KAPITEL DREI: Gathering of Steel

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Roughly 7 days before the friendly game, two of the designated commanders for the recently-formed IS Academy Panzerkraft team met up inside the large stadium. Unfortunately, nary a tank was present and so were the rest of the squad.

"What gives?" said Houki, who actually waited for a whole hour to compensate for being late during the meeting. "I thought we'd have our respective tanks today so we can practice for the friendly match."

"You're right, Houki," added Charlotte. "I don't actually see anything that we could consider as a tank, to be honest…"

Just then, they all heard a loud rumbling coming from the southwest gate. From the same emerged a low-profile, gray tank – a StuG III Tank Destroyer - which then parked about a few meters from where they were standing.

"This must be the place where the Captain told us to meet her," said the blue-haired girl who popped out of the tank's rear-left hatch. "But I don't see her anywhere."

Out of curiosity, Houki and Charlotte approached the tank. "Um, excuse us-"

"Ah, you must be the 'War buddy' that Captain Laura mentioned a few times before." She then boarded out of the tank and approached the two, reaching out for a handshake.

"Schwartzer Hase Vice-Captain Clarissa Harfouch; I express my gratitude for showing hospitality to Captain Laura during her stay here in the Academy."

Charlotte, ever the calm one, responded to the handshake. However, Houki got to thinking…

"This must be the girl who's been feeding Laura with incorrect info about Japanese culture. She's so dead now…"

Before Houki could draw out Amatsuki* though, they all heard a louder rumbling from the northeast gate. A few minutes later, out came three more tanks of varying sizes. The all parked on the left side of the tank that Clarissa was in.

"Sorry we're late, everyone! It's quite a big learning curve to operate tanks of such vintage." Cecilia uttered while coming out of the driver's seat of one of the tanks that arrived – a Cromwell Medium Tank with a 3.7-Inch Howitzer.

"You're just saying that because you're not used at all to the controls," complained Laura who came out of the green tank beside Cecilia's Cromwell – an ARL V39 prototype French Tank Destroyer. "Have the higher-ups at Britain ever taught you how these machines work?"

"Well, says the girl who's so well-versed in military tactics that the only thing she brought is a slow, large, and practically untested French Tank."

"It would be best not to mock this machine. Also, it's a tank destroyer which is equipped with a modest 105mm cannon that can deal quite a heap load of pain to your weak-armored Cromie."

While the two were bickering about, the Sarashiki sisters emerged from the third tank – an IS-2 Heavy with the iconic 122mm D-25T cannon.

"Seems Alcott-san missed the point that Bodewig-san won't be commandeering the ARL," Kanzashi observed.

"Well, what else do you expect from those two?" Tatenashi affirmed while resting her fan on her forehead.

Houki, Charlotte and Clarissa approached the rest of the girls as they exited the tanks they brought. "So, this will be the machines we'll be using for the friendly match, Kaichou?" Houki asked, to which Tatenashi responded with a nod.

"Unfortunately though," Kanzashi quickly added. "The last tank – the one you'll be commanding for the match - has yet to arrive."

"What do you mean by that?"

Tatenashi stepped forward and replied, "Right at the last minute, we hit a critical snag at procuring a Type 3 Chi-Nu medium tank; there were not that many examples of the same available for use."

"About that though…"

Nearly everyone turned to see who spoke those words. And they were quite surprised to see the person who joined them.

"Orimura-sensei?"

Immediately, Clarissa, Freya and Elda approached her and saluted. "No need for that, girls; we're not in Germany anymore."

"Were you pertaining to the request for a back-up tank, Orimura-sensei?" Kanzashi inquired.

"Yes; I heard from the higher-ups about the upcoming sensha-do match, and the said problem regarding the tanks we need. So, I tried to make contact with a few friends at the American base in Hawaii, who were quite grateful for helping out with the Silver Gospel Incident. Luckily, they sent to us one."

"That means Houki will be taking command of an American tank?" Charlotte inquired, to whom Chifuyu nodded in response.

"As a matter of fact, I think it's coming here within the next few minutes..." This left some of the girls scratching their heads in confusion, particularly Houki.

But just as she promised, the final tank did arrive. This development caught everyone by surprise, especially Cecilia who just approached her homeroom teacher after her bickering session with Laura.

"Wait, is that what I think it is?" she quickly asked.

"Yes. It's the M4A3E8 Sherman… or as the Americans would call it the 'Easy Eight'."

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Back at Ōarai Academy, another meeting was underway. Unlike the last one though, only the Student Council, the head of the Morals Committee, and Anglerfish Team were present.

"To think that our ship would get easily infiltrated like this…" uttered Sodoko, who was closely looking at the patch that Pazomi recovered from the forest area.

"Since the sensha-do rulebook doesn't prohibit pre-match surveillance, we should be expecting this already," Yukari clarified, while looking at her copy of the rules.

"We're just lucky that they haven't seen the complete lineup," Anzu commented confidently.

"Do you have plans for the final tank, Kaichou?" Saori inquired.

"I already got that covered; I contacted some people who will serve as our 'heavy back-up' crew for the last tank. They'll be meeting up with us here about 4 days before the match."

"What are we going to do then in the meantime?"

"Well, since they tried to spy on our tanks, how about we return the favor?" Yukari suggested.

"As one would expect from our infiltration specialist," Hana commented.

"I like your suggestion, Akiyama. But for this one, I think you must take someone with you."

As Anzu uttered those words, she slowly shifted her eyes on Miho. Yuzu, Saori and Hana followed suit, which apparently surprised their squadron commander.

"Me?"

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Note: *Amatsuki - One of the katanas from Houki's personal IS Akatsubaki, which appears on her right hand.

Up next in Kapitel Vier: The Counter-Infiltration…

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