"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Chapter 4: Let's Begin the Competition

Although arriving rather late, Fauna and co. weren't the only ones to oversleep. As each crewmember was helping to make sure their respectable vehicles were battle worthy, more teams were making their way to the orientation point. Booths were set up with food, spectators gathered all around giant screens which would give a live feed of any interesting battles that would take place around the state. In this single area, hundreds of the thousands of teams that signed up gathered, filling the field with steel. Quite possibly there would be many unique armored vehicles that would engage in the state-wide competition.

At the epicenter of the field was a huge crowd of people gathered around a stage, most of the attendees being the team commanders who would then pass on the word to the rest of the team. Tt wasn't that necessary though, as there were speakers set up all over to tell anyone in range about what was being talked about. "...Remember, be sure to only engage in the points located on the map the app has." Fauna took out her android to check the map once more.

The app was labelled '7th Indiana Tankfest', with a little silhouetto of a T1 Cunningham on it. Opening the app, she logged her team in, prompting the phone to load for a few moments. Once it finished, a map of Indiana in full was displayed with a little dot marking the spot where her team was. Zooming in on it separated the dot into two circles, and finally maximizing it all the way showed her a digitized live feed of the Type 2 Ke-To and Autoblinda 41 with crew, but none of the tanks near it were included on screen. She zoomed out once more, and pressed the button to show where the points of battle could be taken place, and the areas were marked red in contrast to the green map.

"Other than that, there isn't much more to say. See you all next Sunday." The announcer clicked off the microphone, and the crowd dispersed to their respective vehicles. Hanna stretched her arms up while walking next to Fauna, who was pocketing her smartphone once more. "Think we'll be fine still?" she asked, only one of her eyes opened. Without a word, Fauna nodded, and spat in the direction of a random team's vehicle, the commander of the CV-33 glaring at her as they passed.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, the two finally arrived around the edge of the encampment, where they spotted their teammates getting together the last preparations before the competition started. "Yo, we're back mates!" Fauna hollered, which got their attention. A few of them waved, but the others merely acknowledged them and continued to work. "Glad they're serious about this," the British girl chuckled, patting Albert's back as he loaded another 37mm round into the turret.

Everyone was wearing the same clothing, as decided by Fauna; simplified British dress uniforms, with hunting jackets stowed onboard. "Oh yeah, Fauna," the loader mentioned, cracking his knuckles as he paused his work, "when are we going to meet our mechanics?" Out of the blue, there was a hum in the air, which became a large roar of a car engine, and then the screech of a brake as it came to a halt behind Fauna with a beep of a horn. She turned around, looking at the new arrival which had so gracefully decided to arrive.

It was a Willys MB, or commonly known as the jeep, with an M2 Browning machine gun mounted on it. On board were five passengers, which were the driver, someone in shotgun, the gunner, loader, and an extra man in the back. The one in the passenger's seat stood up and casually jumped out of the car, walking over to Fauna with swagger. It looked to be a senior highschool student, wearing aviator glasses, a hunter's camo jacket, and some grease on his cheeks. He flashed a grin as he stood in front of Fauna, taking off his aviators.

"Sorry we're late," he greeted in a thick southern accent, "Jerry had to take a piss." The driver overheard, and lifted his fist from behind the dashboard, an equally dashing smile on his face.

"Dave?" Albert questioned, clearly surprised, "Since when did you know how to fix tanks?" The senior chuckled, passing next to Albert and clasping his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Ever since I started working for the school tankery team." He then took his hand off and patted Albert's head. "Sweetheart," he added sarcastically, walking away and going towards the tank. Albert took it seriously however, and shook his head to get the feeling off while his cheeks went pink.

Dave looked at the two vehicles for a few moments, before nodding with his fists on his hips. "Alright, the tools we have can keep these in running order," he confirmed, facing Fauna, "just keep us safe out there." Fauna inclined her head, putting her thumb up as always. "That's good, I want to be capable of fighting until the end. And don't worry, we'll all make it through, I assure you."

The came the running footsteps of Stuart, who was panting loudly and gripping a sheet of paper in his hands. "I've *pant* got *huff* the *wheeze* info!" His balance broke suddenly, and he tripped over his shoes, landing into the hot summer ground with a thud. But his hand was raised in the air, keeping the paper safe from dirt. Hanna calmly walked over, taking the sheet from him. "Thanks Stu," she said, crouching and patting his back. Stuart mumbled something from underneath, most likely, "you're welcome."

Hanna read the paper over and handed it to Fauna. "The Flying Tankers Volunteer Group. That's the name the Saunders delegation is going with," Hanna explained, " so that the team doesn't get in trouble if things go salty." Fauna looked at the information, frowning. "They're currently at the Indianapolis starting point, so they're not that far either," she muttered. The mere thought of the professional tankery team taking part put them in unease once more.

"Let's just focus on those in Muncie first," Hanna suggested, "most of the teams here are small and not too threatening." Looking around, Fauna unhappily agreed. The nearby vehicles weren't all too menacing, and the size of the teams weren't large either. "But looks can be deceiving," Fauna thought out loud, sitting on the side of the Ke-To. The others nodded in agreement, the silence suddenly becoming overbearing.

"*Cough* Well, we better get going now," Dave commented, pointing at the large trucks beginning to line up all around the checkpoint. A few teams had already started loading their vehicles onboard, and then everyone began to scramble towards their respective armor. Albert entered the turret, followed by Fauna, and the last inspection was made as the engines rumbled to life. "Ammo, check!" Albert reported. "Fuel's check as well!" Sarah added. There was a honk from the jeep outside. "Everything's good on our end!" the radio crackled with Hanna's voice.

Fauna didn't answer however, her heart still slightly uneasy with all the odds starting to pour against her. She even began to wonder if the cash and the tank prize was even in their line of sight. Do our vehicles even stand a chance?...

There was then a tap on her knee, and Fauna looked down to see Albert staring at her with his green eyes looking a rather sharper color than normal. He looked at her concerned, and asked, "We should get going, right commander?" Unable to take her eyes off him, Fauna nodded slowly, her earlier thoughts washing away. "Yeah… We should."

Bringing the microphone closer to her mouth, she activated the radio set. She took a deep breath, and built up her courage once more to grin widely, her energy coming back tenfold, and she gave in a powerful order:

"Pool Platoon, move out!"

After an hour of heavy hauling, the Autoblinda, Type 2, and jeep were dropped off near a small pond. The truck then sped off to deliver the other team that was also inside, to which Fauna's team waved goodbye. They had a normal conversation the entire trip, but nobody talked about tanks, lest they reveal important things that wouldn't help them in a competition like this.

The GPS tracker had been disabled temporarily, but as soon as the truck was out of sight, there was a 'ding!' on Fauna's phone, and they were pinpointed to be at Indy Lakes, which had been emptied for the the competition's use. There was a thin tree line surrounding them, but otherwise there'd be no cover here if they didn't work quickly. "Alright fast, the competition can't start until all the teams have been deployed, but we can always get ready first!" Fauna shouted from the Ke-To's turret, "I want recon on all sides, see if we can spot the enemy first!"

Hanna and Dave saluted briskly, and both vehicles sped off in separate directions, but didn't go too far before coming to a halt. Fauna could just barely see them by squinting her eyes, and then she took out her sniper scope to scan her surroundings. Through the lense, she could see the AB and jeep, their commanders standing in the turret or beside their respective vehicles, looking into the distance with pairs of binoculars.

Fauna swept to the right slowly, keeping an eye on every possible point of attack. She noticed the empty parking lot, seats that would be used for casual fishermen, and a small playground for the kids to use while their parent's caught lunch. It all felt extremely eerie, as if someone could already be watching them since before. Fauna's spine shivered slightly, but she kept watching. I hope that Albert didn't forget my fucking tea set, scenery's so cold that even the summer sun can't warm my freezing nerves.

She noticed a speck of movement in the distance, and tried to increase the power of the lense to its max, but it only kept what was in her sights just barely visible. "I've got something to the north east, that small building over there," Fauna muttered into the radio, "can anyone confirm, over?" There was static on the other end, but finally Dave responded, "Yeah, I've got it. Can't tell what it is, but I see some smoke, over." "Alright, that's where we'll be heading first, out."

After an hour more of waiting, there a beep on Fauna's phone, and she turned the screen on to show a notification reading, 'Game On, Get 'Em Rekt!'. "Move out!" she ordered, and the trio of vehicles made haste towards the building that was marked earlier. Back at the starting point, the crowds cheered as the screens began giving a the live feed of the teams moving at high speed towards their destinations. Some would be aggressive, while others would hold down objective points from where they could coordinate attacks to multiple areas. All that mattered was that tanks were destroyed, and they survived.

"And now the Seventh Indiana Tankfest has begun, where our contestants will fight a week, 24/7, for the prize of five hundred kay and a spankin' brand new vehicle!" the announcer boomed, "I'm Allan Bowman with my friend Joey Smith, and we'll be giving you full coverage of the highlights bound to come!" The watchers cheered, among them Mr. Walthers. "Go Pool Platoon!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, other fans also cheering with him. Make me proud, Sar!

Now halfway to their destination, Fauna took out her scope once more to check. Indeed, it appeared that there was a tank there, an M2 Combat Car sitting behind a small fence. Squinting closely however, Fauna noticed there was no movement whatsoever, and it should've been obvious by now that their team was closing in at a fast pace. Looking around though, she couldn't see anything else that could possibly shoot at them. "What the hell?" she muttered out loud. Looking behind her, the Willys MB stayed away at a reasonable distance, with the AB 41 trailing just a meter behind.

Fauna looked straight at Hanna, and motioned for her to take point. The AB 41 sped faster, and began to move in front of the Ke-To. Still, there was no retaliation whatsoever. "Fauna, did you check that building yet?" The commander's eyes widened, and she quickly lifted the scope once more, looking at the rooftop of the building. There was a glint of sunlight, and she quickly realized that a pair of binoculars were staring right at them. She then heard a soft thump in the distance, and Fauna shouted into the radio, "DISPERSE!"

Large explosions landed right where they were about to move towards, spitting dirt and patches of grass into the sky. Some of it coated the Ke-To, and Fauna spat out some gravel that had gotten in her mouth. "Hanna, move the fuck up and knock those bloody gits out of the competition!" She noticed the fast silhouette of several artillery rounds jumping from behind the building. "Shake 'em off, don't let that arty end it for us now!"

The AB 41's engine charged up faster, and soon left the Ke-To in the dust. Sarah turned the Japanese tank to a hard left, to which Jerry followed suit. More explosions rocked the earth, making Fauna's heart pound extremely hard. She looked through her scope, her movement shaky as the loud detonations had made her slightly dizzy. The AB 41 was no longer in her line of sight, but it had apparently bypassed the M1 without any threat.

What Jordan found was a turkey shoot. An easy line of several self-propelled guns were ready for reaping, and he fired a 20mm shell at each one, ripping apart the enemy team like a knife through butter. They all seemed to be using Lorraine Schleppers, which was of course an extremely deadly artillery piece when used correctly.

Although the rounds would have easily killed the occupants inside the vehicle, the ammunition used for tankathlon was slightly specialized, although not as great as the ones used for tankery. This was proven as there were holes punctured clean right into the SPG's armor, but there were no screams of pain coming from the crew. Quite basically, the round will break into dust the instant it penetrates into armor, and won't do any further harm. It will however count as vehicle damage. This was only noticeable now, as Jordan thanked god that he wasn't becoming a mass murderer in this brief stint.

"All five vehicles down, that's a great start!" Hanna gleefully cheered, but then there was a revving of an engine behind them, and the M1 started to chase them down with its machine guns blazing. "Oh scheisse, Stuart, get us away from them!" The rear driver, happy to get something done, drove the vehicle backwards to that it could run from the angry artillery spotting crew. They weren't exactly great shots either, but Stuart still kept their guns off of their behind. Jordan was struggling to get the turret turned quickly to face the front again, but it was indeed a slow task to be done, not to mention that the gun was heavier than the old one.

"Fauna, get over here!" Hanna shouted into the radio, pointing her Breda 38 machine gun and trying to shoot at the M1, though it didn't help that both her and the enemy's vehicles were swerving around. "Calm your tits, we're firing." On that note, a small gunshot was heard, and the M1 took a hit to the rear, popping a white flag from its machine gun turret. Looking out the hatch for a moment to make sure everything was clear, Hanna slumped back into her chair, relieved. "Let's go get some repairs done now, that was a good start." Fauna said over the radio. The AB 41 started to slow down, and Hanna put her microphone to her mouth tiredly. "Roger that."

Quickly getting to work, Dave's team brought out the welding kits and began to burn the Autoblinda's armor back into its normal condition. Many of the high-caliber machine gun rounds had went through, although none of them destroyed anything vital. "It's a good thing this layout is relatively spaced," Dave muttered from behind his welding mask, "it slows down the rounds really well."

Fauna continued to watch their surroundings, carefully making sure no one came to take them out. Hanna was snacking on a small protein bar, watching as the enemy team painfully sulked out of the match, being one of the first confirmed defeats of the game. "Fuck you all," one of them growled, throwing a pebble at the Ke-To. Fauna was about to jump out of the turret and smack the barmy brat before Albert pulled her back inside by the leg. "Just keep watch Faun, don't mind them," he cooed, calming down the angry commander. Fauna crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently on the steel floor. "Fine, whatever then."

The mechanic team shut off their flames, and all stood up to check their handiwork. "Alright, armor's done, let's boogey out of here!" Dave shouted, and everyone got ready to move out once more.

"It's going to be a long week."