Girls Und Panzer: World Tournament!
Chapter 26: Maskirovka
Pre-chapter author's note: I revamped my entire Chapter 25 while writing this so if you are long-time follower who came back for Chapter 26, I recommend going back to 25 and rereading it. I overhauled the events with new fighting situations, new concepts; though how it started and how it ended is unchanged.
Center of town, France
Miho's stifled cry of pain echoed inside the Panzer IV interior. Her howl escaped her closed lips as she tried in vain to control it. Outside, Azusa from her M3 Lee was in a stunned scream as blue smoke filled the town center.
"Miho!" Yukari quickly climbed back into the Panzer IV and attended to her. Miho gripped with pressure on her right side abdomen, right around her belly area. "Are you alright?!" Her instinctive, yet redundant question blurted out as she tried to get a look on the area of pain.
"Mako! Drive to cover!" Saori yelled out in concern.
Mako felt her limbs move on their own. Shifting the gear, applying the foot lever, and adjusting the levers and the Panzer IV began to reverse past Rabbit team towards the open church doors. Without anyone watching the path, Anglerfish's Panzer IV reversed and crashed right into the front walls of the church, meters from the large open door. The crash threw the girls with the inertia, being thrown backwards towards the rear, with Miho towards the rear wall, Yukari and Hana fell right onto the turret ring. Saori and Mako had the benefit of backrest on their seats to inhibit the effect, but the rattling of the brass cartridges in the storage sponsons clanged, evoking instinctive warnings of high-caliber ammunition being disturbed.
Hana quickly recovered and opened her turret hatch on the left side. "Mako! Turn about 20 degrees to the right and reverse!"
Mako shifted the gear quickly and drove the Panzer IV forwards to make distance between the walls, turning right as she drove on. Somewhere in the city, the piercing *CWACK* sounded out, echoing between the buildings. It followed with a *CLUNG* on the Panzer IV's left side. Mako paid no heed to this as she continued operating the Panzer IV into reverse, slowly entering the open arms of the walls as it swallowed it into the interior.
Mako continued reversing before sloppily turning in a parking fashion.
"Mako, please stop!" Hana quickly said, judging the distance on the interior walls. Mako swiftly made her moves and the Panzer IV quickly came to a stop, the inertia once more shifting the girls inside the tank.
Miho's breath was heavy in the tank as the sound of battle declined inside the masonry of the building. The damage had hit her like a punch to the guts, her breath beaten out of her on the impact.
"Nishizumi-dono…" Yukari said as she tried to alleviate some of Miho's pain in the building's darkness. She couldn't tell if she was helping.
Then an explosion blasted nearby, sending dust and shrapnel all over.
Southwest of the town, France
Yashin ducked back down behind the walls in the watchtower. He carefully angled his rifle with the bolt area towards him and cycled. *Click-clack* the bolt went as the he brought the bolt up in the first stage, then pulled the bolt open on the second. The ejected round landed onto his body, muffling the sound of the bouncing case. He grabbed it and stuck the empty case into a pocket on his hip. Carefully closing the bolt to cycle the next round, he moved around the tower. From the northern side, he stalked towards the south, keeping care to stay hidden from any observant characters. The fighting continued in the east as his team's tanks speared towards the southeastern side. As the fighting intensified, it seemed Ōarai had invested a significant portion of their force there. All this was no concern for him though as he moved on for another target.
The American tanks in the south bocages were prime targets. His high elevation gave him some leverage over some angles in the hedgerows. On a corner, he could see the yellow hair color on one the girls, contrasting with all the green there. He estimated the distance with his two eyes at suspect, then laid his rifle once more on his shoulder. Using the an open window side as a support, he rested his cheek on the stock as he aimed for another target in the distance.
Southeast side of town, inside perimeter, France
The fighting continued, despite the presence of yellow smoke in the air. The wind blew the smoke towards the east away from the tanks, clearing their vision. Caution was taken on the left flank for infantry presence. If they tried another attempt with the smoke grenades, someone was gonna get a bullet for the trouble.
"They seem to be halting," Klara noted. The T-34-85 were now taking their time behind cover.
"M-maybe we dealt enough damage?" Nina said. "It's like us, if we lose enough tanks, you pull back like in-"
"What do you mean?!" Katyusha shouted out loud. "We never pull back unless I say so! And never had we pull back because of casualties!"
Katyusha's thundering claim concluded with a wood-breaking *CRASH!*. All the girls turn their attention to the source of the sound. A building in front was engulfed in an explosion. The blast sent out waves of dust and specks all over the place. The flying shrapnel of wood and masonry hit the tank and cupola covers.
"What was that?!" Katyusha shouted out loud. All the girls were stunned with the explosion force.
"T-that f-felt like our 152!" Alina shouted from the KV-2. "Maybe a bit weaker, but still!"
"They do have assault gun…" Klara noted. "Could they have Zverboy?"
"Grr, where are they firing from?" Katyusha shouted, she picked up the radio. "Oi Miho-sha! We're taking fire by heavy artillery here! What's our next move?!"
Silence. Katyusha looked at her radio briefly to see if it was still working. "Hello?!" She cried again. She gave the radio a good whap to make sure. "Hello!?"
She then changed the frequency. "Hey, Miho's gone silent! Anyone know what's going on?!"
"Huh?!" Kay answered first. "I was just in contact with her a few minutes ago!"
"I noticed as well. I am unsure of her circumstance," Darjeeling responded.
"Is Miho alright!?" Anchovy chimed in.
"Huh? Ms. Nishizumi is gone?!" Nishi called in as well. All questioning the circumstance, and all loss without the leader up top.
"Everyone calm down," Darjeeling called out. "Our current situation is unchanged. Considering the match is still going on, the worst has yet to happen."
"Could they have someone move in and attack Miho?" Anchovy asked. "They have anti-tank riflemen staking out in the bocage!"
"Anti-tank riflemen…So that's what they were," Kay cursed. "Darn Suvorov… exploiting the wilderness to the maximum…"
Darjeeling agreed, "How ungentlemenlike. Nevertheless, we must push on. Kay, continue commandeering the force down south. Until we regain communication with Nishizumi, I will take command of the town force here. All units copy? Jasmine?"
A series of agreement came back.
"Right. I will send someone to check on our commander."
South bocage fields, France
Kay felt a new weight of responsibility as the commander of Dandelion. It felt like an eagle in the sky, eyeing above with guidance, was just shot down. They were on their own for the time being, with her own intuition as their guidance.
And her own intuition was to find and slaughter the Suvorov tanks.
"Gunner! Left side!" Kay shouted, and the large turret swung around with its long 76 mm gun towards a bocage alley they are passing by. Gun fire blasted, not from Kay M4A3E2 though, but from the T-34-85 down the sight, which itself was focused on Alisa's group in front of them. Their gun fired, the commander on the tank was too fixed to what was in front to see Kay get the jump on him. A good 76 mm armor-piercing shot into the side ended the Russian medium tank.
"All-right! You got him!" Alisa shouted with a sigh of relief.
"Aren't you glad to see me?"
"Oh please, I was handling him fine myself!" Alisa insisted.
Kay chuckled as the tank rolled about. "Alright, if you say so."
The tanks were raking through the hedgerow like knives through leaves. Losing themselves in hunting down the enemy, locating the enemy has become an essence of locating engine noises, surrounding, and then eliminating them. From here, there are several medium tanks, one heavy tank, assault guns, and several light tanks in the area. Confirmed at least, the amount of fighting has been tough with the several tanks here.
The M4A3E2 Jumbo drove down towards an intersection when something squirmed out in front of the tank like a little bug. This swift thing looked at Kay's M4A3E2 with its comparatively tiny gun. The small light tank blasted a 45 mm shell right into the front glacis with what could be described as stubborn resistance. The round unsurprisingly just bounced off and the light tank sped away in the opposite direction forwards.
"Hey, just got hit by a light tank, we're pursuing down the west path at the coordinate." Kay said calmly, not considering the Russian T-70 light tank a major threat.
"Roger that," Alisa replied. "I'll see if we can box him in and- oh! Whoa, he's a fast bugger!"
Kay's M4A3E2 pursued behind him. The gunner tried to get a fix on the tank with the stabilized gun, but it turned and so the pursuit was one.
"Hey, Nishi," Kay called out. "We got a tiny bugger coming your way, so if you're still at the center path, keep an eye out."
"Affirmative Ms. Kay!"
Southeast side of town, inside perimeter, France
"We should probably relocate, shouldn't we?" Satoko said quickly from the back. "I mean, they probably already know where we are from all the fighting…"
"It's just one long road," Katyusha said back. "Where else could we go? Our avenue is quite limited."
Then a loud *CRASH* followed by a *BLAM* cratered the road in the very middle of the road. The projectile ricocheted off the concrete and flew into the tree and then away into the sea behind the town.
The trajectory of this round was made quite clear with a hole in the roof of one of the building in its path, coming from the path of the hedgerow. With the amount of force the AP came in, these obstacles were no threat to its path to target.
"Relocate, relocate!" The girls cried out. Suddenly, the loud explosion on the other building didn't seem as random as it was. "They're trying to get a bead on us!"
"Calm down!" Katyusha cried out. "Move positions! Fall back to the secondary positions!"
"How are they spotting with those guns?!" A Pravda girl cried.
Nonna quickly looked around for infantry. Was there a radio man keeping tabs on the impact locations? There wasn't one in sight, but one would have to be in a very clear view of the artillery splash to make the corrections.
Actually, how were they getting these rounds as close as they were? The first high-explosive round landed rather close to their location at the first try...
A second explosion sounded from the center of the town. Katyusha looked back curiously, was that a round way off target?
Center of town, France
Rosehip's Cromwell two-tank platoon was almost caught in that explosion. The blast struck the center of town, right where Rosehip was heading to check on the last known position of Miho Nishizumi. The blast tore down most of the tall greenery and pristine decorations around the area, the blast force even shaked the stone of the mock church building, engulfing the area with a black inferno.
As Rosehip's Cromwells approached and slid to a stop, she noted there were two such craters in the area, not more than 50 meters apart. But both Miho's tank and her headquarter group was nowhere to be seen.
"Stay out here," Rosehip said to Cranberry. "Uh, stay as far as you can from that crater area."
Cranberry nodded nervously among the tank fight in the south-east. Rosehip dismounted and headed inside the dark church opening. Inside, she found the two missing tank, the M3 Lee and the Panzer IV. The commander of the M3 Lee was outside the tank, somewhat shivering. The entire left side of the M3 Lee was sooted black with scratches of shrapnel from a explosive force. Rosehip recalled the magnitude of the crater outside and connected the two reasons.
"What's going on here? Where's Miho?" Rosehip asked the Ōarai girl.
She looked up and pointed towards the Panzer IV. Upon focusing, noises were coming from inside.
"There was a sniper outside as well," Azusa commented. "Watch out for the windows!"
"Right," Rosehip said as she approached the Panzer IV. She made her presence known as loud as possible to warn the occupants of her approaching. The scene was dramatic inside the open cupola, with the Miho still sitting inside and the girls trying their best to comfort her. Without medical expertise, all they could do is to restore Miho into a stable condition.
"What's going on here?" Rosehip roared inside.
"Miho got hit!" Saori reiterated what Azusa said outside, holding a wet cloth in her hand, soaked from Yukari's canteen.
"R-rosehip…" Miho said, seeing the St. Gloriana girl standing there peering her head down to her.
"That don't look good," Rosehip gave her opinion. "We should get her off the field to a hospital!"
Hana spoke first, "That's what we've be-"
"N-no!" Miho cried out. She made some effort to get up. "N...no! I'm not done ye- Ugh!" Miho lost some strength and came back down.
"Nishizumi-dono, we need to at least get a medic look at that!" Yukari insisted.
"N, no. Yukari, you know I ca-can't do that…"
"Nishizumi-dono…"
"What does she mean?" Rosehip looked at Yukari.
Yukari stammered, "Ah, uh… she… really wants to make it to the finals."
"I get that, but…" Rosehip looked back between the two. "Look, I'll tell the others this, but we really should get her to a doctor! We can call one in and get Miho ou-" Rosehip looked back at Miho, noting her extreme reluctance to abandon this post. "I'll signal everyone first, get Miho some more rest. Tell Miho to take a breath," Rosehip said as she started climbing down the Panzer IV. The Anglerfish girls continued to apply their best abilities to helping Miho.
South bocage fields, France
The Saunder tanks pursued the light tank through the hedgerow. The M4A3E2 couldn't keep up, so they tried to force the light tank into turns right into their gun sight by boxing it in.
Soon, Kay's M4A3E2 got up to a side and machine gunned down an intersection the T-70 was approaching down. It was forced to turn left and right into an intersection that Alisa's M4A1 (76) was in.
"I have you now!" Alisa shouted giddily. "I'll smack you right in the a-"
*KYUUI-PLANG!*
The clang of metal echoed in between the bushes like a bong across the airspace. Kay heard that sound as it echoed over, followed with a loud *CRACK* noise in the air. The sound became eerily identified to the sound heard onŌarai carrier.
"SNIPER!" Kay cried. "Get down!"
Motion in Kay's tank platoon ceased as the tank commanders became concerned of their heads being whacked off. The T-70 turned and zipped away unmolested
"Shitshitshit! Wheredidthatcomefrom?!" Alisa yelled out in a ramble, her head was barely saved.
"That shot came before the sound…" Naomi said briefly through the radio. Shuffling noises followed as she kept the radio receiver pushed in, the noise of her chewing gum could also be heard as she looked. "Alisa, did that round come in onto your cupola hatch?"
Kay looked back on the six vision port on the cupola. Alisa's hatch was open towards the tank's right to the south. Following Naomi's deduction, the concave underside of the commander's hatch seemed to form an arc as a suspicion of the sniper's location.
"Y-yeah!" Alisa quickly answered.
Kay watched as Naomi's lone periscope on her older commander's hatch rotated around to look, like a submarine peeking from under the sea. "That's where I'd be…" She commented absently, her gum chewing in the background. "About 450 yards from here...I wouldn't peek out there girls. This sniper's got talent."
We can't fight like this, Kay quickly thought. The fast response of the bocages required the commander to have the best situational awareness now. To continue fighting without that advantage would be detrimental even in the Shermans. "Can you do anything about it?" Kay asked.
"Maybe, but I'll be a while. You don't mind do you?" Naomi asked, as if asking permission to abandon her current assignment for this crucial role.
"Go get him," Kay answered.
"Roger that. Driver reverse!"
Naomi's Firefly tank slowly backed out of their current situation. While the 17-pounder would be missed, the 76 mm would do just fine at this close range fighting. "Now, let's get to business as best we can! Move out!"
Southeast side of town, inside perimeter, France
Leopon kept watch as Pravda repositioned their tanks. The incoming rounds were a threat and if a tank position was predictable, then all that had to be done was walk the fire right into the emplacement. Hopefully this threw out the aim.
"Phew… This battle is quite tense!" Hoshino commented as she kept watch through the TZF-9b gun sight of the 88 mm KwK 36.
"Yeah… Suvorov is quite an opponent," Satoko followed up.
"You think we'll be okay?" Suzuki said.
"We'll be fine! Just follow as planned and no tank can get past us!" Satoko pumped her fist.
*Klang bang*
A metal-on-metal banging sounded atop the turret. It sounded as it rolled off the turret and into the back, more banging followed.
*POOF*
Yellow smoke spread outside the tank, some going down into the turret through the tiny holes around the area.
"What?! Satoko said as the smoke started seeping through the cupola.
"Chemical?!" Suzuki cried out.
"No! It's the same thing with Nonna!" Hoshino quickly recalled.
"Smoke… oh shoot our engine!" Satoko cried out as she quickly ejected herself through the cupola.
The girls inside cried out for her patience as she scrambled outside the tank. The yellow smoke bellowed out of a canister on the rear of the tank and Satoko felt her blood twist as she saw the running Maybach engine sucking in the spreading smoke through the air intake.
Satoko quickly grabbed the canister and chucked it far away, as far as she could. Then she ducked down to inspect the engine.
"Satoko!" Her crew inside cried out. She hastily checked and made sure the engine ran as she fanned away the smoke around the area. Momentarily, the smoke cleared away and Satoko was confident the engine worked and climbed back into the tank.
"Engine is working fine!" Satoko announced inside.
"Satoko, how do you do it?!" Suzuki cried out.
"What do you mean?"
"Did you realize you were being shot at?"
Satoko looked dumbfounded as she looked around. She then realized the turret had been traversed from the 1 o'clock position down the road to the hull's 10 o'clock. She looked down and saw a collection of bullet casing on the bottom. "Wait… were you shooting someone?"
"You didn't know at all?" Hoshino looked back eyes wide open. "There was someone shooting you that whole time you were out there. You weren't hit?"
"No… I really didn't know."
Southwest bocage fields, France
The Sherman VC Firefly parked a few way back before it paused besides one of the many lengths of hedgerow in this bocage maze.
"Halt here driver," Naomi gave her order between her gum chews. "Drop me off here. Loader, hand me my rifle."
"We should just machine gun the site, Naomi," Her gunner said.
"No, no. Machine gun may be inaccurate. We won't take him out quick and he'll just stake out there or move on. Either way, he's would still be a threat."
"Gah, if only we could use the main gun…"
"As cool as that sounds, you know we can't do that," Naomi said as she reached over the huge 17-pounder gun's recoil guard and took the rifle. The familiar Springfield M1903A4 sniper rifle, which managed to fit in one of the precious spaces in the loader's position.
Naomi checked the rifle, racked the bolt. Then reached to one of the few commander's storage areas and pulled out a few clips of .30-06 rounds. She took them off the clip and loaded the rounds into the rifle individually. "Alright girls, I'm off. Take care of the tank, alright? Stick around here unless it's an emergency."
"Yes ma'am!"
Naomi opened the cupola in her Firefly, conscious about the hatch opening direction to try to get some shield coverage just in case. She slowly peeked out the area for hostiles, then quickly bolted out of the Firefly to the ground. Pressing down with her boots on the hard dirt road, she edged towards the target along the dense hedgerow, careful to not be in the field of vision until at her prime location.
Southeast side of town, inside perimeter, France
"Huh? Smoke on our rear now?" Katyusha asked for confirmation.
"Yeah! Someone came up to us and tried to choke our tank with the smoke!" Some scuffling happened behind the radio from Leopon's side.
"It's something more than that!" A different voice spoke up. "Why would they need to use yellow smoke otherwise?"
"Yellow smoke again…?" Katyusha wondered why. Colored smoke wouldn't really be used concealment, they're mostly used for signaling. Maybe that was all the Suvorov have?
Then a loud *WHAM* with an explosion sounded behind the group! Katyusha looked back quickly and saw the plaza all the way in the rear behind Leopon erupt in an explosion of dirt and rubble. It was of the same magnitude as the other shells that were landing around them, now in a high-explosive payload.
Katyusha was reminded of the time a 60 cm payload almost landed on her during that match. Though this explosion force was a lot smaller, the force warped everything around it, swirling around rubble with the air and the yellow smoke.
…wait a minute. Yellow smoke? Katyusha quickly noted the presence of the hostile element. The only reason it would be in the explosion is if the shell landed right...on it.
"They're using the smoke as a signal for the assault gun indirect fires!" Katyusha shouted into the radio. "Relocate once more! Keep an eye out for Suvorov infantry, don't let them get a smoke grenade on you!"
"R-right!" The replies came in.
But if Suvorov can lob indirect fire from their large calibers so willfully, then… the hedgerow south is not being contested as heavily as it should be.
"Gosh darn it Kay, what are you doing?!" Katyusha grumbled.
Southwest of the town, France
The explosion shook the town, but Yashin did not waver his rifle. After his missed shot, the American girls have dispersed. He cursed at his missed chance of incapacitating another key figure, but his presence has forced the girls to watch their path and take a button-upped position.
Yashin got back down to examine his map, checking his plotted firing arcs and points that he is able to take. He moved towards the North side of the watchtower, peering over back to the center plaza. Two British tanks had shown up, but the rest were keeping their heads down, still fearful after the deed he has done there. Still, they were the only targets in his view at the moment, so he kept watch, waiting for a careless individual to step out.
Suddenly, he could hear engine sounds coming in much closer out in the fields. He came back towards the southeast end of the tower and saw commotion in the fields. Tanks were moving past. He slowly raised his rifle up, watching for the enemy to see if they expose themselves.
South bocage fields, France
Nishi's platoon only started moving before a rather stubby looking light tank zoomed up into its view.
The light tank was weird looking, with its turret offsetted to the right with a rather puny 45 mm gun compared to everything else she had to fight so far against Suvorov. It had a menacingly 35 mm sloped front armor, but it showed off a flat 15 mm side armor as it popped out of an intersection and came in full view of the Chi-Ha-Tan platoon.
"Enemy!" Tamada shouted.
"враг!" The Suvorov crew shouted back.
"Fire! Fire!" Was the cry, a similar sound came back from the T-70. A volley of fire came from the Chi-Ha-Tan tanks as the T-70 quickly reversed back where it came from.
"Charge at it!" Hosomi cried out.
"Let's go!" Tamada agreed.
"W-wait a m-" Nishi was drowned out over the revving of the two girl's Type 97 Chi-Ha tanks as they zipped past Nishi's own tank, the smaller size of the Japanese tank allowing a more free movement in the constricted hedgerows.
The T-70 light tank crew were frantically reversing before using the momentum to turn and book it before the charging girls arrive.
"Hrrgh, let's go Fukuda!" Nishi relented as she looked at the lone Type 95 Chi-Ha remaining.
"O-Okay Miss Nishi!" Fukuda replied with a nod as they raced along with Tamada and Hosomi.
Southwest of the town, France
As the sound of diesel engines grew louder to her east, Naomi edged inside the bocage, right in the vehicle-inaccessible fields that these hedgerows surround. Small animal paths cleared the vegetation, allowing some paths through the dense foliage with some interesting body contortions. Her movement masked by these hedgerows, she reached the edge and got low to the ground.
The main southern perimeter road extended right past the hedgerow she hid behind. Inside the town just across this road, she could see the watchtower in question that tried to bite off Alisa at this distance. She looked up at the top and saw the small silhouette of a man raising a rifle.
Got you… Naomi confirmed her sights as she checked her rifle once more. The safety definitely off. From her position at a low crouch, she slowly and steadily lowered herself into a crawling stance. She crawled forwards, with her hands and knees dragging her slowly over the foliage, taking care to not cause unnecessary disturbance. Next to a prime location, she rolled over towards her left, over her back while bringing the rifle up onto her body to get it in the right position as she came down.
The bushes above were dense, but the lower area of this particular hedgerows was clear enough for her to gave a good sight on the watchtower, with enough around the area to keep her concealed. She rested part of the wooden furniture of the M1903A4 alongside a thicker branch of the hedgerow, helping her stabilize the sights.
Inside the tower, she stalked the man up top as she saw him move about still. The range was a lot closer than when she first heard the shot. This distance was now less than 100 meters. At this distance, the Weaver scope's 2.75x zoom was good enough for her to adjust the reticles, the simple cross line reticles trailing vertical and horizontally, up to the target. The point of intersection of the reticle on target, Naomi closed her teeth onto the gum piece still in her mouth, the squishy gum base compressed between her teeth, cushioning the teeth clench as she steadied herself for a shot.
He could see the tanks, some old riveted tanks they rolled down the dirt road. Were they Japanese? He never made a note on that, but he kept a reticle on that road, watching for anyone who was carelessly sticking their body out.
He saw some sliver of clothing and focused the reticle.
A small glint shined on the edge of his peripheral vision. "Hmm?!" He recognized that disturbance, light flashing off the glass lens. He challenged that notion and quickly shifted his rifle towards that glint. He only had a split-second to get the scope image.
In it, he could see the single lens glint on top of a rifle. Laying on the dark green foliage, the girl with her short brunette hair stared back through the circular oculus, highlighting her brown iris towards Yashin. That was all he saw before a flash blinked out of the girl as she pushed back.
*-KSSH! KA!*
Something thrusted Yashin's head back as it knocked on his eye. He couldn't even mutter a grunt as he fell back, his full weight throwing him to the floor. Stunned, he didn't hear the muzzle report coming past the watch tower.
Naomi's Springfield rifle briefly smoked the remnants of the burning propellent out the muzzle before she cycled the bolt, the .30-06 casing came out, also emitting the remaining vapor of the powder.
Naomi sighed briefly as the diesel noise in the east faded away. Even if the man wasn't unconscious, he wasn't going to be able to snipe anymore. She prepared to crawl back towards her tank.
The ground vibrated towards her.
*Btbtbtbtbtbtbt*
Naomi looked at the disturbance peculiarly… the individual dirt specks on the ground was rumbling, each disturbed at each amplitude of the sound. A physical disruption manifested through the earth.
The sound grew louder. *Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack* The sound bashing onto the hard concrete surface.
Naomi peeked back out from her firing spot from the hedgerow back into the perimeter road. She tuned her ears, determining the source of this disturbance. Towards the left… She thought, looking towards the west direction of the road.
Four T-34-85 presented themselves on the curved south perimeter road, driving towards Naomi.
Huh? Naomi became paralyzed at this appearance. Why are there Soviet tanks at the west?
The monstrous tanks continued forward and Naomi sprung back up, sprinting through the hedgerow back towards her tank. I need to tell everyone!
"Ugghh…" Yashin had a gnawing feeling in his head, a wound feeling like a heavily bruised forehead. He reached for a small mirror in his right pocket, bringing it up to angle the projection towards him. A swelled spot was growing on top of his right eye. "...shit." He said as he examined to see if he was bleeding.
He reached for his rifle, tossed aside to his right. Bringing the wooden piece towards him, he saw the damage done. His scope was shattered in front, the round penetrated through the lens and embedded itself in the middle in the components. The PU scope was ruined. Begrudgingly, Yashin slowly removed the scope off his Mosin-Nagant. Then he reached into his bags for the colored smoke grenades in stock.
As he does so, he heard tank movement just outside his tower. Recognizing the track noises as that of a T-34, he approached the edge of the watch tower and peeked out. The presence of a T-34-85 platoon under the colors of Suvorov brought news to his eyes, which winced again as he tried widening his view.
"Ow…"
Southwest bocage fields, France
The Firefly crew members were surprised to see their commander running back on the main roads rather than stealthily through the hedgerow.
"Naomi, what's wrong?" The loader asked.
"They're coming right now!"
"Who?"
"Suvorov! Did you see any enemy tanks moving past here?!"
"Wha-? There was nothing here in the time you were gone!"
Naomi glanced around, their tank in a rather quiet sector in the bocages. "Here!" Naomi tossed up her rifle, the loader caught it quickly in surprise. "Give me the map and radio!"
The girl in the cupola reached down to head back down the gunner position as Naomi planted herself in the commander's seat. The map and radio piece available to her as she looked and dialed towards Kay.
"Kay, I took out the sniper, but we have a problem! Suvorov tanks coming in from the West!"
A brief silence as her message was received and interpreted. "Ha? The West?! That's our starting point!"
"I don't know what they're doing there or how they did, but they're there and coming in!"
"How many?"
"I saw four, but there are probably more!"
"Damn! If they were getting around us…This isn't looking good!"
"Charge! Charge! Charge!" Tamada shouted as the Chi-Ha-Tan group gave chase against the scrambling T-70 light tank.
"He's heading to the west! We got him cornered!" Hosomi shouted enthusiastically.
The T-70 turned towards the north, up to the town. During these movements, the different caliber of weapons on the Chi-Ha-Tan tanks: 37 mm, 47 mm, and 57 mm, all fired at the fleeing light tank. The rounds bounced all over in the movement.
Then the T-70 turn another left turn back to the west. Tamada's tank was the first to reply, her 47 mm on the Shinhoto Chi-Ha eager to hit a round in the T-70's engine compartment.
"You're mine!" Tamada's Type 97 Shinhoto made the turn and saw the T-70, silhouetted by a larger tank with the same camouflage as the T-70, as well as pointing a very, very long gun towards the Type 97. All L/55 caliber length for an 85 mm shell, calculating to a barrel length of 4,675 mm long.
"Eh?" Tamada said as the explosive force of an AP round fired out of the gun. The 85 mm shell hit the Type 97 head-on, the Type 97 nearly flipped over from the energy alone, forcing it back to the intersection it made its turn at.
"Huh?" Hosomi cried in surprise as her friend's tank white flag came up. Her tank's diesel engine was soon drowned out by even more powerful diesel engines beyond the intersection.
"Fall back!" Nishi cried out. "Just fall back now!"
"Eek!" The Chi-Ha-Tan commanders made their haste out of there as a T-34-85 crawled out into the open, then made its turn towards the town.
South bocage fields, France
"Gunfire to the west…" Kay noted the sound. "So the bastards really did get around us!"
"How?!" Alisa shouted. "There shouldn't be that many free passages around us!"
"The assault guns covering the south road… Could that be the way?" The whole hedgerow mess was giving Kay a headache. Did a whole enemy force simply slipped by while another fought hard in the east?
"Hey Kay!" Katyusha's brash voice shouted. "What the heck are you doing down there?! We're being shelled by Suvorov artillery!"
"I've got my hands full as well!" Kay shouted back. "I got enemy tanks to my west as well!"
"Wha? Enemy tanks to your west?! How many!?"
"More than a platoon's worth!" Naomi chimed into the line. "I don't know how many, but they're about to roll into town!"
"This isn't good…" Darjeeling called in. "We're stretched thin as is here. We only expected them to the east. Even Jasmine wouldn't be able to contest them easily"
"What should we do?" Kay asked in.
The situation was rapidly getting overbearing for the stretched Ōarai force. Now the numerical superiority of Suvorov has been made clear, taking the operational superiority over their defenses.
A need to consolidate their force was needed, even if it meant sacrificing a theater.
"Kay," Darjeeling called in. "Withdraw Dandelion back to the town and bolster our defenses. We have to abandon the bocage, else you all might be encircled."
Kay thought about decision. Normally she'd take any suggest to withdraw as being too serious for this kind of sport. She wanted to fight it out, maybe take a few of Suvorov with her! But Suvorov has proven to be in a way different ballpark than anyone here had anticipated.
After a moment, Kay replied "Understood… we're withdrawing."
"Kay! Contact with enemies to our west!"
"Goddamn it! They're here already?!"
South of the town, France
"I'm bored~" Aki cried out from the BT-42 turret roof.
"Bored for inaction or for the clearness of your mind?" Mika replied as she fine tuned her kantele.
"Agh! Why don't we do something?"
She says as Jasmine company loitered in an area south of the town, guarding from any Suvorov tanks from making a beeline towards the west from the south perimeter road. They already knocked out a lone T-34 tank that tried just that, its white-flagged hull sitting about 150 meter from their position, Turtle team's Hetzer dealt with it quite effectively.
After that however, their activity dropped drastically as they waited for new assignments.
Finally, the radio spoke up in the Hetzer, and Anzu and Yuzu quickly attended to it to hear Darjeeling's voice.
"Jasmine team, beware: enemy tanks approaching for the west."
"Eh?" Anzu first reacted.
"Multiple enemy tanks suspected. We are withdrawing Dandelion to consolidate our forces. Move away from the perimeters and withdraw back into the town's perimeter."
"Wait, this is totally news to us! What's going on out there?!" Momo quickly shouted, booming in the confines of the Jagdpanzer 38(t). "How did we lose the initiative so quickly!"
"That's assuming we had it this whole time…" Anzu said. "But she's right, we'll only get chewed up if we stay here and get sandwiched from both sides."
"We've only got limited roads to move in from," Anchovy put in her opinions. "East side is still contested, but we can move into the town through the main road on the southwest and protect it from there!"
"That's assuming they haven't already overrun the west…" Janne from the KV-1 said.
"Well it's a better chance than none!" Sodoko cried out. "Let's move! In orderly fashion!"
So the Jasmine company tanks quickly revved up their engines upon this new order.
Suddenly, a series of piercing *CWACK* sound cracked through the air. These sound followed by the ricocheting noises of the high-velocity rounds smacking on metal.
It wasn't just a volley of one or two fire like usual, but a whole series like a machine gun. Girls scurried to their vision ports on this noise.
"Tanks?!" One cried out.
"No!" Anchovy shouted, recognizing the noise. "Anti-tank rifles!"
Vist and eight other rifleman in the "special purpose" group had converged on this emplaced Ōarai group from all directions. Surrounding it by all sides, they engaged with pin-point accuracy. The rifles were strong enough to tear apart the tracks of the tanks even if they couldn't penetrate some of the armor easily.
But unlike before when they perform hit-and-run movements after firing, the group continued pushing their assault on this shamble of a tank group, continuing reloading their rifles. They were intent on expending their remaining ammunition here to take out all of the tanks.
The Ōarai tanks responded slowly, some of the tanks don't even have a machine gun to defend themselves. The only tank of big threat was the two heavies, the Italian P40 and the French Char B1 bis.
Still, the response eventually came. The Hetzer came alive when the machine gun on the roof started moving on its own. The machine gun methodically chose targets and fired sprays of rounds into the hedgerow. Some of the inattentive riflemen were caught in the bursts and fell.
After several volleys, the tanks were all still operational. Finally, Vist unhooked a smoke grenade from his web gear and threw the red canister into the fray. The cylindrical canister bounced off the top roof of one of the tanks and landed on the ground in the center of the whole group.
"Let's go, pull back!" Vist shouted to his men. They made their getaway as fast as possible.
The red canister bounced off the top of the StuG III's roof and landed, right before it went off with a *POOF* and soon emitted red smoke into the air.
"Oh dear, that can't be good…" Carpaccio said meekly, remembering the reports from Sunflower.
"Let's go! We gotta move!" Sodoko cried out.
Some tracks moved on that order, but from other tanks, only the screeching sound of broken tracks played out.
"Our tracks are broken!" Momo panicked.
"Mine as well!" Carpaccio shouted as well.
"Not good here as well!" Erwin said.
"Don't worry, I got you- ah! The suspension!" Anchovy realized she was in the same situation as well.
Time was ticking for the girls as the red smoke spread into the air. Only three tanks could move in the group of seven. Of the three, the BT-42 would have no chance of towing any of the other vehicles away.
"What do we do?!" Saemonza shouted.
"Leave us!"
"I don't wanna die!"
"We can't just minger here!"
"Let's hurry!" Janne shouted as she and Aatami quickly left their KV-1. They hastily lifted one of the tow cable on the tank. Upon selecting which tank would get it, she simply ordered "Save the tanks that are still helpful!"
With that, she hooked the cables onto the StuG III.
Mallard team in their Char B1 bis were anxious on what was about to come with the red smoke, but they couldn't stay put. "Girls! We can't leave them alone! We gotta save one as well!"
"R-right, Sodoko!" Her crew agreed as they did the same, quickly hooking their cables onto the Hetzer.
Soon a whistling noise came in as the girls were outside.
"Get down!" The others shouted, the girls threw themselves down under the tanks.
A loud *WHOOMP* exploded in the air, followed by what sounded like rubble falling down.
The explosion had gone far, hitting the town interior that left the red smoke undisturbed.
"C'mon, let's hurry before they realized they missed!" The girls shouted as they hustled. The Char B1 and KV-1 hooked on, the proceeded to drag the immobilized vehicles with them.
Unfortunately, their mobility slowed to a crawl. The engine were already quite taxed as it was with the tank's own weight, now it dealt with the additional stress of the assault guns they were trying to tug.
"No…" Janne thought. "Not strong enough! We need more power!"
It wasn't enough and the tanks only moved a few meters in the short moments.
Another whistle sounded in the air. Each girl braced for the impact. Once again, the blast sent dirt and debris flying, it landed to the south in the hedgerows.
"They won't make that mistake again! Let's move Matti!" Janne shouted.
"Anymore stress and our transmission is gonna give way!" Matti shouted as she has handled the drive gear.
"Come on Moyoko, drive!" Sodoko shouted from behind.
"It won't budge!" Moyoko replied.
Sodoko cursed deep inside herself. She stared back behind at the tanks still stuck, with the towed vehicles still there. "If only Mako was here!"
From beyond the red smoke, as if like that, a tank appeared behind Jasmine team. Several tanks, with a white shield and a logo of what school they belonged to.
"Hey, its Saunders!" Sodoko cried out. "Saunders is right behind us with their tanks!"
Sure enough, the good ol' reliable tanks of Saunders came up the road from the south bocage. They slowed a bit as if assessing the situation, then Kay from atop her cupola made quick orders with her hand motions towards the other tanks. The M4 Shermans in the group came up and behind the tanks that were immobile. They propelled forwards, pushing the tanks out of their situation and giving the vehicles a boost to start the movement. The towed tanks moved and soon the towers were able to move the vehicles with the M4 Shermans behind them. Even the stucked vehicle like the P40 and the Semovente were forced along with a push.
"H-hey gentle! I'm a delicate lady an- agh!" Anchovy could be heard shouting in the urgent movement of the M4 tanks.
"Oh shut it, we're saving your lives here!" Alisa shouted.
They pushed them far enough that when an incoming shell finally hit the position of the red smoke, it hit only the red smoke and nothing more.
"Looks like you girls were in quite a pickle!" Kay said with relief through the radio.
"Kay~!" The girls shouted in relief. "You saved us!"
Kay only gave a big smile and a peace sign above her cupola. "It's too dangerous to try and fix the tanks out here, move them into the town!"
Southeast side of town, inside perimeter, France
The shelling stopped after the smoke finally scattered.
"That was rough…" Katyusha noted. Such a weird tactic for Suvorov to take pride in, using infantry to signal artillery location. Though masking their actual field of movement in attacking the enemy on the sides was something she could get into.
Was there anything else in store for them? Katyusha got onto the radio. "Hey, Klara?"
"Yes?" Klara replied.
"Spill it for me. We know you have a good idea of the people in Suvorov, any idea on what else they plan to do?"
"I-I'm not sure," Klara came back.
"Klara. Think deep-down, any ideas from your time in Russia that was like common teaching there?"
"I-" Klara's voice stopped.
"Klara…?" Katyusha tried to dig into her. "Are you hiding anything?"
"No, I would never. But…"
"Klara, anything from their teaching there? Anything?" Katyusha was eager for anything at this point.
Klara paused again, her radio silent. After a moment, she came back, "Maskirovka."
"Maski-wha?" Katyusha said.
"Maskirovka," Darjeeling said. "Military deception, except on a practical operational level instead of the usual concealment…"
"Does Suvorov practice that doctrine?" Nonna asked.
"Y-yes," Klara said.
"In that case, we have to assume everything they've done so far is a farce for a bigger attack…" Nonna said.
"Wait, so… where does that put us?" Nina said from her KV-2.
"One of the components of Maskirovka is feint attacks…" Nonna said. "In that case, all that T-34 tanks we fought…"
"Are you suggesting that they were all decoys?" Katyusha shouted. "But we eliminated so many of them!"
"Indeed, we knocked out a lot. But is that very many in relative to us or for them?"
"In that case, then that attack on the west must be a bigger thrust!" Katyusha shouted. "This sector seemed clear and we should reinforce that area and-"
A loud rev of an engine sounded down the road as though an army was about to descend on the group. The hedgerow in front of the main road tore apart from the force of a tank propelling right through, the pike nose in front assisting in this anti-hedgerow action.
And that tank was the problem in front of them.
"NOT CLEAR, NOT CLEAR!"
A 122 mm shell blasted right past her from the tank, smacking right into the KV-2 and taking it out right there and then.
Southwest side of town, France
Saunders and the remnants of Jasmine moved closer to the main road as they attempted to return to the main road.
"Kay, what happened to the rest of Dandelion?" Anchovy asked.
"We got beat up on the way back," Kay said. "A whole group of tanks pounced us! T-34, assault guns, and IS tanks! I swear there were some KV in there as well, which was weird…"
"Chi-Ha-Tan got wiped out too?"
"I don't know, they tailed off to the west somewhere and now I'm not too sure where they are."
"What about Naomi?"
"Same thing, though she went off to deal with a sniper around the area."
"Hope they're alright."
"Yeah… but for now I need to make sure you girls are all alright."
"Things have really gone downhill for us, hasn't it?" Anzu said.
"Looks like it, but we just need to consolidate."
"Yeah, look there's the turn."
The open main road looked inviting to the group towing the tanks in. Over the incessant screeching and dragging of the stucked tank suspensions, it was one more path to someplace safe.
"Doesn't look like Suvorov passed by here yet." Kay said. "I'll cover the path in, take the tanks in girls."
Kay's M4A3E2 sped ahead of the convoy and slowed as it reached the intersection between the main road and the perimeter road. No tanks in sight, the M4A3E2 turned and faced the road down to the bocage, giving the signal to Jasmine to continue moving behind her tank.
The tanks moved in a crawl as it commenced, Kay anxiously watched as the tanks crawled by. The 76 mm gun aligned itself down the road.
"Loader, prepare to load HVAP," Kay said. The gun breech currently had a standard AP round, but the loader made a mental note on the next round selection.
Good thing too, as soon a Suvorov tank appeared down the road, turning into the main road several hundred meters away.
"Here they come!" Kay shouted, alerting the group to the incoming tanks. "Gunner, fire at target!"
"On the way!" Her gunner shouted and the 76 mm cracked off a shot.
The round trailed and simply ricocheted off the front glacis.
"Ricochet! That's no T-34 alright!" Kay shouted. It really wasn't, this design was a lot sleeker than a T-34 tank, not to mention a lot lower too even though it used a similar T-34 turret design. The enemy tank responded by pausing, and firing a round. The 85 mm round similarily bounced right off the M4A3E2 Jumbo tank. Kay wondered if their crew were also going about saying 'That's no Sherman!'
"HVAP up!" The loader cried.
"Gunner, fire again!"
"Right!" The 76 mm rang again. However, even the HVAP rounds zipped off the front glacis. The gunner seemed stunned as well. "What kind of tank is that?! That sloped armor is messing with the tungsten!"
Kay brought up a binocular and took a look. "By all gosh, it's a T-44!"
"T-44?!"
"We ain't getting through that front glacis, aim for the turret!"
The gunner adjusted as another shell hit smack right on the turret front armour. A concussive *KLANG* sounded right off, throwing Kay off balance from the cupola down into the turret. "God damn!" She cried as she got back up.
"Commander! More tanks coming up!" Her gunner cried. She looked up and saw three more T-44 medium tanks arrive. All aligned their guns towards the lone M4A3E2 tank and fired. The volley battered the front armour and Kay heard a sickening shatter of metal on the lower side.
Did they get our track too?! Kay thought. "Driver, reverse!"
Sure enough, the M4A3E2 instead reversed to the side rather than straight back. "Kay, we our track's busted!"
"Back to position!" Kay shouted, aligning the front armor straight rather than leaving the more exposed side armor present.
But the tank was immobile and the T-44 were making a bee-line inwards.
"This isn't looking good!" Her bow machine gunner cried.
"Up!" The loader shouted.
"Gunner, fire at the turret!"
"Right, on the way!" She shouted as the 76 mm fired once more. The shell struck, just almost though, and simply ricocheted off the sliver of turret roof present. They came in at high speed.
"Loader, load now!" The crew shouted frantically as the T-44 dashed in.
"Its coming!" The gunner shouted as the T-44 was only less than hundred meters out.
"Can't do it!"
"Shit!"
Then a loud crash sounded down the alley. A Type 97 tank appeared miraculously from a small road inside the hedgerow and had charged onto the lead T-44. The force pushed the T-44 to a turn and angled itself while the Type 97 found itself in an inelastic collision by sticking towards the T-44. The two sides, shocked once more by the appearance of a Chi-Ha-Tan tank, looked momentarily before acting.
"Gunner, hit it now!" Kay shouted before a shot from the hedgerow struck the T-44 turret side armor. The shot echoed across the hedgerow in stunning fashion.
"I recognize that muzzle blast," Kay said. "Naomi!"
The thought was broken when the Chi-Ha tank that charged at the T-44 was then shot down by the following T-44. However, it played its part and the path was now blocked with the two disabled tanks.
"Wow… recovery team take your time with that!" Kay thought, then she sprung on the opportunity. "Let's fix the tracks now!"
"Right!" Her crew shouted.
"Gunner, fire smoke for cover!" Kay shouted as she and her bow machine gunner got out and went to work.
The 76 mm gun fired an M88 WP shell out and soon the path was full of concealing grey smoke. Kay quickly got to work as her crew grabbed tools for quick replacement.
Continuation's KV-1 crawled up from behind.
"I got you girls covered!" Janne shouted from atop.
"What about the towing?!" Kay shouted back, remembering the KV-1 was towing the StuG III.
"Left it to one of your Shermans, their more reliable than this Prava bugger."
If you don't like it you should give it back then… Kay thought as she set off to work.
"Only sheared the track from the front, we're good so far," Kay shouted.
"Tanks appearing from the fog!" Janne shouted. Kay looked up in alert as Naomi's Firefly and the remaining two tanks of Chi-Ha-Tan emerged.
"Thanks out there!" Kay shouted.
"It's not looking good," Naomi said. "Suvorov has obtained operational superiority in the hedgerows, they have the whole south side to play with in force movement."
"I know, I've been considering that when I made the decision to withdraw."
"Not only that, I think they still have a whole deck of cards to play with on us here."
"That's why we're all gathered, so we can make the most of our numbers, right?"
"Let's hope we're not digging our own traps here."
However, the sound of chaos continued on the east as the fighting escalated there. Down in the hedgerow road with the T-44, the grinding of metal sounded as though the tanks were pushing through.
"Better hurry…"
Southeast side of town, France
"The line is falling!" Was the sentence that made Darjeeling drop her tea cup. Orange Pekoe and Assam looked back at their commander's stunned face.
Like a hammer, Suvorov continually pounded on the metal that was Ōarai, but that metal had become wood and it is smacking through. The KV-2 was toast with a white-flag on top and their resistance was not helping.
"The 88 mm is not working!" Leopon said as they kept firing futilely. Their rounds went into the fray and simply bounced off. The powerful 88 mm was useless.
Even Nonna's IS-2 with the 122 mm D-25T gun couldn't stem the tide. She fired one shot and knocked out an attacking assault gun, but now she had to reload and was effectively out for the moment.
The 85 mm may as well have been door knockers now, with the new door that Suvorov is crashing through.
The IS-2 heavy tank and assault guns were no big menace, it's been dealt with before. The problem laid in the heavy tank taking center stage of this fiasco. The Iosef-Stalin 3.
The IS-3 with its piked nose armor and rounded dome turret was effectively impervious in the front. Rounds simply plinked off the front hull, ricocheting off accordingly with the pike nose direction. What more, its speed for its class. Despite these armor protection, it only weighed 48 tons, only a tad bit more than the IS-2 and even the German Panther tanks.
But its accuracy was on point as well, almost unnaturally so. Upon revealing itself from the hedgerow, it quickly dispatched the KV-2 tank, throwing out the rulebook of tank gunnery in it actions.
And like a pike, it speared ahead, breaking through the lines. Katyusha and Klara's T-34 were forced to withdraw into the alleys they were using as cover. They laid in wait for the tanks to pass by and shoot them in the sides, instead they simply leveled the buildings around the alley! The 122 mm and 152 mm made short work of the buildings and the rubbles isolated Katyusha and Klara in their own regions.
All that was left was the Black Prince, Tiger (P), and the IS-2 in front of them.
With that and the enemy tanks coming up on the west, resistance was wavering.
Oh and how frustrating it was too! The defense was broken by this monstrous tank that just so happen to be Suvorov's flag tank.
Center of town, France
The sound outside was in pandemonium. The explosions drawing nearer and nearer. A few stray shells already hit the church building, sending bits of rubbles down.
"Hey, hey… what's going on out there?!" Rosehip said nervously.
Miho laid a bit and decided to get up.
"M-Miporin, wait a moment!" Saori shouted as Miho climbed back up to her commander seat to the radio. She winced at the pain on her abdomen, but it wasn't as bad as it was before.
She dialed in the radio, "E-everyone, what's going on?"
"Miho Nishizumi! She's back!" A cry came out.
"Nishizumi-dono…" Yukari stared up to Miho. She snapped herself back together. "Everyone, back to position!"
Hana and Saori scrambled about back to their crew positions.
"So she's back?" Rosehip said, though with a worried face more than a hopeful one.
"Y-yeah," Yukari said out of her turret hatch.
"Better hope she's alright."
Rosehip ran back out to her Cromwell and got back onto the radio dispatch.
"Commander!" Her crew called out as she put the mic piece back on.
"-and the enemy is flanking around to the left side!" The latest transmission just ended with Katyusha. "Honestly, what are we suppose to do?!"
"E-everyone calm down," Miho said. "Continue regrouping back here in the town. We'll fight them out one by one. I need someone to get a good shot on that IS-3 flanks! Ow..."
"Are you alright, Miho?"
"I'm f-fine… ergh." The radio went, "Nishizumi-dono, please rest! I- No! I'm fine, Yukari!"
Rosehip sighed as she put the radio down. Outside she heard the scraping of metal as tanks were dragged over the ground. She looked and saw tanks from Jasmine company taken down into the depression of the plaza, dragged or pushed by M4 Shermans. They plopped in a stop right there in the center of plaza, all 10 tanks there.
"This can't end well." Rosehip muttered, the ten tanks in shambles.
Southwest side of town, France
"Track fixed!" Kay shouted as she climbed back up the tall M4A3E2 sides. "Reverse!"
The M4A3E2 started its way back right as the smoke in the path dissipated. The rest of Jasmine company had made their way back and now they could move back. The T-44 were still stuck behind the downed T-44 and Type 97 Chi-Ha. Their guns struggled to poke around the rummage and fire.
Then to the right of the perimeter road, two T-34-85 popped up and aimed their turrets.
"Janne, to the right!" Kay quickly alerted the KV-1.
The heavy tank quickly angled as the 85 mm fired. The first 85 mm glanced off the turret of the KV-1, the second hit the right side of the KV-1 at an angle, smacking right on but the KV-1 stuttered on.
The Continuation crew frantically shouted and the turret aligned towards the T-34 and fired. The slower 76.2 mm round flew over and simply smacked on the turret of one T-34 with no effect. Kay also aimed the M4A3E2 turret towards the T-34s.
Something went flying forward from her rear and landed in front of her tank. She quickly looked back and saw another Suvorov infantryman ducking back to cover, having thrown the item.
The item went *POOF* and started to emit ... purple smoke?
"Oh this again," Kay sighed. "Back up!"
"Go ahead!" Janne cried. "I'll cover you!"
Naomi and Kay backed up out of this situation, with the KV-1 following. For good measure, Kay's M4A3E2 shot a smoke round towards the T-34's direction to blind them, as well as another towards the T-44 direction. The grey smoke help silhouette the purple smoke that was pouring out of the canister.
They reversed through the main road. "Alright, we'll go back and regroup with the others!" Kay said.
"Miho was back on the line a while ago," Naomi said, "There's trouble on the east with an IS-3 tank and needs help."
"How exactly are we supposed to deal with that!?" Kay shouted. If their 76 mm can't adequately deal with the T-44, what hope did they have against the IS-3?
Then from the KV-1, a blast sounded on its right as they were passing by a smaller intersection on the main road in the town. The white-flag of the KV-1 then popped up.
"Damn!" Janne shouted out loud from atop the KV-1.
From the intersection, a T-34-85 popped up.
"Son of a-, they're already in the town!" Kay shouted. "Towards our 2 o'clock!"
The two Sherman tanks commenced firing.
Center of town, France
"We're being overrun! Falling back!"
"Enemy tanks in the town! They're closing in!"
"Our tanks are broke! We can't fix it in time!"
The transmissions came in as Miho tried to coordinate this failing defense.
"I- wait, Please-" Miho could see everything crumbling like sand through a hand. She could try to keep it intact, but it was all falling in bits.
Outside the church interior where they have stayed, the fighting drew closer and closer. The other tanks were forced in as Suvorov pushed in. This was their major thrust and they were milking it all their worth in.
"Please everyone! Group up in the plaza!" Miho ordered out.
"No shit!" Some girls replied. Soon some tanks rolled into the plaza in reverse state as they fired off rounds and round, following by simply a *plink* or a *crack*.
Miho could hear the sound of an 88 mm firing outside the church to the southeast. Then followed with a *BWAK-CLANG-KABOOM* and the 88 mm turned silent.
On the west, or her right, she heard the sound of 76 mm guns blasting away at an enemy coming in from there. Their sound became puny when the loud large-caliber noises of the 85 mm thundered through, and slammed into a poor tank.
Then in the center, girls frantically went to work trying to fix their tanks in what they hoped to be a safe place. It was anything but safe, they were about to be overrun and the tanks with casemate structures can't do a thing about it.
Before she knew it, all of Ōarai Compound Team tank were boxed in the town plaza. Their backs against a wall, the whole town had become a trap of a city. A Stalingrad, or maybe even a Berlin.
Tanks surrounded the arena that was the plaza, filling in the many roads that led to the one place. It was unbelievable, despite the many reported losses they had in the initial encounter, there seemed to be so many Suvorov tanks in all location.
Maskirovka, if that was their intent, this was the result.
"N-no, not yet…" Miho shivered. "This can't be…" She could see Suvorov gun barrels outside, pointing towards the mass of tanks that made up inside the plaza.
Miho thought about the situation. Was there any miracle that could happen? No, there wasn't any ferris wheels for something like that again. Was there anything she could've done to save this situation? No, there wasn't any point in looking back now, because the only way forwards is in the future.
But all she could see is total annihilation.
"Sister!" She cried out as the guns started firing.
It was thunderous, bombastic, the shells flew everywhere. Cracking buildings, destroying the greens, and exploding everywhere! The church building shook as it came under bombardment of shells of all caliber. Any shots from Ōarai tanks were drowned out under this mess.
Then the bombardment stopped.
Was her team all destroyed? Was she and Rabbit team here the only ones left?
The radio came alive. "Uh… so did I go deaf, or… did Suvorov stopped firing?" Kay asked.
"They're still there watching…" Alisa said.
Miho got up from her tank cupola.
"Nishizumi-dono!" Yukari called out as Miho climbed out of the tank and onto the floor.
She felt pain still on her abdomen, but she moved on towards the church entrance. She peeked outside and saw, indeed, the guns have stopped firing but the Suvorov tanks stood there like statues. In the midst of all the vapor of gunfire, she could see something shoot into the sky, a red smoke flare shot straight up coming from the town's southeast.
Then a green smoke flare followed, pointing in the opposite direction towards the south. Moments later, by miracle, the Suvorov tanks reversed.
"Eh? Eeehh? They're falling back?!" Some of the girls cried out.
It was hard to believe it, but it was true. One by one the Suvorov tanks withdrew from their positions back where they came from.
"But...why?" Azusa from Rabbit team asked.
Miho didn't know, but she collapsed right there next to the floor as she breathed heavily. She felt something deep inside her that was nearly snuffed out, some sliver of hope remained.
T'was a doozy.
I'll just flat out say it, I'm not positive I can finish this story before whenever "Der Finale" comes out. Oh well, that happens I guess. I mean, I am one month late to the year anniversary since publishing this story, so... yeah.
However, I do hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did because we're reaching the rising action of this battle.
As for Chapter 25. I felt it was a bit unpolished and confirmed that with another reread, so I went about polishing it and making the action flow better. Plus I was considering the whole "infantry vs. tank" thing I introduced and I must admit I thought it was a bit BS the way I first implemented it after reading a review. It was an interesting concept, but it didn't really fit the whole Sensha-dou or Tankery thing very well so I got rid of the first version. I think this new version where I put infantry as a kind of auxiliary force in a tank-focused sport rather than the initial primary one fits the meta better. I mean, the girls still go on foot for roles like recon in the anime, so there was a place in the sport that infantry can work as.
Anyways, we're moving on as usual. Got lots of my ideas in my head, even got several in a GuP-related way, but I won't go further than idea-forming until this is finished. Thanks for reading, feel free to drop a review or even following me for the next update! After all, how else are you suppose to get that sense of pride and accomplishment of reading someone else's work? (/s luv u all)
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans!
Also, I'm not sure if I ever brought it up, but isn't anyone annoyed that the very top titles of each chapter is offsetted by the chapter selection button?