Maria Sandiego was not the most sensible girl with money. After all, she had never really faced a shortage of it. Still, if she went ahead with this purchase, she just might. Tanks after all, were quite expensive. Even the cheap ones tended to cost upwards of a few thousand dollars for a bare bones functional tank, not even including fuel, ammo, and the inevitable need for replacement parts. And she was about to purchase ten. She stared down at the check, taking a deep breath as she stared at the bill. It had been harrowing for someone as used to having money as her to save up for this momentous occasion. Even now she doubted herself. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes to compose herself and signed her name. The deal was done.

With it completed, Mariah's nerves hadn't subsided. She'd filed the proper paperwork with her school to start a new sports team, drummed up enough interest to make sure she would have enough crew members to operate them, and even ensured the team would have a proper instructor.

Captain Lindsey Smith stared at the file on her desk. Administration had requested that she take up the role of the school's tankery instructor. While it was true that she'd been in tankery during her own time in high school-what army girl hadn't been? The big issue was that she already had a full plate at the moment. She was already in charge of managing the color guard, the rifle team, the orienteering team, and teaching the schools JROTC class.

Try as she might, however, she couldn't bring herself to turn the request down, not entirely. For one, tankery was every bit an important recruiting tool for the army as JROTC was. Luckily for her, she had a solution. She wasn't the only ex-tanker in the school. It wasn't exactly orthodox to have an English teacher be responsible for teaching a tanker team, but it would do.

"Hello? Miss Weaver? Yeah, it's Patty. I have a favor to ask."

Maria looked at the piece of paper she had been given by the principal. "Room 073"

This wasn't what she expected. For one thing, it was on the complete opposite end of the school to the ROTC room. For another, she wasn't sure where they would keep the tanks. There was a garage out behind the ROTC room from the old team, but the only place she could think of to put the tanks was out in the parking lot. Not exactly the best place when you'll have rookie drivers barreling around in tanks, she figured.

"You hear for the club meeting?" Maria heard from behind her.

"Oh, Miss Weaver? What are you doing here?" She asked, surprised

"Oh, you haven't heard? Don't slip already, you've been doing such a good job getting this team together after all. I'm the new instructor."

"Wha? But…"

"Smith is too busy to do it herself. Don't worry, I was one of her loaders back in the day."

"Seriously? YOU did tankery?" Mariah said, shocked. Miss Weaver, her kind, encouraging English teacher was in tankery? She didn't seem like the athletic type, let alone a loader, the most physically demanding job in the tank.

"Yeah, I am. I mighta let myself go, but I can still teach" she responded with a laugh.

"Alright! Sounds good miss!" Mariah responded. She didn't mind who was the instructor as long as there was one. She walked into the room and plopped down on her seat to wait alongside miss Weaver. Slowly, students flooded into the room, all seemingly eager. Mariah figured she'd get some interest, but was secretly relieved that her worst fears hadn't come true. She was terrified that after all the work she'd put in and all the money she'd spent, no one would be interested. Luckily such fears had quickly subsided as the room filled up. As she took a mental sigh of relief, she heard a commotion from outside the door.

"What the fuck are YOU doing here?"

"Ummm… Do I know you?" A quiet male voice responded.

"I don't NEED to! Just looking at you, I know why you're here! Those boys from California are ruining everything JUST LIKE I THOUGHT."

Mariah sighed and stood up, heading for the door, figuring that it was her job to deal with this kind of thing now.

"Alright, what the hell is going on out here!?" She said angrily at the commotion.

"I don't- the boy started before being cut off.

"This fucking bitch boy wants to join so he can perv on us!" A larger woman responded hostilely, glaring at him.

"Huh? I just want to-"

"SHUSH" The larger woman responds, obviously trying to intimidate him.

Mariah put herself between the two, facing the girl. "Let him talk!"

The girl glared at Mariah, not impressed. "And who the hell are you?" She asks

"God I hope this works" Mariah thought, gathering her courage. "I'm Mariah, the team captain. If you want to be on this team, you listen to me! Now let the boy talk!" Mariah didn't like throwing her authority around like that, but she didn't see any other options.

"FINE" She said, glaring at Mariah but otherwise remaining silent.

The boy, thoroughly relieved the muscular girl was no longer breather down her throat, spoke up with a bit more confidence.

"I'm Matthew. I- I don't want to perv on anyone. I just want to blow things up! This is the only sport this school does that will allow that. I don't know much more about tanks than that they do that."

"Alright, sounds good to me. You can be my gunner then." Mariah said, giving him a slap on the back. Truth was, she didn't really like the idea of guys doing tankery either. She didn't think they were all perverts, nor did she doubt their abilities. Rather, she saw tankery as one of the few positives of being a girl. Still, she knew better than to cause trouble about it. She knew change was inevitable. Why fight it?

"Really? Thank you! Um… Commander!" Matthew said eagerly his eyes lighting up before heading into the room.

"Oh really? What if he tries something" The hostile girl whispers to Mariah.

"Then we'll use him for target practice!" Mariah whispered back, growing annoyed at the distraction.

"Fine." Was the response.

"Good."

The pair entered the room, with Mariah heading up in front of the classroom to begin the briefing, nodding to Miss Weaver, confident that she could handle it herself.

" Okay, so we all know what we're doing here. I've finally managed to convince this school to start up a tankery team. We're all here to drive tanks after all, so let's get to the most important bit, Mariah continued, obviously eager to introduce the team to their tanks. She ran over to the light switch, turning them off, before heading over and turning on the overhead projector and began listing off the teams tanks.

"T20" Mariah said, putting an image of the tank up onscreen. "A predecessor to the Pershing. Only a prototype was made, but despite its status, it's still a decent medium tank. I'll be commanding this one and Matthew over there will be the gunner" She finished, pointing into the crowd at the boy.

"DL 43 Nahuel, Mariah continued, switching to the next slide. Argentinian version of the M4 Sherman with similar specifications to the stock version. 75 mm gun, generally decent all around from what I know. Most teams just use the Sherman for the role, so I've never seen it in action though."

"Stridsvagn M/42 EH: Swedish Medium tank. 75 mm gun, like the Sherman and Nahuel. The most modern variant of the vehicle allowed in tankery. Another decent medium tank." Mariah continued, her enthusiasm for the subject now becoming readily apparent.

"T-34-57:" Mariah said, changing the slide once again. "Early variant of the T-34 with a relatively small gun. I'm hoping we can scrape together the cash to upgrade it to the 85 variant eventually. Now, on to the heavy tanks"

Mariah changed the slide once again to show a massive multi turreted beast. "O-I: Japanese prototype superheavy tank. Not very many exist because of the controversy revolving around allowing it. One prototype was made, but the specifications weren't documented properly during the war. This is just the best approximation based on what we know. Three guns, one 150 mm and 2 47s, each needing their own gunners and loaders. Big, heavily armored, and slow as molasses." The group looked in awe at the massive vehicle, its size apparent even in the picture.

"T-29: American prototype heavy tank. 105 mm gun and a nearly impenetrable turret. Hull down, this thing is a beast. Hull armor is thick but not the best, especially from the side and rear"

"Mk VI: Light tank" Mariah said, switching the projector to show a tiny tank armed only with a machine gun. "Fast scout tank. Not good at fighting, but it's small, hard to spot and hard to hit. It ain't glorious but it's a damn important role."

"Cruiser MK-1". She continued, "Another scout tank, not as fast as the Mk VI. It does have a main cannon at least though, a 2 pounder anti-tank gun"

"And lastly, the SPGs. Keep in mind that ours will look different from the pictures. They'll have a carbon curtain on the top to make them tankery legal. New innovation." Mariah continued before switching to the next slide.

"Ho-Ro: Japanese SPG based on the Chi-ha. Simple vehicle. Front facing gun with 150 mm of high explosive goodness" she said, pointing at the image onscreen.

"And lastly", Mariah said, switching slides once more.

"Sturmpanzer 2: Very similar to the Ho-Ro, similar gun and purpose." Mariah finished before turning the projector off.

"Any questions?"

"Yeah" a girl in the front row said. "Where are the tanks?"

Mariah checked her phone. "Somewhere around Dallas. Should be here tomorrow, and more importantly well before the convention. I'm hoping to set up a practice match around then, what with teams from all over the country being here and all"

There was some consternation upon hearing this. "What? Isn't that a week away?" one student said.

"Yeah. Miss Weaver?" Mariah asked.

"I'll put something together. I'll go through the ATA and see who's still looking for matches. Not sure who'd be looking this close to the con, but I'll find someone."

"That's so not the problem!" The girl said. "We're not even close to ready."

"Umm… It's not some big, serious tournament match. Let's just practice hard, do our best and blow some stuff up!" Another girl said.

"That's the attitude!" Mariah responded to the second girl, who had put it much better than she herself could.

This seemed to lift the spirits of the newly created club somewhat. Mariah knew a good dose of the members had decided to join in order to shoot big guns or drive massive war vehicles rather than developing feminine charms or whatever the advertising said about the sport.

With morale sufficiently raised, Mariah decided to turn to the last part of the day's agenda: Role assignment.

"There is one last thing I want to handle today. I want you all to group together and decide who does what role among yourselves. If there are any disputes, please try to work them out among yourselves civilly. If you can't let me know and I'll try to help resolve it." She said, mentally hoping she wouldn't have to force anyone into a role they didn't want.

Matthew, his role already decided, awkwardly made his way to the front of the classroom, intending to talk to Mariah, the one person in the room he was sure was okay with his presence. Not knowing what to say, he awkwardly sat next to her up front, hoping no one would bother him within earshot of the team captain.

"So, you're really just here to blow things up?" Mariah asked, neutrally, trying not to make him feel uncomfortable

"Yeah. I already said that." Matthew responded

"Good. I believe you." Mariah said, not making her feelings known.

The pair sat in silence as the rest of the team worked out their roles. Occasionally an argument would break out and Mariah would tense up, the worst case scenario of having to force someone into a role they would absolutely despise flashing through her head. Luckily, the students seemed to work their roles out relatively easily. Unfortunately, not all was well. One thing soon became apparent as roles were decided. There were simply more students than there were roles to fill. Apparently, Maria's campaign to drum up interest was a bit too successful. In the end, 3 students were left out, and approached Maria distraught.

"Does this mean I won't be able to participate?"

"Please! I told my parents I'd joined a sports team!"

"I really want to do this! It looks so cool!"

"Quiet!" Maria said, closing her eyes and thinking. "There is one role left. I wasn't going to fill it because I thought no one would want to. The O-I has a rear machine gunner position. There aren't many situations a rear machine gunner would be useful in." She stated. "Is that a role any of you would be willing to fill?"

"YES!" two of the girls said desperately.

The last girl was more reluctant. "When do you suppose we'll be getting more tanks?"

"I don't know" Mariah said honestly, looking between the other two girls, knowing she would need to choose between the two.

"If either of you back out, you will be the first one I contact as soon as the team gets new tanks" Mariah said, trying to soothe their nerves. Unfortunately, neither student was willing to back down. She looked at the students, neither of whom she knew anything about. Completely arbitrarily, Mariah pointed at the girl on the left, choosing her for the team. As she rejoiced, the other girl just shook her head angrily and left the room, almost in tears.

Mariah's stomach dropped, not having wanted to make that decision. She knew that no matter what choice she made, it would feel wrong. As much as she knew the choice had to be made, however, the guilt still ate away at her stomach. Mariah dejectedly called the meeting to a close now that its objectives had been met and leaned back in her chair as students filed out of the room, trying to think of an easy was to get a new tank quickly and coming up completely blank.

"Lost in thought?" Mariah asked. She looked around for the source of the question. Miss. Weaver was looking at her with some concern.

"I don't suppose you know where we can get a new tank on the cheap?" Mariah asked, that being the only question on her mind at the moment.

"No, not off the top of my head. Is it really that important to you? Turning some people down is inevitable in a sport like this. That's how sports teams usually work."

"It's just not something I've ever honestly considered. And if you're so comfortable with it, why didn't you choose?" Mariah asked, trying and failing to not sound accusatory.

"Now look, you didn't seem like you needed help. I was trying to give you responsibility. Honestly, I thought you handled it well. You didn't need my help."

"Honestly, when it comes to things like that, well… I might" she said bitterly.

"I'll help you deal with it. But it's something you'll need to get used to. I understand though. It's not the first thing one thinks of when one thinks of tankery."

"Thank you" Mariah replied, slowly calming down. "I think I'll be going now".

"Alright, see you tomorrow" Miss weaver responded, turning to her computer to try to arrange a match as Mariah left, not feeling quite as bad as before.

"Ahh… This school should be good enough."