Senshado politics. Everyone's favorite topic. It's absolutely not the tanks, nooooooo.
In all seriousness, the politics of Senshado, the Senshado Federation and the individual schools should also be a major theme of this fanfic. Don't worry, I won't touch the polarizing real world stuff. It will mainly be office/corporate politics, which I'm sure isn't anything new in GuP, seeing how the schools are modeled after countries in WW2. But if that turns you off, that's fair.
In this chapter, we should finally get into the mystery part of this fanfic. The science and physics I'm going to explain can be complete science fiction, as pointed out by Havel the Hebel (thank you for the continued support and reviews btw!) with that armor stuff, but I'm going to try to make it at least somewhat grounded in reality. A final disclaimer, as I will not be putting this on every single chapter: I am not a trained professional in regards to physics or metallurgy, just an IT Technician at best that just graduated from university, so there will inevitably be misrepresentation of the laws of physics in this fic. If you see any on that end, hopefully you'll understand for me, or you can leave a review to correct me. I would love to learn more about these kinds of physics.
I've also changed a small bit of the accident segment in Chapter 1. It's nothing big, just to align it properly with this chapter. After all that segment was 4 years old. It was outdated for my idea.
Chapter 4: Lesson Paid in Blood
Ricky had a long sleep that night, so much so that he was almost late for work the next day. But he arrived at the office just in time to not get yelled at, only for him to read a note on the table saying the team would be gathered up at one of the hangars.
"Oh right, the engine." He promptly remembered what happened the day before and what Heidi said they were going to do today.
He left his bag at the cubicle and went there.
"Ricky!" As usual, Fernanda was the first to greet him. "Glad of you to join us in our investigation."
"My pleasure." Ricky nodded, having gotten used to her cheeriness at this point. "What do you have thus far?"
"Not much, it just got towed in." Fernanda said, beckoning her head. "Come."
"Good morning Ricky." Aurelie greeted Ricky with her usual poise and grace.
"Morning." Meanwhile, Heidi was curt, but after last night, was veiled with respect.
"Good morning everyone." Ricky returned the gesture before looking at the Centurion before him. "And to think it was working beautifully just last week."
The Centurion's rear was a wreck. The engine cover had been blown open. The back of the turret, as well as the entirety of the top area near the engine had turned black. Several outer peripheries of the tank near the fire had melted.
"At least it still looks like a Centurion." Fernanda said. Impressively, despite the raging fire, the tank didn't look particularly deformed. "Heidi, are we digging in yet?"
"Feel free." Heidi said. "Split up. We need to check the engine, the structural integrity and the damaged peripheries."
"Ricky, you and Aurelie do the engine." Fernanda suggested. "I'm gonna check the armor."
"Sure." Ricky replied, as he donned his protective gears and handed Aurelie hers. "I'll disconnect the pipes, can you bring the crane over?"
"No problem." Aurelie nodded, and they got to work.
Some of the pipes were intact, and were thus disconnected easily, but most were damaged by the initial explosion or the subsequent fire required tools to sever. Once the engine was detached from the tank, when Ricky could feel it moving loosely in the rear of the tank, he peeked his head out from the tank, and gave the signal to Aurelie.
The engine was lifted out of the tank and laid onto the concrete hangar floor. Fluids that were welled up somewhere in the wreck of the mangled engine now leaked out; the combination of coolant, oil, hydraulics and leftover tank fuel that weren't burnt were mixed together into an odious sticky black tar that dripped onto the floor.
"Blergh." Ricky groaned as he disconnected the engine from the crane. It was like a dead cockroach.
Meanwhile, Fernanda looked from the inside of the Centurion, at the access door to the engine. It noticeably held up well to the explosion. Most of the damage occurred due to the intense heat caused by the fuel fire.
"Looks like the door was properly latched when the explosion occurred. Could have been much much worse if it hadn't been." Fernanda poked her head out from the hatch.
Ricky wondered if he actually latched it properly last week when he did the inspection. His memory would like to tell him that he did, but if he hadn't, and if Hannah or someone else had forgotten to latch that access door after him, the shrapnel from the engine could have struck someone. It was shuddering to think about. But it didn't actually happen in the end he told himself.
"The heat damage is serious though." Heidi noted, crouching on top of the Centurion's rear, with a razor in her hand. She scratched the surface of the Centurion, peeling off a layer of charred coating. The armor surface had turned rough, with several places changing color - a telltale sign of heat damage. "This entire section will need to be ripped off and replaced."
Meanwhile, Aurelie vacated the crane and headed over to Ricky.
"How is it? You said yesterday that it's a connecting rod that destroyed the engine right?" She asked.
"I'm ninety-nine percent sure that's the reason why." He was trying to twist and bent the metal to separate them when some of the black tars that had welled up somewhere inside one of the cylinders suddenly sprayed onto his face and his goggles.
"Argh!" He exclaimed, but wasn't particularly hurt. Aurelie was quick to spring into action.
"Ricky, are you alright?!" She cried out. "Heidi, prepare the eyewash station!"
"I'm good, I'm good." Ricky reassured, lowering his head and removing his protective goggle. His eyes slowly opened. "It's not in my eyes as far as I could tell."
He raised his arms instinctively to wipe the tar off his face, but Aurelie stopped him.
"Stay still…" She leaned down and held his face with one hand, another wiping the tar on his face with a wet wipe. "There, nice and clean."
"Thank you, Aurelie." Ricky thanked. Aurelie nodded warmly, and Heidi walked over.
"Thank your PPE too, you know." Heidi said as she exchanged him a new goggle.
"Hey, if I hadn't worn them then, I wouldn't be needing them anymore." Ricky retorted jokingly. Like last time, it didn't land as well as he expected, but Heidi at least didn't scold him for the reason that she understood the joke. But good god.
"You truly have a morbid sense of humor, don't ya?" Fernanda quipped.
They returned to their inspection. Eventually, Ricky, with Aurelie's help, opened his way through to the second cylinder, and recovered that connecting rod, or what's left of it.
"There it is." Ricky held up the rod for everyone to see after wiping it with a cloth, showing the fracture location. Over half the area of the fracture area were smooth, the rest were jagged. "It's metal fatigue."
"What does that mean?" Aurelie asked.
"It's metals that weaken from constant and repeated stress." He explained. "After a certain amount of time that we call load-cycles, cracks would begin to form, firstly at micro level size and then to surface level size. And when the metal is weak enough, it overloads the remaining area, causing rapid crack propagation, and then failure."
"Mhm." Fernanda concurred. "You said that you visibly saw the cracks on Thursday's report. That would have put it at stage 2 of the failure sequence, and within days it broke." She put her hands on her hips. "How often were they using this tank, my god?"
"For Alice's training, likely a lot." Aurelie answered. "They're trying to catch up on the delays they've been having by double timing."
"In any cases, industrial glue wouldn't help in the slightest once the cracks are already formed, and definitely not tape either." Ricky said. "Hannah said that's a common method that I didn't know."
"They're cheaper and easier." Heidi explained. "It's effective for simple fixes, which the majority of tank maintenance are. It became an inside-joke among students, but was blown way out of proportion. Somewhere in the murky waters, it became an urban myth. And yesterday it came back to bite."
"For a joke, that's a little...irresponsible." Ricky remarked.
"Yes, but it's also high school. High schoolers are impulsive." Heidi rationalized. "Don't tell me you've never done something stupid back then."
"N-No, but…" Ricky replied "I don't think what I've done could be comparable. I'd get punished hard if I ever do such a thing."
"I see..." Heidi said. "Nevertheless, the poor practice got to the vice-commander of all people. I will see to create a training session specifically on this, so that I can drill it out of their heads."
"Shall I file the incident report then?" Fernanda asked.
"Go ahead." Heidi approved. "Let them know to order a new Rolls Royce Meteor, replace the entire upper rear armor plating, the radio antennas, and the towing cables."
"Got it. Just confirming, what's the cause?"
Heidi looked over to Ricky. "An uncontained engine failure, caused by metal fatigue in the connecting rod in cylinder number 2." He replied. "The metal fragments operating at high speed proceeded to penetrate and escape through the engine casing, rupturing fuel lines, causing a leak and subsequent fuel-fed fire."
Fernanda gave a thumbs-up. "Expect the report in 30 minutes." She said to Heidi as she stripped her protective gear off, then headed back to the office.
"Alright, let's get things tidied up." Heidi said. "The engine you can put it back in, or just leave it. It's going to get disposed either way, and that's not my problem to handle."
"I'm glad to know..." Ricky concurred. It was a dirty mess - an unenviable task for the girls handling the disposal. He wasn't going to suddenly hop up and play the hero, however. The team only tidied up the equipment used and mopped up the black tar on the floor before they left.
In part because of the Centurion incident, Senshado training was canceled for the day, which all but led to a rare moment where the Safety Team was actually free of duty for the rest of the day. Heidi and Fernanda thought it was a good time to catch up on their lectures and prepare for their upcoming midterm exams.
"I'll get you two some snacks, ok?" Aurelie offered. The two showed their 'A-OK' with their fingers. Noticing Ricky sitting bored and twirling around in his chair, she approached him. "Want to come with me?"
"Oh, umm…absolutely." Ricky answered.
The two left the office and headed down to the cafeteria. Like his first day, Aurelie led the way while Ricky, like a little duckling, followed behind. Aurelie couldn't help it this time.
"You're so short, Ricky." She teased.
"Thanks, I know…" Ricky squinted his eyes as he looked up at her. "You don't have to rub it in."
Aurelie giggled. "Sometimes, we lose god's lottery number and that's ok. Is your family short or is it just you?"
"It's just me." Ricky replied. "I was told many times to eat more, but that hasn't worked."
"It does to some degree, but I don't think you're eating less than anyone here." Aurelie said. "Besides, you're what...twenty years old?"
"Twenty one." He corrected.
"You're likely set for life then." She said, to his eye-roll. "No no, don't be sad! At least you'll be safe from the ceiling fans, you'll have a better time flying economy. And you'll never have to deal with my problems like having to bend down for the bathroom mirror…"
Ricky laughed softly. "True, but that just means there's more of you to admire than the mirror can have."
Aurelie looked down and away. She stroke her neck with an embarrassed smile.
"I appreciate the compliment. L-Let's talk about something else." She pivoted.
"Alright." Ricky said. "I guess about you with Heidi and Fernanda?"
She gave an excited nod.
"I heard that you three were together since your first year in high school?"
"Not together together. But yes, we knew each other all the way back. We were rivals you see!" Aurelie clarified. "I was a consul in Maginot, Fernanda the team leader of Blue Division. We fought each other in training matches quite often."
"Consul? What is that?" Ricky asked.
"Oh, that's our term for team captains." She answered.
"I thought you weren't one."
"Yeah, I wasn't the team captain, but we agreed one person should not handle everything about the team. Someone else took the role of overall leader, or First Consul we'd call it, but I wasn't that. I only handled strategies and training."
"...Wouldn't that be everything then? Or almost everything."
"Well…"
Aurelie tilted her head a little. She wanted to say no, out of respect for her two former high school friends, but when it came to just Senshado, he was correct. Aurelie was Maginot's Napoleon, one secretly responsible for its victorious golden age with revolutionary doctrine and training regimen, but the moment she graduated, her two Consul underclassmen proceeded to revert Maginot back to its sad state of getting laughed at in the qualifiers.
"No, but yes." She replied with tiptoes. "Welcome to Maginot politics. I can talk about it all day if you want to go down the rabbit hole."
"Maybe later." He said. "You said you and Fernanda fought each other."
"Yes, we that's how we exchange strategies. But we're friends too! We often play chess together or Left 4 Dead with Fernanda's friend from St. Gloriana. Sometimes we go camping together."
"With Heidi too right?" Ricky asked, not hearing her name in the list.
"She doesn't join us that often, but yes, she plays games with us too." Aurelie replied.
"I gotta say, the thought of Heidi playing Left 4 Dead sounds wild." Ricky opined. She was such a serious person, it never crossed his imagination she would be into that.
"It's stress relief for Heidi. She even admitted we're the only people to take her seriously." Aurelie chuckled.
"That bad, huh?" Ricky said.
"Yeah, and that's ok!" Aurelie shrugged. "In some ways, we are a group of deviants in the Senshado world. Fernanda, despite her goofy laid-back attitude, is pretty serious when it comes to team command, which was a shock to her team initially. I'm a lot more aggressive and proactive than my Maginot contemporaries, and same goes with Masala."
That must be the girl from St. Gloriana she mentioned. But that name...
"If we're all black sheeps, it's black sheeps together strong!" Aurelie fist-pumped with elation, but when she looked over to Ricky, she saw a quizzical look. That was when she realized.
"You said Masala…isn't that the-"
Aurelie raised a hand to cut him off. "...Yes, it is her." She sighed at the slip of the tongue. "She was part of our group."
"Oh, I'm sorry..." Ricky said softly.
"It's fine..." Aurelie replied. "You can ask more from me, if you want to know, but don't mention it to Heidi or Fernanda. Both of them aren't exactly as...open to it as I am."
"I understand." Ricky acknowledged.
They were soon at the cafeteria, and Aurelie came to a vending machine nearby and bought some bags of chips and cans of cola. Then they walked the same way back to the office.
On the way, Ricky's tingling sense of curiosity formed a knot in his chest. In his heart, he wanted to get along and not make anyone uncomfortable, but this accident three years ago had left such an unsettling feeling on him. So much details about the accident was not known to the public, and the ones that did were just names and the matter-of-fact narration of the cold physics. It was hard to think about, that a tragedy could have befallen someone so like him so much so that at some point, that disturbed feeling might have been digested into morbid curiosity. And here was Aurelie, who was open to talking about it, and it pulled at it.
Eventually he gave in.
"About Masala." Ricky's voice were soft, as if to test the muddied water. "Is she the reason why the team exists?"
"...Basically, yes." Aurelie replied. "It was a directive from Mrs. Shimada right after we joined the team. We initially weren't on the team, but the girls she appointed weren't suited for the job. None of us were experienced with any of this safety stuff - even I have trouble now after almost 3 years in the team, but at least we're more motivated."
"You don't?" Ricky asked rhetorically. "For a combat sport based on the act of killing people in war, I'd imagine there would be some sort of rigorous safety inspection or procedures that students have to follow."
"There is the rule handbook given by the Federation, and some sections did include safety standards like restrictions on open-topped vehicles, prohibition on direct fire, or only using league-sanctioned ammunition and equipment, but that's all we have officially. The rest is dependent on individual schools whether or not they care enough to add their own safety measures."
"Does your school do anything regarding?"
"Nooo." Aurelie shook her head, her long answer reeked of amusement. "We are a lot more concerned with school culture. A lot of other schools are like that too. We trusted the Federation's safety standards to be enough."
"That's...insane." Ricky rubbed his forehead. What was even more absurd is that in over half a century the sport has been around, it had actually been overall quite safe to do Senshado. How these anarchic rules manage to maintain that clean of a sheet, he'd never know.
"That's why it was such a shock to us. Nobody did anything wrong according to the rules, but an accident still happened." Aurelie continued.
"So what happened since?" Ricky asked. "I've heard some poor guy in the Federation got suspended and was charged, but by that time, things already moved on."
Aurelie smiled weakly. "You didn't miss out much. The Federation issued statements of apologies, handed out compensation for the families, fired an employee, and that's pretty much it. Most people just moved on…" She sighed. "The Federation certainly seems to prefer pretending nothing happened, as even despite what happened, they still ratified Kuromorimine's victory that year."
"What…" If he wasn't already puzzled by this insane oversight by the JSF, Ricky was now dumbfounded. The apathy displayed by the Federation was incredibly distasteful. And to think, he was now part of this team with three of the closest people to the victim of that accident.
It's no wonder why Heidi was so critical to him at first. Even he felt a little shamed now after knowing the personal motivation of the three. They were in the team for the sake of their friend, and he was there for a job to put on his resume.
Ricky was content to let the topic die while on the way back, his morbid curiosity had been satiated with an instant gripping remorse for having touched such a sensitive topic, but Aurelie continued on her own accord.
"Ricky, can I confess to you about something?" Aurelie suddenly stopped. "I know you'll only be here for 8 months, so it might not matter. I just wanted to get it off my chest."
"I'm all ears." Ricky nodded, bracing what was to come.
Aurelie bit her lower lips.
"The situation really concerns me. I've grown up with Senshado, and the friends I made along the way." She said. "It really shaped who I am today for the better. But after what happened and its fallout, I'm concerned if it will be around for others to enjoy as I had. I'm certain you've heard some people calling for its abolition."
Ricky nodded. He always ignored those political talks, but he had heard of them.
"Right now, it seems like everyone have collectively forgotten about it, but what if another accident occurred. Worse than the St. Gloriana accident. Just a few weeks ago, there was one that led to hospitalization." She said. "That's why I decided to join the team out of my own accord, so that I at least am doing something about it, but ultimately, does it matter? I'm leaving in a year, same with Fernanda and Heidi after the Olympiad. What happens to the team after that?"
"Mrs. Shimada did hire someone outside instead of using her students, so I'd imagine she's keen on keeping this going." Ricky replied. "Have you asked if she's willing to hire you full-time in this position after you graduated?"
"No...she's rather secretive about it. Maybe she'll agree if I bother her enough." Aurelie said. "Even then, it's still just within Turtle Bay Bootcamp. What if it happens to somewhere else. I don't think it would matter in the end."
"You can't stop the tide…" Ricky remarked. With his impression thus far of the JSF, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that they weren't exactly a virtuous bunch.
It was such an unholy thing. A close friend lost, for the Federation to shrug and do nothing.
"If it is any consolation, I am here, if anything to listen." Ricky said. "I might matter even less since I'm a nobody, unlike you, but I do care. And I'll do what I can."
"Thank you Ricky. You're already doing everything we could hope from you." Aurelie smiled. "Like I said, I'm just venting. As for you actually joining the industry, if it's what your heart takes you, feel free, but don't force yourself to join just for us."
"That's very thoughtful. I guess we'll see."
"Let's get back to the team, shall we? They're probably wondering what we've been doing."
They headed off. A couple casual conversations with the three ladies later and the heavy topic disappeared to the back of Ricky's mind. But it was planted in there somewhere. There was whether or not he wanted to join the Senshado industry. It wasn't unheard of. The current president of the JSF was some old guy. His friend, Renta, worked at MEXT, while not directly Senshado related, still got him a position in the JSF. Maybe he'd know more than Ricky does. Renta had been asking Ricky out for a beer to catch up, he could ask the guy then.
The bigger matter, however, was the accident and its aftermath. It definitely was an eye-opener to hear it from an insider. The rules oversight, which probably had been created decades ago and hadn't been bothered to revisit, he could understand, but the apathy left a bad taste, if not outright disgusting. And to think it was a place many of his peers considered prestigious.
But more importantly, when one ignores an accident like this, that doesn't mean it would go away. There was a saying he always remembered: Safety lessons are often paid with blood, but like a college course, if you fail to take notes, you will continue to pay.
A week later.
By this point, Ricky had already been inducted as part of the team, and was functionally part of Turtle Bay staff. Even socially in the camp he was beginning to be recognized. The only meaningful difference between him and the other staffs were some higher privilege access denied to him due to him being an intern, which was all fair. He wasn't expected to stay long term, and if the need arises, he could simply ask either one of the three to assist him.
It was by this point that Chiyo decided he was ready, and her plan could commence.
He just returned and logged back into his workstation when he saw a new message on his chat application. It was from the headmistress.
C: Good afternoon Ricky. How's things going for you?
Ricky, polite as ever, typed back.
R: I'm doing fantastic. Thank you!
The app indicated Chiyo was typing just as he sent the reply. The conversation went on:
C: Good good. I trust Heidi wasn't too hard on you?
R: She was, but it's not a big deal. I've learned a great deal from her.
C: That's good to hear. Some students were unable to withstand her wrath that they quit. The fact you soldiered on is quite admirable.
C: What is your status now then? Are you out of training yet?
R: I'm full intern now. Got the B-1 access on Tuesday.
C: Sounds good. That's pretty much all you need.
C: Say, are you free for a meeting some time this afternoon?
The question got his curiosity piqued, and a few seconds to compute a concise answer.
R: I need to go over the T95. Its track and suspension system is on scheduled inspection. After that the team has afternoon training, which I am also on shift for. So maybe not this afternoon.
She also took a few seconds to reply.
C: I see. I really want to talk to you about this as soon as possible. Are you able to ask if one of your team members to cover for you today?
"What?" Ricky raised an eyebrow. Now he was really curious.
R: I can video call if it's urgent.
C: No, it has to be in-person, at my office. Just ask Heidi or Fernanda to cover for you. If they ask, just tell them it's my personal request.
Well, if that is what she insisted...
"Fernanda." Ricky called.
"Yeah?" Fernanda slid her chair out of her cubicle. "What's up?"
"Can you cover my afternoon shift today for me? The T95 inspection and the post training?"
"Why? You going on a date or something?" Fernanda teased.
"If you'd consider an appointment with the headmistress a date, sure." With a straight face, he replied, gesturing at his computer screen.
"Ah, I see." Fernanda said, after looking over the chat history. "Well, I can't help you with the T95 though. I'm on the training list."
"Heidi?" Ricky asked.
"She's on the list too. It's a strategy exercise. All the commanders have to be there."
"Wait, then how do I…" Ricky said, not finishing his question.
"I dunno, ask her." Fernanda said, gesturing Chiyo. "Or better yet, you can inspect the T95 now. You may still have time for that and her meeting."
"Ayy…" Ricky groaned. He just came back and wanted some rest, but no. Couldn't have that. But fine. He didn't want to derelict his duty, so he marched away, the toolkit in hand.
The inspection took quite a bit due to the T95's gigantic and quite frankly excessive 4 tracks attached to it. And in addition to having to meticulously go over each link on a track, rinse repeat four times, this weird tank that looked comically like a giant turtle had this unique mechanism that could quickly detach the outer tracks on each side without the need for crews to exit the tank, and that needed to be checked too. But Fernanda was right, he started earlier, he ended it earlier, just after training started. He still had a few hours before his work day concludes.
Without much time to lose, he bee-lined for Chiyo's office. When he was outside, he knocked on the door.
"Come in."
He opened the door. Chiyo was sitting inside on her desk, smiling brightly seeing his arrival.
"Ricky! I'm glad you could make it."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Shimada. I had to do the T95 inspection, since none of the team members can do it." Ricky apologized.
"That's alright. We still have plenty of time." Chiyo said, standing up from her desk and gesturing at the sofa.
Both made themselves comfortable facing each other.
"You wanted to meet me in-person. Is there something wrong?" Ricky asked, still remembering the last time he saw her in-person, and she wasn't in a good mood then.
"No no, nothing's wrong." Chiyo replied. "I just wanted to talk to you about something. There's a project I've been working on that need your expertise."
"Oh?" Ricky said. There's only one appropriate response here. "Do tell me more."
"It is an investigation." Chiyo said. "Before I go on, I must ask you: how much do you know about Senshado armor, or just in general?"
Ricky glanced at the ceiling. "Umm...rudimentary, I suppose. I know about its self-healing potential, but not much else. For metals in general, I have taken some advanced metallurgy courses, but no real life experience."
"That's not bad. Better than everyone I know at least." Chiyo remarked. "Now, what I need you to understand is that from this point on, everything I will show you is secret information, so you cannot leak this out to anyone."
Ricky perched his head back. This was getting a little worrying.
"I'm not doing anything illegal, am I?"
"Of course not." Chiyo said. "And if anyone asks, tell them it's from me, and you're not allowed to say anything about it. I know it's not easy to lie, but it shouldn't be hard to keep secrets."
"I...well...yes." Ricky stammered.
"Then it's all good." Before he knew it, he was roped in. "Now firstly, I want you to take a look at this."
He was handed a few sheets of paper, stapled and completed with a cover page having the JSF and JSDF stamp for letterhead and a large printed title.
"Accident Report: Hull Breach by Armor Piercing Shell. St. Gloriana Churchill Mk VII, CM1213…" Ricky read the title out loud. "Wait, this is the final report?"
"Yes it is." Chiyo nodded.
"I have already read through it before when it was published." Ricky said. His morbid curiosity took him places.
"Really?" Chiyo was surprised, leaned back on her sofa. "Well, it doesn't matter if you've actually read the final report...because this is not it."
"What do you mean it's not it?"
"This is the previous version of that final report. An alternate version, I would call it. See if you can spot the difference. I'll make it quick and easy for you, it's in the conclusion."
Ricky sighed as he flipped the pages to that section. If his memories served him well, it was determined that the cause of the accident was an improperly loaded shell. A few shells were loaded with dense concentration of gunpowder, higher than the maximum specification allowed, which significantly increased the velocity and penetration power of the shell past the point that the armor could withstand, which ultimately led to the hull breach. It was a sensible explanation at the time.
"Through the available evidence presented, the Senshado Federation is unable to provide a conclusive cause behind the-"
He stopped mid-sentence, squinted his eyes. That wasn't what he remembered reading!
Chiyo glanced elsewhere with raised eyebrows, waiting on him to finish.
"Regardless, a few potential causes are as follows. One, improperly loaded shell with higher than designated gunpowder concentration which increased its penetration power…" He read. This was the official cause that was in the report he read. "Two, a catastrophic failure of the Churchill VII's main gun mantlet armor caused by fatigue or poor maintenance. Or three, a combination of both causes. However, the investigation is unable to reproduce the condition that caused the accident."
He had never heard of the second or the third probable cause from anywhere. Or even that the cause was inconclusive. The report he read were quite certain on that cause, and officials would go around touting what they wrote in there.
Before he could ask anything, Chiyo stood up from her seat.
"Come with me." She stated.
Ricky and Chiyo were escorted by two security guards through the campus, across the training field. The closer they were to their destination, the more he realized they were heading closer and closer to the safety office he was working at. But they turned at the last moment to the nearby hangars instead, in particular, the one with the 'Authorized Personnel Only' sign.
They circled around that hangar to the back entrance. Chiyo hovered her access card in front of the scanner until a beep sounded and the green light appeared.
Inside the hangar, a Churchill VII sat, a cavernous hole engraved on its mantlet.
The moment he saw the tank, Ricky immediately put two and two together.
"No…" Ricky exclaimed.
Chiyo ignored his gasp, silently marched to the tank's side, then turned around.
"This is tank CM1213. The accident tank." Chiyo stated. "As you can see, this was its final state when it was breached three years ago."
An object frozen in time, its turret was at the four o' clock position, its gun depressed five degrees where the Kuromorimine Tiger I would have been.
"How did you come to have this?" Ricky asked. "The previous report too?"
"I oversaw the investigation into the accident. I have access to everything, from documents...to this…." Chiyo replied, running her hand through the side of the Churchill. "Although for this tank, it should already have been taken apart for parts and scrapped, since the 'official' cause of the accident was conclusive. But I kept it here in this hangar instead."
"Because you did not believe in it." Ricky said. "And I assume my investigation here is to dispute the official cause."
Chiyo nodded, quite impressed and happy he just spelled it out for her, meaning she could spare the lecture. She walked over around the tank and flipped a switch. The light in one of the hangar corners lit up, revealing shelves of papers and binders.
"These are all the documents we collected. From test results to crew interview transcripts, everything you would need to catch up to speed. If something you need isn't in there, let me know. I'll figure it out." She said, then pointed at a workstation in front of the bookshelves. "Any analysis of the test data, you can use this computer. It's equipped with all the software you need. Any questions?"
He heard Chiyo's question. He didn't reply, he just shook his head.
"You're not going to ask why I'm doing this?" She asked
He also shook his head. Any normal person would have done that, but Ricky knew the answer to that. She was trying to bargain the blood price paid for that accident.
However, the better question was instead…
"Why did you choose me?" He said. "Why did you think I was capable of disputing this?"
He was a student, and only had 8 months in this place, and he had no experience. Why not a private investigator?
"What other choice do I have?" Chiyo deflated. "The Federation does not want to open the case again. The government needed much disputing evidence to launch an inquiry. Private investigators don't have the expertise, and even if they do, they wouldn't even want to touch the case."
It was a controversial accident when it happened, and it still is. As the pot went cold, it was now treated like a taboo, a visible permanent scar on someone's face that was not to be brought up in conversations.
"And don't you suggest the girls." Chiyo defensively preempted, even though he hadn't and did not intend to bring it up. "As much as I hate to put so much pressure on you, you are to conduct this investigation just with me. Only you, I and these two here are to know of this. Nobody else are to join in, and especially not the girls of the safety team."
He wasn't surprised.
"I understand." He simply uttered.
"To make sure you have the time, from now on, your morning hours from 8 AM to 12 PM shall be allocated for this investigation. You don't have to do any maintenance or inspection during those times."
Ricky only silently went along at this point. He didn't even bother to take notes, even though he always carried one in his pocket. His shoulders were weighed down by the gravity of tragedy. He couldn't take his eyes off the broken mantlet; the black abyss seemed to stare back at him. He would be looking at Masala right in the face. The twisted metal felt like a wrench in the gut.
Chiyo, believing she had said more than enough, concluded. "If there is nothing else, make yourself comfortable. I will inform the Safety girls later."
Then she departed with the two security guards, leaving Ricky alone, with the relic of blood that he now had both the privilege and misfortune of having to dissect.
By the time the headmistress left the hangar, the afternoon training session had finished, and the debriefing was taking place.
"As for you Alice." Aurelie was standing by a projected tactical map, rewinding through the multiple stages of the training battle. "Your flank maneuvers were quite straightforward. Good probing of the position, attack decisive but not getting hasty. However, you getting worked up over my decoyed attacks or even these random distractions are a little upsetting. It doesn't matter here because Fernanda's position wasn't good enough to make any counterplay, but still…"
Aurelie noticed Alice nodding, but very lightly. The little girl was looking elsewhere instead, restless and distracted.
"Exactly my point." She raised her voice. "Alice…"
"Huh, ah y-yes. I'm sorry, Miss Aurelie…" She responded meekly.
"Do you need to leave?"
"Yes. I want to watch a 'Boko and Chiitan' episode. It will be on TV in 5 minutes."
The white-haired captain shrugged. "Alright, you're dismissed. We will discuss this before the next training session. Have fun."
Like a little bird picking up her grains, Alice bowed very quickly then ran off. This normally would not do, but it's hard to muster up criticism for a young girl half her age. Even Heidi seemed willing to overlook it, and she literally shouted in Ricky's face a few weeks back.
"Good job today, ladies, dismissed. Hannah, I'll see you tomorrow." The captain dismissed and turned to her two friends. "Let's wrap up the inspection and we'll call it a day."
Normally, Ricky would be in progress to inspect already, but he was called up by the headmistress, who was now walking past their room window, alone.
"Seems like whatever they were talking about has drawn to a close." Heidi commented.
"I wonder what she called him for." Aurelie said. "I don't think she's angry with him about that Centurion accident."
"It's been a week already, I don't think so." Heidi said. "Oh well, it's probably something administrative with his school."
"Yeah, totally." Fernanda smirked. "Something private to both of them that we shouldn't get involved in."
Heidi could smell the satire miasma from a mile away.
"What are you implying?" The black-haired girl side-glanced.
"Nothing. Let's just get on with our duties so we can get back to our dorm. I want a shower." Fernanda shrugged.
Now both Aurelie and Heidi knew something was up, but only left it at a wordless exchange of glances. As Fernanda readied her tools and got to work, both followed suit.