The luminous high-explosive shell detonating over Nakajima Island served as an indication for the launch of a general attack of the confederate artillery. From the surrounding hills ten SU-14-1's, three Wespes, three Grilles, and six Hummels unleashed their volley. The grenades flew in a high arc then fell into the lake causing high water columns or hit the walls of the fort or detonated between the woods of the island. Törni was observing the effect with his binoculars. By the order of the first general the self-propelled guns progressively fired a shell every two minutes counterclockwise. He wanted to save the ammunition as he predicted he was able to maintain a continuous fire for only 48 hours. The regular tanks didn't take part in the attack, just a few Stugs and the two SU-100's fired once at high intervals.
Torvald was standing with his vice-commander Erik in the hillside watching the besieged JSF fortress. The two dark figures were lit from time to time by the cannons of their Hummels.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time." Odin's commander said with a grin on his face.
"Same here min kommandant." Erik replied in Norwegian. "Too, too long time."
The whole valley of Lake Toya echoed from the bombardment on the fort and aroused the nearby living people from their sleep. They came out into the darkness before dawn and watched the shells fall into the water and detonate inside the fortress.
"What's happening daddy?" a little girl asked holding his father's hand before their house. All of them were still in pajamas.
"That happens when people don not listen to each other." The father replied staring. "Promise me sweetheart that you'll always listen to your fellow humans! 'Cause we are all brothers and sisters on this little planet!"
"I don't really understand dad." The girl said confused.
"You'll someday." Then the man turned. "Dad! Aren't you coming to see this?"
"No son." An old voice replied from the inside of the house. "I've had far enough of this stuff back in 1944-45."
The citizens just couldn't believe what was happening. One minute they had sweet dreams in the next they woke to sounds of war between two sport associations.
Tokyo
Ami was waked by powerful knocks on the door of her apartment. When she opened it sleepily she saw a colleague of her Ajibana Amaya who was also an instructor.
"Amaya, are you crazy?" Ami said rubbing her eyes. "Even the sun didn't rise now."
"Ami it has begun." Amaya panted heavily. It looked like she was running to Ami's home.
"What has begun?"
"Turn on the TV I still cannot speak!" Ami turned on the appliance and she saw the breaking news. The camera showed the dark valley with the lake and Nakajima Island in the middle under heavy confederate bombardment.
"Well. At least that depressing waiting is over." Ami said in an inexpressive voice. "I really sorry that I had to leave the Federation with these circumstances."
Nakajima Island
"Take cover!" Trout shouted from the depth of her lungs. As the shells started to scorch the island's terrain all girls rushed to their tanks got in and closed the manholes. "Do you hear me Miho-san?" She said into the radio of her MK VIB.
"I do Trout-san. What are your orders?"
"Take firing positions on the western side of the island! But do not shoot back until sunrise! We'll take care about the other directions!"
"Understood!" Miho replied. "Saori-san! Transmit the order to the others! At first Anglerfish, Leopon, Turtle and Hippo will take positions; the others will wait behind us!"
"Yes, taichō!" Saori said. The Oarai team rolled to the western shore of Nakajima Island, then the four named teams rolled to the portholes. In this second a Hummel's grenade slammed right before them sending a mixture of water and cement flying.
"Attention teams! Report to me!" Miho ordered.
"Hippo ready!"
"Turtle ready!"
"Leopon ready"
"I'm ready commander." Hana said finally looking at her crosshair.
"We are waiting until dawn girls, we don't have too much ammunition!"
"Miporin. Are we really able to defend ourselves?" Saori asked confused.
"Their artilleries are too high; we cannot elevate our guns so much that we can hit them." Miho said with a disturbed look on her face. "And their tanks are well dig into the earth. "We can't threat them seriously."
"Then? What should we do?"
"We shall hold out. Hold out until help arrives."
When the first sunbeams appeared the four Oarai tanks opened fire at the confederate forces of Odin, but Miho was right, the shells hit the earth only or glanced off the frontal armor of the enemy turrets.
Meanwhile Maple tried to resist the fire of Tsar Peter and Mannerheim but again, they couldn't pick up the fight on equal terms with the much stronger boy's teams.
Tokyo
As the directorate heard about the siege in Hokkaido a crisis meeting was held at the JSF HQ. They wanted to decide how they should send support to Maple and Oarai.
"Our teams will hold themselves! For God's sake they are only facing boy's schools! Those damn rebels don't know what fight really is!"
"I'm not so sure about that! If the Confederacy was just a joke, why should we even send any support?"
"You know what? You are right! We are doing nothing! Our teams will show them how insignificant they are!"
"Are you mad? I want Pravda to move to Hokkaido and free Maple and Oarai!"
"Don't make me laugh! It's totally unnecessary!"
The debate went on through the day. Some wanted to interfere; others wanted the evacuation of Nakajima Island as a sign of good intentions and again others didn't want to send Pravda or any other girl's schools because they thought it would be a sign of weakness.
Nakajima Island
"FIRE!" Miho ordered and Anglerfish, Turtle, Hippo and Leopon unleashed another salvo, again without any effect on Odin's tanks. On the other hand the woods, tents and many of the equipment caught fire inside the federal fort after hours of gunfire. The girls tried to extinguish the fires but mostly they had to stay inside the tanks because of the enemy shells. The walls still stood but at some places big pieces were missing from them.
In meantime the boys continued the siege without reducing the pressure on the girl's teams. Around noon the press arrived and made an interview with Törni.
"What do you think about that the Japan Sensha-Do Federation accuses you with aggression? And that you are shooting Nakajima Island now?"
"I'd like to ask them what they are thinking. How could we be aggressors when that fort was made to threat us at the gates of our own schools?" The first general of the Hokkaido Battalion replied.
"What do you think? Is there any chance to reunite the Federation?"
"You pose a delicate question. If I asked you what would you answer? Too were too many grievance, too many things have surfaced from us." At that moment Aaron pulled Törni aside.
"They say Pravda's tanks gathered together in the port of Aomori." Said Mannerheim's vice-commander. "It looks like they will come here."
"Really?"
"It's sure this time."
"Send a dozen of our tanks to the roads to Muroran, including two JS-2. If it is necessary barricade the roads and open fire at them if they appear."
"Yes General!" Aaron saluted.
Aomori
To the annoyance of Katyusha, the weather started to deteriorate.
"Nonna! Any good news from the forecast?" She asked looking at the waves of the Tsugaru Strait which were starting to grow bigger and bigger until the small tank carrying ferries of Pravda were unable to sail out.
"Not really." Nonna replied. "It will not change until tomorrow."
"Shit! It's just a perfect timing!"
"Я надеюсь, что они продержатся до полуночи завтр. (I hope they will hold out until tomorrow midnight.)" Klara said.
"Speak in Japanese!" Katyusha said annoyed.
Nakajima Island
At evening the goddess of fortune sided with the girls for a short time. It started to rain and the fires inside the fort went out. The garrison of the island completely stopped shooting for the night.
Normally, the girls would have dug holes under the tanks and they would have slept there but because of the rain they had to sleep in their vehicles. However their sleep was disturbed by the possibility of a night-time landing. Who knows if the boys have amphibious tanks? From close distance it would be no problem for them to break through the gate.
But the boys didn't have tanks like that. They could only count on the bombardment. The confederate artillery reduced its activity to four shots per hours for the time of darkness. The crews of the Hummels, Wespes, Grilles and SU-14-1's were glad, they were pretty tired for they were loading and shooting for more than 12 hours. Törni sent them to sleep and the self-propelled guns were manned by crews of other tanks during the night.
"They are pretty good." Ivan said to Igor as they were standing in a tent looking at the island.
"To tell the truth I didn't expect that they will be able to resist until now." Igor replied.
"Kiyoshi was right. This younger Nishizumi sister is somehow different than the rest of the JSF."
"You think so?"
"Yes. She is a perfect opponent. Yes, she is an opponent for me not an enemy."
"But she is just the second in command in the fort."
"Never mind. She is still a good opponent I ensure you."
At morning the Confederacy started shooting again intensively.
"Send iron to every square centimeter of the island! Shell them until they are at the edge of madness!" Törni ordered. By noon multiple fires were raging on the island. Luckily to the girls the reserve ammunition was held in fireproof boxes. However, they didn't have too much of it now.
"Commander, we are disabled!" Miho heard Isobe shouting in the radio. "We are sorry!"
"Don't blame yourselves girls, you were great. Just stay inside your tank!" Miho replied to the crew of the Type 89.
Trout demanded a double effort from her garrison but the boy's artillery also intensified its activity.
Despite the hostility, many of the boys admired the determination and endurance of the girls. When the fortress's tanks didn't fire, the boys often cheered and applauded. They had to realize that these two girl's schools which were smaller than the most famous ones, had much more honor camaraderie than Kuromorimine or Pravda or any other famous person of the JSF.
At afternoon when the fort's situation became critical and a few tanks were disabled the flagpole waving the Federation's banner was defeated by a hit. This raised some doubts in the confederate lines that perhaps the enemy was indicating their intention to surrender.
Until now Aaron was just watching the battle from his Panzer IV but now he decided that it was a sign of that the fort already had enough. He asked Törni to cease fire then he took a boat and sailed to the mole of the island. Trout and Miho went to greet him.
"You, girls defended you flag in a glorious way. You did everything possible and General Törni wants to end this fight. Under what conditions are you willing to evacuate the fortress?" Aaron said.
"A few minutes please." Trout said and walked away to negotiate the offer with Miho. "What do you say Miho-san?"
"He said evacuate not surrender. And he was right we were at disadvantage, there is no reason to us to be ashamed."
"Hmm." Trout looked at her unites. Her ammunition was depleted and all the girls were exhausted and hungry. Honestly holding their positions until now made her satisfied. They could hold the island for nearly one and a half day. The boys also offered a free withdrawal so after all the settlement was created. The garrison laid down the gun at the middle of the afternoon.
The federal tanks lined up at the gate then rolled to the mole and sailed to the shore of the lake in small groups with small boats. A few tanks which were hit had to be pulled. To the girl's surprise all the boys stood into attention on top of their tanks and saluted them as they were heading out of the valley.
Miho looked back to the smoking island. The flagpole was standing again and a new flag was climbing up on it.
Now the boys were standing under Nakajima Island's flagpole and they raised the banner of the Confederacy of Independent High Schools. It was blue with fourteen yellow stars (representing the fourteen boy's schools) inside a black shield with a tank on top of it.
Two days later
After the attack on Nakajima Island the JSF directorate ordered a full mobilization in order to reconquer the lost federal property and regain control over the boy's schools. The girl's teams listened to the news from Tokyo in their radios.
"I am speaking to you from the Headquarter of the Japan Sensha-Do Federation. This morning the federal delegation in Matsuyama handed the confederate leadership a final warning in we have warned them that if they do not stop their intentions to break away from the Federation and if by 12:00 they do not pull back their forces from former federal territories, a state of war will exist between us. I have to tell you now, that no such agreement has been achieved. Consequently the Federation is at war with the Confederacy of Independent High Schools." Said a bit worried female voice.
As a reaction to that Kyousuke held a speech to his friends and comrades.
"I am speaking to you in gray hours. The circumstances do not have to be explained, you all know them and the prophylactic events. Over and over again we have tried to find a peaceful way-out. But it has been in vain. We have been forced into a conflict with a power that would destroy everything we created if it wins. I ask all of you to stay calm and strong. If they want war, let THEM start it! If we believe in ourselves and in the freedom we shall prevail!"
The speech triggered a huge applause all around the Confederacy. But the boys working on the communication in Matsuyama had a little problem in Conquistador's studio. To broadcasts you need not just wires, microphones but music too. They were searching for music everywhere until they found a couple of old CD's in a cabinet. There was the Japanese anthem, a plate with folk music, an operetta and… Beethoven's Egmont opening. The Conquistador guys had a friend with them from Szent István and he offered this to play after Kyousuke's speech. It passes to the situation, not to mention the Hungarian revolutionaries also played this during the revolution of 1956. So after Kyousuke has finished they put the CD into the machine and Beethoven's piece started with its soul shaking hits. After it was over they played the "The times they are a changin'", then the marches of each boy's schools.
The Die Wacht am Rhein for Landsknecht, the Bella Ciao for Stromboli, the Hohei no Honryo for Seinarukaze, the Hail Columbia for Diamondback, the Bajtárs for Szent István, the Canto dei Sanfedisti for Conquistador, the Scotland the brave for Bannockburn, the Tipperary Song to Sherlock Homes, the I am Australian for Uluru, the Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze unsern Kaiser unser Land for Habsburg, the La Carmagnole for De Gaulle, the Nordmannen for Odin, the Farewell of Slavianka for Tsar Peter and Kaunan on Kärsitty for Mannerheim.
Kiyoshi's POV
Kiyoshi was looking into the darkness of the night with his binoculars a few kilometers away from Niigata.
"Our company has arrived boys! Did you hear me Augustus?" He said into his throat microphone.
"Of course Kiyoshi-san! Let's dance!" Stromboli's commander replied. From the woods the combined forces of Bonple, Jatkosota, Anzio and Viking Marine emerged. They formed a big, curved line from east to west. They stopped about 1500 meters from Landsknecht and Stromboli. Then one of Anzio's Semovente's gun flashed.