Chapter V

Our First Trials

"You girls ready?" Makoto looked back at her friends, the two teams had spread out across the field. Their tank was placed in the center of the Tokai Tank Formation and they were waiting for the match be started by the officials. More or less, they were sitting around waiting for their little war to break out.

"Always ready ma'am!" Tsuki replied in her usual excited self, Asagi groaned out her approval and Hina nodded her head. "Come on Shio-san! Say something, you've been silent this entire time." Shiori was busy texting on her phone to her friends who were watching in the crowds. School had been put off that day just for this event, her trance was broken when Asagi elbowed her.

"Huh? What? Oh yeah, I'm ready, Radio Operator is always ready you know?" She chuckled before being put back into her phone trance. It was crunch time now, match could start at any moment. Makoto breathed in and out heavily, but in steady pace as well. She sat herself carefully in the commander's seat and looked out the Cupola. Moment of truth she supposed, no going back now. Elsewhere, the announcers and officials had set up their little table, and the girl in charge of announcing the start of the battle cleared up her voice and got up to her stand, adjusting the microphone before beginning her message.

"The Exhibition Battle between Tokai Girls High School and Lady Atkins Girls Academy will now begin shortly. Please remain in your seats and do not venture into the marked battleground area. This battle was brought to you by our sponsors...of which we have none today apparently." The girl looked back nervously at the other match officials, who gave her the thumbs up to begin the match. "We will now begin the Elimination Match. Battle start!"

Tokai Exhibition Sensha-Dou Battle

Tokai Girls High School

Team A:

Type 2 Ho-I - Medium Tank

Makoto Shimada

Team B:

StuG III Ausf. F/8 - Tank Destroyer

Ryoko Matsuoka

Team C:

Type 95 Ha-Go - Light Tank

Natsuka Honda

Team D:

M6 - Heavy Tank

Aoi Sato

Team E:

Panzer III Ausf. G - Medium Tank

Aizu Kishida

Lady Atkins Girls Academy

Team Tea:

Valentine XI - Infantry Tank

Jasmine

Team Coffee:

Valentine IX - Infantry Tank

Cream

Team Biscuit:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Scone

Team Custard:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Flan

Team Cake:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Chelsea

Team Pudding:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Eve

Team Pie:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Mince

Team Tart:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Gypsy

"Alright!" Makoto spoke over her headset to the other tanks in formation. "The plan is simple, I should've marked the location on each of the maps Futaba-senpai possibly gave you." She had little faith in the responsibility that she had given to their instructor before the match had started. "Our plan is to ambush and skirmish them there before we retreat into the town to rout them. What followed was a series of acknowledgements from the other crew commanders and their crews. For Makoto and her crew however, they parted from the formation to fulfill their job.

"So we have to distract them…" Hina breathed in and out heavily, one hand placed on the gun breech and the other on the trigger. She was extremely nervous, the Mock Battle they had a while back was the only combat experience she had. Even then, with all the training and conditioning, the Type 99 75mm Gun eluded her mastery. Perhaps it was just too rough for her delicate and precise way of going about things. But there wasn't time to dwell on her issues, they had to show that Tokai wasn't going to just crumble under the pressure.

"Oh don't worry, between Makoto-san and all of the work we've done together, the girls at Lady Atkins won't see what hit them!" Tsuki was still motivated and wasn't showing any signs of stress. Of course, the opposite could be said for her fellow gunner, and technically Shiori as well, but she was still locked in her technological trance and noisily tapping away next to Asagi. "All we have to do is to lure them into our trap, once we spot their formation and the other tanks are in place, we can start to take them out one by one until we win."

Though the thought of having to do the Anglerfish Dance was still lingering in the cramped atmosphere of the tank. "Right! Well, let's not get too hasty yet, the match is still up for both sides. Our first job is to just find them first, we'll get into luring them and ambushing them later." Makoto, with a straight face, reassured them of the plan she and the other commanders were able to formulate. Their first objective was clear: Find the Lady Atkins tank formation. They were going to do just that, their lone Type 2 Ho-I traverse dirt and grass alike searching for their opponent's formation.

Lady Atkin's had been placed on the opposite side of a valley-like depression in the dirt. Theoretically, this terrain would offer their infantry tanks the most advantageous situation as most of Tokai's tanks wouldn't be able to get close enough to penetrate their thick armor. At range, their rounds would lose penetrating power for distance, most likely enough to simply ricochet or just dent the armor they were presented with dealing. However, at close range, they would be able to circumvent that, with careful maneuvering and strategic positioning, armor would mean nothing.

The Ho-I was nearing the most likely avenue of approach Lady Atkins was taking, Makoto could clearly see the trees were thinning out soon. "Stop here Asagi." She ordered the tank to be parked here, she wanted to see those tanks herself. Lifting herself from the cupola with both hands and out onto the ground. She was followed by Tsuki who wanted to do the same thing, more out of curiosity than tactical planning like Makoto was wishing to do. "Let's see what we have here...we can still change our tactics if they're not coming through here, but if they slip through, we'll be in a world of pain."

Her intuition was correct, looking through her set of assigned binoculars, she spotted the formation of Infantry Tanks ahead of them. All eight of Lady Atkin's tanks were face approaching their position in the valley below. The Matilda IIs were placed in a Hexagon Formations: two at the front on either flanks, one on each flank and two placed at the rear. Both Valentines were placed side-by-side in the center of the formation, and the whole lot of them were placed quite loosely from each other. "I can see the dust they're kicking up from here!" Tsuki exclaimed, it was true, the tanks ahead of them had quite a smoke cloud behind them, likely because they were moving at around cruise speed.

But Makoto wanted to know how to lure them, the pass the ambush was to placed at was all the way on the other side of this valley. She pondered the thought when the two got back inside the tank and back into their positions. "So...what's the plan?" Hina looked over at Makoto as soon as she sat back down. There was no way to fire and maneuver with that many guns pointed on them in open ground. But there was another way, a more rash and direct approach: a more risk one at that. Hina could could see the idea flicker in Makoto's eyes and she just smiled, "I'm ready for whatever you order us to do." Their commander responded back with with a wild grind.

"Okay, Asagi! It's time for our finest hour." It took a while for the concept to register with the other two crew members. But they were able to grasp it, with Tsuki nodding affirmatively and Asagi a thumbs up without looking back. It was about now that Shiori had snapped out of the trance and was ready to be proactive again. She demonstrated this by blindly agreeing to the plan Makoto had in store for their time!

"Yeah! I'm ready too!" Shiori looked around the the compartment of the tank, not actually knowing what was going on or what the plan really was. It was only when Tsuki gave off a worried look that she realized that what she just agreed too must have been bad. "W-what's with the looks?" She asked before quietly cursing to herself in the little corner of the hull she was placed in. "Crap! What did I just get myself into!", she huffed out before Asagi started to get the tank moving again.

Meanwhile, the girls at Lady Atkins were blissfully rolling along, unaware that they were being watched. Jasmine, the commander for the Valentine IX Team Tea and Captain for the whole team, was leaning back in her commander chair. She was minding her own business until her Radio Operator: Lavender, passed her a cup of tea. "Would you like to do the tea routine like Darjeeling says we should always do." The tea routine followed that at least the lead tank's crew would always be drinking tea, except the driver of course.

Jasmine scratched her head a bit, she didn't particularly appreciate the practice, but if Darjeeling said they should, they really should consider doing it. "Thank you." She politely thanked Lavender and took the tea from her, one hand on the cup, the other on the small plate it came with. However with one taste, she soon regretted her decision, "Anise...what kind of tea did you buy during your tea run this morning?" She looked over at her tank's gunner.

"I didn't do the tea run, I gave that responsibility to Mint over here." The red-haired loader pointed her thumb over at the light-green haired loader: Mint. "So Mint, what kind of tea did you get this morning?" Anise crossed her arms in suspicion, Mint was the newest member of their crew. So despite the fact Anise was responsible for getting the tea, she just gave the job to the new girl.

"I got all of the teas you put down on the list: Assam, Jasmine, Darjeeling and Oolong!" She panicked and pulled out the list Anise had given to her that morning. She gave it back to her to check off, "You can see yourself, I got everything that you told me to get this morning!" She blushed intensely and kept to herself while Anise looked over the list.

"Why would I put Oolong...none of us actually drink that stuff…" She then realize that the list read: Assam, Earl Gray, Jasmine and Darjeeling Oolong. That was a single variety of Darjeeling rather than being two different teas. "You idiot! That says Darjeeling Oolong! Not Darjeeling and Oolong!" She slapped the girl on the back of the head before checking to see what other kinds of tea they had packed today. "Why is it all Oolong! You didn't even pack any of the other teas in here!"

"Anise, stop abusing the poor girl, so we have to drink Oolong today, it isn't...that bad...okay perhaps it is, but we have to look on the bright side of things." Jasmine smiled got up to look out the turret of the Valentine. "It's a beautiful day! We can't be arguing on a day like this! It's just not right." It wasn't as if she wasn't wrong, blue skies, partially cloudy, rays of sun shining across the fields of green grass. She raised her arms out to embrace the sunlight coming on her, with her second-in-command: Cream, looking at her with an embarrassed face from the Valentine IX across from them.

"C-commander…" The tanned girl with short white hair looked at her, Jasmine took a while to notice that she was being stared at. But she decided not to look back, better to not have Cream ask any questions. " I still can't believe this is the girl they chose to take her spot…" Cream was a third-year at their school, the previous Sensha-Dou Captain had graduated last year, and the one she was staring at was elected to take her place and name.

"Beautiful Day!" Jasmine shouted, "Good for some Sensha-Dou." She chuckled nervously, she didn't really have to address everyone like that, she thought as she sipped another awkward cup of Oolong Tea. "So, how about...this weather?" She chuckled nervously again and looked off in the distance. "Don't judge me…" She mumbled just as soon as Cream looked away.

"Commander. We have an unknown vehicle coming towards us, can you please identify it from up there?" Chai, their driver, had relayed a message from one of the Matildas in front of them. "Once you identify it, please give our formation an order to follow." Chai was one of the older students like Cream, the driver for the previous Jasmine and experienced in how the chain of command went.

"Alright then, on it." She set her cup of tea on the roof of the turret and took to her binoculars. "Right…" Jasmine fumbled around with the binoculars around her neck before finally being able to bring them up to her eyes. "What could we have coming towards us…" Before she could get a good spot on what it actually was that was charging towards them, a round flew right past at low velocity. Only one tank in Tokai's arsenal had a low velocity gun: it was Makoto's Ho-I. She realized it too late before the Gun Tank zoomed right past them and their formation.

No one had fired because no order was given to do so, that was how the chain of command worked. Looking behind her, Jasmine watched as the Ho-I kicked up dirt and dust forming a great cloud behind it. Before realizing that the round flying past her had actually knocked over the tea cup she had been using and it laid broken on the ground below. "Commander! Your orders!?" Chai repeated the question again.

"Well what're you waiting for!" She turned on the headset and in response, Lavender switched the frequency to all crews. "All tanks! Turn formation and chase down that Gun Tank!" Gripping onto the sides of the Valentine turret, Jasmine watched as all tanks in their formation turned face and started to move in the direction of Makoto. "Move up to Flank Speed! Put those engines at maximum power if you have to!" Soon enough, they started to close the range with Lady Atkin's Infantry Tanks being much quicker than they seemed. "All gunners! You are cleared to fire!"

Unbeknownst to Makoto and her crew, Mint had loaded the 75mm in the Valentine and Anise was started to get a bead on them. Much like all the other crews, with Cream's 6pdr Gun and the other Matildas' 2pdr Gun. "Why did I agree to this!?" Shiori was busing cradling herself in the corner to help them in anyway. She received a much deserved bonk on the head from Asagi who both looked back at her and did it while driving straight as well. "Hey…"

"She's not wrong, Shiori, I need to you contact the ahead team and tell them to prepare for the ambush. As many shots as you can before they close and then get out of there towards the town, especially tell them to disperse afterwards!" Finishing her order, Makoto slowly peeked out of the tank's hatch to see if they were still chasing them. Conveniently, she was answered with a barrage of mixed caliber fire. One of the light guns just barely grazed the side of the turret, prompting Makoto to slowly come back down. "Not doing that again…" She thought to herself.

After a long traverse down a bumpy grassland, most of which was accompanied by inaccurate fire by the tanks behind. They neared Makoto's planned Pass on the right, "A right here?" Asagi mumbled to herself, making sure no one actually heard her. Behind them, Jasmine watched intently as the Ho-I in front of them back a right turn into the pass on their side. She narrowed her eyes and tried to figure out what Makoto could be planning.

The Pass would greatly limit their movement, yes, but by that extension would also limit Makoto's movement as well. It was a trap, an ambush, plain and clear, but there wasn't anywhere else to go. If they wanted to get them through any other route, they would have to clear the entire valley and thing roundabout, too much wasted time. "You've forced my hand...well done…" She smirked and lifted the receiver to her communications set. "All tanks in formation, proceed to column formation and move down that pass ahead of us." In response, hers and Cream's tank slowed down allowing a Matilda to go past them. Two other Matildas formed a line ahead of them and then Cream's tank fell in line behind Jasmine with the remaining three Matildas forming the rest of the line.

"What do we have loaded?" Makoto looked over at Tsuki, she wasn't aware of what round they had loaded during the start of the match. They were more busy trying to spot the enemy formation than deciding what rounds to use. If everything had gone right, they didn't need to even fire a single time during this first part, so it didn't matter at that moment in time.

"Um...High Explosive?" She placed a finger to her chin and thought about it real hard. As for what round she had actually loaded, she wasn't too sure at that, mainly because she had just taken a random round from the rack and put it in. "Why do you ask? I don't think I'm able to take the round back out...or at least I don't know how anyways." She chuckled and scratched the back of her head.

"Hmm...Hina, fire into the air so that we can switch to Smoke Rounds." She instructed Hina to fire the gun, so that they'd empty the breach for a different ammo type. Since Tsuki didn't bother to learn how to unload a gun, or if the howitzer they had was even capable of that. While they were busy figuring that out, the rest of Tokai's tanks had comfortably placed themselves on top of a ridge overlooking the pass. They had good sightlines, and the a forest into town was planted directly behind for a speedy escape.

To keep themselves busy, they had relegated themselves to more fun activities, the girls of Team E were busy reading or doing paperwork while Aizu ate. Team D was busy playing with Hanafuda Cards with Team C discussing their upcoming soccer game with a neighboring town. Team B, as per the usual, were keeping themselves busy with chess games, one between Ryoko and Toshiko and another between Kamiko and Chie. "H-hey! That's a round that was fired!" Ran, while waiting for her turn to play with the Cards, had just hung around in the Commander's Seat.

"Hmm? Could it be the enemy? The only thing we got from Makoto's team was that we should get ready." Minori closed her book shut and pushed up her glasses, prompting Yukiko to hurry and finish the paperwork sooner. Aizu on the other hand wasn't so sure that it could really be the enemy, especially because she hadn't finished the dango she and brought with her.

"You sure? You'd think Makoto would give us a heads up in advance. She's at the least that smart." Aizu simply laughed it off, "Could be her crew messing around, we're all new after all." She stated, despite the fact that Makoto's team had taken apart all four of the other teams during their Mock Battle. Ryoko, pausing her chess game with Toshiko, looked out the StuG III's hatch.

"Hmmm...no." She simply put it, "That round's travelling at low velocity, the only tank with a gun like that in the entire match would be Makoto's Ho-I." With that, their theory was sorta correct, but it also meant that Makoto was also traveling towards. Likely with Lady Atkins at their backs firing at them. "Alright guys, we should get ready, Makoto doesn't do things without their reasons." Ryoko returned to her crew compartment and shook at head to signal they were to stop playing. "Also," She moved her queen into a position that completely cornered Toshiko's king, "Checkmate." She grinned as Toshiko begrudgingly came back to the gunner's seat.

"Incoming." Natsuko tugged on the collar of her shirt when she heard the forward report come in. "It's Makoto's Ho-I!" The message was being relayed by Ume who was hearing everything from Mai. Mai was waiting to fire the gun for once, a few rounds from both guns before they would have to pull back. "But it looks like the entirety of Lady Atkins is behind her!" There was the punching blow, they'd been lured into the pass and now the ambush might just work to an extent.

"Everyone!" Makoto's voice suddenly came up over the radio waves, the real part started now. "Get your shots off now, before pulling back, they're all here, try to hit something." The distance between Tokai and Lady Atkins couldn't have been any more than a hundred meters, optimal firing distance for them, but also troubling due to the difference between Tokai's Guns and Lady Atkins's armor. Makoto's Ho-I pulled to the side, revealing the column of Infantry Tanks before the gunners. A symphony of mixed caliber fire was being directed towards them, ultimate inaccurate despite Tokai's high ground and stationary position.

"Captain, they're firing at us." The Matildas at the front relayed back that they were being fired on, but the effects were minimal. "Our momentum is still strong, we can still wipe them out here if we need to." Lavender glanced over as Jasmine, who was sitting quietly and calmly despite the fire coming around them. "Your orders, Captain?"

"Pursue them further, they're likely to fall back once we close the distance some more, begin firing once we're at around fifty meters." The order was plain and clear, even so to Tokai, as the Infantry tanks started to go into staggered column and fire back. "Chase them as far as you need to, as far as I know, there isn't a way for them to rightly hit any of us frontally." And this fact was becoming well aware to the girls from Tokai, even if they hit a them, the shot wouldn't even go through, simply glancing off or ricocheting. Makoto took notice of this as she watched the firefight occur with her in the middle of it.

With the crossfire becoming more and more intense, she took to the radio, "All tanks, fall back to the town at once. We'll engage them on our own terms." She relayed the order forward and results soon came in. One by one, the tanks on the ridge in front of them turned their hulls to to the forest and accelerated towards the town. "Asagi, get this tank up to its maximum power." The Ho-I's engine roared even more and they climbed the ridge ahead of them quickly, and under heavy fire as well.

"Hah! They're retreating. Must have realized it was pointless to fight us here." Anise crossed her arms, she had almost hit Tokai's massive target of a M6 twice. "Captain, we should pursue them further if this persists." Lady Atkins had the advantage at the moment, heavier armor, better guns, and more tanks to use.

"That's what we're going to do, we'll chase them to the ends of the world if we have to." The Lady Atkins tanks stopped firing once Makoto got out of range and they formed back up in a single column. Looking behind her, Makoto could see that they had just started to climb the ridge, grass turned into tree as they transitioned into the forestscape. And then soon enough, they'd reach Tokai as well.

"Okay, you guys know the plan. Split up all over Tokai, and don't bunch up in a single area. We'll have to do this the hard way, take them down one-by-one." Team A was the last one out of the firefight and the last to take over cover now. As Lady Atkins slowly crawled behind them and she caught the first glance of the town, she shouted over at Hina. "Hina-san! Tsuki-san! Cycle fire Smoke Rounds!" Cycle Firing meant a rapid firing and reloading drill during their training with Futaba. But with Smoke Rounds, it was much simpler, Hina fired the Smoke Rounds into the ground ahead of them with Tsuki just loading another. Cycling their rack of Smoke Rounds and then breaking off into the town by themselves.

It was quite effective, as when Jasmine and her formation arrive, there was a huge smoke cloud awaiting them and no sign of Tokai's tanks. At this point, all five of Tokai's tanks were located in vastly distant locations from each other and waiting for a Matilda or Valentine to run into them. They had forced her hand again, because Jasmine hesitantly gave out the order, "All tanks, split into pairs of two, Tea and Cream, Biscuit and Custard, Cake and Pudding, Pie with Tart."

"Roger." The commanders of all the other tanks commented and split into their respective groups to hunt down Tokai separately. The real part had just started back at the ridge, but now was where the action really started. Tokai Girls High School and Lady Atkins Girls Academy. Five tanks against Eight tanks, but now, the girls were on their native land, and this is where the last shots will be fired. Both captains of these teams, worriedly looked around them, neither Makoto or Jasmine knew how Tokai was built, but now was their Moment of Truth.

Sorry for no recent chapters, school has just ended recently and I got caught up with Finals and preparing for Finals in those last few weeks. I had actually prepared and finished this chapter a long time before school had ended. But I didn't have too much time to refine nor even upload it until recently these last few weeks. So this is a chapter long overdue for you guys, I'm truly sorry for the wait. But I sadly have to say that the current release time for the next chapter is just as unknown, as the days trudge by, so keep in there guys, this is a Story I simply just have to finish. Sorry for the wait, again, and thank you if you've stuck with me throughout of all this.