Here's Chapter 6, hope you guys will enjoy it and sorry for the delay in chapters. The next few chapters will be coming out a little slowly considering Crew Season has just started and I'm going to be in Texas for a college program.
As always, I do not own Girls Und Panzer
Chapter 6
"Wake up ladies!" Michael yelled before running into the room. To his surprise no one was there. They would never get up early unless absolutely having to because of PT so why start now. That was until he heard the tell-tale noise of the hammer on the M1911 being cocked.
He quickly turned around only to see the 3 boys with guns directly towards his head.
"Shit." He muttered causing them to laugh before returning to a serious face.
"Your going to do something fun today!" Joe joked before taking a step closer, while Michael knew they wouldn't shoot and he had his gun next to him he didn't want to take a chance.
"Well then, what is it?" He questioned scared of what he would have to do.
You're going to run the next 5 miles for the morning singing full cadence while wearing only boxers." Douglas said causing Michael's face to go to one of complete embarrassment.
"Fine but I'm having your heads for this got that!" He yelled before changing and throwing on the boxers and turning towards the door. It was cold outside considering how early it was and that they were somewhat north during fall.
"We're going to follow you on the jeep, you'll be running past the school before entering the tanks sheds and running back here." Mitchell explained which caused Michael to slightly cringe knowing he would be running by the sheds by the time the girls would come to practice.
He quickly ran out and started running hoping he could finish the run early. He was quickly caught up by the Jeep and they told him to start singing.
F-16 roaring down the strip
Air Force jockey on a one-way trip
Mission: Top Secret; Destination: Unknown
Don't even know if he's ever coming home
Scorching the ground at the speed of sound
Droppin' that napalm all around
Rippin' through the sky at Mach 2.2
Afterburner, I'm counting on you
If that bogie screws with me
He's gonna rejoin his infantry
America counts upon our crew
Friendly skies are the Air Force blue
He said this while running at a pace so fast the boys started telling him to slow down worrying that he might hurt himself. He didn't listen though, he finished one song and moved onto the next never slowing down. They could see he was determined to finish this as quickly as possible.
"You don't have to sing." Joe called out causing Michael to stop mid-song before taking a big breath and speeding up all the while being followed by the Jeep.
After only 18 minutes he had made the first three miles and was getting ready to pass by the sheds. No one had seen them, or at least he thought so because no one had been seen outside. He was moving at a faster pace than expected so hopefully none of the girls would be out yet.
The Jeep kept up behind him the entire time and they had all been laughing at what their Major had to do. They all knew though that he would put them through hell for this, what it was they would do was secret however.
Michael was running past the doors of the hanger as he looked over and saw three girls standing next to a chart. It was Kay, Naomi, and Alisa; he prayed they didn't look over. But of course, like a movie cliché they did, staring right at him. All their faces turning as red as a tomato seeing him run around in nothing but boxers.
"Fuck! I'm going to kill you guys!" He yelled as he sprinted around the corner beginning to make his way home.
The boys had died at the sight of the girls knowing Michael was embarrassed like hell. The girls hadn't said a thing still shocked at what they saw until Kay finally spoke up.
"What the hell was that?" Kay exclaimed.
"Don't know but let's ask later." Naomi said before they all nodded in agreement.
Meanwhile, Michael had made the short distance back to the house within record time. Luckily no one else had been out on the streets as it was still before 0600 so he was safe. As soon as he entered the dorm he shot inside and closed the door, it was even more risky considering the girls' dorm was attached to theirs. God had smiled upon him for this run he thought to himself.
He knew he would have some explaining to do later. Although he wanted to avoid it for as long as possible, so he showered, threw on his jumpsuit, and headed out. The other boys had collected themselves and were sitting on the jeep waiting for him. They needed to eat something so they drove to breakfast where each of them ate some pancakes before driving towards the airfield, the entire time not a word being said.
Joe quickly got on his phone and made a call asking the ground crew to get the planes ready to go. They agreed to do so and the boys quickly arrived to their planes on the airfield ready to go with Kay and the other girls not in sight thankfully.
They all ran into the hangar before grabbing their equipment. Again, not a word was said the entire time. The boys were on their way out to the planes before suddenly stopping in their tracks.
"Hey, why were you running in your boxers?" Kay questioned causing to turn around followed by the boys.
"Fuck." He muttered under his breath before considering what to say.
"It was for a bet." Joe shot in helping Michael out. Partly because he felt bad and partly because he wanted to be on his good side during their punishment.
"Oh, well don't do things like that. Someone less accepting could have seen, ok." She responded somewhat annoyed at the bet while also blushing at the same time.
"Understood!" The boys said before snapping off a salute to which she returned.
"So, what are you guys going to do?" She asked as she saw them ready to fly with their planes outside.
"We're just going to fly around for an hour or so and check out the place. We really haven't had a chance to go sightseeing considering how busy we've been." Michael said which calmed a few of the boys down knowing that their punishment would come later.
"Ok well let me know when you land. There's something we need to talk about regarding the tanks." She said before the boys nodded and they returned to getting into their planes.
"Ok, everyone run through a quick check!" Michael ordered.
"Flaps check, aileron check, engine check, rudder check, elevator check, stabilizers check!" Michael called out before everyone else began doing the same.
"Alright Ghosts, permission to take off as you please!" He said as they were attached to the catapult by the crew. They really needed to find a way to repay the girls of Saunders Airlift division.
They were each given the signal to take off and did so launching from the catapult quickly increasing their speed. It was a thrill to take off and one that they hoped would continue later through life.
After only a few minutes they were all up at 10,000 feet flying around before getting into formation.
"Alright Comms Check." Michael called out.
"Ghost 1 ready to rock!"
"Ghost 2 here"
"Ghost 3 reading you loud and clear."
"Ok then, were just going to fly around the carrier and I have a little mission for y'all." Michael declared causing the boys to get nervous, this could be their punishment.
"We're going to buzz the girls' dorms. I want everyone to go low and loud understood!" He ordered.
"Wilco, is this our punishment?" Joe responded.
"This is just the beginning!" He declared causing them all to die inside, if this was just the tip of the iceberg then they were screwed.
They quickly pitched over into a 45-degree dive, full throttle roaring towards the ground. After quickly arriving at 570 mph they leveled off at around 100 ft before passing over the girls' dorms. If any of them weren't awake they were now, they were sure that was loud as hell.
"Alright pull up and let's get the fuck out of here before anyone notices!" Michael ordered before pulling up and shooting away from the dorms AFAP. They managed to get out of sight pretty quickly but didn't look back to see if anything had actually happened. They didn't notice anyone outside when they dove but at such high speeds, they could have easily missed someone.
"Alright we're just going to take a tour of the carrier completely now, slow down to 300 and stay at 5,000 feet." He said before slowing down and taking a look over the ocean. The carrier was massive and beautiful, but the ocean, that was a new thing entirely. The shimmering seas brought a minor tear to his eye, oh how he wished he could be in them, surfing every day.
They didn't say a word the entire time. While they had seen the sun rise before they still couldn't get over the beauty when it rose over the ocean. They were in love and nothing could ruin it for them.
They continued to fly around for an hour looking over the seas and carrier before starting to head in for landing. Not a word being said but actions being understood by the shaking of wings or hand signals. They were still somewhat awestruck at the beauty of this place, Saunders could afford so much that it was almost overwhelming.
"Ok well that was amazing, now let's head in for a landing." Michael said over the radio before slowing down and preparing for landing. He was quickly copied by the other boys as they slowed their planes down. The jet engines were not the most responsive on the P-80 so everything had to be pre-planned.
Michael was the first to hit the ground his tired screeching as he put on the brakes trying to slow down. Thank God that the landing gears were strong enough to take the punishment or bad things would happen. They had all seen footage of a planes gears falling out from it and it crashing into the ground. Worst case scenario there was contact with a gas tank of some kind or a fire with a resulting explosion killing the pilot.
They all knew what they were doing and quickly landed before pulling into the hangar with the help of the ground crew. A ladder was rolled up to the boys' planes and they all walked out with their helmet in hand. While their hair was a bit messed up they each had a hat they put on to cover for it.
The cockpits were somewhat cramped and they all stretched as they got out even though they had tried to make it nicer by adding cushions in the seats. One would see this and think it was a normal plane but the old metal ones were a pain in the ass, literally.
Michael quickly shot Kay a text as soon as he hung his helmet up letting her know that they were done. When she had mentioned something about the tanks it caused Michael to become a little nervous, was something wrong, would they not get the tanks? So many questions with so little time to act school was to start in 4 days and they had a week before their next match.
"Major what do you think will happen if they find out it was us who buzzed them?" Joe questioned somewhat worried at the chance they could receive punishment not just from Michael, but also from the girls.
"Not sure but let's just not talk about it and hope everything went well. Oh and I almost forgot, if anything happens you're all taking responsibility and I'm fine." Michael proclaimed somewhat happy as this couldn't hurt him. The boys simply nodded with frowning faces knowing that they would have to take the full brunt of the punishment.
Michael then looked back at his phone and saw that Kay had asked them to meet at the main strategic room for their tanks.
"Alright everyone in the Jeep we're Oscar Mike!" Michael declared before they all got into the jeep. One advantage of being a pilot was that they could wear their jumpsuit. They were a lot more comfortable then a school uniform and this was cherished.
"Major is there a problem with the tanks?" Douglas asked inquisitively.
"Not sure we'll find out later."
"So, what's our plan for the next week?" Mitchell questioned.
"We're going to talk with Kay and finish whatever is needed for the day. Tomorrow we're going to practice maneuvers and shooting as well as spend a few hours in the simulator. We'll have a bit of free time near the end of the day to do whatever we want to do. After that the tanks will arrive and we'll try and help the girls get settled in. Douglas I want you working on integration with the new tanks and our planes. If anything goes wrong during a match it's your fault. Understood!" Michael explained before putting some minor pressure on Douglas.
"Wilco!" Douglas responded snapping off a salute only to be returned by Michael.
"We're also going to spend some time going through every single episode of the show Dogfights seeing as it is extremely relevant to us." He continued with everyone nodding in agreement. Learn from the mistakes and successes of the past so that the future could be better secured.
After only a few minutes of driving they arrived at their destination. They quickly walked into the massive building and walked over to Kay. When they opened the door they were greeted with the sight of Kay sitting down. She had a computer in front of her with papers around her desk including a chart of the different US tanks during WW2.
They noticed a few things circled on the chart but couldn't exactly tell what it was. This was before Kay greeted them and they all took their respective seats around her. The room was nice in decor and always smelled like flowers, probably something to do with air freshener.
"Ok, now that your here we need to talk about a few things. First off, the tanks couldn't all be ordered or we'd be waiting a year so I made a few changes to the list. I want to let you guys know so we can prepare." Kay announced causing the boys to get scared, she still needed work on being a tactician and wasn't the best commander.
"What changes have you made and how long will it take for the tanks to get here?" Douglas questioned taking the initiative before Michael, he was in charge of everything ground related for the pilots.
"I've decided to add one Sherman T34 Calliope, two M36B1 Shermans, 4 M4A3E2 Jumbos, I've kept the 4 Hellcats, the original amount of M4A3E8s has been changed to 8. So what do you think?" She stated causing the boys to wonder what she said, they had a basic understanding of these tanks but nothing to large.
"We're not entirely sure what these tanks are so can you please walk us through this." Michael asked still trying to figure out this new line up, hopefully she had made a good decision on the tanks.
"Well let's start from the beginning. The Calliope has an armament of 60 4.5-inch rockets, it has a typical statistics of an M4 Sherman including a 75mm gun with a minorly slower speed. The M36B1 has a standard M4A3 Sherman hull with a 90mm T29 turret so it will be minorly slower but have a much bigger gun. The Jumbo has 101mm of armor in the front so it can bounce 88s with relative ease including 152 mm of armor all around the turret. It has the normal 76mm gun with a slower speed since it can only go 22 mph. The Easy 8s will have the HVSS suspension, an M1A2 gun attached so it can now pierce most things we will go up against. The armor remains the same as the original M4A3 with increased speed so overall it is a good tank. You already know the stats for the Hellcat so we can get going." Kay explained the boys taking it all in as quickly as their minds could process it.
She showed them pictures of the tanks as well as the information of the tanks using a software program. It would show all the stats of the tank as well as its armor value with an option to choose different guns like the 88 or 76mm. The program would then show where the gun could pierce on the tank using certain types of ammunition and considering the crews almost always HVAP ammunition.
These new tanks were amazing and they couldn't wait to see them in action but there was also the problem of being attacked from the air. The boys wouldn't always be there to help so the girls needed to learn how to defend themselves.
"Well Kay, were clearly impressed and we can't wait to see these tanks in action. We do however need to work on your air defense, eventually this is going to be a problem for everyone when you guys get bombed." Michael pointed out causing her to smile at the compliment before it turned to a frown when she realized he was right about the air defense.
"So what do you think we should do to practice this?" She questioned trying to formulate a plan about how to defend themselves.
"I think we should have everyone get on their 50 cals and practice shooting at clay pigeons." Douglas pitched in causing the attention to turn on him.
"Those are so small though and are meant for being shot with a shotgun." Kay said causing Michael to wonder what his idea was.
"Well a plane is going to be going faster so we should have everyone work on a slower target. The size will compensate for the speed and with good practice we can have a strong defense." Douglas pointed out causing everyone to agree with his observation.
"Nice, now that that's resolved what do we do about the crews. They're going to be given new tanks so which groups should we assign to tanks or should we just redo them? Naomi and Alisa don't know about this but I doubt the former will want to switch tanks." Kay said causing Michael to think about this new problem that had arisen.
"I think you've figured out the chemistry of your tanks pretty well so we'll leave the crews the same and simply transfer them over to their assigned tank. I have an idea for us to test out the crews by giving them a test I will design. They will be given a series of questions about problems and see what their response is. Couple this with the statistics from their overall crew and we can have a general idea of what to do." Michael explained before everyone nodded and then Kay stood up.
"Well that settles it, I'm going to gather everyone after lunch which is starting in 20 minutes. I need you to have your questions ready by then as well so we can get started. Douglas I want you to print out the statistics of the tanks so we can help match them and Mitchell you'll get the crew statistics. Joe you're going to type everything they say so we can be ready for later. After we interview the crews were going to come back here and arrange everyone into their tanks, understood?" Kay ordered with vigor causing the boys to be surprised at her order considering she had a usually laid-back attitude. Things were finally starting to change for the better on the Saunders Shensha-Do team.
"Yes ma'am!" They all yelled in unison before snapping off a salute which she returned with determination on her face. They then all walked out of the building and over to the jeep. They quickly turned on the ignition with Mitchell driving as usual, he was the best driver so the decision about who would be the chauffeur was unanimous.
The drive only took 5 minutes seeing as everything school related was pretty close together. They hadn't had the need to head out of the campus besides runs so they still didn't know too much about the carrier.
They stopped off in front of the mess hall before walking inside. The smell of food instantly drew the boys to the buffet line. They all were hungry and took an insane amount of food before sitting down at an empty table. Kay took her time eating and so did the other boys but Michael quickly finished before moving onto his questions. What should he write he thought to himself, these would be important so they all had to make sense.
It then hit him, the questions he would ask would be simple but they would show everything about the person.
He then took out a pencil and began writing on a piece of paper.
Question 1: What way would you describe yourself when given a problem?
Question 2: What do you prefer, speed, armor, or a big gun?
Question 3: Are you willing to take risks?
Question 4: An enemy is ahead of you in an open field, what do you do?
Question 5: Do you prefer camouflage or do you want the enemy to see you?
Question 6: Are you calm under fire?
Question 7: Do you question orders or blindly follow them?
Question 8: How many confirmed kills do you have in a tank?
Question 9: How accurate is your tank?
Question 10: Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the team?
These would be the questions asked, they may not seem like much but from the answers they could decide which tank to command.
"Here you go Kay." Michael said before handing her the paper.
"Thanks! I trust these questions will be enough." She responded not even taking the time to look at it before putting it in her bag. She then sent a text to the team telling them to be at the tank sheds within 20 minutes. After this they ate all of their food without saying a word and continued onto the sheds.
"How are we going to decide who gets the Calliope. You know considering its completely different from anything else we have." Kay pointed out before entering the sheds.
"I'll think about it." Douglas said before they walked to the front of the room.
Kay quickly walked up onto a platform getting everyone's attention before talking.
"Hello, we need everyone to fill out a short questionnaire in a moment so can everyone please take a seat at the desks. Any questions specifically will be asked after everyone is finished." Kay said as Douglas made copies of the questionnaire before passing them out around the room.
They all watched as the girls quickly went over them answering every question and within only a few minutes, it was done. The girls then all handed their papers up to the front of the room where Kay put them inside of a folder which she handed to Douglas.
"Any questions?" Kay asked.
"Yes, today when I was walking by the sheds I noticed some of the tanks were being offloaded onto a plane. Is something happening?" A taller, brown-haired girl asked. Kay knew she had to give an answer but did she want to ruin the surprise. They had an idea for them to all see the tanks in two days and for everything except for 2 trainers to be sold the night before. But considering the cost of the newly added tanks they had to sell a few early.
"We needed a few parts for the tanks which weren't in stock on the carrier and required skilled workers. It was easier simply to fly them off to get them repaired compared to having everything fly here." Michael chipped in causing everyone to nod in agreement before the room went silent again. No further questions were asked so Kay dismissed them all and everyone went on their own ways.
"Kay do we have anything to do today?" Michael questioned trying to plan out their day now that the most important things were done.
"No not really, you guys can do whatever you want for the rest of the day." She explained before turning around and walking out the door. She really wasn't the most formal person but whatever they now had the rest of the day free to themselves.
"Well now that were free I want everyone to head to the pool, everyone will be swimming for the next 3 hours. Whoever gets the longest distance can leave, the shortest distance will have repercussions." Michael said causing everyone to groan but they couldn't argue. They all quickly got into their respective seats in the jeep and headed towards the pool. They already had clothes stored in the locker room there so there was no need to head back to the dorm.
After they got to the pool and changed Michael was the first to get in. He had a timer on his phone set to all they needed to do was swim for the next few hours. And swim they did, each person easily getting over 10,000 yards considering their fitness. Mitchell was the swimmer of the group and won the competition with over 1,000 yards, then came Michael, Joe, and finally Douglas.
As they all discussed their scores Douglas cursed now scared of what his punishment would be.
"Alright 50 up-downs and you're done." Michael ordered causing Joe to shoot to the ground. He was tired from the swim but still completed them, a testament of their strength. This however was not enough as soon after completing this Joe fell on the ground and laid there. Everyone laughed when they saw this and they all managed to get Joe up before taking him to the locker room.
The pool was Olympic sized but was rarely visited except for one or two girls but today there was no one. It was nice but a lot of changes were made to the school when the boys joined in. New rooms were constructed for privacy, not that the boys would do anything, but it didn't hurt to make sure.
After changing back into clothes they got up and got onto the Jeep before driving home. They were all tired and needed to rest. And rest they did after arriving at their dorm. They all quickly changed before eating a snack and sitting down in front of the TV.
They turned it on to see the news, nothing really that important was happening. The world was still dealing with problems, terrorists in the Middle East, poverty in Africa, crime in the United States. All these terrible things had become daily life for everyone, you could live on the other side of the world and would know about something terrible happening.
If this were to happen a few decades before people would freak out at the fact that the civilian population of a country would be targeted with the intent of only to kill people. Everyone now got on with it hoping they wouldn't be next but things were always going to happen when left up to fate.
There was still hope that the world would get better one day and that their generation would be the one to do it. Hopefully this was true but only with hard work and dedication.
After looking at the news they started watching different shows, flicking through the channels. After finding something to watch they decided to relax and no one talked as everyone was invested in their show.
This was a relief, all the hard work and here comes this moment of relaxation but they all knew it wouldn't last. Eventually they would have to get up and fly into the wild blue yonder once more.
That's it for chapter 6, I hope you guys liked the new line up. Thanks for to NewtypeAuthor346 for the help with the tanks. Make sure to check out his page and stories, there really good and captivating. If there is anything you want to know please don't hesitate to ask.
I'm starting a new story; its first chapter should be out by tomorrow afternoon. It's going to follow a group of boys in a different version of Shensha-Do. While this has planes it will have infantry however they will not be in the same matches. The infantry will be equipped with modern weapons and will take place on the Saunders Carrier so there will be interaction. This infantry oriented version will be in a lot more detail as I have a greater knowledge of the weapons being used today compared to WW2.
You guys are the reason I keep making these so reviews are appreciated.