Hell On Tracks
Part 51
"Tally!" A thunderous voice called, snapping me out of my fugue. I looked up and wiped the tears from my eyes just in time to see the familiar form of Rachel Knight charging towards me. There was no opportunity to react before she pulled me (and Kay by association) into a big hug. I didn't try to fight back, and just let myself be pinned between my two best friends.
Rach released the hug a few moments later, and helped Kay and I to our feet. I brushed myself off, and took a moment to look at Rach's new uniform. She was dressed in a blue pullover with the St Gloriana's logo emblazoned on the chest, which took a few moments for me to process.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. Kay patted my shoulder before running off to talk with the Chieftain, who was also somehow out here. Naomi's Firefly was parked off to one side, and I was momentarily distracted from Rach by just looking around at how much had changed in the few minutes I'd been out of sorts.
"Well, I saw you bail out of your tank and your crew do... whatever they were doing, and I asked Darj if I could take the UC down here. I grabbed a medic and your coach before coming down, just in case." Rach answered. "Cookie?"
I nodded, and Rach pulled a chocolate chip cookie out of her bag and passed it to me. "I was more asking about how you're here in Japan, and apparently attending St Glo. And speaking Japanese. I know you took Spanish back home."
Rach laughed at the question, and I took the moment to bite into the cookie. It must have been one of Mom's, and it was delicious. "Well, everyone back home was kinda worried about you, and I volunteered to try and come here. My dad pulled a few strings, called in a favor or two, and managed to get me to St Glo's. So instead of being your wonderful supporting crewmate or fellow TC, I'm gonna have to fit into the role of friendly rival. Which means I fully expect you to kick my butt when we finally face off."
I cracked a smile. "So, what did they give you?"
"A Matilda and a crew of freshmen." Rach said with a shrug. "I think it's Darj's way of punishing me for being so very American at her British school. It's small and cramped, but has all of the armor! We've been working hard, and I've managed to whip the Munchkins into shape. Supposedly, we're one of the best rookie crews on the team."
"Sounds like you're having fun."
"I am!" Rach paused for a moment, before a grin crossed her face. "Though… next time you need to call me to talk, try not to do it at 6 AM. The rest of the dorm was not happy to be woken up at that hour."
I laughed at the joke. Laughter felt good, and it drove away what remained of the sting of the Bandits' betrayal. "I missed you, Rach."
"I missed you too, Tally. If you ever need to talk, you know how to find me. Just… make sure it's at a reasonable hour. I'll get you my schedule so you can try to not interrupt class or practice." Rach said, pulling me into another, gentler hug. I returned it, and once we pulled away, Rach waved the medic over to check me out.
Thankfully, I got off fairly lightly. Nothing was broken or sprained, and I'd only have to deal with a few bruises and the medic's recommendation to take things lightly for a few days. Even if I had felt like it, I wouldn't have argued with her.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a bit of a blur. The ceremonies to close the match went quickly, and I lingered with Rach, Arisa, and Naomi while Kay went and talked to Ooarai's captain. We were partway through regaling Rach with the tale of the Maginot match when I glanced over at Kay and nearly bit my tongue. My jaw tensed for a moment as Kay hugged Ooarai's captain, though she fairly quickly released the hug.
"Uh, Tally?" Rach asked, giving me a soft poke.
"Huh, what?" I asked, spinning to face her. Arisa and Naomi were both hiding their faces and laughing softly.
"I've never seen you like that before, is all. Looks to me like you've got a crush." Rach teased, letting the last few words take on a singsong tone.
"I do not!" I exclaimed, blushing fiercely.
"They went on a date last weekend. Skipped out on a party to get ice cream together." Naomi added.
"It wasn't a date!" I insisted.
"I dunno, that's what it looked like to me." Arisa added.
"I hate all of you." I groaned, crossing my arms and turning away from the trio.
"What's this about a party?" Rach inquired.
"It's a Saunders tradition. After every big match or major event, we throw a party back at the garage. Or if Kay just feels like throwing a party." Naomi said.
"If you've got the time and you're in the area, you're always invited, Rach!" Kay said loudly as she joined the group. She turned to Naomi, Arisa, and I. "You three, debriefing at the dorms after the party. Arisa, we're gonna have a nice long chat about your little stunt. Someone let Hannah know."
"Yes ma'am!" All three of us replied.
"Stunt?" Rach asked. "Does this have to do with that balloon? Rosehip was wondering about that. She thought it was rather fishy."
"It's all perfectly within the rules!" Arisa insisted, but she withered under Kay's gaze.
"But it wasn't fair play."
"I'm sorry."
After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon packing up and preparing for the trip back to Saunders. The Bandits were nowhere to be found, which was apparently the Chieftain's doing, and Rach gathered a few St Glo volunteers to help pack up my disabled Sherman in their stead.
"Tally, this is Rosehip. Rosehip, this is Tally." Rach said, introducing me to the pinkette she dragged along to help. "Rosehip is one of my Munchkins, even if she's also the up and coming commander of St Glo's mobile force."
"There's nothing on the field that can match my Crusader for sheer speed!" Rosehip exclaimed proudly, pumping a fist into the air.
"Is that so?" I mused, as I directed Rach and Rosehip to help me with resetting the engine so we could drive the Sherman away. "Ever heard of the 76mm Gun Motor Carriage M18?"
Rosehip pouted at me as she dropped into the turret. "Okay, fine. But there's nothing that's Sensha-do legal that can match my Crusader. I've even beaten BTs in a race!"
"Impressive." I commented, taking my own position in the driver's hull.
It only took us a few minutes to get power working, and most of that was just finagling things to reset the white flag. All the while, Rosehip and I bantered about fast tanks, and which was the best. Rosehip was very insistent that her Crusader was the best tank to ever grace the 50 mph barrier, and that my beloved Hellcat didn't count because it wasn't Sensha-do legal. I disagreed quite strongly, and pointed out numerous flaws of the Crusader, from its unreliability, to it having a fairly underpowered gun. Neither of us mentioned armor, because no properly fast tank of the war actually had it in any reasonable amount. We both stared down Rach when she tried to mention it. Rach just laughed.
Rach managed to convince Rosehip and I to share emails, and once the tank was all ready to go, I waved them off and drove it over to the waiting column of Shermans.
"See you guys around!" I called.
"Laters!" Rach responded, while Rosehip waved energetically.
Doubts gnawed at me as I lingered at the edge of the party with Arisa. Now that everything had calmed down and I was left to my lonesome to think, the thought that I wasn't good enough for all this came back in force. I hadn't been able to keep my crew even remotely in line, and the only way I'd managed to stop them from knocking out allied tanks was hitting the emergency shut off. Was I good enough to actually be a TC?
Arisa must have noticed my worsening mood, because she kept trying to strike up conversation, but I just wasn't having it tonight.
It felt like a heavy weight was removed from my shoulders when Kay finally ducked out of the party with Hannah and Naomi in tow. Arisa and I quickly gathered ourselves and our stuff, and followed the trio. Kay's Jeep was not quite designed to fit five people comfortably, and Arisa, Naomi, and Hannah all squeezed into the back while I took shotgun.
The ride was fairly quiet, and before I knew it, we were gathering in Kay's dorm room. Once again, it surprised me that it was just a regular dorm room, hardly any different from my own. Kay beckoned everyone to gather around the kotatsu in the middle of the room, while Naomi and Arisa grabbed a few snacks from the minifridge.
"First things first, I would like to congratulate everyone on a well played match." Kay started, which helped snap me from my half-cognizant state. "Don't feel down because we lost, Ooarai managed to out-think us and out-maneuver us."
Arisa wilted when Kay mentioned getting out-thought, and Hannah put a comforting hand on her TC's shoulder.
"However," Kay continued, "that does not mean we cannot learn a few lessons from this match. As such, I'd like us to start our post-match review with the good stuff. Arisa, you're up."
Arisa only wilted further before finally picking herself back up and sitting straight. "When I was coordinating with my map, everybody followed orders well and worked together, even when I… screwed up. Seven points of team coordination."
Hannah went next, having her answer at the ready. "While I don't usually get to keep track of what's going on, when we got attacked and ambushed, the team came to our help incredibly quickly despite the distances between our locations. Nine points for team responsiveness."
"Firing on the move is always going to be harder than firing from a stable position. But that doesn't excuse our poor accuracy during the initial chase and the final one. Despite bracketing the fleeing groups multiple times, I have all three of our KOs of the match, though one sounds like it was contested." Naomi said next, looking in my direction.
"No, she was upset because you stole that kill. The Lee's yours." I said quietly.
Naomi nodded. "Four points for gunnery, and we need to practice mobile shooting more."
"Naomi, I said good stuff first!" Kay insisted.
"Okay, okay." Naomi raised her hands to placate the captain. She took a moment to contemplate her answer before speaking up again. "Whenever we engaged Ooarai directly, we never let up the pressure and gave them a moment to breathe, except when pulling off the pursuit was the smart idea. Seven points for aggression."
"Six points for sportsmanship!" Kay said with a thumbs up. "When I told teams to stay behind for fairness, nobody complained, and I saw multiple people congratulating Ooarai on their win after the match."
I frowned as the circle came to me. After that initial engagement, everything just seemed to go wrong, whether I knew it or not at the time. After what felt like far too long wracking my brain for something, I finally spoke up. "We kept mobile. When we didn't know where Ooarai was, we spread out and started searching. When we thought we knew where they were, we went after them, and Ooarai was incapable of doing anything, really, while we forced them to be mobile. Eight points for mobility."
Kay smiled as I closed out the good stuff part of the meeting. "Good points all around! Does anyone have any general criticisms that need addressing before we touch on the elephants in the room?"
"Gunnery." Naomi said again. "We need more practice shooting on the move against mobile targets."
"Noted. Next week's practices?" Hannah said, jotting down the comment on a notepad. Kay nodded, and the rest of us agreed with her assessment.
"Anybody else?" Kay asked. When nobody spoke up, she nodded. "Okay, so there are two things that need discussing. One is Arisa's radio interception, and the other is what went down inside Tally's tank. Tally, you are absolutely not in trouble for that. Arisa, you might be."
Arisa and I both nodded at her point, but neither of us made any move to speak first. Finally, Hannah gave her TC a gentle shove.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. It was a bad idea, and against the spirit of the rules even if it is technically completely legal. It's my fault we lost, I was too sure that they wouldn't realize." Arisa said rapidly, the words spilling out of her mouth.
"The wording of the rule is no outside assistance, right?" Naomi asked.
"Yeah." Hannah confirmed. "It's meant for stuff like how you aren't allowed to use your phones to watch the match as it's playing, and you aren't allowed any contact with the outside like for observation planes. The radio intercept balloon was brought in and set up during the match, and was attached to the M4A1 until we cut it loose during the chase with the Type 89."
"And you've confirmed with officials that it would be allowed?" Kay asked.
"Not yet, but it isn't technically against any rules." Arisa answered.
"Then I only see three mistakes." Kay stated. Everyone leaned in just slightly, hanging onto her words. "One, I was not informed that you would be using it, and you went as far as lying to me about it. Two, you relied solely upon the intel gathered even after we were baited into a trap. Three, you used it against a team we already had numerous advantages against."
"W-what?" I asked, stunned. "But isn't it against the spirit of the rules, if not the letter?"
"The radio interception was an unfair advantage that we did not need to achieve victory, and the utter reliance upon it was what cost us the match. Against a superior force, like Kuromorimine or Pravda, that advantage might be necessary to have a fair fight. But until or unless it's confirmed as okay by the officials, we aren't using it." Kay explained. "Which does not mean you are not in trouble for this, Arisa."
"Of course not…" Arisa said glumly.
"We'll talk about punishment later, in private." Kay said to Arisa, before turning to face me. I lowered my face, unable to meet Kay's eyes. "Tally, you did the right thing hitting the suicide switch and bailing out of your tank. Can you give us a brief overview of what happened?"
"Everyone was upset after Arisa told us to drive straight into an ambush. When Naomi took out the Lee… Angel snapped, and tried to knock her out once the opportunity arose. I… I messed up her aim with the TC's override, and I tried to warn Naomi after the first shot." I explained, quivering in my seat.
"I never heard your radio message." Naomi said solemnly.
"Then they must have cut my comms at some point. Just my mic, because I got Kay's order to cease fire before Tuco just unplugged everything." I continued. My hands were shaking, and I clasped them together to try and keep them still. It didn't help. "Angel started shooting at Arisa, and I went for the TC's override again, but she grabbed me and started yelling at me. I-" I choked on my words, as tears began welling up. The memory was still too fresh.
"It's okay Tally. You did everything you could in that situation." Kay said, gently placing her hand atop mine. Her hand was warm, and her touch helped me calm down.
"Why the heck did they go after you with BB guns once you bailed?" Naomi mused. "At that point they're just digging their own graves."
"The desperate will fight even when the chances are past hope, because once you've lost everything, the only thing left is spite." I quoted. "I don't remember where Mom got that quote from."
"It's certainly appropriate." Naomi conceded.
"Tally, I'm incredibly sorry we put you through that by assigning you as their TC." Kay apologized. "We never should have put a rookie with those troublemakers."
"It's fine." I tried to say, but I choked on the lie as tears began flowing once more. Kay squeezed my hands with hers.
"Does anybody else have anything they would like to add to the meeting?" Kay asked, still holding my hands.
"I did have an idea for something, but I think it can wait. Perfectly in the rules this time, I assure you. In their spirit, too." Arisa said.
Kay nodded. "In that case, let's break out the snacks and sodas. Naomi, do you have that disc set of Steel Knights somewhere?"
"In my dorm." Naomi answered.
"Can you run and get it? I feel like we need something happy and fun tonight."
"Yes ma'am!"
While Naomi ran off to get the discs, Kay enlisted my help in moving the kotatsu over to a better position for watching the show. Once it was in position, I settled down under it and let the heater warm my cold feet. I tensed for a moment as Kay sat down next to me, so that we were both facing the TV, but relaxed under her touch as she wiggled around to get comfortable. Naomi quickly returned with the discs and started the first episode.
I've never really been a fan of the more action packed animes, preferring the more calm slice of life stuff, but something about Steel Knights drew my attention. Maybe it was the cute girls who were also tanks, maybe it was how the action set pieces took second fiddle to the character growth of Heidi, the main character who was also a Panzer IV. Whatever it was, I was interested in the anime.
A bitter chill entered the room as the sun fell beneath the horizon, and I cuddled up next to Kay. The kotatsu was warm, but Kay was warmer, and I leaned on her as we watched the first few episodes of Steel Knights.