For the next few weeks, the team practiced hard. Firing at targets, driving through a makeshift obstacle course and up and down the steep slope of the ditch behind the school. They practiced shooting moving targets and angling armor. Overall, Mariah was happy with the progress the team was making. Sturgeon had integrated nicely into the team with little evidence of bad blood. Brittany seemed aware that she was on thin ice and was content to stay away from Matt for the time being. Speaking of him, Mariah's crew seemed relatively skilled compared to the rest and easily able to keep up with the workload.

The Thursday before Spring break was they day they needed to load up their tanks onto the train, a day which came quickly for Mariah. She had been having a good time on the team after all and time does fly when you're having fun.

At the Train station on Thursday afternoon, the commanders and drivers were present to see their tanks off as well as a few other team members. Mariah figured the rest of the team wasn't necessary and they needed all the rest they could get for the week ahead. Deciding to get the hard part over with, she radioed Lisa, the commander of the O-I forward. Because of the tank's size, a larger, expanded train car, specifically built for this purpose, was necessary. Even so, loading it on was a difficult task, the tank barely fitting on the expanded train car.

"Left… A bit more… Forward!" Mariah said, nervously guiding the tank from in front of it. A slip up here would be very difficult to fix, especially without the proper equipment. The O-I inched forward slowly onto the car. Luckily, the O-I was perfectly on target, rolling up without a problem.

The hard part done, Mariah decided she should go next. The turrets of the tanks for which it was necessary were already facing backwards to save space, so loading the rest of them was relatively easy. The T-29 was somewhat difficult for the same reason as the O-I, but otherwise the loading went smoothly. With the job done, Mariah watched as the train pulled away from the station, then went home, a job well done.

The last day before her break passed, however, at an excruciating crawl. Mariah was constantly watching the clock tick away one second at a time. Usually, Mariah could just find something to distract herself, drawing in her journal, browsing the internet on her school laptop, or talking to Sydney. Today, however, it was different. She didn't even have the feeling of dread in her stomach before her first match. There was no dread now, only excitement for the future. Something which, of course, only made the future approach slower. She did talk with Sydney, who, like before, had noticed something different about her. She had initially seemed skeptical about Mariah's claim that she was simply annoyed about having to wait, but her excited ramblings about the tournament had quickly convinced her teammate.

After school was no better. Without their tanks, there was no practice. She supposed she could go over her strategy for the first battle, but that could wait until before the first match. So it was laying on her bed and trying to occupy herself with watching clips from last year's tournament on Youtube until sleep took her late in the night, pausing only for dinner, showering, and packing.

Early in the morning, Mariah woke up, stretched, and got dressed. She too her backpack and walked out the door, driving herself to the school parking lot, three school buses where the tanks used to be. A few other girls on the team were already there, loitering in the parking lot, apparently waiting for the rest of the team to show up. Mariah pulled up in the parking lot, joining her teammates and waiting for everyone else to arrive. Eventually, they did, and, after the requisite roll call, they boarded the buses, Mariah sitting at the back, her crew joining her soon after.

The drive to Lubbock across Texas would be a long one. It was an 8 hour drive, and that was at a normal speed, rather than the absurdly slow crawl that bus drivers always seemed to drive their buses at. They were in for the long haul. Mariah decided to bow out of conversation for the first part of the trip, leaning back and trying to nap. She leaned over and pulled out her pillow, trying to relax. Despite the early hour and her lack of sleep the previous night, however, she couldn't sleep. The lack of space and suspension on the bus kept her awake. After an hour or so of this, she gave up and decided to sit up straight and try to join the conversation.

"Okay, I'm up. What's going on?" She asked, having been tuning everything out for the past hour.

"Oh! Hey, glad you could join us!" Lyn said, being the first to notice her sitting up. "So, what do you wanna do with your life?"

"Geez, you're asking me something so serious right now? Is this what you've all been talking about?"

"It's what we ARE talking about now." Sydney interjected. "We've gone through a few subjects."

"Er, well… Ideally I'd go overseas to Europe or Japan and try out for a Pro league. Probably Europe. At least there's a chance I won't have to learn a new language there." She said. "I know it's probably not gonna happen, but it's what I want."

"Wow, you're really invested in this tankery thing." Matt said, seeming imperessed."

"Well, I better after I spent all that money." She said. "What about you?"

"I never really thought much about it. Geez, I'm only a freshman. Matt said.

"What about you two?" Mariah asked, not sure what she'd expected. "either of you know what you wanna do?"

"Well, people always say I'd be a good psychologist, but that seems like super heavy work." Sydney said. "What I'd really like to do is be a writer."

"Is that so? I can see the psychologist thing but do whatever you think you'll like doing. What about you, Lyn?"

"That's what Sydney here is talking to me about. She seems to have her mind on me being a mechanic, but I think she's just trying to rope me into doing all the maintenance."

"Oh, is that what this is about? Figures." Mariah said. "How much longer till we get there?"

"Like, 7 hours, probably?"

"Shit."

A few more hours passed before another topic piqued Mariah's interest. "So, Mariah, do you know who exactly we'll be playing in this tournament?" Matt asked.

"Err, not specifically. That is a very good question though" Mariah said, wondering how she could have forgotten. She pulled out her laptop, connecting to her phone with it. "Damn, no reception!" She said, annoyed. For the next hour or so, she held her phone up in the air as though it would be any help at all. Eventually though, she managed to get reception for long enough to navigate to the website. "Let's see, there are a few schools I recognize. Westfield is famous for their uhh… Strange battle doctrine. There's Saint Abigail's, semifinalists in last year's national tournament, and… Err.. Dallas… independent" She said, coming to the realization that the strange girl who had angrily berated her at the convention would be there.

"What's with the pause" Sydney asked. "They a big deal or something?"

Mariah explained the situation to them nervously, explaining how she went out of her way to yell at her. She laughed it off, trying to dismiss her as an inconvenience and not let on that she had indeed been intimidated. She knew it was silly after all. Even if she had to fight the girl, there was no reason to treat it like any other match. Lyn and Matt seemed to buy it and, though Sydney clearly did not, she decided to let the matter go for now.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, arriving at the hotel the team was staying at around 4 in the evening. They were grouped into rooms by their teams, with Tempura divided into two. Stretching her legs, she got out of the bus and headed inside. Girls from some of the other teams were scattered about the lobby, but luckily there was no sign of Dallas Independent, Mariah figured they must have already been in their rooms. After checking in, Mariah was about to make a dash for her room in order to avoid the slightest chance of this changing when Miss Weaver tapped her on the shoulder.

"Not yet. We need to go see who you're playing first tomorrow."

"Oh. Where do we go to do that?" Mariah responded, caught off guard.

Miss Weaver pointed at a booth out front and Mariah groaned. There was a girl in Dallas independent's tankery uniform, a dull Blue-grey jumpsuit, clearly meant to approximate urban camouflage. Even with her back turned, Mariah recognized her as Sandy, the girl from the convention.

"Err, are you sure I need to be here?" Mariah asked, hiding behind her instructor.

"Yes. Is something the matter?" Miss Weaver asked, concerned by her student's sudden change in attitude.

"MARIAH!" Sandy yelled out, turning around, approaching her angrily. Mariah sighed and crept out from behind Miss Weaver.

"What is it?"

"Be thankful these organizers wont let us stomp you right off the bat! We'd kick your ass so bad you'd need the whole week just to fix your damn tanks! Seeya at the end of the week when we stomp your faces in!" she said, dismissively and stormed back off into the hotel.

Miss Weaver was shocked at the sudden outburst. She couldn't think of anything to do other than turn to Mariah and ask "You know her?"

"We've met… Briefly." Mariah said, not explaining herself further.

"Ahh, well some people are just like that. Let's go see what we'll need to do tomorrow."

The two of them walked up to the desk, inquiring about their match.

"Well, you'll need to report to battlefield 3's deployment zone B at 1100 hours tomorrow. Your tanks are in garage 8 in the concession area. Just follow this map and you'll be good." She said, handing Mariah two maps. One was of the battlefield, helpfully labelled as such at the top. The second showed the town in relation to where the tournament was taking place. The tournament was divided into four separate square battlefields with a concession area in the middle, where their tanks were stored, Mariah realized.

"Is this all?" She asked the lady at the booth.

"Not quite. Here's the tournament schedule" She said, handing Mariah one last document. She scanned it, seeing that they would indeed be fighting Dallas independent last in the tournament. That wasn't important for now, though, so her eyes darted up to the top of the document.

"Clear Ditch vs Westfield High." She read out loud.

"The Royal navy huh? That's gonna be a fun match!" Miss Weaver said, laughing.

"Seems like it. I'll brief the team in the morning." Mariah said, putting the maps and schedule in her pocket.

"Sounds good! Go get some rest, you'll damn well need it" her teacher said, before heading off to her own room.

Upon getting permission from her teacher, Mariah retired to her crew's room. As hotel rooms go, it was relatively sizeable with two beds. That being said, she took the couch, uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping in the same bed as someone else, let alone a boy. Sprawling out on the couch, she booted up her laptop again, which proved a sufficient distraction for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, Mariah didn't quite have to get up as early as usual. With the match starting at noon, she got up at 7:30 along with the rest of the team, hopped back on the bus and headed to the concession area. Mariah would have liked to brief the team on the bus when she had a captive audience, but unfortunately, she only had a third of the team on her own bus. As such, she just relaxed at the back of the bus as it drove through the desert. 20 minutes later, the buses finally arrived at the concession area, opening the door and dumping them out in front of the open garage. With the team assembled, Mariah took her chance.

"Our opponents today are the rather strange Westfield high! Their primary vehicle is the TOG II, or TOG for short" she said, pulling out a picture for reference. There was a spattering of conversation on the tank, of which the only bit Mariah could made out was one girl calling it a "long boi" making her stifle a laugh before calling the meeting back to order.

"The TOG is very slow and not particularly heavily armored, especially on the side. The only real strong point is a good 17 pounder gun. With their size and lack of speed, tracking their movements should be easy for you!" she said, gesturing towards the crew of the scout tanks. "Just try not to get spotted and bug out if you do. It isn't like they can chase you. From there, we'll track their movements and ambush them accordingly. This battlefield has two roads, going around a large Mesa in the center. They will likely stick to the roads. Trying to navigate this rough terrain in a TOG would be… difficult. We'll send one scout down each road and plan our ambush from there."

With that done, the team took to their tanks, doing the last bit of maintenance before rolling out toward their deployment zones. They topped their tanks off on fuel and waited…

And waited…

And waited…

"Why did we get up so early again? We've been her an hour and there are STILL 15 minutes left until the match starts, one student complained.

"I don't know, it wasn't my idea!" Mariah said. "Blame Miss Weaver."

Mariah struggled to occupy her mind until the start of the match, counting down the minutes and then the seconds until the match began.

And then… BANG! Mariah ordered the tanks forward into the desert as the match began.