The sound of impact guns and ratchets and compressed air filled the Tankery garage. It was the first team meeting after losing against Saunders, which meant everyone would be doing working on their tanks. Everyone had suffered some kind of damage during the match. Some crews were lucky, with only light work to do after being hit on an armor plate, but others were going to have to replace or repair major parts. Worst off was the Ram. It required a complete overhaul of the engine, much of the transmission needed rework or replacement, and a thorough inspection of the tracks and suspension. Not to mention the massive cleanup job that would be removing the soot and oil stains that coated the rear of the tank when the engine blew. Even though it would require the most work, only one of the crew was working on it. Eiko had happily volunteered to go back to her domain in the Ram's engine bay when the rest of the crew were summoned by Ayame.

"Hey you guys, I wanted to talk to you about the match. I-" Ayame started.

"You freaked out. It happens when you get shot at. That's why we practice, right?" Amy said.

"Yes, but-"

"Shit happens. Learn and move on."

"I understand. I'm sorry, I should have let Delilah take over. I was nervous and honestly didn't want to see my team taken from me, even if that's not what was really happening."

"Hey, you identified your problem. Now you get to work on it."

Delilah nodded in agreement. "Is there anything else you wanted to say, or can we go back to our mess of a tank?"

"Actually, yes. How do we stop that from happening again? The loss I mean. We can train more and let you four actually work with leading and training, but is there anything else we can do?"

"Any new tanks on the horizon?" Yelena asked.

"That's what I was thinking too. I'm sure we can worm ourselves into a couple, as long as they're cheap. What do you guys suggest?"

"Ideally, we'd want a couple platoons of 76mm Shermans as our main fighting force, some light tanks for recon, and maybe a few TDs and perhaps a Pershing or two." Delilah answered.

"Yeah, that's a little out of our budget. We'd be lucky to get even one Sherman, let alone a whole team." Ayame said with a mixture of sarcasm and defeat.

"I know. That would be our goal, our ideal situation. Going off of what went down on Saturday, I think this team could use a few tank destroyers. They're lightweight but pack a massive punch and can get around fast, which would have been helpful this weekend."

Amy shook her head. "I know where this is going, and we couldn't afford it. Hellcats are way out of our range."

"Maybe an M10?" Ayame wondered.

"Neither." Delilah said. "I'm thinking of an M8A1 Scott."

"Don't we already have an M8 Scott?"

"Yes, but it's just that – a regular M8. An M8A1 comes with the same 75mm gun as the early and mid-model Sherman. Same M5 Stuart chassis, but with a new turret and a bigger gun. It'd be good for most targets and would drive pretty much the same. They're also pretty cheap since everyone who can't get an M18 gets an M10 as a stopgap and the M8A1 gets passed over since it's got a smaller gun. That's not exactly a problem for us since it'd be one of the best guns on the team anyway, on par with our 6-pounder and the 75s on the Lees and your M7."

Ayame seemed to love this idea, but Amy didn't seem quite satisfied.

"If it's tank destroyers we want, don't we want the biggest, baddest gun we can get?"

"We can't exactly afford much better." Mia reminded her.

"We can afford a 6-pounder, right?"

"What else has a 6-pounder that we could use?" Mia asked.

"The 6-pounder only has better penetration characteristics until about 600 yards. At longer ranges, the 75 would be better anyway. The only reason we can get away with it is that Mia can handle the gun's weaknesses." Delilah said. She didn't sound unconvinced, though.

"Well, we get one of each. The 75 would be for longer ranges and the 6 for closer ranges when faster firing is more important." Amy explained.

"And where do you suggest we find something that has this gun?"

"T49 tank destroyer."

"T49?"

"Yes. The T49 was a TD prototype from Buick that was almost accepted when it was up-gunned until the T70 prototype came along and entered service as the M18 Hellcat we all know and love. Yes, girls, it took the mighty Hellcat to get rid of it. And that up-gunned version? It had a 76mm in the turret, so we can upgrade the T49 into our personal Hellcat replacement when we get the cash."

Delilah was impressed. Amy had outdone her knowledge of American vehicles and had found a solution to the team's tank destroyer problem.

"Will it need and modification to make it legal?" Ayame asked cautiously.

"Nope! It comes with a welded version of the M7 turret your tank has, so it's tracked, has a closed roof, and was designed way before the war was even thinking about ending. To sweeten the deal, there was an actual functioning prototype made which means way more people have made reproductions since. They're pretty cheap, since again, everyone wants the Hellcat."

"Well, anything else I need to know?"

"Give the M8A1 to the CTMS crew. We've been watching them, and in both the practice match and the Saunders match they were hitting every shot. They'd be scary with something better than the 37 they have now." Mia said.

Ayame wrote down everything she'd just been told. "Thanks, guys. This is why you're here. I couldn't have figured this out myself. I'll give the student council a call about getting us those tanks. Have fun with your… I'd call your engine a scrap heap, but that implies the metal actually exists as an alloy and not a collection of bits held together by oil and stubbornness. Eiko and all the technical students are mechanical gods though, I'm sure she'll make it run at twice the power with half the cylinders and no fuel."

After the conversation ended, the crew returned to the Ram, where Eiko was still hard at work. She'd disconnected the engine from everything except the mountings holding it in the hull. Next would come removing the engine deck and pulling the entire engine (or what was left of it) up and out of the rear of the hull. Delilah wanted to know what would need to be done to get the tank running again.

"Well, what's the patient look like, doc?"

Eiko leaned against the back of the Ram and sighed. "The engine will probably need to be replaced, the prop shaft is somehow not twisted or cracked, and I have no idea about the front end. We'll need all-new brakes, at least some parts of the transmission, and I wouldn't be surprised if the final drives need work too."

Delilah shrugged. "I've seen worse."

"Worse?!" Yelena gasped.

"Yeah, I once saw someone do a very similar maneuver in a Sherman Jumbo. They were on an even steeper hill, going even faster, in a heavier tank. Every piece of the powertrain needed to be replaced. The track snapped and the bogies got crushed into the ground so hard that one ripped the mounting bolts right out of the hull while the others were bent like paperclips. That one ended up on its side."

"You people never cease to amaze me…"

They all spent the rest of the evening pulling apart the front end of the tank so they could start working on actually replacing everything the next day. In the last half an hour, the crew had managed to pull off the front transmission housing and disassemble parts of the driveline. Most of the team had already left when Delilah asked everyone to stop for the night and get some rest, the sky outside fading to a bright orange. Amy and Eiko agreed to stay behind and prep the engine for removal the next day.

Doing so was a fairly simple task that didn't take much longer. The two double-checked everything was loose and set up the chains for the lift to pull out the engine. When they finished, Amy and Eiko reorganized their tools and took a breather beside their tank.

"Did you see Ayame leave?" Eiko asked quietly, evidently tired from the work.

"No. She normally tells whoever's left that she's leaving."

"Then where is she?"

"Maybe she didn't realize we were still here and just left?"

"Probably."

Before either of them could get up and look around, they heard a door slam open on the other side of the garage.

"Hey! Anyone here?" a voice yelled.

Eiko froze. Amy was about to respond when she found herself pulled back to the ground.

"Ikeda! Come visit me!"

There was a scuffling sound somewhere, and Amy heard Ayame respond.

"D-don't worry ma'am! I'll be over in a minute!"

"Move it!"

"That's the student council vice president." Eiko whispered. "Do not make any noise or let her know we're here."

"Why not?" Amy asked.

"You'll see. You got your phone on you?"

Amy fumbled around her pockets for a moment. "Yeah. Right here."

"Okay, can you record audio?"

"Yeah, but why-"

"Start a recording and don't turn it off until I tell you."

After some more fumbling, Amy pulled out her phone and started an audio recording. They could hear the Vice President and Ayame.

"Ikeda! Explain what happened this Saturday!"

"We lost ma'am. Saunders was able to-"

"No shit. You lost? You gonna keep losing?"

"We didn't lose on purpose, ma'am. We tried to counter them and then withdrew when we couldn't. Battles don't always go your way."

The Vice President was practically screaming at Ayame. "What in the fuck is that supposed to mean? Your job is to make them go your way! Your job is to win battles and get us the fight we want! Maybe I haven't made that clear! You and your trash team lost, and your crazy foreigners trashed their perfectly good tank!"

Amy's jaw dropped. What kind of abuse was this? This was the second-highest leadership in the school? What kind of leader screams at someone? She looked over to Eiko, who was no longer scared. Her jaw was clenched tight, her eyes focused on nothing but her mental image.

"That bastard…" She whispered. Eiko jumped up and took a large wrench from the tool rack in front of her. She motioned Amy to follow quietly. They silently walked along the line of tanks until they could see Ayame and the Vice President. The VP looked ready to beat poor Ayame, who was taking the full force of the verbal lashing. Neither of the two could see the girls hiding behind a Stuart.

"You are a failure as a leader and can only win by sheer luck! Saunders was a simple target for us, a chance to show that we aren't just the "other American school" like everyone thinks! You wasted that chance. Now my school looks worse because of it. You understand, Ikeda? Tell me something good you did during that match, come on. Tell me."

Eiko sounded like she said something, but the small girl had no chance of being heard over the yelling. Amy was about to say something in defense of her captain but didn't get the chance to. Eiko slammed her wrench against the side hull of the Stuart, creating a sharp metallic clang. Then she dragged it across the welded corner of the side and front plates. A harsh screeching sound filled the garage as the tool steel scraped against the hardened armor. Ayame and the Vice President stopped and looked to see what the noise was. Eiko made direct eye contact with the Vice President as she scraped her wrench against the tank. She let it drop to the floor loudly.

"Do you need something, Eiko?" Ayame asked, surprised to see her team member's sudden bold appearance.

"You got anything constructive to say?" Eiko said, still keeping direct eye contact.

No one said a word. Amy stood up beside her bow gunner.

"I asked you a question. You will respond. Do you have anything useful or constructive to say?"

Nobody moved. Amy broke the silence. "I'm the one who blew the engine on the Ram. You can yell at me if you like, but I need to ask you something. Who bought that tank?"

"Which tank?" The Vice President asked, still thrown by the noise she'd just heard.

"Tank, Cruiser, Ram II, M4A5." Amy said in a nearly robotic voice. It was a voice all tankers shared when reciting their equipment.

"Why me of course. I'm the one with the money and it was cheap so I-"

"What does a suspension bogie do? How about you tell me what kind of engine a Ram has and how to tension the track?"

Amy got a blank stare.

"Next time you go shopping, bring someone who can answer those questions. We spent hours trying to fix everything wrong with that thing."

"And as for right now, why are you yelling at my captain?" Eiko asked.

"She managed to completely fail our school in your match last weekend. It was a stupid loss, and now she wants more money dumped into the team for new tanks."

"You want to tell me how to fight a bunch of Shermans with light tanks and a couple of obsolete mediums? You want to try and bounce a 76mm HVAP round with an inch and a half of armor?"

"That is not my job. It is the job of the team captain to solve the problem."

Amy stepped forward. "I would like to say that Ayame's technique in the battle was not entirely flawed. Could it have been better? Yes. But it wasn't terrible either. Defending a line can work, if you're given the right tools. Unfortunately, we were not given what we needed. Maybe Ayame could have worked around that limitation better, but as far as I can tell, she hasn't been given any kind instruction on how to do so yet. Us exchange students are still trying to figure out Japan and here we are attempting to get an unprepared team ready for a match against one of the best schools in the country while trying to fix our own poorly-sourced tank because someone higher up decided we needed to fight. Do you understand our frustration?"

"I think you don't understand the situation. We must fight Ooarai someday, and to do that we need attention. We need to prove ourselves and show that our school is not second-class."

"I get it. We all want to win. I know that. But we can't just magically make what we want happen."

"I will make sure it happens. You will win. Now shut up and have a good night, you reckless idiots."

The Vice President stormed out of the garage, slamming the door again behind her. Ayame staggered to her desk area and sat down. Amy and Eiko followed. It seemed like Ayame was about to cry. What was once a confident girl commanding a Tankery team was now face down on her desk almost sobbing. Eiko tried to comfort her. Amy stood off to the side on her phone.

You guys need to come back to the garage. Something just went down, and you need to hear this. Try and get the Vice Commander here too.

What had happened here tonight would not stay between these three girls.