Greetings from SeekerMeeker.
So, I notice that the first few chapters are quite short. Fortunately, they will get longer and more comprehensive as time goes on. I am still getting my writing self back. Thank you for your patience.
Disclaimer: please let me know whether you think that I should expand more. Plus, if you have any advice on what to write next, I am open.
Second disclaimer: I will get back and redo these first three chapters. Once done, this second disclaimer will disappear.
Girls Command Rise
Chapter 3: Who are We?
"How did the surveillance go?"
"I found nothing of interest, save for a single terrorist."
Miho chatted with her friends, as they sat on a vehicle. Once Miho managed to hop onboard, the entire convoy wasted no time in moving forward. Giant wheels and tracks smashed any bush that stood in the way, as they continued to flatten the grasses. The convoy consisted of 10 Humvees, three tanks, and a single giant vehicle. While the Humvees were all driven by American soldiers, the other four were...very different.
"I can't believe it!" one of the girls squealed with delight, rubbing her cheeks on the vehicle's hard surface. "That I am riding on this!"
"Or that this vehicle is prohibited in the US in a way," a tall girl with long, black hair spoke. "I think?"
"Katyusha does not approve of your cheek on this machine!" a girl who was smaller than the others screamed, although only her teammates were listening to her.
"Isn't this supposed to be the KAMAZ-7850?" asked a girl with ginger hair, fixing a flower that she put on her head, who was Saori. "It looks like one, except sleeker and more...futuristic?"
"All tanks and vehicles under our control," spoke a lazy-looking girl, getting her head up from a pillow. "Technically are better, more advanced versions of themselves."
"Mako!" Saori groaned. "I know, but they clearly are NOT this advanced."
"Good point," Mako admitted, putting her head back into her pillow. "I am tired of crazy stuff right now."
They were right. The vehicle that they rode was really a TEL, or the transporter erector launcher. It looks like a supersized truck, but with 16 wheels. TELs like this one were typically used for carrying giant ballistic missiles, especially the ICBMs. However, the TEL in the convoy was used as a makeshift bus, carrying about 100 girls on top.
"Why did we use this beautiful machine as a bus?!" Katyusha roared. "It is meant to carry a missile, not a ragtag group of us girls!"
"It was the Ooarai girls' idea," a very tall, black-haired beauty spoke, with another beautiful blonde girl next to her.
"Although," the black-haired girl chuckled. "It was an interesting idea."
"We should have brought the Kamaz Typhoon vehicle instead!" Katyusha screamed, stomping a little. "Nonna! Klara! Nina! Alina!"
"Hai!" four Russian-looking girls all spoke, who included the aforementioned tall duo. Two smaller girls stood by them, who both had dark hair but taller than Katyusha.
"Make sure to bring a PROPER vehicle next time!" Katyusha lectured them. "Yes, we're friends, but the country of Russia is asking us where we are. They know that we 'borrowed' their vehicles, which really belong to us, due to our magic and all that stuff and things that I cannot..."
Katyusha continued to ramble on. Miho chuckled, as she glanced at the group on top of the TEL:
Her entire Anglerfish Team sat around her, chatting along. Next to them, Katyusha stood next to a group of her own group, which consisted of girls who dressed in Russian attire, and acted like Russians. Further away, there were distinct groups of girls, all of whom looked remarkably like the Anglerfish girls. All were dressed in gear that appeared to be partially military in appearance, except more "feminine."
"Why does this show too much skin?!" Saori groaned, stretching out her upper shirt, which looked a little like a bikini top.
"Some of your girls insisted on it," Mako retorted, yawning.
"Are we really working for the US government?" Hana interjected, as Saori "wrestled" with Mako.
"Technically no," Miho replied. "We are not mercenaries either."
"Then why are we here?" Katyusha grunted, as she stomped past a group of five girls. They squeaked and backed away; all of them had brown hair.
"And tell your girls to act more like you!" she added. "They sure act more cowardly than you, Miho-sha!"
"You mean nicer?" Klara asked. The blond bombshell got soft smiles from the girls; she winked at them.
"I am still your commander!" Katyusha grunted. "I cannot believe that we are here. We got used to fighting and all, but there is still a LOT to deal with!"
"Rambling on like usual?" Mako asked, sounding a little sarcastic. "I blame you not; this world is a little crazy."
"I heard that!" Katyusha screamed, then turned to face the right side of the TEL. "Blackbear! How are you all doing?"
On the right side of the TEL, a massive tank rumbled by. It was indeed a tank, but instead of two tracks, it had four sets of tracks. On its giant turret, it carried a gun that was clearly bigger than anything seen on main battle tanks, or even self-propelled guns, at least on this earth.
"Blackbear is clean and ready to go!" a single girl's head shouted, popping out of the cupola; she looked so small due to the tank.
"Why couldn't you have non-Russian tanks come with us?" Saori asked.
"Katyusha wants to show off!" Katyusha declared with a grin. "Plus, I have the T-90 Kodiak on the left side, and my favorite tank leading the convoy!"
The T-90 Kodiak on the left side of the TEL kept pace. It looked like a dramatically improved version of the Russian T-90 tank. However, it wielded a 130-mm gun. Leading the convoy was a single T-14 Armata tank.
"Three Russian tanks and a Russian TEL," Hana noted. "On the American soil in the Appalachian Mountains...that is a strange idea."
"True," everybody around her spoke in agreement. Katyusha merely shrugged with a smile.
"The pride of Russian warfare," she began. "And Katyusha will purge-"
BOOM!
"Waugh!" she jumped, getting behind Nonna. Some thing had not changed.
"Can't believe that they even exist," Mako groaned, getting up to stretch.
"Girls!" Miho declared to the non-Russian girls. "Get up and get ready!"
"Hai!" the entire group of non-Russian girls declared, as they readied their various types of weapons: assault rifles, mortars, and the like. All of them looked more like the type found in video games, rather than real-life guns. Plus, the girls pressed a button on their chest areas, and their casual attire transformed into semi-futuristic combat suits, which looked like a mixture of military formal uniforms and future combat suits.
Katyusha nodded to her own group, and all of them pressed their own buttons. They donned what looked like a more flexible version of the Ratnik combat suit of Russia.
"These helmets feel strong!" Katyusha spoke. "But they're so clunky to deal with!"
"Protection is better than convenience," Nonna replied, as she put on her own helmet.
The girls then took up their arms, and Miho took up hers.
"Strange," Miho remarked. "That I am wielding a gun that looks something like from a video game. I don't play them much, but this clearly looks too...flashy for warfare?"
"Get ready to purge!" Katyusha roared. "Katyusha will purge-"
Chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff!
"Oh come on!" Katyusha and many girls around her, both Russian and non-Russian, groaned in response.
Miho smiled, as a group of helicopters appeared. 10 Apache helicopters fired a volley of missiles, rockets, and bullets at a target in the distance. Massive explosions followed, as Miho watched debris flying about.
"Zon," Katyusha groaned. "We are about to test the glory of our combat suit, and they ruined it!"
"I believe that you should be glad," Nonna said, as she took off her helmet. "Or else the US spies would have gleaned more of what Russian weapons can do."
"Hmmph!" Katyusha merely responded, taking her own helmet off.
"We don't need to fight them for now," Hana remarked, musing. "I guess the US is a lot stronger than I expected."
"This is real life," Mako said. "Anime and manga show us one thing, but this is different."
"A world that is like ours," Saori said. "Except we have WWIII, advanced weapons, and us girls being used as weapons of war."
"Not exactly," Miho corrected, with Saori nodding in relief. "But we are still trying to understand what is even going on here."
"What is EVEN going on?!" a familiar voice roared from Miho's watch. She clicked it, and a series of floating screens appeared.
"Nishizumi!" Momo's weird face (accidentally smacked into the screen somehow, stirring a few giggles) groaned. "Where are you, for crying out loud!"
"Katyusha and Miho-sha are returning back," Katyusha declared, craning her head in. "We have scoured this area of the mountains for terrorists. All of them are neutralized. 10-4."
"10-4 my butt!" Momo roared. "I cannot believe that we are at war!"
"Just cool down," the face of a smug girl with twintails appeared, casually pushing Momo away. "Nishizumi-san, we got your message. Guess we are done here?"
"Roger that," Miho said. "The US Air Force sent a group of helicopters, the AH-64G Apache Paladin to be exact. Apparently, this area is safe now; we don't need to use our weapons here."
"What is going on here?" another girl appeared, looking just like Momo.
"Momo-clone," Anzu casually said. "We are talking with our leader here."
"Stop calling her clone!" the real Momo roared, pulling the Momo lookalike away. "But yeah, I guess she's sort of that."
A group of girls next to Miho, who looked just like Miho, giggled.
"So," Hana said. "What are we going to do next?"
"Good question," Anzu admitted. "Your mission today was the first one we had in 40 days. After this, I don't think we'll be doing much."
The girls groaned.
"Any sighting of the gate back home?" Saori asked, anxious.
Anzu sighed, and the girls groaned again.
"Can't go back home," Mako spoke. "And we are stuck in this Earth that is different from ours, and what is even going on now?"
"Yeah," Saori sighed in agreement. "We haven't had the time to really talk about a few things. Now that we have time to talk, since I have forgotten to ask for 40 days (don't ask me how I forgot), what is even going on here?!"
Miho sighed.
"I have managed to pull the strings," Miho said. "And we have managed to get some free, unmonitored Internet access."
"They're watching our wi-fi?!" Momo groaned.
"Leave them be," Anzu spoke. "We'll talk later; see ya and out!"
The screens disappeared.
"So they hired us," Saori mused. "Then they're watching us, and even trying to pull the strings to get us on their side. Miporin, what did you learn from your last meeting with the US government? Or more precisely, what do you know from UNBIASED news?"
"So," Momo said, groaning as if in pain. "What did you learn?"
"Let her speak," another voice spoke softly, before Momo was pulled from the screen. Miho giggled, as three voices of the Turtle Team continued to blare from the screens. She turned them off, before facing her audience.
Miho cleared her throat, and spoke: "Let me start with a question: Who are we?"
So now, this story is finally picking up.
I am going to try and polish these first few chapters, so that I can nail the overall "feel" properly. Do not worry: if you are curious about this world, the girls etc., they will be explained more later.
I am starting to like how this story is going.
Panzer vor, and wish me well!