Born of Iron
Tabac Iberez
Chapter 2: Dynamic Preparation
The next day, Miho found herself looking at the Tankery sheds and wondering about what was happening. Anamara had taken no small liberties, having taken the rightmost shed and completely emptying it. Walking in, she marveled at the spotless interior, noting the distinct lack of junk. A low wall had been set up, forcing the rest of the Tankery areas away from what Anamara had staked out as her domain. Noticing an odd cage in the back, Miho looked at it oddly, before hearing it start to rumble and rattle. Backing away, she watched as the cage's purpose was revealed- it was a safety cage for a lift to the core of the ship, and it was making this trip up loaded well. It took a moment for Miho to notice the collection of motley figures on the lift intermixed with barrels and crates, but when she did it was amazing. Anamara had brought with her thirty young helpers, as well as what looked like a whole lot of… sweet potatoes?
"Ahh, Miho-san! Just the person I was looking for!" Anamara called, jumping down from the pile of containers. Laughing raucously, she grinned and beckoned around the cleared shed-turned-warehouse. "Welcome to Quartermaster Central! If you need it, we can find it!"
Miho was a little confused. All she saw were sacks of sweet potatoes, barrels of sweet potatoes, crates of sweet potatoes… "Excuse me, but how are you going to turn this-" Miho said, "-Into things like parts and supplies?"
Anamara just chuckled. "Remember the eight degrees of separation remark?"
"Yes, but I didn't understand what you meant."
"Simple." Anamara said, chuckling. "Say you want… oh… a new set of tracks for your Porsche Tiger, and want to save some cash. You send the req form over to me, and I find who's willing to swap what for the tracks. Hypothetically, our track guy wants a transmission from a T-34. So I call up Pravada, see what they're willing to swap for a T-34 transmission. They want a couple thousand bolts. So I go over to my bolt guy in Indonesia, and tell him I need a couple thousand bolts and I'm paying in food. Week later, I get the bolts, swap the bolts for the transmission, and swap the transmission for the tracks. That deal was four degrees of separation. You understand it better now?"
Miho nodded. It made sense, in a looping way. Smiling in relief that she wouldn't be doing that, Miho laughed and responded.
"You do that- I just practice the business end of Tankery."
Anamara sighed in relief. "We all have our strong spots. The Ram II I requisitioned will be coming in in about a week, so you should get a crew together. If push comes to shove, my cargo handlers can man it in a match, though."
Miho agreed, nodding. "I'll get on it. The Ram II takes five, so we can cut it down to three-"
Anamara disagreed sharply. "No. Under crewing is part of why the Chi-Nu did so bad last tournament. Get your crew ready- I can drum a few students out of the Academy if need be."
Miho nodded, surprised by the forceful tone in the quartermaster's voice. "Extra permanent hands will always be appreciated. If you will excuse me, the teams are arriving."
Watching the teams assemble on the parade ground, Miho got ready to deliver the good news of quartermasters and new tanks. After finishing her opening, Miho called up Anamara and introduced her.
"… and for the hard work we managed to do in the last tournament, the ship's administrators have seen fit to give us access to some personal from below decks. Chief among them, our new manager of supplies and acquisition, Feraxii Anamara. Feraxii-san has been a huge asset so far in our Tankery program so far, going as far as to ensure that we will have a new tank for the upcoming season!"
At this, the entire Tankery class let off a grateful cheer. They were all veterans now, having passed through the gauntlet of last year's tournament. After they settled down, Miho announced their planned activities- a series of range runs and races to ensure that gunnery and driving were up to par, cumulated by a mock battle if there was time remaining.
As the motley collection of tanks converged on the firing range, Miho got ready to watch. On the drive over, she had explained the plan- ten rounds stationary, then ten rounds at ten, twenty, and thirty kph respectively. A second range would be used for the moving runs, with a fake tank and a scoring area for how close the shot got. It wasn't for pinpoint accuracy- rather, it was a test of their suppresive fire. As each tank rolled up to the firing line, Miho got her binoculars out and started scanning the assembled group. Alright, Turtle-san is good, Miho thought, watching each shot hit the target. Scrolling over to the next tank, Miho smiled. Rabbit-san is really going at it, she thought, but their 37 mm gunner needs a little less speed and a little more accuracy. We're not going to be fighting TOGs or anything. Next to them, the B1 bis was thumping away, slow and steady. Hmm, seems Mallard-san has the opposite problem of Rabbit-san. Taking a second to check her own target, Miho smiled and relaxed. Hanna had drilled all ten rounds into an empty space that looked like only five rounds had torn it open. Checking the others, she noted that all of them had done fairly well, with at least nine rounds on target. All of them, that is, except Anteater team in the Chi-Nu. Frowning, Miho asked Mako to take her over. Looking at the target, Miho saw that of the six rounds they had fired, two had hit the target. That was bad- very bad. For the kind of maneuvers that Miho planned, good run-and-gun skills were needed. How could Anteater team do this when they failed basic marksmanship? Thinking hard, Miho asked Saori to have everyone move to the second range and begin the run-and-gun exercises one at a time while Miho took Hana to help Anteater team. While Hana taught Nekota some tricks to get the Chi-Nu's gun under control, Miho guided the rest of Anglerfish team to supervise the run-and-gun work as well as the races.
At the impromptu racetrack, Miho watched with a great deal of pride. Each team was clocking in at well below their expected times, with Duck team and Leopon taking the cake for most seconds removed. Writing the times down, Miho smiled… until Anteater team arrived. She supposed it was only to be expected- Anteater team was the metaphorical eleventh-hour addition, with very little experience, even including the battle with Black Forrest Peak. As Hanna climbed into the gunner's seat wearily, Miho had to cajole Mako out to help Anteater. With Mako helping Anteater team, Miho could finally practice her nearly-abandoned abilities at driving tanks. After crashing into the third branch, Miho decided that her skills had eroded to the point where not driving was the better option. After returning the tanks to their sheds and dismissing the crews, Miho stumbled home in a daze. In the back of her mind, a thought came about unbidden. Now you know why Kuromorimine uses such rigid tactics. It requires only obedience, and works beautifully with undertrained crews. The tanks make up for the failures of the tanker. Most of the time. Shaking her head, Miho banished the thought. My Tankery style will be different. It must be- after all, I cannot afford to never retreat.