"Commanders, please bow."
Joining the others in shouting "We wish you a good match!", Jouko's heart was racing. This was her first match not just as a commander or a simple tanker, but her first Sensha-do match ever. This was a free-for-all match between eight tanks: The BT-42, commanded by Mika, the Sturmi, commanded by Jouko, a T-34/76, commanded by another student, Touko (not to be confused with Jouko; next in line to become Commander of the school, current Vice-Commander), a T-28, commanded by Lili (next to become Vice-Commander), and a Panzer IV Ausf.J, commanded by Rumi, as well as three T-26s. It was taking place in snowy conditions, conditions that were greatly suiting Jouko, a girl raised in the uttermost parts of the northernmost region of Finland where snow was everywhere. Meanwhile, far from the action, the rest of the school was looking on from stands erected several kilometers away with a large screen providing an overview of the battlefield. Jouko had informed Rumi before the match that she would be speaking in Finnish when giving orders to her crew, and apologized in advance for any confusion the spectators would get when the audio for her tank played from the speakers.
After climbing into the Sturmi, Jouko spoke to Hannes: "Move when I tap you with my foot. Be sure to be snappy, fast, and agile, if we stay too long after firing a shot, we'll get taken out easily. Move where I tell you, do not hesitate for a moment. Don't forget what we learned yesterday." Hannes pressed a button that started up the Sturmi, and with a rumble of the engine the beast came to life. As the noises of the engine increased in volume, Jouko gave her first order, speaking in Finnish:
"That field of snow over there, you must drive towards it. The white paint we painted our tank with will hopefully mask our presence and make us impossible to spot."
However, Hannes expressed her doubts about this plan of her commander. "Are you sure you don't want to take position on the hills or those forests, commander?"
"Trust me, they're expecting me to take my position in one of those areas. We'll have to take our position in a place where they will least expect, or not expect at all."
Hannes readily obeyed, and drove to the fields where Jouko directed her. As the Sturmi settled, Frisell sent a simple radio message, the only one they would need to send for this match.
"Sturmi to officials, we're ready to begin."
A burst from the Bofors gun signaled the start of the practice match, and Jouko, donning her Finnish hood, waited patiently for her prey to appear, using her father's old binoculars whilst peering outside her commander's cupola. The sounds of guns firing in the distance could be heard, growing increasingly louder yet at the same time individually decreasing as the tanks were knocked out and the remainder approached closer to Jouko's position. She could see some columns of smoke in the distance, quickly judging they were all from knocked out tanks. She shot back down into the cupola, closed the hatch, and began to aim the gun, Löfström quickly loading a round and slamming shut the shell hatch. Seconds passed before Rumi's Panzer IV appeared in the distance, desperately firing shot after shot against Mika's BT-42, which had already lost its tracks and were using its wheels to maneuver, dodging many oncoming shells. There were no other tanks visible, just as Jouko had correctly assessed.
As she watched the two tanks come closer, she began to mutter to herself, calculating. "Range is 400 yards, mind the wind, aim 8 degrees to the left. The Panzer is barely moving to either side, just going straight, so unless Rumi is the crafty type of commander, there's no need to worry for any surprises from her...hopefully..."
With a gentle tug she pulled the trigger, and a powerful shot and loud bang sent her first shell flying at high speeds from inside the barrel towards the Panzer that was closing the distance between them and the Sturmi. Several tense seconds passed as all watched with baited breath, hoping the shell had hit its mark. At the culmination of those few seconds, there was a bright flash of orange, and a pillar of black smoke coming from where the Panzer was, a white flag prominent against a black backdrop, soon overtaken by the shape of a BT-42 driving wildly.
Her first knockout.
The spectators were stunned, this was truly a new talent that they were lucky to have gotten. But there was no time to celebrate, it wasn't the time to do so yet.
"Drive forward, quick! Be wary, that BT will be moving like a drunkard. Be sure to give me that perfect shot." The Sturmi sprang to life again, knocking off much snow that had accumulated on the tank, and charged against the oncoming BT. Löfström quickly slammed another shell into the turret and Jouko took careful aim at the BT. When the BT was close enough, rather than fire, Jouko ordered Hannes to drift to the left. "Wh..Why-" Jouko left no time for a reply. "Remember, no hesitations." With Hannes turning the lever as hard left as possible, the Sturmi drifted across the snow into a position where it was now tailing the BT-42, now evading harder than ever. A couple minutes passed as the BT dodged and weaved, trying to avoid certain doom that was sure to come. However, there was no shot, as Jouko was focused on calculating her shot. As the BT tried to feint by turning right, then a sudden swerve to the left, Jouko pulled the trigger and sent a shell straight into the BT's engine, immobilizing it and knocking the tank out of the match. With no other tanks left without a white flag aside from the Sturmi,
Jouko had won the first practice match.
It was incredible. These techniques they had just witnessed were extremely complex to execute, and Jouko's gunnery was something else, you could say it was otherworldly. Did she know about the Shimada style of Sensha-do, or was this her own idea? There were so many questions to be answered, so much to learn from this mysterious new student. Making her way from the battlefield after the match, she was swarmed with dozens of excited students asking her how such things she had performed were even possible, as well as following a certain style or all originating from herself. But, being the quiet intellectual, she mostly ignored them and quietly helped in cleaning up after the match with her crew, both hauling away the wrecked tanks and cleaning the stands, as well as folding them up and returning them to storage, using the Sturmi to help tow them away.
After this triumphant debut, Jouko returned to her studies, as well as taking closer looks at individual projectiles, the Sturmi's career, and possible upgrades to her Sturmi. She also spent time building her friendships with her fellow classmates as well as Rumi, learning the kantele from Mika, having spent little time to do so in Finland due to her focus on sniping, while she got used to the school's tactics and doctrine of hit-and-run, like Finland during World War II. More practice matches were organized to prepare Continuation for the upcoming 62nd Sensha-Do Tournament, and at every match, Jouko was dominating, often using her sniping skills to knock out tanks that had crossed her path, regardless of the battlefield's terrain.
On the final practice match a week before the tournament, Rumi approached Jouko as she was preparing her crew for the match. "These past few matches have proven that you are a master of sniping, but we haven't seen much of your commanding when it comes to close-quarters save for that first practice match, and it seems you've been doing well when it comes to it, so try to fight closer to the action this time, please."
Jouko responded with a slight nod, and informed her teammates of the development.
"Alright, it looks like they want us to fight closer to the action, so everyone's going to have to have faster reactions now, especially you, Hannes. We're going to be doing much drifting, so be prepared for that." Hannes responded with an affirmative nod, and began moving the Sturmi to its position. After the pre-match formalities, the match began, this time with 10 tanks, now a team battle, and an annihilation match. Rumi led Jouko's team, Touko led the other team. Jouko took the right flank, and outlined her intentions to Rumi: "I'll try to use my mobility to lure them to you, I know Mika's known for that, but about time I tried it myself." Seconds later, she got a response: "Good luck, and make sure you don't get yourself killed so quickly."
Beethoven's Third Symphony was playing full blast in the tank, on the speedy Third Movement as Jouko belted out orders to her crew.
"Full throttle, and veer to the left, Hannes. We'll try to confuse them as best we can." The Sturmi was in range of the enemy tanks by the time this order was given, closing in at rapid pace, but before a shell could land, it managed to turn in time, narrowly evading the incoming projectiles. "Good, now drift right!" Jouko remained locked in her gunner's seat, eyes buried against her gunner's visor, even as the tank was drifting hard.
As the tank stabilized, she had her scope on the enemy commander's T-34/76. Pulling the trigger in an instant, her shell slammed into Touko's tank, immobilizing it and knocking it out of the match, a devastating blow for the enemy team."Quick, move through that gap in between those two T-26s and turn us around clockwise!" The remaining enemy tanks fired desperately, some shots hitting the Sturmi, but the heavy frontal armor merely caused them to bounce. Hannes again yanked the lever to the right, and Jouko again took aim, and with hawkeye precision fired the moment an enemy tank was in sight. It too was immobilized, a shot into its turret ring spewing out copious amounts of smoke. "Now, lure the rest of those tanks towards our team. Turn us left, and be sure to avoid incoming shells as best you can."
The rest of the friendly tanks arrived at the scene not long after to see the Sturmi being chased by the last three enemy tanks. As the rest of the team came into view, the Sturmi circled around and smoothly joined the formation in destroying the last three enemy tanks with their overwhelming firepower. The match ended in a victory for Rumi's team, though, given the workings to attain such a victory, it was more of a Jouko victory.
"Since when were you this good?! I mean, you're from the country our school's based off of, but, how?!"
This was the first time Jouko had fought primarily in close combat, and Mikko was very surprised at how good she was. Rumi couldn't help but concur.
"You've outperformed every student in the school that's practiced Sensha-do, I've never seen things like these before, please do tell how this is all possible."
Jouko simply responded, "It's all in knowing your tank and its inward parts like the back of your hand, and having a good crew to complement that."
Jouko's performances in the last practice matches lifted the spirits of Continuation, and she was just a newcomer. In just a week would come her first tournament, and morale was high for the school. Maybe this would be their first time getting to the semifinals for once, a goal Continuation was aiming to reach ever since they started their Sensha-do club. With Jouko came probably the best form of deliverance for the school, and its biggest hope of victory and achieving that long-desired Semifinals placement.
The time finally came to draw for the tournament. As she and her friends looked for their seats, Jouko looked all around the stadium, and recognized several famous schools she had heard about. Pravda, Saunders, Kuromorimine, St. Gloriana, Chihatan, Anzio, all of them were there. Outside, she maintained a serious personality, but inside, her heart felt like it was about to burst from the magnitude of who was present with her in that stadium. She truly was in the presence of giants.
"Continuation High School, please come draw for your match." Rumi stood up and made her way to the stage. After ruffling about in the raffle box for a few seconds, she gripped a paper, and pulling it out, held it high in the air for all to see. "Continuation High School faces Koala Forest Girls' Academy for the 1st Round!"
Chatter filled the stadium as Rumi made her way back to her seat. Koala Forest: based off of Australia, and rumors had it that their commander was an actual koala, and that the insides of their tanks were upside down, but those were simple rumors. Returning from the stadium, Continuation got to work preparing for their first match. They outlined their plans for the individual tanks, having each one fight according to the plan. When it came to the Sturmi, however, Rumi simply said, "As for you, Jouko, fight to your heart's desire.
Jouko spent the next few days in preparation, training her aim, training her crew in their respective roles, and adding on her tactics. This was her time to shine, her first appearance on the big leagues. Months of training and preparation had led to this. Hannes continued to develop her driving, trying to avoid obstacles and imaginary shells by training in forests, mountains, and open fields, Frisell was thinking up ways to make better radio reports, them being more clear, concise, and to the point, as well as trying to improve on her Japanese with Jouko's help, while Löfström continued to find new ways to speed up her reload, still trying to think up of faster technique to help better progress in a fast reload speed.
The day of the match finally came. It took place in unfamiliar territory, in more desert areas. The crew had spent so much time practicing that they had forgot to change the color of their tank from white to light brown, so the white armor of Jouko's Sturmi would be easy to spot, meaning there would be no sniping today. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Mika, she watched as Rumi talked for a while with the Koala Forest commander (well, Vice Commander, apparently their Commander was an actual koala, turns out the rumors were true aside from the upside down interiors) and, standing parallel to their opponents, bowed with the other commanders, wishing their opponents a good match.
Heading back to her Sturmi, she briefed her crew on what was going to happen. We're fighting in unfamiliar territory, that being deserts. Keep in mind we're still using our white paint, so we'll be pretty easy to spot. Hannes, be as agile and unpredictable as you possibly can. Löfström, be sure to load as fast as humanly possible for you, and Frisell, keep constant and consistent with your radio reports. We need our team to know what we're up to at all times." With affirmative nods and shouts of "Understood!", Jouko ordered Hannes to start up the Sturmi's engine, and with the press of a button, the sleeping giant was awoken with a loud roar.
Jouko's heart was racing like never before, even faster than the engine's revolutions. This was it, her first official Sensha-do tournament match. So much was on the line that she couldn't afford to lose, so she would have to give her all.
"Let's go, Hannes! Drive forwards!"