*The other day*
Lucy was the first one to wake up from her team, she got out of her tent and decided to breathe fresh air. While she was walking around the base she noticed a familiar face sitting next on top of a British tank. She came closer to the girl that was alone reading a book.
It was Assam who was reading a book about the battles of El Alamein and Tobruk, she didn't notice that Lucy was approaching. Until she stopped reading and she noticed her.
"Oh… Didn't know you were there" Assam said as she closed the book.
"Wanted to breathe a bit of fresh air" Lucy answered stretching a bit as she carried her rifle on her back. "Anyways what were you doing here alone?" Lucy asked
"Well, I got interested about the battle that we are representing so I wanted to study about it and also about Tobruk" Assam answered as she showed the book to the Australian girl.
"Mind if I read it with you?" Lucy asked.
"Wow… Good move Lucy first you fucked up making the press think that you are flirting with the ex-girlfriend of Christian and now you want to read a book with her? Sure she is cute but… What's next, teaching her how to shoot a rifle?" she said to herself.
"Uh… Sure!" Assam said letting Lucy sit next to her and continued reading now with Lucy.
"Um… Shall we start reading?" Lucy asked opening the book.
Both girls continued reading for a while until they started hearing the footsteps of the rest of the camp that were finally waking up. Lucy got down as fast as she could to avoid another fight with Christian.
All the infantry were preparing their weapons and equipment, they were going to have a long day. The infantry lined up in lines depending their "Nationality" UK, USA or Australia.
"Alright… Listen up! Today we are marching towards Alexandria, that city it's important, whoever controls it has an strategic point for ambushes and for logistics" Kay said to the soldiers that were listening to her.
"What kind of threats will we confront?" An American soldier asked.
"We expect some clashes with Anzio and Kuromorimine soldiers, also expect the threat of medium tanks and half-tracks" Darjeeling answered.
The soldiers started getting onto the trucks and the tanks, some divisions preferred to go on foot so they could be the fast response action in case there is an ambush. The convoy left leaving the HQ with half of their troops and without anti-tank cannons. Alisa, Rukuriri, and Christian were three of the many students who left to take the city. Lucy wanted to go, but she was ordered to stay and protect the HQ, she would go in case Alexandria has problems.
The march was long, boring and made more than one feel paranoid towards the environment. Even Christian felt paranoid knowing that the Italians might be watching them right now.
"Alexandria… 50 kilometers" Christian said through the radio.
"I don't like this… This is way too quiet, Kuromorimine isn't known for being quiet" Alisa said.
"Shh… I think I heard something" Rukuriri said as she turned off her tank.
All the vehicles did the same, the infantry made foxholes as fast as they could to take cover in case of an ambush. They only heard birds, and the wind…
"Fucking bullshit… Turn on the vehicles," Christian said as he entered into his truck again.
Just after that the infantry heard a whistling sound that was becoming even louder and it was coming towards their direction. It was a tank shell that made a perfect hit on an American light tank M3 Stuart.
All the infantry got into their holes while Christian tried to hide inside the truck. Another shell got a British tank that was in front of the line.
"Does anybody see the tank?!" Rukuriri asked to the other tanks that were still operational
"Yes… There are 2 Panzer IVs on our right!" Alisa answered before shooting towards the directions of both German tanks.
The shell impacted the sand, all the tanks now focused their fire towards the position that Alisa said. After some minutes the first Panzer IV went down but not before destroying a Sherman and killing 7 soldiers.
The second Panzer IV retreated, this one was lucky to survive. But they didn't go back to the German HQ, the driver positioned the tank behind some bushes near to the entrance of Alexandria.
"How many people did you lose?" Rukuriri asked to one of the soldiers.
We lost 3 tanks and 7 soldiers… 3 British, 1 Australian and 3 Americans…" The soldier answered as he sat on the sand.
"Okay… Let's rest for a bit and we will keep our trip" Alisa said "Fucking Kuromorimine" she said to herself.
The soldiers drank water, reloaded their guns and chatted with their comrades. After 10 minutes they were back on the road. The soldiers that "Died" had to leave the battlefield just like a normal Sensha-Do match.
The panzer IV was still waiting for the allied convoy, the crew members were really scared knowing that their tank had taken serious damages. They heard the sound of the trucks and the tanks that were coming.
The allies didn't notice at first that there was a Panzer IV aiming at them from a bush. Until Alisa noticed it. She ordered all the tanks to aim at the bush.
"Fire!" ordered the commander of the Panzer IV.
"We can't fire!" The gunner answered to his commander.
"What?! What do you mean?!" The commander asked nervously knowing that the tanks were aiming at them.
"The mechanism it's fucked up, I can't shoot!" The gunner answered.
"May lord be with us" The commander said before being shot by the allies.
The allies were able to conquer the town, the only problem now was that Anzio or Kuromorimine might have heard the battle and might me mobilizing their troops to take the town. All the troops started making trenches, established a building to make all the radio communications and another building as the hospital.
The allies now had the threat that they were cornered from the south and south-west by Anzio and Kuromorimine, their only hope was on the east, but they didn't know that the HQ of Anzio was near to the Allied HQ.
"Now what?" Christian asked while lighting another cigarette.
"Now… We wait orders" Rukuriri said as she went and started talking with some soldiers and with Alisa.
"Are you okay?" Rukuriri asked the American girl.
"Yeah… Why?" Alisa answered.
"Okay… I just want to be sure" Rukuriri answered as she offered Alisa a cup of tea.
"Thanks" She said as she grabbed the cup of tea.
The Australian soldiers kept mounting guard on the trenches, and they putted snipers and anti-tank personnel on the windows of some buildings. They didn't notice that behind a big mountain of sand there were Italian and German soldiers that were waiting orders from Erika, Maho or Anchovy to attack. They had the advantage of having a sniper with them and some of the soldiers apart from going with their rifles of sub-machine guns they carried Panzerschrecks and Panzerfausts. So they could easily take out the tanks.
"How many wounded do we have?" Christian asked after he contacted the HQ to tell them that they have captured Alexandria
"Three" The medic said as she was cleaning her hands "Two got hit on their arms and another one on the leg" she continued as she grabbed bandages and went to attend the wounded
The soldiers that weren't mounting guard were trying to catch some sleep, planned where to keep the food and ammunition or helped the crew of the tanks in case they needed help.
At the allied HQ:
It was night by now, Lucy was cleaning her rifle after it jammed with sand during a small gunfight with a small patrol from Kuromorimine near the Italian HQ. She was outside sitting in front of a campfire alone.
She didn't care what happened all around her she was worried about the objective of taking Alexandria. She felt someone coming and sitting next to her, it was Kay who couldn't sleep knowing that one of her teammates was ambushed.
"Hi" Kay said as she sat down.
"Hey… Need something?" Lucy asked.
"Just wanted to talk" The American commander said as she drank water.
"Okay…" The Australian said as she finally relaxed.
"Mind if I ask you something?" Kay asked "You don't need to answer it if you don't want to"
"Go ahead" Lucy said.
"Be honest… Do you feel something for Assam? I mean, do you think she is pretty, or something like that?" Kay asked making Lucy really uncomfortable.
Both girls didn't know that Assam and Rosehip were listening to them talking, they stayed quiet so they didn't scare Lucy or Kay.
"Well…" Lucy said "I think she is cute, but it's so weird to talk to her after the press thought that I was flirting with her… I just said that she had a cute name that's all, but yeah I think she is pretty" Lucy finished as she covered her face from embarrassment.
Assam started blushing after hearing the confession, she walked with Rosehip and sat near the place where Lucy and Kay were talking.
"Looks like somebody is in love" Rosehip joked as she tried to make her friend smile.
"Jesus, Rosehip… I'm not ready for having another boyfriend right now" Assam said as she thought that Rosehip meant that another boy was in love with Assam.
"I'm talking about the Australian girl" Rosehip answered annoyed "So… What do you think of her" she whispered to the blonde girl.
"Well… I don't really know a lot about her but…" Assam started to blush again "She is really protective, I just feel awkward about all of this… Don't get me wrong I feel safe being near her it's just that we started with the wrong foot" she ended.
Rosehip didn't say anything more but just yawned and pretended to me asleep as she rested her head of Assam's legs. The plan of Rosehip was to make Assam and Lucy know each other a bit more.
Lucy decided to sit next to Assam, making both of them look into another direction. Both girls didn't know what to talk about, until Assam started the talking.
"So… You are from Australia?" Assam asked trying not to sound offensive.
"Yeah, from Canberra" Lucy answered as she saw her slouch hat.
"Why did you move to Japan?" Assam asked again.
"After my father died… My mother was really broken from the loss of my father and she tried to commit suicide once… So my uncle from part of my mother offered to take care of me while my mother was in hospital" Lucy answered "After my mother got better she said that I should stay in Japan… She was still mentally unstable, also she knew that I was under good protection. My uncle used to work as a police officer so he would be really protective when I first moved to Japan" Lucy finished.
"Oh…" Assam said.
"Now… Why did you join Sensha-Do?" Lucy asked to Assam.
"Well… I was really interested in tanks, also because Christian wanted me to do Sensha-Do… At first I wasn't secure with the team that I had but after the first match I felt more confident with myself and well… That's how I ended up" Assam answered.
"And… Why did you break up with Christian?" Lucy asked surprising Assam.
"Well… Let's say that Sensha-Do took a lot of my free time, and I wasn't paying attention to Christian. After that we started to argue because he started to smoke and he cheated on me with another girl from my classroom." Assam sighed "We finally broke up when he slapped me after he insulted my bigger brother" she finished.
"Shit… Didn't know that, I'm sorry" Lucy said as she looked down.
"You don't need too" Assam said as she rested her head on Lucy's shoulder making the Australian girl feel uncomfortable.
"I see that you spend a lot of time with the girl that looks way to comfy sleeping there… Is she your sister?" Lucy asked.
Assam giggled as she tried to find a more comfortable place on Lucy's shoulder to rest her head.
"Nope, she is a good friend of mine… She just doesn't know what personal space means" Assam said as she moved closer to Lucy and started cuddling with her.
"Oh.." Lucy answered