Hey and welcome back to chapter 7. Hope you like this new chapter and expect more within the coming days! I'm starting to get better and wish to give a thank you to those who wished for better health. Enjoy!
I do not own Girls Und Panzer
Chapter 7
"Rise and shine bitches!" Michael yelled as he ran into the room once more prompting everyone to shoot up out of bed. They were all tired from the past few days seeing as it had been constant flying and training. However today was the first day they could relax, the girls were getting their new tanks.
"Everyone is up and accounted for." Joe called out as everyone was standing at attention in their skimmies. Today would be starting off with a run like usual yet they would simply stop and eat instead of continuing. They had been told this the previous night and were grateful but they knew Michael would have them make up for it later. It wasn't very early being at 0700, sleeping in was a rare comfort, and the sun was up providing air over the cool night.
Within the next few minutes everyone was running around changing and cleaning themselves up. Their PT uniform was basically an exact copy of the Air Force's uniform with changes in the insignias. They were comfortable and helped keep them cool which was a relief.
"Alright I want everyone to run to the mess hall where we will eat. After that I want everyone to head to the tank sheds where we will meet with Kay about the new tanks. There is a scheduled meeting at 0900, obviously attendance is mandatory and we will be helping in whatever ways were needed." Michael explained before they all nodded and took off running.
The run was relatively quick causing them to make time pretty nicely. Michael's mind was not on the run however, it was stuck on whether or not they had made the proper decisions about who was to take the separate tanks. He had taken time with Kay and Naomi to properly plot everything out as well as work with basic strategies.
The addition of the Calliope and heavy tanks had heavily changed their strategies and would continue to do so throughout the season.
How they would react to the change was obviously important as there could be any number of events that could happen. They could be angry that their old tanks were sold without their permission even though they weren't in charge of anything. But with the way Kay ruled over them it wouldn't surprise them considering the lee way they were given.
She had been tightening up on practice attendance which made him happy, perhaps he could get some more rules installed relating to training. He would have to argue his case once again but he was confident if this next match went well he could get what he wanted.
That was another thing that worried him, Oorai. He had been told that they were a very dangerous opponent and while their tanks didn't seem very dangerous their planes did. The Kawanishi N1K was relatively fast with its speed getting close to 408 mph at 20,000ft. It could compete in maneuverability with some of the late war fighters such as the P-51 and F4U.
Its 4 20mm cannons would outmatch their 50s with a gun convergence of 656ft. It had a lower service ceiling than their jets and could only carry 2 551 lb. bombs. While these would be enough to knock out their tanks they would rely on their ground forces to get the job done.
Once again the match next to solely rely on tactics considering that each plane was a master of one opposite trait. Higher speed typically meant lower maneuverability and with the slow response time of a jet engine it would be against their best interests to be in a dogfight.
The tanks would be different this time. He saw the match last year and thought he had a plan of how to combat them. They seemed to rush into things, although he wasn't sure if this was due to the commander or the crews. It had been a year since the match and he hadn't had the time to watch the Oorai match against a small unknown school in which they utterly destroyed them.
When he met the commander, Miho Nishizumi, she didn't seem like a person who demanded absolute perfection like her sister. Yet she seemed as if she was more relaxed yet calculated. Now while no one knew about their new tanks he would want to continue keeping them secret.
No one would be allowed to talk about it to anyone not on a need to know basis. He had heard about a girl from Oorai, Yukari, who had spied on the school to relay information back to their school. He would not let this happen again, he was used to people spying at their old school considering the lax rules.
He knew if he caught anybody then there would be a punishment. What it was he wasn't really sure about that but he would think of something.
Eventually he gave up on thinking about everything and moved on with his life. The run was over and he could relax for now he got a chance to indulge in the Saunders breakfast. It still blew the boys away how good the food was there, honestly it wouldn't surprise him if he stayed that way for the rest of his life.
He was thankful for this and knew the other boys were too but, like the Saunders Airlift, wanted to repay them somehow. Like many other things how to do this avoided him, for the moment. He knew he should focus on the season and anything relaxing should be done at the end of the year.
"Hey Major, since we pushed the speed of the run can we take our time eating?" Douglas questioned breaking Michael out of his trance like state. He noticed how they were all sweating and out of breath. In his thoughts he had not noticed how much faster he went compared to usual. It was like a runner's high which they had all experienced before.
It was one thing they had always told people when asking why they ran. Besides the obvious reasons of the physical exercise and health the runner's high was something they all looked forward to. While it was typically encountered in longer distances they could partake in the feeling if they pushed themselves every day.
They did from time to time rest but this was usually viewed as a waste of time as rest would be a shorter, slower run. Sometimes Michael wondered why the boys agreed to do everything while putting up minimal resistance.
He never heard them overly complain but he wouldn't be surprised if they did. They were human after all although he knew they did want to secure themselves a future and this would help.
"Sure! Like I said today will be an easy day so everyone should relax." He said before walking inside to get food. Once again it smelled wonderful and the boys rushed to get what they could before people started showing up in droves. A sight not uncommon in a school as large as Saunders.
They all loaded up on food, they could with no worries seeing as they wouldn't be overly working out. Within seconds of them sitting down they saw people arriving. Like a horde of zombies marching forward, they crowded into the mess hall. Soon it turned into a mass of people yelling and pushing for food. It was honestly a cluster fuck but not many things could be done about it.
Eventually they ate everything they had on their plates and cleaned everything up. Seeing as they had been there for a while no one really questioned what they were doing anymore. They had met most of the people at the school by this point and were well known from their Pravda match.
Now while the boys did like attention it wasn't the most important thing in their life. They lived to fly and being on the ground wasn't the best. They all wished they could spend their life flying, the adrenaline rush from nailing the throttle into WEP felt amazing. The plane's engines roaring as they pulled or pushed the pilot through the air at high speeds.
"Alright everybody, let's get moving." Michael called out as they all left the mess hall. They then began heading towards the tank sheds where they knew Kay was there. She was getting up earlier than usual seeing as this meeting was typically right as she was waking up but this was important.
The walk was quiet the entire way until they arrived at the sheds. Upon this they could see every shed empty through the windows save for one that looked like it was packed full of equipment. This, Michael thought, had to be the new tanks.
"Hey, over here!" Kay called as the boys all turned before snapping into attention. While they were still friends with her she was their highest-ranking commanding officer. They would only salute Michael regardless of the other pilots rank to which he always returned it. They tried to run things as military as possible while still enjoying the perks of civilian life.
"At ease!" She called after returning a salute. She was dressed in her usual uniform, why the shorts were so, well, short evaded Michael. Typically, in America if there was some dress uniform then things would typically have to be closer to the knees than anything. But for all he knew, he wasn't complaining, and neither were the other pilots.
"Kay, now where do you need us to go?" Michael asked trying to figure out exactly what they were needed for.
"Well I need you to walk in and look at the tanks for one. After that I want everyone inside on a computer at the desks where you will be reading out the assigned crews. Is this ok?" She explained before the pilots all nodded.
She brought them in and their eyes all widened at the sight. In front of them was every tank they had gotten from the Easy 8's to the Calliope. Of which the Calliope's rockets looked amazing as there was one stacked up next to the tank. Now while the boys were used to the rockets on their planes this was different.
What this would do to a tank upon impact would be amazing seeing as their rockets instantly knocked them out no matter where they hit. How accurate they were though we prove to be problem because as the boys knew the numbers never told the full truth. It would require a field test, and this would make the boys extremely happy.
Once again Michael wondered what the girls would think but he was now more optimistic than ever.
"Beautiful, isn't she?" Joe said as he placed his hand on the side of the tank. It's hard-American steel giving him a feeling of ecstasy as he looked it over.
"She's amazing!" Kay called out as she pointed them in the direction of the tables where they saw the computers they were to hand assignments out from.
"Hey, do you here that?" Mitchell asked as a noise could be heard from outside. The talking of many voices pierced the air and Kay knew that was her cue to head outside.
"Places everyone, let's make this as efficient as possible." Kay ordered as she ran outside through the door. The boys taking their places at the tables ready to give out assignments.
"Alright girls, thanks for being on time. Now I have a little surprise for you which might come as well, a surprise. I want everyone to head towards the desks at the back of the hangar where you will be given orders by our lovely pilots." She ordered as she opened the hangar door causing all the girls to gasp.
New tanks! A flurry of emotions came over the group as they all ran in towards the back of the room eager to look these tanks over. They saw everything from Shermans to Hellcats. Heavy tanks to tank destroyers, a massive change in their arsenal.
Within seconds the girls were lined up at the different desks. They noticed one for commanders, one for loaders, one for gunners, and one for drivers and radio operators. Each manned by one of the boys to which Mitchell was in charge of the last making him have the most amount of work.
The next few minutes was full of shrieks and happy faces as people were assigned their positions. Nobody seemed too upset and they all looked happy at their assignments. Although one girl stuck in his mind, the Calliope commander. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree as soon as she heard what she would be doing.
"Oh my God! Thank you so much, I won't let you down!" She yelled as she excitedly jumped up and down.
"Don't mention it. You're going to be extremely important so I'm going to have you train a little more than everyone else. Understood?" He responded as she snapped off a salute and ran to the tank. They were beginning to be respected as superiors considering their rank. Hopefully the way they created a plan during the Pravda match had helped their credibility.
Within minutes everyone was at their assigned positions by their tanks standing in order depending on their position when Kay called them to attention.
"Alright! I want everyone to get in their tanks and head out to the range. Naomi will walk through helping you guys get used to your new higher caliber guns. I will be in one of the Easy 8's and Alisa will be doing the same. So, let's get going!" She ordered as they all ran into their tanks before starting the engines.
The air being pierced with the noise of the massive tanks beginning to roll out of the sheds in order. While they were not the best team they were fairly organized and got out of the sheds within minutes.
"Ok everyone can now commence firing except for the Calliope! We're going to assign numbers tonight at dinner, so everyone will sit together at the largest table possible." Kay barked these orders at every gun started firing throwing HVAP down range. Splashes of dirt with the occasional hit showed the teams accuracy. It needed work but that was what Naomi was for.
The entire time the pilots were watching this spectacle of fire in front of them. The noise was noticeably louder than before, but this was due to the fact of the size of the new guns. The 76mm and 90mm were louder than the 75mm from before and much, much stronger.
"Hey, we need to go help the Calliope crew learn to fire." Joe suggested before taking off towards the tank which had been sitting still the entire time.
"Didn't Kay tell them not to fire?" Mitchell questioned to which Joe immediately turned back knowing he didn't want to break a superior officer's orders.
"To hell with her orders! This shits gonna to be awesome!" Michael yelled as he started walking towards the Calliope.
He knew it wouldn't be the nicest thing to disobey orders but what could she do. It's not like she would have them court martialed or anything.
"Hey it's me again!" Michael said as he jumped onto the top of the tank talking to the commander. She had short red hair and wore the standard US tanker uniform. The girl immediately shot up and saluted once more before bringing up the orders given from Kay to which Michael simply nodded.
"We were given permission to start testing this baby." He said as she began to get out of the tank with the gunner and loader.
They nodded before the gunner and commander got back into the tank. The loader simply went over to behind the rockets and checked over them.
"So, you just got this tank. Do you guys know how to use it?" Douglas questioned.
"There was a manual inside, so, we just read that. We know we have to make sure all the wires are attached properly then pull a trigger system we have inside. The gunner has it next to them, so she'll simply pull it and off go the rockets. She'll pull it once more to stop it, but I don't think we'll be firing only a few of our rockets at a time." The loader responded before hopping back in the tank with all her preparations done.
She seemed to be pretty smart if she could understand a manual about a firing system she had most likely never dealt with.
Within seconds they had closed the hatch and the boys had their hands over their ears. It would have been smart to wear some hearing protection considering they would be right next to the rockets.
Soon the rockets began firing off with a roar causing the boys to all shout with glee. The noise wasn't what was making them happy but the sight of the rockets shooting out of their barrels and impacting down the range.
The girls from the different tanks shot up and looked over at this new noise causing them to stop firing. Kay saw this and while she knew she had ordered them to not fire she saw the boys over with them. She figured that they must have given the order to fire as most of her girls wouldn't disobey her word without provocation.
"This is fuckin amazing!" Joe called out causing all the boys to let out one cheer. The rockets fired one at a time in close intervals and eventually there weren't any rockets left causing the girls to get back out of their tanks. Everyone else resumed firing and target practice as Naomi was running through their ranks.
The loader than hopped back out and approached Douglas.
"Well we don't have any more ammo with us. I only got a decent look so how did it look?" She asked him to which he immediately responded.
"Great! Accuracy seemed better than I would have thought, and it fired off pretty quickly although I'm not sure what you'll do when you run out of ammo."
"Cool! So, anything else regarding the tank we can figure out later. By the way I know your name, but I don't think you know mine. I'm Ingrid!" She said before extending her hand out to which he simply returned the favor. She had short blonde hair in a French braid, she was extremely white and was of clear Scandinavian descent.
"Well it's great to meet you! Say I have a stupid question. Would you mind maybe staying after dinner and we could work with the tank? I think it would be a good idea to learn about how this works." He questioned out of no-where causing her to mentally jump back but she accepted.
Even though she was the loader she figured he needed someone to load it while he figured out the aiming systems aside from other reasons. Nothing was ever said in the manual about firing arcs, so it would be important to learn these before their next match.
So many variables would have to be calculated which would be the gunners job but since she wouldn't be loading very often she could help. The better their tank worked the better for the team considering they would play a big part in strategy.
The Calliope simply turned around and started driving back towards the tank shed. While it did have a 75mm main gun this was not the focal point of their practice. There gunner was the second best shot on the team and she had more pressing matters to worry about now.
The pilots simply followed them with Douglas and Ingrid talking the entire time. Michael stayed behind before heading to Kay's tank. He noticed how Douglas looked at Ingrid and vice-versa. Even though it was there first time meeting he was pretty sure things might get a little serious between the two.
He knew this might be a distraction, but they were a part of life and he couldn't control everything. He had a girlfriend before he left and while she rarely did get in the way Michael did think about her when he was flying. What would she think, say, or do if he were to die? No one had ever gone a season without someone dying and he prayed to God they wouldn't lose anyone this year.
Who would it be though? He wouldn't be surprised if the next match had injuries. While a 50-caliber bullet would kill upon impact it could graze them and leave them injured. Now a 20mm was a different story seeing as that would kill them no matter what and almost all of their opponents would be using these or something of a larger caliber.
He put these questions behind him as knocked on the side of their turret after they fired. The thought behind this was that they had just fired so the tank would be quieter as they are loading, and she would hear him knocking as the hatch was closed. Surely enough she heard him and popped out of the hatch before looking around to find the source of the noise.
She only saw Michael as he was standing there still in his PT uniform. He simply looked at her before opening his mouth to speak.
"Sorry about disobeying orders about the Calliope but they did pretty well and are now heading back to the sheds. My pilots are there with them so I'm the only one left. Is there anything you need help with?" He said before she seemed to go into deep thought.
What it was about alluded Michael, was it about a punishment or work. He wished he could read people's minds but don't we all. Now Kay took a while before coming up with an answer.
"Actually yes, there is! I want you guys to go from tank to tank and go over a few topics regarding their new tanks. We can only teach them so much and I'm hoping you guys can give some helpful insight even though you are pilots."
"No problem although I don't think Douglas will be able to help as he's a bit busy with the Calliope." This caused him to smirk as he knew what might happen to which Kay was clearly unaware.
"Ok well were going to continue practice firing for the next hour so you have plenty of time. Just try to go over a few minor things with the commander such as keeping calm, tactics, and proper orders."
"What do you mean proper orders?" He questioned somewhat unsure of what she meant.
"Well some of our commanders like to just charge in head first without thinking about things logically. I guess it's kind of the same as tactics but that's not important." She explained.
Michael got a minor kick out of her talking about charging in head first. Those tactics were often used by her and now she was lecturing others about it. She was getting better but there was still a lot of improvement left for her.
With these new orders he took off to the tank next to hers, Alisa's Easy 8. He knew she was stubborn and wasn't the biggest fan of the boys. Yet she had warmed up minorly and would hopefully take tips, even if from a pilot.
He knocked on the side of her turret after she fired. Within a second, she popped her head out of the cupola and looked around finding Michael next to her. Her face changed to one of minor annoyance which didn't surprise him at all.
"Hey! Kay told me to help the commanders with a few things." He said to which she scowled at him. Why would a pilot be helping her, a tank commander? She knew everything there was to know, at least in her mind that was how it was.
"I don't need help with anything! Ok?" She said at him before starting to close the turret hatch.
"Look you just tend to get a bit scared and lose your mind when things start going wrong. This is a problem and it needs to be fixed if we're going to win this season."
"Number 1, I don't lose my cool! Number 2, everything went perfect last match, so nothing will happen in the next one." She tried lecturing him to which he simply frowned. Internally he was pissed at her arrogance, people like her were a major reason armies failed.
"Look not everything is going to go perfect every match. We got lucky that they fell for such a basic trap. Now we all need to work on things so take this as constructive criticism. Try to stay calm and take deep breaths when things don't go your way. Do this and you'll have a great year and might even be promoted to commander once Kay leaves!" She decided to give him a little attention and simply nodded before popping back down into her tank and commencing to fire once more.
Hopefully she had taken at least some of the words to heart. He then went around to the different tanks giving advice. Some of the commanders listened with open ears while some could clearly be seen not giving a fuck about him. None though were as outgoing as Alisa which was a relief to him.
It was kind of annoying because while Kay had asked for the rest of the pilots to go with him he wasn't going to bother them with something this meaningless. Although he still did need to come up with a punishment for what they had done to him. Nothing major had been done yet and he didn't know what to do. Whatever they were to do the idea would soon come to him.
Eventually after about an hour he had finished and everyone he decided he would head to the tank sheds to see where everyone was. The girls had finished firing for the day and were heading inside, presumably to work on something, but what, he didn't know.
He did know there would be a match in 2 days which caused him some minor concern. The girls would have to learn these new tanks quick but with proper practice he knew it was possible. Now while he knew the boys didn't have anything to do today tomorrow would be spent flying. He had an idea for another practice match, so they could get something in. Dogfight training would be helpful but somewhat hard considering they were in jets.
Upon arriving at main shed he saw all the tanks nicely parked once more. Obviously, the tanks were faster than him walking but he could definitely tell which were parked last considering the speeds. The Jumbos were slow compared to the Hellcats but that was there point. Heavy tanks versus light tank destroyers, they served to completely different purposes, but they complimented each other nicely.
One could spot and take out targets with precision while the other would be a slow-moving bullet sponge. This did represent a massive change from Saunders original lineup where they had the most basic of Shermans. Everything was average from the gun to the armor. Nothing stood out except for numbers and the crews were decent at best.
Training had made them better which was nice but there was still a lot of room for improvement. He had seen some today and most of the crews were definitely trying. A few of the lazier crews had been cut as there weren't enough tanks to go around now and everyone would have a set position. He hoped that some wargames could help the commanders with strategy. He could just do a live fire test which would give the best simulation of a battle they could get.
Whatever the plan was though Kay had the final say with the team being hers and all. While she did have to answer to the school and federation, both of which seemed pretty relaxed, she was basically in charge of everything tank related. That was one other thing that troubled Michael. Whose dumbass idea had it been to make a sport where teenagers fight each other with death being the common result.
He could understand the girls with their carbon-fiber protection and all but them flying. Now that was starting to push it, but he knew that if he made it through a few years of it then the Air Force would be all over him. The test pilot program was definitely something he wanted to do. Imagine that, getting to fly the newest planes before everyone else. Sure, it was dangerous, but it couldn't be any worse than what they did now.
Besides he would get paid, something that was illegal as flying was considered a high-school sport. He could argue with someone about it but it wouldn't matter. He would simply be replaced with someone who would fly so just try to take advantage of it while it lasted. Besides, he loved flying and knew the rest of the pilots did too.
"Hey Major!" Michael turned around to the sight of Mitchell walking towards him. None of the other pilots could be seen but he was more focused on Mitchell who seemed to have something in his mind.
"Hey Mitchell! Where's everyone else?"
"I know Douglas went with that loader chick from the Calliope and I think Joe just went back to the dorm."
"Good for Douglas although why did Joe head back?"
"Probably to change or relax, not sure. I do know that these clothes are sweaty and starting to smell so a shower wouldn't be half bad."
"A shower and it's not even lunch yet, funny."
"Well we do need it and lunch started an hour ago so were technically late."
"Good point. So, should we head over to lunch?"
"Sure!"
"Hey guys!" Kay said as she ran towards them, her hands were somewhat darkened from the dirt on the tanks, but this was of little concern.
"Hey Kay!" They said in unison before snapping off a salute to which she returned the formality.
"Were about to head to lunch. Care to join us?" Michael asked, he was starting to spend more time around Kay and they knew quite a lot about each other's past.
"Will do, besides I have some stuff I want to talk to you about. Care if Naomi and Alisa join us?"
"Of course not!" Michael responded, Naomi he thought was pretty nice at times and smart, but Alisa just seemed to be an ass.
"Mitchell that reminds me, Naomi wanted to talk to you about something." Kay said. At the mention of this Mitchell looked visibly confused. While he had talked with her on quite a few occasions he wasn't entirely sure what she would talk to him about. Usually if she had a question it would be directed towards Michael, so he guessed it might be something off topic.
Whatever the reason he was sure to find out later. Maybe it was a question about spotting, but he wondered why she would ask him that considering her job as a long-range shooter. It took him a bit before he came back to that last realization. Obviously, she would need to spot targets considering she would be looking at distance compared to everyone else.
His train of though was interrupted as they began walking towards lunch. It was only a few minutes away although he wasn't sure why they didn't use the jeep. In fact, they hadn't used it since the match against Pravda which made him question where it was.
He thought to himself he would find it but that would have to be later as they soon arrived at the mess hall. It smelled of something different meats and he knew what he would be eating today.
The same went for Michael as he thought about the honey baked ham sandwich they would have. They walked in to enjoy the meal that awaited them. After this quick break it would be back to work. Preparation for the match against Oorai was now their number one priority and they would begin preparing tonight. For now, though they could enjoy their break for it would only last a brief few minutes.
That's it for this chapter, hoped you liked it! I tried doing something new by splitting the day into two chapters. I'll be posting much more now and I'll be rotating in between my two stories.
!As always reviews are appreciated!