"Damn it!" Erika swore. As Leopon team had come racing down the side of the woods to Erika's left she had turned her tank to keep the strong frontal armour pointed at the Tiger (P). This, however, meant she had inadvertently presented her flank to Anglerfish Team. Although the Panzer IV was effectively pinned down by Bauer's sniping tank destroyer, and compelled to hide behind the knocked out Hippo Team for protection, this didn't mean it wasn't a threat. It was currently trying to engage Erika's tank from without moving from its place of safety. Her Königstiger was heavily armoured, but the sides were weaker than the front and potentially vulnerable.
Her tank continued to swerve and manoeuvre as it fired once again at Leopon team and dodged their incoming fire in return.
"Where the Hell is Koume?" Erika yelled. "She should be here by now!"
Her radio operator already had news in that regard, it seemed. "They're lost in the woods Kommandant!" she shouted up to Erika. "The path they found didn't go where they expected, and the woods are really disorientating. They tried using a compass but…"
"Those idiots! A compass!? A tank is a massive iron box! A compass won't work inside a tank!" Erika raged.
Any reply from the radio operator was cut off by a loud metallic CLANG as a shell struck a glancing blow on the turret and ricocheted off. The deadly flower arranger in the gunner's seat of the Panzer IV had nearly done for them that time. This was getting too hot for comfort as the Königstiger was effectively fighting two enemy tanks at right angles. What Erika needed, was to protect her tank in all directions.
Protect her tank in all directions…
Spinning in the commander's chair, Erika looked out of the rear viewport in the cupola. She had remembered the broad gully that crossed the rear of the battlefield, winding its way forward and to the right towards where Bauer was hidden.
"Driver – reverse! Left hand down!" she ordered, and the Königstiger roared backwards.
"Kommandant… where are we… WAH!" the driver wailed as the heavy tank arrived at and then careered down the slope of the gully. There was one terrifying moment as the slope made it tip up at the front, exposing the weak underside to Leopon Team, but fortunately they had not been expecting this and were unable to get a shot off in time.
Erika had opened the commander's hatch in a flash and hauled herself up into the commander's cupola.
"Don't stop – right hand down… steady… left hand down… steady…" she began directing her driver, making the tank snake backward through the soft sand at the bottom of the gully, while the transmission made complaining noises.
"Kommandant, I can't see where we're going!" her driver protested.
"Just do as I tell you!" she instructed as she guided the tank in reverse along the gully, which meant she was moving to the right of the battlefield and at the same time forward towards Bauer and Anglerfish. She wasn't sure where Leopon's tank was, but standing up as much as she dared on the commander's seat she was finally able to spot the very top of its grey turret. It was probing forward at slow speed towards the point where the Königstiger had disappeared down the slope. Erika wasn't sure if the crew were just being cautious, or if their high-speed nonsense earlier on had done something undesirable to the temperamental tank's internal workings. Either way, it suited her perfectly and she grinned an alligator-like grin.
"Driver – halt! Now forwards and right; I want us to climb the slope. Gunner, traverse left, maximum depression! We're going to hit that fake Tiger before it knows we're out of this ditch!"
"Aw, not easy… not easy…" Erika could hear her driver mumble as the heavy tank juddered and shuddered its way out of the dried up stream bed that it had been hidden in. With the gun depressed to its lowest possible elevation, the muzzle brake cleared the lip of the gully as the tank struggled up. The long 88mm was pointed straight at the Tiger (P). Erika was still standing in the turret and the gunner had her eye glued to the optics.
"On!" she yelled.
"FIRE!" Erika barked.
There was a spurt of flame from the mighty weapon and the shell hurtled towards the unfortunately Tiger (P), hitting it squarely in the side of its engine compartment. The tank's on-board computer registered a critical hit; black smoke erupted from the engine, the main gun sagged in a gesture of defeat and the white flag popped over the stricken vehicle.
"Ha! Got you!" Erika smirked as the Königstiger lumbered out of the gully. With Ooarai's only heavy tank out of the picture, Erika could turn her attention to the pinned down Panzer IV. And when Koume finally got herself un-lost, it would be three-against-one. Erika turned to her right to look down the centre section of the battlefield towards the Panzer IV to see how best to tackle it, when all of a sudden several things happened in quick succession.
The Panzer IV shot forward as if it was suddenly about to break out from the shelter of the knocked out StuG III and make a run for it. Bauer's gunner took aim and fired, but the Panzer IV had slammed its brakes on and was already in reverse when the shot whipped past the front of the tank. Roaring backwards, it stopped again as it emerged on the other side of the protective StuG III. As Bauer's Jagdpanzer struggled to reload for another shot, Hana Isuzu put a perfectly aimed round into the tank destroyer's mantlet. The low vehicle was jolted back by the impact and its white flag instantly popped out. The Ooarai tank had already charged off in a cloud of dust, moving at speed away from its recent kill and towards the forest.
"Ah! Sorry Kommandant; we're out!" Bauer whined to Erika on the radio which she had apparently taken from her operator.
"Damn it!" Erika cursed, slamming her only fist down on the lip of the cupola. "Driver – advance! We need to…"
"It's Koume!" her radio operator shouted. "She's nearly out of the forest!"
"Good, we'll…. Oh crap!" Erika said. She could see the dust cloud from the Panzer IV as it tore round in an arc from where it had been trapped next to the StuG III. It arrived at the edge of the dense woodblock and began to follow the edge of the wood. With a sick sense of certainty, Erika just knew what was about to happen.
Some bushes on the periphery of the woodland swished and swayed and the sand-yellow bow of a Panther nosed its way out of the shrubbery.
"Hey Kommandant! We're so sorry we got lost but we're here now…" Koume was shouting as the Kuromorimine tank emerged – straight in front of the Panzer IV which was now patiently waiting as if Maho had known exactly where Koume's tank would appear. The rest of Koume's apology was cut off as Anglerfish Team fired point blank into the side of the hapless Panther, knocking it out instantly. Almost before the white flag was flying, the sleepy genius at the controls of the Panzer IV had skirted round their latest victim and was driving straight for Erika's Königstiger.
Trying to suppress the shock of seeing her three-against-one advantage slashed to one-on-one in a matter of moments, Erika ordered her tank forwards and for her gunner to open fire. She took comfort from the fact that she was in a vastly superior tank, but then, she was facing the great Maho Nishizumi herself. As the two tanks engaged like a pair of heavyweight boxers, Erika couldn't help but wonder if her tank's thicker armour and heavier gun would be enough to win this fight.