Hell On Tracks
Part 7
Naomi had me run a few more drills in all of the positions on the M4 before we called it a day. I'd managed to work up a sweat and yell myself hoarse screaming at people over the tank's intercom, but overall, I felt pretty good about myself. It wasn't until Kay wandered on over to our little corner of the practice range that I started to get nervous about things.
"Hey Tali!" The blonde called, tossing me a light blue Powerade bottle. I stared at her, greatly offended by her offering of the lesser sports drink. "How was practice?"
"It's Tally," I corrected. Once again, Kay didn't seem to get the difference, so I moved along anyway. "And things went pretty okay, at least once I got over rolling a tank."
"Good! Very nice!" Kay cheered in English, giving a big smile.
"Naomi said I wasn't a very good gunner, and my loading was, and I quote, 'subpar for a beginner.'" I groused, before opening up the sports drink and taking a swig. I nearly gagged on the stuff, and resolved to try and get a care package with proper sports drinks or something.
"That's just Naomi. She's very good with the 17-pdr gun on the Firefly, so she expects people to be good with the easier 75."
"Oh, so she has an ego the size of the Firefly's turret?" I snarked. Kay merely nodded, refusing to meet my eyes on that particular comment. "And let me guess, she's right behind me."
"You could say that." Naomi said, from off to my left. She joined the two of us, and addressed Kay. "Tally-san scored below average marks for both the gunning and loading drills, and has had one of the highest scoring failures I have seen for driving. However, her ability to clearly and concisely communicate information makes her a good potential radio operator for a command tank. Even more impressive is her ability to find targets, even camouflaged, and react quickly and properly. Most of the time."
"Most of the time?" Kay repeated, giving me a sidelong glance.
"Contact, CV 33, twelve o'clock, 50 meters. Driver, tracks! Run them down!" I recited dutifully, knowing exactly which incident Naomi had been talking about. This prompted Kay to laugh loudly, quickly doubling over in giggles.
"Gunner, that tank still offends me. Remove it, please." Naomi also quoted, which sent Kay into an even louder fit of giggles.
The Firefly's commander and I waited there quietly while Kay finished her laughter. This took a while, and I contemplated my Powerade, before eventually deciding that I would finish this one off then stick to water. When Kay finally managed to control her giggling, she faced Naomi.
"Final assessment?"
"Tank Commander, to be put into Training Company. I believe tank, ah, five is currently without a commander." Naomi reported. Kay raised an eyebrow at the tank recommendation, though I wasn't sure if that was because she didn't expect to have such a specific recommendation, or because she knew exactly who I was going to be put with. I wasn't sure which scared me more.
From there, Kay sent Naomi off to return the M4 to its berth, while she took me on the Willys Jeep that she so loved and raced off towards the main pavilion. The Practice and Training Companies were about to have an 8v10 one-hit kill practice match, while the Combat Company and everyone else who wasn't in the fight was supposed to take notes, both to help themselves improve and help the people doing the fighting improve.
As with many things that Saunders did with their Sensha-do team, it was pretty darned clever. The one hit KO's meant that any repairs would be quick and easy, and it was a live combat match. I'd watched many Tankery matches back home, but I'd never really thought about the practicing that goes into them to make them so good. Drills after drills after drills, and then practice matches, yes, but not the thought that went into why things were the way they were. It was all very interesting.
"Tali-san, I want you to take notes on the match too." Kay said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Hrm? You want my thoughts and such?"
"Yeah! You're on the team, so you should be taking notes just like everyone else!" Kay said as she pulled the jeep to a stop by a set of bleachers.
I really shouldn't have expected any sort of special treatment for being new or a foreign exchange student. Just because I was new to the team didn't mean that I wasn't part of the team and didn't have to participate in the various exercises. I had my cellphone with me, so typing up some brief notes on the match shouldn't be too hard.
Kay and I hopped out of the jeep and took our places on the bleachers, fitting in with the rest of the frankly massive crowd. Around 45 of Saunders' tanks had full or partial crews, which meant a large team, even when it was split into three smaller teams. Getting properly introduced to even the Training Company was going to be awful.
I didn't notice it at first, too distracted by the crowd, but Kay and I ended up sitting by a large radio. Intentionally, on Kay's part, no doubt, because once the crowd was settled in, she picked up the receiver of the radio, and began the final preparations for the training match. Arisa was in a watch tower in the middle of the field, acting as a referee, and Naomi was flying the camera drone which would allow everyone in the crowd the ability to actually watch on the Sensha-do's massive jumbotron screen.
"All teams, on your marks! Get set! Begin!" Kay called over the radio, and the match kicked off. And by kicked off, I meant that the Training Company started moving into the arena with all of the cohesion of a random team in any matchmade video game, while the Practice Company moved forward with what seemed to be some coordination and a general plan.
I could already tell that this was going to be painful.