Finding the KV-85 turned out to be more difficult than at first thought. When they arrived to where the tank was supposed to be as Lucius said – in an old, forgotten shed – every member of the search party, consisting of all the teams from Ooarai, Lucius and Jack, was shocked to find out that the shed was not there. They spent about an hour just trying to find any trace of the lost building. With each passing minute, the Anzu and Momo's glare toward Lucius grew ever sharper.

The breakthrough came at the end of that hour. Hoping to get a better view, Caesar climbed to the top of the largest snow dune that was in the area. She unfortunately lost her footing once she got there, landing on the cold slope on her back.

And shearing off a portion of the accumulated snow from the tip of the mound with her heel.

When Caesar and the rest of the History club looked at the spot where she fell, a sheet of somewhat rusted metal was clearly visible where the snow was sheared off. Curious, they expanded the tiny pit, exposing even more metal. At this point, they called out to Lucius about a find, who hurried to the site with a shovel taken from the Crowell they rode in on.

The sheet of metal turned out to be the corrugated iron roof of their lost shed. The joy of the find was short-lived when it dawned upon the treasure hunters just how much snow had to be moved to access the gate. At that point, Jack, annoyed that he had to come all the way out to this site in his spare time, on Lucius's request, no less, decided that the best way to clear out all the snow was to fire a blank 75mm cartridge at the mound. Lucius tried to stop him, but Ooarai's first years joined Jack and the only thing he could do was to evacuate everyone in the vicinity before Jack pulled the trigger. The mound evaporated, throwing up broken branches that collected on the shed to ludicrous levels.

"Jack, see me tomorrow after the end of training," was what Lucius said to Jack after he climbed out of the turret. Meanwhile, the Ooarai girls sped into the now-exposed garage, built in an oddly shallow elliptical shape. In fact, the building was five times as long as it was tall. No wonder it got buried in debris and snow after a few years.

Still, the shed had done its job of protecting whatever was held inside. While the surface of the KV-85 had some rust, the insides were at an acceptable condition. The tracks were still good enough for moving. It was towed by the Cromwell back to another hangar, much closer to Vimy Ridge Academy this time, to be serviced to operational status.

Strange, Lucius thought. The day after they found the old Russian tank, Jack entered his office – there were certain perks to being Mary's assistant – as he was told to. He gave him the usual lecture: he was too impulsive, his brashness put everyone around him at risk, especially yesterday, he needed to learn some moderation and self-discipline around other people, and so on. Standard stuff he had to say once every week. Every other time he gave the lecture, Jack always had an expression that screamed that he barely tolerated being told off during a time Jack thought he should have to do as he wished. Today, it was different. He had a thin smile throughout the entire session, as though he had some sort of a revenge plotted out. But nothing out of the ordinary happened. Jack more or less let his words flow in through one ear, and out the other.

Perhaps he should be worried. Perhaps he should look into this, and crush whatever plot he was forming before it took material form.

"Maybe tomorrow," Lucius muttered to himself. He had more pressing matters to attend to, and could not be bothered by some presumablely juvenile prank. Now, where did he put that folder…

To say Yukari was enjoying the training would have been an understatement. Vimy Ridge's engineers and Ooarai's own automobile club working together around the clock completed all the restoration of the KV-85 that was recovered. After some thought, Nishizumi-dono allocated the new tank to Duck team, who still had not received a replacement for their old mount, the type 89. Unless the loaned tank, the Ram, counted as a replacement.

There was another reason why the Duck team in particular received the new tank. At 4 members, they were one of the few teams in their academy that had a full complement of crews, allowing their new heavy beast to work with maximum efficiency.

And what a beast it was. Because it was based on the KV-1S, the KV-85 was quite fast for a heavy tank; in fact, it could comfortably keep up with Ooarai's medium tanks at times. While Yukari had seen tanks with better armour, their new tank's armour was nothing to scoff at, either. And the gun. Where the type 89 was incapable of engaging in gun battles against other tanks, the KV-85 had delivered. Although it did not have the same punch as their Tiger P's famed 88, Ooarai now had another capable gun that could be counted on to knock out enemy vehicles. Duck team was certainly awed by the power of their new gun. They declared that they had a flashback to the first time they fired a tank gun, in the type 89. No one doubted them. But they now had their rate of fire to improve; an 85mm Anti-tank shell was in a different league in bulk and weight compared to the 57mm rounds they were used to loading in the Type 89 and the Ram.

With another day of training over, all the participants parked and stepped out of their vehicles. Students of Ooarai and Vimy Ridge casually mixed with each other, sharing stories ranging from senshado to the dinner menu of the day. While fluent speaking was still something of an issue, most of the Japanese girls found themselves halfway capable of conversing with, or at least understanding the Canadians. Hana, Lucius, and Mary's insistence on their taking part in Vimy Ridge's regular classes in addition to senshado ensured they picked up at least a few useful English words if nothing else.

Out of this crowd emerged Lucius-san. Strangely enough, he did not attend any of the training for the last few days, so it was actually a small surprise to see him in the hangars again. In his arm was a folder, and his steps led him directly to Nishizumi-dono.

"I would like to ask, Miho-san, how you feel about the exercises we have been having together so far?"

"I think accepting the offer was a good idea," Nishizumi-dono replied, "everyone has been learning so much from each other. With each day, we are becoming more flexible. I think my sister, and everyone else back in Japan would be impressed with the results."

"Well, they are beneficial, keeping our skills and reflexes from decaying, but they do not really help in teaching how to react instantly during the heat of an actual match."

Nishizumi-dono shook her head in agreement. "That's true, but it's the best we can do."

A slight smirk grew on Lucius-san. "Well, not exactly. Vimy Ridge actually has a showmatch planned with another team in a week. I was going to send the last of the confirmation forms until I remembered all of you," he stated as he swung an arm, indicating all of his guests from Ooarai, "it might take a little reorganizing, but we could easily fit in Ooarai's tankery club as part of a joint team."

"Really? Would it not be a lot of a hassle? A showmatch must have taken a long time to plan; I don't want our team to be a bother by throwing off all the scheduled plans."

"The planning did not actually take a long time," Lucius-san spoke dismissively, "There used to be so many of those taking place between championships, standard procedures were set up to ease planning. In fact, they were thought to be nothing more than competitive training with people who happened to be there watching. Sometimes they were set up to be grander spectacles, but those types were rare." He finished with a faraway look of nostalgia. Hold on, Showmatches were common?

Yukari couldn't help but ask. "Umm…when I went through all the videos in the archive, I didn't see a single showmatch among them. If they are so common, why are there no records of such matches?"

"I must correct you; they were common. But not one took place in the last three years."

That was definitely surprising. Why would a series of events that were so regular just stop one year? Yukari asked again.

Lucius-san replied, "There was one…no, perhaps two reasons for that abrupt halt. The first one was a particular match five years ago that was set up to be so grand it would dwarf any other of its kind. And dwarf it did."

"How did it differ from other matches?" Yukari pushed him to continue.

"Six academies were invited to take part in one battle, with three academies to a team. I believe there were about 120 vehicles of all types taking part in that one match."

Everyone from Ooarai who heard that did not even realize their jaws had dropped. Yukari in particular had to comment, "That must have been an incredible experience!"

Lucius-san continued, "It was magnificent. No other word for it. Although, the match didn't start out as promising; each academies acted as if they were the overall leaders. Scores of vehicles ended up driving straight into enemy guns without support. About half the vehicles from each side were lost within the first hour that way."

By now, everyone stopped their own conversations, and gave Lucius their full attention for what was turning out to be a quite a story.

"Eventually, our commander at the time decided that enough was enough, and told everyone he was taking command of all vehicles left standing on our side; it helped that the other leaders were taken out in some insignificant skirmishes. I assume the same happened to the other team. After that chaos of the first hour, both sides dug in the forests, and made reconnaissance-in-force attacks. Despite his best efforts, it was impossible for any one person to oversee all 60 vehicles directly, so he ended up dividing the team into groups of ten that he could order indirectly through the groups' own leaders."

"That," Yukari couldn't help but wonder, "that sounds a bit like Vimy Ridge's current system…"

"Yes, it does," Lucius-san agreed, "in fact, that's where he got the idea for regular troop divisions in our team from; that was where our current tactic was born. Anyway, in the end the match took place over multiple days. The fuel and ammunition count for both teams became a serious concern and both sides had to have resupply trucks drive in to continue the battle. At that moment, our team attacked their supply column, and that went up in a…very satisfying series of explosions. Yes…it was a good thing all the trucks were remote-controlled. Well, we got our supplies, they didn't and that was that."

"That all sounds amazing," Yukari commented, "but what does that match have anything to do with the 3-year gap in showmatches?" Others murmured in agreement.

"It seemed like the match was such a spectacle that others were deterred to be the one directly after it. In fact, the matches stopped taking place for about a month after that while everyone was still reeling from its greatness. There were even talks of separating showmatches from practise matches, but that was shot down," Lucius-san explained.

To Yukari, that reason was somewhat dubious. "Then what is the second reason?"

To her surprise, the faces of every tanker of Vimy Ridge including Lucius-san grew solemn. Lucius-san even avoided any eye contact as he continued what was turning out to be a small lesson, "It was a tragic incident. Should never have been allowed to happen."

Yukari braced herself for a grim incident; it was probably something like Nishizumi-dono's own experience with potential dangers with senshado.

Her preparations turned out to be insufficient at best for what was ahead. "In North America, open-topped vehicles used to be legal; a lot of fans of the US tank destroyers clamoured for such an exception, and most self-propelled artillery are also open-topped. As a precaution, teams were explicitly told to aim for the vehicles' hulls. Artillery was forbidden from barraging such targets. It was thought at the time such 'precautions' were enough, and that the benefits outweighed any risks," Lucius-san gave a bitter laugh in response to that last sentence. "Well, it wasn't. In one of the practise showmatches involving two other academies, a team was using a hummel for direct-fire attacks like a tank destroyer from a hidden dugout. The opposing side believed it was a hidden tank destroyer, and called for artillery. A shell found its way straight into the fighting compartment, and most importantly, the ammunition racks." Lucius-san was shifting uncomfortably now. No one blamed him.

He took a moment to collect himself. "We were told that…a piece of charred remain of someone's skin about 1.5cm across was the biggest human remain they found. Every self-respecting participant of tankery attended their funerals. Everyone."

Yukari saw Nishizumi-dono trembling, mouth agape. She had come very close to losing people under her command; what must Nishizumi-dono be thinking right now? Similarly, no one within earshot of Lucius-san's voice could, nor did they bother hiding looks of horror. At least unlike her mother, the tragedy was mourned by everyone as just that, a tragedy.

"After that, in an emergency convention of the NAASA, any and all open-topped vehicles were immediately banned. So were non-artillery vehicles with weapons that primarily relied on explosive shells. Regulations for HE shells got tougher; almost all the explosives were taken out, replaced by pyrotechnics to imitate an explosion without causing one. Finally, as a tribute to those poor souls, a moratorium on showmatches was imposed for three years by vote."

Lucius-san began to pace around the hangar in restlessness. Yukari herself also started to fidget, but for different reasons. She was conflicted; while she understood why people decided to go to such lengths to mourn the loss, and made logical tightening of rules, something in her core simply could not cope with a senshado association voting to remove a major segment of its events.

"I was there in the convention, you know; as a junior representative of Vimy Ridge alongside our old commander and Mary. I could not in all consciousness vote against the proposal."

Not a word made its way out into the world for a few minutes after Lucius-san finished his talk.

The deafening silence was broken my Lucius-san clasping his hands together in a sharp clap. "Well, I suppose I rambled on enough about past events. So, coming back to the original question…"

Despite the terrible disaster the series suffered, everyone was wholeheartedly willing to take part in the senshado showmatch. Not having any vehicles that had the same vulnerability helped. Seeing the enthusiasm from all of her clubmates, she accepted the offer, at which point they broke out into another round of cheering, eager to take part in a competitive play again. While the ecstatic atmosphere hung in the entire hangar, Lucius spotted Saori faintly glancing at Jack, trying to be stealthy and for the most part succeeding; only with the benefit of his trained vision did he manage to notice her. Jack likewise gave a small nod. However, he wore a smile that was anything but innocent. Lucius wondered what they were planning. Did this have anything to do with Jack's strange behaviour a few days ago in his office?

I have been noticing recently," Saori addressed Lucius, "you have been talking with Yukari a lot; spending a lot of time wither her in particular." She made a vague motion with one of her hands as she spoke.

"I have been interacting with her for as long as I deemed necessary to both our clubs' cooperation," Lucius responded, unflinching.

"Dude, we all know you're talking out of your ass right now," Jack interrupted, "You barely ever talk with people outside of classes. Locking yourself in your room or office playing who knows what."

"I will have you know gaming is a legitimate pastime," Lucius could not help but raise his tone. "But I admit I have been interacting with her more than other people lately. She is an interesting person to be around."

"So you do find her attractive!" Saori quipped, face smug in apparent victory.

"I am as attracted to Yukari here as much as I am attracted to my other friends, such as Andrew." Lucius chuckled as Saori turned beet red. "They are both good friends. But, in the end, only as friends."

Yukari intervened, hoping to stop Saori from starting anything. "I enjoy being with Lucius-san as well. He's almost like a male version of Nishizumi-dono at times!

Lucius suddenly found the floor of the hangar a very interesting sight.

"So you two both like each other!"

"Again, as friends."

"That doesn't mean you two can't grow to like each other more! And besides, you have already done things that only couples would be doing together!"

Lucius and Yukari had to both cock their heads at that. "Oh? What 'things' would those be?"

"Volunteering to be the one to be with Yukarin during that practise shooting when Hana was sick," Saori started to list, "Taking much longer than others to get back to the hangars after the practice."

Jack joined in, "Allowing her access to our archives, spending time with her much longer than you used to poke your nose out of your room."

Saori continued, "Convincing your student council president to sell the heavy tank when Yukarin requested you to help…" the list went on and on and on.

With each addition to the list, Yukari felt herself shrinking and shrinking, pretending to ignore the barrage of accusations was not happening.

Lucius leaned to her ear and whispered, "This will not end anytime soon, especially if they decide to spread their opinions to others. Follow my lead, and we may be able to escape them quicker."

He then declared to Jack and Saori, "Alright, alright, I am convinced. I may have been harbouring deeper emotions toward Yukari."

Yukari gasped at him in shock. Jack's smirk grew even bolder. Saori merely smiled at the two.

"Then you two should become an official couple."

"I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing?!" Yukari's whisper resembled a hiss more than a whisper proper.

"These two are merely trying to have fun with us. Humor them for the moment, and this whole issue should fade away soon enough. Denying will only make things worse."

Yukari grumbled, but could not find a fault with his line of thought.

"Fine, from this moment on, I accept that Yukari and I are a couple." Lucius concluded with a tone of finality. Yukari nodded in fake acceptance.

Satisfied that the two matchmaking trouble makers were suitably placated, he moved to the doors, Yukari at his side to keep up the act for a little longer. Just in case. As he took hold of the knob, he spoke out one more, grabbing the attention of the rest of the people in the hangar. "By the way, I would appreciate it if Ooarai's student council and tankery captain joined me in my office in an hour; there is one more issue I wished to discuss before someone interrupted."

The next few days passed at breakneck speed. Both senshado and tankery team finally had a concrete goal in mind when training for the first time in a while; to win the showmatch the two teams signed up to join. And not just a close victory by a flag kill facing against overwhelming quantity and quality that Ooarai was used to. Everyone conducted their exercises with the full expectation to crush the opposing team; Lucius even summed up their ideal attitude in one phrase: "We go into battle not to fight, but to collect the kill numbers. The only question is how efficiently we collect those kills; Do not let needless passion get in the way of reason in moves that cost us guns."

The battleground was chosen during this time. After a day of heated debates via webcam, a site about 25km southwest of Las Vegas was selected and agreed upon. However, this meant al the vehicles from Vimy Ridge and Ooarai academies had to be sent on their way a day or two earlier than the tankers themselves, robbing them of precious practise time. The lost time was used to formulate strategy; such sessions were always a rowdy affair, as Lucius always insisted on including every single tanker, even if only as observers.

It was well known that their would-be opponent's mainstay was the dependable M4A3E8 "Easy Eight". Somewhat comparable to Vim Ridge's own Cromwells, except where one traded the gun for speed, and vice versa.

The problem lied in what they would bring to support their bulk of medium tanks. Lucius was confident the support would come in the form of nimble light tanks. Miho was more concerned about any potential tank destroyers. Andrew warned everyone about possible air support. And those three were only the most supported theories; more, less likely ideas floated around at all times.

As the talks continued, the appointed date drew closer.

"Why is it so cold!" Saori couldn't help but exclaim, "This is supposed to be a desert isn't it?" The first years in particular who were shivering at times could not help but agree with her. They have been heeding to Saori, their respected and dependable senior for some time now, ever since they got lost in the Academy warship.

When the Mojave Desert was confirmed to be the battleground, people were understandably concerned about the extreme heat and packed only light clothes. Those in the know made sure to include a set of long pants and long-sleeved shirts somewhere in their packs.

"Well, it is approaching winter, and the Mojave Desert is known to become quite cold starting in this time of the year." Truthfully, Lucius had no idea either until a quick internet browsing revealed a table of climate for the area.

"I actually think is kind of hot. I'm about to be sweating over here," Andrew complained. Lucius pinched the bridge of his nose. Everyone from Vimy Ridge either facepalmed or rolled their eyes. Everyone from Ooarai gawked at the bold statement, staring at the boy as if he was an incomprehensible monster.

"Andrew, you start sweating at 10'C," Lucius deadpanned. He never could understand exactly how 10'C could be "too warm" for anyone. "I would say you are the stereotypical Canadian personified."

They were currently in the staging area, where they would perform final checks and maintenance of each vehicle until the instruction to move onto the starting positions was given. The staging area was also the last access people had to a toilet, even a portable one. The enemy team, from an American academy named Sagittarius Team were also allocated a staging post, some distance away from Ooarai and Vimy Ridge's own and hidden from view, for obvious reasons.

With all the maintenance already finished, however, the teams found themselves hard pressed to fight off the uneasy boredom just before the storm. Some brought out decks of cards to pass the time and others chatted idly. A few people brought some reading material, ranging from restaurant advertisements to a 100-page long novel. The volleyball team even managed to convince Lucius's fellow tank crews – Lucius himself had been content to simply open and close his pocket watch repetitively - to play a game or two with two metal poles stabbed into the ground improvised as a net while they waited.

None of those distractions proved strong enough to ignore a girl wearing the opposing club's uniform approach Lucius with a big smile.

"Hey Sulla," she called out, "long time no see! How long has it been since we last got together like this? Three years?"

"It's a pleasure to meet you in person again," Lucius responded, "in more pleasant circumstances this time."

The girl pouted. "We've known each other for that long and you still insist on talking as if I'm a stranger when in public? You really have to work on relationships with people you know, Sulla."

"I will conduct myself in a manner I deem appropriate, Karen. If anything, you might want to consider stop using that nickname. Even Mary dropped using that, and she's the one who came up with it."

"Hey, I find it funny, so I will keep using it whether you like it or not," she settled, "So, are you going to introduce me to the girls over there like the good gentleman you purport to be?" She finished in a faux-British accent that dripped with sarcasm.

"Right, I have forgotten to do that haven't I?" Lucius faced the Ooarai team who by now stopped what they were doing. "Well, this is Karen Smirnova from Sagittarius. I have known her for about five years now after meeting in a tournament match. And Karen, this is the Ooarai Tankery team I have mentioned in the application."

"Ah, so this is the Japanese team you have been talking so much about? Spirited and skilled team working with scrap metal?" Yukari twitched a little at the word 'scrap', but she had to admit all their tanks were found as long-discarded forms of metal that were uncared for; literally, scrap.

"A Russian in America?" This one phrase voiced by one of the First Years summaries what the rest of the Ooarai club felt.

Karen shrugged noncommittally. "My great-grandfather immigrated to America from Russia in 1902. But I am a 'MURRICAN through and through." She strangely stressed the word "'Murrican", and snickered at her own words right after. They looked to Lucius for an explanation.

Lucius only rolled his eyes, and sighed. "You know that stopped being funny the second time you said it the first time we met. So, why did you come here in the first place?"

"To meet you, and your guests in person again, of course! Why else? I got bored."

Lucius raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Hey, I love journalists about as much as the next guy, and let me tell you, they are swarming our staging zone right now. Guess that's what I should expect for being the first team to do a showmatch in three years." Karen ended with a sigh.

"Well, it seems like there are benefits to being the away team, then." Lucius opened a pocket watch he kept in his breast pocket, and frowned. "They should be calling for us to move soon. You should leave so you have enough time to get back before they do."

Karen read her own watch. "Has it been this long already? Well then, time for me to go. Good luck in the battle." She concluded and walked away backwards, waving her arm.

As Lucius predicted, not long after had Karen left, the announcement for both teams to move into the starting area blared out from a speaker. The sand dunes made for a slightly hard going, but all tanks managed to get into position.

Just before the announcer started a countdown, Lucius addressed Vimy Ridge and Ooarai through the radio. "Alright, game faces everyone. We are still not completely sure what they will be bringing against us. Be sure to remain calm even under fire. Make the right decisions, and victory will be ours."

"We will make sure the victory will be one worthy of Rommel in Africa," Erwin spoke. She was eager to finally enact something her namesake was known so much for.

"Any name for the plan we have been working, on Lucius, Miho-chan?" Anzu asked, as per usual just before the start of any match.

"A name? What about…the Fishing Net Strategy?" Miho offered.

"That is too descriptive," Lucius countered, "For now, the plan will simply be referred to as 129."

"Such a boring name," anyone listening in on the transmission at the time could have sworn they heard the Student Council President pout through the radio. "That doesn't even mean anything."

"Which is perfect. No other name reveals absolutely nothing like a randomly selected set of numbers," Lucius insisted, but after a moment, conceded, "if you want, you can come up with a better one after the match ends and all the planning becomes irrelevant."

"I agree," Erwin's voice crackled, "the British were once able to develop countermeasures for German radar before the Germans themselves deployed them because the codename for the design was too obvious."

While they were conversing, the countdown had already started, and the number had already shrunk to five. It did not take long for the signal rocket to shoot upwards. The match began. Miho and Lucius gave their first commands of the battle.

"Panzer vor!"

"All Troops, advance!"

AN: Well, this thing ended up as a monster of a chapter. Hopefully it reads good enough to be considered a development in the story and plot, but if it sounds like a filler, hey, at least it's a 5000-word filler :P

Hopefully, my OCs and Lucius in particular don't sound completely one-dimensional.

Also, that number 129? It literally is random; I used a random number generator for that.

Next stop, the desert battle. Which I should come up with. SoonTM.