Chapter 26

Viewing platform for VIP #2

Darjeeling smiled weakly, when she heard Miho give the order to counterattack Kuromorimine's try on disabling their comms, but it gave her enough time to hole up on the hill and support her position with sandbags, gaining more protection against enemy fire, while Trafalgar's group with a T-34/85 lured three enemies, that were defending a bridge, into a trap.

"It seems that it can end as a draw at worst," she muttered, but then, she saw the Tigers and T-34/85 move towards the city and the Maus inside. "That won't end good, if the Maus spots them," Orange Pekoe commented with a bit of worry in her voice. "Ah, so you're on their side now?" Darjeeling teased her possible successor.

Orange Pekoe only blushed at that and refused to speak on that topic. But suddenly, their attention was once again drawn to the screen, as it announced something. "Panzer III, three Panthers and two Jagdpanzer IVs of Kuromorimine unable to continue," the voice of Ami Chono, the head judge of this match, announced.

Kuromorimine has a very slim chance of winning right now, Darjeeling thought and sipped a bit of her tea.

Traf looked at the disabled Panzer III again as he waited for Boris to report the sighting of the Maus to end that behemoth before Miho gives the order to retreat to the city and the final phases of their plans start. "Maus sighted! Street 5 on the west side!" Boris's voice announced and Traf grinned like a madman.

"We got this!" he cheered and looked at his crewmates. "Panzer vor!" he shouted into the comms, giving his allies on the hill the signal to prepare for retreat.

Miho looked at her sister's forces and noticed that one tank was missing. "One Tiger II sighted moving towards the second Tiger I of Kuromorimine!" Anzu's voice announced and confirmed her suspicion. "Panzer vor!" Trafalgar's voice suddenly shouted and Miho knew that the Muas would be defeated soon.

"Understood," she responded before Saori could ask what it meant. "Everyone! Trafalgar's group sighted the Maus and will engage it soon!" she translated the meaning of the message to the rest. "But, does he know about a weak spot?" Erwin asked. "Yes, I do. The small hatch used for discarding used ammo. The same that is on the Ferdinand TD," Trafalgar answered, shocking everyone.

"How did you find it out?" Yukari asked the million ¥ question for her. "Simple. Simulator games, wikias and encyclopedias shared that one thing: with a 8,8 KwK 36 L/56, you can only penetrate that one point and/or destroy the tracks, when facing the Maus," Trafalgar announced, as if it was the biggest truth in the world.

"I agree with him, nya," Nekota suddenly announced and before anyone could ask, she continued with her short explanation, mentioning War Thunder and World of Tanks both agreed with Trafalgar's statement, even if it was pretty rare to happen in the games, due to the players preferring to avoid the SHT, if they had a weak cannon.

"Just… try to avoid being spotted," Miho finished the talk. "Okay, mom!" Trafalgar joked and ended the connection, but not before laughing. Suddenly, a shell impacted with the sandbags protecting her tank and brought her back to reality. "Return fire!" she commanded and watched as two Panthers suddenly stopped with white flags on the display.

Mauko was growing more anxious, when Sangou didn't show up and that turned into fear, as she heard that her Panzer III was shot down, thus she lost her scout and teammate. It didn't matter to her that there were another five allies disabled with the enemy having no losses on their end. She just wanted her friend to survive long enough to lead the enemies to a position, from which she wouldn't feel vulnerable.

And suddenly, she saw something mud green quickly passing through a nearby street. "Enemy sighted!" she shouted at her crew. "Are you sure?" her gunner asked with a raised eyebrow. "Ja. I think that it is their T-34/85. If we take it down, we'll avenge our three fallen comrades," Mauko answered with a sure tone in her voice.

"Understood! The T-34 must be taken down before it can reach the enemy!" her driver added and the behemoth called Maus slowly made its way towards the street, where the T-34 was sighted. "Uhhh… am I hallucinating or is that the sound of Tiger I's engine?" her radioman suddenly asked, when they finally made it over to the street.

"Don't worry, it's Fritz," Mauko said, but even she wasn't so sure about that. "Scheiße! Turn the turret!" she shouted, when she remembered that he still hadn't repaired the tracks, but it was already too late as two 8,8 cm KwK 36s spit their ammo at the only vulnerable spot on the turret's rear armor.

And as if to mock her, the vulnerable spot was indeed penetrated and the POP! of the white flag only cemented their fate. "Kommandant! Two enemy tanks took us down, entschuldigung!" she announced with a sad tone in her voice.

Viewing platform for VIP #3

Katusha stared open-mouthed at the screen, as it showed the Tiger I and Tiger (P) driving away from the disabled Maus. She had never seen a crew that would be able to shoot that impenetrable fortress down. "T-they did the impossible…" she muttered, completely forgetting about the explaining Trafalgar had about two minutes ago.

And after she said that, all platforms almost exploded from the amount of surprised shouts and cheers in one. "The Maus of Kuromorimine… unable to continue," the equally shocked voice of Ami Chono announced a second later. "It seems that your брат and his friends are better than expected," Nonna calmly said after a while of silence.

"I… I suppose you're right. They shot down a Panther by a shot on its commander's hatch no less," Katyusha admitted and pouted at saying that. She tried to look all mighty and uncaring about her brother, but her own emotions betrayed her and it got even worse, when she saw Nonna's knowing smile.

Erika stared at the turret armor before her with her mouth wide open. There was no way that the Maus would get caught that much off guard after the training course with Fritz and blindly chase a T-34, not looking around to search for another enemy. "Uhh… zweiter Kommandant?" her gunner asked, snapping her out of her shock.

"Was ist das?!" Erika snapped at her and she followed the gunner's finger, which pointed at the hill, where Oarai was entrenched. The key word being was. Instead of their tanks, there was just one big cloud of smoke. "Smoke? Don't act sneaky. You're not ninjas," Erika muttered.

But, as if luck would want it, at least one tank was still visible enough. It was the Type 3. "Aim at the Type 3," she commanded and after hearing a confirmation on it being locked, she said only one word: "feuer!"

And the medium tank suddenly went to a halt. "Type 3 Chi-Nu of Oarai unable to continue," the voice of Ami Chono announced after the smoke cleared a bit. "They're heading for the city, now that the Maus is down!" she shouted after noticing the Type 3's hull being turned in the direction of the city.

"I saw their fight against St. Gloriana and I must admit that they are better at Urban warfare than anything else," Helmut admitted and surprised her even further. "We can't let them enter the city at all costs!" she shouted and barked orders to her group to pursue Oarai, when Maho stopped her from doing that.

"Nein! They want you to follow them, so they would take us down more easily!" she shouted into the comms and Erika gave the order to hole up on the hill instead. But, before any tank could even reach the position, the Jagdtiger's tracks flew apart and the behemoth of a TD started sliding downwards, taking a Jagdpanzer IV with it.

Only then did she see the Jagdpanzer 38 (t) of Oarai speeding away and growled at it. "Kommandant, Let me take the last four Panthers and I'll make sure to stop the Hetzer from ambushes!" Erika pleaded, itching to finally assault the Failure and end the match for good. Oh, and wipe the existence of boys in Sensha-Do too.