Author's Note:

Thank you guys for the feedback. It has been much appreciated. Special thanks to severstal who posted a painfully true review of my story. I admit I had made Maya a little bit OP (I didn't mean to), and I forgot about the Tankery Rules saying you can't modify the rounds, especially not in the cramped Russian interior of an IS-2. So if you have been following the story please re-read the chapters for the improvements. I have also made Maya's Japanese significantly worse (this will come back to bite her in the ass later).

Spasibo,

Alexi V. Talenski

6th Guards Mechanized Corps

4th Tank Army

"Match Start!" came the announcer's voice

Hammer and Sickle's tanks started to head to High Point 194 to the North-north west while Star group headed to B195 in the direct west. High Point 194 was the biggest hill on the playing field and the best defensive position Katyusha could find, hopefully Hammer and Sickle could make it up that hill and have enough time to form a line of defense. Star was to hide in the forest at B195 and wait until Kuromorimine team started attacking, before going full speed (but unfortunately this meant going 25.6 kilometers an hour, because of the KV-2's awful speed). Katyusha was at the front of the formation with Kukiko's team at her left and Nonna's team on her right with the KV-2 trailing close behind. A voice crackled over the radio, it was Hammer-1.

"We are at 194, heading up now"

Katyusha seemed happy to know this

"Good work, have your rear-guard watch behind you"

"Hai!" came Hammer-1's reply

Maya felt a tap on her right-shoulder, she saw Nonna looking down at her.

"Load APCR Maya"

Maya loaded in the projectile then the cartridge, before giving Nonna thumbs up. Maya was worried, if Kuromorimine managed to break Pravda's line before they got there, they would be extremely vulnerable. Another voice broke the silence, it was Sickle-6.

"I see 19 tanks, 790 meters and closing, I don't see their Jagdtiger"

"Hold fire until they are 400 meters away" Katyusha commanded

Katyusha was worried, where was their tank destroyer?

"This is Hammer group we are in position"

"Sickle group ready to go!"

"Okay! Nice job guys!" Katyusha was relieved that they had made it up the hill.

"They are 390 meters away, UTE!" yelled Sickle-3 over the radio.

They heard cracks of the T-34's guns in the distance. Then heard more cracks this time of the German Tigers and Panzers.

"Star group full throttle!" Katyusha yelled over comms.

There was a lurch as the tanks started to suddenly move.

'Here we go' thought Maya

They broke out of the tree line and saw 10 of the 19 tanks start to creep up the hill the other 9 were probably a second wave.

"All tanks halt" Katyusha said

"Tanya switch out" Nonna climbed back into the tank and made room for Tanya to get in the commander's position, before moving to the gun position.

"Targets 375 meters." Katyusha stated

"Star-2 ready" Tanya said

"Star-3 ready" Shinako stated

"Star-4 ready to give them hell!" yelled Kukiko

"UTE!" yelled Katyusha

All of them fired a volley of shells at the advancing tanks. Katyusha's shot hit a King Tiger's upper glacis and failed to penetrate, Nonna's shot hit a Panzer III/IV in the rear knocking it out, Star-3's shot missed it's intended target but did hit the same King Tiger that Katyusha bounced off of right next to it, knocking it out, and Star-4's shot hit the Jagdtiger and bounced off.

"Nice shots!" Katyusha yelled with glee.

Maya was loading when she heard a loud BOOM and Star-4 became engulfed in smoke.

"We're hit!"

"What the-? How?" asked Tanya, poking her entire head out of the command hatch. She looked around and saw a big tank destroyer to their left.

"Svyatoye der'mo…JAGDPANTHER TO THE LEFT!" she yelled over the radio, forgetting her tank designation in the heat of the moment.

But before anyone could get a shot off the Jagdtiger's 12.8cm Pak 44 L/55 gun fired again.

"Tanya get in the-" Lyudmila tried to yell, but a round hit their tank. It had luckily bounced off of the front armor because Lyudmila had tried to angle the tank against the shell, but the force of the impact caused Tanya's head to bang against the side of the open command hatch, knocking her out.

"Tanya!" yelled Maya, noticing the girl slumped into her seat, there was a trickle of blood running down her face.

"Maya finish loading and take the gunner seat I'll take care of Tanya." Nonna said

"Okay" replied Maya, loading the cartridge into the breech, and moving into the gunner position. She set the sights on the Jagdpanther.

"Take this you son of a-" she fired, but when the smoke cleared she saw that she had missed"

"Chert" Maya swore, moving around the cramped interior of her tank to get another round. She had to be liberal with these shots because an IS-2 could hold only 28 rounds, thanks to the small interior and the separate ammo. Nonna was with Tanya with a first aid kit, putting a bandage on her head. Maya loaded in another round. She turned to move back to the gunner position and saw Nonna in it, she looked over and saw Tanya with a bandage on her forehead. Nonna fired hitting the Jagdtiger's gun and disabling it. Even Nonna looked surprised at that shot.

"Well…I wasn't aiming there but that's okay I guess"

Then a voice crackled over the radio.

"We are being overrun! Hammers 1, 3, 5 and 8 are out! So are Sickles 2, 4, 6 and 7!"

"Me and Star-2 will break them up for you! Hold on!" yelled Katyusha

"We've been hit!" came another frantic voice from over the radio

"Hammer 2 is out!"

"Star 3 catch up with us later! We need to help them, fast!" Katyusha yelled

"Lyudmila full speed! GO!" yelled Nonna

Nonna fired again, this time she missed. Maya was swearing under her breath, each round seemed to be getting heavier. Maya struggled to put the projectile in; once it was in she put in the cartridge.

"Gun ready" she panted

Nonna fired another shot, the round bounced off a Tiger I.

"Maya load HE, we can at least de-track them" Nonna stated, calmly

Maya loaded another shell, it was taking her longer to load, and her 3 rounds a minute dropped to 2. When she was finally done. She patted Nonna on the back. Nonna fired at a Panzer III, knocking it out.

"Sickle 1 and 3 are knocked out!" yelled Mari

"So are Hammers 4,6, and 7!" yelled Mari

Nonna saw the command tank, a King Tiger it's turret was aiming somewhere behind them. It fired, hitting Star-3's turret head on. The distinctive Pop of a white flag could be heard.

"Star-3 eliminated" came a voice from Shinako

"Chert" said Katyusha, realizing that they had lost the 152 mm gun.

Maya was frustrated, how did the plan go so wrong? Nonna fired another shot, knocking the Jagdpanther's tracks off, the command hatch popped open and the commander started to yell at them.

"Oh come on! Do you know how heavy that track is!?"

Maya found this amusing, as she loaded another shell in, this time APBCR, the IS-2 pulled up next to the Jagdpanther, the commander's eyes widened and shoved her head back into the tank.

'Smart move' Maya thought as Nonna fired a shell into the side plating of the Jagdpanther.

"Damn! Sickle 5 is gone, Sickle group is all immobilized" came another voice.

Another explosion was heard.

"Shit! Hammers 2, 9, and 10 are down, Hammer group is gone!"

There was a silence, there was no way that they had been defeated that quickly, then suddenly Katyusha's tank was hit, as was Maya's tank. Two white flags appeared above their tanks. Maya looked up from her loader position and saw Maho and Miho, the other team's commanders, half out of their tanks, guns smoking.

"All of Pravda's Tanks are immobilized, Kuromorimine Girls High School takes the match!" the announcer stated.

There was a cheer from the Kuromorimine girls. Maho and Miho remained silent. Maya grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out a small fire that was near the engine. She noticed Tanya had woken up after their tank was disabled.

"What happened?" she asked

"You slammed your head against the command hatch when the Jagdtiger hit us, we lost the match" Nonna replied. At this Tanya groaned, putting a hand to her wound.

All teams dismounted their tanks and stood in a line, all of Pravda's team members had dust covering their faces and in Tanya's case, some blood from when she was knocked out. On the other hand Kuromorimine had only 7 teams that had went down. They bowed.

"Thank you for the match" they all said.

And so Pravda had lost their first match of the season.