Viewpoint Papa, 16:07 Local

Our formation began its steady march down the streets of the Academy's ship, attempting to cause as little disturbance as possible, which when in twenty to thirty tons of steel is kind of difficult to do. It was a bright, sunny afternoon, and windy, although that's almost expected on a ship under sail, people were out and about, a few stopping to wave as we rumbled past them. After a few twists and turns, we were still chugging around the predicted area that who we assumed to be our newest panzer had landed in, but alas, there was nothing to be found so far, maybe it had been smaller than we first thought and therefore had touched down closer to the school? There was a crackle over the radio.

"I thought you said it would be here!" I was quite sure that the voice was Azusa, commander of Rabbit Team, our M3 Lee.

"Its gotta be around here somewhere. Head right!" I replied. At the next intersection, our entire formation swung to the right, onto another wide avenue, a duplicate of the last. It would probably be helpful if the person who directing the search had prior knowledge of the layout of the ship, which was clearly not myself. I had been at Ooarai for a good while now, however, the size of the school's vessel made it impossible to know it all so quickly, much to my loss. As our formation collected itself after its turn, it really did seemed as if the panzer had magically disappeared. We had already checked the areas nearby that seemed like decent places for a landing, both of the green belts in this area of the ship, however, we couldn't find the panzer. But it must be in this vicinity, unless it had completely missed the entire ship, which would actually be quite difficult to accomplish, and landed in the sea below or on the roof of one of the surrounding buildings, which would be very unfortunate for both the residents and our new arrivals. I was beginning to panic slightly, and was considering for a moment how we could find this panzer any faster, seeing as if they had managed to end up in the drink or inside of someone's shop or home, it would be an unfortunate way for their time at Ooarai to begin. I decided, that in the light that they may be in danger, that we could cover more ground if we spread out about the ship.

"We'll be able to find them faster if we fan out!" I commanded.

"Turtle Team will head right." Anzu affirmed almost immediately, their panzer suddenly cutting across us and onto another broad street.

"We'll go on ahead!" Azusa volunteered, Rabbit Team surging ahead from our decaying formation.

"Hippo Team will follow Anglerfish." I heard Riko, or Erwin, reply, their STuG slowing down slightly to slid in behind us. I was unsure if she had fully understood the entire 'split up' activity, however, I trusted her competence, especially since she had almost surely been here longer then me, and therefore know more about the ship then I. I found what looked like a good candidate of a street to start our search, albeit somewhat narrow, but in the case they had landed on a rooftop, it was critical to check every nook and every side street. I ordered Mako to halt, matching the road's entrance.

"Turning left!" I called, watching as Hippo Team also slowed to a halt behind us. Then I asked Mako begin down the street somewhat slowly, and watched as Hippo Team pulled up to the entrance to the street, traversed in place to match up with us, and followed. The radio was silent for a short while while we fanned out farther in our respective directions.

"Didya see that?!" Anzu yelled across the radio, concluding the period of silence, her voice filled with excitement.

"See what? Oryou halt!" Erwin ordered, Hippo Team jostling to a halt behind us.

"Mako, stop." I echoed Erwin's instruction. Mako followed suit without qualm, the panzer lurched to a halt.

"Oryou, traverse left!" Erwin responded militaristically, Hippo Team beginning to rotate around on the narrow street, before its muzzle break tapped against the wall, stopping any further twisting. They paused for a moment, before revolving back to how they had been when they stopped. I suspect that if the STuG couldn't turn all the way about, neither could we. Erwin turned out of her hatch and as it looked, was directly instructing Oryou to reverse backwards up the street, guiding her as they went.

"Mako, reverse please!" I requested, and she again, complied. The panzer began slowly backwards and Hana rotated the turret around to match, thankfully, the street was wide enough for the gun to swivel around without crashing into anyone's wall, and although I was more than willing to help her, it seemed that Mako was more than capable of steering the panzer backwards by, I guess, judging her distance from the sides. She showed that she was the top of her class well. And every time I was about to make a comment about our distance from the walls, she would correct it before I could speak. Finally Hippo Team escaped the confines of this small passage and turn right, back the direction we had came from.

"Was that a parachute?" Yuzu asked, her voice carried to the radio set in the Panzer 38 (t) of Turtle Team, able to be heard by the entire team, maybe even Duck Team all the way back at the sensha-do shed.

"What was what?" I heard Azusa ask. We were still in the dark as to the nature of what was happening to them, and even worse, if something did happen to them, they were completely without support. Hippo Team was already pursuing after Turtle Team, and their mysterious contact, with us closely behind. As we caught up to Hippo Team, forming up on their left, Hana rotated our turret so it was facing the correct direction once more, and Rabbit Team came roaring up from behind, and joined us from its own search. We formed a primitive formation, with Hippo Team in the center and us and Rabbit Team flanking them. Anzu spoke now.

"Turtle Team will advance and check it out, I guess." We had just came to the turn that Turtle Team had taken before, their silhouette far off, likely about seven hundred meters away from us. That little Panzer 38(t) could move fast when it wanted to. I suppose I should have told them to wait for us to get to their position, however, since we could now see them and this wasn't exactly a combat situation, I allowed it to slide. Which might have not been the best decision.

"Yuzu, stop and rotate us right." Anzu ordered, the panzer responded promptly by traversing right, giving us its entire profile, much more defined now as we had closed to about six hundred meters.

"Well that's definitely a parachute, but where's the- Yuzu turn us around now! Yuzu!" Momo yelled. Turtle Team stopped and began to furiously rotate back to the left until it was now facing completely the other way.

"That's not a Pershing, right?" Yuzu inquired about the panzer that was still invisible to the rest of us. There was a momentary pause before she spoke again."If it's not a Pershing, what is it then?"

"Is it the new girls?" I heard Saori blurt, excited.

"I'm not quite sure" Anzu commented. "Seems too small to be a M26." There was another momentary silence, and then a loud bang, as if a shot had been fired. Then the radio channel exploded.

"What was that?!" I heard Azusa cry, sounding very alarmed.

"They fired at us! Didn't they?!" Replied Momo feverishly. "Uhh, return fire!" Momo was going into full on panic mode as the panzer's 3.7 centimeter gun spat. It seemed as if all that training on making rational and clear decisions when under stress had done nothing to help Momo at all.

"It bounced off them!" I heard Yuzu cry out. There was another moment before Anzu called out.

"They're coming towards us now. Fast."

"Uhh.." Momo sounding uneasy. "Yuzu what are you doing?! Back up!" She implored, her voice rife with panic. The gun popped into life again, followed by Yuzu starting to reverse the Panzer 38(t) away from their invisible assailant. Suddenly, a sound like continuous thunder echoed down from Turtle Team's position, while the front of Turtle Team and the ground about them was lit up with small flashes, almost like fireflies. Machine guns. The continuous gunfire stopping them, over the radio, through the symphony of machine gun rounds slamming into them I could hear Momo yelling.

"SHOOT THEM! SHOOT THEM!"

"Load!" I heard Erwin shout, followed by Azusa calling out the same basic thing, all three of our panzers continuing to close with the flashing steel that was Turtle Team.

"Halt!" I called, the formation we had hastily created came sharply to a stop about a hundred, hundred fifty meters from Turtle Team, prepared to fire at their attacker should the opportunity present itself. Yukari turned to me and made eye contact with me, her expression one of asking permission, I nodded, understanding what she had nonverbally asked of me, and without a moment to spare, she expertly loaded a shell into the breach of our main cannon. The light show ended and moments later a strange panzer appeared, a small, olive green blur, which had a small figure sticking out of it, who due to the distance and speed, I couldn't really make out any defining features. Just as this new panzer was about to stop I heard Erwin bark.

"FIRE!" Both Hippo and Rabbit Teams fired, almost simultaneously. The STuG III's gun roared, nudging the entire panzer back with its massive recoil, and I heard a metallic clang, the sign that the shell hit something with it's powerful punch. The Lee's shot went slightly low, smashing into the ground short, kicking up a massive cloud of licking flames, smoke and dust, obscuring both Turtle Team and the other panzer. The cloud stirred for a moment, before being moved by a gust of wind, showing that the other panzer had magically disappeared and that Hippo Team's shell had only hit Turtle Team, giving the panzer a nasty bruise, followed by the small flag signaling that the panzer had been officially knocked out snapping out and finding that Turtle Team weren't very happy about being taken out by our own team, no less. Hippo Team, without haste, zoomed off after the new panzer, still a threat and we and Rabbit Team followed, while behind us, Duck Team finally arrived, announced by Noriko, enthusiastic as ever.

"We're here! What we miss!"

"Oh nothing just shooting each other instead of the ENEMY!" Momo snapped at her.

"Enemy?" Noriko asked, confused. I decided to butt in before the conversation became more heated than it already was.

"Turtle Team shot at our newest panzer, or at least I think that's who it was, and ended up shot by Hippo Team by accident."

"Oh." Replied Noriko sounding genuinely surprised at these new developments, and I could still hear Momo grumbling over the radio. Hippo Team had reach the corner and was beginning to traverse after the other panzer and with us on their heels. There was a sudden whoosh from the direction of Turtle Team.

"Oh COME ON!" I heard Momo cry, a low crackling filling the background, and as I looked over, I could see that the entire engine compartment of the Panzer 38(t) was engulfed in flames, which was surprising to say the least.

"Are you alright?!" A bleated, intensely worried about their safety.

"We're good here. Yuzu, where's the fire extinguisher!" Anzu called out, her voice quite calm compared to Momo, who still could be heard grumbling in the background. As we reached the corner, Hana traversing the turret to sight the other panzer which had escaped our fire. I saw the other panzer driving away from us down the road, before turning hard right, hold its pose for a moment, one track on the ground and one off, then flip on its side with a crash, kicking up dust and sparks as it did. As it did I heard Hana gasp and a silence of sort, which would make sense, for a panzer flipping over was quite rare sight to behold at anytime and not a very fun experience either I expect.

"That couldn't have felt good!" Erwin laughed, breaking the temporary silence.

"We and Rabbit Team will check if they're ok, while Duck Team?" I asked, hoping no one had been injured in the crash. Modern panzers may be for all intensive purposes impervious to tank rounds, but people still could get hurt in Sensha-do, especially doing things like that.

"Yes?" I heard Noriko reply, their Type 89 pulling up behind us, while Rabbit Team had curved round us onto the road and was driving down towards the other panzer with Hippo Team trailing them, driving somewhat slowly, it seemed that they were having a chatter on the proper military analogy for what had just occurred or something in that vicinity, likely unaware that they had managed to set ablaze one of our own panzers.

"You hook up Turtle Team and get ready to tow them back home, alright?"

"Ok!" She replied with enthusiasm as they swerved around and up to the back of Turtle Team and almost running into them. We were already almost to the other panzer which seemed to have skidded on its side quite a bit, for green paint chips was scattered around the street, and were further being scattered around by the wind. It was definitely a light tank, too small to be anything else and almost definitely not the M26 Pershing we had been promised, which was grounds to be furious, since we had, by extension, lost one of our very valuable panzers days before our first real game because of them. But, I was more interested in see whether they were alright, since they had somehow managed to flip a panzer on its side, which must have been quite a rattling blow to such a small panzer and it was just the proper thing to do. We rolled up quite close beside them and I opened the commander's hatch.