Chapter 22

Viewing platform #1

Fritz felt worry slowly rise inside his mind. He and his four friends were chosen by Maho Nishizumi herself as 'experimental tank crew' and were accompanying her and the Headmistress to this match, but not on the VIP platforms.

"They're gut, ja?" Hans asked as he elbowed him. "Yes. They're besser than expected. And they are two men short…" Fritz answered and trailed off. "Was ist das, Kommandant? Ya worried?" Karl inquired with both eyebrows raised. Franz and Helmut followed suit after hearing that.

"Nein. I just have a feeling that only now we see the true nature of the famous trio and still not everything," Fritz said and silently cheered the commander of the Tiger I with the E variant turret as he brought the food to his comrades in need.

Katyusha almost shouted in anger, when she heard that the KV-2 got destroyed before even reaching the best spot for sniping the spotted Tiger I. "Nonna! Go help Klara with defending the Flag!" she shouted the command into the private channel. "They're better than expected…" she heard Klara mutter and several muffled agreements afterwards.

"STOP PRAISING THE ENEMY AND DESTROY THE MAIN FORCE BEFORE THEY CAN REACH OUR FLAG TANK!" she screamed into the channel and saw that some of her tanks started falling back. "START PURSUING THE ENEMY, OR I'LL MAKE THE PUNISHMENT THREE TIMES BIGGER!"

This time, the T-34 crews obeyed and redoubled their determination to take down Oarai's escaping tanks. But, they copied the same feat the Tiger I and Tiger (P) were doing, that was reported by Nonna about forty minutes ago. And so, a full volley of their shots managed to mostly hit the snow, instead of tanks and only two lucky shots hit the Panzer IV H's turret Shürzen.

Good. Take down Nishizumi and the rest would follow, Katyusha thought and smirked. "Concentrate fire on the Panzer IV," she calmly ordered with a very smug smirk on her lips. I still have a chance! the loli internally cheered, but as she looked at the enemy tanks, she realized that the StuG III and Tiger (P) were missing and the Panzer IV was slowly starting to aim at her tanks.

"Nonna! Look out for both their Tigers and the StuG!" she commanded and watched as the Panzer IV fired at her leftmost guard and disabled it.

"IS-2 broke the pursuit!" Sodoko announced suddenly through the comms. They're bolstering their defences! Miho realized. Yes, they are. But our detached force near their flag tank probably finished preparations by now, her inner self agreed. "Hana, aim at their leftmost tank and shoot it down," she said to her gunner and recounted the destroyed enemies. 1 KV-2, 3 T-34/76s and 4 T-34/85s… It surely helps that the IS-2 must take the long road back to the village.

BANG! the 7,5 cm KwK 40 L/48 announced as the shell left and indeed, took down another T-34/76. But, it resulted in a volley of shots that took down the M3 Lee and completely obliterated the Shürzen on the left side of her tank's turret.

"The enemy Flag is nearing the ambush spot!" George's voice cut in into the silence and raised the spirits a bit again. "And the Leopon team?" she asked. "They're engaging one T-34/85 that is defending the Flag. Well... were. The enemy tank is down," Trafalgar responded instead of his radioman.

"Alright then, focus on distracting the incoming IS-2," Miho said and smiled, when she heard an affirmative. We'll win this, but it would be very near... she thought as another volley of shots took down the B1 Bis.

Traf smirked as he saw the T-34/85 turning left and straight into the trap that was set by the Hippo team. Just a few more seconds… he thought and smiled. The fight against Pravda was going more smoothly than expected and there still weren't signs of Nonna's IS-2 showing up.

"We're in luck. I can't see Nonna anywhere nearby…" he muttered and suddenly got a bad feeling. "Takashi, reverse! NOW!" he shouted as the 55 ton tank almost reached another street wide enough for a tank.

The driver did as told and a millisecond later, the unmistakable sound of IS-2's cannon was heard. "That… was close," George commented with a small smile. "Yeah, it was…" Takashi breathed out and Traf just facepalmed. "We were lucky that I sensed that something was off…" he muttered.

"We should be more careful next time," George said and Traf simply nodded at that. "Let's retreat back to the street about ten meters away and ambush the IS-2. This would be our one and only chance to get rid of it before it reaches the StuG III," Traf announced and the Tiger I quickly slid into the street with its engine turned off afterwards, but still with the hull turned in the 45° angle for extra safety.

And then, there it was. The quiet rumble of a Soviet-made engine told the trio that the IS-2 is cautious and knows that they're hiding somewhere. Traf quickly grabbed one Panzergranate 40 and loaded it into the cannon breech. Suddenly, the cannon of their (for now) most dangerous enemy tank entered the periscope's view range from the right.

It was slowly gaining length, until finally, the hull showed up. It was a small target, but Traf knew that it was the largest part it would expose before firing at them, so he calmed down his breathing and aimed at the hull of the enemy sharpshooter.

"Feuer frei," he whispered and a second later, the 8,8 cm KwK 36 L/56 cannon spit its load at the IS-2 amd engulfed it in smoke. Traf risked peeking out, only to hear the small click of the flag popping up… on both tanks. "Heh. George, tell Miho that we took Nonna with us," he announced and the radioman quickly said what he was told.

"Both Tiger I and IS-2 unable to continue," the voice of Hibiki Inatomi announced after a few agonising seconds. And after that, a BANG! that only the StuG III G's cannon could make, was heard. "Flag tank of Pravda eliminated. The winner is Oarai."

Traf smiled weakly at hearing that and slid back on the commander's chair. "We did it…" Takashi muttered. "Yeah… The champs lost before reaching the finals," George added and everything in their tank was silent, before the retrieval team got to them and hooked the Tiger I with a cable to a Sd. Kfz. 9 FAMO.

"To be honest, I thought that you'll survive," the familiar voice of Tsuneo announced happily. "Same here. I never thought that Nonna was this good as a marksman…" Traf responded as he crawled out of the hatch. "That dodging you did, fascinated everyone, who was watching. No one has ever seen Nonna waste that much ammo on a single tank."

Traf only smiled at that. "Well, KMM has the Maus. And that would be the hardest nut to crack out of them all…" he trailed off and sighed. And Tsuneo only gave him a knowing smirk at that.

Ten minutes later, garages for Pravda's tanks

Katyusha was furious, when she heard that the Tiger I crew took down Nonna with their tank. That sort of thing had never happened to her friend before. But, she had to admit that Miho Nishizumi and those boys were far better than she thought. Dividing their forces to create an ambush on the Flag, while the rest distracted most enemies… It was a good strategy.

"I think that we should look for a T-34/76 that has the symbol of Oarai somewhere and send it to them. We can order a new one at any time," Nonna said, when Katyusha calmed down enough to have a reasonable talk. "Fine. They can have it," she responded and fought back her tears.

"Anyway… the punishment is still on. Remember that Klara has three times longer punishment than the rest," she announced to the gathered crews that got shot down. They mumbled something and left the garages, leaving her with Nonna. "I think that we should also cheer for Oarai in the Finals."

And Katyusha, for the first time of her life at Pravda, nodded with a smile of pure happiness on her face that she couldn't suppress.