The panicked calls of startled birds filled the air as a column of nine tanks drove slowly underneath the trees, rattling the earth with the rhythmic thumping of individual track links striking the ground.
In front of them all, the unsteady silhouette of Rabbit Team's M3 Lee toddled forward, while Azusa stuck her head out of the cupola, her eyes darting to and fro. Anteater Team was bearing the flag for this match as promised, so if they came under fire, the first order of business would be to protect them. The coast looked clear for now, but this was no guarantee that it would remain so.
A glance to the rear showed her that all of the other tank commanders were doing something similar. Even so, Azusa was making frequent radio calls to the team, inquiring if they had seen anything.
"Azusa-san, a suggestion," Saori piped up on the sixth such query. "If we see something we'll be sure to let you know, okay? No need to keep asking."
"Sorry." Azusa rolled her shoulders back and circled her neck, trying to combat some of the nervous tightness in her muscles that was making it hard for her to focus.
Driving slowly through the forest was nerve-wracking in its own way. They had no way of knowing if they were well-shielded from the enemy's prying eyes or if they were about to be swarmed on their vulnerable flanks. Everyone was staying vigilant, but even though the risk of an ambush was very low it was not zero. Anything could happen.
Azusa couldn't help but wonder what Miho would have done here—in fact, this was about all she could think about. They were headed straight for the edge of a cliff, so it would make sense to seize the high ground quickly, but surely Jatkosota was trying to get there as well to take the advantage for themselves. They were going to quietly approach and quickly take the area, though whether that level of caution was necessary, they did not know. It was better to be safe than sorry.
Soon they reached a grassy clearing, and on the other side of that clearing was what looked like a drop off the edge of the world. This was their objective for now, taking the high ground.
"All tanks, stop," Azusa called. "Get into line formation."
With that, the other eight vehicles pulled forward to form a row, barely poking out of the woods. Then they came to a halt once more, awaiting the order to advance.
Commander Nishizumi would know this by heart, Azusa thought to herself. Just stay calm. Whatever you do, do not panic. You panic, you're dead. You don't have to be a Nishizumi to learn that the hard way.
There was a tense silence. All of the crews were waiting for the voice of their commander to utter the words "Panzer vor!" but it would not come from the girl who had always given that command. Today it would come from a girl who had never done it before in a real Sensha-dō scenario.
"All tanks, ready to move forward?" Azusa radioed, stalling for time while she took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves.
"Hippo Team, ready!"
"Anteater Team here, we're ready, nyaa."
"Leopon all set to go. We're ready when you are."
"Shark Team, awaiting orders."
"This is Duck Team, let's go!"
"Turtle Team, waiting."
"Mallard Team, we're ready."
"Anglerfish Team ready." If Saori had any tactical genius she would have been an excellent tank commander, but alas, she had only been blessed with communication skills and not combat instincts.
Azusa bowed her head for a moment, then looked up. "Advance quickly into the clearing on my command, then stop once you're there. Don't get too close to the edge. Three, two, one, now!"
The low rumble of tank engines practically idling their way through the forest crescendoed suddenly to a roar that shook the air. The entire force surged forwards, bracing for enemy fire now that they were getting into an exposed position.
To their surprise, none came. All they had was a commanding view of silence.
Well, that went smoothly enough. Azusa was relieved. "All tanks, be on the lookout now for enemy movements. Duck Team, Anglerfish Team, go out and scout. Make sure to report your position and what you see so we can mark it on our maps here."
"Got it," Saori radioed back. "We're going now. Duck Team, follow us."
The Panzer IV and the Type 89 rolled back into the woods and out of sight, while the remaining seven tanks stood watch over everything they could see from their perch. Azusa could only hope that scouting went off without a hitch; reconnaissance was one of the riskiest combat missions. But if everything went smoothly, the Ooarai team would be able to anticipate and counter any move Jatkosota made before they were even there.
The Type 89 came to a halt at the foot of a very tall tree, and Noriko, who was already standing on the outside of the tank behind the turret, leapt off. She scampered up the tree in an almost monkey-like fashion, and once she reached a higher branch shaded from the sun by solid leaf cover she lifted her binoculars to her eyes, scanning the area.
In the distance Noriko could see a dust cloud moving. It appeared to be moving to her left—due west. The distance was hard to judge because the terrain obscured its origin, but it was definitely moving.
"Enemy movements spotted, probably G…7-ish," she said over the radio. "Can you see the dust from up there?"
There was a crackle as Azusa's voice reached her headset. "Roger. I think I see it."
With Jatkosota's tanks sighted, Noriko took a moment to survey the landscape in detail. Her tank was on a lightly wooded rise, overlooking a large, flat plain. Meandering through the grass was a river which, though it was largely obscured by the shape of the ground and some trees, looked easy enough to ford. It would be a little bit of a slowdown, but nothing Ooarai's tanks couldn't handle.
At the edge of the field was a road, and this led off in two directions, disappearing over a ridge to the left and into the woods to the right. There were a few patches of forest dotting the area beyond this, and somewhere beyond that was a larger treeline. Behind this the dust was still rising, hard to spot against a mountainous backdrop, but still visible to the naked eye.
She turned around to face the high ground a little ways behind her, curious about what the sharp-eyed Jatkosota tankers might potentially see if they were to reach this same spot. In the distance there was the cliff from whence the Type 89 had come. Looking more closely through her binoculars, Noriko could just make out the faint shape of Azusa's upper body. The Lee's turret itself blended in well enough.
Duck Team had pulled off a narrow dirt road to reach their vantage point, which was a perfectly situated terrace for superb visibility. Down the length of the road to the left, the view was pretty but uninteresting, just trees bowing and bending over the path like a thinly-woven tunnel.
Then, over the low rumble of her tank's engine, Noriko could hear another sound from off to the right. She scampered down from the tree and watched with nervous knuckles raised above the turret top, waiting for the newcomer to reveal itself.
The sound grew louder. It was a little bit difficult to hear even with the Type 89 idling, but it was unmistakable. They were not alone.
At last something came into view. Noriko peered at it, struggling to see in the dim light, but soon she breathed a sigh of relief. It was a familiar brown Panzer IV with side skirts.
"Hey there, Anglerfish," she radioed. "What are you doing here? I thought you were off somewhere else."
There was silence over the radio, punctuated by a quiet "What?" from Saori.
"Well, I mean, we're right in front of you."
"No, you're not."
Noriko waved to the Panzer IV, which had stopped a hundred yards away or so. "You're right there, I can see you, you're literally facing us. How do you not see us?"
"I don't see anything. Hang on a second. Location?" Saori's voice had an apprehensive tone to it.
"D3. Yours?"
"J—" Noriko heard the sound die in Saori's throat. Her heart sank.
"You mean…"
Azusa's voice crackled over the radio. It was low and whispery as if she was instinctively trying not to be heard. "They have a Panzer IV too. Get out of there, Duck Team. Get out of there now."
As she said this, Noriko noticed something about the stopped tank. Its turret was gradually rotating, almost imperceptibly so. But its huge gun was definitely not in the same spot it had been in when it first stopped. Now she was practically staring down the barrel.
Her eyes went wide. This was definitely not Anglerfish Team. This was an impostor. And it was going to shoot them.
She pounded on the turret to get her crew's attention. "Enemy tank, three o'clock! Gas! Gas! Gas!"
The Type 89's engine growled to life and Shinobu quickly backed the tank up just as the Panzer IV opened fire. The muzzle blast sent the nearby branches into a wild frenzy, disturbed by the sudden explosive wind. Noriko could see the tracer attached to the back of the shell burning like a meteor as it flew past her, much too close for comfort.
Quickly regaining her bearings as years of volleyball had taught her to, she grabbed onto the sides of the turret just in time for the tank to lurch forward down the road, away from the Panzer IV. Her short hair whipped in the wind as Shinobu worked the controls back and forth, putting the Type 89 in a stomach-turning zigzag to avoid incoming fire.
Yet for whatever reason no shots came, not even machine gun fire. The attacking Panzer IV was still sitting where it had been, now just idling. Its crew seemed to be paying no attention to their quarry, which was disappearing down the road at breakneck speed.
After some time Noriko knocked on the turret again. "I think we're far enough out. Don't exhaust yourself."
"Got it." The engine noise wound down to a much calmer level, and Shinobu kept driving in a straight line. They had no idea where they were going, but it was away from the attacker. A scout's job was to provide intelligence, not to engage the enemy. That was for the main force to handle.
Just then a huge explosion behind the tank rattled the trees around Noriko and she felt a shock wave reverberate through her bones. Disoriented, she toppled off the tank, landing hard on her side right next to the tracks.
She rolled a little ways before coming to a stop, staring up at the sky through a break in the trees while the sound of the Type 89's engine receded into the distance. She was dazed. Everything felt like it was still in place, but she didn't know what had happened other than that she had fallen hard from a moving tank.
Noriko sat up as the rumble of another tank rocketing towards her grew louder and louder. She could see a huge shell crater in the middle of the road just short of where she had fallen off. Using a high-explosive round must have been a mistake. Armor-piercing would have been a much better choice.
She shook her head in frustration. This one was going to require a visit to the medical tent afterwards to make sure everything was all right. And yet somehow no rules had been broken.
The engine noise was terrifyingly close now, and she scrambled backwards as a brown Panzer IV raced into view. Its gun was still trailing smoke and there was a blonde-haired girl with a black headband sticking her head out of the turret, yelling something into her radio handset. She glanced down at Noriko, waving cheekily as the tank screamed by.
Noriko could see the Panzer IV up close for a brief moment, and though it was but an instant, her eyes were sharp and she got a good look at the tank that had toppled her. This tank had been painted up to look very much like Anglerfish Team at a glance, except for the fact that the Ooarai logo was replaced by the Jatkosota one and there was a pink circle where the trademark cartoon anglerfish would have gone. The Schürzen covering the sides were also different, made of wire mesh instead of solid steel, but she had missed this looking from the front.
They had clearly put a lot of work into making this look convincing. It was no wonder she had mistaken this Panzer IV for a friendly vehicle, just as they wanted.
Noriko stood up and pulled out her phone, checking the top of the screen to see if there was cell reception in the area. Seeing that there was, she dialed Azusa's number.
"Taeko-san told me what happened," Azusa said before Noriko could even open her mouth to speak. "Stay right there. We're coming to pick you up."
"Thanks." Noriko was not used to this at all, being stranded in the woods in the middle of a Sensha-dō match. If ever there was a tense situation, this had to be it. All she could do was pray that Rabbit Team could make it without falling to Jatkosota's guns.
Three tanks hurtled along the road towards where Duck Team had been attacked—Rabbit Team's M3 Lee, Anglerfish Team's Panzer IV Ausf. H, and Anteater Team's Chi-Nu. The remainder of their force had remained behind at the top of the cliff, keeping careful watch over the terrain.
Azusa had known better than to bring her Lee out alone. Even if Rabbit Team was capable of handling this by themselves, that did not mean it was a sound idea. It was a big, top-heavy target with weak armament. For this reason, she had brought Anteater Team with her down to a rendezvous point near the base of the cliff, where they had then met up with Anglerfish Team, and now all three were moving along the road in a column, with Rabbit Team in the front, Anteater Team covering their exposed right flank, and Anglerfish Team covering the rear with its main cannon.
Bringing Anteater Team out with them was no accident either. Even though that same tank was the one with the flag on which the outcome depended so much, Azusa did not want to let it out of her sight. In addition, the main force was well-positioned but ill-prepared to deal with an assault. If the flag tank kept moving, that meant it could get out of harm's way. Its front and back were shielded from enemy fire anyway.
They came to a long straightaway resembling a dimly-sunlit tunnel of trees, and as they reached its end, the road curved to the left and pitched upwards, then back downwards. The forest around them grew thicker.
"Imagine getting lost out here," Aya said. "Especially at night when it's dark."
"You say that as if it isn't already kind of dark during the day along here," Ayumi replied, anxiously watching through her gunsight.
Karina slowed to avoid the tank flying into the air as they crested another rise. "There's bugs and all that, plus you never really know what's out here, do you?"
Then suddenly Azusa, who had been silent this whole time, called out over the intercom to Karina, gesticulating vaguely with one hand. "Stop the tank. Look a little ways up the road. You see her?"
Karina nodded. "Yep! I hope she's okay."
The M3 Lee ground to a halt as Azusa reported the find to Anglerfish and Anteater Teams. Noriko jogged up alongside them, looking around to check if there were any Jatkosota tanks in the area.
"Hop in, Isobe-senpai," Yuuki called to Duck Team's commander as the right side hull hatch swung open. "We might leave without you!"
The attempt at humor fell flat, as this was a particularly uninviting prospect to Noriko and everyone else.
Noriko clambered inside the Lee, filling up an empty seat next to Ayumi where there would otherwise have been a separate loader for the 75-millimeter gun in the hull. "Anything happen with my tank while I was out there?"
"They rejoined us back up at the top of the cliff," Azusa said. "Karina, let's go. We can't stay here too long. It's just a sport, but it's kind of a war zone."
"Yep!" Karina called back as the tank began to accelerate, the roar of its engine and the clanking of its tracks drowning out their voices except via the intercom.
Azusa peered out through her cupola. It was silent around them, eerily silent. Anteater Team and Anglerfish Team were still following them closely in a line, but Azusa could have sworn something didn't sound quite right, like there was a different engine noise that might have been coming from somewhere else.
"Rabbit Team to Hippo Team," she quickly radioed. "All the rest of you are up there on the cliff, right?"
"All up here, yes."
"Thanks." Azusa felt her hands getting clammy despite the heat inside the tank. "Nekota-senpai, Takebe-senpai, watch for hostiles."
Then suddenly the gunfire started. An unseen machine gun opened up on them, sending a stream of tracers pinging off the Lee's armor and raking the sides of the hull, including the hatch they had just closed. Another burst followed, punctuated by a shell that shattered the trees right next to Anglerfish Team and rained fallen timber on top of them.
"Gah!" Azusa yelled, startled. "Everyone, meet up around Point C4. Karina, get us out of here!"
The roar of the engine became a scream as the Lee sped forward, even faster now. "Okay, okay!"
All hell broke loose as bullets and shells began to fly in from all sides, and the skies overhead were getting darker and angrier. Rain was on the way, but as far as the girls were concerned, it was just another thing to make their headaches worse.
Azusa ran through the situation in her head. They were probably trying to take out Rabbit Team first and Anglerfish Team second so they could stop the entire column and eliminate a helpless Anteater Team without any issues. It was a time-tested tactic, and in their position right now, trapped on a road as they were, they were sitting ducks.
"Turn right!" she shouted. "Hard right!"
"We're on a road, and you're saying to drive off a cliff?" There was more than a little doubt in Saori's voice.
"It's not a cliff, it's a slope. Duck Team reported that much when they were here earlier. Our tanks can handle it. We're better off moving than sitting in a trap."
There were no further complaints—evidently Saori understood—and the three Ooarai tanks swung around to the right, charging towards the edge at top speed and dodging trees.
"Hang on, Isobe-senpai!" Ayumi yelled as the Lee pitched forward. "We're going down!"
"I..uhh!…I can see that!" Noriko shouted back, gripping the base of the turret basket with all of her strength to avoid being thrown around. Karina was feverishly working the controls to keep the top-heavy machine at least somewhat level.
When they reached the bottom of the hill, they were tossed backwards by the sudden upward tilt back to flat ground, and surveyed the field opening up around them. The gunfire was still pouring in, but now that they didn't have the woods blocking their view, they could see where it was coming from—two positions higher up on the hill and one somewhere out in the open.
It was beginning to drizzle. The light drumming of raindrops on the roof of the tank was completely drowned out by the engine noise and incessant bullet impacts.
Azusa looked around, noticing that some of the fire was coming from behind them now. Without even needing to be asked, Aya turned the turret around to face one of the streams of machine gun fire and put a shell into the brush right near the muzzle flash. The bullets stopped coming.
She let out a war whoop, the mildly insufferable consequence of watching one too many westerns in her spare time. "I got one!"
There was no time to celebrate, though. The Jatkosota tanks, which were still managing to be invisible save for the gunfire streaming in from every direction, seemed to be taking breaks between bursts. It was nearly impossible to tell exactly how many there were, but the numbers were probably not in Ooarai's favor. Good thing I called in the rest of the team, Azusa thought to herself. Here's hoping they don't hit a roadblock or anything like that.
The machine gun fire began to taper off and shells started to replace them more and more as the three Ooarai tanks formed up into a line, then spiraled off into a coil formation, preparing to deal with incoming fire from all sides. This was something Azusa had practiced with the team a few times, and it went together quite neatly, even though getting in a tidy formation for a shootout like this felt extremely stilted.
"Don't stay in one place too much," Azusa radioed. "We're out in the open. Don't fire unless you think you have a clear shot. Lay down suppressive fire with machine guns so you don't waste shells."
It was raining harder now. Every muzzle flash lit up the raindrops cascading down from the sky. If they waited here too long, the ground was going to turn to mud, and being at the foot of the hill could mean a flash flood risk.
Azusa's head was spinning with the noise. Anglerfish Team and Anteater Team were sufficiently capable tank crews, but how long they would be able to last under heavy fire while they waited for help to arrive was anyone's guess.
Shells were striking the ground all around them now, kicking up showers of wet debris. Azusa saw Aya recoil in her seat a split second before a deafening clang resounded from the turret gun mantlet. The two of them covered their ears with their hands, and even Saki flinched violently. They had survived one hit, but there was no guarantee that they would be able to take the next.
Azusa was regretting this choice of a rendezvous location by now. Where they were now, waiting for reinforcements to arrive, they were all but trapped, and any move they made might potentially leave them more vulnerable to enemy fire. For now, all they could do was sit tight and keep firing back.
Aki peered through the telescope she had brought with her, watching for any sign of Ooarai's tanks. She wasn't sure of a high-powered telescope's legality in Sensha-dō, but it couldn't have been that bad, considering how loose the regulations around extraneous equipment and furnishings were.
She was standing on a wooden board sitting on the ground, and the long telescope was mounted atop its tripod on this. The astronomy club at Jatkosota had made it very clear that they wanted that telescope back all in one piece and clean as a whistle. Unfortunately, it had been raining for some time, so Aki would have to give it a thorough wipedown later. She had a poncho draped over it, but the front was exposed to allow her to actually see without it being obstructed, leaving it exposed to the elements.
The weather was making it very difficult to see. She could just barely make out the shapes of three tanks firing in all directions at the foot of the mountain across the plain, but there were no updates rolling in from any of the tank commanders in that area. This was nothing unusual—they had a tendency to "fly solo" and wait until prompted to provide a status update. It was annoying to constantly pester them, but it was sometimes necessary.
As she was about to straighten up from her hunching position behind the telescope, nudging it to the left slightly, movement caught her eye. There was an exposed section of the road wrapping around the mountainside, a small spot not obscured by trees, and she thought she saw a flash of something yellowish darting through that spot.
"Be on the lookout," she radioed to the tanks engaging Ooarai's rescue team. "I think I see their Hetzer heading your way. There might be more. Break off the attack. Any tanks knocked out?"
"None of ours, none of theirs," came the reply from the commander of the BT-7. "Just some rattled nerves, probably. Helmi-san took a hit, but it bounced."
Helmi's loud, abrasive voice came over the radio before Aki could ask any questions. "It was a 37-millimeter, we're fine. What an impotent little gun."
"Wait." Aki tried to put the pieces together in her head. "So you were engaging them too, Helmi-san?"
"Opportunity knocked. Four against three is better odds than three against three, especially when they have an advantage in firepower. Might as well give them the wrong idea about our numbers while we're at it."
"Oh, yeah, that was glorious," the BT-5 commander chimed in. "Shooting and scooting and they were just firing blind. I don't think they even saw us once."
Aki raised an eyebrow. "Well, regardless, just pull back. We can't risk any of you three—sorry, four—getting overwhelmed. They know about the ruse with the Panzer IV, but it's still one of the strongest tanks we have."
"Roger. Pulling back now!"
The six tank crews waiting in the distance watched as the attack squad sent to hit the rescuers came charging back across the plain, zigzagging as the three Ooarai tanks behind them fired an angry parting volley. It looked like three bank robbers sprinting away after a heist, having stolen nothing but precious time and the initiative in the situation.
Soon a large number of tanks began to pour out of the trees behind the three Ooarai vehicles, confirming what Aki had seen earlier with the flash of yellow in the trees. She sighed with relief that her tanks were out of harm's way—
"Helmi-san!" she shouted into the radio. "Are you still there?"
"Yep, we're just staying quiet. They've seen the retreat, so they'll probably be headed that way and away from us. We'll manage."
"All right, just don't get spotted, okay? We need you to stay alive."
"I know. We'll catch up with you guys later." Helmi seemed to be relaxed about everything, as if nothing in the world could rattle her. "We'll just sit tight for now."
Hippo Team's StuG III pulled up alongside Rabbit Team, and a poncho-clad Erwin stuck her head out of the commander's hatch while Noriko climbed out of the M3 Lee and scampered back to rejoin her crew. "Sorry that took so long. The rain made the road a real pain in the neck to deal with."
"I understand." Azusa didn't have time to dwell on what had already transpired. "We've regrouped here. Their assault squad went towards the woods over there and across the river. Most likely, they're rejoining their main force. We'll swing around a little ways to the left of that and see if we can hit them. This won't be pretty."
There were some grumbles from the assorted tank drivers, who had just had to contend with a treacherous, muddy mountain road and were in no mood to go cross-country in these conditions, but the Ooarai team was very quickly under way, churning up the soggy ground with every inch they covered and leaving enormous track impressions behind.
Looking around from the cupola in cold, damp discomfort, Azusa felt exposed. They were surrounded with open fields on all sides. This meant that any enemy tanks hiding in the nearest trees would have to engage them from long range, but it was not a guarantee of safety. Jatkosota was known for impeccable gunnery.
As they drove along, they assembled into a well-practiced formation, one that was directly derived from old-style Nishizumi tactics but was still effective on open ground. Leopon Team, the tank with the heaviest armor and the largest gun, was up front, acting as a spearhead. Tucked in behind their Porsche Tiger was Rabbit Team, the flag tank and the command tank. On either side of Leopon Team, Turtle and Hippo Teams trundled along through the muck, since their forward-fixed guns were all but useless for covering the flanks. The rest of them formed a wedge with their guns covering the sides and rear, while Shark Team's Mark IV male tank sat neatly behind Rabbit Team, both of its guns out to the sides like cannons on an eighteenth-century warship.
"What was the point of any of that?" Ayumi complained, startling Azusa out of her analytical trance. "We got ambushed and now we have no cover. And we can't even shoot anything from here!"
Azusa shook her head. This match was really not going as well as she had hoped. They hadn't lost any tanks yet, but as far as she could tell neither had the enemy. She couldn't even be sure if Aya had really hit anything. Losing tanks would be hard, but at least it would prompt her to be creative. A stalemate like this just gave her the sense that it was never going to end.
It was only a few minutes that they spent traversing the field, but by the time they reached the river it felt like hours had elapsed. The airwaves came alive with the complaints of girls wanting to stop for a breather, in particular the exhausted drivers.
Azusa was taken aback, wanting to press an attack before Jatkosota could get a solid position set up, but she would have to concede for morale's sake. "Uh...all right, all right. We can stop for five minutes, but no longer. And we'll have to be on guard!"
All nine of Ooarai's tanks came to a halt, still in formation, at the riverbank. They were a little more than halfway to the trees, but it would still be another long haul. Fortunately, though, the way ahead looked flatter than what they had just had to drive through.
While they were at a standstill, Azusa heard a knock on her hatch, and opened it up to find Saori gazing down at her. "Hi."
"Are you doing all right?" Saori's demeanor was motherly as always. "We're all cheering for you, you know."
Azusa gulped. "Thanks." Somehow encouragement served only to add to the weight on her shoulders. It made it more personal, and personal could be terrifying.
As the tanks sat by the water's edge, like horses drinking from the stream, the weather continued to deteriorate. It was getting windier and rainier now, and every minute they spent out here was another minute the ground would become more and more impassable to heavy armor. Yet the weather also had another function—they could barely see the other side of the field by now, and that meant that the enemy couldn't see them.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the reports began to roll in from the other tanks that they were ready to continue. Azusa breathed a sigh of relief. If there was one thing she had learned as a tank commander, sitting in one spot in the middle of an open field was a sure way to get taken out. Even though they had some protection from the natural contours of the ground around the river, it wasn't perfect.
"Cross the river in our usual way," she radioed. "Everyone stay downstream from Leopon Team. Don't sink into the mud, but don't gun your engines either."
The nine Ooarai tanks began to crawl forwards into the water, and Azusa held her breath. Multiple experiences last year had shown river crossings to be an unpredictable and tedious operation, but this time everything seemed to be going off without a hitch.
The radio buzzed with Nekonya's low voice. "Tank, two o'clock."
Even though it was raining cats and dogs, Azusa pulled a poncho over her head, then opened the hatch and looked out over the berm at the rain-swept terrain beyond. "I don't see anything. Can you mark it with tracers?"
"Sure thing." A stream of machine gun fire burst forth from the Type 3 Chi-Nu's hull machine gun, disappearing into the wind and the rain.
Azusa squinted through her binoculars, scanning the area for any signs of the rounds pinging off armor. "Um…keep trying, I still can't see anything."
Then the thunderclap of the Chi-Nu's main gun going off assailed her ears. There was a bright flash in the distance, the mark of a high-explosive round going off, and Azusa could vaguely see mud spewing from the blast site. She blinked, then focused on the area around where the shell had hit.
Sure enough, there was the vague shape of a turret there, poking above a slight rise, an inviting target for Ooarai's gunners.
More cannon shots began to ring out as numerous tanks took shots at the silently observing enemy vehicle, spurred on by Anteater Team's efforts. Before long most of the team was firing volleys of potshots. None of the shells found their mark, though. The target was too small.
"W—wait, guys!" Azusa yelled into the radio over the booming of cannon fire. "Wait! Hold your fire! It's just one tank!"
But she went unheard. The trigger-happy gunners continued to let loose, even Anglerfish Team, which was the closest one to actually scoring a hit. The only crew that had remained silent was Rabbit Team, partly because Azusa had kept her tank in a hull-down position like most of the others.
Below her in the tank, the girls of Rabbit Team were stirring, particularly Karina. "What's going on out there?"
"They're all shooting at some tank or other," Ayumi said, bored stiff. "Sort of wishing I could join in right about now—pretty dull here, you know…"
Down inside the turret, Aya glanced up at Azusa, who was still yelling at the other tank crews to get them to stop firing for a moment, then back down at her crewmates. "You know what? Screw it, might as well take a shot or two myself. Might even hit it for once. Saki-chan, load AP!"
Saki acknowledged the command with little more than a small twitch of her eyes, then stuffed a shell into the breech with all the deliberateness and dexterity of someone who was just along for the ride. Aya lined up the shot, took a wild guess at the range based on how large it appeared in her scope, then fired.
Back outside the commander's hatch, Azusa nearly jumped out of her skin when a burst of brilliant light filled her vision and a pressure wave rattled her teeth. She saw the 37-millimeter gun on the Lee's turret smoking, just as the coaxial machine gun opened up alongside it.
"What the f—Aya!" she screamed down into the turret, practically bellowing in crimson-faced exasperation. "That's enough! That's enough! Stop shooting, dammit! You're showing them exactly where we are!"
To her surprise, all of Ooarai's guns fell silent within mere seconds. She looked around, then realized she had still been holding down the buttons on her throat mic while yelling at Aya. Everyone had heard her, loud and clear.
If she had been red in the face before, she was purple now. Embarrassment flooded her cheeks, an unpleasant warm feeling that reminded her of peeing her pants as a child. Not only had everyone heard her, they had heard her when she was angry. If there was one thing she had never seen Miho do, it was getting angry. This was not the commanding debut she had wanted, and certainly not the one her teammates deserved.
"Sawa-senpai?" the small voice of Akari, Turtle Team's freshman commander, piped up. "Is everything all right?"
Azusa was about to reply with a terse "What does it look like?" but she immediately thought better of it. "I'm fine. Thank you for asking, though. We'll have to take a detour out of here so they don't see us any more than they already have."
The nine tanks pulled back towards the river, turned left, and began another long trek along the water's edge. No plan could survive contact with the enemy, even if it was a ridiculous way for things to go awry, but the best anyone could do was to fabricate a new plan in its place.
A little brown Panzer IV raced along on the road descending from mountainous terrain into a small neighborhood—not Ooarai's Panzer IV, but the Jatkosota one, painted up to mimic Anglerfish Team. Unlike their opponents—whom they could hear firing in the distance while one of their fellow tank commanders laughed her head off over the radio—they were not restricted by muddy fields.
They were also completely alone. Their mission was not one where they could expect to be well-supported. In fact, at the moment, they had no mission whatsoever except to rejoin the main force.
"Say, Helmi, why do you suppose Ooarai isn't going this way?" the gunner, a girl by the name of Iro, inquired offhand. "They sound like they're having a hell of a time splashing around in the mud out there."
"Yeah." Helmi chuckled. "Ah well. If nothing else it means we have this place all to ourselves."
The tank rumbled along into town, stopping under the cover of a carport that was just barely high enough for it to fit. Helmi squeezed her way over to the loader's hatch on the right side of the turret, since the corrugated metal over her head was too low for a normal egress, then climbed around to the front to assess the damage from the shell impact earlier.
There was a huge black spot near the edge of the gun mantlet, a radial pattern showing where fragments of the shell had flown off in every direction. Even though it wasn't a particularly large round, it had been extremely jarring when it hit, since it rattled the gun violently right as Iro had been trying to take aim. They were lucky that it wasn't the Lee's 75-millimeter that had hit them, as that would have been a knockout blow.
"Damage is minimal," Helmi called to her crew as she wriggled her way back inside the turret. "Let's go."
The Panzer IV roared back out into the driving rain, and the continuous clattering of raindrops against the top armor surface ensured that nothing could be heard inside, regardless of how loudly the engine might have been running.
"Any word on their movements?" Aki had never thought of herself as the most patient of people even though she would have liked to, and she could see why. It was a shame that Mika's ability to look at everything with perfect calmness hadn't been passed down automatically along with the command position.
The BT-5 commander who had been watching the Ooarai team closely sounded somewhere between boredom and an adrenaline high. "I don't know, they just kinda…disappeared? They made it snow sideways at us for a little while, but they stopped and I haven't seen them since."
"Then they must have changed directions or maintained their position. Helmi-san, report?"
There was static, then silence. Helmi was someone who would always take her time replying, because she seemed to have something similar to Mika's attitude about communications—if it was important right now, she would respond; if not, she would stay quiet.
Aki sighed. It would be no use holding her team hostage while she waited for a single radio call. "All tanks, push towards the enemy's last known position at the river. Reconnaissance by force. They don't know that we don't know where they are."
With a roar of engines revving and the high-pitched clanking of tracks, the Jatkosota team began to move, plodding through the soft mud. They could see very little through the rain, but what they could make out indicated nothing about Ooarai's tanks being within sight.
The radio crackled. "No word. We haven't seen anything over here either."
"Thanks." Aki made a quick note of Helmi's less-than-helpful update. "So we still have no idea where they are."
She could see the river coming into view now, and as they rolled over the berm towards the ever-rising water, marks appeared in the mud where tank tracks had once been. Not one set, but as many as nine different patterns of track links, all converging into a single path that trailed off out of sight.
"Mikko, pull on ahead," Aki called to her friend in the BT-42's hull. "We're just going to follow their tracks from here."
Mikko gunned the engine and a huge spray of soaking wet earth flew up from beneath the little assault gun, splattering the tanks behind it. The airwaves erupted in a chorus of complaints, but Aki paid them no mind. Tanks could handle more than a little mud. They would be fine.
Karina pulled back the right steering lever and the M3 Lee swung to the right, coming up out of the riverbed and heading for the road before they would have run into a low bridge that spanned the small waterway. The tank seemed a bit unwilling to cooperate as it climbed the slope, but with a few impatient seconds of gunning the engine and praying that it would work, they found themselves on solid ground again. The other tanks followed in short order, and soon they were all sitting in a jumbled mess with their guns pointing in various directions, on guard should a Jatkosota attack find them.
"All right, uh, new plan," Azusa said, pondering what their new plan might be. "Rabbit, Turtle, Hippo, Anteater, and Duck will follow this road and secure a firing position wherever we find one. We're Group A. Leopon, Anglerfish, Shark, and Mallard will cross the bridge and head the other way to secure the town. You're Group B. Any questions?"
The words felt so unnatural. She felt like she was quoting a war movie or something, and it even showed in her voice—it sounded unusually low. Perhaps it was just her overcompensating for the way her voice would go up when she was nervous. Yes, that had to be it. Just nerves.
The two contingents had not been moving in separate directions for more than twenty seconds when an excited yell came through Azusa's headset. It was Saori. "Enemy contact! Engaging now!"
"Roger. Group A, let's get out of here. B can handle it, I'm sure." There was that sinking feeling in Azusa's throat that she was maybe not making the best of calls out of simply being under-qualified.
Cannon shots rang out behind her as her tank accelerated away from the action. Aya swung the turret around to face the rear, and through the rain and fog, she could see muzzle flashes and the faint silhouette of Leopon Team's Porsche Tiger sitting by the bridge, firing away at whatever it was they were engaging. There seemed to be some return fire this time, so clearly it was not a useless target-shooting match like what had happened earlier.
Group A roared off into the trees, still listening to the popping of cannon fire growing quieter and quieter, until it was drowned out by the noise of their own engines.
"Shouldn't we help them?" Ayumi ventured. "They're just five tanks against who knows how many?"
Azusa shook her head. "I'm pretty sure they can fend for themselves. Besides, if they need help, we can just rush back there and trap whoever's attacking them. Like a mousetrap."
"Like a mousetrap…yeah, that makes sense!" Yuuki seemed more satisfied with this answer to Ayumi's question than Azusa herself was.
Aya rolled her shoulders back and yawned. "So what now?"
Azusa simply looked at her with an attempt at a reassuring smile, then stuck her head out of the hatch. The rain was slowing down somewhat and visibility was improving drastically. It wouldn't be long before the weather cleared and revealed the whole scene. It would allow them to see the enemy more clearly, but it would also allow the enemy to see them. Such was the unfortunate tradeoff of being under the same sky.
Yet to her utter surprise, even though she had gotten her contingent onto a slightly elevated piece of ground, there was no sign of the enemy when she looked around. By all accounts she should have been able to see them. But instead there was nothing.
"Um…" She stuck her head back down into the hatch and looked at Aya and Saki, who both looked back up at her expectantly. "This is probably not something I should be saying, but…I really have no idea where the hell they are."
"Fire! Keep shooting!" Saori's knee was bouncing with adrenaline.
Hana adjusted the gun's aim and let off a shot that demolished a house. "I'm trying to make each shot count, Saori-san. Just calm down."
"Okay, but they're right there!"
"Understood."
The tank they were fighting was that same Panzer IV that had attacked Duck Team earlier. Its appearances between buildings were brief, but there it was, a brown tank with wire-mesh Schürzen and symbols painted on it that were just barely similar enough to Anglerfish Team's own markings to fool a casual onlooker. This was not just a matter of removing an enemy tank; this was a matter of avenging deception. Not that it mattered much, but something about it just got Saori's heart going.
The other tanks of Group A were rushing around the sides while Anglerfish Team kept up its position, making the street impassable along with Leopon Team. This was Ooarai's specialty, overwhelming isolated tanks, and they were making a good show of it so far.
Then suddenly there was a loud report that sounded nothing like any of Ooarai's tanks, and the white flag on Leopon Team's turret popped up. Saori gasped and looked around frantically through the cupola viewports just in time to see a brightly painted T-34 appear, its gun smoking, the Jatkosota logo proudly displayed on its turret sides.
More tanks were appearing now, a couple of T-26s, a StuG III, a T-28—the multi-turreted Russian medium tank, not the American superheavy, which Saori remembered all too well from last year—and that BT-42 they had once been proud to call their ally after it had given a good account of itself in Mika's hands. They were all closing in on the four Ooarai tanks present, an overwhelming disparity, and that disparity had just been increased by one with the loss of Leopon Team.
"Takebe-dono…" Yukari's voice was faint.
Hana shook her head. "Reizei-san, pull out. We're engaging them head-on."
"What for? We're just getting gunned down anyway."
"Exactly. We might as well 'go out with a bang,' as they say. Akiyama-san, a shell."
Saori couldn't help but marvel at how composed Hana seemed to be. There was a calm resignation in her voice, to be sure, but there was also a kind of warrior spirit that she could never hope to match. "Uh…yeah, do that, do that!"
Mako shifted the tank into gear, but the tank had only gone a few yards when it jolted violently to the left, colliding with the house they had been using for cover. Their track was gone.
Saori glanced around again at the ten Jatkosota tanks moving in like hungry sharks smelling blood in the water. "We're toast, aren't we?"
There was a moment's silence, and then Hana uttered one word, a word with terrible implications but delivered with such calmness and smoothness that it rather set Saori's mind at ease before the tank was engulfed in a hailstorm of shell impacts:
"Yes."
Azusa was in panic mode. Reports from Group B's firefight with a single enemy tank had suddenly turned sour, with something about more Jatkosota attackers showing up and taking heavy fire. In response, she had ordered her contingent to leave their firing position and move in as a relief force, like the mousetrap she had just been describing. In principle, she had thought it fairly sound.
But when her tanks came out of the woods, she had not been expecting to see the entire Jatkosota team, unscathed, sitting in a firing line blocking the bridge, waiting for her. Smoke belched from four different places in the town where Ooarai's tanks had fallen to a flurry of shells.
"Fuck." Azusa wasn't normally given to cursing, but this was an exception. "Fall back, fall back!"
But even as her five tanks retreated, a volley of cannon fire puffed across the open field towards them, and several of these found their marks, rattling the girls inside but miraculously failing to deal any lethal damage. A few shots came nail-bitingly close, though.
As they reversed hard into the trees, they did their best to return fire. However, because they were moving, their shots were not very accurate, with the only successful hit being a shot from Duck Team's anemic howitzer that knocked out an enemy T-26.
More shells continued to buzz after them. This was not a good spot to be in. Their only option was to find cover, for their tanks would not be able to survive an open firefight.
The little M3 Lee fled over the soggy ground for what seemed like hours. When they finally stopped, Azusa looked around. Duck Team and Anteater Team had followed them closely, but there was no sign of either Turtle Team or Hippo Team. Her valuable tank destroyers were nowhere to be found. They had probably gotten separated from the others amid the noise and confusion, coupled with the very poor visibility that their respective drivers had.
"Hippo Team! Hippo Team!" she yelled frantically into the radio. "Do you copy?"
There was no answer, but she could hear some gunshots off in the distance. In all probability, the tank destroyers were not returning fire, but the fact that the Jatkosota team was still shooting at them was a reassuring sign in a small way. At least they were still in the fight, or at least one of them was. Now if she could just get one of them on the radio, she could link up with them and perhaps they could turn the tide despite the ever-souring odds.
Helmi's Panzer IV was one of three tanks pursuing the Hetzer and StuG III through the dense forest, alongside a BT-5 and a T-34. These girls seemed to be smart, keeping their dispersion to make it harder to concentrate fire on one of them without neglecting the other.
"I'll take the Hetzer," Helmi radioed. "Just tail them as closely as possible. They can only run so far."
Her tank accelerated until it was barely twenty meters behind Turtle Team's little dark-yellow tank destroyer, which could do nothing except zigzag to avoid the intermittent gunfire. Most tank crews could not fire well on the move, but Helmi was fortunate enough that her gunner Iro was a crack shot even on the move. The lack of powered turret traverse in her tank was somewhat of a handicap, but a combination of good driving and expert fire direction could make up for it.
Every so often, Iro would let loose a shot in the Hetzer's direction, though the rough terrain would often lead to the gun going off-target even as she was pulling the trigger. Yet they kept going. Hetzers were overweight vehicles that were not nearly as fast off-road as they had been intended. It would be just a matter of time before they made a mistake and could run no more, either by throwing a track or suffering some kind of engine failure from redlining it.
Suddenly the Hetzer stopped zigzagging, and right as Iro was about to put a shell into their vulnerable rear armor, it made a sweeping motion, cutting across to the left. Helmi's driver followed dutifully, and the G-force of the sudden turn slammed her to the right.
Just as their path was beginning to straighten back out, the Hetzer veered sharply to the right again, so abruptly that Helmi tumbled from her seat and had to break her fall with her hand against the turret interior.
"What the—" She clambered back up, as quickly as she could with the tank bucking like a bull on the terrain at this speed. "Stay on them, stay on them!"
Then there was a loud bang and a scraping of metal from the back of the tank, and Helmi looked just in time to see Ooarai's StuG III roaring away to the left.
Even so, there was no time to worry about it. Now that the StuG's gun was pointed away from them, it was not much of a threat. Focus on the Hetzer, she thought to herself. Just take it out.
The Hetzer zigzagged uncertainly for a moment, as if shaking its rear end contemptuously at its pursuer, then cut across to the left again.
"We can't let them regroup!" Helmi yelled. "Hold it steady!"
She could see from the vision ports on her cupola as their quarry's path straightened—a perfect opportunity for Iro to land a shot in their rear and finish a vital part of Ooarai's remaining firepower.
But just as the gun came on target and a shell was slammed into the breech, Helmi noticed something out of the corner of her eye. The Ooarai StuG III. It was coming at them from the left now at high speed, and she was practically staring down its gun barrel.
She froze. "Damn it."
Then the StuG III with the blue hippo on its casemate opened fire, launching a hot wind of smoke, flame, and steel through the air, and the white flag from the so painstakingly disguised Panzer IV that had masqueraded as Anglerfish Team arose with a click. The Hetzer peeled away, and the victorious assault gun followed it.
A huge 85-millimeter shell struck a tree and snapped it in two, but from behind the toppling remains burst Rabbit Team, and they fired both cannons at the T-34 that had just made an attempt on them. The turret gun's load ricocheted harmlessly off, but the gun in the hull sponson, the one that really mattered, planted a shell in the hull machine gun mount, immobilizing the attacking tank instantly.
"Get some!" Ayumi yelled, rummaging around for another armor-piercing shell. "Come on!"
Azusa's head was spinning. By this point she wasn't even calling out targets anymore. It seemed as though Ayumi and Aya were handling all of that themselves, shooting at everything that moved and didn't have an Ooarai logo painted on it, though the constant bumping and jerking of the tank were making it hard for them to hit anything reliably.
"Duck Team here!" came Noriko's voice. "We have an idea, Captain!"
"Go ahead?" Azusa's voice cracked as the M3 Lee randomly stopped and went into reverse.
"Tank carousel. We keep moving and firing until Hippo and Turtle get back over here!"
"Won't Jatkosota be able to just knock us out as we go by?"
"This either works or it doesn't."
Azusa wiped the sweat from her brow. "Uh…I don't know what else to do here, so yeah, do that, do that!"
Karina put the tank into a wide right turn, and they could just catch a glimpse of Duck Team and Anteater Team doing likewise. As soon as the three tanks had positioned themselves in a huge circle, moving quickly to evade shellfire, they accelerated and began shooting as they went. Even if they weren't hitting much without stabilizers on their guns, they were at least keeping Jatkosota at bay for now.
The revolving trio kept at this for a while as the enemy tanks took occasional potshots and approached, looking for a way in, before being driven back by a hail of machine gun fire that threatened a stronger shot behind it.
Azusa's radio crackled back to life. "Hippo Team here. We're being chased by a BT-5 and a T-34. Their Ersatz Anglerfish was on Turtle's tail earlier, but we got them with a Thatch weave."
Come again? Azusa was too dizzy from the high-speed whirling motion of her tank to process any of Erwin's jargon-packed message except the word "chased."
"Uh…okay, okay. Can you regroup? Just follow the gunfire, I'm not even sure I know where we are right now."
"Got it. They're fast, but I think we can shake them."
"Good. We're doing a tank carousel right now. Hurry up, we're on borrowed time." Azusa could hear her voice go up as she said that.
"Roger. We're on our way!"
Saemonza looked up at Erwin. "Is that what that was? A Thatch weave?"
"That's what they call it. A staple tactic of American pilots in the Pacific. It works if they don't know you're doing it."
"Like anything. What about the other two?"
Erwin turned around and peered through the cupola. "They're gaining. Slowly, but they're gaining. Oryou, speed up."
"But that'll redline the engine."
"I know. It's only for a few seconds. We'll do a hard stop and get them to overshoot."
"All right then. I think I can do that. Let Turtle Team know." Oryou hit the gas and the engine started to whine loudly.
Erwin relayed this information to her teammates, then checked their pursuers again. They were maintaining speed and lining up their shots. This was a perfect opportunity.
"Now!" she yelled. "Brakes!"
Oryou pulled back on the steering columns, bringing the StuG to a screeching halt as Saemonza wrestled with the elevation wheel to keep the barrel as level as possible. But to everyone's horror, the freshmen in the Hetzer didn't seem to have gotten the memo about a sudden stop. They were braking smoothly, a beautiful stop, but not the one needed.
"Shit!" Erwin yelled. "Oryou, point us to the right! We need to take out that T-34 before they get back to us!"
But it was too late. The T-34 had gotten alongside Turtle Team's Hetzer and quickly fired a shell into their defenseless side, knocking them out. The BT-5, slower to react, overshot both vehicles but made a tight U-turn a little way off, charging headlong back at the StuG.
"Reverse, reverse!" Erwin shouted. "Rabbit Team, this is Hippo Team! We have a problem! Turtle Team got taken out and we might not be able to reach your position! Repeat, we might not be able to reach your position!"
"Backing up!" Oryou yelled, eyes glued to her vision slit.
There was no reply from Azusa, not that it could have been easily heard over the intense noise from the engine and tracks, or over the boom of the main gun as Saemonza fired a shell into the stopped T-34.
"Enemy down," Erwin said. "Watch out for the BT! Pull left! Pull left!"
Oryou jerked the left stick back and let the vehicle turn accordingly, then started to accelerate forward as the BT-5 shot past them. She made a sharp right turn and started off in pursuit of their more agile attacker.
"Load in a smoke shell," Azusa called to Ayumi. "We need to mark our position for Hippo Team if they can get back to us. Besides, it'll make us harder to see, somewhat."
Ayumi did so without question, but it was a slow process. She was beginning to tire of the quick loading and reloading, and her speed and strength were beginning to flag at an ever-increasing rate with each successive shot.
Karina was getting tired too. "My hands are killing me," she complained. "Why don't we just rush their flag tank?"
"Because their flag tank is that BT-42 of theirs," Azusa explained. "We can't really outmaneuver them."
Karina groaned. "Damn it…just let this end already…"
"I know. But we have to win this otherwise we're out of the tournament."
The hull sponson gun thumped and a cloud of red smoke rose into the air near where the enemy tanks were firing from, presumably also awaiting a report on the state of Hippo Team. A second shot from the turret put a similar column of blue in the middle of the tank carousel, marking friendly forces.
Azusa could see the Jatkosota tanks backing up a little, trying to get their viewing ports away from the obstruction that the smoke created. In those few seconds, she realized that there was an opportunity right in front of her to get out of what was probably a losing battle.
"All right, now!" she yelled. "Disengage!"
The three Ooarai tanks turned and made a beeline for a nearby hill, on which they could use the high ground to their advantage, however small the difference was. But scarcely had they started to climb the hill when suddenly there was a call over the radio that made her heart sink.
"Hippo Team here. We're out. The BT-5 got us. A thousand apologies, commander!"
Azusa's jaw dropped. She had been counting on Hippo Team's support, perhaps in picking off enemy tanks that tried to assault their hill position. But now they would have to fight this to the death alone against an overwhelming disparity in numbers.
"Wait a minute—we should be reversing up this hill!" she called as shells filled the air. "Ayumi, we need your firepower!"
Karina nodded. "Got it! Turning around!"
She pulled back hard on the left stick, preparing to make a three-point turn on the hillside, but as she did so, there was an abrupt bang and the fighting compartment of the Lee was filled with smoke. The distinctive thwick of the white flag emerging from its hole and unfurling confirmed their worst fears—they had been immobilized.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Azusa frantically radioed to Duck Team and Anteater Team. "Just stay alive as long as you can!"
She could only watch as Duck Team positioned themselves behind Anteater Team just before the two tanks crested the hill and disappeared over the other side. Moments later, a large horde of enemy tanks came swarming past the destroyed carcass of Rabbit Team's tank.
"Dang it," Ayumi said. "When are we actually going to survive a match?"
"Hopefully sometime," Azusa replied quickly, trying her best not to sound like she was on edge about what was certain to happen on the other side of the hill. "Hopefully sometime soon."
"Should we try to fight them?" Noriko called to Nekonya. "We've made a stand before!"
"I don't like our odds here, nyaa!" came the reply. "We have no cover. We just have to run!"
The two tanks zigzagged furiously at full speed, rushing for the safety of the nearest forest. They could use the trees for cover.
As they got closer and closer, Noriko began to get the familiar feeling of being so close to safety but still having a little ways to go, an adrenaline rush that made her eyes widen. "Almost there!"
Enemy fire continued to rain down all around them, cratering the ground like the surface of the moon. Despite their best attempts to return fire, however, the dust being kicked up was making it difficult to see their marks.
Then they began to observe that they weren't being followed anymore. Jatkosota had apparently halted their pursuit.
Once more Noriko put in a call to the flag tank. "I think we shook them. Just a few yards more to—"
Her words were interrupted by a terrific noise of shrieking steel and a concussive shockwave that reverberated through her body. The Type 89 ground to a halt, turning sideways and tipping over as it did so.
"Good luck, Anteater, good luck!" a sooty-faced Taeko shouted into the radio as the lone Chi-Nu fled into the trees. "Give it your all!"
The crew of Anteater Team had gone silent. They were fleeing, not chatting. One mistake and they would be done for, and their hopes of another tournament win would go down with them.
"All right, stop the tank," Nekonya ordered. "I need some air. Just five seconds."
Momoga applied the brakes while Nekonya hopped out of the tank, jumping to the ground and catching her breath. The weight of Ooarai's whole team rested on her shoulders now. They had all failed; now it was her obligation to them to carry this match.
Just like you do it in the games, she thought to herself. Keep a cool head. Find cover where you can. You can do a solo carry like no one else.
But she wasn't really so sure. All she had was a lightly-armored tank even if its armament was decent, and one hit could disable it completely instead of just knocking off a few hit points. She would have to emerge from this unscathed to win.
She climbed back up and dropped back down the hatch, then signaled to Momoga. "Go. They'll catch up to us."
Anteater Team pushed forward, staying a little ways inside the trees as they approached an open field. From their concealment, they could see that the field was surrounded by high ground, a perfect place for a waiting enemy to lay an ambush. They would not be going out there.
"We're in a good spot," Nekonya said. "I'll keep an eye out for anything out there on the field. Keep moving."
They prowled through the woods, clearing every square inch as they went and taking great care not to dislodge the flora around them lest it betray their position to the watchful eyes of Jatkosota's tank commanders. They were glad that their engine was producing a significant rumble, otherwise the slightest sound would have set their nerves twitching.
Then Nekonya noticed a wispy plume rising over one of the hills across the field, and it was moving as though shadowing them. "Traverse right. They're over there. Don't fire unless fired upon—"
Suddenly her body was jerked forward under her head as the tank accelerated. Before she could recover her bearings, they had collided with something metallic, and the roar of machine gun fire filled the air. There was a flurry of shouting from inside the turret that Nekonya couldn't quite make out, but she could feel the turret swinging back around to the front, the vehicle moving backwards, and the sudden blast of pressure from the main gun firing. When the smoke had cleared, there was a knocked-out BT-7 sitting in front of them, belching smoke from its engine compartment.
How the hell did I miss that? Nekonya shook her head and glanced around. Surely everyone had heard the shot; the Chi-Nu's 75-millimeter was not a silent gun. Soon they would have the entire Jatkosota force coming after them like a swarm of angry bees. It would have been nice, Nekonya mused, if functional autoloaders had been in widespread use by the time of the Second World War, for that would have made Anteater Team's job much more doable.
Momoga gunned the engine and they sped away, hoping to outrun the enemy before they could get themselves set up for a finishing blow. Fleeing was something they had done a lot of today, but eventually they would have to stand and fight before the clock ran out. Time limits on flag matches prevented them effectively waging a war of attrition anyway.
Contrary to what Nekonya was expecting, Aki had not in fact kept her six remaining tanks together. Rather, she had dispersed them across a wide area to improve the odds of one of them running into Ooarai's flag tank, all alone against what was left of Jatkosota's might.
As it was, one of the six, the BT-7, had been about to exit the woods when they were caught off guard by a sudden attack from the Chi-Nu. They had been eliminated, but the kill announced to everyone else exactly where they needed to go. With a few helpful words of information from the defeated tank's crew about where the enemy had gone, they were able to cast their nets over a much smaller area, and presently they had happened upon a track print in the soft ground.
"They were right over here," Aki said. "Spread out and cover anywhere they could have gone. We'll find them eventually."
Her BT-42 rushed over the hills and undulations in the earth while she scanned the surrounding area. The tanks were in a rough line spaced far apart, but just close enough to see each other. If one of them spotted the enemy or came under fire, it would be quick and easy to organize support.
Then an excited radio call came in from the remaining T-26. "I see them! I see them! Two o'clock, they're on the hilltop."
As she said this, a shot rang out and something impacted the ground in front of Aki's tank. "Everyone turn right. We're storming that hill and finishing this."
The tanks closest to the hill in question, having swung sharply towards it, slowed to allow the rest to catch up with them, then the T-28 and the Sturmi pulled ahead of the rest of the team, firing furiously at the lone Chi-Nu as they went. The lighter BTs and the T-26, bringing up the rear, began to pull away to the left, in an effort to circle Anteater Team's right flank.
This was a carefully calculated move. It would force Anteater Team to divide their fire between the flag tank and the biggest threat to their own survival, while at the same time allowing Jatkosota to catch them in a pincer movement.
Even so, Anteater Team's fire was deadly accurate. They could fire from a fixed position, while Jatkosota was sacrificing gun stability in trying to quickly outmaneuver them. They had just reached the foot of the hill when their T-28 was struck by an incoming round, knocking it out instantly.
"Zigzag!" Aki ordered. "And lay down smoke while we're at it!"
Steadily the four remaining Jatkosota tanks advanced. The Sturmi, while not managing to actually land a kill shot, was using lots of smoke shells to degrade visibility, so much so that Anteater Team was forced to concentrate most of their fire away from the BT-42, which together with its accompanying BT-7 and T-26 was hurrying around the hill to cut off their opponent's route of escape.
Eventually the fast-moving detachment reached a spot where the slope was gentle. They had a clear view up to the top, and Aki could just see the top of the Chi-Nu's turret, which she might have missed if not for the constant rapid movements the tank was making to avoid being hit by the Sturmi.
She picked up the radio and spoke in a low, clear voice. "Keep shooting at them. Take them out if possible. We're storming the hill now. Forward!"
As they climbed up the slope, more and more of the Chi-Nu came into view. It was shifting around quite a bit, still locked in a duel with the Sturmi far below. The crew evidently hadn't seen the assault coming up immediately behind them.
Aki signaled to the commander of the BT-7, and the two fast tanks rushed across the hilltop towards Anteater Team. But they were not quite fast enough. In one swift movement, Ooarai's flag tank pulled out of harm's way, set the gunsight on target, and eliminated the Sturmi. Then it turned to face Aki's BT-42, drawing a bead in remarkably little time. The element of surprise was gone.
An adrenaline rush surged through Aki's veins. "Evasive action!" she yelled. "Trap them!"
Mikko gunned the engine, and the BT-42 lunged towards Anteater Team with the BT-7 following closely behind. Both attacking tanks opened fire, but their opponent's rapid movements were too irregular and the shells went wide.
Anteater Team's main gun fired in reply, launching a huge shell that Mikko was just barely able to dodge with a swerving maneuver just in the nick of time. As the Jatkosota tanks bore down on them, they began turning the turret in an effort to track the BT-42, which was now the only target that mattered.
Just as Aki was about to block the way out by getting in front of the Chi-Nu, the larger tank abruptly reversed, creating the valuable space they needed to bring their gun on target. However, the more nimble BT-7 had gotten there first and blocked their path, buying time for Aki to charge in.
Aki laid her hand on her gunner's shoulder. The range was getting closer now. Twenty meters, then fifteen. There was no way they could miss, not now.
Then Anteater Team charged straight at them, startling almost everyone inside the Jatkosota flag tank of such lethal notoriety in the world of Sensha-dō. But Mikko was on top of it, never missing a beat. She put her tank into reverse, opening up the range even though they were being attacked now.
"All right now, Mikko, stop! Let them close the range." Aki gripped her seat.
"Think fast!" Mikko shouted at the onrushing Chi-Nu as she applied the brakes with all her might. "Dodge this, suckers!"
The whole crew braced for impact, and very soon they heard their opponent's 75-millimeter gun barrel sliding down the side of their turret. As soon as that happened, Aki gave her gunner's shoulder a squeeze.
Two heavy noises sounded at once. The first was the shock of a twenty-ton tank slamming into them at full speed. The second was the gunner's grunt as she pulled the trigger handle to the rear.
And then, at point blank range, and without bothering to use the sights, the 114-millimeter howitzer in the BT-42's turret fired. The muzzle flash filled everyone's field of view with a brilliant light, and then the flag tanks of Ooarai Girls' Academy and Jatkosota High School were engulfed in a dense cloud of smoke.