Maho had gathered up the Kuromorimine students as she had an announcement to make as she wanted to tell the students something. It was getting darker as she looked on ahead at her clock. She wanted to be quick about it so that the students had more free-time to do what they wished.
"Okay you know why I've gathered you all here today?" Maho began as the students scratched their heads as they didn't know what to do about what she wanted.
"We don't know." Emi responded as she shrugged her shoulders, but in all seriousness, not many of them knew that was happening.
"Okay then I'll explain." Maho began. She decided to motion forth a certain girl as she wanted to make it clear.
"With our situation growing more and more dire as I'm looking for more students to hold back the inevitable. I've decided to rebuild Gregor's Sensha-Do team by giving them Panzer 38T's, Panzer 2's and Panzer 3's. Also I'm once again promoting Kaya-san as I am impressed with the performance that she has put on for much of this year so far. Olivia felt like Miho to mean whom I actually do miss. Even if she made a blunder once, I would forgive her as she managed to pull off a victory completely in her own style. I am just hoping that she gets some of the creative freedom as Miho did and even when I'm gone, you will come up with your own version of the Nishizumi Style and tweak it into what works best for you. Olivia Kaya, you will be presented by your team-mates as Alter-San or Other Sister." Maho gave the announcement as the students clapped in anticipation. Koume walked forth as she had a present to present to her. She opened it up to let her take a look.
"Kaya-San this is a Sturmgewehr 44 in paintball form. I hope this will serve as a morale booster to our waning students as their morale continues to drop. We need everything that we can use to try holding Pravda back." Koume presented the girl with the steel rifle. Olivia grabbed it as she looked down the sights to get a feel like what it meant to aim. She pointed the rifle around trying out a few different poses. Once done, she placed the stock on the floor and looked out at the crowd of students.
"We will not give in." Olivia told the crowd to keep trying. Everyone was cheering as they were going to continue holding to the last. Erika watched on as she wasn't clapping but instead was personally insulted by the fact that someone younger than her had just taken her desired position. Koume noticed this as Maho dismissed the students from the meeting. She decided to head off to find Erika.
Erika was walking away as she was sulking to herself in a corner. Koume wanted to make her feel better about the situation that was just presented.
"Erika is there something wrong?" Koume asked as she wanted to figure out if Erika was feeling down about something. Erika looked back at Koume as indeed she was.
"Yes. I think Maho just insulted me by promoting someone else other than me. I deserved that title. I worked very hard for it and she passes me up and gives it to my biggest rival? I think Maho is mistaken." Erika wanted that position more than anyone else and Maho gave it to someone else. Koume knew she needed to tell Erika about something as this was important.
"Erika you were far from perfect this year, there were moments that you raised your voice, refused to take orders and argued with your superiors, you were once leader of the team until a mistake which you continue to deny it was your fault got you removed. All that bickering gets us into even more trouble. And Olivia is whom Maho likes as she does as she is told and seldom says no which Maho is a fan of. I say harping on that is a lost cause, it's best we get on with our duties." Koume explained to Erika what was happening this year and why it ended up the way it did. Erika got up as she began walking away as she didn't want to continue talking with Koume. "Hey are you walking away on me? I wasn't done talking with you." Koume tried to get Erika's attention back on her but Erika turned as she said two words in response to Koume.
"Don't care." She continued to walk as Koume knew that any other attempt to plead for her to come back was going to be fruitless. Koume bowed her head as she walked away, there was no way she was going to negotiate with Erika.
Maho was busy preparing herself to go to sleep that night as she was just waiting on Olivia Kaya. She was gone, Maho decided to not waste any time and decided to go look for her as she was wondering if there was something wrong with her friend. Maho opened the door as she peeked her head out as she spotted Olivia staring out a window. Maho walked over to her as she wanted to figure out what she wanted.
"Is there something wrong?" Maho asked Olivia if there was. Olivia turned her head to Maho as she seemed relieved to have the elder Nishizumi by her side.
"Yes there is. It has to do with Yogurt Academy." Olivia began. Maho seemed interested.
"Go on." Maho told her as she wanted to find out what was going to happen.
"Well when it comes to our alliance, some of Kuromorimine cannot trust Yogurt Academy fully, especially students like Erika and there are a few reasons why. First of all, I agreed to the fact that I was worried about giving tanks to Yogurt Academy as I thought that Yogurt Academy will simply take its tanks and leave the alliance due to the fact that most of its students were staunchly against any conflict. Second is that Erika told the higher ups to expel the Jewish students from the school with fortunately the higher ups refused as they thought it would be detrimental to their image and last but most importantly is Srebarna turning her back on us and slowly gravitating more towards Pravda." Olivia laid out her reasons as Maho began to think those over. After thinking for a couple of minutes, Maho had come to one conclusion.
"I didn't know Erika was such a racist myself, I was always wondering where all of our experienced students were going during my time here. I was even pressured to kick out my younger sister from Kuromorimine by Erika herself as she feels like she doesn't trust her." Maho knew the conclusion wasn't very clear. Olivia began speaking once again as she wanted to tell Maho.
"Consider this a warning, Erika isn't to be trusted at all in the slightest, ever since you gave me the position, Erika is probably plotting Kuromorimine's downfall and would try anything to remove me from the position that I am in so she can leverage and make the decisions herself. If it does happen, Srebarna will use this as a context to switch sides and we'll lose our allies." Olivia decided to make the terms clearer for Maho as she knew that Erika isn't fit to lead.
"Hopefully I will." Maho responded as she decided to escort Olivia off to bed. She will give her words a look over while Erika was sulking off in the background watching. She knew Olivia was the first to go.
Katyusha meanwhile was having a talk with some of her fellow students about what was going to happen. All of Pravda's top students were there including Commissar Nakhimov as he was listening in.
"Okay two phases down, one more still to go, we're hoping to completely get Kuromorimine off balance and deny them Count High School's Oil supply as that is what Erika has been relying on for the tanks of Kuromorimine to run on. Erika needs every last drop of it and cutting this vital supply off would lead to a collapse of Kuromorimine in two weeks tops." Katyusha told them. Klara nodded as she knew that could work. Nakhimov began to give his personal info about this.
"Yes little Katyusha, good thinking, Thanks to Darjeeling's information that she's been passing to us, we know where their flag tank is, encircling this flag tank could give us a quick victory as Kuromorimine is rushing all the reserves forth to plug up the gaps, if we blow holes in these gaps, we can use the T-34's to rush in and cut off the exit routes while the heavier tanks keep Maho and the others pinned." Nakhimov laid out the plan as he grabbed a red marker. He began tracing where possible breakthroughs would have the most success. Katyusha looked on as she wasn't pleased with being called little.
"First of all Commissar, I'm not little and second, what schools you think breaking through would have the most success?" Katyusha asked if Nakhimov would have any idea where a successful breakthrough could be conducted.
"Either the Croats to the west, Gregor and Blue Division to the east as they have the weakest tanks. Kuromorimine has the flag tank and the strongest tanks in the center. Surround these tanks with our heavy SPG's and tank destroyers pinning them down first then going out of our way to obliterate them afterward." Nakhimov pointed to where the tanks would be deployed and how to exploit them.
"What if the other schools rush in to plug up the gaps left by the others?" Nonna asked as she was thinking about Schools like Magyar, Count and Yogurt.
"We'll attack them as well along the whole front. They wouldn't be able to send their reinforcements in." Nakhimov responded as he wanted all enemy tanks to be engaged at the same time so if a breakthrough did happen, the others would be fighting everyone else as they wouldn't be able to pull their tanks to the endangered areas where the encirclement was going to happen.
"Great thinking you have going on there Nakhimov." Brook responded. Nakhimov laughed as he patted the back of her head.
"Get the guards rifle students ready to press the advance tomorrow morning, we're going to be crossing the rivers." Nakhimov told her. Brook nodded as she got up and walked away. Katyusha nodded as they now had a plan to squash Kuromorimine in the next match. Nina however was upset but for a very different reason. Nonna walked over to her to see what was wrong.
"Something is wrong, I guess you're holding that mouse like there is something wrong." Nonna asked Nina if there was something that she wanted to talk about.
"Yes, I gave my mice to someone to watch them as I had my classes and Sensha-Do responsibilities to fill, the mice got sick and today I got the news that Lenny is dead." Nina told Nonna about what exactly happened. Nonna placed her hand on Nina's head as she began patting it.
"I know what its like to lose a friend. Did Lenny leave any last words before his passing?" Nonna asked Nina if there were any last words that the mouse gave before its final squeak.
"Lenny told me that if he gets to be something else, he wishes to be a farmer, a farmer with alfalfa that he will give the rabbits and that he gets to tend the rabbits." Nina told Nonna about her deceased mouse's final wishes and what it wanted to be in the future.
"That's nice, I may get you a rabbit sometime during the summer or maybe even a puppy. They're heartier than mice and you may keep them around longer." Nonna patted Nina's head as she decided to make a promise to her on what she was going to get her. Nonna motioned her forth as it was now time to get some sleep. They had a big day ahead of them.
The match would come the next morning as the students were deployed on a flat plain with some rolling hills off in the distance. The entire team of Yogurt Academy had been redone with the only light tanks being the Vickers. They were mostly going to be used as scouting to look around for tanks and with their engines meant that the light tanks could zip through.
"With the Partisans out of the way, I don't know if this bait and lure tactic will work with great success from Pravda?" Pomorie asked as she didn't know if this plan was going to work. Srebarna wasn't listening as she had a somewhat different plan.
"I'm willing to take the fight to them with these new tanks. We'll be able to inflict vast casualties that way, there should be no reason for us to get knocked out like this." Srebarna spoke over the radio as she cracked her knuckles. The tanks began to move off as they were going to look for Pravda and their tanks as they went to advance on their position. "Let's do this, control A mess them up."
Nina meanwhile was preparing plans of her own with Nonna as they were poised to begin their attack. They were finalizing these plans as they were going to pounce on Kuromorimine.
"Kuromorimine has got the strongest tanks but their flanks right next to them are weak, if we break through those areas and take the hills, Kuromorimine wouldn't be able to dominate the high grounds effectively." Nonna told them as they were going to move.
"Katyusha likes this plan." Katyusha smiled as she was preparing to attack where it would be needed. She was going to target the Croatian gang as Nonna was going to go after Gregor.
"Yes I know we got our dedicated zones of attack. Klara and Alina will handle Magyar and Count respectively and you and Brook got Blue Division and Yogurt." Nonna laid out the plans. Nina nodded as she looked at her superior.
"Okay Nonna." Nina told her as her ISU-152 went on ahead. Nina began to speak into her microphone as she wanted to relay the order. " Nonna is asking us to attack the right flank of the enemy as we need to prevent them from reinforcing Kuromorimine. When we do this we will secure victory once and for all. We shall name it Operation Lenny." The students in her crowd began to cheer as the ISU-152 sped onward. She was going to truly enjoy giving the other schools what they deserved.
Yogurt Academy's tanks were busy looking for any cover to conceal their tanks since they didn't want to get noticed by the advancing enemy team. Pomorie was getting frustrated as she noticed that there wasn't anything to hide their tanks with.
"Gah! We can't put up anything with our tanks as we can't hide them. We probably don't have time to make improvised defenses so we're out on our own." Pomorie told the team as she had one conclusion, there was nothing they could use or did they have the time to prepare defenses. Srebarna wasn't too concerned about that for the matter.
"Well we always have the open spaces as ambushing tanks is much easier now." Srebarna responded as their tanks had the range advantage. Pomorie knew where she was coming from but that wasn't enough.
"Yeah but our new tanks are huge meaning we could easily get spotted then Pravda would have the chance to fire first." Pomorie told Srebarna that they had nothing to hide their tanks. Pravda would have this advantage if they appeared. Pomorie turned her head as she heard a rumbling coming up. "Well would you look at that, they're here." Pomorie grumbled as Pravda had just arrived on the scene. Fortunately it wasn't Nina's mobile artillery but rather the tank destroyers such as the SU-100's. But it was being lead by Brook, Pomorie knew she had a similar feeling of panicking.
"Okay I'll send my scouts ahead as I want to see what kind of tanks we have, Yogurt Academy has their tanks out in the open." Brook began giving out orders as she believed their will be easy, the enemy is out in the open and doesn't have any cover to retreat to. Two T-34/85's rolled out first as Brook stayed behind with her SU-100's as she observed wondering if Yogurt Academy was going to fight back.
The T-35/85's were the first to go on ahead as they had one job, drawing fire away from the other tanks and to help identify potential targets to take out. Ticha was observing as she began taking notes of the two T-34/85's that had just crossed their paths.
"Two tanks approaching. T'34/85's." Ticha began as she observed the metal monsters rolling along. She continued to wait as the two tanks were going along. Even though they were out in the open, they decided to hold their fire as the two tanks were passing through.
"Permission to fire?" Malko asked from the StuG 3. Shiroka was held up in her Hetzer as she was waiting for the same moment as well.
"No let them pass." Pomorie gave them the order to leave these tanks alone. They weren't the ones they were going to go after. Pomorie had bigger fish to fry for this match. Brook was observing as the two T-34's rumbled on through. She was confused and surprised by how the two tanks weren't getting pelted with incoming fire.
"They're out in the open yet they aren't going after us, do they have bigger targets that they want to take out?" Brook asked herself as she noticed the hands off attitude that Yogurt Academy was adopting. Brook grabbed the radio as she began to speak into it. "Okay, other tanks in my group, you know the drill, encircle them with what you have, if they aren't going to fire on us, then we might as well envelop them and take them all out without letting them escape." Brook began to give the orders to move around and catch them off guard when they least expected it. The T-34/85's and SU-100's began to split up as they were going to encircle Yogurt Academy.
Pomorie was watching all of this as she wasn't expecting the tanks to split up. She continued to observe as there were now only three tanks heading in the direction that she wanted them to. Brook and two SU-100's. Pomorie knew she had to speak to the others.
"What's going on, we aren't expecting them to split up as much as drive down the main road where we can open fire on them, now we might be caught off guard." Pomorie asked as the other crews began to look out to see that Pravda was sneaking their way past them without them noticing the tanks. Pomorie knew that she didn't want the trap to close. "Fire!" She gave the order.
The Vickers tanks opened up first followed by the other tanks. The Vickers weren't doing much good against the T-34/85's and neither were the Panzer 38T's, their shells were just bouncing off the T-34's as this was raising clear warning signs that some of these tanks weren't fairing well. The larger tanks as well as the tank destroyers however were making more of an impact. The Panther and Jagdpanzer 4 fired as their shells had taken out one of the SU-100's. The StuG 3's focused on the T-34/85s as one was knocked out shortly after. Brook and the others began firing first as they were targeting the Panther as it was the biggest threat to the group along with the Panzer 4 F2.
"Get the big tanks first." Brook called out as her T-34/85 fired off first. The shell struck the drive sprockets of the Panther as the tank had been immobilized. Even with the tracks gone, the tank was still a major threat as the turret began to rotate. Brook knew she needed to act fast if she was going to finish this first tank off without taking a hit. "Okay one of you engage the Panther, let's see if I can score a lucky hit on the rear of the tank to get this monster out." One of the SU-100's began to move around as it was going to flank the tank while the T-34/85 was going to get behind it.
The Panther was now facing up against the SU-100, the Panther fired its first shot as the shot narrowly missed the SU-100. Beli was getting nervous as the first shot had missed and they needed to reload.
"Reload and hurry!" Beli called out as the loader shoved another shell into the breach. The gunner was fixing its sights on the SU-100 as it continued to creep up on them. "Fire." Beli called out. The Panther fired once more this time hitting the SU-100, the shell bounced up however as it left a red paint streak on it. The SU-100 opened fire, the shell smashed its way onto the turret of the Panther as the tank could neither move its turret or push itself forward, it's gun however was stuck on the SU-100 but the SU-100 began to move out of the gun's way meaning it could no longer fire on it. More importantly it gave Brook enough time to move to the engine of the immobilized Panther and line herself up.
"Now we have you. Fire." Brook gave the order for her gunner to open up. Beli knew her tank was in trouble.
"No wait!" Beli called out as the T-34 fired into the rear of the Panther tank. A white flag popped from the Panther as that tank was knocked out. Beli didn't stand a chance against Brook. Brook then gave the order.
"Finish the rest of them off, we don't want them to escape." Brook called out. The Panzer 4 F2 a Vickers and good chunk of the tanks were immobilized and taken out. Pomorie knew her tank need to get itself out of there.
"We're getting taken out! Varna get us out of range!" Pomorie ordered as Varna began to speed up through their mess of knocked out tanks, while they were able to inflict a good chunk of damage to their team, they still got the best of them and now they needed to get on out of there. Brook had her eyes trained on the target ahead as she was gauging the distance.
"Okay and fire!" Brook shouted for her gunner to fire upon the target. The Vickers continued to race through the gap that would help them escape but even then they were no match for a speeding shell. The shell struck the rear of the tank as the vickers were sent flying in the air. The tank landed down moments as a white flag popped from the Vickers. Brook opened up the hatch to her tank as she stuck her head out for a peek to count the amount of tanks that were knocked out on the field. After double counting twice, she began to report the news back to Nonna.
"Okay Nonna we lost about eight of our tanks but we knocked out all fifteen of theirs, what's the progress on your end?" Brook asked as Yogurt Academy was now out of the picture. Nonna was plowing her way through Gregor as she began to take a count.
"Gregor has been broken, the Croatian gang is trying to hold Katyusha up but even she is making progress." Nonna gave the news to Brook about the progress they were making as her tanks were barreling their way through. Brook nodded as she began giving her news.
"Okay Yogurt Academy is gone, they're all gone, knocked out across the plains." Brook gave the fate of the smaller school.
"Okay that's good, want to help by closing the trap around Kuromorimine?" Nonna asked as she could use some assistance to make sure that Maho doesn't escape the trap with the flag tank. Suddenly the radio buzzed with Nina's voice as she interrupted the two of them as she began to relay her own information into the mix.
"Blue Division lay knocked out across the plains, only one tank lost in the chaos. Waiting for new instructions." Nina gave her information as Nonna was caught off guard. She knew she needed to focus on Nina first before getting back to Brook.
"Okay Nina that's good since your slate is clean of orders, where are you?" Nonna asked as she wanted to keep track with her ISU-152 commander and her whereabouts.
"We're on our way to crush Kuromorimine as we have broken through their right flank where they're defenses are." Nina gave Nonna where she was going and what she had in mind. Nonna nodded as that was what she was going to say.
"Okay good so your new orders are to help me and Katyusha complete the encirclement of Kuromorimine and then we'll take them out from all angles." Nonna told Nina about it. Nina nodded as she got the new orders and began processing them. She began to speak to Nonna.
"Got ya." Nina responded as she left the radio with the new information she had received. Nonna knew with Nina out of the way, she decided to refocus on Brook as she began to think of orders for her to do.
"Okay Brook, Nina is going to close off Kuromorimine, I'm going to assist Katyusha to pull off this encirclement, go help Nina to keep Kuromorimine pinned." Nonna gave the orders for Brook to move in and help seal Kuromorimine off. Brook nodded as the tanks began to move forward.
Kuromorimine meanwhile were slowly pulling back, they had lost about thirteen tanks so far while Pravda on this section lost about Twenty-five. Maho, Olivia and Erika were pulling back with the rest of the team as the Pravda tanks continued going forward.
"Goodness looks like we're running out of ground to fight on, we've pulled back a half a mile and they're still keeping the pressure on." Erika told Maho. Olivia was just enjoying this all the time as the enemy continued to push them forward.
"Yes keep coming to me, I'll demolish you all myself." Olivia taunted Pravda to keep coming at her. She had knocked out four tanks herself so far. She fired her cannon but the shot skimmed past the tanks as Maho turned to Olivia.
"Please don't waste ammunition." Maho told Olivia to not fire off if she wanted to. Olivia looked at Maho as she blushed a bit.
"Oh sorry." Olivia responded. Unaware of Kuromorimine, their foes were snaking their way behind them. Nina was looking overhead to where the students were tightly packed together as they were holding off Pravda almost if a siege was happening. Nina knew it was perfect, close the trap now and fire their shells into the crowd of tightly packed sardines.
"It will be like shooting fish in a barrel." Nina told Brook who had just recently arrived at the scene. The guns of the ISU-152 were pointed at the rear of the Kuromorimine tanks as the rest of the tanks arrived to back it up. The SU-100's ISU-122's and ISU-152's began opening up. Maho looked behind her as three panthers were taken out. She then started to become worried that the enemy had flanked around and was now attacking her rear. Olivia looked behind her as well as she wanted to get some of the tanks to notice this as well.
"They're behind us!" Olivia shouted as several tanks turned to face this new threat. But it was really too late for them. They were now surrounded. "Fire!" Olivia called out as the Tiger 1's cannon opened up, it knocked out a T-34/85 but it wasn't going to stop their advance. The massive ISU-152 continued to rain shells down as the surrounded Kuromorimine tanks went down one by one. Within a few minutes, the match was over as Maho's tank was the last to go down.
"Pravda's got itself another victory. Nothing seems to be working." Erika complained as she was so used to winning and taking the fight to the enemy. "I knew promoting Kaya-San was a mistake!" Erika buried her head in her arms as she began to weep. Maho sighed as she had to once again admit defeat. Worst was yet to come for the alliance.
In Count High School, principal Antonescu was reading over some papers as he was taking note of the financial reports and the matches with the Sensha-Do team. Despite receiving the new tanks, they couldn't punch a dent into what Pravda was fielding. Suddenly a loud banging was heard from the door as Antonescu didn't know what it was. The banging continued to get louder and louder, then the doors opened to reveal a young man in his late twenties with brown hair and blue eyes dressed lavishly as he had some news for the said principal of the school.
"Principal Ion Antonescu, you're under arrest!" The man began as he had several guards with him. Antonescu looked over as he seemed confused.
"What? What kind of nonsense is this Michael?" Antonescu asked as he wanted to find out what this young man wanted. He got up from his chair and walked over to face him. "What is happening here?"
"We are ending the matches on the side of Kuromorimine and we will join the Allies, we can't continue this suicidal mission!" Michael began as he wanted to state peace with Pravda then turn their tanks against Kuromorimine. He then continued to speak: "I am now the principal of this school and the supreme leader of the Sensha-Do team, you are relieved from your function and will be under arrest until further notice. Guards! Seize him!" Michael called out as two guards walked over to Antonescu. Antonescu couldn't believe people were going to take him away like this and he wasn't happy about it.
"No! You can't do this! This is stupid!" Antonescu called out. The guards ignored him as they handcuffed Antonescu as he continued to speak to get Michael to call it off. "You can't do this! I have a deal with Erika Itsumi! You can't let our fiercest enemy walk into our home!" Antonescu begged as he was dragged away. Count High School wasn't going to be the same.
Noemi was looking at their Panzer-38T tank as it had markings from Kuromorimine to represent their alliance. She also had a bucket of gray paint with her as she sighed. Time to turn over a new leaf in this chapter.
"Time to do it." Noemi began as she walked up the ladder to the tank with her paint. She sighed again as she knew she was going to do it. "Keep me strong god." She dipped the paintbrush into the bucket and got a nice coat of grey paint. She began painting over the markings of the tank as their alliance with Kuromorimine was no more.
[A/N]: By the freak events that happened in the last part of this chapter, Count High School is no longer in the alliance. Next chapter will be the reaction of this and someone else getting the axe and switching sides and turning their tanks on Kuromorimine. Who else will be switching sides and try bringing their destruction to accelerate Kuromorimine's downfall? I would like to hear your answer.
Let's reach 2k views for this month also 50 chapters as this is definitely the longest thing I have ever written. And there is still more to come. If you want to see more, leave a review and try guessing who will be next to switch sides. I want to hear your answers as this will be very interesting.