Several days later...

The day had come. Finally, Wallaby would be able to lead her team into battle again, against St. Gloriana. Getting dressed an entire 30 minutes early, she finished her morning routine and immediately headed for the tank store sheds. The progress on the damaged tanks were going well, as Victoria and her crew had fixed the M3A3 that they crewed and almost fixed one of the Matildas. Wallaby began to think of her upcoming battle. We cannot use our Matildas, since they are damaged, and our Sentinels and the Thunderbolt are running low on spare parts, as well the Thunderbolt needs to be repaired again because of the bloody crater in the wall of the gymnasium. That leaves the Grants and Stuarts. She stopped thinking about it, before climbing into her prized Sentinel to inspect it. She sat inside the Sentinel, waiting for the rest of the sensha-do team to arrive. Soon, one by one, she saw the tank crews arrive through her commander's periscope. Finally, everyone had arrived, the collective crews of two of her Grants, Victoria and Eyre's crews, as well as her own Sentinel crew, a total of 24 people waiting for her outside. Climbing out of the hatch on the turret, she carefully made her way down the tank, before landing on the hard concrete floor of the tank store shed.

"You all know what's happening today," she began. "All of you will be participating in our exhibition match against St. Gloriana. Even though I don't expect us to win, at least not without a high cost, I want you all to try your best, and put it all in for this match. And if I don't see you trying, I will personally punish you, because you don't want to know how much of my time I spent trying to get Darjeeling to agree to this. All right?" She looked around to her subordinates, all hyped up from her speech.

"Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!"

"Oi! Oi! Oi!"

The city of Tottori loomed over in the distance, as the upscaled Invincible-class aircraft carrier made its way into the ports of the small city. Just like many of the other cities of Japan, Tottori was comfortably wedged between the mountains and the sea, its most distinctive features being its massive sand dunes that appeared near the city. Slowly, but surely, the schoolship made its way into the harbour of Tottori, guided by a fleet of tugs and other support craft, before releasing its anchor to stop it from drifting away. Ground personnel shuffled around frantically, trying to prepare for the disembarking from the massive ship, as massive cranes ferried items from the ship to the docks. A ramp was lowered onto the dock surface, before ground personnel locked it in place. Now, Wallaby disembarked from the schoolship, followed by the rest of her team and the crews of the sensha-do team. She looked over to the crane, as it unloaded the tanks onto train carts, which were strapped down, before the train began its journey. She gathered her classmates, before ordering them to get on one of the buses waiting at the docks. Soon, all the seats filled up, as Wallaby climbed up the steps, before taking a seat at the front of the bus. The doors closed, and the engine intensified in volume, before it began driving through the streets of Tottori. Soon, the bus left the city and began to drive through the countryside, passing vast plains before weaving up its way towards a mountainous region. Emerging from the weaving roads, Wallaby looked out of the windows, to where the game would take place. A vast plain, accompanied by small plateaus, ridges and even a small desert, which was extremely rare in Japan.

"Alright girls," Wallaby spoke up. "We are finally here. Get to your tanks and get ready. All commanders, you need to come with me for now."

Wallaby could obviously see a cheery attitude among her team members, which put a smile on her face. Disembarking from the bus, she made her way to a small table with a tarp roof set up, as an improvised planning area. Leading the commanders there, she grabbed out a large map and opened it, placing it on the table. She turned to her commanders.

"Alright. This is our battlefield. As you can see, there is a massive flat area here," she said, before pointing to the entire left side of the map. She pointed to two large areas where the contours became extremely close to each other. "These two are ridges. There is a river cutting between them, but it should be fine for our tanks to ford. There's also a bridge connecting the two ridges. If we can get up and control the ridges and bridge, we will have a fighting chance against St. Gloriana. Best we stay away from the open field, since that where their tanks work best and they have accurate gunners. We take the ridges and bridge, and deny them the high ground, before we rain hell on them."

She look to the commanders, all looking thoroughly interested at the map. "Got it?" she asked. The commanders all nodded their heads in agreement. Wallaby then turned to her young Grant commanders. "Be sure to have your loaders strap down your ammo. We don't want shells flying around like during the practice match, alright?" The two Grant commanders nodded their heads, albeit a little embarrassed that their mistake was pointed out.

Wallaby rolled up her map, and put it back in its case, as her tank commanders left to return to their tanks. Soon, she began to make her way, before hearing a loud shout. Picking up the pace, she soon saw the cause of the shouting. One of the Stuarts had been tipped over, no, not tipped over, but flipped, balancing perfectly on its turret, with no sign of falling over. At the base, several girls gathered around it, with one holding a protractor in her hands. The girl got up and shouted to the others.

"89," she said, as cheering ensured. The cheering quickly died down, as the students saw their commander watching them.

"Care to explain this?" she asked, with great disappointment. Suddenly, all the girls stood up, one hitting their head on the upside down Stuarts, slightly pushing on it, causing it to wobble. The girls stared at the wobbling tank, as it losted it's balance and came crashing down, creating a Stuart-shaped crater. Behind her, Wallaby heard some laughter. Turning around, she saw the girls of St. Gloriana, dressed in their snazzy sensha-do uniforms, red jackets and all. The girl with short strikingly blond braids stepped forwards, still laughing with her tea cup in her hands.

"Uh, hey Darjeeling," Wallaby said. "Don't mind the state of my team. Some of them are just bloody idiots."

Darjeeling regained her composure, before speaking. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Wallaby. You certainly have a fun team."

Wallaby scratched her head. "I wouldn't say they are fun, more like impossible to manage, especially those knob-ends," she said while pointing to Victoria and Eyre.

Darjeeling looked at them, before turning to Wallaby. "I do remember them. They are quite…" Darjeeling looked for the right words as she stared into her tea cup. "... interesting, and I feel they will serve you better than they served St. Gloriana."

Now, a judge from the Sensha-do Federation had arrived, a woman with short black hair and a light complexion. "Both teams," she shouted, "line up."

Both the Darjeeling and Wallaby obeyed, as they lined up. Beside her, Wallaby could see Platypus, her skilled gunner and de facto vice-commander, as well as her best friend. Opposite to her, she saw Darjeeling, as well as a shorter girl with neat orange hair and another girl, this one with long blond hair and a strikingly large ribbon.

"We will now begin the exhibition match between Koala Forest High School and St. Gloriana Girls' Collage," the judge said. Now, with a loud voice, she shouted out for both teams to bow. Both teams bowed their heads, before the parted ways to return to the tank. Now, when Wallaby returned to her tanks, the tipped over Stuart was lifted up using a recovery vehicle, as the crews climbed in their tanks. Popping out of the hatch on the turret of her Sentinel, she scanned the area around her. To her left, was an M3A3, with Victoria standing on top of her tank for some reason as well as an M3A1, with Eyre poking her head out of the top hatch. To her right, stood the two grants. Now looking forward, she saw the smoke trail of a 40mm Bofors AA cannon round, before the projectile burst high up in the air, signalling the start of the match. Wallaby grabbed her radio microphone.

"All tanks move out! Let's get 'em, girls!" she shouted, as the engines of her tanks began to roar.