Prolouge
September 6, 2037 - Kuromorimine High School Sensha-do Practice Fields, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan
The large cannons of the tanks out on the fields boomed as a trio of Tiger IIs sent out a burst of practice shells down the range. I sat several hundred yards away from the three tanks, however, I still jumped slightly when their large cannons fired off. I was sitting across from a woman, who seemed to be in her early-to-mid forties, when in fact she just turned 32 this year. I stayed silent as I waited for the woman to speak.
"Her? Yeah, I knew her," she spoke softly, an air of reminiscence was in her voice, as she stared off at the Tigers. "It's going to take a while to explain everything. It all started about fourteen years ago. We were on the same sensha-do team during the 62nd National Sensha-do Tournament. The first one that we lost, I… didn't treat her well, and she left soon after, we met again at the 63rd Tournament. That's the one where we fought one another for the first time in a competitive match, she beat us that time. After that loss, I… talked with her and we became pretty close after that in the coming months before the Graf Zeppelin was scheduled to leave the harbor, I tried to stay in contact with her over the summer, and boy did we stay close some would even say that she was my best friend. But to me…" the woman trailed off before she let out a small forlorn smile as she gazed over a picture that showed a younger version of the woman before me, she seemed to be in her twenties in that picture, shoulder hugging another woman of the same age as they stood in front of the side of an old Panzer IV Ausf. H, their faces had some of the largest grins that I had ever seen. The other woman in the photo was the woman that I had been searching for.
"Did you know… there are three kinds of tank commanders out there in the world. Those who seek strength. Those who live for pride, and those who can read the tide of battle. And her…?" The woman trailed off yet again as she took her hand off of her lap, the shiny glint of a prosthetic arm shone through a small gap between the gloves and her shirt, a gap that she had been covering up. "She was one of the best."
I just sat there patiently, taking notes and listening as quietly as I could. She was a tank commander they called "Solo Tank Eririn," she was a colleague of the woman I seek. Ten years ago, there was a war that engulfed the world. The Four Year War, and in the war a tank commander trailed across the battlefield and disappeared from history. She was a member of the Sensha-do Mercenaries, who inspired both fear and admiration throughout the war. As well as a colleague of the woman I seek and with the words of "Solo Tank," the curtain rises. The woman let out a sigh as she turned to look at me, "It was a cold and snowy day…"
