-13-

Fifth Day

The predawn silence was broken when the Easy Eight barged through the base entrance and came to a sliding stop. Naomi opened the commanders hatch. The corpse of a Black Knight lay on the turret. Noami threw up the bile in her stomach and pushed the corpse off of the tank, letting it land in front of a group of startled Saunders tankers.

Naomi dragged herself out of the turret hatch. When her feet touched the ground, she stumbled and was caught by the growing group of tankers.

"Naomi!"

"VC!"

"Are you alright, Vice-Captain?"

Naomi groaned, pointing to the ground.

The girls gently set her on the ground. Naomi's entire world was on a gimble. The ground tilted back and forth, left and right. Her body subtlety swayed with the motion. Someone handed Naomi a canteen. She chugged it, only to violently cough and retch in response, which elicited more cries of concern from the girls.

"Hey!" Alisa shouted. "Don't just stand there. Get medics and a stretcher now!"

The group broke up. Some still stayed round the Easy Eight, tending to Naomi, and – to the surprise of many – Shiho Nishizumi.

After a few small, slow sips from the canteen, Naomi's world began to stabilize. And she finally got a clear look at the tank's condition.

Bare metal shown through the hundreds of indents caused by small arms fire. The tracks and the fenders (which some fenders were missing) were caked with mud, and the broken bogey wheel remained as such. The three logs on the right side were gone, and a small hole was bored into the side, courtesy of Erika's Tiger and HEAT shell. Another HEAT mark, likely caused by a handheld launcher, at the turret ring jammed the turret approximately at the 10 o'clock position. Blood trickled down the front and side armor, and one of the Black Knights that tried to climb onto the Sherman still laid dead on the engine deck. The M1919 on top of the turret was gone. A disembodied left hand still gripped the M2.

Tess watched Naomi collapse onto her back, her breath visible in the cold morning air.

"Tess!" Alisa shouted. "We have live rounds mixed in with our ammo!"

Tess opened her mouth to respond, but Alisa continued.

"We need to check what round has the Federation proof mark. Every single round."

Again, Tess open her mouth, but her phone rang. She frantically looked at her phone then back to Alisa. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. The caller ID indicated a number she didn't know.

"Okay, go and check the ammo then," Tess said quickly.

Alisa ran to the closest girl and spoke with urgency.

"Drop what you're doing. Get your crew. Check every shell in your tank and in the ammo dump. Make sure they have the Federation proof mark. Separate those that don't have it. Do this quickly and do it now. Spread the word. Go!"

The girls ran off. The message and motions spread like wildfire.

Tess answered the unknown caller.

"Who is this?" she demanded.

"Tess, it's Kay."

"Oh, thank god, you're okay!"

"The ammunition. There's-"

"Live ammo. Yes, I know about that," Tess said.

"Do you know about the mercenaries?"

"Uh…"

"Okay," Kay said. "They're called the Black Knights and an old rival of Shiho Nishizumi is their head. They are ruthless. Kill them on sight and keep an eye on all our tanks.

"How do we identify them?"

"They wear black," Kay said as if it was obvious.

"I want to talk to my mother," a voice said over the phone.

"Tess, find Nishizumi and give her the phone," Kay ordered.

Bewildered, complied and looked around for the instructor. She was being loaded up onto a medivac Huey. Tess ran to the helicopter and got the pilot's attention, signaling him to power down. Once the noise reached bearable levels, Tess gave her phone to Shiho.

"What are you doing?!" a paramedic demanded. "It's dangerous here if there are mercenaries about!"

"I think an entire fucking base full of tanks and machine guns is the safest place to be, in that case!" Tess countered.

"Maho?" Shiho said.

"Mother," Maho responded.

Shiho gave a laugh of relief and broke into tears. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"And I you."

"How about your sister? Is Miho okay?"

"Yes."

Shiho's breath shuddered with relief. "Is she around?" Shiho asked hopefully. "Can I talk to her?"

Maho looked towards the Ooarai tanks. Miho was going to each of her individual teams in an effort to comfort them and raise their spirits.

"She's out on guarding the entrance."

"Oh…" Shiho said, crestfallen.

The topic shifted to what the hell was going on in the tournament, and the two of them shared their respective side of the stories.

Meanwhile, Koume walked out of the barracks. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a group of five girls walking from behind the barrack building towards the tanks. Nothing immediately stood out about the small group. Except for one familiar face.

"Lindsey?" Koume shouted.

The group stopped and glared at Koume as she jogged towards them.

"Lindsey Goodwin?"

Lindsey froze, her eyes wide like saucers. She stiffly turned her neck towards the Panther commander.

"H…Hi, Koume."

"Oh, my gosh, it is you!" Koume gave Lindsey a brief hug. A hug that was not returned.

"It's been a while," Koume said, smiling. "How long has it been? Two years?"

"Y-Yeah."

"It's so nice to see you again. When did you transfer her from Saunders? Does that mean you finally got away from your parents? Do you have foster parents now?"

"No, I-"

Koume stared into Lindsey's still wide eyes, then noticed the four scowls behind the stricken girl.

"Lindsey. What is going on?" Koume's voice dropped an octave, raised a level on intimidation, and raised two levels on concern.

Lindsey snapped a look behind her and saw one of her accomplices reach into her jacket.

"RUN!" Lindsey screamed.

The Black Knight dressed as a Kuromorimine tank commander pulled out her machine pistol and aimed at Koume. Lindsey dove in between them. An ear-shattering sound of tearing fabric froze everyone on the base as 30 rounds spewed flame out of the muzzle at 1,000 rounds per minute.

Small, supersonic armor piercing bullets raked across Lindsey's back, mangled her legs, and cut through her neck. Her soft body armor was rendered useless. Armor piercing rounds penetrated through Lindsey and her vest, with some embedding themselves into Koume. Both girls fell onto the ground with Lindsey laying on top of Koume.

"Fucking idiot!" the Black Knight commander shouted.

The four remaining Knights ran to the closest tank, a Panther. Its engine roared to life, and it began moving, colliding into nearby parked tanks and knocking over piles of live ammunition.

There was a gaping hole in the right side of Lindsey's neck. Ignoring her own wounds, Koume covered Lindsey's wound, but blood still flowed from beneath her hand and between her fingers.

"I'm sorry!" Lindsey gargled on her blood.

"Medic!" Koume screamed painfully multiple times. She looked back at Lindsey.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

The hijacked Panther continued its path of destruction as it charged for the main gate.

"Don't shoot yet!" Geshiko ordered from outside of the turret.

She and her crew were checking their ammunition supply for live rounds. Geshiko's loader was removing a live round from stowage when news of a hijacked Panther was announced. She had loaded it into the breech, and the gunner hopped into her seat. She tracked the running Panther and now she got a clear shot of its rear armor as it charged the gate.

"I've got a shot at the engine!"

"Wait!" Geshiko ordered.

Once the Panther was clear of any girls, personnel, or ammunition…

"Fire!"

The fired round destroyed the engine, and the burning Panther halted.

~o~

Maho had to squeeze through the mob of squabbling girls. Once she reached the center of the ragged semicircle of bodies, the shouting and screaming quieted down. What stood before Maho was the most surreal scene she's seen. Several of her teammates, at least four of them, held MG-34s taken from co-ax and hull mounted machine gun ports, and were pointing them at the center.

In the center were two Black Knights. Both of them were restrained by heavy chains. One was held up by her collar by Eko. The Knight's face was starting to become black from bruises, and Eko's fist was closely matching it. The other Knight had a young, terrified expression on her face.

"Commander," Kiyo said. "They were carrying these."

Maho's loader held a Stechkin APS and a Beretta 93R.

Maho turned her gaze back to the Black Knights. First to the one that was beaten, now slumped on the ground, then to the other-.

"I'll talk!" the terrified Knight said.

Maho opened her mouth to speak.

"We were supposed to dress up like you and steal a tank, but Goodwin was recognized by one of you, but Jules shot them both, and then we had to steal the closest tank because our cover was blown instead of getting one near the entrance, so we can no longer interfere with your match!"

Maho, and plenty of other tankers, blinked at the spew of information. Then murmurs started emit from the crowd.

"Goodwin? Lindsey Goodwin?" someone asked.

"From Saunders? She's here? Is this Saunders's doing?!"

"No. She was gone for, what, a year?"

"So the bitch joined mercs. Should've just whored herself out if she wanted money."

"Where's the glory in that?"

"Running interference?"

"Are there any other Black Knights like you going around hijacking tanks?" Maho asked.

The terrified Knight shook her head.

But the bruised Knight just chuckled.

"Max still has a Panther." She made a bloody smile. "And there's a group heading for your Maus."

Dead. Silence.

"Roll call!" Maho shattered the silence. "Tanks, crew, even the goddamn referees and medics. Weed out any Knights we find. Call the other teams. Radio, phone, anything. Tell them to do the same."

Maho turned to Sangou. "Contact Mauko and tell her to watch out for mercs and don't let it fall into anyone's hands. Scuttle it if she has to."

Sangou ran off.

"Geshiko, what's the Maus's ammo and fuel?"

"They've fired zero shots and barely moved since they reached the central city. They probably have 2,500 liters of fuel, not including extra cans."

Maho gritted her teeth when she spotted Sangou running back towards her.

"Tell them to scutt-"

"I can't reach Mauko!" Sangou cried.

A/N: Trivia: The Black Knight commander is supposed to be using the Singaporean ST Kinetics CPW chambered in 4.6x30mm (the MP7's cartridge). But any machine pistol with AP capable rounds will do in this setting.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a comment and/or a review. I'll see you all in the next chapter.