Azumanga und Panzer!
Chapter Four
by Technomad
"Where are we playing against Pravda?" asked Sakaki. Beside her, Chiyo-chan looked up eagerly at their team Captain. The rest of the Azu High transfers were gathered behind her, eager for information.
Miho scowled slightly. "We're facing them on their home ground; it's the same field that we used last time around. It'll be snowy, and get dark quickly." She shook her head. "Again, just like last time."
"Can we see the map of the field we'll be going on to?" asked Sakaki. Miho nodded, and passed them a map. Sakaki spread it out, and looked at it, with Chiyo-chan peeking over her shoulder and the rest of Cat Team also getting a look.
"Where are our starting points? Both us and the Pravda High girls?" Miho pointed to two symbols on the map, at opposite ends, and Sakaki began to form a plan. "Get the other teams in here; I want to talk to them."
When Sakaki explained her idea, the other girls were agog with delight. "Why didn't we think of that before?" they lamented. "How did you come up with it?"
Sakaki favored them with a rare smile. "I was reading about the 'Ghost Army' that Patton commanded in the South of England just before D-Day, and had a flash of inspiration."
All the girls on Hippo Team groaned in unison. "We should have thought of that one!" lamented Erwin.
"I'm an idiot!" Caesar slapped her forehead to signify shame. "I'm a disgrace to the study of history!"
"Don't feel bad," Chiyo-chan said, smiling. "Sakaki here's real good at history. She had straight 'A's in it all through our time at Azu High." Sakaki blushed slightly, but did not deny her little friend's statement.
"We still have a week or so to go before the big match," said Sazaemon, "so we'd better get cracking!"
As Hippo Team scampered off to implement Sakaki's plan, Sakaki felt a tug on her sleeve. She turned to see Nakajima, the commander of Leopon Team. "What can I do for you, Nakajima?" she asked politely.
"We heard that you had one more girl than you could use," Nakajima said shyly. "We were wondering if you'd mind if she joined our team. We're all on the same side, after all. And we need one more girl to really operate that Porsche Tiger. She can be our radio operator. If that's all right?"
"You mean Kaori? I don't think we'd have any problem with that. She might enjoy getting to know people outside our little clique. You'll have to ask her."
When she was asked, Kaori was quite willing. "I'd much rather be out on the field than sitting on the sidelines! I'd love to join you!" And with that, the Leopon Team acquired its fifth member, and was able for the first time to properly crew its Porsche Tiger. She took the job of radio operator.
By the time of the match, all was in readiness. Miho smiled when she thought about what would happen. "If I read her right, Katyusha will waltz right into this trap, and she'll never see it till it's too late!" she gloated quietly to the other girls, over a snack at the Tankery snack shop.
"She does strike me as the sort of person who'll snap at our bait," Sakaki commented, as she tucked into a "Sherman" sundae.
As predicted, the playing field was snowy, and the sun was setting rapidly, leaving the field illuminated by a full moon in the Hokkaido sky. The signal to begin was given, and both teams began to move out.
"Cat Team is in position," reported Kagura, once the Kitty Cat was in the place that they had picked out earlier for it. Two clicks of the microphone from Miho told her that the message was received. Messages also came in from Leopon, Hippo, Turtle, Mallard and Rabbit Teams, all reporting that they had taken up their prescribed positions.
"Very good," came Miho's voice. "Begin Operation Fisherman!"
Katyusha was determined to win, this time. She had not forgotten how she had been stupidly overconfident against the ragtag team from Oorai last year, and this time, she vowed, she would crush the upstarts beneath the treads of her tank! She knew that her team had the advantage of numbers, and planned to take full advantage of that. The KV-2 and IS-2 also played a prominent role in her planning; she didn't think that most of Oorai High's tanks could stand up against them.
"Nonna," she snapped into her radio, "make sure that the other tanks all stay in formation! We're not taking chances with those Oorai girls this time!"
"Da, comrade captain!" Katyusha nodded, smiling fiercely. She knew she could count on Nonna. The tall, quiet girl made a good partner, she thought.
"Very well, advance! We know roughly where the enemy is, so this time we take no chances! We've more tanks than they do, so we should be able to crush them with sheer numbers just as Comrade Stalin did the Fascists during the Great Patriotic War!" In her T-34/85, she took the lead as Pravda High moved to the attack, easily passing through the drifted snow.
"Cat Team reporting. All is going as planned," murmured Kagura. Sakaki was watching through the Kitty Cat's periscope, which was the only thing that protruded over the snowdrift they had parked the SU-100 behind. They had draped the tank destroyer with white sheets to camouflage it, and had counted on that, the gathering darkness, and what they had been told about Katyusha to keep them concealed. It apparently had worked; the entire contingent from Pravda High had gone charging past, paying them absolutely no mind.
"Anteater Team, Duck Team, get ready to move out. And good luck to you!" Miho did not stay on the air long; while Pravda High's tanks did not all have radios, preferring to depend on wigwag flags from the command tanks like their Soviet models had, there was no reason for them to get overconfident and chattery. Katyusha was nobody to underestimate.
After a few minutes, the signal came: "Cat Team, it's time." Yomi nodded and fired up the engine. In seconds, the big tank destroyer had burst through its concealing snowdrift, slewing around in its own length to charge down after the disappearing Pravda High tanks.
Their engine was better than the T-34s' on the Pravda team, and soon the rear of the Pravda formation was in sight, although still well out of most guns' range. However, the SU-100's main gun was designed for long-range work. Sakaki smiled. The plan was working to perfection. "You remember what you're to do, Osaka?" she asked.
"Ah sho'ly do, Cap'n!" Osaka drawled, putting her eyes to the gunsights. "Yomi, darlin', could you slew us just a teeny bit to the left?" Yomi nodded, and Kitty Cat moved slightly to the left as Osaka made minute adjustments to the aim. "Perfect! Load!" Tono slammed a shell into the breach and closed it. Osaka triggered the gun, and the whole vehicle shook with the recoil as the big gun roared.
"Hit! That's a hit!" Sakaki shouted. She knew that nobody outside of Kitty Cat could hear her. "That's their KV-2 out! Can you get their IS-2 next, Osaka?"
"Ah can see it, that means Ah can hit it! Bring us to the right, Yomi, darlin'!" Yomi steered more to the right, while Osaka lowered the muzzle of the main gun. "Little more…little more…there! Load, Tono!"
Katyusha was not having a good day. Oh, it had started out well, but things had rapidly gone downhill once the match had begun.
It had all seemed so easy! She had seen the Oorai High tanks, all in formation, barrelling along like they didn't have a care in the world, and had instantly given orders to swarm down on them like Zhukov at Kursk. Just as they got ready to open fire, all of a sudden the KV-2 was reporting that it had been hit and knocked out! And none of the tanks ahead of them had even fired!
"Shto? How in the world…" Katyusha popped her head out of the turret hatch just in time to see her precious IS-2 take a direct hit and slew off to one side, a white flag popping out of the turret to signify that it was out of the match. "What is happening?" She peered around frantically, and happened to be looking behind her formation just in time to see a muzzle flash and make out the outline of an unfamiliar, deadly-looking tank coming up behind them.
"Bozhe moi! It's a trap of some sort!" She yelled to her team: "Take out the tanks in front of us! I'll engage the one behind us!" She dropped back into the turret and began traversing it frantically, wishing that the damn designers had done a better job with the T-34/85 she commanded from. Another crew member would have been very welcome!
The other tanks were merrily shooting the daylights out of the Oorai formation in front of them…but then Nonna's voice came over the radio. "Comrade captain! There's something wrong! We shot a bunch of their tanks, and they disappeared! Completely!"
"Shto?" Katyusha leaped for her periscope to see, and, sure enough, all but two of the Oorai tanks that her formation had been bearing down upon were utterly gone. Wiped off the earth, apparently. There were two of them still there, both of them with white flags signifying that they were knocked out, but as she watched, another of her own tanks took a direct hit and ran up the white flag.
"Now!" Miho snapped into her radio, and her tank leaped forward from its hiding place, along with the others she had stationed in various hides around the battlefield. The Pravda High forces were in utter disarray, and their heaviest, most dangerous units were out of the fight, so it was time to finish them off!
Rabbit Team and Hippo Team charged out from behind some trees, their main guns blazing as they came to bear on the Pravda High tanks. The Pravda High girls had been focussed on what was ahead of them, and at first, they didn't seem to know what to do; their tanks milled around uncertainly, their turrets traversing almost at random. Before they could do much, Rabbit and Hippo Teams were on them, and their opponents just about couldn't fire for fear of hitting teammates.
Aboard their M-3 Lee, Rabbit Team screamed with joy as they took out a T-34/85. "Payback's a bitch, bitches!" yelled Sawa. Like the rest of the Rabbit Team, she hadn't forgotten the contemptous ease with which Pravda had taken them out last time around, and it was sweet, sweet revenge to turn the tables on them so decisively. "Good shooting, Yamago!"
Up in the turret, the 37-mm gun barked, and Maruyama shouted triumphantly. "Took the bogie wheel off that one just ahead to the right!"
"Good! Slew us to the right, and Yamago can finish them off!"
"On it, ma'am!" Sakaguchi threw the M-3 to the right, as Yamago loaded the 75mm gun and got ready to fire. The second she had a good clear shot, Yamago triggered the gun, and they could see the T-34 rock, before a white flag popped out of its turret, signifying surrender.
Just then, two shells struck the side of the Lee, and they could feel it shuddering to a stop as the familiar sound of the white flag popping up sounded inside the tank. Even though they were out of the fight, it felt very good to at least have got up on the scoreboard. Sawa leaned back in her seat, sighing. "I think we all did very well. I couldn't be prouder of you, and I know Miho will be, too."
Meanwhile, Hippo Team was charging in to the attack. They couldn't traverse their gun easily without turning their whole vehicle, but the sheer punch of their gun made up for a lot. Erwin yelled "There they are! Let 'em have it, Saemonza!" The gunner nodded, triggering the big gun and hitting a T-34 squarely in the side, knocking it out. A shell screamed past, but the low profile of their vehicle saved them; it passed just overhead.
In her Panzer, Miho was looking for the other side's command tank. At first, she couldn't see it, but then she spotted the telltale flag, fluttering from the turret of a T-34/85. "Hana! That tank ahead, a little ways to the left! Hit it!"
"Yes, ma'am!" The big gun was loaded, and Hana triggered it. The Pravda flag tank rocked with the impact of the shell, but wasn't out of the fight…until two more shells hit it, almost simultaneously, from Leopon Team and Mallard Team. The Russian tank shuddered to a stop, smoke pouring out of its engine compartment and with one tread shot clean off, as the white flag of surrender popped out of the top of its turret.
"We did it! Banzai!" screamed Miho.
Over the field, the disembodied voice of the announcer intoned: "Pravda High's command tank is knocked out. Victory for Oorai High School!" The watchers cheered lustily from their safe vantage point in the stands.
Katyusha was not having a good time at all. The last two shells that had hit her tank had thrown her against the inside of the turret, very hard, and by the time the match was over, she was trying not to cry from the pain of a broken arm. Once things were over, her radio operator sent out a distress call, and soon she was being gently raised out of the main hatch to be looked over by some medics. Medics were always on call at a Tankery match; while injuries were not common, they were far from unknown.
Nonna was holding her on her lap, soothing her and singing a soft Russian song to keep her distracted, while the medics applied a splint to her upper arm. When they were done, and had given her a shot of painkiller to keep her comfortable until she could be medivaced, she looked around to see Miho Nishizumi looking at her, concern in her eyes. Katyusha was very unhappy about losing the match, but she knew her duty as a commander.
"Congratulations on your second win over us, Nishizumi-san," she said, proud that her voice was steady. "Your plan was a thing of beauty! How did you make those tanks disappear?"
"I was wondering that myself," Nonna said. "Do you have some way to make tanks disappear and reappear where you want them to be?"
"Nothing so complicated as all that," Miho replied, with a smile. "And it wasn't my plan. Sakaki, here, came up with it." Katyusha caught her breath as a near-twin to her dear friend Nonna came into view, and she could feel Nonna tense up. "I believe you two know each other?"
"We do," said Nonna. "Hello, cousin. It's been a very long time, hasn't it?"
Sakaki nodded. "It has, Nonna…or should I say, 'Noriko?' That is your birth name, after all."
Nonna smiled. "Call me by either name. It's good to see you. So that was your plan, was it?"
"How did you do that?" Katyusha piped up. "I've not been able to figure it out!"
Sakaki gave them a rare gamine grin, full of mischief. "Oh, that was simple. We had our two weakest tanks, Duck Team's Type 89b and Anteater Team's Type 3 Chi-Nu, towing a bunch of inflatable tank mock-ups behind them in formation. We figured that you'd think that those were the rest of our tanks and attack them. Meanwhile, all but one of the rest of our tanks were waiting nearby, and when you got past us, we came out and jumped you from behind."
"All but one?"
"The one that was sniping your heaviest units was our newest tank, the Cat Team's SU-100 tank destroyer. Those girls are the ones from Azu High, and their gunner's a genius. What she can see, she can hit, and with that long-ranged gun, she's a real sniper!" Miho gestured at the Azu High girls, who had dismounted Kitty Cat and gathered around, curious to meet the other team's commander, about whom they'd heard so much.
Osaka's eyes went even wider than usual when she saw that Katyusha was hurt. "Oh, dear! Did Ah do that? Ah'm so sorry…"
"No, no, don't worry about it. We all take risks." Katyusha waved off Osaka's apologies. "What kind of range were you hitting my tanks from?"
"Ah sho'ly don't know for sho', but Ah think I got yo' KV-2 from 1200 meters, an' yo' JS-2 from only a little less." At that, Katyusha's eyes went very wide.
"Bozhe moi! If you ever want to transfer into my school, I can find a place for you on our Tankery team!" Katyusha smiled ruefully. "And if I have to lose again, I've got to say that it feels less bad to have lost to a Soviet-built machine!
END Chapter 4
(Author's note: I have incorporated some suggestions from my first reviewer, which I thought were pretty good, and would like to thank that reviewer for giving me useful feedback.)