenance support. We will be having a full maintenance team as well as a logistical team arriving within the week."
"How often will we have to wear the uniform?" Willow asked as Lea started to look intrigued.
"The uniform will become your new school uniform. Also, our benefactor has informed us that your ranks will be official, and not honorary. Your team, along with the maintenance and logistical support personnel will be an official Reserve company, with you as its company commander, Willow. You will be responsible for learning how to lead them, along with military regulations and other requirements. On the plus side, you will have support from an actual reserve officer who will be arriving to help teach you, and the other officers, how to be Queen's officers in the Royal Army. Also there will be a senior noncommissioned officer who will be coming to teach whoever you assign to be a noncommissioned officer as well. Our benefactor wants your team to be very well prepared to face anything that you might encounter while in Japan, and wants to show the world just how good the first Australian tankery team in almost twenty years can be," Amy told them.
"Who is our benefactor?" Lea asked with narrowed eyes.
"Unfortunately I do not know who our benefactor is, just that all these conditions from him have come through the Minister of Education, and have been signed off by the Minister of Defense," Elisabeth said to them.
Lea and Willow looked at each other, silently communicating with each other, before they turned back to face the Student Council.
"Well I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we?" Willow asked.
"No I guess we don't. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that these conditions are in place," Amy said contritely.
"So, when are we getting our tanks?" Lea asked, starting to get excited, wanting to see what they would have available.
"They are actually already here and in the garage. We were given more than we knew we could initially field, but the ones that were chosen to be fielded first, again in accordance with our benefactor, are ready and in the main garage, the rest are in the secondary garages behind the main garage," Amy said.
"So why are we being told to field specific tanks first? Why not field the maximum amount that we could field possible to give us a better chance at overwhelming our enemies?" Willow asked, curious as to why things were working out this way.
"It's easier to show you the tanks chosen for initial fielding than to try to explain the choices to you," Amy said as she stood up. "Oh before we head down there, here is a list of everyone who volunteered for the tankery team. Please look it over as we walk to the garage, and let us know who you're wanting to be the commanders of the other tanks when we get there, that way we can get them to the garage," She said as she handed a printout to Willow and Lea to read over. The printout was a list of names and skills of everyone that had volunteered for the team. Right off the top it included the names of all their friends who had wanted to do tankery with them.
As the six girls walked down the hall towards the garages, they looked over the list of people carefully.
"Hey David, Nicholas, Cale, Angela, Dawn and Shawn all signed up!" Lea said excitedly.
"Sounds like the perfect people to put in charge of tanks then," Willow said to her.
"Hey Pres, how many tanks are we having to initially field?" Lea asked irreverently.
"There are eight tanks that we need to field at first. If we get more volunteers, I think we can field more," Amy responded, though next to her Elisabeth stiffened at the disrespect that Lea was showing.
"Oh, okay, thanks," Lea said back as she continued to read through the list of people.
The two continued to discuss how they were going to lay out their new 'company' between them, picking out who would be the leaders and the tank commanders and their ranks. When they arrived at the tankery garage area, they could see the chain-linked, fenced-in area had five garages in total and a huge concrete open area for them to drive the tanks around. When they came to the gate, the President pulled out a key and unlocked it, opening the gate. She then led the group towards the largest of the five garage buildings.
"Wow, this is a lot of space!" Lea commented as they approached the large brick buildings.
"Yeah it is. This school had quite the tankery team at its height. They could have fielded almost fifty or sixty tanks all told. Back then not only was our tankery team so large, and one of the best, but we, the students, did all the maintenance, provided our own logistical support and personnel and everything," Anna commented. "I've still got all the treasury reports from that time, some twenty or thirty year's worth of reports. It was very enlightening as to how difficult it can be to operate a tankery team of large size."
"So how many tanks all told do we have now?" Willow asked.
"That's just the thing, our benefactor gave us eight right now, but has promised so many more shortly, even though he doesn't expect, nor require, that we man them immediately. In fact, his words as to why he is giving us so many tanks was, 'Just in case.' At least that's what the Minister told us," Mary answered cheerfully.
"Very interesting," Willow commented as they came up to the largest of the five garage buildings. "Well, let's see what this mysterious benefactor has given us."
As Amy pulled out a different key and unlocked the personnel door in the big garage door, Lea was literally vibrating with excitement to see the new tanks. The last tank she had been in had been an old Panzer III, and she was hoping that they would be receiving something a bit heavier, maybe even a Panzer IV. When the door was fully open, and the light spilled into the darkened garage, the forms of eight different tanks could barely be seen. The six girls entered the building and Elisabeth reached over and turned on the overhead lights, being the closest to the switch. As the lights came on fully, Willow and Lea gasped at the tanks they saw before them.
In line from the heaviest to the lightest, eight tanks sat there, camouflaged for forest or jungle operations. The first one was the super heavy Maus tank, which they had seen in Japan's tournament last year, and the ingenious way it had been defeated. Beside it was the heavy KV-4 break through tank, after that the famed Russian IS tank. The fourth tank was the rumored and rare British TOG II tank. Further down the line was a T-34-85, followed by a German Panther tank, and a very rare Chinese Type 59. The last tank was one that had been rumored to exist but had never been proven, until now, the ultra rare Russian BT-SV light tank.
"Wow….," Lea said almost too softly to hear as she stared at the line of tanks.
Willow just stood there stunned for a second, before shaking herself a bit and looked over to the President. "Can you arrange for Nicholas Hurst, David Sanders, Cale Schmidt, Angela Campos, Shawn Meads and Dawn Volking to be summoned here? Also, how do we get keys for this facility?" She asked slowly, her brain slowly adapting to what she was seeing.
"We can do that," Mary said with a light smile as she moved off to summon the requested people to the garage.
"Once you've finished talking to them and have determined who will be on what vehicle, come see me, we have enough spare keys made for all of your tank commanders to have one to both the outside fence and this building," Amy told her.
"What about the other buildings? I noticed there are more buildings on this facility than just the garages." Willow said.
"There are, and we'll talk about those later," Amy responded as she turned to leave. "We'll see you in a couple of hours Captain Gonzalez."
The rest of the friends were sitting in World History, the teacher having finished several minutes ago, but class still had another twenty minutes left.
"So, why do you think they were summoned?" David asked his group of friends.
"No clue, but it sounded urgent," Dawn said worriedly.
"I wouldn't worry about it, it's probably nothing terrible," Cale countered.
Before anything else could be said by the rest of the group, the school intercom crackled again, drawing the attention of the whole class once more.
"Will Nicholas Hurst, David Sanders, Cale Schmidt, Angela Campos, Shawn Meads and Dawn Volking please report to the Tankery Facility. I repeat will Nicholas Hurst, David Sanders, Cale Schmidt, Angela Campos, Shawn Meads and Dawn Volking please report to the Tankery Facility immediately. That is all," Mary's voice said over the intercom.
The group of friends looked at each other in wonder then all looked over to their teacher. The teacher looked up at them and waved them out. "Get going, sounds like you're needed now. Good luck to you," he said before he turned back to his reading.
The group picked up their things and left the class and started to head out to the facility. After several minutes of walking, as the Tankery Facility was on the opposite end of the campus from the classrooms, they had arrived to find the gate at the fenced in area open. They walked in and headed for the building where they could see the door open. David was the first one to enter the building and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the tanks lined up inside, shocked at the amount of heavy metal sitting before him. Because of his sudden stop, behind him Nicholas almost completely ran over his friend, barely stopping in time before he plowed into him.
"Hey Dave, why the hell did you stop?" he asked sharply.
"TANKS!" David cried out excitedly as he pointed at the line of tanks. He then suddenly broke into a run, and ran straight for the KV-4. "WOW! I didn't think that this tank had even been made!"
The rest of the group slowly entered into the building and each one made an exclamation of surprise at seeing the quality of tanks that were there.
"Hey everyone!" They heard Willow's voice. They glanced around and saw Willow sitting on top of the turret of the IS waving at them. Looking around they found Lea perched on top of the Maus, cheerfully kicking her feet back and forth over the side of the turret.
"Are these our tanks?" Angela asked in shock.
"Yup!" Lea said cheerfully.
"Lets gather around David and the tank he seems to be in love with," Willow said as she and Lea climbed down off of the tanks they were on.
As the group came up to where David was going over the tank from the ground up, Willow walked up and smacked David in the back of the head.
"Hey tread-head, pay attention!" she scolded.
David ducked as he was hit and looked back at the group, who looked at him with amusement.
"Sorry, I haven't been around a tank for a while and got a little over excited," he said apologetically.
"A little?!" Lea snickered at him.
Willow cleared her throat before any argument could be started, dragging their attention to her.
"All right everyone, Lea and I have a lot of information to tell you. Seems that while we are all on the tankery team, there are a few conditions. One is that these are the tanks we have to use. Another is that I am the commander, and Lea is my executive officer. I know those are military phrases, but that is another condition. As of this minute, we are now all reserve personnel in the Royal Australian Army until further notice. I will be the company commander, with a rank of Captain. Lea is the XO with the rank of Lieutenant. Dawn will be the platoon leader of 1st platoon, with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. 1st platoon will have every tank but mine, Lea's and David's tanks in it. David will be the company sergeant major. The rest of you will have the rank of Staff Sergeant and will be in command of the different tanks," Willow told them.
Everyone looked at each other, surprise written all over their faces before as one they turned to look at Willow.
"Willow, did you just say that we are in the Army now?" Angela asked slowly.
"How the heck did that happen? Can we even be enlisted or commissioned without our written consent?" Nicholas asked in shock while everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Two things. One, are we going to have to act like we're in the Army? Two, did you know that none of these tanks look like how the originals were supposed to look?" David asked.
"Ummmm, to answer in order, yes we are. As to how it happened, I don't know yet, only that it was probably done by our mysterious benefactor somehow. If I had to guess, that it is the benefactor, I would say that he or she has some seriously high government contacts in order to arrange all of this. And considering they communicate through the Minister of Education, I think that is a safe assumption at this time. Yes, David we will have to act like we're in the Army, and I have been told we will be paid as if we are in the Army. We'll be receiving a support group within a week or two, which will include our uniforms, which will now become our school uniforms, though I'm sure we can wear normal clothes when we aren't in school or actively doing tankery business. As to the second, how the hell can you tell that?" she responded.
"Easy! The KV-4 does not come with a 130mm gun. The IS looks like it's been uparmored. The Maus' exhaust doesn't look right for the engine it's supposed to have. Heck that TOG doesn't look like it's supposed to from the pictures I've seen before! It wouldn't surprise me if the others are similarly modified in some way, shape or form," David answered.
"So it will be a five tank platoon?" Dawn asked, trying to move the conversation back to details and away from David's enthusiasm.
"Yes, and while I know that is break from the traditional four tank formation, we just don't have enough tanks and crews right now to form up in the proper method," Willow answered.
"So who is getting what tank?" asked the normally quiet Shawn.
"I'll start with the command team, then work my way down. I will be in the IS. Lea is going to ride in the Maus, David will be taking the KV-4. Dawn you'll be in the Panther, Angela will be your platoon sergeant and will ride in the TOG II. Shawn, you and Nicholas will form a scouting element, you'll be in the Type 59 and Nicholas will have the BT-SV. Cale you're our communications link and will ride in the T-34-85," Willow directed.
"A Panther eh? Rawr," Dawn said with a playful wink at Angela, who shook her head at her friend's antics.
"Well then, that aside, we've got to prepare to meet the rest of the team. That will be happening tomorrow. Also, we're to come up with a nickname for our Company, as we'll be an official unit formation for the Reserves. I recommend we wait for the adult soldiers to get here before deciding that so that they have input as well. Also, the Army will be sending instructors to us so that those of us in noncommissioned and commissioned officer positions can be taught how to do our jobs within the Army," Willow informed them. "So everyone, start becoming familiar with your tanks, it's going to be a long month before we're to link up with our counterparts in Japan."
TO BE CONTINUED