Delilah leaned back against the turret roof, taking in the warm sun. The olive-green steel was comfortably warm and inviting for someone as tired as her. She'd stayed up way too late the previous night and was now paying for it. It wasn't as if Delilah wasn't used to being tired in the tank, it was simply an inconvenience. At some point she would have to sit up and actually do her job, but she didn't want to think about that. The level of concentration and alertness required to command a tank wasn't the most appealing thing for a tired girl. Everything seemed to lull her to asleep – the rocking of the tank, the vibration of the engine, and sounds of the M8A1 and M3 Lee travelling alongside. Today was another 3-on-3 against Ayame, the other Lee, and the T49.

Ugh.

Actual fighting.

Actual thinking.

How can I get out of brain-ing? What's a low-concentration job on a tank during a practice match?

Delilah toggled her headset, too lazy to lean into the turret.

"Hey Yelena?"

"Yeah?"

"Switch."

"What?"

"Be the commander for today."

"Sure, but why? This is totally random."

"I'm tired. Now get up here so I can sleep in your chair."

Both girls switched positions, awkwardly climbing around the cramped turret. Yelena pulled on Delilah's headset and looked over the match notes. Delilah immediately rested her head on top of the gun breech.

Mia looked at her commander in playful disgust. "How dare you disgrace my gun with your ugly face? My, that's quite a rude gesture. You know the first round that goes downrange is gonna rock your head back with the breech, right? Like, that's not gonna feel nice."

"I didn't ask for your opinion." Delilah fumbled around in her pockets and produced a set of earplugs. She put them in and laid back down. "Much better."

Eiko looked over to Amy and spoke. "Are we all switching places now?"

"I mean, Delilah's just napping because she's a lazy bastard. Isn't that right, Delilah?"

The Scottish girl said nothing.

"No way." Amy was surprised. She'd seen people fall asleep on an airliner doing its takeoff roll, but falling asleep in a tank moving at speed? "Dude, is she seriously out?"

Mia poked her commander-turned-loader. "Yeah, she's totally out."

Eiko was still looking at Amy with puppy-dog eyes.

"You really want to drive? Alright then, let's switch."

"I wanna play with the dakka!" Mia interrupted.

"Bitch, you're the gunner. All you do is shoot guns!"

"Yeah but I never get to play around with it like a bow gunner does."

"Screw it. I'll mess around with the big gun then."

The girls clambered around inside the tank, squeezing past each other to get to their new positions. Delilah's inability (or at least unwillingness) to move didn't exactly make the process any easier. For the time being, Yelena was the commander, Amy was the gunner, Mia was the bow gunner, Eiko was the driver, and Delilah was the loader.

Immediately, Mia began complaining about having to adjust her seat. "Eiko, I know you're short, but wow." She had to move the seat down just to fit in the position. Meanwhile, Eiko was pulling the driver's seat as far forward as it would go.

"This isn't permanent, just to make that clear." Yelena said. "And we're not training to do all of each other's jobs. I've taught a few people everything before all at once and it was… un-fun."

Since this wasn't a real match, both teams knew where they were and found each other fairly quickly.

"Amy, there's already an AP round in the gun, so you can fire whenever."

"Got it."

Yelena selected a target and guided it into Amy's view. Amy put the crosshairs over the M3 Lee and adjusted for elevation and windage. She didn't quite know how the whole process was actually supposed to work, but she did know what the markings meant inside the sight and how to use them.

"On target!"

"Fire!"

"On the way!"

As the gun recoiled, the breech slid backwards inside the turret to absorb the force of firing. Delilah's makeshift pillow that was on top, and therefore Delilah's head, went with it.

"Fuck!"

She jerked awake and snapped her head up, slamming it into the turret roof.

"FUCK!"

The whole rest of the crew roared with laughter.

"Didn't Mia tell you what would happen?"

"Perhaps it's time to invest in a nice helmet?"

"I warned you. Also, you're a dumbass."

Delilah rubbed her head. "That really hurt…"

"Can I get a new round please?"

She fumbled a round into the gun, only slightly aware of her existence outside her new headache.

Yelena spotted the shot, giving Amy instructions on how to re-aim. It hit too far to one side with a great explosion. In her feverish reaction, Delilah had mistakenly loaded a high explosive round. Multiple shots were exchanged between the Lee and the Ram before the M8A1 killed it with one solid hit. The next target was the T49, and once again Amy missed her shot.

"Helmet-chan, you shouldn't have missed that shot." Delilah mused, now fully alert after her explosive awakening.

"Don't call me helmet-chan!"

Since Amy hadn't taken out the T49 quickly enough, it had scored a kill on the friendly M3 Lee. For the second time, the M8A1 bailed out the Ram while Mia sprayed the hull machine gun. While the gun was the same model M1919 Browning that was mounted coaxially with the 6-pounder, it was in a much lighter mini-turret that Mia could have a whale of a time messing with.

"Careful, Mia, you'll overheat the thing at that rate." Eiko warned.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Mia didn't stop spraying away at the now-retreating M7, whose commander was undoubtedly confused by the oddly poor behavior of the Ram. Ayame was sure in for a surprise. Even though the rest of the crew was really more messing around than anything else, Yelena was a seasoned commander and Eiko was still a pretty decent driver. She kept pace with the M7, even though she was losing a little ground.

The M7 turned away sharply, and before Yelena could issue an order or traverse the turret with her override, Eiko pulled the Ram into a beautiful drift. She was able to catch up slightly with this maneuver, and Amy was solidly impressed.

"That was a wonderful move there, Eiko. I didn't realize that you could do such a thing."

"Hey, I may or may not have had some driving time before."

"Let me guess, you played with the Ram a bunch at some point?"

"Yeah, I drove it a lot before you guys showed up since no one else ever liked using it. I spent a couple practices being a moving target, too. Not that fancy driving ever helped my avoid hits, though. I never went too crazy around the team so I wouldn't look irresponsible."

Next to Eiko, Mia had just reloaded the machine gun and was firing another long burst at the M7. Suddenly, she yelped and jumped away from the gun.

"Agh- what's it doing?! It won't stop!"

The Browning was firing on its own, as if the trigger was held by a ghost. Mia's trigger-happiness had caused the gun to overheat and become what was known as a "runaway."

"Dammit, Mia! I told you that you'd overheat it. Let it use up the belt."

"I just put a new one in. That's a whole nine yards of ammo to use up before it's empty."

"Well shit."

"Make it stop!"

"Twist the belt!"

"I can't grab- OW!"

The belt of rounds was moving too fast for Mia to grab without hurting herself, or at least without being extremely nervous about it. Eiko leaned over and felt around for the top of the receiver. Once she found it, she slid her hand just above the belt. In one smooth motion, she clamped down on it and twisted the belt around, jamming the gun.

"How the hell did you do that?"

"Mechanic hands."

Up in the turret, Amy was trying as hard as she could to keep the gun steady. She was missing every shot by a mile.

"Forget this." Yelena said. "Amy, switch."

The two swapped places, and Amy found herself in the commander's seat. "I have no idea what I'm doing!"

"Get your head out and get me on target."

"How am I supposed to command this whole beast, I'm just a nerd who drives, not a commander."

"You're fine." Delilah comforted her. "Just look out for anything that might mess up Eiko. Yelena's got this."

Amy gave Eiko driving directions, and she began to close the gap between the Ram and the M7. This seemed familiar somehow to Amy, but she couldn't place it. Where had she seen this sort of thing before?"

In front of the Ram, the M7 swerved hard again. Amy knew that she had to tell Eiko to turn the tank and follow, but what were the exact commands? With almost no time to think, she said the only sort of driving command that came to mind.

"Hard left, don't cut. Caution brush right side."

Rally racing. That's where.

The Ram pushed through a wall of branches, and Amy saw the M7 off to her left, waiting to fire.

"Full stop, turn hard left. Gunner traverse left 4."

Eiko pulled the tank to somewhat face the M7, which missed its first shot.

"A little to your right, Yelena!"

"On the way!"

Not necessarily a perfect hit, but it was certainly a kill shot.

"Oh my god, let's never do that again."

AN: Happy Wednesday! This week was a bit shorter than most, but I did want it to be more of a fun and loose sort of thing than focusing on the story itself. I tried to capture what it would really be like to have a bunch of teenagers in a fighting vehicle, hence the higher-than-normal level of banter and swearing from everyone. And yes, I know I used the same song title as chapter 14, but my excuse is that I used the original title in 14 and changed the words to fit this one. I'd also like to mention that this chapter was the one to get past 100 pages in my master copy Word document, so I'd like to thank everyone who reads over a hundred pages worth of my silliness. Next week will be a bit longer and move the story forward more, I'm in the process of editing it right now. See you then!