Alright, I didn't get to the emotional stuff as much as I initially planned. But for sure chapter 11 will be heavy. Be warned.
Chapter 10: The Keeper
"Airi, my dear. I wish I could have done everything on Earth with you…"
Students filed out of the auditorium, many yawning in tears. Aurelie was one of them, adding a long sigh on top of it. Why math class was on the required courses list for a psychology major, she would never understand. She'd probably have to go to Ricky or Fernanda for this later. They were the smart ones.
Her phone buzzed. It was Heidi, sending her a text message.
H: Im off plane now
H: Gonna board bus soon
H: Got smth to say to Ceylon?
Aurelie texted back.
A: Just tell her I said hi
A: Don't drink too much tea while you're there
H: Lolz, I might just order warm beer for funsies
Aurelie chuckled. It never ceased to amuse her seeing a person like Heidi using internet slangs.
Heidi's next message was deleted right after it was sent, but Aurelie could still read it in time.
H: Gonna visit Masala later today also
It was almost that day again.
H: Srry
A: No worries. I don't mind.
H: Alright.
H: Anything you wanna say to her as well?
Even though she said she didn't mind, it was acting up now. Something was building up under her eyes, and she feared if she blinked or rubbed them, it would spill. Her chest began to weigh. She took several deep breathe before she could blink again, her eyes only turned glassy this time. It took her a while to respond.
A: 'In another time…'
It took Heidi a while to respond as well.
H: Got it
H: Thank you
H: Im gonna go, take it easy ok?
A: You too. Stay safe
A: Love you
She put her phone away. There was nothing between her and Heidi, Aurelie never saw 'I love you' as exclusively romantic. She loved her friends, and she was going to express it as many times as she could. One never knows how many times left they can say it to someone.
Maginot Girls' College was a strangely harsh environment to do tankery in, arguably similar to hardcore schools like Pravda or Kuromorimine. Failures weren't taken lightly, despite their long history of losing, but it showed the dedication of its students to hone its craft. That wasn't who Aurelie was, and not anywhere close to demystify the enigmatic aura of Maginot's most successful captain.
Airi Mogami was born in Shizuoka, the home port to Anzio High School. Her mother, Namiko, was an Anzio student two decades ago, and people thought Airi would have followed in Namiko's footsteps, but she chose Maginot instead and was given the name Aurelie upon admission.
Aurelie was enthusiastic about Senshado, but she was a subpar tanker. She was cramped in the main tanks the school operated due to her height of 6 ft 2, or 190 cm. The school had to commission their only ARL 44 for her. She couldn't drive well, her gunnery skill was mediocre, and as commander she wasn't good in personal combat, a far cry from the stereotypical image of an ace tanker destroying entire columns of her foes. However, she had what many Senshado players did not: excellent positional judgment. A superb ability to position tanks on the map where they are most effective, and keen awareness on how the battlefield change with every action taken. She just seemed to know exactly where the tanks belong on the battlefield long before her contemporaries did.
This skill set would kickstart her career with confidence, despite a typical Maginot first round elimination to Saunders. When her captain faltered, unable to keep her team together after their archaic static defense strategy crumbled, Aurelie rallied them and coordinated a counter-attack that routed Saunders' attack forces. It didn't save them the game, but for her performance earned the team's respect, and spared her from punishment.
Maginot had gone through a leadership change when Aurelie enrolled. After a humiliating defeat in the previous year's Tankathlon tournament, the team captain was dismissed and forced to resign from the Senshado team. In its place, a group of five students rose to leadership of the team under a democratic Directory system with the spirit of innovation and shedding off old-traditions. It fit the idealistic zeal of the time, but it was not as effective as they hoped. After their elimination to Saunders, students realized that five dumb heads weren't necessarily better than one.
Aurelie didn't think she would become a person of influence in the team, but she disliked the power-hungry council members just as much as the next student. When Jeanne, a Char B1 commander, whose defense line wasn't overran that day, asked Aurelie to help her challenge the council members for leadership, Aurelie accepted. Once again, with her impeccable positional judgment, she destroyed many council members' tanks. The challengers won, the Directory system was dissolved and replaced with the Consul system, where the three Consuls would hold dictatorial power from appointment until graduation. Aurelie let Jeanne take the role of First Consul. She preferred the peaceful school days with friends to glamour. But her ingenious mind continued to do work to improve Maginot's Senshado team.
Her second year would be the march of the eagles. Anzio, normally the winner in previous tournaments, received a rude awakening to the new Maginot. The French school's new strategy was to form multiple miniature armies and shove them in Anzio's face. Aurelie would attempt to split up Anzio's forces, making sure Anzio is always at a disadvantage, while her forces remained mobile, flexible, and in range of each other. Anzio's inexperienced captain mistakenly thought they lured away the bulk of Maginot's forces, were immediately cornered. Under panic, she ordered a breakout attack, where Maginot's haute cuisine was served hot.
This flexible positional approach was so effective it mauled Blue Division under the new superstar Fernanda as well, and even managed to overcome the overconfident Pravda in the semi-finals as well. They were taken down by Kuromorimine in the end, Maginot's outdated tanks and equipment finally caught up with them. Despite this, it was a stunning performance that would remain inimitable by her successors.
Aurelie's final year wasn't as lucky, being given Kuromorimine in the second round. But her records caught the attention of Chiyo Shimada, who recognized her tactical intelligence and not only selected her for the All-Stars roster, but offered to train her in the traditional Shimada style of Senshado Now with state-of-the-art equipment and top-notch training at her disposal, she transformed from a one-hit wonder to a world-class tanker, and her terror extended to university players.
With the help of the almighty PDR-reader software, Ricky was able to extract information from it into digital files. Specifically, the data from shock detector number 15, which sensed impact forces at the point of breach, listed with a timestamp attached to each data point. Problem was there were over 30 million data points. There was no way he was going to sort through that by hand.
Ricky had to resort to the dark art known as Python programming.
Tuesday was training day. He read through textbooks, tried out its examples, memorized several algorithms he found that might be useful. Wednesday, as he sat down with a cheap bagged tea cup in his hand, full of determination to begin, he realized that he couldn't copy paste the merely 30 million data points into his code editor. The program would have to read from the spreadsheet.
And thus Ricky got lost in the deep dark forest of Python libraries. The one he apparently needed was 'pandas', but he couldn't just install it. He needed to install 'easyinstall', but for that, he ran into privilege issues and had to go all the way to IT and then back, only to run into the small issue of Python simply not recognizing the module for some reason.
With his hairline on the line, Ricky humbly bowed to the almighty lord, Google, and asked for his help, who in turn referred him to the greatest master of Python in the land – an Indian guy on YouTube with a yellow circle around his cursor. Together, they finally managed to troubleshoot and install both libraries onto his program, and then read the files into a list, represented by a divine variable name – n. The rest wasn't difficult. He just needed to paste the list and the condition function into the built-in 'filter' function and run it. However, he had another idea: while loop and delete. Simple and ingenious.
"YES, you piece of...pizza crust..."
His hands shook triumphantly as he watched the program finally compiled and ran. It took over 5 minutes to finish filtering, but he got what he wanted: data points that indicated sustained shell hits on the mantlet. He could now analyze how many times that Churchill took damage at the point of contact.
Or rather later. All this work exhausted him. It was still over an hour and a half until his shift ended, but he was in no mood to continue on. Given he had been working extra hours these last 2 months, he didn't think anyone would complain about the early break.
Fernanda and Aurelie were doing Senshado training today. Maybe he could see them in action.
Ricky left the hangar and arrived at the field at the later end of the training, but at the beginning of the final session. Fernanda sat bored in one corner of the spectator stand. Chiyo was also present. She greeted Ricky with a friendly wave but otherwise kept to herself.
Ricky tootled up to Fernanda, whose face brightened as soon as she saw him.
"Eyy, glad to have you with us!" She tapped the seat next to her. "You're out early today."
Ricky shushed her out of sight of the headmistress above him. Even though they were on a pact if Chiyo found out, it was no excuse to be even more brazen about it.
"Don't worry." She whispered a reassurance and moved on. "You joined at the most exciting time. It's Alice's first official battle!"
No wonder why her mother was here. "Is she captain now?"
"Of the training team. Aurelie's still our empress." Fernanda replied. "We usually use Shermans, Panthers and the Jagdpanthers, but today is all 'live tanks'."
Ricky nodded along. He wasn't sure of the terms, but he had seen those cute colored training tanks. If they weren't using them today, this would be just as serious as an actual match.
"Who's her opponent?"
"Who else?"
Heidi was off to St. Gloriana today. Fernanda was sitting here.
"Aurelie?" He concluded.
"Yup. I'm just here to annotate the games."
The battle of the current and next generation. He'd have a lot more to comment, but he didn't know the capability of either these players.
"Have you watched Senshado live before?" Fernanda asked. "You know the rules?"
"I believe twice?" He reminisced. "One was an exhibition match between St. Gloriana, Kuromorimine and the two French schools."
"Oh that two versus two. That's a banger one to catch live!"
"As for rules, I know that if the flag tank is disabled, the team loses."
"That's half of it. The other is elimination battle – kill everything to win." Fernanda explained, just as the list of tanks each team had cinematically faded in one by one.
On the left side, the flag tank was the Centurion Mk1, indicated by a blue rectangle at the top, followed by 12 M26 Pershing, 1 T95 and 2 M24 Chaffee. Ricky assumed this was Alice's team.
On the right, the lineup was similar with 12 Pershing and 2 Chaffee, but the Centurion and the T95 was replaced with 2 T32, one of which appeared up top with a red rectangle.
"I'll let you in a little on top level Senshado. Stop me if you get bored and just want to enjoy the show." Fernanda continued, keeping him entertained while the pre-battle etiquette took place. "As you can see, we use a lot of Pershings around here. It's a medium tank technically, but for a lot of our opponents, it might as well be a heavy. It's fast, it kills things consistently, relatively bulky…"
"Sounds quite versatile." Ricky commented.
"Mhm!" Fernanda nodded. "The standardization also saved us a lot of training time and logistics."
"How about the other tanks?" Ricky asked.
"For more specialized roles, of course." Fernanda answered. "To simplify, Chaffees zoom around and scout, T32s are Pershings but even beefier and slap harder. T95 are for breaking through defence line. Centurion…" she paused for a moment. "...I'll simplify that they're like Pershings, at least this version, but with more responsive controls. Its problem is that it currently doesn't fit our lineup."
"How so?"
"Again, standardization. If you, my man, were to be assigned to be Alice's crew. You spent weeks training in the tank, knowing the tank inside out, how much lead you need to give, how to tango with it. And then, for unknown reasons, the tank burned down." She jabbed at him a little bit. "You are forced to transfer to a Pershing. Now your Centurion knowledge is useless, and you need to retrain."
"That makes sense." Ricky understood. "I remember my female classmates back then dreamed of having their personal tanks, and talked a lot about tank stats with each other. Most of them flew over my head obviously."
"I won't deny, I did too." Fernanda laughed. "A tank is like a steed. You bond with it, endure the crucible of battle, and together you stand tall in triumph or burn in the flames of defeat. But consistency is important too. What if the tank breaks down, what if your crew gets sick? Not so glamorous anymore, yeah?"
This well-organized structure that often went unappreciated was the bedrock of All-Stars' success. They could endure lengthy tournaments and wasn't afraid of fighting slow grinding battles. The same could not be said for teams with more 'rainbow' composition. Slot in competent commanders and one has an army that can confidently destroy even some professional teams.
"Why is the Centurion in the lineup then?"
"That one is Mrs. Shimada's private tank, just for Alice."
"Wait, that's-" Ricky's eyes dilated with horror. So what he and Hannah almost destroyed that day was an eight to nine figure vehicle. Thank god it was covered fully. What an expensive oopsie.
"So what I can deduce..." He waved off past mistakes, focusing on working his brain out from the limited knowledge he had of this sport. "is that blue team leans more on the offense, while red team is more defensive?"
"Who knows?" Fernanda shrugged playfully.
Senshado is difficult to predict.
In the training field, 6 M26 Pershings formed 2 lines facing one another, with a Centurion and a T32 in front of each line. The front and mantlet of all the tanks were painted in dark blue or dark red, so as to distinguish which one belonged to which team.
Two captains stood a few paces from the other. The girl on the left barely fit into the smallest-sized uniform, her hands clasped tightly in front of her chest. The girl on the right stood tall, towering over her mentee and successor with a gentle smile on her face.
"Are you nervous?" Aurelie asked.
"...N-No, miss Aurelie." Alice replied. Aurelie saw through the bravado.
"It's your first live battle." She said. "Don't be ashamed of being nervous."
Alice nodded. Everybody had their first battle. It was just that her first would be against the strongest Senshado captain in Japan right now.
The referee arrived, the two team representatives bowed.
"Let's have a good match!"
For half an hour, the tanks moved into their starting position and were locked in place until all tanks were confirmed ready. A pistol shot signaled the beginning of the match for the spectators, while the tankers found out when the Central Control Units released all tank controls.
The two teams immediately sent their two Chaffees off for scouting, almost mirroring each other in directions taken. For the rest of blue team who started west, the T95, accompanied by 2 Pershings, headed south to a small valley. The remaining 10 Pershings were split in 2, 6 to the center, 4 to the north. The Centurion followed behind the center Pershings.
The red team starting east, their tanks were split into 4 groups of 4. Two groups in the north and south contained 3 Pershings and a Chaffee, the latter headed off ahead to scout. The center 2 groups had 3 Pershings and a T32 each. A very symmetrical opening.
The first contact was faint. The Chaffees north and south made contact a minute after the respective other. They exchanged several shots, all missed, then backed off. The northern blue Chaffee shadowed the red's counterpart, while the southern Chaffees split away, with red team's heading centre.
"Captain, we spotted a column eastbound to Hill Elaine." The Chaffee commander's report arrived at Aurelie's ears. "6 Pershings."
"What's your location and distance to them?" Aurelie asked.
"Just north of Hill Elaine and approximately 10 kilometers east."
"Hmm. Head north and help the other Chaffee chase off their scout." She ordered. "Exercise discretion. Do not get carried away chasing their Chaffee."
"Roger!"
Aurelie looked at the map on her tablet and marked 6 Xs on it with her marker. 8 tanks were still unaccounted for. If she were to take a guess, the T95 would head south. The narrow valley was perfect for it. For now, she ordered the southern groups to station at certain strong points near the valley's exit.
The two red Chaffees converged and preyed on the lone blue Chaffee. Seeing an outnumbered engagement, the blue Chaffee fled. Once the two red Chaffees saw the four Pershings approaching in the north, they also fled.
"Four Pershings to the north. North-eastbound to Hill Catiline!" One of them reported back. 4 Xs were marked.
"Where is the Centurion?" Aurelie followed up.
"No news capt."
She had to make an educated guess on this one too. Given Alice's tendency to hang back and coordinate strategies from there, she was probably not with the southern group.
"Aurelie to the Chaffee 1 and 2. You are now part of Strike Group 1 until further notice. Strike group 2, split up, the heavy tanks with me and form a defensive line in the treeline east of Elaine."
"Understood." Group 2 commander, a girl named Jadzia replied. "Pershing 4 and 5, head off! Pershing 6, with me!"
"Group 4, spread out and advance very slowly. Pay attention to the Chaffee's whereabouts, and do not get aggressive."
"Roger."
On Alice's side, she was aware of the Chaffee being chased back. She could see where the potential attacks were, but not how strong.
"Miss Takara, please rejoin the northern group. Send a Pershing to reinforce the northern attack on Hill Catiline." She ordered, the girls readily obeyed. Both side's commands were solid, strategies were coherent. The first clash was imminent.
From the spectator stand, they could see the 2 red Chaffees arrive at the hill and harass the blue Chaffee back again. The 5 red Pershings merged and pushed up the hill, shells fired ricocheting off armors of the advancing blue tanks or slamming into the hillside.
"Red team arrived first…" Fernanda muttered what Ricky could overhear.
It wasn't very clear, as both sides were both present at the hill, but all 5 Pershings on the red team arrived almost at the same time, while a slight delay caused a Pershing on the blue team to lag behind and thus, for a brief minute, they were fighting a 4 against 5. Red team was also up a Chaffee on that flank, and that was all the advantage they needed.
"This is Laurie, Pershing 2. We are out!"
"One Pershing knocked out!"
A victory cheer came after the knock-out report. Aurelie made a mental note of both.
"Contact! T95! Valley Isabelle. We will engage rear-guard action!"
As Aurelie expected. Most tanks were now accounted for. "Please do. Do not get bogged down, and watch your flank."
"Roger!" As ordered the Pershings backed off. A few minutes later, another transmission. "We'll retreat across the field to the castle."
Aurelie thought that was sensible, so she said nothing. But any further then her defense line might come under threat of being flanked. There wasn't much to the center group yet, so she paid more attention to the northern attack.
For Alice, the battle for Hill Catiline wasn't going well. The delayed attack meant red team was able to claim more space. That small advantage gradually snowballed, and her attack stalled out against her better positioned opponent. Alice, a testament to her tactical competency, could see the writing on the wall.
"Northern group, please fall back to the nearby farm. We can make a stand there." She called off the attack, ceding the hill to her more experienced opponent. Despite the small defeat, each team only lost one tank. The game could still swing either way.
"She's not going for it?" Ricky pondered, as she saw the blue dots rapidly moving south, but the red ones stayed on the hill.
"She doesn't know what's down there." Fernanda side-eyed him.
Aurelie's northern contingent settled down in their new temporary home. All were disciplined enough to not get aggressive and push for a harder victory.
"Miss Alice, shall we attack the center group?"
"Yes, Miss Erin. Advance!" Alice pinched her throat comm. "Southern group, push hard and envelop their center!"
The 5 center Pershings headed downhill from Elaine, towards Aurelie's center. 2 Pershings from the northern group joined in the attack. But this was observed.
"Pershing 4 and 5, reform Strike Group 2 and join in the defense." Aurelie ordered. "Chaffee 1 and 2, sweep across to the southern flank and join Strike Group 4. If possible, destroy their scout there."
The battlefield shifted accordingly. It looked boring compared to the exhibition match he watched long ago, but even Ricky could, to some extent, understand what each side was trying to do. Alice was trying to use the distraction the northern battle caused to launch a simultaneous attack, and Aurelie was shifting the troop balance to dampen the blow.
Alice's center attack started strong with a serial thunder of gunfire, taking out one Pershing. But Aurelie's center retaliated with a simultaneous roar, her famous Grand Battery salvo – each Strike Group singled out a tank to go off on at exactly the same time, striking one blue Pershing out immediately. A few exchange later, and another blue Pershing withered from the cannon barrage. The center balance was 5 blue tanks to 7 red. The attack stalled, but Alice kept on the engagement a little longer, hoping it was distraction for the southern group to do something.
The red team's southern Pershings had retreated successfully and entrenched into the castle ground, each taking up positions far away from one another. The height of the castle meant they could strike the T95 from different angles above and sideways. Meanwhile the southern blue Chaffee was trying to circle around the red's defensive line when the 2 red Chaffees were seen coming from a distance. They sent the blue Chaffee on its tracks away. Then they hung around the right side of the southern push. The threat of them swooping in made the three tank commanders there hesitant, and Alice indecisive.
What Ricky and others had just witnessed was a masterful display of positional tankery. Everything Aurelie did was putting tanks where they were strong, seizing on the tiny advantages, and shifting the battlefield, always ensuring a favorable engagement. There were no fancy maneuvers, no bum rush, no big deception or chaotic back and forth.
"It looks so simple." Ricky said. The tactics made sense, so simple he felt he could come up with it. But he wasn't arrogant enough to claim that. It wasn't so easy when you're on the field.
"She just made it look so effortless." Fernanda remarked, writing on her notes.
With the attack from the south also stalling out, Alice was forced to cancel both pushes and switch gears onto defensive. She moved back and took up defense on Elaine and the farm. Aurelie continued the battle methodically, surgically picking off Alice's tanks one by one using her superior position. No unnecessary aggression, she had the advantage. Chaos would only benefit Alice, and Alice knew this too. At one point, the young captain made a last ditch assault from all fronts, with smoke rounds to cover up their attack, trying to charge through Aurelie's defense line to sow confusion, her own Centurion joining in. But even that was futile. Aurelie coolly backed her tanks away from the smokescreen, formed up defensive formations and neutered the chaos.
Blue team's northern contingent collapsed first, and red team's northern group now had free reign on blue's flanks. Aurelie did eventually order a big maneuver, a simultaneous assault enveloping Alice's forces, who had suffered too much material losses to survive. Alice's Centurion fought defiantly, but the sword stabs came from multiple sides. It was game over.
Alice didn't know what she did wrong. Everything she did also made sense. It was a brutal first showing for the junior to the world of Senshado, and a taste of what Aurelie's opponents felt facing her in battle.
When Ricky and Fernanda converged with the rest for debriefing, the young Shimada wasn't there.
"Where's Alice?" Chiyo arrived a bit later.
"She headed off on her own." Hannah replied. "She didn't look very happy."
"I don't blame her." Fernanda said, half-amused, half-sympathizing. "It's her first battle and you destroyed her."
"I was wondering if I should have gone easy on her." Aurelie said. "I'll look out for her this evening."
"Don't worry Aurelie, I'll do that." Chiyo smiled. "I don't want her to be misled on her own capability. She needs to learn how to lose."
"Poor Alice." Ricky said, noticing everyone's gaze on him. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just gonna..." He pointed towards the parked tanks.
"Alright ladies, the sooner we get this finish, the sooner we can all get lunch." Aurelie spoke. "Fernanda, anything to comment?"
"Yeah." Fernanda took out her notes. She looked at red team, with Aurelie sitting in center. "Red team's performance was close to perfection. Solid scouting, the two Chaffees merging helped win Catiline Hill. I especially like that you, Aurelie, didn't rush down the hill after winning it and just consolidated. Even Mr. Inspector over there agrees with me on that. Right, Ricky?"
Ricky was working on the post-match inspection in the background when everyone suddenly turned to him again. He barely heard anything Fernanda said but furiously nodded anyway. Some of the girls burst out giggling.
"If I were to be critical, I don't know if I would have committed to fighting over Catiline so much. I thought Elaine would have made for a better early rush, since the hill is better for your kind of defense. I think you would have made it there before blue team if you gun for it."
"I thought it would be too obvious." Aurelie explained. "If blue team were to take the Elaine and we have Catiline, our positional pressure would be stronger."
"If I were blue, I would have sent a small contingent to hold the west side of the creak northwest of Catiline." Fernanda said. "It's a little risky, because that group would be isolated, but you have the creak, the bridge, you can swing in if needed, and you can retreat. If red team committed to hunting down that contingent, then both of you would be out of the battle for a while, which would favor blue team."
"However, you didn't do that." Fernanda looked over the blue side, whose captain wasn't present, and instead Chiyo was sitting in her place. "I believe blue team's defeat here boils down to three things. One, your southern scout was a little too passive. You could have harassed red team's southern flanks more."
Fernanda looked directly at Chiyo, as if it was Alice there. It still felt a bit wrong to criticize someone who wasn't there, especially a ten-year-old who just got mauled in her first Senshado game. "Two, the center attack was not a wise idea. It's a good idea in theory, but the terrain was not favorable and Aurelie was seeing all of that. She could respond and she did. And three, you didn't pull out after. You had a worse position, down on tanks after two failed attacks, but you tried to hold your ground on Elaine instead of finding a better spot elsewhere. I get that it might be demoralizing, but...it's the second mistake that kills you, not the first."
"Excellent analysis, Fernanda." Aurelie stood up, looked at her teammates. "How about team communication, tank coordination, and techniques? Anything you may want to bring up?"
Red team looked at each other, shrugged, an implicit 'no'. Blue team had someone raising a hand, an explicit 'yes'.
"It was our fault we were delayed attacking Catiline." The girl admitted, another few stood up after her. "We were confused over who to head off to reinforce the attack."
Hannah stood up after them. "It's my fault as well. The order was vague. I should have immediately clarified with Miss Alice." She turned to Chiyo. "For future battles, we should clearly define our communication standards."
"Very good. I expect details of that by next week." Aurelie appreciated the upfrontness. "Since we have some junior members here too, I will remind everyone that these mistakes, while not necessarily blunders, will add up. In pro-leagues, it can absolutely cost you the game."
"Yes, captain!" The group replied in unison.
"Anybody else want to add anything?" Aurelie looked around, the room stayed relatively silent. "I will let you go then. The replay of the match will be available on our portal by tomorrow at the latest so you can review at your leisure."
Chiyo stood up. "I'm glad to see our team is continually improving. I will relay this information to Alice at the nearest opportunity. Thank you all for the lively session. Have a great rest of your day."
The team dispersed. Only Aurelie and Fernanda remained to finish off what Ricky hadn't.
"You two ready for lunch?" Aurelie asked, when all the maintenance checklists had been collected. Fernanda happily nodded, but Ricky was a little reserved.
"I...already packed mine." He replied.
"You don't want to have lunch with us?" Aurelie said.
"No no, I...just want to head off to the Karl early. Heidi gave me instructions, and I don't want to rush." He shrunk, looking guilty. "I-I'll have it with you guys tomorrow!"
Both Aurelie and Fernanda giggled.
"I'm just kidding." Aurelie reassured him. "We'll join you in about an hour."
"Take our jeep there. We can walk over." Fernanda pointed.
"14…" Ricky counted as he drove the Dodge WC52 past the numbered hangars, each containing various military planes of sort. De Havilland Vampire, Electric Canberra, Super Constellation, etc. He wasn't lost, these were plane hangars. The Karl Gerat wasn't big on paper but the modification were substantial enough to justify the extra space.
He stopped counting when he saw the behemoth's distinct silhouette. Its barrel, a monstrous maw capable of swallowing a man whole, aimed to tear down the sky and churn the earth with a single shattering blast. Its gargantuan tracks, like limbs of a mechanical beast, held the platform that the massive gun and its loading mechanism perched. That had to be it.
Ricky turned his steering wheel and pulled into the hangar. He pulled the parking break and turned the engine off when the jeep came to a stop.
A shoulder-length brown-haired girl noticed his arrival through the monocle on her right eye.
"Ladies, he's here!"
A few girls in blue coveralls walked out from behind the Karl Gerat. Many more emerged from inside the Karl and onto the platform above. Some descended from one of the three stairs located at the back or front of the Karl, but a few impatient ones decided to jump down directly from the railings.
"Uhh…" He groaned as each landing thud gave him a surge of anxiety. "No need to rush, j-just use the ladders."
"Don't worry. We do this all the time!" A short red-headed girl reassured, as she too jumped down from the Karl, a little bit too high and excitedly for his liking.
She pulled out a pair of glasses from her coveralls and put it on. "You're Ricky right?" She greeted warmly. "I'm Arwen. A pleasure to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you Arwen." Ricky returned the greeting. "I don't think I have properly met everyone. I am Ricky, tank inspector for the Safety Team. Heidi is off today, so I will be taking over her supervising duty."
"Heidi's away? That's new." In a dignified tone, the monocled girl said. "Where is she going, if I may ask?"
"Umm…" He held back at first, but figured it wouldn't hurt. "She's going to St. Gloriana."
"I see." She left it at that. "You know this already, but my name is Ermelinda. Soon to be Dr. Ermelinda."
A mechatronics student from Tokyo University, and also the lead designer for the prototype autoloading mechanism Ricky would be overseeing today. This commission was her PhD project, and finally she would see it to fruition.
Several girls also greeted Ricky, and even engaged in gestures of camaraderie as fellow engineers, something he didn't know was a thing. Was he out-of-touch or was this a Senshado thing he was too normie to know about? Regardless, he felt a little more at home with these girls here. They didn't seem as insane as Heidi and Fernanda suggested. They also didn't tease him about his height.
"Attention!" Ermelinda grabbed everyone's attention afterward with a loud clap. The engineering girls and Ricky moved to their respective places, the latter next to Ermelinda and the former in front.
Ermelinda clicked on the projector hooked to a laptop nearby. The displayed screen was a blueprint software, showing the Karl Gerat, with a specific area at the rear of the vehicle focused on.
"The agenda for today will be clearing out the 4.1×2.8×3.8 meters area at the rear of the vehicle." The brown-haired girl jumped in immediately. "It will cut halfway into the engine compartment of the vehicle. The MB-507 engine will also need to be removed with it."
Ermelinda pressed a few buttons on her laptop, and the screen switched to another blueprint, this time showing the loading mechanism, split into two parts. Parts painted in white showed the loading ramp, resembling a floatplane catapult on WWII naval vessels, and the shell carriage on top of the ramp (AKA the historical part of the weapon). The parts painted in orange were the brainchild of Ermelinda, the motors that hugged the wheels, hidden inside every levers and loading cranks of the mechanism, the powers that could move tons of steel with a tap of a finger.
"For today, the electrical supply to the motors will be distributed using an external power unit that will be brought in once the clearing work is complete, but I expect the Integrated Power Generators will take quite a bit of space." Ermelinda said. "Once the area is cleared, install the modified loading mechanism. While there are 12 threaded holes at the bottom, they will not be used today. Instead, secure the mechanism with chains. Any questions thus far?"
One girl's hand went up. "What's its specific position?"
"Here." Ermelinda switched back to the Karl's blueprint, and highlighted the area with a pen mouse. "Me and Arwen will mark it physically after you clear the area."
The girl nodded. A moment passed in silence before Ermelinda continued.
"If nothing else, then Ricky here will give you a safety briefing for this operation." She said, to-the-point and exactly what Heidi had briefed him a few days ago.
Ricky was handed the laptop for presentation. He switched to the PowerPoint presentation he had prepared beforehand. Once it was on display, he stepped up, cleared his throat.
"R-Raise your hand at any point if you have any questions…" He stammered a little, but the flow of the topic got the boat sailing quickly. "First off, PPE check. Make sure your hard hats, gloves, safety glasses, and steel-toe boots are all on. Ear and eye protection is mandatory when cutting, grinding, or using other heavy machinery."
He pointed at the four corners of the hangar, several posters pinned on either the wall or a red cabinet. "Emergency procedures are posted around the site. Take your time to familiarize yourself with it. The nearest exit is here, and...well…" He pointed at the large hangar door that he just waltzed in with his jeep. "Fire extinguishers, first aid kits here and here."
The girls nodded with varying levels of enthusiasm, though none raised their hands yet.
"For cutting the armor plates, a fire watch will be on duty today. That would be either Fernanda or Aurelie, both of whom should be arriving soon. The hangar doors will remain open, so as to ventilate any gases and fumes. Please don't close them for whatever reasons. Use respirators if it gets excessive."
"Machine operators, be vigilant and look out for hazards, like your fellow colleagues nearby. If you can't see clearly or isn't sure, just stop and double-check. It will do you no good to rush. Always have a buddy working alongside you watching your back."
"Finally," Ricky concluded the long presentation. "If you notice anything unsafe, let one of us at the Safety Team know. We are here to look out for you."
He minimized the PowerPoint, signaling the end of the presentation, while he took a sip from a water flask. A hand rose excitedly from the crowd. It was Arwen.
"Am I allowed to 'ride the ball'?"
"I'm sorry?" He asked, confused.
"Ride the ball!"
"What do you mean 'ride the ball'?" Ricky asked again. Giggles began rippling through the girls.
Arwen put a hands in front of her, as if she was clinging to a pole or a rope. "I came in like a wrecking ball…" She sang.
"Oh." He finally understood. His tongue clicked with exasperation. "No, you are not allowed to 'ride the ball' in any circumstances. Only personnel platforms you can ride on."
The snickers continued after his pointed answer, as the Jeopardy theme began to play in his head.
When he finally put two and two together, his face hit his palm, a growl escaped him. He was not ready for this.
When Aurelie and Fernanda arrived at the hangar, Ricky looked like a totally different person.
"No, please do not catch sparks with buckets...you're not recycling them…"
His innocent eyes were no more. He sat with his back slacked on the chair, one knee pulled up to his chest, the other jutting out graceless, his forehead glued to his hand. When he saw his two colleagues, he barely moved, just weakly waving them over.
"Alright, they're here." Ricky declared. "Let's get going."
The girls finally stopped bugging him and began gearing up.
"That bad, huh?" Both Fernanda and Aurelie giggled. Ricky stood up impassively.
"I don't know. Maybe it wouldn't be when they finally get to work." He said, just as a shout echoed in the hangar.
"Hohoho, I have 6 eyes now!" Came from one girl as she put her protective goggles in front of her personal glasses. A very reassuring sight, the safety inspector intern stretched his neck several times.
While the girls, Ermelinda joining the dirty hands as well, were cutting through the upper portion of the Karl Gerat, Fernanda went in and disabled any ignition sources and cut off the batteries, leaving Aurelie on initial fire watch, and Ricky on supervising duty.
Pointing at two girls who just threw a wrench up. "You two, do NOT throw! They're tools, not candies!"
"Sorry Ricky!" They said, but he wondered if they actually listened.
"Fernanda." Meanwhile, the Blue Division former captain emerged from the Karl to be waved by Aurelie from the elevated platform. "Take over fire watch for me. I'll go help Ricky."
"Alright, give me a sec." Fernanda put away the tools and ascended the platform.
It wasn't long until he ragged on another group of girls basically having a competition cutting through metal. They weren't normal steel, but reinforced von-Braun molecule platings, so the specialized tools used to cut through the metal were stronger. Steel toe boots and gloves were also specially built for protection, but that was no excuse to have fun with a tool that could slice your limbs off like magma on butter.
"Hey Ricky. Let me help you." Aurelie walked forward and banged on the Karl's side. "Ladies, I will let you play tank tags later. Keep yourself together."
Like little kids, they gleefully obeyed and slowed down. A self-satisfied Aurelie strut back to her colleague.
"Thank you." He said. "You truly are their captain."
"A lot of us are still little kids at heart." Aurelie giggled. "On the other hand, you're growing more and more like Heidi, Ricky."
"Oh, do I..." His reply was sarcastic. "I don't think you can find two people more polar opposite than us two."
"You never know." Aurelie said. "People are shaped by their environment, and you've absorbed her lessons better than most."
Ricky couldn't imagine. He might be getting the hang of how strict safety rules should be enforced, and annoyed at how casually people ignore them, but to be like Heidi was a different story. She was more Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann, and him, at best, Mr. Moseby.
But when he saw a telehandler rolled up to the hangar with chains attached to the forks, something was heating up inside him.
"What are you doing? I thought we have a crane prepared for today." Ricky stopped the vehicle before it entered.
"It was borrowed by the Senshado team earlier today." The operator replied.
"Oh whoops." Aurelie said. "Should be in one of the hangars there."
"Alright then let's get it. No need to improvise." He ordered.
"We're already here, we might as well-"
His tongue clicked. "Just do it."
"But-"
"IT'S THE LAW!"
The operator made a hasty retreat from the bitter smile on Ricky's face. It was his blood that was boiling, it turned out.
It took a while for the proper crane to be driven over. In the meantime, most of the required metal plates had been removed. The power generator were ported in on a cart. Aurelie scanned the tag on the generator and continued observing the crew's work, while Ricky looked over the paperwork to confirm it was the right one allocated, then updated its status on the appropriate database. The power generator that would normally be attended by someone were left there for a bit as the engine removal were delayed. No one paid it attention to see it slowly rolled on its own, building up momentum, towards Aurelie. No one but Ricky, whose heart sank seeing the cart.
"Aurelie!" He called out to her, but the sound of construction was too loud.
The cart, with its cargo combined weighing up to 68 kg, was closing in on her. He didn't think, he dashed out to her, grabbed her hand and pulled her to him. However, it was an overreaction. The cart's trajectory wasn't close to hitting her, and it was traveling slower than he thought it would. Someone eventually saw the cart rolling freely, caught it, and put the brakes on.
"Ricky."
It took a few seconds for Ricky to realize his and Aurelie's hands were still interlocked.
"Uhh, I'm…" He struggled for words, let her hand go, his cheeks blushed, and fingers fiddled, all in succession, then remembered who was on the power generator last. "ARWEN!"
"Whoops, sorry!" Ricky was not impressed by the cavalier attitude.
"That could've hit someone!"
"Ricky." Aurelie called him again. "Let's call a break."
He agreed. A break was called for 15 minutes. The Senshado team captain and her beleaguered intern walked out of the hangar for some fresh air.
"Thank you, Ricky." Aurelie said. "I could've been hurt without you."
"It's nothing." Ricky responded. "It wouldn't have hit you anyway."
"It might have. It's the thought that counts." She smiled warmly. "How have you been doing lately?"
"Not bad, though I think that's not what you're asking for." He replied, reminded that he still saw her a few times a week. That 'lately' was for something else, and this time, he was going to ask her directly.
"We're making progress, though we've hit a big roadblock." He said.
"That's not good." She replied.
"The solution is...you." Ricky said. Her eyebrows tipped, but she didn't seem surprised. "I guess there's no point dancing around it anymore, so I'll ask directly. Do you know what I'm working on?"
Aurelie was silent for a moment. "Not to what I would like, but at the same time, it might be better this way."
An enigmatic response, not far off from what he anticipated, but it left him unsure how to respond.
"Do you want to…" He sighed. "I'm sorry, I will have to let you know. It is important for us."
Aurelie didn't say anything, but her smile seemed to say 'Go for it'. Ricky gave her as much time to protest before continuing.
"I'm, no, we are investigating the 56th Senshado Tournament accident again. We, being Fernanda, I, and Heidi."
Aurelie nodded acknowledging.
"In that hangar is Masala's tank. There's a lot we need to examine. We need people, tools, equipment. Things that Mrs. Shimada cannot know about."
"You need me to coordinate them?"
"...Yes."
"Very happy to." She agreed quickly. "But I can only speak for myself. I cannot guarantee if the others would be as willing."
"I understand." Ricky said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I've heard that everyone, or most of everyone, comes from the same generation as you three. Would that be something that might be in favor of us?"
"Could go either way. But having spent years through thick and thin with these ladies, I can hope."
"You and I both."
Aurelie extended her hand. "Though I will not participate in the investigation...for personal reasons."
"That's…"
A little surprising. He still remembered the chat he had with her, with her saying that she was more open to talking about Masala than Heidi and Fernanda. They didn't have too much issues joining him, so he thought Aurelie would be just the same, but apparently not.
"I understand." He acknowledged and switched topic, but his curiosity didn't go away. They chatted until the break ended.
The remainder of the day went on without more incidents, though Ricky still needed to correct the girls a few more times. The most dramatic, but ironically least stressful moment, was the test of the autoloading mechanism. Lines of power cables led into the Karl Gerat, as metallic panels still strewn across the hangar or jutting out of the vehicle like an unfinished Lego set.
The Karl Gerat's cannon was lowered to zero elevation, its breech opened. The mechanism was loaded with a replica shell, using the exact outer casing but with inert filling. With the power generator roaring, Ermelinda pressed a button on her control panel. The mechanism creaked with sounds of metal scraping, banging, and thudding, rising from inside of the hull. A loud clang rumbled, the railing lined up perfectly with the breech. Another button was pressed, the manual cranks visible from the outside rotated automatically, the shell on its carriage inched closer to the breech.
It worked to a tee thus far. Ermelinda pressed another button. Another crank moved, the rod behind the shell pushed the shell over the ramp railing and onto the breech. The shell firmly inside the gun, the ramrod moved away, every movement observed intently by everyone present: the engineers, the Safety Team and Ermelinda. The final clang when the breech closed shut elicited cheers and fist-pumps from the crowd. Ricky gave them applause between his sighs. His job today was done. It wasn't the end, in fact the Karl's modification wouldn't finish for a long time yet, but Heidi would be back the next time they supervise. He'd feel more confident with her backing him.
How much weight was behind that charming smile of hers?
A question on Ricky's mind was answered by accident 4 years ago to Masala. Up until that point, Aurelie was a casual friend. She hung out with Masala and Fernanda at an arm's length, through school festivities, Senshado events, occasionally gaming with the two. The more cynical might call that an acquaintance than a friend. Fernanda befriended Aurelie after the former was whooped out of the tournament, and Masala befriended Heidi after she was whooped. They were more interested in their Senshado, but Masala disagreed. Every friend starts out with an invisible barrier between them and everyone, but a good friend is found or not when one crosses that barrier.
The day was young, the Hawaiian sun was blazing, the festival was in full swing, delicious food and beverage were served, Fernanda was going wild dancing in the distance. Blue Division never disappoint when it comes to festivals.
"Hmm, I can't get enough of this soft drink. Goes so well with the tortilla." Aurelie broke etiquette of speaking while eating. "What is this? It's not coke as far as I can tell."
"It's...Jarritos, I think..." Masala looked at the girls in the stall they just ordered, pouring a cup of the same drink. "That's not Spanish, but who cares."
"I'm honestly going to lose my cool. This is way too good." Aurelie took another big gulp. She still looked elegant, but this would be considered out of line for a Maginot student. Masala didn't mind it though.
"Ooh…" She eyed something from another stall. This was the coffee stall. She never liked coffee, but there was one exception: French vanilla. She had it once when going to Canada, and she was obsessed. The creamy sweetness just melted in her mouth.
"You lose your cool here ok? I'll join you soon." Masala said. Aurelie only nodded, still taking bites, still gulping on the Jarritos. The St. Gloriana captain returned with a cup of steaming hot French vanilla.
The fragrance passed by Aurelie's nose. She stopped eating, froze in place, her eyes blinked rapidly.
Masala noticed this. "What's wrong?"
"Sorry, umm…" Aurelie said, as if something was in her throat. "Give me a moment."
She strode away.
Masala was confused, replaying the previous conversation in her head. Did she do or say something she shouldn't have?
She could still see Aurelie from a distance. The Maginot Consul bearing a pair of red epaulet on her uniform entered a public restroom isolated from the rest of the festival stalls.
Masala followed her. Among the empty stalls, she heard a muffled sob.
"Aurelie?" She asked, knocking on the door. "It's me."
The sound of the door unlocking was the answer.
Aurelie's eyes were puffed. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Her right sleeve was soaked.
"Aurelie…" Masala uttered. Without a second thought, she reached out and wrapped her arms around Aurelie.
"Don't mind me." Was all she said. Her hands rubbed Aurelie's back in slow, soothing circles. Aurelie leaned in, her face buried in Masala's shoulders, her embrace returned tighter.
It took Aurelie 10 minutes to let it out. She wasn't in the mood or the place to be sharing her story, so they returned to the festival pretending like nothing happened. But that day, Masala crossed the barrier. There existed a girl in her final act of love.
A tank battle in a Girls und Panzer fic. What a concept.
It's a little filler, but I do want to build on ASU team lore. I had the pleasure of rewatching Der Film in preparation for this chapter. Great movie, great action, but a little sad that ASU hasn't made any appearances afterward outside of the Bermudas trying to commentate Das Finale games, and Alice. Even in fanfic territory I see very few stories centered around them. I always thought out of all the teams, they are the most well-organized and had the most coherent strategies, so this chapter is supposed to be a bit of a fanservice to them.
I'm likely going to create a battle archive for 'A Tanker's Guardian' in the future. Any memorable battles that don't fit into the scope of the main story will go there. The Gloriana + Kuro vs Maginot + BC exhibition mentioned in this chapter would be a good example. The Olympiad will probably go there too. The crux of these battles will mainly be strategies, doctrines, team organization and Senshado style. A more arcade sport approach, if you will, (which is what GuP feels like anyway) from my experience playing chess and watching sports and RTS games.
After Aurelie's chapters (should be next chapter), the investigation will kick into high gears. As always, thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next chapter!