Author's Note: Hi, everyone. I'm really sorry for not updating you all for so long, but online school plus my essential worker job has absolutely destroyed what little free time I previously had. I had a day off today, so I figured what better thing to do than crank out another chapter for y'all. Enjoy and I'll try to update more frequently in the future.
The Super Conqueror rolled into the garage after a long and productive practice session, the ammo racks bare and the fuel tanks down to the dregs. Ruhuna reversed the tank into its designated spot gingerly, before flicking a switch to shut down the engine. All the gunner controls went limp in Assam's hands, the dials and gauges settling to their neutral positions. The hatches opened, and the Noble Sisters exited the vehicle, feeling a sense of invigorated exhaustion flowing through them. For some, more than others. Pekoe practically toppled off the hull, barely catching herself before crashing into the concrete floor of the garage. Once they'd all removed themselves from the vehicle, a small army of mechanics descended on the vehicle, replenishing the ammunition, brimming the fuel tanks, tensioning the tracks, and many other things besides.
Darjeeling stepped farther away and looked at their new vehicle with pride. There would be no way that St. Gloriana would lose with a tank like this in their arsenal. A low rumbling sound filled the air. Speaking of….
The FV4005 Stage II was slowly being driven into the garage. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare in awe, the massive 183mm L4 cannon seeming to gaze into their souls. The vehicle had been lovingly restored to its former glory after years of exposure to the elements as the gate guardian at Bovington Tank Museum in the UK. Its dark green paint had been polished to perfection, and any rust and surface imperfections on the sheet metal had been buffed, sanded, or replaced. Slowly, it reversed into a spot next to the Super Conqueror. The engine shut down, and a flap on the side of the collosal turret swung open to reveal the figure of Earl Gray, her hair frizzy and her eyes wild. She whooped before leaping out and hitting the ground running.
"Oh man! What a rush! It's even better than I thought! Oneshot kills on any vehicle we face! Even KMM's Maus has to fear this!" She threw back her head and roared in laughter as looks of alarm spread through the incredulous crowd.
Darjeeling spoke first. "E-Earl Gray san, are you alright?"
"Of course I'm alright! Why wouldn't I be?" She turned and saw the nervous faces of the maintenance crew surrounding them.
"Back to work! NOW!" She screamed, sending the mechanics scurrying back to their positions. Clearing her throat, she waved them towards the garage exit. Through a maze of corridors they went, before emerging back in the Tea Garden conference room. The kettle was already boiling over with a shrill hiss that would make any normal person want to clap their hands over their ears in pain. But the Noble Sisters of St Gloriana simply dealt with the familiar screech, Pekoe rushing over to the kettle and removing it from the burner. They sat around the table as Pekoe filled the cups with tea.
Clearing her throat, Earl Gray continued. "We weren't the only school who immediately procured new vehicles after the JSDF's vote. Unsurprisingly, Saunders and Pravda upgraded their arsenals practically instantly after the decision went through."
She switched the TV on, and they were startled to see live footage from Pravda's massive schoolship Kiev as what seemed like endless waves of T-54s and IS-3s rolled past. The sky was one uniform sheet of gray clouds, small snowflakes drifting in the air. Condensation from the students' breathing wafted up. Eventually, the columns of tanks thinned, before one final vehicle appeared at the very end of the formation. A prominent pike nose, wide tracks, and an extremely round turret forged dauntlessly ahead, a huge 130mm cannon prominently fixed to the vehicle. Upon seeing it, the throngs of Pravda schoolgirls burst into thunderous applause. Darjeeling didn't need Assam's knowledge of tanks to identify this one. Only one was ever made, and last she heard of it, it was sitting in a museum in Russia alongside a Karl-Gerat siege mortar and a Maus. But here it was, in front of her very eyes. An IS-7. Nonna was standing on the engine deck of the tank as it slowly drove forward, the familiar figure of Katyusha perched on her shoulders. Katyusha raised her small fist in triumph, and the crowd erupted in a huge cry of "URAAAAAAAAAA!"
Earl Gray pressed a button on the remote control, and the feed switched to the Saunders schoolship George Washington. They were having their own military parade, as scores of Shermans drove past. They're not normal Shermans, Assam noted to herself. The usual M4A1s and M4s were no longer present in this parade. They were all M4A3E8s, long barreled 76mm variants. The fireflies were gone as well. A few M48 Pattons brought up the rear, early variants with the 90mm, perhaps M48A1. One of the Pattons even had a bulldozer blade attached to its front, but even before the last of the Pattons had passed the viewpoint of the camera, a familiar gun barrel was already making its way into view. 120mm in caliber…..could it be? Yes! Assam thought, seeing exactly the tank she suspected was behind that barrel. An M103! The last American heavy tank to ever go into production. Darjeeling saw Kay's beautiful blonde mane flapping in the breeze and her heart fluttered, feeling a blush growing on her cheeks.
Earl Gray nudged her. "I can see why you like her."
Darjeeling blushed enormously, waving her hands frantically. "No! It's not like that…." The snickering from Rosehip certainly didnt help her case, so she stared daggers into the screen until the M103 had rolled past and the picture faded to black. The silence hung in the air, thick and palpable.
Earl Gray was the first to speak. "Assam, I hope you don't mind that I used some of your GI6 operatives to get this footage back to us as quickly as possible, but this was important." Assam shook her head.
"Good, good. Now, as you can see, our competition have also upgraded their arsenals accordingly. Saunders and Pravda are our biggest threats. They have more vehicles than we do, especially the newer cold-war era tanks. Assam, I need you to gather data on all the tank types we may see from those two schools. Armor thickness, weak spots, the lot. Cross reference them with the performance of our guns. The Super Conqueror and the Canaervon AX will be our best hopes of defeating those vehicles, or at the very least hold them off until the FV4005 can take them out." Earl Gray sipped her tea.
Rukuriri raised her hand. "What about KMM? Did they get any new vehicles of their own?"
Earl Gray snorted. "Shiho Nishizumi refused to allow any vehicle upgrades to the KMM Sensha-Do team even after the JSDF vote passed. She's stubborn and doesn't accept change until the very last second, and changes only when needed. It'll take a huge wake-up call for her to make a change as large as that."
Sensha-Do Garage, schoolship Graf Zeppelin
"Is the Maus ready?" Shiho Nishizumi snapped, her shoes clacking across the concrete of the garage floor.
"Yes, ma'am." Came the reply from Koume, who was almost jogging to keep up with the leggy Nishizumi elder. "Repairs to the engine and transmission finally finished a few hours ago, and we were going to take it out for practice starting tomorrow in preparation for the new tournament."
"Good. Double up the practice regimen for the Maus crew. I want it ready for the first match we're up in. Scrap the old lineup. I want the new lineup to be heavily-armored vehicles only. Maus, Jagdtiger, Elefant, Tiger II." She spat out. Koume seemed to shrink away in shock.
"But ma'am, that would remove mobility and flexibility from our lineup. The Maus is borderline overkill against Pravda, which is our strongest potential opponent, and adding the Jagdtiger and our other heavily armored tanks is just way too much armor against whatever school we face. And it's only the first round! What if we face Chi-Ha-Tan? It would look like gross overkill then….." Seeing Shiho's face twist into a scowl, Koume's self-preservation instincts finally kicked in and she trailed off until she was silent.
"I don't care. We are going to show them all that we don't need modern vehicles to be competitive. Armor is where we are king, and we're going to win with the same vehicles we always have, and always will!"
