Azumanga und Panzer!

Chapter 5

by Technomad

"Where are we?" asked Sakaki. She peered down at the map. "I'm sure we're at the coordinates that Miho gave us, but I don't see a sign of the others."

"Don't ask me," said Yomi. "I just drove like you told me to."

Sakaki popped open the top hatch of Kitty Cat and stood up, looking around. It was a grey, misty day, typical for Japan, and the forests and meadows around them were quiet. After she had cut the SU-100's noisy engine, the loudest sounds she could hear were the chirping of birds.

"I wonder if we made a mistake?" Sakaki muttered. She went back down inside the casemate. "Kagura, get on the radio and get ahold of Miho. I want to talk to her."

"Yes, ma'am," Kagura answered, firing up the radio. After some squealing and static, she got it to where she could transmit. "Cat to Anglerfish. Come in, Anglerfish. Over."

A brief pause, then Miho's voice came in, clear and strong. "Anglerfish here. Where the hell are you, anyway? We're all at square E-3, just like I planned! Over."

"E-3?" Sakaki saw what had happened, and she blushed. "Uh…we misheard you, ma'am. We're over here at A-3! Over."

"A-3? You're way out of place! Get over here, and get here quickly! We don't know where St. Gloriana is! They could be anywhere! Over."

"Roger, ma'am…" Just then, explosions started rocking the Kitty Cat, and Sakaki paused to peer through the telescope. Outside, to her horror, she saw that they had been crept up on by the enemy. Led by a Cromwell, several Matildas were trundling toward their position, firing as they came. "Er, we've found them! We are under attack! Repeat, under attack! I see three Matildas and one Cromwell! Over and out!"

"What? Evade them for as long as you can! Help is on the way! Over and out!" With that, the radio went dead. Yomi was not stupid, and she had heard the explosions. The big 12-cylinder engine fired up to life, and Sakaki spent a moment thanking Buddha for all the work they had put in making sure it was in tip-top shape. Kitty Cat lurched, first to the left, then to the right, avoiding the explosions of the St. Gloriana girls' shells.

Up in her gunner's seat, Osaka yelled: "Yomi, darlin', if you could slew us a teeny bit to the right, Ah can return their fire! Them girls couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with the broad side of a barn!" Obediently, Yomi brought the SU-100 around to the right, and Osaka triggered the main gun. Through the periscope, Sakaki saw the Cromwell stop, its turret knocked askew and a white flag popping up atop it.

The sight of their point tank being taken down at a range they couldn't match seemed to startle the St. Gloriana's girls; they slowed up, and Sakaki was not slow to take advantage. "Yomi! Speed us up, and jink like crazy! If we can get to the top of that ridge over to the left, we can defilade and fire at them from cover!"

"On it, ma'am!" Yomi stepped on the accelerator, and Kitty Cat sped up, swerving randomly from left to right, plowing over trees and bouncing over boulders to climb to the top of the hill. Around them, explosions bloomed like hellish flowers.

OOO

Miho looked very grim. "Our new friends are in trouble!" she snapped. "They made our last victory possible, and we're not going to abandon them now! Follow me, girls! Panzer Vor!" Her Panzer lurched ahead, and the other girls followed in her wake.

As her Panzer IV sped ahead, Miho's mouth set in a thin line. She didn't know it, but at that moment, she looked very like her mother. We owe the Azu girls, she thought grimly, and even if we didn't, I do not abandon my comrades on the field! My mother be damned, I'll show her that there's more to Tankery than raw victories!

Anglerfish led the way, with Hippo right behind. Miho was glad of that; Hippo was one of their harder-hitting units, and she was glad to have them along. If she'd had her own druthers, she'd have replaced Rabbit Team's M-3 Lee, as well as Duck Team's Type 89b and Anteater Team's Chi-Nu, but there hadn't been time, or the funds, even though they'd won a lot of support with their surprise upset victor last year.

Leopon Team was keeping up, rather to Miho's surprise. Their Porsche Tiger was still quite cranky, and she'd not have been surprised to see it breaking down, but it was forging ahead as though it had never given its operators trouble. Not far behind, Mallard Team was roaring along in their Renault, with Turtle on their tail. Rabbit, Duck and Anteater were bringing up the rear. As the weakest units, they did not usually take the lead in a battle situation.

Miho just hoped that all of St. Gloriana's units were occupied trying to take Cat Team out. She didn't underestimate their opponent. Darjeeling had a very good reputation at Tankery, and had cleaned Oorai's clock at the practice match they'd had before last year's play began in earnest. She was watching constantly, alert for ambushes. The terrain was fairly open, but there were hills and clumps of trees that could have hidden a tank easily. She did not propose to be caught off-guard.

OOO

Darjeeling was wondering what had happened. All of a sudden, her radio had erupted with chatter about how her team had cornered one of the Oorai tanks, and how they were closing in to destroy it unsuspecting. Then, to her horror, she'd heard that first one, then another of her tanks had been destroyed at what seemed impossible ranges.

She cursed the designers of her Churchill tank. "Infantry tank, my sweet arse," she muttered.
Designed for cooperation with infantry, it didn't move very quickly, no matter how much she wanted it to. She privately considered the distinction between "infantry" and the faster "cavalry" tanks to be utter moonshine. Mentally, she urged her machine on faster.

Finally, she burst out of a line of trees to find her forces grouped around the foot of a hill, firing up. "What's happened?" she snapped into her radio.

Green Tea, the commander of one of her remaining Matildas, answered. "Ma'am! We've got that SU-100 cornered, but they've apparently got some sort of wizard shooting for them! They took out our Cromwell, and one of our Matildas!"

"How in the world…?" Darjeeling opened her hatch, peering up at the top of the hill with her binoculars. She could just barely see the outline of a low-slung tank up near the top, hidden behind the brow of the ridge, with its long, deadly-looking gun pointing downhill. As she watched, the gun belched fire, and a second later she heard the roar. An explosion rocked her tank. She couldn't believe it. "How are they shooting at us, at that range, and even coming near?"

"We don't know, but we think they've got some sort of a genius gunner! Right now, ma'am, my advice is to pull back and get under cover! We're pounding at them with our main guns, but it'll be pure luck if we hit anything!" Another explosion, this one smack on a Matilda, emphasized Green Tea's words. The Matilda rocked back, a white flag popping up to signify that it was disabled and could not participate any more.

Darjeeling had not risen to her position by being a fool, or slow on the uptake. "Back us up! Behind those rocks over there!" The Churchill lurched into action, moving out of the way just in time as an explosion erupted right where it had been. Darjeeling's eyes went wide as she ducked back down into the safety of her turret. If I'd been a few seconds slower, they'd have knocked me right out!

Once she was in a relatively safe spot, she ordered: "All tanks fire on the SU-100! Maximum elevation! They've got the range, but we might be able to get in a few lucky hits!" Obediently, the St. Gloriana's girls opened fire, trying to knock the Oorai tank out.

OOO

Aboard Kitty Cat, Sakaki was getting distinctly worried. So far, their low profile, the longer range on their main gun, and Osaka's genius for tank gunnery had kept them in the game, but she knew that their luck couldn't last forever. Several times, the St. Gloriana girls had got in lucky shots, and Kitty Cat had taken damage; luckily, none so bad as to disable it.

More to the point, they were running low on ammunition. Even for Osaka, the shooting was difficult, and they didn't know just what else St. Gloriana might have in reserve. Sakaki had already ordered Osaka to only fire when she was sure of a disabling hit. Sakaki turned to Kagura. "Kagura! Get Miho on the horn! I need to talk to her!"

"Yes, ma'am!" A few minutes of radio-fiddling, and Kagura looked up. "I've got Miho. Do you want to talk to her directly?"

"Yes, I do!" Grabbing the headset, Sakaki put it on. "Anglerfish? This is Cat. We're up on top of the hill in A-3, and cornered. We've got what looks like all of St. Gloriana at the foot of the hill, shooting at us. Ammo's running low! How soon can you get here? Over."

"It'll just be a few minutes! If you run out of ammunition, try to draw them after you, the way Duck and Anteater did against Pravda!" Sakaki's eyes narrowed. "In the meantime, hang on! The cavalry's coming! Over and out."

"Roger, wilco, Anglerfish. Over and out." Sakaki's eyes narrowed. She could see the commander's plan, and it was good. That did not mean she liked it. As commander of Kitty Cat, she considered it her personal responsibility to ensure that her team always was victorious, or at worst, still in the game at the conclusion.

The big gun boomed. "Got me another Matilda!" Osaka exulted. Then she turned, her wide, guileless eyes fixed on Sakaki. "Ma'am? Ah ain't got but three shells left! What do we do if they gets used on up?"

"If it comes to that, Osaka, we'll have to turn tail and draw them in after us." Sakaki was pleased to hear that her voice sounded calm and reassuring, like a real commander. "In the meantime, I trust you to put those shells to good use! Every one of those tanks you can knock out is a plus for our side!" Osaka nodded, peering out of her gunsight at the opposing forces at the bottom of the hill. "Yomi?" The driver turned to see what her commander wanted. "If we do run out of ammo, I want you to pull us back, and then turn us around and run for it! Jink like crazy! Most Tankery gunners aren't anywhere near Osaka's level of skill, and they won't be able to hit us if we use evasive tactics!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Yomi nodded, checking over her controls to make sure that they were ready to go at a moment's notice.

OOO

Darjeeling wasn't normally one to swear, but she felt the temptation. That damned SU-100 was not only uncommonly difficult to hit, but their gunner could reach out and touch other tanks at ranges she could hardly believe. After losing another Matilda, she had pulled all her tanks back as far as she dared, without letting their quarry escape.

Their main guns were just about able to reach as far as they needed to, but at a price in accuracy. Again and again, the hillside erupted in explosions, but somehow, that dratted tank survived. And if one of her own machines made the mistake of becoming too conspicuous, as that Matilda did, the big gun they were facing spoke, infrequently but always with deadly effect. Who trained that gunner?

She did know how fast a tank gun could fire, though. She suddenly came to a decision. "All Matildas, follow me! We're going to charge them!"

Over the radio, she heard cheers. Her girls were sick of this stand-off, and they were willing to take a chance to take this deadly opponent out. "Remember the Light Brigade! Follow me!" At her signal, her tank leaped from concealment, heading up the hill, taking advantage of every scrap of cover and zig-zagging back and forth to at least make it more difficult to hit them. The others were right on her trail, and she felt a moment's thrill of pride. Her girls would follow her anywhere!

OOO

Sakaki drew in a startled breath. All of a sudden, St. Gloriana wasn't hiding any more! They'd suddenly started a mad charge up the hill, straight at their position! "Osaka! Take them out!" To her annoyance, her voice wasn't cool and calm; she sounded shrill…and girly! While she saw herself as a feminine girl, there was a time and place for everything and a Tankery competition was no place to sound panicky!

"You got it, ma'am!" Osaka triggered their main gun, and a Matilda stopped dead, smoke pouring from it as a white flag popped out the top. "Yomi, dear, could you slew us a bit to the right? Ah wanna have a go at that Churchill!"

Yomi cursed vividly. "Ma'am! We've got something jammed in our treads! I can't get the tank to go!" Sakaki could hear the engine straining, and the tank rocked, but did not move. Then, slowly, it began pivoting to the right. "I can move it with the other tread, but not as fast!"

"Tomo! Load!" barked Osaka. Tomo shoved a shell into the breach of the main gun. Osaka lowered the muzzle slightly. "Right…there!" The gun roared. "Tomo! Reload!"

"We're out of ammunition!" yelled Tomo.

Despairingly, Sakaki peered out of her periscope, expecting to see doom coming down on them…and began whooping and cheering like a maniac. "The cavalry's coming! Right in the nick of time!"

OOO

Miho came out of the woods to find that St. Gloriana were so intent on taking out Kitty Cat that they'd forgotten to set out guards. She smiled a predatory smile, looking very like her sister for a second, and opened fire.

It was all over in a few minutes. Darjeeling had managed to slew her turret around and fire once, taking out Anteater Team, but the contest was too unequal. Every St. Gloriana tank was soon flying a white flag, and the announcer's voice echoed: "All units of St. Gloriana are incapacitated. Victory to Oorai High." All the Oorai tanks erupted in cheers.

After things were cleaned up, Miho was talking to Sakaki. "Man, I was glad to see you!" the commander of Kitty Cat admitted, with a rare smile. "I thought we were toast! You must have poured on the speed to get there in time!"

"That was a pretty clever trick you pulled, Nishizumi-san," said Darjeeling. She had come up after she'd made sure that all her girls were all right. "Using your best unit as bait? And then jumping us once we were concentrating on it? I'll have to remember that one!"

Sakaki opened her mouth, but Miho winked significantly, and she shut it, letting her commander do the talking. "I may not follow the Nishizumi School of Tankery any more, but I'm still a Nishizumi. Underestimate me at your peril."

Darjeeling nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. In the meantime…friends?" She held out her hand, and first Miho, then Sakaki shook with her. "I'll be pulling for you in the competitions!" She turned to go.

Once Darjeeling was out of earshot, Sakaki asked: "Why didn't you just let them take us out? We wouldn't have been so out of place in the first place if I'd done a better job commanding. It was pure luck that you were able to pull this one out of the fire."

Miho gave Sakaki a very stern look. "Sakaki…I am not my mother nor am I my sister. In my school of Tankery, one of the first rules is, one for all and all for one. You were our team mates, and in trouble through an innocent mistake, so of course, we all came charging to the rescue." She put her arm around Sakaki's shoulder. "Abandoning you when we could help you goes against everything I believe."

After Miho left, Sakaki stared after her. Yomi came up. "What are you thinking, Sakaki?" Like the other Azu High refugees, she thought that Sakaki was a very deep person.

In a low voice, Sakaki answered: "I was just thinking that if that girl was charging Hell in her panzer, I'd give the command to follow her on in."

END