When Ooarai Academy reached off the southern coast of Vancouver Island for the approach into the harbour in early morning, a series of unpleasant events unfolded. Upon nearing the strait, the Academy warship was intercepted by an actual warship, bristling with weapons, from the Royal Canadian Navy, identifying itself as the HMCS Algonquin. Compared to the academy, both the warship and its weapon seemed pitiful in size, but no one wanted to antagonize a ship designed to sink other ships. Apparently, the presence of a ship as big as Ooarai made everyone nervous or frustrated, since Ooarai was probably too large to maneuver around the various islands into the harbour, and blocked the way of all the commerce vessels trying to enter the port at the same time. The Algonquin was ordered to hold the giant at bay until an acceptable solution could be reached.
After about an hour after the detaining, it was decided that smaller patrol boats conducting various routine missions would ferry the relevant persons into the city, while a barge was to transport the tanks separately. As a result, the Senshado team of Ooarai Girls' Academy had to brave the waters, as many of them got seasick on the tiny boats that rolled and tossed about in the smallest of waves; motions they never felt on the city carrier. More sickbags had been used this day than the last six months on this particular boat. A soldier near the girls tasked with overseeing them until they reached land shook his head, let out a laugh, and muttered something towards them, not expecting, and not particularly caring if what he said was understood.
"Does anyone know what he just said?" Saori inquired, secretly staring at the soldier with a slight tint on her face. She had a feeling what the man just said was not a compliment. She looked towards the floor of the room in the ship and was greeted with the sight of Mako sleeping away on her lap, not even caring about the smell or the nauseating bumps in the trip.
Hana answered calmly, with her usual grace, "I believe he just said 'it's hilarious that girls who spend their entire school career at the sea get seasick so quickly', Saori-san," the rolling motion that brought the entire first year team, the volleyball team, the gamer team, and Sodoko to their knees…or their last meal evidently did not faze her in the least. Another wave crashed onto the craft, throwing the aforementioned crews into the floor, and bringing almost all of the girls to the brink.
Miho was also suffering from the effects of the sea, but not to the extent of some of the others. As she strained to keep her head clear, she tried to think about just what she should do to find a new tank for the volleyball team after they permanently lost the Type 89, and where she could get her hands on a replacement for the less capable M3 Lee and the B1 bis. Their shortcomings certainly had made things dicey in previous matches, and in the memorable battle against Pravda, served virtually no other purpose except to be used as sandbags for the flag tank, the now-dead Type 89.
When the patrol boat finally moored in the harbour, the girls were only too eager to escape what most of them decided to think of as a death trap, pushing each other off the ramp in a mad dash with their luggage – each had a small suitcase for carrying personal goods - to set foot on the safe and immobile land to the amusement of the sailors. Some collapsed on the firm ground, while others used the moment to stretch out their pains. All save for Mako, who was carried off the boat behind Hana's back barely awake.
Yukari was one of the first to recover from the transit. "That was the first time I experienced such a violent ride! Right, Nishizumi-dono?"
Most agreed with the sentiment, either nodding their heads if they could do so without relapsing into seasickness, or groaning something along the lines of 'I agree'.
"I can certainly see why the average Roman feared the sea, Guderian." Caesar, with the rest of the history club, had now managed to stand up with reasonable stability, in an effort to maintain their dignity as people who adopted soul names from reputed military leaders. [AN: except for Oryou, but who's counting .]
"Seasickness should be against school regulations…" Sodoko's comment was much less zealous than they usually were.
At this time, Mako decided to finally wake up from her slumber, undisturbed by the sea thanks to her unwillingness to wake up in the morning. She swivelled her head side to side while on Hana's back, eyes fluttering as she tried to blink the sleep out of her. She commented in her usual tired, flat, nigh-inaudible voice, "Huh? Did something happen while I was asleep," after she took in the sight and smell, face crunching up from their combined effect.
Three people, one male and two female, who looked to be around 16 to 18 approached the girls as the last of them shook off their ordeal, the boy in front, with the two girls flanked behind him. The boy was clad in a woolen knee-length light grey trench coat and a hat of similar material that resembled a German world war 2-era field cap, while his escorts sported green flight jackets with an insignia consisting of a red maple leaf with a blue background, surrounded by a thick octagonal red outline. What struck the girls most was that the boy was clearly of an Asian descent, with a significantly more yellow face, dark hair, and brown eyes.
All members of the Ooarai Senshado team tried their best to organize themselves, but once the effects of the boat ride completely wore off, the Canadian winter started to attack them. While winters in Vancouver were not as severe as ones in other parts of Canada, it still was punishing for the young girls with nothing but sailor uniforms and short skirts for protection against the elements. Only Erwin and Oryou seemed to be unaffected, but they were wearing their jackets over their uniform as always, shielding them from the worst.
The boy glanced at their uniforms. With a faint nod, he cleared his throat, and addressed the Ooarai team, in Japanese to their utter shock. "You must be the Ooarai Tankery team we requested a period of practises together with. As a representative of the Vimy Ridge Academy, I welcome you to Canada. My name is Lucius Park. I will escort you to our academy from here; please, follow us."
"You can speak Japanese?!" were Saori's first words after Lucius gave his introduction.
"Umm…just how is Canada able to maintain its academies when even its largest port cannot house one?" were Yukari's first words after Lucius gave his introduction.
"…Tankery? What's that," were Mako's first words after Lucius gave his introduction.
"Please, help us out of this cold!" were the words spoken by the freshmen team, huddling onto each other as their bodies trembled.
Erwin scanned Lucius up and down with sharp eyes, admiring his choice of clothing, the field cap in particular.
"How do you do, Lucius-san," was Hana's response to Lucius's introduction.
Lucius, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of words spoken at the same time by the Ooarai Senshado team, raised his hands to his chest level, as if to physically block a wall of questions. "Please, I cannot answer multiple questions at the same time; there will be a time for discussion later. In the meantime," he continued, with a slight chuckle, as he removed a small piece of paper and unfurled it, revealing a printed photograph of Nishizumi Miho from the end of her new school's match against Anzio outside her cupola, "you must be Nishizumi Miho. I must say, we were all impressed by your decisions in every match, before and after the incident."
Miho instantly snapped her head to face Lucius, stunned. He offered his hand, and she took it with numbness in her hand and face. She vaguely registered responding with a simple "yes".
He then turned to the Ooarai Girls' Academy School Council. "And thank you for accepting our offer even though it was on such a hurried *schedule*." He gave a slight nod to them, and Anzu responded with a happy grin.
"Well, we couldn't pass up on such a good offer." Miho, who had overcome her shock, along with the rest of the Student Council, nodded to Anzu's response.
"Well, my commander instructed me to bring all of you to our academy as soon as possible," Lucius continued, until he took a slightly more detailed glance at the sorry state the girls were in, "…but, given the circumstances, a detour to a nearby winter clothing store is in order. Then we can proceed to our transport."
He motioned with his hand to follow, and the Ooarai Senshado club immediately trailed behind him and his escorts, eager to get into warm clothing, regardless of their costs.
After everyone purchased a coat or hats they decided were sufficient for a Canadian winter, Lucius guided them through the city, taking care not to lose any of his numerous guests in the cityscape, and into an airport, onto the tarmac. Then he stopped in front of a plane.
The plane was pitifully small compared to the commercial jets taxing to and fro the terminals at around 20m long, and was powered by four propeller engines. It was painted in olive with a red stripe down the middle of the fuselage, with an insignia identical to ones sewn into Lucius's escorts' jackets. Also, unlike modern jets, this plane had a thick wing that was placed very high. It seemed rather old, but well-maintained.
Erwin was the first to recognize the plane. "Your school owns a B-24 Liberator?"
"Two, actually. We use them to ferry students from our school to a major airport, then back."
Yukari inquired, "But why do you have such large planes when academies can move under their own power?"
Lucius only gave a short laugh at her question, and finished, "All will be answered once we are in the air. In the meantime, please board the plane. We do want to arrive before dusk."
The interior of this bomber-turned-passenger plane was much like other airliners, with simple passenger seats finished in dark red leather laid out in two rows of two, each row separated by an aisle in the centre. At this point, as everyone started choosing their seats, Lucius's escorts, who had been rather cavalier until now –Yukari thought she heard the words "Momo", "half glasses" and "weird" from them while the two were talking earlier, to Momo's annoyance- entered the cockpit, sat on the pilots' seats, and started to run what seemed like pre-flight checks. As she took her own seat among the many on the plane, Yukari couldn't help but wonder just what the answers to her growing list of questions could be, and just what Nishizumi-dono was getting the school into.
About two hours into the flight, Yukari could no longer keep her questions within her, and her thoughts spilled out of her mouth almost in a shout as if a shell just left a high-velocity gun, and whoever was in front of her was on the receiving end. "Umm…on what ship is your academy located?" She squirmed in embarrassment, and ended her sudden outburst with "sorry…."
Fortunately for her, Lucius happened to be sitting in the seat in front of her, and he turned back. "Alright, I suppose this is as good a time as any to start explaining some questions all of you probably share," he began, speaking at first to Yukari, but soon moving to address the entire team, "the Vimy Ridge Academy is not a ship. In fact, Canada does not maintain a single Academy warship. Our school, in particular is located in Northern Alberta, east of Highway 35." The entire team's eyes bulged, flabbergasted, and Lucius chuckled in amusement.
"Ehhhh?! Why!" was the general response.
Lucius continued his explanation, "Well, back when the government started looking at the academy warship project, one look at their upkeep cost repelled them from the project as a whole. Instead, someone in the cabinet came up with a 'brilliant' idea: why build a great big ship to isolate a school to foster excellence when the same effect can be achieved much more cheaply by building schools up north, in the middle of nowhere?" he shrugged, "Well, that's what happened, and our academy is well inland, away from any coastline, never mind a ship."
Yukari continued to ask, deciding to get as much information out of this representative as possible before he quietened down again, "What is Senshado like in North America? What are the usual lineups of tanks?" Her tone and volume rose with every word from a sudden spike of enthusiasm whenever tanks were discussed, for which her Nishizumi-dono coined the term "panzer-high".
"Well, one of the biggest differences in Tankery between North America and other leagues is that almost no team uses a heavy tank in any battle. There is much more emphasis in speed and firepower, and armour can be sacrificed if it slows the vehicle down noticeably. Some teams have tinkered with heavy tanks, but those heavies always got destroyed first because they couldn't maneuver as well," Lucius continued, musing on his memory, "In fact, I haven't seen any tank heavier and slower than a Tiger I ever get deployed in any team, professional or academic. Even Tigers themselves are quite rare beasts. Also, the rules for the types of vehicles that can be deployed is simpler, and….more expansive, depending on how people look at them. Basically, anything that is motorized and fully armoured can be used. To sum it all up, Tankery more or less outside of Japan has greater elements of combined arms."
At this, Miho found herself having to join in the conversation. "But wouldn't armour and good gun be able to stand and fight against faster, but lighter tanks? Not using heavier tanks simply because they tend to be slower doesn't seem like a good reason, Lucius-san."
"Let's just say that rule about what can be deployed has led people to using equipment that effectively make heavy tanks useless as a fighting vehicle. Also, because of their speed, the…'mainstream' tanks were often able to charge into point-blank range in numbers, and put shells into vulnerable side and rear armour before the loaders and gunners in the heavy tanks could manage to get enough shells downrange."
Miho asked, once again, "What are the number restrictions like in North America?'
"The rules allow up to 30 vehicles, but 15 to 20 are what you see most often. Also, most matches use a 'Quarter-Rule Flag' battle, in which a team must destroy both the flag tank and 25% of the enemy's numbers to be victorious."
"Why do you use such a confusing rule…?" Mako joined in the conversation as well, inn her usual sleepy and lazy tone.
"Remember when I said most tanks in North America consist of lighter, faster tanks with good guns? Such lineups led to creations of 'sniping' squads, where a squad was formed in a team whose sole purpose was to charge near the enemy and surgically knock out their flag tank in a skirmish before any main fighting began," Lucius gave a sigh, and shook his head in disapproval of such practises of the past. "They made the games very, very boring, and everyone, from the most experienced of tankers to the newest of fans clamoured for a rule change. So, the Association, or the 'NAASA', we call them for short, added in the 'Quarter Rule', which brought back most of the enthusiasm."
Hana was intrigued by the acronym. "What does NAASA stand for, Park-san?"
"It stands for the North America Armored Sports Association."
Saori was about to join in what was becoming a lively conversation, and turned on her seat towards Lucius, but was jerked in that awkward position as the bomber-turned-passenger plane dipped downwards.
"Ahh, it seems like we approaching the airstrip. You might want to fasten your seat belts now. As an extra caution," Lucius advised his guests while he tightened his own belts. He was followed by rest of the girls, who during the discussion had without conscious knowledge, undid their safeties.
As the last of the passengers finished their preparations for landing, the bomber continued its final descent to Vimy Ridge Academy's airstrip.