Notes: Okay, I'm back with another chapter! Enjoy!


Chapter 3

The Battle for Paris

That week, Éclair drilled her team over and over. That way, they would be ready to face Black Forest.

Black Forest had taken Waffle Academy earlier in the week. Darjeeling and Éclair grew increasingly worried about their situation.

One day, a short, brown haired girl walked up to Éclair.

"Are you commander of the Tankery team?" she asked.

"Yes, why?" Éclair questioned.

The girl held out her hand. "Deiji Kawashi. I want to be a gunner."

"I'll stick you in one of our B1's," Éclair said without thinking. "Can you do anything else?"

"I'm an okay loader," she said.

"Good," Éclair nodded.

"I can play the trumpet," she added.

"That's not important, but you get the B1. You're commander is Galette. Go get acquainted with your teammates. They're over there," Éclair pointed to a bluish B1.

The day of the match, Maho and Erika faced Éclair, Fondue, and Darjeeling.

"Say bye-bye to your school, Frenchie!" Erika sneered arrogantly. Maho shot her a look but didn't say anything.

"Good luck. And I'm not French," Éclair said stiffly.

"All bow!" The announcer said. Everybody bowed.


Back in the Maginot stands, Éclair moaned.

"They out number us and out gun us!"

"Ten men, wisely lead, shall beat a hundred that don't use their head," Darjeeling quoted.

"NOT THE TIME FOR MORE PROVERBS!" Éclair shouted.

"What she means is, if we can out maneuver them, we can still win," Fondue explained.

"And if we win, then we prove Kuromorimine wrong!" Éclair punched a fist into the air.

"War does not determine who is right-only who is left," Darjeeling quoted again.

"ENOUGH WITH THE PROVERBS AND QUOTES AND STUFF!" Éclair shouted.


"Match start!"

"Okay, children of the nation! Listen up!" Éclair began.

The radio cracked. It was Fondue.

"Really?" she asked.

"What, I like the Marseillaise!" Éclair asked.

"Nothing," Fondue said. "But we don't have the penetration to deal with any of the Black Forest tanks except for the Panzer III's and the Panthers from the side."

"I know that!" Éclair exclaimed. "But there is a valley, here, and a town here." Éclair pointed at a map. "I want Darjeeling and her tanks to take the town. We'll attack the Black Forest tanks from the top of the ridges surrounding the valley, where we can hit their weak top armor. The flag S35 will be towards the rear of the formation. Let's go!"

"Are you sure that they'll attack through the valley?" Fondue asked.

"I think they'll try to encircle St. Gloriana in the town. They'll have to come through here," Éclair answered.

There were 15 tanks allowed for this match. St. Gloriana had brought a Churchill VII, four Matildas, and a Crusader. Maginot had brought an AMX M4, three B1's, two Somua S35's, and three FT-17's.

Kuromorimine, on the other hand, had gone all out. They had brought a Tiger, a Tiger II, five Panthers, a Panzer IV, a StuG, the Jagdpanther, and five Panzer III's.

Jagdpanther-Chan was back, but she looked a little dazed, and constantly avoided people. Akio was a little concerned about her, but dismissed it. He had a job to do with his crew: Cause mayhem in the Black Forest lines.

"Alright, I want two Panthers, the StuG, and the Jagdpanther to head over here, into the town through this valley. You will have to turn left and watch out for this forest," Maho laid a map down onto a makeshift table. "Akio, your Panther and Miho's Panzer IV will follow behind them, and my Tiger will be in between you two. I want Erika to take her Tiger and the last two Panthers into the town from here." She pointed to a section of the map. "Panzer III's, I want you to cover the northern side of the town. However, I want Panzer 14 to scout for us down the valley."

"Commandant," Erika said, "Are you sure about this? They might ambush you in the valley."

"Even if they do, we have both the armor and the firepower," Maho said, albeit a bit absentmindedly. She was looking at Miho. The latter was staring off into the distance. Her eyes worried Maho. It was not the emotions in them, but the complete lack of emotions. Maho decided that she would talk to Miho after the match.

"Move out!" Erika ordered, since Maho was paying no attention.

Akio's Panther pulled into formation behind Maho's Tiger I and Miho's Panzer IV.

"Hey, Akio?" Miko asked.

"Hai, what is it?" Akio replied.

"I don't think we should be knocking out any more friendly tanks," Miko said. "Mrs. Nishizumi is getting suspicious and well, we don't want to get caught."

"We didn't get caught the last two matches," Akio pointed out.

"Yeah, but we can't keep it up. Our luck will run out," Miko said.

"Okay," Akio sighed.

The rumble of the engines of the Panther's engines was comforting to Akio. It helped him forget the nightmare that had happened in the same tank.

The road they were travelling down was very narrow, allowing two tanks to travel side by side. However, they were moving in a single file. There were rather shallow cliffs on either side, dotted by bushes.

Maho wondered if St. Gloriana and Maginot's tanks could hit them from there. Then again, they were probably waiting in the forest, which was about 600 meters to the exit of the valley.

On the cliffs, Éclair waited to see Kuromorimine's tanks move into the valley. One of the FT-17 scouts had reported them coming this way. The flag tank was among them.

"All tanks, load your cannons!" Éclair ordered.

"You heard her, move it!" Fondue added from her S35.

In her B1, Deiji slammed a 75 mm shot into the howitzer. Above her, Kimi, the loader for the 47mm gun, did the same. Deiji than locked onto the lead tank, a Panzer III.

"Hold fire!" Éclair's voice came over the radio. They could now plainly see Kuromorimine's tanks.

"I want the AMX to target the Tiger. Everyone else, choose your own targets," Éclair ordered.

"Target selected!"

"Ready to fire!"

"For France!"

"Seriously?"

"Oh, come on,"

"Shh! They could be listening to us!" Éclair hissed.

"Well, they won't get much usefulness out of it," Fondue said.

Éclair, in her tank, rolled her eyes. "FIRE!"

The Maginot guns roared, sending shells into the Black Forest formation.

Maho was startled by the sudden sound of cannons roaring, and her Tiger suddenly spun off to one side. The track must have come off. They were a sitting duck.

Akio saw this and radioed his crew.

"Alright, this our chance to cover up the team kills we racked up earlier. Ben, move up and block the AMX's shot!"

The Panther moved into the way just as the AMX M4 fired again. The shot clipped the frontal armor of the Panther at a very flat angle, causing a ricochet.

Everywhere else there was chaos. The lead Panzer III had been knocked out, soon followed by the StuG and a Panther. Erwin radioed the StuG, just to make sure that everyone was all right.

In the Jagdpanther, Jagdpanther-Chan and her crew were desperately trying to spin their tank destroyer around. They finally did. However, the Maginot tanks were too high up for the Black Forest guns to reach.

"Advance up the slope!" Maho ordered. The Jagdpanther lurched forwards, only to have its track blown off by the howitzer on Deiji's B1.

The gunner instinctively covered her ears when she realized the tracks had come off. Only this time, the Commander's shouting didn't come.

Huh. That's odd, she thought.


In her Somua S35, Éclair contemplated the situation. The Tiger had been immobilized, but she had made a huge mistake. Her main forces were all on one side of the shallow cliffs. On the other side, there were only FT-17's.


In her Tiger, Maho was worried.

"I need someone to help me fix the track. I want the loader to come with me," she said.

"Okay," The loader nodded.

The two climbed out and took shelter between the Tiger and Panther. Maho lugged a spare track and began the long and tedious work of replacing it.

"This is Éclair, I want Galette's B1 and the AMX M4 to take a shot at the flag Tiger," she ordered.

Deiji realized that she was about to take a shot at the flag tank, and could win the match. However, she noticed some movement by the Tiger.

"This is Deiji, I can't make this shot. There are people in the way!" she shouted into her radio.

"Nobody cares! Just take the shot! Victory is all that matters!" was the reply.

Still, Deiji hesitated. She didn't pull the trigger. What if someone got hurt?

"Fine then! I want the AMX to fire!" Éclair screamed.

Just as the AMX M4 was about to fire, the Panther covering the Tiger shot. The round slammed into the lower glacis plate of the AMX, taking it out.

Éclair was furious. They could have won if only that girl had fired her gun! Now the Tiger's tracks were back on, and it was now pointing straight at the Maginot tanks.

Éclair just hoped that the St. Gloriana girls were faring better.

In the town, Darjeeling moved her Churchill VII forwards, followed by the Matildas. The Crusader rushed forwards and rounded a corner. However, it instantly skidded to a halt and was riddled with 50mm shots from the four Panzer III's.

The four Panzer III's then rounded the same corner that the Crusader had just come around, and three were instantly taken out. One Panzer III managed to turn, but had its tracks blown off. It was quickly disposed of.

The St. Gloriana tanks rumbled forwards. Suddenly, one of the Matildas exploded, followed by another.

"What is happening?" Orange Pekoe asked, worried.

"It's an ambush," Darjeeling said calmly. "Everybody back up!"

The Churchill VII lurched into reverse. A shot glanced off the side of the turret.

"Into the side street! Drop smoke!" Darjeeling ordered, taking a sip of tea.

The Churchill VII backed up into an alleyway while the Matildas continued reversing. Hopefully the Black Forest Tanks would take the bait.

And they did! A Tiger II passed the alleyway, followed by two Panthers. Assam tried to fire, but was stopped by Darjeeling.

"Not yet. If we take them out now, we'll be stuck in here," she said.

When the tanks passed, the Churchill lurched out onto the street.

BOOM!

One of the Panthers exploded. However, the Tiger II managed to take out both Matildas.

"Fire at the Tiger II!" Darjeeling ordered.

BOOM!

The shot slammed into the Tiger's turret ring, jamming it. The street wasn't wide enough for the Tiger II's gun barrel to turn around. The Churchill however, with its shorter barrel, had no problem's maneuvering the tight city streets.

BOOM!

The Panther had fired, but missed due to hasty aiming. The Churchill fired again, and because the Panther hadn't turned its frontal armor towards them, was taken out.

Suddenly, the radio cracked to life. It was Éclair.

"We are in big trouble! The Black Forest tanks are advancing up, and we can't stop them! They'll take out the flag S35!" she shouted.

"Hold on!" Darjeeling said. "Assam, take out the Tiger II. We need to help the Maginot tanks!"

The Tiger II lost its track with the next shot, rendering it almost useless.

"We need to move, now!"

"Okay, Miss Darjeeling!"

As the Churchill turned to get out of the city, Pekoe placed another shell into the breach. Assam fired, and the Tiger II was taken out. Seconds later, however, the loudspeaker blared to life.

"The Maginot/St. Gloriana flag tank has been immobilized! Kuromorimine wins this match!"


Notes: Thanks again for sticking with this story. If you think this chapter is slightly confusing, please tell me. I'll see what I can do.

Lastly: Do you like this story or think it has potential?