The Lieutenant's had us running non-stop for the past twelve hours. Private Takebe had to feed our driver so we could keep moving without her passing out. I understand why we're continuing like this, but I think the Lieutenant's being a bit too hard on us right now. I know we're in potentially hostile territory, but we should be able to take a break every now and again. I thought Sergeant Dodger was bad.

"Akiyama, are all our shells secure?"

Yukari closed her notebook and set it aside, looking back at the rack of shells. They rattled lightly as the Panzer IV H rolled over the uneven ground, but none of them moved more than a fraction of a millimeter. They were fastened in place quite snug. Yukari gave her lieutenant a thumbs-up.

Maho didn't smile, but Yukari pretended like she had. She turned away and tapped Mako's shoulder with her foot. "Let's head for those hills to the West. They'll provide further cover from the roads. Anyone looking for us, or anything allied to us, will have to come searching over miles of empty land."

Mako grumbled. "Yes Ma'am, Lieutenant Prick."

"I'll be including remarks like that in my report, Private."

"Hold on, Lieutenant." Mako's words were dripping with as much dry spite as she could muster. It was pretty clear she much preferred Maho's younger sister.

The Panzer IV turned, rolling up the side of a hill. Leopon Team rolled up right after them, with Hippo Team and Mallard Team bringing up the rear side by side. As the Panzer took the hilltop, Maho reached up and opened the hatch. She stood up and looked around, trying to see if there was any sign of the sniper following them. She didn't see anything, which was to be expected unless they could run at more than thirty miles an hour for twelve hours. It wasn't something that seemed humanly possible.

However, she quickly found she had something more to worry about. Down the other side of the hill, facing her direction, was the massive bulk of an artillery emplacement. The men operating it had spotted the tank immediately. She nearly froze when she saw the shapes of machine guns in their hands. She was about to get shot at, and suddenly she had no idea what to do about it.

"Get her back in here!"

Hearing the urgency in Saori's voice, Yukari grabbed the Lieutenant's shirt and dragged her back into the tank. She reached up to try and pull the hatch shut, only for the sound of a bullet ricocheting off the hull to chase her away.

Yukari hid in the back corner, next to the ammo rack. "H-holy shit! Someone's shooting at us!"

Saori shouted back at them. "The radio just exploded in my ear! People are yelling about tanks! What the fuck is going on? Did someone find us?"

Maho felt her body go numb. This one artillery emplacement had spotted them, and they'd already alerted others. They were about to be hit by God only knew how many tons of metal falling at unholy speeds. She didn't know what to do. It wasn't that she was unsure. It was like her brain had totally forgotten everything she was supposed to do in a situation like this. She didn't know.

Hana kicked Mako's shoulder. "Get us moving! Make us a moving target!"

"Aight!" Mako leaned forward, and the Panzer lurched ahead in response, careening down the hill towards their target.

Hana crammed her face into the scope. "Alright, Lieutenant! I can hit it now! I need your command!"

Maho looked over slowly. She had to remind herself that now was the time to act. "Right… Right! Fire!"

"I hope this is our actual target." Hana pulled the trigger.

The tank shook as the main cannon fired, launching the heavy armor piercing shell at multiple times the speed of sound. It slammed into the front of the artillery, smashing its way through the armor and into the engine, where it exploded. A burst of fire erupted from the side of the artillery, sending shrapnel flying out into the field.

Hana pumped her fist. "Hit! Another shot should finish it off!"

Yukari rammed the shell into place. "Hold on!" She finished up and held her hands up. "Ready!"

Maho shouted. "Fire!"

"Firing!"

The tank shook again, and the second shell arced through the air and hit the artillery beside the main cannon. It went through, but it was hard to see where it exploded. Everything was obscured instantaneously by a secondary explosion that engulfed the entire vehicle. It went up in flames, a ball of fire rising up into the sky.

"Damn it." Hana muttered under her breath. "That's pretty visible. We're going to want to get out of here."

"Do we leave the enemy combatants?" Saori looked back at them. "Are we just supposed to get the machinery, or do we need to take them out too?"

"I can run them over, if you want."

Saori turned on Mako. "That's horrid! Don't even say that!"

"I'm just saying. We could. It's an option." Mako shrugged. "Whatever."

"We can't take any prisoners, and we can't afford them following us." Maho took a deep breath. "And we can't waste the main cannon on them, so…"

Saori held up a finger and took a moment to focus on her headset. She came back a few seconds later. "The others are asking what we're supposed to do now. There are three men, two are injured, one unconscious. They've surrendered."

"Great." Maho let out a long sigh. "I'll deal with this." She stood up out of the hatch, looking down at their prospective prisoners.

Two of the men stood with their hands in the air, having thrown their weapons on the ground. One of them was putting most of his weight on one leg, the other leg clearly having been hit by shrapnel from the explosions. The third man was laying on his back, blood coming from his side where it looked like shrapnel had hit him as well. The pillar of fire that had once been enemy artillery sat in the background like something from a war movie.

"Ah, hell." She reminded herself that she was now in this war movie.

Taking a glance behind her, she could see the rest of the platoon. All four main cannons were pointed at the captured men. She could just order them to open fire and obliterate the men, and part of her thought it was the best decision, but she didn't want to start her military career with war crimes. At the very least, she could take their weapons and point them in the direction of the nearest town. They would know where that was better than she would anyway.

Standing half out of her own hatch, Erwin frowned at the situation. Midoriko was looking to Maho, waiting for her orders. Nakajima was making herself useful, surveying the hills around them. Maho shook her head and turned back to the men. They looked like they were starting to question the seriousness of their situation. Their emplacement had been blasted to kingdom come, but the sight of teenage girls in tanks probably caught them off guard just a little.

A fourth man appear suddenly, running around from behind the burning wreck and shouting at his comrades. They dropped like a stone, hitting the ground as he fired an assault rifle wildly in the general direction of the lead tank. Maho ducked into the tank just as several high caliber rounds bounced off the top of the turret. The moment she dropped out of sight, the first two men grabbed their weapons and opened fire as well. The man who had supposedly been unconscious pulled a hidden pistol and got up, advancing on the tank.

Maho kicked Saori and Mako at the same time. "Get us out of here! Go! Go! Go!"

Mako leaned forward, peering through her tiny viewport. "What the fu- someone just jumped on top of us!"

Maho looked up just in time to see the muzzle of a pistol shoved into her face. More from panic than training, she shoved the mans arm to the side, unintentionally slamming his hand against the side of the cupola. The gun went off and the tank was suddenly filled with the sound of a bullet ricocheting around the inside. It bounced nine times that Maho could pick out while trying to cover her head, before being obscured by the sound of exploding electronics and the searing pain coming from the back of her neck. Hana cried out in pain and Mako swore several times before it finally came to a stop.

Yukari felt something small and solid hit her forehead, and her face exploded in pain. Stunned and scared out of her mind that she'd been shot in the head, she simply fell onto her back and started screaming uncontrollably. Fortunately for her, she was still alive enough to scream uncontrollably. The bullet had lost enough momentum that, even hitting head on, it didn't manage to do any real damage. The tank was now moving, and the man had dropped his gun and fallen off the tank in the meantime, but some damage had certainly been done. How much damage, they didn't yet know.

Maho reached up and pulled the hatch shut, and then clamped her hand down on the back of her neck. She was pretty sure the bullet had at least nicked her. "Status report!" She winced. "Ah! Damn it. Akiyama! Shut up! You're alive! Stop sc- For the love of God, shut up!"

Saori jumped up and climbed over to the back of the cabin, pulling Yukari up onto her seat. She pried her friends hands away from her forehead. "Hey! Hey, it's okay! You're going to be okay!" She frowned at what she saw, blanching a little. "I'm not gonna lie, it's not good, but it's not bad. Hold on."

Maho looked over to Yukari. The bullet had definitely broken the skin when it hit her, but her skull had deflected. It was probably somewhere on the floor around her now. However, it still managed to do a number on her looks for the time being. Blood was running down her face, getting in her eyes and dripping off her chin and nose. It was all over her hands too, running down to her elbows.

Saori tore off her sleeve without a second thought and tied it tightly around Yukari's head. "There. Not the best solution, but it'll do for now." She used the loose end of the sleeve to wipe away what she could from Yukari's eyes. "Can you see?"

Yukari was still hyperventilating, the burning pain in her face not allowing her body or mind to calm down. Saori's help was enough to bring her back from total panic, however, and she managed to shakily thank her friend. "I think… I'll make it."

Maho turned her back to Saori and lifted her hair away from her neck. "My turn. How bad does it look?"

Saori looked up and frowned. "It's pretty red, but you're not bleeding. I don't know what hit you, but you should probably avoid it in the future."

Mako turned to look back at them. "Is everyone alive at least?"

Saori crawled over to her, dabbing her sleeve against the side of Mako's head. "We're all alive, but I think that bullet grazed you."

Mako reached up and batted her away. "Stop- stop it. Buzz off. It graze my shoulder on the other side. Leave me alone for a moment and figure out whose blood splattered on my face."

Saori turned to Hana. "Oh… oh my God. Are you…?"

Hana was sitting at her station, holding her left leg in the air and breathing heavily. Her leg was soaked in dark red that was starting to pool under her. "I think it went all the way through. Am I… am I going to keep it?"

Saori ripped her other sleeve off and started tying it around Hana's leg. "We'll stop the bleeding for now and worry about that later. Right now we need to get to safety." She did her best to make sure the pressure was not squeezing the sides of the wound. "We need to get her back to base soon. I don't like the idea of taking her along with us. That could get infected real easy."

Maho nodded. "We'll send her over to Mallard Team and take their loader while they head back. Takebe, contact the other tanks. We need a status report."

Climbing back to her station, Saori motioned at the fried radio. "Good luck. It's a brick now. Someone's gonna have to go up and look around." She took out a notepad and started writing down and briefly waved at Maho, telling her to sit back down. "Okay, so we need Pazomi, and someone from Leopon Team to repair the radio. We don't need you getting shot, so I'll go out in a second."

While the emergency was unfolding inside the Panzer IV H, Midoriko had been dealing with her own problems. She'd seen their leader take off, and the enemy soldier fall off the side of the tank. The other two tanks drove off after her, their commanders ducking into the safety of their own armored shells. Three of the soldiers fired at them as they retreated, but Midoriko's tank stood still. She hadn't given them any orders.

She dropped down into the tank and sidled up to the 47 mm. "Don't move us yet! We need to finish this! And don't you dare waste the 75!"

Moyoko looked up over her shoulder. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to finish taking out this enemy position."

Nozomi and Moyoko looked at each other, then to their commander and chorused together. "Wait, what?!"

She pulled the trigger, and a cloud of dirt flew into the air in front of them. She loaded another round and fired again, before the dirt had even fallen back to the ground, just adding to the chaos. She reached up and pushed her hatch open, standing up and pulling out her sidearm.

Nozomi shouted up at her. "What are you doing?! Stop!"

Waving the dust away from her face, she glared through the cloud of her own creation. She spotted a figure moving round and took aim. She pulled the trigger. The gunshot barely registered in her ears, but the figure dropped to the ground all the same. As the dirt settled, she saw another one and took aim again, firing again. It fell to the ground as well.

After a few more seconds, she could see the third man was already dead, lying on the ground where he had landed after her second shot from the 47 mm sent him flying. The fourth man was nowhere to be seen, after being directly hit by her first shot. It was over.

Sitting back down, she closed the hatch and holstered her weapon. "Okay, go. We don't want to get left behind."

Moyoko slowly turned back. "Y-yes ma'am."

Midoriko noticed Nozomi staring at her. "What? What are you looking at?"