Chapter 24
Boris smiled as the new layer of mud green color dried out enough for them to repaint the symbol of Oarai and number 452 next to it. "It's perfect," he said to Ivan and Grigori, which nodded in response. "Y'know… we should add a slogan on the ZiS-S-53 cannon to make it better…" Grigori said after a while.
"A single word one or longer?" Ivan inquired. "A single word one. Like Москва," Grigori answered and Boris nodded in approval at it. "Good idea," someone said from behind them. And as Boris turned, he saw the girl, which fainted yesterday. She looked to be in a much better shape than before and her eyes had more life in them than the other two mechanics.
Boris shook his head. Just remembering the faces of the two girls made shivers to travel down his spine as it brought back memories of an anime that he saw only once and hadn't ever finished. I would rather rewatch Boys und Schlachtschiff 100 times than that… he thought and smiled. That anime with warships looked like an AU of the reality he was living in.
"What are you thinking about, Товарищ Командор?" Ivan asked out of the blue. "About Boys und Schlachtschiff," Boris responded truthfully. "Ah, that one anime, huh? 'Tis a good show,'' Grigori stated with a nod. "I personally loved the duel of the Kuromi brothers. Enterprise against Bismarck and Tirpitz was the best," Ivan added.
"I wouldn't interrupt your talk like that, but I think that we live in an anime of its own league," Trafalgar's voice announced from behind and startled the trio of friends. "And what would be the name of it, then?" Boris asked with curiosity in his voice. He never thought about that after all.
"I think… Girls und Panzer is the most suitable name for it," he answered and walked away to his Tiger I. "He has a point. Sometimes, I feel like the physical laws are ignored or broken, when tanks that shouldn't work, like that BT-42 are suddenly One man armies and when tanks get shot, they have far bigger momentum than possible…" Ivan agreed and shrugged afterwards.
It… makes sense, Boris thought. "Anyway… We should give our upgraded beast a test ride," he said and grinned at his friends. "Да, товарищ!" Ivan and Grigori shouted and saluted, before entering their tank. Let's see how our performance improves with the upgrades! he thought and closed the commander's hatch.
Traf looked at the two newest crews as they trained their aim and loading speed at the shooting range. The upgraded T-34 fared far better with the ZiS-S-53 cannon than before, with ammo that Tsuneo somehow found an hour ago, than with the weaker F-34 cannon. And it was better than the Type 3's crew.
Traf sighed as the Type 3 missed the Churchill, but it was expected to happen with newbies that played only WW2-themed sandboxes before. I think that World of Tanks, if it even exists here, would help them a bit, he thought and smiled as the T-34/85 managed to land a hit on the Mk. VII Churchill's left track. "Nice shot, Boris! But, aim for the machine gun's slot next time!" he commented with the throat mic on. "Да, I'll remember that," Boris responded with a grateful tone in his voice.
"And Anteater team?" he continued after a while. "Yes, nya?" Nekota asked with her trademark meowing. "Try to aim a bit higher than you want the shell to hit. It never travels straight and when your target is further than medium range, it wouldn't reach it without aiming a bit above," Traf said and cut off the connection with the two tanks, sighing.
I just hope that this training program would be good enough for them… he thought and pulled out the borrowed remote control of the dummy Panther.
Maho looked at the first ever Kuromorimine boy tank crew as it operated the Tiger I they got in almost the same manner as they did with their training Panther ausführung A: careful, yet aggressive. She nodded in approval, as they took command of three Panthers and led them as an organised unit against the training dummy tanks.
"I said it before and I'll repeat it again, Kommandant. Boys shouldn't be in Sensha-Do!" a very angry Erika shouted from her spot as the boys' Tiger I shot down her Tiger II. They tried to do it several times already, but most of their attempts ended up differently: Erika shot them down and gave them an almost impossible task to complete.
"If you won't stop with that, I'll make sure to appoint Fritz as zweiter Kommandant instead of you," Maho threatened her and resumed watching the boys. "Deploy the Maus," she said calmly and the 100 ton monstrosity entered the training yard three minutes later. "Remember, we are doing this to avoid Oarai taking down our heaviest tank," she reminded Mauko and Fritz through the comms and watched the battle unfold.
And before the Panthers could reorganize, the Maus took down two of them. "Scheiße! Distract it, Panzer 21! We'll shoot at the weak point!" Fritz responded to their situation and the mock battle ended ten seconds later with the Maus defeated and the Tiger I being the last tank still moving.
"Fritz," Maho said after shortly nodding. "Ja?" the boy asked her with worry in his voice. "I name you as dritte Kommandant. You'll have four Panther tanks under your command." That surprised everyone gathered in the training yard. "Why?" Helmut, the radioman of the boy crew, asked the question that hung in the air.
"He showed that he can lead more than one tank. And that is more than enough for me to do it," Maho answered with a tone that said: "it's final." I wonder, how would Okaa-sama react to this… she thought and walked back to her own Tiger I, entering it with the intent to train the boys in Tiger I vs Tiger I combat to have a bit more chance against Trafalgar and his crew.
Later that day...
Miho looked at the two Tiger tanks and T-34/85 as they separated from the rest, intending to have a special training session today. The only thing she heard about it was: urban battle tactics against the Maus, but it was enough for her to imagine that they'll be focusing on the heavier tanks of Kuromorimine and how to take them down.
They plan on doing a difficult thing, but it would be better to have at least those three ready to fight against them, than have none at all, her inner self noted and Miho silently agreed with that. "Miporin, where are they going? The training yard is on the other side!" Saori said, bewildered from their behavior.
"They're going to train urban combat tactics," she responded to her radioman and saw the confusion on her face to only deepen. "I bet that it's something with the Maus," Yukari added her own opinion and Miho nodded at hearing that. "I see," Saori muttered. "They'll try to distract and destroy it, while we focus on their flag!"
"Really? Knispel, Churchill, Patton, Leopon and Zhukov's crew would have the most fun," Erwin said and Miho swore that she could hear the pout she was probably making. She sighed and touched her throat mic. "They do plan to do it and more, I guess that they aim to lure out the heavier TDs and Tiger II to them and destroy them," Miho said after a while.
"Also, we'll need you and the Hetzer with us to have more defence for the Flag tank," she pointed out and smiled weakly. The 7,5 cm StuK 40 on both tank destroyers was a formidable weapon that would be able to take down most tanks in Sensha-Do and the danger they posed got boosted by their low frames. And she knew that keeping them close to the Flag is a better way to use them than letting them blindly rush on the enemy.
And with that solved, they started the usual training session, during which they found out that Anzu was the better gunner of the SC and let her change positions with Momo.
Amai found Tsuneo in the garages as he was reading some documents and writing something into a notebook every once in a while. "E-excuse me…" she started with a nervous tone. He looked up at her and smiled. "What is it?" he asked her. "I… I remember everything," she answered and to say that Tsuneo Nishizumi was surprised wouldn't be a misunderstanding.
"My name is Amai Yamada, former commander of T-34/76 of Oarai's Sensha-Do team and I was kidnapped and brainwashed by a Masked man," she continued after taking a deep breath. "Amai Yamada…" the engineer muttered and seemed to be lost in thought. "As in the vice commander Amai Yamada of the Sensha-Do team five years ago?!"
Amai simply nodded at that. "I won't ask you about what he had done with you. It wouldn't be right," he said and put away the documents and notebook with a sigh before standing up and walking over to her with his right hand outstretched. "My name is Tsuneo Nishizumi, head engineer of the Oarai Sensha-Do team, forced by the same man into hiding and making tanks for both him and several schools," he said and shook their hands. "Nice to meet you," he continued and she responded in the same manner.
"That M24 Chaffee was of your making then?" she asked him and pointed at the tank in the furthest corner from her current position. Tsuneo sadly nodded. "All of them. The same goes with the KV-2s, T-35s and Tiger IIs… He even wants five T26E4s and one Maus for some unknown reason," he responded after a while of silence.
Amai gulped after that. "We still have two years left until he starts it…" she muttered as she remembered that one moment, when the Masked man bragged about starting his campaign to 'purify' the whole Earth by conquering it.
Until then, they must defeat his 'school' in the Tournament and find dirt on his name, so no one would support him willingly. That would be a hard job, but capturing her, Hina and Nina helped with that issue at least partially. The same goes with discovering the minefield and Tsuneo knowing about all requests to make tanks and earning nothing, but even harder orders after completing each task.
Hang on, Rina. I'll make sure to not waste your sacrifice! she thought as she remembered her friend, which was also the captain of the Sensha-Do team. She refused to kidnap Miho Nishizumi at the end of the last year's Tournament, when she was at her most vulnerable position and it was her, who told the youngest Nishizumi to go to Oarai to hide from Sensha-Do.
Of course, it ended very bad for Rina and her corpse was thrown deep into the Pacific ocean. "Can we trust Tsuji?" she asked with concern in her voice. That man was partially responsible for her friend's fate and sent all the tanks to him. "We can. It was him, who appointed me as the head engineer and prolonged the time needed to finish the SHTs," Tsuneo responded and she smiled in response. At least someone saw his own mistakes and tried to redeem himself.
And with that, Amai mentally deleted the minister from her short list of 'need to get revenge on' list.
Renta looked at the latest replays of the matches. Kuromorimine winning was expected, but Oarai surprised him again with Trafalgar delivering food to his starved teammates and then leading the StuG III and Tiger (P) to successfully take out Pravda's Flag and its three guards: T-34/85, KV-2 and IS-2, the latter having a draw with him.
"Listen, Kuromorimine would need those Panthers in the next round to get the upper hand against Oarai," he said to the man on the other side. "I see. I trust your judgement on this, Tsuji, but if Oarai wins, treat them with the University team. Also, let that Shimata brat use the Karl-Gerät," he answered with a bit of irritation in his voice.
"I will, don't worry about it," Tsuji reassured him and sighed in relief as that unknown man hung up the call. I hope that at least Pravda reinforces Oarai before that happens, he thought and right after that, the headmaster of Oarai texted him, that one T-34/76 from Pravda arrived and was converted into a T-34/85, '44 variant with a crew made of three boys named Boris, Ivan and Grigori.
Brothers of Katyusha, Nina and Alina? he realized as he looked them up in the list of family members of Pravda's students. Several reports about them stated that they loved to act like Gopniks most of the time, when they thought that Katyusha or Nonna weren't watching, but the headmaster's report gave a new insight onto them: they were rather skilled for newbies in operating tanks and were appointed under Trafalgar as some sort of scout-support force, while the Tiger (P) of the Leopon team had the role of tank-attacker (the same as the first boy crew's own Tiger I).
"The only thing I can do now is to wait until the time is right…" he muttered and scribbled something into his notebook. Slow and steady was the best course of action for him every time, when he was faced with a problem and now, it was probably the last time using this tactic, for him.