Chapter 3
It had been several days since school started, routines were solidified, classes were settled, and things were beginning to settle into some form of normalcy. The presence of the boys and their large complex of temporary portable buildings had become something that girls of Ooarai were no longer surprised to see in front of their building. The separate entrances for the girls and guys had been abandoned after quite a few guys had gone in through the girls' entrance and were counted absent even though they were clearly at school. Several other new portables had been brought in for the gym classes to use for the guys to use for changing into their work out clothes and some new ones for showers that had been patched into the ship's water mains with a long hose.
The girls' own situations had changed very little. The tankery team had been practicing, letting the three new girls hitch a ride with each team to get some experience with operating the tanks. This had led Miho to a new idea, she'd had each team switch tanks and mix up crews and assignments to give themselves the flexibility to adequately man other tanks or positions in the event of someone being sick, hurt, or otherwise unavailable. So far it was going as well as one could expect, some tanks had found themselves stuck due to a lack of experience, others had seen shells miss entirely from poor marksmanship and strike hundreds of feet from the targets. A few girls had broken quite a few nails and jammed or pinched their fingers from bad loading technique. But, thankfully, these exercises were meant to acquaint the girls with positions that they might need to occupy later on.
But the closing date of their match with Koala Forest put these plans off, along with assurances that no one had any upcoming distractions. So Miho had gotten into the groove once again of getting everyone trained up. Yukari had downloaded the match of Koala Forest vs. Viking Fisheries from the tournament for all to see on Friday after practice so that they would be able to get an idea of not only what tanks they use but how they used them. But first, they had some practice to get done. Right now they were all just looking their tanks over before heading out.
"Hey Nakajima how's Leopon doing?" Miho asked, walking over to the big gun of the team, their prized Porsche Tiger. It had a bit of a hiccup yesterday and their Dragon Wagon had to tow it back because the ship's police department said it was blocking traffic. Miho had feared the worst, but she could hear the Tiger idling placidly in its spot as the Automotive Club was tightening up the tracks and going over their baby one last time.
"Oh it was the gear box again. We'll spend the weekend taking it apart and doing the necessary overhaul. If the job's too big we can still get it back in for the match and order a replacement. We had a warranty on it that'll cover the cost don't worry about the money," Nakajima smiled, patting her tank.
Miho sighed in relief, something like a full gear box was a huge investment. She didn't quite understand the inner workings of insurance but she was sure glad the Automotive girls knew. She wasn't really responsible for the monetary aspect of the team, but she liked to cover all bases just to be sure.
"Well take it easy on your tank. Don't feel the need to force things today. We're so close to our first match we can't afford to lose you girls."
"We'll be fine boss."
"Where's Anzu?" Miho now heard Yuzu ask behind her. She turned to see Yuzu and Momo walking into the hangar carrying their school bags.
"I haven't seen her since this lunch," Momo responded.
"What's going on?" Miho asked.
"Anzu hasn't been acting the same since school started. We thought she'd been working on school stuff, but her schedule doesn't reflect that," Yuzu affirmed.
"It's not like her to just disappear," Saori noted from where she and several others girls had gathered around to listen.
"Maybe it has to do with that boy we saw her hanging out with on the way here," Azusa from Rabbit team piped up.
"She was what?" Momo stuttered, "Were they…"
"I didn't see anything really, just them holding hands and walking together."
"I didn't know she had a boyfriend," Yuzu murmured.
"What if he's not her boyfriend?" Miho asked.
"Who else could it be?" Saori said, "Miho you don't just walk around holding hands with a friend."
"Well…I've never had a boyfriend," Miho replied, "And my sister never really had one until we were older and had our own lives. It's not like I've had much experience with boys first hand since…"
"Since when?" Hana asked.
"Well the first time I…" Miho trailed off, but then her face changed and she became a little bit distant in remembrance of something she now thought better to not share, "I don't want to talk about it."
Saori seemed get it, or at least thought she got it, and nodded.
"It's alright Miho, we won't press you," Hana said gently.
But before anyone who really wanted to know this particular story Anzu finally arrived looking pretty uppity. She seemed to almost bounce around with a great big smile on her face. Most of the girls who'd had a boyfriend at any time knew what she was in a good mood for. Being close to someone generally puts you into a good mood, and having just about everything else going well helps with putting a girl into a giddy state of mind.
"Hey girls are we ready to go?" Anzu asked loudly as she put her bag down just inside the entrance.
"Where were you Anzu?" Yuzu asked, curious.
"I was just delayed," Anzu waved off nonchalantly.
"Delayed by who?" Saori asked, grinning widely.
"My boyfriend," Anzu replied smugly, if not a bit too smugly.
"We didn't know you had a boyfriend," Momo asked.
"Well we've just started really going out in the past week. We met during the break, and since school started things have got…complicated," Anzu waved off.
"Who is he?" Yuzu asked.
"He's the boys' class president. He and I met when both the boys and girls student councils had to meet with the school board last December," she replied.
"Wow, what're the odds?" Saori giggled.
"He's a bit of a smoothy, I think he accidentally picked up my bag at the meeting just to have an excuse to talk with me," Anzu giggled, "And he's been very nice, a real gentleman."
"Sounds like he's desperate to me," Momo grumbled.
"What's the matter Momo, are you jealous?" Anzu responded.
"Wha-what? No I'm not!" Momo snapped and Anzu ignored her and walked to her tank.
"Are we gonna get going or what?" Anzu piped up now, moving the subject to the practice they were supposed to get going.
"Right, how about a four team match? That's the strategy we'll try in our next match," Miho asked, "Let's go with Hippo and Turtle, you two teams will be working together in matches so you should get used to working together. Leopon and Duck you'll be working together. Rabbit you'll be with Anglerfish and Anteater you and Mallard will be together. These teams aren't solidified so let's just see what happens."
"Wow, it's going to be absolute chaos out there," Erwin chuckled, "It reminds me of the melee of Sekigahara."
"It's more like the Battle of Trafalgar," Caesar replied.
"Clearly it's the Battle of Austerlitz," Saemonza finally added.
"That's it!" every single one of the girls of Hippo team yelled out.
"Go to each corner of the training field and we begin on the go," Miho called out.
"Okay," everyone responded.
"Panzer vor."
The big Maybach diesel of the Panzer IV roared to life as Mako carefully drove the big tank out of the hangar behind Rabbit Team. The other team made up of the two German assault guns, Hippo and Turtle, were already roaring off down the road while Leopon in their big Porsche Tiger and the much smaller but much faster Type 89 went off in a different direction at a slower pace. Their tanks were all moving around with no real trouble showing as they all went their separate directions.
But also out here were the now always present boys of the Combat Team. For the past few days they'd been gone most of the time running around the ship, going back and forth, staying clear of the training grounds that the tanks called home. Kendo had told her after their first day that he was going to be getting his team into some form of physical shape before giving them their weapons and equipment and getting them training on it. But that was several days ago, and Miho, as was usual by now, looked over at the boys' little niche and was surprised to see them all standing around wearing their full uniforms, with many wearing their helmets and protective faceplates or holding them tucked under their arms. The team was also holding their rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, and their two piece machine guns with several of the guys holding onto boxes of ammunition. A group of five guys were wearing big boxy radios, crowding around trying to check to be sure that they worked.
Miho hadn't seen the boys in their full combat uniforms and was quite surprised with just how intimidating they looked in their uniforms with their weapons in hand and their faceplates over their faces. She could also tell that the boys thought they looked pretty good as well, as many tried looking as good as they could as the girls drove by in their tanks.
"Miho!" a voice called out, catching her attention.
It was Kendo, he was waving his hand to her as he stepped out of a small group of guys that had been gathered around him. In his hand he was holding a folded up map that he had been going over with the rest of what could have only been the platoon leaders for the Combat Team.
"Mako stop the tank," Miho ordered calmly.
The Panzer IV halted on her order as expected, and Kendo walked up beside it.
"Are your tanks heading out to scrimmage?" Kendo asked.
"Of course," Miho replied, "Why? Is that what you were planning on doing?"
"Well I was planning on us just doing some cross country PT until your team rolled out of the hangar," Kendo groaned.
"I see," Miho said, not quite getting the point Kendo was driving at.
"It's not a big deal right now we can take our usual long route and go through town but tomorrow we really do need to start getting some field time. You think I can meet you after your practice so we can try and work some borders out so we can both use the areas we need?"
"Sure, I don't see why not," Miho shrugged, not seeing anything wrong with just getting something done so her team's counterparts could get the practice time that they needed.
"Okay thanks, what time are you expecting to be done?" Kendo asked.
"Oh anywhere from six thirty to seven, it kinda depends on how aggressive my team is today in practice."
"Hmm…our practices tend to go a bit later, you mind meeting back at the apartment? I'll bring a map and our practice schedule. And we can work out what we need to do then."
"Okay, I guess that works. Just knock on my door," Miho said indifferently, but inside her tank the mood that had just sparked off was a much different one. Inside the tank Saori was taking in every word along with the entire crew, except for Mako, who was starting to fall asleep again from not really having anything to do.
"Alright, I'll see ya then I guess," Kendo replied with a nod, backing up and turned to his one hundred and forty-eight member team, each one of them having big grins plastered on their faces.
"Mako, let's go," Miho ordered calmly as she poked her head down into the turret, not quite realizing what her perfectly innocent conversation had sounded like, and by definition was. She was immediately confronted by the giddy Saori.
"Ohmigosh Miporin he just asked you out!" she said proudly.
"Huh? He didn't ask me on a date," Miho responded, confusion written on her face, "He just wanted to talk a few things over."
"Miho, you do know what just happened right?" Hana asked calmly, a little concerned with how oblivious Miho seemed to be with the facts of her conversation.
"Kendo just needed to coordinate his team's practice with ours so we don't get in each other's way. What's wrong with that?"
"You just invited a boy to your apartment," Mako said calmly as she drove the Anglerfish onto the dirt track at a fast pace to catch up with Rabbit.
"So what I…" Miho started to say but then went over her conversation with Kendo once more and then it all hit her at once, "I just invited him to my room. Oh no…"
Kendo too didn't think much of it until he saw the grins on his teammates' faces, especially Shigeki.
"My boy's becoming a man," Shigeki called out proudly.
"What are you talking about Shigeki?" Kendo said tucking his map into his pocket as he began planning his team's new practice since the tanks were already roaming the practice field.
"You're already being invited to a girl's room dude, she must have the hots for ya," the leader of second platoon, a very strongly built third year named Shuusaku Hoshi, said definitively.
"We live two floors apart, it's just more convenient for talking practice for the team," Kendo shrugged, brushing the whole thing off as just the hormone twisted views of his team mates.
"Oh real convenient," Kendo heard someone chuckle in the back of second platoon.
"Oh shut up already, let's get to work," Kendo ordered, "Fall in!"
Just like that the gaggles of guys in full combat equipment and armed with their assigned weaponry quickly shuffled into their three platoons and the lone recon squad in the back. Their team was organized a bit differently than most other Combat Teams, but this was due to necessity. Most schools had four to six platoons normally numbering anywhere from thirty to fifty with varying numbers of squads and squad strengths. But Ooarai's team found itself having to make use of three slightly enlarged forty-man platoons and an independent reconnaissance squad of eight.
Their platoons had four squads instead of their normal three. They had an extra pair of machine guns and a spare meant for replacing a malfunctioning one which they handed out to enlarge their weapons squads with an additional weapon that gave them much more firepower power than their competitors had. Their squads had downsized as a result, with each squad now having only ten members with each one having two automatic weapons, a Thompson and a Bren, with the rest having Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifles. Their team lived and died by the sheer amount of firepower they could put onto their opponents, which meant that they would have to learn how to use that firepower. This was especially true since many of their members were brand new, and had joined this semester after a great number of their experienced team mates had quit and/or transferred, depending on how polite they were about the whole situation.
But the one thing that Kendo was looking forward to was his recon squad which he'd formed from their best shots and craftiest fighters. These guys weren't really meant to be deployed in force like other recon units were used in the other schools, instead they were meant to split up into their two man teams, sniper and spotter, and recon ahead and pick off any targets of opportunity. They used the same weapons as everyone else, but they also had their own magnifying scopes to give them an extra boost over the average rifleman. Most of them were third years with only two second years among them. Their previous semester they'd lost quite a few matches because of little to no recon, and getting suckered into wholesale ambushes on ground that wasn't really reconnoitered and pinned in as the enemy took the objective and finished the round by driving forward and dropping it at their base.
But Kendo and his team mates weren't looking to repeat history. They'd learned their lessons the hard way, and now had a way to fix the biggest of them. Their strategy was to use their expert and independent snipers/scouts to find the enemy or find good ground, cause chaos and knock out the other teams' leaders and force their younger and less experienced replacements to do the job. Then their large and abnormally heavily armed platoons would move to either attack or preferably sucker the enemy into an attack on a team that was built with solid defense as its specialty with their weapons keeping a high rate of fire across the board. As Kendo had explained his new strategy to his team the day before he saw that this managed to give them all some real confidence and instilled a sense of optimism within them.
The equipment that Ooarai's team used was pretty much identical to what the United States Marine Corps used in World War Two. The camo was the same, the packs were the same, the belts were the same, and their helmets were the same. But there were differences between them and the American Marines that had fought Japan in the forties and the communist North Koreans in the fifties. Their bandoliers were different to accommodate the unique strip magazines of the Gewehr 43 rifles they carried. And they had an extra safety feature that let everyone know they were playing a dangerous game. A very tough plexiglass shield covered their face and much of their head wherever the helmet couldn't reach, as the stun rounds they used were very much capable of knocking out teeth and causing blindness. They were especially made for this sport and Kendo was thankful they were, he'd taken a few headshots in his time, including a face shot that would easily have blinded him, especially with some of the weapons that he'd come across in his time on the team.
The bulk of the team held the German designed Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifle. It had a reputation for being a match for the American M1 Garand and superior to the Russian SVT-41 in terms of reliability. Kendo himself made use of a Gewehr instead of a carbine like the company commander was supposed to. But the real strength of the team came from their automatic weapons. They were using their new M1919A4 air cooled machine guns which were just some cheap mods that replaced the heavy water jackets of their previous M1917's and replaced them with the classic perforated barrels M1919A4's that were much lighter. The most common automatic weapons were their squad automatic weapons, the same old Brens that had been so crucial to Ooarai's Combat Team for the past decades along with the more compact but hard hitting Thompson sub machine gun. And the most numerous weapons were the pistols that every single member of the team was issued were their somewhat cheap Tokarev TT pistols that, like any stun weapon did the job just fine in the right hands.
The rounds were dangerous, but no less dangerous than the tankery teams' simunitions. In fact they were made by the same company. But the difference was that there wasn't hardened carbon alloy standing between the round and the people. However, it still had to do the job of knocking the target out of the match. The way they did this was still unknown, a trade secret as it was called, but it was safe and effective enough for it to be in continued use for decades with Combat Teams and domestic police. These rounds didn't have the range their real life counterparts had, and also had an unintended side effect that gave an appreciated advantage.
The human body was able to form a mild immunity to them after being hit by them so many times. This meant teams who had guys who weren't very good took a lot of hits were usually more able take these hits and guys who were good enough not to take hits were more susceptible to them in return. It was also a similar story with the size of the individuals, bigger guys could take more hits but were bigger targets and the smaller members tended to be on the opposite end of the scale. The vast array of factors one could calculate with this sport made it very much unlike the real thing, but instead made it uniquely its own brand. But with Ooarai, let's just say that most of the team had developed a pretty solid resistance.
But before they got to shooting at each other they had to get trained on these weapons, but even before that Kendo wanted to make sure that his team was in good enough shape to carry these weapons. The Gewehrs were nearly ten pounds, somewhat lighter than the original production line that Germany had made for World War II, but still a damn heavy rifle. In fact everything they had that made up their cool look came with the unfortunate side effect of it being extraordinarily heavy. So, what better way to get used to it than to lug those weapons, equipment, and whatnot across the ship and back? And Kendo had plenty of options to choose from when it came to routes.
"Alright, how about a race?" Kendo finally decided, "Last one's who get back have to set up targets for tomorrow after practice today."
"Uh…destination?" Hoshi asked, egging to get going.
"Come here and see," Kendo said, yanking a map of the Ooarai academy ship from his pocket and held it on the ground. On the piece of paper were several routes that he'd plotted for them to take during their usual running days and each was the same distance. There were four primary routes. Two routes took them from where they were to the front of the ship and back but went outwards port and starboard and ran along the sides of the ship and then they had to return the way that they'd come. It was the same way with the back of the ship although one route was unavailable at the moment due to it running partly through the forests and plains of the training grounds. But Kendo had been doing some plotting on a fifth one that was just his recon team's speed. He'd been doing the math with one particular aspect of the ship, and figured it was a perfect workout for his small and agile recon squad. It took them straight to the top observation deck of the island superstructure that towered over the ship. Going back and forth twice was the equivalent distance as the other routes. But he hadn't tested it quite yet.
"I call the starboard to bow route," Shigeki called out as soon as he saw the map get broken out.
"Any particular reason for that?" Kendo asked curiously, knowing that it was actually one of the longer routes.
"It goes right past this little tea shop where a lot of the girls are always hanging out. Figure it wouldn't hurt us to have them see our best platoon showing what good shape we're in."
"Best platoon my ass," Hoshi groaned, "Kendo if you don't mind I'll take the port to stern route with my platoon."
"Alright it's all yours," Kendo nodded, "Ogura, I guess that leaves third platoon the short route."
"I'm fine with that," Shigeya Ogura, the quiet but very confident and able commander of the youngest platoon in the company, shrugged, "It just means I won't be last."
"And what about the recon squad?" Chishou Koike asked.
He was probably the best shot on the entire team. He was also the oldest on the team by a few months and was a bit of an oddity in the fact that he was actually the former fourth platoon's CO. But the oddity was that he wasn't that great at it, yet he was a great squad leader, and Kendo had astonished some members of the school board and the athletic director by making him his recon squad's leader. He was very skilled at small unit tactics, especially when it came to snipers.
"I've got something special for you guys," Kendo now smiled, "Climb that, twelve times to the highest observation deck and twelve times back here. Everyone else has got four circuits on your own routes."
And to make sure his team understood he pointed right at the island superstructure. And the looks on the faces of every one of the recon squad dropped seeing what they needed to accomplish. And everyone else as well groaned in some way at the knowledge they were probably required to cover at least twelve kilometers in full gear today in the sweltering Pacific heat and humidity. But Kendo was about to make things a bit worse, as he grabbed his rifle and took off the sling from it and tied it around his waist.
"Rifles, SMG's, and SAW's, take off your slings, squad and platoon leaders, if anyone tries putting them back on have them complete their circuits with weapons over their heads," Kendo ordered, "Machine gunners I want those weapons in your hands. It'll suck but you knew that the moment you volunteered for MG duty."
Everyone began to undo their weapons' slings which would mean that they would have to carry their heavy weapons for every single step of the way. Needless to say things were going to suck for the Combat Team, but that's what made them special amongst their peers. Even the girls and their tanks weren't anywhere close to the shape that an average member of a boys Combat Team was in, and was a source of pride for them. Kendo was simply going off of what the playbook simply said you should do as a team leader. The first item was physical fitness, the second was a clear chain of command and discipline to obey that chain, the third was weapons expertise and precision, and the fourth was tactical precision, flexibility, and awareness. These traits were all dependent upon the first, even a brilliant tactician or a precise sniper had trouble thinking straight or lining up the crosshairs when they were sucking wind. When you are tired you make stupid mistakes, mistakes that will get you or your team mates either knocked out of a match or make your team lose the match if the situation is desperate. It was another reason that the Ooarai Combat Team had struggled last year, physical fitness was moved down the list of priorities, and as a result their performance plummeted.
Kendo did not want that happening this year, so he was willing to be the butt of grumbling amongst his team if that meant performance. His job was to help them win matches, and to do that he had to make them do this, and he also had to make himself do it. There's a common thread amongst great commanders, they were tough, and they proved that to their troops. So he knew that he'd have to do everything that he asked of them himself. Or else he would risk losing the respect of his team mates, and that was something that was not acceptable.
"Hey Kendo you joining first platoon?" Shigeki asked, noticing that Kendo hadn't said what group he would be joining.
"You know, I think I'll take the scenic route, here along the edge of the training grounds," Kendo shrugged, pointing at the opposite route that second platoon was taking, "And to make sure you guys know I'm actually doing my own workout I'll turn on my Go Pro," Kendo said, seeing the faces of a few of his team frown, thinking he might be trying to weasel his way out of working out like everyone else. But those faces were changed when they saw Kendo switch on the camera every member of every combat team wore on their shoulder for both safety and accountability.
"Why are you taking that route?" Hoshi asked out of curiosity.
"Well I want to get a look at the terrain to plan some future training exercises. And I figure just one guy won't really get in the girls' way," Kendo shrugged nonchalantly.
"Alright, just don't get run over Kendo," Shigeki grumbled, shaking his head.
"They won't even know I'm there."
Kendo then grabbed his rifle into both hands and stood up. He sort of winced to himself knowing that he had a heck of a run ahead of him, but he figured better to get started and stop whining about it. Besides, it was going to be eventful, he had a front seat to a tank battle, but with as big as the tank grounds were the likelihood of that were low. But worse odds had ended with the unlikely being the outcome.
The woods was no place for a tank, but that had never stopped them before. The Germans had proved that twice in a period of five years during World War 2, shocking the French High Command and leading to the fall of France, and then again in the Battle of the Bulge the Americans had thought the exact same thing. They'd gotten the shock of their lives, and the bloodiest battle in American history had begun. But more recently Kuromorimine had ambushed Ooarai in the championship match by passing with every one of their massive tanks through the thick woods and led to Anteater's premature knockout.
Miho had taken these experiences to heart, and with the help of Hippo Team she'd looked up previous battles where the tank had done the impossible and passed through previously impassible terrain. Now she was quite keen on trying it out with her team's own lighter and faster tanks. Koala Forest were experts at in tight tank combat, using forests to their advantage. This was odd for tank teams, and Miho remembered her sister getting chewed out by her mother for letting Koala Forest stay in the match for quite a long time during Miho's freshman year. They'd expertly camouflaged their tanks, and refused to come out into the open, knocking out their Panzer III's without much difficulty, but then Maho had deployed their heavily armored Jagdtiger to draw fire and let the heavily armed Tigers and Panthers to knock them out once they fired upon the nearly indestructible behemoth and gave themselves away. But the tongue lashing Miho had to witness her sister take was an unpleasant one, even though they'd won. Miho had no intention of giving Koala Forest a chance, to do that, they needed to master this kind of combat.
So here they were, leading the two tank team of Anglerfish and Rabbit through the thickest part of the forest. It was flat, but the two tanks were slow. But Miho hoped that they'd be able to catch one of the other teams off guard with this new tactic, and so far, she might just have hit paydirt.
"Miho, tank ahead," Hana called out as she swiveled the long barreled seventy-five towards their target. Miho could see the slightly off color of what was a green painted tank coming down a trail.
"Hold your fire," Miho ordered, yanking her binoculars up to her eyes to get a look. Sure enough there was the dark green paint and big side profile of Duck Team's Char B1 bis, "It's the Char B1, Rabbit Team, move up to our left, try and find Anteater."
"Yes commander," the radio called out, and Miho could hear the big American tank moving to its position near her.
"Our gun can easily knock out Mallard from any angle, and they're out of range with their turret. Only their hull mounted seventy-five can do any damage, but they'd have to get a lucky shot after turning their whole tank to face us," Yukari called out, ticking off the strengths and weaknesses of their target to give Miho that much more info to work with in her attack plan.
"Target is in sight commander, Anteater is coming up the trail behind Mallard, range two hundred yards."
"Very well, Yukari, can their gun knock them out?" Miho asked, she'd already done the math, but Yukari was a walking tank dictionary so best to make sure.
"Yes Rabbit's seventy-five can do the job but their thirty-seven is out of range," Yukari said, "But they can disable one of the return rollers or road wheels on the Type 3."
"Okay, Rabbit, fire when Anglerfish fires, make your first shot count."
But before Miho could give Hana the order to fire a loud crack sounded out and the Bhar B1 bis lurched backwards as a high velocity round slammed into it head on. The classic white flag popped up signaling someone had beaten Miho to the punch. But whoever it was had given themselves away, as the Type 3's seventy-five swiveled onto the source of the fire and loosed a round with its own sharp crack.
"Hana, switch targets, find the source."
"It's a seventy-five , I recognize the sound of the gun," Yukari said, "It's either Hippo or Turtle."
"Rabbit, open fire now," Miho ordered, remembering that the Rabbit had been training its guns on the Type 3.
And on her order two consecutive shots were fired from Miho's left. The first shot to fire was the thirty-seven millimeter, which actually managed to strike the Type 3's turret right on the nose, but the small caliber round just bounced right off. The seventy-five struck short, sending a plume of dirt skyward as the girls of Anteater Team now realized they had to get out of dodge, and fired a round from their own gun in retaliation, even though they had no clue where to fire at. Another pair of sharp blasts bracketed the Type 3 as it seemed like both Hippo and Turtle had let loose, trying to finish off their quarry before it could escape.
"Rabbit continue to engage," Miho ordered, sensing that the Anteater was vulnerable.
"Miho I saw where that came from," Hana called out with her eyes to her scope.
"Choose your target and engage," Miho ordered, then turned to look for herself.
She strained to see anything, but then a yellow flash and a pillow of dust deep in the woods on the opposite of the trail that the now smoking Mallard stood upon preceded a yellow tracer came right at the Panzer IV, striking short and to the right. Hana was quick to return fire, sending a powerful shell streaking forward, and struck just left of an unnatural boxy shape that Miho now saw was Hippo's StuG. But she still didn't see where the Turtle was, and she knew that wasn't good.
"Pop smoke, Mako full reverse," Miho ordered, knowing that this was her tank was vulnerable, "Rabbit fall back and join Anglerfish. Let's see if we can lure them out."
"Yes commander. We're right behind you."
The two tanks quickly reversed and found themselves going down a slight hill. Rabbit had deployed its smoke generator, making a thick white cloud that obscured their movements and would create an excellent contrast should the team made of the two assault guns pop their noses through the smoke. Miho half hoped they wouldn't, knowing that would be something she would have to point out to them not to do. So after the two tanks got to the bottom of the low hill and halted Miho kept an eye on the sides of the smoke screen thinking that they'd go around the smoke, but after a minute or two Miho saw nothing and heard nothing.
"Looks like they backed off too Miporin," Saori said from her spot peering out at the area in front of her.
"I think you're right Saori," Miho said, scanning the forest in front of her, "Mako, let's try and find Anteater and see if we can finish off their team."
Then a few more booms and cracks from tank guns echoed in the near distance. Miho surmised, by listening alone, it was the team made up of Leopon and Duck that had fired first. Then the same sounds of dual seventy-fives returning fire told Miho that whatever ambush had been launched was not successful as each shot was accompanied by a low thump as the shells hit the ground. If the shots were successful in striking their targets there would have been a boom or nothing at all as a round ricocheted. But whatever fighting that was going on was quite fierce as the four tanks in the near distance just tore at each other. Miho breathed a sigh of relief that the boys hadn't chosen to come out here, appreciating Kendo's smart decision to just keep his team out of the way until the two of them could talk out an agreement for fairly sharing their training grounds.
God help anyone that gets in the way out here.
This one isn't half bad, a far cry from the last time I posted this chapter. As usual any suggestions for funny situations(within reason) are appreciated.
Oh I forgot to put this into the last chapter's A/N but I heard that some new footage from the GuP movie/next season was out and checked it out. Any word on the plot or the theme of that? I'm just curious.
Next Chapter Preview: Time to get down to business in the fields, and time to show off in the city. That can't possibly go wrong can it?
