The Legends Still Live On

Bogen Siebundzwanzig-komma-ein: Extras Neun und Zehn

Kapitel Siebzehn: Briefe

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Aboard the Kiev, it was just another ordinary day.

Keep in mind that in this case, 'ordinary' often meant things like T-34s driving in traffic, an old building collapsing either under the weight of its Soviet-era quality or because a T-34 drove through it, and at least one case a day of flipped T-34s because of either horrible driving or due to roads so horrible that they couldn't even be called roads in the loosest sense. All this and more happened practically every day. That was the way of life in glorious Mother Russia.

Over within the Stavka – the slang term adopted for the offices of the leaders of Pravda's Arts of Warfare programs – work was being undertaken where appropriate. That meant various things depending on the person.

For Katyusha, she was busy pretending to listen to a report being given by Nina and Alina while lounging in the big comfy chair at her excessively large desk. She was only bothering with pretending to listen just to make Nonna happy that she was doing some work. If she had it her way, she wouldn't even bother hearing two of the troublemaker foursome.

For Nudelmann, he was just shooting an SVD rifle out the large window behind the miniature tank commander at random people – using rubber bullets – to exercise his marksmanship. Normally, he would use his PTRS anti-tank rifle for such things, but since he was shooting from inside a room that was not very well ventilated to the outside save for the window opening he was shooting from, he would've blown out everyone's eardrums from just how loud that rifle was and how that sound would have had nowhere to go. And he was pretty sure nobody would've appreciated that. Hence, why he chose to borrow Nonna's lighter Dragunova for the occasion.

Sasha was making various elaborate creations using only paper, in the form of various written reports and requests. His own desk – greatly inferior to Katyusha's desk in size, because she always got the best while everyone else got the worst – had no free real estate on it with everything he had crafted thus far. Such creations included a scale model of a Kirov-class missile-armed battlecruiser, a scaled-down replication of the Russian cruiser Aurora – which was absolutely flawless, as Sasha had grown up in St. Petersburg and had seen the museum ship up close where it was docked in the city – and a scale model of a Tupolev Tu 160 supersonic variable-sweep-wing strategic bomber, along with several other smaller creations.

That was the scene which welcomed Nonna as she entered the large room with a stack of envelopes already appearing to be sealed and addressed. As she headed to Katyusha's desk, the raven-haired crack shot had a slight mirthful grin seeing that everything was exactly as she predicted it to be. She knew her best friends well. Though she did make a mental note to confront Nudelmann at once if she found anything was out of whack with her Dragunova.

Coming to a stop just behind Nina and Alina, Nonna took advantage of the turn in Katyusha's attention to shuffle her feet professionally and speak up, "Tovarishch kapitan, your fan mail has arrived."

That seemed to light up Katyusha's entire being. "Otlichno!" she exclaimed in delight as she stood up. "I want to see what the good people of the world wish to say to me now!"

With that, Nonna came around the other side of the desk and the two of them started going through the letters, reading through each one. The diminutive commander was quite enthusiastic about the whole ordeal, likely because it fed her massive ego even more.

Nina and Alina both witnessed this, and it was, to put it simply, a unique experience. While Katyusha was well known for having a gargantuan ego, it was not particularly well known just how much she treasured having a fanbase. It was easily assumed she cared not a smidgen for any of her fans, only for herself, but that was as far from the truth as physically possible. She loved being praised, and her fan mail was just proof that she was indeed praised by many. Suffice to say she was on an ego trip now.

"Vau, tovarishch kapitan is like a celebrity, isn't she?" Nina observed with an idle grin.

"I'll say," Alina agreed before crossing her arms casually, wearing a similar casual smile. "Her popularity amongst the people has skyrocketed ever since she appeared on television during last year's Finals match."

Sasha's eye twitched at hearing Alina bring up last year's Finals match, the one the world believed to be when Pravda had at last triumphed over their arch-rival Schwarzwaldspitze. But he was there that day, and he knew that was not what had really happened. In his eyes, Pravda had merely gotten lucky, or Schwarzwaldspitze had gotten unlucky, whichever way one chose to see it.

By now, the whole world knew the tale of Miho Nishizumi, and as such, they all knew of her actions in that particular Finals match where she had chosen to abandon her post to rescue some of her comrades that were in peril not by Pravda's forces, but by the wrath of Mother Nature.

But perhaps lesser known, and the side of the story that Sasha obsessed over the most, was what had occurred with Erich-Dietrich Hartmann up in the air. The common consensus was that something had happened to lead to his elimination, which many viewed as the turning point of the battle, as it had gone slowly downhill for Schwarzwaldspitze from that point on. But, unlike with Miho's case, there was no footage of what occurred, and as such, details on what occurred were extremely scarce, even now after a year had passed. It seemed only the blond-haired German ultra-ace knew the full story, as none of the people closest to him – in particular Miho and Maho Nishizumi and his brother Alfred-Joachim Hartmann, the Black Devil – were able to say anything on the matter. Hence, only theories could be spoken of as to what happened to Bubi that day.

That very much bothered Sasha: because that, alongside the incident with Miho, had happened, it had called into question among the Stavka whether or not Pravda had truly earned that victory. The blonde Russian ace had vehemently denied that they had earned that victory, because outside circumstances had just so happened to play out in their favor. They did not win because of their own skill. They had gotten lucky, and nobody could say otherwise. That left the amateur engineer bitter about that victory. Because of the huge rivalry between Pravda and Schwarzwaldspitze, Sasha would only consider it a true victory if they managed to defeat their German adversaries by sheer battle skill alone. They did not win that Finals match, no matter what the media said.

"So how are you going to reply to that?" Nonna asked Katyusha after they both read one letter that gave them pause due to its message.

The diminutive commander waited a second before responding, "… But I'm seventeen!" She had quite a bit of disbelief in her voice, as if she couldn't fathom that the letter said what it said.

That had roused the attention of both Nudelmann and Sasha. The giant one shot one last round from Nonna's SVD out the window at some unlucky soul before removing the clip, engaging the rifle's safety, and slinging it over his shoulder. After that process, he stalked up behind the two girls to read the letter. The blonde flying ace stood up from behind his desk and strode over to beside Nudelmann, where he read the letter as well.

The letter itself said, 'My name is Lydia. I'm six years old. How old is Katyusha? Can Katyusha be in my class and be my very best friend?' The writing was obviously that of a child, if the age of the writer didn't already state it: while appearing to have had a lot of effort put into writing each letter neatly, the end result still looked quite unrefined.

Sasha had to press his lips together to avoid bursting out into hilarious laughter, because this was just gold. Looking to his side, he saw Nudelmann glancing back at him while doing much the same, though he was doing a far better job at hiding it. Eventually, the both of them just decided, fuck it, and roared in laughter.

"KHA KHA KHA KHA KHA KHA KHA KHA!" the two Russian boys threw their heads back and laughed hard enough for everyone in the immediate area outside the Stavka to hear. "KHA KHA KHA KHA KHA KHA KHA KHA!"

That startled Katyusha into looking behind her, only just becoming aware that the boys were standing behind reading over her shoulder. Nonna looked back with far more grace, though she wisely took a step back away from everything upon processing the situation, as she could already see from a kilometer away that the diminutive commander would not react to this very well if her darkening gaze and slight twitch of the eye was any indication.

A day later, a video of the furious tirade Katyusha flew into – taken by Nina while she and Alina were ignored – was put up on the internet. It gained a million views in the first hour.

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Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.

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The author doesn't claim to own "Girls und Panzer" or any other references made. "Girls und Panzer" belongs to Actas. Any references made belong to their respective owners.

Feel free to ask any questions if you have them. Please note, however, that questions asked without being signed in will not be answered. The author would prefer to address questions outside of the story, and leaving questions while signed in provides that ability.

Special thanks to ChillingComrade for his Russian expertise.