Chapter 28

Koume looked at the two disabled Panthers before her. The sudden ambush forced their whole column to stop and calm down from the initial shock. "Their StuG has a good crew. The same goes with the Hetzer," she heard Maho mutter through the comms. But, where is the rest? Koume thought and peeked out of the commander's hatch with her binoculars to search for the enemies.

The left side was clear, but there was an irregular pile of rubble on the right side. And… was that tube actually a cannon?! Before she managed to shout a warning, a shell flew from it, revealing the T-34/85. But, it never disabled her tank. Instead, it hit the Jagdpanther next to her and fled shortly after the shot.

"The enemy T-34/85 delivered the shot!" she announced and remembered the direction, which the T-34 used to flee. She looked at the map and blinked at that. "The enemy tank is fleeing towards point H017!" Koume shouted after she drew a trace with her finger on the map.

"We should better hurry up there, before their whole force holes up in there and block their Flag!" Erika responded with anger and impatience in her voice, but Koume felt that she was right for once with her aggressive approach.

"Fine. But, Jagdpanzer IV, Ferdinand and Jagdtiger will protect each other," Maho said after a minute of silence. And after that, both last Panthers were tasked to scout the side streets in front of them to help avoid more ambushes against the TDs and possible ambushes against their Flag.

Traf smirked, when the two unsuspecting Panthers passed his tank. "This is simply the best hiding spot!" Takashi shouted, when they were at least five meters away from their hiding spot. "Yeah, and they still have nine tanks left: two Tiger Is, two Tiger IIs, two Panthers, Ferdinand, Jagdtiger and one last Jagdpanzer IV/70," Traf listed out the tanks, knowing that only one Tiger I was able to move.

"Sorry, the Panthers found us!" Azusa's voice suddenly announced, leaving Traf to rethink a few of the ambush strategies. "Duck and Mallard! focus on their Ferdinand and Jagdtiger!" he shouted into the comm, getting an affirmative from the two teams. "Москва! You, Hippo and Turtle will focus on the Panthers, Lang and the second Tiger II! Leopon, your role is unchanged!"

"Damn… Who are you and what have you done with Trafalgar?!" George joked and the trio laughed at the joke, forgetting for a while about the battle, releasing the unknown tension that was clouding their minds.

Viewing platform for VIP #4

Chiyo Shimada was surprised, when the boy crew took down the Maus, but she was downright shocked at the quick wit of the boy commander after the M3 Lee confirmed its disabled status. She had known only five people (herself included) who could do that move just five minutes ago. Alice would have trouble dealing with him, if she is on the opposing team. And it would get worse with a Nisizumi joining forces with him… she thought and prayed that it would never happen.

She was never fond of the 'female only' agenda of MEXT, when it came to Sensha-Do, but she also never protested against it (the only exception being the disbanding of the Engineering department around the same time as Oarai disappeared), because doing so was the best course of action. And the two assassination attempts only convinced her in it.

She even recognised Tsuji sitting with the Nishizumi couple on the VIP platform on the furthest left side. She knew about Tsuneo and the minister being friends that shared her view on boys in Sensha-Do, albeit louder, and that the minister was five years supporting the idiotic propaganda without a warning before that happened.

But, she shook her head to clean her thoughts and focus on the interesting match. After all, seeing Kuromorimine being slowly eliminated was fun to see for her.

Erika had a bad feeling. About a minute ago, they had lost Koume's signal and so, they were treading on the unknown place blind. And it was ten seconds ago, when the rest of the Kuromorimine forces (sans her, Kommandant and Fritz) were sent to chase down the B1 Bis and Type 89B I-Go.

And yet, they were near the point H017. "I'll go in first," Maho announced and before Erika could follow her in, the Tiger (P) blocked the path leading to the complex, cutting her off of her chance to help end the match, forcing her to fire at it.

But, it was angled in that damned 45° turn, thus becoming unpenetrable for her 8,8 cm KwK 43 L/43, if she doesn't move to a better firing angle. But, she knew that it would endanger her own tank to be disabled by that faulty creation.

And suddenly, she felt a small spider-like creature crawl up her neck, forcing her to turn her head and she gulped.

There it was: the Tiger I of the boy crew of Oarai, aiming at the exposed, and to 8,8 cm KwK 36 L/56 vulnerable, rear armor of her superior tank. The commander's hatch of the tank opened and Trafalgar Jameson peeked out, grabbing one of his gloves and throwing it on the ground in her direction - a challenge to a duel.

And unbeknownst to her, all spectators fell silent, their eyes rather on them than on the Nishizumi sisters.

Miho looked at her sister. She was confused by something. "I challenged Itsumi to a duel. It might surprise everyone," Trafalgar's voice cut into the silence, explaining why her sister had that rare confused look.

She knew that her sister could break out of her confusion at any moment, so she ordered Mako to move and Yukari to load a shell. And she was in luck to say the orders at that time. If she prolonged the wait by even a single second, her tank would be disabled.

"Saori! Count loudly to four!" she shouted at her radioman, remembering the advice from the fight against Pravda. Luckily for her, Mako got the meaning of it and steered the Panzer IV at the last moment, when Saori shouted "four!"

Takashi quickly turned their Tiger I to a side alley to dodge another shot from Erika's Tiger II with a huge grin on his face. "Turn to the left three additional times the next time, we take a turn to the left!" Trafalgar ordered and the driver nodded at that, happy with the order.

Erika let out a string of curses, when the Tiger I disappeared in yet another side alley and so, she ordered to take the right one that also led out of the city. "We'll wait for them to drive out and end this with one shot," she announced and smirked, when she got an update that both M3 Lee and Type 89B were disabled, but at the cost of the Lang.

Boris smirked, when the Jagdtiger passed his hiding spot, unaware of his position. "This is Hippo team. We got the lead Panther locked! Awaiting orders to fire!" Erwin's voice announced suddenly and Boris nodded to Grigori, which got the meaning and gave the order to the Hetzer to disable the Jagdtiger.

Koume had a bad feeling about the street they were in. Yes, they managed to take down another two Oarai tanks, but the rest was nowhere to be seen. She was also aware of two duels happening at the moment: Kommandant vs. Miho and the first boy crew vs. zweiter Kommandant.

And suddenly, the familiar small frame of the StuG III stared at her from another side alley on the left side. "STOP!" she shouted in hopes that the Tank Destroyer would fire and miss, but that never happened, as it fired after her Panther stopped and Koume heard the flag popping up, signalling her being unable to continue.

Maho silently praised her sister's driver and her skills with the fairly complicated driving system of the Panzer IV. It was like she was either a prodigy or another person, which left Sensha-Do and retook it again this year.

She also noticed that every time her crew fired, the Panzer IV dodged at the last possible second. It reminded her of the stunt done by Trafalgar at the fight against Pravda… No. The stunt was it! "Sorry, the T-34/85 and Hetzer tag-teamed us!" the commander of the Jagdtiger suddenly announced, surprising her.

And then it hit her like a freight train: Trafalgar with (or without) Miho's help gave orders to slowly take her forces down one by one. I bet that if any Shimada sees this, it is funny for them, she thought and sighed in defeat.

Traf peeked out of the street they were in to scout ahead, noticing the Tiger II's rear armor facing him and he smirked as he rushed back to his tank. "Takashi, drive as quietly as possible. She has her back turned on this street and I don't want her to be alert of our presence!" he announced and both Takashi and George grinned back at him.

"Let's put an end to this!" he cheered and his tank sneaked (as much as that metal beast could) at the end of the street.

Erika had a strange feeling as the part of her brain that had actually a decent amount of common sense whispered to her, that something was very wrong. She slowly turned her head and looked through one of the holes in the commander's hatch to look behind her and she paled.

The Tiger I of the boy crew was aiming right at the rear armor. "Scheiße!" she cursed and ordered to turn the hull, but it was too late, as a second later, the more reliable Tiger I E spit its load and it flew towards the exposed weak rear of her tank.

Miho looked again at her sister on the same square, where their duel began. She was ready to finish this right here and now, but before she gave the order, something caught her attention. "Repeat it," she said and waited for the report to be repeated.

"Itsumi is down!" the cheery tone in George's voice was evident. "We are almost finished with the Ferdinand and second Panther!" Grigori added his own report and Miho knew that the victory is closer than she thought.

And with that in mind, she gave the last orders of this match, fully knowing that it would set the tracks loose.

Maho knew that her sister was planning something, when her tank suddenly moved towards her and went into a very sharp left turn that would set the tracks loose. But, it was too late to order anything other than to keep her sister's tank locked and fire on it as soon as it stops.

But, as the Panzer IV H came to a halt, she knew that the battle was over, even before it fired a millisecond before her own gunner managed to fire.

There was smoke everywhere. But as it cleared out, it was her tank that had the white flag on display. Maho used the opportunity to send her sister a very small smile, which got replaced by shock the next moment. And she didn't need Ami Chono's announcement to know that it was over.

A/N:

And this wraps up ARC 1 of Girls und Panzer: Second Chance. Next ARC would be centered around the events of Der Film (even if a bit changed).

Also, this story reached over 6k total views.

See ya later.