A/N: This chapter was a bit rushed so it may be a bit choppy. Anyways, let's see what the "Germans" are up to.
-2-
A Missing Cat
Night has fallen and the sliver of a moon was already high in the sky. The Panzer IV H that had a brawl earlier that day with Kay's Sherman still had its spot in the graveyard of steel. Some of the plated armor around the turret was gone, the anglerfish emblem charred from an explosion. The side skirts on the left were completely gone, only leaving twisted metal spars. On the right, no skirts remained on the back half near the engine. It was disabled but not out of the game yet.
The silence of the night was broken by the squelch of mud as someone walked away from the Panzer. It was the Yukari Akiyama; the loader of the Anglerfish team. She made her way to an abandoned Panther and climbed onto the engine grate. She scanned the entire field looking for someone to approach. Finally, she saw the silhouette of a German tank crest a mud mound. She quickly made her way back to the Panzer and knocked on the commander's hatch. It opened a moment later to reveal the Captain of the Ooarai tankery team.
"Nishizumi-dono, the Leopon team is here," Yukari reported.
"Thank you, Yukari," responded Miho Nishizumi.
The Leopon team rolled up in what seemed to be a commandeered Kuromorimine Panzer III. Not a bad move either as their tank, the Porsche Tiger, would be too heavy to conquer the terrain they were in and would most likely get stuck in the mud. The team was made up of former Ooarai automotive club members who seem to be able to fix, restore, and convert anything as long as it has wheels and drives on the ground. Once during the championship match last season, they fixed the Porsche Tiger while it was still moving.
Repairs were just about finished when a monotonous thud was heard in the distance. It slowly grew louder and the crews of both tanks looked up and saw three UH-1 Huey helicopters with red crosses on the bottom thunder above them and into the distance.
"Something really bad must've happened if there are three medic choppers," Nakajima said.
"Let's just hope they're okay," Miho added. Everyone murmured in agreement except for Mako Reizei who was asleep in the Panzer IV's driver seat.
"Alright," Hoshino said. "You're good to go."
Saori Takabe, the Anglerfish team's radio operator, shook Mako to wake her up. The driver didn't have to toggle the ignition any more than once to get the engine running. One of the headlights of the Panzer turned on as the other was shot out and Miho ordered both teams back to base.
Ooarai shared their base with Kuromorimine which was set up similarly to Saunders'. It was an odd sight. On one side, there was the very uniform and diligent with many tanks and tank destroyers and on the other was the very lax group with a handful of tanks. Maho stood in the driveway and when her younger sister returned.
"Miho! I need to talk with you," she said.
"O-Okay," Miho stammered. She hopped out and joined her sister. Maho didn't even flinch as the Panzer III and IV passed no more than a foot away from her.
"We're making a move on the town," Maho said. "Get Suzuki and meet me in the briefing room." Maho was referring to Takako Suzuki (more commonly known as Caesar) of the Hippo team. While she is not the team commander, she takes part in the briefings in place of Riko Matsumoto (also known as Erwin). After Miho found Caesar, they made their way to the war room. Erika Itsumi, Ritaiko, and Koume Akaboshi were also in the room. Maho began to go over the plan.
"Pravda has secured the town. From what our scouts have gathered, they only have T-34/76s defending it. The objective is simple; eliminate the enemy and capture the town. Erika will lead the assault team and Miho will be in charge of the snipers who will provide cover fire from the trees on top of the hill. Erika, once the town has been secured, leave some to defend it and make your way north and meet me here." Maho marked the spot on the map. "Our recon plane spotted Pravda moving towards the hills. With our forces spread as thin as they are you're gonna have to move fast. Any questions?"
The room stayed silent.
"Good. Get something to eat and get some rest. You'll begin your assault at five."
Everyone left save for Maho and Erika. "Is there something you want to say, vice captain?" Maho asked with a hint of irritation in her voice.
Erika was stunned that she didn't call her by her actual name. "Yeah...why do we need the ex-vice captain in this operation? We are entirely capable of handling it ourselves."
Maho tossed her pen down. "First of all, Pravda and Saunders out number our tanks five to one so we can use all the help we can get. Second, Hana Isuzu is a fantastic sniper; on par with Naomi and Nonna. Thirdly, who won the championship last year?"
Erika had nothing to say to that.
"I thought so. You are dismissed."
Meanwhile, Miho was having a friendly chat with Koume. They were catching up on what happened during the time between the championship and present day. Koume announced that she now commands a Panther which Miho congratulated her. After a brief hug, they said good night to each other and retired to their rooms.
The sun barely crested the horizon in the early morning hours. Kuromorimine and Ooarai crouched like predators in the trees on the hill. Miho and Erika stuck out of their hatches just enough to look down on the town with binoculars.
"It looks like our intel was off," Miho observed.
"Or they hauled ass and got reinforcements," Erika said.
"Hardly reinforcements. T-34/76s, and BT-7s. That shouldn't make much of a difference."
Erika looked at her watch as it struck five o'clock.
"Captain, we're ready to begin our assault," Erika radioed to Maho.
"Copy that. Get this done ASAP," Maho said.
"What's got you riled up?"
"My scouts spotted Pravda's heavies coming our way. We'll need back so finish quickly!" Maho hung up.
Erika stared at her handset with confusion.
"Okay. My squad follow me. We're beginning our attack."
The Tiger II started down the hill with Panther Gs and Panzer IIIs following like ducklings. Miho moved to the edge of the trees along with her Hippo Team, Ritaiko, and a number of Jagdpanze IV/70s.
In the town, a Pravda T-34 commander was making coffee. She picked up a sugar cube and was about to drop it into her mug when the dark liquid started to ripple. The ripples grew bigger and bigger until the mug was engulfed in a small tsunami. Dishes and furniture started to rattle and the commander walked outside to find a Tiger II crawling towards her.
"Enemy!" She shouted and began running to her tank. "The enemy is here!" She was knocked to the ground when an 88mm shell screamed past her and destroyed her tank. She was in so much shock that her crew had to drag her back into the building for safety.
"Taking quite the risk there, vice captain?" a Panther commander asked with a hint of amusement.
"Saya is accurate enough to not hit a girl even if she is in the way," Erika responded with a grin.
A BT-7 appeared right in front of Erika's Tiger and was squished into a wall of a building. The Panther behind Erika fired and made the light tank unconditionally surrender.
Meanwhile, the snipers were having a field day as the field to the left of the town was dotted with white-flagged tanks. Hana was trying to take down a T-34 but it was side-scraping so almost any shot would bounce. Miho got on the radio.
"Koume, where are you?"
"On the left of the first courtyard. Why?"
"Okay, I see you," Miho said looking through her binoculars. "I need you to go forward fifty meters and on your left there is a wall. I need you to shoot through it."
"Copy."
Koume's Panther crept forward to the specified location. The turret turned ninety degrees but didn't fire. Koume wasn't sure where to shoot and tried looking for the T-34. Finally, she saw the muzzle flash.
"Gunner, aim for the first pillar and the building!" she ordered. The gun swiveled slightly to the left. "Fire!"
From Miho's perspective, it looked liked the bricks thrown by the shell took out the tank. Radio chatter picked up.
"Was that the last one?"
"Looks like it."
"Man, we steamrolled them! Am I right guys?"
"Cut the chatter girls." Erika ordered. "Ms. Nishizumi will pick who will defend the town with her. Everyone else follow me north."
Outside of town on a small hill, a Hellcat had observed the entire battle. The commander looked at the Pravda's wrecked tanks, then to the tanks advancing north, and back to whatever tanks were left in the town. After taking down the types of vehicles in the town, she ordered her driver to back up out of sight.
Maho was probably having the most stressful time of her life. A T-34 shot her Tiger H1 and bounced, causing a terrible ring in the fighting compartment. Her gunner easily took the T-34 out but another one took its place and fired, missing its shot. She had tank destroyers on the ridge behind her and mediums with her in the recess of the hill. They tried to eliminate the enemy as quickly as possible but more just kept coming.
Looking through her viewports, Maho say Ooarai's Hetzer weaving in and out of the enemy ranks, firing at anything that entered its sights. Ooarai's Type 3 Chi Nu wasn't doing too bad themselves. The gamer team was already on their third "kill" and could be heard cheering through the intercoms over the rest of the radio traffic and deafening booms.
"IS-1! IS-1!" her gunner yelled. Maho looked at the hill and saw it slam down onto the ground after cresting.
"Take it out quickly!" Maho ordered.
"I'm still loading!" said the loader.
Maho saw the IS-1's turret swing onto her tank but before it could fire, it was engulfed in a fireball and the white flag deployed.
"We're not too late to the party are we?" Maho heard Erika ask.
"No. Not at all."
The sky darkened as heavy fighting ensued. Pravda's T-34/76s were locked in combat with Kuromorimine's Tigers, Panthers, and Panzer IIIs. Nothing was spared. Trees were uprooted and grass disintegrated. Most of the destroyed tanks were Pravda's but some of Kuromorimine's less armored Panzers and Panthers also joined the graveyard of steel. The Chi Nu was passing a functional Panther when what seemed to be a high explosive shell took out the Panther and sprayed the Chi Nu with shrapnel.
"What was that?!" Momoga, the driver, asked in between gasps. The commander, Nekota, scanned the ridgeline and made a call to everyone.
"Everyone watch out! The King of Derp is on its way!"
"'The King of Der-', what is she talking about?" Erika asked. She looked up at the hill and saw a distinctive moving box. "Oh. That."
The KV-2 fired and spat mud all over Maho's Tiger before pulling back to reload.
"Saya, when it pops its head up again, you blow it off," Erika ordered. Saya nodded in confirmation. Some thirty or so seconds later, the KV-2 began cresting the hill but in a different spot from Saya was aiming.
"Oh, shit!" Saya cursed and swiveled the turret to retarget the tank. The KV-2 fired first but its 152mm howitzer shell was suspended in the air as Saya fired the Tiger II's 88mm gun. The 88mm shell knocked out the KV-2 and the 152mm high explosive shell slammed into the Tiger. The entire tank shook as the force visibly pushed the heavy into a Panther that was passing in very close proximity.
"Status?!" Erika demanded.
"Tracks are gone, horizontal and vertical turret drives are damaged, the barrel is damaged...we are completely out of commission!"
Maho spotted a T-34/85 come over the hill and ordered her gunner to target it. She knew Katyusha and her second-in-command, Nonna, usually command T-34/85s unless Nonna was in the IS-2, but the IS was nowhere to be seen at the time, so there was a good chance that this one was Katyusha's or Nonna's. Maho's gunner fired and nailed the T-34 in the turret ring and it came to a halt. She was puzzled. There was no explosion or white flag...only a spark. Her crew seemed to have noticed as well.
"What happened?"
"Did it bounce?"
"At that angle? I doubt it could have."
Before the 88 could be reloaded, the tank reversed quickly back over the hill and any functional Pravda tank followed.
With a lull in the action Maho began to spell out her plan.
"I want the TD's to stay where they are on the hill and I want our tanks at the bottom of the slope and on our side of the hill Pravda came over. Let's take advantage of their bad gun depression. Kadotani, you're in charge."
"Alrighty!" Anzu said in a sing-song voice. "You heard her ladies! Get to your postitions!"
"My squad, we're heading back to base. Erika, you ride with me."
Erika's crew climbed onto the back of Maho's Tiger and Erika sat on the turret next to the commander's hatch.
Back at base, a couple of Erika's crew carried Saya to her room as she had a major headache after being hit by a 152mm shell and a Panther. Erika followed Maho, seeing if she could get a replacement for her Tiger II.
"We've no spare Tiger IIs. Pick any medium you want," Maho said.
"But Captain, I know we still have some heavies," Erika said.
"You are correct. We've got two, but only one I would allow you to use."
"May I please have it?" Erika said on the edge of begging.
Maho sighed. "It's an early model Tiger I, if you don't mind."
"No I don't."
"It's in the hangar, far left next to the wall."
Erika thanked Maho and walked towards the hangar. Another girl walked up to Maho.
"Is there a problem?" Maho asked.
"Um, yes," the girl pushed her index fingers together nervously. "We seem to be missing a Panther."
"Which one?"
"Number sixteen."
"Geshiko's?"
The messenger nodded.
"Where was she last seen?" Maho asked.
"Uh, actually she is on base with her crew. It's only the tank that is missing."
"Ugh. Tell Geshiko to use another Panther for the time being. I'm going to report to the officials. God knows if they'll believe that a panzer was stolen from right under our noses."
In the hangar, Erika walked down the line of tanks. The number of tanks has shrunk significantly since the last time she had been in there. It's hard to believe that they could still imagine themselves winning.
No! Stupid Erika! She scolded herself as she lightly hit her head. Don't think like that! We're Kuromorimine! We don't lose! But then again...
Erika thought back to two years prior and last year. Both losses because of Miho. But she was on their side now so would it really matter that much? She reached the end and found two vehicles covered in tarps. She looked at both of their silhouettes. They were definitely both Tiger I's but she yanked the cover off the one near the wall revealing the red numbers on turret: Tiger number 131.
Erika looked back at the covered Tiger.
If these are both Tigers, why is Maho protective over that one?
A/N: So just a little peek at what is going on with Kuromorimine and Ooarai. I'll be going back to Saunders' point of view in the next chapter. Anyways ladies and gents, take care and I'll see you in the next chapter.