Chapter 4-Prelude of Combat
Grand Peak's visit to Paris was originally suppose be a series of vacation days before their match. However, it had rained the first day, and with the tanks arriving, they had to get them inside. That entire day would be spent making sure the water didn't damage any of the tank's mechanics, because for some reason, the hatches were open when they got received.
The second day was no better, they had even more rain. Most of the students watched the match between Oarai and Chatillon Roses on TV. The match had gone on, despite the rain that day. The match was originally going to be Grand Peak and Calvario Fiat, but Calvario had not received their tanks yet.
"Mica! The match is about start, didn't you say you wanted to watch it?" Alan yelled from the TV.
"Dude! I'm coming, let me brush my teeth!" Mica took the brush out of his mouth, and placed it onto the counter. He rinsed out all the foam in his mouth and exited the bathroom to join Alan and Tsuki.
"Someone was a bit slow, weren't they?" Tsuki nudges him.
"Well...I have my reasons..."
"I'm sure they were more important than popcorn." Alan reached for some popcorn in the bowl that sat on the table in front of them. On the TV, the match had already undergone. It was another Flag Battle, Oarai's flag tank was a and Chatillon's was a Char G1R.
"That's what they got to replace the AMX-13?" Mica tossed a few pieces of popcorn in his mouth.
"Seems so, you think Cosette is okay with it?" Alan leaned back.
"Course not, she loves that tank, it gives a huge advantage over the other tanks." Mica watched the Char G1R make it's way into formation. The camera snapped to the side on Oarai's tanks.
"Well, Oarai seems disorganized, they don't have a proper formation or anything, just a rag tag group of tanks."
"They got into this competition somehow, am I right?" The match started out slowly, the French tanks were not very fast, moving forward in rain and wet soul. Oarai's had better luck, their tanks had superior engines and had taken up positions in the forest.
"Camping in the forest, smart move..." The French school had the same idea, slowly making their way there as well. But they were met with intense fire as Oarai's tank picked them off. Naturally, the tanks fell back into a small town, they had already lost two S35s.
"Whew, Chatillon is off their game today, normal for every tank they lost, the opponent would have lost five."
"They're fighting through mud and rain, in French tanks, what did you expect would happen?" The match dragged on, the Char G1L took a peek around a corner when a shell bounced off the turret. It was a Type 89, sent to lure them out, the G1L with it's 75mm gun, fire a round center mass, knocking the other out.
"First kill of the day, took too long for them." Mica reached for more popcorn.
"Hey, that Char G1L, was there any proof of it ever being prototyped?" Alan questioned how it was a legal tank.
"Who knows, but if Cosette is good at one thing, it's convincing the international league to accept tanks." Mica noticed the bowl of popcorn was empty now, and sighed.
The match continued, neither side drew interest to advancing. That is, until Chatillon's tank started a line formation and slowly moved through town. A B1 led the line, behind were two S35, wedged in the center was the G1L. Behind that, were three R40 tanks. To further protect their flag tank, the G1L was flanked by two more R40s, to form a sort of barrier.
Over on Oarai's side, they had split into two groups. One of them would lay down fire onto anything in the town. The other would make their way through the forest to pincer them from behind.
As the French formation slowly made their way through, their B1 started to take heavy fire. The B1 turned the hull sideways, allowing the two S35s to take cover behind the turret and fire back, despite being knocked out in the process. The R40s and G1L took cover behind buildings. They decided to form the R40s into a wolf pack and advance on their opponents.
The pack rolled out of the town and into the forest, much to their surprise, they met the group Oarai had sent. This sparked into a large firefight, the two sides had no cover and stood in one spot firing at each other. Oarai had three tanks, and due to that overwhelming difference in numbers, they were overcome by the R40s who had only lost one tank.
Meanwhile, the G1L become bored by the lack of action it had been subject to. Carefully, it rounded the corner and the side of one of the buildings. It spied one of the tanks Oarai had firing at the S35s, a StuG III. It fired another shell, knocking it out of action before retreating. Just then, the R40s had arrived on the flank of the Oarai tanks and fired from behind cover.
"Well, that turned the tables, by the way, do we have anymore popcorn?" Mica nudged at Alan.
"Yes it did, and no, these were the only bags we had, don't tell Naoki, he bought them."
The tanks Oarai had turned their attention to the R40s, allowing the S35s and G1L to move into their positions. This proved to be the final nail in the coffin, as they were overwhelmed from two sides. They lost tank by tank, until finally, it was down to the . Despite putting up a good fight by knocking out two R40s and a S35. The G1L come up in it and and put and finishing shot into the hull.
"Well...that was nice a nice match, don't you think?" Mica stood up and stretched.
"It was certainly better than yesterday, working in the rain to get the tanks inside." Tsuki went over to her bed to lay down.
"Hey, we're back from pastry shopping!" Naoki burst through the door with Rin following him.
"We didn't find anything good, at least I didn't."
"Yeah, all they had were croissants." Naoki set a few boxes onto the table.
"Better than nothing, am I right?" Alan opened a box and took one out.
The rest of the day was spent indoors, the rain and wind came harder and the team could do was either watch TV or study. This dragged for hours, and to night as well. As they turned off the lights and slumped to sleep, the thought of tomorrow frightened them. A lot of pressure was on them, Calvario Fiat was said to get their tanks tomorrow, and the match would start as well.
"Okay guys...good night..." Mica wrapped himself in his blankets and snuggled in. Tomorrow, was the day they had their chance to show the world they still had a chance.
And tomorrow it came, Mica slowly opened his eyes and lugged himself out of bed. He opened the curtains, expect cloudy weather. However, he was met with sunshine, like the day they first arrived. He woke up the others and went to go brush his teeth. Once he was finished, he stepped outside, stretched and yawned.
"Hey Mica, what time do we go to the match again, I need to brush my teeth." Naoki walked into the bathroom for his turn.
"Oh easy, we go at 12PM, it's about…." Mica turned his head to look at the clock, "oh, it's just 10PM, it'll only take a hour to get to the site."
"Righto..."Rin walked into the bathroom for her turn and despite her hair covering her eyes, she still found her way.
"10PM, did we really sleep for that long? Seems like I was yelling at you guys for eating my popcorn a few minutes ago." Naoki went to go get his uniform.
"Nope, you were pretty angry though, what is it with you and popcorn?" Mica picked his up as well, and started to button up.
"I like popcorn, lots of people do." Naoki started to look for his shoes. "But it just so happens, that I like it a bit more than most people."
"Yeah, that's your excuse, "liking it a bit more", I'll never understand you." Mica slipped on his shoes and tied them together.
"Yeah, that's my excuse alright, and what's the deal with you and croissants, I saw you eating them at night."
"Shh...that never happened." Mica stood up and stretched again. "Okay guys, I'm going to go outside and check the tanks, see if they are doing okay."
Mica walked out of the room and unlike the first day, actually found his way around the building. He found the garage his school was assigned and opened the doors. "There they are...beautiful as ever..." Walking over to the garage door switch, he had thought about the match.
What tactics would they use, how many tanks do they have, in fact, they must have been delayed for a reason. Mica did not want to lost the first match, and for good reason, they had a chance to win a tournament. Slowly, he flipped the garage door switch and the long garage door opened up, letting sunlight pour into the room, lighting up the paint on the tanks.
"Hey Mica, seems like you got here before I did." Ryan stepped into the room, clad in his uniform.
"Seems obvious, and holy crap, you're actually wearing your uniform."
"Hahaha, now...how does it look on me?" Mica stared at Ryan, questioning his appearance.
"Umm...it's not my place to say so, ask someone else."
"Oh really, okay, I'll ask someone else later." One by one the students piled into the room, eventually, all of them arrived.
"Get the tanks ready, we have to get to our destination." Kurtis yelled over everyone. The tanks were soon filled up with their crew and the engines roared to life.
"I got point, you guys follow me!" Mica popped out of his hatch to see where he was going. The tanks rolled out of the garage and made their way into a real street. Though it seemed illegal for tanks to be driven, they were fine as long as they were registered by the international league.
"Mica! How long till we get there!" Tsuki yelled from inside the tank.
"About...a hour, we got enough time!" The tanks made their were through the streets in an almost perfect line formation. They crossed out of the city and rolled onto dirt roads. From there, they traversed hills and forests until finally, they arrived.
"About time, I was getting afraid the French Military would come after us." Alan eased back into his seat as Mica popped out to do the formalities.
Mica had always dreaded how formal the tournaments were. First it would be no rules matches and then, bam, you had to use historical set ups and proper pre-match "stuff". He waited for Leo in the center field of the match, so he could shake his hand and start the match.
"Where could he be..." The announcer had arrived as well. The two waited on that field for what seemed like hours before he came running in.
"Sorry guys, one of the M15s was missing some ammo from the rack." Leo...his last name could still not be pronounced by anyone he knew. He had messy light brown hair and wore an olive colored uniform, not one that Mica would recognize.
"Okay kids, we're going live in 3...2...1!" The camera flashed and the announcer said in a cheesy voice, "Welcome to the last match of the first round, ladies and gentlemen! Last time you watched Oarai face off Chatillon Roses! But today we watch as Japanese School: Grand Peak Tankery Academy face off against Italian School: Calvario Fiat High!"
"Dear god, I hate this guy already..." Mica thought to himself. He peered over Leo's shoulder and saw a long line of tanks. Most were the same model, M15/42s.
"Now before we start, the kids have to shake it out first." The man cued for the two to shake hands. Both Leo and Mica stepped up to each other and shook hands before leaving to their teams. "And with that the match begins! Stay tuned with us to see some intense action!" The camera switched off and the announcer walked off to think about his career choices.
Mica joined the rest of the teams and entered his tank. "So...how was it?" Rin asked about the event that just took place.
"Cheesy and overdramatic, like most TV these days, but, just get the tank rolling." The tanks all drove off in one direction, Mica popped out of his hatch to watch Calvario Fiat's drive off into the other. All the tanks Grand Peak had gathered near a forest.
"Okay guys, this is a flag battle." Mica said as everyone buttoned out. "That means we have to protect the Type 89, because they're our flag tank."
"We know what to do, all we need to know is the plan." Claude pointed out.
"Well...we should keep the the Type 89 and all the Ho Nis here in the forest, this is a pretty open area and the Italian tanks will be easy pickings.
"Right..." Kurtis nodded his head.
"Now...the Chi-Has should move around their flank, act as a fire support when the fight starts. I'll take the Chi-Nus and move through the center."
"Okay, seems solid." Kenneth buttoned up.
"Alright, let's move out!" All the commanders closed the hatches and started to move to their respective locations. Mica's stayed ahead of the other two and when they came to a hill, they stopped. "Okay guys," Mica popped out along with the others,"I'll go up onto the hill and scout the area out, I'll tell you what I see."
He told Alan to park on top of the hill and as the tank slugged up the hill, he took out his binoculars. Once there, he scanned the horizon, but saw nothing. "Strange..." Once he dipped below it, he saw the worst thing possible. "Dear god, what is that..." He zoomed in and figured it out, ten M15/42s moving towards him in wave formation.
"What do you see!" Naoki yelled up. The M15/43s saw then and started fire in barrage, all ten of the them in unison.
"My god...Alan! Get us off this hill!"
Author's Note: Hey, so I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm really trying to improve the style in which I type and really flesh out the story and plot of each one. Now, I am in spring break right now, which lets me work on the chapters with my free time. Chapter 5 is nearing completion, but, I don't think it's safe to say when I will release it. We all know what happened last time I did that. Well, I hope you guys enjoy, and uh, have a nice day.