Interlude 4: Training and setting plans into motion

Boris smirked, when he saw the duo of Panthers approaching their position. "Smokescreen," he simply said and Ivan used some matches to set the (secured) part of fuel on fire, while also quickly jumping into his hatch and closing it behind himself.

"Grigori! Sharp left at full speed! Ivan! Бронебойный снаряд!" he commanded and the T-34/85 sprang into action a split second later, dodging the shells fired by the Panthers by thirty feet, and disappeared from their sight in the forest. "Loaded!" Ivan announced and Boris started rotating the turret in the direction of the freshly manned tanks.

"Got you," he muttered. "Grigori!" the commander shouted after that and the tank stopped, offering Boris the right angle to take down one of the Panthers. "Пожар!" Boris said and the ZiS-S-53 spit its deadly load into the leftmost Panther's rear armor, immediately rendering it immobile.

"One Panther disabled!"the voice of George suddenly said through the comms, much like Ami Chono's did at the Finals. And after that, the T-34/85 drove away, dodging another shell, but this time by a hair's length. "They have a good gunner," Ivan complimented and Boris nodded. "Да, but we're better," Grigori added with a smirk.

Suddenly, Grigori turned their tank sharp right and drove at max speed towards the bridge, near which Trafalgar had his first (and only) duel with Miho. "We'll end this battle here," the driver announced and Boris nodded with a very huge grin on his face. It was the best idea that they could do at the moment. After all, no one objected, when Trafalgar threw his glove in front of Erika Itsumi. She even accepted the challenge/duel.

But, this plan was very short-lived. "The second Panther is unable to continue, due to engine failure. The T-34/85 wins," George's voice announced, clear as the sky at the moment. "Heh… They were too eager. Да, командир?" Ivan commented and they all snickered. It was very rare to hear that a Panther broke down. Sure, it happened from time to time with new crews, but not in the Tournament battles.

"I'll send someone to pick up the Panthers and alert Tsuneo that he and the mechanics have two tanks to fix," George suddenly said and Grigori snickered again, before responding.

"You sound like Instructor Chono now, Churchill," he said and Boris held back the laugh that threatened to escape his lips by sheer willpower, accidentally reminding himself of the Habanero Club rum and its spicy taste, cringing and putting his hand over his stomach as a result. Guess that I'll never forget it… he thought and shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Traf was looking again at the battles that Chi-Ha-Tan fought, when his phone beeped. He looked at the screen and saw that George sent him the results of the match that the newest crews had against Boris and his crew.

He scrolled through it to the end, where the flaws of the Panther crews were mentioned. Both charging into the battle blind, but one of them also entered something akin to a Bloodlust and overtaxed the engine of one of the Panthers, and also, according to Tsuneo, busted the transmission, while doing the former.

Traf groaned and opened his computer's text editor, where he wrote everything about Panzer V ausf. As that he felt would be needed. And to say, that it was mainly about the engine and transmission with the emphasis on the word careful, would be the understatement of the decade.

But, then he remembered something and facepalmed. Oh right! We still have that M24 Chaffee! he realized and wrote down searching for its new crew as a priority of the same importance as training the Panther crews. After all, that light tank would give them a serious advantage over the other schools at the next Tournament.

And before he printed the document that he specifically created for the new crews, he added there several pictures of the Panzer V ausf A's interiors (mostly engine and transmission ones).

He was furious, when the news of Oarai winning the Tournament and both Zuikaku and Graf Zeppelin tightening their security to avoid assassinations and/or kidnappings from happening, yet he got a message, saying that the former vice-commander of Oarai's Sensha-Do team regained her memories and identity, but still nothing about the T26E4s and the Maus he ordered.

But, he got an idea. My forces would reinforce the University team and I'll demand to hand over the Maus and both Nishizumi sisters, when we win! Perfect! He was so confident about that idea, that he ordered to start converting his tanks into Sensha-Do regulated ones in both ammo and the disabling system.

He felt a wave of pleasure hit him, when he realized that his dream of world dominion with an extremely large harem of soldier girls as his army was closer than he initially thought, after he succeeds with his plan of beating Oarai. And so, he started humming a tune that to someone who isn't in his inner circle, would sound like a weird mix of Panzerlied and The British Grenadiers, before contacting Tsuji on the status of the six tanks that Nishizumi should've already finished by now.

Somewhere in Ishikawa prefecture

Mika sat on her BT-42, playing on her kantele with her neutral mask on her face, but behind it, she was bored. She just wanted to do at least something to distract her. Hell, even "borrowing" a few tanks from Pravda again was an option, but not now. She'll have to wait for a few months for that. After all, Katyusha and Nonna weren't the ones to forget a grudge, even a slight one, like a normal person would, in three months.

Actually, the "borrowing" incident happened three months before the Tournament, but now, the wind told her something about an IS-2 with seven boys from Pravda manning it, clearly wanting to "negotiate" the return of the now Jatkosota tanks. But, if things go well, the IS-2 would boost Jatkosota even more than those five second hand T-34/76s, BT-7 and KV-85 did alone.

But, the information was two days old, so there was a possibility that the boys returned the IS-2 and infiltrated the ship unnoticed. I should've warned everyone to keep watch near those former Pravda tanks… she realized and sighed. What was done was long gone in the wind by now.

And after that, she saw something - no, someone - move from the shadows, being careful not to show his face, but also make the Soviet RKKA uniform with an officer's cap visible enough to reveal the person's affinity with either Pravda GHS or Sever BHS to her and she inwardly groaned. Both schools were a pain in the ass to deal with (she dealt only with Pravda, but her friend in Talvisota told her about Sever) and the person before her certainly seemed to be pissed off.

"Now, shall we talk about the return of those tanks to Pravda, Финский вор," he said and Mika tried her best to suppress the shiver that threatened to shake with her whole body. He is certainly different, yet similar to Nonna, she thought and did her best to look unfazed by him. "Which tanks? Our tanks weren't stolen. We just borrowed some," she responded with her eyes glued to her kantele.