Alarm and panic filled Amy's heart. She had woken up way later than normal and was only a few minutes from being late for class. Not once had she been late to class since she'd started at Dominion. Today was going to be the end of her streak.
Amy thought about the shame of walking into the classroom late. At least her first class of the day had a door at the back of the room. That would let her quietly come into class without anyone staring.
"Don't think about that." Amy said to herself. "Just focus on getting ready. Focus on tank shopping at-"
Amy froze.
Tank shopping.
Tank shopping was today!
Now Amy remembered everything. Today, the tankers had a day off for a long weekend so they could attend to their business in Washington. Nassau was at anchor in the Salish Sea, just off the northwestern coast of Whidbey Island. Amy figured if she could get up onto the superstructure of the ship, she could see the US Navy air station a few miles distant.
Feeling much calmer and no longer in a rush, Amy set about getting ready for the day at a normal pace. Instead of wearing her school uniform, she treated herself to clothes similar to what she wore during her race a few nights ago. It was a cloudy day outside, and it had rained overnight. It'd definitely be chilly enough to warrant at least a flannel. Taking extra caution, she stuffed her field jacket into her bag on top of everything else before she slung it over her shoulder.
Outside was almost exactly what Amy had predicted. Her flannel was just barely keeping her warm while she waited for everyone else. Thankfully, the wait wasn't long until Delilah exited the dorm building.
"This weather's pretty good if ya ask me. Reminds me of home."
"You Scots are truly something else if this is 'good' to you," Amy answered.
"This'd be June for us." The s in "us" buzzed pleasantly with Delilah's accent.
"June in Virginia means shorts and a t-shirt whether you like or not."
In the time it took for Amy and Delilah to have their little conversation, Mia and Yelena had joined them. Mia held her phone in her hand. "Does anyone remember when Hiromi said she'd be here?"
"She is almost here," Yelena responded confidently.
Mia rolled her eyes. "How do you know this?"
"Supercharger." Amy said, nodding gently.
The German girl looked confused. "What?"
"It's got a whine to it. Sounds different from anything else."
Mia still didn't understand until Hiromi pulled up in the WC-51. Not knowing the guts of the truck, Mia didn't know the distant engine sound was that of her ride. Ayame was in the passenger seat while Eiko was laying half-asleep in the cargo bed.
Amy sat down next to the lethargic mechanic as everyone else climbed in as well.
"Sleeping. Try it some time." Amy teased as she poked her co-driver's forehead.
"Fuck off and let me sleep, will you?"
"Wow, first words of the day and you've already dropped an f-bomb on me."
Ayame chuckled in the passenger seat. "Actually, it's number two for today. Hiromi hit the accelerator too hard and sent Eiko sliding into the tailgate earlier."
Delilah got in on the fun too. "The wee girly's fierce this mornin'! Feeling shorter than normal, are we?"
Eiko whipped her left hand out and into Delilah's chest.
"Ack!" The tank commander doubled over as she caught her breath. "Okay, message received. No more messing with you."
The rest of the ride passed peacefully. No one dared to bother Eiko until Hiromi pulled to a stop at a gate. Hiromi spoke quickly to a uniformed man standing there, who opened the gate to let the truck through.
As the truck left the narrow alley that was on the other side of the gate, Amy realized where they were. This was Nassau's airport, home of all things aviation on board the ship. It wasn't exactly massive. Multiple small aircraft dotted the apron. They reminded Amy of the ones she'd seen at the Manassas municipal airport back home. To her right were several hangars. One held four OV-10 Broncos, another smaller one was filled entirely by a single four-engine passenger plane that Amy didn't recognize. It looked like a short Q400 with two extra engines.
Hiromi stopped the truck near a twin-engine de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter.
"This is your ride to shore. Eiko, your car will be brought ashore by a landing craft later this morning. I'll be on board it as well, and I'll bring my Tercel. Who knows if I'll have enough time to drive from the pier in Seattle to the museum today," Hiromi explained.
Ayame nodded. "How do we get home then? The plane's flying us back?"
"Yep, this is all ours for the day. It'll fly you to SeaTac, then on to the museum, and then home at the end of the day."
As she boarded the de Havilland, Amy saw that there were already a few people on board. Amy slid herself into the right-side window seat on the third row from the front. Looking around her, she could see that the cabin was fairly spartan. Seats were arranged three-abreast, one on the left and two on the right. There were no tray tables, and the seats themselves were only cushioned in the academic sense. In fact, there wasn't even a door between the flight deck and the cabin. Amy could see the pilots preparing to start the engines.
"Are you ready to be our tour guide for this place?"
Amy turned to face Delilah, who had sat in the seat next to her. Delilah repeated her question.
"Uh, yeah. I guess," Amy said, somewhat unsure.
Delilah offered a warm smile. "You certainly know more than me. That's impressive, it is."
"I know I do, I'm just nervous."
"What's got ya worked up?"
"I hate going through customs. I've had a bad experience once. Nothing major, just really not fun."
Delilah paused, and her smile disappeared. "Oh, bloody hell. We do have to go through customs, don't we?"
Amy stared wide-eyed at the displays before her. To the left was the start of a gallery that showed the evolution of tank design over the decades. Just inside the entryway was a da Vinci cone tank. Beyond it, Amy could see the boxy shapes of British Mark I and Mark IV tanks from the First World War. To the right was the entrance to another gallery that focused purely on the history of Tankery itself. Straight ahead led into a large exhibition hall full of tanks, uniforms, and equipment from all nations and eras.
"Dear God, we've already lost her," Mia sighed.
Eiko thumped Amy on the back between her shoulders. "Hey! Earth to Amy!"
"O great Wise One, do endow us with your knowledge," Ayame quipped.
That broke Amy out of her trance. "Right, sorry." She nodded to Yelena. "We need to find someone who can direct us to the tanks that are for sale."
"Out of all of us, you chose the one who speaks the worst English?" Yelena complained.
Amy rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm already doing everything else today anyways."
After several minutes of searching, Amy found an employee who led her to a large warehouse. After texting the rest of the group, Amy had to wait several minutes for the others to find her.
"Shall we?" Ayame asked as she excitedly brushed past Amy and opened the door. No sooner had everyone entered than they stopped dead. Everyone had the same expression that Amy had minutes earlier.
"Whoa…" Yelena breathed.
"It's even bigger than the collection in Bovington…" Delilah said in soft awe.
Ayame turned to Amy. "So where do we start?"
"Shermans," Amy said confidently. "Specifically, M4A3s."
"Do we want Easy Eights?" Delilah asked.
Amy shook her head. "Nope, we can't afford enough of them. Find me two M4A3s with 75mm guns."
The group split up. Amy was on her own, and she wandered silently among the tanks. They were organized by country of origin, then broken down further by role. Alone, Amy walked past Shermans and Lees. At the end of this near-identical mass of steel, she entered the light tank section. Past that were the tank destroyers. A horde of M18 Hellcats and a smaller group of M10 GMCs comprised the bulk of this section. One M18 in particular stood out to Amy, and she approached it.
Was that a Saunders livery?!
All Amy had heard about Saunders was their teams being entirely filled with M4 Shermans and Sherman variants. Never had she considered that the other American-themed school would use anything but, yet here was a Hellcat with the insignia of Saunders University High School. Amy was unsure, but she felt as though her tank knowledge was somehow being challenged by someone who wasn't even there. She walked past the odd tank destroyer and continued further into the collection.
Further back, Amy found the section full of prototypes. It was so far away from the medium tank section that it was practically in the German area of the warehouse.
"Torsion bar suspension, 76mm gun, low-slung Pershing-style hull. Same turret as the Easy Eight. Let's see, where are you…"
"Is this one?" Mia asked Ayame.
"I really don't know," Ayame answered.
"The only M4A3s I can recognize are M4A3E8s, and Amy said not to look for them." All Mia knew were E8s that she'd seen in her gunsight back home.
Several tanks down, Eiko clambered onto the engine deck of another Sherman while Delilah looked at a different part of the tank. Eiko opened the engine cover.
"This is an A3 all right," She commented. "The engine's completely FUBAR though."
The engine bay of the Sherman was an unholy rusted mess. One side of the engine had the head fully removed, the bare pistons and cylinders showed heavy corrosion. On the other side, the valve cover had rusted clean through. Pushrods, valves, and rockers were open to the elements.
Delilah opened the loader's hatch and looked down into the turret. Many components were missing including the stabilizer, elevation and traverse controls, and both gunsights. As she opened the driver's hatch, Delilah saw another dealbreaker. The entire transmission had been removed.
"No way we want this one. It's a moth-balled parts tank." She said, closing the hatch.
Two rows up, Yelena shouted from the turret of a Sherman. "Hey! I found two M4A3s over here! Want to check them out?"
Eiko rushed over to the tank in question. It was a mint-condition M4A3(75)W. The engine and interior were spotless. From test-shifting the gears, Eiko could tell that the transmission was either brand new or recently overhauled.
"She's a skookum one." Eiko said in approval.
"What about the other Sherman you found, Yelena?" Mia asked.
Yelena pointed across the "alley" between rows of tanks. "Over there."
The other tank wasn't as nice, but it was still in very good condition. Unlike the previous one, this Sherman had a full set of white markings on it, complete with white U.S. Army star insignia and a 7th Armored Division logo. Delilah eagerly seated herself in the commander's position. "It feels wonderful to be sitting in a Sherman again," she said, leaning back and closing her eyes. "Anybody seen Amy?"
"There you are."
Amy stood before an olive-green tank. Its large road wheels, long gun, and slightly boxy, low-decked hull made it look almost German.
"Let's see what you've got."
Amy opened the driver's hatch and dropped herself into the seat. It was in good condition, and all the equipment was there. Everything had a slightly worn and used feel to it, but not in a worn-out way. "Lived-in" would be more accurate. Satisfied with the hull positions, Amy crawled up into the turret basket. Any Sherman crew would feel right at home here. Once again, the handles and switches all had the polish and wear of decades of service. Any manual controls Amy was able to test worked perfectly. The traverse and elevation were as smooth as the day the tank had left the factory when she tried them.
"This is the one," Amy said with a gentle smile.
"Uhhh… Amy?" You good?" Eiko asked from outside the tank. "Why are you in a Pershing?"
"Delilah squinted at the tank in front of her. "That's not a Pershing, mate."
"Looks a helluva lot like one."
"Aye, that it does."
Amy popped out of the commander's hatch. "It's a T23E3 medium tank prototype. 76mm M1A1 gun in the same turret as an Easy Eight. Half an inch more frontal armor than a Sherman, torsion bar suspension, electric transmission, and a Ford GAN V8."
"Why not get an actual Pershing, then?" asked Ayame. She could already guess part of the answer.
"Money." Delilah answered. "And fairness."
Amy looked at Delilah. "Money's correct. You could say fairness, but I was more thinking about just not needing that heavy of a tank yet. No need for a 90mm gun, either. Do explain your point on fairness, though."
Delilah shrugged. "I'm not sure… I was thinking of what Kay might say about it, you know? Maybe the word I was looking for was overkill."
"I'd definitely call it that." Amy replied. She patted the turret roof. "This, on the other hand, isn't. And speaking of money, while these seem like better tanks on paper than an Easy Eight, they're only a bit more expensive than an M4A3 with a 75mm. The complex transmission and suspension mean they're more of a maintenance hog than a Sherman, and not everyone likes that. Thankfully, we happen to have a ship full of talented mechanics."
Ayame's smile was a mile wide. "It's cheap, it's not overkill, and most importantly, it's our first 76mm." She placed a hand on the front plate. The slight chill of the warehouse conducted into her hand. That was a feeling she knew. The feeling of a solid tank.
The feeling of a winner.
Amy wandered aimlessly through the warehouse, looking at vehicles she'd only ever seen online. Some she took the time to climb up into and explore. Walking past an M3 GMC, Amy saw Yelena climbing around the back of the half-track.
"You messing around too?" Amy asked.
"No," The Russian replied. "I am being productive."
Yelena picked up a dummy round and inserted it into the breech of the 75mm gun. "I know that these are not legal in standard Tankery, but I thought we could use it for loading practice. How many tanks with 75mm guns do we have now?"
"Two Lees, the M7, the M8A1, and now the two Shermans," Amy responded.
"Exactly. The ability to train the bulk of our loaders separately could help us a lot."
Amy nodded. "Sometimes I forget that you're a team captain. You know how to run a team."
"As much as I do enjoy it, I do like to forget about leading from time to time."
"Let me guess, you like being able to take a break from the pressure?"
"Exactly."
"I feel that," Amy sighed empathetically.
Yelena stepped off the back of the M3. "We must tell Ayame in order for her to purchase this."
Amy agreed and the two girls began to walk back toward the T23.
"By the way," Amy began, "You joked about not speaking English well. I think you're actually pretty good. If it weren't for your accent, I'd totally believe it was your first language."
"Thank you. I have been learning for seven or eight years now," Yelena replied with a smile. She beamed silently for the rest of the walk back to the T23.
She was still visibly grateful when the pair were greeted by the sight of Eiko laying on top of the T23's turret. A skylight above her made the steel of the turret nice and warm.
"Where is everyone else?" asked Amy.
Eiko didn't even bother to sit up when she spoke. "Delilah and Mia are off at the actual museum. Ayame just left a second ago to get the money for the tanks wired to the Shepard Foundation.
Yelena had already gone to find Ayame before Eiko had even finished speaking.
"How is she even supposed to find them?" Eiko sighed, still laying down.
"I dunno. Echolocation?" Amy shrugged.
"A woman's intuition."
"Last time someone pulled that excuse, they were tapping Ooarai's radios."
"Smartass. On the subject of tanks, I'm probably going to do an even more thorough inspection of our new tanks. They all look plenty skookum, and I've seen enough to know that we won't have another situation like the Ram."
"You have fun with that," Amy said teasingly. "I'm off to go look at this massive warehouse of tanks."
Eiko gave her a thumbs-up before opening up the engine compartment and digging around. Amy began to wander once again, and eventually found herself in the Soviet section. Here, she realized how little she actually knew about Soviet tanks. Amy could recognize most of them and know what they were called, but for most, that was as far as she could go. The exceptions were the tank destroyers – these, Amy couldn't even tell the name of from memory.
There was one tank that she was at least familiar with, and that was a BT-7. A small line of them stood among an assortment of tanks from the BT family, T-26s, and other smaller models that Amy didn't recognize.
Pulling herself into the driver's seat, Amy remembered the one match she'd spent in a BT-7. The driver of the tank hadn't been able to make the match, so Amy had been subbed in.
The BT-7 crew spent much of the match getting thrown around. Amy had pulled one of her favorite tricks to this day: After the right track was thrown by its idler pulley getting shot out, she'd purposefully snapped the left track by ramming an enemy tank. That allowed her to use the BT's famous feature of driving on its road wheels. The now rear-wheel-drive tank drove like a pickup truck with no cargo in the bed. Amy performed several drifts and slides that would have been otherwise impossible.
After that, the BT crew requested that Amy never drive their tank again.
And so, Amy had stuck to her M22 Locust.
Climbing out of the driver's seat of the BT-7, Amy looked forward to the row in front of her. That was where the massive collection of T-34s lived. Amy walked around a T-34-85, inspecting it with a critical eye. She clambered up the right side and onto the turret. The rough casting of the turret steel scraped uncomfortably against her hands. Slipping down into the turret, Amy instantly felt cramped.
"Come on guys, you can make a wonderful tank design. Would it kill you to add some more room in here?"
The space wasn't too bad, even if Amy liked to complain. After all, this was a girl who'd spent years driving a tiny Locust around. Amy looked around the turret for a moment.
So, this is what they ride around in.
All the BTs and Panzer IIIs on Amy's team had been replaced with T-34-85s in the past couple years. Aside from the recent addition of an M24 Chaffee, Amy's Locust was the only light tank on the team. It had created a double meaning for the little tank's name, Hemlock Holdout. The name had originally referred to some of the crew's more daring actions, but now also represented their minority on the otherwise medium and heavy tank-focused team.
Slipping out of the T-34's turret, Amy was about to leave the Soviet section when she spotted another tank that piqued her interest. A T-44-100 was lined up with its late-war brethren. Amy stared at the tank and frowned. There was something eerily familiar about it, but Amy couldn't place the feeling. She'd seen a few T-44s around in her Tankery career, but they weren't numerous. Surely if she'd seen this one before it would have stood out to her.
The markings were a mystery to Amy. Just behind the gun, a palm tree was painted onto the side of the turret. Further back, a grizzly bear with a rose in its mouth adorned the space below the commander's hatch. The side skirts were filthy, having been covered in a reddish-brown dirt. Amy crawled up the front slope, walked along the top of the hull, and looked down into the turret. The floor of the turret basket also had a significant amount of dirt covering it. It appeared as though a crew had tracked in sand from somewhere.
Unable to place the tank with a memory, Amy decided that she'd had enough of Soviet tanks. She made her way through the smaller Japanese and Finnish sections before looping around through the British section. Here, she found several Churchills and a line of Matildas. Amy stood on the roof of a Churchill VIII and mockingly emulated the pose she'd seen Darjeeling assume in the recording of the St. Gloriana vs. Ooarai match. She stood at attention, holding an imaginary teacup in her hand. Attempting to imitate the elegance of someone like Darjeeling or Orange Pekoe was next to impossible for Amy.
Screw this. Tanks are for fun, not boarding school.
Amy dropped down from the Churchill's covered track and looked around the Matildas.
Sorry, girls. I'm afraid your Waltzing Matilda can't stop a high-velocity dose of 76mm AP.
As she left the British section, Amy noted a pair of Rams parked alongside the other Commonwealth tanks. One of them was a Ram I, with a 2-pounder gun. The other was a late-production Ram II, with the redesigned bow, longer-barrel QF 6-pounder Mk IV L/50, and Sherman-style "heavy-duty" VVSS bogies.
Noted.
Amy snapped a picture with her phone before moving on.
In the German section, Amy found rows of Panthers, Tigers, and assorted Panzers that would make Kuromorimine green with envy. Wandering among the German tanks, Amy realized that she knew only marginally more about German tanks than Soviet ones. She stopped in front of a line of Panzer IIIs and remembered the two that had been on her team years ago. They'd been replaced by T-34s even earlier than the BTs had, and so Amy never got the chance to do much with them. She was working on getting the driver's hatch open when she heard a voice behind her.
"Hello."
Amy turned around to see a girl slightly shorter than her, and a few years younger. She was somewhat heavy, but not massively so. Her hair was about shoulder length and light brown, slightly darker than Eiko's color of hair dye.
"What's her name?" The girl asked.
At first, Amy was confused until she realized that the girl was speaking to someone else.
"Don't bother the people, sweetie." The other person – Amy assumed the girl's father – said gently. To Amy he said, "Sorry, she's-"
Amy held out her hand in a stop gesture, her palm facing the girl's father. She made eye contact and nodded quickly before turning back to the girl.
"My name's Amy Miller. What's yours?"
"I'm Jackie. What do you do here?"
Amy mentally took Jackie confusing her for an employee as a compliment before she spoke. "Oh! I don't work here, I'm a student with a school that's buying tanks."
Jackie stopped speaking for a moment. Her eyes focused elsewhere. Amy thought Jackie had lost interest. Instead, Jackie asked another question. She seemed very nervous, like she feared something.
"Do you go to Dominion Girl's High School?"
Jackie's father interrupted again. "Jackie, even I know that's a Japanese-"
Amy silenced him with the same gesture as she answered Jackie's question. "Yes, in fact I do. I'm impressed you've heard of us."
Jackie's face lit up. "It's you! You're the Blue Orchid, the driver of the Ram!"
Oh god, she knows who I am. She knows who I am because of Tankery.
Smiling through her mild discomfort, Amy answered, "That's me." She turned to Jackie's father. "How much time do you have?"
"We're here all day," He answered.
"Excellent." Amy turned her attention back to Jackie. "Do you have a favorite tank?"
"I like the Panzer IV the most because that's what Miho Nishizumi uses. Even though she turned it into an Ausf. H, I still like the Ausf. F2 better."
"Follow me. I found some Pz IVs over here."
Amy led Jackie to a Pz IV F2. The closest one was a faded grey tank with an eye-catching logo. A large Phoenix covered the turret cheek. Amy wondered what the story was behind it. Was it referring to a team that had come back from non-existence? A tanker who had returned to Tankery after a break? Was there some emotion the logo was meant to convey? Whatever it was, it made the tank have a presence like the odd Hellcat and T-44 did earlier in Amy's trip around the warehouse.
I bet it'd look hella sick on the back of a jacket.
"Want to get in?" Amy asked.
Jackie was surprised. "Seriously? I've never been in a tank before…"
Amy helped Jackie get up into the turret. Her father entered through the gunner's hatch, while Amy slid through the loader's side. She was thankful the Pz IV had hatches for each crew member.
"Welcome to the commander's seat of your Panzer IV F2!"
Jackie was psyched. She was practically vibrating from the excitement. Amy showed her how a commander would indicate a target to the gunner.
"You can use the front vision block of the cupola to roughly see where the gun is pointing. In other tanks, you'd have what's called a vane sight, but I'm not sure about the Pz IV. To tell the gunner where to aim, you have to say which direction they need to turn the turret. It helps if you give something like 'traverse left, eight o'clock' so they know roughly where they need to be. As the gunner gets close, you'd say 'steady.' When they're close enough to be able to see it in their sight, you'd would the command 'on.' I'll demonstrate that now." Amy turned to Jackie's father. "What's your name?"
"Mike." He responded.
"Okay, Mike, you're my gunner. We're going to aim at that flag on the wall." Amy leaned out the loader's hatch. "Gunner! Traverse left, ten o'clock!"
"Uh…" Mike didn't know how to move the turret. Amy pointed out the manual traverse and elevation wheels.
"Traverse left!" Amy repeated. She judged the aim of the turret off the gun tube. "Steady!"
The turning of the turret slowed.
"On!"
"I don't see it." Mike said.
"You'll need to elevate the gun." Amy explained.
As the gun slowly rose, Amy searched for a dummy round. She found one and showed it to Jackie. "I assume you know what this is?"
Jackie nodded. "A dummy 7.5 cm round?"
"Yes. Normally, the commander would tell the loader what shells to load as part of the target process."
Amy loaded the round. "AP up!" She turned to Jackie. "You want to say it?"
"Fire!" Jackie yelled with glee.
The gun made a sharp clank as the firing pin struck the spring-cap of the dummy round. Jackie was over the moon.
"Want to do the target process yourself?" Amy asked Jackie as she manually ejected the shell.
"Yay!" She shouted.
Amy took that as a yes. "Okay, guide your dad onto the exit sign over there."
"Gunner, target! Exit sign, traverse left, two o'clock! Load AP!"
Amy hefted the round toward the breech.
"Steady! Down more… On!"
"AP up!"
"Fire!"
CLUNK
"Great job, Jackie!"
The three spent a while taking turns at different positions on the tank, and Amy showed Jackie the basics of using a manual transmission. After they were done in the Panzer IV, Amy took Jackie on a quick tour of the warehouse, including a chance at touring the Ram in the British section as well as some others.
A while later, Amy got a text from Ayame saying to meet up.
"I'm sorry guys, but I've got to go now," Amy said. She really did feel a bit bad; Jackie was obviously having a wonderful time.
"Have fun!" Jackie said enthusiastically. She hugged Amy. "You're so cool! Thank you!"
After Jackie released her from the bear-hug, Amy shook Mike's hand.
"Thank you," He said. "You're going places, I can tell. You know your stuff. To be honest, this is the most fun Jackie's had in a long time. I learned a lot myself."
Amy paused for a moment. "I… thank you… that means a lot. Really it does."
After one last good-bye and a request from Jackie to say hello from her to the rest of Amy's crew, Amy departed and made her way back to the T23. At first, no one seemed to be there, and she headed for the door.
"Excellent job back there."
Amy whipped around to see who'd spoken.
"Up here."
Ayame and Eiko were sitting atop a T6. Both were smiling.
"I didn't know you were such a good teacher and storyteller. You made Jackie's day," Ayame said.
"I'm impressed. I knew you're a nerd, I didn't realize you could use your nerd-dom like that." Eiko added.
"I…" Amy stalled again.
"Come on, let's go meet up with everyone, shall we?"
Delilah was back in the main museum building. After having been through both galleries, she entered the exhibition hall. It was much smaller than the preservation warehouse, and it focused on displaying the tanks instead of storing them.
One of her first visits was the Maus. It loomed in front of her like a massive steel turtle. Delilah had never seen one in person before, and its size was truly stunning. The main gun dwarfed even the 76mm of the T23, let alone her Ram's 6-pounder.
After marveling at the gigantic beast of German steel, Delilah shifted her focus to a display of two Crusader IIIs. Their turrets were aimed to their front-left corner, as though they were stalking some imaginary Panzer. Delilah imagined them as wolves or cougars, silently following their prey. Eventually, they'd move in for the kill, the 6-pounders shredding steel at close range like jaws in flesh.
Out of the corner of her eye, Delilah saw a flash of motion. She whipped her head around to see a girl disappear behind a Panther. Delilah couldn't see the girl for very long, maybe a half-second, but that was all the time she needed to see the girl's kilt.
That tartan… I know that tartan…
Delilah walked toward the Panther. As she did so, she heard people conversing in hushed Gaelic.
"Is that really her?"
"What are the chances?"
"It makes total sense; her exchange school needs cheap equipment."
"I just can't believe it's really her."
Walking around the other side of the German tank, Delilah surprised the three girls from behind. "What, you don't believe I'm me?"
The girls froze and turned.
"Captain Fraser…" one girl said, her voice trailing off.
Delilah's response was cool as usual. "Hello again Cumberland. It's been a few weeks. What are you up to here?"
"Probably the same as you. The team heard about everything in the warehouse being up for sale and sent us out here to get in on it."
Cumberland's voice and speech was always much more British than Scottish, and the clash of the two accents grated at Delilah's ears. Delilah made it a point to let her speech slip into a more familiar tone. Her accent came out naturally thicker. "Excellent. D'ye have any ideas as to what you're looking for?"
"We have been looking for some Fireflies. I haven't got into the warehouse yet, so I don't know what they have for sale."
"Aye, there's loads of 'em. I'm sure you'll love the chance to go lookin' aroond the wee English tanks too. Saw a coupla Cromwells an' Valentines in there."
Cumberland perked up at the mention of vast amounts of British tanks. "You're serious?"
"Of course, ya li'l Teaboo! Go have fun with your stuff."
"Then I've somewhere to be, then," Cumberland said excitedly.
The Scottish girls walked off; Cumberland was nearly at a full sprint.
"Who were those?"
Delilah turned around to see Mia following Yelena toward her.
Still in "familiar talk" mode, Delilah responded in what was nearly an unintelligible manner of speaking.
"They be mates frum hoom, ay they b'lookin' fer some bonnie steel a'ere."
Yelena pinched the bridge of her nose. "People say Russian is hard to understand. At least we do not take perfectly good English and bastardize it."
Delilah cleared her throat. "Sorry. They are friends from home, and they're looking for cheap tanks."
"Friends from home? Are they on your team?" Mia asked.
"Aye. And I can tell you why the team chose to send her out of all people."
"Oh?"
"Cumberland's a royal pain at times. She thinks she's right, and that the English way is the best way."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Yelena questioned.
"I guarantee that Cumberland's looking for something British," Answered Delilah, rolling her eyes in exasperation at her teammate.
"You are a Lend-Lease themed team, correct? It would therefore be reasonable to have such tanks on your team, yes?"
"It is, and we already have a Cromwell and a Valentine. We don't use the Val much, but the Cromwell is Cumberland's. Hawley and Forbes are the other two. Both command Fireflies."
"Hey, you've never said what tank you command yourself," Mia noted.
"I command an M4A4 Sherman, or what we'd call a Sherman V. People always ask why not a Firefly, but personally I hate how cramped the turret is."
The three were able to spend a good amount of time in the exhibit hall before Ayame texted everyone to meet up.
After everyone had met up, the group began to leave the museum together. When they got outside, a familiar face stopped them. Cumberland acknowledged only Delilah when she spoke.
"Hey Captain Fraser! We're both here and away from the team. We should get together sometime."
"Get together?" Delilah was usually able to get a handle on what people wanted, but Cumberland was at times a mystery.
Hawley continued to clarify for Cumberland. "We know Nassau is anchored in Seattle. That means your team is here. We want a Tankery match tomorrow afternoon. Ten tanks, Shepard Foundation Main Field, 1500 tomorrow."
"Where are the rest of your tanks, then? Going to be a pretty easy match if we outnumber you three to one."
Another girl stepped forward. She was taller and seemed slightly older than everyone else. Her brown shirt said "CADET" in black bold letters. Delilah saw Amy flinch out of the corner of her eye.
"Savannah Richers, Virginia Military Institute Tankery team commander. We'll be crewing seven of the tanks."
Delilah nodded slowly. "5 PM tomorrow, we'll be there with ten tanks."
Satisfied, Cumberland smiled sweetly. To Amy, the smile seemed so insincere it was almost comedic. The group walked back to the museum's airfield in silence and boarded the Twin Otter with an uneasy quiet.
Amy eventually spoke up. "Delilah, you do know what VMI is, right?"
"A school," Delilah answered nonchalantly.
"Delilah, VMI is a college. It's a military college, one of the best in the United States. We might as well be facing West Point."
"Shit…" Ayame swore as she buried her face in her hands.
Mia swore and then muttered something in German before turning to look out her window.
"Do you even think for a minute Dominion will ever win against them? All they do is learn military science," Amy asked.
"Tell me more." Delilah was looking straight ahead, as if her eyes could burrow through the back of the seat in front of her.
"It's a military college founded sometime in the 1840s. Cadets from the school fought in a couple battles for the Confederacy during the Civil War. You've probably heard of one of their more famous graduates, Stonewall Jackson."
"That's the one the M36 is named for, right?"
"Yeah, that's him. For your first year there, you can't speak unless prompted, and you have to walk only in designated areas and along designated routes. The first summer, they make you do some crazy PT. It ain't a joke. I did an interview there in the spring and damn, they run a hella tight ship." Amy explained.
Delilah exhaled sharply and folded her arms. "Too bad they won't get to use any of that skill. Sure, the crew will be VMI students, but the commander's still that blithering idiot Cumberland."
Yelena looked confused. "The individual crew is still important. You know that well, Delilah."
Delilah shrugged smugly. "I know that. But Cumberland doesn't know shit. She'll force the genius crews to listen to their idiocy. By the time the crews can do anything, she'll have screwed it up seven ways to Sunday."
"What does she fight like?" Ayame asked.
"Have you ever seen an Outlander try to fight like a Highlander, except she really wants nothing to do with Highlanders?"
"Oookay then…" Ayame trailed off.
The conversation died down when the engines started. Amy watched as the ground slipped away beneath her. As the de Havilland banked over and turned to join a traffic pattern, she could see the ground of the Shepard Foundation Main Field several thousand feet below. Thinking more about the view than anything else, Amy took several pictures of the green landscape.
It's nice to finally see a match location like this beforehand.
Amy's head jerked up, slightly startling Delilah. She'd had an idea.
"Hey Ayame, Delilah?"
"Yeah?"
"What if I told you that I could get us super-accurate and super-detailed maps of Shepard Main?"
"Is it fair and within the rules?" asked Delilah cautiously.
"Very. Ever heard of the United States Geological Survey?" Amy was grinning.
"No, but if it's allowed, then go for it."
Never underestimate the power of a total nerd!
AN: So this is it... twenty-five chapters. It's definitely a milestone, so I'd like to take a moment to appreciate that.
I never thought I'd make it here. As I've said before, when I started this story, I really didn't think it'd last more than maybe twenty chapters. And yet here I am, writing all of these scenes I've been daydreaming about for months. Because of this Foreign Dominion, I get to put all my weird daydreams into words and to put my excitement about this niche section of history into something productive. Somehow, there are people out there who enjoy it. I'd like to thank everyone who reads this story for doing so, and everyone who has helped me along the way. Without you, this story wouldn't exist. I'd also like to thank everyone who leaves a review, each one means the world to me.
Speaking of reviews - ReaganIsCool: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter, and even though you didn't understand everything going on, I'm glad that you read it to the end.
Now, about this chapter. Chapter 25. Again, it's a milestone. It's one that started simply enough in my head - the girls go and buy some tanks. As I was writing it, more and more small things added on to make it what you see here. Namely, Amy looking at all the tanks in the collection, relating some of her past, and the whole scene with Jackie.
About two-thirds of the way through writing, I realized that having characters be in a place with a bunch of tanks was the perfect place to have a few cameos. On that note, I'll list them in order, along with the story and the author:
-Tally Evans' M18 Hellcat ... "Hell on Tracks" by Lady Darkhound
-Valarie Woodlin's T-44-100 ... "Dust Devils" by AAHW
-Maho Nishizumi's Panzer IV F2 ... "Dein Weg ist Mein Weg" by Rihnoswirl
Thank you to each of these authors for letting me include their tanks in my story. If you have not done so, I highly recommend reading all three of their stories. Each one is excellent and your time doing so will be well-spent.
That's all I have for this very long author's note. Thank you all again for reading this far! If you enjoyed it, feel free to leave a review and let me know!