"Would you mind explaining to me why we're not bringing the brand-new tanks we just bought with us?"

Amy had to hold herself back from rolling her eyes when Ayame asked Delilah this question for the umpteenth time that day. She turned away from the girls and looked across the Puget Sound. On the southern shore, Amy could see Point No Point Light. The flashing beacon stood out against the dull gray of the sky. She focused on the distant light as she tried to ignore the conversation next to her.

Delilah sighed and answered Ayame's question. "As I told you at the briefing this morning and all the other times you've asked since then, attempting to fight with the new tanks is a horrible idea. The only person with experience in a Sherman on this team is me. The only person who even knew what a T23 was before yesterday was Amy."

Amy yawned. "I drove a Sherman once. If you can drive a Lee, you can drive a Sherman."

"Still, that makes two of us. I won't let us field crews that aren't ready for combat. Period. I don't care if we have a King Tiger sitting at home, without a good crew, it's useless. Now I'd appreciate it, Ayame, if you'd quit being such a blether."

Ayame looked as though she was about to say something else, but an exasperated look from Delilah silenced her. She wandered off to be nervous somewhere else.

"She's got a mad case of fash." Delilah looked toward the close northern shore, then nodded at Amy "You?"

"Me?"

"Aye, you got yourself worked up?"

"Nah."

Amy pulled her field jacket around herself. It was keeping the chill off, and she was thankful she'd brought the liner as well, but the cold and wind still bothered Amy. The earth and air still felt damp from the rain overnight.

"What would you Scots call a day like this?"

"We would say it's dreich. Not a terrible day, though. At least we've no rain."

"Mm. Still stupid cold. I'm going inside."

"Suit yourself."

Inside the warm passenger compartment, Amy sat down with the rest of her crew and pulled off her jacket. "Dammit, it's cold. I came from a hot Virginia summer and then got too used to the warm ocean weather. Now it's back to a Pacific Northwest fall."

"You are trying to complain about the cold to a Russian and a German?" Yelena looked somewhat amused.

"Yeah, I am. And I demand your sympathy."

"You get none."

"Fine. My cold heart will be warmed in the fires of hell someday."

"I dunno in what world you're cold-hearted, but I do know you're warm," Eiko muttered as she scooched closer to Amy.

"If you would just wear CVCs for once, we wouldn't have this problem."

"Skirt sexy. Amy warm."

"I swear to god if you-"

Eiko laid across Amy's lap and closed her eyes.

"I specifically requested the opposite of this."

"Warm."

"Move, you short bastard." Amy poked Eiko's head, but it was no use; she had already fallen asleep. Amy leaned against the back of the bench seat. "Mia, how long until we get to the shore?"

Mia checked her watch. "We have a little over half an hour before we need to go start up the tank."

Amy sighed. "It's like having a cat on your lap, except it's a human that knows what she's doing." She closed her eyes and began to wait out the next half hour.

"I see the wee yin's become a comfort object for you, Amy."

Amy's eyes snapped open. In front of her was Delilah with a silly grin on her face. Amy was warm, and she felt all cuddly. Why was she so comfy and why was Delilah looking at her like that? She looked down at her lap.

"You fell asleep with Eiko using you as a pillow," Yelena said, clarifying the obvious.

"It wasn't by choice…" Amy muttered as she pushed Eiko's head off herself.

"By choice or not, it's adorable. Naptime is up though, we've got to get the tank ready to go." Delilah nodded to Eiko. "Get her up."

Knowing how hard that could be, Amy shoved Eiko's sleeping body off the seat and let her drop to the floor. At first, it seemed almost like Eiko was still sleeping. Instead, she pulled an arm out from under her and displayed a middle finger in Amy's direction. "Asshole…" she mumbled.

By the time Amy had started the Ram's engine, Eiko had picked herself up off the floor of the cabin and stumbled outside. Amy set the hand throttle to 800 RPM and let the engine idle up to temperature. She dug around in her bag and produced several pieces of paper folded together.

"Hey, Delilah?"

Delilah dropped down into the turret from where she had been on the roof, inspecting the mount for her Browning. "What?"

"Here." Amy handed her the stack of papers.

"And these are?"

"USGS Stanwood Quadrangle topo map. It's a near-perfect map of Shepard Main. I've annotated it to show all the relevant information, and then I made photocopies for each tank plus a couple spares. Ayame has hers already."

Delilah looked over the map and then nodded slowly. "It's certainly way better than the standard maps of the field. You're awesome."

"I try."

It took Delilah almost all the remaining travel time to distribute the maps. She climbed up onto the turret as the girl at the LCAC's helm gave an ETA. The LCAC turned gently one way before coming around hard in the opposite direction. Amy could hear the engines come to full power as the landing craft made its final run-in for the beach. Turning had put the LCAC at a new angle to the waves, and it pitched and rolled in the chop of the Puget Sound. Without warning, the wild movement stopped as the LCAC hit the beach and moved up onto the sand. With a sinking feeling, the fans shut off, the air cushion deflated, and the forward loading ramp dropped. Amy couldn't see the crew up in the pilothouse, but she could hear the muffled sound of the PA.

"Craft stabilized, good for unloading."

Delilah's voice came over her headset. "Okay, we're going. Lights on, brakes off, turret lock set?"

Amy switched on the headlights and then pulled back on the right brake tiller. With her other hand, she released the parking brake. She gently let off the tiller to ensure the tank wasn't going to start rolling and then reported herself ready.

"Lights on, brakes off."

Up in the turret, Mia responded with a similar report about the gun lock. Satisfied, Delilah gave the order to move.

"Driver, advance."

While she depressed the clutch pedal, Amy put the transmission in second gear. It was a simple maneuver, only a single push forward was required to move the shifter out of neutral and into second. She eased onto the accelerator and eased similarly off the clutch. The Ram began to move forward across the LCAC's deck and down the ramp.

"We're clear, advance at speed."

Following her commander's order, Amy opened the throttle and watched both the speedometer and RPMs rise.

"Can we get a better tachometer sometime? Thing shows acceleration counterclockwise. Who the hell puts redline on the left?" Amy mumbled to herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Eiko note something down.

Turning her attention back to driving, Amy watched the tachometer rise as far as she was comfortable before upshifting. This was also a simple movement. Clutch in, pull back through neutral and then into third, clutch out. As the speed grew higher, Amy repeated the movement to go up into fourth, although fourth required an up-and-over motion to shift over the dog-leg and into gear. Now that the Ram was at a decent speed, Amy held the tank halfway through fourth gear.

Up in the turret, Delilah toggled her headset. "Forget our usual line, we're going to arrive at the pre-match area in formation. Line up as I say…" She proceeded to explain the formation details as tanks began to shuffle around one another.

Several minutes later, Delilah was satisfied. The column was headed by the M22 Locust, then the column formed two lines traveling abreast. From front to back, the line consisted of two M5A1 Stuarts, the third Stuart and the M8 HMC, then the T49 and M8A1 Scott, Ayame's M7E2 and the Ram II, and finally both M3 Lees brought up the rear.

"Everyone's in place, increase speed."

Now that the team was picking up the pace, Amy nudged the accelerator to run through all of fourth gear. Once she ran out of RPMs in fourth, Amy pulled the shifter backward into the fifth and final gear. The Ram accelerated less eagerly in this high of a gear, but there was no need for a rapid speed change while in formation.

Dominion's formation, while not complex, was still impressive by any measure. Eleven tanks strong and yet the fluctuations in speed and distance between them were only perceptible to those who were up close. Turns were carried out in a smooth fashion that might have a chance at impressing even the tankers of the Big Four schools in Japanese Tankery. This might have seemed odd to anyone thinking about Dominion in terms of it being a small, generally unskilled school. It would take a bit of deeper thinking to understand why.

Dominion might have been a fairly small and uninteresting school, but its technical programs lent itself to having many mechanically inclined students. Where many schools had an automotive club, Dominion had an automotive culture. The drivers of many of these tanks understood each and every part of the engine and drive train. Unlike many other schools, these drivers did not take their understanding from lectures or rigorous practice or brutal, rote memorization of facts and numbers. They understood their machines from hours of disassembly, tinkering, maintenance, and reassembly.

This sort of intimate skill and knowledge allowed the tank drivers to operate their machines to their will, because they were just that: machines. Machines are not a collection of statistics and abilities and parts working independently. They are many complex systems working together to respond to their operator's inputs. It was a pride among the drivers of the team to understand and operate their machines in this manner. They weren't perfect – no person is – but they were much closer to perfection than any other small school could manage at a team-wide scale.

It was this pride that allowed them to run in such an excellent formation, and it was this pride that manifested itself radiated confidence from the column as it rolled as one into the pre-match area.

"There's someone here already. We're not late, are we?" Iku, the commander of the Locust, asked on the radio.

One could almost hear Ayame shaking her head over the radio. "We can't be late. Pre-match starts at 2:30, and we needed to be here before 2. I have no idea who it is."

"Guessing by the truck she's got, maybe it's a Foundation employee? Like a ref? Delilah, do you have any guesses?" Hiromi asked.

A lone girl stood alongside a mid-2000s Ford Ranger with a Shepard Foundation logo on the door. She was wearing a uniform that was very similar to Delilah's. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was partially hidden by a brownish-green peaked cap. The black band on her arm had text on it that was difficult to read at this distance.

Delilah pulled out her binoculars. "Oh, it's you."

"Who?" Mia asked, peering through her gunsight. "Is that the girl you were talking to yesterday?"

"Aye. It's Butcher Cumberland all right."

Yelena turned partly around in her seat. "Butcher? What kind of a nickname is 'Butcher'?"

"One ya give to someone behind her back when she doesn't get the point of her other nickname."

"Cumberland is not her real name?"

"Of course not. Cumberland's the one we gave 'er after a few weeks of being on the team. The real Duke of Cumberland slaughtered the Bonnie Prince and his Jacobites at Culloden at the end of the Forty-Fives."

"A damn sick nickname. And I don't mean the good kind of sick," Amy said.

"I am going to guess it's a sick name for a sick sort of girl, yes?" Yelena asked.

Delilah nodded silently.

Stopping wasn't the most elegant of maneuvers. Even with the skill of Dominion's drivers, their tanks were still tanks. The column came to a mostly organized stop nearby Cumberland's truck. Delilah stared down at the Scottish girl. Now that she was closer, Delilah could see another girl in the cab of the truck. That girl slid out of the driver's seat and came around the hood to stand beside Cumberland. While the team dismounted and began checking over their tanks, Delilah dropped down into the turret.

"I so do not want to deal with her right now…" she grumbled as returned her binoculars to their stowage box.

Unfortunately, everyone heard a sharp knocking on the Ram's right-side hull.

"Gòrach siùrsach…"

Delilah began to climb out of the turret. She was interrupted by the metallic clank of a lock, and then a muffled thud.

"Hey! Watch yawself openin' the door!"

Yelena had opened her side hatch into the girl that had been with Cumberland. She swore and then in her moment of stress, continued without thinking. "Мне жаль! Это я был виноват!"

"'Scuse me?"

Yelena crawled out of the hatch. Amy followed. Up on the turret, Delilah was still climbing up and out of her hatch.

Still flustered, Yelena attempted to apologize again. "Пожалуйста, простите меня!"

The girl spoke in a drawl. "I don't speak no Russkie. Don't speak Jap neither, so one y'all better say something in English."

Amy felt herself cringe internally and fought to keep it that way.

Ignoring the little drama below her, Delilah turned to address Cumberland in a cheerful manner that hid her animosity.

"Ahoy-hoy! It's a dreich one isn't it?"

"Yes, it is certainly a most dreary day, Dee."

"Dee?" Yelena looked up at Delilah. "Do they call you Dee?"

Delilah shot Yelena a glance that told her to drop it. She nodded sharply and returned to apologizing to the annoyed drawling girl.

Amy watched the conversations silently. Despite the poorly hidden smugness coming from Cumberland, the drawling girl speaking to Yelena bothered her more. Cumberland's clashing English and Scottish speech was grating, but there was something to the drawler's voice.

"Now listen here: I'm tellin' ya that this team is temporary. I ain't gonna put a ton of effort into understandin' y'all as opponents. No need, and we'll still be warshin' da floor wit ya."

Drawler continued while Amy thought about her words. There was something off in them.

"…we'll still be warshin' da floor wit ya."

That was the most Maryland thing I've ever heard in my goddam life. You gonna pull out a tin of Old Bay now, too?

If Drawler was from Maryland, there'd be no reason to have a deep southern drawl like that.

She was faking it.

Oh good, one of you people.

Amy thought for a moment. If she said anything, it'd be obvious Amy was American and Drawler might change her tone. Instead, Amy decided to allow both of these girls dig themselves into a hole. She climbed back into the Ram and let the conversations continue.

"Dee, I want to let you know that today is not going to be easy. We just finished a small match with VMI, and they are some of the best tankers I've ever seen."

"Ah wisnae aware of 'em until yesterday. From what I've heard of the school, they're pure class. We can still take them on. Dominion is fresh an' ready. An' I'd appreciate it if you'd quit calling me 'Dee.'"

"You and I both know that even you can't hold up against a college team, Dee. It's a matter of relative skill."

Delilah folded her arms. "Ah ken an' Ah will!"

Now Drawler joined in. "Aw, yous're not bad, do understand that. We just have a more advanced team, is all."

"Hey!" Yelena interjected. "It would be nice if we did not start bragging to each other before a match. We cannot have teams competing in anger."

Somewhat entertained, Drawler nodded back at Yelena. "Ya sound like my team captain. Savannah's always sayin' stuff like that. Maybe it ain't wrong, but it's fun to shake things up now and then."

"Did you two come here to irritate us all?" Someone else said.

Hiromi had turned up while the rest of the team was still attending to their tanks.

"Are you the actual commander here? Dee might try to take over sometimes, she's like that. Forceful, you know. You have to forgive her."

"What? No, I'm the vice-captain. Ayame is doing actual captain things, I'm here on my own business. And besides, Delilah does an excellent job as commander."

Drawler looked mockingly at Delilah. "Aw, never thought I'd see the day a Japanese girl stand up for a Scottie and her friends pretendin' to be American. You're all normally quiet like."

Cumberland was about to say something, but Delilah cut her off. Her accent was strong as ever, her voice was getting dangerously annoyed.

"Oi! Haud yer weesht! I dinnae need a fleg and a fandan feckin' around with my crew before a match. All ye've done here is piss us off. We didnae ask for anything of the sort! We showed up for a game like ya asked us, an' that's all we did. Now if you'd both kindly bolt, all of our afternoons would be better."

Cumberland had obviously been on the receiving end of a similar yelling before. She was fairly calm as she turned around and left toward the truck as Delilah glared into the back of her head. Meanwhile, Drawler looked absolutely terrified. She couldn't remove herself from Delilah's proximity fast enough, and she bolted toward the truck.

Amy leaned out the side hatch as the truck drove away. She had hoped that this Cumberland girl wouldn't be as terrible as she'd seemed yesterday. Instead, she was even worse.

Behind her, Hiromi sighed and then shivered in the chilly air. "I woke up this morning hoping to have a fun match where two teammates had fun facing each other. No pressure, no worrying about Ayame and the Bird. Instead of fun, we got drama."

She jammed her hands into her jacket pockets in a frustrated manner.

"Welcome to Dominion Girl's High School."

Hello again! I know it's been three months almost to the day since I updated last, and I apologize for that. There are times where I just don't have the motivation nor do I know exactly how to say what I want. A lot of this chapter was written a few paragraphs at a time in short bursts when I would make myself sit down and write something, anything. I finally did it, and even though this is a shorter chapter and is something of a return to form for me, it's done and sets up the match easily.

Originally, this chapter was going to be the match itself. Instead, I got through most of the setup and then gave it some thought. I'd rather cut a few thousand words out of the match to keep the word count down and post this while I finish up the match scenes.

That out of the way, time for some reviews:

JohnDoe927 (Ch 6) - Glad you enjoy reading, and hopefully the next several chapters hold up to your expectations. Thanks for reading and for the review!

ReaganIsCool (Ch 4) - It's interesting you mention the exact restaurants at DIA/DEN. I actually googled it myself to see what was there when I wrote the chapter. Allowing Delilah to experience a SmashBurger was great fun. Also means a lot to hear FD is worth re-reading and it is one heck of a confidence boost.

Rihnoswirl (Ch 8) - That was my first time writing actual tank combat between teams, so I'm glad it was a good read. (Ch 9) This was also a first for me. Getting inside people's heads wasn't something I knew (and still don't) much about. There's no technical manual or strategy book for someone's mind, so I had to go off what goes on in my head and the heads of those who are close to me depending on the character. It's great to know it worked.

That's all I've got for now, and I promise it won't be another three-month wait. If you're really itching to read a little more of my rambling, I have a new side project based on High School Fleet called Untamed. Until then, thank you for reading and for any reviews you leave.