Maho, Miho and Olivia had managed to pull back but now they were facing a dilemma.
"We've lost more tanks than anticipated when we were evacuating the camp. The Tigers were only able to destroy a few tanks but we got blasted on, we're going to establish several defenses along this road as we know that Pravda is traveling down it." Maho began. Miho and Olivia seemed to understand what was going on but Olivia seemed concerned. "I will be defending this first area as the small ridges will get us a good view of what's up ahead. Miho will be defending the second area where the radio tower is. Olivia, you'll be defending the last area by the train station." Maho laid out their deployment. Olivia seemed concerned about what was going on.
"Maho what about you? Would it make the most sense if you defended the last area and I defended the first? You'll feel more secure that way while me and Miho hold them off." Olivia told Maho as she didn't like Maho going out to lead the lines. Maho looked at her apprentice.
"Listen I know you seem concerned about my safety but I know that I need to lead, like I said before, I won't be around forever so we must try keeping them back as long as possible. If this fails, we're done for." Maho replied as Miho looked at Olivia.
"Come on, it's best we go ahead and prepare, you're defending the last part of the field. It's an annihilation match as well so if Maho goes down, the match will continue, it will stop when all the tanks will be knocked out." Miho explained that it would be best to not worry too much about it and instead get ready for what's about to come. Olivia bowed her head in sorrow as her tank was moved to the rear. For the remaining Kuromorimine tanks, this was going to be their downfall.
Pravda and the others were heading down the road that Kuromorimine had predicted they were traveling down and all the tanks had merged into one giant group as they were going to pile on through. Brook was taking the lead and was going to be the first to feel their shell fire. Commissar Nakhimov was circling in his Sturmovik as he began speaking over the radio.
"Braves comrades of the Third Shock Army, today we lay waste to the German line! Push forward to the train station!" Nakhimov commanded the students to begin pushing forward to crush what remained of Kuromorimine completely. The tanks began rolling forward as Brook began to speak.
"Okay students we have four guns we need to take out so I want everyone to be vigilant for any of those guns. The first gun that became visible was a Ferdinand as it fired at the side of the T-34/85, taking it out almost immediately. Brook knew that they needed to flank around and take out the tank from the rear while it reloaded. Pomorie's group went ahead with their machine guns blazing as Nina came, bringing up the rear. The ISU-152 prepared to fire as it let loose its massive shell, the shell splattered all over the side of the Ferdidnand as a white flag popped out. Brook was impressed and laughed to herself. "The first of many my friends."
A group of various Panzers appeared as they fired onto the group taking out Srebarna's Vickers. Pomorie fired back, knocking out a Panzer 2 in the process. A Panzer 3 fired as the shot bounced off of Brook's tank. The T-34 answered back as the shot went into the front of the tank and left a red paint splatter, knocking it out immediately. More tanks were getting engaged as Katyusha's group with Bonple tanks began to make their appearance, their backup had arrived. Suddenly another shot rang out as it was the Jagdpanther as the shot knocked out Ticha's Panzer 4.
"We got another gun on that hill." Ticha told Pomorie to pay attention. Brook nodded as she began moving forward. She began to signal to Nina to move up with them.
"Don't just sit there Nina. We got another gun." Brook called out to neutralize this tank as well. Pomorie stuck her head out of the tank as many Kuromorimine tanks had been neutralized with a couple from Katyusha's side to be sprinkled in there. Nina's ISU-152 raised up as it began to judge the distance with the Jagdpanther. It fired onto the Jagdpanther as the shot left a massive splatter on the tank, knocking it out as well. Katyusha began speaking on the radio as she found two more targets for them.
"Two more tanks, southwest!" Katyusha shouted as the Tiger 1's had her pinned down. Brook nodded as she knew she needed to get Nina to knock out those tanks before they could take out any more tanks from her group.
"Two down! Two to go!" Brook shouted before she knew Katyusha's call began to get to her. "Hurry Nina! German armor, to the right!" Brook shouted as she began calling the ISU-152 to take out the Tiger tanks. The first one they spotted was Maho's Tiger as she was keeping Katyusha at bay. Brook knew that she needed to be taken out first before moving onto the second Tiger 1. The ISU-152 lined up as it was going to fire its shot at the side of the Tiger 1. Nina fired as the shell struck the side of Maho's tiger leaving a massive red paint splatter, the white flag popped out a moment later.
"Only one left!" Pomorie called out to the group as they were observing from a safe distance. Emi Nakasuga's Tiger 1 was the last major gun left before they were going to take this first area completely, there were no tanks to counter them left in the first area. Nina went around to position herself as Pomorie continued to observe. Katyusha continued to distract the lone Tiger tank so it didn't notice Nina while she moved into position to take out the remaining Tiger 1. Emi knew her time was up as the tanks continued to grind forward. Nina then fired the shot as it took out the remaining Tiger 1. Brook noticed this as she began speaking to Nina.
"Excellent work Nina!" Brook called out as she was happy with the fact that they had taken out four of the massive tiger related tanks. The IL-2 Sturmovik circled overhead as it was going to give out orders. He noticed the second objective as Nakhimov began speaking.
"Attention, comrades! Push forward and obliterate the Kuromorimine radio tower!" Nakhimov laid out for Pravda to pursue their next objectives.
"Onwards! Follow the road to the northwest." Brook commanded the group to follow the road to where the radio tower was. Ooarai's Porsche tiger and Char B1 BiS were guarding the road to the radio tower as they were going to try to stall the advance as much as they could. The Porsche Tiger fired as the shot skimmed past most of the group and landed on the soil behind them. Pomorie knew that she had the target in sight.
"Nina! Porsche Tiger on the right side of the road, we need to take it out." Pomorie called out to her friend. Nina nodded as she finished loading the next shot. Nodding softly. Nina pulled the trigger as the shell flew down range. The Porsche Tiger was knocked out swiftly as Pomorie nodded. Beli's Panther went up as it spotted Mallard team's Char B1 BiS. She fired and knocked that tank out as well.
"Good work everyone." Brook called out as she was amazed. Now wasn't the time to dilly dally as they had a radio tower to neutralize.
Miho's tank was dug in near the tower as they were overlooking the approaches to the tower. The tanks guarding the entrance to the area had been knocked out as three tanks came flooding in. Pomorie's vickers and two other tanks from Yogurt academy. Miho knew now was the chance to attack.
"Fire!" Miho shouted as the Panzer 4's cannon opened up. The shell flew along knocking out the remaining Panzer 35T. Pomorie knew she needed to neutralize their area quickly and move on from there. The Type 89 began opening fire as the incoming shots began leaving small white paintballs on the tank. The Type 89 popped from its trench as Pomorie knew she was going to have to duel with it. It looked like a bigger version of a Ft-17. The Type 89 fired its first shot as the Vickers spun around, churning the soft earth with its tracks. It managed to quickly get behind them and fired a shot to the rear even though the machine gun opened up to no success. The AP shot slammed into the rear of the tank as a white flag popped up. That was another tank taken down, Pomorie and her friends went to go look for more.
Pravda had joined Yogurt Academy as they were taking out the tanks around in this area. Miho looked out as the situation wasn't good. Pravda was arriving in a storm of metal.
"Again!" Miho shouted as Yukari sent another round down range, the shot splattered all over a T-34/85 knocking another tank out but they were completely outnumbered and without much support. The Chi-Nu was doing everything it could as well as it knocked out another T-34/85 unaware that Pomorie and her friends were completely behind them.
"Okay, be ready to hit them." Pomorie told her friends as Rila loaded another shell into the chamber. She had three extra shells she had holding in her hands as she was going to have Pomorie fire them off in rapid succession as the other tanks went to deal with Miho's friends. "Let's go!" Pomorie shouted as she fired the first shot into the rear of the Panzer 4. Rila stuffed another shell inside as Pomorie fired again, Rila nodded as she kept passing shells up to Pomorie as the Panzer 4 was struck multiple times in the rear before another shot was heard coming from the entrance, it was Beli as she decided to help Pomorie and her friends out. A white flag popped out of the Panzer 4 afterward.
"We finally did it." Rila panted as the heat from the tank was getting to them. Beli then began to speak over the radio.
"You were struggling there so I decided to help you out." Beli responded as she provided some support for Pomorie and her friends.
"Thanks for that." Pomorie nodded with thanks. With that out of the way and Ooarai's hold over the area being completely neutralized, now can come to the fun part, blowing up the radio tower. "How are we going to take out that radio tower and then move on from there?" Pomorie asked as she wanted to figure out what was the fastest way to take out the tower such as that. Nina began to think for a moment before she came up with a brilliant idea/
"Hey let me use an ISU-152 shell, we should be able to take the tower down." Nina told Pomorie as she was going to use an ISU-152 shell. Pomorie and the others nodded as they began to head back to where Nina was. After a couple of minutes, everyone was now behind her as Nina prepared to fire. With a nod, she fires the ISU-152. The shell completely tore through the thin steel girders and within moments, the tower leaned before finally falling down to the side. Brook watched with approval as the path straightforward was clear to keep advancing.
"Good work, Nina, there will be no cry for reinforcements! Enough talk. We must push forward to the train station!" Brook told them as that was the last objective that they needed to take as well as annihilate everyone else. All the tank crews nodded as they began moving up the road to take the last area that was ahead of them. Three concrete emplacements were seen as it housed a Panther in the center and two Panzer 1's on its sides. The Panther fired as it took out Yogurt's T-34/85. Nina fired the ISU-152 shell at the Panther as the huge high explosive shell tore through the concrete emplacement and knocked out the Panther. Two more ISU-152's pulled up alongside as they fired their remaining shots taking out the Panzer 1 emplacements. The threat of that area had been neutralized and they began to move up the road.
Once getting to the junction, they knew they would either go left or right and that was the only direction they needed to go, going right meant the long way as Left was a straightforward path. Brook knew this for certain as she thought that the paths would harbor enemy tanks on both sides of the looping path if they went left. Brook began to plan her stuff out.
"I'll go right and Pomorie, you lead the group left. I'll look for any signs of the enemy." Brook gave her instructions to Pomorie to head on left while Brook was to head right to flush out any enemies on the looping path. The T-34/85 went to the right while Pomorie and the others went left. Brook looked out ahead as she spotted a Panzer 35T firing on her as she knew that tank wasn't going to be that much of a threat to her. Looking down the cannon, she fired, the shot splattered on the front of the small tank as it had been quickly immobilized. Brook knew that was one tank down as she began looking down the path for more.
Pomorie got to the second intersection as the cannon of a Panzer 2 was heard. The Vickers ducked back as Pomorie knew it was another tank. The vickers ducked back out as it was trying to tempt it to shoot at her tank again. The Panzer 2 saw this and opened fire, the Vickers ducked back before poking its nose out again. The Panzer 2 tried to fire but the cannon was empty and they were struggling to reload. Pomorie used this opportunity as she fired a shot that managed to leave a dent as well as a red splatter on the Panzer 2's front armor. Still the tank kept running as there was nothing that was going to stop it. Pomorie knew she needed to brace for impact as she was going to fight this thing head on but suddenly, a shot rang out from the rear as Brook had knocked out the Panzer 2 from behind. She had finished the loop around.
"Resistance flushed out, we need to keep going." Brook told Pomorie as this area had been secured. Brook once again took the lead as the T-34 led the journey up the road. Once they reached the top of a steep hill, they heard the buzzing of planes flying overhead. A small group of IL-2 Sturmoviks was leading the way as they were observing the match from above. Nakhimov began speaking from his plane announcing to the students.
"The train station is within our grasp! As our planes rain death from above, crush their final position!" Nakhimov told the group that while they weren't going to assist them, he was there purely for their morale and to take the final objective.
Olivia was in the last area as she was instructed to hold this area at all costs, she didn't have many tanks in her group left as the remaining tanks had been taken out and she was down to just ten. The gun of the Tiger 1 raised as it was going to take out whoever it was that was up on the hill. Brook decided to take the lead first as she began her quick drive down the hill followed by Pomorie and the others. Olivia was observing as she knew that was a stretch, might let the group reach the bottom of the hill before they could open up. The ISU-152's stood on the hill as they had a good vantage point to rain down their shells straight onto Olivia's tanks if they had been ambushed. Katyusha's group appeared as they were going to follow Brook behind. Once Brook's group reached the bottom. Olivia knew that was when they should open up.
"Fire." Olivia told her gunner. The gunner responded with a slight nod before she fired. The shell slammed into the Hetzer, knocking it out of action. Pomorie looked back as if another tank was gone.
"I'm out, it's up to you Pomorie." Kamchia told Pomorie as her tank got hit. Beli fired a shot as she managed to take out another Panzer 4 in this situation. Pomorie's tank raced up ahead as she knew this was going to be crazy. Hopefully she could draw everyone's attention to her to hopefully distract the remaining tanks and allow the ISU-152's to rain their massive shells onto the heavier tanks. Olivia's tank fired, taking out Beli's Panther as she knew that was the biggest threat so far. Brook noted as she began speaking to Nina.
"Nine tanks remaining, we need your shells to finish this area off so we can finally capture the train station." Brook gave the call for Nina to finish this job off.
"Want me to aim for the Tiger 1?" Nina asked if that target would be appreciated for getting knocked out.
"Yes." Brook responded as her tank fired, taking out one of the StuG 3's. Brook's wish was granted as three massive shells flew down the hill heading straight for Olivia's position, at this point the remaining tanks were trying to take out Pomorie's tank that was doing a massive circle around, trying to grab their attention. The tanks fired at Pomorie but she was using the Vicker's speed to her advantage as she had essentially outran all of the incoming shots. Olivia was frustrated as she wasn't able to hit Pomorie, then a whirring sound was heard as three ISU-152 shots were incoming and they left their massive paint splatters all over the place. Six more tanks had been knocked out and Olivia's tiger had received the brunt of the blast. Three tanks remained. Brook noticed this as she gave out the final order.
"Okay let's move in and finish them off." Brook told the group as the tanks began to move in. Olivia's tiger was barely hanging on as the turret came back to try to knock out one more tank before she was overwhelmed. However it was too late for her at this point.
"Fire!" Malko shouted as she noticed the weakened Tiger tank, the shell went straight into the weakened beast as the red paint splatter left its mark on the weakened tank, the Tiger 1 fell silent as white flag popped out. Olivia's tank was the last to be knocked out as the Vickers came up to where the entrance of the train station was and right there was the train. Nakhimov was circling overhead as he smiled with the victory Pravda pulled off.
"Comrades! A great victory is ours! On to Berlin! Ura!" Nahimov called out as he was going to have to land his Sturmovik somewhere and clean the field up. For now, the students were going to take the train ride back to their ships.
Later, Pomorie, Rila and Varna were boarding the train as Popovo went off to operate a machine like this and bring them all home. Many students were enjoying their conversations as they had a great match today.
"How many tanks did you knock out today?" Nina asked as she wanted to find out what the number Shiroka managed to take out.
"I knocked out at least twenty, three of them with my bare hands!" Shiroka joked as she climbed into the freight car. Nina laughed.
"Liar! We were knee deep in blood, you were crawling on your belly! You're lucky the Commissar was not around. He would have you shot for cowardice!" Nina laughed as Shiroka helped her on board. Pomorie was up next as Shiroka asked her the same question.
"What about your Pomorie huh? How many tanks did you knock out? Three? Two? Ha!" Shiroka continued to laugh as she pulled Pomorie on board. Nakhimov approached the group as he was smiling at their performance.
"I saw you using your weapons on the students, I wonder if this will be the new thing with the Sensha-Do matches especially when we push into Berlin." Nakhimov asked as he boarded. He then helped Pomorie pull Rila on board as Pomorie decided to answer Shiroka's question.
"I wasn't counting." Pomorie responded as she didn't know how many tanks she knocked out that match. Nina decided to make her laugh.
"Were you firing?" Nina asked as she laughed a bit more as Pomorie helped Varna onto the train car. Brook then entered the car carrying her Papasha-41. Katysusha, who was already on board, began speaking.
"Fortune smiles on us! In Berlin, Kuromorimine will truly see what they have unleashed! In the midst of all the paint, the injuries and the lost matches… I have found an old friend whose spirit was still very much alive… Brook Taylor! I saw this girl cheat death… time after time in Saunders and Pravda, as long as HER spirit lives, the heart of our group cannot be broken. She makes us all proud." Katyusha announced as Popovo was hearing Katyusha's shouting from the front of the train. She reached her hand up and blew the train's whistle. They were now heading home, for now.
Erika meanwhile was reeling from her defeat earlier that day as Pravda was getting closer and closer to their doorstep. She didn't know how much longer she was going to have to put up with it. Her phone began, so she decided to pick it up.
"Hello?" Erika asked as she was curious to find out who it was. The news wasn't good.
"This is a staff member from Anzio and we would like you to know that Anchovy, Carpaccio and Pepperoni have been found, captured, hung by their legs and had everything pelted at them, food, bottles, rocks. Looks like Il Duce is no more." She told Erika about what happened to the head of Anzio.
"What? I thought they were supposed to be in hiding while fighting their enemies on foot. Now this entire thing is going to collapse as there is nothing to hold anyone back at this point." Erika whined as she hung up. A knock on the door was heard as Maho entered the room.
"Erika, Koume Akaboshi is nowhere to be found, she's not in the school." Maho began as Koume had seemed to desert after the aftermath of the match. Erika knew this was nothing new but something to annoy her even more.
"What do you mean: "You cannot find Akaboshi"?" Erika asked as she wanted to see what Maho was going to respond to. She continued speaking without giving her commander a word. "Keep searching! I want to speak to Akaboshi! At once!" Erika shouted before she began to do a bit of hand play to demonstrate what would happen next. "If she left just like that, that's desertion! Treason!" Erika shouted as she knew what a rule like that would happen if it was broken. She then stood up and began to shout. "Bringen Sie mir Fegelein. Fegelein!" Erika shouted as she slammed her fist down into the desk "Fegelein! Fegelein!" Erika screamed as she wanted Koume back so she could see her. Maho got up and began to walk away.
Maho found Olivia in the tank garage as they were assessing the damage done to their tanks. The outcome of the match wasn't good.
"Maho, Olivia's Tiger had its transmission damaged so it's unlikely we'll have it up and running for tomorrow and the fact that we're running out of money and fuel is telling us we need to put an end to this in a few days if Kuromorimine is going to be saved." One of the mechanics told Maho about the condition of the tank and the state it was in.
"Goodness, we're running out of a lot of things are we?" Maho asked as she didn't know what they were going to do.
"Yep we can only field about sixty or so tanks for the next match and a lot of our bread and butter has been taken out and cannot be fixed in time for the next match." The mechanic told Maho that the school seemed next on Pravda's list to take as they just lost the gates. Now Pravda was going to flood in.
"So what can we do to stop them?" Olivia asked nervously as she knew there was little they could do at this point. Maho began to think, looking for ways to try stopping Pravda so they weren't able to take the school over.
"I got it but I think we need to tell our allies about this as this sounds unconventional. I will notify my mother about this. We can hopefully hold Pravda off." Maho began as she had an idea. Olivia seemed curious about this as she didn't know what this idea Maho had in mind.
"What's that?" Olivia asked curiously as she wanted to know what it was. Maho knew she needed to explain it to her.
"Well we're going to have to mobilize everyone to help fend off Pravda, anyone is eligible. Ages eleven to eighteen will be needed if we are going to be able to hold Pravda back. Don't know if this will work as I have doubts about it." Maho replied as they were looking to use anything at this point. Maho walked off as she was going to make an arrangement.
Later that night, MEXT had received Maho's message and they were now debating on the best course of action in this reply, they seemed enthusiastic about it but they didn't know what kind of crowd they were going to bring. Ami, Tsuji and Shichiro were discussing this as they wanted to figure out what to provide for Kuromorimine.
"Kuromorimine is in even worse condition than Germany near the Battle of Berlin. We should-" Ami started, but was interrupted by the sound of someone coughing.
"Hold up, Ami... Are you suggesting that we help one side? What would they request? A Landkreuzer P1000 Ratte? A whole division of Panzer VIII? No. We won't do it," Shichiro said, he knew it would be impractical to field those kinds of machines. Especially with money not being on Kuormorimine's side.
"You raise a valid point here," Tsuji's voice announced through the Skype voice chat with a bit of happiness in his voice. "Kuromorimine would be fine."
"It won't. You see what has happened to them that match and I fear worse has yet to come. Maho has given the message for Kuromorimine and the surrounding smaller schools to mobilize in anticipation for tomorrow and they only got sixty tanks working so they're going to be short." Ami began as she wanted to lay out the information on what was happening. Shichiro began to think about what they should give to Kuromorimine.
"But, I think that we should give them a few Sd. Kfz. 234/1s-" Shichiro stated, when she heard that Tsuji wanted Pravda to field about a dozen ZiS-6 trucks, equipped with BM-30 Smerch Multiple Rocket launchers and a few GAZ AA infantry trucks.
"No. Sd. Kfz. 234/2 is a better option for them," Ami countered and Tsuji growled in annoyance.
"Fine! Kuromorimine can have at best twenty Pumas and six MG42s!" Tsuji shouted in frustration at the display of stubborness. Ami raised an eyebrow at that.
"And?" Ami asked innocently.
"And then 5cm PaK40 AT guns," Tsuji mumbled quietly, in hopes of not being heard. But, it was like he was trying to fight with a concrete wall with only his fists.
"Sorry, what was that?" Shichiro asked with a small smirk.
"And ten 5 cm PaK 40 AT guns," Tsuji repeated slowly and loudly.
"Not 8,8 cm FlaK 18s?" Ami asked, the surprise evident in her voice. Five cm PaK 40 wasn't able to penetrate a T-34/76 at most ranges, except a very short range of four inches and lower.
"Not those. Kuromorimine is already overpowered with their single Maus!" Tsuji said and after a few more minutes of constant bickering, finally logged off, leaving the two advisors with the task to gather the regulated and safe versions of those vehicles and weapons.
"I think Kuromorimine should also get an assortment of small arms too if they are going to defend themselves." Ami decided to add that in if the students were going to get out there and fight, they needed something to fight with.
"That and some paintball Stielhandgranates as well." Shichiro added in as that was going to be needed.
"If you insist." Ami responded as they had everything ready. However, this was only going to come short of what Kuromorimine would actually need.
For Kuromorimine however, it was already too late.
[A/N]: This chapter was a little short so I was putting stuff from the next chapter into this to lengthen it out a bit. Anyway, at the end of the Seelow themed chapter, the characters are about to enter the lair of the fascist beast. Next match will take place on the Graf Zeppelin itself so expect some special and unusual tanks to be featured.
Also I hope to get this done as fast as possible since I'm heading on vacation, a two week vacation in about three weeks so I want to be able to move on and probably do something in the meantime.
Two more matches are coming and the big climax is going to take place tomorrow, after the Seelow themed match. See you later. Goodbye.