(Author's note: If you wish to help, or speak with the creator, join in the discord server in my profile! Ask for it in the comments if the link is unavailable.)
Training field, 14th of September 2015, Day time:
Leafs have started to fall down from trees. Fall has arrived late, it was cold, but yet to turn water into ice. The students were already near the old garage, wearing their supposed uniforms, this time with extra sweater or jacket to keep themselves warm, along with some scarfs. Some sat down, some leaned on the wall, some were talking to each other.
Alisia herself was shivering from the cold despite the warm clothes and the scarf she was wearing, the cold breeze passed through her face, she was shaking like a leaf. "When will those three arrive..."
"Eh? You good Alisia?" Miyuki looked at Alisia, her face showing a look of worry,
"C-Cold... H-How are some of you not freezing..." Alisia hugged herself, she covered most of her face with her scarf.
"Huh? Here I thought everyone in here loved the cold." Anoki looked at Alisia with a look of confusion.
"W-Well... I-I am a home girl ok! Lily would be shaking if she is in my position..." Said Alisia in a weak tone, still shivering as the cold breeze continued penetrating through her warm clothing.
Miyuki placed her hand on her chin, thinking of a solution, until an idea came into her mind. "Well... I know what you just need!" Miyuki grinned, she approached Alisia, before then wrapping her arms around Alisia and held her tight, "Heee... So warm..."
Alisia froze in place, before then her eyes staring daggers at Miyuki's eyes. "Who are you? My mother? My sibling? My grandpa? My other relatives?" Said Alisia in a cold tone.
Miyuki looked at Alisia, she blinked, with a confused look on her face, not expecting such a reaction. "E-Eh?!" She blinked once more. "She was fine with Mrs. Carter touching her..."
"Y-You don't touch that intimate with a person you just know a week ago..." Anoki sighed, she held her chin with her right hand, before an idea came into her mind. "Try stroking her hair, maybe it's her weak spot... Should soften her a bit?"
Alisia's eyes turned towards Miyuki, her eyes staring daggers at her, penetrating deep into her soul, which made Miyuki shivered in fear, she then gulped. "Yeah, no... Bad idea..." Miyuki released Alisia from her embrace.
Then, the three instructors arrived, wearing warmer clothes to fight against the cold weather. The Captain began to speak. "Alright, good day everyone." Said the Captain, as he walked in front of the students. The students then got up and returned back in line, and the Captain continued. "Alright, today's special, we'll be doing a combat practice, time to get all of those skills from the class to use. This would be our last training-"
Just as the word is said, all of the sudden, most of the students cheered, before then interrupted by Lieutenant Blais with a high tone, "That doesn't mean we're leaving you fools, pay attention or else there will be another PT for you all."
The student's went cold, their faces went pale, the Captain then started to speak again, "Well, as the Lieutenant just said before, we'll still be here guiding you all, something like a coach in a hockey match, now." The Captain clapped his hands once, Lieutenant Morrison came with a cart filled with ear protection. "Make sure you have your ear protection ready, unless you want to be deaf. Now come on, onto your armoured horses!" He ordered.
The students then began walking towards their tanks. Alisia was seen still struggling with climbing onto the Stuart, but was then helped with Miyuki. Alisia thanked her before then hopping inside the tank, along with Anoki entering from the driver's hatch, with Miyuki entering from the other hatch beside the commander's cupola.
The radio of each tanks went on, a static voice of the Captain is heard, "Alright, welcome to your first combat training, I hope you all still remember class from our previous classes, because all of that will be used here. Rules are simple, everyone is an enemy, take out each others tank and become the winner, don't push each other to the cliffs, if there's even one to begin with... Oh and also, all the nessecities from first aid kits to important tools and equipment's are already inside your tank. Anyways, play fair and have fun."
Training field, Stuart, Day Time:
The radio went off with a bleep sound, the Stuart traversed on the terrain with a steady speed, Alisia stood on the cupola, while she looked around the surroundings, while she wore her Broady helmet. Afraid of getting shot, and with her mind overwhelmed with the thoughts of it, she decided to hop back into the Stuart and closed the hatch in a slow manner.
She then sat back on the seat, she thinked to herself, "Why am I so nervous..." Alisia shivered, she held herself tightly, she adjusted her scarf around her neck.
"Alisia, don't forget your ear protection!" Miyuki adviced.
Alisia looked at Miyuki, she then took the ear protection from her pocket and wore it on her ears, "Thanks..." Alisia sighed, now just looked ahead, some cold sweat dripped down her face. Her legs began shaking like crazy. "Should've taken a cup before this match..."
Miyuki was seen loading in the small shell from the ammo rack, before loading it onto the gun chamber, before then shutting the chamber. She then looked at the cranks and the other controls inside the turret, remembering all the lessons from last week. "Right... the trigger is here... and to move the turret crank it over there..." She then looked through the gun's optic, inspecting it as the Stuart continued moving.
After 5 minutes, the tank came to a halt as Anoki stepped off from the pedals. She then looked outside through the driver's view, her face is cold. This caused some worry from Alisia. "What's wrong Anoki? Why are we stopping?" Alisia looked down at Anoki, with a look of confusion on her face.
"Can't you feel it Alisia? There's something outside..." Anoki pressed the engine button to turn it off. The engine's growling sound began to lower, and later there was silence. Miyuki then closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
There was silence, and Alisia ordered Anoki. "There's nothing out there, get the engine back on and get this thing on the move again-"
All of the sudden, a shell slammed the small tank, everyone was pushed onto the tank's wall, which made them groaned in pain. Alisia went unconscious after hitting the wall, and some blood appeared on her head.
"O-Ow..." Anoki then switched the buttons back to on, the engine began to growl once again. Anoki then hit the gas, and the Stuart's engine roared back as the tank began moving once more.
Miyuki was still shocked from the hit, she then looked at Alisia which was still unconscious, her hair covered slightly in blood. "Alisia is hurt!"
Miyuki looked around for the first aid equipment in the tank, she then found it on a small box nearby, just beside the other equipment's. She took it and pulled out some cloth and applied pressure on Alisia's wound, "A-Ahh! Alisia-san, okiro!"
Miyuki tried multiple times to awake Alisia by yelling through her ears, to tapping and shaking her shoulders, but to no avail. "Alisia's not waking up!" She then laid Alisia back on the seat, still keeping the pressure. "N-No ice..."
The Stuart continued to move away from the scene, its engines roared as it went on full capacity. The attack left some marks, and some scratches. Alisia on the other hand remained unconscious and bloodied on her head.
Training field, Churchill, Day Time:
Inside the Stuart, Jack was ranting, being angry, his friends distanced themselves away, Turner then spoke up. "Calm down..."
Jack looked at Turner. "Why did you miss you idiot?!"
"Jeez... calm down... I thought we all joined for fun and not..." Stewart distanced himself further from Jack.
"... I should've been the commander... I literally led the school's hunting group and the scout club... Getting all that accomplishment, only not to get chosen because of some stupid pencil?!" Jack continued glaring at the scene where the Stuart was once.
"Why don't you just ask her to give it up?" Bennett suggested, but was received with a glare by Jack, his veins were seen on his skin.
"... The headmaster won't agree on.. such.. he always side with the girls... My older brother was a better candidate to become the president, but that stupid headmaster..." Jack clenched his fist further.
There was a long silence inside the Churchill, it was until Foster spoke up. "You definitely need a doctor."
"Shut up." Jack replied with an aggressive stare towards Stewart, causing Stewart to not continue.
Training field, Stuart, Day time:
The tank was hidden among the trees, its engines turned off, the two girls were staring at the unconscious Alisia, Miyuki still put the cloth on Alisia's wound, she still shook Alisia, her face being pale. "Ne... Alisia-san... Okiro..." Tears started watering down her cheeks, she closed her eyes, still applying pressure on Alisia's wounded head.
"... Didn't know this sport can be this dangerous." Anoki sighed, still stared at the unconscious Alisia. "I should've kept the tank moving..." Anoki looked down, tears watering down from her eyes from guilt. "I-Is she dead...?" Anoki's face turned pale, her hands started shaking, adding to her guilt.
"N-No... It can't be! She can't be dead!" Miyuki looked down at Alisia, and shaked her more, "Wake up!"
The Stuart was filled with bad tension, the two snapped, unable to believe what just happened. But as hope seemed to flicker lower, Alisia slowly opened her eyes. "M-Nngh... It hurts..." She groaned a bit, while she held her head.
Miyuki immediately hugged Alisia, and broke out in tears, "Waa! Alisia! Anata wa shindeiru to omotte itta!"
Alisia was surprised by the sudden hug, she blinked for a few seconds, trying to process what just happened, before then she sighed. "Ok, enough crying, now get off me." Alisia tried moving her hands to stood up but Miyuki immediately held Alisia tighter.
"No! You must rest, you almost died ok..." Miyuki wiped her tears from her eyes, her face turned puffy red from all the crying.
"I-I'm sorry for stopping..." Anoki began crying, she almost caused Alisia to die. This moment caused Alisia to get a headache and stress.
"Stop crying... Oh my- I'm not dead!" Alisia raised her arms in rage, but it hit the roof of the tank, causing her to flinch in pain, which she then slammed onto the wall, hitting it hard, causing her to growl further in pain. "Ow..."
There was silence, the two giggled, Alisia's face turned red. It seemed that harmony has returned back to the tank after the clumsy event that happened upon Alisia. Then, the laughter began to subsidise, and there was then only silence.
"So now what?" Anoki asked.
While Miyuki pulled the cloth off, some blood stained it. She then looked at Alisia's hair which was still stained with some dry blood, she then attempted to clean it off with a new cloth, but Alisia flinched from pain. "Oww- Hey!" Alisia looked up at her eyes glared and locked onto Miyuki's, her eye brows furrowed.
Miyuki turned red and looked down, "S-Sorry..."
There was only silence, before then Alisia sighed and stood back up. "Alright... Lets keep going, shall we? Anoki, get back on the steer." Alisia then sat on the commander's seat, followed with the two getting back to their position. The Stuart's engine roared back to life, the tracks began to move the tank through the terrain in the cold afternoon.
The Stuart so far have met little to no enemies, it has only traversed around the terrain, with there being only the sound of the cold breeze, and the growling sound of the Churchill's engine. The sound of cannon fire and machine guns were heard in the distance, which piqued Alisia's interest.
"Move up to that hill..." Alisia ordered Anoki.
"Right!" Anoki acknowledged, driving the tank up on the hill which was concealed by the bushes. Then, as the tank arrived on top, below was an active battleground, where tanks were seen engaging with other in brutal close combat. Like one instance, 2 Ram's were seen ramming onto each other, before firing their 6 pounder cannons at the same time, knocking each other out, white flags popped out from a small port.
"It's a cluster mess down there..." Miyuki commented, watching the on-going battle down the hill using the optics.
As the battle continued, until the Churchill appeared from the forest, taking out a Ram tank, before proceeding to move to the other tanks who were still engaging with each other.
"That big looking tank is being a menace down there..." Anoki commented.
As the two were watching, little did they know, deafened by the sound of the intense battle below, a Stuart was creeping from behind the bushes, its 37mm cannon was aimed towards the Stuart, but of course was shaking due to the tank being still on the move. The Stuart stopped in its advanced, adjusting its cannon, before then the cannon spewed out its shell towards the Stuart in front of it.