ARC II chapter 17

Somewhere in the La Manche channel, near Calais, school ship Commandant Teste

Anne Duchamp, commander of the St. Chamond Panzerfahren team, looked from her ARL 44 (ACL 1 variant) at her team. It was nothing to scoff at, because they managed to reach 4th place in the tournament, but just because most enemies underestimated them. Not the Germans though, she thought bitterly

Hell, the rule of using only your countries' WW2 tanks and/or armored (scout) cars gave the Germans and Russians way too big of an advantage in her opinion. It also discouraged most of the former European Eastern bloc countries from joining the Panzerfahren tournament. Well, only the Poles joined in, but they did some things differently than the rest of their neighbors.

"We'll win the International tournament in Japan," she muttered, already thinking about better ways of combat other than using the ARLs as meat shields. "This Oarai is a small fry with their lineup," suddenly said one of the D2 medium tank commanders, sporting a cocky grin on her face, forcing Anne to facepalm at her subordinate's lack of information about their enemy.

"You have seen the latest Sensha-Do battle in Japan, oui?" Anne asked the idiot, who just shook her head. "And why should I? It's not like Oarai would've been able to beat All-stars," Jeanne, she remembered was her name, answered, but the silence that Anne let intentionally to dominate the training grounds was enough to make the other girl pull out her phone and fiddle on it for a few moments.

"Que diable?!" she nearly screamed in surprise and Anne just smiled weakly, before giving an order to resume training. They'll surely need it for the time, when (and if) they ever face Oarai after all.

Kafka sighed in defeat, when she realized that she'll face Darjeeling, if they win against Anzio and she couldn't help, but think that Oarai and Koala Forest had the easier opponents to beat. And even though they got the three new tanks, she knew it wouldn't be enough against someone like Darjeeling was.

"Josef, what did the AH-IV commanders say about the proposal of buying new Hetzers or Škodas?" She asked her trustworthy third-in-command, when she noticed him enter her office with Mucha following him, some papers in both of their hands. Great. More paperwork, she thought and mentally sighed at the mere thought of the annoying desk job she had to complete as the captain of the team.

"They have said yes to two more Hetzers, but nothing else," he answered and Kafka nodded with a slight smile on her lips. "Ano. It looks like your little last stand against those M24s and M26s is more popular than expected," Mucha added, making Kafka blush a little. She had never thought that she'd be popular thanks to that.

"Alright. We'll use the same source as before to get them in 8 days, leaving us with11 more to train the crews for them," she finally said and signed the paper that Josef put on her table (after reading its contents of course), before walking over to a fax, carefully putting in the number that MEXT used, to get the tanks in the 8 day window and use the rest to train the crews, not forgetting to sign another paper, which was confirmation for selling four more AH-IVs.

We sold nearly 50% of the tankettes we have, she thought and mentally shrugged. She knew that they were way more useless than Anzio's CV-33s. "With this, we'll give one hell of a surprise to Anzio," Mucha said with a small smirk and Kafka just nodded at that. With more 75 mm guns at their disposal, they might even pose a bigger threat to schools like Pravda or St. Gloriana, unlike before.

And after that, Josef and Mucha left, explaining that they'll finish the paperwork for today, giving her some free time to train in the Hetzer, making it hers new tank and giving her old Panzer 38 (t) to two crews from the AH-IVs that would be sold, knowing that the former crew of the Hetzer would take one of the new ones for themselves, not noticing that she was being watched by a certain Floof, masked as one of the transfer students.

Two days later

Miho looked at Yukari, when she entered the meeting room, again dressed in the Sunkus store shirt and again with a USB in her hand. While she approved of her trying to earn information, she wasn't very keen on the fact that she went twice in four days to do it. And also in different corners of Japan.

"What do you have today, Oddball?" Trafalgar asked, a small smirk on his lips. He still hadn't forgotten the fact that she used the same nickname she did at Saunders to infiltrate BC Freedom, she thought and slightly glared at the boy, who pretended that he saw nothing.

And then, Yukari put the USB into its slot, turning on the TV a few moments later. "Really? Gregor? Why infiltrate a minor school rather than Pravda or St. Gloriana?" Yuri, the overconfident Panther commander as Trafalgar and his crew dubbed her before the Exhibition match, asked and Miho had a hard time stopping the others from glaring at her.

"Today, I am reporting from SMS Dukla," Yukari's voice on TV said, as the camera showed teenagers dressed in what looked like traditional clothing somewhat similar to the Russian and German ones, but also different at the same time. The atmosphere on the TV reminded her of the Anzio report.

The camera slowly moved as Yukari made her way towards a random stand, and much like all those months ago, she once again bought some traditional food, the elderly owner kindly giving her directions to the tank garages of the team, but nothing else, unlike Pepperoni, who practically parroted out their secret weapon to Yukari.

Miho looked at the other commanders who had their eyes glued to the screen and smiled a bit. They all were as curious as her about what Yukari found out after all. And only then she looked back at the screen.

The scene changed into what looked like a viewing platform with the school's training grounds and garages in clear view. The Yukari on screen zoomed in and then they saw some Panzer 35 and 38 (t)s, AH-IV tankettes, Panzer III Ns and the Hetzer. But suddenly…

Three new tanks entered the training grounds after a few moments. One looked somewhat similar to the 38 (t), while the other two had an alien look to them. "Ooooooohhh! Those are ST vz 39 and Škoda T-25s!" Yukari's excited voice suddenly exclaimed and she soon went into her 'Panzer High' mode, explaining some basic info about the tanks.

Miho didn't need to turn to know that everyone was either shocked or impressed by the revelation and Gregor's teamwork as they trained. "I see now, how they had beaten Bonple," Anzu commented and Miho only nodded at that. They have a high chance to beat Anzio and give a bloody nose to Darjeeling, her inner self, which was quiet for quite some time suddenly exclaimed in her mind and Miho agreed, watching as the video ended, showing Gregor's logo on the Hetzer, as some old Czechoslovak War song was played over the outro.

And after that, she and the rest of the gathered commanders devised another strategy, only for the case, if they ever face Gregor.