Chapter 10 - A new mantel passed
6th April - JSF battlefield, 11:19
Sarah and Darjeeling had made their way up to the grandstand, to watch the Saunders vs St. Gloriana match. They both made themselves comfortable, but Sarah could feel thousands of eyes on her and Darjeeling, all coming from the Saunders supporters. Many believed a rumour going around that St. Gloriana had purposely poisoned Kay. It didn't help that Kay was still not one hundred percent, so she would not be participating in the match.
The battlefield was rather different. For one it was very, very small; maybe about three square miles at most. The other oddity was it was based on a Normandy beach during D-day. A town was on the beachfront, with open countryside with thick hedgerows and sunken roads. Sarah had only seen one other match that had a beach and it was the Ooarai and Chi-Ha-Tan vs St. Gloriana and Pravda match. The plan was simple, the Infantry tanks would take the town and the Chindits would go into the countryside and pincer the Saunders tanks moving into the town. Five points were the goal today; Sarah was confident; she just hoped her confidence transcended to the battlefield.
There was an added pressure on this match as well, as Pravda had been handed an automatic five point win over Anzio, this battle was a must-win now if St. Gloriana were to keep in contention of winning the league. Anzio, it turned out, had forfeited their match to take part in filming for a pasta commercial of all things. The word on the grapevine was that the school had been unexpectedly approached with a very lucrative offer, but the date had clashed with the match. Unfortunately, Anzio needed the money and hadn't been in a position to refuse, so Pravda became the automatic victors of that round.
6th April - JSF battlefield, 12:00
The match had begun with a white poof of smoke and the Chindits shooting off into the thick hedgerows, as the lumbering infantry tanks rolled towards the town.
"Ladies - you know the plan. Lets get this done." Orange Pekoe said rather calmly, and the three Matildas advanced in an arrowhead formation, with the Churchill tank trundling slowly behind.
"Rosehip - any targets so far?" Orange Pekoe asked.
"No, nothing," Rosehip replied, her head sticking out of the hatch as wind plus the odd bug crashed into her face.
"Good. Continue to point A then on my signal advanced to point B," Orange Pekoe said as she neared the town with her escorts. 'We have the speed advantage - use it,' was the sentence that kept rebounding around Orange Pekoe's head.
6th April - JSF battlefield, 12:12
The four Chindits tanks thundered their way through the countryside, the small town still in sight "Tanks!" the radio shrieked. "Four stationary Sherman Jumbos."
Rosehips Crusader came to a stop on a sunken road with hedges along the side, giving Rosehips Crusader some good cover. She jumped out of the hatch, and stood on top of the turret, on her tiptoes just just being able to peek over the hedge. She could see four Jumbos in the field in front of her sitting still in a straight line about 400 meters away. It seemed they had not spotted the Crusader as none of the turrets had turned to face Rosehip's direction.
She bent down and put her hand into the turret, taking out the microphone. "Chindits get to my location of A13. Be quiet, we have dinner waiting for us."
Rather suddenly the Cromwell slid into view beside Rosehip's Crusader. Green Gunpowder as per normal had her head out and was scanning for targets. Green Gunpowder looked over to Rosehip still standing on the turret top. "Four tanks. In a line facing slightly west of us," she mouthed and mimed with her hands. Green Gunpowder gave a nod of understanding. The other two Crusaders joined Rosehip's other side and she repeated the same message.
"Status report Chindits," Orange Pekoe asked.
"Four Jumbos ahead of us. Looks like they may push into the town from your eastern flank. We will destroy them."
"Chindits fallback you can't take them on," Orange Pekoe said back with her Churchill coming to a stop in the seaside town, in a strong defensive position. "The area is too well defended. This could be an ambush."
"Miss Orange Pekoe we have the surprise and speed advantage, give us a chance" Rosehip begged, the Jumbos being slow lumbering beasts, an easy target for the fast and nimble Chindit tanks, and Rosehip knew this. But Orange Pekoe felt that something was wrong; it seemed too easy.
"No, fallback, that's an order Rosehip" Orange Pekoe said resolutely.
Rosehip looked out of the turret towards the Jumbos. She placed her hand into the turret of the Crusader and took out a teacup, taking a quick and large gulp of her tea. She picked up the microphone pressing the speak button. "Chindits! Attack their flank. Hit their sides and rears hard!" she said with much conviction, throwing her teacup to the ground where it smashed as it landed on the sunken road. The tanks sprang into action, charging through the large bushes in front of them with Green Gunpowder's Cromwell leading the way. All four Shermans moved into line abreast with calm and well-drilled order. The turrets turned to what must have been their first target, the Cromwell. All 75mm shells fired one after another, the first two shells closed in.
"Hard right." Gunpowder yelled, and the tank veered as the shells flew by crashing into the trampled bushes behind. The violent action was, however, the perfect for following shells, as they crashed into the Cromwell's side and turret and the white flag raised.
"Shit! We are out! Go get them Rosehip!" Gunpowder said bashing the inside of the turret with her fist at her annoyance for being the first out.
The Shermans turrets turned again and fired, hitting and knocking out Cramberry's Crusader with the first shell.
"Vanilla go left, I'll take right!" Rosehip ordered with both tanks then splitting.
The Chindits closed in ever closer to their targets only 10 seconds away, The Sherman's split their aims two on Vanilla the other on Rosehip. Vanilla was taken out at close range only 10 meters away from the line of Jumbos.
Orange Pekoe listened with one ear on the battle outside the town from the top of the commander's hatch of her Churchill, with the other ear on the radio transmissions. "Rosehip! Fallback now!"
"No!" Rosehip replied, as her Crusader weaved, missing the two incoming shells and getting to the side of a Jumbo at the end of the line. This was her chance to get revenge. The Jumbo began to turn its turret and hull to present its thick frontal armour and also allow the other Jumbos line of sight on this advancing grey predator.
The Sherman, however, was still too slow and sluggish. The side armour was ready for the six pounder shell to slam against it. "Fire…" Bang The white flag appeared over the Crusader. "What the…" Rosehip opened her hatch and looked down at the hull front where the impact had come from. She drew a line with her finger from the shell hit forward. Sticking out of a bush was a long gun with a rounded muzzle brake.
"We are four tanks down meaning we have given up two points in the table and our eastern flank is now exposed," Rukuriri stated, looking at her map she had placed down on top of her Matildas turret roof.
"Rukuriri that is noted," Orange Pekoe said, rubbing her chin. "The odds of winning this battle with all five points were unbelievably small. We will destroy their flag tank. It's the only course of victory. Rukuriri, take Nirgili and make sure they can't get behind Peach and I. Also, have the engines turned off. We defend hard until there is an opening. Then we will advance and take out the flag tank."
"So the Chindits are eliminated?!" Alisa asked over the radio with her tanks stationed just on the outskirts of the seaside town.
"I can confirm four tanks used by the Chindit force have been destroyed" came the voice ending in a bubblegum pop. "I wasn't even really needed for support, the girls took down the Cromwell with ease and the rest fell like dominos. I wanted to fire the gun really and seemed to hit the last one. Would you like me to join you Alisa or stick on the hook force?"
"Continue with hook force. We will place pressure on the town as that's where they must be with their flag tank. Five points is a must now. We will win this for Kay and to teach those cheating St Gloriana's girls and their vile commander Orange Pekoe a humiliating lesson," Alisa looked around at the entrance of the town ahead of her. "Evil Temptation and Hell's Kitchen, advance ahead of me, we will just pin them down. Understood?"
"Yes commander Alisa", "Understood commander," both tank commanders replied back. With both tanks creating a line of three Easy Eights, they rolled into the bricked fortresses town.
The infantry tanks of St Gloriana remained quiet, their engines off to make any chance of being found by use of sound to be diminished but having the opposite effect of helping them to hear any Saunders tanks approaching into their trap.
"I can hear tanks moving from the west, do you concur Rukuriri?" Orange Pekoe asked, listening intensity standing on top of her Churchill, with one of the entrances to the town ahead of her position covered in large debris and shell craters.
"I agree Miss Orange Pekoe, four Sherman Jumbos were spotted with the force attacking the Chindits. But none of those were the flag tank. So there is a possibility one of these tanks coming in is their flag tank."
"Tanks! Three entering west in entrance two, Shermans with 76mm AT guns. I can confirm one is the flag tank, one is the flag tank" Orange Pekoe's escorting Matilda called out down another of the entrances only a street away from Orange Pekoe's Churchill.
"Place down suppressive fire to slow their advance, I will be offering support," replied Orange Pekoe climbing down into the Churchill. The Matilda opened up with its puny two-pounder gun.
"Tank ahead or tanks I cannot verify a number." The shell hit and bounced clean off the lead Sherman, as if it were a bug off a windscreen.
"Fireback then, don't let them get away," Alisa called from the rear of the convoy.
The lead Sherman fired in the direction of the Matilda, only hitting some of the large pile of building debris, with brick and wood splinters flying in all directions. The only positive of such a small gun was the insanely fast reload, as shell after shell crashed into the lead Sherman. Finally, enough lead had hit the fan, as a shell hit the turret ring locking the turret in place.
"Hell's Kitchen here. Our tank is damaged and we cannot turn the turret. Can we fall back?" came the nervous voice of the tank's commander. The lone Matilda start firing at the next target with the same ferocity.
"Yes, fall back, it seems they have set us up an ambush. They must have more tanks here that we can't see firing at us. We will flank them on the beach," Alisa called back.
The radio was rather silenced with the sound of metal on metal singing as they crashed into one another. "Understood Alisa but ..."
"No buts, we do this for Kay!"
The Shermans moved back, setting off a smokescreen to cover the entrance guarded by the lone Matilda.
"Miss Orange Pekoe the column is falling back behind a smokescreen. Your orders?"
"Hold your position, I'll attack them on their flanks. Once I call to advance, then you can charge through the smoke," came the reply
"Yes, Miss Orange Pekoe."
Orange Pekoe loomed over the map at her hands of the town. The hammer of the flanking force that destroyed the Chindits would be attacking from the south or west of the town she reasoned.
"Rukururi, Nilgiri, I need you two to buy me time. If the Jumbos attack the town I need you to slow them as long as possible."
"Yes Miss Orange Pekoe" responded Rukuriri.
"Yes, commander," Negril called back.
This was the only time they could take the initiative, with Saunders engaged in the town.
"Driver - slowly around this corner. Gunner, be ready," Orange Pekoe said cautiously. Risking the flag tank was something she really didn't want to do.
The tracks clattered on the cobbled road, the gun pointing in the direction of the last known location of the column. As they rounded the building ahead of them, Orange Pekoe saw that the tanks were no longer there, but a blue flag on a thin pole betrayed the departing Saunder's flag tank. The small flag waved and started to sink out of sight as the tank it was attached to drove down a ramp from the seawall to the sandy beach.
"Driver advances quickly," Orange Pekoe ordered. The Churchill immediately lurched forward trying its best to catch up with the Shermans.
The Shermans spread out in line abreast with Alisa's tank in the middle as they drove onto the sandy beach. "Easy does it," Alisa warned her driver, as once leaving the safety of the concrete ramp, the tracks began to sink into the beach.
"Full power! Get us moving forward!" Alisa commanded. The tanks tracks slid on the countless meagre stones, sliding around in the same spot and sinking ever deeper.
"We are stuck!" Alisa's driver yelled as she tried to reverse the tank back to the safety of the concrete slipway. But as much as the engine revved and tracks span, the tank seemed to slide deeper and deeper into the beige swamp.
"Can anyone still move?" Alisa called to her troop. The response was not what she wanted to hear, all tanks were mired by the sand.
Orange Pekoe listened to the sound of the Shermans high revving V8 engines. She couldn't believe her luck as the sources of the noise came into view. Some of the Shermans had got stuck at different points, with the flag tank isolated. The side of the hull was perfectly aligned and the gun was still pointing ahead of it facing the sea.
"Move to the sea wall to target the flag tank," was Orange Pekoe's transmission to the crew. Reaching the sea wall, the 75mm depressed to target the side of defenceless flag tank, and with one pull of the trigger the match was over. St Gloriana had won against the odds.
Orange Pekoe climbed out of her Churchill, to thank Alisa for a fair game. However, Alisa didn't seem to want to come out of the tank. Orange Pekoe made her way over to the Easy Eight as she climbed the tank with its two waving flags. She looked down into the open commander hatch. "Are you hurt Alisa?" she questioned the commander, who was sitting with arms folded on the commanders' seat.
"I'm fine thank you. I just didn't want a repeat of what happened in the Ooari match," Alisa snapped back.
"But that was just an accident?" Orange Pekoe protested, amazed anyone could be that suspicious.
"Well, I wouldn't want to take the risk you know," Alisa said as she pushed herself up to meet Orange Pekoe, who in turn offered Alisa her hand, which she grabbed and lifted her out into the fresh sea breeze.
"An understandable concern. The gun is facing the complete other direction and is pointing into the sky just for good measure," Orange added with a nod light grin. They climbed off and Alisa leaned against the side of the tank as they both talked about the match, before Orange Pekoe's loader came out to meet them with two steaming teacups in hand for both commanders. Of which one was accepted and one respectfully declined.
12th April, Darjeeling's Apartment, 12:32
The highlight of Sarah's week was finally getting the bulky cast removed from her leg. Luckily, this simple procedure was done at the much more homely and agreeable nurses' office in the school, rather than heading all the way to the dreaded hospital. She was surprised by how thin and pale her leg looked once it was finally released from its plaster prison. She was certainly not a fan of the large and still pink scar on her knee from where the surgeon had put it back together after her fall down that flight of concrete steps into the basement that seemed like it was ages ago.
The removal of her cast was not the end of her treatment, however, as she was duly presented with two heavy braces by the doctor. One was for her knee; a chunky black monstrosity with velcro straps. The other was even bigger and resembled a large black ski boot, complete with more velcro straps to hold it in place on her lower leg, ankle and foot. Sarah was very unimpressed with her new medical appliances, hoping she might have been free of such things, but she did have to admit they were an improvement on the cast. These at least could be taken off when in the shower or bath or even in bed if she didn't have any pain.
Her arm, sadly, remained in its plaster cast as it still hadn't healed enough to allow for it to be removed. Nonetheless, by being very careful that her arm didn't go in the water Sarah was able to have her first bath for weeks, relaxing in the hot water for nearly an hour before getting a bit frisky with Darjeeling afterwards.
13th April, Darjeeling's Apartment, 13:56
Sarah was home from school, as she had a half day. Her school day had been quite good and although the fracture boot and knee brace made her limp still, it was much easier to walk in how she could bend her knee a bit. With that in mind, she was soon going to go out again to see Orange Pekoe to ask about the possibility of returning to an active role within the Sensha-do team. She was fairly confident that she could fulfil the role of a tank commander, although she did have one or two doubts about her mobility still. She was practising her walk, limping up and down the corridor, when Darjeeling arrived back from the library.
"I look like a robot!" she complained to Darjeeling after they had greeted each other.
"No robot has ever looked as gorgeous as you!" Darjeeling replied, making Sarah giggle. "But did you know the word 'robot' derives from the old church Slavanic word 'rabota' meaning slave, and you're no slave my little teacup. Besides, it makes you look very heroic!" she added giving Sarah a little pat on the head.
"I'm not sure about that heroic part… and my toes are exposed at the end of this medical boot thing. It looks silly!" Sarah whined.
"Ah, I know just the thing to cheer you up!" Darjeeling said with a smile of triumph and disappeared into the bedroom. Sarah was sure that whatever it was that Darjeeling was going to get, it wouldn't be just the thing to cheer her up, and this was confirmed when Darjeeling returned with a bottle of purple glitter nail polish in her hand.
13th April, The Tea Garden, 15:05
Sarah was on her unevenly-paced way to see Orange Pekoe at The Tea Garden. She also suspected Rukuriri would be there, as she seemed to be wherever Orange Pekoe was these days. Sarah had dressed in her red uniform complete with lucky beret. Her uniform was immaculate and well ironed, but she didn't like the look of the pair of braces on her left leg. Even less to her tastes were her five sparkly purple toenails at the end of her bad foot. She had tried to get Darjeeling to change her mind, but Sarah found she always ended up giving in to whatever Darjeeling suggested. Today had been no exception.
After a noisy ascent of the stairs and an alternately heavy-gaited walk across The Club Room, Sarah saw Rukuriri also heading to the commander's office. Their paths intersect halfway across The Club Room.
"Hi," said Sarah, trying to be civil as humanly possible.
"Hi," said Rukuriri. "Wow, what have you done to your toenails?" was her first question.
"Darj… I… er… painted them" Sarah said, blushing and annoyed that this was the first thing Rukuriri had commented on.
Sarah and Rukuriri reached the door at the same time, knocked and went in. Orange Pekoe, looking a little overworked, was inside with a desk full of papers.
"Ah, my two vice-commanders!" she said, trying to sound friendly. "Good afternoon Rukuriri; good afternoon English Breakfast. Wow, your toe nails are bright!" Sarah blushed again as Orange Pekoe said this.
Sarah was determined to for Orange Pekoe to hear her first before whatever it was that Rukuriri wanted, so she piped up immediately, explaining that she'd had her cast removed from her leg; she could bend her knee again (mostly) and she was confident that she could return to an active role in the team. Orange Pekoe looked dubious while Rukuriri shook her head.
"It's not the practice of St. Gloriana to allow injured students to participate in Sensha-do until they are fully healed," Rukuriri stated.
Sarah was ready for this argument. "What about Rosehip?" she shot back. "She was allowed to participate in a practice match while her ankle was still in plaster!" Sarah said, referring to an occasion the previous year.
"That's not the same; that was a practice match only; she was getting that cast off the very next day…" Rukuriri began to argue. Orange Pekoe held up her hand.
"Nonetheless, English Breakfast has a point; we do sometimes permit it," she said. Rukuriri scowled. "There is, however, a safety test," Orange Pekoe went on. "Especially after recent events, this is more important than ever. Although Sensha-do is a very safe sport, tanks can occasionally catch fire. If you're not in a condition to get out of a tank and well clear of it – at least five metres away – in under twenty seconds, then we can't let you compete."
Sarah had been aware there might have been some sort of test she'd have to undergo, and so wasn't phased by this.
"Whenever you're ready to test me, I'll do it," she said. "This afternoon in fact. Now, if you want?"
Orange Pekoe and Rukuriri looked at each other before Orange Pekoe shrugged and picked up a phone on her desk.
"Hanger four? Can you drive the Cromwell out onto the practice field for me? We'll be down in fifteen minutes," she said into it. Turning to her two vice-commanders. "Okay, we will head down there in a bit, but before we depart Miss Rukuriri could you inform me why you gave this information out to the Kuromorimine spy?" She took out a picture of Sarah giving one of her strategy meetings, pointing to a map on a table with all the main team members clustered around it.
"This is Kuromorimine's best 'spy'. She would be able to get information like this," Rukuriri said rather defiantly.
"What is this?" Sarah asked, rather confused.
Rukuriri sighed out of annoyance, "This is Operation Double Cross. Assam passed this on to me. All the spies from all schools are double agents working for us,"
Sarah looked at the picture as Orange Pekoe began to speak. "This looks way too staged. Look at the angle of the picture; how would a person get into that spot? I would think something was up if I was a part of Kuromorimine's intelligence department," she said. Sarah nodded in agreement.
"Any information being sent from Operation Double Cross will be examined by me personally from now on. Understood, Miss Rukuriri?"
Rukuriri snatched the photo off Orange Pekoe's desk. "Yes Miss Orange Pekoe."
"Okay, then you two head down to the garages. I'll be down in just a moment," the commander said.
Sarah and Rukuriri left the office together, with Sarah feeling pleased that whatever it was that Rukuriri had wanted would now have to wait until after her safety test.
Outside the office, Rukuriri turned to her once the door had closed.
"Just a word of advice, Miss English," she said coldly. "Nail polish like that with your uniform looks ridiculous, although honestly thinking that you could compete in Sensha-do with your leg like that and your arm not even healed is even more ridiculous. I just hope you are not wasting my time - and the team's!" With that, she strode off ripping the picture up and dumping the remnants on the floor, leaving Sarah to make her slow way to the practice field alone.
The Spring League Tournament: Round 4 results
Saunders University High School 2-v-3 St. Gloriana Girls' College
Anzio Girls' High School 0-v-5 Pravda Girls' High School
Chi-Ha-Tan Academy 2-v-5 Ooarai Girls' Academy
Kuromorimine Girls' Academy 5-v-0 BC Freedom High School
The Spring League Tournament: League table after Round 4
1st Kuromorimine Girls' Academy - 18
Joint 2nd Ooarai Girls' Academy - 17
Joint 2nd Pravda Girls' High School - 17
4th St. Gloriana Girls' College - 13
5th Saunders University High School - 9
6th BC Freedom High School - 7
7th Anzio Girls' High School - 4
8th Chi-Ha-Tan Academy - 2