A/N: First off, thank you to Garuda1178 for favoriting and following my story. I know its been a while since my last chapter post. My life has been very busy due to the holidays and I've been lacking time to sit down and write. I'm not abandoning this story, just letting you know that my updates are likely going to be infrequent. Happy holidays, everyone!

The ramp of the landing craft thudded down with a heavy finality. Rivulets of Pacific ocean water lapped at the metal as the crowd of onlookers watched. Darjeeling, Assam and the others stared as men ran on board, untying straps and adjusting the metal plates leading to the airfield's tarmac. A head appeared out of the drivers port before the tank's engine chugged, then caught. A healthy spray of exhaust shot out the tailpipes before the Super Conqueror slowly clanked its way off the ramp of the landing craft and onto the road of metal plates towards the airfield. Out of the corner of her eye, Darjeeling noted Ruhuna cringing and wincing slightly every time the tank's gears grinded or the tracks slipped, shooting sparks across the metal plates. Her hands twitched occasionally until the tank made it onto the tarmac. Cameras flashed all the while.

Once the tank was safely out of reach from the public, Darjeeling nodded at Ruhuna, who ran over to the tank. The man maneuvered his way out of the drivers hatch gingerly, allowing the much smaller Ruhuna to slip her way inside like an eel. After she'd finished adjusting her seat, she grabbed the traverse levers and expertly drove the tank towards the custom-made transport trailer. Feathering the accelerator and juggling the clutch and brake pedals, the tank slowly climbed its way onto the trailer before bumping gently against the stops. Ruhuna cut the engine, pocketing the keys as she closed the hatch behind her, hopping off the trailer with a spring in her step.

One by one, the Bovington brigade of St. Gloriana equipment made its way off the landing craft, rolling slowly along the road of metal plates towards the airstrip. The last tank to leave the boat was the FV4005 Stage II, its turret covered with a tarp to disguise the vehicle as another Centurion. The FV4005 Stage II made it onto land and the landing craft hauled up its ramp before powering back from the shore to make way for the much larger Kuromorimine landing crafts, painted in the always-recognizable German Gray with the iron cross roundels emblazoned on the hull.

Darjeeling saw Maho and Erika walk up to greet the craft as it more-or-less rammed into the Hawaiian sand, dropping the ramp with a crash to reveal the only Panzer VIII Maus in the high-school Sensha-Do circuit in all of its 188-ton glory. Gasps arose from the crowd encircling the airfield as the cameras flashed. The Maus had been painted in a new green-and-brown style reminiscent of Cold War-era Leopard 1 paintjobs, and the 12.8 cm gun barrel had been polished to a shine. Darjeeling stared down the barrel of the Maus, knowing that full well soon she'd be expected to battle it out with this bunker on tracks.

The rumble of the massive 12-cylinder Maybach gasoline engine shook her from her thoughts as the tank lumbered off the landing craft and made it onto land, the sheer weight transfer physically rocking the transport ship. Slowly, with Mauko giving directions from the commander's cupola all the way, the Maus made its way along the runway of metal before making it to the custom-built trailer. The tracks clacked and clanked as the tank slowly lined up with the trailer's ramps before the engine roared and the Maus rammed into the ramp. The chocked wheels of the trailer bucked harshly and rubber squealed as the tires fought a ferocious battle between the pavement and the Maus's bulk before slowly, friction won and the Maus slowly pulled itself up and onto the transport trailer, the engine cutting off and the crew disembarking as a squad of men began securing the Maus with straps more fit for a container ship than a tank.

Darjeeling overheard Mauko speaking to Maho about possibly inspecting the Maus's transmission for any stress-fractures in the gears before the match. However, her attention was diverted by the transport crews for the Gloriana vehicles asking her to oversee final inspections of the tanks before the convoy would depart for the match's staging area. One by one, she examined the setups for the tanks, starting with the Super Conqueror and moving down the line passing the Caernarvon, Charioteer, FV4202 and ending with the FV4005 Stage II.

"Everything seems to be in order." She said in practiced english. The man nodded, outstretching a clipboard.

"Sign here, please." A pen was provided, whereupon Darjeeling flourished her wrist and a splash of ink adorned the line. The man recollected the board and nodded. Darjeeling bowed in return as the man ran to the lead vehicle in the convoy and slapped the door of the truck. Diesel engines started, gears clunked into place and then the convoy was moving. Assam was already waiting in the Supercharged Range Rover, air-con set just so, ready to shadow and follow the convoy. The rest of the girls piled inside as the first truck cleared the airfield's gate and swung a wide right turn onto the road. But Assam didn't move the car yet.

"Assam-sama, why aren't we moving?" Rosehip asked, beating Darjeeling to the punch with her question.

"Because of that." She removed one of her hands from the leather of the steering wheel to point at the scene unfolding around the Maus's consist.

As the girls watched, the massive Volvo truck pulling the Maus roared into life and began pulling. This didn't have much effect as eventually the tires began to spin uselessly against the pavement. But then the second pusher lorry began to move in slowly but surely towards the back of the Maus's trailer, the custom-made bull bars lined up with the up-folded ramps. The pusher truck nudged into the back of the Maus's trailer, and they watched with awe as the two trucks, huffing and puffing like the steam engines of old slowly overcame the 188-ton payload they were hauling and began to slowly move towards the exit.

The majesty of this sight meant that by the time the Maus and other KMM vehicles in their separate convoy had begun to move, the Gloriana convoy was now long-gone. Buckling their seat belts, Assam put the transmission in sport mode and punched the gas. The Range Rover took off like a missile, the gears clicking away with barks from the exhaust with every upshift. They peeled out from the airstrip's gates and sped onto the highway leading to Honolulu, and it wasn't long before they caught up with the Gloriana convoy.

"Assam, keep us next to the 4005 as much as you can. I want to make sure that the disguise we have is still on." Darjeeling quipped, her hands reflexively grasping at a cup of tea that wasn't there. Assam nodded, and with a couple well-timed prods of the accelerator the Range Rover was keeping pace with the truck hauling the FV4005, allowing for them to keep an eye on the canvas disguise over the turret as it flapped in the wind disconcertingly, but remained affixed.

As the convoy made its way down Hawaii Interstate H2, they noticed fans in other cars and riding in the backs of pickup trucks with cameras and phones taking pictures and video of the tanks and the crews, but they paid no attention as the convoy's progress towards the battle site was unobstructed.

Soon enough, the convoy was turning off the interstate and making its way down some narrower roads as well as gravel towards the staging area for the battle site on Resolute Peninsula before passing through a set of gates surrounded by JSDF officials and US military personnel alike. Inside, a large gravel lot was split into two spaces, one for each school team. The Gloriana trucks turned to the left and stopped, the air brakes hissing on. Another crew stationed at the staging area immediately approached the trucks as soon as they stopped and began undressing the straps and restraints.

"Start with this one!" Assam yelled through her now-open window at the men, gesturing to the FV4005. "Get this one off the truck and out of sight as soon as you can."

"Assam, you read my mind." Darjeeling quipped. "KMM's convoy will be much slower at getting here due to the Maus. Get the 4005 off the truck and into the trees, even with the disguise removed they won't know about it until the match. Great thinking."

In just a few minutes, the FV4005 Stage II's turret disguise was removed and the canvas discarded on the gravel, and the tank was slowly being driven off the trailer and into some trees for preparation out of the public eye. Once the tank was out of view, Darjeeling and Assam breathed a collective sigh of relief. Their secret was safe, at least for a bit longer.

An enormous horn blast caused everyone to jump. The air was quiet and still afterwards, as if every living thing was scared into silence by the massive noise.

That noise is familiar….Darjeeling thought, as she turned to see the source of the noise. A soft smile crossed her face as she did.

Ark Royal was making her way into Honolulu Harbor, though the massive bulk of the vessel was simply too large to come much closer than the outer basin, due in part to the draft being deeper than the harbor bottom, the ship being too wide to fit into the shipping channel, and obstructing the flight paths for Honolulu International Airport. As she watched, Graf Zeppelin's distinctive nose edged its way around Diamondhead to the south of Waikiki, revealing it as the source of the second horn blast. The size of the schooolships was immediately visible as their towering structures all but dwarfed the skyscraper hotels of Waikiki, and Darjeeling knew for a fact that the combined totals of both ships' occupants would increase Oahu's population by a not-insignificant amount.

She smiled again. The whole show was here now. It was really happening.