Maho bolted awake, her harness the only thing that kept her in her seat. She looked around, startled and alarmed. The plane shook violently, rattling several other girls awake. A sturdy officer walked down the isle between them, ignoring the turbulence completely. She couldn't help but wonder when they were going to land. They'd been in the air since the moment they all graduated from basic training, being transported to the place where they would be stationed. None of them had been told a thing. They still didn't really know who they were being prepared to fight.

There was no ceremony. No high-ranking officer showed up to recognize them. Sergeant Dodger told them that they'd finished basic training, and then they were herded in groups into large cargo planes bound for who knows where. Looking around her, Maho saw a mixed bag of Anzio and Kuromorimine girls, a few from Saunders, and several Ooarai girls.

Noriko, who was sitting next to Maho, waved unenthusiastically. "We've landed and taken off again at least three times. Where do you think we are now?"

"The air." Erika called from several seats down. "There are no windows in here. How is anyone supposed to know where the hell we are?"

"Oh, for the love of God. Stow it, Erika!" Koume shot at her from across the plane, clearly fed up with Erika. To be fair, Erika's constant bickering the entire flight was why most of them had tried to go to sleep. None of them were happy with her. Koume was just one of the few in any sort of position to do anything about it.

"Hey, she asked a stupid question!"

"And you're just stupid! Now shut it!"

Maho looked down at herself. She could tell Erika to stay quiet. It was within her power, as one of a small handful of the girls who had passed the tests to become an officer. They hadn't been given all the official things yet, like the uniforms and such, but they were going to. She knew that the leaders of most of the teams had succeeded, and would be guaranteed command of one tank at the very least. It was a small place to start, especially for girls like Katyusha and Anchovy.

She was surprised that Koume had passed the tests as well, whereas Erika hadn't even tried. As a result, Erika wasn't going to be in charge of anything for a while. She knew Mika, Kinuyo, and Kay had all passed fairly easily, and Darjeeling was top of the class. Her train of thought was abruptly cut off by the plane landing, jolting all of them awake immediately.

Pepperoni gagged. "Oh God! I'm gonna throw up!"

Arisa whimpered. "Are we crashing?"

Koume was pale, but managed to hold herself together. "I think… that means we've arrived."

The officer, who had remained silent the entire trip, shouted at them to make sure they were all fully awake. Even Mako bolted upright at the sound. "This plane has somewhere to be! Get out and get loaded onto the trucks!"

The back of the plane opened, revealing tarmac again. Maho reached down and pulled her bag out from under her seat, just the same as all the other girls were doing. She walked down the ramp with the rest, though keeping her calm a bit better than most. She made straight for the nearest truck, climbing in and seating herself before she even bothered to look around her.

Noriko sat next to her again. "Another truck. It's like déjà vu all over again. Maybe they'll just keep training us and never actually send us into a war zone."

The trucks took off one by one, making their way through the strange new landscape around them. It was a far cry from the desert they'd come from. They drove along roads that wound around steep mountains, reminding Maho at times of Japan. They saw the plane taking off behind them. Wherever they were, they wouldn't be going back. They didn't have much choice but to wait until they arrived at wherever they were going.

The three Anzio girls in the truck with them immediately started complaining that they were hungry. Maho didn't want to say anything, but they were starting to make her hungry. They crossed the line when they started describing exactly what meals they each wanted. Maho reached across and smacked the nearest one's knee.

She fixed the girl with a killer glare. "We're all really hungry and you're not helping. Shut up."

The girl rubbed her knee. "Okay, geez. No need to get violent."

Maho turned away, staring out the back of the truck. It was a stark contrast to when they had been shipped to the training camp when the truck stopped suddenly, only causing a couple of them to jostle a little bit. No one had been sent flying. Whether or not they were ready for war, they were all ready to take another six months of training. Hopefully, war wouldn't be any harder.

Noriko pushed past Maho and jumped out of the truck ahead of the rest. Maho followed her, since there wasn't really anywhere else for them to go. They could see more trucks arriving behind them, and more still further up the road. From everyone unloading from the trucks, it looked like they'd been more accurately divided by their schools. There was no sign of anyone from Chi-Ha-Tan, Pravda, or St. Gloriana. She would have expected some, but there wasn't a hint of anything else. It was really just Saunders, Kuromorimine, Anzio, and Ooarai. And it was all of the girls from those four schools. The next group of trucks unloaded girls that hadn't been on the same plane, but they were all from the same four schools.

It wasn't long before a young woman ran up to them. She couldn't have been much older than Maho herself. Maho and Noriko saluted, and the rest managed to fumble their way into saluting as well. She ran along the slowly increasing ranks of soldier girls, clearly looking for something.

Koume called out as the woman ran past. "Anything we can help you with, ma'am?"

The woman stopped, looking her up and down. "Ah, good! Lieutenant. Where are the other lieutenants in your outfit?"

"You're looking for the graduate officers. Yes ma'am. There are five of us."

Overhearing this, Maho stepped forward. "Yes ma'am. Lieutenant Nishizumi, reporting for duty."

Kay and Anchovy made their way over to join them as well. Maho knew the four of them were lieutenants now, but she wasn't sure who else had passed the tests. She supposed it could have been Naomi or Carpaccio, possibly one of the Ooarai girls like Kadotani or Erwin. She found herself very surprised when Pepperoni joined them. It didn't look like Anchovy was pleased about this, but Pepperoni was beaming and the woman didn't seem to care either way.

"Good. I need the five of you to follow me now. The colonel is waiting." She led them away from the rest of their teams, through the compound to the most permanent building they could see. It still looked like it could be torn down and moved in a matter of minutes. There was another woman in uniform standing outside like she'd been waiting for them. The woman leading them saluted. "The new lieutenants are here, ma'am."

"Thank you, Tachibana. Why aren't you in uniform?"

"Just woke up, ma'am. Didn't have time to get dressed."

She grumbled. "Go do that, then." She turned to the newly arrived lieutenants. "You'll be seeing a lot of Lieutenant Tachibana and myself from now on. We've got a lot to talk about and not much time, so I'm going to start by answering a few questions you all probably have. First of all, I'm Colonel Victoria. I'm second in command on this base, but the general is really busy and has asked me to take care of coordinating the armored troops. Second, we're in Northern Armenia. Currently, our objective here is simply to hold Armenia's borders."

Koume spoke first, sensing that the colonel's pause was a sign she was done. "Who are we fighting?"

The colonel shook her head. "Hopefully no one, but that's just wishful thinking. Where you're going to be positioned, you'll have to worry about Turkey the most. There's no guarantee Georgia won't attack, though. Russia's been putting a lot of pressure on them from the North. Now, I know you all come from Tankery teams and you're familiar with your teams and their call signs. We're arranging you mainly in the same groups you're used to."

Kay pumped her fist in the air, then swiftly switched to saluting. "Thank you ma'am!"

"Hold on. There's more. You, you, and you…" She pointed at Koume, Anchovy, and Kay. "The three of you will be helping to hold the borders where they're more stable. As stable as they can be, anyway. The Anzio tanks will be along the Northern border with Georgia. Kuromorimine will be along the Western border, mostly facing Turkey, but covering a little of the border with Georgia. Saunders will be helping secure the border with Azerbaijan."

"We're not holding these lines alone, are we ma'am?" Pepperoni looked nervously at Anchovy. "Anzio doesn't have as strong a force as Saunders or Kuromorimine."

The colonel nodded. "That's part of why Anzio is along the North. Least risk of actual conflict. When the fighting does break out, and it probably will, Georgia's the closest thing we have to an ally here. We need to be careful about it, though. Showing too much force could cause them to respond, even if it's just precautionary defenses. Now, you two." She pointed at Maho and Pepperoni. "You're mobile groups. You'll be moving around and taking out enemy emplacements actively. The CV-33's are to be incorporated into a second Anzio unit, and Ooarai will be operating on their own. You'll be sent further South more often, offering support to places like Nakhchivan. This is a territory of nearly thirty thousand square kilometers, and our job is to protect all of it. Hold it, and this will be your home for the next year and a half. It's a good place, with good people. Protect it."

They all saluted, feeling like this was the time to do so. "Yes ma'am!"

"I'll show you to your rooms. We're pressed for space, so you'll be doubling up in your rooms. You'll be back here every now and again, but you're only sleeping here for tonight right now. You all go to your respective stations in the morning."

Maho was glad for the privacy, even if she had to share it with Pepperoni. Kay was with Anchovy, which was good. Koume probably wouldn't have been able to deal with either of their egos. Koume was sharing a room with Tachibana, apparently. First Lieutenant Tachibana was quite tenacious, but a very reasonable person. Apparently it had been her suggestion that she share a room with one of the new second lieutenants.

Pepperoni lounged on her bunk, her blanket pulled over her legs and her arms folded behind her head. As soon as it was time to turn in for the night and they arrived at their room, she'd thrown off her uniform and jumped into bed. Maho unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it off, tugging at her undershirt briefly.

Pepperoni sat up in her bed. "You think we're all gonna make it back here again? Every single one of us?"

Maho didn't want to talk. "No, I don't think so. You're going to die in your first encounter. The rest of us will be fine, though. We'll all live through the war and go home when it's over and conveniently forget that you ever existed. And they all lived happily ever after."

There was silence for a moment, and it looked like Pepperoni wasn't going to respond. Then she smiled. "I'm pretty sure there's pizza in heaven."

"Whoever said you'd be going to heaven?"

"Well… pretty sure I just did."

Maho shook her head and crawled under her blanket. "Maybe you'll survive if you get a good night's rest."