Wales, Pembrokeshire, St. Betty's Girls' Academy, 20th of September 2015, 1650 hours:
The sky was covered by thick clouds, barely allowing the sun to penetrate through. The wind was quite calm that day. There stood a structure in the middle of nowhere, a giant complex of a private school surrounded by low concrete walls, with Victorian-style architecture—with a large church placed just right in the middle, a large metal bell hanging right on top of the tallest point, where there were also present clocks attached to it.
Girls wearing their uniforms of a white long sleeved buttoned blouse with a dark green blazer with a logo that is a fort with a book in the middle, and a roll below that says, 'St Betty's Girls' Academy'; with a square pattern with even more darker outlines, along with a knee-length dark green skirt with white plain long leggings and dark coloured flat shoe wear, were walking on the pathways, talking to one another, some smiles, some sad faces. They were walking back to the large dormitory building placed just a hundred meters away from the school, just beside the school staff's building, where they usually have their own private time. Just outside the school complex were a parking lot and a lobby area, where people, some of whom were parents, took their daughters away for a trip back home. The entrance was guarded by a few guards wearing a khaki tunic and trousers, boots, and a peak khaki cap with the label 'ES'. Standing for Entrance Security.
Right in one of the school buildings, located underground, in the basements, where there is also a storage room for the school's supplies, was a thick metal door with a retractable peep hole and a label that says, 'Flying Club' and 'Do not enter! Authorized personnel only!'. Guarded by a man wearing a khaki tunic and trousers, with boots and a peak khaki cap labeled 'FCS', standing for Flight Club Security, along with a nametag that labels him as a security personnel. Standing there with a tight posture, eyes front towards the stairs that led up. Standing below a bright yellow light, just near a small desk.
Through the thick metal door, was a wide concrete room, lit by multiple LED lights. The air was quite cold thanks to two air conditioners installed facing each other. Multiple figures were present inside, talking. Some males, some females. Three factions. One faction of two males, wearing white shirts with dark blue blazers with square patterns with light blue outlines and trousers with flat footwear of either black or dark brown. Their blazer features a symbol that is a shield with a lion and a cross right on top of it, with an inscription just below: 'St. Bennett Boys' College'. The other faction consisted of two males, wearing the same type of clothing, with the difference being that a kilt was worn, with a different logo on the blazer, a shield with a fort with a saltire pattern, and an inscription that says, 'Bovington Academy'. Lastly, there is a faction of four girls. Being the students of this school, wearing the same uniform as the rest of the girls in the school.
Inside the room, there is a long square table covered with a red and blue patterned cloth, with six seats on each side and three on the shorter sides, each with a pad and a glass filled with water in front. There's also a large board, filled with maps, where a girl was seen cleaning it up, packing it into the small boxes.
"Right, the last match was a success. We lost six Fireflies, two Black Princes, and four Tetrarchs in exchange for the annihilation of the opponent's entire strength. Now, we'll be having our next match in 5 days, assuming all teams go through the 2nd stage." Tom spoke to the personnel inside the room. "William, how's the tank doing?" He looked toward William.
"Badly damaged, but it won't take long for the tanks to be fully repaired. It'll take just 48 hours to do so, assuming our board doesn't change the technicians or other delays." William answered back.
"Right.. Well, Betsy. What's our next arena?" Tom turned towards the leading girl in front of her, who was a brunette with a medium-sized chest.
"Beatrix?" Betsy turned towards the girl sitting to her right, a flat-chested, dark brown-haired girl with almost the same height as her, only different by a few inches.
"Uhm.. So, I asked the rest of my colleagues to infiltrate the EUTO's database in Brussels with some paid third-party help. We almost got caught in the process, but uhh.. we did it in the end." Beatrix lifted a laptop from her lap and placed it on the table. She then connected it to a cable, which was connected to a projector. "Mind if anyone unrolls the projector screen?"
One young man with trimmed dark hair stood up, looking towards the board, and stared up towards the screen projector. He reached up his hand and grabbed onto the handle, before then proceeding to roll the screen down in a gentle manner, before then going back to his seat.
"Thanks." Beatrix then tapped on the space button, causing it to turn on, showing an empty window. She then pulled out a USB from her breast pocket from the inner blouse, installing it on the laptop. She searched through the file explorer, stumbling upon the 'This PC' section where a new USB can be seen, being only a few megabytes. Opening it, revealed a single document in Microsoft Word, which she then opened to reveal multiple pages, the first being the map of a large plot of land somewhere in Flanders, where there are multiple lines, lines where the off-limits are for players. "Right, as we can see here, our next match will be held in either Waasmunster or Eindhoven. Two of these locations are very different, one being a flat open terrain with some rivers and lakes and some small settlements." She scrolled down towards the map of Eindhoven, with a smaller area of playing being around a large bridge. "Combat here would be dominated by city fighting. Both matches will be annihilation mode. It is unknown right now which sites would be used, as it is up to the head of EUTO's decision to either pick two locations."
"Right, thank you, Beatrix." Betsy looked back toward the young men in front of her. "We'll begin the assessment for possible landing zones and flight paths for our aircrafts, so we don't get a tad bit messy like last time. We'll also start printing custom maps to be handed to the units."
"Thank you, Beatrix. So, William. Any ideas?" Tom looked toward William.
"Right, uhh." William stood up from his seat, heading towards the screen projector. "Mind scrolling down to the Flanders one?"
"Sure." Beatrix scrolled slightly to the Flanders map, that is the settlement of Waasmunster.
"Right, thank you." William looked back towards the map, looking closely at every detail on it. After around a full minute, he spoke. "Right, assuming the Iberians or the Oslo team would be up against us. I'm betting on the Iberians. Considering they all use mostly Sherman M4A1's or Stuarts, which would do minimal damage to our armour at close distances, specifically talking about the Black Prince and maybe, to some extent, the Firefly. We'll have the main, large roads blocked. Of course not to fully underestimate them, instead of going all into the city, have the Bennett's air cavalry force do a force recon inside the town and send coordinates for our longbows to swat them down as if they're flies."
"Quite a solid plan. Though I don't like the idea of sending our own into a death trap." The trimmed, dark-haired young man spoke up.
"Well, Mr. Alan. That's what you English air cavalry have trained for ever since the union was formed. Unless you're proposing something stupid again.." William stared at him.
"Yeah, it's definitely to-" Alan gave William a stare into his eyes, but was cut short by Tom.
"Alright, no need to escalate things here. Please, William. Continue." Tom de-escalated the situation, looking towards William for him to continue.
William continued staring towards Alan for a while, before he eventually broke eye contact, looking back towards the screen. "Thank you. Now, onto the next map, please."
Beatrix scrolled down to another page, showing another page of a large map of mostly Eindhoven Bridge and the settlements surrounding it.
"Right, thank you." William looked closely at the map, his eyes looking at every detail of the location and analyzing it before coming up with an idea in just a minute. "Right, I'm assuming they'll be on the other side of the bridge, defending it. Assuming they only have 75mm cannons on their Sherman's, it wouldn't be much of an issue marching through the bridge. Perhaps we could use some engineers to build a Bailey bridge, but eh. They don't have enough parts to make it across the river. Setting one up would be a nightmare.. As for the paratroopers, they'll airdrop some clicks behind and help with disrupting them, and perhaps scout out in case they have some hidden surprises up their sleeve."
"Uhh.. Sir." One dark-haired person from his own team spoke up.
"Yes, Antony?" William looked towards the person, waiting for what he would be saying.
"Some locals from the last match protested about damaging their house. So, um, I suggest limiting the areas for mass bombardments to avoid some unwanted conflicts." Antony suggested.
"Well, not much can be done. It's tankery, not sensha-do. Besides, don't those locals get compensated 100% plus some bonuses? What's the point anyway?" William objected. "I think that's all."
"Right, any objections?" Tom asked as he then looked towards the rest of the group. None talked. "Alright then, that ends today's topic regarding our next match. Now that all matters regarding our next match are over, let's talk about other affairs. So, Alan. How was your tour?" Tom turned towards Alan.
"Quite pleasant, the first tour with training with the Irish went well and without much incident, but we got into a crossfire between some Ulster's and local Irish on the border. Thankfully, we got away before the uhh.. troubles got in." Alan shared his past experience during the past joint training with the Irish.
"Well.. That sounds rather unpleasant. How about the next trip?" Tom asked once more, digging deeper into his past trip.
"Well, the next trip was to Poland. They're quite nice, and the locals were very hospitable. They surprised us during a friendly battle by using hay bales as moving cover when fighting in the middle of a farm field. Though in the end we managed to deal with them, with high losses."
"Huh.. Interesting.."
"We also happened to meet with some members of their twin school from Japan. A school named Bonple, if I remember correctly."
"Bonple?" One dark-haired girl with glasses asked. "Never heard of them.. Is it possible that they're one of those, uh, Japanese foreign-themed schools?"
"Yes, they are. Though they're somehow tied to one another, just like Saint Gloriana, they're connected to our homeland in one way or another." Alan added.
"Oh, I see." She nodded.
"Anyways, I've heard that the CTF has gotten a new member from North America. Is it true?" Asked Alan.
"Oh, yes. It's the Fort Nelson Tankery Team. We've recently been sending aid in forms of intelligence to them in their match with the Boston College Tankery team, which I assume they used to maximum capacity by how they managed to eliminate an entire company in less than a few minutes." Said Beatrix.
"A whole Boston company wiped out? Am I hearing this right?" Alan's eyes widened. "Maybe taking out 2 or 3 and maybe 4 tanks. But an entire company?"
"Yes. Specifically the Delta Company. Also known as the 'Duffus' company." The blonde girl with a medium-sized chest sitting beside Betsy on the left added. "Before they get absolutely wiped out by Boston long range rocket platforms, the one remaining tank surrenders."
"Oh.." Alan relaxed his body, upon hearing the company's name. "Well, then it is no surprise that they managed to. They're mostly filled with some.. Uh.. undesirable members, and they're mostly placed as a reserve unit, right?"
"Yes, they are still." Beatrix added.
"Well, reserve or not, it's still quite an achievement for a school that just started tankery a few weeks ago." Antony complimented. "
"Yeah, give those Canadians some credit for their achievement." Betsy, too, followed along.
"Fine, fine. They certainly do have some qualities." Alan snickered.
The room looked at him with a look of disappointment on their faces, frowning at his attitude.
"You know, Alan. The CTF, before being inactive, used to be dominated by the Canadians. They were the kings of this sport." Tom stared at him. "How about this? Our Sergeant Major is going to be sent to Canada to help with assessing those young students-"
"Like what I just did last time?"
"For a week. Do some wargames, some friendly battles, maybe exchange some culture."
Alan remained silent, wondering if he should go once more outside the country. Having to fight other teams to help them, which he saw more as a waste of time,. Why not just focus on ourselves?
"Or do you need some persuasion, like... from your sister?"
"Hang on a second!" Alan scoffed at the mention of her sister. "Fine, I'll go."
"Well, that's fast." Betsy giggled.
"Hang on, what's with her sister?" Asked Beatrix.
"Oh, well. Meet her in person, and you'll know. She's one silly girl." Betsy continued giggling. Leaving Beatrix with both confusion and a curious face.
"Oh, I remember when we were meeting in St. Bennett, that one girl barged into the room and was like; Where have you been?! Mama is waiting outside for you to come outside!" The blonde girl mimicked the voice in a younger pitch while giving a pouty face.
"Ambrose.. I'll bloody strangle you." Alan turned his eyes into the blonde girl's eyes with a sharp glare and an angry expression on his face.
"Oops.. I think I went overboard." Ambrose giggled once more, covering her eyes.
"Oh! Also, when that one representative from Saint Gloriana came over during an information exchange in Piccadilly cafe.. His sister just came in front of him and asked why he was acting so fishy with a woman!" Beatrix joined in, giggling.
"Stop." Alan turned his glare towards Beatrix, his face was getting redder by the minute.
"Oh yeah, I remember that one incident after a match with the Eisenadler team when Alan and William were talking in an alley." Tom joined in.
"Not you too!" Alan looked toward Tom, his face becoming more red.
"Oh, for fuck sake. Do not mention that one stupid incident. I got into trouble with Father Adams because of that." William frowned.
"Yeah, anyways. His sister thought they were gay when they were talking in an alleyway." Tom burst into laughter, followed by most of the people inside the room.
The room continued to laugh, until a ringing sound could be heard from near the archive room, which was placed just on the opposite end of the entrance door. Sourcing from a small door hatch.
"Ah! It's here." The dark haired girl with the glasses stood up from her seat, and walked towards it, opening a hatch to reveal a small item lift inside, with a cargo of a multi-story tray with multiple cream vanilla with some berries on top cakes, a few cups of tea, a large teapot with some small cups of sugar, and a box of milk. She proceeded to drag it out of the small hatch and hold it with her two arms before walking back towards the large table. "Courtesy from the headmaster to the guests."
"What time is it now?" Betsy stared left up to the wall, looking at the wall where a clock is placed. It's 17:00 PM already. "Oh my, it's tea time already!"
The mood inside the room changed to that of a more relaxed one, and the students inside began to talk about life, making jokes and all. Some laughed, some got angry. The topic was no longer about tankery.
The dark-haired girl with glasses meanwhile grabbed a small tray, taking one extra cake and a cup filled with tea and placing it on the tray before walking towards the metal door, holding it with one hand. She knocked on the metal door, which then opened.
The guard looked down at the girl and asked, "Is there something I can help with, Ms. Ada?" He asked with a questioning look on his face.
"Oh, well. We have one extra cake and a cup of tea. Perhaps you'd want some?" She leaned forward with the filled tray.
"Oh, well. Missy. You can keep it, I'm about to change shifts anyway." He said it with a polite tone.
She shook her head. "I insist. You look a bit exhausted standing all day long." She looked up at him with a persistent yet still polite look on her face.
The guard sighed. "Well.. If you insist, Ms. Ada. Just place it on my desk." He turned his face toward the desk for a short second before looking back at her.
"Right." She placed the tray on the desk. "Keep up the work, Mr. Cedric."
After that, Ada stepped back in, followed by the guard closing the door. He looked toward the tray placed on the desk.
".. There goes my strict diet streak."