Chapter XXXVII: The Stonewall
Flagpoint El Alamo
Ulysses S. Grant Tank Battling Ground
Arizona, United States of America
Japan charged with their tanks formed a 3 large triangle in wedge configuration. The foremost triangle occupied by Erika's Tiger Company, and two other triangles, each in the first's full backs, are Sherman Company, with Miho led 5 tanks on right flank, and Mika led the rest on the left. It's a classic Panzerkiel-like charged, with heavy tank in the center and lighter tank on flanking position. On the other hand, United States charged with lean, bow like formation. Nine tanks in front row are T29 "Little Miss Sunshine" , with 8 Sherman Jumbos on her wings; and behind her, in diamond like formation, are 8 Pershings with T29 "Sweet Home Alabama" in the center.
Erika glanced forward, straight into the eyes of Aaliyah Jackson. Both their tanks were in collision course into each other, but none seems willing to withdraw. T29 is a tough enemy, even for a Tiger, but Erika wasn't daunted by that.
"Fuku Taichou! We're in position!" said Orange Pekoe via radio.
"Roger, Pekoe and Marie, provide us with supporting fire! Carpaccio, aim for any enemy tank that slipped from our guard and about to enter our prong!" said Erika.
"Roger that!"
"Fuku Taichou, their formation could easily enveloped us if we're not careful," said Assam.
"And don't forget that in close range even Sherman's gun could kill a Tiger," said Naomi.
"Understood," said Erika, "Naomi, Assam, both of you could do precise shot on long range, fire dead-on to those Shermans."
"Dead-on?" asked Naomi.
"Yes, I want to see how hard their shell are," said Erika.
"Roger!"
Assam dan Erika took position behind their guns, and each targeting one Sherman. In any given day, Tiger could easily penetrate frontal armor of any Sherman. However...
"CLANGG! CLAANNG!"
Two shot landed on the same time, and two Shermans that got hit by Naomi and Assam wobbled for a while, but like a dog shake its wet fur, both Sherman just speed up and return to the line.
"Oh dear," said Assam, "we need shorter distance."
"Yeah, and the same distance their gun could easily kill us," said Erika, "Taichou, Mika, don't wait for my command, any moment you could flank them, just do it. Don't let them pinch you guys as well."
"Understood," said Miho.
"Front rank! Make ready!" said Aaliyah Jackson so loud that she outperformed tanks noise.
"Rear rank! Make ready!" said Caitlyn Lee.
"Take aim!" said Aaliyah Jackson.
Every gunner in their Sherman Jumbo now prepared behind their sight and targeting enemy.
"Take aim!" said Caitlyn Lee.
The Pershing now opened their ranks in loose diamond formation, with gun slightly elevated more than their Sherman Jumbos. Miho and Erika very much noticed about this maneuver.
"They're about to shoot!" said Miho.
"We can't let them do that," said Erika, "Girls, feuer frei! Fire at will!"
Japanese tanks fired at their enemies, not in volley manner, because Erika's intention was to disperse American line. The problem is, they don't dispersed. As if being held in short leash by the iron hand of Aaliyah Jackson and Caitlyn Lee, American tanks didn't even waiver by the raining shells of their enemy. Few of Japanese shells landed on glacis of the Jumbos, which acted as protective shells for the Pershings behind them, but none of them budged.
"Hold!" Aaliyah Jackson raised her arms as if she's flag lady that signals racer to prepare for a race. The tensions were growing on both sides.
"Second rank! Fire!" said Caitlyn Lee.
As the command goes, American Pershings then firing in unison, hailed a volley of shells into Japanese line. The shells landed mostly on or near Tigers' formation, and everyone is bracing for impact. A thick cloud of dust filled the sky due to massive unison bombardment. Fondue's tank got faltered behind by shell hitting on her side armor, but she quickly rushed back to formation.
"First rank! Fire!" said Aaliyah Jackson.
Haven't yet recuperating from the first volley, Japanese team suddenly has to face another hail of shells, this time by the Jumbos, fired on straighter trajectories. And due to wide array of Jumbos' formation, this hail of shells reach every spots in Japanese formation, from far right to far left. Tigers, once again, braced for impact, but Shermans frantically trying to evade the shells, as a direct hit could lead to their doom.
"Charge!" said Aaliyah Jackson.
All US tanks suddenly changed pace and accelerated, while the dust of the bombardment still haven't thinned a bit.
"Brace! Brace! Brace!" said Erika.
All Japanese Tigers then closed in a tight wedge or chevron shaped formation. Despite the heavy frontal armor, Tigers still outweigh Sherman Jumbos, and if they wanted to butthead, it'll be catastrophic for them, so they have to chicken out and disperse the formation, providing chance to be preyed upon by Miho's detachments. Or at least, that's what Erika's thinking. However, the dust still obscuring the battlefield, and Miho sensed something wrong with the commotion. Yes, she could feel that US ranks are changing, but in her horror, it's not like what they hoped for...
"Shermans! Evade!" commanded Miho.
"What? What's wrong?" asked Erika.
"They're opening the formation! It's a trap!"
"What!?"
Suddenly Erika felt heavy shadows moved passing her formation in both sides. Yes, both Jumbos and Pershings are dividing their formations to either side, avoiding the Tigers' wedge and targeting the Japanese Shermans instead.
"Evade! Evade! Evade!" Miho desperately shouted.
Shermans suddenly went in fray as they see the enemies coming toward them. All frantically tries to evade, forsaking their own formation to avoid the collision with their heavier opponents. Amidst the chaos, Nishi's tank was late to avoid and a Jumbo hit the rear portion of her tank, made them bounced into another Jumbo rapidly followed from behind.
KYAAAA!
"Commander Nishi! Hold on!" said Fukuda as their tank spinning by the force of collision.
"Nishi-san, are you okay?" asked Miho.
Nishi quickly replied after their tank stopped spinning.
"We're okay," said Nishi, "just a bit shock, but we're..."
BLAAMMM!
KYAAAA!
Miho shocked. One of the Pershings following from behind the Jumbos has fired on Nishi's tank and white-flagged it at once. But she couldn't be stunned forever, as suddenly American tanks are hunting the remaining Shermans, turning the charge into close quarter tank combat, which annulled most of tanks' superiority over others. Miho quickly orders all Sherman to evade by the best of their abilities.
"Tiger Team, break formation and..." said Erika.
"Erika-san, hold!" said Miho.
"What?"
"Do as we planned, we retreat back to El Alamo."
"But..."
"This is the only way."
Erika hauled her breath.
"Tigers, let's protect our comrades Shermans, clear their path to El Alamo," said Erika, "fire at will, engage!"
Tigers break formations and joins the fray of the tanks in front of flagpoint El Alamo. Despite Miho's order to retreat, the executions are not quite well, since US tanks running around to deny the clean retreat. So it quickly turns into giant cat and mouse game, only done with tanks. Mika tries to fighting off the incoming US tanks, taking 2 tanks before being white-flagged herself. Haru Tamada-Hosomi, Seshka, Rabbit Team, and Naomi got eliminated soon after. Aaliyah Jackson even scores a personal kill with Chifuyu Doi's SU-100, after she fired a shell directly into gun-port of El Alamo's wall, with the SU-100 inside. From US side, only 2 Jumbos (all eliminated by Mika), and 2 Pershings lost (by Miho and Carpaccio).
Japan's Shermans then able to retreat into El Alamo, as the defenders of El Alamo decided to rain hell on the field to cover for their comrades' retreat. However, in this attempt, Assams, positioned as rear-guard got white-flagged just before she enters the gate, after a clean shot of Caitlyn Lee landed on her engine-block, stuck her Tigers right in front of the gate and provide additional protection.
All Shermans and Tigers then coming into battlements and start firing on US tanks from the safety of their fortress. US then falling back to escape the firing range of Japan tanks. They then stationed their tanks in safe distance, in front of El Alamo, to far for any shells to reach any of the sides. Miho and Erika then brought their tanks to the lookout in the mid-section of El Alamo to monitor the position of American tanks.
"They don't seems to try and charge again," said Erika.
"Yes, for now," said Miho, "it's foolish to charge on a fortified positions no matter how strong your tank, I believe Caitlyn Lee knows that as well."
"We could be waiting here till the countdown runs out, which is another hour."
"No, she won't let that happens. This is her ground, she won't let us steal a victory this way."
"Do you still believe she's going to do it?"
"Mm. It's not the matter of going to or not, but when. I just hope our comrades finished their mission before that."
"I don't like this at all."
"Neither do I, but we have no choice. We can't just go out and meet them, hell, we lost many to them."
Erika and Miho then stood silence for a while. Wind can be seen blowing, waving Japan flag in El Alamo wildly.
"Erika-san..."
"Yes?"
"You do count their numbers, don't you?"
"Yes, and you're right, they're missing by 12 tanks."
"They already deployed Sherman Jumbos, and Super Pershings, and T29s. What would happened if they're going all out?"
Erika didn't dare to answer that question.
Meanwhile...
A Crusader with centipede emblem are moving quietly near the spires and mesas of Ulysses S. Grant TBG, between El Dorado and El Alamo flagpoints. They're moving carefuly, almost creeping near the border of Red Zone, not far from the mesa A54, which overlooks flagpoint El Alamo. There are 4 persons riding on top of the tanks: Shizuka, Alisa, Pepperoni, and Koume Akaboshi, all with poncos and large brimmed cowboy hat. Colt Peacemakers can be seen hanging in the bolsters on both sides of the girls hips, while Winchesters are slinging around their backs, except for Shizuka, which carried a Sharp 1874 rifle. They even carry bandoliers for extra ammos. The way they move in discreet manners showed that they don't want to be caught by anyone.
"Okay, Rin, it's almost the end of Red Zone, you can put us all down," said Shizuka.
"You sure, Hime? I can take you few dozens feet ahead if you want," said Rin Matsukaze.
"Nope, it's too dangerous if those Meriken caught you here. It's already close enough to El Alamo."
"Okay then."
Rin then stopped her tank, and all four girls quickly step down the tank to the ground.
"I'll hide somewhere, just let me know if you all need pick up," said Rin.
"Thank you," said Shizuka.
They then wave goodbye to Rin which drive her tank backwards and return to the direction of El Dorado.
"Alright, Girls, we'd better check our equipments, water, ammos, guns, are everything checked out?" said Shizuka.
"Yes, everything is all checked out, we even brought some hard-tack biscuits in case we need some boost of powers," said Alisa.
"Alright then, it'll be long walks from here, so we better got hurry. The fate of our comrades lies in our hand."
"Understood!"
They then begin to walk into Red Zone. Though Red Zone is off-limit for tanks, tank crews are allowed to traverse across by foot or any other 'non-invasive' means of transportations. And that is because their target, mesa A54, cannot be accessed, except by traversing through Red Zone, in which there are few Navajo settlements there. Miho has stressed of how important they must reach mesa A54 otherwise the fate of Japan Team are hanging in the balance.
"Damn, I never thought that it would be a very long walk," said Pepperoni after some minutes walking into rough terrains in Red Zone.
"Be patients, it's just up ahead," said Alisa.
"I know, but we haven't found any road leading to the top of it," said Pepperoni, "even if we reach the mesa, it'll be useless if we can't get on top."
"We'll found the way," said Shizuka, "we'll climb the cliff if we have to."
"But I agree, this terrain is hindering us from reaching mesa," said Koume.
"Come to think of it, are we in the right way, Alysa?" said Shizuka.
"The map we had isn't that specific, so it's hard to know if we're in the right track," said Alisa, "I mean, we know the mesa is there, we just don't know how to get there."
Shizuka cursed quietly. The heat didn't help either.
"We're threading this terrain quite long and it's very hot. How about if we rest for a couple of minutes to cool off?" said Koume.
"We can't, every minute we waste, the greater risk they will face," said Shizuka.
"Proceeding in this condition is not helping at all," said Alisa, "I think I'm going into heat stroke if we don't cool off."
"One minute, please," said Pepperoni with her red face.
"Alright, it's f*cking hot after all," said Shizuka.
They then find a shade to cover them from the heat of the sun. Each took out their canteen and drink the water as needed. With their destination seems far, they would still need the water along the way.
"No more than one minute," said Shizuka while watching her watch.
"Agreed, that's a wonderful relief," said Koume.
"Alright, let's go," said Pepperoni while holster her canteen back.
But as they're about to continue their journey, to their surprise, a silhouette of a girl can be seen standing in front of them with an M1903 Springfield pointed at them.
"Well, well, well, look what we found here," said the girl.
The girls, shock by the presence, quickly reached for their guns, but before they can pull them, they realized has been surrounded by some Indians, all wielding M1903 Springfields pointed at them.
"Go on, try me if you dare," said the girl with big grins.
They have no choice but to put their hands in the air and surrender.
