Chapter 9

In Which the Final Battle Begins

The evening before the match, Hayley, Liza and Justine showed up outside Ayako's dorm room. Hayley waved a video. "Skipper, you're formally invited to eat katsu and watch The Devil's Brigade with us."

"The devil's brigade?" asked Ayako.

"It's an old war movie with real Canadian content," said Hayley. "Plus tanks!"

Ayako let them take her back to Liza's room. Liza, Hayley explained, had the best entertainment system, "'Cause her family's pretty wealthy." The room was decorated with assorted nautical items: fishing floats, a ship's wheel, even a fishing net hung artistically on one wall. They settled in front of the TV, each with a microwave katsu packet.

Ayako enjoyed this opportunity to relax with her crew. My friends, she corrected herself after a moment. They are my friends, aren't they? The movie was entertaining, but she was compelled to point out that the 'German' tanks were in fact M47 Pattons. Hayley just shrugged.

"Well, this is it, our ultimate battle," said Ayako after the film ended. "When I mentioned it to my parents, they said they would come and watch. Then I remembered that I promised Kay-san that I would tell her about our other matches and it didn't seem right not to invite Mika-san and Katyusha-san after that. I even sent out a notice to our student body, so we might have an audience for a change."

"We're going up against the premier school in sensha-dō with one lucky win and two straight losses under our belt. Let's hope we can give them something to cheer about," said Hayley.

Justine produced a bottle of sparkling grape juice. "Alors, I know that we have a tough fight ahead of us and I wanted to thank you for inviting me to do all this fun stuff." She poured them each a tumbler full. "To our team and tomorrow's victory!" She downed her cup with panache then doubled over with a coughing fit when it went down the wrong way. Liza patted her on the back until it subsided.

"I too want to thank you all," said Ayako after the toast. "I have something for you… I was going to give them out tomorrow morning, but I might as well do it now. Just a moment!"

She ran back to her room and retrieved three garment bags. "These are the uniforms I designed," she said, handing them out back at Liza's room. "They were completed just in time."

Inside the bags were tall brown boots, a dark blue skirt and a bright red, high collared serge jacket with a Sam Browne belt. Hayley held hers up. "Gee, I wonder where you got the idea for these."

Ayako flushed. "Do you like them?" she asked anxiously. "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are an iconic part of Canadian culture."

"Darn tootin'!" Hayley replied happily. "Good job, skipper!" Liza and Justine echoed her praise.

Ayako glowed. "With you as my crew, I don't believe there's any way we can lose," she said with conviction.

"Y'know, I think you'll find that the number of ways we can lose is pretty much limitless," said Hayley, grinning.

Rain fell heavily that night and by morning the ground they were to fight on was soft and muddy. Hayley handed around a thermos of coffee as they waited at the assembly area. They yawned and tried to make themselves feel awake and alert. They had been up for hours now and it was still only eight thirty.

The thumping sound of rotors sounded in the distance. A small helicopter appeared on the horizon and sped towards them. Ayako shaded her eyes and stared at the approaching aircraft, wondering who on Earth it could be. As it got closer, she spotted Saunders' logo on the side of the fuselage. The antiquated looking flying machine slowed to a hover and slowly settled onto the ground. The engine was cut and Kay leaped out of the cockpit and ran towards them, bent double under the still rotating blades.

"Hi Canucks! Thanks for the invite!"

Brittney turned out to be the pilot. She joined them a moment later, chewing on the inevitable piece of bubblegum.

"You can fly that thing?" asked Hayley.

"I'm a woman of many talents," said Brittney laconically. She looked them up and down. "Nice uniforms."

"Ayako, I think it's really cool that you chose to go up against a team as strong as Kuromorimine," said Kay. "I'll be cheering for y'all! Go True North!" She punched one fist in the air.

The next to arrive were Mika and Alena, followed by Katyusha and Nonna. Both groups eyed each other askance and maintained a frigid distance.

"We are not on good terms with Pravda," explained Mika to Ayako. "I heard you fought them earlier. Too bad you didn't win."

"Good luck, True North!" said Alena. "You have a challenging battle ahead of you, but I think you can do it!"

"You of all people are familiar with your opposition. You may be able to use that to your advantage," said Mika.

Katyusha's advice was more straightforward: "Crush them under your tracks, pirozhki!"

They weren't the only spectators. As time wore on, more and more of their fellow students showed up to watch. No pressure, thought Ayako sardonically, but it was nice to have this much support. It had often seemed to her that everyone was rooting against them when she was with Kuromorimine.

"Ayako!" She turned to see her mother and father striding vigorously towards her.

"We wanted to wish you luck," said her mother. "Are these your friends?"

Ayako made the introductions. Her parents seemed entirely unfazed by her crew's adopted accents.

"I'm very pleased to see that you have adapted so well to True North," said her father. "You never seemed to have close friends at your old school. Your mother and I always thought Kuromorimine was rather cold and inflexible."

So that's why they wanted me to move, thought Ayako. She waved goodbye as they joined the other onlookers.

At nine o'clock precisely, Erika and the Jagdtiger's commander arrived in a Kübelwagen. Ayako held herself ramrod straight as she marched out to meet them. I want some respect from Erika, she thought. She can't just write me off because I left.

Erika was affecting to look bored. "Let's get this farce over with quickly, shall we?" The single judge introduced the combatants and Ayako and the Jagdtiger commander bowed, shook hands and wished each other luck.

Hayley appeared by her side. "Everything is in order, commander. We're ready to go," she said crisply. Ayako stared at her. Commander? Had she heard that right?

"Very good. Mount up," she replied after barely a pause.

"At once, commander!" Hayley clicked her boot heels together and marched back towards the Ram like she was on parade. Erika stared at them sourly, then revved the Kübelwagen's engine. The Jagdtiger commander nodded to Ayako, got in, and they drove away.

Ayako took her place in the commander's seat and put on her headphones. "Thanks for that,' she said to Hayley. "The heel click was a bit over the top, though."

"Sorry, eh?"

The problem was, their starting point was in the wrong place. They had known beforehand that they had no control over where they began. Now they needed to find a way to get to map reference 2753 in one piece.

"Do you know the Jagdtiger commander?" asked Hayley. "What is she likely to do?"

"I've never met her," admitted Ayako. "But I already know what she's going to do. Erika wants to finish this quickly and they have nothing to fear from our tank, so she's going to come straight at us right away."

She pointed to her map. "So…we'll conceal ourselves in these woods here, on the direct route between us, then watch for them go past on their way to our starting point. Once we know they're safely behind us, we'll continue to point 2753 and wait for them there."

"Sounds good, commander."

Ayako smiled at Hayley. "Don't you mean 'skipper'?"

Hayley laughed. "Anything you say, skipper."

They had to move fast. Liza kept up maximum speed and the Ram tore over the muddy ground. No danger of a dust cloud to reveal our position today, Ayako thought. They arrived at the trees without seeing any sign of the Jagdtiger. Liza eased them in between the tree trunks carefully, trying not to knock any of the smaller trees down. They scraped in between two oaks and came to rest in a tiny clearing.

"Engine off!" said Ayako. She leaped down and started dragging fallen branches towards the tank. Hayley and Justine followed her.

"Try and pile on as much as you can," called Ayako. "Enough to break up the silhouette." They leaned the larger branches on the hull and threw the lighter detritus on top.

"Écoutez!" said Justine suddenly. "I hear something!" Ayako motioned for quiet. Sure enough, there was the sound of tracks squealing and clanking and underneath that, the heavy growl of a powerful engine.

"Get back inside! These uniforms are far too conspicuous!" whispered Ayako urgently. They scrambled back into the Ram, trying not to rattle the hatch doors.

The noise from the other tank grew louder and louder. They huddled inside the Ram, breathing slowly, not daring to touch anything. Ayako ever-so-carefully eased her head out of the hatch, and nearly fell over in shock. A squirrel was perched on the turret roof directly in front of her. She clamped both hands over her mouth to muffle a squeak. Next moment, the squirrel was gone, bounding off the tank and into the bushes. Ayako shook off the surprise and stared through the foliage.

The rumbling had reached a crescendo, but she only had the briefest glimpse through the leaves of dark brown metal as the Jagdtiger passed them. The volume of the noise began to drop off. Ayako relaxed. After all, if we can't see them, they can't see us, she reasoned. She dropped back inside and gave the others the OK sign.

After another few minutes, the sound of the Jagdtiger was a faint background murmur. Ayako had Liza restart their engine and they gingerly backed out of the woods, shedding their camouflage as they went. "Head north-north-west," she ordered. "We'll go through the pass at point 2850." They jolted towards the craggy peaks in the distance.

Ayako stood in the hatch with her hands on the doors to either side, enjoying the wind in her face. A thought struck her out of nowhere and she giggled.

"I get it now! I get the joke!" she said over the intercom. "The pilots landed on the runway crossways, that's why it was so short but so wide!"

Her earphones crackled. "About time ya figured that out, b'y," said Liza good naturedly.

Ayako turned to glance back the way they had come. The dark, angular shape of the Jagdtiger was squatting in the open field beyond the woods like a nightmare, turning to face them.

Author's Notes:

I fixed the naming/honourifics in the last chapter's tank café scene and changed "rang off" to "hung up". I made some changes to make meeting Maho and Erika in the tank café less contrived.

The enmity between Pravda and Continuance reflects the fact that Finland and the Soviet Union were belligerents during the Winter and Continuation wars.

Good point about the pacing. I think that rushing things is one of my major flaws as a writer. I may try a rewrite at some point to address this.