Soft piano music emitted from Henry's speaker, sat on his desk in his Commanders Office, the office was spacious ; a window at the back gave Henry a view of the parade ground, a large map table dominated the middle of the room, a mahogany desk sat near the back, with a brown leather office chair, on it sat a pencil holder with a small wave able version of the St Gloriana battle flag resting in it as well as an assortment of pens. The desk was well ordered, stacks of reports on one side and on the other some various books, such as Sun Tzu's Art of war. There were a few shelves which held on them the various maps and pieces that would be used by the teams when planning their next engagement, at the moment the map table was clear except for Henry's ruined red jacket stained and ripped beyond saving, his commanders sash miraculously survived the tank practice, the bright scarlet silk folded neatly next to the discarded jacket.
The Commanders office had a private bathroom attached to it, the door to which was ajar so the sound of the piano could be heard, inside Henry was slumped over the sink with the hot water running, throwing steam into the air. His entire body ached from being thrown around aggressively during their last charge against the Churchill, he was just clad in his black trousers, on his lower back a large angry purple bruise had formed, making any sharp movements painful. He splashed some of the hot water on his face, watching the crusted blood melt off leaving just a raw cut which would start to scab over in the next few days, rubbing his hands with some soap he carefully cleaned his face, the sting of the soap against the cut an odd relief in comparison to the dull aching pain from his lower back. So engrossed in cleaning himself up, he failed to hear the quiet click of his office door being locked as someone slipped inside. He washed his face with water once more, then grabbed a towel from the railing attached to the wall of the bathroom and gently patted his face with it. Looping the towel over his shoulders he made his way towards the bathroom door, turning off the light switch as he walked past and closed the door behind him.
Turning around he was greeted by Darjeeling sitting behind his desk, wearing a casual white shirt and black skirt, she merely calmly ran her eyes over him in appraisal. Henry flushed red,
"A little warning would have been nice, I could have been completely naked"
"I feel that would embarrass you more than me" Darjeeling smirked from the chair "I did tell you later"
"Mhm I suppose you did" Henry padded over towards her "You're in my chair"
Darjeeling merely cocked an eyebrow at him, the smirk still on her face. Sighing he moved behind the desk and simply scooped her up, his aching muscles protesting.
"Hal! Put me down!" She started softly hitting his chest with the palms of her hands, Henry sat down with a sigh, leaving her on his lap
"That's better" his abused body cried out in relief at the feeling of the soft leather beneath him.
"You are outrageous"
"And you're a tease" Darjeeling traced the cut along his cheek carefully, making sure not to put too much pressure on it
"Your hot-headed antics are going to end up with you either dead or badly injured one day"
Henry grunted "I'm glad you care" Darjeeling leant down and gave him a soft kiss
"Of course I care that doesn't mean I'm going to stop berating you for reckless behaviour"
Henry moved his hands up her side, "Well I wouldn't have it any other way" he pulled her down and deepened the kiss. The two stayed like that for a while, before Darjeeling disengaged from him and stood up gracefully.
"We should do the after-training report"
Henry sighed, "All work and no games with you"
Darjeeling ignored him and continued "And please, please put a shirt on, you're distracting"
"You're the one who barged into my office!" Henry replied indignantly
"Hal. Shirt. On. Now" Grumbling he stood up, muscles still aching and made his way over to where his spare shirts were kept, pulling on a light blue one, he quickly buttoned it up. Turning back around he saw Darjeeling watching him keenly, before she blushed and turned to pick up some papers.
"You sure you wanted me to put the shirt on?"
Darjeeling just ignored him and pulled out a wad of papers from the desk, "Work."
Henry sighed, she was back in commander mode, "Well, we have the after battle reports from the engineer club and the battle managers (A group of St G students who watch and record every battle), so the winner was Davenport in his Cromwell which is no surprise really"
Darjeeling flicked through the papers, "My girls were highly outmatched and easily beaten when they aren't in a pack, what can we do?"
"I'd suggest we request new tanks for them, the Matilda is nice and all but you don't match up with the other girls teams, and before you say anything I know the board of directors will kick up a fuss, but we still need to try"
"I'm still surprised you managed to get your hands on a Comet, how did you do that? You never did tell me"
"Well I just showed them the charge of the British heavy cavalry in the Waterloo film from the 80s and said that it's tradition and they just went with it"
"Well I suppose you are all as reckless and hot headed as British cavalry of old"
"-Again- with this, we don't all like pretending to be tortoises with guns"
Darjeeling glared at him for a moment before bursting into a peal of laughter, which sounded to Henry like the tinkling of glass, "Oh my, no wonder the others were being driven mad by us, we really are a pair"
"Well we have been acting like an old married couple for the past three years." Henry winked at her as he shuffled some of the papers into order.
"Is that a proposal?"
Henry stopped dead "Errrr-wha errrr"
Darjeeling broke into laughter again, before gently pulling him over towards her by his shirt collar and planting her lips on his.
"Don't worry, I won't attach the ball and chain to you just yet"
Henry flushed "We've been seeing each other for three days woman, don't start threatening me like that" he chuckled
The two lapsed into silence as they focused on the paperwork in front of them, Hal filing away the damage reports and repair costs for his team and vice versa. Darjeeling pulled up her phone and started looking at potential tank replacements for her team. After about half an hour of them scratching away at the paper with their pens, there was a knock on the door.
Henry stood up and took the latch off, opening it up to be greeted by Assam.
"Hello Sir Henry, is Miss Darjeeling in?"
"How do you know these things, I swear you must have some sort of evil power."
Assam merely smirked at him, "Let her in Henry, she's got some information for you in regard to the next match" Darjeeling's voice came from the desk. He stood back and held the door open for Assam as she wandered into the office, pulling up one of the spare chairs next to her commander.
"Well I assume this is about the match against BC Freedom right? It's just the male teams going at it"
"Yes, I'll keep it simple, you'll be facing ARL-44 of the ACL-1 variant, alongside Char B1s and Hotchkiss h39s . A balanced build, lots heavy armour and can pack quite the punch if they catch you off guard. The H39s are skirmishing tanks, they will prove quite the nuisance if you let them slip away, whilst the B1s and the ARLs will push through your lines quicker than we can drink tea if you give them the chance."
"That fast? Bloody hell."
"Yes, they are small, quick and pack a punch but have weak armour so the Cromwells should take them down easily enough"
Assam slid a piece of paper across to him, "This is their full roster"
BC FREEDOM MEN'S TEAM
Commander – Philip "Augustus" D'hauve, ARL-44
4x ARL-44s
6x Char B1s
4x H39s
Research suggests that the team is made up of students from both sides of the divide at BC Freedom, whilst their commander tries to ensure balance, there is still a trust issue between the two groups, I would strongly suggest exploiting this.
In terms of tactics, they appear to prefer a classic French Napoleonic attack, they send out the H35s first as a screening unit, followed by a double line of the B1s followed the ARLs at the back, once broken up it should be easy pickings, but it's the breaking up that is the issue.
Henry stroked his chin in thought, "I think an easy encirclement might be the answer here, leave about 4 tanks with the anti-tank group at the front to give the frogs a target, then swing around with the remainder on both sides and pick them apart…Do we know the terrain yet?"
"Not confirmed as of now, we still have a couple of weeks before we dock next, but we should know before then"
"I see, alright thank you Assam, I'll call a meeting tomorrow with the others. Also, don't kill my gunner, I need him"
"I make no promises" Assam responded with a sly grin, packing up her papers.
As the gunner/intelligence office left the room, Henry sighed and toyed with the idea of texting Richard to inform him that his girlfriend was very much on the warpath but decided against it.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
"Hmmm? Oh sorry, was just wondering I should potentially stop a murder or not"
Darjeeling laughed, "I'd suggest not depriving Assam of her revenge, otherwise I'd have to find a new Co-Commander"
"And boyfriend"
Darjeeling rolled her eyes, "Yes and -Boyfriend-"she stressed the last word.
"So how about we tidy up here and you let me treat you like a good boyfriend should?"
She looked at him through lidded eyes, "And what would that involve?" her tone was light hearted
"How about a romantic candle lit dinner, followed by a nice movie."
"Hmmm, alright then on one condition."
"Which is?"
"I pick the film."
Henry groaned, "Oh woe betide me, sacrifices must be made I suppose"
Darjeeling merely smiled widely.