ARC II chapter 11

Andou and Oshida were, for the lack of better things to do, fighting again with each other. The SOMUA S35 and ARL 44 were firing ammo like crazy and neither of them noticed the T28 sneaking up on them, until it was too late to try and find a good hiding spot. Surprisingly, it missed them, but at the same time, their latest stray shells impacted with the armored monster's outer tracks, which were almost immediately cast aside by the magnetic locks being released.

"Damn it!" Andou cursed as her SOMUA dodged another shell just by a hair's margin. "We need help here!" she shouted into the comms, not expecting to receive an answer, due to knowing that similar fights were occuring in the whole town of Oarai. After all, the All-stars team wasn't defeated yet.

"Where are you?" the voice of Trafalgar Jameson cut into the silence like a hot knife through butter, when Oshida's ARL 44 shot her SOMUA down (purposefully) totally by mistake. "Got taken out. Near the bridge," she said and sighed as the comms shut down a few seconds after the white flag popped out, but she had one more thing to do and Andou stood up, opened the hatch and glared at Oshida, before she opened her mouth.

Nishi looked at the Chaffee as it drove next to the bridge and almost ordered her two companions to fire at it, when she noticed the symbol of Oarai on it. Just a few seconds ago, she watched the two bickering girls from BC Freedom insult and blame each other for getting taken down, and even if both fell prey to the T28, they still thought that it was the other one, who shot them down. And also, some of the more creative insults were heard on the radio not too long ago.

"Did the frog eaters shut up?" Erika Itsumi asked and Nishi gave her a negative response, explaining that the duo was still hurling insults left and right. "Be on high alert. The T28 can easily penetrate every single one of our tanks," Trafalgar reminded them as his Chaffee was joined by Katyusha's T-34/85 and Kay's M4 Sherman to hunt the SHT and drove by the disabled BC Freedom tanks, whose commanders seemed to have an endless insult capacity.

And then, she saw three M26 Pershings that seemed to be more dangerous than the rest, drive by and start pursuing the trio that pursued the T28. "You got three Pershings following you," Nishi announced, before ordering her accompanying tanks to attack the heavies from behind.

"Banzai!" she shouted without even bothering to check, if her allies followed her or not. Only the charge mattered to her now. But, the lack of response from Fukuda and the Oarai Duck team suddenly made itself known by a loud BANG! from a cannon that only the T28 could be fielded with.

And it was at this moment when she realized her mistake, only to find out that she was surrounded by the very same trio of M26s she saw disappear a minute ago into the streets.

Traf sighed, when he saw the Duck team and their Chi-Ha-Tan allies being disabled by the well defended T28 and its guards. But then, he noticed that one of the Pershings stayed behind and slowly started turning its turret at him. But, he had already a shell ready in the breech, so he simply aimed at the heavier tank's rear armor and fired.

"Takashi! Now!" he shouted at his driver and the Chaffee did a sharp left turn and quickly sped away from the spot, from which he fired, just in time to barely dodge three shells - one definitely of a bigger caliber than the others - and disappear in the same side alley, the Hippo team loved so much, while they had the 6v6 practise match against St. Gloriana all those months ago.

"We did it… We somehow managed to weaken the Bermuda trio and still escape…" George muttered, his eyes showing shock and happiness mixing with each other at the moment. Traf only stood up and opened the commander's hatch to get a better view of his surroundings, not doing it for long, as their Chaffee suddenly sped by Shimada's Centurion, barely dodging another shell in less than a minute, with the turret MG covering fire, while it was reloading.

"See? Almost jinxed…" he said as the hatch closed behind him, immediately announcing Shimada's position to the remains of their team. "Got taken out by the monster, but got the second one from the Trio! Katyusha out!" The voice of the diminutive commander suddenly announced and Traf knew that Kay was out too, the T-28's ammo probably damaging the radio even if all those protections were set up in place. After all… he had seen in one replay that the KV-2's 152mm HE shell, even in the modified state, managed to start a minor fire in its target. Nothing too serious... Just hella scary.

And with that, Traf sighed, before looking behind again, knowing that it's time to finish the battle. "Takashi," he nearly shouted at his driver, "get us to the meeting point!" And then, the voice of Ami Chono announced the remaining tanks, leaving him to deduce that they had a 2 to 1 power play, which he knew didn't matter much against an enemy of Shimada's caliber.

Maho looked over the remaining tanks of their team, sans the still somewhere fighting last boy crew. They had only her Tiger I, Erika's Tiger II, Miho's Panzer IV H, Koume's Panther G, the Hippo team's StuG III F, the Leopon team's Tiger (P), Darjeeling's Churchill Mk. VII (at least she said none of her sayings after the E100 was dealt with), Rosehip's (although very damaged) Crusader Mk. III, Oarai SC's Hetzer and the Chaffee; against the T28 SHT, 3 M26 Pershings (only one of which was from the infamous Bermuda trio) and Shimada's own Centurion.

"We should prepare an ambush against their T28, while keeping track of Shimada and the Pershings," Maho said, knowing that even their strongest guns can't even dream of penning the frontal armor of the monster. "Who'll do the ambush?" Erika asked and Maho smiled for herself. She might as well have volunteered for it. "Of course the only tank that can bounce more shells than the rest," she responded, hearing the gulping sound that Erika made.

"Umm… And what about our Chaffee?" Miho asked after a while, making Maho sigh. She knew that the last boy crew was basically just trying to get Shimada into an ambush, and also probably being taken out in the process. "They have their own plans, Miho. But, it wouldn't hurt to ask them, what is she doing," Maho finally said, getting the response soon after.

"She is trying to shoot us down like she wants revenge or something!" George's voice shouted and Maho knew that something must've happened with a boko the girl had definitely brought with herself into the tank and she blames the Chaffee and its crew for it. "Get her to grid F0264 and don't let her escape at any cost," Maho ordered, satisfied to hear the three boys say "roger!", but how they said it in perfect unison also unnerved her in a way.

"The rest, half of us would go to grid F0264 and try to disable the trapped Shimada, while the other half would go support Erika-san just in case that the three remaining Pershings are near the T28," Miho finished giving orders and after that, Maho chose to follow Miho, the StuG, the Crusader and the Tiger (P) to hunt down Shimada.