Chapter 12: Cracking Enigma
4 months had passed since the incident that hospitalized a student. The final report had been released, blaming human error in poor maintenance for causing a transmission malfunction. It wasn't received well.
"A statement from Minister Marika Hayashida of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Tourism. 'Is this an investigation or a finger-pointing game? Are we really playing whack-a-mole with student's lives? This isn't the first time this happened under the oversight of the Fe-'"
"That's enough."
At the front of the boardroom, a lady with dull brown hair commanded, almost yelling, the wrinkles in the corners of her twitching with each word. Her tempers had grown to become landmines that other members in the boardroom didn't dare tread. The mild-mannered atmosphere would have turned the landmines into active bombs, if not for the intervention of a man named Renta Tsuji.
"This is out of line for Marika. She's in the Ministry of Transport; why does she think she has the right to comment on Senshado matters?"
"School ships are part of the MILT's jurisdiction." Stated Shiho, sitting beside Renta, side-glancing him.
"Not tankery." He corrected. "This is not something she should poke her nose in."
"She has the right to speak." Shiho's voice was firm. "Just as we have the right to ignore her. We don't have to act."
Chiyo sat there, observing in silence. They were right, but politics was very rarely this simple.
Marika Hayashida was an odd presence in tankery politics. She was a Senshado athlete in the 1970s and was in fact Chiyo's trainer way back in her days. The former 'Great Tsar' of Pravda was considered a traditionalist from her disapproval of abolishing the school ship system, Senshado and its vehicle-combat-related sports. Though an Old Guard she was, she also wasn't tolerant of her bullheaded traditionalist colleagues either. Nicknamed 'Scary Mary' by those in the school ship industry for her strong language and persistence, anyone who stood in her way, political allies and enemies alike, was bound to suffer withering criticism. She had been an activist on the issue of school ship safety ever since she joined the MILT. Having met shrugs of indifference from MEXT, JSDF, and other regulatory bodies for far too long, her tone had taken a much sharper, condemning tone, sometimes coming close to accusing members of profiteering and the likes.
Chiyo knew Marika would not stop. This conflict with JSF, if not deescalated, could boil into an open public feud, which could get ugly, as if the accidents in recent years hadn't already been a stain on Japanese tankery's reputation. She hoped this would have stirred the JSF into finally taking action, but she was too optimistic.
"A lion doesn't concern itself with the opinions of a sheep." Shiho quoted. A deeply ironic statement coming from her.
"Right." Many members in the boardroom nodded in obedience. Chiyo and an older bald gentleman sitting a few seats away from her didn't follow along. His name was Shichiro Kodama.
"Mrs. Maeda." He spoke, his voice a little raspy. "While Mrs. Hayashida is not one to command how we conduct operations, let's pretend the criticism is not from her. Let's pretend that it's from an insider…like me, if you are able to imagine me writing those scathing words. What would be your response to that?"
"Tch." One could hear clearly the chairman ticking her tongue. "That it's unfounded criticism. That our investigation is of the highest quality, with many industry experts as advisors. That the report has gone under multiple reviews and stamps of approval from different agencies before publication. What else do you want?"
"That's…good, ma'am." Shichiro sat back. God bless the man, he tried.
Chiyo sighed. She began to doubt. Could what she was doing make a difference?
Like most militaries of millenniums past, All-Stars was the product of Chiyo Shimada, but their loyalty lied with their general, or captain. Aurelie certainly earned their respect. She wasn't from an elite family; she struggled the same things they did, but wherever she went, she led her team to unbelievable heights. She always conducted herself with the gravitas of an everyday-woman, and in turn, the team saw her as such: as one of them.
But more importantly, this was a subject near and dear to many.
"Can't believe that's what in there…"
"Fernanda's in it too?"
Aurelie stood with her arms crossed.
"You know why?" She asked rhetorically.
"Yeah…" A girl named Marisol nodded. A former Blue Division student, she owed Fernanda her Senshado success. She had also met Masala multiple times.
"I don't blame her." The other girl, Laurie, replied. She was a Maple graduate. Her outings with St. Gloriana and Masala were lovely times she could never get back.
"I don't know…" Marisol sighed; her eyes darted around between the two. "It's not proper to do things without the headmistress's approval."
"I completely understand." Aurelie nodded. "You needn't give us an immediate answer."
"That's fine for me." Laurie replied firmly. "Give me a few days heads-up and she won't suspect a thing."
"…If that's the case, I don't think you'll need my involvement. I'll pretend to not know anything." Marisol said.
"I'll take full responsibility if she finds out, don't worry." Laurie followed, patting Marisol on the shoulder.
"Right. I will let them know." Aurelie replied. "Thank you both so so much."
"That's the least I can do." Laurie nodded. Marisol looked hesitant for a bit, before speaking up as well.
"Please don't tell anybody this but…" She looked up at Aurelie, her eyes glistening. "I hope you all succeed."
Aurelie's cheeks puffed with pride as she bowed to both of them. These girls never fought and barely knew each other before All-Stars, but their camaraderie with each other and with their team members was awe-inspiring. If there needed proofs of Senshado creating virtuous women, this would be a fine example.
However, not everyone was so stoked.
While she sat alone after a debrief, waiting for Ricky and others to come, a girl from the Security Team waved her over.
"Captain." She greeted her politely but with a monotonous voice. "Hina told me you're going around and letting people know about Mrs. Shimada's project."
"Mhm." Aurelie didn't even deny it, rattling the Security girl a little.
"How did you even know of this to begin with?"
"Fernanda informed me."
"That guy must have told her." The girl crossed her arms huffing.
Aurelie leaned her head forward slightly. "Do you disapprove, Risa?"
Risa was baffled. "You should know this, captain. We're not allowed to interfere with what the headmistress is doing."
"Oh, I know. But nevertheless, here we are." Aurelie shrugged. "Do you know why Mrs. Shimada doesn't want our involvement?"
"I…" She paused. "No, she didn't say why."
Aurelie looked somewhat disappointed. "Well, what are you going to do now that you know?"
"I was going to let you know to stop, but it doesn't seem like you're going to. The next step is to report this to the headmistress." Risa stated.
Aurelie's expressions remained unchanged. She knew things weren't going to be smooth sailing. Risa was also someone Aurelie expected to complain.
"You're an honest girl, Risa." Aurelie said. "I won't stop you. Go ahead if you must."
Risa looked almost offended. What she thought would be denial and resistance was instead acceptance and a piercing gaze daring her to try it. And the fact that this came from someone who Risa always looked up to felt like a knife in the back, even though Aurelie had never done such a thing.
"I will." Risa stated sternly, calling her bluff.
"I hope you're ready to explain yourself to the team." Her captain replied, turning her head slightly.
"Are you threatening me, captain?" The teal-haired girl growled.
"I know what I'm getting into when I decided to tread on this ice. I just want to ensure you know too." Aurelie replied. "You're not simply being dutiful. Many here are unsatisfied with the secrets the headmistress is keeping from them. You understand why, surely?"
Risa stayed quiet. Her eyes briefly broke contact. She understood. She was one of them. She watched the news unfold with horror. She saw the grief-stricken St. Gloriana students herself. She witnessed the desolation that followed – the demotivated faces of her own teammates, the empty spectator stands, the minute of silence before a match.
Aurelie crossed her arms behind her back, maintaining eye contact. Her movement was ever so slight, so subtle and natural, likened to a mother hen guiding her chicks.
"I'm ready to have my captaincy revoked, my Senshado privilege taken away, hell, an academic dishonesty on my profile if she's willing, if it means finding out the truth that day."
"You're willing to go that far, just as the Olympiad is around the corner?"
"You overestimated how much I care about prestige, this team or otherwise." Aurelie said defiantly. "If you value honesty that much then go tell her, and explain it to everyone. I'm certain they would be appreciative of your lawful yearning."
Her captain's biting sarcasm stunned Risa into silence. She looked down and away.
"Now…" Aurelie continued as if the matter was settled. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Risa hesitantly shook her head.
"If you would excuse me, I'll have to do some tank inspections." Aurelie said.
Risa left quickly seeing Heidi, Fernanda, and Ricky approaching the two of them. Aurelie's gaze lingered on Risa for a moment longer.
"Good afternoon Aurelie." Ricky greeted. "How are things?"
"Not bad." She replied.
"What's your progress?" Heidi asked.
"We're doing fine. So far, I've guaranteed the support of the Finance Team, Logistic, Campus Operation, Engineering. The Scheduling Team is on board, most of the Security Team as well…"
"Most?" Heidi looked concerned.
"Don't worry, she won't follow through." Aurelie reassured. "As for the Senshado team, virtually all second and third years agreed to help. The fourth years and higher are more 'I won't get in your way' types. The juniors I haven't asked much."
"Makes sense." Fernanda shrugged. "So that would be around 80 percent of the team will actively support us?"
"Something like that yeah." Aurelie answered.
"Wow, you're awesome!" Ricky exclaimed. "We could never have done it without you."
"Hehe." Aurelie tapped her chest with pride. "How about everyone else?"
"Me and Heidi were still combing through the maintenance records." Ricky said. "The JSF's maintenance on March 21 didn't find anything wrong with the turret, so they didn't do anything. Neither did St. Gloriana during the 6 months leading up to the accident."
"One thing to note though is that St. Gloriana had essentially no procedure around armor maintenance. The only thing they do is a visual check, and if something looks out of the ordinary they report it to the JSF, who would send a team to assess and replace them if needed." Heidi crossed her arms. "But this is only recommended, not required, and it takes three to four business days for the JSF to respond."
"That's not a rigid system I'd say, but not unexpected given my impression so far of Senshado culture." Ricky said. "Correct me if I'm wrong though."
"No...you're right..." Aurelie's lethargic response was laden in shame.
She would be pretentious to say she would have cared. High schoolers weren't going to be bothered by the miniscule chance that an accident could happen because of a lapse in proper procedure. The coined term for it is 'Normalization of Deviance'. They had seen it first-hand with Hannah. People had schedules to keep, things they needed to accomplish, expectations to meet. She wouldn't have cared either if things like an extra training session were needed, one that might determine victory and defeat. No, it was only when Masala died that pushed Aurelie to care so much about safety.
"Whatever, at least they actually wrote down maintenance logs." Fernanda shrugged. "This means improper maintenance isn't going to play a role here."
"...Not necessarily." Ricky flattened his lips. "There's no maintenance done on the mantlet in the year prior to the accident, so there's no chance of a badly done maintenance. But it's more likely that whatever environmental damage was caused to that mantlet would go unnoticed."
"Or worse, it was spotted but no one bothered to report it because it's not mandatory." Heidi added. "I'll try to chat with Ceylon again. Hopefully she'll hear me out."
"Okay, you do that then." Ricky said.
"As for me…" Fernanda spoke. "They've delivered the Churchill turret I ordered a week ago."
"Already?" Ricky asked. "I thought you aren't gonna test this until we can get the mantlet to the labs."
"That's my initial thought, but I reconsidered." Fernanda took a deep breath, preparing herself for the lengthy explanation.
Fernanda had gone through both Chiyo's and the published JSF report a few times. The explosive calibration of the Jagdtiger shell was expertly carried out by a metallurgist employed by the JSDF. It was detailed, accurate and replicable. Nothing Fernanda could comment on.
With this specially configured shells, they proceeded to test fire against a mantlet plate. They did three tests in total. The first test was just the shell fired at point blank range against the mantlet. The second test was a partial recreation of the match. After a 65-minute lull in combat, the final forty minutes was all caught on camera with at least twelve shell hits recorded by sensor 15, in which investigators cross-examined to recreate as accurately as possible. The last test was a torture test, with eighty shells being fired at the mantlet straight on at 200 meters, before the modified Jagdtiger shell was fired at point blank against the mantlet. All three tests failed to penetrate the plate, which led to the investigators to reluctantly conclude the investigation was inconclusive.
The tests seemed quite thoroughly done, but it wasn't perfect. On the second test, the investigators remarked that the 65-minute lull was: "well enough time for the armor to cool down and recover". For such a loaded statement, Fernanda was quite shocked that there were literally no proof attached to it. No test conducted or academic source cited. It was just written as if it was common sense, which it wasn't.
But this lapse wasn't what Fernanda wanted to focus on. The third test was something she wanted to replicate, and she wanted to do better.
"We'll need 200 shells for this torture test." Fernanda suggested.
Heidi and Aurelie looked at each other.
"That's doable." Heidi shrugged. "Just as many as we used in an average mock battle."
"If you're looking for a day to perform the test, Wednesday is the perfect day." Aurelie said. "Mrs. Shimada won't be here, and there is a gunner training. But it's gonna be a rush to prepare."
"That's the day after tomorrow…" Fernanda bent her head back. "Fine. We'll gun for it. This is what we'll need to do before then."
The day of the test arrived. Security Team reported Chiyo was not in office. Engineering Team was urgently called upon to replicate the improperly loaded Jagdtiger shell, which they accomplished. Three Panther Gs, three Jagdpanzer IV/75, a Tiger I, two Tiger IIs, one Ferdinand and a Jadgtiger were brought out from the reserve storage for this test. Ammunition came in batches gradually.
The Senshado team members taking part in the original gunner training had received a briefing beforehand. Despite the rush, they took the change of plan with unexpected enthusiasm. This test to them was a nice change to an otherwise boring routine training.
Besides, they rarely had the opportunity to meet this inspector they heard so much about otherwise.
"He's here."
"Here's your chance. Go say hi!"
Ricky arrived halfway through the preparation to give Aurelie a helping hand. He rolled his jeep up to the grass field where the tanks are parked. A blue-haired girl from the Senshado team was there to meet him.
"Hi Ricky…" She greeted him shyly. "You may not know me, I'm Harumi."
"Harumi…" Ricky looked up for a second. "You reported about the barrel rust in T34 number 03, right?"
"Yes! Wow, you remembered…"
"Ahaha, my memory is strangely good recalling random memories." He laughed. "Thank you so much for bringing it up. I'm glad we caught it early."
"No problem. Thank you for fixing it." Harumi replied. "Would you like to join us some time for lunch? We don't know you very well outside of work. It'd be great if you can…"
"Oh yes please. I'm available from 11 AM to 12 PM, if you're sure it's no trouble." Ricky answered with a hand on his chest.
"No no, you're always welcome!" Harumi exclaimed. "W-We love your shirt by the way."
"Oh, thank you." He blushed. "I'm glad you liked it."
"Dear god…" One of the girls in the back groaned. "So sugary."
"It's like Winnie and Paddington out here." Another laughed. "You know, he does look like Paddington with the mannerism."
"Let's dress him up next time. I'll bring the red hat, you bring in the blue coat?"
"Good idea."
"Deal."
Ricky walked up to the group completely oblivious to the scheme, with Harumi shyly following.
Heidi and Fernanda arrived alongside Arwen and the engineering team a few minutes later, riding atop a Churchill and a few ammunition trucks.
"Afternoon Ricky! Afternoon capt!" Arwen waved excitedly.
The vehicles came to a stop, greetings and salutations were exchanged, then they got to work.
"This is the reserve Churchill's hull, isn't it?" Ricky asked.
"It is!" Arwen said. "We removed the old turret and put this one in. We also painted the mantlet gold for everyone to see."
"Are we not supposed to use the reserve Churchill?" Ricky whispered to Fernanda.
"Don't worry! It should be fine. Any explosives or inflammable materials have already been removed." Fernanda said. "The damage should be relatively contained in the turret area. We'll fix whatever broke after the fact."
"I'll trust your judgment, Fernanda." Ricky shrugged. He didn't expect the torture test to work anyway. "One more thing: I hope I'm not offending anyone, but the target area is pretty small. Can we guarantee we can hit it so many times?"
"These girls are the best gunners in the team." Heidi joined in, jumping down from the test Churchill. "Some are the best in Japan."
"If you don't mind, we'd like to take a moment. So as to get a feel of the shots we need to fire." One tester said.
"Take all the time you need." Ricky said with hands clasped together.
The testers mounted their tanks. Meanwhile Heidi, being a tester as well, looked at the Jagdtiger in front of her. Its menacing gun pointed slightly upward, as if saluting an old comrade. It had been a while since she last commanded this monster. She suddenly remembered that moment when she pulled the trigger. Her hands suddenly erupted with tingling sensations.
"You okay Heidi?" Fernanda asked.
"Don't worry." Heidi replied calmly, rubbing her hands together.
She trusted that the duty would quiet her emotions down like the many times it did before. She could always let it out later to her friends. Right now, she had a job to do.
"Don't push yourself." Fernanda knew how Heidi works, but couldn't help but say. "Ricky, Aurelie, come."
A table was set up on a flat area of the field, far away from the Churchill and the other tanks. Fernanda opened her laptop and booted up the monitoring programs. Arwen prepared the temperature and impact force sensors from inside the Churchill. She then exited to give Fernanda the connecting wire hooked to the onboard tank computer. The monitoring software flashed multiple green check marks, confirming good connections.
"I didn't even know this feature existed." Aurelie looked at Fernanda's laptop screen with amazement.
"These were used by the investigation team at the JSF." Ricky said. "Makes sense it has fancy functionalities."
"So what are we looking for?" Aurelie asked.
"Our golden number is 202 degrees. So this mark." Fernanda pointed at the screen. "That's when armor integrity is compromised. We are looking for sustained 200 degrees plus temperature."
"Mhm." Aurelie nodded. She convinced herself she understood, but it was still intimidating watching all these mystical numbers, icons, and graphs on the software. She decided to leave that work to her two smart friends, and instead walked to the table next to them, where the radios were set up. She picked up the headset and got into her elements.
"Report when you are ready." She spoke into her handset.
"Emy ready!"
"Heidi ready."
"Harumi, ready to go!"
"Takara, all systems set."
Replies were disharmonious, but Aurelie counted the replies.
"Alright, we're good to go." She said, looking over to Fernanda, who gave a thumbs-up.
"A reminder for everyone: this is a torture test. Fire at will but try not to fire all at once. Accuracy matters more than shooting first."
"Roger!" This reply was in unison. The gunners and loaders stood at standby, listening intently.
"The test begins in three...two...one...Fire!"
The mist shrouding the St. Gloriana accident had sent uncertain chills across the nation. But now, even if just a small layer, the mist was being lifted. The heat was rising.
The first shell hitting the mantlet created a bump in temperature, from 22.9 degrees Celsius to 41.2, then it slowly fell. The second shell created another bump to 60.3. The third to 76.4.
Ricky and Fernanda held their breath. It looked promising at first. After the first fifteen shells, the temperature had hit 113 degrees. But that was mostly from the explosives inside the shell heating up the plate upon contact. Each successive shell had diminishing returns, and there would be a plateau.
The number of hits climbed. But the temperature did not follow. It began to slow down at 135 degrees. The 30th mark came and went. The temperature leveled off at 157 degrees Celsius, around 50 degrees below the critical temperature.
Fernanda and Ricky looked at each other concernedly as the test continued. The 60th mark came. When the 61st shot was fired, a signal was given through the intercom for Heidi to take the shot. Instinctively, she pulled the trigger.
It wasn't too different from other tanks, but this shot they could feel its roar in their bones. The 128mm specially configured AP shell slammed into the Churchill mantlet and exploded. When the smoke cleared, the Churchill was completely intact.
"Continue firing." Aurelie reminded the testers.
This wasn't all they were here for. The torture would continue. The mantlet continued to take shell after shell, but the temperature plateaued at around 156-157 degrees. At the 120th shell hit, the signal was given for Heidi to try again. The Churchill still remained intact. Then the 160th mark. It stood like nothing happened.
Ricky sat with his chin on his hand as he looked at Fernanda's laptop. The critical temperature had not been reached. He did not expect the armor to fail here. It was then that he noticed something about the impact force measurements. He kept it at the back of his mind for now, thinking he might have misremembered.
Right as the 200th shell was fired.
"That's enough."
The Churchill stood defiantly. The armor worked as intended.
"We got what we needed." Fernanda called on the radio. "Thank you everyone for participating. Please return the tanks to the hangars for inspections."
By all means, this wasn't supposed to solve the investigation. But Aurelie and Heidi didn't look thrilled as they did the post-test inspections, while Ricky was deep in thoughts in the corner.
"Cheer up guys! We aren't gonna get the golden nugget just yet. This is just the beginning." Fernanda tried to lighten up her two friends.
"Yeah." Aurelie acknowledged. "I just thought it was gonna be something more than confirming what we already knew. Perhaps I expected too much."
"You probably did." Fernanda shrugged. "It's a long and arduous process."
"Mhm." Aurelie quietly accepted. She turned to Heidi to ask how she was doing. Being in the Jagdtiger again after accidentally killing Masala wasn't something one could just do without emotional baggage.
Speaking objectively, the test revealed several key points:
1) The JSF claim was bogus: In this torture test, the mantlet was hit 2.5 times more shells than in real life in under 20 minutes. If the 'supercharged' Jagdtiger shell wasn't able to pierce through the armor in such condition, how could one believe it was able to do it in the actual match? Chiyo's report was right to conclude it as it did, and this test reinforced that verdict.
2) The temperature of the armor did not heat up to the critical temperature: Even with the engine and heating system online, the recorded temperature of the mantlet could only go up to 157 degrees Celcius, where it plateaued and remained stable. In other words, under normal operating conditions, the armor integrity of the von-Braun composite could not have been compromised. Something was amiss. Either the armor had been damaged by environmental factors, or the plate was a manufacturing defect from the start.
For the third point…
"You look quiet Ricky." Fernanda noticed. Ever since she gave him her laptop, he had been staring intensely at it. She patted and rubbed his shoulder, but his expressions didn't change. That got her curiosity.
"Whatchu got?" She uttered, joining his stare.
"The measured impact forces." Ricky spoke. "It's different from what I saw in the accident vehicle."
"Of course it'll be different. We're firing at a zero-degree angle at only 200 meters." Fernanda said.
"But look at the numbers." Ricky pointed, pulling up both values on the same small screen. "The test vehicle had three times higher measurement than in the accident vehicle. Sometimes almost four times."
Fernanda took a few seconds looking over it, the cogs in her head spinning.
"…You're right." She realized. "It's not just a few times, it's all consistently higher."
As Aurelie and Heidi looked over, Fernanda stood up with vigor, taking off the cap of the whiteboard marker as if she was ripping apart some gift wraps. With furious gusto, she wrote 'FAULTY IMPACT SENSOR?' on it, then circled it three times, as if once was not enough.
"We still have time for another test?" She asked.
"I just dismissed everyone." Aurelie sounded a bit annoyed. "What's going on?"
"The sensor may not be working properly. It explains why the mantlet sustained that many shells to begin with. I want to see if we can…" Fernanda snapped her fingers multiple time, squeezing the words out of her brain. "recalibrate one of the number groups in the data sheet."
"What do you mean exactly?"
"We find a moment in the championship match when the mantlet was hit, then recreate that moment, measure its impact force, see if it lines up. We'll know if the sensor works or not."
"Hmm." Heidi reminisced. The hypothesis seemed to have unlocked something in her. The Churchill in that match was known for its persistence and resilience. It took on shots that should have disabled it and ended St. Gloriana's miracle run. Now that she thought about it, it made no sense that a Churchill could have taken on 62 shells from 75, 88 and 128mm guns. Senshado wasn't exactly known for having accurate or consistent shell penetration simulation, but even that was too much.
"Can we see the match footage?"
They opened the video and Heidi fast-forwarded it to a particular point at the 4-hour mark of the match. This was the one moment that caused a lot of confusion among her Kuromorimine teammates. The scene was set at a cliff. In one of Masala's daring surprise attacks, she ambushed the Kuromorimine tanks, which were forced to split up and drop their impenetrable Panzerkeil formation. St. Gloriana's attack force, consisted of Cromwells, Crusaders and her own Churchill, slid down the rock-ladened cliff and engaged in a free-for-all with the Kuromorimine tank, every tank for itself.
The brawl was chaos, but one moment drew all attention. Masala's Churchill rushed towards a Panther G frontally, but then slid on its tracks to quickly get an angle on the Panther's left side armor. The Panther responded by swinging the turret towards the Churchill as it was drifting. Both tanks fired after the Churchill stopped.
"Pause right there!" Heidi snapped her fingers. The video stopped right as both tank's muzzle flashed. "Cross-check with the data. Do we have that recorded?"
The timestamp was 4:24:30. The recorder reported a hit at 4:21:19 seconds. Accounting for the 3 minutes of fanfare at the beginning of the match, this matched exactly.
"Looks like that's it!" Fernanda confirmed. "Both tanks are on flat ground, the impact angle looks like ten degrees, give or take. Distance is probably around twenty meters."
"And that should have killed the Churchill, don't you think?" Heidi said.
"Yeah. I remember seeing that live. My heart dropped there. I thought for sure it was done." Aurelie said.
"We haven't removed the testing modifications yet…" Ricky raised his hand to interject. "If it's only two tanks, we can probably do it."
"Then let's go!" Fernanda beckoned.
They drove the Churchill and a Panther G out to the field again. Once they got to a relatively safe distance from the hangars, Fernanda jumped out and coordinated the two tanks, controlled by Aurelie and Heidi respectively, while Ricky stayed inside the Panther, savoring the only time he could ride in a Senshado tank. It took a bit to accurately distance the tanks as in the footage.
"Stop stop!" Fernanda yelled on the radio. She looked back at the Churchill and then at the Panther. "We're good!"
Heidi crawled up and looked into the gun sight. She had enough experience behind the scope to tell that this was indeed twenty meters.
"Alright, I'm ready!" Fernanda climbed back into the Churchill, her laptop in front of her with the measurement software ready and all the wires hooked to the machine.
"Ready as well." Ricky saw Heidi's thumb-up and replied.
"Fire at will."
Heidi pulled the trigger. The supersonic shell slammed into the Churchill's mantlet and exploded. Fernanda fell back onto the driver's seat from the sheer force of the shell.
The numbers on the screen were three times higher than those of the data sheet. Her fingers shook a bit as she grabbed the radio handset.
"Can you fire again? Just to make sure."
Heidi went to reload the gun and then back to the gunner seat. The Panther fired again, and Fernanda fell back onto the driver's seat, but this time from realization.
Ricky was right. The impact sensor was faulty.
And if that wasn't enough confirmation, she enabled the 'White-Flag' module for another shot, and indeed, the white flag popped.
It was uncomfortable to think that the embodiment of Masala's indomitable spirit and determination turned out to be a mirage, created by a bad product. It was even more uncomfortable to think that Masala could have lived if the sensor had worked properly.
It was the price of an accident investigation. To realize that an accident happened not because of an unlucky once-in-a-million lightning strike, but myriad cascading faults – holes of a Swiss cheese slice lining up to disaster. All the tears, the pain, the trauma would not have been if even just one slice was filled or moved.
But at least they solved parts of the puzzle. Progress had been made.
Hi there!
It's been a busy holiday season, but I've managed to buckle down and got something out. I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter. I felt like some parts feel a bit too expository and too overloaded with information, while the characters are wall-flowers to the plot. I'm not exactly good at these chapters right after a huge arc to get the engine back going again, but it plants the seeds for future, hopefully better chapters. Chapter 13 will for sure be more character-focused as it interweaves with the mystery being lifted. Stay tuned for that! Hopefully I've given you something to entertain yourself a bit during this holiday season!
Thank you for the continued readership, and special thanks to BlackSpade13, for the Favorites, and Havel the Hebel once again for the regular reviews! You guys made things fun and keep me engaged! Happy Holidays to you and everyone else!