Viewpoint Papa, 16:16 Local

As I opened the commander's hatch I heard the crew of this new panzer call at me, and I turned to face them almost involuntarily. At first glance they were strange, one had already escaped the panzer, while two more were almost out of the panzer's hatches. They all had short hair, shorter than anyone in Sensha-do I had seen and seemed built very strangely, very heavily, like panzer one could say. Saori opened her hatch and popped her head and shoulders out.

"Are those boys?" She asked in almost a whisper turning to me with a look of bewilderment on her face to match the confusion in her voice. At that, the rest crew turned out to see for themselves if Saori's comment was true. I returned Saori's look of confusion, for I was as stumped as she was. The whole hair and body figure thing made a whole lot more sense after it was made plain they weren't girls. I quickly dismounted, taking care not to make myself look like a fool, especially since I was still reeling from fact we had been lied to regarding the panzer we had been sent, and now, somehow, managed to get a male crew just to make our day even harder! They were all wearing eccentric uniforms that looked like a slightly childish version of the riding costume of cavalry from long ago, with awkward looking khaki trousers that were cartoonish in shape, bloated out at the thighs, almost comically so, heavy looking boots and shirts the same tint of green as their panzer. And they had the strangest accessories, a scrap of brighter green cloth tied around their necks, and held in place by a small clamp of metal, patches on their sleeves. They looked really quite ridiculous in their garb. As I rounded the end of our panzer, first one that I saw, who I assume was their commander since he stepped forward to meet me, was a bit taller then me with tanned skin, his brown hair cut short enough to see his scalp and dark eyes. He was also quite thin, but he still stood with a sense of regalness and strength, although it was somewhat spoiled by the small trail of blood, which may or may not have been his own, dripping down the side of his face, and was actually a concerning fact to me. I approached him, eyeing him cautiously for any sudden or unexpected moves. I had never seen a boy ever even attempt to enter Sensha-do, might as well actually participate in the sport, and they seemed already trained in the use of panzers, which concerned me. The dark haired boy said something in unfamiliar language, smiling throughout, and extended his right hand towards me, which befuddled me. Such strange customs. I decided to ignore it and introduce myself.

"Miho Nishizumi, Oorarai Girl's Academy." Formally bowing as I did. After, I saw the brown haired boy looked panicked and quickly performed an atrociously bad bow in return, he smiled even though I could see that he wasn't exactly comfortable, since he had obviously been put at a disadvantage, something I suppose he might have not been use to. I returned his smile and he turned around and motioned the parts of his team that had already escaped the sideways panzer together into a tight circle, and they began to talk quietly, as if we could understand them. I decided to make clear I didn't intend to intrude and strolled back to our panzer, and proceeded to lift myself up onto the side of the hull, using the treads to push myself up, and sat down beside Saori, who had left her hatch and seated herself on the upper glacis watching these travelers intently while they discussed amongst themselves.

"Well I wasn't expecting this at all." Yukari laughed, the enthusiasm of before significantly dampened, although not nonexistent, resting on the rim of her hatch and laying her upper body over the top of the turret who was also watching this new team.

"I don't think anyone was." I admitted, still somewhat shocked that anyone would lie so blatantly to us.

"It could have been worse." Mako added in her characteristic low monotone, only her forehead peeking out of the driver's hatch. "We might haven't been given a panzer at all." She did have a point. Yukari shrugged and sighed, I suppose all her motivation for the last few days was based off of that promise for a new panzer, which I suppose we had gotten, however not the panzer we had been expecting. At all. Hana climbed from her seat halfway out of the gunner's hatch, a posture very much similar to Yukari's, so she was standing next to me, slightly towering over me, although I suspect that was not her intention.

"I wonder how Turtle Team is doing." She pondered as she gingerly sat down beside me, looking off past the little panzer towards the tower of smoke that was drifting down from the street.

"THANKS FOR THE HELP!" That would have been Momo, slightly winded, sounding absolutely furious as she, Anzu and Yuzu appeared jogged up to the side of the little overturned panzer with almost perfect timing again. They were covered in soot from head to toe. Anzu and Yuzu noticed our new friends, who had interrupted their conversation for them. Momo however, was completely oblivious of their existence, for she was looking at me, fire in her eyes. "WHO SHOT US?!" She commanded, her voice loud and hot with anger, regardless of the shortness of breath. I was quite sure that it had been Hippo Team, who had halted just past Rabbit Team and almost forming a semicircle around the overturned panzer moments before Turtle Team had got there. Instead of saying anything to Momo, I only shrugged. "Idiots." She grumbled loudly throwing up her arms over her head. Then she turned and saw the crew of the overturned panzer. There was a momentary pause of just complete silence as she stood there, dumbfounded. Yuzu, who had been attempting to catch her breath was about to tap her on the shoulder. Then Momo sucked in a large breath and absolutely lost it. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" She snarled, stomping her foot and threateningly pointing at the crew, who seemed completely unfazed by Momo's antics. Yuzu withdrew her hand quickly before it became caught in Momo's rage. She continued to shout at them. "YOU LYING IDIOTS!" I suspected she was having a worse day than I was, this was not the first time she had lost her cool today, or even in this hour. "IDIOTS!" Once Momo was finished ranting, she was breathing hard and face still a particularly vibrant hue of red, she stomp over to the our panzer and leaned up against it for a moment, standing farther rear then either Hana or me, followed by Yuzu and Anzu after her. Then one of the boys stepped forward from the group, attracting our attention. He was smaller than the other boys, with longer black hair and seemed less articulate about his actions, and was something of an improvement from the boastful looking 'Commander'. He glanced over the assorted crowd before him before speaking.

"Uhh... Could you tip our vehicle over?" He requested, his speech awkward and hesitant. I was actually pleasantly surprised by this, due to my incident with their leader, I had assumed that none of them knew our language at all, which would be absolutely horrible, without even considering combat. I guess today couldn't be all bad.

"Well, let's right their panzer then!" I shouted, jumping from the side of the panzer onto the ground. It was only moments before the rest of the teams also went into action. Me, Hana and Saori unhitched the tow cable on our panzer, and then attempted to wrap it around the tipped panzer's turret. I escaped from the work for a moment to have a word with the shorter black haired boy. I finally got to properly introduce myself.

"Miho Nishizumi." I said, slightly bowing as I did. The boy glanced off to the side for a moment before answering, likely to collect his thoughts.

"Adley Yoshimoto, radio operator." Even though his language was rough and erratic, this was still great news, just the position where he'd be the most useful too! Although, his name did seemed somewhat strange, although I couldn't quite determine why.

"I guess you're the new crew we were to get?" I inquired, but was only given a nod in return, although I suspected he understood my words. "Well welcome to Oorarai." I added, smiling, a smile which he return, before I stepped away and he was enveloped by his compatriots again. He seemed like a nice person. I then walked over to Rabbit Team, who had begun to dismount their panzer and asked if they could maneuver themselves to the other side of the panzer and pull it upright. They complied, Karina and Azusa quickly embarking, while the rest of Rabbit Team stood about, ogling the newest addition to the school's team. Meanwhile, Karina had started up the Lee's engine, while Azusa directed her actions and began reversing until they were behind the panzer, traversed and after some positioning work, found themselves idling while facing away from the panzer, prime to be hooked to the tow cable and pull it upright. Yukari was helping Hana attach the tow cable to Rabbit Team, while down the road, it seemed as Duck Team was doing the same to Turtle Team's knocked out panzer, which was still smoking a bit. As the towing cable which had been slipped around the panzer's sideways turret was secured to the rear of the Lee, everyone about the area was moved towards the sides of the streets, myself included. Then the Lee heaved forwards, dragging the little panzer back the way it had came before it caught hold of some abnormality in the road surface, halting both of the panzers. The Lee paused for a moment, idling, before Karina revved the engine again, throwing the Lee forward, the other panzer following behind, slowly beginning to prop itself up, the Lee struggling to keep its forward momentum. After a struggle, the Lee pulled the panzer upright, and the little panzer rocking on its suspension a few times as it did and almost being pulled over the other way before Karina halted. Then Yukari, Ayumi and I jogged over and unhitched the steel cord connecting the two, and coiled it up. I then help them lift it off the ground and up into our arms and started back towards the Panzer IV, a good thirty meters or so away, however quickly I managed to trip over something, possibly the same raise that caught the little panzer. I attempted to recover as speedily as possible, but before I could, Yukari insisted that they had it covered. I started back towards the group wandering about the edge of the street, and found Adley, who with the rest of his crew.

"Could you get back in your panzer and follow us?" I inquired, surprising him slightly. He nodded, and I smiled in return. I then quickly turned about. "Mount up!" I called, and quickly the teams began to return towards their respective panzers and embark one at a time. When I returned to my own panzer, I found that, again, Mako hadn't left her position, while Yukari and Ayumi had successfully returned the tow cable, and afterwards Yukari had climbed into her position long before I had called for everyone to mount up, while Ayumi had scampered off towards Rabbit Team once I had. When I arrived at the side of the Panzer IV, I quickly clambered up the side of our panzer and lowered myself inside. I was about to ask Mako to turn the engine over, however it seemed she had yet to turn the engine off, also I could hear the continuous chatter on the radio. I asked through it.

"Duck Team, are you all hooked up?"

"All ready!" Noriko yelled, unaware I assumed, to have heard the unusual news regarding our new team.

"How about Hippo Team?" I asked, a replied coming almost immediately from Erwin.

"Ready and waiting!"There was still quite a lot that didn't add up regarding this, but that would have to be sorted out later. Right now, priority number one: getting back to campus and review the damage done to Turtle Team, since our match was in only two days. And to boot, the only advantage we had gained from losing one of our very essential panzers was another panzer, although I still wasn't quite sure what it was, exactly. It was obviously an American panzer in origin, although the actual vehicle was unknown to me, then again I did have a person with quite a advanced knowledge of all things Panzerkraft.

"Hey Yukari?" I asked, removing myself from the buzzing radio chatter.

"Yeah?" She replied, turning around to face me.

"What kind of panzer was that?" I requested. There was a moment where she sat looking contemplative, before opening her hatch and sticking her upper body out. I assume she was looking at the panzer, and after a moment, dropped herself back into her seat and closed the hatch.

"It's a Stuart. But that's about all I can tell you." She answered.

"A Stuart?" Hana asked, genuinely interested.

"M3 Stuart. Light tank that had comparable functionality as the Panzer 38 (t). But, I think it's a modernized version, I doubt the original had the sloped frontal glacis." She explained, looking proud of her knowledge. I guess it was kind of strangely ironic that we gain something almost equivalent to what we lost, although I still would have preferred the M26 we should have gotten.

"Well it's better than nothing!" Saori pipped in, trying valiantly to stay positive, or at least energetic. She was quite good at doing that.

"Mako, could you line up behind Hippo Team?" I asked, attempting to reform our previous formation in preparation to return to the school.

"Sure." She replied, the panzer heaving forward about ten meters and then stopping and traversing so it was in line with the STuG ahead of it. Then the Stuart scooted in behind us, followed by Rabbit Team a few moments later and Duck Team finally arriving in the rear of our caravan, tugging the Panzer 38 (t) behind on a metal line. Then I ordered our little formation to begin the journey back to the Sensha-do shed, Hippo Team starting off at our standard pace for non-combat situations. However, only a moment later, the entire panzer was rocked by an impact, a relatively soft one, but an impact none the same. I opened the commander's hatch and swung round to find that the Stuart had bumped into us, and their commander was also turned out, my guess looking for damage. I found nothing damaged, and so I dropped back down into the nice interior, and ordered, again, to start off. The panzer may have been equal to Turtle Team, but I still would have preferred them to this 'Stuart'.