Fox looked at the line of tanks that was waiting nearby. Some of them were patient, while others were fidgeting, shuffling around on their tracks. One of them seemed to have fallen asleep. The TRV that regularly visited them had shown up right after the fight; she had probably arrived during it and waited in a safe place until it was over. Repairs after a battle always took a long time, and the King Tiger was glad that he hadn't taken any noteworthy damage. He passed the others by and continued on his way to the North Plateau. He and Rex had been charged with the task of gathering all the fuel from the enemy wrecks. They were taking it to the little shed in the northernmost part of their base, where the Tanking League kept all their fuel and spare parts.

The small cart he was pulling behind him suddenly got stuck in a pot hole in the ground, which he only noticed as he had already snapped the stuck wheel off. He stopped and turned his turret around to look at what had caused the strange jolting sensation.

"Really?" he groaned. The fuel cans hadn't tumbled out — as they were meagre in number anyway — but now he would have to join the tanks waiting for repairs after all. Rex drove past him with his own little cart and grinned gleefully.

###

With the arrival of the TRV, Sky had decided to postpone the debriefing to get the "more important" things done first. Eohelm had a feeling that she was having similar worries about it as he did. He was intent on holding it in the evening though, and he would remind the Pershing about it should she forget about it.

'Maybe it's not a bad idea to wait a bit,' he mused. 'The emotions will have calmed down, so hopefully everyone will be more reasonable.' He was torn out of his train of thought rather bluntly a moment later. He winced in pain as the TRV welded a seam on his armour that had taken some damage. Eohelm tried to hold still despite the searing sensation. Unfortunately, anaesthetics weren't widely available, which made most medical procedures rather … medieval. Eohelm had always suspected that some tanks who were acting like they were too tough for repairs were secretly just trying to avoid them because of this.

Finally, the TRV backed up. She examined her work for a moment, then seemed to be satisfied.

"Next," she said plainly.

Eohelm quickly bowed to her and left. He nonverbally requested Sky's current location, and received a ping from the beach, which was therefore his next destination. While the actual debriefing was going to take place later, he wanted to talk to her beforehand anyway, now that both of them were free. This talk wasn't going to be pleasant for either of them, but that just meant that he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

He drove down the path that lead to the shore, optics searching for his leader. He spotted her as soon as he drove around the cliff ledge ahead of him. She was just standing on the sand, looking out into the sea. Eohelm followed her gaze, but couldn't see anything in particular. He approached her at a leisurely pace, having no doubt that she had already noticed him, despite not reacting in any way.

"Sky," he said as soon as he reached her. She turned her turret slightly. The shell mark from the earlier battle had divided the white star on it into two. As she didn't say anything, Eohelm went on cautiously. "About the battle …" he began to say, but trailed off as she talked over him.

"I know," she said curtly and turned around. Eohelm watched her simply drive off, too dumbfounded to do anything about it.

###

With a defeated huff, the Leichttraktor averted his gaze from the thick clouds that were gathering above the base.

"I don't know," he said, kicking a stone around with his tracks. "No one's saying it but I bet they're all thinking it."

Awol and Arty looked at him with troubled expressions.

"That's not true," Awol said. "Protecting the arty is an important task." He wasn't used to seeing his light tank friend so downcast, and it was heartbreaking, figuratively speaking.

The Leichttraktor looked at the ground.

"There's a reason why I'm called Noob," he murmured. Awol tried to think of something to say to that. It was true that Noob could barely help during the battles. In fact, most of the time he ended up doing absolutely nothing, like in the one that had happened earlier. Awol, being a Wespe at least, could support his team mates somewhat, but what could a little tier 1 light tank achieve in a high tier battle? Some of their team mates had repeatedly demanded that he finally tiered up already, but it was virtually impossible for them to find suitable parts. There weren't many teams here to begin with, and not a single low tier team it seemed. Not that they would have gone and slaughtered low tiers, but they would have possibly been able to offer one of their deceased.

There was a whole different issue beneath the surface of this, though. Awol didn't know if Noob really felt the same, but speaking for himself, he didn't really want to tier up. They said that once a tank found a form they were comfortable with, they should stick with it. But what if that form was a tier 3, or even a tier 1?

A rumbling voice from their right made all three cannons turn in surprise.

"Protecting the arty …" Eject said. He was sitting under a nearby tree, turret facing backwards. The low tiers had assumed he was napping as he hadn't joined the conversation until now or moved at all. Even now, he had only tilted his antennas slightly. He went on in the ponderous tone that was characteristical for many heavy tanks. "Well and good, but one day he'll be out of luck, what is he going to do when a high tier tank shows up?"

Noob seemed to slump. Awol came to his defence at once.

"He can spot them before they reach me and warn me, so I can run away in time," he said with conviction.

Eject's antennas went back to an upright position and he snorted.

"They'll outspot him easily, he'll be dead and never see it coming," the T29 said.

Awol couldn't help but feel upset at the turn this had taken. He looked at Noob, then at Eject again.

"Please don't talk about him in third person when he's present," the Wespe said to his heavy team mate, his tone stiff. Before Eject could say anything in response, Noob spoke up, replying to Eject's previous words.

"He'll know then that something is coming, and might be able to save himself at least," he said quietly.

Awol was speechless, and Arty took the resulting silence as a chance to steer the conversation into another direction, if awkwardly.

"Oh, Eject, since you're here already … I meant to ask … When will we train again?" she asked as if they hadn't just talked about their team mate's death.

Eject remained silent for a moment longer, then gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Maybe later," he said.

Arty was obviously thinking about what to say, but was seemingly unable to come up with any reply to the taciturn statement. She eventually mumbled a sheepish-sounding "Oh, okay …"

Awol was looking at her, but his gaze darted back to Noob as he noticed that the Leichttraktor had turned around and was leaving.

"… Noob!" he said and set himself into motion to follow his friend. Arty seemed indecisive for a moment before she rolled off into the opposite direction.

###

"Thank you for your services," Sky said. She was standing before the TRV, who was about to leave after having finished the repairs and collecting her payment. The TRV nodded casually.

"I'll be back in five days," she said.

Sky tilted her cannon.

"So early?" she asked. The TRV shrugged. As she was about to answer, Sky noticed the engine sounds of two familiar tanks. She looked up and saw two Shermans approach, a Jumbo and an Easy Eight. It seemed like Crowley and his brother Barfly had returned from their scouting mission.

"Sky," Crowley said and nodded his cannon in a greeting as he reached the Pershing. Barfly did the same.

Sky got straight to the point.

"How was it?" she asked.

The duo averted their gazes for a moment. Crowley's expression grew grim as he looked at Sky again.

"Nothing," he said and threw a few pieces of scrap metal to the ground. "That's all we found."

Sky looked down at the useless remains for a moment, then her expression started to match Crowley's.

"Again …" she mumbled.

"That's not surprising," the TRV suddenly joined the conversation.

Sky gave her a puzzled look. She thought of what the TRV had said about her soon return again. Patiently waiting for her to go on and hoping that it would connect the dots, Sky replied nothing.

"The teams are all migrating south. You should probably do the same. They're talking about an invincible team that has been terrorizing the North," the TRV said.

"An invincible team?" Sky asked in a critical voice.

"They leave no survivors whenever they attack. Only a few lucky ones have been able to escape to tell the story."

There was a bad feeling in Sky's fuel tank, but she tried to push it aside. She didn't believe the TRV, but as the leader of a team, she couldn't help but be concerned for the safety of the tanks under her command nevertheless.

"There is no such thing as invincible teams," she said, not sounding as convinced as she would have liked to.

"Except us, right?" Barfly said jokingly. His hilarity disappeared as no one answered.