Chapter 18

Kuromorimine's guns fired a volley, the shells ripped through the air and impacted the defenses of Uncle Sam, led by the ever-infuriating Edward Hill. Maho snarled again as she saw the mass of Uncle Sam tanks line up and shoot a return volley, the impact against her own defenses were rough but no casualties yet. Several minutes since they started their daily firefight, and no one stood to score any hits or even attempt to engage a charge across the large spanning no mans land in between the two forces.

"Fire!" Maho ordered. The guns fired again and again the impact hit the American defenses. She saw one white flag pop up between the smoke and smirked, someone scored a hit.

"Incoming!" called Erika as Uncle Sam returned a volley again. Again the impact was heavy and hit hard. To her right Maho saw that one of her Panzer III's had taken a hit to its body, the white flag popped out with the ever familiar 'Thunk pa-Tunk' sound emanating its inoperability.

"That's one for each now." Maho said to herself as she prepared to call for another volley. She looked to her left and saw Erika, her friend rubbing her tired eyes and taking heavier gasps of air and frowned. Kuromorimine was supposed to be tougher then this, if the girls saw their Vice Commander was faltering on the day of battle it would worsen morale then it already has. The news of desertions in Hoja City, the news of a peace existing in Homedale, the news that even the Federation reinforcements couldn't break through the Association lines was causing a heavy damage to the spirit of the girls from Kuromorimine Girls Academy.

"Fire!" Maho ordered again. The guns fired, impact, Uncle Sam retaliates, impact. This was getting loathsome, what else can she do to find a way to break the Americans? What else was there?

"Fire!" Maho ordered. Guns fire, impact, retaliation, impact. Again and again, and for a split second Maho considered that this may all be in vain. She shook her head immediately and threw the thought away. Her mother told her the night before she left that she was counting on he to rid the world of the Americans insult to Sensha Do. Maho had to do this.

"Fire!" Maho Ordered. Guns fire, impact, retaliation, hard impact? Maho lurched backward as she felt her Tiger move forward barely a meter. 'What was that?' she thought to herself as she turned and saw the familiar sight of B.C. Freedoms ARL-44's on top of a hill, one of their barrels smoking, and aimed right for her tank. "WHAT!?"

B.C.'s tanks rolled down the hill and darted towards her. Maho frowned, confused. What the hell was happening? B.C. Freedom were their allies, did that shot come from a myriad of mistakes? No, the ARL-44's were crewed by the Escalator students of the school, there's no way such primed and proper girls would make such mistakes. The next shot from an ARL confirmed all of Maho's questions. B.C. had betrayed them.

"Enemy contact from behind us! Its B.C. Freedom, they've betrayed us, don't let them get away with this!" Maho ordered her radio. No one responded but she saw a number of her tanks turn and fire upon their new adversary. The Souma's came next, following their heavy tank allies and firing shots at Maho's medium tanks. The III's were taking most of the fire but Maho knew that they'd focus her more destructive tanks inevitably.

"More enemy forces from the north! It's Chi-Ha Tan!" called one of her girls on the radio. Maho momentarily froze. Nishi had betrayed them too. Why? What were these girls thinking?

"Anzio from the north west, they've fired upon us!" shouted another of her girls. Maho's eyes went wide. All of them? Why? What the hell was happening?

A boom from across no mans land caught Maho's attention. She turned and looked at Uncle Sams position and again bore confusion at the sight. More tanks had shown up at the other side, the symbols on the tanks showed them as the tanks from George Washington Boys Academy, Los Angeles High School of Tankery History, and South Texas High School, and they were firing at Uncle Sam.

"What the hell are you doing Moose!?" Edward called the commander of Washington over the radio obviously mad. Moose understood his anger, he was attacking his supposed ally but now he just needed to get Edward and Commander Maho into the same room to talk.

"Sorry Ed, but things are changing on this island. For better or worse I don't know, but what I do know is that the fighting between us and the Japanese schools needs to end." Moose said.

"WHAT!?" Edward was not happy. "Have you forgotten they are trying to take away our sport!? They'll do more then just that if we give up now!"

"I'm not saying give up Ed, just make a truce. A ceasefire so we can explain whats going on." Moose said trying to reason with him.

"I'm not going to give in to the likes of those Federation Pigs!" Edward said before cutting the connection. Moose sighed and returned his radio to his teams.

"Seems like Ed isn't for talking. Find and take him out, we'll need to force him to the table it seems." Moose said receiving an acknowledgement from his team.

Edward was the only one in the States that used a M18 Hellcat, so it was easy to spot him. He was at the front of the defenses between his school and the large desolate area of land that separated this side from the girls side. Edwards Hellcat turned and shot a shell towards one of Moose's tanks. It missed and the return fire also missed. Moose commanded his driver forward, his loader to load one of those special Lightweight Velocity Shells and instructed his gunner to hit Ed's Hellcat. The driver lined up the Wolverines position and the gunner took Edwards tank in his sights. There was a brief pause, and then the tank shook from the shell being fired. The impact hit the Hellcat square in the body near the rear of the tank sending the white flag into the air.

With Edward out of the fight most of Uncle Sam started to stand down. The only one who fought on the longest was that M1 Abrams that was loaned to the school by the U.S. Army. It took several hits from several tanks to knock it out of commission.

Moose sighed once the Uncle Sam team was down, though he noticed that his information was right. Hans Schnieder and his squadron weren't anywhere to be seen, so they must be south, on top of the mountains fighting Pravda over that weather station, which he remembered was the CP for that area.

Moose took a look over at the girls side and saw Kuromorimine putting up a hell of a fight. They were going at it hard, and he saw that his allies were having trouble. He couldn't spare anyone right now so he could only hope the girls could make do.

"Fire Portside!" Ogin called and Cutlass fired hitting the heavy Panther and knocking it out. She saw Andrew eject the spent casing and inserted a fresh new shell quickly. Ogin refocused her eyes and saw another Panzer III on their right. "Fire Starboard!"

Rukuriri fired the gun taking the III out, Murakami doing as Andrew did, ejecting the spent shell and replacing a fresh one quickly. Andrew had taught her a clever trick where she would set the next ready shell onto its rear side pointing upward and when the spent casing was out she tilted the shell head and grabbed the bottom of the new shell and basically, with precision and control, threw the new shell into the chamber of the gun. It was an amazing method that improved Murakami's reload time considerably.

"Mako, can you sail us Port side towards that big Elephant!?" Ogin asked.

"It's Elefant." Mako said not really caring about the mispronunciation but following through with Ogin's request. She drove the tank down the left side towards the Elefant Heavy tank and prepared for what she thought Ogin had in mind.

"Prepare to Broadside!" Ogin said as the starboard side of the mk4, the right side, became board and board with the Elefant. "Hit the treads. Fire!" Rukuriri fired and hit the treads of the Heavy tank, loosening them and making the tread fall to the ground, immobilizing the Elefant in place.

"Word from Moose!" Rum said at her new radio station. "He wants us to focus on Maho Nishizumi and take her tank out!"

"Roger that! Captain Moose has given us orders, let us carry them out!" Ogin said looking through her commanders cupola to find the Tiger 1 designated 212. Further ahead she saw it. focused on the B.C. Freedom forces, Maho standing outside visible, and ignorant of the mk4's position. "Target sighted, one hundred meters southward, all ahead full, make for 18 knots!"

Mako put the tank into gear and pushed it forward. Ogin knew that the mk4 Male was originally its fastest at six and a half kilometers an hour, or four miles an hour. However the upgraded engine and advanced motors given to them by Leopon team back at school improved the speed of the mighty landship.

Mako pushed the tank forward and swerved around any of Kuromorimine's tanks still in the way, either operable or not, and made a straight shot towards Maho. The elder Nishizumi sister was to focused on B.C. Freedom to notice them. Closer they got and closer they readied themselves for the killing blow.

"Prepare to fire!" Ogin commanded and both Rukuriri and Cutlass were ready in case they had their target in sights. On the left Mako saw Erika, atop her King Tiger, driving right for them. Mako frowned and shifted the gears moving the Mk4 to the right avoiding Erika and giving Cutlass a view of Maho's tank. "Fire!"

Cutlass heard the order and fired, the shell hit the front of the Tiger 1, but it was still operational. Mako clicked her tongue before shifting the gears again, the mk4's treads spun opposite in seconds and the mk4 lost its grip on the ground. The tank spun and the girls inside lost their grips on their seats, all except Mako. The Main driver for the mk4 waited for just the right second as the tank spun, going around the Tiger 1 in the process, and coming up behind the heavy tank with Rukuriri, and her still loaded gun, in close to the Tigers weak spot.

"Fire Rukuriri!" Mako yelled, Rukuriri quickly adjusted her aim, and fired the cannon. The shell hit the rear of the tank, the explosion felt inside the mk4, and the familiar white flag, the 'Thunk Pa-Tunk' sound, and silence.

No one spoke and the fighting had essentially ended. All eyes focused on the Commander of Kuromorimine and how it had been taken out. The silence was broken only as Moose was heard over an open channel on the radio.

"Uncle Sam and Kuromorimine! Surrender to us immediately! We need to talk with both Commanders Edward Hill and Maho Nishizumi!" Was what Moose said. Mako breathed heavily, her spur of the moment idea paid off. they won, and now she was one step closer to Hoja City, and saving her friends.

Further away a hooded individual sat looking, watching over the preceding battle. It seems their intel was right. Homedale had emptied and the six schools are working together to end the righting on the island. Not good for the Commanders plan, but contingencies had been made.

"Don, we're ready to move." A female voice called behind the man. Don pulled off his hood, turned, and saw the woman approaching him kneel down next to him as she looked over the battle field. "Anything interesting?"

"The drivers of the mk4, or maybe one of them, pulled off something incredible. Got it in position for the gunner to take out the Tiger 1." Don said, a hint of admiration in his tone.

"Incredible." The woman said.

"Ava, did you get any news on Pierre?" Don asked. The woman sighed before answering.

"Abernathy got him to flip. He gave up our hideouts and maybe even told him the Commanders plan." Ava said shaking her head. "Does that fool know what Anderson will do once he finds him?"

"I think that Pierre did the only thing he thought he could. He's expecting to be a father soon remember. I think that may I would have done the same." Don said making Ava raise an eyebrow.

"The so called 'Deathly Spector' of Vermont, betray Anderson? I don't know about that." Ava said.

"If Lisa was with Child maybe." Was all Don said before standing and making for their tank. "Come on, lets not keep Robert waiting. Who knows that 'Jester' might have thought up while we've been talking."

Ava moved to follow him before asking a follow up question.

"Would you go against Anderson?" she asked, a hint of fear in her tone. Their Commander was a man unto his own. They were adults now, not the same scared children when they were in school who learned to cast that fear into misguided admiration for the man who hurt others simply because he found a way to do it.

"Was that fear? Coming from the so called 'Silent Lady'?" Don asked with a smirk on his face. Ava gave him a look, and Don sighed. "We're not kids anymore. What Anderson did back in school was wrong, we all felt that, but I keep thinking back to that day. If his plan against Dallas Academy hadn't failed, if he had succeeded, I don't really know what could have happened."

"You didn't answer my question." Ava said, and Don looked at her solemnly.

"Because I don't have one."