Gerald R. Ford….

"This endeavor that you boys are about to take is going to be one that will shake the sport to its core in Japan. And what better way to jump into the fire than to go against the most recent champions. Ooarai Girls Academy." The way Ami Chono had presented their match was almost as if she was spelling out the boy's eulogy. At least, that's what it felt like. In reality, the two instructors were as giddy as ever about it. A couple of the boys had a smile on their faces. A few looked confused, but to those who had been in the sport a while and seen the Japanese league, they looked like a deer in headlights. "But I have one condition for you."

"What's that condition?" Patrice asked.

"You must fight them on even terms. The same number of tanks." Jay knew from watching a few clips of Ooarai's battles, that they would be cutting their force in half.

"That sounds fair to me," Hanz stated.

"Same here, right buddy?" Patrice nudged Jay, who was lost in thought.

"Yeah? Oh yeah. I think that can be arranged." Jay said, coming back to reality.

"Excellent! Oh, I can't wait to see you two go up against each other!" She said. She spent a couple of minutes explaining the type of match they'd be fighting. It was an Annihilation match, something of a rarity in the states. After a couple more minutes of answering some questions, Hans asked a question that most were too afraid to ask.

"Miss, what will happen if we lose?" He asked. "Or if we win?"

"Well, we'll have to see." Her tone was almost ominous. Even Jay was a bit shaken by that. "Well, it was so nice to meet you, but I must get going. We have a lot to do to prepare for your match."

A few hours later, Jay had gathered the commanders of the team in the conference room, with a list of the tanks they had. Jay was still thinking about that "We'll see" from Ami.

"That was…something," Patrice said. "I mean, at least we know we'll be getting that match. I just didn't expect to feel like this after confirming it."

"And what is that feeling comrade?" Sasha asked.

"Dread." The word echoed through the already quiet room. Everyone seemed to look at them. "What? You lot can't tell me you don't feel it too."

"Well, it's best to go without saying," Jay said. He was trying to figure out which tanks to bring with him to this historic match. He looked at all the commanders, almost with a worrying look in his eyes.

"Something wrong commander?" Ryan asked. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

"Nah, I'm alright. But I have to tell you something. The tanks that I pick are not based on anything. I'm picking them because I think they would fit the strategy I'm thinking of." Patrice began to say something but decided against it. "Trust me, once we get some more intel on the arena, we'll reconvene again, and ill announce who will be in this."

"If I may suggest something," Hans said. "Commandant, if we are to succeed in any sense, I believe that we should have all command elements in the fight." He said.

"He does bring a good point. If we have all three of us in here, one of us does go down, the other can pick up the slack." Patrice finished. Jay pondered over it for a minute. It did make sense in the long run, however, he still had to think about which of the five he had to bring with him.

"Kommandant, I want to make the suggestion that we don't go full armor on this one."

"Why is that Hanz?"

"Because with that, our forces will be easy pickings for their much more mobile force." Jay thought about it for a minute.

"Comrade Hanz is right, I would volunteer to be on this force, but I want to hear you need me in this battle," Sasha said. Jay just gave him a nod. Then the murmuring began, slightly interrupting his thoughts.

"Everyone out the room, please. We'll meet here in two days, boys. By then, we should have a bit more information about where we'll be fighting and hopefully, that will help with the final decision of who I'm bringing with me." Just like before, the worry and fear in his voice was prevalent, but the face that he was putting on was something that wasn't there last time. A stoic one.

After a few minutes, the room was empty, and his phone began buzzing in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was more messages from the tankers in Japan who were watching JayPac. Over the past few days, he had been getting messages congratulating the team, and some of the messages were asking if they were coming to Japan. Jay had told a couple of people he was in contact with, but he didn't expect it to spread like wildfire. Of course, with a Japanese League instructor coming out to see them, it was almost inevitable someone found out by now. He put his phone back on and silently began to pace around the room.

After a couple of days, Instructor Izumo came back to the carrier to deliver the boys the news. In short, the match was approved by the Japanese league and the ship was to make headway toward the port of Ooarai. Once there, the boys were to transport their tanks by road to the arena, which was a few miles from the port itself. The message itself was exciting and it definitely invoked some emotion in the group, but it was also sobering. They were about to go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the world.

"So, we got the news. We got the battle. Now we gotta figure out who's gonna be in it." Patrice said. The tank hangar was even quieter now, with only the breeze making a slight noise to break the silence. Jay took a deep breath. Over the past couple of days, he had thought it over and over about which tanks would be the ones he would bring to the firefight. And he had made his choice.

"Alright boys, I just wanna say that all of you will get your shot at this eventually. But for this match, I've made my choice." He took a deep breath.

"From Sniper team. Sniper 4, and Sniper 1. Justin and Hanz."

"From Scout team, Scouts 1, 4, and 5. Ryan and Foster." Both Chaffee commanders looked shocked that they had been selected. "I know, I'll answer your questions later.

"Finally from Shield team. Shield 1, 3, and 4. Kyle, Leon, and Patrice." Jay let the murmurs grow louder and louder from the group before they silently died down. "I chose everyone I did because I thought they would be the best for the battle. I'm sure in future battles, you'll all get your shot. We should be docking in about 10 days from now, so let's keep up the hard work and show these girls how we do it back home."

The next few days passed by in a blur, everyone was practicing hard for the battle ahead. Everyone knew that this was going to be big for both the school and the sport itself. Everyone back home was going to be watching them take on Ooarai. Jay had also found himself watching more and more of the battles that their opponent had fought, as well as some of the other schools they might be fighting. Some of those battles left him with shivers, seeing how cold and calculated the commanders were. Some of them weren't as cold, in fact, a few were even bubbly and happy. It kind of relieved some of the stress. His phone was still buzzing off the hook from the many messages that he was receiving with each day that had gone by.

A few days later…

Jay stood in the carnivorous loading hall, which took up a good portion of the starboard lower deck. With just 18 hours left until they docked in Japan, he had helped the boys participating in the match move their tanks to their positions so that they could be driven off the ship and down the massive loading ramp. It had rained a few hours earlier, so the ground still had track marks of dirt and mud leading to the tanks. He then left the tanks, knowing they would be ready for the next day.

Upon getting back to the apartment complex, he was greeted by a few members of the team, all of them were talking about the match. He couldn't blame them, it was all everyone around the carrier talked about. And every day that inched closer, the excitement grew and grew. Even he found himself talking about the match at times. When he got to his room, he found a bottle of ginger beer waiting at the foot of the door.

"Well, I guess this is cheers to tomorrow." He said to himself as he picked it up. He opened his door and walked in, only briefly turning on the lights to pop the cap off the bottle. He took a long drink of the beer, which caused him to cough a little as it was starting to burn his throat. He set the unfinished drink down on the nightstand next to his bed and took a seat. He knew that when he woke up, they would most likely be in Japan. He laid down, kicked off his shoes, and stared at the ceiling. He pulled his phone out one last time to see a couple of "Can't wait to meet you!" and "good luck". The last message that he saw was quite peculiar. He checked to see who it was from, but the messenger was anonymous.

"Have you ever heard this saying: May the odds ever be in your favor." Jay chuckled for a moment. With that, he turned his phone off to watch the darkening sky grow ever darker. Another storm was on its way, and he fell asleep just as the rain began to fall.