Chapter 8

Colonel Blake Abernathy observed the battlefield with a scowl. The field was void of green grass, bushes, trees, nothing expect the mud and broken metal pieces from tanks in previous engagements. The field of battle had turned from the normal Tank battle into a sit and wait World War one style of trench warfare. The two sides sat and watched each other for hours before one side decided to attack and the other countered after they repelled the attack. For half a month this was the norm, and Blake was getting tired of it.

"Colonel enemy reinforcements at ten O'clock!" Blake heard a spotter call. He turned his gaze and saw another mass of Challenger tanks moving to his right and lining up with another large group of Challenger tanks. The Federation was preparing another attack across No Mans Land.

"Get the guns up and prepare for another assault!" Blake called into his radio. A collective acknowledgment responded and the Mass of M60 Pattons raised their guns and trained them into the dead zone.

Akari watched as the M60's lined up their guns pointing them straight towards her. She sighed and shook her head, of course she shouldn't have expected the renowned Colonel Blake Abernathy to not be expectant of another attack. Oh she had read up on him, know your enemy and all that, Commander of his High Schools team for all four years, singlehandedly invented a new form of American Sensha-Do, landed himself in the Americans Hall of Fame. This man was a legend come to life.

"Commander, the force is ready for another assault." Chika informed her. Akari turned to her 2IC, she had that look in her eye again, the understanding that these bulldozing tactics wont win them this standoff. She was right. These back and forths hadn't reeled any results when they first started this fight but then just sitting here not doing anything yielded no results either.

"Alright, lets get going." Akari said moving towards her Challenger 2. She mounted the cupola and entered the hatch before she turned on her radio and spoke. "All forces assembled for our new assault, we keep moving even if we're being hammered out there. Make it to their line and disorganize them. Move out!"

The mass of Challenger tanks started up and began moving. They charged forward, over their defenses and into No Mans Land, and immediately the M60's shot up the front row. All the enemy shells impacted in front of the Federation charge causing a halt on the attack.

"Back up, back up!" called out one of the tank commanders. The front rank of Challengers reversed and drove back into Federation lines as Akari sighed again and smacked her head with her hand.

"Of all the damned-. Akari couldn't finish her sentence, her frustration reaching a breaking point. "Get everyone back, the attack is canceled."

Chika shook her head, exited her own tank, and hopped onto Akari's.

"Ma'am, what are we going to do now?" Chika asked.

"I don't know, nothing comes to mind. We're just going to be sitting here. How did things end up this way anyway?" Akari asked herself just as a tank shell impacted one of the Challengers off to her left. "What the hell was that!?"

"They shot at us Commander!" One of Akari's girls called out.

"Damn them." Akari said as she pulled up her binoculars and tracked the smoke trail to behind the M60 line. Behind the Association front, several meters to the south, was a small groupings of trees and bush. Within that clump of foliage sat a tank. A Grille Ausf H. The Americans did not have any of those. "What the hell is going on?"

"Who fired that!?" Blake called out on the radio. No one took responsibility for the shot and even the individual tank commanders were checking their tanks barrels. If they hadn't shot then who did? Blake lifted his binoculars and scouted to the south, where he saw the shot come from. His M60's were all without a smoking barrel, not a single on of his men fired that shell.

A small but still noticeable smoke trail caught Blakes eye. He followed it, behind his tank line, into a small group of trees and bushes. A tank barrel sticking out. Blake frowned and spoke into his radio.

"Tank behind the line in the bushes to my south, whats your units number!?" Blake demanded and silence responded. "What is your number!?

Nothing came back, but Blake did see the barrel of the tank with draw into the bush and disappear.

"I want a scout team to look into that group of trees, find me who shot that shot!" Blake ordered. An acknowledgement came into the radio as one of his M60's moved towards the clump of green.

"That barrel wasn't one of ours?" Faun said as he jumped onto Blakes tank.

"No, it wasn't. Whats going on?"

Miho rose her head above the debris and put her binoculars to her eyes. Across the barren landscape that has become No Mans Land she sees the boys of Virginia setting up another layer of defenses, sandbags, rubble, and broken metal beams. Miho gathered that the extra layer of defense was to compensate for another of Commander Davis's radical attacks along St. Gloriana's front. He's really had it out for Darjeeling lately and his fixation started to scare Miho. Maybe it was a good thing that they came to dismantle American Tankery, if all the American Commanders act like Mr. Davis then all for the better right? However the way he acted when she first met him the day before the match, when all the Major Commanders from each side met up, he seemed rather docile and nice. How had it come to him being this hate filled person?

"Miho, do you have all the information you need?" Yukari asked behind her. Miho lowered the bino's and turned to her friend.

"I think so. Extra defenses, meaning that Commander Davis might be going on another attack soon." Miho said.

"Why is he so gun-ho on attacking St. Gloriana? What happened between them?" Yukari asked. Miho could only shake her head. She didn't know, Darjeeling had refused to tell anyone, Assam hadn't spoken since whatever happened took place, and now St. Gloriana are disheveled, exhausted, and sick of Darjeeling's paranoia.

"Lets get back to the others. I need to warn Darjeeling and then we'll get set up for tomorrow." Miho said. Yukari nodded and started heading back to where Ooarai had set themselves up not too far away.

Ooarai's camp was simple but clean and moderately comfortable, with each tank occupying a small part of the front courtyard of the building they hid behind everyone could have their flanks covered by another one of the Tank Crews.

As Miho approached she saw Anzu and Momo talking with the most recent addition to their Tankery team. Five girls from the ship course, who apparently knew Momo from a previous year, had been approached by Momo some time before the team left for the match and asked for their help. The five ship course girls were more than happy to help Momo out and with the large Mk IV Male Tank they kept in their smoke room, a meat smoking room not one for tabaco, they had a new strong tank to the team.

The Shark team, as they have been called, was lead by Ogin. A tall girl with long black ahoge hair and perhaps the most flamboyant look among all the girls of Shark team. She wore a long black coat, black pirate boots, a red bow that tied her hair into a long ponytail, a red feather in her sailor hat and a toy pipe. Her front hair was done to cover her right eye in the same manner to that of a pirate's eye patch.

The second girl was Murakami, a well-built girl with a more muscular body then that of the other girls of Shark team. She has black spiked hair, sharp eyes and speaks rather rashly from what Miho has experienced.

The third girl, Cutlass, is a short girl, compared to the other girls of Shark team, with short blonde hair held up by a maids head band and a bow tie tied up on the collar of her Sensha Do jacket.

The forth girl, Flint, is a tall girl with long silver hair and relatively slanted eyes, yet when Miho talked to her she seemed very dramatic and even walks in such a dramatic and graceful manner.

The last girl, Rum, is a relatively short girl, thought taller than Cutlass, with brunette curly hair and sharp eyes. She could always be seen holding a bottle of what seemed to be juice or something and always walks as if she's drunk.

These five girls formed the new Shark Team, and within the time Miho has gotten to know them she can say they are a rather unique and interesting group of people, making them a perfect fit for the rag tag group that is Ooarai's Sensha Do team.

"Miho, what news?" Anzu asked as she saw her coming towards them. Momo and Ogin turned to meet her when they heard Anzu.

"Virginia set up another layer of defenses. Its most likely they're shoring up certain areas to gather as many of their tanks as possible for another run at St. Gloriana." Miho said.

"What is Davis's fixation with St. Gloriana anyway?" Momo asked. "Sure they've predominantly fought each other since arriving in this city but this is something else."

"If they attack St. Gloriana then their going to face a very heavy defense. Captain Darjeeling has set up heavy anti Pirate raiding defenses and is set upon repelling Captain Davis's attacks." Ogin said. Her Pirate lingo was unusual at first, but Miho and the girls were able to understand it eventually.

"Yes, but his incessant hatred towards Darjeeling is what worries me." Miho said with a frown. "Do you know what happened for him to get this way?"

Anzu and Momo shook their heads. They were just as clueless as she was, and that certainly didn't help their case.

"All we can do right now is continue with our finding areas of weakness for future strikes. If we can put pressure on Virginia then maybe they'll pull back and we can get some rest." Anzu said. Miho nodded before remembering she need to message Darjeeling about the possible attack.

"I need to call Darjeeling, lets have the team rest up for now and we'll move out in an hour." Miho said earning a nod from Anzu and Momo, while Ogin let out a small sigh of relief.

As Miho then walked to the Panzer IV she continued to think about what was going on with Commander Davis. She needed to know why he hated Darjeeling so much and what she could have done to deserve such hate. Although Miho doubted anything really bad happened to warrant such hatred, she needed to stay alert and figure somethings out. All she did know was that this yearlong match was going to feel a lot longer.