Once she got home, Mariah took the time to look at the roles. First checking her own tank, she noted that the driver and loader were two girls named Sydney and Lyn, and the co-driver a girl named Andrea. Try as she might, Mariah didn't recognize those names, nor the faces next to them out of hand. "Oh well" She thought. "I'll be getting to know them soon enough.
Scanning the sheet, Mariah noticed that the girl who had accosted Matt in the hall, Brittany ended up as one of the loaders for the O-I, a fact that Mariah was satisfied with. She'd seemed muscular enough to fit the role after all and Mariah figured Brittany wouldn't be able to cause any trouble if her and Matt were in different tanks.
The last notable girl to Mariah was Kaylee, the rather eager girl who had calmed the team down after they realized how soon their first match would be. Fittingly enough, she ended up as the commander of the Ho-Ro.
Mariah was not the most social person in the world. It wasn't that she didn't like it, but she simply had no knowledge of how to do it outside of scheduled interactions. As such, she hadn't put much effort into memorizing names and faces before then. As captain though, she knew it was necessary to do it. As such, she concentrated on the names, trying to burn their names and faces into her mind.
Hours later, she sighed and slammed the binder shut. "UGH, FUCK!" She was hardly making any progress. She knew the names and faces of her own crew, but had trouble remembering anything beyond that. She sighed and rolled over in her bed, closing her eyes to try and think of another solution. After a few minutes of this, she finally came up with one.
"We need callsigns." She said to herself, sitting up and writing them down.
The next day, a group of students was gathered around in the parking lot. They were looking in awe as delivery crews worked tirelessly to unload the tanks. "Well, at least they didn't deliver them to the freshman center." Maria thought to herself. In fact, of all the places they could be delivered, this was the best place they could be unloaded, the closest parking lot to the room they were using as a team meeting place.
Mariah approached the delivery vehicles, scanning for the T20. Finding it, she approached the vehicle. It was even bigger than she'd imagined. Nowhere near as big as the O-I or even the T29, but plenty big for Mariah. She paced her hand on the tanks side armor, running it along the metal. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be touching it yet, but surely no one would mind. She was the team captain after all.
She stared at the tank, lost in thought, fantasizing about commanding it. She's lost in thought for so long, imagining battles in her head, ordering the gunner to fire the cannon, the shell firing into…
"What are you doing out here young lady?"
"HUH!? Sorry, sorry. What do you mean?" Mariah asked as she looked around to see the parking lot empty.
"Shouldn't you be in class?"
"Sorry, I guess I lost track of time!" she said, running off towards her first period class.
After a long day of school, the excited club members streamed into the room. They gathered up in groups, excitedly talking about the tanks. Everyone had seen them out front, it was hard to miss a bunch of tanks after all. Mariah was one of the last to arrive, her classroom being on the other side of the school. After letting the group talk for a few minutes, giving enough time to let the stragglers catch up, Mariah called the meeting to order.
"Alright, as I'm sure you've already seen, our tanks have arrived. We will be practicing today, to answer what I'm sure you're wondering. But first, there are some things we need to cover. First of all, I'm sure you're wondering where we will be practicing. The ditch out behind the school will be used for it. The long, narrow, unobstructed view makes it perfect for gunnery practice."
"The next thing on the agenda is the mandatory safety briefing. Miss Weaver?"
"Yes, as your instructor, It is my job to help keep tankery one of the safest sports in the world. Don't laugh, Leslie. It sounds strange, but it's true! The last fatality was in 1965, with only two close calls since then, each of which has brought important changes to the sport. It is the job of you, the participants to make sure it stays that way."
"First of all, gun safety. All the rules revolving the safe handling of normal guns go double for any weapon attached to a tank. Cannons and machine guns are lethal when fired at a human being. The first rule is obviously to never EVER do that. Doing so intentionally is considered to be assault at best and attempted murder at worst. Doing so unintentionally is cause to halt a match and eject the player" Miss Weaver started.
"Conversely, do not try to exploit this rule. Teams in the past have intentionally placed themselves between cannons and other tanks. This is also against the rules and can result in an instant suspension from the sport. In general, it is best to limit time outside the tank as much as possible." Their instructor continued.
"Lastly, commanders. It is very common for commanders, especially team leaders to command their vehicles with their head outside of the hatch, or Crew Exposed in more formal terms. It drastically increases situational awareness for the commander. However it obviously poses the risk of being hit by a shell. This is not illegal, however I would recommend keeping it to the minimum at least." She finished up.
The team seemed to be taking this somewhat seriously at least, with most listening intently, though a few tuned it out when they mentioned the commanders position as they weren't interested in advice for positions they didn't fill.
"Next, shells! It is true that dropping a shell is very unlikely to make it detonate, however it pays to be careful. In addition, shells are heavy, meaning if they land on their toes, they are likely to crush them. In fact, this is the most common serious injury suffered during tankery in the modern era."
"Lastly, driving. It is very rare that you will ever need to drive a tank in traffic. Our practice area is out behind the school, so we don't need to drive down any streets to get there. In addition, we will use trains and flatbed trucks to transport our tanks to and from matches and the match areas themselves are closed to traffic. Still, I need to inform you of the possibility. Always air on the side of caution when doing so for the safety of others. Your tank is a hulking mass of steel, lined with carbon fiber strong enough to stop shells, build massive school ships and, theoretically, a space elevator. You aren't in any danger, however cars around you are. If you are ever even slightly unsure, give the other vehicle the right of way." She finished up.
After waiting to make sure Miss Weaver was indeed finished, Mariah stood up once again. "One last thing before we get to practice. Callsigns. I've compiled a list of them based off of various foods. They're a bit silly, but they'll work just fine
T20: Fries
Nahuel: Asado
Stridsvagn M/42: Meatball
T-34-57: Borscht
O-I: Tempura
T29: Burger
Cruiser 1: Crumpet
MK 6: Scone
Ho-Ro: Sushi
Sturmpanzer 2: Schnitzel
"Any complaints? Thoughts? Can you tell I came up with these during dinner?" Maria asked. The room stayed silent.
"Okay, With that said, let's get to practice. Please make your way to the parking lot in a calm and orderly fashion" Mariah said in an effort to avoid a stampede.
To their credit, the class mostly seemed to comply with Maria's request, leaving the room in an orderly fashion, making their way down to the mostly empty parking lot. Most students and teachers had already gone home. A few nervous team members got in their cars, moving them out of the way, rightly nervous about amateur drivers crushing their cars. With that out of the way, they gathered around the tanks, climbing inside them. It was only when they climbed into the tank and took their positions that they realized they had no clue what they were doing.
"Umm, does anyone know how drive a tank?" Someone asked, having at least figured out how to operate the radio.
"There should be a set of manuals in these tanks, translated into English if needed." They're fresh off the assembly line after all."
There was a rustling sound on the radio as the team looked around for the manuals, eventually finding them. Then silence as they read the manuals, trying to figure out how to drive the damn things.
"Do I really need this hammer to shift?" Mariah heard, before seeing the T-34 lurch forward, then stop and turn right. It then moved forward, coming dangerously close to someone's car, then stopping once more. "Okay, now I need to reverse." The driver said, once again consulting the manual.
"Borscht, be more careful! That was my fucking car!" The cruiser Commander, Mindy scolded angrily.
"Sorry! I'm trying to figure out how to reverse!"
The tank crawled into reverse before turning around and slowly moving toward the ditch.
"Um… Hang on, Borsht. As soon as Sydney figures this out, we'll drive the targets over. I bought some training equipment along with the tanks."
Maria turned on the crew radio. "How's it going Sydney?"
"It's uhh… Going." Sydney said, frantically flipping through the book. "Just give me a second."
"Umm… Okay." Mariah said, knowing better than to rush things. By now, several other tanks had begun awkwardly making their way towards the ditch.
"Maybe it's this lever…" Sydney says, sending one tread forward, sending the tank in circles.
"Umm, it's a start." Mariah said, not wanting to discourage her crewmate. "Once you figure it out, head over past the freshman building. We need to place the targets down for gunnery practice."
"Umm… Right commander!"
Having figured out one lever, Sydney very quickly figured out how to move the tank forward, driving it slowly to the location indicated by her commander, a spot 500 meters downrange from the rest of the tanks. Reaching the location, Mariah hopped down and took the targets down from the back of the tank and laying them out in a line. Hopping back on the tank, Mariah ordered them back to the rest of the tanks, lining up in the back.
"Alright, Crumpet, Scone, line up next to each other and prepare to fire. Your targets are 500 meters downrange"
The two scout tanks lined up beside each other, lining their targets up the best they could without any experience, occasionally consulting their manuals.
"Permission to fire, commander?"
"If you think you're on target, go ahead" Mariah responded.
A few seconds later, a loud boom echoed throughout the suburban neighborhood as the Cruiser's 2 pounder gun flung a shell downrange, barely missing the target, followed by the two machine guns, spraying the area around the target, some rounds slamming into the carbon fiber target. Seconds later, the Vickers joined in with its own machine gun, more carefully aimed than the other two. This process repeated itself for a few minutes, the cruiser's shots getting more and more accurate as the gunner zeroed in on her target.
"halt!" Mariah commanded once she was satisfied the two had figured out how to aim their guns at least competently. Their shots had started hitting the target consistently and for a rookie crew, that was the most that could be asked for.
"Scone, crumpet, move to the back of the line. Borsht, Asado, take their place and fire when ready."
The two medium tanks rolled forward as the other two peeled away from the firing line and took their place in the rear of the column. This process repeated, with nothing unusual occurring aside from the Ho-Ro and Sturmpanzer having their shells fall way short of the target the first few times, creating large craters in the earth as the shells detonated with a mighty thud until finally it was Fries' turn. Mariahs tank rolled up to the Firing line slowly as the O-I which had gone previously slowly and inexorably turned to the side and moved out of the way.
"You got this Matt?" Mariah asked, pulling out a pair of cheap binoculars as Lyn shoved a shell into the breach.
"I think so. Can I shoot now?"
"Fire when ready"
If Mariah thought the shots she heard before were loud, they were nothing compared to the sound she heard when the sound of a large armor penetrating shell shot out from her own tank downrange. Unlike the rest of the team, Matt's shot managed to graze the edge of the target.
"Again!"
Matt's next shot wasn't as accurate, veering off to the right as he overcorrected. Soon though, he began connecting as shot after shot slammed into the target.
A few more turns for each tank later and the sun was setting on the horizon. After Matt fired his last volley, Mariah ordered the team back to the parking lot, content with the results of the days practice.
After dismissing the team, Maria prepared to leave herself, Miss Weaver waved her over.
"Yes Miss Weaver?" Mariah said, quickly heading over to the desk and standing at attention.
"You said you wanted me to arrange a match for the convention?" She asked, basking in the respect Mariah seemed to be giving her.
"I did, yeah"
"I arranged one with one of the schools from out of town" Miss Weaver said, handing Mariah a very official piece of paper.
Mariah looked at the slip of paper before gasping. This couldn't be right. How!?
"M-Mojave Rose!?"
A/N Yes, Clear ditch's first opponents will be Mojave Rose from AAHW's amazingly written Dust Devils: A Girls und Panzer Story. Thanks to them for letting me use their characters. This story is not canon to Dust Devils, however.