The weather got worse as Erwin was on his way back. The dogs were freezing and they were barely making any progress in the weather. Erwin looked around as there was nothing but flakes of white falling around him. He looked around more as he didn't want to freeze out there in the snow. He was truly lost. He looked around a bit more as he was trying to find somewhere to get access out. The dogs continued pulling in the freezing conditions but even they were beginning to get bogged down. Erwin looked around as he saw a glowing light, a little outpost he and the others could stay in until the weather improved.
"Mush." Erwin gave the order as he was guiding the dogs to the outpost. The dogs heaved and panted as they trotted to the outpost as it was indeed their only source of salvation for now. Pulling up, Erwin went straight inside with the dogs as an old lady was at the post. She looked at Erwin as he stomped the snow off of his boots.
"Is there anything you wish to request on me sonny?" She asked. Erwin looked at her as he took his hood off. He was exhausted and battered by the snow.
"Yes there is, I need to get a radio message back to Kuromorimine about the situation I am stuck in." Erwin responded as the old lady soon scooted away from the student. She looked at Erwin as he was probably freezing and would most likely need the heat.
"Go right ahead, if you don't know about Morse code, there is a booklet on my desk which could help you." The old lady responded as she got up and went to her kettle. "Would you like something to drink?" She asked.
"Yes, that would be great help." Erwin huffed as he began buzzing away. He was getting the message out to Kuromorimine about the situation.
Back in Kuromorimine, the radio buzzer who was working the radio was beginning to pick up Erwin's message. He was writing it down.
"I got the Diphtheria Anti-Toxins but I cannot proceed with the snow hitting me and the dogs. We didn't get far on the journey back and grounded until the storm cleared up. I am currently lost." He was repeating the words to himself. He knew the dilemma that Erwin must be situated in. He soon got the microphone as it was connected to the nurse's office. "Students of Kuromorimine, I got some bad news, Erwin had said he's back on the Graf Zeppelin with the AntiToxins but he and the dog sled team are lost and grounded by the heavy blizzard and they cannot proceed until the storm clears." Maho was listening in as she was passing out tea with honey to the students who needed it. She was listening as she sighed as Erwin was indeed on the ship but lost in the blizzard.
"I hope he and Kimi make it back in one piece." Maho prayed to herself as she was worried about where Erwin was but she could do nothing against mother nature's wrath.
Day three of the matches as The students were gathering around again to see what their plans were. Erika wasn't present as she was outside of her tent, Emi was her replacement for now since Erika couldn't go through with the plans due to disagreements among the crowd.
"So the terrain is forked by a river that goes around from the marshes to the north and Pravda's forces will be deployed forward, that is where we will concentrate all of our tigers on as the KV-2 would be stationed there, We bet the marshes and river are frozen hard enough for the tanks to bypass and conduct a pinscher to cut off the tanks from any route of escape. For this we're putting our medium tanks along the marshes. The light tanks will be staged south of the river as we don't know if the river will be frozen enough to handle the weight of the tanks if they decide to cross." Emi explained her plan to have the heavier tanks at the point of effort to where their main attacks would take place. Everyone nodded as the forces were scrambled once more not by school group but by how heavy their tanks were. The Panthers and Tigers would lead the frontal assault while the smaller and lighter tanks would go around and flank. Everyone seemed to be in agreement with the plan. This match would start within the hour.
The judges at this match were once again from Ooarai but it would be the STUG 3 Hippo team members that were attending the match, Riko, Takako, Takeko, and Kiyomi watched on as they were shivering in the snow a bit but they were warm in their tents. Riko looked on as she was observing the map and how the matches were going.
"Looks like it's Day 3 of Operation Barbarossa and Kuromorimine still has the upper hand in all of this. I believe that Pravda has suffered encirclements at Bialystok, Minsk, Smolensk and Uman, I bet Kuromorimine will encircle them once more in this match." Riko began, Takako looked on to her as she wanted to add a few things to what Riko had mentioned earlier.
"Pravda still had plenty of resources left as they could field the most amount of tanks. More than Kuromorimine and possibly Saunders even. We could even state that Pravda is clinging onto Odessa while Count tries to have a siege there." Takako added on as her friends looked on.
"You said that this match will be a good one as Kuromorimine is attacking Pravda from three sides right?" Kiyomi asked as she looked at the map. Riko takes a look at it as she turns to Kiyomi.
"Yeah that's correct all right. Hopefully we don't get caught out in the snow." Riko told her as Takeko interrupted them.
"Never mind that, the match is about to begin." Takeko told them to pay attention to what is going on ahead. Their heads turned to the screen in anticipation of the match as it was indeed about to begin.
Kilometers away in the cold. A Turan 2 was getting ready to be fired up as its commander was excited and her energy sparked through the tank.
"Let's power up this match!" Kadosa shouted as the tank was fired up. This was going to be a good match between them as Noemi's T-3 and the T-4 tanks came to life. They soon began moving southward to begin the encircling process. Many tanks also decided to move in as they were going to close up the pocket. Klara was watching from her T-34/76 as she noticed something odd, only one side was moving southward. Due to her inability to speak Japanese very well, she decided to rely on a very unusual method of communication. She got out her flags as she had some color coded for light, medium and heavy tanks, colored flags to signal if they were fine or not but she had to keep watch. Waving the flags around, she decided to send some tanks to engage the ones heading southward.
Noemi was watching from her T-3 when she noticed something odd was happening. The Turan 2 was leading the way with her tank in the middle and the T-38 and T-4 trailing behind. Klara had sent a small force to counter them, a few BT tanks, a couple of T-28's and a T-35 were all part of the group. The Turan two spotted them as Kadosa looked at her radio.
"Okay guys we got a small force coming up so get ready." Kadosa made the announcement. Noemi heard it as she looked at her crew.
"Okay students, get into position, we're going to engage that small group of tanks." Noemi told her tanks to be ready on Kadosa's mark. Kadosa was going to cripple them by taking out the T-35 first before moving onto the smaller tanks to thin out their numbers a bit.
"Now let's get the circuits powered up. Fire!" Kadosa shouted. Her Turan 2 fired first followed by the T-3, the T-4 and the T-38, all of their shots struck the T-35 as the multi-turreted beast spluttered before grinding to a halt. The T-28's and BT's fired at them as more tanks began to arrive, those tanks that did arrive at Kadosa's position, fired their shots off at the BT's as their tanks were taking several hits from the BT's shots. A couple of the BT tanks were taken out as they continued to try to rush them down. Kadosa fired first along with Noemi's tank as their shots managed to take out one of the T-28's. The T-4 fired, taking out the other T-28. Soon the shots quieted down as the tanks on this area had been taken out. Kadosa pressed the advance.
Klara was getting nervous that the tanks were bypassing the marshes to the north of her position. Erika's strongest tanks were in the center in a neat little forest. She was observing as Klara sent more tanks to try to contain Kadosa, stripping off her strength from other fronts. Erika looked on as Klara had pulled off most of the strength from the south as she soon went down into her hatch. She moved to her radio as she wanted to give out the call.
"Okay Pomorie, Klara has pulled most of her strength away from the south to counter the threat to the north. Hopefully you could pull off your move." Erika advised her. Pomorie nodded as listened. She went to give the orders to Istria and El.
"Okay Klara has pulled most of the tanks away from the area we're advancing on. We better move fast before Klara realizes her mistake and patches the area back up." Pomorie told them as Istria was from her R35 and El from the Panzer 2.
"Roger that." El gave her responses as the tanks began to cruise through the snow covered wheat field. So far so good, no enemy tanks.
"Nothing's been spotted so we're good." Pomorie told the others as they went along through the field. Pomorie looked around as she noticed something up ahead. It looked like a river of some sort. "Hold it." The tanks came to a stop as they had stopped from the river. Dalmatia in her Panzer 1 was curious as she looked on.
"Why have we stopped? Is there something wrong?" Dalmatia asked curiously. Pomorie looked on ahead as she got out of her tank. She walked across the snow as she looked at the ice covered river.
"River is frozen but I don't know if the ice will be thick enough to support our tanks when we try to cross it. Only one way to be sure." Pomorie addressed the situation. She soon began taking cautious steps across the ice to make sure it wasn't going to break and give away. If it did, Pomorie would be plunged into the icy water below. She continued stepping along the ice testing for weak spots, after a few minutes of conclusion, she turned back as she wanted to give the order. "River is frozen solid, I could be wrong in my decision and the ice will break apart. Keep the chains for any sort of rescue attempt ready." Pomorie hopped into her Vickers tank and began the attack to cross the river.
Pomorie was leading the charge with El and the others following closely behind. The ice creaked and cracked under the weight of the light tanks. El and the others in the Panzer 2 were very nervous about this as the ice could give away and they would drown and freeze in the icy water. Pomorie and the others were slowly moving along and listening to the ice to make sure they weren't going to plunge into the water. Soon a second sound was heard as it was tanks. Pomorie poked her head out to see Pravda's tanks fast approaching as they were T-40 amphibious tanks. The T-40's began firing away with their DShK and DT machine guns. The yellow paintballs began splattering all over Pomorie's vickers seeing it was the target of their interest. Some of the T-40's moved onto El's Panzer 2. Dalmatia's Panzer 1 raced forth as she wanted to help her friends out in the mess, the two MG-13 machine guns began spraying from the tank as a series of white paintballs began coating one of the T-40's The CV-33's joined the action as they were firing away to try foring the T-40's to withdraw from the ice. Pomorie looked at Rila as she wanted to get ready to load a shell in to see if she could take out one of the T-40's.
"Rila, load Armor Piercing in case since I don't know what their armor might be." Pomorie gave her the order to load up a shot. Rila nodded as she grabbed a red tipped Armor piercing round. She soon loaded it into the breech of the tank as she waited for Pomorie to fire. Pomorie fixed her sights on the tank and fired. The red tipped round struck one of the T-40's in the side causing the tank to splutter before coming to a halt. A white flag was soon seen as El decided to make her move next. She began firing from the Panzer 2's autocannon at one of the T-40's. The T-40 was taken out as the remaining tanks decided to make a full retreat. The Tankettes went first as Pomorie decided to race after them. Rila loaded another Armor Piercing shell into the breech as she was getting ready to fire it at the T-40 that was trying to flee. Pomorie nodded as she fired it at the back of one of the fleeing T-40's. The tank was knocked out as Pomorie surveyed the field. "That's three down but there are still more. We should chase after them." Pomorie gave the order for a complete pursuit of the tanks. El nodded as her Panzer 2 sped on ahead with the autocannon rattling away trying to take out more T-40's unaware she was heading for thin ice.
While the others were slowly moving across the ice with the lighter Tankettes taking the lead as they wanted to secure a beach-head on the other side and hold off all possible counter attacks, El was trying to take out the remaining T-40's. The Autocannon opened up as it took out another T-40 from behind before she turned it and began landing hits on it. A T-40 turned and launched a desperate counter attack to try to slow El's Panzer 2 down. However, El took out that T-40 before focusing on the ahead of her. The counter attacking T-40 turned and began driving in the opposite direction. El decided to pursue it. Viridiana, the driver of the Panzer 2 sped on but unlike Pomorie's cautious stance on the river, she was throwing it all out the window, The ice beneath the Panzer 2 began to crack and soon, the front of the tank suddenly lurched down nose first into the frozen river. Water began seeping into the tank as there were several weak spots in this Panzer 2. Viridiana desperately tried reversing the tank to get them out of the situation but the ice on the back began cracking as the tank's weight couldn't handle what was going on and if this part of the ice broke, the entire Panzer 2 would sink underwater. El shivered as the icy water hit her feet.
"Viridiana, stop reversing, the ice might cave in on the other side, Tristana, radio for help that we are going under!" El desperate gave out the call as the Panzer 2 continued to slowly sink. Tristana nodded as she grabbed for the radio wondering who would be nearby to come to their aid.
"All tanks on the river, this is Tristana, El needs assistance as her tank is sinking in the ice, we have broken through the ice and we need help!" Tristana gave out the distress call as she was wondering who was going to be nearby to come to their aid. Fortunately Pomorie was nearby as she was listening to the distress call from the radio as someone was in trouble.
"Okay we are on our way, just stay put for the time being." Pomorie gave out the signal to the distressed Panzer 2. Pomorie soon got on the radio as she wanted to switch the command up a bit. "Istria you will be in charge the time being so lead the team to the other side. I'm going to help Blue Division's trapped Panzer 2." Istria was listening to the radio and heard the call.
"Yes, permission granted." Istria told her as Pomorie's Vickers tank soon drove from the road to where the Panzer 2 was. Fortunately it wasn't far from where the main team was heading. The tank got behind them as Pomorie opened the hatch. As she went around the back to get the chains. These were large metal chains and they were heavy. Pomorie grabbed them and began to lug them to the front. Despite being large metal chains, they were quite easy to get on and get off as she pushed the tab down and hooked them on. She went to the other side to get the other pair on and went to the spot where the distress Panzer 2 was slowly sinking in. Pomorie heard the ice crack as it was clear if she made one wrong move, she could fall in and freeze. She clipped the chains onto the back of the Panzer 2 and hurried back to a much more solid spot of the ice.
"Okay now we need to get them out as fast as possible because we don't know how heavy their tank is so we need to do this quickly." Pomorie opened the hatch to Varna as she addressed the situation. Varna shivered in the cold air but it was necessary if she was going to see. "Varna, are you ready?" Pomorie asked as she got free from the chains.
"I should be." Varna gulped as she wasn't used to having to do rescue missions like this. Pomorie nodded as there wasn't a moment to spare.
"Pull!" Pomorie shouted. Varna took the clutches and pulled them into the reverse position. She slammed her foot on the pedal as the tank slipped on the ice. Varna pulled harder as she was determined to get the Panzer 2 free from the water. The Panzer 2 buckled but it was slowly starting to move up as the tank was starting to come free from the ice. The ice where the Vickers tank was positioned, started to crack. These cracks were caused by the tank digging into the ice for traction as Pomorie realized their tank could become stuck too like the Panzer 2. She knew she needed to do something. She looked at the Panzer 2 as it was coming free from the ice inch by inch. She hurried forward as she wanted to free the tank. She gripped her hands on the tracks as she began pulling on them to try to get the tank out. The tracks were cold from the weather but Pomorie knew now wasn't a good time to complain when her teammates were in danger. Varna continued revving her tank as the Panzer 2 continued to come free from the ice. The ice under the Panzer 2 continued to crack as the tank soon found its grip and began rolling from the ice. El, Viridiana and Tristana felt themselves as they were out of the woods as Varna towed them to a thicker section of the river. Pomorie unhooked the chains as she decided to put them back. She soon hopped back into the tank as the two of them drove off. Tristana spoke to Pomorie over the radio.
"That was a brave thing you did back there Pomorie, if you hadn't come to our aid, we would have been frozen in the river, now let's get ourselves into the match." Tristana told her about it as Pomorie decided to send the message back to her.
"Yeah we would have done that for anyone as no one would want a fate like that." Pomorie told her as they were the last two to reach the other side but it was a chaotic mess that they missed out on. Knocked out T-40's. T-26's and a T-28 laid littered all over the field but they were at a loss themselves. A few CV-33's and a couple Renault Ft's were lost in the mess, they pressed onward as they soon met in the middle, a radio message from Kamchia soon got to Pomorie.
"Pomorie, you missed out in the chaos, they threw everything they had in reserve at us and we beat them off with some losses on our side." Kamchia told her. Pomorie got the radio as she had to explain the situation that just happened.
"El's Panzer 2 fell into the river from thin ice so we had to come to their rescue. Because of that we missed out on a lot." Pomorie explained. Kamchia was surprised as the two tanks linked up with the rest of the team. The group from the north had linked up and closed off the path of escape. Now it was Erika's turn to liquidate the pocket. Hippo team were watching from afar as they were amazed at what the results were.
"Looks like Yogurt secured a breach from the south and crossed over to link up with the north. Pravda's only tanks still left are all trapped in the encirclement as Erika and her friends pick them off one by one." Takako began as she was watching it from multiple screens. Riko was looking on as she noticed this too.
"Yeah Erika is ruthless like a tiger with its prey, much like her tank and her 88 millimeter shells." Riko gave her statement. Takako looked at her as she wanted to question what Riko had stated.
"Are you saying the tanks Kuromorimine uses are better than Pravda's?" Takako asked as if it was turning into an argument.
"No I'm not defending German technical superiority I'm stating the fucking obvious!" Riko was shouting her last few words at Takako. Takeko looked at them as she wanted to break up the argument.
"Would you two stop arguing, you're not even paying attention to the match for club's sake. Look!" Takeko shouted as Klara's tank was the only one still standing. Soon Erika and Solti fired two shots at the T-34/76. That tank was the last one as it spluttered and was taken out. The match was over with Kuromorimine and its allies having the upper hand. Even Klara wasn't enough to try to slow Erika's advance.
"We're on a roll! Three matches so far and three victories!" Pomorie told her crew as they received news that all the tanks went down. Even with three matches in, there will still be many more that were ahead.
Nonna and Katyusha were having words that night about the situation that the match turned into as Katyusha was less than pleased.
"This match turned out worse than anticipated, we weren't expecting Yogurt to bravely cross the frozen river like that. Even if fighting broke out, that wasn't enough to try holding them back. Even if we took out a good number of tanks, Erika is still on a roll and isn't stopping any time soon." Nonna told Katyusha how the match was. Katyusha didn't like the news about it as she looked over what options she had.
"So far, the first match was led by Nina and Alina, though they did a large number of destroyed tanks, they just crumbled very easily in the north and most of their tanks were pretty weak as it was. Brook managed to try to do something to free the encircled pocket which I did appreciate but the students overall were pretty bad and didn't achieve her goals. Klara was too cautious about sending her tanks and as a result got her entire team encircled and destroyed. 452,700 troops would be trapped and captured. So Nonna we're stripping Klara from command and now I'm putting you in charge of the next match so I hope you will turn things around." Katyusha was reading the results of how the matches went. She decided to put Nonna in charge as a result. Nonna looked at Katyusha as she was honored to take the job but she needed some help.
"I appreciate what you're trying to do Katyusha but as a result I cannot do this alone. You still have a few things you need to take care of beforehand so I am willing to take someone with me to help conduct the next match." Nonna told Katyusha about the matter. Katyusha was skeptical on who she wanted to send with Nonna for the matches but she decided to lay out her options first. She began looking at who participated in the matches so far as she looked up at Nonna.
"Nonna, the three sets of commanders that lead the matches so far. KV-Tan, while they are able to do a lot of damage, the two sophomores lack any sort of leadership experience so as a result, they're out." Katyusha began as she pushed Nina and Alina aside as she was down to just two options. "Klara, she managed to knock out three tanks today so that was impressive but she doesn't speak Japanese that well or at all even. It's this lack of communication and a language barrier which I find detrimental. So she's out." Katyusha pushed Klara aside as there was only one option left. "Nonna, in this situation I'm letting Brook work with you, hopefully you could help her as she tried to help the team with the match previous to this one."
"I understand Katyusha. I'll see what I could do with the transfer student." Nonna replied. She soon got up and began to walk away as she wanted to notify Brook about the change as Katyusha called for Nonna.
"Wait Nonna before you go, I want to change the mode for the match coming up as I feel like I have a trick up my sleeve or rather batteries for the next match. Next match will be a flag tank match instead of an annihilation match we've been doing previously." Katyusha told her. Nonna nodded as she got up and walked out from the office. She wanted to find Brook and tell her the news.
Meanwhile in Yogurt's office, Pomorie, Rila and Varna were attending with Srebarna, Popovo and Kamchia over the events of what happened today. Ami was also attending as she wanted to tell the team what was going on.
"I heard the news today you three about what happened on the river. I was observing the match from a plane and I am willing to say that you actually did a brave thing risking yourselves for Blue Division." Ami began. Pomorie was confused about this. What did Ami have for them?
"Oh thank you, is there something in for us?" Pomorie asked curiously as she was curious about what was happening. Was she in trouble? Pomorie shook her head as Ami was telling her that she risked her life for those Blue Division students.
"Yes there is, I have decided to contact a company in secret to make you a special present for you for your heroic actions today. It should be coming in a few weeks from now and I found out your favorite trinkets so this will be your favorite." Ami looked at her with a cheery voice. Pomorie noticed and smiled.
"Well I will do more for our team, and I wanted to say thank you Ami." Pomorie walked over to the instructor as she shook her hand. Ami nodded as she soon placed a ribbon with a medal on it into Pomorie's hair. The students in the room cheered as Pomorie was being told in secret that she deserved it. Pomorie stepped back as she bowed for her instructor. "May the wind blow the flakes of snow in our path." Pomorie told Ami. Ami nodded as Pomorie and her friends left for their dorm.
Pomorie settled down about a half hour later as she decided to get onto their group sight where their meetings were being held. On the screens were Augusta, Maho, Solti, Noemi, Istria, Anchovy, and El.
"Glad you could make it Pomorie." Maho began. Pomorie nodded as she was still brushing her hair out.
"Yeah I was in the office as Ami had to give me something." Pomorie told them as she showed them the ribbon. Maho was amazed.
"Is that the Savior's medal?" Maho asked as she wanted to figure out what it was, Pomorie nodded as Anchovy wasn't really familiar with medals, and was curious.
"What's a medal?" Anchovy asked Maho. Maho looked at Anchovy from the screen as she began explaining.
"A medal is a type of reward when you do something good. And in Pomorie's case, the Savior's medal is when you help out your team members in distress. I heard about this when Erika got back and I'm really happy for her. As for the Savior's medal, my little sister Miho is long overdue for hers. She saved me Koume and the rest of the crew in that Panzer 3 more than a year ago." Maho told her as she soon looked up back at the screen. "I don't know how many medals Olivia has collected over the course of being in her schools but I would say quite a few." Pomorie looked on as she soon wanted to figure out how her friend was doing.
"Also how is your friend holding out?" Pomorie asked Maho, wondering about Olivia's condition. Maho looked at her from her screen as she presented the results.
"Olivia's okay, she's certainly a little bit better than yesterday but she is still very sick. She hasn't been coughing as much and that was a big relief for us but the Anit-toxins need to arrive soon or we're going to lose her." Maho presented the results as she looked down at the student had her hands on. Olivia was very peaceful in her sleep as she was still breathing but she was tired and needed the rest. "I want to see her on the team against Pravda since that is our wish." Maho looked back up as Pomorie had hope that she would recover one day. She soon turned to El the student she had rescued earlier that day.
"So El, how are you feeling?" Pomorie asked the Blue Division student how she was holding out.
"I'm doing fine, thank you, the freezing cold water caused me to shiver the most as my boots let the water in and my socks were sponges and absorbed all the water. When we got back and my feet were placed in a warm bath, my friends found out my boots have holes in them and they were my favorite pair." El laughed as she wasn't letting that freeze her spirits up. She soon wanted to address something to Pomorie. "Well since I hadn't been able to tell you this immediately after the match, I wanted to say, thank you for what you have done earlier today, I appreciate your bravery."
"Oh thank you El, I wasn't expecting to be thanked like that." Pomorie told her. El looked at Pomorie as she continued speaking. "I hope you will have your boots patched up but if they are a total loss, I promise I will get you a new pair for the holidays as a present. "Tell me what company those boots are from and I could have an order on standby."
"You're such a sweet girl Pomorie. I wish to hold you in my squishy grasp. Only students who could be as squishy and warm as me are Maho's close friend and Kavina." El responded as she began thinking of the boots and what company they belonged to. "The boots are cream colored with fluffy insides to them, they're made by Corcoran and my foot size is 11." Pomorie was jotting it down to see what El asked specifically. Hopefully she could look up a pair for El and give it to her as a present.
"Well I better get going, we should hopefully meet on the field again tomorrow." Pomorie waved them goodbye as she was going to get an early rest for tonight. She soon logged off and decided to shut down. Shutting her lamp, she went straight to bed. Tomorrow was going to be just as exciting.
[A/N]: This match was a bit shorter than anticipated but Pomorie does get some action with the Blue Division students. Katyusha is scrambling her team for the next match and what does she mean by "Batteries in her sleeve?" Next chapter will be all about that but for now, this will be enough to pull you over.