ARC II chapter 6

A day after Trafalgar and his crew woke up, Oarai tank garages

Boris looked sadly at Traf and his crew as they walked away from their (for now) good for nothing tank with various levels of grief in their expressions. But then, he remembered something. Something they seemed to always forget about and might be a substitute to the trio at least until their tank is repaired.

"Why won't you use that M24 Chaffee until your Tiger I is fixed up?" he asked them and saw their expressions change, albeit very slowly. "It might be a good placeholder… It has a smaller frame, it's faster and the 75mm gun has a very good record," Traf said after a while and nodded. "It'll do."

And with that, the three tankless boys walked towards the light tank and started with a routine check of the parts to avoid the tank blowing up on them. But, there was something… different about the trio of the veteran boy tankers and he couldn't tell just what it was.

Suddenly, he heard someone cough to gain their attention and Boris saw instructor Ami Chono standing there with a box in her hands. And somehow, he knew that the thing inside was for them and no one else.

"Trafalgar Jameson, JSDF, with the approval from both US Army and MEXT, had issued the Purple Heart award for you and your crew for getting injured in battle," she announced no long after that and proceeded to pin the medals on the trio, which wasn't too much happy about the reminder of what happened to them at the Exhibition match.

Boris then turned back to his T-34/85 and handed another shell to Ivan and then he pulled out his phone, because it started ringing. Strange. An unknown caller… he thought and hung up, but a few moments later, the very same caller ID showed up and he answered, annoyed at that person's tenacity.

"You listen," the unknown male voice started and Boris almost hung it up, when the person suddenly continued.

"You hang up and it will get worse. You aren't Tsuneo, but I guess that it would be better for you to tell him this." Boris rolled his eyes at those idle threats. "What do ya want?" he asked with his best imitation of 'angry Gopnik' voice, but it wasn't working very well on the unknown guy.

"Raven's Nest wants to push through the closing of Oarai with pitting you against the full force of the All-stars University team, Karl-Gerat included," he announced and Boris felt cold sweat running down his spine. "You're joking, right?" he queried and the person made a non-agreeing noise at that.

"I also have a suspicion that Raven's Nest might have something to do with the Sensha-Do related accidents in those last few years and would probably try and enter the match on University team's side," the person finished and before Boris could ask anything else, the call ended and he walked over to Tsuneo to inform him about the strange call.

Meanwhile, Shimada residence, unknown location

Alice thought that with the High school Tournament being over and a holiday being issued to let them rest before the next semester, the problems would end. But, instead there was a clear as day assassination attempt and now a new university had somehow pushed through an idea that if Oarai won't win against the All-Stars team, it'll be closed.

Alice would've given the small fry school that won by pure luck and undeniable skill of a few crews a chance, if a Nishizumi wouldn't be on the team. But now, she supported the idea of thirty tanks against their eleven.

Hmm… I should use M26 Pershings. M24 Chaffees, a T28 heavy tank destroyer and my Centurion, she thought, but then, she remembered the email that also suggested using the Karl-Gerat. And yet, Alice still thought it was too dangerous to field it, even against Miho Nishizumi.

And with that, she opened a video call with the Bermuda trio and several of her best subordinates to discuss tactics against the ragtag and highly unpredictable High school team.

Renta glared at the incompetent fool of a Sensha-Do match organizer for allowing this to happen. Firstly, it was only an innocent question about agreeing to pit Oarai against the All-Stars team and now… the school's own future depended on the outcome.

"Get out of my sight," he growled and as the idiot left, Renta opened his email and sent a message to Shiho Nishizumi and a few other headmasters to (discreetly, of course) send help to Oarai, totalling 19 tanks. After all, they'll need help, if they have to face the best team in the Japanese Sensha-Do league.

And after that, he got a text message from his contact, confirming that the message for Tsuneo was delivered, albeit indirectly to avoid him from trying something 'funny' against them all. But, there was still the one piece of information that he didn't want to tell Tsuneo about - Raven's Nest getting a Maus and five T26E4 Super Pershings part by part from untrackable sources.

But, if there was something that he knew that might happen, it would be Raven's Nest trying to reinforce the All-Stars team, so he sent another message to some of the minor schools and BC Freedom, asking for another 20 tanks, just in case that he tries to send his own forces into the battle and do god knows what with Shiho's youngest, if Oarai loses.

Traf loaded another shell into the cannon breech of the M24 Chaffee, while already aiming at the stationary Churchill Mk. VII dummy. "Loaded and locked!" he said more for himself, before firing from the cannon, managing to pop the white flag, but by a hair's margin.

"Next up, the moving Panther," he announced and Takashi nodded in response. After all, they had to use the better maneuverability of the Chaffee, where they did so with their Tiger I E's thick armor. And it was still strange to them all, operating a different tank after those months of operating the Tiger I they knew that was respected by almost every single boy that had watched a match, either on-line or in person.

And after he shook his head to clear his thoughts, he felt the familiar tingle at the back of his neck. But, as he gave the order to start trying to circle around the Panther, a shell impacted with the tracks, luckily only snapping them and not breaking a wheel, while impacting with their tank.

Traf turned the turret to face the Panther and cursed, when he saw that it was angled and also hid in a very Thermopylae-style manner - its sides and rear both hidden by the disabled dummy Churchill and some rocks. "Well played," he said simply to the comms and sighed, when the tank fired again and disabled them.

"Better luck next time," Tsuneo's voice came back with a small chuckle and Traf then knew that it was the engineer, who controlled the Panther dummy. After all, he knew more about the tank than everyone from Oarai, even instructor Chono knew less and she was operating one, when she was but a student at KMM.

"Well… We should go back to the garages and prepare for fixing it," George said after a while and Traf only nodded at that. "Yeah… And we also should reply no'' to any request from Saunders to buy the Chaffee," Takashi added and the trio chuckled at that, before exiting the disabled tank and walking towards the garages, fully knowing that Tsuneo was already on his way with the Sd Kfz 9 FAMO to pick it up.