"Follow me please. " said the girl, Sarah did what she was told and followed leading her to the top deck, where a car was waiting they both got in, both did not say a word to each other, they arrived at a large manor house in Victorian-era design. The girl opened the car door and Sarah followed, the girl knocked on the large oak door which then opened to reveal a grand split staircase with a large chandelier about in the middle of the room. The walls were covered in paintings of tanks and people in a red uniform, that looked somewhat similar to the queen's guards with golden frames surrounding them. They walked up the stairs to see another large oak door but with 6 old looking wooden chairs, beside 4 girls with different uniforms each were already sitting there talking in Japanese, to each other they looked up at Sarah and looked to each other and continued their conversation.
"Please sit Sarah we will be out shortly." The blond girl said she then walked down the staircase.
Sarah found a seat at sat looking and feeling a little awkward not knowing whether or not if this was the right decision. 10 minutes of long waiting later another girl showed up again in a completely different uniform for the others, was led by the blond girl. She with knocked on the oak door, she opened it walked in and closed it behind her immediately. There was another long wait, and the doors opened and the blond girl said.
"Darjeeling wishes to see you all now." In Japanese.
All the other girls stood up and tidied themselves up Beth a little confused copied them and followed them in an orderly line into the room and stood at the back of the room.
The room was lavish in decoration with, bookcases filled to the brim with books, a large rug, a grandfather clock and even an old styled globe, with a large plain glass window. There were 5 people sitting at a tea table with scones and cakes on a cake stand with all with tea around them.
The Blond girl was sitting there with a clear faced girl with ginger hair and light purple eyes. She was wearing her hair in two braids tied in twist buns, a girl with pinkish red hair and a pair of orange eyes, one with brown eyes and long brown hair tied in a braid over her left shoulder, the last was another blonde girl with a pair of light blue eyes who wore her hair in a French braid tied at the nape. This new blond girl stood up with her tea and spoken in a calm and elegant tone
"Welcome girls and thank you all for joining us today I would like to introduce myself I'm Darjeeling commander of St. Gloriana Girls College, you have all been selected due to your skills as a tank commanders and as St. Gloriana Girls College is one of Japan's best Sensha-do schools we only accepted the best and we hope you find this a great honour to be here." Said in Japanese
All the standing girls responded with "yes it's a great honour to be here." then bowed except for Sarah who said nothing but once seeing them all bow did the same.
Darjeeling looked back at the table and giggled a little, she faced back to the standing girls.
"Today you will have mock flag battle crews will be allocated to you and you will be under the supervision of veteran commanders. You three." she pointed to three of the girls in the line. They walked forward. "You will be under the commander of Orange pekoe and Assam." They bowed "The rest of you will be under the command of Rukuriri and Rosehip." Beth was in this group she saw the other two girls bow and bowed a lot quicker this time but was still obviously off the mark. "Your commanders will select for you the tanks you will be using understood?"
"Yes, Darjeeling." Came the response again with a bow Sarah said nothing but bowed.
The commanders then walked out off the door with their small group following with apart from Sarah who stood still.
"You're with us." Said Rukuriri Sarah then followed them.
Darjeeling sat back down in her chair "Rukuriri a word please and close the door behind you."
Rosehip led them energetically to the tank garage. And spoke to them in Japanese all the way Sarah just walked behind looking at the floor. They arrived it was a huge space with loads of British tanks, they walked around and stopped.
"You like this tank?" Rosehip said to Sarah in broken English pointing to a tetrarch, with a little John adapter on it she nodded.
"Yes, I like it." And bowed because she thought it was the polite thing to do.
Rosehip and the other girls laughed.
"You funny girl." Rosehip said laughing so much she began to cry a little, Sarah was very embarrassed.
Rukuriri then walked up behind Sarah "Don't worry about this, you're in the tetrarch and don't worry you'll have an English speaking crew."
"Ok, you" pointing to one of the girls. "You're in a Matilda. And you are in a crusader. You will be under my command and rosehip will be the vice commander. "
"Yes, commander Rukuriri." They then said with a bow Sarah still being worse for where just copied them.
The battlefield was a rather small one with flat plain with a slight rise in the middle so both teams could not see each other easily with woodlands to the north with a small hill on the south side clear of woodlands, the group was dropped off at the starting point with their tanks joining them with their crews.
"Sarah this is your crew, they speak fine English and will do whatever you command of them."
"Thank you. Rukuriri?" Sarah said not being sure if that was her name.
"I will be the flag tank, Just listen to my orders and we will be victorious in this battle for us. And yes that is my name." Rukuriri said confidently.
"Will do." Sarah replied.
She climbed into the tank, with the engine off. "Hi guys, I'm Sarah." She said a little sheepishly the gunner looked at her. "It's a pleasure to be working with you, Sarah."
"As do I." remarked the driver.
The radio then came on "Sarah prepare to move out."
"yes, Rukuriri!"
"driver engine on please, prepare to move." Sarah said a little more nervously
The engine coughed to life.
"Coms check, driver can you hear me?" said Sarah with a hint of a tremble in her voice
"yep all good."
"Gunner?"
The gunner raises her thumb up "I don't personally see the reason why we need an intercom set in this Tetrarch to be honest" said the gunner "we are so close together."
"Well the drivers going to have a fun time trying to hear us." Sarah responded
The radio then spluttered into life with whines and high pitch squeaks. "Sarah do you copy" A calm voice said
"Yes loud and clear!" replied Sarah
"Good luck today the trials will now begin! But before you go, have you heard this proverb? If you can't fly, then run, if you can't walk run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but by all means keep moving."
"Yes, that's Martin Luther King Junior I believe."
Rukuriri then came onto the radio. "Sarah you will take the small hill and scout, wait for further instructions."
"Understood!" Sarah switched to the intercom set and placed her beret on her head. "driver, take us to the west to point 56 the southern hill on an overlooking position full speed, we are going to scout the enemy tanks."
The tetrarch then moved to the hill.
Sarah was staying vigilant her head out of the tank with her binoculars hanging from her neck. They reached the hill and climbed slowly in case of it being a trap, they reached the peak uneventfully and she saw 4 black dots in the distant she drew her binoculars up to see a Churchill flag tank and three Matilda's.
"Rukuriri I have spotted the enemy flag tank which is a Churchill of some sort and 3 Matilda's in a close triangular formation. Slowly advancing west on the flat plain."
"Understood." "Rosehip and Aika advance full speed east use your speed to surprise them, take out the flag tank. Rio stay in formation with me and advance east. "
Sarah looked back onto their tanks and saw the crusaders speeding off towards the enemy flag tank with the bumbling Matilda's slowly following them.
"Rukuriri the woodlands are not clear I cannot see any hidden tanks that may be in there, I advise sending in a crusader to scout as one tank is missing."
"Sarah I'm the one making the orders!" she said with real venom.
"Should I scout the woodlands?" Sarah responded a little taken aback.
"No, remain on the hill!" Rukuriri shouted back.
Sarah stayed put and watched the 2 forces engage, the crusaders were firing as they moved, but were under heavy bombardment charging into the enemy's strong defensive formation, one of the crusaders then seemed to get a speed boost leaving the other crusader in its dust and closed into the enemy force which then was hit and the flag appeared, the other continued but ended in the same fate. This battle was not going well it reminded her of the Ramsgate tournament battle, she looked to the woodlands and saw some trees move as if it was being knocked by something.
"Driver full speed, get us to the woodlands drive behind our flag tank."
"Understood."
The driver spun the tank around driving full speed down the hill and turning north into the woodlands.
"Sarah return to the hill continue scouting now!" said Rukuriri over the radio.
"We have spotted something in the woodlands we will intercept."
"No return to your position there is nothing in the woodlands!" Rukuriri was getting more and more angry with every word.
They arrived at the woodlands it was darker due to the canopy of the tree's, they slowly traversed the trees looked for anything out of the ordinary.
"Driver engine off.".
She listened and could hear the fate noise of an engine rumble with metal tracks on metal wheels to the east.
"Driver engine on avoid making any large noises."
The tank moved slowly Sarah scanned the woodlands, a little bit of sunlight pierced the tree canopy to reveal a Churchill side on about 1 km away ahead of them.
"Churchill mark III in the woodlands! Rukuriri please withdraw." she pleaded on the radio.
"I refuse to believe you can't even follow basic orders." She switched to the intercom set "driver full speed, gunner prepare to take out the Churchill." The tank moved like lighting, the Churchill did not move the gun was trained on the Matilda's preparing to fire on the flag tank.
"Gunner if possible aim for the take out the tracks. Driver get behind the Churchill and stop."
They closed in now 100 meters away Sarah loaded the shell.
"Loaded." Sarah shouted over the intercom.
The gunner fired hitting the back drive sprocket. Immobilising the tank, the turret began to turn with gun slowly turned towards the tetrarch, but could not turn fast enough, Sarah was loading the shells as fast as she could. The driver stopped, the engine deck of the Churchill was an appealing target. The gunner shot the back of the engine deck, setting the Churchill on fire and the flag appeared.
"Ok driver move eastwards along the woodlands will try to distract their force to stop them attacking our flag tank." Sarah commanded.
"Understood." Came the response.
The tetrarch moved keeping concealed in the trees, the enemy force was pushing straight down the middle and were only about 1 minute away from peaking over the small lip in the middle of the battlefield.
"Ok driver stop here, gunner prepare for rapid fire aim for the flag tank and disable it as we can't penetrate at this range."
They waited in ambush with the dark shadows hiding them, one Matilda went over the lip with its gun facing forward. Then the Churchill a mark VII as well with its gun forward at a range of 800 meters.
"Fire!" Sarah said.
The 2 pounder was firing like a machine gun Sarah was loading the gun none stop, the gunner was telling her what was happening.
"Churchill is hit!... some of the boggy wheels have come off…the turret is turning our way!" the gunner was saying
"is the tank immobile?" Sarah said.
"yes, it looks to be but im not too sure."
"Ok, driver full back to a new position."
The Matilda's then came over the lip and fired towards the woodlands in the vicinity of Sarah's tank all missed, the two trailing Matilda's moved into the woodlands, the Churchill and Matilda started to fire at Rukuriri's tank only 600 meters away who had stopped and was firing back.
"Ok, we have company." Sarah said looking out of the turret behind her. "We will advance to the hill again use the high ground to shoot down onto the flag tank and take it out. Gunner the armour should be weak enough to penetrate at that range. Driver we need to get to this hill before the force following us can set up an ambush on Rukuriri."
"Understood." They both responded back.
The tank moved at full speed avoiding random shots by the slow perusing Matilda's. They drove behind their own flag tank and continued to move., the Churchill and the Matilda was still firing on Rukuriri but were still ineffective of taking it out and where ignoring Sarah's tank driving behind her at full speed.
They got to the top of the small hill and looked down on the small skirmish below only Rukuriri's tank was still standing and the crippled Churchill and Matilda were moving very slowly towards her together.
"Driver get us over the edge, gunner when we stop rapid fire we need to take out this Churchill!."
The tank then stopped and Sarah put the 2 pounder shell in the breach.
"Loaded."
Bang! Shells landed all around them the Matilda's had moved out of the woodlands and started to bombard Sarah's position.
"Gunner ignore them and fire." They fired.
The shells hit the track of the Churchill throwing their track it was dead in the water. The Churchill turned its barrel towards them.
Sarah loaded another shell.
"load" the tank moved back Sarah hit her head on the back of the turret dizzying her. The Churchill hit them first time in the turret, they were out.
The flanking Matilda force then lined up their barrels onto Rukuriri tank the salvo came, finishing the game.
A/N: Unfortunately, I'm away this weekend so here's the chapter today. Hopeful you are enjoying the story so far, Please fill free to leave a review as I wish to make the story even better you never know your input may be added. ;)