Ooarai School ship…

Some said it couldn't be done. Others said it was impossible. And to their credit they were semi right. The makeshift runway was almost too much for the Antonov with its payload, but the crew got it done. The as soon as it was safe, the cargo doors of the Ruslan opened, and the cargo was offloaded. JayPac was moving in, albeit temporarily. Either way, it was a big deal seeing a large aircraft on the carrier. Crowds had been drawn to the Ooarai training grounds and onlookers took photos and videos of the crew unloading its cargo. The first to roll out drew some gasps, and that was the IS-3. The heavy green and grey tank was driven a few hundred feet away while the second tank, Hanz's King Tiger, drove off and out the plane. Overseeing the cargo operations was JayPac's senshado commander and pilot.

"Alright boys let's lock it down and close it up! We got another jet scheduled here in an hour!" Jay shouted. The main passenger door of the jet was opened, and having its own set of stairs made traversing on and off the jet easier. Standing at the bottom of the door was Ooarai's commander, Miho Nishizumi. She, along with her group of friends were overseeing the transportation and storage of the tanks as they were being ferried over. Jay stepped to the bottom of the stairs to meet with his counterpart briefly. "Thanks again for helping us on this end, Miho."

"Its no problem." She replied sheepishly. The two were still having as bit of trouble communicating, despite most of the Senshado team being somewhat competent in the Japanese language.

"We'll be back in a couple hours or so." She just nodded, and a call over the intercom for Jay to head to flight deck was made. The main cargo doors had been closed and Jay pulled in the door and closed it. The locks kicked in and he made his way up to the flight deck. This would be the process they would go through for the next few hours. Take off from JayPac, make the quick hour hop to Ooarai, and then a white-knuckle landing on the dirt strip. Ooarai saw the full extent of JayPac's airlift wing, from the mighty Ruslan to the modest and reliable Globe Masters, and even an older C-130 made an appearance. The C-130 brought in the remaining crew along with their belongings, which in turn, brought an end to the cadence of airlift aircraft. Jay watched the C-130 lift off into the sky and bank hard to head out to sea. Once the pallets had been secured, the group of boys made their way to the girls tank Warehouse, and it was lively. There wasn't just the JayPac's Senshado teams mingling with Ooarai's, but a good portion of the student body. The boys tanks were lined up side by side, and facing them was Ooarai's tanks.

"Now this, this is a welcoming party I can get behind." Patrice stated. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"One hundred percent." Jay replied. "Now then, we gotta find a girl named Anzu Kadotani. Apparently, she's got all our information about classes and such." The two began to make their way through the crowd, attempting to find this mysterious person. Soon the two split to cover more ground. Eventually, it would be Anzu and her group to be the ones to find Javier.

"Hey, are you Javier?" She tugged on Jay's shirt to grab his attention, to which he spun around on the spot to answer them.

"Yes uh, that would be me." He said, expecting someone to be eye level with him. But he slowly looked down to see the person who spoke. "Sorry about that. I assume you must be Anzu. Pleasure to meet you." He stretched his hand out.

"You'd assume correctly." She took his hand and shook it. Despite her small stature, Jay was shocked at how firm her shake was. "C'mon, we can talk about what we're planning on doing while you're here with a bit more privacy."

"By all means." Patrice replied. He gestured for her to lead the way. They were led on a bit of a walk, heading past the warehouse and into the school, where they had a large office set up. When they arrived, they were greeted by a nice view and a desk with paperwork stacked on top.

"We just finished up all of this stuff a few hours before you boys got here." The amount of paperwork for the over 50 boys was indeed immense. Resting on the seats in front of the desk were Anzu's close friends, Momo and Yuzu. "If it wasn't for Miho and her crew helping us out, we would still be organizing that. Anyways, time for the fun part." She her seat behind the desk and gestured for the boys to take a seat on the couches close to the desk. "I'm going to be straight; we have a couple of exhibition matches lined up. The first match is happening this Saturday, us against Pravda."

"You mean that big Russian school?" Jay asked. "Are they gonna have any help?"

"Their commander is a bit…overconfident, shall we say. They are going to have a helping hand with Anzio by their side. But they may as well be by themselves." Anzu explained. "And in the meantime, we're gonna practice a couple of days out of the week to help us better work together." She went on to also explain the school schedule, and how they would still be required to complete lessons online. She also explained that they would be free to explore the carrier as much as they desired, and even gave the boys hers and Miho's numbers just in case they needed some more help. With the help of some of the boys they had called to the office area, and Patrice's crew, who helped ferry the information and supplies to the rest of the boys still at the warehouse, they would start to get settled into their three-week stint aboard the Ooarai School ship.

The next day luckily was a Sunday, and it allowed the boys to get adjusted to their new environment. Not to mention, they could explore the carrier if they wanted to. That was on the agenda for Jay that day, and he readied himself to do just that. The area they were staying in was an old apartment building that was nestled near the massive island of the carrier. Luckily it was right near the middle, which made navigating to and from their building way easier. Jay wasn't the only one getting up by that point, as seen on his way out. He ran into a few of his teammates, of course saying hello to them before heading out to explore the carrier. He walked down the street, examining every street he passed. Eventually, he made his way to the edge of the carrier. Looking over, he could barely tell they were even moving, with the only thing indicating that being the wind blowing against his face.

"Well, this is a surprise." A voice said, startling Jay from his train of thought. "Already getting your sea legs again?" Jay looked to see who had just scared the living daylight out of him, only to see Hanz standing next to him.

"I could say the same to you. Jesus man, don't just sneak up on me like that." He said, crossing his arms. "So, what can I do ya for?"

"I just wanted to say hey. I know you've been busy these last few days, Kommandant. I also heard from Patrice that we had a battle in a few days." Jay just silently nodded. He knew word would get around eventually, but not that fast. Then again, this whole thing was new to them.

"Yep, looks like we'll be shooting some T-34s and CV33s, from what I've heard. We got practice with the girls on Tuesday and Thursday. But honestly, I just hope we got what it takes." Jay said.

"I mean, we stood toe-to-toe with this school. And they won a tournament against the odds." Hanz stated. "I'd say with our forces combined; we'll be unstoppable."

"Cool your jets, Blofeld." Patrice said, coming from the way Jay was going to head in. "These girls are a couple leagues above us. We just barely lasted against them. And we still lost." He leaned against a bench next to the group. "Although, you may be onto something there. Now that we'll have our full force to bear, we may just be able to go up against any school that comes our way."

"Well, I'd take this time right now to get to know our teammates before we fight with them." Jay said. "Who knows, there might even be some chemistry there. But first, let's find a place to eat cause I'm starving."

"Speak for yourself, I'm meeting someone in a couple hours." Hanz said. "I'll hold off until then."

"Same actually." Patrice said. "In fact, Cody is spending some time with Anzu and her crew." Jay was a little surprised, but he chuckled a little.

"Guess I'm going solo today." He said. "Well then, how about we meet up at the warehouse tomorrow after class and take stock." They agreed and went their separate ways. Jay walked the length of the carrier, thinking to himself about the future. Eventually, he did find a nice spot not too far from the school and enjoyed himself. Whilst walking towards a park nearby, he spotted a few of the boys, some with the Ooarai girls and some with their fellow crew members. He eventually found a nice spot on the park and sat there, going over some messages and maps that had been sent to him concerning the upcoming battle. Fortunately, they had passed through the storm that drenched them days earlier, and brighter skies seemed to be ahead.