Erika awoke to the gentle rays of sunshine tickling her cheeks. She rose from the bed and neatly pressed the sheets before stifling a yawn and walking to the balcony. Outside, all was quiet and calm on the streets below, save for the occasional early riser and jogger. The two gargantuan school ships bobbed gently in the outer harbor, their decks a hive of activity. Students were already up, waiting for the ferries to start operating to take them to the spectator stands for the battle. From her perch, the upper deck of the ships seemed to be undulating with the amount of people moving about on them.
Erika brushed her thoughts aside for the time being and made a beeline for the bathroom.
At the battle site, Darjeeling stirred her tea as she walked along the assembled St. Gloriana tanks, lined up neatly side by side, their crews tending to them. Over the past couple days, the vehicles and their crews had been put through their paces and the girls had rapidly acclimated to the battlefield, using dummy shells for active and passive shooting. For this battle, St Gloriana would be fielding nine tanks. The Super Conqueror, FV4202, Charioteer, Caernarvon, and FV4005 Stage II would be the primary weapons and to back them up Darjeeling had assigned her old Churchill Mk VII as well as three Matilda II tanks as secondaries. All were present except the FV4005. The tank was already in concealment in a classified location on the battlefield, and the crew would be ferried there riding on the back of the Charioteer when the battle started.
Rosehip had demonstrated remarkable progress over the past days, and had almost entirely gotten over her snap-decision making and extreme lust for speed. As a result, Darjeeling (to the reluctance of Assam) had promoted Rosehip to command the Charioteer, with the Matildas also under Rosehip's thumb. This was eventually deemed acceptable by Assam after being convinced that Rosehip would be able to get the 4005's crew to their tank the fastest out of all the tanks present. Ruki had been given command of the Caernarvon, with the Churchill Mk VII also under her jurisdiction.
Presently, Ami Chono came to inspect the tanks with the Colonel alongside. She looked up at the turret of the Super Conqueror as the Colonel rested a hand on the frontal hull. He let out a low whistle.
"Heard from some of the vets about these puppies during the Cold War. Conqueror, right? Though I've never seen a turret design quite like this before. Perfect for kicking some serious Soviet ass!" The Colonel roared with laughter at his mediocre joke, as Darjeeling exchanged nervous glances with Assam and Ami Chono blushed furiously.
"Ahem." Chono cleared her throat as the blood drained from her cheeks rapidly. "Are you girls ready? Battle starts in fifteen minutes, after all."
Darjeeling nodded. "Yes, Ms. Chono. We're as ready as we'll ever be." She stirred her teacup for reassurance. She turned around and nodded at Rosehip, who immediately perked up before turning on her heel and running back to the Charioteer as fast as she could.
The Kuromorimine armada was sitting idle on the start line. Hundreds of tons of German steel all in a neat and orderly line. Maus, several King Tigers, the Jagdtiger, two Ferdinands, and Maho's sole Tiger I waited patiently for the battle signal to begin.
On the other side of the point, Darjeeling and crew sat in the turret of the Super Conqueror. Down in the hull, Ruhuna delicately put slight pressure on the traverse levers, testing the resistance they exerted on her hands, satisfied that they were perfectly calibrated to suit her driving characteristics.
Rosehip sat in the commander's seat of the Charioteer, partly appreciative of the much larger amount of space the new tank offered, but also tensed up and ready for the bang of the starting gun. The moment the gun went off, she was ready to blast off at full speed ahead with the FV4005 crew hanging on for dear life on the back deck of the tank. She got on the radio to Darjeeling.
"Darjeeling-sama, how will we know when the battle starts? The area is much bigger than before?" Rosehip chirped into the headset.
"Chono and the Colonel told me that we'd know. How exactly is something that I don't know either." Came the response. Rosehip checked her phone, and saw the time change from 10:59 AM to 11 AM.
Across Pearl Harbor, the USS Missouri raised one of its aft main gun turrets to the sky for the last time, much to the amazement of the thousands of onlookers watching. Phones were raised to the sky and binoculars worn as the turret locked onto maximum elevation. A pregnant pause filled the air as the tension became thick enough to cut with a knife. Down in the firing room, a specially made 406mm blank was loaded into one of the three breeches and locked into place. A pedal was pressed.
The USS Missouri's main gun spoke for the first time since the Gulf Wars in the 1990s. A jet of sparks and flame shot from the 406mm barrel, and the huge explosion of sound rattled most of the city, shaking windows and triggering car alarms for miles around. The battle had begun.
In the Super Conqueror, the sound of the shot from the Missouri rang the turret like a gong, sending everyone's ears ringing. Dazed and confused, Darjeeling's head spun violently before she gripped a handhold inside the turret, gritted her teeth and gave the order to move out.
She stuck her head unsteadily out from the cupola and saw the Charioteer roaring off into the underbrush on one of the many dirt trails, the FV4005 crew hanging on for dear life on ropes attached to the engine deck and the turret rear, bouncing around like a sack of potatoes as Rosehip's crew blasted away.
Soon enough, Rosehip ordered her driver to stop, and the Charioteer screeched to a halt, the tracks screeching and throwing sparks on loose stones and gravel in the underbrush. Practically immediately after the tank had stopped, the 4005's crew leaped off the engine deck and began rapidly removing branches and camouflage nets from a lumpy mass several meters ahead. As Rosehip watched from the turret viewport, the lumpy indistinguishable mass was revealed to be the waiting form of the FV4005, its fresh green paint blending in well with the leafy undergrowth of the Hawaiian jungle.
Rosehip keyed her headset. "Darjeeling, Sledgehammer is up and running."
The FV4005's engine burbled into life, and with a clattering of tracks, began to move further towards the inexorably-advancing Kuromorimine armada.