Chapter 13- How things should be done

24th April, St. Gloriana sensha-do meeting room 16:12

As was now usual in the Tea Garden, there was an argument going on. This time the subject was the tactics to be used for the upcoming match against Pravda, which was no doubt going to be tough.

"Look, I'm not saying it's without risk," Sarah suggested to the table full of tank commanders, but her point was really aimed squarely at the head of the table, Orange Pekoe. "I am saying it's the best way to pull off a quick victory."

"Just look at that road," Rosehip said. "It's high, straight and narrow. It's totally exposed. Any tanks going along it will be picked off like sitting ducks!" Her finger ran along one of the black wobbly lines on the map situated in the dead centre of the table.

"But consider the alternative" Sarah protested, pointing with her good arm at the map. "The only other way to get to Pravda's lines will be through the rocks here; through here which is low-lying and probably a bog; and then through this village. It's long and just as dangerous, and what's more, Pravda will be expecting us to come this way. We need a quick dash up the road into their lines! Like the cavalry, hmm?" Sarah tried to make a joke to raise some smiles, or possibly encourage Green Gunpowder to side with her proposal, but it didn't work. No one smiled.

"Why do we even need to get into their lines?" Rukuriri asked. "Why not just wait for them to come to us?"

This was immediately shot down not just by Sarah but by others too.

"Wait for the Russian steamroller to arrive?!"

"If we hold back, their heavy tanks will make mincemeat of us!" came a chorus of protests.

"Exactly, their IS-2s and KV-2 will tear us to shreds" Sarah said, making her point extremely clear. "No, we need to get in there quick and knock out their flag tank."

Orange Pekoe sighed and put her hands on the table. It was a tough decision to make and she knew she was the one who was going to have to make it.

"Because the road is so open and exposed, they will assume that we won't use it," she announced. "We will therefore have the element of surprise. I would expect the majority of their force, if not all of it, to be deployed around the village on the right. We'll therefore go straight up the road in one single column and then fan out when we reach point 278 here. We would have the high ground, and also be behind them," she said.

"They will only need one, at the most two, tanks or tank destroyers to cover that road" Rukuriri complained.

"Which is why we will lead with our own heavy-hitter; English Breakfast has finally got her tank a Challenger," Orange announced to the delight of the girls around the table, with Sarah holding back a smug smile. "But speaking of, I need to have a word with you Miss English Breakfast about using this tank." Orange Pekoe she said making beaming eye contact with her. "Ladies the meeting is over. Enjoy the rest of your day."

All the girls stood and left the tea room, leaving only Sarah and Orange Pekoe remaining in the otherwise empty room.

"Let me be clear I want you to participate in the match. But we have one problem. It being, you have to complete your safety test before being able to fight."

"Okay, that's fine I'll do it," Sarah said without hesitation.

"That's good to hear. We will head down to the training grounds and do the test " Orange Pekoe said rather excitedly.

They both walked or hobbled down towards the hangar housing the Cromwell that bore a Pegasus badge.

"Okay, get in, make yourself comfortable and wait for my whistle," Orange Pekoe said, displaying the whistle and the timer on her phone. Sarah obliged, timidly she began to climb up into the tank, finally coming to rest in the dark confines of the Cromwells turret, and sliding comfortably into the commander's seat.

On hearing footsteps on the hard concrete behind her, Orange Pekoe swiveled on the spot to see the brown long haired ponytail of Rukuriri swishing side to side. "You're making her do the test then?" the newcomer queried.

Orange Pekoe nodded.

"Why isn't she doing the test in her own tank?" Rukuriri questioned as she made her way to Orange Pekoe's side, with her arms crossed. Orange Pekoe said nothing and blew her whistle.

Sarah instantly pushed the hatch open, and shot her chest up through the hatch. Learning from her last mistake she put her good foot on the seat and then her bad one followed suit, with one big heave she pushed herself up and out of the tank, then guided herself off the front using the barrel as a handrail, finally hobbling the short distance as fast as she could to complete the test.

"She did better than before," Rukuriri said as blandly as a bottle of tap water. "Did she pass?"

Orange Pekoe looked down at the stopwatch on her phone, which was tilted so Rukuriri couldn't see it, frozen at the moment she had tapped the screen. It showed 31 seconds.

"Yes." Orange said firmly, deleting the time immediately.

"Are you sure, that looked a little slow," Rukuriri countered.

"The clock doesn't lie, and she passed," Orange Pekoe confirmed as she glared back at Rukuriri.

"Congratulations, Miss English Breakfast. You're back on the team!" she yelled over to Sarah who was hobbling her way over to the two girls.

"Yes!" Sarah exclaimed so chuffed with her effort that a large smile was forming on her face.

"I was thinking, Miss English, that you would need an experienced crew and a crew you can trust. So your girls Peppermint, Honeybush and Jasmine Pearl, will be allocated back to you," Orange said.

"Thank you, thank you," Sarah said, reaching out to give Orange Pekoe a hug. "They would be excited to use the Challenger! I still think it has that new tank smell," She added with a small grin.

"That's great to hear. I will have a word with Miss Green Gunpowder about this," her commander finished.

Sarah glanced over to Rukuriri who looked livid at every word Orange Pekoe said, but held her tongue.

24th April, St. Gloriana Sensha-do Head Office 18:03

Sarah stood outside of the grand oak doors of Orange Pekoe's office. Inside the office were Orange Pekoe and St. Gloriana's young ace, Green Gunpowder. The thickness of the oak doors made hearing what was being said extremely hard to understand, but it was a lot of muffled yelling, although from only one person.

"Fine then!" Green Gunpowder bellowed slamming the oak doors wide open. "Ah here is the bitch in question!" Her eyes fixed on her target as she yelled at Sarah. "Taking my crew away from me. Just because you have your own tank. Woopty do. I wonder if Darjeeling knows you shag Orange Pekoe on the side just to get your way?" she blurted out. "Who am I kidding; she most likely approves! That blonde bimbo," Green Gunpowder said with a vile hiss.

Sarah stared down at her and just looked at her, rather stunned at the audacity of such smears being thrown her way. Both held each other's gaze, waiting for the other to budge.

After a long moment Green made her move. "Fuck you and fuck Orange Pekoe. This school is going down the drain with you two at the helm and I'm not going to be on this sinking ship. I won't ever fight for you two ever again!"Ashe yelled as she stormed off down the stairs.

Sarah's eyes followed her watching her to the last step, where Green Gunpowder stopped and yelled. "ALL THE GIRLS WILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID!" She then marched out of the manor house.

25th April, St. Gloriana training field, 15:22

"I know you guys are looking forward to training with my tank," Sarah was saying to her returned crew. They came to a lone tank shed; a dark green, corrugated steel hanger, like a large Anderson shelter with the customary worn wooden sliding doors. Its size was only big enough to fit one medium sized tank at a push. "So here she is," Sarah said as the Challenger was exposed to the light in its shed.

"Meh," Honeybush shrugged.

"What? What's wrong with it?" Sarah asked, turning back to the light brown hair, double pigtailed girl.

"It's not as fast as the Cromwell and with the weight it will be more sluggish."

"Have you driven one before?" Sarah asked.

Honeybush remained silent.

"Then don't jump to conclusions. Um, Peppermint the turret is meant for two loaders for the 17 pounder. You think you can..."

"Yes it will be fine," Peppermint responded blankly, moving past Sarah as if she was a shadow on the floor, with Honeybush following in Peppermint's footsteps.

Sarah moved over to Jasmine who still remained by Sarah's side. "What's wrong with those two?" she asked in a low tone of voice.

"They don't like how you treated Green Gunpowder in the meeting yesterday," Jasmine answered.

"She was still to use the Cromwell. Orange Pekoe thought it best to have an experienced crew use this tank against Pravda..."

"Yes I know but they have the utmost respect for her and her achievements…" Jasmine looked as the other two got comfortable sliding into their positions, "... I would ask you to say sorry to them,"

"No. Why would I?" She sighed and shook her head. "They just don't understand, but thank you Jasmine for telling me, I knew I could trust you of all people." Sarah then placed her hand on the muzzle break of the 17 pounder. "You'll have to tell me how well this fires compared to a 75 on a Panther."

Jasmine looked at her a little perplexed. "How did…"

"Erika told me. But hey, you must just forgot to tell me. No biggy,"

26th April, St. Gloriana school building, 11:55

"Thank you sir," Sarah said leaving her history classroom. It was now a common custom for all the teachers to let her out slightly earlier than the other students, if she was to leave on time she would never make it to her next class on time, and in the process slow everyone else down in the corridors. Hopping down the stairs from the floor above, a girl wearing a black bow, clinging to a couple of books close to her chest walked past her heading down towards the library.

"Assam! I need your help with something," Sarah she asked in a rather loud whisper.

Assam stopped, she spun around to face the cripple climbing up the last step holding onto the railing for dear life, "Of course. Do you need a hand?"

"No, no, I'm good," Sarah said as she lifted her bad foot onto the floor of the corridor.

"What can I help you with?"

"I need your help…" Sarah's voice quieted to a hush. "I think Orange Pekoe is a spy,"

Taking a strong grip of her books with one hand, she moved her free hand and began to pat Sarah's head. "Funny joke; I'll give you a better one..." Assam cleared her throat, "Did you know Karl Marx had a sister, and she invented the starter pistol. Her name was Onyar." She waited for a response of laughter, but nothing came back from Sarah. "So is that all?"

"No no I'm serious about this, I think she is," Sarah said a little more firmly. Assam looked around the corridor which was still bustling with students walking. Assam moved past Sarah to a classroom door. She opened it to see it was empty, looking back to Sarah she nodded her head and entered the classroom. Sarah followed her in, and Assam closed the door after she entered.

"Look you know I'm not allowed to get involved with the Sensha-do team any more. Darjeeling isn't getting involved so I won't," the third year girl explained.

"Assam, please. She wanted us to lose to Kuromorimine on purpose. She did everything in her power to stop us using the Firefly. And she's been acting really weird since that Ooarai match," Sarah argued.

Assam put her hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Being the commander isn't just about commanding the team. There are more things that happen behind closed doors that force her hand," she explained.

"Are you sure Assam? I trust you more than anyone else. Please don't lie to me about this. So you vouch for Orange Pekoe?"

"Yes. But… Before I moved on there was information regarding a spy in St. Gloriana. She goes by the name of Redwing. My suggestion to Rukuriri was to find her and turn her into a double agent. I'm guessing you know about Operation Double Cross." Sarah nodded back in recognition.

"We have done this many many times. There's a reason why I knew so much," Assam smiled.

"Ok. Um, thank you Assam." Sarah said with a bow.

"No problem. And anyway how's Darjeeling's cooking?" Assam asked cheekily. Sarah just shook her head. Assam, as quick as ever in reading the signals, carried on. "Hopefully, the sex makes up for it" she smirked. Sarah turned bright red.

27th April, JSF battlefield, 13:13

Sarah's beret blew lightly in the wind caused by the Challenger moving at speed, binoculars at hand.

"Any tanks spotted?" Orange Pekoe asked.

"Nothing, all is clear." The plan was coming to fruition, and the hill was coming into sight only six minute's drive away, and only a couple of houses to pass about 800 meters away, then it would all be smooth sailing.

"Miss English this is going great! We can beat Pravda!" Peppermint exclaimed with great abundance of glee. Sarah felt a little warmth tingle inside of her, finally it felt like her crew was back as a team again. She looked up to the houses on the right of the road, but something didn't sit right. A black snub tube seemed to stick out in-between the houses.

"Peppermint AP. Jasmine, aim for the houses. Honeybush, slow down a tad," she commanded lifting her binoculars. The clanging of metal came from inside, followed by the cry: "Clear to fire."

"We may have contact with an enemy tank in between the houses," she explained. Sarah's sights landed on a familiar shape as a sloped T-34-85 rolled out turning its turret towards Sarah's Challenger.

"Stop! Enemy tank! 800 meters!"

The tank lurched to a halt.

"Firing!" The bullwhip crack of the gun shot the projectile out with Sarah watching the shell come into view slamming into the side of the T-34-85's angled hull..

"Hit! White flag!" Sarah added as a rare satisfied grin filled her face.

"Why have we stopped?" Rukuriri questioned in a slightly annoyed tone which could not be missed to anyone listening. Before Sarah could ask Peppermint to change the set to speak with the other tanks, a call from Rosehip brought shivers down the whole of her spine.

"TANKS ON THE FLANKS!"

Sarah leapt up to look to the right out of the commander's cupola. She instinctively straightened her left leg as she moved, and there was a sudden horrible crunching sensation in her knee as she did so. She screamed and fell down, sliding back into the tank.

"ENGLISH, ARE YOU OK?!" Jasmine yelled over the screams, catching Sarah's head just before it could hit the cold hard steel of the huge 17 pounder gun breach.

"WE HAVE TO MOVE NOW!" Rukuriri bellowed over the radio.

Jasmine fubbled trying to grab the microphone once she took a firm grasp, she switched the radio to the B set and responded to Rukuriri. "Miss English is injured," she yelled. A hesitant Jasmine bumbled back with Sarah's sobs of pain being heard over the radio transmissions.

"We have to move now!" Rukuriri again shrieked as Sarah, incapacitated by pain, rested against the breach with Peppermint shaking her head.

BANG! A metal thud hit the Challenger's turret and the sound of the white flag raising followed immediately after.

Three more thuds crashed into the sides of other tanks in the column from both sides of the elevated road. Knocking out the rear most tank and the two bracketing Matilda's in front and behind Orange Pekoe's Churchill Flag tank. "Ambu.." Orange Pekoe yelled over the radio scanning the horizon with her binoculars, before she had even finished her words an unstoppable beam of light crashed into the Churchill's side, and the flag raised. The massacre was over before it had even begun. IS-2s and T-34-85s rolled out from in between shrubbery and other hiding spots on both sides of the road, The whole of the Pravda team was here. The Pravda crews dismounted and began to celebrate the victory as if they had just won the whole tournament.

Rukuriri stormed out of her tank and climbed up towards the Challenger, looking down into the open commander's hatch. "YOU! YOU LOST US THIS MATCH! THIS WHOLE TOURNAMENT!" she yelled down at Sarah, who looked helplessly up at Rukuriri.

"No ... I couldn't, I..." Sarah said back, pleading with Rukuriri.

"YES YOU DID! If we had Green Gunpowder instead of you, we had a chance. But you forced Orange Pekoe's hand. If she was here she wouldn't have done something so stupid!" The whole of Sarah's crew looked over to Sarah, all of their faces said a thousand words, but the most obvious expression was one of disgust.

"Shut up Rukuriri! Leave me alone" Sarah yelled back covering her crying face as she did. Rukuriri's footsteps vibrated around the hollow turret, with her climbing off and walking back kicking some of the fragmented metal that was thrown off by the hit of the shell's impact on the Challenger.

"Sarah. Is it true? Did you force Green Gunpowder out? Or just take her place? I … I just don't get what's really happening behind the scenes," Jasmine asked somewhat controlled but rather on the side of her friend Sarah, over a fuming Rukuriri.

Sarah knew it was serious; she couldn't lie about this, it would destroy the already crumbling team morale. It didn't help that Jasmine only ever used her real name if it was absolutely serious. "I would never lie to you or this whole crew, you are some of my most trusted friends..." The silence spoke for itself. As the light from the open turret hatch slowly began to fade, she looked across to her crew; from the driver's compartment then slowly rolling her head over to the loader's side, then across to Jasmine. She could feel the burning stare burrowing in her skull "I never asked for Green to be removed from the team. I swear," Sarah voiced into the void.

"You know what Miss 'English'. I'm not buying this. Gunpowder gave us hope, she would do anything to win. If she was in your position, not being fit to fight, she would have not fought at all! Nor get someone more capable kicked out!" Peppermints bark echoed around the hollow tank. Sarah just listened, trying to still make sense of what was happening while lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the turret basket. Before she could muster a plea, Honeybush lifted open the hatch, climbing out of the tank. The sound of the drivers hatch being open and a couple moments later, the hatch was slammed down internally hard.

Sarah looked up to the last crew member in the Challenger, the light from the open hatch perfectly covered Jasmine making her look like a biblical saint as Sarah lay at her feet. "...please don't go..."

Now only Jasmine was left. "I don't know what happened, but I know you don't lie," Jasmine's tanned hands opened offering an escape from the turret basket. Sarah grabbed her hands as Jasmine helped her to the commander's seat.

The Spring League Tournament: Round 6 results

Anzio Girls' High School 2-v-5 Saunders University High School

Chi-Ha-Tan Academy 2-v-5 BC Freedom High School

St. Gloriana Girls' College 0-v-5 Pravda Girls' College

Kuromornine Girls' Academy 3-v-2 Ooarai Girls' Academy

The Spring League Tournament: League table after Round 6

1st Pravda Girls' High School - 27

2nd Kuromorimine Girls' Academy - 24

3rd Ooarai Girls' Academy - 21

4th Saunders University High School - 19

5th St. Gloriana Girls' College - 15

6th BC Freedom High School - 14

7th Anzio Girls' High School - 9

8th Chi-Ha-Tan Academy - 6

A/N: A massive thanks to the people who proofread this chapter as I and Sharky just needed a fresh pair of eyes on this chapter in particular as big things are planned in the near future.