The air in the Tankery garage was full of excitement, as the team had been waiting all week for Friday. Friday was the first full-on mock battle of the semester, and the crew of the Ram was more excited than anyone else. It would be the first time they'd get to fight in a battle in Japan, and the first time they'd fight alongside their new team. Sure, Thursday had been full of one-on-one practice engagements, but that was nothing like a real match.
The team was split generally along the lines of tank size: the two M3 Lees and Ayame's M7E2 with the CTMS and the Greyhound as light support on one team, called the "Heavy Team." The Ram, all three M5A1 Stuarts, the M8 Scott, and the M22 Locust were on the other, and were called "Light Team." One of the Stuart commanders complained that it was an unfair match, even if they had one more tank on their team.
"How are we supposed to fight tanks with way better armor and guns than us? It's a suicide run!" she whined. The commander of the M8 patted her shoulder gently.
"Nozomi, we have the exchange crew with us. Calm down, I'm sure they'll make a plan where none of us even get shot!"
"Kana… b-b-but we have worse tanks!"
"Don't worry, I promise you'll see a white flag over every one of Heavy Team's tanks in fifteen minutes!"
"They always say it'll be over by Christmas, don't they?"
"… go get in your tank."
Both teams left the garage, one following the Ram and one following the M7. With their heavier tanks, the crews of the Lee were confident in themselves.
"Ay Harumi, you think they're gonna last long?"
"Nah, the lights will charge like they always do, and then we can pick off the Ram with our 75s. Even though this is an annihilation match and we're outnumbered, we got this."
Ayame didn't say anything. The other commanders weren't paying any attention, but she was visibly worried. For the umpteenth time, she asked her gunner about the ability to shoot out the Ram.
"Are you sure we can get rounds through the front of Delilah's tank? It looks plenty strong…"
"I'm sure of it. It might be a challenge, but there are weak spots. The driver's hood, the bow gunner's turret, the vents on the side escape doors… All places that a shell would get through. Just have to hit the thing."
"The bow turret is a pretty big target, isn't it? Surely you can hit it, right?"
"I guess…"
"And don't call you Shirley?"
"Shut up, Ayame."
On the other side of the battlefield, Delilah briefed her teammates. "I want you to know that I fully believe we will be successful. I know it might seem scary, but I'll be on the radio, and I'll be right next to you all. We're going to take up a basic position and then do some recon. We will split into three sections and meet at point E876. We'll all meet at the rally point fifteen minutes after the match starts. Is everyone clear?"
The team responded with a chorus of "Hai!"
"Alright, mount up. We roll in five."
Engines started and weapons were checked, then the start signal came.
"All tanks meet at point E876 in fifteen! Panzer vor!"
Light Team split into sections as each vehicle partnered with a Stuart for the journey to the rally point. Iku Sato's M22 Locust arrived first, with the M8 being just behind. Amy followed her Stuart escort, arriving last. This would be where the team would stage from, and Delilah ordered several of the tanks to fan out and do recon, staying behind with the M8. As Delilah gave her orders, she received what the Ram crew thought to be an odd question. Maiko, one of the Stuart commanders, asked, "Miss Fraser, if we see the enemy, how are we supposed to know they won't run away when we leave?"
"Don't leave Heavy Team once you see them. Report it to the team and we will converge onto the point."
"If we can't leave, how do we tell you? You said we'd be on our own."
"How else? With the radio, like any other report or command."
"We don't use the radio for such important things."
Delilah was confused. "You… you what?"
"Ayame always tells us to believe that someone's listening to the radio, and instead to communicate with runners, flags, or just follow the preset plan."
"Well that's certainly interesting. Use your radio. They won't be listening, and you'll need the communication."
"We're not exactly good with the radio, so we're going to have a hard time. Please forgive any errors we make."
"Um… okay… Well, if no one else has any issues, roll out and find Heavy Team."
"Hai!"
The Stuarts and the Locust roared off in different directions. The crew of the Ram sat outside their tank, waiting with the crew of the M8. This was the tensest part of any match, and the most boring if you weren't the one looking for people. A classic case of military-style hurry up and wait. Nearly half an hour later, the radio crackled with static, and the voice of Iku was hardly audible. Yelena was closest and answered the call.
"Whoever just called, you're breaking up. Say again?"
"Locust to… see… -eam. They d- … us."
Yelena lowered the squelch, thinking it was filtering out words with static.
"Repeat, please?"
A similar garbled response. Yelena realized it wasn't the reception or the settings.
"Locust, you're experiencing a PEBCM error. Speak up, you're too quiet."
She got a yelling response.
"LOCUST TO TEAM! WE SEE HEAVY TEAM! THEY DON'T SEE US!"
"And where are you?"
"POINT EJ255!"
"Thank you, Locust."
Yelena popped out of the hatch and turned to the commander of the M8.
"You people need to learn to use the damn radio."
Another period of waiting occurred as the Light Team converged on the Locust's position. As the Ram pulled alongside, Yelena opened her side door and waved at Iku. "Hey Locust commander! I found out about your radio trouble. It seems that you were experiencing an unusual problem called an "ID10T." It only affects some people."
"Alright, thanks!"
The rest of the crew inside the Locust burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"Iku, you…"
"What?!"
"She just insulted you…"
"What? She diagnosed our radio problem!"
"No, Yelena called you an idiot, you dumbass!"
"What?"
"Good lord, Iku. You're hopeless."
Delilah hid her laugh as she peered through the trees. At the top of the hill, Heavy Team was in partial cover. From where the tanks were parked, any attack would either require going all the way around and up the back side of the hill, or it would require firing up the open slope here. Delilah didn't want an uphill battle, but she wanted to see what the team would naturally do. "Alright Light Team, how would you normally approach this?"
Kana, the commander of the M8, responded first. "Well, we'd use the speed of our tanks to run as close as we can, even if it means getting to that steep part of the hill. Normally, Ayame or one of the Lees would slowly crawl behind and keep firing at the enemy."
"Like run into cover and fire?"
"No, that would slow us down. We'd all move forward, letting the heavies catch up later."
"I see…"
Delilah ducked into the turret. "You guys hear that?"
"Yeah, unfortunately I did." Mia responded.
"I mean, it's not a terrible idea, they just don't seem to realize letting the bigger tanks crawl behind means target practice." Amy said.
That gave Delilah an idea. "What if we stay put under cover and fire up at them while the lights do their thing?"
"Sounds like a plan. Not an unusual one either. Mia, do you think it's possible for you to hit them from down here?"
"Of course, I just can't guarantee that the shot will go through at such a shallow angle. Yelena, get out some HE if we have to go with just blinding them."
"On it."
With the plan settled, Delilah relayed it to the team. The light tanks left the cover of the woods and began attracting rounds. Amy brought the Ram behind a large berm, just short enough for Delilah to see over. She watched with intent, looking for the one who seemed to be the most accurate. The CTMS was actually doing a decent job but was well covered. The Greyhound was the most exposed and was getting closest to hitting.
"Gunner, target M8 Greyhound. 400 meters uphill, left of dark rock slab. Driver, advance one tank length."
"Gun ready."
"Tank advancing."
Amy angled the tank as Delilah used her override to point the turret in the general direction, letting Mia take over for the final lay onto target.
"One away!"
The shell struck the Greyhound dead on its side, and the white flag popped.
"Excellent work! Next target, M7 medium, 450 meters uphill."
Another shot, but this one bounced off the heavily angled side armor.
"Load APDS!"
"ADPS up!"
"Away!"
Mia fired again, but even with the high-velocity round the angle was far too shallow. Next was plan B.
"Load HE!"
"High explosive ready!"
This shot hit directly on the mantlet of Ayame's M7E2, which resulted in a flash and smoke that blinded anyone looking through the optics. However, one blind tank wasn't enough. The CTMS landed a perfect shot on the M22, and a 75mm shell from a Lee caused a Stuart to throw a track. The follow-up shot from the Lee's 37mm gun killed the light tank as it spun around. Things weren't looking good.
Up on the hill, Ayame was terrified. "Holy hell they got the Greyhound!"
Even as her tanks began hitting the enemy, she continued to worry. Another blinding shot came from the Ram, and she decided that this was enough. It took several minutes of trying, but her signal flags were finally noticed. Heavy Team began pulling back from the edge of the cliff. As her tank turned, Ayame watched the Stuarts begin charging up the hill again.
What if they catch us up here?
The CTMS was still in its hidden position, hurling rounds downhill. It hit another Stuart, but again this wasn't enough for Ayame to be satisfied. She signaled the light tank to charge downhill in a delaying action, knowing it would most likely mean that she'd be down another tank.
The light tank sent one last round toward the Ram, narrowly missing the bow gun cupola. Then, it charged at full speed down the steepest part of the slope. At high speed, the suspension of the CTMS was at its limit. Akari and her crew bounced around, hardly able to stay in their seats. The gunner tried to aim, but the violent motion of the tank meant that she couldn't even keep her head in front of the sight. In the driver's hole, things weren't much better. There wasn't much for the driver to do other than hold on and pray that the tank would respond to their control inputs. In the end, it didn't even matter how hard she tried. The tank turned too far to one side and began to roll over. It landed on its right side and slid down the slope for a distance before it came to rest.
Mia didn't even need the report from her commander to know that the CTMS was done for. Its white flag was flying, and the crew had already started pulling themselves from their hatches.
"All targets disabled or in retreat, cease fire!"
Delilah looked around her. Heavy Team had lost their two lightest vehicles, with three medium tanks still fully operational. Her own team was also down to three. Only a Stuart, the M8 Scott, and her own Ram were able to fight. She ordered her team back together, staying behind the berm the Ram had been using for cover.
"Does Ayame have any preferred strategies? Like a certain maneuver or action she does when things like this happen?"
"Well, the last time we did something like this she used a line of mounds not too far from here. We tried attacking it, but her team was able to stall us into a stalemate until we eventually lost." Kana answered.
"Let's try that, then. Maiko, I'd like you to scout ahead and make sure they're there."
"Hai." the Stuart commander responded.
About ten minutes later, Maiko reported seeing Heavy Team at the planned line. "They're lined up behind some cover, I'm not sure we can do much to them."
"Just wait there, Maiko. We'll see what we can do once I get there."
Delilah saw the position as the M8 and Ram pulled alongside the Stuart.
"See, they're behind all those hills and mounds. It's so open, we'll never make it through that!"
Delilah thought for a moment before she looked at the M8 and found her answer.
"Hey Kana, have you guys ever done indirect fire?"
"What?"
"You know, has Ayame ever made you shoot a target you can't see?"
"We did once or twice, but it didn't really seem important."
"Well you're doing it for real today, and it is definitely important."
Delilah chose the position for the M8 to fire from, and then ordered it to drop several shells onto the general vicinity of Heavy Team.
"Alright, you're getting fairly close. Load a smoke shell and use the same aim you did for the last one."
The smoke billowed around Ayame's tanks, blinding them as they took more fire from a tank they could not see.
"Maiko, advance to the second berm and hold there. Gunner, fire center mass at the smoke."
The Ram's gun fired several shots in quick succession, covering the Stuart as it moved up.
"Kana, give me another smoke shell. Maiko, fire into the smoke cloud. Driver, advance."
Amy didn't even need to be told where to go. She brought the Ram to a berm across from the Stuart.
"Have Kana start dropping AP on them, please." she requested.
"On the way." Delilah replied.
Rounds from all three tanks flew towards Heavy Team as the smoke began clearing. The enemy was now pinned in their place. One of the Lees was completely trapped behind a mound, unable to expose itself to fire.
"Have Kana focus on the exposed Lee while the M8 and Mia go for the M7."
"Right."
Delilah had been nervous about allowing Amy to request orders, but everything she said seemed to make as much or more sense than Delilah's own plans.
After several shots to adjust fire, the M8 scored a hit on the turret roof of Ayame's M7. The white flag flew, and now it was three against two.
"Maiko, keep firing at the exposed Lee. Kana, drop AP on the one behind the hill. Doesn't matter if you hit, just keep it in place. Driver, advance to a closer position. Maiko's 37mm kept pounding the front plate of the Lee, and the Ram stopped in a perfect hull-down position.
"Gunner, target 2 o'clock two hundred meters M3 Lee."
"Away!"
Another tank down.
"Amy, you're up."
"Maiko, get around the back of that berm. Kana, I'd like a smoke shell please."
Amy advanced the Ram to the edge of the Lee's hiding spot.
"Maiko, if we get hit, I want you to pop up behind the Lee and take it out for us."
The Ram turned the corner, entering the edge of the smoke cloud.
"Delilah, lay the gun on target. Get ready to fire fast, Mia."
As the smoke thinned, the crew of the Lee saw the shape of the Ram appear in front of them. Delilah had her shoulders out of her hatch and waved.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Eiko said from her gun cupola. Her head was just barely reaching out the hatch.
Harumi's eyes bugged. "Oh, shi- "
WHAM