USS George Washington, 1000hrs…

The weekend was the perfect time for sleeping in. However, they couldn't. They had a long list of things to see and do over the next couple of days. The boys found themselves gathering up and heading off to the rendezvous point on the carrier. There to meet them was their Commander, Kay. She of course was flanked by her two sub-commanders Alisa and Naomi, and they did not look so happy.

"You boys are late!" Alisa kicked off. "We told you to get here at 9:30!"

"I guess you were right Naomi. We should've pushed it back to 10." Kay said, still having that world-famous smile on her face. "Well, it's time we get this party started!"

"I blame the jet lag," Marcus stated while yawning. Luckily it was only him and Jack that seemed to be the most tired. Darrien and Scotty, however, were the most alert.

"Oh quit your complaining, Mark," Scotty said. "At least you made it."

"Ain't that the truth, Anyways. Where to first?" Darrien asked. He had been up for a couple of hours before the rendezvous, mostly planning on how many shells they would be firing off.

"We'll start with the warehouse so we can get you to your tank. Then we'll see what you're made of." Naomi explained. "A mock battle, two against two." Their hearts skipped a beat. Not even a week into their stay, they would have to take on one of the elite commanders. Darrien knew that Naomi was riding on a Sherman Firefly, so their being paired together would be highly unlikely. That left only Alisa and Kay. Whichever person they were paired up with would certainly be a toss-up.

"Sounds good to us," Darrien stated. The group soon made their way to the warehouse. The walk itself was talkative, as the boys were hyping themselves up.

"Man, this is gonna be Pensacola all over again," Jack said, excitedly. "A two versus two with a clutch shot!"

"We lost that battle, if I recall correctly," Tyrell interjected, never breaking contact with his book. "That's what happens when you let a Florida man get behind a 90. He finds a way." The others giggled a bit at that.

"In all seriousness, what's the plan here, boss?" Scotty asked. Darrien thought about it for a moment, shifting his gaze from Kay to Alisa. The two were talking to each other, having a laugh as well. When he glanced at Naomi, though, she was glaring right back at him. It startled him for a second, but the two held their gaze. Like a gladiator eyeing up their rival before a fight.

"Uh, Darrien? Yo, what's the plan, dude?" Jack asked, shaking him free of Naomi's gaze.

"Oh, right. It all depends on who we get on our team. If it's Kay, we basically gotta play guardian angel." Darrien pinched his chin, silently trying to formulate a strategy.

"Or we use her as bait. Draw out the two of them." Marcus said, yawning for a second time. "Like we did during that match against Laredo."

"I don't think that would make us viewed in a good light. Besides, it's not like we have multiple tanks to spare." Darrien said. The group entered the tank storage warehouse, where a few crews were attending to their tanks. The girls showed the boys around, showing off the many Shermans they had at their disposal. Most of them came in four flavors. The M4A1, M4, M4A1(76), and rounding out the lineup was the few Fireflys they had. Aside from some light tanks, the Firefly was by far the most intimidating one. Next to Naomi's tank, though, sat their own Easy 8 Sherman. From a distance, the two could be mistaken for the same tank. The boys Sherman had just been painted over, covering their old school markings and paint scheme with the standard for Saunders. He didn't mind the change until he noticed one thing had been painted over. This caused Darrien to stop nearly in his tracks.

"Where is it?" He asked the three girls.

"Where's what?" Darrien scoffed. The other boys examined the tank, trying to figure out what their commander was talking about, until one by one they all noticed.

"Y'all took out symbol away," Ty stated, bluntly. In one of the few moments when Ty wasn't buried in a book, he glared at the three girls.

"Well, yeah. We had to make your tank look like ours." Kay explained.

"Not the paint job. The emblem!" Jack exclaimed. The girls looked at one another, and Naomi shrugged. Scotty then went up to the tank and pointed right to the spot where the emblem would be.

"They're talking about the emblem that was on both sides of their tank. That of the 761st tank battalion." He stated. He then proceeded to pull his phone out and show the girls a group photo the crew had taken in front of their tank and pointed to the emblem. "It might not have any special meaning to y'all, but it does to us. A hell of a lot."

"Well, even still, we have to abide by regulations- "

"Kuromorimine literally has the markings of some famous tiger aces!" Jack cut Kay off, and his statement echoed throughout the entire warehouse. Darrien glared at his loader momentarily, then calmly apologized for his outburst.

"Sorry, we all have a very strong connection with that emblem, plus we can always just paint it back on. It's no big deal. Let's get going, shall we?" He spoke. On the outside, he still wore a ginger smile, but inside, he was just as upset as Marcus, of not more. It was the namesake of their tank, and it had been erased as if it were nothing.

Naomi walked up to Darrien, pulling him down by the collar. "You and I need to have a word after this." He just nodded and she let him go. He spotted Alisa and her crew getting ready to hop into their respective tank, as well as Kay.

"Well, saddle up boys. It's time we show them what for." Darrien said.

"Let's get it, then," Jack said. The other boys nodded in agreement and climbed up the tank to get in position. "Make sure we have enough ammo, I don't wanna be reachin'."

"I gotcha, there, looks like we have plenty of shots, Scotty? How's the fuel?" Marcus asked. It was then the engine came to life.

"Good to go, Darrien, your call," Scotty said. He revved the engine a few times to make sure the engine was running smoothly. It had been a few days since they last started her up, after all. Darrien began flipping through different radio channels, trying to find the correct one. After a bit, he gave up. "Scotty, get us going. Follow the girls out."

"You got it, here we go." The tank lurched back as they accelerated forward. Darrien looked down at the now all-green tank. It didn't sit right with him, especially knowing that their emblem was essentially gone. He looked behind him to see Kay's Sherman pulling up alongside his. In front were Alisa and Naomi's tanks. He could only assume that these were the teams they would be in for the small skirmish.

"You boys know how to use the radio, right?!" I heard Kay shout over to us.

"You never told us what channel to go to!" Darrien shouted back. She put up the channel number on her fingers and I promptly switched over the instructed channel. "Kay, do you copy?" Darrien said.

"Loud and clear! Glad you finally decided to pick up the phone." Even over the radio, she was as bubbly as ever. "It's gonna be you and me, newbie! We have a training arena just down the road from here. Plenty of terrain and obstacles and even more, it's big!"

"Should be a fun time then." The small convoy of four made their way down a side road and through a large set of gates. Lining up side by side, commanders of each tank gave each other a nod and began heading to opposite ends of the arena. The landscape was like what the boys were used to fighting on. Mostly country landscape.

"Well boys, any last words before we get taken out by a stray 17-pounder?" Marcus asked.

"We're taking one down with us," Ty said, ready on the gun. Jack had already slammed an anti-armor shell into the breech.

"Alright then." Picking up the radio, he looked over to Kay's tank. "Kay, what's the plan?"

"I was hoping you had one." She said. Marcus and Scotty looked at each other in disbelief. Not only did they not have a plan, they didn't even know the area. Darrien thought a plan up for a moment, taking into account the surroundings. There was a small forest off to the left.

"Head into the forest for now, we can conceal ourselves there for the time being," Darrien said. "Scotty, if you'd be so kind." The tank began to move and turn towards the forest. "Gunner, traverse right, keep it out to the hills. Kay you go on in behind us, we'll shield you from any potential fire."

"Roger that!" Her Sherman lined up with his, and the two matched their speed. If anyone was watching, they'd hopefully see just one tank. As the two began moving into the forest, a shot rang out. Scotty let the tank drop its speed for just a split second upon hearing the shot, and the shell that was targeted at them glanced off the upper front plate at an extreme angle.

"Christ! Kay, we got company off to our right! Get a smoke round in there!" He could hear his loader looking through the ammunition racks, only to find nothing.

"We don't have any!"

"Shit! Keep us between Kay and whoever is shooting!" They didn't load any smoke rounds in our tank? Damn. I should've just done it myself. He thought. "Kay, keep heading in that direction, we're gonna take this head-on." The tank came to a stop and turned to face the direction of the shooter. He kept his head just outside of the cupola. He looked along the tree line, trying to find any distortion or silhouettes. He couldn't. "Ty, can you hand me my binoculars?" Another shot rang out, just barely ripping past Darrien's head. "Now!"

Darrien could make out the silhouette of a Sherman. By his judgment, she was about 1000 yards out from their position, and she was stationary.

"Tank, 1000 yards. Traverse right. Fire on my call." Ty did as asked, stopping when he saw the tank in the scope.

"Your call boss."

"Scotty, slowly advance." The tank began to move, slowly advancing to the edge of the tree line. Jack had the next shell in his hands, ready to slam it into the breech. The moment the cannon barrel was in the clear, a loud bang rang out.

"FIRE!" Tyrell stomped on the trigger, and in less than a second the gun recoiled, an empty shell casing hit the floor, right as a round slammed into the tank. Everyone was thrown around in the tank. The tank, however, wasn't knocked out. Jack took the worst of it with the shell in his arms. He was winded. The shell he was holding hit the floor and he clutched his stomach.

"Scotty, get us back! Everyone ok?" he asked.

"Jack's hurt!" Marcus exclaimed, rubbing own head. "I might be…"

"Damnit Jack! I told you not to carry shells like that!" Ty said. He handed Jack a water bottle. "You wanna repeat what happened in North Carolina?"

"To be fair, I didn't think that team had Fireflies," Jack stated, still recovering from the hit. The tank came to a halt, having backed up a considerable distance from the field. Darrien took the first aid kit from behind him and lowered himself further into the tank. He saw Jack going for the shell on the ground. "I ain't giving up just yet. Not without a fight." He said. He looked terrible, but Darrien knew he wouldn't take his advice.

"Fine, but if you even show the slightest bit of injury, we're stopping. I won't have you mess yourself up any more than you already have." Darrien said sternly. He tossed the kit up to Marcus. "Any ideas?"

"She's got our number. So I say we just bum-rush her. One more hit and we're out anyway." Scotty suggested. "We know roughly where they are." Right as he said that, the sound of a Sherman's engine could be heard. One other than their own. Instinctively, despite the sharp pain in his chest, Jack picked up the shell he had and loaded it into the breech. Darrien looked through the glass vision ports, only to see Alisa's Sherman rolling past.

"Scotty Left! Traverse left and fire!" Scotty gunned the engine, pulling as hard as he could on the left stick. Tyrell swung the turret around as quickly as he could into the Sherman driving by, only for Alisa herself to realize she had missed them. Both tanks were lining up on each other, but like a western shootout, Ty was quicker on the draw. Two shots in quick succession. Alisa was wide right, Ty was dead on.

"Hell yeah! Tank knocked out!" Scotty exclaimed, giving Marcus a high five.

"We ain't out of the woods yet," Darrien said. "Scotty, get us in the open. Make sure you change your direction rapidly." Again, Scotty got the tank up to speed, taking a sharp turn upon breaking into the open. As predicted, a shell came flying in, glancing off the turret. "Got her, traverse right. Range is about 1400 yards and closing."

"I haven't hit a shot like that in months, let alone on the move," Tyrell stated. He was trying to locate the source of the shot, when another shell came flying in, blowing their tracks off. The tank was thrown to the left, causing everyone in the tank to get disoriented. Darrien quickly tried to reacquire the firefly but to no avail. The next shot was dead on.

Once the boys were knocked out, Naomi ultimately won, far outranging the short 75mm on her Sherman. Naomi had mangled the boys Sherman, and unknowingly, it's crew. Darrien climbed out of his cupola, as well as Tyrell. The both of them helped Jack out of the tank and down to the ground. The whole process was painful, to say the least.

"I'm fine, y'all…" he clenched his teeth, still holding his ribs as the climb down was excruciating. All they could do was wait for a recovery vehicle.

Jack was rushed off to the infirmary as soon as they had returned to the warehouse. The rest of the crew stood around their tank. It was the first time they had seen the hits they had taken since the battle. One hit was near the transmission, and the killing blow was square on the side of the turret.

"Not even here for a week and we're down one member," Marcus stated. "And now our tank has been toasted." Defeat wasn't a feeling the boys weren.t unfamiliar with, as they had taken losses before. This one, however, felt different. Darrien could tell. Patting his assistant driver on the shoulder, he could only nod in agreement. He looked behind him to see Kay and Naomi heading in their direction. Alisa had helped with getting Jack to the Infirmary, seeing as her tank was the first to be brought back to the warehouse.

"What do we do?" Scotty asked.

"We wait to see how Kay assesses our performance," Darrien said, turning to face the two.

"You boys should be proud of yourselves. You managed to knock one of us out." Kay said, still joyous as ever. "Plus, I have to say your plan on acting as a shield worked for a little bit. Although, I don't know how that would work with a whole platoon of tanks."

"It wouldn't, we just felt it was the right move for the situation." Darrien locked eyes with Naomi, who was chewing some gum. It was as if this particular round was a bit personal for her. "Anyways, I'll get to work fixing up the tank. We have much to work on for the future and I'd prefer if my crew were to take a rest." Scotty was about to protest this but was stopped by Tyrell.

"We'll have the maintenance team help you out. You're in luck too, we're going to be having a match in a couple of weeks! So, I want that tank ready as soon as possible, 'kay?"

"Yes ma'am." He turned to his crew. "You boys go on and rest. Enjoy the rest of the day. Come tomorrow, we have work to do." The crew nodded and left their commander to do his work. "Now, if I may ask, where do you keep the supplies?"

The first thing he did, upon returning to the Sherman, was grab a paintbrush and paint cans. A few girls stopped to watch Darrien paint away at his tank, but ultimately, they would move on. After a couple of hours, one side of the tank was done.

"So that symbol really means something special to you?" Darrien turned to see who had asked that question, and to his surprise, it was Naomi. At first, he continued on painting, only stopping when he heard her stepping closer.

"Yes, it does. And y'all just covered it up." He put the paintbrush down. "That's why Jack snapped on Kay. Out of all of us, he has the closest connection to this emblem than all of us." Stretched out a bit and picked up the paint cans to move them to the other side. "Look, if you came here to chew me out for letting my subordinate just go off on Kay like that, I'm ready for it." But it would never come. When he looked up, he could only see Naomi just staring at the emblem.

"What's so important about it?" She asked.

"It's our history. It's how we honor our ancestors." He said. He had begun to paint the emblem on the other side. "Especially where we come from. I'm sure you don't wanna get bored out, though, 'cause I could go on about this for hours." He said with a chuckle. "But, to shorten it, we all have a connection, and we all hold it close to us. It's how we stand out and make our mark, just like the ones who came before."

"I see." She started walking away.

"Naomi, one more thing." She stopped in her tracks. "Thanks. We needed a good ass-kicking to get a taste of what's to come. But next time, could you go a little easier on us? Asking for a friend." She just gave a little chuckle and continued on her way, leaving Darrien alone once again with his tank. He sighed a breath of relief, and he prayed she would say anything about the emblem once again being painted onto his tank.