The lights flickered on. The third morning for Taeko. The weakened. She'd yet to be assigned a tank, so her days had consisted of boring lectures.
But today was her first day of PE, and she was excited about it. However, As she rose, she noticed something. Walking fast over to the edge of the cell, she gazed curiously at a brunet in the cell. Why does Miho have dark brown hair? Taeko asked herself.
"You're from Ooarai, aren't you?" the girl asked shakily.
Taeko glared at her. "You know full and well I was commander, considering I was on your team," she hissed.
"I'm sorry...but I'm Maho, Miho's older sister."
She didn't apologize. As far as she was concerned, Maho was just as bad, even if she'd be unable to answer why at first.
"So, what'd they get you on?" Maho asked.
"A...accessory to murder," Taeko mumbled. Still can't believe that I was sentenced to that... she mused.
"Attempted assault in my case," Maho sighed. "Mother told me it might not be a good idea for me to go to Miho's trial, but I went anyways. I know she'd did wrong, but she's still my sister and I care deeply about her. Anyways, when her verdict was read allowed, I was fine with her being sent here for five years."
"So how exactly does that get you charged with attempted assault?" Taeko asked, wrapping her fingers around the bars.
Maho glanced down. "When they informed Miho that she'd get the death penalty if she failed the program, I lunged. I...I guess I was angry that they'd kill my precious sister. Thankfully a guard stopped me, and though he was furious with me, the judge sent me here as a rank two. I'm guessing you're also a rank two?
Taeko nodded. "Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't sent me in as a rank three. Supposedly all of Ooarai's radio operators are being sent in straight away as rank twos, and so I'd have been a rank three if the judge hadn't sent me over as a rank two before that decision was reached."
"You were a Radio operator?" Maho asked, surprised.
Taeko nodded slowly. "Yeah...of the Type...89."
"I'd never have guessed. That must have been scary," Maho breathed.
"It was...I mean we had no idea what had happened...then Sasaki fired on the crew of the Maus..." Taeko paused. "I...I'm so sorry about that," she gasped.
Maho sighed. "It wasn't you Taeko"
Taeko sighed in relief.
"Alright prisoners, time for breakfast, then you can go to the gym," The guard called out.
Breakfast was simple, they got a chocolate chip pancake, and a big one at that, along with a bowl of cereal and milk. Taeko was thankful that they weren't fed Cal-cakes, the mere thought of eating one of those awful tasting monstrosities was enough to make her feel sick. But otherwise the routine was the same, you don't waste anything. You even had to drink the milk the cereal was in, much to Taeko's disfavor.
Arriving in the locker-room, she gazed around, noticing that her locker was five. "I wonder what that number means?" she asked.
"Supposedly means that you're number five," Erika noted.
"Wait you're hear too?" Taeko gasped, surprised.
"We're here as well," Saori announced, Yukki by her side. "They split the Anglerfish up, and none of us know where Miho is," she added.
"So far I'm the only one from the Rabbit team and I only got here about an hour ago, on the ship I mean." Yukki mentioned, her voice subdued.
Taeko felt a rush of pity for them. "What about Erwin?" she asked.
Saori and Yukki shrugged. "No idea."
"Right, we'd better get dressed then," Maho announced, making her way over to her locker, number six and taking off her clothes. Taeko joined her.
"Fuck...my...life," Maho muttered as she took out the gym clothes.
Taeko studied her track-suit, noting that it was the thin, airy kind, though long sleeved. She also noticed tennis shoes at the bottom, and hoped they fit. Surprisingly, they did.
After the girls got dressed, they entered the gym where a guy was waiting. While the Ooarai girls seemed impressed at the carpeted gym, the other girls save Maho had different expressions on their faces. Some seemed relieved, some glanced at them in pity.
"Alright girls, line up!" he shouted. Taeko followed in step of the other girls beside her.
"Right, now you new girls, tell me your names if you will," he boomed.
"Taeko Kondou," Taeko saluted.
"You trying to be cute Missy?" he growled, walking over.
No...no sir!" she stammered, taken aback. What'd I do wrong? She panicked.
Before she could react, he grabbed her, bent her over, and begin whipping her. "Stop it!" she shouted at pain and shame reared up through her.
Surprisingly, after about five swats, he did, standing her up. But he wasn't done with her as he suddenly grabbed her head and forced her into a kiss.
No...not like this! Taeko panicked as he felt his tongue slide over hers. It wasn't her first time kissing, but she had never been kissed like this before. In all honesty, the rational part of her brain was telling her to bite down as hard as she could, but the electricity and embarrassment...the shock of the situation prevented her from even moving.
"Hey, that's sexual harassment, you can do that to her!"
Taeko gasped as he let her go, but she felt no relief as he went over to Saori, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her to a back room. "I'll so you sexual harassment," he muttered.
She wanted to puke, as she couldn't bear to think what her ginger haired classmate was going through in there. She was just trying to defend me...Taeko realized numbly.
About ten minutes passed before they came out again. Saori was blushing bleat red, but otherwise seemed fine other than being scared. "Right, now that I've got your attention...wait, there's an odd number of you, so the old girls will guide the new girls into excising. And you," he pointed to Taeko menacingly. "You will massage my back while they work."
Taeko froze again, but nodded. "Yes sir."
"I'm your coach, not a sir," he muttered, sitting in a chair and indicating for her to stand next to him.
Taeko sighed, walking behind him, surprised when he took off his shirt. "You may begin," he ordered.
Stifling another sigh, given she feared he might force her into yet another kiss...or worse, she began to gingerly glide her hands across her back. As she did so, she begin to reflect. These hands have the student council's blood on them...and now coach is wanting me to use them to massage his back. He may be a deplorable man...but...is he really comfortable with this? Or is he just enjoying the physical contact and not giving a damn where it comes from?
All through the workout she massaged his back. "You might be my new favorite," he whispered, causing Taeko to freeze in place momentarily. "Th...thank you coach," she whispered quickly, covering her her fear.
"Good, now that you've all stretched, you lot go play some volleyball." he yawned.
She shot forward excitedly, but felt herself being dragged backward, fear instantly shooting through her body. "Not you Missy, you're the MPV for the day."
Taeko sighed longingly as he forced her to sit right in front of him and watch the others play the game she loved. Before she knew it, she felt his hands on her shirt. "Take off the top," he whispered.
Obeying with shaky hands, she did, sitting it off to the side, trying to resist the urge to cover up her now naked breast.
After an hour or two, he decided to let her play at the last second. All too soon Taeko found herself washing off the day's sweat in the showers. She noticed in particular that Saori was drinking the shower water, as if to get rid of an awful taste of some sort. Not that she could blame him as she wanted to get the Tobacco taste out of her mouth as well, though she suspected that whatever he did to Saori was so much worse.
"To think I had to hold hands with that fucking creep," Maho muttered beside her.
"You didn't get a breast massage," Taeko sighed, remembering the awful feeling that surged through her as he glided his gruffly hand over her silky smooth yet sensitive skin. Turning to Saori she decided to ask. "What did he do to you?"
Saori instantly turned red as she spat out some water. "I...don't want to talk about it."
Maho sighed. "I think I know what he did, but it's really best not to ask about it," she whispered to Taeko, before returning to her washing. "Stupid men," she added under her breath.
Sighing, Taeko resumed washing, drinking some of the water to try and get the tobacco taste out of her own mouth.
As she returned to her cell, Taeko was tempted to talk to Maho, but now Yukki had joined over in her cell, and the two were slowly getting adjusted to each other's company. Deciding what she needed was a distraction, she glanced at the book self and took out Warriors, fire in ice, and began reading where she had left off.
A distinct sobbing entered the cell block, and Taeko dropped her book, edging to the cell wall. To her surprise, she saw a flood of her old classmates arriving in cells. Caesar, Hoshino, Aya, Ayumi, Aoi, and a few others Is...is everyone from our school being sent here? She asked, disturbed.
None of them were placed in her cell, with was mostly fine with Taeko. Even though it had been days since Fuentes Flower girl had been dragged off, she was by no means in the mood for a cell mate yet. She shrugged, and turned back to her reading.
Not that she could. Over to her left Hoshino kept rattling the bars, yelling for her to be out, that this was kidnapping, and all sorts of other things. After some time she actually started cussing at her and Maho.
Taeko just sighed and tried to read, but Hoshino's accusations keep bugging the living hell out of her.
"Alright, that's enough, shut up in there!" one of the guards called out. Hoshino just turned and started cussing at the poor guard.
He opened the door, and Taeko didn't think twice about it until she heard rapid rattling nearby. She looked up, gasping at the sight of a rather irate Hoshino rattling the bars to her cell.
"I'm gonna kill you little duck, you and you're little volley-bitch companions!" she shouted as an officer pried her off, and handcuffed her, leading her to who knows were.
Taeko remained froze. She threatened to kill me! she fretted. It took her a good thirty minutes to break out of her stupor. But she didn't return to reading, instead she walked up and looked out of the cell.
Left from Maho's cell she noticed that Ayumi and Aoi had been paired, and to the left of that, Saori and Aya. To Maho's right stood Caesar and Erika.
Most of the people now had a cell mate, and for the first time Taeko felt left out, but she didn't complain. She certainly didn't want Hoshino after the brute threatened to kill her. Admittedly she didn't know much about the girl, she'd barely been active on the team for a few days and while she was on the automotive team and thus worked on the tanks, and it had been Nakajima who had instructed them on the type 89.
Sighing once again, she turned and laid down on her bed, too exhausted to do anything else.
Bright lights erupted the next morning, and Taeko yawned, hoping that this day would be better.
Classes was boring as usual, especially considering her hands were cuffed behind her back, she was told that since she had no roommate it wouldn't be fair to the other prisoners if her hands were cuffed any other way. Taeko doubted it, but she didn't dare complain. Two and a half years was much more preferable to thirty two years.
There was nothing more to do than wait.
After class, they were loaded up into a transport, in handcuffs of course, and drove to what appeared to be a lot. Exiting the team, they were lined up.
"My name is instructor Sanguraz, and I am the Sensado instructor here at Blue division high school. You girls are a part of the experimental 444 th Spare sensado squadron, and such will be assisting our regular members with practice on top of participating in the league matches when and where possible.
"Rikona, if you will," the instructor called out, and a rather tall brunet girl with lime green eyes stepped forward, her brown hair swaying behind her back. "Right, I am Rikona, commander elect of the spare squadron, though since I'm still in training, I won't officially be in command until Commander El deems my training complete."
Gazing around, her eyes landed on a brunet that Taeko she didn't know. "Mika, you were the commander of Jatkosota High school, correct?" she asked, walking up to the girl.
Mika nodded, her Brown eyes glistening with worry. For some reason she seemed really scared.
"Good, then for the time being you'll be temporarily assigned as field commander of the Spare squadron," Rikona noted.
"Right, for the time being you'll be assigned to the lower teir tanks," Rikona decided. "Mika, you'll be commanding the T-26. Taeko and Akibe will be your gunner and driver respectively. "Maho, you'll be commanding the CV-33, Erika will be driving.
In the end, they ended up with the Panzer II 5cm mod, T-26, both Cv-33s, Bt-7, and Type 89. Not the best load-out, but still, it was something they could fight with.
Surprisingly, though it shouldn't have been, the spare squadron girls had tracking anklets attached, which really irritated Taeko, though she didn't have much ability to complain. She was technically fighting to earn her freedom, and if she had to have irritating anklets to convince the authorities that she was sorry for her part in the incident, she'd just have to grit through it.
"You two ever been in Sensado before?" Mika asked as she opened the top for her.
"I'd...rather not talk about it," Sasiki muttered as she climbed into the driver's seat.
Taeko gazed at her friend sympathetically, before turning toward Mika. "You've never heard about what happened during the finals?" she asked as she climbed in.
"No, I arrived here about six weeks ago," Mika sighed sadly as she climbed in. "What happened?"
"I...was an idiot." Sasika sobbed, but to her credit she held it in and recomposed herself.
"Good afternoon ladies, I am your Tank Warden Control System Operator, also called a TWCSO. My job is to unlock your tank's engine and guns at the appropriate times, and to shut them off when you decide to be an indo-plastic ridiculous," a feminine voice on the radio announced.
"What's an Indo-plasitc Ridiculous?" Taeko asked, confused.
"It's what your little blond friend over there in the driver's seat was when she fired into the crew compartment of Kuromorimine's Maus," the TWCSO ranted.
Akibe at once started sobbing.
"Oh grow up brat!" the TWCSO groaned. "You're gonna have to live with what you did, there's no use crying about it. This is the best mercy you'll ever receive, got it."
"Yes ma'am," Akibe sobbed, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Good, Amelia's giving the green light, so I'm going to unlock your tank. For the record you girls are going into the forest section of the map, and will get a one minute head start over the regulars. You're not expected to win. You are expected to make things as difficult as possible. Understand?"
"Yes Ma'am," Taeko chorused alongside her crew.
"Akibe, you going to be okay?" Taeko asked after a bit.
Her friend just sighed, and started the tank, carefully moving forward. "I'll...be fine," she sighed.
"She's turned into quite the driver," Mika noted. "But enough about that, do you know about gunnery?"
Taeko sighed. "Not really, I just operated the radio back at Ooarai."
"I'll give you the crash course then," Mika smiled.
El stood upon the tower, using her binoculars to see what the students were up to. It was the first time the spare squadron had been their opponents in a match, and she was eager to see how they handled this situation.
Amelia let out a small hum beside her. "Kinda nostalgic huh?" she asked.
"Aside from the Type 89, yes," El noted. "Still hard to believe that was our line-up for the longest time. Kuromorimne was quite generous to let us buy our new tanks several weeks ago on the cheep."
The tanks she was referring to was an array of Panzer III's, IV's and Stugs, though the Stugs were not participating in this match. They were instead working on their gunnery skills as their crews were not used to firing such a large case-mate gun, having graduated from the dinky little CV-33 machine guns to the comparative German behemoth.
"So far their formation is holding together," El observed.
"Alright ladies, Sensado starts with a Bow, and ends with a bow, so Bow!" Amelia called.
A chorus of "Let's have a good match" erupted through the radio.
"Maho, head to point 64, it's on your map is you need it. Akibe, we'll be heading to point 89, then moving downward if we hear nothing from our own crews. Saori, you'll be following us as backup."
Taeko knew that Saori was commanding the Type 89, and she wasn't too sure how she was supposed to feel about that. In the past the idea of somebody else operating her tank was would have made her skin crawl, yet now the vivid imagines of the day her innocence died flooded through her mind. I'm not even sure I want that tank on our team anymore, if it's really the Duck.
"Erika, stop on the outset of the trees," Maho commanded, her former vice commander obeying on the dime. Maho slowly slid the lid off of the tankket, using her binoculars to observe her surroundings.
"Commander, this uniform is too aery," Erika muttered.
"Tough, you shouldn't have fired on that tank rescue operation." Maho muttered. "And if I hadn't brought the Maus to the match, me and the others wouldn't have been here. You might have just gotten off with in-school discipline," she added, sorrow filling her voice.
After a moment, she ducked in and grabbed the Radio. "Field commander Mika, this is Maho, we've got the column of tanks moving in a rather tight formation."
"Understood, pull them into area 71, we'll bait a trap there," Mika commanded.
"Rodger, will do," Maho cut off the radio. "You got that Erika?"
"Understood," Erika noted, running out of the forest in a zig-zag pattern before running back into the forest. Maho even let out a flurry of machine gun fire to further tempt the bait.
Rikona's lime green eyes closed as she took up her radio. "Just leading us into a trap, nothing to see here," she called out to her fellow teammates.
"You're pretty sharp," Andalusia commented.
"I've had a good teacher or two," Rikona smiled.
"Should we take them out Field commander?" Alma asked from her Panzer III.
"Negative, let them tank, for now we have the armor and firepower advantage, and we can cover each other. However, if they come back and you get a good shot, take them out."
"Understood," Alma hummed.
Maho let out a spat as she got on her radio. "They're not following us! What's our point if we can't even lead them into a trap?"
"Thought you were supposed to be a calm and methodical Nishisumi," Mika chimed.
"Baka! I was disowned for charging that judge, I'm not Nishisumi and I sure as hell don't need to act like the damn frauds!" Maho ranted.
"Here she sits, a Hime," the TWSCO squealed sarcastically over the radio.
"You're not helping," Maho muttered.
"Commander Maho, get a hold of yourself!" Mika shouted. "Look, just shadow them for now, their panzers are the later models so your machine guns won't have much effect."
"Riiiight..." Maho deadpanned.
El smiled as she noted the CV-33 trailing the group of Panzers. If Rikona wasn't going to give chase, which was the wise thing for her to do, then Maho trailing them was the most wise thing for her to do. Even in her weakened state, she's still a cunning opponent, she mused, not yet realizing that she only began trailing them on Mika's orders.
Letting out a small sigh, Mika had to come to a decision. "All units aside from Maho's CV-33, we're going to try and ambush them from behind, so head to point 80, and head due west until point 84, then swing downward. That should land us quite comfortably behind them. We have our scout, which gives us an advantage."
Taeko knew just how important a good scout was, after all, she'd played the scout several times in the Type 89, with her weak armor and gun it was about the only thing the ducks were good for outside of tankket and limited light tank fighting.
"Rikona, I don't see them anywhere!" Alma shouted.
"They must be shadowing us then, Mika knows we only have three Panzer IV's and four Panzer III's, And since El isn't participating in this match, and the Stugs are busy, both sides have equal numbers on the field.
"So what should we do? You're the commander for this match," Andalusia commented.
Rikona closed her eyes for a brief moment. "Tristana," she begin," Take your panzer III and settle the score with the our little CV-33 friend. Everyone else, continue going on your path and then dip south in three minutes."
"Rodger," Tristana nodded, breaking off and moving behind them.
Once again El was pleased with the intern spare squadron commander, or rather her potential deputy commander as it were. She had anticipated Mika's plan to the letter, and only sent one of her tanks after the CV-33. In a way it was a gusty move, as the enemy could have sent backup to take out any interceptors, thus weakening Rikona's forces.
However, Rikona had deliberately given the spare squadron the bare crumbs to work with for the moment for a reason. In any match against a respectable school, they would be outgunned. Only the Chi-nu, T-50, and M3 lee were of any good relative decency in a match, and so these girls had to be tested before they could enter those tanks. Plus, there was no reason not to include the entirety of the spare squadron when they were useful as scouts and distractions.
Thus, Rikona was conditioning them to fight against overwhelming odds now, so that when they took heavy losses in an actual match, they wouldn't be caught off-guard. In fact, such a match was actually scheduled to take place in about a month.
But that could wait. Right now El wanted to focus on the match at hand so that she could give Rikona some constructive criticism after the match...and heaps of praise, she earned that at least. Mika too.
Maho didn't have time to realize what has happening. The first thing she was was a splash of green and brown rush past her, the next thing she noticed was that her tank was rolling. Thankfully, the required helmets and elbow pads included in the CV-33 kept her and Erika from suffering too much damage, but she noticed a very shallow but long cut on her thigh and a large bruises on her left forearm.
"We're out," Maho sighed over the radio as she quietly got the first aid kit out and poured the hydrogen peroxide over her cut, then wrapped it in swaths. It was barely bleeding, something she could consider herself lucky with. "Damn tankkets," she hissed under her breath.
Taeko noticed Mika shuddered. "Five on six, now," she whispered.
"Want us to go and scout some more?" Yukki asked over the radio.
"Negative, you'll just get taken out." Mika sighed.
"So, what now?" Taeko asked, glancing up at her commander.
"Now we fight until we're taken out." Mika glanced down at her, pity in her eyes.
"That's it?" Taeko squeaked, alarmed.
"My friend, we're the cannon fodder for the main team. That's all we are. We fight tooth and nail to win, but in the end, we're expendable. If we ever win, then it means something went seriously wrong for the main team and that they need to redouble their training."
"I don't like this," Taeko muttered. "But I for one consider myself lucky to even have that mercy. Thirty two years for accessory to murder..." she shuddered.
"That's what they got you on?" Akiba and Mika gasped.
"Ye...yeah," Taeko whispered.
"I...I'm so sorry!" Akibe cried out.
"Don't..." Taeko whispered. It hurts to see you so distraught and in anguish over the guilt of what happened, she added silently.
Suddenly, Taeko felt a rocking in the tank, and blinked as the knock out flag was deployed. She sighed, slumping down as she heard her fellow teammates firing, but seemingly to no avail.
"Hm, the Verdja managed to take out Tristana's three, and one of the fours is detracted...but that's really it." Mika sighed. "We'll have do better next week."
"Next week?" Taeko gasped.
Mika nodded. "Yeah, every Sunday we have practice matches. Great fun."
Taeko wasn't too sure that constantly loosing was any fun, but she didn't dare complain. Instead, she sighed as she was informed of the post match procedures, and was whisked away to the showers.