A/N: References and symbolism everywhere! Also, I purposely left a grammatical error early on in the chapter. See if you can spot it and get the reference!

-3-

Bad Apple

Tess woke up to late morning light filtering through the entrance of the den. She was the only one there. Nora's pillow and sleeping bag were nowhere to be seen. Yawning, she crawled out of the room and into the trench. The short-haired brunette stood up and stretched and found her roommate's belongings in a neat pile on top of the trench. The commander of the M4A2 looked around and found the newbie sitting on the turret of the Easy Eight.

The sun filtered through the trees, giving the four Shermans a dappled pattern of sunlight. Nora was leaning against the mount for the Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun with a pencil and sketchbook in hand. Each tank in Kay's platoon at the moment, except for the Locusts, has a machine gun mounted on the turret. All the Shermans have an M2, but only Kay's Sherman boasted an M1919 as well.

Nora was humming a soft tune while her pencil glided across the paper. She'd only been at it for an hour, but an hour was all she needed to finish with the lines.

"That tune sounds familiar."

Nora looked to her left and saw Tess jumping from her M4A2 to the Easy Eight.

"Do you watch anime?" Nora asked.

"A little" Tess said.

"It's a character's song."

"Do you know the lyrics?"

Nora put her hand on her chin as she tried to recall the lyrics.

"I'm not a song writer, but I believe that the English lyrics go somewhat like..." Nora began to sing softly.

The dawn a-rises to the sky,
Betraying the tomorrow that we believe.

And yet, I will not give up hope nor abandon my small prayers!
Don't give up even when you cannot reach out and get through,
I'll just hold out my arms and embrace you,
I'll be here beside you,

Forever...

"That was beautiful," Tess complimented.

"I-I don't know about that." Nora blushed as she was aware that her singing was not the best in the world.

"Anyway, what're you drawing?"

"The subject of the character song," Nora said. She wasn't done drawing yet, so she gave Tess her smart phone which had a picture on it. The picture showed yellow haired girl with unique looking pigtails, wearing a beret, a white blouse with puffy sleeves at the shoulders, a pair of detached sleeves, and fingerless gloves. She also wore a yellow skirt, brown corset and thigh highs, and western styled boots.

"A bit tomoe for me," Tess said.

"I agree. I'm not one for the character designs, but I definitely love the show. If I was the one who was designing the characters, they would look a lot more serious." Nora handed her finished sketch to Tess. The sketch still had the same style hair and outfit, but everything else was far from a moe character. The drawing's body proportions were more realistic and the image gave off an intimidating yet awesome and beautiful feel to it.

"That's very good," Tess complimented with awe.

"I think I could've done better," Nora said.

"You're too modest. Give yourself more credit."

There were a couple of minutes of silence as Tess leaned against the machine gun and watched Nora flip a page and start sketching again. Now, the picture on Nora's phone was an anime woman in a blue military outfit with gray hair and wolf ears.

"Did you know that the bow gunner is also the assistant driver?" Tess asked.

Nora looked up at Tess, showing complete alarm on her face.

"I'll take that as a no." Tess hopped down next to the driver's hatch.

"I have no idea how to drive a tank!" Nora flustered in panic. "I only just got my driver's license last week!"

Tess opened the driver's hatch and looked at Nora.

"No need to worry. I'll teach you. Come on."

Nora closed her small sketchbook book with the pencil inside, put it in her jacket pocket, and her phone in her pants pocket.

"I'll go over the controls first."

Meanwhile, Kay was sitting at the top of the trench eating an MRE of beef teriyaki. She was marking where her team was on the map. A couple of squads have left the base to go look for trouble and have radioed their intentions to Kay. Item squad, a squad of M24 Chaffees, had been very specific to keep radio silent, so the blonde let them be. All her tanks were accounted for except for one; an M4A2 nicknamed 'Fighting Girl'.

The commander of the M4A2, Cameron, hadn't been heard from since yesterday afternoon when her tank's tracks were taken out. Since the enemy tanks in the area were knocked out, she told the rest of her squad to head back to base. Cameron had reported when their track was fixed, but she is still missing. Kay had ordered Alisa to keep trying to hail them but so far, nothing. Alisa walked to Kay with a piece of paper in hand.

"Kay, I've gotten a game objective from one of the marshals," she said.

"What's it say?"

"Basically, there's a crashed German plane carrying a suitcase with sensitive Black Forest information."

"Get Tess and Naomi and tell everyone else to get ready to move in ten," Kay ordered.

These objectives were meant to simulate lost intelligence. Intel were placed in suitcases and hidden throughout the arena in buildings, vehicles, crashed planes, and sometimes even buried. The intel would belong to one of the teams and they would have to regain it before the opposing team could capture it. If the opposing team does secure the intel, then they would get information about the other team to gain an advantage. A catch was that the officials would alert one team or the other and it was up to the uninformed girls to find out for themselves. Kay hasn't gotten a hold of any but she was quite sure Kuromorimine had gotten at least one which led to the ambush that put Amy in the hospital. Sure it was a victory, but definitely pyrrhic.

Kay's plan to get to the plane was to use a similar tactic to the one they used in the beet fields against the tank destroyers but Tess voiced her worries.

"You said that the objective is in an apple orchard, correct?"

"Yes," Kay answered.

"How big is the orchard?"

"About 150 acres," Alisa said looking at the map.

"That's big..." Tess murmured.

"What's the problem? I can act as sniper support as usual," Naomi said.

"Normally I wouldn't object, but it is the middle of summer-" Tess began.

"And that means the apple trees would be in full bloom," Kay finished as she lightly face-palmed herself.

"No solid cover but a lot of concealment. It's basically CQC," Naomi commented. Kay didn't answer as she tried to think of a new way to get the objective without losing too many tanks. Actually, without losing any would be more ideal.

"May I suggest the Jumbos, Cap?" Tess asked.

"Good idea!" Kay exclaimed.

Kay called Peyton; the girl in charge of a squadron of Sherman Jumbos. She only had two Jumbos armed with 75mm guns available at the moment. Kay acknowledged that they will do as she mainly wanted the thick front armor and the combat ranges would be close anyway. Peyton said that the tanks would arrive to the orchard in about 45 minutes to an hour.

"Alright, girls!" Kay shouted. "Everyone mount up! We're leaving in sixty seconds!"

The tanks were quickly underway with the four Shermans in their marching order and the seven Locusts staggered throughout the formation. As they vigilantly traveled down the dirt road, their P-51 made a pass right above them before climbing back up to altitude. Not a minute later, a black M18 Hellcat, nicknamed 'Hell-O-Kitty', pulled up alongside Kay's tank. The commander of the tank destroyer opened her hatch.

"'Sup, Ruby," Kay said.

"Nothing much. The sun's out, the birds are singing, and Black Forest kicked Pravda's asses and captured the town."

"Which town?"

"The one not far from the apple trees."

"Their tanks?"

"One Panzer IV, one Panther, and assorted Panzer IIIs."

Kay looked at her watch. It would take them about ten minutes to get to the town and the Jumbos would be expected to arrive twenty minutes after that. Yeah, they got time.

"Alright, slight change of plans," Kay said to her platoon. "We're going to recapture the town first before heading towards the orchard."

Ruby went on to scout the road ahead leaving the tankers to spend some time unbuttoned. Kay was standing out of her hatch and Bailey was standing out of the second turret hatch. Maria was sitting on the turret behind them, leaning over the machine gun.

Of course Sam was doing nothing but driving, but she looked to her right when she heard a soft crunch. It was Nora, eating a chocolate bar.

"Where'd you get that?" Sam asked.

"Tess gave it to me," Nora answered.

"I thought you didn't like chocolate. Taking that you hadn't eaten any that we got."

"I like dark chocolate."

"And you let the commander of Charlie 1-2 seduce you with it, huh?" Sam said with a smile.

Nora's chewing stopped and she slowly turned her head to look at the driver. Nora's eyes were wide open and a chocolate square could be seen hanging out of her slacked mouth. Sam just smiled even wider.

"So... what's your affiliation?" Sam asked mischievously. "Bi or lez?"

Nora's face became bright red with embarrassment. Then she made an attempt to smack Sam, who held up her right arm in faux defense.

"So, she's more than a friend is that it?" Sam asked.

"That's not true!" the brunette cried. "She's a friend! That's it! A friend!"

"You still haven't answered my question. Bi or lez?"

"Straight! Straight! For the love of Christ, I'm straight!"

Kay watched the girls with amusement and turned her attention to Bailey and Maria. Their conversation had something to do with Adolf Hitler.

"I'm just saying that he was seen as a great leader and probably be seen as one of the greatest leaders ever if he didn't do the Holocaust," Bailey said.

"But the Holocaust did happen," Maria remarked.

"That's it! I'm done. I'm done trying to explain what could've happened if it didn't happen. Do you mind if I continue to attack Black Forest?"

"Bailey, do you think Jesus loves Hitler?" Kay asked.

"Do I think Jesus loves Hitler? I'd assume so. Hitler was born to a Catholic mother and was baptized. So yes, I'd say Jesus loves Hitler."

"One might peg you for a Nazi sympathizer," Maria said.

"Oh, come on! Every time we play against Black Forest, this same conversation always comes up. We've talked about the same dumb shit for three years so you know I ain't a Nazi," Bailey said.

"Since we talked about the same dumb shit for three years, you know I will continue to annoy you," Maria said as she moved her finger to a red mark on Bailey's upper right lip.

"What're you doing? Stop that!" Bailey exclaimed as she tried to stop the loader.

"What? I'm only trying to touch your scar," Maria said.

"It's not a scar. It's just a scratch. Stop!"

"May I please touch your scar? I want to touch your scar."

"Stop, Maria!"

"Why does that bother you so much?"

"I'll push you off the tank! I'll push you off, I swear!"

"Alright, knock it off. Knock off the horseplay," Kay said, intervening. The two girls finally stopped and Bailey put her hands in her jacket pockets.

"Do you see a resemblance between Hitler and Shiho Nishizumi?" Kay asked.

"Yeah, they're both totalitarian leaders," Bailey said. Kay looked over the front of the turret and saw that Nora was still snacking on the chocolate.

"Bailey, do you think Shiho would fuck one of us for a chocolate bar?" Kay asked.

The gunner laughed.

"Yeah, I hope so."

There was a few seconds of silence before the girls on the turret burst out laughing.

A couple minutes later, they have reached the town. Everyone was buttoned up except for the commanders of the mediums. Black smoke still billowed from Pravda's tanks but it seemed that the crews have already been collected. There was a fork in the road as they closed in on the buildings.

"Alisa, Naomi. Take the right. We'll be taking left. Tess you're with me," Kay ordered.

"Copy. Let's go, bubble gum," Alisa said to Naomi.

The Shermans split up and three Locusts followed Alisa and the other four went after Kay. Kay slowly moved through the streets and turned left at a corner. When they did they were met with a T-34/76 billowing black smoke which obstructed their view from seeing further down the street.

"Sam, just punch through that wall of smoke," Kay ordered.

"Copy."

On the other side, there was a BT-7 on the sidewalk. The crew looked like they were attempting to repair it. Kay told Sam to halt. A Locust behind them maneuvered around the tank and continued to creep forward slowly. One of the Pravda girls, presumably the commander, looked at Kay.

"Pravda. Where are the Black Forest tanks?" Kay asked.

"I believe-"

A loud bang was heard and the Locust that ventured ahead had the white flag sticking out of its turret.

"Contact!" someone yelled.

Kay began shooting the M1919 at the building in front of them that was across the square.

"Bailey, follow my burst."

The gunner lowered the barrel until she was aiming at the curtained show windows of the ground floor.

"On the way!" Bailey stepped on the button.

The round obliterated the front of the store which brought the wall of the first and second floor crashing down. A Kuromorimine Panzer III was sitting in the store along with two Panzer IIs. Kay continued to fire at the tanks. Bailey fired the co-ax as did the two Locusts that moved up, one on either side of the Sherman.

"Clear!" Maria said.

"On the way!" Again, Bailey fired and took out the Panzer III. The light tanks rapid fired their 37mm guns and took out the Panzer IIs.

"All tanks; move forward slowly," Kay ordered.

The metal tracks clicked as they moved forward unaware that to their forward-left, something lurked in the basement. Suddenly, automatic fire filled the air and took out the Locust on the left. Kay looked down and saw white tracers bounce all over the place as they came out of the cellar. She was too far forward to do anything so she radioed Tess.

"Yo, Tess. See that BF auto-cannon in the cellar? Mind giving her a what for?"

"Let me slap 'im around for ya. Button up," Tess said.

Kay closed her hatch. The shooting had stopped probably because they had to reload. Then the loud report of the 75mm gun sounded. Rocks and debris fell down onto the tanks.

"For crying out loud," Kay mumbled, flinching from falling dust when she opened her hatch. What she saw was that what used to be the corner of the building the Panzer II was hiding under was now a pile of debris. She looked back at Tess who just shrugged.

They were underway again and as the Easy Eight turned right around the corner, a shell came flying across the courtyard and sparked off the front armor. The shell's owner was a Panzer III and it could be seen slowly backing up down the street parallel to the building's corner that Kay was coming around.

"Contact! Load AP!" Kay ordered.

The shell was quickly loaded and fired, but it hit the lower plate of the Panzer III. Simulating a destroyed transmission, the Panzer III stopped. Its turret moved to find a better weak spot on the Sherman.

"Come on, Maria! Load quickly!" Bailey said.

Nora was watching the events unfold and she didn't like feeling helpless and wait for 'death'. Then she remembered that she had an M1919 loaded with high-explosive incendiary rounds. Nora let out a burst at the Panzer III and saw the bullets explode into little puffs of smoke on the armor. She held down the trigger and walked the tracers up the Panzer III's hull until they reached the gunsight.

"What are you doing?!" the Panzer III commander screamed. "Shoot them already!"

"I can't see where I'm aiming!" the gunner whined.

Nora continued to obstruct the gunner's view. The gunner took a chance and took a blind shot, but it harmlessly ricocheted off the Sherman's side turret armor.

"You're clear!" Maria shouted.

"On the way!" Bailey fired and the white flag was deployed.

"Nice one, Nora," Kay commented.

Nora smiled and the column continued down the road and into the main square at the center of the town. When they arrived, they saw Alisa, Naomi, and Ruby cornering a Panther G against a building. There seemed to be an opening that the Panther was blocking. The commander, Koume, was out of the hatch with her hands up.

"Please don't shoot. We surrender," Koume said.

"Why surrender?" Kay asked.

Koume shrugged.

"It's only a game."

"Okay. Tell the remainder of your team to come out. Unbuttoned," Kay ordered.

The Panther shifted into reverse and slowly revealed the opening behind it.

Kuromorimine surrendering? That did not sit well with Kay.

"Girls, load a round in case these guys try to test us," Kay said.

"It'll be my pleasure," Tess responded.

The first tank to reveal itself was a Panzer II with its crew visible, then a Panzer III, Ooarai's StuG III, and then someone Kay did not expect to see.

"Well," Kay remarked. "If it isn't Miho Nishizumi."

Kay had met up with the two Sherman Jumbos sent by Peyton and they slowly started to comb the orchard. One of the Jumbos was nicknamed 'Big Shot' while the other was unnamed and they were commanded by Esther and Shylene respectively. Kay only took Naomi with her and left Alisa, Tess, and Ruby to keep watch on the 'POWs'. The Jumbos were on point and the two mediums followed, using them as cover. Nora was contemplating on the fight in the town.

"Was expecting something a little more unexpected?" Sam asked, reading her thoughts.

"Yeah. I was expecting her to pull some crazy maneuver or something," Nora said.

"I guess you heard Tess's story about the Nishizumis," Sam said.

"Is it not true?"

"No, it's true," Kay butted in. "She really does have weird strategies. But from what I've seen, she usually comes up with them in desperation which usually calls for sacrificing one of her own teammates. Also, she's working with another team who is not used to her tactics so they wouldn't work as well. On top of that, I think she's taking orders from Maho more than anything."

Then there was an unexpected bump.

"What the heck was that?" Maria asked.

Kay opened her hatch and looked behind them just in time to see the Firefly run over a piece of metal.

"That was a plane's wing," Kay said.

"Just how realistic are they trying to make this match?" Bailey piped up.

"Apparently too realistic," Esther said as the tanks came to a stop.

In front of them was a muddy ditch and it stretched perpendicular to them. All four tanks stopped at the ditch and the commanders looked up and down the scarred earth. Along the ditch were knocked down trees and at the end of it was a wrecked Junkers Ju-52.

"Well then. I guess we found it," Naomi said.

The tanks turned hard left and drove single file along the mud trail.

"Contact!" Esther shouted. "Two Panthers and two Panzer IIIs by the plane!"

"You're free to engage the targets!" Kay said.

The 75mm rang out and Shylene's Jumbo fell out of line to get a shot at Kuromorimine. The tanks quickly exchanged fire as the 200 meter distance shrank rapidly. One of the Panthers shot at Esther. Her driver quickly angled the Jumbo and the round bounced off the side armor and straight into the front armor of Shylene's Jumbo. Luckily it didn't penetrate. The enemy tanks began to pull out and make a run for it. They split up in Panther-Panzer III pairs.

"Which one should we go after?" Shylene asked.

"Did you see which one took the case?" Kay asked.

"No, ma'am," Esther said.

"We split up then."

Saunders split with Kay and Shylene in one group and Naomi and Esther in the other.

Kay and Shylene have lost sight of their target but it wasn't difficult to follow the muddy tracks left by their prey. They quickly regain sight of them. The Panther was barreling through the trees and the Panzer III slid in behind the Panther, blocking Saunders' shots. The Panzer III rapid fired its 50mm. As expected, the rounds bounced off, but it wasn't exactly harmless. It was detrimental...for the Panzer III crew.

"That Panzer is really starting to piss me off," Shylene said, her teeth chattering from the resonating impacts.

Shylene ordered her gunner to take out the Panzer III. Her gunner fired and the round hit the engine. The medium slowed to a stop and the Saunders girls flashed by.

"All yours, Kay," Shylene said.

The Easy Eight passed the Jumbo.

"They can out run us!" Kay shouted. "Bailey, aim for the-!"

"I know! I know!" Bailey screamed.

The gunner aimed for the back armor and fired. The Panther caught fire but slowly began to turn its turret to aim at the Sherman.

"Sam, get on its left side!" Bailey ordered.

Sam drove to the left side of the Panther and knocked down several trees before screeching to a halt. Bailey sent a shell into the side of the Panther which finally deployed the white flag. Kay hopped onto the turret of the Panther and opened the commander's hatch.

"Is the case in here?" Kay subconsciously shouted.

"No. We haven't got it," the commander said.

Kay hopped back onto the Easy Eight and grabbed the radio without getting back into the tank itself.

"Naomi, come in! Naomi?!"

Naomi and Esther had their drivers get their tanks moving as fast as they could while dodging 50mm and 75mm shots. Unexpectedly, a hail of shells slammed into the side of the Jumbo. Esther looked out of a viewport to her right and saw two more Panzer IIIs.

"We got two Panzers to our right," Esther reported.

"Go ahead and take care of them. I got this," Naomi said.

The Jumbo turned right and charged the newcomers when Naomi got Kay's call.

"Naomi! We came up dry! Your Panther has the case!"

"Copy."

The Firefly commander took out the Panzer III, before turning her attention to the Panther. She aimed for the tracks and fired. The Panther jerked and skidded, exposing its side. Naomi's loader reported that the gun was loaded and she fired once more to take out the tank. And just like Kay said, the Panther did have the case.

Kay and Shylene arrived at Naomi's location a short while later and found her sitting on top of the Firefly's turret. She tossed the case to Kay. It was a black briefcase with two latches that had combination locks. On the top, there was a series of numbers and letters. Kay radioed a marshal and read the number.

"This is Kay. I've gotten a hold of a briefcase. The number is 7-4-5-Baker-How-0-2-Love-6," Kay reported. She was given the three-digit combination of '0-5-8'. She opened the case and found a sheet of paper that had a long list of radio frequencies. Nodding slightly, she folded the piece of paper and put it in her pocket. She climbed out of the hatch and watched some of her girls use their tanks as stepping stools to pick the bright red apples. Then she noticed Nora walking along the row of trees, looking at something among the trees.

"What're you doing, Nora?" Kay asked.

"There's something over there," Nora said, pointing in the direction of the object.

Kay hopped off the tank and went to Nora. Yep, there was definitely something in among the trees. She began to walk towards it and Nora and Naomi followed. As they got closer, they could that it was a tank. As they stepped into the same clearing, it became a Sherman tank with all its hatches open; a very dark and burnt Sherman.

"What's this doing here?" Naomi asked.

"It could be one of those props that were placed around the map," Kay said.

"I...I don't think so," Nora said.

"What makes you say that?" Kay asked.

Nora stepped up to the side of the hull and wiped at the ash and grime with her hand. A couple of laborious strokes later revealed a white shield with a blue star and a yellow lightning bolt. It was one of Saunders' tanks.

"This is one of our tanks?!" Kay exclaimed. Nora nodded.

"Apparently."

"How the heck could this have happened?"

"I think I found how the heck his could have happened," Naomi said from the other side of the tank.

The commander and bow gunner rushed around and found a giant hole near the engine compartment, along with evidence of a fuel fire. As Kay and Nora inspected the damage, Naomi wiped at the armor near the front of the tank.

"Well, I guess we know whose tank it was," Naomi said.

The uncovered partial inscription was 'Fighting Gi'.

"It was Cameron's tank."

There was a long moment of silence until Kay finally gathered her thoughts.

"I'll call the officials when we get back to the town. They are alright, I'm sure."

Nora and Naomi just stiffly nodded and followed their commander back to the tanks.

Kay leaned forward in the empty Easy Eight and rubbed her eyebrows. She had just got off the radio with a marshal. Cameron along with her crew are now in the hospital, which is good, but they were all still in very serious condition. Judging by the report she had received, it seemed that Cameron did not have any way of calling for help when the incident happened, so someone had to have sent a distress call. Something that bothered Kay was that it was unknown who sent the call.

Outside, it was already dark but the town square was lit up like a festival. Saunders, Kuromorimine, and Ooarai planned to stay there for the night and girls were doing various things in the square. Many of them were having pleasant conversations, others were leaning close to another to whisper some juicy gossip, and some danced to music that was being played over a Bluetooth speaker.

There wasn't much in the choice of food since all they had were MREs, but someone was able to sweeten up the menu. One of the Kuromorimine girls used the oven in a restaurant to make apple pie.

After finishing her piece of the pie, Alisa was in her tank, scanning the radio frequencies that were on the paper that Kay gave her. Many of the stations were static, but on the off chance that there were others using the frequency, she would jot down the frequency number and who might be using it. So far, she came across two of Pravda's and possibly one of Kuromorimine's.

While everyone was socializing with one another, Nora was sitting by herself on the edge of the fountain in the center of the square. She had her sketchbook out and an empty plate with pie crumbs sitting next to her. In her book, she was finishing a sketch. It was a woman in a field of fire with wings of flaming feathers on her back. She was naked and her posture would've allowed the viewer to see the more intimate parts of her body if it wasn't for the aggressive fire swirling around her.

Kay walked up to her and sat down.

"Nice work," she complimented, albeit in a distracted tone. "In my three years, I never thought of using the gun as a tool to blind the opponent."

Nora just made a noise to confirm that she heard her team captain.

"Kay," Nora began. "I've been wondering. Why haven't you given your tank a name? It seems that many other crews have done so."

Kay scratched the back of her head.

"I haven't really thought it," Kay said. "It's not really on my list of things to do. When I do think about it, I couldn't come up with a name that my crew would agree on."

Nora nodded and went back to her sketching.

Before Kay left, she picked up a piece of paper that had a sketch titled "Bretagne" that was signed and dated by Nora. This one was also a woman, but she was in a navy officer's uniform and had on a backpack that resembled battleship gun turrets. She had a face twisted in anger as she pointed to something out of frame. The caption at the bottom of the page read:

"I don't care if you're the Hood! You sunk me! There's no reason for me to cooperate with you!"

Kay raised her eyebrows at the peculiarity of the picture. Of course, she's one to talk as she is a school girl that lives and goes to school on a giant ship and drives tanks as an extracurricular activity! She put the sketch back down and said good night to Nora and left.

Nora put her pencil down and reached into a bag of apples that was next to her. She bit into one and immediately screwed up her face at the foul taste. She looked at the apple in her hand and saw that it was completely rotten. Gagging, Nora spat out the rotten contents and sifted through the bag for another, only to find that they were all blackening. She grimaced and thought to herself in disgust.

One bad apple is all it takes to taint the entire bag.

The next morning, the square was once again full of school girls. Some were working on their tanks and others were getting a last conversation in with their rivals before they went their separate ways.

"We'll allow your team to leave before we move out," Kay said to Miho.

"Thank you very much," Miho said with a small bow.

"But just so you know, if you tell that sister of yours to attack us before we get in our tanks, you can be damn sure that we'll retaliate with the full force of a tsunami," Kay said with a smirk.

"I don't plan to," Miho said, catching Kay's drift.

They made a firm handshake when Ruby called to Kay.

"Take care," Kay said as she slapped Miho's arm.

Kay walked over to Ruby who was at a table under the overhang of a building.

"I've got a call from one of my squad mates. Pravda has taken the hills at the northern end of the map," Ruby said.

"How many tanks are they down?" Kay asked, fully aware that Kuromorimine would have the range and armor advantage over the T-34.

"I don't know. She didn't say. But she did say that the Black Forest has lost all their Tigers, IIs and Is, except for Maho's Tiger I."

"Let's hope the information is accurate," Kay said, and then muttered under her breath. "It's just like Katyusha to not give the truth, even to her allies."

"Uh, Katyusha wasn't the one to contact us. It was Nonna."

"Eh?" Kay tilted her head to one side. "Why didn't little 'Miss Height Envy' tell us herself?"

"No idea," Ruby shrugged. "But I need to go over what our scouts have to report," she said as she walked over to the table with a map.

Elsewhere in the square, Erwin and Yukari could be seen leaning back in their chairs with a round patio table in between them. On the table was what resembled a wine bottle and there was also a plate of cheese. Yukari was talking to Tess who was standing over them with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

Over on the Easy Eight, Maria was showing Nora how to fill up the gas tank and told her explicitly that the Easy Eight took gasoline instead of diesel. Bailey was watching their interaction from the commander's hatch.

"Is this gas?" Nora asked as she grabbed an olive green can.

"Open it and find out," Maria said.

Nora was about to unscrew the cap when someone shrieked in panic.

"INCOMING!"

A faint whistle quickly turned into a scream as something fell right on top of the girls.

"Maria, jump! Jump!" Bailey shouted. The gunner ducked into the tank and slammed the hatch behind her.

Maria looked at Bailey with a puzzled look, then to Nora. The newbie had the same face but all confusion was destroyed when an explosion erupted in the square and sent a geyser of dirt into the air. More loud booms followed as the loader and assistant driver jumped off and dove under the tank. Panicked screams came from anyone and everyone as they tried to run for cover. Sam tripped and fell, but curled up into a ball as the explosions continued. The thunderous booms persisted, followed by a fiery explosion and shattering of glass.

The barrage ceased and the only sounds came from a crackling fire and girls crying in distress.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the third chapter! Please leave a review and tell me what you think. As usual ladies and gents, take care and I'll see you in the next chapter.

The song Nora sang is Mirai by Kalafina, at around the 50 second spot. I changed up some of the lyrics to get it to flow somewhat smoother in English.

The military woman on Nora's phone is Aurora E. Juutilainen from Strike Witches.

The woman of fire is an OC I thought up for Strike Witches and may appear in a future story for SW.

"Bretagne" is French battleship Bretagne in the Kantai Collection setting. Historically, Bretagne was attacked and sunk by Royal Navy ships HMS Hood, Valiant, and Resolution during the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir on July 3, 1940.