"Ayame, get out of the tank!"

"No!"

"Come on, get down here!"

"I'm in a tank, you're not!"

Amy watched Ayame and Hiromi mess around after practice from on top of the Ram. "What the hell are they doing?" She asked Eiko, who was digging around the engine bay.

"Flirting."

"Wait, they're a… y'know… thing?"

"Ah, I dunno, really. I'm just joking, but that is something they occasionally do. Mess around in the tank like that, I mean."

"The two of them seem close, but I guess that doesn't automatically mean they're in a relationship. Just because two people are good friends doesn't make them partners."

"They spent a long time being the only real people on the team. Back then, it was just them in the CTMS screwing around in Tankathlon, all alone. Everyone else that was registered to the team either sat around during team meetings and messed with the tanks, or didn't even show up at all. Not like there were many people registered then. A couple tank crew's worth, maybe enough for four or five at most."

Amy nodded. "Tank crews get close. Makes sense why Ayame made Hiromi the vice-commander."

"Exactly. Hey, you got spare AA batteries? There should be a box under the table over there."

"Yeah, I got you." Amy slid off the turret and onto the ground. She pulled out a couple batteries and tossed them up to Eiko. As she knelt down to put the box back, Amy noticed the welds on the table. "Hey, did one of you make this yourselves?"

"What?"

"The table. It's welded together."

"Yeah, I did. It's a really simple and thought-out design, I got the idea from M5 Industries in California. All you do is cut cheap square tube steel to length and put it together with a MIG welder. Light, cheap, and sturdy. Try doing that with wood 2x4s."

"Huh."

Eiko's casualness was impressive. Such a talented person at such a young age is rare. Most teenagers can't operate a welder, let alone make near-perfect welds.

A voice called from across the garage.

"Dominion team, form up on me!"

The entire team grouped up around Ayame's M7. She was on the turret, and two others were standing on the engine deck. One was the Vice President; the other Amy didn't recognize. It was obvious neither of the two girls were comfortable standing up there.

"I thought I told her I'd wreck her brains if she came back here." Delilah growled under her breath.

Yelena put an arm around her. "Relax, it's not like she's said or done anything stupid... yet."

The strange girl spoke. "On behalf of the Student Council, Dominion Girl's High School, and the entirety of the Nassau, the Vice President and I would like to congratulate you all on your most recent victory against Chi-Ha-Tan Academy. Only one tank lost, and from what I saw of you Kana, your crew put up a hell of a fight before going down. Excellent work, all of you. Ms. Vice President, anything to say?"

"Of course, Ms. President. I'm absolutely impressed with this team. You have all shown that you're capable of great things, and I hope that you keep this up. I was skeptical about your new tank destroyers, but I was proven wrong with the results of the match. If you continue to win like you did this weekend, we may be able to get a bit more funding for the team. Remember that you are the pride of Dominion, and we're all counting on you to show that we've still got it. Congratulations once again."

And with that, the two were gone. Everyone except the Ram crew, Ayame, and Hiromi dispersed back to their tanks.

"That creep was looking right at me the entire time." Hiromi whined. "What's her deal?"

Eiko crossed her arms. "Probably wants your job. Thinks she'd be the best at everything."

"She can shut it until she gets in the Lee herself. Freak was uncomfortable even standing on the tank."

Delilah looked to Ayame. "Did they say anything to you that we didn't hear? Any threats, compliments, or complaints?"

She shook her head. "No. Cathay's always polite and lovely to talk to, the Bird didn't say anything at all."

"The Bird?"

"My new nickname for her. It doesn't have any negative connotations."

Amy grinned. "I too have read Unbroken."

"Aw, I was hoping no one would figure it out."

"I love it and I'm stealing it."

"Go ahead. And it doesn't seem like the two of them wanted to give me any trouble, so I guess you guys can head back to your tank for now."

The crew was the last to leave, even though there was nothing particularly wrong with the Ram. Tank crews get close, and sometimes it's nice to relax for a while after a practice. Only Yelena and Mia were left in the garage. Amy and Eiko had gone out driving, Delilah had chosen to walk back to the dorm. Mia was going through basic maintenance of the gun, and Yelena was refilling the ammo racks for the 6-pounder as well as getting full ammo cans for all the Brownings. Mia had burned through quite a lot during that day's practice.

Suddenly, Yelena grabbed Mia's wrist. "Shh."

"What?"

"Don't move." Yelena whispered. "Did you hear that?"

"No. Hear what?"

"The door. Someone just came in."

Mia shrugged. "Probably someone like me. I occasionally come here at night. Amy found me here once. Hell, it's probably her."

"I don't know…"

Yelena silently opened the commander's hatch and slid out of the turret. That was a familiar face she saw walking toward the back office.

"It's the Bird."

"Why is she here?"

"You know why. She wants to harass Ayame."

"At this time of night? Does she have nothing better to do? Surely someone like her has a boy-toy to go fool around with."

Yelena rolled her eyes.

Mia put her hands up defensively. "Hey, maybe it's a girl-toy. No judging here. But she's definitely a dom if you ask me."

"You're insufferable, you know that? It's like you're turning into Eiko."

The two sat in silence as the Vice President wandered around the garage. She was definitely looking for Ayame.

"What do we do?" Mia asked. "If we tell her that Ayame's not here, she'll just go looking for her at her apartment. I thought Delilah did something about it, but I guess that wore off."

"Well, she's going to figure out at some point. She's not that stupid. Maybe we can stall her for a bit."

"I call dibs on not talking to her first."

"Yeah, screw you too."

Yelena crawled out of the tank, Mia followed her.

"Hey, can we help you?"

"Uh…" It was obvious that the Bird was surprised anyone was still around.

"If you're looking for Delilah, she left a little bit ago."

"Delilah?"

"Yeah, the Scottish girl. I thought you two had talked before?"

"No… I mean-"

The Bird paused, attempting to catch her mind up.

"Wanting to look around the tanks?" Mia offered. "We can show you around most of them. If you really want details, though, I think maybe Amy might be your best bet. She's kind of a nerd, definitely knows more than either of us."

"Who… are you?"

Mia felt slightly offended by this. Even though they'd never talked face-to-face, the Vice President should at least know her name. Bird was definitely a good nickname, since she apparently had the mind of one.

"I'm Mia, the gunner of the Ram. This is Yelena, she's the loader. Both of us are the Tankery exchange students."

"Oh, that's right, that's right. I do remember signing your invitation letters a while back."

"Yeah, we were just finishing some stuff up on the tank before we left." Mia explained.

No apology at all. What a pleasant and nice girl. She thought.

Yelena grabbed the Bird's arm. "Here, we'll show you around our Ram!"

There was no way anyone would be able to get away – Yelena was strong in general, but several weeks of loading rounds had built up her arms somewhat. She dragged the Bird over to the Ram and helped – almost forced, really – her up onto the engine deck.

Yelena had the Bird sit in the commander's seat while she and Mia sat in their normal positions as she explained what would normally happen during a match.

After a few minutes, Mia caught on to what Yelena was doing. They were stalling, wasting time. Maybe after a while, the little brat would give up and go home. The two covered every part of an engagement starting from target acquisition and loading, to firing and follow-through. Eventually, Mia brought the Bird down into the driver's hole and explained everything she could. Both her and Yelena did their best to remember Eiko and Amy's discussions about the drivetrain, to recall every little bit about the transmission, the final drives, and the engine. Yelena finally ran out of things to say when she got the tracks, realizing she knew almost nothing about them.

"Oh! I know! I'll show you something cool!" Mia said. The three exited the tank and Mia showed the Bird the rear of the tracks. She pointed to the rear-most pulley.

"This is called the idler wheel or idler pulley. What it does is keep the track tensioned. I'll show you how that works."

And so, Mia proceeded to explain every step in the process of tensioning the track in detail. Ten minutes later, she couldn't think of anything else to say. The Bird was certainly tired-looking, and both girls hoped she was done for the night. They were wrong.

"Thank you both for showing me around and everything. But I came here looking for Ayame. Do you know where she is?"

"Uhh… I don't…" Yelena stuttered.

"She's probably run off, just like she always does. She runs from the garage, from her problems, from enemy tanks-"

Mia flinched when the Bird said this. Out of nowhere, she spoke. "Hey!"

Yelena turned to her, surprised. Mia felt like she had to say something, to do something. She remembered what Amy had said that night a couple weeks ago. What would Amy do?

"Uh… that's… that's not nice to say about Ayame!"

"What?"

"That she runs away. I mean, maybe she does, but sometimes you have to, you know, like if there's too many tanks for you to fight well."

"I wasn't just talking about tanks, but now that you mention it, that's what I wanted to talk to her about. Her fighting could be better."

"Better? We won this weekend, what more do you want?"

"Two matches in a row she sat in one place and waited. Waited for the other team to show up and dictate what happens."

"And it worked! We won the last match; we totally rocked that Japanese team."

"It could have been better. I would have liked to see Ayame be more aggressive with them. Dominion was often more aggressive in its style in the past, and-"

Yelena cut in. "Using a defensive strategy and an aggressive one aren't full answers to engagements. You have to pick and choose what's best for the situation."

"And how was that better? You could have met the enemy on more of your own terms and pushed against them. Besides, you said you're the loader. What do you know about strategy?"

It took everything Mia had not to laugh.

"Back home, I command a team of twenty-eight T-34s, six T-44s, a KV-2, two KV-1s, four IS-2s, an IS-3, six BT-7s, and a bunch of other stuff I forget. My tank is a T-34-85 named Rodina. And I guarantee you have no clue what any of what I just said means. As for you, you're the Vice President of a medium-sized girl's high school. I am going to be clear. You do not know shit about Tankery. I have the exact same knowledge level about leading a school. I'm sure you're an amazing leader, I don't doubt that, just as you shouldn't doubt that I'm a competent tank commander and team captain. We both do our jobs, that's why they're different. That thinking should extend to everyone, not just me. And that applies to both Delilah and Ayame. Do you understand?"

The Bird glared at Yelena.

"I'll take that as a yes. Please understand I'm not calling you dumb and that I'm trying to be respectful here, because I do understand your frustration. But I want you to know that the team is in good hands, okay? The strategy Delilah and Ayame both came up with was a solid one. We knew Chi-Ha-Tan was an extremely aggressive team. That meant that while they would charge on sight, we could choose where they charged by choosing where they saw us. That's why we set up the team the way we did. If we were more aggressive like you suggest, the teams would close on each other very quickly. That's bad for us. All of Chi-Ha-Tan's guns are much more deadly at close range. It's part of the reason they always charge at an enemy. From the range we kept ourselves at, they were almost harmless."

"What about that one that got knocked out?"

"It's what happens in a light tank. Your armor isn't strong, but you depend on mobility to keep you alive. You're supposed to be support, not have a main attacking role. We kept our medium tanks at far range so we could hit at a range where we were safe. And as I said, Delilah helped make that plan. That's what she's here for. That's her job."

"You're just insulting me!"

"How is she insulting you?" Mia exclaimed. "She's explaining to you, in the most respectful way possible, how you're wrong-"

Again, Yelena cut into the exchange. "How that while your idea isn't a terrible one, it's not as effective as you might think. And that's okay, you just don't know, because it's not your job to. It's ours. It's Ayame's."

"Now you're just defending that idiot! She could hardly hold a team together, and she hates listening to my advice. I'm trying to get her to win, and that won't happen unless she listens. Hell, she hates me so much that she sent that little friend of hers after me the other week. You know, that one that follows her around? What's her name? I mean they're practically a couple, I can't believe they aren't f-"

"Get. Out." Mia said firmly.

"Why the hell would I? I'm not done yet, unlike last time, that little lapdog isn't stalking me into Ayame's apartment to hold a blade to my throat like she's some scary killer. All she does is follow I-Had-A-Stroke Ayame around everywhere."

"I said get out. Now."

"What about you, Yelena, aren't you being all 'respectful?' What are you going to do about me? It's not like you can make me go anywhere. I'm the Vice President, dammit, I'll sit here all night if I want to!"

"Normally I try to be understanding. But right now, you're being a dick. I've had enough of your shit."

Yelena took hold of her wrist once again and dragged her across the garage and out the door. "If you come back in here without someone else with you, I'm not going to be so gentle, do you understand?"

"That's what Nisei said, too. And I still got in."

"I'm not fucking around. Get away from here, or I'm calling her."

Hearing that, the Bird ran off.

Mia sat down against the back of the Ram. "So that just happened."

"Yeah, that's not how I thought the night would go."

"Did you hear what she said? About Hiromi? I didn't think she had it in her to do something like that."

"I know, right? She always seemed a little timid. She'd really have to- oh…"

Yelena's eyes widened. Mia turned her head to look at her.

"What?"

"You're right. Hiromi didn't have it in her to do something like that."

"What do you mean? Then who did? Maybe one of the technical students? They're pretty insane, Eiko is like the sanest of them."

"Think. Who do we know that had a conversation with the Bird about Ayame last week? A conversation that came after an argument when she was here 'last time'?"

"Oh, shit."

"That was Delilah."