Hell On Tracks
Part 62

It would be a massive lie to say I wasn't grinning like a loon. Oh, sure, this practice match was going to go horribly, what with Arisa and Naomi being on the other team, leaving me all on my lonesome to command, but that didn't matter right now. I was going into this match in a Hellcat!

We'd had less than a day in the TD, and while Jane was already a master driver, April was still getting used to the much more powerful 76mm gun, and this was Lina's first time loading an actual gun instead of practicing with dummy shells. None of this mattered right now, because Hellcat! Haha, tank destroyers!

"Not worried about your match?" Kay asked as the teams loaded ammo and did the final pre-match checks.

"Oh, we're going to lose. I don't think I've won a single practice match since the tournament started." I shrugged, hopping down from my seat atop the TD. "I don't think I've survived many, either. Sure, I get a few KOs, and make a fight of it, but I lose every time. And since I know I'm going to lose, there's no reason to stress about it. And I get to take the Hellcat out! Haha, tanks!"

"Haha, tanks!" Kay echoed my exclamation. "Just because you haven't won against either of them yet doesn't mean you won't ever. None of us can come up with crazy plans similar to yours, and that makes you hard to react to."

I blinked at her. My grin faded to a mere smile as I went over her words in my head. "Nobody can match my plans?"

"Just look at the Maginot match. That was indisputably your plan, and look where it got us. A close but decisive win." Kay said. "Arisa and Naomi would never have come up with something like that. Arisa was close to panicking, and Naomi likes to sit too far back, she would have come up with something much more passive to play to her strengths."

"Huh." I huh'd. I'd never thought about it like that. Kay was very much our jack of all trades, Arisa preferred to coordinate rather than be directly involved, and would panic if she lost control of a situation, Naomi preferred to snipe and take advantage of her gunnery skills, and I… Speed, daring, and violence of action were my forte.

The practice field aboard the carrier was tiny, barely a square kilometer, which meant that matches were short, and well contained. There wasn't room for crazy maneuvering, and we all knew the field incredibly well. There were a number of choke points that if seized gave you great control over the entire field. But teams were often vulnerable as they went for one of the two primary advantageous positions…

There's an idea!

"Kay, thank you so much, you're a genius." I said, pulling her into a hug.

"I think that title falls to you, Tally." Kay said cheerfully, returning the hug and squeezing tight. My ribs ached, but I didn't care. "Genius and insanity are often two sides of the same coin."

I muttered something unkind and Russian as she laughed at her own joke, and we mutually released the hug.

"That may be the first time you've hugged me, instead of me hugging you." Kay observed.

"I have a feeling there will be a few firsts today." I said with a smile.

"Like a first kiss?" Kay waggled her eyebrows suggestively, and I laughed.

"I'm pretty sure all I agreed to was prom. This whole girlfriend thing isn't happening yet." I said.

"So dinner and a movie first, got it." Kay grinned, and I matched it.

"Or maybe I'll find a nice tea parlor to take you to. Y'know, to celebrate my victory."

"That's a far cry from you always losing."

"That was before my lovely assistant gave me hints at how to beat my competition." I said teasingly.

"Assistant?" Kay asked, but the way she smiled at me told me she was both enjoying this and planning a sweet, sweet revenge.

"Get a room you two!" A grumpy voice called from inside the Hellcat. Lina was clearly not pleased. "Gettin' everything organized is hard enough without the two of you flirtin' like there ain't nobody to watch!"

"F-flirting?" I stuttered, going red. My face probably matched my hair.

"The match will be starting soon. I should go and get set up in the judge's tower." Kay said, smiling widely at me. She pulled me into a hug, and gently kissed my cheek before she dashed off.

Kay kissed me.

My thought processes ground to a halt as that fact sunk in.

Kay had kissed me!

My legs turned to jelly, and I had to lean against the Hellcat's flank to not collapse to the ground in a giddy puddle of giggles.

Kay had kissed me!

That, more than anything else I could think of, was inspiration to win this match. I'd promised her a date to a tea parlor if I won, and there might be more of that in the books.

Oh my god, I was seriously considering this. No excuses about not wanting to commit, nothing about how I was probably in a bad place mentally, no panic at the thought of anything romantic, just… just everything that had just happened. Kay liked me a lot, and I liked her back. No excuses.

Across the parking lot, I saw Arisa slam some money into Naomi's waiting hand. The short intel officer was clearly annoyed about something.

She was about to have a lot more to be upset about when I kicked her butt into next week.


My team had every right to be apprehensive as I explained my plan to them. While it wasn't as crazy as my plans against Maginot had been, it didn't need to be. Against Maginot I'd needed to completely turn the tide of the match, seize the initiative and keep it long enough to put Maginot in a position where they could lose. Against Naomi and Arisa, I already had the initiative. I had the fastest armored vehicle here at Saunders, and a prodigy of a driver who was already amazing despite only having the Hellcat a few hours.

Speed, daring, and violence of action. Today, I had all three in spades.

"Remember, Naomi is your priority target. Take shots if you have them, but the Firefly needs to be taken out." I said over the radio, making sure I was talking over the assigned radio channel for my team. Seven affirmatives answered me.

After the month I'd been commanding the Stuart and being loader simultaneously, sitting in the TC's seat with the hatch open and half my body sticking out of it felt odd. There was nothing for me to do but spot, and issue orders as needed. I had my binoculars in hand, but I really doubted that I would need them today. Not at the ranges I was planning on fighting.

Kay launched her flare from the tower, signaling the start of the match.

"All tanks, go go go!" I ordered, speaking into my radio and intercom piece.

Jane was, naturally, the first to get a tank moving. The Hellcat jerked forward from a stop with a surprising amount of oomph, and we were approaching full speed a lot faster than even Stuart could manage.

The center of our practice field was widely considered a no-man's land. There were a few buildings to hide behind, but the hill and starting areas both had excellent lines of fire across it, while the riverbed and valley were the only places around the field with actual cover against those superior positions. The bridge across the riverbed was a fool's errand trying to cross.

Today, I didn't care. Naomi would have wanted to take the hill and use it to snipe, while Arisa would expect me to want to do the same with my brand new, poorly armored tank destroyer, and would take the valley for a more defensive posture against April's gunnery. They would either pick one flank or the other, or they would split their team and hit both.

In any of those cases, it would take time for their forces to reach the best firing positions. Time that they would not get today.

The Hellcat sprung across the bridge like a bolt of lightning. The rest of the team's Shermans were much slower, and much less enthusiastic on the get go, and they were lagging behind.

"Target, M4, eleven o'clock!" I called, spotting the first tank. So they were following Naomi's plan and going for the hill.

"On target!" April called. She still wasn't used to the Hellcat's 76mm gun, but hopefully surprise would be enough for us to get a couple good shots off.

"Driver, halt! Gunner, hold your fire until you see the Firefly!" I ordered, and the Hellcat skidded to a stop. We almost went too far, and barely avoided slamming into a house as Jane frantically pulled back on the brakes.

"I see her!" April called.

"Good! Fire when on!"

The tank destroyer recoiled as the powerful 76mm fired at another tank for the first time. The entire TD rocked back, despite the brakes, and I heard a clatter down in the turret. Whatever it was - Lina was cursing up a storm - it could wait until I confirmed effect on target.

I didn't have to wait long. While the round missed the Firefly, and Arisa's M4A1 also peeking around a corner as their eight tanks advanced as one big group, it did slam into one of the flank tanks of their formation. The white flag popped.

"Driver, move!" I ordered, not giving a direction. I trusted Jane's intuition, she'd know where I wanted us to go. "Gunner, next round!"

"That'll have to wait a minute!" Lina nearly shouted. "Dropped the round!"

That was not good. Not in the slightest.

I dropped down into the turret to see what was going on. Lina was bent down in her seat, scrambling for something. April had the gun depressed as far as it would go, so that Lina could get under the breach. I surged into action, dropping down as far as I could go. Jane's wild driving, plus the sheer power of the Hellcat meant that the turret was rocking around constantly, and Lina was having trouble grabbing the loose round with all that.

My hand wrapped around the base of the projectile, and as soon as I had it steady, I shoved it over to Lina's waiting arms. She nodded at me, and we both got up as carefully as possible.

"AP up!" Lina roared as soon as the round found the breach.

"On the way!" April replied, and the TD shook again as she fired. On the move, her shot went wide, and all it did was give Arisa and Naomi an idea of where we were.

"Driver, take us further towards their starting zone." I ordered quietly.

"Right!" Was Jane's confident reply. We slid around for a moment before Jane regained control and we rocketed forward once more. Arisa and Naomi's team was reacting to our presence here, abandoning their advance on the hill to engage and pursue the tank destroyer running around their back line. April fired a few more wild shots that did a grand total of nothing, and then we disappeared into the low ground.

"Haruna, status?" I asked into my radio.

"We're about to engage." Haruna, my 2IC for this match, reported.

"Hold fire just a moment. Let me make sure I have their attention."

"Copy that."

I turned on my intercom piece. "Driver, take us back up the hill, nice and slow. Gunner, let her know once we're hull down."

The Hellcat crept up to the ridge. My fingers were drumming against the rim of my turret hatch as I kept an eye on things. With my head out the hatch, I was the first to see how Naomi and Arisa were reacting. In short, they weren't reacting well.

"Gunner, hit the Firefly." I ordered. The turret below me shifted as April zeroed in on the target.

"On!"

"Send it!"

"On the way!"

This time, April's first shot went high, missing completely. A hail of fire from the other team answered it, landing all around us, but not hitting. April's second shot was dead on, and it slammed into the front glacis of Naomi's tank. I grabbed my radio mouthpiece.

"Haruna, engage!"

While Arisa reacted to my presence and the elimination of Naomi's tank, her team was suddenly caught in a crossfire. Some of them were still running for the hill, but most of them were after the Hellcat, and that was their mistake. They were out in the open, and Haruna's flanking shots were well placed.

In a matter of moments, Arisa's team lost half of their remaining members. Arisa coordinated a counterattack with what remained of her team, and they exchanged fire and knock outs with Haruna's forces.

"Gunner, target the A1." I ordered.

"Sending!"

The Hellcat rocked back once more, and April's shot found the A1's flank. The white flag once again flew merrily over Arisa's tank. That left two… one… and that was game. Eight KOs to three.

If that wasn't a decisive victory, I didn't know what was.


"What was that?" Arisa demanded as I entered the leadership room after practice.

"What was what?" I asked. I immediately zeroed in on the hot cocoa that Hannah had prepared, and filled up a foam cup.

"The practice match!"

"Are you just upset that you lost?" I asked, setting down my cup and crossing my arms.

"And in spectacular fashion, too!" Kay added cheerfully. Arisa glowered at her.

"If you must know, I used the speed of my new TD to gain an advantageous position on the field, one that would work no matter which flank you chose, and caught your team in a crossfire when you reacted to the Hellcat marauding around your back line." I explained. "I wouldn't have been able to make that run in Stuart or a Sherman."

"Tally, you're crazy." Naomi deadpanned.

I grinned and picked my cup back up. "Crazy enough to make it work!"

"That crazy is a lot less amusing when it's aimed at me instead of the enemy team." Naomi complained, keeping her deadpan tone.

"So just keep teaming up with me against Arisa. What's the worst that could happen?" I asked with a grin. Tempting fate, I know, but tempting it is part of the fun.

"If you're done…" Kay interjected. I nodded and sipped my hot cocoa, letting her speak. "Let's go over today's practice, and then I have some news."

We did just that, reviewing everything that we'd done today. It was just a bunch of drills, and the practice match, nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary.

"And the news?" Arisa asked, tapping her foot.

"During the practice match, I got an email from Katyusha. She's the team captain at Pravda." Key explained. I nodded my thanks. "She has invited the Saunders leadership team to observe their match against Ooarai, though her words were more along the lines of taunting us and watching as she obliterates the team that defeated us in the opening round."

"She seems… pleasant." Hannah observed.

"Small girl, big ego." Naomi said. "And it only inflated after she defeated KMM in the finals last year."

"And she's up against that same team captain as last year, Nishizumi." I said, realization dawning on me. This was going to be a good match, even if Ooarai was still running less than half of the allowed number of tanks.

"Where and when?" Arisa asked Kay.

"This weekend, in Sapporo. There's a fairly good chance we'll see St Go and Kuromorimine send people to watch too, since they're fighting each other tomorrow." Kay answered.

"We'll want to pack warm." Naomi said, looking at something on the computer. She turned the cart to face the rest of us, and I blinked, not believing what I was reading. I pulled out my cellphone to check an independent source, and…

"Hey Naomi?" I asked, still not believing.

"Yeah?"

"It's June, right?"

"Yup." Naomi answered, popping the 'P.'

"So it should be late spring, early summer in the northern hemisphere, right?"

"Yup." Naomi agreed with a nod, once again popping the 'P.'

"The weather report for this weekend is expecting blizzard conditions in Sapporo."

"Yup."

I hesitated, looking for words. "A week long rainstorm that ruins my sleep, and follows the ship, I can handle. Intense heat in the Australian outback, I can handle. It sucks, but I can handle it. But a blizzard? In the middle of summer?"

"Even in the middle of summer, Pravda has General Winter on their side." Naomi said, as if that explained everything.

I just stared at her, emotions battling my sheer disbelief. After a moment of silence, I spoke. "I hate you."

"I know."

The room went dead silent for a long moment before Kay burst out laughing. Soon, we all joined her. We managed to quiet down, only for Hannah to descend back into laughter, and bring everyone else with her.

When we finally got everyone's giggles under control, Kay addressed us again. "I think that'll help remind everyone to pack warm. Bring lots of extra layers, too. It may end up even colder than the weather reports say. Naomi, can you see about arranging a flight for the five of us and the M20, and lodgings?"

"Can do. Two hotel rooms?"

"Yeah. We'll have to do a pair and a trio." Kay agreed.

"I'll get right on it." Naomi said simply.


The ride back to my dorm was quiet tonight. With just Kay and I, there wasn't much to talk about beyond the elephant in the room, and I wasn't ready to talk about that. But at the same time… Mom says one of the most important parts of romancing someone is confidence. The story of how she and Dad met perfectly highlights that.

When Kay pulled up in front of my dorm, I didn't immediately hop out like I normally would. I was still trying to find my words, but I wasn't going to get out until I said something. I had to do that much.

"Tally?" Kay asked. She was looking at me, and as I met her eyes, I could see concern as clear as day. "If this is about earlier-"

"It is." I said, cutting her off with a slight nod. "I'm just looking for words."

"Okay." Kay said. She hit the gas, and started driving away. I could tell she didn't really have a location in mind, and was just driving to drive.

"So, about earlier." I began.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." Kay said as I said "I liked it!"

"What?" Kay asked, blinking. She glanced over at me for a moment, but had to keep her eyes on the road.

"I liked it." I said. "I've liked you like that for a while, but I'm just too scared to commit to anything. I don't want to leave you in a panic like what happened this morning. It's why I said no to being your girlfriend."

"I don't blame you for that. I know how hard things have been for you, and I'm here for you. Whether you want to be in a relationship or you just need a friend who you can lean on, all you need to do is ask." Kay said. She drove us into the parking lot of one of the various apartment complexes, and parked the Jeep.

As soon as we were parked, Kay scooted closer to me and pulled me into a tight hug. This time, it didn't feel uncomfortably tight, just warm. One thing I was coming to realize was that Kay gives great hugs.

"Thank you." I whispered into her ear, returning the hug as tightly as I could. "I… I want to try. I don't know if I'm ready for a girlfriend, but I want to try."

"That's all I can ask for." Kay replied. She broke off the hug to gently kiss my cheek. I once again nearly melted into a gooey puddle of giggles. Her hugs were amazing, but her kisses were nearly as good!

"Now about that date to a tea parlor…"

"Rain check?" Kay asked, as if she already knew what I was going to ask.

"Yeah. I'll figure something out once we're back from Sapporo."

Kay smiled brightly at me. "It's a date, then!"

On an impulse, I leaned in towards her. She must have gotten the same idea, because she leaned towards me as well. We closed in on each other - and were interrupted by a flash. I jerked away from Kay and began scanning the area for the culprit.

For once, it wasn't Arisa snooping around and infringing on other people's private time. Faye Faith Fletcher at least had the presence of mind to be embarrassed about her camera having flash on, though only for a moment. She very quickly fled under Kay's glare, and my own, for that matter.

"Well! That ruined the moment." Kay stated simply.

"How about we don't have our emotional talks in the Jeep, like, ever again?" I asked.

"Sounds good! I should probably get you back to your dorm now."

"Probably." I agreed.

It was a short drive back to the dorm, and I rushed inside. Arisa and Hannah weren't waiting in the common room for once, and I made it back to my room intact. As soon as the door was closed behind me, I scrambled for my cellphone. I needed to let Rach know!