AN: Warning. Loads and loads of character trope is at least partially in effect.


With the starting signals, all tanks sped off, kicking a cloud of dust behind them as they organized into their battle formations.

"All troops, to your assigned positions as discussed. Proceed, report, and await further orders," Lucius simply stated. He seemed to like speaking in as short sentences as possible when in a match.

"As Lucius-san said," Miho picked off, giving more detailed instructions to her own school's teams, "Duck, Leopon, and Goose teams will follow the Rhine and Danube teams north into the mountain pass. The rest of us, Hippo, Rabbit, Turtle, Anteater and Anglerfish teams will take the southern route with Britannia, Africa, and Euphrates teams."

"Yes, captain!" came the replies from the Ooarai teams.

Miho continued, "Remember, there is a large mountain between us and the enemy team's starting position, so artillery will be useless until they find a spot from which their shots can clear the hilltops. This battle will be decided tank to tank; do as we normally did in the National Championships."


"Tsuchiya, how are the controls doing?" Satoko, the commander of the Tiger P asked.

"Not too bad," Tsuchiya replied, "I don't smell anything burning, and we're climbing along, although slower than those British tanks. Leopon doesn't like hills, you know," she finished with a sigh. When they asked if they could be towed by one of Vimy Ridge's tanks, the answer they got was:

"Sorry, but no. I don't want my tank to be leashed to something when the enemy attacks."

"Haah, it's not like we can't cut the line just before entering the pass…" a hurried transmission sent to all tanks that went north drowned out Tsuchiya's musings.

"Contact front, mouth of pass! Two Chaffees!" cried the lead tank of the Danube column.

"Gemini to Claudia, Engage and continue forward. Inform future contacts," a feminine voice from XIV Gemini, command tank of the Danube troop, answered.

Guns thundered off in the distance. The lead tank's voice crackled again, "Chaffees destroyed, no casualties," then a gunshot. "Correction, Claudia is down."

"Danube, rearrange; Gemini will take lead, Cromwells follow," with that, a Comet with an "XIV" inscribed sped forward.

"Rhine will do the same. Rhine, rearrange!" A male voice this time spoke, and another Comet followed its friend.

Satoko asked, "Want us to engage, too?"

Gemini replied, "Not yet; don't tax your engine. We need all tanks at their peak performance without breakdowns. Continue at a comfortable speed."


"I still don't like how Vimy Ridge butchered the Roman legions' names," Caesar grumbled while waiting, "so many legions not in their proper defense lines…"

"Remember, they used to match," Erwin comforted her close friend, and loader for the StuG's gun, "until Lucius changed it by drawing straws. So it wasn't because they didn't know, they didn't think it was worth it."

"That's even worse! Discarding historical accuracy because he doesn't care! He puts shame to his own Latin name. And that nickname, 'Sulla'."

"Don't worry, he won't try to execute you," Erwin replied with a laugh, along with Saemonza and Oryou. "If he does, we can stop him, what with him acting like a 'gentleman' all the time, hahaha."

"Gemini to Ferrata, contacts in pass. Targets light, no troubles yet," the assigned commander for the northern attack reported to Lucius.

"This is Ferrata, continue, and keep me posted," Lucius's voice sounded.

"Looks like the north just fired the opening shots," Saemonza, the gunner commented, "when are we moving out again? I'm getting bored when I'm sitting here doing nothing while others are fighting. This isn't even waiting to ambush someone; just being idle."

Erwin checked her watch – a synchronized watch! "Unless something changes, in seven minutes and 20 seconds."

"This feels just like waiting for the countdown timer to run out before the start of a battle isn't it, Piyota, Momogawa?"

"Anteater team, I think you accidentally turned on the radio switch," Lucius advised, ever so slightly annoyed, "please limit talks on the radio to transmitting critical information."

"Oh, o-ok, as you say, commander Lucius," and with a click, Nekota went silent.

"Isn't that a little too harsh, Lucius-san?" Miho vouched for her clubmates, "They're just finding ways to pass the time before it is our turn to fight."

"It will always be good practice to be as efficient as possible when communicating. Taking time bantering on the radio is time that can be taken to scan the horizon again or just being ready at a moment's notice. Besides, the channel will be flooding with commands soon enough."


"That Lucius Park can really be a stickler for the rules sometimes, can't he Miho? No wonder he never seems to have had a girlfriend," Saori asked, "at times like these, he almost sounds like he transferred straight out of Kuromorimine. Except you of course, Miho." She added that last part after a brief pause.

Yukari remembered talking about something like this with Lucius-san some time ago. Oh, right! "Takebe-dono, he doesn't like to be compared to Kuromorimine. I noted how fit he would be there, based on his rules and efficiency, and he got angry."

Saori's face twisted into a devious smirk. "Defending you boyfriend aren't you, Yukarin?"

"Eh?! He-he-he's not my boyfriend!"

"Remember what we discussed in the garage a week ago?"

She ever admitted something like that? Only a week ago? There was no way! Wait.

A burst of memory flooded back to her. So they hadn't forgotten. Looks like Lucius-san miscalculated Takebe-dono's persistence in these things.

Hana broke in to the conversation. "Yukari-san has been in a relationship? With Lucius-san? Congratulations, Yukari-san. Although you two haven't known each other for very long, I wish you both the best of fortunes!"

Nishizumi-dono also commented on the fake declaration, "So that's why he spends most of his time out of schoolwork and coaching with you. I wish you both a good luck!"

Even Mako joined in. "Doing such a bothersome thing…have fun."

Yes, he seems to have grossly miscalculated.

Yukari was never gladder to see a radio transmission cut off a conversation. Being the leader of the Ooarai Senshado team, Anglerfish team was allocated the same importance in communications as Lucius-san's Ferrata team; that is to say, all reports from troop commanders were also received by the Pz. IV. This transmission was one of those. "Gemini to Ferrata! Big contacts north! Multiple easy eights, supported by two unknowns! Hispana and the rest of the Rhine Troop is down!" Hispana? That was Jack-san's tank.

Lucius-san answered, tone ever calm. "Ferrata to Gemini. Unknowns? Can you discern their identities?"

"Well, it looks like a skinny Tiger with a Panther turret," Gemini answered.

A thin tiger with a Panther's turret? That was certainly confusing. A hybrid of a medium tank and a heavy tank. Did it have the 88mm, or the 75mm? Was the armour the same? If the hull was thinner, there was no reason not to believe the armour might be similarly thinner.

"Oh! That can only be a VK36.01 (H)!" came the identification from surprisingly, the anteater team; from Nekota, of all people.

Yukari could almost hear Lucius-san's eyes shine in glee. "You know what they are? Please, tell us."

"Of course! It was a prototype of the Tiger, with a projected weight of 40 tons. As designed, it had 100mm of armour in the front, with a similarly armoured turret carrying a 75mm L/70 gun used by the Panther. It could also hit a reasonable 40km/h since it has the Tiger's big engine while being lighter. The VK36.01 (H) is the midgame's main tanks in this game-"

Lucius-san cut in once again. "Thank you, Anteater, that will be all we need." Then, after changing the channel, he informed Gemini, "Ferrata to Gemini, two unknowns are VK3601s. Armour equal to Tiger, Panther gun. 40km/h maximum speed."

Gemini replied, "Affirmative, Ferrata. Any chance of reinforcements?"

"Negative on that. Your job is to look like the main attack, not to be the main attack. Pretend to push as hard as possible without excessive casualties."

"Understood."


"Gemini to Leopon, Duck, and Goose, new orders. Heavy tanks to the fore!"

"Finally!" Satoko exclaimed, before answering with an "understood". Duck team responded likewise. She then told to her friends, "Tsuchiya, get us to the front! We can finally move to the front instead of skulking in the back!" Hoshinoand Suzuki, get ready to fire."

"Gemini to Ooarai heavies; get to the fore, but refrain from advancing until agreed time," the female voice added.

"Alright, alright. Tsk." Satoko looked at her own watch – courtesy of Vimy Ridge the day before the battle since she never needed to carry any. "Tsuchiya, get us in front of the Cromwells, but don't make a charge until…"clearing her watch of her sleeve she continued, "three minutes later. My guess is commander Gemini will tell us to charge when the time is up."

With twenty seconds to spare, Ooarai's three heavy tanks reached the front line of the pass, where German, American, and British guns fired off round after round of various AP shells and shots, mostly bouncing or missing. Credit to the gunners though, most of the misses were no more than a mere 30 centimeters off target.

Ten seconds. A low ridge in the middle of the rugged pass prevented Sagittarius Academy from spotting the new dangers to their defence. The Tiger P, KV-85, and Renault B1 stood shoulder to the Comets, alive and knocked out.

Five seconds. The heavy tanks crawled forward, intent on taking the hits for their softer-armoured allies, while punishing the enemy with their bigger guns. If they did not penetrate, they certainly left the crews more rattled than a 75mm would have done.

Two seconds. From her cupola, Satoko and Noriko could get their first glimpses at their opponents. There certainly were a lot of guns pointed at Vimy Ridge and Ooarai. At least five "Easy Eights" with their 76mm guns were visible in the pass in various distances, taking cover and shooting from behind the so-called VK3601s who had their armoured angled to make the most of their already heavy armour. They really did look like skinny Tigers, unless you saw their turrets.

One second.

Zero second. The radio crackled into life with Gemini's commander's voice once more. "Danube troop, heavy tanks, charge!"

"Gun the throttle!" Satoko yelled to her fellow mechanic-tankers.

"With willpower and guts; forward!" Noriko also exclaimed to her own team members.

"Let's go!" Sodoko ordered Gomoyo.

In normal circumstances, charging in in such a close range, even in such a heavily armoured beast such as a Tiger would have been suicidal, especially with the two German heavy tank prototypes watching the approach with their deadly 75mm L/70 guns. But the Duck team was not the only team to receive an upgrade.

Since arriving in Vimy Ridge, and a few days before the showmatch offer was revealed by Lucius to Miho, Leopon, the Tiger P, was up-armoured with an extra bolt-on 100mm plate that was used on the Ferdinand tank destroyer. At first Yukari advised from doing so, citing possible rule violations, but a quick call to the Japanese Senshado Association confirmed that the upgrade was safe to do even according to Japanese regulations.

That upgrade was now put to the test. Luckily, while the long 75mm cannons could conceivably penetrate a 100mm armour, the same could not be said for 200mm of steel. Shells bounced off the Leopon as rain bounced off an umbrella, shielding the Cromwells, the Comet, and the other less well armoured heavy tanks by taking their hits for them.

"Hoshino, target one of those VKs to the left, make those shots count!"

"Turn the turret right 15 degrees and shoot that mini-Tiger, Akebi!"

The 8.8cm gun roared. Slightly behind them, the KV-85 also fired its first shot in anger since its rediscovery.


Lucius snapped his pocket watch closed, placed it into his pocket, and issued his order. "This is Ferrata; Britannia, Africa, Euphrates, and Ooarai, advance and assume battle formations! Danube may advance if possible."


AN: Written during the blackout today in Toronto by candlelight and screenlight. I would rather not post a part 1 and 2, but it's been 2 months since the last update, and the chapter have been getting out of hand in length for me. Hopefully this is enough, and the quality is good enough.