Chapter 5: The First Practice
September 15, 2010
Charlotte, North Carolina
Eryn's week so far had been disastrous. Nearly everyone had found out about him being the son of a famous Tankery athlete, this made tons of people swarm him constantly like he was some sort of celebrity. At first, he liked being the "popular kid" but it soon spiraled into chaos and calamity, Jonathan and Tomas had to act as body guards so that they wouldn't get trampled by the crowds of students every time they were near Eryn. Thankfully, Mr. Moran allowed Eryn and his friends to hide in his classroom and even eat lunch in there if the crowd got too obnoxious.
Today, Eryn and his friends sought refuge in Mr. Moran's classroom for lunch, as lunch time was usually when the most students would crowd Eryn. The crew all sat down at a table eating their lunch and having some small talk between them.
"Do you guys know what World of Tanks is?" Jonathan asked.
"Uhhhh, no?" Eryn responded.
"It's this new tank game that came out a month ago and I've been playing it, it's really fun!" Jonathan explained. "You guys should get it so we can play with each other."
"I'll see if my computer can run it." Eryn replied.
"Jonathan," Kay questioned. "Is this game the reason I've been hearing you scream at like 12:00 in the morning?"
"I don't know." Jonathan answered nonchalantly, with hints of embarrassment in his voice .
After the not so subtle advertisement (I've been kidnapped by Wargaming, please help!), Eryn and his friends continued eating their lunch in peace. Lillie didn't really mind that they were eating in a classroom to avoid people swarming them because of Eryn, but she thinks Eryn should just get used to having people swarm or talk to him. They'll probably accept him as a normal kid after a while.
"So are we just gonna stay here for lunch for the rest of the year?" Lillie questioned.
"Mhmm." Eryn answered
Lillie sighed to herself. "Y'know Eryn, I think it's better to just get used to it instead of hiding from everyone. More and more people are finding out, which means it's gonna get more annoying than it is now."
Eryn slumped into his chair and thought about what Lillie said, she made a very good point. After a couple more seconds of thinking, Eryn sat back up and looked at all of his friends.
"Screw it, let's go." Eryn said.
Eryn led his friends through the hallway and towards the cafeteria doors, he peered into them and saw that it was full as ever. He kept looking and saw that there was a table in the corner which had Peter and his friends along Cara and her friends who seemed to be having some sort of debate. Thankfully, there was enough space for them to sit as well. Peter looked towards the door and made eye contact. Before Peter could say anything, Eryn held a finger to his mouth, signaling to not say anything, Peter understood and then gestured Eryn to come over and sit to which Eryn nodded. Before entering, Eryn had all of them crowd them so that he wouldn't get spotted.
"Alright, let's go!" Eryn ordered.
The group entered the cafeteria and shuffled towards Peter's table. Luckily, Eryn's plan worked and he wasn't spotted by anyone. The people at the table shuffled so that Eryn could sit in the very corner where he wouldn't be spotted. After sitting down, the small talk between the two crews resumed, they were talking about which tank was the coolest looking.
"It has to be the Tiger!" Kurt shouted.
"Nah nah, it's the M1 Abrams!" Brett rebutted.
The debate soon spiraled into an argument, with nearly everyone starting to get involved. Eryn opted to stay out of it, it would draw more attention to himself and would risk getting spotted by someone. Unfortunately, him not being involved would soon change.
"Hey Eryn, what's the coolest looking tank?" Lillie said.
"Uhhh-" Eryn stuttered, he thought of some designs he liked before speaking his opinion. "The Bob Semple."
Everyone except for Kay and Cara looked at him in confusion, with the two blondes trying to hold in their laughter. Eryn noticed everyone's confusion and decided that he would spread some "facts" about it.
"The Bob Semple is the greatest tank you guys have never heard of!" Eryn started. "It was made by New Zealand and is the sole reason why Japan never invaded them during World War 2."
To Eryn's surprise, everyone looked like they believed him, this gave him all the more reason to push further. "The tank was so fast, it could run circles around an M18 Hellcat. It's armor was so thick, that a Panther wouldn't penetrate it at point black, the gun could penetrate the armor of a King Tiger like it was nothing!"
"Why didn't New Zealand make more of them?" Arielle questioned.
"You see, the design was so powerful that the Allies had to prohibit it's manufacturing because they were scared what New Zealand might do with it." Eryn answered with the straightest face he could muster.
"I gotta check if this is true, when I get home though." Lillie remarked.
At this point, Kay and Cara both started to crumble in laughter. The fact that Eryn managed to fool everyone with this tank astonished both of them. Before anyone could question Eryn's legitimacy, the lunch bell had rung. Everyone got up and started heading towards their classes. Eryn's schedule today lined up with Cara's and Peter's, meaning that he would be able to talk with them for the rest of the afternoon.
His first afternoon class was History, he entered the classroom and walked towards the back of the room where Peter and Cara were sitting. Surprisingly enough, nobody swarmed or pestered him which he found weird, he then sat down behind Cara and Peter. The two turned towards Eryn and greeted him as they sat down.
"Hi Eryn." Cara and Peter greeted.
"Hey." Eryn responded.
"Did you guys know that we have our first practice today?" Peter said.
Cara and Eryn both turned towards him and practically shouted. "We do!?"
"Yeah, I didn't know until Nicki told me this morning." Peter explained. "Mr. Moran probably had it in his speech after the tryout."
"I think I zoned out during that speech." Cara admitted.
"Same, I just wanted to go home." Eryn added.
Peter facepalmed and turned towards the front of the class as the teacher had just arrived and was about to start the lecture, with the teacher in question being Mr. Moran himself. Nearly every kid in the school loved Mr. Moran's lectures, he made them very entertaining and could possibly make any subject worth listening in on. Today's subject was in how the Soviet Union collapsed, Eryn struggled to wrap his head around the subject even with Mr. Moran's teaching ability. History hadn't always been a pain for Eryn, it was only when he transferred to Queen City in particular where he started struggling, the advanced curriculum started to be his excuse when he struggled. Eryn started to zone out on the lecture, giving up on trying to learn.
"Eryn!" Mr. Moran called out. Eryn snapped back to his senses and looked up at the board.
"Y-yes?" Eryn responded.
"Which Soviet leader had the longest run in power?" Mr. Moran questioned.
"Joseph Stalin?" Eryn said with a hint of confidence, this was an easy question even for someone with little knowledge on the subject
"Correct!" Mr. Moran congratulated.
Eryn sighed in relief, but his senses were still on high alert. He knew that Mr. Moran asked that just to see if he was sleeping or not, the question itself didn't even relate to what Mr. Moran was talking about on the board. Eryn then decided to pay attention to the subject, out of fear that he would be called upon again and making a fool of himself.
A while later, the bell had rung and everyone started to reorganize and head over to their next classes. Before Eryn, Cara and Peter could pack up, Mr. Moran told them to come over to his desk. The three complied and walked over to him.
"What is it, Mr. Moran?" Peter asked.
"I'm gonna have practice start earlier than stated, probably around 1:45. You guys will be dismissed from your classes for now until I have you guys come to the garage." Mr. Moran explained. "But for now, just stay in the main foyer."
"Oh, alright." Cara responded.
"Yup, you guys can go now." Mr. Moran dismissed.
The three exited Mr. Moran's classroom and walked towards the main foyer. Eryn looked at his phone and saw that it was 1:20, meaning that Mr. Moran would probably call them to the garage in around 25 minutes. They arrived in the foyer after a short walk and made themselves comfortable. Since they didn't have any school work to do, this gave them the opportunity for some small talk.
"So, which schools are you two going to once we graduate?" Eryn questioned.
"I'll be headed to Black Forest Peak." Peter replied, Eryn looked at him in surprise.
"Black Forest?" Eryn remarked. "I heard that school is really hard to get into."
"Yup, but it's one of the most elite out there." Peter explained.
"Going there is a dream of mine, and I know I have what it takes!" Peter declared as he raised his fist in the air.
"I like your confidence!" Cara complimented.
"What about you Cara, what school are you planning to enroll in?" Peter asked.
"Hmm-" Cara droned. "I'm planning to go to a school in Toronto with my crew."
"Oh wow." Eryn said. "What's it called?"
"Ryerson High School of Excellence." Cara answered.
"That's cool, do they offer Tankery?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, but the team hasn't made it past the semi-finals." Cara answered.
"Oh, so why are you going there?" Eryn asked, a bit confused.
"It's a bit close to home, and I know people who go there." Cara said.
"I see." Eryn said.
More and more people in the Tankery team started to arrive in the foyer, which included the trio's other friends. The table Eryn, Cara and Peter were sitting at started to gradually fill up with more and more of their friends. Even Nicki and her crew sat down at the table, which made the seating arrangement a bit cramped but manageable.
"So, we should probably start up something to talk about." Jonathan said.
"I'm resuming the one I had with Eryn and Peter." Cara replied, to which Eryn and Peter nodded.
"Eryn, you never mentioned what school you planned on going to." Peter pointed out.
"Yeah- I don't really know." Eryn responded, to everyone's surprise.
"Still?" Nicki said. "Did you have any you were thinking about?"
"Mhm, Georgetown, Saunders and Richmond, but I don't think I'll be able to get in." Eryn said, to which everyone disagreed.
"Seriously?!" Tomas exclaimed. "Once people start finding out who you are, you're gonna get a shit ton of offers, maybe even ones from overseas!"
Everyone complied with what Tomas said, but Eryn still had his doubts. "Ehh- I don't know still."
Tomas facepalmed. "You are the son of one of the greatest Tankery athletes, at least one school is gonna give you an offer."
"Just because I'm the son of a great Tankery athlete doesn't mean I'll be good as him!" Eryn pointed out. "I haven't even had my first match yet which means I haven't even gotten to proven myself yet. What if I'm a bust?"
"We have our first match in two weeks, you'll get to prove yourself Eryn." A voice reassured. Everyone looked to where it came from and saw that it was Mr. Moran himself.
"Wait really?" Peter remarked. "Who are we against?"
"A school in Georgia, Holy Cross Middle School." Mr. Moran said.
Excitement began to fill everyone present in the main foyer, their senses and emotions tingled as anticipation of their first match had entered their minds. The team would now have to practice harder than they expected to hopefully be ready to face their adversary school.
"Alright, looks like your woken up. Everyone to the main garage and mount up!" Mr. Moran announced.
Everyone got up from their seats and made their way to the main garage. The garage was already opened up and all of their tanks were cleaned up and ready to go. One thing that surprised Eryn and his friends was that the dozer blade was still on the Chaffee, with it's brackets holding it in place having been repaired.
"Wow, they patched this thing up good!" Kay remarked.
"Indeed." Lillie said in agreement before climbing into the light tank, everyone soon followed.
After climbing into the tank, Eryn grabbed his neck microphone and strapped it around his neck. He then connected a headset into one of the jacks. Kay looked into the sights and fumbled with them while Jonathan checked all of the ammunition storage bins. He then crouched down to check up on Tomas and Lillie, with Tomas getting the engines started and Lillie checking on the gauges, as the machine gun was obstructed by the dozer blade.
"Alright, systems check!" Eryn ordered.
"Ammo and coaxial, check!"
"Sights and gun, check!"
"Gauges and mechanisms, check!"
"All systems are go!" Eryn replied as he had the all clear from his crew. This little tradition that he and his friends did while operating the Chaffee never failed to make him smile.
All mounted up and ready to go, the team just had to wait for Mr. Moran to arrive and give the order to proceed to the practicing area. Soon enough, a familiar M46 Patton rolled up to the front of the garage. Mr. Moran popped out from the commanders hatch and started speaking into a megaphone.
"It looks like all of you are ready to go which is good." Mr. Moran said in an upbeat tone. "We're gonna head to the practice area, so follow me!"
Mr. Moran's tank turned and drove towards the side road that led to the practice range, All of the team's tanks soon followed. Not longer after, there was a long convoy of tanks trailing the side road. Mr. Moran decided it was now time to give the team it's first order.
"All right everyone, organize yourselves in a V Formation, having me as the leading tank." Mr. Moran ordered, various sounds of agreement and rogers echoed through the headset.
After Mr. Moran gave his order, the trail of tanks immediately started to arrange themselves, Eryn ordered Tomas to pull along side Mr. Moran's tank and trail a little behind in hopes of starting a V. A little while after, Eryn popped his head out of the commander's hatch and looked to his left. The formation in no way resembled a V, with some tanks either way to far ahead or trailing behind. Funnily enough, some of the tanks that trailed behind included two of his friends; that being Cara and Nicki. Eryn cut them some slack however, this was their first practice and even his tank wasn't perfectly aligned. The main reason for them lagging behind however, was that T-34 was a "pain in the ass to drive" according to the driver: Brett and the Churchill having a less than considerable top speed.
A while after, the formation finally started to resemble a V if you squinted hard enough. It was clear that the team needed a considerable amount of practice in order to be ready for their first match, which was in two weeks. Mr. Moran ordered them to return to a standard convoy line, which relieved some of the team. After that, they arrived at the gigantic firing range. People immediately noticed that the ranges were way farther than they were during the second phase of the tryout.
"I want everyone to line up in a firing line!" Mr. Moran ordered, the tanks started to organize into a decently nice looking firing line. "Look for a target marked with the number one and acquire it's range."
Every commander of each tank looked out of their hatches and scanned the massive hill for said target. After finding it, the commanders all estimated the range of the target.
"Now, have your gunner ready to fire at it on my mark." Mr. Moran said.
Eryn followed Mr. Moran's orders and found them to be quite easy, it was target practice overall. Confident, he turned to Kay and gave her the location of the target. Then, he had Jonathan load an AP shell.
"Rotate turret to 3 o'clock, range of target is 900 meters." Eryn told Kay. "Jonathan, load armor piercing."
"Got it!" Kay and Jonathan replied.
Kay rotated the turret to the direction of the target and elevated the gun so that it would be adjusted for the range of the target. Jonathan then grabbed an armor piercing shell out of the stowage bin and loaded it into the breech, the breech made a satisfying clang signifying that it was loaded. All they had to do now was wait for Mr. Moran's order.
"Fire!" Mr. Moran shouted into the radio.
Dozens of shots rang out and sped towards the target. The shell impacts were dispersed nearly everywhere on the hill, with some drastically bellow the intended target or even some that over shot the target. Some shells managed to hit or graze the target.
"Could be better." Mr. Moran thought to himself. He then directed the team to another target.
"Fire again!"
More and more shells began to rain down on the hill, with Mr. Moran repeatedly giving orders on where to fire. This began to put a strain on Jonathan, his arms were starting to give out from lifting and loading so many shells in a short time period. Even so, the orders kept going and eventually, Jonathan gave out. Luckily, Mr. Moran ordered to stop firing and a sigh of relief escaped Jonathan's mouth.
"Alright everyone, follow me in a V-formation." Mr. Moran ordered, groans echoed throughout the radios.
The tanks all drove up to Mr. Moran's tank before realigning themselves into a V-formation. Unsurprisingly, the formation did not look like a V whatsoever. But as the formation drove on, individual tanks readjusted themselves and a V started to take shape. Mr. Moran's tank then took a wide swing towards the left, everyone didn't anticipate this and the V-formation fell into disarray. The lead tank then stopped at what seemed to be an open field.
"Alright, everyone stop, dismount and gather around me." Mr. Moran radioed.
Everyone complied, and the team disembarked from their vehicles before heading over to Mr. Moran. Once everyone was gathered around him, Mr. Moran grabbed his trusty megaphone and began asking a question.
"What is the most important thing a Tankery team must know?" Mr. Moran said, a girl then rose her hand.
"Efficiency?" The girl stated.
"Ehhh!" Mr. Moran buzzed, more and more people gave guesses to which Mr. Moran said no to until Lillie finally gave the answer Mr. Moran was looking for?
"Safety?" Lillie said.
"Correct!" Mr. Moran congratulated, a small round of applause then started.
"Anyway, the reason we are here to learn and exercise safety procedures. Hopefully, you will never have to use these procedures but these will be useful to know in the event you have to." Mr. Moran said with a more serious tone in his voice. "Firstly, we will practice bailing from a tank as fast as possible. Someone say go once I fully enter the tank and close the hatch."
Everyone nodded in compliance and looked towards Mr. Moran, he climbed back into his tank through the commander's hatch and closed it.
"Go!" Someone shouted.
The hatch was then flung open, Mr. Moran then popped out of the hatch with great efficiency and speed. After having his fully body out of the tank, Mr. Moran then jumped onto the side skirts of the tank and then jumped off. He then performed a roll to absorb the impact of the jump and add some style points.
"Before our match against Holy Cross, I want all of us to be nearly as or as fast as that when bailing out of a tank, got it?" Mr. Moran stated.
"Got it!" Everyone responded.
For the next hour, everyone practiced bailing out of their tanks. In the beginning, there was some trial and error with some people either tripping on something or people failing to shove their hatch open fast enough or even both sometimes. But after, everyone's overall speed in bailing slightly increased.
Next, Mr. Moran directed the team back towards the main garage. After all the tanks were lined up and parked, Mr. Moran gathered the team around them and distributed fire extinguishers around to each tank crew. With that, the team carefully lit small, controlled fires in the garage which were then blasted by extinguishing foam. All of the students found this pretty fun, and eventually started fooling around.
"Hey Peter!" Nicki called out.
"Ye- mmmm!" Peter shouted as he was blasted by fire extinguishing foam right into his face, Nicki and her crew broke down in laughter.
After the miniscule amount of tomfoolery, Mr. Moran directed the attention of team towards him as it was time to finish off practice. The team all crowded around his tank and stood relaxed, ready to listen to what he has to say.
"Firstly, great job on today's practice. We may have a lot to work on, but I can see us looking like a professional team by the time we have our first match. Until our match against Holy Cross, we will have practices on every weekday after school." Mr. Moran expressed.
"Secondly, it has come to my attention that this team needs a captain." Mr. Moran stated. Tension immediately started to build up in the room, who will become the leader?
"To decide this, I will have the commanders perform a vote!"
Various gasps escaped mouths and small talk began to circulate through the team, Mr. Moran ordered the commanders to step forward before commencing the vote. He told the group that to vote, they would raise their hand and that they couldn't vote for themselves. Mr. Moran then read off various names, to which not a single hand was risen for their honor. Eryn body tensed up, anticipation filled his senses as he was excited to see who would lead the team, the list of names to be read out grew shorter and shorter until finally, Mr. Moran read out his name.
"Who here decides Eryn should be the commander?"
Eryn looked around and to his upmost surprise, three people had risen their hands which were Cara, Peter and Nicki. Mr. Moran had a brief moment of surprise before speaking once more.
"It looks like Eryn will be the commander!" Mr. Moran congratulated.
Eryn couldn't even grasp what was happening, his emotions went from anticipation and fear to a more heartfelt emotion of happiness. A round of applause and cheers were then directed towards Eryn, a smile slowly crept onto his face. His friends then all crowded him to congratulate him even more.
"Congrats man!" Jonathan said.
"To be honest, I kinda saw it being you." Lillie commented.
"You better not let us down Eryn-" Nicki teased to which Eryn gulped, she then patted him on the shoulder. "Ah I'm just kidding!"
After the applause, the team started dissipating as they all started going home. Eryn was about to exit before he was stopped by Mr. Moran. Eryn turned towards Mr. Moran and was then given a notebook, he flipped throughout the notebook and examined the contents; it included all sorts of drills and practices for teams.
"What is this?" Eryn asked.
"A practice booklet, I need you to review that as you will be the one leading the practices from now on." Mr. Moran explained.
"Oh, I see." Eryn said.
"Mhm, you can go now." Mr. Moran dismissed.
"Bye Mr. Moran!" Eryn waved, to which Mr. Moran reciprocated.
Eryn felt a buzz in his pocket and saw that his dad was already waiting in the parking lot, he quickened his pace towards the parking lot. A little while after, Eryn arrived at the parking lot and saw his dad's car, he climbed in and made himself comfortable.
"How's practice?" His dad questioned.
"It went great." Eryn replied with a lump in his throat. "I was made the captain."
His dad looked at him with pride in his side before playfully punching Eryn's arm. "You think you got what it takes to be a leader?"
"I don't know, it sounds like a heavy load." Eryn admitted.
"I see," His dad understood, he then rest his arm on Eryn's shoulder. "Y'know, I was worried when I was made a captain too. But there's one thing you gotta know."
"What is it?" Eryn asked.
"It's easy telling a team what to do, but the hard part is having them actually do it. That's why you gotta be along side them. That's what really makes a leader, being able to give confidence to others and leading them to victory."
"I see," Eryn took note. "Do you think I have what it takes?"
His dad poked him in the chest "Eryn, if you wanna make history, you gotta call your own shots."
Those words rang throughout Eryn's head. After their little talk, Eryn's dad pulled out of the parking lot and drove a short trip back home. Eryn then walked upstairs and took a shower to rinse himself off. After, dinner was served and Eryn devoured the meal within a short time and ran back upstairs. Eryn got onto the family computer and scouted out the tank arsenal that Holy Cross had. After watching their most recent matches from last year, Eryn found out that the school had numerous heavy tanks, which included Matildas, Churchills and most intriguing: A Tiger I. The team did however have a small fleet of M22 Locusts. Taking the information in, he turned off the computer and ran to his room.
Inside his room, he looked to his desk and saw all of the books stacked on top of it, these included his dad's notebook, a tank encyclopedia and the practice booklet. Eryn opened the books and took in as much information as he could, he needed to know what the team's tanks were good at and hopefully be able to formulate a strategy with the help of his dad's notebooks. This study session went well into midnight, to which Eryn passed out on top of the books.
As the two weeks went by, the team steadily got more and more skilled, with Eryn doing a decent job of leading the practices. Within these two weeks was when everyone finally received their Tankery uniform. They were handed in bulk around the garage with everyone immediately trying them on as soon as they received it. The uniform consisted of of an dark olive drab jacket paired with a rugged pair of black cargo pants and comfortable boots.
"Damn, I look sick in this!" Jonathan checked out.
"They remind me of a darker Saunders uniform." Kay noted.
Every Wednesday and Friday, the team would have a commanders meeting. Eryn presented the strategy he had drafted up and asked for feedback, minor adjustments and notes were made as the location and type of match had finally been revealed. The match would be an elimination match and it would take place at an open field with some hills and shrubbery, there was a massive hill which could provide a great vantage point.
For the main plan, most of the heavy and medium units will be on standby and will be temporarily led by Cara. The light tanks, led by Eryn would scout ahead and shadow the enemy team until spotted. Hopefully, part the force would detach and tail behind them. They would drive towards the hill where the M10 and 2 Panzer IVs under Peter's command were waiting. The hill unit will then hopefully dispel of the force. If everything went to plan, the rest of the enemy team would then move in to help relieve the pursing force. If this happened, then the reserve units will move in and hopefully be able to perform an encirclement maneuver.
With the plan set, Eryn and the team would practice the strategy for the remainder of the two week deadline. The plan seemed perfect in Eryn's head, he had spent so long adjusting and tweaking it. In his mind, there was no way that Holy Cross could counter it.
Oh how wrong Eryn was.
September 23, 2010
Atlanta, Georgia
With the first match against Queen City having been announced, the team's practicing effort had been kicked up to 11. Everyday except for Sunday, the team would practice and hone their skills. If you had watched a practice of theirs, the team would have seemed to be invincible. The team captain: Russell Eastbrook, had made sure to formulate a good plan against their adversary school.
Today, he sat in his instructors classroom alone after school. He was finalizing the plan for the match and was getting ready to hand it to his instructor for critique and approval. For the past week, he had been creating a plan to hopefully counter Queen City's diverse roster of tanks. He had searched far and wide on the internet to find matches involving Queen City and after skimming through some matches, he had managed to find the entire roster of the school. With said information in hand, the plan he made for the team was considered exceptional when reviewed by his fellow commanders.
Just then, the door to the classroom was then unlocked and opened, Russell looked up to see who it was. The person who opened the door was his vice commander: Kyrie Irvan. Kyrie was holding a laptop and walked towards Russell.
"What's up Kai?" Russell questioned.
"You've gotta see this." Kyrie hushed as he handed the laptop to Russell.
Russell looked at the laptop, he saw that it was a twitter post of some girl that happened to be from Queen City. Immediately, he looked at Kyrie with suspicious face.
"Why are you stalking this chick?" Russell questioned.
"I'm not a perv Russ, look at the caption and second slide!" Kyrie exclaimed.
Russell looked at the caption which read "The son of Joel Silva goes to my school and he's on my Tankery team ;-;". His face went from curious to utter surprise, there was no way that they were facing a Tankery superstar's son. Russell then went to the second slide and examined what he looked like. His hair was fluffy and a little straight, combed into a middle part which was then complimented by a smooth face. Russell then turned towards Kyrie.
"You know his name?" Russell questioned.
"Yup, it's Eryn Silva. There's barely info about him though." Kyrie responded.
"Hmm-" Russell pondered. "We're gonna need to practice tenfold if we're even gonna have chance of beating him."
Russell then gathered all of his notes and books, he and Kyrie both exited the classroom and walked out of the school.
September 29, 2010
Outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia
Today marked the day of Eryn's first Tankery match. After a decently long shuttle bus ride to Atlanta, the team quickly made themselves home at the hotel they were staying at as they had arrived a day before the match. With a good rest to boost their morale, the team headed off to the field where the match would take place. There was a garage which had all of their tanks ready and waiting for them. After making sure that nothing was tampered or loosened during the delivery here, Eryn, Cara and Peter joined with Mr. Moran to attend the pre-game ceremony.
After a short drive in a Willys Jeep, the four met up with Holy Cross' commanders and instructor. Mr. Moran and the other instructor: Mr. Ford both shook each others hands first, it reminded everyone of two uncles meeting up at a family reunion. Next up were the team captains. Eryn walked up and met Holy Cross' captain. The captain was of African-American descent and had a tapered mohawk, which Eryn found pretty cool. The two reached out and had a quick and firm handshake.
"Hi." Eryn greeted awkwardly.
"Hey, Eryn Silva right?" He responded.
"Mhm, and your name?" Eryn asked.
"Russell Eastbrook." Russell answered.
"Alright Russ, good luck." Eryn stated.
Russell chuckled at his statement "We don't need it."
With the pre-game ceremony concluded, the two captains shook hands one more time before returning to their starting areas. The match was scheduled to start in one minute, Eryn, Cara and Peter all hurried to climb into their tanks before the match would start. After getting ready, the match was now starting in 5 seconds. Over the radio, Eryn could hear the public broadcast timer. Each and every second made him tense up more and more.
"5."
"4."
"3."
"2."
"1."
"Battle begin!"
"All tanks move forward!" Eryn shouted.
A baptism of fire was waiting for him.