The remaining tanks raced northward as they were trying their best to evade Pravda's pursuit, Solti and her school would be able to tie Pravda down for a little while longer. Pomorie was still confused but she felt nervous about the events that were unfolding before her.
"So what's the new plan Maho?" Pomorie asked as she was still uncertain about their next plan for what was going to happen.
"Well we should be able to retreat to the coast as there is a good amount of forest there, hopefully the soil is dry enough so we can cobble together another line of defense." Maho responded as the tanks continued to race. Fortunately for them, Katyusha was not pursuing them.
"Well with the team at reduced strength, we definitely need to defend every inch of ground we still hold otherwise the match will be lost." Olivia stated as the tanks pulled back into the nearby forest. Maho began to split the students up accordingly as they prepared the next defensive line.
"Okay Olivia, you will be in charge of what remains of Gregor, Yogurt and Blue Division, I will have Count and the rest of Kuromorimine with me, plan your defenses accordingly." Maho told Olivia about what her orders will be. She nodded as she understood.
"Okay Gregor, Yogurt Blue Division, you're with me." Olivia gave the orders. The tanks decided to go with her as the remainder of the group went with Maho. They didn't know how long Solti would hold Pravda up or how many she would take with her.
The tanks stopped on a field of pine forests as Olivia got out of the Tiger 1 and began to feel the ground around her.
"Yep this earth's packed down hard, perfect for our heavy tanks." Olivia told them as she continued to patrol around. After a couple minutes of inspecting, she went over to her Tiger 1 as she grabbed a shovel and turned back to the students. "Okay everyone, dig your tanks, we don't know when Pravda will come but we suspect they will come within the hour." Olivia gave the order to begin digging in. She began digging on the black earth as she wanted to be prepared. The students grabbed their shovels and began digging in. Pomorie looked around as she spotted El as her Panzer 2 crew were digging in as well.
"Hey Pomorie." El greeted her as she waved.
"El I wasn't suspecting you." Pomorie smiled as she waved back.
"So how are things as of lately?" El asked as she wanted to figure out what Pomorie and her friends were up to.
"Nothing much but things are escalating as of lately, I am certainly nervous about this." Pomorie admitted her anxiety about how precarious that Srebarna had placed the school on. El looked at Pomorie as she began to speak.
"It's fine to get nervous about it. If you feel insecure, just talk to me and I'm sure I can try to fix your problems, but you only have a fifty fifty shot of it working so I wish you luck." El nodded as she told Pomorie that she was there for her. Pomorie nodded, feeling a little more secure about herself as she continued to dig. Olivia was keeping an eye on the forest to make sure Pravda wasn't going to jump out and take them by surprise. She continued to dig. The minutes ticked by as Koume decided to speak on the radio to Olivia about Magyar Girls Academy.
"Olivia, I just got word from Solti, their last tank had been eliminated, Pravda is on its way." Koume told Olivia the news. She wanted to find out more about the situation.
"How many tanks did they manage to take out?" Olivia asked as she wanted to know if Solti was able to put up any form of resistance.
"Only five." Koume responded as this situation was slowly growing more and more grim.
"Thank you." Olivia huffed as she knew that they needed to definitely prepare for Pravda when they came rolling in.
Nonna was racing on ahead with Katyusha as they were heading straight for the coast. Their plan was to cut what remained of the enemy team into smaller pieces. Katyusha's T-34 was racing on ahead as the other students in small groups with six groups all together, were racing through the woods. Fortunately for Katyusha, the path she was traveling on was clear, not one enemy tank was in this area and to Katyusha, that meant some relief. Within mere moments, she spotted the ocean.
"Nonna, ocean ahead." Katyusha told Nonna about this as she had established a narrow corridor to the sea.
"Good job Katyusha, the other schools are getting in position, some of them would like to take a pause before planning the final push." Nonna told Katyusha that she was pursuing her objectives. She began to think as she wondered if giving the students a moment to rest and gather their strength would be necessary.
"Okay give them ten minutes to rest. After that, we're going on the offensive." Katyusha told them as she wanted to make a generous choice. Watching her however was Maho who was with Koume and Noemi as they went ahead on a scouting mission. Several T-34/85's were spotted along with an IS-2. Maho drew one conclusion about this as she was worried about it all together.
"Olivia and the group are going to get cut off, we need to head back to our tanks to tell her to move as well as widen the bridge for her to cross." Maho told them as that was the conclusion she could draw.
"Yes, we need to be on the alert. Let's notify her to begin the movement out of the area." Noemi suggested to get Olivia out of there while they covered for her.
"Okay good idea." Koume told Noemi as they rushed back for their tanks. Once Maho got in her Tiger 1, she began to call her apprentice.
"Hey Olivia, new plans, Katyusha spearheaded her way to the coast and has cut the group in half, I suggest pulling you out while we cover you so we can continue the retreat." Maho told her as Olivia was listening.
"Yeah I hear you." Olivia responded as she stopped digging. She turned to her teammates as she had something to say. "All right guys, I got word from Maho as she's ordering us to move out. This position is too dangerous and she said that we've been cut off." Olivia began. All the students grumbled as it meant that all of this digging was for nothing.
"Where has Maho decided to set us up?" Pomorie asked as she wanted to find out where Maho was going to take them.
"Her side of course, now pack your stuff up, we're moving out in five minutes." Olivia told Pomorie to get ready to move, she was only going to give them a few to prepare, all the students decided to pack their things as they were going to get out of their positions. Pomorie decided to notify Kamchia.
Kamchia was out scouting for Pravda in case they were to come rolling through the woods. She would bring this news back to Pomorie but Pomorie was the one to let her know first. Kamchia's phone began to ring as she picked it up to figure out who it was that was calling her.
"Hello?" Kamchia asked.
"Kamchia we got orders from Maho that she wants us to pull out, our position is too dangerous." Pomorie told Kamchia about this as Kamchia was listening.
"Okay I'm on my way back. We got reports of Nina's group moving in on us." Kamchia told Pomorie about the fact that Nina was on the move. Pomorie nodded as she listened.
"Okay we're on our way there." Pomorie hung up as Olivia was looking at her clock. The minutes were ticking down aws she wanted to make sure they were all ready. Kamchia's Panzer 35 came roaring out from the brush as Olivia looked up to the group.
"Okay we are moving out, we need to meet Maho a couple miles down the road." Olivia told them as the tanks turned and began heading down to where the bridgehead Pravda had established was. Nina was watching as she knew that she missed the chance for an ambush.
"They're getting away, pulling out from their position. We must chase them down." Nina gave the order to continue the pursuit. The ISU-152's rolled forward as they were going to chase them.
Maho had rolled her tanks up to the breach-head that Pravda had caused as they were going to widen a hole for Olivia and her group to move through.
"Okay you all ready?" Maho asked as she was commanding her Tiger 1.
"Ready." Koume responded as she was commanding her Panther.
"Yeah, let's do this, Control A, mess them up." Noemi told Maho.
"Good. Fire." Maho gave the order. The remaining Tigers and Panthers opened fire as their shots landed around the T-34/85's, two Panther shots takes out one of the T-34's. Katyusha looked on as she had two options, retreat into the woods or hold her ground.
"Nonna, what do we do if we are going to defeat Kuromorimine?" Katyusha asked as she wanted to figure out her choice as she didn't want to give up her ground.
"I say we retreat into the forest as I have a good idea." Nonna told Katyusha as she knew of a good idea that would truly mark Kuromorimine's defeat for this match. Olivia however managed to lead the group to where Maho was, only thing separating them was a small narrow valley that Katyusha and her tanks were situated in. Maho looked at her apprentice who was on the other side as she began to speak to her.
"Olivia, pull yourself across." Maho told her as she motioned her with her hand. Olivia knew this was crazy as Pravda was down there and Katyusha would surely take her out.
"You must be crazy but I am willing to do it." Olivia gulped as it was risky but if she managed to succeed, she could make it to her mentor. Olivia was willing to risk it.
"Okay we'll cover you." Maho called out as she continued to fire on the T-34's. Olivia fired back as she was trying to cover them. Kamchia spoke over the radio about her plan that she had.
"I'll go first." Kamchia told them as her -35 tank went first. Pomorie and El followed up next as Olivia continued to fire down into the hole. Two more T-34's go down as the tanks one by one hurried across without having Pravda notice them. Nonna at this point had enough of getting shot at and decided to take matters in her own hands.
" Katyusha we are falling back, no buts." Nonna sternly told Katyusha about this. Katyusha sighed as the tanks began falling back from the area and deeper into the forest. Maho was surprised that her plan had worked.
"It worked, Olivia now hurry yourself across before more Pravda tanks show up." Maho gave Olivia the call. The Tiger 1 roared into life as it began to cross the valley with the other tanks. They were grateful on getting away in time.
Nina meanwhile found the spot that Olivia's group was previously in as she was radioing Katyusha the news of her findings.
"Katyusha, we found the spot that the supposed tanks were but they must've driven away into the forest, we found their spot where they began digging in due to the creation of the holes." Nina gave her insight as Katyusha nodded.
"Okay continue your pursuit. I will commit my resources to another plan." Katyusha told Nina about this as the match will still continue but Katyusha needed to change her game up if she was going to succeed. Katyusha turned to Nonna as they had retreated deep into the forest, fortunately for them, Maho had ordered no chase down.
"Maho seems to be on to something, you know what it is?" Katyusha asked Nonna if she had any ideas.
"Not that I am aware of, but I do have an idea that will trap Kuromorimine near the sea." Nonna began to speak to Katyusha. "It will be our plan to push her in and have her destroyed, while we didn't have the strength to pull it off here but this will at least contain them. Brook's group isn't too far off as all we just need her to do is block the only road through the woods and we'll close in on three sides and wipe Maho out." Nonna explained to Katyusha as she pointed her pen to where the only road out of this area that was still free and suspected where Maho would escape. Katyusha nodded as Nonna pointed to the road which they could block off using Brook's group.
"Yeah that can actually work, we need to let her know about the second objective if we are going to truly win." Katyusha nodded with excitement. She grabbed the radio as she decided to let Brook know about this. "Taylor-san this is Katyusha, I have another job for you." Katyusha began. Brook was off in another area of the match doing her own thing and waiting for orders.
"What is it Katyusha?" Brook asked as she wanted to figure out what she wanted from her.
"Okay Brook I have another assignment for you. This will be special so listen, Kuromorimine has one good road to get out of, I want you to block it, Maho and the others will not escape if you block it. I recommend you do it." Katyusha outlined the plan on what to exactly do if they were going to break out to escape.
"Got it." Brook replied.
"Excellent, move out in a few." Katyusha gave her the order.
Brook's tank group was rolling forward as the small bridgehead to the sea hadn't worked, Katyusha was willing to switch her plans to trap her and then use attrition to grind them down. The SU-100's hid in a bunch of bushes while Brook decided to take a risky business by placing her T-34/85 directly out on the road as she wanted a clear shot as well as acting as a road block so that the tanks couldn't get around her. The terrain was also very narrow with dense forests flanking both sides.
"Okay Katyusha, my group is in position." Brook told Katyusha that she was ready to defend the area from any and all threats.
"I got word from Nina that she managed to take something before she was stopped. We're going to move in." Katyusha called out as she was ready to finish Kuromorimine off. "Stay in your position in case any of them use their speed to get out of there."
"Got it." Brook responded. Katyusha nodded as the tanks were now moving in onto the pocket.
The earth Maho was forced to retreat onto was soggy and wet. None of the students were enjoying this as this meant digging in would be difficult, not like time was on their side.
"This Tiger keeps sinking in the mud faster than you can dig it out Olivia, I'm surprised of your stamina but it's hopeless." Maho told Olivia that her attempt to free her was futile. Olivia huffed as she walked back to her tank. Her boots were filthy from the digging in the mud she was doing. Maho looked on ahead as she heard a distinct rumbling, it wasn't good for them. "Pravda's here." Maho called out for the students to get themselves ready.
The T-34's went around as they were the first to join the action, they began firing at the tanks that were bogged down in the mud. The IS-2 fired next as the shot tore down one of the Vicker's tanks. Pomorie knew Srebarna wasn't to blame but this meant that Pravda was getting closer. Olivia and Maho decided to take the next shot with all of this as they wanted to figure out where the T-34's would be the weakest.
"Now!" Olivia shouted. The Tiger 1 pair fired at two T-34's as they were getting dangerously close to them. Both shots demolished the tanks as that was two more down but with Erika's part of Kuromorimine getting wiped out, they had few tanks to counter Pravda properly. Olivia's tank fired again as the shot missed the IS-2. Nonna simply ignored her as she focused on Maho's tank. Pomorie fired her vickers at the IS-2 to draw Nonna's attention away from Maho. The IS-2 turned its turret as it was now focused on Pomorie and her tank. Kamchia's LT. VZ 35 fired next as the shot struck one of the locomotion parts to the tank. Now the tank wasn't able to turn quickly.
"Get them." Nonna called out. She fired as the gun shredded the Vickers tank as it was like nothing. Pomorie's tank had taken a shot from Nonna head on and was now out of the match. Kamchia looked on ahead as she began giving more orders.
"Target the tracks!" Kamchia shouted. The LT. VZ 35 fired as the shot took out the tracks of the IS-2. It was still nothing to Nonna as all the tank needed to do was rotate the turret and line itself with Kamchia and fire. Another tank had been taken out. Maho fired a shot at the IS-2 as the shot knocked the turret out, now that the turret was stuck, it was unable to rotate. Maho and Olivia prepared another shot but several massive explosions happened as five more tanks got taken out. Maho looked around as she spotted the ISU-152's have joined in. Nina had come to save Nonna.
"You think you could get away? Huh?" Nina asked as she was smug about this. The ISU-152's gun lined up with Maho's tank and it fired away, the shot landed on the side as the mighty Tiger was out. Pravda was very clearly the winner. Nonna popped her head out as she spotted Nina.
"You managed to race over here to save us Nina, I thought for a second me and Katyusha were going to get ripped apart piece by piece." Nonna told Nina as she was relieved to see her.
"Yeah the mud in this area was a bit of a problem but we managed to pull through." Nina responded as she gave a wink to Nonna.
"I guess we can continue moving westward but we're just going to keep getting ourselves bogged down." Katyusha gave the order that she was going to get going but they were going to go slow. Nonna spoke next.
"Oh yeah Katyusha, Jajka wanted to hold a meeting with you later today so I wanted to tell you that." Nonna reminded Katyusha about what was going to happen.
"Oh yeah I almost forgot, to the meeting we go Nonna. We must not make haste!" Katyusha shouted as she wanted to get to the meeting. Nonna grabbed Katyusha and placed her on her shoulders and began to walk away, they were going to speak to Jajka about some important matters.
Jajka, Maiko, Uszka, Nonna and Katyusha were present at this meeting as they wanted to get some things out of the way. Jajka looked at Katyusha sternly wondering what this girl was going to say.
"So we're moving farther and farther west, we might be able to reach you within a few days walking distance." Nonna began as she was explaining their latest victory. Maiko clapped as she was happy to hear about this.
"So you might as well avenge us from when this year started and free us from Kuromorimine's grasp?" Maiko asked if they were truly going to be freed. Katyusha began to speak next.
"Yeah about that…" Katyusha paused as she began scratching the back of her head. Nonna looked at Katyusha as she was confused about what she was going to say. Nonna had to fill in for Katyusha.
"What Katyusha was trying to say was we had a deal with Kuromorimine that we get some of the treasures that came from defeating you even if we did nothing as it was part of the summer alliance as of last year. That alliance at this point had been dissolved and we are now fighting Kuromorimine. Once we defeat Kuromorimine however, we aren't going to reincorporate your treasures back to you." Nonna explained to the three girls about what Katyusha wanted to say. This made Jajka very angry.
"So you want to take our hard worked money and keep it for yourselves even if you did basically nothing to get it in the first place? Chibi is much lazier than we thought." Jajka called out to Katyusha as she didn't like getting stuff from just sitting around.
"Well if you weren't so pompous about Darjeeling, Eclair and Marie helping you out then maybe you will have held Kuromorimine off longer than you anticipated. You and your hard working attitude got you wiped out." Katyusha looked at Jajka as she wanted to tell her off.
"Chibi potato." Jajka called back. Nonna, Maiko and Uszka were watching the two of them bicker back and forth as they needed some way to stem this before it turned into a fight.
"Stop arguing you two, we'll never get anything done." Uszka called out as they needed to work on a compromise or this meeting would be all for nothing.
"We will if Jajka stops being such a snot worm about this." Katyusha told Uszka that they would stop if one of them decided to admit defeat. Jajka threw her fist at Katyusha punching her as Katyusha punched back. Nonna ran over to restrain Katyusha while Uszka and Maiko went to restrain Jajka.
"That is enough you two, if we want to get anything done, you will be excluded from this meeting Katyusha and Jajka." Nonna sternly told them as both students were dragged out of the room and placed into separate chamber-like rooms to keep them contained and to prevent them from fighting. Once that was out of the way, Nonna turned back to Uszka and Maiko. "I sincerely apologize for what Katyusha has done and I would like to get back to the meeting so we can decide what the next course of action should be."
"We're fine." Uszka responded as she looked at Nonna.
"So where are we? Oh yeah. If we move far enough west, you won't get your treasures back from the beginning of this year but I have a plan to settle things and keep you happy, I would say, how about a compromise?" Nonna asked if they would be up for one.
"A compromise? What is this compromise about?" Maiko asked as she wanted to find out about this.
"You get some of Kuromorimine's money if you decide to join in with us a week from now. We'll give you the time to think about it." Nonna told them that she was willing to use some of the loot they get to help Bonple out.
"Your idea sounds great but we would like to think about it and the best course of action would be." Maiko responded as she definitely wanted to give Kuromorimine a good thrashing but which side to join was going to be the best for Bonple's future.
"I'll give you a week to decide, so any other things you would like to talk about?" Nonna asked Maiko if there were other things they would like to discuss about.
"We should be good. Katyusha and Jajka need to get their acts together if we are to take out the threat that is Kuromorimine." Maiko told Nonna. Nonna nodded as she got up and went to retrieve Katyusha first as retrieving both at the same time will cause a fight. Once getting Katyusha out she looked back to Maiko. "Keep your students under control."
It was when they got back to their ship when the Bonple students led by Jajka decided to hold a meeting. Many students except for Uszka and Maiko as they were satisfied with the results, Jajka however was not and wanted more out of it.
"Students of Bonple, I went to a meeting with Katyusha and the snot brat won't give back any of the money they had taken from us when the year began, plus the rat had decided to start a fight which I ended up winning. I've decided that if we are going to free ourselves from Kuromorimine, we are going to do it without Pravda's help." Jajka tried to rally the students together with a speech telling them that they don't need Pravda's assistance and they were better off themselves.
"Yeah!" The students shouted.
"Katyusha is going to watch as we try prying the jaws of Erika's reign off of our shackles and we will be able move around happily!" Jajka continued to call out to get their support. "And our deeds will live forever!"
"Yeah!" The students cheered on once again.
"Do remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid 't imagine that for years on end you can make yourself the boot-licking propagandist of the Pravda régime, or any other régime, and then suddenly return to mental decency. Once a whore, always a whore." Jajka called out resolve to rally them up. This will take place in four days.
[A/N]: Another short chapter for you but this is just the wrap up to the previous chapter as the students are on the march west and Pomorie and her friends are getting slowed down with their luck. There is some good news to this though. Next chapter will be Pomorie focused and she's getting a present from Ami. If it's the new tanks, you might be guessing, then you are correct. These tanks Pomorie and her friends ordered a few chapters ago are indeed coming and the next one should be a special one.
Also a bit of set up for something minor in a couple chapters to come as it isn't important, what is important however is Yogurt Academy's future but I won't spill any details as of yet so pay attention to that.