Viewpoint Sierra, 16:15 Local
As I emerged from the commander's hatch crawling on my hands and knees, I caught my foot upon the lip of the opening, pulling me backwards and causing me to fall flat on the hard cement in a less than gracious way, before lifting myself off the ground, followed by Salt. Adley was crawling out of the driver's hatch and Captain was still inside waiting for Adley to get a move on. I could hear the loud rumble of our pursuers approaching, unseen, behind our overturn Stuart. A Panzer IV rolled into sight and stopped first, on our left side, and then the Lee on our right. The Panzer IV was painted in regular German gray and had the short 50 millimeter gun, however, the Lee was interestingly decorated, to say the least.
"The hell is that monstrosity?!" I cried, feasting my eyes on a bright pink M3 Lee. It was a terrifying sight. Bright pink at that. The most masculine device in the history of warfare, painted from base to turret in a very feminine color.
"What is wrong with these guys" I heard Salt snort, disgusted, bouncing up from his position on the ground, having wiggled out of the Stuart. And I couldn't agree with him more, they had not only fired on us for basically no reason and now as it would seem, had desecrating the glory of the tank.
"Really?!" squeaked Adley, not regarding the tank, but because he had found that he was caught on something inside, and was furiously trying to undo his belt and free himself. As Salt and me were gaping at the the M3 Lee and Adley was struggling to get himself out, the commander's hatch on the Panzer IV clanked opened and a head shot out. Whoever this guy was, he had to be a strange kid, his hair went down pretty long, which must have made him suffer while being in a hot, and occasionally damp, tank cabin.
"Aye buddy!" I yelled, ready to scold them for firing at us, and also to order them to right our tank, since they had, indirectly, been at fault for toppling it. But before I could continue with my plan, the figure turned. It wasn't a guy at all.
"Hell's blazes." Salt mumbled, surprised as I was while Adley momentarily paused his struggle crawling out of the commander's hatch to also gawk. It was a girl. In a tank. It was unnatural to see a feminine face sharing the same space with an armored vehicle. As she just sat there, the hatches on the sides of the Panzer IV's turret opened, along with the driver's and co driver's hatches and more girls appeared, pausing to observe us, in much the same way we were, and when I looked back towards the commander's cupola of the Panzer, she was gone. The girl whom I was quite sure was their commander, reappeared rounded the back end of the Panzer and approached me, her steps short and ladylike, yet quasi-militaristic. She was considerably shorter than me, probably about five foot two or so, and seemed a little uneasy at my presence, her eyes darted up to my forehead, which was still bleeding. There was a momentary silence. I pressed through stillness, and introduced myself, extending a hand for a strong, customary handshake.
"Oliver Fancourt, Tank Commander, Crowbank Secondary School." I said, straightening my back and puffing out my chest with a inhaled breath, attempting to look as regal as possible. The girl stood there scrutinizing me, then looked at my hand, before bowing and saying something in a foreign tongue which I didn't understand. I stood there, lost on the proper reaction to this, and, after a few moments, noticed I was still awkwardly holding my hand out, retracted it and hastily performed a rudimentary copy of the girl's bow back to her. I could hear Adley, of all people, snickering behind me. After, I gave the girl a smile, which she returned, and then spun on my heel to face my crew. I motioned the three of us who had already escaped the Stuart together and we formed a tight circle against the stern of the tank, our bags still strapped tightly down to the Stuart's steel, although they had been compressed onto each other thanks to gravity.
"Nice job Oliver." chuckled Adley, opening our little meeting.
"Like you could do better." I retorted almost immediately, slightly embarrassed.
"Actually I could, thank you very much!" He replied, with a bit of sassiness in his voice, which coupled with the adrenaline, infuriated me, but, not wishing to escalate the insults any further, and took a calming breath.
"Where are we?" Asked Captain, filling the void made by my inhalation and completely disregarding Adley's and my little exchange, climbing out of the driver's hatch and integrating into our little huddle.
"Somewhere East. That's the way we were heading when I nodded off." Salt butted in, pointing out the obvious, not content with not being part of the conversation.
"Thank you Salt, but it's kind of more important what'd she say?" I said, motioning my thumb up over my shoulder towards the girl behind me.
"I'm pretty sure she just told us her name and stuff." Replied Adley looking quite smug from his seat leaning on the Stuart's sideways turret. "I didn't quite catch it all, but I think it was 'Miho' something or another." I eyed him, confused. "Either that, or she said you taste bad."
"Ok, how'd you know that?" I demanded, confused and still somewhat vexed at Adley for his previous comments.
"What, that you taste bad?!" Laughed Salt.
"Piss off Salt!" I snapped back, not at all in the mood for either Adley's or Salt's shenanigans.
"Don't you know?" Adley asked, beaming with pride, "I'm half Japanese." There was a momentary silence. The prideful look disappeared. "You guys do know I'm Japanese, right?" More silence. I was hoping to sidestep the fact that, though Adley had been part of our crew basically since our team training started, no one really knew any information about him past his name. And I didn't even remember his last name. Thankfully the silence was soon broken by the sound of antagonized yelling coming from behind our M3. Another series of girls appeared, their clothes covered in soot. They halted at the sight of us, one of them seemed very intrigued by my injury, which didn't sting as much as it had before, while the taller one begun by shouting something to the girls whose name, according to Adley at least, was Miho. Then the girl turned, stopped for a moment and then beginning to yell at us. I had no idea what she was saying, but she sounded pissed off. I calmly murmured to Adley.
"What she on about?" Obviously mentioning the banshi that was screaming at us, hoping he would at least catch a little of what she was saying.
"Something about..." He stopped for a moment, before seeming to come to an understanding about something, nodding and beginning again. "They're the guys that were in the Panzer 38 and their all riled up because they got dinged." He said, as if he had just solved a mystery. In retrospect, I could have told him that just by looking at them.
"I don't think what happened to them could be constituted at a 'ding', Adley, they sustained a pretty nasty hit, and they don't look too happy about it." I affirmed not sounding too thrilled by his amazing conviction.
"Oh." He replied, and it seemed as if he had finally had passed over his unusual spike in ego, which was satisfying.
"Anyway could you kindly ask them to right our tank?" I requested, still watching as the girl fumed and went over towards the Panzer IV to talk with the crew over there. She seemed to be done screaming, for now at least. Adley replied that he would try, and stepped out of our little circle and immediately seemed to lose a lot of confidence. Once Adley began to speak, what I assumed to be Japanese, the girls all stopped for a moment, looking surprised that any of us knew their language. Then the girl who was apparently their commander or something another, said something to the girls who were now assembled, and almost immediately, they dismounted and began to work, attempting to, at least right our tank. She then approached Adley and told him something, during which I noticed that the two were almost equal in height. The girl snapped round and went walking back to the Panzer IV. Adley seemed somewhat in awe by what had just happened during the conversation, however, Salt was quick to saunter over and rest his arm, thick and muscular, on top of Adley's head to both bring him out of the clouds and also covertly show his dominance, which wasn't exactly necessary with his stature. "So what did ya tell 'em?" Salt asked nonchalantly, looking down at Adley. Adley only glared at Salt, before stepping out from under his arm and then answering his question.
"Well, they said they would, and that they've been expecting us. I don't exactly like the sound of that, do you?" He didn't look at Salt, but instead, at me.
"At least that means we're in the right place." Salt replied.
"So I guess her name is Miho, or something of that nature?" I asked, just trying to find out something concrete about them.
"Don't count on my translation skills." Adley replied, coming and joining me, passing the girls attempting to wind their cable around the turret of our tank. We still weren't even sure of one of their names. "Although I am quite sure that's what it is." He added.
"Well this is just a freaking great start!" I laughed, finally getting around to untying my neckerchief, which had seemed to have tightened its grip around my neck since I last checked. I slipped the metal slide holder into my pocket, and dabbed the neckerchief against my face, using it to soak up whatever blood it could, which was had begun to coagulate where it rested. I then suggested that we get out of their way, as they seemed to be almost ready to right the Stuart, for they had already moved the Lee into position to drag the it upright, and the tow cable had been wrapped around its turret. We watched from the side of the street, along with several of these girls as the Lee's crew revved up their engine, and then lurched forward. The Stuart was dragged along its side for a few yards before it caught on something, and stopped, the Lee along with it. The Lee increased engine power again and began to pull the Stuart upright, slowly. The Stuart finally was righted with a crash, and the Lee lurched to a stop a moment later, and turned off its engine. Then, the girls began to rush off as 'Miho' shouted something, then she approached Adley and told him something, which he nodded to before she walked off.
"What'd she say this time?" Salt asked, sitting down in the shadow of the buildings. Adley replied with a sense of dis-heartedness.
"We're to saddle up and follow them." He sighed. "I think."
"Good!" Salt approved, blowing past Adley and off towards the Stuart at marching pace. He seemed to be in a much improved mood, especially since less than a hour before he was dead asleep in a airplane's seat. By the time the rest of us arrived at the Stuart, Salt was already inside but was soon joined.
"Captain, turn the engine over?" I commanded, although somewhat hesitant, since the last time I uttered that command it didn't end well. The engine tried to turn over, spitting and coughing before turning over without a single issue. I heard Captain sigh, and I could assume that it was just chance that the only time the engine had ever backfired was the worst time it could. "Captain, traverse left." I ordered, while attempting to replace some of the shell that had fallen from their rack when we rolled over. The tank turned, wheeling round the stopped left tread, before halting after we had made almost a full ninety degree turn. Once I finished replacing the mislaid shells, I stuck out of my hatch, and found that a convoy of sorts had formed around us, with the STuG forming the head of our column, the Panzer IV falling in in front of us and the Lee pulling up the rear. But then, a tank I have never seen before rolled up behind the Lee pulling the knocked out Panzer 38(t), which had almost no damage save for scorch marks from an internal fire. I saw that the entire column lurched forward and in return, I relayed that for Captain to also start heading forward, although the formation began much slower than Captain, or I, expected. For he accelerated directly into the back of the Panzer IV, lurching it slightly forward and bringing the Stuart to almost a full stop from the impact. I, not expecting either the acceleration or the collision, lost my footing and fell backwards and onto the floor of the turret basket, Salt cackling like a madman. I immediately rose from the metal floor and stuck my head out of the turret again, and quickly eyeballed the Stuart for damage even though the collision occurred at very low speeds, but while checking the stern of the Panzer IV, caught the eye of the girl who's name we assumed was 'Miho'. We exchanged a glance and a smile. I watched as she dropped down inside the Panzer, and noticed how she, and her teammates, didn't have nearly the problems fitting through the hatches of these vehicles as I did, although I supposed that was somewhat expected. The convoy began once again, still very slow, but at least we were moving. Moving towards whatever this 'consultation' gig might hold for us. If it could even be called consulting.