The T-50 felt very small following Kuromorimine. Sloped armour may have been effective but it produced a cramped tank which made it seem even smaller. Panthers and King Tigers had sloped armour but didn't feel small but then, they were a medium tank that weighed as much as a heavy tank.
"I would like to eliminate a King Tiger today." Yukari declared.
"With a T-50?" Erika inquired with as little scepticism as she could manage.
"We could do it! The flanks and rear are only 80mm and we can pierce that at point-blank."
"If we're kissing their armour with the gun. And we'll blow it off at the range."
"Seems like a fair trade to me." There was a swishing noise; the sound of Yukari's hair rising and falling as she shrugged.
"I'm supposed to be the bloodthirsty one."
"Oarai is my home." Yukari replied steadfastly.
"You know if you went to another school, they'd probably have a Sensha-do programme of their own. One that isn't held together with duct tape and the hopes and prayers of four nutters." Erika wondered how the Porsche Tiger was holding up. The last she had seen of it, there had definitely been a wisp of smoke emanating from it.
"But we built this team from the ground up! Lower! We pulled tanks out of the ground! That's much better than joining an established team and having to do things their way."
She had a point there. "Wouldn't you prefer a more organised team than whatever our presidential gremlin pulls out from her seat cushions?"
"Where's the fun in that?"
"You're insane, Fluffy."
"You love it." Yukari retorted. "You love doing things your own way rather than conforming to Kuromorimine's traditions."
"I like being independent." As much as she respected the chain of command and Miho's authority as Captain, she certainly had more freedom to do as she pleased than she would have anywhere else. "I don't like wondering where our spare parts and fuel are coming from. If you told me Kadotani has people siphoning fuel from vehicles in town under cover of darkness; I'd believe it."
"It would explain a lot." Yukari mused. "But how would she pay them?"
"Cafeteria vouchers." Erika answered, thinking of their Sensha-do presentation.
"They're not a in a hurry." Yukari reflected on Kuromorimine.
"Why would they be? Rushing around won't make any difference."
"I thought we were trying to make them angry and impatient?"
"They probably are. But Maho won't be. Only one thing could make her angry but as the whole point is for her to shoot at her sister today; it's moot. Wait until later. Then you'll see how frustrated the rest of them are."
"Tigers look grumpy. King Tigers don't."
"… What are you talking about?"
"It was something Riko and I were talking about. How Panzers have personalities."
"Who's Riko?"
"Erwin."
"Ah." Erika smiled wickedly to herself. "How was your date?"
"It wasn't a date!" Yukari squeaked.
"Really? You just called her Riko."
"It wasn't a date!"
[][][][][][]
Turtle team were shadowing Kuromorimine on their left flank. Their opponents were travelling as fast as the Elefant and Jagdtiger permitted. It did not make them seem ponderous but instead, the slow advance spoke of irresistible force. They may not have been moving fast but once going it would take a hell of a lot to stop them. Far more than Oarai possessed, certainly. The high ground had evened the odds before but on this rolling terrain, it seemed they would have been able to smash right through them just with their engine noise alone.
"There's no cover." Momo groused.
"I can see that." Yuzu was aiming for some woods in the distance and she felt that the Kuromorimine vehicles were watching them and knew exactly what they were thinking.
"We'll do what we can." Anzu popped one of her sweet potato slices into her mouth but Yuzu wasn't fooled by her nonchalance. She was clearly still buzzing with adrenaline from their impetuous charge into Kuromorimine's formation and she was itching to let loose on them again with their 7.5cm gun. She had gotten a taste for action against Pravda and now she had a much bigger cannon to play with and their first ambush had only been a starter at today's feast.
Yuzu sped on towards the woods and felt the chassis protest. She missed their 38(t) build. It had never protested her actions but rather it had always seemed to enjoy being thrown around in athletic stunts. The thought gave her pause; when had she started thinking of her tank as a character?
[][][][][][]
"I wish we had faced Bonple. I love 7TPs! We would have done amazing against Bonple's tanks! You would have wanted to charge amongst them and use the speakers to warn them that we were the Big Bad Wolf and we were about to start huffing and puffing!"
"You know me so well." Erika said dryly and wondered why Yukari was thinking about Polish tanks when she had such a fine array of late-war German armour parading for her. Maybe that was the connection; she was looking at late-war German armour and thinking how woeful their tank was compared to them and so thinking of the tanks they would be much better suited to face. Their machine would have been a beast amongst pre and early-war light and medium tanks but instead in the tournament they had faced mid-war Shermans and T-34s. Anzio would have been perfect for them if the pouring rain and the rough terrain of that battlefield hadn't robbed them of their advantages in speed and agility. Maginot had only been a friendly match but they had certainly shined there. "Why did you reconnect the speakers?" Erika asked. She had not inquired earlier because she was sure Yukari had good reasons but it was odd she had removed them against Pravda and then replaced them for this match.
"I thought we needed every possible advantage."
"We can't distract Kuromorimine with pop music."
"We can taunt them with German and Soviet martial music though!" Yukari replied happily.
"You mean make them want to chase us down for our impudence?" Erika inquired. "That would never have worked a year ago." She mused. Apart from a few girls like herself who would have been irritated by what they felt was an affront to their pride; it would have been water off a duck's back.
"So it would work now?"
"Maybe… It depends how frustrated they are by their losses and the fact the match isn't already won." And how deep their aggravation at facing this dark horse school was rather than having the rematch against Pravda their honour demanded. "If you play 'Erika' though, I'll tie you to the glacis."
"You always say that but you never do." Yukari said and then daringly reached out and tapped Erika's shoulder with her foot.
"Don't make me turn this tank around." Erika warned nastily. "I will! And then there'll be no Sensha-do for anybody!"
Yukari didn't get to respond as Saori's voice came over the radio to interrupt them. "Okami team! What is the enemy doing? Over."
"Advancing steadily." Erika answered. "Over." She added, finding it amusing that their professional amateur radio operator was using the term.
"Distance?"
"About ten minutes behind you. Over."
"Usagi team has stalled as we were crossing the river. If you can buy us a little more time, we would appreciate it. …Over."
"What do you mean stalled?" Erika hissed.
There was a hesitation on the other end. "Their engine stopped and they can't get it going again. The Captain's taking care of it."
"Taking care of it?!" Erika couldn't help but snap.
"She is! She's taking care of it!" Saori replied. "She's okay, Eririn." She added soothingly.
"In a river?!"
"She's okay." Now Hana's voice came over the radio. "Trust us. Trust her."
"And give us some cover." Mako added, her dryness crisp over the radio waves.
"I'm handling this!" Saori protested. "I'm the radio operator! …This is my job!" They heard what sounded like a pouting huff before she continued. "Please do what you can."
"What about us?" Now Momo chimed in.
"You too!"
"What do we do?"
"Exactly what I tell you." Erika answered her. "Keep advancing for now. I'm going to do something drastic. You'll know when you have an opportunity." With that she abruptly sped up so that Yukari squeaked as she was flung back. "You break down on me now, comrade." She addressed the T-50. "And I promise you; the eternal fires of Panzer Hell and all the instruments of torture of the Panzerteufel and his demonic minions will be a breeze compared to what I do to you in fifteen minutes with one spanner!"
"…You're scaring me." Yukari declared.
"Fluffy, the universe has a mean streak of humour. You get to play the music."
"The music?"
Erika looked around at her. "I promise I won't tie you to the glacis."
Yukari was nonplussed and then her features lit up.
[][][][][][]
The Kuromorimine forces crested a low rise and in the distance, Koume saw the ribbon of water cutting through the green expanse and she searched that landscape for their opponent. It took her a moment to spot them in the river; most of the opposing tanks were half-submerged in the water.
"Do you see them?" Chika pressed.
"I see them." Koume confirmed but she wasn't sure what she was seeing. At this distance she struggled to identify the individual tanks but she could see movement on them. Movement like the hopping of fleas. "I think one of them has broken down. In the river." It sent a cold shiver through her. She almost jumped out of her skin as Chika and Kagome's hands landed on her sides.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" Koume spoke the words befitting the Vice-Captain of the Kuromorimine Sensha-do team but she could not speak them in the right tone. She could not throw off the feeling of being enveloped in freezing water, and Miho was the one out there in the river. "Wait!" She saw more movement. Closer.
"Panzer halt!" The Captain's order came over the radio crisp and hard and unexpected and the Kuromorimine formation grumbled to a ragged halt before shuffling back into alignment.
Between them and the river, a lone tank had appeared. Small, green and distinctively Soviet in design. The Kuromorimine gunners had to summon all their will not to immediately open fire on it.
"Erika…" Koume whispered. "What are you doing?" The T-50 was in range of all their cannons. It was a long shot but far from impossible and with so many guns aiming at one target; the law of averages was not in their favour.
"What's Itsumi doing?" Sora asked in the painful silence of their tank.
"What's the Captain doing?" Chika retorted. "What are we waiting for?"
Koume looked around at the Captain and she was gazing impassively at the river with her binoculars. She looked supremely uninterested in what she was seeing. The Captain had been passive throughout the match so far, leaving most of the command to Koume and she knew why. This was all trivial to her until the moment came where she was directly facing her sister. She had asserted herself at the hill but not before and she had been quiet after. Koume watched her turn her gaze onto the T-50 and she saw something astonishing. She saw Maho smile. A smile of pride.
Koume clutched her mic to her throat. "Captain?" She asked cautiously.
"There is a loyal tanker." Maho declared for all the team to hear. "Obeying her Captain's last order."
Koume felt her crew all stare at her in bemusement. "What order?" Chika voiced the question for them.
"To take care of Miho." Koume answered, which was precisely what Erika was doing placing her tank between the two sisters as Miho dealt with whatever issue they were enduring in the river.
"… So what do I do?" Chika asked hesitantly.
"Wait for the order." Koume told her, knowing it was inevitable.
The T-50 lurched forward without warning and headed straight at them.
"She's insane!" Kagome squeaked.
"Chi-ha-tan Disease!" Chika agreed.
Koume knew it was something else though as she heard music over the sound of the massed Panzer engines, floating over the landscape and reaching her disbelieving ears.
"Is she playing music from her Panzer?!"
"… Is she playing 'Erika'?"
"What is this?! Her theme music power up?"
"She thinks she's in a movie!"
Whatever it was, the Captain had only one response.
"Open fire."
[][][][][][]
Yukari screamed formlessly as shells rained down all around them with one of them landing close enough to momentarily lift them onto one tread. But the T-50 sped on and played its song impudently as it flew.
"Now?! Now?! Now can I shoot?!"
"Of course you bloody shoot!" Erika yelled right back. "Fire!"
The puny 45mm cannon yapped at the German armour and Erika immediately slewed them around, threatening to roll the Soviet Infantry Tank as it slid on the soft earth. Their shell struck the Jagdtiger harmlessly beneath its mighty cannon and the crew scoffed at the meagre assault in the split second before the shell detonated and engulfed them in smoke. In the T-50, Yukari desperately slewed the turret around to face the rear as the other Kuromorimine tanks fired again. She heard distinctly every calibre of gun firing at her and knew precisely the weight of metal being launched against her and all her knowledge of Sensha-do safety practices did little to reassure her that she was safe from that onslaught. She rammed another smoke shell into place and fired, planting it in a King Tiger.
"Release smoke!" Erika commanded, leaning forward instinctively as she felt her back exposed to all those cannons.
"Smoke away!"
[][][][][][]
Koume shook her head in wonderment at the sight of the Jagdtiger seemingly burning as the shell embedded beneath its weapon belched thick oily smoke while the King Tiger advanced to crush the shell that had struck it in the face and bounced off beneath its left tread. Kuromorimine unleashed another volley at the impudent enemy now taunting them.
"Cease fire!" She commanded. "She wants us to waste shells." Koume could understand why they had fired again though, despite the cloud of smoke the T-50 was billowing behind it. They had failed to eliminate the little Soviet tank despite it charging straight at them and Koume could only assume the Panzer Gods favoured Erika today. She found it hard to believe though that she was straight up taunting her former school with her reckless actions. And playing music? That music? She had to fight not to smile. It was like she was making a deliberate proclamation that her way was no longer Kuromorimine's way.
"Panzer vor!" Maho commanded.
"Captain!" The commander of the Jagdtiger was apparently on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "We can't see anything! There's a smokeshell under our cannon!"
"Yes, I see that." Maho toned dryly. "Fix it. All other units, advance. Hold fire unless you confirm a target clear of the smoke."
"Is she… Amused?" Chika inquired fearfully.
"The Captain has humour." Koume confirmed. "I don't know if she's amused though." If anything, she seemed more exasperated than anything else that she needed to tell the Jagdtiger crew what they obviously needed to do. Although, to the best of Koume's recollection, they had never had to deal with a smokeshell embedded in their machine before. It was a million to one shot that the shell had stuck rather than shattering on the heavy armour. And in fairness to that crew, they were all rather rattled by Oarai's tactics. They had done everything they were supposed to do and Oarai had broken their formation by slipping one of their own machines into it. And not even shooting.
"What's she playing now?" Kagome was gritting her teeth.
"Polyushka Polye." Koume confirmed and now Erika really was straight up taunting them by playing this Russian cavalry song. "Imagine if a line of T-34s came out of that smoke."
"I'd welcome it!" Chika snarled. "I'm sick of this bull-"
"Ambush!"
[][][][][][]
The consensus in the Turtle was that Erika and Yukari were truly insane. They could understand placing themselves between Kuromorimine and their own struggling force and had appreciated it when the juggernaut of German machines had abruptly halted. But then they had watched as the lone tank had charged them.
"Told you." Anzu had said, munching happily. "It's safest to just charge in."
"From the back! Not the front!" Momo had half-shrieked as their second and third most valuable players had vanished into a cloud of smoke and flying dirt from all the shells fired at them.
Somehow they had survived. Yuzu insisted that Erika's stubbornness projected out from their tank like a protective bubble that tank shells couldn't penetrate. Anzu countered that she was describing Yukari's hair. Momo snarled at them both to shut up and pointed out that their opportunity had come.
With all their attention focused on the hated Soviet tank, their former teammate and the fogbank they had left in their wake, Kuromorimine was oblivious of their flanks. Anzu giggled to herself wickedly as once again she was presented with the flanks of the big German tanks. She fired and hissed as her shell went low as before and smashed the wheels of the Panther. "Damn it, I want a kill!" Clearly she needed more practice at this long range business.
"Forget kills!" Momo snapped. "Just shoot!"
"Ahem." Anzu remonstrated with a waggle of her sweet potato chip.
"Just shoot, Madam President!" Momo sighed as she finished loading.
"That's better." Anzu said and sent another shell downrange. It disabled one of the remaining Jagdpanzer IVs and Yuzu decided discretion was the better part of valour; especially as nearly half of the Kuromorimine tanks swung around to face them.
[][][][][][]
"They didn't get me! They didn't get me this time!"
"Calm down, Emi." Koume warned.
"But they didn't get me this time!" The Jagdpanther commander declared jubilantly. "Not this time, Kameraden!" She yelled at the fleeing Jagdpanzer 38.
"I think she's hanging on by a thread." Sora mused to herself.
"They did that neatly." Chika sighed with great bitterness.
"They'll have gotten across the river by now." Koume agreed. "It was all a delaying tactic."
"That's all they keep doing!" Kagome hissed. "Why can't they just fight?"
"Would you stand and fight a vastly superior enemy?" Koume asked and it seemed to her that Kagome hadn't even thought to consider what she would do if the circumstances were reversed.
"Commence repairs." Maho commanded them all. "Quickly but smartly." And then she seemed to have read Kagome's mind. "Oarai can keep stalling us but they cannot stop the inevitable. Sooner or later they will have to stand and fight and then you shall have the battle you seek. Be patient. Remain calm. Be Kuromorimine."
It astonished Koume that with just three dozen words, Maho managed to transform the mood within her Panther. One moment her crew had been fuming; bitter and spiteful. Now they sat up straight and their negative emotions flowed out of them to be replaced with the cool professionalism expected of them. All with three dozen words. Could she ever hope to have the same commanding presence?
[][][][][][]
They met Turtle team at the ford in the river and it amused Erika how cautious they were about taking their little machine into the water. It amused Yukari too and she compared the low-slung tank destroyer's profile in the water to a certain animal.
"I'll see you later, alligator!" They sang along with the song blasting from their speakers. "After 'while, crocodile!"
There was absolutely no reason for Erika to give the Jagdpanzer 38 a push. None at all. Except to hear Momo yelling at them over the radio after the clash of metal on metal.
"STOP HITTING US! YOU'RE NOT HELPING! STOP IT! AND TURN OFF THAT DAMNED MUSIC! YOU'RE JUST HOOLIGANS! I'LL HAVE SODOKO PUT YOU IN PERMANENT DETENTION! I WILL! YOU'LL NEVER SEE DAYLIGHT AGAIN! I'LL HAVE YOU IMPRISONED SO FAR BELOW DECKS YOU'LL HEAR WHALE SONG!"
"I think she's mad at us." Yukari mused, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Oh, no." Erika said, and the T-50 clunked into the back of the Jagdpanzer 38 once more. Like a Prussian Jack in the Box, Momo popped out of the cupola with her monocle flashing and Erika and Yukari couldn't hear her impassioned ravings over the sound of the two engines and the water. "You ever notice how her hair forms into snakes when she's yelling?" Erika asked Yukari.
"I thought I was the only one who saw that." And then stuck her head out of the cupola to smile and wave at Momo which only incensed her more.
With further unwanted assistance from the T-50, the Jagdpanzer 38 reached the far shore and Erika and Yukari did hear the utterly heartbroken cry of loss as Momo threw the only thing she could spare at them; a packet of dried sweet potato.
"That was mean, Kawashima." Anzu pouted, and then slipped her hand under her seat and retrieved the packet she had taped there. She grinned at an incredulous Momo who clutched at the air and then got a hold of herself.
"I hate you." Momo declared. "I hate all of you. Hell is filled with people like you!"
Yuzu giggled. "We love you too, Momo-chan."
"DON'T CALL ME 'MOMO-CHAN'!"
[][][][][][]
They joined the others for the first time since the match had begun and it was rather disheartening to see only five machines waiting for them. Seven vehicles in total to face the fourteen rumbling closer with every second and again Erika felt that unease about the two missing tanks. It was oddly comforting to feel like she was being watched because that meant the scout tank was indeed out there.
They crossed a stone bridge and if that scout tank was watching, Leopon team gave them something to report. If Erika hadn't witnessed it, she would not have believed it. As the heaviest tank, the Porsche Tiger was the last to cross and somehow, they made the beast perform a wheelie. Sixty tons of tank reared up and then slammed down before speeding improbably forward while behind it; the central span of the bridge collapsed. It was meant to be the strongest part of the bridge but it broke regardless. Erika smiled to herself, if you could make a heavy tank rear up like that then physics be damned. Kuromorimine were going to have to take a big detour.
In the meantime, Miho laid out the plan for defeating Kuromorimine. One thing Miho had been certain of was that her sister would be determined to be the one to eliminate her. It was a matter of honour. It had to be a contest between Nishizumis and if that was what Maho wanted then Miho would give it to her. She had identified a location on their battlefield today that the two of them could enjoy as their own personal arena.
Naturally, they all looked at Erika. The two of them had argued about it before the match and Miho had uncharacteristically stood firm on the point. It was her plan, her command and this was what they were going to do. What she was going to do. Miho had scowled so much like Maho and her mother that Erika had been forced to conclude that there would be no changing her mind. So she could only shrug as the others, ironically, looked at her to be the voice of reason.
"We'll draw them into an urban environment." Miho explained, banging her fist into her palm out of her anxiety of public speaking than for emphasis. "Their tank destroyers are made for the open, so are their heavy tanks. In close quarters they don't have a range advantage anymore and you'll be close enough that their armour won't matter." She hesitated, obviously thinking of the Elefant and Jagdtiger. "Mostly. If you just disable one of them in a narrow street, they'll be a roadblock for the others and they won't be able to conduct repairs until the referees give them the okay and if we're still fighting nearby, they won't get it. They'll be stuck."
"The Tiger is an open-country tank." Azusa thought aloud. "It's just like Kelly's Heroes!" She gushed and the other Rabbits started squeaking in anticipation. Saki meanwhile was staring at a bug on Saemonza's shoulder.
"We fought like this before." Miho continued. "When we fought St Gloriana. We've all gained a lot more experience since then and Kuromorimine's tanks are much bigger. They'll be at even more of a disadvantage than St Gloriana were. Even if you can't eliminate them, you can disable them. They won't be able to coordinate their movements in the streets. You've already seen how Kuromorimine are used to working as a team. If they're split up and forced to work individually, they'll be far less effective. And while you're distracting as many of them as you can, we'll be taking on their flag tank!"
"And how exactly do we stop the rest of them following you into this 'arena'?" Momo asked acidly. "They can just swat us aside!"
"They can swat you aside." Erika answered before Miho could. "Me too. But they can't just brush Reopon team out of the way."
The girls' eyes now flicked to the team of gearheads who first looked startled to hear that they would, of all things, be required to act as a roadblock and then they were delighted by the irony.
"He could do with a rest anyway." Nakajima said impishly. "All this mountain climbing and cross-country sprinting business is bringing out a whole host of teething issues."
"We'll be your bastion!" Tsuchiya declared and Erika was hard-pressed to decide who possessed more fluffy enthusiasm; the Leopon driver or her gunner. It didn't seem to bother Tsuchiya one bit that the strategy required her to do nothing in her role as driver.
"You want to bring the entire fate of our school down to you and your crew?" Momo demanded of Miho. "Your sister and her crew of girls who could operate tanks before they bought their first cellphone versus your crew…"
There was a wet noise as all the eyeballs flicked now to Mako. The diminutive girl was taking the opportunity presented by a strategy meeting to take a nap on the warm metal of the Panzer IV's hull.
"Look at it this way, Kawashima." Anzu offered. "She'll be well-rested when the time comes."
Momo looked at Anzu. Then she looked at Mako, Erika and Miho in turn before turning back to Anzu. Anzu's eyes widened as her friend proceeded to enter a full-blown psychotic rant complete with savage hand gestures, except it was in complete silence. Anzu was both amused and bemused and snacked contentedly as she got out of her system. When Momo was finally done, her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Is this really the best we can do?" She asked the earth.
"I asked that the first day we started this club." Anzu replied. "And… Here we are!" She declared happily. Momo was forced to nod meekly.
"It's a very straight forward plan then." Erika said. "Fight like hell. Try not be knocked out before you've at least disabled one Kuromorimine tank and pray the workhorse can overcome the ace." She remembered what she had told Yukari before the match, about belief in Miho shining in the team's eyes. It wasn't shining quite so bright now that they were thinking about Tiger tanks and their vaunted reputation. Even if she had been given days to prepare and had Yukari's full enthusiastic support and complete collection of reference materials; Erika doubted she could have fully excised the Tiger Shock out of them. "This is our best hope for victory." She added and while it was hardly a shining endorsement of Miho's plan; sometimes less really was more. She would have sounded less sincere if she had said more.
[][][][][][]
The mood in the StuG III F was one of stern contemplation. They were, thus far, having a good match. They had eliminated one Jagdpanzer IV and they had played a vital role in bringing their school to this match in the first place but they couldn't help but think of their first match when their enthusiasm and desire to impress had overridden their common sense. There were no conspicuous flags flying from their machine to betray their position today but they were still going to enter the same scenario as that contest against St Gloriana. They had at least eliminated one of St Gloriana's tanks before being knocked out in turn, but being knocked out had effectively ended Oarai's chances of winning that match. They were no longer Oarai's best weapon but their 7.5cm cannon was still one of their best assets.
"A German tank destroyer with a cannon gifted to us by a Russian themed school." Oryou thought aloud. "Which we're using against a German themed school."
"Think of the heavy cruiser Blucher being sunk by a Norwegian fortress armed with German guns and Austro-Hungarian torpedoes." Erwin was ready with a fact. "Or German fighter planes with British Rolls-Royce engines fighting in the Battle of Britain."
"Vietnam fighting the Chinese invasion with equipment the Chinese gave them to fight the Americans." Saemonza added.
"The Taliban shooting at the Americans with missiles the Americans gave them to fight the Soviets." Caesar concluded the theme to the present day. "Katyusha must like that her gift is fighting Kuromorimine."
"She could have gifted us a couple of T-34s." Erwin glared at the T-50 ahead of them. "We could use some Soviet tenacity for what lies ahead." She looked at the urban sprawl they were approaching. "Rattenkrieg."
"Is that good or bad?" Oryou asked. "We're a German tank destroyer."
"There's many more of them than us." Erwin replied. "But half our side is German."
"And Stalingrad was a disaster for the Italians too." Caesar reminded her self-consciously.
"Maybe that's what we should do." Saemonza said and they looked at her so she explained herself quickly. "We don't attack the tanks. We use our high explosive shells on the buildings to block them with rubble."
"We only have so many shells. We can't bomb the town to ruins like Stalingrad."
"We don't have to destroy the whole place. Just block off a few streets so they're stuck."
"With their firepower, they might just blast any roadblocks out of the way." Erwin replied gloomily, all too aware of the power of the Elefant and Jagdtiger. "Unless we buried them under the rubble."
"Why not? We've been buried under snow and half-drowned in mud." Caesar sighed. "This wasn't how I pictured the end."
"How did you picture it?"
"Like how we were on the hill. A glorious last stand in the open. Not a desperate scramble in the streets."
"Grab them by the belt buckle and don't let go." Erwin paraphrased General Chuikov. "Nishizumi and Itsumi are correct; Kuromorimine do not do well in enclosed spaces. They train to concentrate as much of their firepower as they can in one place. They don't practice fighting alone and relying on individual skill."
"Individual skill rarely triumphs over teamwork." Oryou replied.
"Teutoburg Forest." Caesar countered. "The legions were massacred because they couldn't organise amongst the trees."
"Massacred by Germans." Erwin reminded her.
"We beat Anzio amongst the trees."
"And Saunders sent us packing when we faced them in the trees." Saemonza added.
"Because they were cheating."
"History favours the prepared." Erwin declared. "And we're prepared for this and they're not."
"They know where we're going though." Caesar said. "And the Captain's sister must be prepared for this."
[][][][][][]
Koume could only judge the atmosphere in her own tank to get a grasp of the team as a whole. After crossing the river, two tanks had broken down and brought the formation to a halt as they were repaired. This delay was to be expected from their vehicles which had been forced to chase Oarai around the arena and while frustrating, it was acceptable. But then Oarai had put another frustrating delay in their path by destroying the bridge. Maho had soothed tempers by pointing out that it was better that Oarai had destroyed the bridge long before they had reached it rather than contesting it and destroying it so that Kuromorimine was forced to backtrack and take even longer to go around. Koume had watched her crew respond to this and acknowledge that it was indeed better to hear Katsuya report from her Panzer III that the bridge had been taken down than to have it blown up in their faces.
Her team was frustrated by Oarai's continual retreats and their impudent ambushes but now they wore feral smirks as Katsuya reported where they were going. Koume had not liked this aspect of the match before it had even begun, feeling they were sacrificing a valuable slot in their team for mere vanity but now that showmanship was going to pay off.
Her team were grinning with anticipation. The Captain meanwhile looked somewhat sick and Koume knew she was worried that events might be decided without her. She would never forgive herself.
"Squeak squeak squeak." Someone said over the air and just like that the Kuromorimine girls abandoned all decorum and Koume's earpieces were filled with the hellish chorus of countless vermin; ravenous.
[][][][][][]
The Panzer III appeared before them with such suddenness that Erika almost hit the brakes out of instinct. The Panzer III meanwhile jerked to a halt as it spotted the column coming straight at it and clearly much closer than it had anticipated.
"This is ours." Erika declared and accelerated.
"Good hunting." Miho replied.
The Kuromorimine scout reversed quickly out of sight while the T-50 leapt after it like a scalded cat. Erika took the corner hard and the Panzer III had barely had time to turn around and take off itself.
"That's one." Erika warned. "Keep an eye open for the other."
"You think this is a trap?" Yukari asked.
"Isn't that what you would do?"
"It's what I would do. But it's not what Kuromorimine would do." Yukari said and then fired. The shell whipped over the Panzer III to put a small hole through a building. There was a muffled thud as it detonated. "Why would they detach two panzers to do something Kuromorimine never does?"
"One tank to scout." Erika knew that was the purpose of the Panzer III and in all likelihood it had been watching them from the beginning, just as they had been keeping an eye on Kuromorimine. "Never two."
"Maybe the other one broke down." Yukari repeated the theory as she reloaded. "Like we hoped."
"I told you, I don't believe in luck."
"Even after all the luck we've had?"
"I'd like to believe we've gotten this far with skill rather than kind kisses from fate."
"Kisses with kicks." Yukari replied and fired again. The Panzer III anticipated it and skipped out of the way. "Dammit!" Yukari cursed as it vanished out of sight around another corner.
"I'll park us right up it'sssssss…" She hissed into nothingness as something emerged from around that corner. Something huge, squat and slow. Something with an unmistakeable profile that made Yukari gasp while Erika sent the T-50 screaming with protest up to its maximum speed. As Yukari began jabbering at the sight of the monster tank, the gap was closing and both girls screamed as the T-50 slipped through the tight space rather than crumpling on a wall of steel.
"MAUS!" Yukari squealed loud enough for a radio to almost be unnecessary. "MAUS! MAUS!" She then began commanding Erika. "AUS! AUS! AUS!"
The worst part of being a driver was not being able to see much, if anything. Nothing illustrated that to Erika quite like the twin blasts that filled the space between the buildings, magnifying them into an apocalyptic thunderclap that shattered every window around them.
The 12.8cm main armament of the Maus, the heaviest tank ever constructed, and its 7.5cm secondary armament. Her secondary armament were a couple of couple of 7.62mm machine guns while the Maus' secondary weapon was nearly ten times more powerful. The Maus. Not a Maus. The Maus. Kuromorimine's Maus. A beast relegated to victory parades or training matches intended to terrorise those unfortunate enough to be on the other side.
"I've never seen a Maus in action before…" Yukari practically purred in wonderment.
"Stop admiring the abomination and report in!" Erika snapped, as if Miho hadn't gotten the message from Yukari's shrieks already. Her shrieks and the thunder of the 12.8cm gun.
"Cashuzmi Nishtain!" Yukari reported and then Erika heard a sound that could only be Yukari slapping some sense into herself. "Captain Nishizumi! The enemy has fielded their Maus! It's in pursuit of us!"
"Erika?" Miho replied softly.
"They did it. They actually did it." Erika confirmed.
"Why would they do it?" Yukari asked. "Why against us?"
"Because they had to." Erika realised bitterly and cursed herself for not suspecting it. "Because they lost last year and now they have to show off their strength. They have to remind people who they are. So they have to crush the ants with a boulder." It explained the Jagdtiger and Elefant as well; both completely unnecessary for facing Oarai but big and impressive. The best toys to show off. "And Maho knew we would come here so she sent it here at the beginning to wait for us." While they had been tearing along to reach the high ground, the Maus would have been trundling along to this place. On these paved streets it couldn't tear into soft ground and dig its own grave. "And we let that Panzer III lead us straight to it."
"So it was a trap." Yukari said and then squeaked. "LEFT!"
This time only the 12.8cm fired. As if somehow that made it better. The sudden change of direction meant the shell missed them and Erika made the T-50 drift around the corner where they nearly collided with Anglerfish team.
"Back up, Miho!" Erika didn't bother with protocol. "Now! They're right behind us!"
She spun them around to face back where they had come from, in time to watch the Panzer IV beating a hasty retreat and then once more the Maus came ponderously around a corner. With its blocky shape, it looked like a child's drawing of a tank come to life. One hundred and eighty-eight tons of panzer audibly groaning under the strain of propelling itself along and its front glacis was peppered by eight shells that were as bullets to its 20cm thick armour.
"Aim for the guns!" Miho commanded, somehow calm despite it all.
"It's aiming for us!" Noriko squeaked back and Erika heard the squeal of the Type 89's treads. The Maus fired and mercifully missed. At this range, the 12.8cm cannon would have sent the Duck soaring through the air.
"150mm rear armour!" Yukari squeaked.
"Great. How do we get the Reopon back there?" Erika asked and then swore graphically as the Maus held its ground for just that reason. It had nothing to fear from the front. "Bugger this!" She drove them away.
"Where are we going?"
"To stay in our weight class." Erika replied. "Any thoughts, Captain?"
"Everybody, withdraw!" Miho knew they stood no chance against the frontal armour of the Maus. The hull was 20cm thick, and the turret was even stronger.
"Like a cruiser." Erika thought aloud. Only the World War Two Germans could have been insane enough to build a tank like a warship's turret given treads.
[][][][][][]
Like Erika, Asuza thought the Maus sounded like a wounded animal begging to be put out of its misery. The awful grinding sound of its treads filled the M3 even as they sped away from it; spurred on by its monstrous cannon. That cannon boomed while their 37mm yipped in return. Their 75mm gun had felt inadequate many times before but at least with their other opponents they had known there was at range at which it could work.
Now there was nothing but the cold certainty that they had nothing with which to oppose this monster.
[][][][][][]
"They got us!"
"No! It was just close!"
"Just close?!" Anzu squeaked. "My fillings are loose!"
"What?!" Momo's ears were ringing.
"Get us out of here!" Anzu yelled at Yuzu.
[][][][][][]
Saemonza couldn't depress their Pravda gifted gun low enough. They were too close and she raised her aim to go for the Maus' own 7.5cm gun. She fired, and saw the shell shatter into fragments on the Maus' turret. Oryou hastily backed them up but the long 12.8cm was tracking and came to rest directly on them.
Erwin removed her hat and dusted it gently. It had been a good run.
German hubris met German practicality. Hubris hit practicality with enough force to shatter wheels and unspool treads.
[][][][][][]
Erika could hear the Maus advancing. The noise it made in the close confines meant she doubted that they could have heard the trumpet calls of a charging cavalry corps, let alone the sound of a lone T-50. It wasn't the Maus that concerned her though, but the Panzer III.
"Our eagle has fallen." Caesar reported. Caesar reported…
"What's your status?"
"Ask me later." She replied.
"Why is Caesar giving their status?" Yukari asked quietly. "Why isn't Erwin?"
"Probably dazed." Erika answered and knew that Yukari understood this meant she was more likely concussed.
Yukari didn't respond and Erika scanned for the Panzer III before bringing them sharply around to the Maus' rear. What she saw astonished her. The Panzer III was following in the Maus' wake and its commander was perched in her cupola with total disregard for her safety; revelling in her prime position to spectate Kuromorimine superiority in action. Stung by this, Erika made good on her earlier intention and proceeded to ram the T-50 straight into the Panzer III's metal arse.
She recognised the Panzer III's shocked commander. A girl who looked with horror and then terror at the 45mm cannon pointed right at her.
"Get down, Katsuya!" Erika yelled at her and the girl complied, slamming her hatch down tight.
The universe had a wry sense of humour. Yukari fired their 45mm gun in the same instant that the Maus let loose with both barrels so that it must have seemed to the Panzer III girls that the Soviet Infantry Tank had eaten a breakfast of steroids. Their shell struck the Panzer III's turret but the bellow of the Maus' cannons rattled both tanks. They eliminated a Panzer III while the Panzer VIII advanced oblivious.
"I'll make them think it's raining." Yukari declared, and began to pepper the rear of the Maus' turret with machinegun fire.
[][][][][][]
Hida Emma had trained with heavy tank destroyers for many years. She knew Jagdpanthers inside and out and she had commanded Jagdtigers before. It had then only been logical that she command the Maus in this match. Logical, but not welcomed. It might have seemed like the greatest honour to command history's heaviest tank but for Emma, it had been a major headache. First there had been the exhausting work required to make the showpiece fit for an actual battle and then the training in a very narrow window for the match. She had been ready to command a Jagdpanther alongside Emi and instead she had been stuck with this tracked apocalypse.
They had advanced across the battlefield, away from the enemy, to reach this place. The Captain had insisted their opponents would come here and they had been forced to listen radio chatter to know what was going on as the Maus moaned and groaned its way along terrain they prayed would remain firm. If it bogged down, they would have had no hope of extricating it and they would all suffer for being the girls who got Kuromorimine's prized showpiece stuck in the mud. Emma had begun praying that the match was won without them at one point as the Maus threatened them with a breakdown before coughing and carrying on. When they had finally made it to a road, she and her girls had all slumped with relief.
And then they had sat in utter boredom, listening to the radio chatter and distant rumbles. In some ways it had been a relief not to be there. Emma tried to understand what was happening but couldn't glean enough context to get a clear picture. Somehow, somehow Oarai was not being crushed underfoot. Instead they were scoring more kills than Kuromorimine and leading the best team in the league on a merry dance around the arena.
It had been a relief to hear that Oarai was coming their way.
They had had all day to plan their action and yet, it hadn't been enough. Katsuya had intended to lead Oarai straight to them and it had been a sound plan, except only one of Oarai's tanks had given chase. That had been unfortunate. Even more unfortunate was that Emma had been forced to spring the ambush too soon. Instead of blasting the Oarai tank into scrap metal as it rounded the corner, Emma had instead been forced to order the Maus forward because the idling engine had not liked idling. The choice had been to advance or risk it giving out. She had given the order to advance, and for a few moments it had seemed they would eliminate the T-50 by ramming it. The Soviet tank must have left paint behind as it squeezed through the gap.
Her ambush had been sprung too soon and then their lack of training demonstrated itself as they pursued the small Oarai tank. Everything in the Maus required brute-force to operate and making small adjustments to aim while on the move simply wasn't possible.
At least when they had encountered Oarai's main force they had finally had the chance to appreciate the power of the Maus. Being hit was always an unpleasant experience. At least, in any other tank. Not so in the Maus. They barely felt a thing even as the entire enemy team fired on them. All the frustrations of the day melted away and then they had crushed their opponent's StuG. Emma was used to wielding crushing firepower but in close quarters; it was insane how powerful they were. That power was like a physical feeling within them. An amazing feeling. An almost obscene feeling.
Right until Katsuya shrieked that she had been eliminated. Emma had almost forgotten her teammate and she looked around in her cupola and saw the eliminated Panzer III. Behind it, the T-50 was pelting her with one of its machineguns.
The feeling came back. "Ignore it." She declared. They had nothing to fear from that 45mm-armed tank. "Advance."
[][][][][][]
"What happens if they wipe out Oarai all by themselves?"
"We never hear the end of it." Koume replied to her loader, thinking that if it did come to pass that way then there would be a lot of very unhappy girls having their picture taken as they were presented with their tournament trophy. To be frustrated again and again by Oarai only for one tank, one monstrosity that none of them liked, to win the whole match would be the second most miserable way for this tournament to conclude. Only the Maus crew would be satisfied and would spend the rest of their lives talking about how they had won a tournament singlehanded.
And they did hate the Maus. Koume had objected to its use because it was just plain unfair to use it in the first place but also because it was a nightmare. Even made from modern steel and machined to the highest standards, it was an extremely fragile vehicle. It had broken down a dozen times in the first two hours of training after being taken out of reserve and it had wheezed its way through the rest.
"Oarai will just run away." Sora declared confidently. "It can't chase them."
"They were leading us to the town for a reason." Koume reminded her. "They won't just abandon that plan just because of one tank."
"Not just one tank. The Panzer King."
"Why do people call it that?" Chika inquired. "In chess, the King is useless. It's the Queen that's the most powerful."
"Because the Panzer Queen sounds ridiculous." Kagome said.
"Why are panzers male anyway?"
"Because men have their female ships and women have their male tanks." Koume reminded her of something she should already have known.
"Okay; why does one female ship get a crew of thousands but a male panzer gets an average of three to five women?"
"What are you talking about?!" Kagome demanded of Chika.
Chika shrugged. "We've just been driving around all day. I'm bored."
In the distance Koume heard the bellow of the Maus' 12.8cm cannon and she suspected that they wouldn't stay bored for long.
[][][][][][]
"We have no choice but to fight the Maus if we wish to conclude this using urban warfare. Their main force will be here soon so we have to hurry!"
"'Hurry' she says." Erika thought aloud. "We have to hurry up and defeat history's biggest and heaviest tank."
"Actually, the Maus isn't the biggest-"
"Not the time, Fluffy!"
So far the only damage they had done to the Maus was to perforate its external fuel tank and this meant nothing to the tank itself. She had considered lining them up to make an attempt on the treads but even a big gun would have struggled to make an impression on its protective skirts.
"We can fight it, but we can't stop it."
"If Reopon team can hit its rear-"
"They know that. They won't let it happen." They were dogging the Maus' rear but whoever commanding the Maus would be watching for that 8.8cm cannon. They wouldn't let them circle around and as they could ignore all of Oarai's other tanks, it would turn into one clumsy beast chasing another.
"Ahiru team! Kame team!" Miho's voice came again over the radio and Erika heard the excited squeak to her tone. "This will sound pretty crazy, but please follow my directions to the letter."
For a moment Erika thought she could hear the two teams wondering when their Sensha-do experience hadn't been crazy and then they replied enthusiastically.
"Understood!" Noriko replied professionally.
"Sure; we'll do anything!" Anzu answered happily.
"It'll be hard on you, though." Miho warned her.
"Anything goes at this point!" Momo's voice wasn't quite as shrill as it had been when they were crossing the river but it was close. "Just tell us!" Her tone added 'And get it over with!'
Erika listened to Miho's plan and almost slammed into the rear of the Maus in disbelief. "Miho! You're insane! What you want to do... It… It flies in the face of everything we've ever…. What every generation of Sensha-do practitioners has ever done…"
"Eri…?"
"I think it's bloody brilliant!" This time she gave the Maus a love-tap deliberately to remind them they were still there. Not that the Maus crew cared. They were confident in their victory; they were driving five tanks before them after all, with a sixth dogging their treadmarks. They had nothing to worry about. Nothing to fear. No reason to think they were being led into a trap. What trap could possibly contain the world's heaviest tank?
They hung back and Erika tried to picture it from their point of view. They pursued the Oarai tanks into an open space; an open road. Rather than trying to surround them, the Oarai tanks were instead lined across the road. Like a roadblock, or firing squad. A pretty hopeless one as the Maus rumbled to oppose them with its two cannons.
"Were you quoting Buffy the Vampire Slayer?" Yukari asked.
"What?"
"To the Captain. Wasn't that from Buffy?"
"Yeah, but don't tell her that. I couldn't think of anything else appropriate."
"Whoa, what are they doing?!" Yukari meant the Maus. Instead of holding position and firing on the Oarai tanks opposing it; it was advancing. At speed.
"Power's gone to their head." Erika decided. They weren't just to blast the opposition out of the way; they fully intended to smash them aside. Unknowingly, they were playing straight into Miho's hands.
They had the perfect vantage point from the embankment by the road and Erika imagined it from the spectators view point. The Maus roaring forward and the five Oarai vehicles charging to meet it; spearheaded by the little Jagdpanzer 38 that dipped its cannon like a lance. The Maus fired and shell whipped over the little tank destroyer with centimetres to spare. Yuzu did not falter.
At what point the Maus crew realised the Turtle wasn't going to stop, Erika didn't know. But the Maus definitely slowed down before the Jagdpanzer slammed straight into it and the impetus of both machines drove the tank destroyer beneath it like a wedge. The scream of metal on metal was appalling and the Maus drove itself up on the Turtle so its entire damnable weight was piled on the little tank destroyer.
"Let them have it!"
Yukari fired the main gun and then began peppering the Maus with the machinegun again. In shock perhaps from being rammed, the Maus crew responded to this conventional attack as expected; the turret began rotating in their direct and again Erika had the impression of the Maus being a warship turret given treads.
[][][][][][]
"I AM NOT HAVING A GOOD DAY!" Momo screamed to be heard in her world that had become a metal coffin filled with the screeching of the damned as the Maus' treads scraped on their roof which was definitely bowing.
"Isn't the carbon coating meant to be able to withstand anything?!" Yuzu shrieked.
"The Maus just might be the exception." Anzu replied calmly, maintaining her presidential dignity as the world around her fell apart. If possible, things became worse as part two of Miho's plan went into operation and more weight was heaped upon them.
[][][][][][]
In a match featuring nothing but tanks that grossly outclassed them, Duck team had been feeling redundant. Very redundant. But now they had a mission. A mission that suited their tendencies to the letter. After all, who better to charge in and leapfrog the Turtle to get on top of the Maus?
"Here we go!" Noriko yelled for both her own and her team mates morale.
The Type 89 had been built to tackle trenches and so had no problem climbing the rear of the Jagdpanzer 38 and then hurling themselves up the glacis of the Maus and onto its bared hull. As an added bonus, they got to imagine the Student Council's terror as they slammed into the rear of them.
"Hold them there!" Miho commanded and Shinobu slewed the Duck around, parallel with the turret of the Maus that was pointed hopelessly into the embankment. It was lost on no one that the pre-war Japanese tank was almost the same size as the Maus' turret.
Hida Emma appeared in her cupola in utter fury at her unprecedented condition. "Hey you!" She yelled at the Type 89! "Light tank! Get off my roof!"
"Don't wanna." Noriko replied. She and Akebi peered at Emma through the hatch which demonstrated just how thin their armour was compared to the monster beneath them. "Also, the Type 89 is not a light tank."
"It's a medium tank." Akebi added reprovingly.
"Hey, Emma!"
The Maus' commander's head whipped around to look up to see Itsumi Erika peering at her from another little tank. She waved at her.
"Hey, Emma!" Erika repeated, still waving.
Hida Emma was commanding the heaviest tank ever constructed, and she was being mocking from above, below and even to the side. "Screw this!" She declared and descended back into her machine. "Shake them loose! And crush them! And shoot at them!"
Like a hamstrung bison panicking, the Maus tried to do all three, trying to press forward against the Turtle, to rotate its turret to scrape the Duck loose and to blast the impudent Wolf away. The Turtle held to its moniker, the Duck had found a good place to nest and the Wolf didn't have to do anything as the Maus' efforts to remove the Duck prevented it from lining up a shot on the Wolf. Sparks flew as the Duck's treads ground on the Maus' roof while more flew from the Maus' as it ground against the Turtle's shell.
It was unquestionably the most ludicrous sight that Erika had ever seen, but it was working. Somehow it was working. The Maus was thrashing like a Great White shark caught in a net but unable to escape the two Oarai tanks and all the grinding noises meant that Emma couldn't see the obvious way out; reverse. Reverse to escape the Turtle. All her attention was focused on the two tanks immobilising her with no thought left to how to escape the trap.
They didn't notice the Panzer IV racing up the embankment and Mako performing panzer gymnastics to balance it on the slope. The Panzer VIII Maus had a 7.5cm gun like its smaller and more numerous older Panzer IV brother. It was usually forgotten about compared to the 12.8cm cannon. Just as the Panzer IV was usually forgotten compared to the infamous Big Cats. But the Panzer IV's 7.5cm gun was a tried and tested battle-winner and Miho's mind of unladylike warfare had conjured a scenario where it was now in the perfect position to work a miracle.
And blast a shot into the engine vents of the Maus.
[][][][][][]
They heard the report and they could not believe it. They could scarcely conceive of it. The Maus, the heaviest tank ever built and the most fearsome weapon in their arsenal; defeated. Defeated after only eliminating one opposing tank. Chika and Kagome looked up at Koume, looking to her to provide an explanation. Something, anything, that could make this all make sense.
Koume could not. She could not say anything.
[][][][][][]
"Reverse. …Reverse. We should have reversed." Emma declared and then turned to beat her head on the T-50's hull. Erika and Yukari offered her a pat on the back as behind her, Turtle team was dragged out from under the Maus by the Leopon. The Maus crashing down on the road made everyone but Emma jump; she was too busy browbeating herself. "Maybe I should commit seppuku!" She wailed.
"I think you're overreacting." Erika told her as Emma's crew looked at her in alarm.
"Am I?!" She turned on Erika. "I was eliminated in the Maus! The Maus! And not by a heavy tank or a heavy tank destroyer! By… By… By!" She jabbered and pointed at the Duck and Turtle, ignoring that it had been the Panzer IV to deliver the killing blow. "I am never going to live it down! We are never going to live it down!"
"Like everyone else who's been knocked out so far?" Erika asked her gently and hope welled in Emma's eyes. "You're not going to be alone in this. They can't scapegoat half the team."
"No. …No they can't… Can they?"
"Can we come to Oarai if they do?" The Maus' primary gunner asked.
Yukari squeaked. "Bring a Panther and it's a deal!"
"Coming to Oarai is school transferral." Erika reminded her. "Bringing a Panther with them is defection, and theft."
"Not if they have the papers! I know where to get them. You can-"
"Later, Fluffy." If Erika let her, Yukari would outline exactly how the Kuromorimine could flee their school and take its assets with them within the bounds of the law. But right now, they had a match to win. "We have to…" She didn't want to say to Emma 'Go and try humiliate the rest of your school'.
Emma understood though, and she was gracious. "Good luck." She bowed and then she and her team went and sat beside the stricken Maus. Somewhere the recovery teams were arguing furiously about who would have the arduous task of retrieving it. Erika and Yukari retook their positions in the T-50.
"Kuromorimine will be here in six minutes." Yuuki reported over the radio.
"Wonderful." Erika said to herself.
"Listen." Yukari replied. "That doesn't sound good."
The Jagdpanzer 38 was making sounds that were less machine and more like a person having a limb sawn off without anaesthetic. Its paintwork had been shredded by the Maus' treads but that superficial damage was nothing compared to the brutalising its suspension had received from bearing the weight of over two hundred tons of tanks. As they watched, the valiant little machine's undercarriage came apart; spilling wheels and its treads.
"It's not eliminated!" Yukari squeaked.
"Wait for it…" Erika replied wearily.
It didn't come. They watched Momo, and then Anzu and Yuzu emerge from the hatches and look to see if the flags had deployed.
"Kame-san team, report!"
"I don't know…" Anzu answered. "Maybe the damage report machine's damaged." Erika saw her slap the roof of the Jagdpanzer 38. "It says we're still operational!" She pointed down the road where one of their wheels was making a bid for freedom. "But we can't move!"
"They're just immobilised!" Yukari theorised. "But they can still fight!"
"How?" Momo replied testily. "Should I get out and push so the President can aim?"
"Good plan, Kawashima!" Anzu told her. "Nishizumi! Draw them to us and I'll shoot while Kawashima and Koyama push the tank back and forth so I can aim!"
"Is she serious?" Yukari asked Erika plaintively.
"If they agree, she is." Erika mused, watching as Momo and Yuzu made strenuous objections to this plan.
Fortunately Miho brought back some sanity. "We have five minutes to position them!"
The Leopon had no trouble dragging the Turtle behind it even though the little tank destroyer screamed the whole way. The Student Council chose to ride inside their broken machine which Erika admired because as bad as the sound was outside the Jagdpanzer 38, it must have been hellish within.
When they reached their destination, Miho addressed them. Erika shook her head because the Captain looked ashamed that the Jagdpanzer 38 was broken. "I'm sorry." She declared.
"Don't apologise!" Yuzu answered her.
"It was a good plan." Momo said graciously.
"We'll do what we can. The rest we leave to you." Anzu addressed both Miho and all of them.
Momo however addressed only Miho, clapping her hands together. "I'm counting on you!"
Yuzu also clasped her hands together. "Go for it!" She offered her simple encouragement.
Miho nodded fiercely and then with the rumble of Kuromorimine's force beginning to drown out their own engines; she led the rest of them away.
[][][][][][]
"Thank you for making it this far." Momo told their exhausted little machine. "I never really thought we could do much with you when you were first brought back from the woods. You looked so small. …And pathetic. And then Itsumi stomped all over us during that first training session."
"Itsumi caught fire. We didn't." Anzu reminded her.
"I'm trying to have a moment!"
"Well, have it later." Anzu said. "They'll be here in a moment. I want to get off at least two shots so I need you to reload like you've never reloaded before!" Anzu grinned at her.
"I know what I have to!" Momo snapped.
"What do I do?" Yuzu asked.
"Think positively and look fierce." Anzu suggested and Yuzu tried. "I said think positive and look fierce, not think fierce and look positive." Anzu enjoyed her look of utter confusion. "If we lose this, remind me to expel Itsumi."
"Expel her?"
"She did try to kill me. And I think she'd prefer to be dragged kicking and screaming from Oarai by Sodoko and her goons than be evicted by some ministry men in suits. She can't fight them without them calling the police but what's Sodoko going to do?"
"How's Itsumi going to get into another school if you expel her?" Yuzu asked. "That's not fair!"
"After all this, the other schools will be fighting to take her in for their Sensha-do programme. That's the one thing I can give these girls if all this fails; they'll have places to go because they got to the finals in their first year of Sensha-do. There's your silver lining, Koyama."
"I'd prefer no one had to go anywhere."
"Then keep thinking positively."
[][][][][][]
"We're down to six now. Our opponent still has fourteen." Miho didn't dwell on one of their number being crippled and good for one last ambush while the fourteen tanks that Kuromorimine possessed all outclassed them. "That said, there's only one flag tank on each side." She reiterated the core of her plan. "They will becoming for our flag tank at the exclusion of all else." By which she meant Maho, Erika knew. "All teams, try to scatter the enemy as best as you can. You know how to do it!"
"Everyone!" Noriko sounded like she was about to start pounding her chest. "Let's rile them up!"
"Leopon team, you know what we need from you!"
The gearheads all responded enthusiastically.
"Be wary of their vanguard." Miho warned. "But don't forget that their rearguard packs their biggest firepower! The Jagdtiger and Elefant don't need to score a direct hit on you to knock you out!"
"Captain!" Azusa replied. "Can we take care of their rearguard?"
Erika resisted the urge to clean her ears; Azusa had definitely said what she had said and Miho responded as if it was a sane request. "Yes, please do so!"
"An M3 against a Jagdtiger?" Yukari thought aloud.
"Better than a T-50."
Miho had specific instructions for her crew and then they really had reached the final speech. "And now we commence our final operation; Operation Dizzy Wander."
"That sounds good!" Yukari gushed.
"Better than 'More Sneaks'." Erika allowed. In all honesty, 'Dizzy Wander' could not better encapsulate their intent.
Miho led them around in a circle so that they could pass by Kuromorimine just as they arrived in town. Rabbit team hung back and Erika had the impression of a tan wave coming straight at them as they whipped by and knew they were taking the bait even before Yukari reported them brazenly taking the corner without checking to see if their little baiter was waiting for them and totally oblivious of the tall and conspicuous M3 Lee that seemed to be using a lamppost for cover.
"Oooo, this doesn't feel good."
"What?" Erika asked.
"There's three 8.8cm cannons pointed my way." Yukari answered. "Do I shoot?"
"Why not?" Erika replied and their 45mm yapped. So did the 57mm of the Type 89. "Did you hit anything?"
"Does it matter?"
"You tell me."
"It doesn't-" An 8.8cm replied and the shell impacted just ahead of them. "Matter." Yukari concluded.
They heard a 7.5cm gun fire behind them and then a few seconds later it fired again. The last defiant act of the Turtle.
They slipped off the main road and with the Porsche Tiger ahead of them, it was apparent straight away that the Kuromorimine heavies were going to struggle in these side streets. "And now the nightmare begins."
[][][][][][]
Anzu was dancing in her seat with anticipation as their tank destroyer shuddered first as their own machines passed and them as the much greater weight of Kuromorimine approached. She held her breath, anticipated too early and started to feel dizzy before tan metal filled her view and she could fire.
Momo fulfilled her instructions to the letter; reloading their cannon with furious speed so that Anzu could empty a second shell into the enemy ranks before the rest could pay retribution. The Turtle took a smithy's worth of hammer blows.
[][][][][][]
Emi looked at the flag waving over her eliminated Jagdpanther and then at the identical flag flying over the little Jagdpanzer 38. She nodded a few times. "Figures." She acknowledged gracefully. And then with no grace she took her cap and threw it at the Turtle, only for the wind to catch it and blow it back in her face.
Koume looked at the knocked out Jagpanther and then at the Panther that Turtle team had crippled with their first shot. "Unit 9, commence repairs immediately! Everyone else, proceed! Follow the Captain!"
"Cheeky sods." Kagome remarked.
"They're finished now."
"Thirteen against five." Sora sighed. "Or twelve, if Unit 9 doesn't repair their wheels before this is over…"
"Forget Unit 9!" Chika snarled. "We'll finish this ourselves!"
[][][][][][]
They scattered Kuromorimine more by accident than design. As the Oarai tanks split up, the Kuromorimine drivers pursued what the enemy they could see rather than their own vehicles. Duck team took two Panthers and one of the King Tigers with them while Anglerfish and Leopon were pursued by two Panthers, a King Tiger and two of the Jagdpanzers. Yukari reported just one Panther and one Jagdpanzer IV pursuing them.
"Better than nothing."
"Keep weaving!" Yukari squeaked and both Kuromorimine machines fired at them.
"I am weaving!"
"Left!" Yukari commanded. "Take a left!"
The T-50 drifted around the corner in a manner that would have made Leopon team proud while both German machines slowed to make the same turn.
"Left! Through the fence!"
She shouldn't have but Erika enjoyed levelling the fence and then the garden furniture behind it before smashing through a second fence.
"Left!"
"Stop saying 'left'!"
"I'm trying to circle us around!"
"I know!" Erika accelerated and they performed the circle, finding their pursuers had enlarged the hole in the fence they had made and wreaked far greater damage on the back garden than they had.
"There! There they are!"
"I see that! What do you want me to do?!"
"Point blank!"
"Fine!" Erika decided not to bother to brake and so the T-50 slammed with bone-crunching force into the rear of the Jagdpanzer IV and before they could recover from that shock; Yukari put a shell into them. "Where's the Panther?"
[][][][][][]
Koume had not intended to pursue Erika. Sora had made that decision by following the T-50 after losing sight of every other Oarai vehicle and the Soviet tank impudently sending a shell at them. After its earlier display and the knowledge that it contained Oarai's second-in-command, one of their own alumni, her crew were all pretty fired up to take it out.
"Tell Mori to get the hell out of the way!" Sora snarled as the Jagdpanzer blocked her.
"How?" Koume asked patiently; there was nowhere for the tank destroyer to go in the little street. Fortunately for them the T-50 took a sharp turn through a fence and into someone's garden where Sora had the room to force their Panther past the Jagdpanzer with all the grace of a stock car race; the two Kuromorimine vehicles grinding against each other to leave each other with deep scrapes in their paintwork. The Panther leapt ahead only to find that the far more nimble Soviet Infantry Tank could leap much further. They could just see it vanishing around another corner. "She's leading us in circles!"
"She's making fun of us again!" Chika growled, waiting for the opportunity and tempted to just put a shell through the buildings and hope it made contact with the impudent machine.
"Don't lose her!" Koume feared Erika loose amongst her team in this place where her small tank held the advantage.
"It's a Panther!" Sora exclaimed, as if she thought Koume believed she was in her old Panzer III. "C'mon, Junge!" She entreated their panzer. "Show us why you're the best medium tank!"
"Wait!" It popped into her head suddenly and Koume popped the hatch to stick her head out of the cupola. "Around! Bring us around!" She commanded but there was nothing she could do but watch as the T-50 rammed the Jagdpanzer IV following her straight in the arse and then eliminated it with a single well-placed shell.
[][][][][][]
Sawa Azusa had spent the day feeling powerless. Their main contribution had been helping to haul the Porsche Tiger up the slope to their first position. After entrenching, there had been precious little they had been able to do against the advancing Kuromorimine machines. All of them were impervious from the front to their 37mm while the Big Cats were frontally invulnerable to their 75mm as well. They had tried to target the smaller Jagdpanzer IVs but their size and shape meant they were pretty much safe from the M3 as well. It had been depressingly reminiscent of their struggle against Pravda.
And then they had broken down in the river.
Azusa had no idea why their engine had stopped or indeed, why it had decided to come back to life again. All she knew was that without the character of their Captain, they would have been defeated by water and forced to bear that shame. On top of the shame they still bore from abandoning their posts and tank in the match against St Gloriana.
For them it all came down to regaining their honour. The best place to regain their lost honour was the place where they had lost it; the battlefield. But the opportunities had never come. It always seemed the other teams were in the right place to make a difference while they weren't.
Now though they were.
"Found the end of their file." Azusa thought aloud. "Aya, are you ready?"
"Okay!" Aya sounded breathy with excitement. Excitement was better than fear and that was definitely the emotion the huge German vehicles inspired.
They let a Jagdpanzer IV and Panther roll by in front of them and then the tall and ungainly M3 lurched into the path of the Elefant. Azusa thought that the 65 ton machine looked surprised by their sudden appearance, although its 8.8cm 'trunk' looked anything but comical.
"Take that!" Aya declared and let fly with the 37mm.
It was like they spat in the face of the heavy tank destroyer and with as much effect as the little shell struck the armour. But it definitely got their attention as they sped away. And Saki reloaded the 37mm fast enough for them to send another shell into its face before the Elefant could even get going. But then it was moving and blew its trumpet.
"They are so mad." Ayumi declared as the shell whipped by them and the sound of Elefant thundering along behind them filled the M3.
Yuuki had her map out. "Karina-chan, take the next right!"
Karina had the posture of an angry cat. This was nothing new to Azusa who had always been concerned by just how tense their driver was whenever she was at the controls. "Aye!" She snapped, demonstrating just why Azusa had never suggested she relax.
"Followed by a right, a right turn and then a right turn!" Yuuki added.
Karina's hair appeared to stand on end. "Aye, aye, aye!" Whether she was acknowledging Yuuki or commanding her hair into a combat stance, Azusa did not know. But what the commander did know was that their tank kept well ahead of the rampaging Elefant.
"Here we go, girls!" She declared. "Operation Kelly's Heroes!"
"Kelly's Heroes!" They cheered.
An M3 was not a graceful vehicle but it was a ballerina compared to the Elefant in the tight back streets where they had chosen to set their ambush. Karina took them around right angles at speed and only clipped a wall once as they circled around; the most unlikely predator stalking its prey. They came up behind the Elefant perfectly.
Perhaps some sixth sense alerted the commander of the heavy tank destroyer to their presence because it came to an abrupt halt. A foolish halt. It tried to pivot in the narrow street, only to find itself caught and Rabbit team came up right behind them.
"Now!" Azusa commanded.
Aya and Ayumi fired the 37 and 75mm cannons together, blasting the sheer wall of steel of the rear of the Elefant and they cried in elation of their victory. Except the smoke cleared and the Elefant was still moving, trying to claw forward to escape the trap.
"The armour's too thick!" Aya gasped.
Azusa sighed at being frustrated yet again. "If we can't get them at point-blank, it's hopeless!"
A gloved finger tapped Aya on the shoulder and the subtle, hesitant gesture in the heat of battle made her jump in fright. She turned and Saki was peering at her. "The place… Where they dump their shell casings…" Saki pointed. The crew stared at her astonishment. Everything she had ever said within the M3 could be written on a single page and beyond learning to reload the 37mm; she had never expressed any knowledge of tanks whatsoever.
Maybe she didn't need the knowledge. Maybe she just needed to see what was hidden in plain sight right before their eyes.
"Saki, you're genius!" Aya declared.
"Alright!" Ayumi thought the target even looked like a bull's eye on the rear of the Elefant. "Let's fire on three!"
"Okay!"
"Three!" They all spoke together, even Saki. "Two! One!"
This time they could feel their shells go home and the Elefant belched thick black smoke as the flag popped in the centre of its roof.
"We eliminated the Elefant!" Yuuki reported triumphantly over the radio.
[][][][][][]
"Did you? That's nice." Erika remarked.
"… Nice?" Yuuki was taken aback.
"We're a little busy right now." She replied and heard the familiar sound of an angry Panther.
[][][][][][]
"This is Unit 18! The M3 got us!"
"Unit 18?" Kagome gasped. "That's the Elefant! How does an M3 beat an Elefant?!"
Koume shushed her. "Where are you?"
"… A street?" Came the reply. "How the hell would I know?!"
"Everybody remain calm!" Koume advised the entirety of the remaining team. "Eliminate your targets!"
"Only pursue the flag tank!" Maho ordered and it wasn't quite a reprimand but there was emotion in her voice. "Do not be distracted! Focus on victory!"
"Do I stop?" Sora asked.
"No!" Koume didn't doubt that Erika had a vital role to play in whatever scheme Miho had concocted to defeat her sister. They had to eliminate her to foil it. "Maintain pursuit! Chika! Take them out!"
"What do you think I'm trying to do?!" Chika almost pulled her hair out in frustration. The narrow streets, her long-barrelled cannon and her small target had all combined into a gunner's worse nightmare. Instead of an enemy that should have had nowhere to dodge, she was instead faced with a flea that leapt out of the way of every one of her shots. Chika estimated that at this point she and Sora had done millions of Yen in property damage but they hadn't so much as scratched the T-50. The T-50 took another sharp turn and vanished from sight.
"To hell with this!" Sora declared.
Koume had no chance to protest or countermand. She could only stare in shock as Sora took them on a shortcut.
Straight through a building.
[][][][][][]
Yukari shrieked as an avalanche of bricks showered onto the T-50 like thunder as nearly fifty tons of German engineering asserted its dominance over the Japanese construction industry.
Erika heard the noise and knew what it meant. "I love it when they do that." She remarked.
"They're right on top of us! Slow down!"
Erika hit the brakes and the T-50 abruptly slammed into the front of the Panther, rattling all six girls teeth while Chika finally scratched her opponent as her weapon scraped sharply along the T-50's turret and then was jammed alongside it. Ineffectual. Erika heard the sound and raised a hand to her cheek without thinking.
[][][][][][]
"What do we do?" Sora could see nothing but green.
"Keep going!" Koume commanded.
"Shouldn't we stop?"
"If we stop, they'll hit our turret ring!" She ducked instinctively as the T-50 fired even though by the time she heard the gun and the impact of the shell, it was far too late. She couldn't fight the instinct though. "They can't hurt us now!" The shell from the 45mm had done nothing to the turret.
"She's going for the gun!" Chika warned.
"Then push back!" Koume commanded and then Chika and Yukari were in a tug of war as Chika pressed her gun against the T-50's turret and Yukari tried to keep it straight so she could damage the gun.
[][][][][][]
"Sharp turn, brace yourself!" Erika warned. With the Panther cannon jammed on their left, she could only turn right and she accelerated. The T-50 slid on the tarmac street and barely made the turn, pin-balling off a wall and being catapulted down the street.
"Right!"
She steered them sharply to the right and another shell from the 7.5cm cannon tore past them.
[][][][][][]
"You bitch!" Chika yelled after them. "You utter, utter bitch!" Now she did pull at her hair as Kagome silently loaded.
"Calm down." Koume ordered her.
"I am calm! I'm very calm!" Chika announced with strands of hair in each hand.
[][][][][][]
Noriko was calm. She was very calm despite the fact that the Type 89 had gotten the attention of two Panthers and a King Tiger. The advice to use their small 57mm to aim for the enemy's tracks and wheels or cannons didn't mean very much when faced with two 7.5cm and one 8.8cm guns. They had inadvertently left the narrow backstreets and gotten back on the main road where the three Kuromorimine tanks could advance together in a wedge. Noriko could only assume that they were caught up in the heat of the chase because none of them stopped to steady their aim and annihilate them and instead fired on the move. She guessed it had to do with Akebi blasting them again and again with their tiny weapon which made no physical impression on the Kuromorimine tanks that she could see, but apparently made their crews blood boil over.
"Brake!" She commanded and Shinobu made it seem like the Duck flew backward. Between the King Tiger and a Panther, Shinobu decided to side-slam the bigger of the two and Akebi put a shell into the turret of the royal feline for good measure. "Brake!" Noriko commanded again as the two outraged Big Cats decided to try and crush the cheeky bird between them. Instead the Duck dropped back and the two Kuromorimine cats slammed together with enough force that it even managed to jangle the bones of the Oarai girls.
Shinobu took them up onto an elevated path beside the road and Noriko laughed as she realised they were now literally looking down on the Kuromorimine girls. Akebi put a shell into one of the Panthers and Noriko saw the King Tiger slewing it turret around to face them.
"Brake!" She ordered and 8.8cm cannon bellowed too soon as the Duck decelerated. Shinobu accelerated hard so the Type 89 reared up as it sped forward. "What a lovely day." She remarked as they descended from the walkway and re-joined the road. All three Kuromorimine tanks fired together to leave the street with fresh potholes. "What a lovely day."
"Nyah, nyah!" Akebi jeered at their pursuers and then gave them another peck.
[][][][][][]
Azusa had found another target. The biggest target left; the Jagdtiger. It looked alarmingly like the Maus and it had taken the combined efforts of the whole team to overcome that juggernaut. But this beast didn't have a turret and they had already proven they could overcome such a monster in this labyrinth.
"Fire!"
The 37 and 75mm fired almost simultaneously. They could see their target; the hatch doors on the rear of the casemate but they were moving and they so missed though both shells dope-slapped the huge tank destroyer. Azusa was surprised as the huge machine accelerated with a jolt that seemed unlikely from such a big vehicle but she had seen many vehicles perform unlikely acts of agility like this.
"They're on the run!"
"Chase them!"
The rabbit became the hound and no bunny had ever pursued a predator like a Jagdtiger before. The American Frankenstein's monster that was the M3 barrelled after the Germanic abomination that was the Jagdtiger in the narrow Japanese streets. Azusa realised they had announced themselves too soon as the tank destroyer took the corner and disappeared from sight. Far too soon.
"STOP!"
Karina brought them to a screaming stop, the tracks sparking on the ground and all of them were flung back in their seats before being launched forward as they finally halted.
The cannon shot made them all deaf in their right ears and it seemed the Maus had returned to claw at their face. The sound deafened them and the feel of the shell scoring their hull set every last hair on their bodies on end. Azusa saw the long snout of the Jagdtiger coming at them.
"Back! Back up!"
From their perspective, the 12.8cm gun of the Jagdtiger was a gaping black hole that filled the entire street. It wasn't simply big; it dominated everything around it. It was so large that they could see the rifling in the barrel.
"Whoa…" Aya was quite numb with shock. "That 128mm is super-terrifying!" She voiced what they were all they thinking quite unnecessarily but someone had to say it.
"Karina-chan! Just keep going straight back!" Asuza tried to find a way out; literally and figuratively.
"What do we do now?"
Karina's answer was to slow down so that the M3 crashed into the advancing tank destroyer; the long cannon sliding over their tank's 'shoulder'.
"Oh yeah! Stick to them!"
"Amazing, Karina-chan! That's brilliant!"
The driver of the Jagdtiger didn't think so and decelerated.
"We're separating!" Yuuki warned
"I can see that!" Karina squealed. "Just let me drive!" She looked up to yell at the tan wall of metal that was the Jagdtiger filling her view port. "Never gonna let you go!"
"Let go!" They heard in reply.
"We will not let you go!"
"Let go!"
"We will not let you go!"
There was recognition in the Jagdtiger. "Stop that!"
"Don't underestimate us First Years!"
"First Years?!" This time they heard multiple voices from the Jagdtiger and so they answered with their guns, the shells smacking ineffectually on the tank destroyer's hull as their treads ground against each other. The two machines with their long guns looked not unlike a pair of knights tangled together and trying to swat at each other with their lances as the tumbled down the road to the soundtrack of a thousand saucepans falling down a flight of stone stairs.
Karina could feel the grinding through the controls numbing her fingers. "This isn't looking good!"
"We must keep the Jagdtiger away from Captain Nishizumi!" Azusa declared, knowing that the Leopon could block the entrance of the Captain's chosen arena but only for so long and that would be no time at all if this monster was allowed to bring its firepower. "Let's finish them off here!"
"How?!" Aya asked the obvious question as she flattened another shell on the Jagdtiger's armour.
Yuuki was looking at her map. "We let them fall off." She said. "There's a storm drain at the end of this."
Azusa saw it and grasped Yuuki's plan immediately. "Karina! Turn left the moment I tell you!"
At this point the Jagdtiger was shoving them along and Karina wasn't doing anything. "Aye!"
"I can smell burning!" Ayumi squeaked.
"Hold on!"
Karina felt something give. "We're coming apart!"
"Now!"
Karina spun the right track hard and felt the left give. Their turn was too fast and took them away from the Jagdtiger and for a moment the 12.8cm cannon was lined up straight on them. One moment. It was all the frustrated Kuromorimine gunner needed. Propelled by its own momentum, the impact of the huge calibre weapon and their torn tread, the M3 pirouetted and then slammed down hard on its right flank.
The Jagdtiger crew had their moment of triumph. A fleeting moment. They saw the steel crash barrier for all of half a second before ploughing straight through it and they all felt a swooping in their stomachs as one of the most unlikely vehicles found itself almost airborne. It plummeted over the edge of the dry water course, turning almost vertical and the watching audience cringed as the great cannon hit the concrete first; bending as easily as a plastic straw. For a moment the Jagdtiger seemed to pause but its remaining energy continued on and it somersaulted forward, snapping the gun entirely and the girls swooped in their entirety as the heavy tank destroyer found itself upside down. They were shocked into silence while in the pits; the recovery teams wept at the prospect of retrieving it. They were conceiving a bitter hatred for Oarai.
"I'm sorry." Asuza apologised. "Usagi team is down! Forgive us! We got the Jagdtiger but they got us too! We'll be counting on you seniors for victory!"
[][][][][][]
"This is Unit 16…" There was a long pause. "We're upside down."
"…Upside down?" Koume repeated.
"… We're eliminated." The Jagdtiger team reported. "But we got them! We got the M3!"
"They're eliminated but it's okay because it's mutual?" Chika despaired. "Is this what it's come to?!"
"Ten against four…" Sora thought aloud.
"This is a bloodbath." Kagome remarked.
Koume had to admit she was right. Oarai had started this with nine tanks and had a little less than half remaining. Kuromorimine did have half remaining. It was an unlikely and savage toll they had taken and she still couldn't eliminate Erika as the T-50 led them on a mocking dance through the streets; regardless of how many "shortcuts" that Sora took.
[][][][][]
"How does an M3 take out a Jagdtiger?" Yukari asked in wonderment.
"I don't know… But it'll be a must-watch clip when it's put on the Internet." Erika answered, thinking that the families of Kuromorimine would use every scrap of influence they possessed to try and suppress it. That was if they hadn't already spent it all covering up the undignified loss of the Maus.
They listened as Rabbit team reported in they were all alive and well with their only casualty being yet another pair of Aya's glasses. Erika figured her optician was either overjoyed at the regular sales or despairing over their repeat destruction.
"We'll be at Point HS soon!" Miho reported. "Where are you now, Reopon team?"
Nakajima replied that they were in position.
"Captain's ready to lay her trap." Erika remarked and then spoke into her mic. "We're keeping Koume busy." She told Miho. "Reopon team shouldn't face any organised opposition."
"We've got three of them after us!" Noriko supplied and the sound of squealing tank tracks filled her report.
"So we'll only be facing five tanks!" Nakajima remarked cheerfully. "That's good! We're meant to be Oarai's heavy after all."
"Watch yourself, Jumpsuit." Erika replied.
"You watch yourself." Nakajima retorted. "I didn't put all that work into our boy just so you could break him!"
"I'll try not to. But an Okami against a Panther isn't a fair fight."
"That's not a fair fight?!" Noriko squeaked. "What do you call a bird against three cats?!"
"Stimulating." Erika answered and her instincts told her to drift the T-50 to the left. "We're all dealing with 'sticky situations', as St Gloriana would say." She remarked as another shell from Chika streaked by them.
"As sticky as the time Sticky the Stick-Insect got stuck on a sticky bun!" Yukari giggled. "I love those British comedies St Gloriana watches!" She gushed.
"Indeed." Erika said in her best attempt at the dulcet tones of the St Gloriana girls.
[][][][][][]
The Porsche Tiger was a mechanic's dream; in that there was always something to fix as a component worked itself loose or overheated or decided it could no longer perform its function and just stopped. As Tsuchiya drove, the other three girls had been trying to hold it together and Nakajima thought it was good they were about to stop for the final time because otherwise they would literally be holding the hull together from the inside.
They watched the Tiger chase the Panzer IV and seeing the 'true' Tiger up close was an odd experience after working for so long on their Porsche Tiger. It wasn't important though, not when the gap between the Tiger and the other five Kuromorimine panzers was so small.
"Not yet." Nakajima had her hand on Tsuchiya's shoulder. Too soon and the Tiger would veer off. Too late and they would have five opponents on top of them. "Wait for it." The Panzer IV zipped by, disappearing into the complex and Nakajima had a curious start watching her commander pass as a moment she seemed to pass by again in a larger tank. "Now! Now! Now!"
Their engine and motors howled in protest as Tsuchiya summoned everything they had for one last effort. Being hauled up a mountain and racing across plains and fording rivers had not agreed with the beast. "Now, now." Tsuchiya cooed. "Soon be over."
She none-too-gently hurled the Porsche Tiger into the entrance, slewing them across it to block it entirely with the added bonus of angling their hull. They needed every advantage they could get facing a King Tiger, two Panthers and two Jagdpanzer IVs.
"Peace!" Hoshino declared, and fired their 8.8cm into the nearest Jagdpanzer.
"Here comes another pill!" Suzuki furiously reloaded.
"Brace!" Nakajima warned and the Porsche Tiger took four retaliatory shells; the panzer shaking the girls like they were caught in a paint-mixer. "Ready?!"
"Ready!"
"Fire!"
Nakajima saw the Jagdpanzer they had hit smoking and waving its flag. Their second shell left an angry mark on a Panther's glacis and she knew they were loading just as ferociously as her own gunner. She laughed. "No pressure, girls!"
They laughed too, even as they felt their tank's left wheels shot away.
"They shall not pass!"
"Stay in your lane, Teutons!"
"Schumacher was overrated!"
"Bomb the Nurburgring!"
[][][][][][]
There was no cohesion between the King Tiger and two Panthers pursuing Duck team. Any sense of order they might have had had been destroyed by the Type 89's stinging attacks which while completely inconsequential to their heavy armour were mocking because they kept coming while they couldn't land any against the little bird. They only needed one. Simply trying to understand how the small Japanese tank was performing its feats of agility increased the Kuromorimine girls rage.
"What a lovely day." Noriko remarked again as Akebi slapped the King Tiger in the face once more.
"I wish we had more firepower!" Akebi lamented.
"We don't need firepower! We just need speed! They can't catch us and if they can't catch us, they can't-"
The T-50 streaked by in front of them and Noriko had the impression of an avalanche of bricks coming their way from the side street. Koume's Panther clipped their tail feathers, narrowly missed being side-swiped by the three panzers in pursuit of them and then the trio crushed the metal under their treads. There was a momentary lull as all four crews registered what had just happened and then Akebi fired again and the Kuromorimine gunners snarled and fired back.
[][][][][][]
"Was that Duck team?"
"I think so!" Yukari squeaked, trying to still her heart which had kicked into overdrive at the near miss. The once proud Kuromorimine Panther was festooned with bricks and mortar and to her eyes it looked like a raw recruit's overenthusiastic idea of urban camouflage. "We need to get them in the open!" Their attempts to circle around the streets had all failed as the Panther chose to smash through building after building rather than let themselves be outflanked. She kept scanning but could see no damage to the 7.5cm gun despite the reckless bulldozing.
"Do you know where an open space is?"
"No!"
"Then how can I take us there?!"
"Where are we?"
"DON'T ASK ME!" Erika yelled at her. "YOU'RE THE ONE WITH THE MAP! READ IT!"
"I'M READING IT!"
"AND?!"
"AND HOW DO I USE IT IF I DON'T KNOW WHERE WE ARE?!" Yukari realised, finding that she relished roaring her lungs out. "I know!" She wadded the map up and stuck it in the breech, following it with a shell. She fired, thoroughly obliterating it while her shell cracked off the Panther's turret. "NOW IT'S A USEFUL MAP!"
"Right!" Erika slewed them to the side and heard the Panther cut the corner by clipping the building. "I don't know who Koume has in there but they're going to have a hard time hammering out all those dents."
"Ahead! Ahead! Look!"
"I see it!" Erika could also hear nearby thunder. They were near Point HS. "That's Reopon team!"
"Do we lead them to them?"
"No! We could make things worse!" And ahead of them was an open enough space; playing fields. "Time to bag ourselves a trophy!"
[][][][][][]
Koume had lost her hat. Sora's reckless driving had given them all nasty bruises and she didn't want to imagine the damage to the hull but Sora's actions meant they had never lost Erika despite the T-50's advantages in speed and agility. She would not let them go. Chika meanwhile was going to need a haircut when this was done. Kagome perhaps was holding up a little better although her language had become increasingly nasty.
"We're running out of shells!" The loader snarled.
"Hold fire." Koume placed a hand on Chika's shoulder and felt how tense the girl was. They were all tense. The others had reported that their flag tank was in action alone, with the enemy's Porsche Tiger preventing them from reaching her and while none of them doubted Maho; a one on one struggle between the two siblings was too close a contest for their liking. Koume realised now that she had been tricked; Erika had no vital role in defeating Maho. Only luring away other Kuromorimine vehicles from the actual fighting and she had bagged the most important tank to keep distracted. Koume should have been there, blasting the Porsche Tiger out of the way to lead the others against Miho. Instead she had been led on a bitter waltz around town and now her Panther looked like a builder's skip. "What are you doing, Erika?" She thought aloud as she saw the T-50 drive into open ground. "Slow down!" She commanded.
"Slow down?!"
"Slow down!" Koume snapped. "Now!" She had let this madness go on too long. "Chika, you'll have a clear shot!"
[][][][][][]
"They're slowing down!"
"Shit!" Erika turned them sharply, annihilating a football goal in a rain of tubes.
[][][][][][]
The shell from the 7.5cm would have almost decapitated the T-50 had it been live and instead jammed the turret ring of the Soviet machine in a mangle of metal.
"Hit!" Sora was triumphant.
"Superficial!" Chika snarled as the smoke cleared and she saw the T-50 still moving despite its cut throat. "No… Not superficial."
"Turret jam!" Koume could see it clearly. "Advance!"
Now the Panther leapt forward once more, chasing an opponent whose gun was stuck back to front.
[][][][][][]
Noriko's first thought was that they had been struck by lightning. Akebi's hair seemed to frizz up anyway and then both of them were thrown painfully into the roof as the Type 89 bucked upward. It left both of them sufficiently dazed that they tumbled within the tank, sparing them further injury besides what they received from each other and Shinobu and Taeko as they were thrown around their somersaulting vehicle. The Type 89 flipped once and then crashed onto its side, skidding along the road from its own momentum but decelerating rapidly.
The triumph in the three hunters turned to panic as the King Tiger slammed on its brakes to avoid crashing into the wreck and skidded instead as the treads found no grip on the tarmac. The driver tried to steer them around, forgetting the flanking Panther on its right and the King Tiger's full weight slammed into the Panther; hurling it into the building beside the street which served to brake it far more effectively. The King Tiger skidded on, hitting the Type 89 and spinning it into the other Panther where its mangled hull tore off the Big Cat's treads. Finally the King Tiger came to a stop and behind it one Panther was immobilised in the road while the other was now holding up a building. Only now did the Type 89's flag pop out.
[][][][][][]
Only Hoshino and Suzuki had a role now. Tsuchiya couldn't have driven even if she had wanted to because the Porsche Tiger no longer had any means of locomotion; its wheels on the left completely shot away while on the right the tread was severed. Any movement would have likely torn them apart anyway. They had knocked out a Panther but their hull was a mangled ruin as the Kuromorimine girls seemed determined to blast them out of the way, even if it meant shooting them clear piece by piece.
"Not bad for our first match as a proper team." Nakajima remarked.
Even though her ears were bleeding, Hoshino nodded, and fired once more. Suzuki and Tsuchiya couldn't hear her. More shells crashed home, tearing away more of the tank they had spent so much time and effort restoring.
"At least this time we'll know what we're doing when we fix him up." Nakajima said and this time no one heard her.
[][][][][][]
"What was the second part of the plan?" Erika asked.
"Why are you asking me?!"
"You said we needed to get to an open space!"
"That was before!"
"Before what?!"
"BEFORE WE WERE TURNED INTO AN ARCHER!"
"ARCHER?!"
"IT'S A BRITISH TANK DESTROYER WITH A 17-POUNDER GUN THAT FACES-"
"I KNOW WHAT A BLOODY ARCHER IS!" Erika snarled and drove them into the path between two tennis courts, the T-50 scraping the wooden planks screening the court. "How do we make this work?!"
The Panther did not follow them into the narrow space and swung right to avoid snaring itself on the fences surrounding the courts.
"Back!" Yukari snapped. "Back up!"
Erika threw them into reverse and their engine protested the sudden change. "NOT NOW!" She roared and it contritely stopped growling. The T-50 shot back out the way it had come.
"After them!"
"Who's in command here?"
"The person who can see!" Yukari answered.
[][][][][][]
"They doubled back!" Koume realised. "Watch the rear!"
"They can't hit us with their gun jammed!"
"Brake!"
[][][][][][]
A wall of steel loomed in front of Erika and she brought them to a halt that still left them striking the rear of the Panther; their gun facing helplessly in the wrong direction. The Panther gun was turning to face them and Erika reversed.
[][][][][][]
"Pivot right!" Chika commanded to bring her gun around faster.
"No, don't!" Koume warned but Sora was already turning.
[][][][][][]
"Forward and right!" Yukari commanded and the T-50 leapt forward. As the Panther rotated right, swinging its gun around ninety degrees on its right flank, Erika brought them up on its left flank.
"Don't miss!" Erika hissed and swung them left to align them.
Yukari let them settle. "Firing!"
The 45mm loaded with an AP shell could only be effective at this range; spitting distance. Anything less and it risked glancing off the sloped flank armour of the Panther but here they were at point blank. A 45mm gun versus 45mm of armour. Boom.
[][][][][][]
Nakajima could not really say when their tank finally gave out. It was possible that the Kuromorimine girls didn't know either and kept firing blindly into the smoke until the referees told them to stand down. Then the smoke cleared and what remained was a smouldering lump of steel that resembled a tank only in the most grotesque fashion.
It left the Kuromorimine girls facing an insurmountable obstacle, or at least it might have been had they not received a running commentary about the fate that had befallen the Maus. With many misgivings, the remaining Jagdpanzer IV positioned itself by the wrecked Porsche Tiger and with further misgivings, kept still as the King Tiger mounted them; helped on by the Panther.
"Kuromorimine are forcing themselves over us." Nakajima warned Anglerfish, wondering if they were even left to hear about it. "You're out of time!"
"Not yet!" Yukari was hoarse from shouting with Erika but defiant. "RAMMING SPEED!"
With one last burst of insanity, Erika threw them at the scrum of tanks at full speed. They smashed into the Jagdpanzer IV, causing the King Tiger to slip and it fell on its flank, crashing down on the T-50's already crumpled glacis and shattering its suspension before falling back on the Jagdpanzer IV. For no reason other than that she could, Yukari fired a last defiant shell from their broken gun before the Panther ended them. A wall of twisted metal now blocked the way.
"What do you think is going on in there?" Erika asked a shaken Yukari who slipped down from the turret. They could hear gunfire echoing from within the complex.
"Good things."
"Good things?"
"The Captain will win. Our school will survive!"
"You think so?"
Yukari nodded vigorously. "It will! And we'll fight again. We'll have a title to defend!"
Erika removed her hat and rubbed her head. "Maybe we can defend it while wearing crash helmets."
Yukari pouted. "That's not traditional."
"Bugger tradition; I'm tired of hitting my head in this cramped box every time we crash into something. And what was that 'Ramming speed!'?"
Yukari grinned. "I always wanted to say that!"
"No more ramming. My bones can't take it!"
"Remember our first match? We jammed Nishizumi-dono's turret."
"I remembered. I was expecting us to catch fire."
"We didn't break down!"
"No." Erika agreed and patted the controls. "He stood up this time." She pulled a face. "If someone had told me months ago we would take out a Panther with a tank we pulled out of a hedge, I would have slapped them for being silly."
"But here we are."
"Yeah… And I'm going to have to tell Koume she didn't do anything wrong."
"She shouldn't-" Yukari began but Erika caught her lip.
"She didn't do anything wrong." Erika repeated. "Understand?"
Yukari nodded and Erika released her hook.
"Listen." The announcement was thunderous. "Huh… Sounds like we won…" Erika tried to wrap her head around it, and instead her head thumped against the T-50 once more as she was buried under a cascade of thick curls.
[][][][][][]
She was still trying to wrap her head around it later when it was Miho's turned to be floofed half to death. Yukari didn't need to worry about having offended any sense of decorum by jumping on their Captain; not when Momo was inconsolable with happiness. What lent the most solemnity was how many of them were battered and bruised by their day's ordeal although most simply joked that it meant an excuse for a good long bath.
Just as Miho was recovering from Yukari's glomp, she received another from Anzu. For what seemed like years Erika had watched the girl talk casually about how hopeless it all was and how their mission was simply futile. Her own idea; futile. Miho had no idea what to say as for once there was absolutely no question that Anzu was completely sincere as she thanked her for everything she had done.
Erika didn't want thank yous. She was too tired. Too drained by it all. There was only one person she wanted to talk to.
"Do you think they'll be alright?"
"Will any of us?" Erika replied. "The Captain is smiling."
"Both of them." Koume said and smiled herself. "I can't believe you won."
"Neither can I. Maybe I hit my head too hard."
"I know I did. We'll be washing brick dust out of the chassis for weeks."
"That wasn't elegant."
"No. But neither was dogpiling the Maus."
"I can't believe you brought the Maus."
"The Captain didn't want to." Koume admitted. "But you know how it is."
"I know. Will you bring it next year when you're Captain?" Erika asked and enjoyed how it dawned on Koume that this would be her role soon enough.
"I can't be Captain! I couldn't even keep control of my own tank!"
"You weren't supposed to. That was the whole point! I had to keep you away from the others and the only way to do that was to make you tear your hair out in frustration."
"It wasn't my hair…" Koume said and Erika didn't understand. "Beaten by a T-50…"
"A T-50 with an ex-Kuromorimine commanding it. It was close. It was all very close."
"There's going to be hell to pay at home." Koume said heavily and then smiled. "But that's worth it, isn't it?" She asked, looking where the Nishizumi sisters were smiling at one another and shaking hands.
"Maybe one day they'll hug." Erika said.
"You think so?"
"Maybe…"
"Are you going to go home?"
"Depends which home you mean." Erika mused. "I don't think my mother is going to forgive me for embarrassing the school. Not this decade, or the next. But maybe it's time I forgave… You know…"
Koume grinned. "Embarrassed, Itsumi?"
"Shut up!"
"I think it's time to go." Koume said. "It's getting late."
"Until next time then."
"Next time."
Erika offered a hand and it seemed to surprise Koume for a moment. Only a moment. She took it, and winced as Erika applied her grip and then she squeaked as Erika pulled her in for a rough hug. "Good game, Vice-Captain." Erika told her.
She watched them both leave, Koume and Maho, and for a moment she caught her former Captain's eye. Maho nodded, and smiled at her and Erika's heart stopped. All her time at Kuromorimine wanting to be praised by the Captain, for something, for anything, and there it was. At long last.
The sun set on the 63rd National High School Sensha-do Tournament and on Oarai Girls Academy. This was their last struggle. The very last. How could it be otherwise?
(18,462)
Author's Notes:
I am very tired. I think that best sums up how I feel about getting this story thus far. This project began on the 26th of June 2022 and now here it is in August 2024. It is now the longest story I have ever written although another project I'm working on is catching up. Writing this story is exhausting because of how many characters there are in GuP and because the nature of Sensha-do battles means keeping track of many things. Many GuP fanfics collapse under their own weight as writers fall into the George R.R Martin trap of trying to cover too many perspectives and word counts spiral out of control as the story barely progresses. It certainly felt that way in this chapter, trying to relate the experiences of the different teams. I at least have the series to work from rather than having to create most material wholesale. Erika's mute reaction towards their victory is a reflection of me.
I put a lot of effort into this chapter. My last few chapters have felt disappointing to me and I didn't want this to be one of them. I've written this in a series of isolated sessions, away from distractions with the info I need kept on post-it notes to stop me falling down the Internet rabbit hole when fact-checking. I like this chapter and considered splitting it in two but I think it works better as a whole. One last long chapter to conclude the series story arc.
I'm going to take a break for a while. I have ideas for the Der Film arc but they need to ferment while I work out the ideas I have for other projects. I took a long break from The Forest for example and have come back to it again. In the time it's taken me to write this chapter, I've written twice as many words for my Walking Dead fic, just because the ideas were fresh. Der Film is also action-heavy and I need a rest from Sensha-do battles. Ironically, I started writing this to take a break from writing sword-and-sorcery battles. I'm not abandoning this because I always intended to write it to conclude with Der Film and I have too many ideas already not to make something of them. All my ideas end up written down in some form. I also respect all of you too much just to abandon this. I hate fan-fics that just get dropped by their writers without a satisfying conclusion. But I'm going to work on other things for a while and then come back. I did the same with The Forest and my Walking Dead fic in the past few months.
I hoped you liked this one. Personally, I'm looking forward to exploring why Darjeeling is the one who rallies the other schools to Oarai's cause and for Erika to go home the way that Miho does. But I'm also dreading the sheer scope of all the points of view necessary to tell that battle. Still, a story that's easy to write usually isn't worth reading.
