A strong wave of heat battered the girls as they rode on, sweat beginning to run down their faces as they tried to make jerry-rigged shades out of umbrellas and books, their hair flying as a constant breeze all hit them. "Almost there" loudly said Oryou as she turned right down a street with pedestrians walking by ignoring the loud rumbling that covered the entire neighborhood. Some smiled and waved as the girls went by, replying to the kind gestures with bright smiles. "I always like doing this" smiled Caesar as she waved; "makes me feel like Caesar himself waving upon his subjects in Rome's glory days." Erwin nodded off the comment as she saw the roofs of the large garages that housed their vehicles slowly coming into view, towering above the rows of houses and shops." Alright, you can calm down now Patton" softly said Erwin as she adjusted her cap. Caesar's face tightened as she glanced at Erwin with eyes of annoyance. All of a sudden the rows of houses dissipated as a large glass building came into view with multiple smaller buildings on each side. The tanks rolled into a large dirt covered clearing with four large garages at one end, making a large dust cloud that nearly covered the clearing as all vehicles abruptly stopped, their rumbling quickly ceasing as it echoed away in the distance. Erwin suddenly was hit by a wave of curiosity as the dust cleared revealing a tan colored Hetzer with three girls standing in front, their arms at their sides as they oversaw the column come to a halt. "Perfect, on time; you all should be proud of yourselves!" loudly announced a short haired girl with a monocle that gleamed as the sun's rays reflected off of it. "Now that you're here, we can commence with the planning for our practice match." she followed sternly. The girls disembarked out of their tanks and formed a semi-circle around the student council. As Erwin leaped off her self-propelled gun, she felt the hot dirt under her bare foot which sent a slight pain running to her brain. 'damn, I should have gotten my sandal when I had a chance.' she thought as she awkwardly walked to the line of girls. A hand suddenly rose above in the air as all three girls immediately looked at the person below, their eyes focusing on her with curiosity. " You have a question Ms. Nishizumi?" bluntly asked the girl with the monocle; "Yes" she quickly replied with a concerned tone that channeled her thoughts. "Its about the B-17 that crashed, we are all curious about where the plane came from and what happened to its occupants." The girl stood still as she put her hands behind her back,her face remaining completely calm as she boldly spoke. "As for the bomber, questions regarding the incident may come last after we deal with what is at hand." All the girls instantly looked at the girl, whose calm demeanor was beginning to slightly break as she snapped back at them "What? What are all of you starring at?" Yukari then quickly interrupted and asked with a taunting tone. "So you do know about the B-17 then Momo-chan?" The girl stood still as her face quickly shifted to one that expressed nervousness, her heart beginning to race faster and faster. "Yeah we know about the B-17, but to tell you all the truth I barely found about its origin only a few minutes ago." Instantaneously spoke a small red haired girl as she stepped forward, her eyes glancing at every team that stood in front of her. "So where did it come from Prez!?" asked Yukari, a rush of curiosity overtaking her as she craved to know the answer. The girls silently broke in small chatter between each other as the red haired girl stood proudly with her arms crossed. "if you want to know answers, first you'll have to earn them." she said with a smug look in her face. 'Which brings us to our original focus of this briefing." interrupted Mono as she adjusted her monocle and grabbed a book that was being handed to her by another girl with long brown hair and a soft smile on her face. "Now, as all of you know, we are going to be having a practice match with a fellow school in preparation for the tournaments that will be coming soon." Momo continued as she opened the book and stared down at the pages that were in front of her. A brief moment of silence went through the yard as she looked at the name of the opposing school and the location of the event, her eyes focusing hard upon the text. She looked up at the group and slowly said "our opponents will be Saunders High and we'll be practicing on their grounds." she announced as all the girls looked at each other with gazes of surprise and acknowledgment. 'Saunders?' suddenly thought Erwin as she quickly looked at Yukari who was glancing back at her with a look of complete surpirse. 'This has to be a joke' Erwin thought as she gazed back at the Student Council, her head slightly shaking in disbelief. "Why on their grounds? shouldn't we have it in Ooarai like we usually do?" hastily interrupted Caesar as she raised her hand up to catch the attention of the student council. "We usually do, but since the holidays are coming up and it will be some time until we make port, they asked us if we can have the practice match at their school. Plus they got a new transport helicopter and would like to test it out during the match for quick retrievals of knocked out tanks." said Momo, her gaze swiftly moving to Student President Anzu.
"We will be having the practice match in about three days, so we're sorry if this meeting was a little out of the blue, but they announced to us this information only a few hours ago, along with a peculiar bet." said Anzu with a smug grin. " A bet?" asked the girls in almost perfect unison; their eyes focusing on the short girl. "We never do bets between other schools; this is strange" commented a thin girl with long black hair. "I know Ms. Hana, but they were quite clear with this bet, and I'm still surprised how they found out about it so fast." the president followed with a conflicted voice. "so, what was the bet?" addressed Miho as the rest of the girls turned their attention to the three girls in the middle. The student president held her tongue for a few moments as she tried to word the odd wager; "They said whoever wins.. the match...will.. get to spend the holidays with the boys of the B-17...". Every girl suddenly jumped with surprise as their eyes widen with surprise, their mouths opening with shock as their hearts raced. "Boys!? o-on this ship?!" loudly asked Saori, her eyes darting in every direction as she felt slight panic beginning to reach her. "Looks like you finally have a chance to show us your moves on how to pick up a guy" chuckled a small, sleepy girl with messy hair that nearly covered her face. "I can't meet them like this, I'm a mess, my hair, my choice of clothing!" quickly said Saori as she looked at herself. "Have you seen them yourself Prez?" asked a group of girls wearing Volleyball uniforms at the edge of the circle. "I only saw one; he was sitting down in front of Mr. Yamada's door when I was called to speak to him." said Anzu as she looked up trying to remember the individual. "What was he like? Did he have a cute face?" quickly asked another girl." I couldn't see, his head was down and his hair covered his face; along with that he had two police officers watching over him." she followed. " He's dangerous? maybe he's a criminal" said a few girls as chatter began to escalate again. "we shouldn't have told them about the incident" expressed Momo with regret. "No, this is fine. Every team has to go through a trail every now and then to see if they are well trained to fight with their minds clouded." uttered the student president as she gazed upon the group of girls as they talked to each other, laughing and giggling their thoughts away.
" I don't want to do this Joe" said Erik, his voice trembling with fear. "You're going to do it if you like it or not" snapped Joe as he looked at Erik, his sights set on the individual. " I do not consent to this" replied Erik who was quickly interrupted by Joe; "I don't care, we're doing this ok, in front of everybody so they can watch". Erik shook his head multiple times as he said "No, you're going to make this last for hours man" Joe bit his lip and slowly said with a gentle tone. "No, its not going to last very long and it wont hurt man. " Erik thought a minute as his mind raced trying to come up with a response. "Alright, does four minutes sound good then?" Joe's face tightened as he barked "Four minutes?! No way, that's way too short. Juan put me in charge here and we are going through with this alright?" " I said no man, I don't want to do it" "Fine then, we'll start off with Doc, but your getting a turn too no matter what; alright Doc, tell us something interesting about yourself." spoke Joe with a calm tone. "Fucking hell" silently muttered Erik under his breath. "I didn't want to do this shit when classes started and I sure as hell don't want to do it here" he followed. "Well, its been about two hours or so since they took Skip, and time is crawling painfully slow to the point where I'm considering suicide is a better option; Brock's got me" said Joe with a playful tone as he looked at Brock who immediately followed while quickly taking off his bet "Yeah I got you big boy, this thing is strong enough for 10 suicides!" Brock pulled out the belt in front of him and pulled it, making a cracking snap as he smiled. 'How'd I get winded up with you all?' thought Erik as he kept staring at the belt. After some time his mind began to ponder if the belt was strong enough.
"So we will split the group into two teams; team 1 will be Ooarai while team 2 will be portraying Saunders" loudly announced Momo as she looked down at her book and began calling out team names. "Team 1 will consist of Anglerfish Team, Duck Team, Mallard Team and Leopon Team. Team 2 will consist of Turtle Team, Hippo Team, Rabbit Team and Anteater Team, any questions?" All the girls looked at each other and shook their heads in agreement as they glanced back at Momo-chan who then quickly added "Alright then, since we have no questions then, shall we commence then?" She looked at Anzu who nodded her head in agreement; "right then, Panzer Vor!" echoed the bold words through the yard. A rumbling of engines breathing life engulfed the air as plumes of smoke erupted from rusted and burnt exhaust tubes as each engine gave off a different tune to sing towards the melody of tankery. "Who will be the flag tank?" asked Caesar as she stepped on the hull of the StuG; "I'm not sure, but I got a feeling today will be an interesting practice run" Erwin replied as she gave a smug grin. 'how so?' Caesar thought as she kept looking at Erwin with a look of confusion. "Plus we need to go back and get my sandal, I'm getting tired limping and hoping around on one foot" Erwin hastily added as she stepped inside the vehicle. Within moments all tanks took off in their groups and headed towards the forest, clanking and rumbling down streets full of happy people as they waved and smiled at the girls. "So what will be the plan?" asked Caesar with curiosity as she glanced at Erwin, her mind drifting away in thoughts of flying in the bright blue sky. Erwin looked at Caesar and saw that she had a smug grin that stretched ear to ear. "Why are you looking at me like that?" quickly asked Erwin with a nervous tone; " I know what you're thinking about, you can't hide anything from me!" exclaimed Caesar with a cold tone. "Oh yeah, what about those snacks I hid?" sarcastically asked Erwin. Caesar replied with a blank look on her face as Erwin softly said" That's right, they've been hidden for almost two months now" "Where?" rapidly asked Caesar; traces of eagerness hidden behind the question. Erwin looked at her and gave a smug grin as she said with a cocky tone "You said it yourself, I cant hide anything from you".
After a while driving through the city, Team 2 finally made it to the point where they were instructed to begin the mock match. The sky was a bright light blue as clouds of all shapes and sizes were painted with different hues of white that contrasted each other sharply. The trees slightly swayed to the mercy of the gentle wind that whistled a tone as it passed through leaves and branches. The natural orchestra was quickly over run by the ugly rumbling of engines as they idled, waiting to scream with all their might when the order to move was announced. Erwin and Caesar stood tall, their arms crossed in front of their chests as they waited, faces of determination written on their faces. A tense feeling of nervousness and eagerness were mixed within all the girls as all looked at Student Council President Anzu as she held a thin bar with a colored flag at the end. "Who would like to volunteer to be the flag tank?" she boldly asked as she waved the flag high above her head. All the girls looked at each other as silence covered the field; "If nobody will volunteer, then a volunteer will be chosen by us" suddenly said Momo as she adjusted her monocle. Again all the girls looked at each other in silence for a brief moment until Momo announced "very well, our lucky volunteer will be Hippo team since they did a wonderful job protecting our flag when we versed Anzio for the first time, I think they can do it again. Erwin's eyes widen as she heard the announcement, her gaze quickly shifting to Anzu as she was walking up to the StuG. She climbed on it with a graceful step and stuck the pole in a tube that was on the hull; the flag flying proudly on the dark grey self propelled gun. She then looked at the crew and gave a thumbs up as she confidently smiled. Anzu then quickly turned around and jumped off the StuG as both Erwin and Caesar looked at each other with faces of disappointment. " So what will be our pan when we encounter Miropin's group? " suddenly asked a slender girl with thick glasses that completely obscured her eyes. The student president stood still as she looked at the girl and put her hand under her chin and thought deeply, her mind erasing all of her surroundings. "Since we are versing our very own brilliant tactician, anything we come up with she'll be able to counter within a second, so in order to have a chance, we'll have to be creative as well. Hippo team, you and us will be joint commanders in this fight. Your knowledge of tactics used in history will come in quite useful and we'll have to combine a lot of different tactics in order to counter Miho. This is very unorthodox, but that's what makes this school's Sensha-Do team a formidable foe." Anzu proudly said as she over looked all the girls who were outside their tanks, all staring back at her with eyes and faces full of determination and pride. A flare suddenly shot up into the sky in the distance, its bright white burning glow shining clearly as smoke quickly showed the flare fall down, disappearing into the forest. "Yuzu" said Momo calmly as she nodded at the brown haired girl who had a flare gun and pointed it into the blue sky. She firmly pressed the trigger as her hand took the recoil of the pistol; a bright flare shot straight into the heavens as all eyes gazed upon it as it slowly started to fall back down. "Alright then everybody, PANZER VOR!" yelled Anzu as every engine in the area started to roar to life.
"Mr. Yamada says he has good news and bad news." said the interpreter as Juan looked back at the computer. "What is it?" he slowly said, sleep beginning to crawl over him as he felt a wave of fatigue suddenly hit him. His mind had enough, after watching the heartbreaking results and the nightmares that were increasing; he felt weak. The man spoke again, his tone changing drastically softer as he continued. He finally stopped and after a few moments of strange silence the woman spoke again. "Mr. Yamada said he had contacted officials at the GAC, and they informed him that you had to do something first. Juan slowly sat upright as his face slightly tensed up and his eyes narrowed; "What?" he asked in an annoyed tone. "They said you had to confirm the current status of the crew" Itsuko announced. "Fuck" softly said Juan under his breathe, a mood of annoyance and anger hitting him like a bat. "I have been shown a list of names, and I will say them and you will answer the status of each member as either living or deceased." continued the interpreter. "After that, Mr. Yamada will continue with the news he has saved for you. Juan's eyes locked straight to the man and the laptop that was on the desk. He bowed his head and rolled his hand as a gesture to carry on, his body slightly slouching into the chair. Itsuko started with a stern tone and a heavy accent, " Erik Brooker, ,age sheventeen; status?" Juan combed his hair with his hand as he took a deep breath and looked up, his tone sounding irritated as he bluntly replied "Alive" The woman continued; "Rick Polanski, age sheventeen; status?" Juan took another deep breath as his tone got more irritated, "Alive". "Juan Rodriguez, age sheventeen; status?" "Are you serious, I'm right in front of ya'll, are we seriously doing this?" asked Juan, anger and annoyance running intensely with each word. "This is GAC protocol, we have to do it. It seems like you GAC members are nothing more than a bunch of loathing sloths and idiots who do not care about regulations and protocol." suddenly said the woman with a aggravating tone. 'I swear I will cuss out this bitch if she says something like that again.' Juan thought to himself, his teeth grinding as he mustered a fake smile. The room fell silent again as the constant hum of the fan continued and the low muffle of the TV harmonized into one. "If it will help then, I will announce all the remaining names and you will point out the ones that are causalities, is this okay?" suddenly asked Itsuko; Mr. Yamada's eyes quickly shifted to Juan, his eyebrows falling right over his eyes in a studying gaze. "Sure, if it'll move it quickly, sure" replied Juan as he put his right foot over his left knee and sat crossed legged. The woman cleared her throat and started again. "Joe Buzzby, age hateteen; Chris Pines, age sixteen; Replacement , Brock Perez, age seventeen." Juan sat silently still, his head resting on his hand as he heard every single one of his crew being called out. "Replacement, James Loi , age sixteen; Replacement, Chuck West, age sixteen; Replacement, Tony Clark, age ateteen; Thomas Felton, age eighteen" suddenly finished the interpreter, slight breathing came from the laptop as she tried to catch her breath. "That's all of them, none of them had died" blurted out Juan with frustration. Mr. Yamada nodded in acceptance as Itsuko once again spoke" Now that we have that out of the way, we can continue with the news. The good news is Mr. Yamada contacted the officials at the GAC and said that survivors of a match had landed on his carrier. They told him that the causality report had already been filed and that one bomber had been 'MIM'(Missing in match) and that earlier today they officially marked it as DIM(Destroyed in match)" Juan leaned forward in interest, his eyes narrowing in curiosity. "The bad news, all American teams and their staff have been sent back this morning back to the United States". Juan's eyes widen immediately after the final sentence had finished, his heart sinking with anger and sadness over taking him. ' Not even bothering checking what happened to us?' he thought with fury burning in his eyes. His mind raced quickly as multiple thoughts flooded his brain, thoughts of hatred and violence which were quickly over ruled by thoughts of clearer judgement. Juan's eyes slowly cleared as he kept thinking, his mind being lost in a sea of different thoughts all colliding and combining at once. "Mr. Rodriguez, right?" slowly spoke the interpreter. Juan's eyes lazily focused back at the desk, only to be met back with dark brown piercing eyes of Mr. Yamada. "Since all of your team has left, Mr. Yamada decided that you and your crew will stay on board the ship until they dock at their home port, from there tickets will be ready for a trip back to the United States" calmly said Itsuko, her tone softly changing. Silence once again consumed the room as Juan took in every single word, his eyes focusing on the laptop as he nonchalantly asked, "And how long will that be?" The woman spoke to Mr. Yamada who quickly responded with a short reply. As soon as he finished she said "two weeks". Juan felt something hit him with a tremendous force, his heart skipped a beat as his mouth opened with shock. A surge of anger started brewing within, his eyes narrowing as he closed his mouth, gritting his teeth.
"What?!, what do you mean you can't see them?" loudly asked Erwin as she grabbed her throat mic. "They should be there; mmm, they must have took a different route then" she added with frustration. " Any luck?" curiously asked Anzu as she stuck her head out of the Hezter. " No Prez, seems like Miho is a step ahead of us" Erwin replied with a distressed tone. "Do you have a map of the forest?" asked Anzu as she looked at Erwin, her eyes hidden by her cap's visor. "yeah, Saemonza also drew a map of possible strategic points where Miho might use. We evaluated it and added our own points as well. proudly said Erwin as she grabbed a worn and half torn map with some parts held together with clear tape that shined in the sun. The president jumped out of the Hezter , quickly followed by Momo as they quickly hopped on the StuG and glanced at both articles. Erwin outstretched the worn map as she placed a large sheet of paper that was covered with circles and X's of different shapes and colors. Anzu looked with horror as she laid her eyes on the equation of shapes that dominated the drawing. "Are you saying that literally every part of the forest Miho can use to her advantage?" quickly asked Momo as she adjusted her monocle. "Well, we thought of many battles in history that could possible fit in our situation, like The battle of the Bugle and the battle of Pharsalus for example." interrupted Caesar as she leaned over to look at the maps. Anzu thought as she glanced at every single drawing and mark and thought extensively about each location. "Well, this part of the woods wont work for both sides since the trees are so close together not even the type 89 can fit, so this location can be marked out." confidently said Anzu as she motioned for a marker. Erwin grabbed a black marker that she pulled from a small case and gave it to the Student council president, who then quickly popped it open and drew a single line over the location. Erwin and Caesar looked with expressions of confusion as Anzu kept marking out location after location. "Erwin, where did you send our scout at?" she suddenly asked as she raised her gaze at Erwin. Erwin hesitated for a moment and quickly shook her head as she snapped out of a trance. "here, about five klicks out, here" she said as she pointed to a location with her finger. Anzu studied the position that was under Erwin's finger and thought of multiple scenarios that could happen. "Miho's group stared here, the other side of the forest. My best guess is that they might go through this path here, which I've circled in red" Erwin boldly announced as she gently moved her finger across a clear path on the map. "Mmm, I don't think Miho will take this path because it seems too exposed" interrupted Anzu as she kept glancing over the map. "tell the Rabbit team to move to this location without causing a ruckus; I believe we might have a better view of this whole area here if they moved" slowly said the president as her eyes bounced to every corner of the map." And if we're lucky, Miho would have thought the same thing" she added as she hopped off the self propelled gun. Erwin and Caesar quickly looked at Anzu with looks of bewilderment as she smiled. "Now the fun game of cat and mouse can begin; we will see who will be the cat and who will be the mouse" Erwin and Caesar looked at each other as Momo jumped off and followed The president; she then hastily turned around and loudly announced with a stern tone" Tell the scout we will be moving ahead now and to keep a constant guard, we know how sneaky Miho can get, for all we know she could be watching us right now!"
Erwin nodded as she grabbed her mic and order the scout to advance to a new position, all the while she was glancing at the map and checking for other potential targets. "I've never fully understood how tough it would be to lead a team and make up plans, and watching over them" she said as she kept looking at the map, "Miho is a natural leader" she added, a grin softly appearing on her face. "So where do you think we should move to?" asked Caesar as she looked at the map with great interest. Erwin remained silent as she looked where the group was currently at; "I think here would be a good place to advance to". Caesar looked at the position where Erwin pointed her finger at and observed the area. "yeah, it seems like a favorable place" she nodded in agreement. "Alright, all tanks move out!" loudly said Erwin, her hand raised high in the air as she moved it forward in a single swoop. A loud thundering quickly followed as all tanks slowly started moving forward, screeching and rumbling as they advanced. A peaceful breeze rolled in, rustling trees and grass as both parties advanced to their planned locations. The bright yellow sun slowly moved to its daily position announcing that late afternoon was commencing. Clouds of dust flew in every direction as the Panzer IV rushed ahead, being quickly followed by two tanks on each side and one tank in the middle, which on its hull rested a long pole with a bright flag at the top. "Miporin, do you think that team 2 will be at the location that you suggested?" asked Yukari as she looked at Miho. Miho's soft eyes fell upon Yukari as she looked at her friend. "yes, I believe so because it seems like a good location I would use, the height advantage is excellent. However, I want to try to lure them away so we could ambush them and take out the flag tank. Once we reach the edge of this path, I will send a scout to explore the area and be an early warning in case the enemy does something unexpected". "The day is still quite young" added Yukari as she grabbed a shell. Miho nodded as she popped open the cupola's hatch and glared down the dusty path, her eyes scanning the horizon of the forest as trees whizzed by, the loud rumbling of their tanks dissipating within the foliage.