We now return to our regularly scheduled tank battle
Michael B. Cooper always liked old spaghetti westerns. It was a little bit of a dirty secret, but every single halloween he had dressed up as The Man With No Name when he was a kid. He even had a Clint Eastwood poster on his wall. He'd never let that slip to the Rabbits though; They'd demand he sat down with them and watched the whole list of his works in one go.
There never was snow in those standoffs, though.
Otherwise, he felt pretty badass, standing there with his team, lined up as the wind whipped their hair back and their opponents approached. Hector walked calmly, clad in Pravda's treacherous (Though, admittedly, much warmer looking) uniform, a black Ushanka on his head. On his shoulders sat a small blonde girl in tankers coveralls and an old soviet tankers hat. Flanking him were two beautiful, busty women, one dark haired and the other fair, their expressions as cold as the wind.
All in all, he half expected the posse to draw on them after coming to a stop.
Still, if six shooters weren't on the table, the look Anzu was giving the American turned Russian agent could kill him all alone. The Rabbits looked equal parts relieved and furious, Joshua and Miho's faces were unreadable. Sam looked like Anzu did, and Rachel was more emulating the Rabbits.
As the Russians approached, the short girl patted Hector's head and nudged him to the dark haired girl. Hector lifted her above his head, plopping her down on the shoulders of the dark haired woman, and stood to the side.
The blonde girl spoke first, smugness oozing from her every word.
"Well, what have we here? Are you supposed to be my opponents? Hahaha! Katyusha appreciates your gesture of bringing these tanks to make her laugh! I do hope you do not intend to fight with them!"
Joshua grit his teeth as Miho and Anzu approached the girls
"Katyusha! It's been a while. How are you?"
Katyusha glared at Oorais president, turning her nose up at her
"Hmph! We have been well, but busy. Being champions is not as easy as people think, you know! Oh, but Katyusha has you to thank for that, isn't it so, Pirozhki?" The girl said, grinning at Miho as she spoke
Miho, to her credit, hardly flinched at the jab
"I just want us to have a fun match today, and for everyone to be safe."
"Yes. It will be fun... For Pravda! But you musnt take Katyushas word for it; Ask Hector! After all, he seems to understand a winning team when he sees one. The only intelligent one out of all of you, it seems!"
Joshua's fist tightned at the remark, Hector's face a mask of passiveness. Michael tuned out the rest of the conversation, focusing on his long time frenemy and loader. The man looked well, and he had to admit the hat was quite fetching on him. But would Oorai accept him back into their ranks? Michael didn't really know, but he was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
You see, most people thought Hector was dumb. Michael himself made joking remarks about it quite often. But during their prank wars, it quickly became apparent that Hector wasn't dumb, just... slow on the uptake. But once he got his thoughts together, and analysed the situation... The man was clever. The Ramen incident was just one testament to that fact, and he rarely did things without some sort of reason, as simple as it may be. And for Hector to be acting so stoic? Oh yeah, he had a plan. But what was it?
The driver was brought out of his thoughts by the shuffling of feet, as the loader returned to his former comrades and the Russian girls began trekking back to their own lines.
"Hey fellas-"
"Save it, you lying, turncoat hick! I don't wanna hear a single word out of your damned mouth! You're just lucky that we need a loader in the tank, if I had my way and Anzu had hers you'd be sidelined for this entire tournament! You have Miho to thank for saving your skin, but don't think you can just walk up in here and be all buddy-buddy with us!"
Having said her piece, Sam turned and stomped away, Rachel following after her. Joshua approached his friend
"Hector... you'd better have a damn good story for this. And I mean a damned good one."
Hector just gazed at his Commander with a level stare
"Josh. Do you trust me?"
"I dunno anymore Hector, we've been through alot together but goddamn man, you just up and turned tail at the first sight of those girls. How can you expect me to trust you? I've half a mind to load the damned shells myself!"
"Joshua. I know what it looks like. But I need you to trust me. One more time, you won't regret it. Please?"
Joshua opened his mouth to reply, but it was Miho's voice that sounded.
"Okay..."
The still gathered team whirled around at her, her face resembling her sisters; The hell was she thinking?? But the Nishizumi looked sure of herself, and if Miho believed him, well... that spoke for something.
"... But if you're lying to us again, Hector, I swear to everything and everyone you hold dear you will wish Pravda had kept you."
The ice in the girls tone was frightening, and Hector only gulped and nodded before she turned away, kissing Joshua on the cheek and returning to her tank.
"Alright" The commander spoke, "Let's load up. Mike, start the tank, get her warmed up."
Michael nodded, turning twords the tank and walking in it's direction
"Turret traverse, check"
"Radio check"
"Drive system, brakes and throttle check"
"Gun sights check!"
Joshua nodded at his crew; They'd done this before. They were professional. This was just another match.
Miho came over the radio
"All tanks, prepare to move forward! Remember, keep your spacing together and use eachothers guns to cover your advance! We won't win this match if we're not a team!"
Affirmative replies sounded over the net, before the sound of an anti aircraft gun signaled the match start
"All tanks, PANZER VOR!"
This day had not gone exactly to Miho's expectations.
Sure, she had expected Pravda to be a tough school to beat; They were, after all, last year's champions. But the sight of one of her teammates seemingly the ing traitor had shaken her; She didn't show it, but Joshua would be pulling extra cuddle duty tonight to help her get to sleep, win or lose.
What had shocked her was the adaptive nature Katyusha had shown; When Miho refused to take the bait of the flag tank in the town, the petite Russian had set up several ambush points instead, and was slowly whittling down her forces. Already Rabbit team was reporting their 37mm gun disabled, and Mallard's front armor was pockmarked with ricochets. Still, they'd given better than they got, with two T-34s to add to Oorais kill counter. But Katyusha had tanks to spare, and it was only a matter of time before Oorais firepower started to die out as tanks were taken out
Her saving grace, as usual, was her boyfriend in his monster of a heavy tank. The report of its 90mm high velocity gun rang out, with the shell striking true on an approaching T-34-85 that was attempting to start an advance. The other tanks were deterred, backing off into the forest and taking potshots as they retreated, round after round shattering on Joshua's turret face.
"Miho, we're holding our own but it's only a matter of time before they manage to take out a track and immobilize us! If that IS-2 gets any closer, that gunner is gonna out a round through our weak spot!"
The aforementioned Russian heavy tank had been harassing the team since this engagement in the forest began, firing from long range and gradually advancing. It's armor was relatively weak compared to it's gun, but it's 122mm cannon was by far the deadliest on the battlefield, save for perhaps Joshua's own. They hadnt seen it yet, but it was the only tank Pravda had armed with such a gun, and it's report was unmistakable.
"Alright, I'm going to start having the team withdraw! We need to get to a better position in the hills! There's a large open plain we can use to see them as they approach!"
"Copy that, we'll hold the line here and follow you back!"
"Hippo will assist! This will be like our Alamo!" Erwin shouted
"No, more like Thermopylae"
"THATS IT!"
Miho shook her head; The history team was certainly something else. She gave her team their orders, and they all moved out to comply, guns firing until they were out of sight
Joshua looked at the gathered tanks and tankers; They were situated in a good position, with cover and defilade overlooking an expanse of white snow and with thick woods to the rear. Even Katyusha wouldn't be so bold as to simply attack outright unless she had a plan; Not a single tank she had could withstand the gun the Americans brought, and most were vulnerable to the Panzer and StuG as well. For now, at least, they were safe.
Still, it wouldn't last, so Joshua had his crew keep an eye out for when Katyusha gathered her forces. Meanwhile, Joshua dismounted, climbing up the side of the Panzer and approaching Miho
"How you doing Baby?"
"... told you not to call me that..." she answered absentmindedly, her attention focused on a map spread out on the turret
"That's why I do it. Look, Miho, we're sitting ducks here. We can't just stay here and hope to pick those tanks off... sooner or later they're going to overwhelm us."
Miho nodded, chewing on her thumb
"I know... But while we're here, you can take out anything they have, so they'll think twice before attacking us. Still... they've already got tanks lined up in the trees. Look"
Miho handed her boyfriend a pair of binoculars, and Joshua gazed out across the field where she pointed. Sure enough, he could barely make out several T-34s moving around, and could have sworn he saw the shape of the KV-2's turret for a brief moment.
Lowering the binoculars, he turned to Miho
"Yeah... they're gonna attack. And soon. So what are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking... that if Katyusha has her forces massed here... she doesn't have anything covering the flag tank. We already know the IS-2 is here, nothing else has that gun... So the flag tank has to be alone, or with another T-34 at the most. She'll need every tank she can get to assault this position."
Joshua nodded, "So, send out the Ducks? Miho, that's our flag tank..."
Miho nodded, "I know, but they're the only ones fast enough to find the flag tank in time. Well send them out with Hippo team. We could use their gun, it's true, but... They'll need all the firepower they can get. Find them. Root them out. Yukari and Erwin just came back from a scouting mission on foot, and they confirmed that the flag tank isn't in that group that's massing ahead."
Joshua nodded, adding sadly "It won't be enough you know. They have over twice our numbers attacking alone. Miho... we may actually lose this one."
Miho sighed, "I know... I know. The fact is that if their flag tank has even one more tank guarding it, they can take out Hippo team and then Duck will have to duel two-on-one. But we don't really have a choice here Josh. How do you say it in America... It's a hailed and married play."
"Eh... close enough. Well then, Mi Capitán. Let's get it done."
Briefings were never fun. Sure, some could be entertaining, even informative, but never fun.
This one was made all the worse by Anzu breaking out in tears as she revealed to the entire team that the school would be shut down if they lost this tournament. It had all started with Miho telling the team that even if they lost, they still did great, and this plan was the last one they really had. To say the stakes had been raised was... putting it mildly.
Erwin was even in some shock; If the school shut down, where would her friends go!? Her history club, her debates with her crewmates... All of it, gone.
She was nervous as she approached the tank, the teams spirits lowered immensely. Arguing had taken place, blame shifted, and now everyone was sour and filled with fear. Even Anzu was sulking in her tank, refusing to come out. Now the recruitment of the Americans made sense.. It was a last ditch effort to try and save the school.
Squaring her hat on her head, she put on a brave face; It's what Rommel would have done; and ordered her crew forwards, rumbling after the Duck team's Puma as they looped around the rear, out of sight of the massing Pravda tanks behind the cover of the trees
"Kodiak, Anglerfish, get ready. I'm seeing alot of exhaust smoke, Pravda is starting their engines"
"Roger that Anglerfish. Gunner, distance to tree line is five hundred fifty meters. I'll designate targets. Loader, AP up"
Ker-clunk
"UP!"
Joshua waited with bated breath, eyes glued to the periscope
A flash caught his attention, followed by several more before their impacts began sounding all around the tanks
"Gunner, fire at will! Loader, rapid fire!"
The 90mm gun belched fire and smoke, rocking the turret back as the round sailed through the air, zipping just above the trees. Several more rounds impacted the rocks, before every sound was deadened by a thundering crash as the KV-2 made its presence felt
"Anglerfish, this is Mallard! Th-that explosion destroyed our tracks and jammed our turret! We're done for!"
Joshua cursed; That KV-2 was going to be a problem they couldn't fix if they didn't find and destroy it soon.
"Gunner, watch for that KV-2! Priority target, wait until you see it outlined in the trees!"
Ten tense seconds passed with a few ricochets pinging off the hull, before another thundering boon echoed through the forest.
"There, Rachel target there! Zero-one-nine!" Joshua shouted, as Rachel brought the turret to bear
Moments later, Joshua and his crew were sprawled across their tanks fighting compartment. Joshua struggled back to his seat, opening the hatch to inspect the damage.
Looking down, he winced; Always the tracks with these fights! Luckily his tank was in a good position
"Josh! I have the KV-2 in sight!"
"Fire, gunner fire now!"
"ON THE WAY!"
As the T32 rocked back, Joshua watched the Soviet heavy tank shudder from the impact, smoke belching out from it's engine deck and it's flag emerging
"Good kill!"
CLANG
Before they could celebrate, Azusa came over the radio
"Miss Nishizumi! We've been taken out! It shook the whole tank!"
"Joshua, that's gotta be the IS-2! Find it, our gun won't be able to penetrate it!
Joshua began scanning the tree line, before the sight of a behemoth heavy tank grabbed his attention through the gun smoke and snow
"Gunner, priority target, five hundred meters front, emerging from the forest!"
"On the way!"
Joshua watched with a smirk as the tracer flew true, striking the outline of the heavy tank in the center hull-
-Only to watch in horror as the bright tracer ricocheted off into the distance
"Rachel, hit it again!"
As Hector struggled to load the gun, the behemoth stopped and answered the American gun with its own, causing the Americans ears to scream in protest
"Goddamnit! Rachel, aquire that target and fire!"
Without a response (or if she shouted it, Joshua couldn't hear it) she fired the gun as soon as it was ready, but the round bounced again, deflected to the side
It was then that Joshua studied his opponent more closely, and was horrified by what he saw
The piked nose of the tank was like a dagger pointed at him, the squat, round turret appearing almost impenetrable. Desperately, he grabbed the radio
"MIHO! ITS NOT AN IS-2, ITS A FUCKING 3! THEYVE GOT AN IS-3!"
Armed with the same gun, but much thicker and more sloped armor, the Isof Stalin 3 was one of the deadliest heavy tanks developed during the war. Indeed, it could go toe to toe with the American T32, and given Joshua's weakpoint in his hull by the machine gun port, could very well come out on top. Not a single other gun in Oorais possession would even come close to scratching it
"Th-they got an IS-3?! Joshua, you have to disable it! Hit it's tracks, find a weakpoint- if it gets across that field every T-34 is going to-"
BANGMiho's voice was cut off by the terrible sound of the Soviet 122 millimeter shell impacting the American tank on its hull, destroying the frontal machine gunners port. The dreaded sound of Joshua's white flag deploying was heard, and his entire crew sunk down into their seats
"Miho... they got us..."
Klara smiled at her latest shot; Hitting the tiny American gun port was certainly no easy feat! At her signal, the rest of the Pravda tanks began advancing in kind, charging across the snowy fields like a great wave. Klara had to admit, the gunnery of Oorai was commendable; The Panzer IV disabled three more tanks before it too was disabled by Katyusha herself. The 38(t) tried to fight them off, but it's gun was only good for scratching the surface of even the lightest of Pravda's armor.
The M3 Lee did surprisingly well as well; While it's 37mm gun could not penetrate any armor, it did manage to mangle the barrel of an approaching tank, and finish it off with its 75mm gun before Klara put it too down. Soon, the battlefield was silenced, with no other tank
"Miss Katyusha, all tanks have been destroyed in this sector. We have only to find and destroy their flag tank and the assault gun."
"Good! Klara, group together with us! I see the tracks that those cowards left in the snow, we shall hunt them down like dogs!"
Klara's driver complied, forming up again as the Pravda armor thundered off, their battle song carrying over the cold Russian wind
Erwin was absolutely and utterly devastated. How could they even hope to win now??? Anglerfish, Kodiak, Rabbit, Turtle, Mallard... all gone. It was only her and Duck team left, desperately carving a path through the snow to try and find Pravda's flag tank. They were getting close, Erwin could feel it, but it was all or nothing now.
As if on cue, Shinobu's voice came to her
"Erwin, ive spotted something! It's Pravda's flag tank, but it's guarded by their IS-2! It's in the village!"
The blondes heart dropped; 'Blizzard' Nonna was commanding that tank. There was no way the two Oorai teams would be able to destroy them. Still...
"We have to try! Shinobu, you have to charge across the field! It's our only hope, we need you to dodge the gunfire from the T-34 and close the range! I'll try and distract the IS-2 from the other side, you go right, I'll go left!"
It was a useless plan, they all knew. As soon as Nonna had a shot on the Oorai flag tank, she'd destroy it. But still, it would be better to go down fighting
"R-roger that... Erwin... It's been fun."
Fighting back tears, the history buff replied
"Yeah... yeah it has been. Now, panzer vor!"
Like screaming demons, the German engines roared to life, launching the StuG and Puma forwards twords the village. As they emerged from the trees, they made it halfway across the 200 yards of open field before Nonna's IS-2 fixed it's gun on the flag tank, and the T-34 sighted in the StuG
"Driver, halt! Gunner, target-"
BANGAnd just like that, the T-34 destroyed the StuG, leaving Duck team absolutely alone, and at the mercy of Nonna's cannon. Watching through her periscope, Erwin winced as the 122mm gun settled on its target...
... And waited...
... Any second now...
Erwin raised her eyebrows; What was Nonna doing?
Suddenly, the IS-2 began advancing, desperately trying to catch-and it seemed, ram- the much faster Puma. Thirty seconds later, the T-34 flag tank began desperately manuvering as well, trying to bring it's frontal armor to bear on the charging armored car
"Erwin, what's going on?? Why isnt the IS shooting?"
Erwin just shrugged, her hope building slowly as the Puma closed the distance, juking the heavy tank and screaming twords the medium.
"GUUUUUUTS!!!!"In a display of pure miraculous luck, the Puma drifted around the T-34 as it fired in a desperate attempt to hit it, striking nothing but snow as the car came up beside the tank, it's turret pointed at the metaphorical throat.
A single 50mm gunshot echoed over the snowy fields, and the match was won
Joshua couldn't help but glare at Hector as they sat in their disabled tank. Had they known about the IS-3, they could have planned a bit better. Now all they could do was listen to the announcements as the referees called out that Hippo had been destroyed, and wait until Duck team joined them.
"Trust you, huh hector?" Sam said with a sneer.
To his credit, the American loader only nodded, staring intently forward.
"Sure worked out great for us, now this entire fucking school is going to shut down! Our scholarships, or friends, my GIRLFRIEND! What about us, Hector!?"
"Sammy! P-please, I know you're mad, but let's not fight right now!"
"And why not!? This fucker cost us EVERYTHING Rachel! EVERYTHING we have is lost because of this big, stupid, traitorous-"
"Pravda flag tank disabled. Oorai Girls Academy wins!"
Hector Perkins wasn't a genius. In fact, most considered him quite slow. A gentle giant, not thinking much beyond the here and now. He wasn't a strategist; nor was he a trickster. He didn't know how to build a roster or calculate shell drop on the fly or drive a heavy tank like a gentle prius.
But there was one thing Hector Perkins did know. And that was tanks and their ammunition. He was intimately familiar with that.
The D-25T was a Soviet tank gun firing shells of one hundred and twenty-two millimeters by seven hundred and eighty-five millimeters. It utilized an interrupted screw breech and a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism. It utilized two-piece ammunition, loading the projectile first, and a large brass casing containing the propellent second. The propellent was ignited by use of a primer that, when struck, caused the powder to burn. At least, that's how the modern Sensha-Dō rounds worked, with electric sensors in both the round and the gun to prevent catastrophic failures.
The issue, of course, was that the more systems you introduced, the more things could go wrong. Take, for instance, the safety sensor in the gun. If it failed to register, the gun would refuse to fire as a safety precaution. That is why it was so important to do maintenance on the sensor probe cover; if it were to, say, become blocked by something-Soot, dirt, carbon build up... anything, really... It would fail to fire. A complete dissasembly would be required to find the source of the problem, and even then it was almost impossible to determine what was blocking the tiny sensor head, only that something was blocking it. Such things normally would be the result of a team firing many rounds without proper cleaning of the guns or simple bad luck- but could, in theory, be acheived in about ten minutes by a man who knew what he was doing and had access for a short ammount of time to a tank that was unguarded.
So to see the looks of shock on his crewmates faces was truly a treat. Especially his radiowoman.
"What the- how the fu- wah!?"
Keeping a straight face, Hector dug out a tiny bottle of super glue from his pocket, and tossed it to Joshua, who took it in bewilderment
"Told you to trust me."
His Commander smirked at him, "Hector Perkins... you sly fucking devil! That's cheating!"
Hector shrugged, "Well, so's kidnapping."
Michael spoke up from the front, as Rachel took the glue bottle and inspected it
"A-and you couldn't have told us about the fucking tank or your plan before!?"
The loader shrugged
"Wouldn't have been as dramatic."
Cheating? Probably, yes. A cop-out? Maybe. But in my defense, I'd been setting this up since the last chapter. Besides, If Pravda is gonna kidnap an enemy agent and let him run around... well, that seems like a bit of oversight on their part.
This is by far the longest chapter I've written, I think. I wanted to split it up, but I really can't find a good place to cut it in half.
Well, I hope I did the battle justice. We need to move on to the prep for our finals match next, and the post match interaction. I wonder if any spectators are going to want to have words with our Oorai students...
