Chapter 03 - Mechanical Martial Arts
The wait for their match to start was agonizing for the crew of Kuromorimine's refurbished Panzer IV. Though it would not be wrong to make the assumption that they were nervous because of who their opponent was, the real reason for their unease was due to unfamiliarity.
Senshado has only allowed tanks which had a prototype built before the 15th of August 1945. This meant that the list of legally useable tanks had stayed virtually the same since the sport's inception. For the girls at Kuromorimine, it meant that they would never deal with any unfamiliar machines during normal matches and training, and would always at have at least some idea of what their opponent could do. The Black Widow changed that. It's workings may as well have been totally alien to the girls.
It also did not help that they were relatively unpracticed with the new equipment in the tank. Sure, the improved optics did help them bring more out of their machine, and did bring them up to par with the mecha they were expected to fight. But the raised skill floor also came with a raised skill ceiling, especially when it came to gunning. Maho had the suspicion that the improvements actually benefitted her opponent more than they did to her.
"Attack commencing in thirty seconds," said a mechanical female voice that echoed through the crew compartment of the Panzer IV.
The thiry second warning released the tension that had been building in the crew. Their driver let out a sigh that Maho was sure she didn't know she was holding. Hitomi was now performing deep breathing exercises to steady herself. Their loader was juggling a shell from arm to arm, partly trying to feel for the weight, and partly as a prematch ritual for herself, and to get herself warmed up. If Maho was correct, she would be loading the gun at a blisteringly fast pace once they made contact in their little 500 by 500 meters square.
"Attack commencing in ten seconds."
The engine of the Panzer IV started to rev. The radio operator was now drumming her fingers on the controls.
"Five."
Maho rolled her neck. The weight of the headset still felt a little strange to her, as did the rolling point of view she experienced on the inside of the headset.
"Four."
The shipping containers littered throughout the arena would definitely obscure their vision, despite the near 360 visibility now afforded to the Panzer IV crew.
"Three."
The Black Widow was definitely capable of playing peekaboo over the boxes.
"Two."
This was yet another factor against the Panzer IV.
"One."
Therefore there was only one option left.
"Fight."
"Driver, take us towards the warehouse!" said Maho.
The Panzer IV lurched forward. The opening seconds of the match were filled with the sounds of the Maybach engine working to push the tank to a better position, occasionally punctuated by the metallic clangs of the Black Widow's footsteps. The Panzer IV wove between the shipping containers toward the warehouse in the center of the arena.
Once the Panzer IV drove up to the warehouse the metallic footfalls of the Black Widow stopped reaching their ears. It was as if the building itself had erased all evidence of there being an opponent for the Panzer IV to even fight. However with them holding that particular position, even if they could not hear their opponent approaching they had limited the angles of attack that their opponent could take, so whenever the Black Widow appeared, they could fire on it immediately.
One minute passed, then two. There were no signs of the Black Widow making any attempt to attack the Panzer IV. Maho was about to order them to shut off the engine when suddenly two loud clangs echoed from above their heads. Maho strained her neck trying to look for the source of the noise, but to no avail .
'Is she trying to spook us?' thought Maho.
Suddenly a mechanical whirring signaled more movement. Before long there was a second, much louder clunk of metal on metal, again originating somewhere above their heads. Hitomi responded turning the gun towards the walls of the warehouse, pointing the end of the gun at the upper part of the wall where it met the roof. Maho craned her neck up as well, trying to spot the enemy. Then, without warning, she found it, clinging to the side of the wall.
"Target spotted! Ten O'Clock high," said Maho. Before she had even completed her sentence, the main gun had fired at the enemy. The Black Widow was faster though, and had leapt off the wall before Hitomi could react and adjust her aim at the mech. There was a thud as fluorescent green paint splattered all over the warehouse wall. The Black Widow seemed to glide through the air, perfectly still without any rolling or tumbling. It took about a second for Maho to realize that the main cannon on the mech was still pointed at the Panzer IV.
"Angle us!" called Maho.
The Panzer IV turned to angle itself, but it wasn't fast enough. The paint round that came from the Black Widow struck the turret of the tank, bright orange fluorescent splatter
"They've taken the lead!" said the radio operator. "Three points to zero!"
Maho was surprised at how few points the Black Widow just scored. This little exchange proved to her that the most important factor in winning these matches was precision rather than quantity of hits. Just like in regular Senshado.
The Black Widow landed behind a shipping container breaking contact between itself and the Panzer IV. Hitomi was already bringing the gun around to aim above the Black Widow's cover. The next moment of contact was quick. The Black Widow leapt over the container it was hiding behind, trying to get over it. However Hitomi was already aiming there, and fired the instant it came into view.
The green paint shell hit the mech in the leg. It did not destabilize the mech as it jumped, but it did stop it from vaulting over the container. The mech crashed into the obstacle and seemed to fall backwards behind it, though the lack of excessive noise suggested it had managed to prevent itself from losing balance.
'How is that two legged machine staying so stable?' thought Maho.
"Gun ready!" said the loader, patting Hitomi on the shoulder.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of two grappling lines being launched at the warehouse. Maho's eyes followed the lines, and saw that they seemed to just stick to the wall with an echoing clang.
'So they're magnetized...' thought Maho.
Hitomi had managed to turn the turret to face the anchor point the grappling lines had managed to attach to. The Black Widow then zipped up the lines, and then attached its feet to the wall, the electromagnets in its feet activating with a clang...
...and was struck by a fluorescent green paint round for its trouble. Hitomi was already pre aiming at that location and the direct hit was enough to propel their score forward into the lead. The Black Widow's torso pitched up so that the gun was aimed at the Panzer IV upside down. It returned fire but the Panzer IV had already turned to angle itself. The paint round this time did little more than leave a huge orange smear across the side of the hull.
"We're up! Seven to three!"
'So it's possible to have hits that don't score points at all...' thought Maho.
This time it seemed the Black Widow had no interest in coming off the wall unless the Panzer IV forced it to do so. What followed in the next thirty seconds or so was an exchange of fire between the wall clinging mech versus the ground bound tank. The mech had the advantage of height, which meant that it was able to negate some of the Panzer IV's cover, and its agility was going to be much better. The Panzer IV had the advantage of a more stable platform to fire from, compared to a mech anchored to a wall anyway, and the split of duties between multiple crew members meant they were able to act more efficiently.
A few more solid hits on the Black Widow and subsequently gaining the point lead were enough to convince the Black Widow to leave its perch. Maho took the opportunity while the Black Widow scrambled behind cover to get an update on the situation.
"What's the score?" said Maho
"We're leading twenty one to sixteen."
"Alright, driver pursue!"
The crew were all working in near perfect sync with each other. The loader had managed to load the next shell whilst the Panzer IV was in transit, and Hitomi had already pre aimed the next shot towards where they anticipated their adversary would be hiding around the steel container, with the turret turned to the left at a forty five degree angle. However as they rounded the corner, two loud clunks echoed through the crew compartment of the tank, and had actually caused some slight visual noise in the VR headsets, blurring their vision in the left of their field of view.
When the noise had cleared up, Maho suddenly realized why there was interference with the cameras on the tank.
"Brace for impact! Driver keep spinning the tank, gunner fire at will!" shouted Maho. The Black Widow had attached the two magnetic grappling hooks to the side of the Panzer IV, linking the tank to the mech's hip joints, and was now using this to keep the vulnerable side armour in front of its main gun. The Panzer IV tried to spin away from the incoming Black Widow's charge, but it didn't work. The two machines collided with a skin crawling scrape that threatened to throw the Panzer IV crew off their seats. As it was, they barely managed to hold on.
During the collision, both machines fired. The Panzer IV's shot flew wide over the Black Widow but the mech's shot landed cleanly. Before the exchange could continue, the Black Widow sidestepped towards the Panzer's rear trying to outrun the gun.
"Thirty seconds left!" shouted the radio operator. "Two points behind!"
It was a do or die moment for the crew. The Panzer IV continued to turn to face the Black Widow, but at the rate they were going they would never catch it.
"Gunner! Lead your aim but don't' fire," said Maho, hoping that she would get the idea of what she wanted the tank to do.
Hitomi flicked the barrel of the gun past the Black Widow as though she were waiting for it to sidestep. The Black Widow suddenly stepped back in the other direction, towards the Panzer IV's front.
"Ram it!"
The Panzer IV collided into the legs of the taller machine, pushing it back. Maho's suspicions were correct in that the Black Widow would have far less pushing power. The cables linking the two machines together would absolutely kill the mech's agility, and this meant that now there was virtually no escape from what happened next.
Though the Black Widow managed to get a shot into the Panzer IV's turret, it was unable to escape before it was pinned against another shipping container. With nowhere for the Black Widow to escape, and ten seconds to go, there was only one shot left for the Panzer IV to take. The turret of the Panzer IV spun to face the Black Widow's chassis...
"Gun ready!" shouted the loader.
A huge green paint splat had appeared on the mech. After the final shot rang out, white flares fired into the air, signaling the end of the match.
"Final score..." said the same mechanical voice that belonged to the announcer. "Twenty nine to twenty six..."
"I don't believe it," said the driver. Her voice sounded a little more nasal than Maho last remembered.
"Victory," confirmed the announcer.
"We fucking did it!" shouted Hitomi. "We did- HOLY SHIT Asami your nose!" Hitomi's shout drew attention to the trickle of blood that was now making its way down their driver's face. Maho silently called for a pickup and a first aid kit through her headset. Injuries aside, this had been an incredible experience.
The cheers from the inside of the tank was mirrored by the Anglerfish team who had, once again, put food on hold to watch the match in Miho's apartment. They were relieved that the match had ended in a victory for the Kuromorimine girls.
"So that was what Née-chan wanted us to see," said Miho.
"That was intense!" said Yukari. "I wonder how much more footage there is of previous tournaments."
"As entertaining as that was, I wonder what was the purpose of us seeing that," said Hana to nobody in particular as she picked up her bowl of now half melted ice cream. Mako was in the middle of swallowing a bite of her apple as she raised her hand to signal she had something to say. She hastily swallowed and began her explanation.
"Isn't it obvious? This could be what we're doing in the future," said Mako. "Senshado hasn't exactly been doing well for the last ten years, so something has to change."
"Ooh! Does that mean there will be boys joining the sport?" said Saori suddenly. The stares she got back from the other girls ranged from incredulous to amused. "What!? It's a legitimate question!"
"Sorry Saori," said Miho. "Senshado has been an all girl sport since it began over seventy years ago. Suddenly making it mixed gender would alienate too many fans, and wouldn't actually attract enough new Senshado-ka."
"The rules allowing male coaches was only barely passed a few years ago, and, well, you don't see teams hurrying to pick up a male coach now, do you?" added Mako.
"I see," said Saori, looking slightly disappointed, taking a spoonful of ice cream. "I guess most guys would see being allowed to take part in Senshado like being told they could wear heels and a miniskirt in public."
"That, and Senshado hides the actual tankers from the spectators inside the tanks themselves," said Miho. "So there's almost no benefit to the sport itself with introducing mixed leagues because matches would still play out the same," she continued, putting that topic completely to rest.
"Ah, that's probably why we're mostly spared the crude treatment that female athletes in other sports get all the time," said Hana. "Shinzaburou did once say if I thought I had picked up a stalker fan to let him know immediately, but I guess I'm lucky enough not to have to worry about that." Yukari, Saori and Mako both looked over Hana as she sat watching the TV one thigh crossed over the other holding her dessert bowl in one hand delicately whilst sucking on her spoon of vanilla ice cream.
"Actually, aside from Nishizumi-dono, you should probably worry the most about stalkers," said Yukari matter of factly, a statement which was met with a curious 'hmm' from Hana.
"Didn't we meet because you were stalking Miporin in the parking lot Yukarin?" asked Saori mischievously. There was a moment of silence in the apartment interrupted only by the sound of the TV apparently talking about a 'Mizuchi Asuka'.
"I'm sorry," said Yukari after a few seconds, not realizing Saori was just teasing. This elicited a laugh out of the girls and a quick one armed hug from Saori.
"I'm kidding! I'm glad you joined the team regardless of how we first met," she said with a smile. "Now, what do you say we finish, er, drinking our ice creams I guess, before we get distracted by robots and their big guns again!" This time Hana almost spat her ice cream all over the table in laughter.
Maho had finally gotten into the cafeteria for a well earned post match meal. The rest of the team had taken seats around one of the tables. Maho collected her own meal, and sat to join the girls. To her surprise, Amelie was sat with them.
"Three cheers for our commander!" said Hitomi. "For a well lead victory!"
"And here's to a well fought match," added Amelie. She was still wearing her purple bodysuit and sported a visor with multiple lenses over her fore head almost acting like a hair band for her long purple hair, though she had unzipped the bodysuit down to loosen the material around her chest.
Maho took her seat and smiled back. She was about to say something back to all of them when a clattering of cutlery on the table behind Maho drew their attention. Behind them was sat an athletically built girl wearing a blue and white bodysuit, similar to Amelie's, with her black hair tied in a single low ponytail.
"Yeah, congrats on beating a machine that hasn't been in a single fight in the last six months, and hasn't won a fight in the last twelve," the girl said sarcastically. "Did you think the best teams would bother with the maintenance for a show match?"
"Hachijou!" snapped Amelie. "These are my friends!"
"I'm just giving them a reality check," replied the girl, turning to face them, scraping the bench on the cafeteria floor. The name badge on her chest read 'Hachijou Rei'. "If we're doing this in future, the Kuromorimine girls need to get some context. Because when it's go time, I'm not going to hold back on them just because they're clueless."
Next Time on Steel Carnage
Anglerfish team were far from the only ones watching the Mecha Paintball. In contrast to Miho's busy yet clean apartment, the tenant of this one in the middle of Ooarai prefecture had left it more cluttered and chaotic. The TV was switched to the Mecha Paintball as the sole occupant ran on a treadmill intently watching the broadcast, the vibrations and tremors from her exercise threatening to dislodge a shelf full of gaming memorabilia onto a desk holding a top of the line custom built gaming PC. On the shelf a phone began to vibrate, the screen's bright blue glow lighting up a Quake Live mousemat which had been signed by a player named Ryujehong. The girl hit the emergency stop on the treadmill, and practically drifted over to her phone, and picked it up before it could knock over a statue of Kazuma Kiryuu.
"Mizuchi Asuka speaking... the Tengu is ready! Awesome... what do you mean it's not going to debut in the next Mecha Paintball event! Mitsubishi Heavy Industries spent so long on the development ... ... ... what the hell is Steel Carnage? And why are we talking to Senshado teams?"