ARC II chapter 13

Somewhere in the Pacific ocean, 3 days after the All-stars vs Oarai battle

Elizabeth Wahlin looked over her team's roster and smiled. They had won the 50th US Tankery High school league tournament and got guaranteed a place in the upcoming International one. Also, she already knew that Japan would field a newbie team from this 'Oarai,' which actually was severely undergunned, if you won't count the German kitties and Chaffee.

They won't stand a chance against our one T29, four M18 Hellcats, three M4A1s, ten M4A3E8 Shermans and two T26E4 Super Pershings, she thought and smiled. While the team of Sherman High was smaller than most, that got compensated with very good teamwork. And they used no dirty tricks like Alisa from Saunders in Japan does.

"We'll win this. The German and Russian schools field mostly T-34/85s and Panzer IVs with only a few Hetzers or SU-100," her second-in-command, Emily, stated with conviction and no cockiness. "The Japanese field only five tanks that can threaten our T29, so we can't underestimate them. After all, a Nishizumi leads them," the T29 commander, a Sensha-Do/Tankery fan called Maria, reminded them as she readjusted her glasses.

"I heard that they fought with several other high schools against the All-stars team and won quite smashingly. 6 tanks. That many on the high schools' side survived," her sister, another Sensha-Do enthusiast named MacKenzie, who was the leader of their Hellcat squad, added, causing Elizabeth to take a sharp breath in order to calm herself. They are a threat indeed, she thought and sent her friends to continue training. They'll need it after all.

Traf screwed the final bolt and sat down on the hull of his tank in exhaustion, but happy. His Tiger I E was finally repaired and Oarai had one tank more than crews, so Boris and his crew went to scout out a possible crew for it, while the SC went for the Shark team to come out from their bar for once and train a bit.

"Start the beast, Takashi!" he called out after a few seconds and the brand new Maybach HL 230 P45 TRM engine revved in a way that somewhat reminded him of… purring?! But, he forgot to answer Takashi in time, so he turned it off and looked out from his hatch with confusion written on his face.

"What? Oh… The engine's fine," Traf said after George coughed into his hand as he also looked out from his hatch. "The radio is fine too. We only need to check the transmission and gun," he added his own report, to which Traf nodded before opening his hatch and sliding into the commander's seat.

"Well then… Panzer vor!" Traf said and the Tiger I's engine roared to life for the second time in the span of thirty seconds, slowly making its way to the shooting range, but gradually gaining a bit of speed as Takashi knew that he'll handle it at the current speed.

Josef grinned, when the crates were carefully opened and two Škoda T-25s and a ST vz 39 were in there. In perfect condition, mind you. There also were crates filled with ammo next to the tanks. "Those T-25s have paper armor, y'know? I'd prefer a T-21, if I knew about this," Kafka commented, but Josef already knew the best comeback.

"The 7,5 cm Škoda A18 has a good reload time and penetration. Also, the automatic one has 3 ammo/clip with which we can pepper spray the enemy formations and thanks to the engine run away before they spot us. Oh, and the armor is two times thicker than the T-21 has."

But, that didn't seem to have even the slightest effect on Kafka. "That thing's large. Your cover would need to be better than the standard bushes," she replied, only for Josef to repeat the superior speed the tank has over most medium tanks and tank destroyers, but he also added the point that a skilled crew would make even one of them a way bigger menace than the AH-IV (or any other tankette) could be.

"I'll command one," Mucha, who was silent for the whole conversation, suddenly spoke and Kafka knew that she had made up her mind about it. "Me and the boys will crew the ST vz 39," Josef spoke, knowing that it'll be granted, because buying those tanks was his idea and thanks to it, he had a right to choose a tank from the three new additions, if he wanted

"C-can I have the last one, prosím?" the shiest commander of Gregor's Sensha-Do team, an exchange student called Miroslava, suddenly asked, earning a nod from Kafka. "Very well, you can go choose your crews," she said to both her second-in-command and the exchange student, while Josef started with the inspections of the insides of their new tanks, a screwdriver in hand.

Renta's face went red, when he heard the news. "Repeat it! What the hell happened?!" he shouted at the unfortunate guard on the other side. "T-the E100 and two Super Pershings went missing! " he repeated and Renta screamed in frustration. He is still trying?! Just how persistent is he?! he thought and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

"Make sure that the security for the Winter cup is ten times tighter than it was at the finals! And do I need to talk about the International tournament?" he finally said after a few seconds, earning a quick affirmative response from the head of Sensha-Do Security Team. They'll have almost no sleep soon when the Winter cup and International tournament comes and both men know it.

Saving Oarai from being closed gave us an opportunity to surprise the hell out of the other countries and saved my friendship with Tsuneo, he thought and smiled fondly as the memories of two boys from Kumamoto as they played around - and later fixed - tanks, even if one of them later chose the career of a politician and alienated himself with his friend played in his mind.

And then, he pulled out his old photo from his last High school year and smiled. While it might be nearly two decades after the photo was taken, it was still in mint condition. It even showed the school's symbol: a blue and white kanji of Oarai with Tsuneo and himself right below it. But, both were, like the rest of sudents, sitting on Oarai's tanks, including a Mk. IV Male, VK 16.02 Leopard, VK 36.01 (H), T26E4 Super Pershing and a Cromwell.

I wonder, where they are, he thought, not aware of the fact that one of them was already found. He knew that the T-34s and Panthers were not in the original lineup and only added six years ago, - almost seven now - only to be returned by him a year later, because of him starting a rampage to destroy Oarai for no reason.

Now, I have just to work on the draws and opening cerremonies. And with that in mind, he started to write down ideas dilligenty like he was back at High school, when it was still coed, in his role of Class rep, later SC prez. The aforementioned photo being his most popular idea from all decisions (except allowing a limited number of boys into Sensha-Do) he made.