"Ah, Koume! You're early!" Erika yelled, over the rumble of her engine.
She was just cresting a hill in the prow-side residential district. Behind her was a long section of grassland that gave way to the ship's artificial coastline, and ahead of her was a small neighbourhood. From this angle, it was almost possible to believe they were at a seaside town, and that the sea behind the urban skyline was static. Instead, the entire town was moving at a consistent rate of 10 knots, and would be making a diversion soon to avoid storms rolling in from the north.
The week had been largely uneventful, but painfully slow. There wasn't any practice on Saturday, so Erika had spent the whole day at home, trying to read a book but feeling terminally restless.
"Trying to show my enthusiasm, Commander!" Koume replied brightly, climbing up out of her panzer III and waving.
Erika looked down at her own trusty Panzer IV - it was a rocket ship compared to the ponderous Tiger II, but it felt like a cramped, vulnerable little toy in comparison.
Miho Nishizumi destroyed a Tiger and a Centurion in one of these. She reminded herself, placing a hand on its thrumming armour plating. It seemed impossible, but there had to be something important to learn there.
"Glad to hear it!" She called back to Koume, eager to distract herself. She banged on the top of the hull twice, and the driver cut the engine. "How do you think things will go today?"
"I'm optimistic!" Koume replied - not a common attitude in Kuromorimine. Pragmatism and practicality were their usual philosophy.
"It'll certainly be educational." Erika said with a wry smile, before ducking back down into her tank. The whole crew was practically sitting in her lap.
"I'm going to step outside until the recruits arrive, alright? Feel free to stretch your legs."
"Thanks commander!" her driver replied, and the operator gave her a thumbs up. Not waiting for more of an answer, Erika hauled herself up and out of the cupola, while hatches and doors snapped open all over the tank below her. They were just as used to the space inside the Tiger II of course, so she knew they'd appreciate the break just as much as she did.
Erika wandered over to Koume's panzer and climbed aboard, sitting down next to her on top of the turret.
"You should have a little more faith in them, Commander! Don't you remember being a recruit?"
"I have absolute faith in 034's artistic abilities." She joked. "It's just that urban combat is going to be really important in the upcoming championships now, and it concerns me that our doctrine is to place all our light tanks in inexperienced hands."
"Don't you write the doctrine?" Koume asked. "And both of us are pretty experienced in light and medium tanks, wouldn't you say?"
"I can't just do whatever I want you know," Erika explained, looking down the hill she'd just climbed. "We've got decades of tradition here. Plus, it works well! We've got a greater variety of heavy tanks than any other school, and only Pravda rivals us in armour and weapon calibre."
"True." Koume replied, but she didn't sound like she was saying everything she wanted to.
"Plus, I've got to beat Oarai this year. That's a lot of pressure, even with the tanks they have."
The tanks they have. Mostly scrap, save the Panzer IV and the StuG III, by Erika's assessment. And yet…
"There they are!" Koume exclaimed, climbing up out of her tank to stand on the turret. Erika followed suit to get a better view.
A mob of tanks rolled along the fields before them, steadily turning towards the foot of the hill. Their formation was nonexistent. 035 was in the lead, weaving from side to side. By the look of it, this was to prevent 034 from overtaking them. Behind them, the rest of the tanks hurtled forwards in a tightly-packed mess.
"Oh for-" Erika growled, glaring at her approaching subordinates. Sighing deeply, she bent down and opened the side hatch of Koume's panzer.
"Headset, please. Open channel." She asked the tank in general, reaching inside with an open hand. The headset was quickly offered up, so she put it on, crouching by the side of the tank so as not to stretch the cable too far.
"In formation!" She bellowed, before tearing off the headset and handing it back.
The result was chaotic.
Two of the tanks just stopped dead in their tracks, and one of them got rear-ended when a racing panzer III couldn't react in time. The others scrambled to form a line, while also dealing with the sudden incline of the hill. Another tank didn't set their gears low enough and stalled, and several others lurched painfully.
Erika massaged her temples with her left hand. Today was going to be a long day.
By the time twelve tanks stood before her in line, Erika was livid. Her foot tapped a frantic rhythm on the roof of Koume's tank, and her arms were tightly folded. She regarded them all with a powerful glower.
Sheepishly, ten groups of girls clambered quietly out of their tank, apparently fixated on the quality of their boots. When they had all formed a rough line in front of their tanks, Erika waited for a beat of silence before speaking.
"And what was that supposed to be, recruits?" She roared, looking at 48 pairs of downturned eyes. "Do you know why we move in formation?"
The recruits were wise enough to wait for clarification.
"A twelve-tank formation moves in three staggered lines of four, with fifteen metres between each tank, so that enemy artillery cannot hit more than one tank. Each line is placed diagonally behind the one in front, to maximise the number of guns facing forward. And we place the Jagdpanzers in the middle, because they cannot protect their own flanks. Do you know why we drive in formation even when there isn't anyone shooting at us, and when there isn't anyone to shoot?"
48 recruits didn't answer the rhetorical question.
"Because, when they are shooting at us, you know exactly where you should be, without wasting time thinking about it!"
"We're sorry, command-" A few voices began in unison, but Erika wasn't finished.
"We need discipline, training and professionalism to be the best! Every one of you is in the most prestigious tankery school in Japan, and we have a reputation to uphold!"
Erika stomped her way down off Koume's panzer. "I've got half a mind to cancel this drill, and have you all doing firing exercises and stripping down your tanks until midnight tonight!"
48 faces suddenly looked up at her with genuine horror.
"Now, fortunately for everyone, I'm not going to cancel this exercise because it's too important and it was difficult to get these Sunday permits. But so help me, each and every one of these panzers had better be perfect or we'll be using them as target practice for the Maus!"
With that, she stalked to the end of the line, Koume almost jogging behind her to keep up. The recruits squirmed to get out of her way as she began inspection.
To her relief, or perhaps her disappointment, she couldn't find anything wrong with any of these tanks. She even gave special attention to the suspension of 035, poring over every detail with the hope to find something to criticise. But fortunately, she couldn't find anything else to shout about.
"Alright, mount up and listen." She ordered, climbing up onto her tank. "We're about to do some very complicated drills, that'll involve a lot of advanced manoeuvring and navigation. The intent will be to bring you all as close to lost as possible, to find the limits of your navigation and communication skills. Radio operators, commanders and drivers, this will be hardest on you."
She climbed inside her tank, and regarded her crew as pleasantly as she could. Then her hand went to her throat mic once again, while the other girls scrambled into their tanks.
"And remember, this is a residential district. It's mostly emptied and nobody will be leaving their houses, but you're all very much on display, and are representing us. Please don't let me down." With a great deal of mental effort she resisted the urge to add 'again' to the end of her sentence.
Erika took three deep breaths to calm her nerves and give the girls behind the chance to get set up.
"Alright, tight formation, three metre separation."
How much worse could it get? Surely after a chewing out like that, they'd all be on their best behaviour?
.0.
"Panzer 022, where are you?" Erika yelled into her mic.
"I don't know, we've never walked down this way before! There's just houses!" Came the panicked reply from 022's radio operator.
"Grid coordinates, please!" she begged. Never had she predicted things could go this horribly. The commands were complicated, of course, that was the whole point. It required relaying a lot of information between a lot of tanks, the formation of four teams, and a bit of creativity when the terrain proved different to the maps provided. Erika remembered that she'd enjoyed the challenge the first time it had been posed to her.
But now, she was sitting at the rendezvous, and only Koume's panzer had made it through the gauntlet. She sighed and popped open the hatch, getting to her feet to talk to Koume personally. Seeing Erika get out, she did the same.
"They can't all be this bad, right?" Erika asked, feeling a little desperate. "It's not me, is it?"
"It was a pretty advanced exercise for such new recruits…" Koume began. "But I really did expect more of them to make it."
"That's where optimism gets you." Erika grumbled. "Alright, you stay here, I'll head back in to start rounding the teams up." She made to leave, but Koume put her hand out.
"Before you go- what are you planning on saying when you get them in?"
"I hadn't thought that far ahead." She admitted. "Any choice words?"
Koume shook her head. "Just try and go easy on them, okay?"
"I promise not to court-martial anyone." Erika replied, half-joking. Then, into her mic: "Alright, all tanks: if you're lost, stay put. I'm calling the operation off, so stay where you are and we'll come and get you."
Finding everyone in the end took almost as long as the original operation was supposed to. As it happened two of the Panzer IVs and three of the Panzer IIIs made it back to the rendezvous after Erika turned back, late but ultimately passing the 'mission'. However, from there things got tricky. Both of the jagdpanzers were lost, and one of them defined their condition as 'stuck', and one of the panzer IIIs had been spotted about a kilometer off-course trying to navigate daytime traffic in a totally different area.
Erika told those girls to make their own way back.
The "stuck" Jagdpanzer proved to be a unique challenge. Frankly, if it wasn't such a disaster Erika would be impressed by the level at which they'd managed to screw themselves.
Conscious of Erika's warnings about Jagdpanzers in tight streets where they couldn't turn their gun, they'd elected to take a detour across a 'small' canal with concrete banks that were, coincidentally, just slightly shorter than the jagdpanzer itself. Unfortunately they didn't pick up nearly enough speed, and now their front wheels were just connecting with the far bank, while their rear wheels were still sitting on the original bank. Moving forwards would drop the rear into the river and flood the engine, while reversing would destroy the gun.
Erika did consider just leaving it there, but after a bit of trigonometry and force resolution, she and one of the panzer IIIs hooked tow cables onto the top of the jagdpanzer's chassis and towed it out without dipping it in the water too much.
"Okay." Erika sighed, stowing their tow cable. "How many have we got left?"
"Just two now, and neither are trapped." Her radio operator replied, sticking her head out of the tank. "034 and 039. 039 says… They're at the bottom of a really long staircase next to a hill."
"Descriptive. Any idea where that is?"
She nodded. "I've worked out grid coords."
"Great! Nearly finished. What about 034?"
"Holding position as per orders last I checked, but they've been silent for a while."
Erika resisted the urge to scream. Who was teaching these girls to operate radios?
"Alright, keep trying to hail them while we pick up 039." She said, slipping back into the cupola.
Fortunately the location of this 'staircase' wasn't far, but unfortunately that meant Erika didn't have many orders to give and so was forced to listen to her radio operator attempting to find 034. Quite how a whole tank could just disappear like this was beyond her-
"034?" The operator suddenly said, her head perking up in realisation.
"Where are they?" Erika asked quickly, ducking in closer.
In reply, the operator took off her headset and turned up the volume.
A tiny voice came through the headset, and Erika craned her head forward to listen in on the conversation.
"We've just… we've decided… We wanna find our own way to the rendezvous point, so we moved out of radio for a bit, sorry!"
Erika was furious. I told them to stay put! She made to speak, but the radio operator cut her off.
"You were given a direct order to maintain position for pickup, please just hold position and tell us exactly where you are."
"Me and Sayano know we can find our way back from here, we promise!"
"What's your position, right now?"
"L14, but-"
"We're in L13, please just stay where you are and we'll pick-"
A second, smaller voice interrupted. "Wait, not that way!"
"What other way was there?" A third voice argued. "I went where you said!"
"There was a turning! Stop and reverse!"
"I can't, there's no room to turn and I can't see!"
Erika rolled her eyes and moved away again. If someone had told her that 034's crew were actually spies from another school intentionally sabotaging their training, she'd only have disagreed because they were too good at it.
"039, up ahead!" Erika's driver called out. Thankful for the distraction from whatever 034 was doing, she stood up in the cupola. 039's commander was waving sheepishly.
They pulled up level so Erika could talk without shouting. They were indeed positioned with a staircase to their right, a steep narrow staircase that lead straight up a hill and was surrounded by buildings on both sides all the way up.
"Sorry for the trouble." The first year said apologetically, but Erika shook her head.
"Listen, it's fine. Let's just get you back to the hangar, okay?"
"Thank you, we're really sorry, but we learned a lot about navigation!"
"Mm." Erika turned back to face the way they came. "If we head north up this street for a little while, it'll be quite easy to- Wait, do you hear something?"
A faint sound hit Erika's ears.
"No, I-" The girl began, but Erika raised a finger to cut her off. It was a faint rumble, a roar, like-
Like a tank.
The rumble was strange, and getting louder. If it was one of her panzers, something very strange was being done to it.
Suddenly, something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. Something on the stairs. She glanced up, and then-
"Full reverse, now!" She yelled as quickly as she could. Her crew was used to sudden orders out of nowhere. 039 however, was not.
Her tank pulled back just in time to see 034 careen down the stairs and slam into the side of 039, which had only just began to move. The sound of the crash was deafening, a screech of metal on metal as 039 was punched to the side. Both tracks flew off, and when the dust had finally settled, 039 was sitting 2 metres to the left of where it had been before, with two thrown tracks and several ruined wheels.
In the wake of the cacophony, silence ruled.
Fearing the worst, Erika leapt out of her tank. 039's commander was slumped over her cupola, unable to get inside to safety to avoid the impact. Her long hair covered her face, and her hat was lost in the crash.
"Oh my god! Are you okay?" she cried, scrambling up onto the battered vehicle. A quiet groan was just audible over the idling engines. She knelt down next to her, fearing the worst. "Can you talk?"
After a moment, the younger girl pushed herself up a little with a shaking arm, and croaked out a measly "Fine". She was clearly winded, and held one hand to her ribs where they had been smashed against the inside of the turret.
Satisfied that the girl wasn't too seriously injured, Erika stepped down from 039 as the crew started to climb out and attend to their commander. Worry welled into relief, and then immediately soured into anger. She stalked over to 034's tank, who were just starting to dazedly climb out of their vehicle. They all had their own scrapes and scuffs, but nothing like the bruising that 039's commander would undoubtedly receive.
"What the hell were you doing?" She roared, pointing at the crumpled panzer III and its crew. She couldn't have done that much damage to it with the gun of her Tiger II. "I gave you a direct order to stay put!"
Before anyone could answer her, she took a breath and continued. "And this is what happens? You could have killed someone with that stupid stunt! And what? To restore your pride? If you make a mistake, acknowledge it, and let us fix it!"
She glared at 034's crew, who looked suitably ashamed.
"Tankery is dangerous! If you mess around carelessly, you could really hurt someone! I should court-martial every single one of you! And if her injury is any more serious than it looks, I just might!"
"W-we just thought- We'd seen on TV that-"
"When you see someone pulling a stunt like that, it's because they've practiced long enough to pass a simple navigation test." Erika hissed icily. "As punishment, you can tow 039's panzer back, alone. I don't care how long it takes. And when it's back in the hangar, you can help them fix it. And because I apparently can't trust you, we're going to escort you all the way back."
This time, nobody offered any excuses or disagreement.
.0.
After checking on 039's commander a second time to make sure she was okay, and helping her up onto the panzer IV where the ride would be a little smoother, Erika settled into her cupola to stew in furious silence until they got back. The humiliation and bone-crushing slowness of the journey would hopefully give 034's crew some time to reflect on their actions.
Erika yawned as she walked out past the hangars, watching the sun set on the sea. After that catastrophe, she'd decided to sort the paperwork out there and then, rather than let it sit until later. She'd written up a mission report she'd email to all the girls who took part, telling them exactly what went right, what went wrong, and what they'd need to improve on for next time. Then she'd had to sort out the paperwork for panzer 039. Both of the tracks were pretty damaged and needed repairs, and three wheels were completely broken. Other small fixes to the suspension were necessary, but thankfully they managed to get away without any serious damage to the hull. The track guards on 034 were pretty dented too, but they didn't impede performance and could be hammered out again.
After that, she'd gone to visit 039's commander in the infirmary. Thankfully she'd just missed 034's crew, who had come to apologise, which was good because they were the last people she wanted to see just then. Thankfully, the worst of the girl's injuries (her name was Misato, as it turned out) was bruised ribs, which would keep her out of the tank for a couple of weeks but wouldn't be any more serious than that.
Finally, to round out her day, she checked in on the repairs for the Maus. Because it was such a rare vehicle (theirs was the only one on the high-school circuit) pretty much all the parts were bespoke and so it still wasn't fixed after what Miho had done to it last year. Fortunately, they were now only waiting for a couple of parts to fix the transmission, and most of the tank was up and running again.
So there was some good news, at least.
Now the whole day was over, and Erika needed to head back to her apartment... to make dinner by herself.
She stopped though, as the familiar rumble of a tank engine reached her ears. Looking around, she saw the one thing she'd wanted to avoid by working all day.
Panzer 034 was trundling along outside the hangar, erratically turning left and right as if chasing after some kind of evasive small animal. As Erika drew closer, she realised that they had placed markers down - far too small for the driver to see from her slit of a viewport, but the commander could see them well enough if she stuck out of the turret.
Erika paused, frowning. There wasn't any practice scheduled, and fuel was a finite resource, but they had a huge budget and the tanks themselves were considered private property so there weren't any rules explicitly forbidding this. A bit of extra-curricular training was encouraged for the most part, provided all fuel and ammo used was properly accounted for, and no cannons were discharged outside of designated areas and past certain times in the evening.
As she watched, 034 lurched to a sudden stop. A stall - she'd recognise that from a mile away. The commander waved her arms and pointed forward emphatically, but when the tank roared back into life, it rumbled backwards. Another painful halt as the panzer rolled back over one of the markers, and the engine died once again.
Sighing, Erika hurried over to them.
By the time she reached the beleaguered tank, the engine had started again but apparently wasn't going anywhere. The commander was now inside the tank up to her armpits, and was yelling down at her crew. The crew were clearly replying, but whatever they were saying was completely drowned out by the engine and the confines of the tank itself.
They were so absorbed, in fact, that none of them even noticed Erika hauling herself up onto the chassis. Only when she squatted down next to the turret did the commander spot her out of the corner of her eye, and almost leapt clear out of the tank with surprise.
"C-Commander?" She stammered, looking ready to cry.
"What's going on here?" She asked, perhaps a little more venomously than she'd intended. But if they'd managed to wreck the transmission by pushing the engine too hard, she'd be furious. Those were very expensive to replace, and they weren't even supposed to be using the tank at this time.
034's commander stammered out something unintelligible, gesturing vaguely. Erika gritted her teeth. Sometimes, you just had to do everything yourself. Did Maho ever have to deal with this?
She banged twice on the radio operator's hatch.
"Open up." She ordered, and was pleasantly surprised to see the hatch fly open a second later. As soon as the hatch was open she was subjected to a barrage of noise.
Inside, the loader and radio operator were staring at her with eyes like saucers, their mouths clamped shut. The gunner was patting the shoulder of the yelling driver, whose head was in her hands.
"I'm sorry, okay?" She shouted at the floor." I'm trying and I'm trying but I'm just no good and there's so much to think about, and when you shout orders I just panic and then the- the tank stalls and it's stressful and then you're angry at me for that and I can't-"
Erika cleared her throat loudly. The driver and gunner whipped around to face her too now, so there were four pairs of eyes fixed on her. Unlike the commander, the driver didn't look like she was about to cry. Instead, she already was crying, and was having a lot of trouble stopping.
In that moment, staring into those red puffy eyes, all of Erika's anger and frustration dissipated, like a steam engine releasing all its pressure. Whatever she was about to say faltered at the back of her throat and she just stared at them for a moment.
They stared back.
"Alright… everyone out." She mumbled after far too long. She hopped off the tank and stood to one side as the crew slowly clambered out. The driver was sniffling uncontrollably, and the gunner stood close to her, as if protectively.
As soon as they were all out of the tank and standing in front of her, Erika made to speak but was cut off by the commander.
"I'm sorry, Commander!" She said for what felt like far too many times that week. "We didn't mean to cause any trouble, only we felt so bad for what we did earlier that we had to run some extra drills to try and get better so you wouldn't need to get angry-" She cut herself off.
So you didn't need to get angry.
"Are… Are you gonna kick us out?" The radio operator asked quietly.
The words cut like a knife.
It's not like I'm angry for no reason, she thought indignantly, fighting against the guilt rising in her stomach. She expected a lot of these girls, because she wanted them to succeed! She held them to a high standard because she wanted them to have high expectations of themselves! And now a girl was quite badly hurt, because they'd ignored orders!
That said, it didn't seem to be working. All five girls looked extremely stressed out, and quite frankly terrified to be standing in front of her.
Was I ever scared of Maho? Are the Oarai girls ever scared of Miho? The latter part was almost laughable. Miho wasn't scary, and hardly ever even lost her temper. And yet… A group of untrained rookies followed her and trusted her to the championship title. Maybe she was being too rough.
They'd only disobeyed and acted out because they were scared of being shouted at again, not because they didn't take this seriously.
Erika sighed and tried to think of the calmest, most soothing people she knew. Miho, Koume… Darjeeling?
"No, I'm not getting rid of any of you." She said at last. "You all deserve another chance."
The tension dropped a little, but there was still a tangible discomfort in the air.
"Okay, what went wrong?" she asked, in what she hoped was a passably supportive tone. "Is anything broken?" She was eager to change the subject onto something constructive, at least.
"Besides my stupid brain-" the driver began, but the gunner stopped her by rubbing her arm comfortingly.
"With the tank." Erika specified. "Any transmission issues, are the gears okay?"
"Y-yeah… Everything's fine." The gunner replied simply.
Erika tried not to look outwardly relieved. That almost definitely wouldn't help things.
"Alright. What were you trying to do? Can you show me? I've driven the Panzer III before, I might be able to help."
"I'm not trying to do anything special, I'm just.. It's just…"
"Are you panicking?" Erika asked, trying to be helpful. She felt like she'd gotten to the bottom of the issue now, and she didn't feel great about contributing to it.
The girl just nodded sullenly. The gunner had a light grip on the driver's sleeve.
"Well, that's important. In a match, there's going to be a lot of pressure, and the situation is going to change fast. That's why-"
"That's why I gotta get a grip and stop crying, I know." The driver cut across her. The commander looked like she'd just committed treason, but Erika didn't bite back.
"That's why, you've got to feel comfortable and in control in there." Erika finished. "Look, get back inside and we'll go through what you were trying to do. No shouting, no pressure, take as long as you need." The words came out before Erika even considered their meaning. Was she not exhausted and stressed out herself?
The driver nodded, and the girls turned back towards their tank. But Erika, still feeling more than a little embarrassed, cut in again. "Just the two of us, actually. Do you mind standing and watching a moment?"
"Uhh, no ma'am." The gunner said, awkwardly releasing her grip on the driver.
In silence, the pair got back into the tank, the driver climbing back in through the chassis and Erika lowering herself through the cupola. Even just looking at her back, Erika could tell she was stiff and anxious.
"Relax your shoulders and take a deep breath." Erika offered, trying not to sound like she was giving an order.
The driver thankfully listened and complied, and after allowing her a few more breaths, she spoke again.
"Alright, that's great. Now, whenever you're ready."
The driver turned the engine over again, and got it into gear on the first try. Erika stood up, and thankfully could see that they were moving forwards as planned.
Over the next twenty minutes, the little panzer slowly made its way through the convoluted course that its crew had set out for it. Beyond telling her when to turn and how fast she should be moving Erika didn't say much, but every so often mumbled words of encouragement or praise. They felt weird and hollow coming out of her mouth, and the driver didn't reply, but when they reached the end of the course Erika could actually feel herself smiling for the first time in what felt like a month. It wasn't a big victory. Hell, it was hardly a victory at all! But it was something, and she enjoyed the change in pace.
"There you go. Great job." Erika said, climbing out onto the turret.
"Uhh, thanks!" The driver replied, looking up at her through the cupola as she stepped out.
"I didn't do anything really," Erika admitted. "You knew how to drive her, you just needed to clear your head for a moment."
"You should run this one again with your crew though," she continued loudly, noticing that the others were approaching. "So you get comfortable with everyone else in the tank with you. It's cramped, but you all need to feel completely at home in there, and doing everything you need to."
"Yes Commander!"
As 034's commander clambered up onto the turret, she smiled brightly at Erika. Despite herself, Erika found herself returning the smile, but with a little less gusto.
"Thanks, Commander. For being patient with us. And for… letting us stay."
"It's not about my patience, she replied, finally understanding fully. "Thank you all for giving it everything, even after I shouted at you so many times."
"No problem!" She perked up after that. "We wanna be the best!"
"Then keep it up, and maybe one day you will be!" Erika replied, letting the young commander take her place. She waved goodbye, and left them to it.
That night Erika finally got to bed with a smile on her face, and for once didn't miss Miho quite so much.
.0.
A/N: Thanks for reading so far! I'm trying to put out a new chapter every week in the current circumstances, so I hope this gives everyone enjoyment in these troubling times!
I'm also cross-posting this on AO3, so that's me as well!
Please send me a review with your thoughts, I always love the interaction!
Until next time!