"Panzer… MARSCH!"
With a thunder of Maybach engines the three tanks moved out.
The area chosen for the match was undulating, with a block of woods stretching away on her left, a reasonably open centre, while on the right there were copses of trees, before the ground sloped up to a wooded hill. Her strategy, which the other crews had already been briefed on, was for Koume to probe forward on her left, going to the far side of the woods. Bauer, meanwhile, would push forward on the right, with the intention of setting up an ambush position in the copse of trees. Erika would advance cautiously in the centre until the enemy whereabouts were known.
This strategy, of course, meant that the three tanks would soon be out of sight of each other. This was not the traditional Kuromorimine way, which relied heavily on maintaining tight formations. They had seen, however, the weakness of that during the final of the National Tournament, so Erika had been working hard to get her tanks to operate more independently. This would be a test of that training.
"Panther advancing – no enemy in sight" Koume's tank broadcast over the radio.
"Jagdpanzer here – there's nothing to our front yet" came the report from the right flank.
Erika had expected Ooarai's tanks to be spread out and operating independently as was Miho's style. With Miho out of the game and her sister in command, however, Erika's thoughts were in confusion. Who had made the plan for this battle? Would Maho alter her style to suit Ooarai or the other way round?
Bauer's radio operator's voice came over the airwaves: "Jagdpanzer has reached the clump of at 4503. Do we wait in ambush here or probe further?"
"Tell them to watch and wait and be ready for anything" Erika ordered, feeling uneasy now that she had no clear idea of what her opponent might be up to. "Continue with caution" she instructed her own driver. "The enemy tanks could be spread out or they could be…"
"Tanks to out front!" her gunner, Ren Maaru, yelled, cutting Erika off in mid-sentence. "One… two… I see three tanks! It's their whole force!"
Erika leapt to her feet to be able to see out of the commander's hatch. With difficulty, she put her binoculars to her eyes, which meant she wasn't able to hold on to anything in the rocking, lumbering tank. Nevertheless, by bracing her legs she was able to steady herself and observe the formation to their front. Sure enough, barrelling towards them was a tight V-shaped wedge of armour. The Tiger (P) was on the side closest to the woods; the brown Panzer IV formed the centre and the StuG III was on the right. Floating on an aerial above the Panzer IV Erika could just make out the small pennant that identified it as the opposing flag tank.
"Oh crap!" Erika couldn't help but audiably mutter as this armoured spearhead bore down on her. Almost at once, flashes followed by loud cracks announced that Ooarai was firing. At her! Erika rapidly ducked back inside the turret. 'Maybe I'm just being over-cautious' she thought, but she didn't want a repeat of what had happened to her previously.
"Driver reverse! Gunner - open fire!" she shouted to her crew as she clattered ungracefully down into the commander's seat. She gave quick instructions to her radio operator: "Tell Koume to get to this side of the woods to support us! Bauer to hold her fire until they are level with her, then to fire at will!"
The message was swiftly relayed as the Königstiger fell back from the full Nishizumi onslaught.
"Koume has spotted a path through the woods; she says she'll use it to make her way towards our position!" the radio operation yelled to Erika over the din.
"Good! She'll hopefully emerge on their flank!" Erika said almost to herself. "Tell her to hurry up!" Erika said more loudly so the radio operator could hear the instruction.
Almost as soon as the radio operator had finished speaking there was another flat CRACK from in front of the Königstiger followed by a deeper BANG. Bauer's Jagdpanzer had fired from its concealed position and hit the StuG III squarely in its side. The hit had been a critical one as the StuG had come to an immediate halt with its engine smoking and white flag flying.
"Yeah! Good shot!" Erika exclaimed as the Königstiger's own gun roared in reply to another salvo from Ooarai, with dust and dirt being kicked up all around. Her tank was still slowly weaving as it fell back, but as she looked she saw another shot from the Jagdpanzer take off the front mudguard of the Panzer IV, missing its front tracks by inches. The tank stopped and reversed back at a slight angle to put the knocked out StuG between itself and the threat on its flank. Erika realised that the Anglerfish Team were now effectively pinned down by Bauer's sniping tank destroyer.
"Tell Bauer to keep her eyes - both eyes! - on their flag tank and to stop it from breaking cover. Where the crap is Koume? We'll deal with that fake Tiger… what the crap!?" Erika's last explosion was a reaction to the Tiger (P) suddenly rearing up slightly, like a horse that someone had just put the spurs to. With flame emanating from the exhaust pipes it charged forward in a wide arc to Erika's left. It was clearly looking to curve round and hit her Königstiger in its more lightly armoured flank.
"Driver reverse, left hand down!" Erika ordered, turning the heavy tank so the front swung to the left to meet this new threat, conscious that even as she did so she was exposing her right side to long range fire from the pinned down but still very dangerous Panzer IV. "Engage the Tiger" Erika ordered Ren, her gunner. Ren didn't need to be told twice and snapped off a shot at the speeding grey monster which narrowly missed. A return shot from the Ooarai tank went far too high, presumably because the speed it was travelling at rendered it an unstable platform for gunnery.
A BOOM of a shell impacting just to the right of Erika's tank made her ears ring and the tank clattered as lumps of stone and earth showered over it. She realised the Anglerfish Team had taken a ranged shot at her vulnerable right flank now that she was turned to face Leopon team.