Victoria wandered around the barbecue area, along with Darling, as the two walked up to one of the many stalls set up. Behind the counter of the stall, a girl with short black hair and a braid to the side stood there, preparing what looked like a pasta dish.
"Uh, I'll have one of whatever you're making," Victoria said, before grabbing out her wallet. Darling gestured to the girl to double Victoria's order, as the girl picked up two plates of pasta and handed it to Victoria and Darling.
"That will be 6 million Lira," she said as Victoria panicked, fumbling through her wallet.
"What the hell is that conversion rate? Did the inflation get out of control or something?" The girl looked at her with confusion, obviously not knowing what inflation even was, before she spoke again. "That's 600 yen," she corrected herself, as Victoria handed her the correct amount of money. Sitting down on a nearby bench, the two ate their lunch, as a rumbling noise closed in on them. Lifting their heads up, they could see a tankette driving along, through the streets where the stalls were all set up. On top of the tankette, Victoria could see students from Anzio riding on it as if it was a taxi.
"Hey!" she yelled at the vehicle. "Nice tankette you got there! Shame it's not a real tank." Suddenly, the tankette stopped as the crew and embarked personnel climbed out of it.
"You better take that back!" the tankette commander said. "It's not a tankette, it's a light tank. That's why it has an 'L' in front of it."
"Yeah, a light tank for the Italians," she responded, as both Darling and she began to snicker. "I bet one of our Universal Carriers could wipe the floor with you, and that's not even a tankette." Victoria could now see the Anzio girls started to get angry, as she insulted the pride of their school.
"That's it!" they said, enraged. "Get one of your stupid Universal Carriers and then we'll drag race them, to see which one is better. We'll be waiting over there." The leading student pointed to an area outside from where the stalls were, where it was open and not cluttered. Nodding their heads, Victoria and Darling got up, before heading off towards the tank storage areas.
"Wait, did we even bring a Universal Carrier with us?" inquired Darling.
"Of course we did. I remember seeing Wallaby preparing a Universal Carrier earlier today. It should be with all the other support vehicles we brought, like the Dingo." Turning a corner, the two of them found the vehicle storage, and sure enough, a Universal Carrier was parked there. Walking over to it, the two had found that the carrier was attached to some sort of trailer. Darling quickly hopped in, occupying the driver's position in the armoured vehicle, as Victoria uncoupled the trailer from the carrier. The engine of the small armoured vehicle rumbled, as Victoria climbed in. Pressing down on the clutch, Victoria felt a jolt, as the vehicle began to move. Carefully maneuvering the vehicle to avoid crashing into any students or stalls set up, Darling drove the carrier to the open plains, absent of any stalls, as Victoria looked out of the exposed compartment, seeing the Anzio girls waiting next to their tankette. Ordering her driver to move next to the tankette, Victoria approached the Anzio duo, with another Anzio girl standing next to them, holding what looked like a rolled-up map, and an improvised starting flag, made from a napkin and an extra support strut leftover from assembling the various stalls. Climbing out of the carrier, she approached the Anzio girls, as one of them placed the map on top of the CV.33.
"This is the course. It's just a simple loop around the main event area. A baby could do this blindfolded, so I don't expect either of you to fuck it up," she told both Victoria and the CV.33 commander. "When I wave this flag, the race begins. The race ends when you get here again. No running into people or driving within the designated zone, or you'll be punished by just about every commander here. Got it?" The two commanders nodded their heads, before heading to their respective vehicles. The engines of the vehicles began to rev up, as the referee girl held her improvised flag up high. Dropping the flag, she gave the two vehicles the signal to start, as both vehicles accelerated quickly, zooming off into the distance. The CV.33 quickly took the lead, reaching its maximum speed, as the carrier continued to slowly accelerate behind it. The Anzio commander entered her tank again, peering out of the small sight of the machine gun, as she saw a massive blob appear in front of her, taking the shape of the back of the Universal Carrier. Now, the carrier began to distance itself further and further away from the tankette, as it finally reached its maximum speed. The commander of the tankette began to sweat, both from the heat of the sun heating up the metal, and the heat from the engine as it was pushed to its limits.
"We can't lose to them, especially not against an armoured personnel carrier," she said to her driver, who only nodded in response. "She said the only rules are not to hit people and not to drive into the stalls and stuff, so-" She suddenly stopped, having an epiphany, before signalling to her driver to move behind the universal carrier. Reaching back, she grabbed a box of ammunition for one of the two 8mm machine guns, before placing the start of the belt into the right machine gun. Aiming at the unarmoured rear of the Universal Carrier, she let out a short burst of machine gun rounds at the armoured personnel carrier, as it suddenly slowed down due to the damage. Climbing out of the tank, she looked to the crippled carrier, as her tankette zoomed ahead.
Victoria heard several loud noises, as her compartment began to fill with smoke. Looking to the side, she could see the tankette zooming ahead, its gun smoking and its commander watching them. Climbing out, she inspected the engine. Several bullets embedded themselves in the engine, enough to make the carrier dramatically lose speed, but not enough to defeat it. Now enraged, she turned to her driver.
"Those mongoloids! Darling, drive me closer! I want to hit them with my sword." Darling turned back to look at her commander, as she reached down into the carrier's storage, before taking out her 'sword'. A Boys Anti-Tank Rifle, fitted with a custom made sword bayonet attached to the end. Now bringing the rifle to the commander's compartment of the vehicle, she placed it in the weapon slot, where a Bren Gun would normally be found, before locking it in place. The rifle stuck out of the vehicle, with its intimidating sword bayonet aimed at the enemy, like the spears of medieval cavalrymen, as Victoria aimed the rifle towards the tankette, now driving in the distance. As she fired, most of the recoil was absorbed by the frame of the carrier, but was still enough to leave a bruise on her shoulder. The bullet flew through the air, overshooting the tankette and striking the ground in front of it, digging into the soil. She cycled the bolt, placing in another 0.55-inch bullet into the chamber from the magazine, before aiming the gun again. Peering down the sights, she hovered over the engine of Anzio's tankette, as the carrier began to stabilize. The tankette ahead of them continued to advance, as the distance between the two tanks grew. If she missed, then the carrier would certainly lose. Firing the gun, the front of the Universal Carrier momentarily tipped upwards, as the recoil was absorbed into the frame of the armoured vehicle. Flying through the air, the high caliber bullet struck the back of the tankette, the forces parted from it nearly flipping the vehicle, as the engine died. Now standing up from her compartment, Victoria brought the large anti-tank gun to shoulder height, before taking its tip out of the vehicle, as the carrier closed in on the disabled tankette. She extended her gun, as the long bayonet struck the side armour of the CV.33, creating a small groove from where the bayonet sliced. Now, the hatches of the tankette opened, as the driver inspected the damage. The commander looked around, before being dumbstruck at the leading Universal Carrier. She could see Victoria now standing confidently in the Universal Carrier, holding an anti-tank rifle in her hands, before she placed it down.
The rest of the drive was peaceful for Victoria and Darling, as their opponent attempted to fix their busted tankette, before the referee and her improvised flag finally came into view. Crossing the finish line, the carrier quickly stopped as the referee approached them.
"That's completely against the rules, thus you are disquali-". She cut herself off as she saw Victoria emerge from the Carrier, with the anti-tank rifle in hand, its bayonet still attached. "Nevermind, the Universal Carrier wins."
Author's notes:I have begun to do author's notes from this chapter onwards. For the 10 people who actually read this, thank you for doing so. I would like to make special mention of Brambleofbrambles and Rosy, better known as Crusader332 on for proofreading this story. I am sorry for the delay in publishing it, as I was also writing a chapter for a different story, as well as this story's following chapter, but I will try and maintain the usual upload schedule. If you want, review the story so I know where to improve, as well as answer any questions.