Hey, back with Chapter 4. Sorry for the shorter chapter but I wanted to get an early start on the match next chapter. Hope you guys like it and let me know of any questions.
I do not own Girls Und Panzer
Chapter 4
"Kay, you never told us who were against." Michael said with clear annoyance in his tone.
"Oh yea, I forgot. We're going against Pravda tomorrow!" She responded with little to no care in her voice which pissed of Michael even more. She needed to fix this or it would potentially cost them.
"Ok, I'll start briefing the boys tonight. We do need to have a talk though about the tanks, when are you free?" He questioned bringing up the talk they were supposed to have with Douglas.
"I don't have anything to do now for the next 30 minutes."
"Ok, I'll call Douglas and we can start talking when he gets here." He said before looking out through the window. The view from her office on the carrier was stunning. The ocean looked amazing and the streets were all perfectly lined up. The school was nice and class was due to start next week.
Michael looked back at Kay before noticing the bags she had under her eyes. She was still tired from last night, admittingly it was fun to be at the party. But that was yesterday, they now needed to prepare for the season.
Only 3 minutes after giving Douglas and Naomi a text they both walked into the room. They quickly sat down in chairs along the large desk next to Kay. Douglas had brought his computer and Naomi would be there to help reinforce their point.
"Kay, I'm going to be blunt with you, ok. Almost all your tanks are utter shit." Michael said causing Kay's normally happy face to turn to one of anger.
"We've done just fine with our Shermans. Why would you ever say anything like that?" By the tone in her voice she was clearly pissed.
"Your Shermans are ok but they need an upgrade. While you have the M4A1(76) and the Sherman VC Firefly, these aren't good enough." Douglas pitched in easing what Michael had said. He was always so direct and to the point, not caring about whose feelings he hurt on the way in.
"Well, what do you suggest then." She said still somewhat pissed at Michael's rude comment.
"I recommend we trade in the Locusts for M18 Hellcat and the M4s for the M4A3E8. It has a bigger 76mm gun and increased speed using a more powerful engine. It is also equipped with HVSS which will help our tanks go through the mud and other obstacles which would typically stop us." Douglas spoke using information and reasoning as his ally. She couldn't argue with him when he was so obviously right, they did have a problem with the quality of their tanks.
"Why the M18 though?" She asked still somewhat confused.
"The M18 is faster than you locusts, has a bigger gun, and can be used effectively in more than one area. Although you will need to retrain your crews and they will need to spend more time preparing. Oh, and for the case of the Hellcats being open topped. Just attach a thin roof to it, that should solve the problem." He again stated with reason as they all knew that Saunders crews weren't even close to the best.
"We also need to fix your tactics. Besides that you now have planes, your tactics originally weren't very effective. You rely more on numbers then on skill, and you need to develop tactics for scouting. With these new tanks you'll be able finally start gaining advantages and setting up traps in advance." Michael said clearly trying to help persuade her into investing the club's money. He could tell she was seriously considering it, if this went through then they could be ready for the rest of the year.
"I'm still not sure, Naomi what do you think about this?" She asked trying to get a second opinion. Here she was, the head of the tankery team and these pilots were lecturing her about tanks. It was absurd, yet they had managed to bring up many good points. These boys kept surprising her every day, she really needed to stay on top of the ball if she was to keep up with them.
"I honestly agree with them, although does that mean we need to get rid of my tank?" The firefly tanker said in support of the boys, Kay really did have a problem here and she needed it fixed.
"I don't see why not; its seventeen pounder is very useful at longer ranges and offers good penetration. You've also clearly mastered it and with your skills it can be a massive addition to the team." Douglas said causing a smile to form over Naomi's face.
"Ok then, I shall put in an order for these tanks. How many do we need?" Kay responded causing a Michael to mentally cheer.
"I think we should get 4 Hellcats and 14 Easy 8s. That will leave one space open for any additional tanks we want to take into combat. I suggest we have that last slot figured by the finals or else we'll be in trouble. How fast can you get them here?" Michael said trying to formulate plans before anything were to actually happen.
"I can get them here in 4 days by the least, ok. Oh, not one word of this to anyone else understood." Kay said before grabbing her pencil to write this new information down.
"Yes mam!" The two pilots said in unison before standing up and saluting. They quickly walked out the door leaving the two girls to themselves in the office.
"Major, what are we going to do today?"
"I want everyone to be at the airfield in 30 mikes flying, we'll land at 1700 and eat. After that I want us all to sit down with the team and discuss tactics. We need to win this next match no matter what the costs, understood." Michael said before going down a flight of stairs towards the hangar.
"Yes Major!" Douglas said before heading off to go and get the others. They both knew today was going to be a hard day and tomorrow would be a chance to get some combat in these new jets.
Meanwhile at Pravda
"We shall crush Saunders under our boot! They will never stand a chance against the might of Katyusha." The little blond said referring to herself in third person. While this was extremely annoying to some people Nonna didn't seem to mind.
"The girls no, the boys on the other hand. They will pose some problems, there jets are better than ours as well as their skilled pilots." Nonna spoke with elegance but also with a hint cold hard determination. Barely every smiling and rarely giving out compliments were sometimes enough to scare her opponents.
"Our pilots can do it, they have been training you know. Regardless, we have ten planes to their five. All we need to do is take out their tanks and we're basically guaranteed victory." Katyusha had a way of bragging things and trying to compensate for her height but she was still a dangerous enemy nevertheless.
"I would still feel better if we were fighting in the snow, but beggars can't be choosers. I agree with you; their cockiness and Kay's tactics will be their downfall!" Nonna said, she was confident they would win but those boys were still going to be a threat.
In the skies above Saunders
Alright ghosts, we'll be flying for 3 hours today. I want us to practice the basic tactics we learned, understood." Michael said over the radio. They were flying above the school at 30,000 feet. While they were experienced in combat, it was necessary to sharpen their skills and be ready for anything they might come up against.
"Yes sir!" The sudden burst of noise caused the radio to screech, minorly causing annoyance among the boys. This would need to be fixed for it would eventually become problematic.
They started by having two fighters engage each other in combat. They were to practice different maneuvers and tactics before initiating a mock dogfight.
Michael and Joe were up first. Michael had his plane accelerated to 500 mph before pulling sharply up followed by Joe. Joe's plane was going at a slower speed to simulate the prop planes they would be against.
During the vertical climb Joe started to stall prompting Michael to step on the right rudder pedal. This flung the plane over before Michael pointed the plane towards Joe who was now falling trying to regain speed. He simply got within range and pointed his guns before touching the trigger.
Click, nothing happened; the guns were empty as use of real ammunition could prove deadly to the pilots besides the obvious reason of not having any backup planes.
"You're dead! Ok now this is something I want you all to practice, using this we can effectively use our speed against the enemy. We will also have the problem of being outnumbered during a match." Michael spoke before getting everyone to repeat the maneuver multiple times until it was perfect.
"Major, I recommend we work in teams of two so we can cover more ground." Mitchell said always trying to think of something related to reconnaissance.
"Ok but we can't get separated too far or else we'll be picked off." Joe shot in trying to keep them from dying.
"I have an idea!" Douglas said.
"Oh God, here it comes." Joe joked causing everyone to laugh.
"I think we should have one group at 4,000 feet while another stays a half-mile behind at 10,000 feet. That way the lower group acts as bait and draws everyone in while being able to provide reconnaissance." Douglas explained, the plan was relatively sound but there could be a problem if the enemy attacked the higher group.
"Ok we'll consider it but let's get some more practice for now!" Michael said before everyone started to practice maneuvers. From everything to Immelmans to intentionally stalling your plane, it was all done. This practice would help but they were running low on fuel and needed to finish off the day soon. They spent hours doing so hoping it would help against Pravda.
"We're going to start our dogfight now. I want both groups starting at 10,000 feet and going at each other, no rules." Michael spoke before an important question was asked.
"But sir, how do we know If we've hit?" Joe asked causing a quick word of agreement from the other boys.
"Your goal is to cause the enemy to get into a position where you couldn't possibly miss. You can't lead your targets so you'll have to force them into a spot where they can't get out. Good luck!" Michael said before cutting off transmission and going onto the designated radio wave with Joe.
"Let's climb and dive on them, try to use your speed to prod them into giving chase." Michael ordered before pitching up followed by Joe.
After a few minutes of climbing they leveled off at 410 mph. While the bubble canopy provided excellent view compared to many older WW2 planes it still couldn't look down.
This was until Michael went inverted and started looking around before rolling back onto his top.
"Bandit spotted, 4 o'clock low!" He yelled before pitching into a dive again followed by Joe.
As soon as they began their dive and started zipping towards their target Joe noticed something was wrong.
"Wait, why is there only 1 plane?"
"Shit, get ready. He's probably going to turn in so let's lower our speed just to make sure we don't damage the wings." Michael said before pulling back the throttle.
As soon as he did this the enemy plane turned into him, they didn't get a chance to shoot as they quickly went past. This was one of the hallmarks of early jet warfare, quick passes with less than a second to react.
As they turned back and began chasing after the enemy they noticed another plane diving in on them. It could be seen that Mitchell was playing bait while Douglas attacked, he was clearly trying to show his tactic he had explained. Michael knew that it would work but if they hadn't been so impulsive it might have backfired.
Michael then turned into Douglas before accelerating to catch him. Douglas then made one fatal mistake, he put his speed into altitude but did so going completely vertical. Michael simply pitched up and got onto his tail before switching back onto the team frequency they could all here.
"Ghost 2, you have just been killed!" He said before turning back down to see Mitchell maneuvering like a madman.
"Do you need help?" Michael questioned remaining a few hundred feet above the fight.
"Na, I got him." Joe said, right at this moment Mitchell killed lowered his flaps and hit hard left rudder causing him to completely reverse. He picked up the speed in the dive and came up behind Joe who had tried to catch him.
Joe simply overshot him for the second time giving Mitchell the opportunity to get on his tail.
"Ghost 1, you're out!" Mitchell said before climbing at a 30° angle. How he managed to do that trick was beyond comprehension. While Mitchell was skilled, he wasn't a dog fighter. Michael would have to ask him when they got on the ground.
Michael then dove on Mitchell as he was climbing, he simply eased his way up behind him and squeezed the trigger.
"Ghost 3, your boned!" Michael joked before doing a small victory roll.
"Well shit, I was wondering where you were." Mitchell said as he began to descend to the airfield where the other two pilots were waiting for them.
The two boys quickly landed before parking their jets in the hangar. As soon as Michael got out he quickly took off his helmet and cheered.
"You lost!" He joked pointing his finger towards Mitchell and Douglas who were looking at him with an annoyed look. Sometimes there Major could be an asshole but it was always in good fun.
He then proceeded to walk down the ladder next to his cockpit. The ground crew at Saunders were really nice and by the end of the year they needed to find a way to repay them. That would have to be solved later as tomorrow they had a match.
"We needed work ok, we might not get the same opportunities tomorrow. Tonight we're going to have a meeting and we will talk strategy, understood?" Michael ordered.
"Sir yes sir!" They said in unison.
"Dismissed!"
As soon as he said this they all quickly went in different directions off to enjoy the rest of their day. Dinner was in 10 minutes and there wasn't enough time to change clothes. So Michael simply put his helmet on a rack switching it for a baseball hat with an infrared American flag on it.
He then took out his phone and started playing music on the way to dinner, Rocket Man by Elton John came on. A nice song to wind down too, he had so much pent-up inside of him now. The match tomorrow, the ordering of the new tanks, the management of the planes and that he would have to try to talk some sense into Kay's planning. They had lost so often and she was part of the reason, he knew it had to be her fault in some way. He swore to himself that he would be determined to fix that.
Strategic Planning Meeting
"Alright, so I'm going to leave this up to vote. Which tanks should we bring?" Kay asked as she gathered her commanders around her including the boys.
Leaving it up to her subordinates to decide her field composition. This, Michael thought, was one of the worst decisions a commander could make. You were in charge, you took the best of what you had and formed your plan around it.
Although it seemed that in most matches Saunders had been in that the plan was always the same, charge and try to overwhelm the enemy. This was even worse than just hiding as it gave the enemy the perfect chance to kill you while you couldn't do anything back effectively.
"I want you to bring Naomi's firefly and 9 M4A1(76)s, ok!" Michael said as he stood up with clear anger in his voice. The boys next to him not surprised that he was taking charge. Most of the girls on the other hand were shocked that a pilot would decide their tanks used.
"This is not war, it's just a game." One girl yelled.
"We should have fun doing this!" Another one said.
"Well then, if you want to win and stop being a shitty team then I suggest you start treating it like war." Michael ordered before slamming his fist on the table. He was pissed at these girls who thought they could talk back to him.
"I'm a Major, I only answer to two people here. Alisa and Kay so all of you will shut it!" Michael yelled causing the girls' faces to go completely white, only Naomi wasn't surprised.
Kay did seem mildly pissed but she couldn't help but agree with him. No matter how many times he insulted them he was right about them needing to try if they wanted to win.
"Ok then, it's settled. We'll be taking Michael's composition suggestion. Now onto tactics, what should we do?" Kay said causing the other girls to look even more surprised. Here was the commander of their team taking suggestions from a male pilot.
"How about we do what we always do." A girl said, this caused Michael to get even more pissed. How could these girls do the same thing over and over after it had failed so often? The other boys could see him getting worked up, so Douglas took the lead for this one.
"Well first let me see this map." He spoke as he grabbed a map and took out a red pen.
"I suggest we have Naomi positioned up here on this ridge. It only has one access point and provides a view of the entire area." Douglas said as he started drawing on the map to show positions.
"Ok but what about the rest of our force, what should they do?" Alisa asked somewhat intrigued at this new plan.
"Well we should have one Sherman in the bushes guarding the path up to the ridge. 3 Shermans should go out and scout individually, quietly stalk them until they are a mile away from Naomi. Then simply get their attention, lead them to this natural dip and take cover. Meanwhile the other tank will be camouflaged and hidden along two depressions in the land. When they are being shot at you move in and encircle them." Douglas said revealing his plan.
The girls were astonished at the detail, they had never even considered something like this before and he made it on the fly which was even more impressive.
"If you can get them clumped up tightly it will make an easier target and could provide the possibility for us to drop a bomb." Douglas said causing a nod of approval from the other boys.
"Well, that settles the tank but what are you guys going to do?" Kay asked clearly interested in the aerial battle that was going to take place above them.
"Well were going to equip ourselves with 2 1,000 lbs. bombs and 8 127mm unguided rockets." Douglas said before being cut off by Michael.
"We are going to be flying the beginning of the match in finger for formation. We will then break apart with Douglas and Mitchell staying at 4,000 feet with Joe and I half a mile behind at 10,000 to offer cover. Hopefully the enemy takes the bait and attacks them so we can dive in to support. As soon as we finish off the planes we'll move into support in what every way we can. We will not however use our bombs unless they are stuck in a pocket like we discussed." Michael explained drawing a picture of their formation on a small piece of paper.
"Ok then, what about if we are attacked from the air and you guys are busy?" Naomi questioned still somewhat concerned at the fact that the boys were outnumbered.
"You have the 50s installed on the top of your tanks right?" Douglas asked.
"Yes, but we don't think that will be enough to help." Naomi said.
"Just make sure to keep moving and lead your targets. Put enough lead in the air within a certain area and you'll most likely hit something." Douglas's trust in the girls aiming was questionable. While he thought Naomi might be able to pull something off the other girls would most likely completely miss.
Michael was watching this the entire time and he began to think to himself what would happen once they got their new tanks. He would need to get everyone to train and finally start taking this sport seriously. Michael was wanting Kay to start imposing punishments for people who didn't come to practice. Enough punishments and you were kicked off the team. Kay wouldn't like it but she needed to accept it for them to win.
"That settles it then, we have everything planned out. Now I want you all to go home and relax, 0800 at the sheds be there." Kay spoke before turning around and walking out the building.
The thought of once again having to go into the fray unnerved Michael as he couldn't stop thinking about Midway. He was scared and that match truly unnerved Michael, seeing his friends die right in front of him.
"Stop it, you're tougher than this. You are the best damn pilot the world has ever known. So go out tomorrow and show those Russians whose boss!" He said aloud yet no one was around. Thank God or else it might have been a bit embarrassing.
He quickly walked into the dorm before laying down on turning on the radio. He had his own personal room and it was covered with papers. There were papers describing the P-80 and F-80C. He had pictures of him from the past in front of a multitude of planes along the walls. An American flag hung from above the doorway. His room was still somewhat of a mess and he needed to fix that.
Promising himself he would fix everything after the match he changed and got ready to hit the sack. While it was only 2200 he felt spent so as soon as he laid on his bed he was out. The season had started and there was much to do, he hoped he could make it through. Whatever it took to win he would do, that much he promised himself.
He would be against Yak 3s, a plane loved by its pilots and ground crews alike. Extremely light yet robust, if they could beat this they would have a much easier time against other schools. This single thought scared Michael even more knowing that they would be outnumbered, outgunned, and out maneuvered. It would take skill and a stroke of luck to pull this off.
That's it for chapter 4, hope I built the suspense a little.
I'm currently in the middle of studying for three exams next weak so expect the chapters to be coming out a little slower.
!As always reviews are appreciated!