Chapter 16
For the past several days girls from St. Gloriana had been arriving on foot. They said it took them several days of running and hiding to not be found by either the Association schools or their fellow Federation schools scattered across the southern end of the island. Word from Hoja City wasn't good, Darjeeling collapsed from lack of sleep one day and when one of Virginia's boys wondered into town last week, word was Davis lost his voice from screaming and had an aneurysm, which popped a blood vessel, when he discovered Andrew fled. And still no word from Edward or anyone else, at least not until an hour ago when a Mark IV Male made its way into town.
The girls inside the tank looked worse for ware and dressed more like sailors than tankers but hey these Japanese schools are weird like that. The leader of the Male, Ogin she said her name was, said firstly that they had a friend who had low blood sugar and needed safe rest. Anchovy knew the girl and immediately got her somewhere safe and tasked Pepperoni with cooking up something to help the poor girl when she woke up.
Ogin then went on to describe, in great detail, the conditions of Hoja City. It sounded terrible. No rest, hardly any sleep, no fires for comfort and warmth, at least when Darjeeling was around or when they knew Davis was close by. The things the boys and girls of Hoja City are going through because of Davis's blinding rage is inexcusable. Davis needed to be brought to heel.
Moose stood in front of Ogin and sighed.
"The only thing I can think of doing is going down there and relieving Davis of command, but would his boys even acknowledge me and my reasoning?" Moose said.
"I think it's at least worth a try." Ogin said. "Things in the city are not good, and everyone is near a breaking point that they may just up and mutiny themselves."
"I have three schools worth of boys to take Davis on but Uncle Sam, Pravda, and Kuromorimine are said to be between us and Hoja City. If any of them sense we're making moves they'll look to intervene. We're up shit creek without a paddle and our tanks cant very well match the heavy powerhouse tanks of Kuromorimine and Pravda, plus my schools tactical sense cant beat Uncle Sams strategy's. We'll need help." Moose said.
"My crew and I will help. Our friends are stuck in that city with no way out and Captain Darjeeling would rather all hands go down with the ship than make it to the lifeboats. We have a stack in this as well." Ogin said leaning forward and with a look in her eye that told Moose all her intentions.
"Fine, your help would be greatly appreciated." Moose said still thinking about the more help they'd need. The thought of the Association tanks on the island came to mind, there were plenty of them and all crewed by veterans of many passed Tankery matches, tournaments, and even some military veterans who have real war experience. Then another thought came to mind, one where he could march right down and request it. The three Japanese schools that were technically prisoners of him and his allies. Anzio, B.C. Freedom, and Chi-Ha Tan were friends of many of the other schools and Anchovy had made her concerns of her friends in the other schools quite clear. Maybe, if he could unite all six schools here at Homedale he could have a force strong enough to challenge the chaos that has consumed the island.
"I have an idea, and I may need your help Ogin." Moose said catching her interest. "Come on."
Moose motioned for Ogin to follow, and she did, following him out of the command center, down the hall and out of the main building towards where Anzio had set up their camp.
Anzio's living areas were near the south side of the courtyard and as usual it was busy with movement. The girls setting up large stalls for cooking and many of them happily eating away at things already made. Moose noticed many of his boys around the tables, but the most boys here were from Los Angeles, eating away, cooking, and talking with the Anzio girls. Not far away he spotted two of the people he needed to see. Anchovy, Commander of Anzio's Sensha-Do team, and Ezio Morelli, Commander of Los Angeles High School of Tankery History. Moose and Ogin made their way over to the table the two other commanders were seated and sat down once they reached it drawing their attention.
"Ezio, Anchovy, I need to talk to you two." Moose said. The two looked at each other and then returned their gaze to Moose intrigued.
"Whats up Moose?" Ezio asked.
"Ogin here has told me about things in Hoja City and to say things are bad would be an understatement. Word is that Davis popped a blood vessel, and his boys are reaching their wits end, and the same could be said for the Japanese girls side of things, what if Rukuriri and Andrew's story are anything to go on." Moose said.
"Which it is." Anchovy said vouching for Rukuriri.
"I'm going to empty Homedale and go south. I'm intending to relieve Commander Davis of command over the city and put some order into the place." Moose said causing the eyes of all three seated at the table to widen. "The problem is George Washington doesn't have enough manpower to do it alone. I know you will help Ezio and I'm sure August and South Texas would help as well, but I also come to ask for your help Anchovy. I need you and your girls to help restore order in Hoja City and get our friends to stop the fighting."
Anchovy smiled at the young mans words and nodded her head enthusiastically.
"You can count on me and my girls to help Moose, we'll back you up with this." Anchovy said as Ezio nodded.
"I'm with you to Moose. Los Angeles will gladly help get our friends to calm down." Moose smiled and nodded his thanks to the two of them before responding.
"Now I need two things, one is I need you Ezio to go and find August, tell him the plan and get a confirmation on his help. Secondly Anchovy, I need to talk with Nishi and Marie to ask for their help as well." Moose explained. Ezio nodded and stood from his seat and heading off to find August while Anchovy stayed seated and frowned.
"There is tension between Chi-Ha Tan and B.C. Freedom right now. Nishi and Marie aren't talking to each other and things have had time to fester." Anchovy said.
"That's ok, I don't need them to kiss and make up, I just need them to understand the situation and help us." Moose said confidently.
Moose had gone back to the Command Center while Anchovy went to talk to Nishi and Marie. She got the two of them to come to the command center for Moose to explain his plan to them and to ask for their help in the matter. The only problem was what anchovy had said, the two girls had been giving glares at each other the entire time and Moose could obviously see the festered anger rising up.
"So that's the plan. Can I count on your help, or would you rather continue to glare at one another?" Moose asked letting the two know he is aware of their negativity towards each other. Marie chuckled at him before she responded.
"Its not a matter of weather you can count on me or not. Our schools are enemies, we were sent here to fight you not to fight besides you. It doesn't matter what the other schools are doing or rather what they're experiencing since that is their choice. They should have the wits to leave an unfavorable situation before it gets to them, but they haven't, in a matter of time I think this situation will end on its own." Marie explained her position on the matter. Nishi, however, thought differently.
"If our friends are in trouble than we should help them, regardless of who we're fighting alongside." She said.
"I don't want to fight alongside my enemy Nishi, its as simple as that, and like I mentioned earlier if S.T. Gloriana and Ooarai didn't have the understanding to retreat when the situation got to rough for them then that's their fault, I don't need to baby them and fix their own mess." Marie said.
"That's where your wrong. Any true friend, any true ally, would want to aid their friends or allies as much as they could. its not about weather they got into the mess on their own or not, they need help, and we should help them. Miho has changed Sensha-Do so much for the better that if she called for it my school and I would drop everything and go to her aid. We did it once before and we'd do it again, and again and again if she called for us! I value Miho within the world of Sensha-Do, and if all you can see is the benefits of what you were to gain in helping then B.C. Freedom seems like nothing more than a glorified army of mercenaries!" Nishi shouted stunning Marie into silence for a moment.
"How dare you!" Marie yelled. "My girls and I aren't as close to Miho as you are, we didn't have any chance to fight against or alongside them in anyway, we haven't had opportunity to make friends with any of you sop why is it my fault when I expect us to not be received like you would! Why should I put my girls through that!?"
"You have the chance now! Here, on this island, you can get your chance to talk to Miho and become friends with her! She would love to make friends with you, and I would too!" Nishi yelled back again causing Marie to go silent. "I wanted to be your friend, I still want to be your friend, but when you used me and my girls as pawns in our fight against Mr. Moose I felt betrayed by someone who I started thinking didn't want me as a friend. But I don't want to fight or hold anger towards you Marie, I want to be your friend. That's what Sensha-Do is, that's what Miho has done, she made friends with just about everyone she's gone up against and dare I say if she had the chance she would have gone and made friends with the Americans to!"
Marie didn't speak. Moose didn't speak. Nishi had nothing left to say for she, as well as the other two, knew that she had spoke her heart out and if Marie didn't listen, didn't understand, then there was nothing else Nishi could do to make her understand.
"I'm sorry." Marie said causing Nishi and Moose to look at her. Marie looked at Moose before saying. "B.C. Freedom will help you. Excuse me."
Marie left the command room and Nishi sat into a char covering her face with her hands exhaling a breath she subconsciously held. Moose walked over to the black-haired girl and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I must say, I felt quite the emotions coming from you when you spoke." He said.
"I don't think she understood what I wanted to say though." Nishi said downtrodden.
"On the contrary, I think she understood exactly what you were saying." Moose said reassuringly.
"How can you tell?" Nishi asked looking up at him. He smiled as he responded.
"That's simple. Her eyes were filled with regret." Nishi felt her eyes widen as Moose patted her shoulder before leaving the command room himself, but not before calling back to her. "We'll leave tomorrow morning. Tell your girls to get plenty of rest and to make ready."
Nishi, brought back to reality, nodded and affirmed his words.
"Right!" She exclaimed before standing from her seat and running out of the command room, passed Moose and out of the building towards her girls living area.
Moose watched her go as he smiled and began walking towards his own teams living area, they needed to be briefed and prepared to move, for it seems that Homedale will be declaring itself a new and independent faction within this wargame, and so help him Moose made a silent promise to himself that he'd end it and also bring an end to the misery his friends faced. No one was going to get in his way.
Half a mile away from Homedale two men lay on a large hill, strewn with flowers, concealed within the colorful foliage as they watched Moose each with a pair of binoculars. The two men wore headsets with a wire attached to a microphone fixed atop their binoculars and had managed to hear every word the three had spoken about inside the largest building. The yelling and expressive tone of the one girl caught them by surprise but now they knew what the teenagers of Homedale were planning, and this could be the perfect method to spark an even worse reaction from the High Schoolers around the island. Traitors on both sides of the game, how fortuitous was this development for Commander Andersons plans? Very.