A/N : So if you're wondering where Chapter 9 went, it's undergoing rewrite. I didn't wanna keep it on here 'cause it'd look ugly as hell among all the polished chapters I made. It'll drop in two weeks so while you wait for that, enjoy the chapter!
Today's the day. The most anticipated match of the month has come. Excitement is in the air as the people would witness two old foes clash once again after so many years of silence. Today was the fight of Saunders against Oarai.
The Zuikaku was docked off the coast of a small island somewhere in the Pacific. Tibbets Island - named after the pilot of Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb - is an island that was subject to a number of America's nuclear bomb tests during the bygone era of the Cold War. Saunders bought the property in the late 90's long after the war had ended and used it as a training site - for some odd reason. It was abandoned in the early 2010s, and reopened in 2029.
A few miles away from the Zuikaku was the USS George Washington, also docked. Their Senshadō Team had already made a landing on the island a few weeks before Oarai even came here. They used an old camp made by the ones preceding them as a temporary base of operations. There they stored their tanks, equipment, and provisions.
Since Tibbets Island was a nuclear test site, it would be dangerous to set foot on it so the spectators were advised to watch the match in their homes. Miho and Yuzu however, had other plans.
They wanted to see the match as close as possible. That's why they boarded Yuzu's personal Eurocopter EC 225 - which she somehow bought during Oarai's period of recession - and with it, they flew to a particular part of the island that wasn't chock full of radiation, then set up plastic chairs in front of a gigantic screen, used by VIP spectators to observe the match.
"Do you think she'll come?" Yuzu asked Miho.
"Of course she would. She may be good at a lot of things, but breaking promises ain't one of them."
"How long has it been since you've seen her anyway?" the headmistress asked while opening up a plastic canteen to drink from it.
"I think... a year ago. During the Saunders-Pravda battle in the tournament. She was extra excited that day. Katyusha was there too."
The headmistress chuckled. "Has she grown any height?"
"Yeah actually. It's pretty surprising ain't it?"
"Really? I didn't think it was possible!"
"Yeah, I didn't think she'd grow to Anzu's height either." Miho replied before the two laughed.
They suddenly heard a helicopter in the distance. The two looked up at the sky and there was a VH-3D Sea King with a white and green paintjob. At first glance, it looked like the US President's chopper, the Marine One, but at closer inspection, it was Saunders' Senshadō Instructor's chopper.
The Sea King landed a few meters behind Miho and Yuzu. The grass was blown away and got into the two's eyes. A few seconds later and the helicopter's rotors slowed to a stop.
"Looks like she's here." Miho said.
The helicopter's door opened, and out came one of Miho's oldest friends, Kay. She wore the same JGSDF uniform as Miho and with a wide grin and open arms, approached the two. But she didn't need to get any closer as Miho came to her.
"Miho! Been a while!"
"Kay! You're here!"
The two shared a tight hug; so tight in fact that it could break a person's back. But Miho was used to it; the only threat her back has is her slouched posture.
"I'm... glad you could come... Kay!" said Miho, struggling to breathe from Kay's bear hug.
"Of course! I'd never let an opportunity to meet again like this go!"
The instructor lightly pushed Kay away and in turn, she let go of the hug. Yuzu, who was still in her seat, stood up and greeted Kay.
"Thank you for coming, Kay. I know that you're schedule's pretty tight so I hope this match didn't inconvenience you in any way."
Kay looked over Miho's shoulder. "Yuzu? I-Is that you?" the blonde pushed Miho aside and slowly got over to the headmistress.
"Hello Kay. Been a while hasn't it?" said Yuzu with her usual smile.
"Holy crap, it is you! Gimme some sugar man! It's been too long!" she opened up her arms again, inadvertently creating an imposing stature. Kay was looming over Yuzu as she was ready to crush her with her arms.
Yuzu declined the offer, saying, "I-I'll pass. I'm not as strong as Miho; at least not yet."
"Oh... Well, that's fine by me."
"We've prepared a seat for you. Come sit down and let's talk. The battle's far from beginning."
Yuzu lead Kay to the empty seat after which she sat down herself as well as Miho. Kay now sat in front of them. She brought a large bucket of popcorn which she shared with the two as they waited for the match to start
"So how's life been treating y'all?" asked Kay.
"We're doing fine as of now. Even though our school carrier is in a bit of a pickle, I, as well as Miho and everyone aboard the ship, are keeping a level head."
Kay raised an eyebrow as she tossed a piece of popcorn into her mouth. "So you're in trouble with the MEXT again? What's it about this time?"
"Nothing new. We've been underperforming again since our Senshadō Club dissolved two years ago."
Kay turned to the opposite side and asked Miho, "The club got dissolved again?"
"Yep, and now we revived it; again. It's just like the old days, only this time, the team's much worse." replied Miho.
"Oh really? How so?"
"Well, to start off, the overall commander and her crew don't know what they're doing; Turtle Team's the most 'experienced' out of all of them but they're too lazy to take the responsibility of leading the team; Hippo Team's a bunch of narcissistic douchebags who think the world revolves around them, so they don't get along well with everyone; Duck Team doesn't even know what a tank is; and I'm pretty sure the freshmen from Rabbit Team joined the wrong club. Like I told you, they're much worse. Back then the only thing we had to worry about was Momo's aim." she said, to which Yuzu snickered at the statement.
"Geez, you guys got it rough. And you're saying if you lose the tournament the school closes forever?"
Miho nodded. "Pretty much"
"Winning the tournament's the only way we can ensure the school stays afloat." said Yuzu.
Kay rubbed her chin. There must be some way she could help without possibly breaking any rules of the sport. Then she got an idea.
"I know! How about I give y'all some tanks?"
Miho and Yuzu's eyes widened. "W-What?!" they exclaimed in unison.
"Yeah! I'll convince the headmaster. Giving you three tanks for free won't even be a problem! After all, we are the richest school in Japan."
"Th-That's too kind, Kay. Are you sure he won't get pissed? 'Cause you're technically giving us something that cost him millions of yen to buy for free!"
"Miho, the headmaster's my brother-in-law! He'll understand it!" Kay exclaimed, which shocked the instructor.
"Y-You're somebody's auntie now?!"
"Yeah! I thought you knew?!"
"We haven't met in a year!"
"Oh yeah..." Kay was hit with realization. "Umm, yeah the headmaster's married to my lil' sister. She's an instructor too Miho! Haven't seen her in a while though since she's at some American Senshadō school in the Atlantic. A-Anyways, whether ya like it or not, I'm giving you three of my tanks!"
"I-I still don't think this is right, Kay. This is all so sudden!"
"-I'll also give you a month's supply of whiskey as a sweetener."
"Deal" Miho immediately agreed and shook Kay's hand.
The two were interrupted by Yuzu. "Hey you two, the match is about to start."
Kay and Miho quietened down and directed their attention to the big screen.
"Hey Kay, one last question: why'd you pick this radioactive wasteland anyway? Isn't this unsafe for the participants and all?"
Kay looked at Miho and smiled. "I picked it cause I thought it'd be funny."
Saturday, 3rd Week of June, 2033
Yuna Fujiwara - currently a captive of Saunders - gently arose from sleep as she heard incoherent crackling from a radio. After the brunette slowly opened her sleepy eyes, she found herself inside a tank. She knew this judging from the darkness, the tight space, and two girls dressed in Saunders' Senshadō uniform sitting on their respective seats near her. Based on the layout of the space, Yuna quickly figured out she was inside the turret of an M26 Pershing.
"H-Huh? Where... Where am I?" the brunette grumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"Yo, I see you're finally awake." said the commander, "You were asleep for a long time. I was starting to think you died of starvation. How're ya feeling Fujiwara-san?"
After partially making sense of the situation, Yuna answered, "M-My head hurts... And I'm starving to death... W... Wasn't there a rule? That prisoners of war are forbidden to be subjected to any form of cruelty whatsoever?"
"Yeah I know of it. Geneva Convention III, Article 13." the commander then turned away from Yuna to her gunner. "I'm sorry about that kid," she tapped the gunner's shoulder, "your friends will prolly throw a big feast to celebrate your return, you'll get to eat as much as you want to then." she was then handed an energy bar from the gunner which she then passed onto Yuna. "But for now, you get the Snickers. Eat up kid, you look like my old cat that I left in the basement for a week."
After being given the energy bar, Yuna tore the plastic wrap open and put the entire Snickers in her mouth. She chewed it for five seconds before swallowing it.
"Thanks commander, say d'you have some drinks with you? I'm kinda thirsty."
"Uh, yeah. I guess you could borrow my hip flask." the commander reached inside her jacket and grabbed the flask, giving it to Yuna.
Once the girl opened it, she immediately put it in her mouth and gulped it down.
While Yuna was emptying her flask, the commander felt it appropriate to introduce herself and her crew to the new blood.
"So, kid, welcome to my Pershing crew. The name's Jude, Jude Gottlieb. Obviously I'm the commander. My gunner over here's Charlie Tremblay. My driver's Rae Cohen and sat next to her is Mia Takei, the co-driver." she then leaned on her seat. "You don't have to remember 'em though. You're just the temp loader after all."
Once she had finished drinking, Yuna gave it back to Jude who was shocked to see the flask empty.
"Goddamn, kid. You fit in to Saunders fast huh..." she muttered.
"Pleased to meet you Gottlieb-san. I'm Fujiwara Yuna."
"Right..." Jude paused for a second to hide her hip flask. "So anyways, tell me about yourself Yuna. What did you do for someone to kidnap you from your school and force you to be a loader?"
"O-Okay umm... well... I'm the overall commander of Oarai's Senshadō Team. I caught Anderson-san trying to spy on us so I chased her to a helicopter. I got myself kidnapped, spent a week in a cell without food, and now I'm here."
"I see you've met our commander! How was she?"
"I dunno..." Yuna shrugged. "She's pretty weird I guess?"
"How so?"
"She doesn't speak Japanese, she's above average height, she says all these weird slang words like 'cringe' or 'based'. How'd she become your commander anyways?"
"Well you know, it's cuz-"
Their conversation was suddenly interrupted when the tank's radio crackled to life.
"Ayo this Alpha 1, you copy Delta 5?"
"Hold on a 'sec kid, I gotta answer this." Jude picked up the receiver. "Since when did we start calling ourselves 'Delta'?"
"I was just playin' man." the voice replied with a chuckle, "Anyways, our scouts say Oarai's in the area so start looking! We can't let them get passed us or else they'll get to the rest of our units!"
"Yeah, yeah copy that, we'll keep an eye out, over." after putting down the receiver, Jude turned to Yuna. "Hit me up on the throat mic kid, we'll talk from there." she then stood up and opened the cupola's hatch, finally letting in some much needed air and sunlight into the Pershing. Yuna also wanted to bask in the midday sun, but due to her being a POW and all, she couldn't. It didn't matter anyway; there was nothing much to look at outside other than lifeless fields and empty skies.
"So anyways where were we at?" Jude asked. The only thing Yuna could see of her now was her legs.
"You guys don't use codenames?"
"All that military palaver? Pfft, that shit's boring. We call ourselves how we like to call ourselves. Kelly doesn't seem to have a problem with it. Anyways, what the hell were we talking about again?"
"-Also, could you at least tell me where I am right now? Yesterday I was laying in bed in a locked room and now I'm here!" Yuna strayed from the main subject and instead inquired about her whereabouts.
Jude sighed vexedly, "You're not answering my questions kid, but whatever, I guess I'll give you a rundown of what's been happening. So basically, while you were asleep last night, Mari and the other people from the Student Council-"
"Mari?" the brunette interjected.
"Oyama Mari, our Student Council Prez. She dragged you from your bed, put you in our Senshadō uniform, and planted you here. We did the whole meeting-before-the-match with Oarai half an hour ago and now you've woken up."
"W-Wait, so we're in the middle of a match right now?!" Yuna exclaimed in shock.
"Yep, my tank's entrenched right now, we're waiting for your friends to come over here, and we're gonna jump 'em."
The two then paused for a minute as Yuna did the best she could to make sense of the situation and Jude focused on scouting out Oarai's tanks.
After a while, Yuna asked, "So who's your overall commander?"
"Oh, that'd be Kelly Anderson. You might've met her kid."
"What? How'd Kelly get assigned the commander position?" Yuna replied.
"It's cuz she looks like our instructor Kay, kid. I mean, she just needs to grow her hair a bit and they'll be doppelgängers!"
"Kelly's commander just for that?"
"Yeah. So is every other school's commanders. It's for nostalgia purposes kid. Ever since Kay, and Nishizumi, and every other commander from their time graduated, Senshadō's been going on the decline. So the schools came up with this: whoever closely resembled the old commanders was to be assigned the overall commander role, regardless of whether they're good at the sport or not."
"B-But isn't Senshadō about teaching young girls to be strong and independent or something like that?"
Jude chuckled, "You sound like my grandma dude. All that value and tradition bullshit ended years ago. Now it's only about sponsorships, money, and fame. It's a shame but you know, it is what it is."
The commander then realized it was getting boring so she told her gunner, "Ay Charlie play some music will ya? Tibbet's eerie ambience is gonna make me lose my goddamn mind again..."
"Sure Jude take your pick." the gunner responded as she pulled out a small speaker.
"Alright, so there's this one guy called 'Ski Mask the Slump God', he's a famous old dude from like 15 years ago. So yeah, he made this song with this other dude named 'X' and it's called 'Take a Step Back'. Really nerve-soothing song man, I tell ya."
"Holy crap, 2016?! 18 years ago?! How deep did ya have to go to friggin' find this shit man?!"
"Above my payroll bro. Just play the song aight?"
"Eh, if you say so..."
After 20 minutes of listening to totally relaxing music from decades ago, Jude seemed to have seen something in the distance. She gasped in surprise and was in a slight panic but she quickly composed herself and pressed her throat mic.
"Ay Kelly! Oarai's here!"
The commander's voice was heard by the whole crew. "Wait w-what?! Ah shit, everyone prepare for battle! Don't get taken out at all costs aight? And don't let 'em get through y'all! Godspeed!"
After the transmission ended, the music was abruptly turned off and the Pershing's gunner began to rub her hands feverishly. "Yessirrrr, let's get straight into it! On my momma we lit!"
"Stop being a putz and start shooting already!" the driver yelled and the gunner immediately snapped to silence.
She then turned to Yuna and said, "Watch closely kid! We finna smoke that Oarai pack, on God!" she exclaimed confidently. Charlie then turned around to her gun and looked through the scope.
"Let's hope those flimsy arms of yours still works." Jude radioed in, "Get to loading, Yuna. And make it quick!"
"Y-Yes ma'am!"
Yuna bent down to pick up a shell and punched it into the gun breech before telling the gunner it's loaded.
"On my go... and fire!"
Yuna covered her ears just in time before her tank fired which was followed by another shot from outside.
Holy shit it's starting... Yuna thought before she was yelled at again by Charlie.
"Stop standing around and load another shell!" and so she did.
Before Yuna could punch the shell in, she flinched when their tank was hit, accompanied by a loud ringing noise that violated her eardrums. Yuna almost dropped the shell but after another scolding from the gunner, she powered through the pain and slid the shell in.
The Pershing fired again. Yuna was unsure if the shot hit or not; she hoped for the latter.
While Yuna was loading the next shell in, Jude sat back down the commander seat and closed the hatch above.
"Holy shit it's feelin' like Chicago out there." said the commander, hiding her fear by keeping a straight face. "We also have a problem people. Oarai's got a new toy..."
"Wait, what?!" exclaimed Charlie, keeping her eyes on the sights. Yuna stayed silent but was equally shocked.
"Yeah. They got a Type 3 now. Best take it out first before it kills one of our Shermans!"
Charlie fired a shot before saying, "Well, I'm kinda busy with the Hetzer! Tell the Jumbo to deal with it!"
"Alright, hold on." Jude picked up the radio's handset.
"What'chu want fool? I'm kinda in the middle of something!" a woman's yell crackled forth from the handset.
"Maldonado! Hey listen, I need you to do me a favor."
She sighed, "What is it now?"
"D'you see any Type 3's? I need you to take it out for me."
"Oh yeah? And what's in it for us?"
"Let's talk about it later alright?" she turned to her gunner. "Fire!"
The Pershing fired before Maldonado gave her answer.
"Fine, we'll do it. Wait hold on... Mierda!" there was suddenly an explosion from the other end.
"Hey! Hey! Are you alright?!" Jude yelled frantically.
There was a few seconds of silence, during which the Pershing fired again, before Maldonado came back to answer.
The Jumbo's commander grabbed hold of her handset and coughed a few times before answering, "Carajo! We're down! Damn StuG got us!"
"Shit..." Jude cursed under her breath, "A-Are you alright?"
"Don't worry about us capitan! Keep on fighting for Saunders!" the transmission ended.
Jude disappointedly put the radio's handset back in place before she told Charlie, "Maldonado's gone. Let's just hope Kelly kills the Type 3 or something."
While she was punching shells into the chamber, Yuna was also listening in on the conversation. She had a little spark of hope light up inside her when she heard the news of the Jumbo's defeat.
"Hey Charlie, have we hit anything yet?"
"N-No ma'am! I'm sorry but there's too much smoke outside! I can't hit 'em! O-Oh shit!"
"What is it?" Jude asked but before she was answered, the Pershing was suddenly knocked back violently, as if they crashed into something. The commander hit her head on the hull and was knocked unconscious.
Yuna however, was lucky with only a few bruises. She and Charlie were the only ones awake inside the turret. From above the tank, Yuna could hear the distinct "flick" sound of a white flag.
"Holy shit..." said Charlie in a strained voice. She turned around and saw her commander knocked out. "Holy shit! Jude are you alright?!" she turned to Yuna, who was wide-eyed at the moment.
"Fujiwara! Help her out now! She's bleeding for God's sake!"
Yuna uttered something that the gunner failed to hear due to the constant gunshots outside.
"What?!"
"I... I'm sorry, Charlie. I really am." Yuna suddenly stood up, opened the loader's hatch and crawled out into the chaos outside.
"Hey! HEY! Get the hell back here and help me out with Jude! You... fucking... bastard!" she yelled but she was too weak to crawl out and chase her.
Yuna, now on top of the turret, hopped off it onto the front of the tank before sliding down to the ground. Soon after, the driver's hatch opened up and Cohen poked her head out.
"Ay you! Get the hell back here!"
Yuna ignored her and looked around. To her east was the wreck of the Sherman Jumbo - which was partially buried into the ground - she heard about earlier and behind her was her Senshadō Team who drove past the destroyed tanks. They probably didn't know Yuna was inside the Pershing so they left her there.
Noticing she was about to be left behind, Oarai's commander stood up from the ground and began running after her tank platoon, waving her arms around so they would notice her.
"Hey! Wait up!" she yelled but to no avail.
It would've seemed that she would never get back to her Senshadō Team, but the all of the tanks suddenly stopped right before a hail of artillery fire bombarded their position.
Shocked, Yuna managed to trip on the ground, leading to her getting a cut on the knee. "Ow fuck!" she cursed, "Wh-What the hell was that?! Artillery?! I need to get back to my Panzer quick!" she then quickly stood up and pushed further.
As Yuna got closer to Oarai's tank column, they started firing at something in the distance. She also noticed a few things. One, the Bob Semple was still there somehow, and two, there was a new tank in the fray: a Type 3 Medium Tank. It was a mystery to her who was crewing it though.
After a minute of dodging artillery shells - which confused Yuna as to why they were present - the brunette finally reached her Panzer IV. It ceased firing as soon as she got a few feet from it.
The commander climbed up her tank and entered through the commander's hatch.
"Tadaima!" she happily announced as she slid into her tank and was met by her crew's faces.
"Y-Yuna! Okaeri!" Ayano exclaimed. She was in the gunner's seat at the moment.
"Ayano! How you been?! I friggin' missed you so much! H-How's the team?!"
"I-I'm fine! I got assigned gunner since you got kidnapped and everything, but-"
"Ayano, we need to keep firing! Do the talking later!" Eiko reminded from the radio operator's seat. "Oh and uh, welcome back commander!"
"R-Right! Hold on I'm on it!" Ayano turned around and peered through the gun's sights but she was stopped by Yuna.
"Switch to the loader's seat! I'll deal with them!"
Ayano nodded before quickly switching over to her actual seat.
Yuna felt at home in a way now that she was on her old seat. It still felt as warm as she left it. While she was removing her Saunders jacket, a transmission then came in from Turtle Team.
"Fujiwara! Welcome home!" Akira greeted, "How was the vacation in Saunders?"
"Very unpleasant, Kaichou. I got starved!" she replied in a casual, almost joking manner, "Now I can't really talk right now! I see we got tanks ahead of us! Over!" she then peered through the gun sights.
A few hundred meters from them was a trench line, where four tanks - those being two M26 Pershings, a Sherman M4A2 76(W), and a Sherman Easy Eight - were entrenched as they laid down fire against Oarai.
Seeing nothing else better to do, Yuna fired a shot. A wave of pleasure hit her in a flash as she heard the sound of her tank's 75mm cannon, accompanied by the recoil of the gun and the sound of the freshly used shell sliding out of the gun breech. The shot bounced off one of the two remaining Pershings in the distance
"That's a miss." Yuna reported before she turned to her loader. "Hey Ayano, you got some rations on you? I'm friggin' famished!"
"Umm... yeah." she replied before punching a new shell in. Ayano reached into her skirt pocket and brought out a box of Pocky which she somehow fit in there. "A girl from Saunders gave it to me. I think she was trying to win me over with some candy."
"Ahh nice. Well, here's a fun fact: Saunders crewmen tend to have more libido than sailors! You're lucky she only offered you chocolates!" Yuna said before she opened up the box, grabbed all of the chocolate-coated sticks, and shoved it into her mouth.
The commander then turned back to the gun and fired one time, predictably missing the target Pershing.
As Ayano loaded another shell in, Yuna asked her crew a question, "Hey guys, since when did Saunders go back to using Pershings again? Didn't they permanently remove them from the roster after that little accident during the 61st?"
"That was a myth, Yuna." Eiko denied, "There's literally no evidence of someone getting crushed by a Pershing."
Shiori, the Panzer's driver, then added, "The Pershings were - and still are - pretty expensive since they're late war tanks, Yuna-san. Saunders relies on numbers so buying a ton of Pershings isn't really the best idea monetary-wise."
"Gun ready, Yuna!" reported Ayano.
Yuna fired again, this time the shot landed close to her target. Afterwards, she returned to the conversation at hand. "That's a miss... Anyways, what about the artillery shells? That's illegal isn't it?! This isn't European Senshadō!"
Shiori replied in disbelief, "I thought you were a Senshadō fan, Yuna-san? Didn't you read the news? The Japanese Senshadō Federation embraced European Tankery's traditions! That's why we got artillery guns and planes now! This shit literally happened 4 years ago, why have you only learned about this now?"
"W-Well I only watch the old stuff okay? They're leagues better than what we have now!" the brunette reasoned.
"Gun ready, Yuna!"
The commander-gunner then paused to fire another shot. This time, it actually hit the Pershing, but the shell didn't penetrate.
Whilst Ayano loaded the next shell in, Akira radioed in again. "So, seeing as we're at a standstill with Saunders, I feel as though it's about time I told you about the things that transpired while you were gone."
"Oh really? Tell me about it." Yuna was taking a sip from her canteen as she listened to her message.
"So you remember the Type 3 you found with Tsuruki? Yeah, we got a crew for it."
Yuna put her canteen away before replying, "Oh shit, yeah I saw it earlier in the field! Who're the volunteers?"
"The Public Morals Committee-" the president quickly replied.
"What?!" she yelled into the throat mic before firing another shot.
"What, you've got a problem with them? They're returning a favor I gave 'em a few weeks ago. From now on, they'll be operating the Type 3 until we win the nationals; if we win the nationals."
"I-I guess... thank you Kaichou. Thanks for managing the team without me."
"Hey, I may be lazy but I ain't that lazy. Anyways, we almost just got hit by the Easy Eight. We'll contact you when the battle's done." the transmission ended.
After firing another missed shot, Yuna asked Eiko, "Hey Eiko, you know what we're dealing with right now?"
It took a split second before the ginger haired girl replied, "Uh yeah. As you can see from your sights, Saunders still has three more tanks: one Pershing's still standing; the M4A2 76(W)'s also still here, plus the Easy Eight which has almost killed us in multiple occasions. One of the Pershings ran away and we've only killed two of their tanks so far. Overall it's a 5v3 but Saunders seems to not wanna back down."
"Of course they won't. They're Saunders. They're like Pravda but more arrogant." Yuna muttered before turning to Ayano.
"Could ya get on the gun for a minute? I'm gonna do something real quick."
"O-Okay! I'll try my best!"
Yuna switched over to the commander's seat before standing up and poking out of the cupola. Ayano meanwhile, shifted over to the gunner's seat and started shooting.
The commander pulled out a pair of binoculars and surveyed the battlefield. As if the fields between Saunders' trenches and Oarai's position didn't look post-apocalyptic enough, a hundred small craters were left there from the hundreds of missed shots from the two forces.
A few hundred meters away from Yuna's tank column were the three entrenched tanks that Eiko mentioned. Even though they were now at a disadvantage, they arrogantly refused to retreat.
"Looks like we're really about to beat Saunders! Holy crap I can't believe this!" the brunette commander remarked as she had an overjoyed smile plastered on her face.
But then suddenly, she heard the reverberating sound of a plane's engines before she turned west. Yuna's eyes widened and her mouth fell agape as a Saunders-owned P51 Mustang made an overhead fly on them as it fired a barrage of four rockets and dropped two 250kg bombs.
Oarai's commander immediately ducked down inside the hatch as ear-piercing explosions rang out from outside. She could only imagine the damage that plane had made as a myriad of panicked voices flooded her comms.
Yuna's tank column ceased firing, but the three Saunders tanks didn't; this was a problem. Yuna quickly poked back out of her cupola and started assessing damages. To her left: the corpses of the M24 Chaffee and the Type 3, which were a short distance from two giant craters where the bombs fell. To her right, a Hetzer whose tracks were blown off, accompanied by the Bob Semple. Behind her, the StuG which made a hasty retreat.
"Dammit, we're gonna lose! Everyone deploy smoke!" Yuna exclaimed in a panicked tone.
"You're the only tank who has smoke grenades! Just fire 'em and cover us!" Akira yelled back.
Yuna then went back inside and shortly after, she fired off smoke grenades which concealed from Saunders' guns.
Whilst sat on the commander's seat, Yuna once again consulted her senpai. "A-Alright, where do we go now Kaichou?!"
"I don't know, you're the commander here! Think of something!"
"W-Well, retreating's the only possible option! We can't go anywhere!"
"What?! You can't do that! You can't leave us here to die!"
"They're not useful anyways, Yuna-san! Let's go and get out of here!" Shiori interjected.
"F-Fine, Shiori retreat!"
The Panzer IV then slowly back away, keeping its thickest armor towards its enemies. The Bob Semple also retreated too, only much slower while the Hetzer was left behind to die.
Oarai had once again been pushed back on their heels. It's debatable whether it was due to Yuna's incompetence or the Senshadō Team's overall lack of knowledge about the sport that lead them to defeat. The brunette commander is once again faced with a tough obstacle. Will she pull through? Or fail miserably in trying to counterattack?
To be continued...