Chapter 12: Honor Among Sisters - Resolution

With the battle joined, the two Kuromorimine tanks exchanged another salvo as Maho's Tiger relentlessly closed in on her sister's machine. Both drivers dodged the rounds fired at them as the tanks thundered forward.

"We're at the gully!" Miho spoke excitedly into her throat microphone. "When we drop inside, stop hard! Gunner, now's your chance! Make it count!"

"Hai!"

The Tiger's turret quickly rotated left ninety degrees as the tank descended into the shallow ditch, its gun barrel barely clearing the wall of dirt they were now sheltering behind.

"Firing!"

The gun roared, unleashing a round directly at Maho's approaching tank that had now closed to just two hundred meters away. The shot whacked against Tiger 212's thick front armor and ricocheted sharply upwards. "Hit! No flag!" the gunner blurted. She screamed at the girl sitting to her right, "Reload!"

"Miho has gained the advantage on us!" her sister exclaimed in dismay. "We can't hit their hull from here and if we turn, she could knock our exposed track off!"

"Allow me, Nishizumi-san!" Minako replied. "That ditch isn't very wide! Minna, hold on tight! We're going flying!"

"She's trying to jump it" Makoto muttered, peering through her viewport. "Brace yourselves minna!" The tall brunette reached down and clamped her hands around the rim of her seat seconds before the Tiger reached the near edge of the gully, still moving as fast as it possibly could.

Ami instinctively knew what her blonde friend had in mind and yanked hard on the turret's control handle. Her gun began rotating and was still turning when the Tiger sped across the depression, becoming airborne as it passed closely over the engine compartment of Miho's tank with under a half meter to spare. To Maho's surprise, her Tiger safely cleared the gap and crashed back down on the opposite edge with a bone-rattling thump. Her left elbow struck the inside rim of the cupola and she grimaced at the pain, shrugging it off as the turret finally stopped turning.

"Feuer!"

"Shooting" Ami calmly spoke, squeezing her trigger once more. Her shell struck the upper exposed portion of turret of the second Tiger, embedding itself deep within the armor. "Another hit, still no flag."

"Circle around, driver!" Maho ordered. "Present them with our front armor!"

"Doing it!" Minako answered, working the levers frantically while keeping the gas pedal pinned to the floor. "I love Sensha-do!" the blonde exclaimed. "It's my second favorite thing in the whole world! The first is making sweet love-love with my stud muffin!"

"We can tell, you sex-crazed baka!" Rei yelled back as she quickly slid another round into the breech. "We're loaded, Ami-chan!"

. . . . .

"They've hit us twice, Miho" her mother growled disapprovingly. "Unacceptable! You must not lose!" She steamed, "Minna, I'm very disappointed with your performance thus far! With all of you!"

"We're doing our best, Okāsan!" her daughter answered. "Gunner, return fire when they finish their turn!"

"This is the round that'll put those rookies out of action" the girl at the scope vowed. "I've had more than enough of these lucky Ooarai amateurs!" She hunched intently behind the the eyepiece and carefully adjusted her aim. "That's it! Just keep turning... a little more and you're as good as dead!"

Maho watched the other Tiger's turret slow its rotation, now pointing just ahead of her tank's path. "They're leading us! Driver, tighten our turn! Sharp as you can, Minako-san!"

"Hai hai!"

The tracks of Tiger 212 clawed deeply into the ground as the tank spun even harder to the right. A shell burst from Miho's tank, whizzing through the narrow gap between the gun barrel and upper hull of the pivoting Tiger. "Missed us!" Minako gloated. "Now's our big chance! I'll stop real close so you can finish them off, Ami-chan!"

. . . . .

Miho cleverly anticipated Minako's move and squeezed her throat microphone. "Driver, advance fast along the gully floor! Stand on it!"

Her engine roared and the tank's tracks churned the soil beneath them to powder as the Tiger pulled away.

. . . . .

"They're running down the gully!" Maho told her crew. "Driver, drop us in behind them if you can!"

"If I can? How silly to think I can't!" Minako giggled. "Watch this!" She braked hard and the Tiger tipped forward, collapsing the gully's near wall under its immense weight as it skidded down inside. She steered parallel to the wall opposite her while Ami again traversed the turret forward. The blue-haired girl smiled to see the rear of Miho's Tiger loom large in her eyepiece.

. . . . .

"We're trapped!" Miho gasped. "Driver, climb up the left wall! Get us out of here!"

"It's too steep, Miho!" her mother blurted in alarm. "We'll roll over!"

"I'll take that chance. Do it!"

Her Tiger's burst of speed carried the day, the massive machine tilting wildly as it scaled up the crumbling bank. Ami's next shot caught only the right-rear corner of her fleeing target, mangling the guard plate behind its nearest track as it flew past.

Miho held her breath, feeling her tank tip precariously to one side until it finally reached level ground again. "Full power, driver! Put as much distance between us as you can! Gunner, Maho's Tiger will probably follow us up, shoot as soon as they reach the top!"

"I'm nearly ready, Commander!" The girl's finger hovered over the trigger, waiting for her turret to finish slewing to face the rear.

. . . . .

"Stay in the gully, Minako-san! They'll hit us for sure if we follow them!"

"Hai! I'll wait until this ditch ends then zoom up fast and turn towards them before they can shoot!" The blonde poured on more speed, causing Rei to struggle to slide another round into the open breech as her jostling Tiger raced along.

. . . . .

"No target, Miho-san" her gunner muttered. "Your sister must be reading your mind!"

"Maho always had a knack for that. Turn us around, driver. We're ending this battle here and now!"

"It's about time!" her mother grumbled. "You're finally behaving like a Kuromorimine commander should, Miho. Decisive and aggressive!"

"We'll soon know if it's the best strategy, Okāsan. The gully ends in another fifty meters." The younger sister and her crew watched and waited for their target to appear, the seconds feeling like hours as they ticked by. "There they are! Shoot!"

The trigger was pulled a heartbeat later and the high-caliber shell covered the distance between the battling Tigers in an instant, slamming into the guide wheels inside a track of Maho's tank. "Hit! Their left track came off!" the girl at the weapon cheered. "That'll finally shut that blonde rookie up!"

"No flag!" Miho warned her crew, her heart sinking at the sight of the other tank spinning wildly out of control before grinding to a halt. She reluctantly gave the order that would end Maho's Kuromorimine career and her brief but happy time at Ooarai Girls Academy. "Reload and fire again!"

. . . . .

"I can't steer this silly thing anymore!" Minako gasped as she felt one of the control levers become loose in her hand. "Our left track must be wrecked, Maho-san! I'm so very sorry!"

"It is what it is" the elder Nishizumi sister murmured, knowing that the duel was all but at an end, and with it her last chance to retake the overall commander's position she had fought so hard to win. Maho sighed heavily. "Arigatou, crew. At least we tried our best."

But one member of Luna team fought on against all odds, quickly bringing her loaded and still-operational weapon to bear on Miho's Tiger. With her blue eyes fixed on the other tank filling her gunsight and her brilliant mind calculating the optimum trajectory of her final shot, Mizuno Ami nudged the gun's elevation control upward slightly and pulled her trigger one last time.

The long gun barrel of Tiger 212 thundered, belching fire and smoke behind the heavy shell it released. The munition whooshed through the air and rammed into the enemy Tiger's main weapon near its pivot, visibly bending the long barrel to one side and rendering it useless. Maho was stunned beyond words to see a white flag spring up into the bright sunshine from the turret of the now crippled machine.

The approaching Tiger I slowed, then abruptly clattered to a stop scarcely twenty meters away, its engine falling silent. The battle was over.

. . . . .

Two sisters leapt from their tanks and rushed towards each other, both teens squealing with joy. They embraced one another tightly while their other crewmembers emerged from their rides, the girls of Luna team breaking into loud cheers while Miho's team and her mother looked on in utter disbelief. Her gunner angrily snatched the uniform cap from her head and threw it on the ground. "Shimatta! Another two seconds and I would've finished them!"

"You did it, Maho!" Miho exclaimed with her brightest smile. "You won the match!"

"I... I still don't believe it! But there's your flag! I honestly thought you had us!"

"And now everything will be normal again! You'll get your old position back, and I can return to Ooarai permanently! I can't wait to tell Anglerfish team and my Yusei the good news!"

Maho smiled warmly at her sibling. "Hai, Miho. You're going home."

. . . . .

Tsukino Usagi and the girls of Anglerfish team were still sitting quietly on their parked Panzer when they heard Takebe Saori's cell phone emit a musical chime. The radio operator reached into her pocket and pulled it out, quickly flipping it open. "Minna, it's Miho!"

"Please tell me it's good news!" Usagi groaned. "I can't handle any more suspense, Saori-san!"

"Me neither!" Yukari blurted.

The other four teens clustered tightly around the ginger-haired girl as she answered the call, her hand trembling as she raised the phone to her ear. "Moshi moshi, Miho! How did it go?"

Saori listened to her dear friend's voice for a few seconds then let out a joyful cheer. "Minna, Miho lost the duel! She's coming back to Ooarai to stay with us!"

"Yahoo!" Yukari yelled, flinging her arms tightly around Mako. "We have our commander back again! Nishizumi-dono and Luna Team saved the day!" She giggled, "Which is really strange because they were fighting against each other!"

"I never imagined I'd be so elated about Miho losing a match" the Anglerfish driver murmured. "But here I am, feeling precisely that."

Yukari released her hug and grinned at the driver. "More emotion, Mako-san! That's what you need to show at a happy time like this!"

"Ok... uh... yahoo? How was that, Yukari-san?"

The curly-haired loader laughed. "It'll do!"

. . . . . . . . . .