Hallo Kamerads!
Tango117 here, as always reviews are welcome and encouraged! Special thanks to the GuP Wikia for some facts and F. Red for some tips. Last but not least to Moonlight Nightmare04 for the great idea and permission to do this spinoff. Panzer vor!
Medical Station A1, Guben, German-Polish border~~~~
~~Mahos POV~~
I looked into his eyes for a few seconds before standing up and walking off. He swears he's invincible sometimes.
Maho walked through the streets of Guben, the sounds were thrilling. Tanks starting up on one side, the clicking and clacking of the Tatakai-Do teams weapons on the other, this is what the Warfare Sports are about. Maho walked into a store and asked for a small order of Bratwurst, she would take it to the medical tent and share with Christof, he should be hungry after being there for a few hours.
The lady who had taken her order brought her the plate. "That will be five Euros, ma'am."
Maho handed her the five and smiled a little before walking out the door, the lady smiled back. Does she know what's going on? I guess it doesn't really matter, she's not going to be involved, it's just the schools participating. The fresh fall air was much better than the air inside the store, which smelled of food and cooking oil. She'd rather be next to a tank with exhaust problems than be in there for a few hours!
Walking down the road she spotted Erika Itsumi, the Vice-Kommandant of the Sensha-Do team.
Maho called at her. "Erika!" The VK looked back and saw Maho. "Maho! Where have you been?" The two walked towards each other and hugged, it had been a few days since Erika hadn't been to school and Maho had been thinking she might've been sick or something along those lines, now seeing her here she felt relieved for some reason.
"I've been at school, the real question is where have you been?"
"Didn't your mother tell you? She sent out a forward unit to secure the border towns and make sure there wasn't any Polish movement in the-" Maho interrupted Erika before she could finish her sentence. "You knew of this war? Since when!?" Maho couldn't believe that her mother would keep something as important as this from her until now but tell the Vice-Kommandant about it right then and there!
"Your mother told me back in August, we've been up and down the border a few times by - Wait, wait, you mean that your mother didn't tell you before me? That's odd." Erika finished with a smug smile on her face. "Anyways, what're you going to do with that food? You're not eating it, as far as I can tell."
"I'm saving it for la-" She stopped her sentence when she noticed a bright red trail streak across the sky, suddenly an artillery shell chose its new home just several feet away from the edge of town and made a large puff of smoke go up in the air. By this time everyone had ran to their positions, the Tatakai-Do members taking up positions on their artillery and manning defensive positions while the Sensha-Do members boarded their tanks and started outwards.
"Kommandant, what's that" The gunner of the Tiger I asked, pointing at Maho's hand. "Oh, sorry, I forgot I had that with me." She placed on a small shelf just big enough to hold the plate and looked out the cupola. She saw several T34-1941 models cresting the hill with her binoculars and called out to the other tank commanders.
"Load AP shells! T34-1941s cresting about a half mile away!"
"Ja, herr!" She heard her gunner and several others reply through the headset. She heard the usual clanking of the shell being loaded into the cannon, then remembered something. "Driver! Turn right in 10 meters!" The tank jerked right and a shell hit just next to them. "Good job, get behind that rock formation over there and hold position."
Maho opened the hatch and looked around, the marksmen were firing at the Polish ground units, hopefully hitting them. She motioned for the Elefant to take cover behind a high wall and poke its barrel out the side, firing at any T34-1941s it felt like. She saw Erikas Tiger II moving swiftly to the front with her outside the hatch. The Polish were advancing now, no doubt. In the back of her head she was worried, worried about Christof. Had he started moving out yet or is he still at the medical base? She sighed, she didn't have time to worry, she had to focus on the battle and how to defeat the -
Unit Alpha One, Bravo Formation, Guben, German-Polish border~~~~
~~Christofs POV~~
"Herr Christof, the Polish ground units have advanced on our position and are trying to encircle us, what should we do?" Christof looked down at a map of the area on a fold-able table. The young student had approached him and began speaking of the Polish movements, he didn't know what to do, he'd only ever been encircled once and in training. Never in an actual battle. "Get your units and proceed onto the left flank, I will have our marksmen take out the ones on the right flank and have cover from the Panzer II light tanks also. Dismissed." The student turned away and ran to his unit, moving out to their positions. This plan had better work, or they would lose Guben. He moved to his right to commence the operation and saw Tiger 212 smoking. Had something hit their engine? If something had, it wasn't good. No one was coming out. "Herr!" Christof turned and saw one of his students calling him, he had almost forgotten about the plan! He ran over and they began moving down the right flank, the Panzer IIs were in front of them and firing at any T34s, they wouldn't destroy them but they'd damage them enough for the Tigers and Elefants to finish the job easily. The advance was tedious, they had lost several men for the time being but were still gaining ground. "Herr!" Christof turned around to see who had yelled but saw a Polish student about to corner one from Kuromorimine. Christof pulled out his Luger and fired at the Pole. Now focusing on the advance and keeping the ground he ordered an MG position to be set up on a large rock formation to pin down any advancing Polish units. The battle for Guben was about to be won, and the Poles were retreating.
Tiger 212, Guben, German-Polish border~~~~
~~Mahos POV~~
Mahos tank had been hit in the engine and exhaust fumes were flowing inside the turret, they had already called for help but no one had come yet. In about 10 minutes most of the crew had passed out, including Maho, but a Tiger II was on its way.
"Maho, wake up, you'll be late for school!" Her mother called, where was she? Was all that a dream? She looked around and noticed she was in her room, her closet was open and she had her uniform from her first year in Kuromorimine. She decided to just go along. After getting dressed she walked out into the house to grab her bookbag. She waved goodbye to her mom and walked out into the cold air. A boy walked by in a Kuromorimine uniform, messy black hair and green eyes, she'd noticed him before and recognized him, it was Christof. She followed him until he went down the halls to his homeroom, she turned left to hers. After the routine attendance check and announcements she made her way to the Tankery field, just as many others in her family had done before her. As she stepped on the grass she noticed several boys, the school had been co-ed for a few years prior but wasn't tankery a girls only sport? The Kommandant of Tankery stepped up onto one of the tanks and began speaking.
"As you may have noticed there are some boys here. That's because of the introduction of Tatakai-Do into Kuromorimines curriculum. It is the sport of infantry warfare and is significantly less dangerous than some of you might be thinking. The "bullets" are used for training in many police forces around the world, one difference though is that they give a small electric shock to knock you down as if you were dead. The artillery uses the same technology as the bullets but of course this sport does have risks, as does Tankery. The boys that are here have already volunteered to try-out for the Tatakai-Do team." The Kommandant paused and Maho took this time to look around. She looked to her right and saw the familiar messy black hair, it was Christof. The Kommandant began speaking again. "The boys will follow Johannes here" She gestured to a tall boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, he must have been at least six feet tall. "He will take you to the field to practice weapon safety and then stripping it. Boys, dismissed." Johannes walked towards the boys and led them to the field, the Kommandant whispered something to the VK standing next to her. The VK saluted and walked off towards the tank hangars.
"Alright everyone, split into your groups and get into your designated tanks." The Kommandant stepped off and headed towards her Panzer III M, the command tank, and Mahos group got into their Panzer IV F2, there were three of the F2s on the team, one of them was unit 212, Mahos unit, and the other two for units 211 and 213. Once everyone was in their designated tanks they rolled out to begin practice on stationary targets. "Two targets on our left side, aim and fire." The Kommandants orders came through the radio system. Maho now gave orders to her unit. "Rotate the turret!" The turret rotated and faced the target. "Load round!" The familiar sound of the round being loaded echoed inside the tank.
"Fire!"
And then, nothing. It was all dark.
'Where am I?' It was all dark, she didn't hear anything except the familiar rumble of the tank treads. She tried turning her head but couldn't, or at least couldn't tell. "Maho!" Someone was calling out her name. Who was it? "Maho, wake up!"
Then, she noticed her eyes were closed. 'I'm so stupid!' she thought, and opened her eyes, seeing Erika crouching next to her and her crew on the ground next to the Tiger I.
"W-What happened, Erika?" The Kommandant was feeling weak, no wonder she couldn't move her head. "Well, your tank almost got hit but your exhaust did get stuck, so exhaust entered the tank." The VK paused and looked over her shoulder, an Elefant had just been hit, the white flag popping out of the turret. "I'll explain it all in a few minutes, first we have to get out of here, we don't want to get captured."
And that was a long chapter, in fact it's longer than the first chapter. As always reviews are welcome. Tatakai-Do will be explained more in the next chapter and the final of the Battle of Guben. Hopefully I'll come out with the next chapter before the 25th of this month and have a fifth chapter by the middle of January! Thanks for reading and panzer vor!
