Girls Und Panzer: Iron Dragon
Chapter 3: A Not-So-Warm Welcome
(As Told By: Han Hui Yin)
Seeing all the publicity from the media did not help ease our coming to Japan for the first time. As Commander Shen and the other officers got off the carrier, I was at my place as the driver. My name is Han Hui Yin. I am the driver for Team Stone Lion. If you need a driver for your team, and you're ready for a real fight then you call on me.
We drivers drive the tank behind the march of the commanders, gunners, and loaders. Colonel Hua once took us on a field trip to see the march of the People's Liberation Army outside the Forbidden City in Beijing. Let me tell you, there is no army in the world that rivals our army in terms of disciplined marching order. That was passed to us.
We drove our vehicles off the carrier, 'The welcome looks as warm as winter' I thought to myself,
I got out of the hatch of the T-34-2, and saluted Commander Shen and took my place in line with the other members, "见到你很荣幸 (jiàn dào nǐ hěn rónɡ xìnɡ)" we said in unison and bowed to the Japanese Teams that came out to meet us at the port. I can see in their eyes a more than mild neglect, like being the last puppy that no one wants.
My Japanese is very limited, but there were a few words I caught from the Japanese teams as we marched passed them to our quarters. They called us 'animals' and 'dirty cheaters'. I cracked a fist at my side which Commander Shen caught, "Do not let them get to you, it is not the tank that counts, but the crew at the controls it," she whispered,
"Yes, commander," I replied, we unpacked our belongings, it was nice to sleep on a bed after our time in Xinjiang,
"I saw this coming too," said Li Yu our team gunner, "I remember we tried to compete against the Japanese Teams last year, and our request got declined," she patted me on the shoulder, and smiled. Li Yu has probably the cutest smile in our school. Her boyfriend is a Navy Cadet, "they don't like us because people are afraid of what's different,"
"It's an uphill battle though, if we don't win, there's something that will come out of this," I replied with a thankful smile for Li Yu's company, "respect," Li Yu nodded, and I stood up from the bed, "come on, let's find some food, there has to be something on this ship," I know the main reason behind the Japanese rejecting us last year, our tanks.
We asked the local base to borrow their Type 59s. They declined saying there's enough firepower in a T-34-2, "Finally," I sighed,
To celebrate our arrival in Japan, our cook aboard the ship made Laziji, a little taste of home. It felt great to not eat something that came out of a bag. There was talking, laughing and general fun between the teams over bowls of rice and a home cooked meal, "Did you see the way the Japanese looked at us?" said Commander Wu of Jade Fox,
"No kidding, they looked ready to rip our heads off," replied Commander Li Ming of Team Soaring Eagle. In my opinion, that makes it all the better. No one charges into battle in a comfortable walk, or if you're in cavalry you don't attack in a trot. You attack ready to fight, you have to be smart when you attack, and not charge into cannon fire.
"It doesn't matter, the Japanese can yell, scream, and complain, in truth, loud voices belay a weak cause," I replied,
The next day, we were in red gym shorts and white t-shirts while the Hunan School crews wear yellow shorts and white shirts. We jogged around the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, and did the usual exercises from pushups with a crew member on your back to pullups on the tank guns with weights on the ankles. Not bad for schoolgirls.
We all stand around 5'2 and weigh between 112 and 120lbs, the standard for our school. We also took the tanks and tank destroyers out onto the trails to take in the scenery of the area. We traveled over mountain trails, and rolling plains. Japan has it's differences, and similarities to China, "Commander, do you know when we will go into battle?"
"No, not yet, I haven't gotten anything from the Federation," said Commander Shen amid the noise of the tracks and the engine of the tank,
We came back to the Liaoning a few hours later. It was late the afternoon, and we were taking a break for the days training in the mountains. We were refueling the tanks when we had a few visitors come aboard the ship, "Attention!" called out Commander Shen to all of us, and we reacted and saluted the visitors aboard the ship, "as you were"
They looked at our tanks, and inspected each tank from armor thickness to the caliber of the guns. They were taking down notes on clipboards. They did the same to the Hunan School teams. Before I could stop them to ask what they were doing, they left the ship. I was puzzled by what they were doing with those paper notebooks and clipboards.
"What is with those people?" I asked Ying Yue and Li Yu, only to get shrugs of the shoulders from the two of them, "odd...very odd," I pondered,
Questions went through my mind as I slept that night. Who were those people? When are we going to see action against the Japanese Teams? Who were we going to face, and what kinds of tanks do the Japanese Teams have in store for us? I had some thoughts on who those people were, but in the bigger picture, I don't feel that it really matters.
It was really in the morning, and the sun was just rising as I went out onto the deck to get some fresh air. I walked over to the tanks. I placed a gentle hand on Shishi, our Stone Lion. I smiled lightly to myself, and nodded lightly, "You are the brother among sisters, the day will come when we will go into this competition, and come out as winners,"
