Tankery into an Unexpected Battlefield(GuP Quest)

(OOC : sorry about the delay)

"Lets go all the way and push for the town," you reply, handing back the map and patting her shoulder, "And the Fairy Tails will back you up."

She laughs aloud and nods.

"Sure thing Eve, I'll see you later," she says before turning back to her tank. Glancing at your phone, you realize the time and after giving your tank and its engineers one last look, you leave the Tankery compound and start walking towards the Island and the Student Council office.

As you walk through the streets of Bienville, you think back to earlier this year when the team names were chosen. Bienville had a long history of it's Tankery club teams picking their own names, though usually teams went with one of a few names their tanks had before: usually a foodstuff from your Home town. Back when you first joined and were just a Machine gunner in the Char, it was the Calas; named after the pastries. When you became the tank Commander last year, the team voted to keep the name.

But this year half the previous team had graduated and a bunch of girls new to the club joined your crew. And after learning that Miss Luciles team wasn't named after food, they voted for the Fairy Tails, and somehow managed to convince Murphys to side with them. Given your laid back attitude you didn't really fight the switch, and now you're stuck with the name until those girls come to their senses.


It goes without saying those same girls also managed to convince you to dress up like a nerd for that now infamous photo that circulates Bienville.


Your mind wanders onto other subjects on the way back, like your sudden craving for the pastries and some coffee; necessitating a stop by a cafe to get a box of Calas and several cups of coffee in a travel tray; a couple more than your teamates up in the office now that you actually think about it.

Your side trip ended up taking longer than you had hoped, and by the time you were climbing the last set of stairs you heard the PA system crackle to life.

"Good Morning Bienville!" You hear the lovely southern bell voice of Hailey call out, "and we've got an action packed day ahead of us!"

She goes on to list off the weather report as you walk up to the office doors: sunny skies all day, with Tropical Storm Arthur to the south unlikely to head north any time soon, and is expected to blow east towards the Yucatan.

Inside the office you find the rest of your team busy; most of them working at terminals or dealing with stacks of paperwork. The majority of paperwork has been foisted off to the Freshmen Machine gunners, while your Vice President and gunner is entertaining the line of appointments you've got waiting.

Lily Gordon's is a gorgeous girl, her long curly brown hair a perfect complement for her tall ebony legs and generous curves; the Yin to your Yang.

"President!" she calls out as she sees you come in and sets your gathered treats down at the admin desk where the other girls are working, "where have you been?"

That earlier comparison is apt in more than ways that just looks; she's been the biggest perfectionist since you were kids, always trying to keep things orderly. Her perfectionism does make her one hell of a gunner; never wasting a shot if she can help it.

"Relax Lilly," you say grabbing a cup of Joe and a calas before stepping away to let the freshmen have a go, "I just stopped by the garage to check up on Emilia and the rest of the club; then I got some treats for our hard working girls."

You take a sip, and look over your guests: the admittedly ruggedly handsome Francis Guerin of the Rotorcraft club and Rose Devaux of the Culinary club.

Who both seem torn between being annoyed, and being jealous of your treats.

"Help yourselves," you say gesturing to the two; smirking a bit as they both get up and grab their own share. Seems like grabbing two more coffees was the right call.

"Really Eve," as Lilly reluctantly grabs her own cup, "You should take your job more seriously."

"And why would I deal with the bad vibes when I've got you?" you reply, chuckling at her pout.

The light over the office's recording room turns off, and Hailey emerges; the young radio operator looking adorable with her strawberry blonde hair done up in a pony tail. She looks at the assembled students and treats, her blue eyes locking in on the pastries.

"Knock yourself out kid," you say nodding towards her, "you've earned some."

"Thanks Eve!" she says, rushing over to grab some of her own.


For a few minutes theirs naught but breakfast munching and small talk as you check to see how things are going with your freshmen team mates: Elsie Moore, your loader, and your Machine gunners Caitlin Reid, Maya Gallagher, Evie Jones, with Chaya Grant who mans the rear machine gun turret. Seems they are excited and ready for their second match; and you can remember being that age.


However the breakfast feint can't last forever, and Lilly is insistent you do at least some of your Job.

Now what was on your agenda before you have to go to Miami?

1: Rose has come with menus for the collaborative end game meal: The Coral Coconut school should be providing deserts, which leaves Bienville with the main course.
-[_] Bring some of Bienvilles famous Gumbo of course!
-[_] Try our hands at some local cuisine to try impressing your hosts: Cuban Sandwiches for everyone!
-[_] Other(write in)

2: Francis has come to report that his team is already for today Rotorcraft match after the Tankery match; should be around 4 PM unless something goes wrong. He hopes you do well in your match, and hopes you and the rest of the student council will be there to watch.
-[_] Of course! Got to show some solidarity and repair bridges with the team after you dethroned the last captain.
-[_] Give him a Non-committal answer: you hear Miami beaches are pretty good, and it would be a treat to take the rest of the team there.
-[_] Other(write in)

3: What else needed your attention this morning?
-[_] You've got some paper work to do, only so much you can have the gunners do after all.
-[_] Hang out with the crew for a bit and procrastinate for a bit.
-[_] Call the work done for the day and get the club into Miami ASAP.
-[_] Other(write in)

You look over the menus, the Bienvilles classic Gumbo on one, and Cuban sandwiches on the other. While you do occasionally try new things, the Gumbo is a bit of a luck charm for the girls in the club; they always fight harder knowing a bowl of that delicious stew is waiting for them. And it'd only be proper to show those Coconut Coral girls what real cookin's like.

You shuffle the menus so the Gumbo one is on top, and then hand them to Rose; an admittedly slightly pudgy but cute girl with her short curly blonde hair under a beret. Her smile goes wide as she reads the top one.

"The Gumbo would be just great Rose," you say, before turning to look at Francis.


You do admit that you would probably find Francis pretty handsome if it wasn't for the whole nasty Rotorcraft business hovering overhead like one of the schools Eurocopter Tigres. In many ways he's like a male version of Lily: tall, hunky, with decent muscles under that chocolate skin. An intimidating fellow, or at least he would be if you hadn't sent his similar looking predecessor away with voodoo guided scandal. He clearly knows that you wouldn't hesitate to do the same to him if he pissed you off, as he's always a bit nervous around you.

"As for you Captain Guerin, I'll be sending my girls off for some free time; but I'll be there to for you with anyone else who wants to come."

While Francis is a pretty brilliant pilot, he's got a crap poker face; there's definitely a bit of disappointment there, but he just nods while trying to maintain a stoic face.

"Of course President White, I'll see you at the field later."


They both thank you for your time and the treat, and leave the office. Before you can try setting the mornings short agenda to goofing off, Lily pushes you to your desk and drops a pile of papers in front of you: Budget approvals and requests from some of the other clubs. It's not something you like to deal with, even when Lily and the freshmen do most of the work of number crunching for you.

Grumbling you sit down, waking up your computer so you can look at the news for the weather while you work. The headlines of World Media News is relatively quiet right now, just some re-election shenanigans regarding US President Becerra; something about pictures emerging from his service in Operation Desert Shield. Not enough to really grab your attention right now: can't be much worse than the last student president had.

'At least the weather should be nice all day,' you think as you turn back to your work.


It's a solid hour of eye glazing reading complaints and spreed sheets before you look up to the computer to check the screen for the time...

.. and you freeze when you see the monitor surrounded by a bubble of fuzzy energy, one that makes the still active screen take on a static-y look like it was an old 80's or 70's television set. The screen itself is different, with headlines that are definitely not like the peaceful one that was there before. Even the monitor itself seems subtly different, buttons on the wrong side with a different shade of grey for the body.

This is what your Second Sight looks like most of the time, and you've seen them nearly you're entire life. Looking quickly at the rest of the office none of the other girls seem to notice anything wrong. Miss Lucille called them 'Spirit visions' when you first broached the subject to her, but she admitted she could only see a slight blur where you could see things far clearer. She claims the spirits have something to do with these bubbles of strange energy, but you don't know; why would things seem so strange compared to how things really are?

Usually they don't last more than a minute or so, and usually are out in the open; giving you a peak into what almost looks like another world. And they never react to whatever you do: you've poked at people you see in the spirit visions, but you pass right through as if they were ghosts.


So you are quite surprised when you bump the mouse and the pointer on the screen moves accordingly. A tentative right click pulls up the selection of options just like normal.

Holy shit you can actually interact with these now?

As you come to that realization, you actually start reading whats on the monitor.

The site has a white background with a red line at the top, with the letters {BBC} up in the left hand corner where the {WMN} should be. The Headlines themselves are absolutely crazy to read: Soviet Forces overrun Spetsnaz Guard Brigades in Astrakhan, European Union Enforcer Corps holding against Nazi forces in Hamburg, President Trump vows to repel the Dominion Forces from New York.

Clicking on the last pulls up an image of the orange toned reality TV star Donald Trump you know of, claiming he is president of the United States, as well as showing blurry images of red colored powered armored soldiers with some kind of strange looking walker in the background with massive gattling cannons. There's even shaky camera footage claiming to be from Charlotte North Carolina, of soldiers in strange body armor with the american flag painted on their shoulders shooting down a street with lasers and assault rifles; before a solder in a different kind of power armor leans around the corner with some kind of bulky multi-barrel weapon that spits out a stream of laser fire.

The article mentions Charlotte was nuked by the 'Dominion', along with Baltimore and Richmond.

Glancing at the edge of the Spirit Vision, you see the glowing edge start to waver... you don't have much time left.

Looking at more headlines related to North America at the end of the article, you think you might be able to look through one more.

-[_] Contact lost with USS George Bush Supercarrier group off of the southern-most mystery Atlantic Island.
-[_] 'Scorpion' Fleet spotted sailing through the Bahamas.
-[_] Group of low flying Starships spotted flying North over Cuba.
-[_] NOPE! Turn off the Computer and walk away. This is too much for even you to deal with. Power armor? Nazis? Soviets? Mechs? Donald Trump as President of the United States? What kind of crazy shit is this BBC from?

You move the mouse over to the picture of what looks like some kind of battleship painted in red and black, clicking on the link to pull up the article.

[Scorpion Fleet spotted sailing through the Bahamas]

You skim through the article as fast as you can, but the details all seem so strange. The gist of the article states that a fleet of warships believed to be part of some force that recently appeared in North Africa. This North African force seems to have appeared spontaneously everywhere between Morocco to Egypt, either cutting off native communications and forces or just flat out replacing them some how. With them came some kind of green crystal given early reports from Israeli forces.

You're partially surprised that there isn't more panic about it in the article, though given the other headlines you think this might not be the first time it's happened to this strange other world.

The fleet in the article itself is described as a massive force, consisting of five battleships, six carriers, at least forty-five destroyers, and countless smaller craft including somethings the article calls 'possible ground-effect vehicles'. The picture of one of those battleships is intimidating enough, with nine massive triple-barrel turrets and countless secondaries along its sides; a large red flag with a black scorpions tail in a triangle flying from its mast. Also in the picture is is what looks like some kind of attack helicopter hovering nearby; but you don't see any rotors, just jet engines on it's sides.

The last thing you see before the spirit vision collapses is the fleet was last seen sailing west past Freeport, with the USN with the JSF steaming to intercept...


You can only stare at the screen showing the more familiar World Media News page, with no hint of a world gone mad. Minutes pass while you try to figure out what the hell that spirit vision meant. Sure sometimes the visions mean absolutely nothing, just a peak at some neat thing or another. Other times you've been able to get a warning of some kind, though not always in the most straight forward of ways.

And that definitely felt like a warning of some kind... but what? Your world is certainly not at war with honest to god Nazi's and weirdos in power armor. Does this have something to do with the island you kept dreaming about?


"Is everything alright Eve?" Lilly calls out, distracting you from your contemplation, "You've been quite for a while now."

You push that strange vision to the back of your mind and nod towards her, "Yup, just got a little vision is all."

"Really, is it about the match today? Is anything going to happen?"

You put on your winning smile even as you cringe a little inside: you don't like lying to your friend, but you're not going to tell her what you saw. No need to worry her about an invasion fleet that isn't really coming... right?

"Of course! What could possibly stop us?" you reply, before raising your voice to a shout, "Isn't that right girls?"

"That's right Miss White!" the young gunners and the radio operator of the Fairy Tails shout back excitedly.

"That's right Eve," Lilly chuckles before looking at her watch, "Well we should probably start heading down to the docks, don't want to miss the train."

"You heard her girls," you put on a mock commanding tone, "lets get moving."


It doesn't take long to lock up the office, and soon you're on your way to the docks; chatting with your friends as any worries about scorpion boats slips your mind. You have to move a bit faster than you'd like, but it's pleasant enough as you take the elevators and internal trams to docks section of the school ship. Plenty of students along the way say hello and give you their well wishes as you move to your destination, which you take graciously with all the practice you've had.

Finally you and your posse of student council members step into the docks with the smell of the sea wafting past. It's fairly simple to wave at the boys and girls in sailor uniforms as you walk past the moored ferries of the Bienville supply fleet to the large bridge/gangway that connects the school ship to the Miami dock. By the look of things, it seems that the Tanks and Rotorcraft are already loaded up on the train that should take the teams and their vehicles straight to the Miami Tankery course.

Haily and the machine gunners rush past, heading towards one of the three cars that'll be carrying the teams with Elsie following behind at a more even pace. Naturally they're heading for the car the tankery team normally uses.

You pause as you watch as Francis lead his boys into the Rotorcraft car, admiring the guys for a bit before movement catches your eyes. You see the diminutive but distinctive form of Lucille and her driver Gisèle stepping into the parts car.... why would she do that?


Glancing to your side, you see that Lilly is staring at the Rotorcraft team as the last of them are boarding... seems one of them must have caught her eye.

"Do you mind if I went with the Rotorcraft team Eve?" she asks, seemingly a bit distracted.

"Found someone you like?" you ask a bit teasingly.

This gets a blush from the taller girl.

"No," she says stuttering a little bit as she lies badly, "I just wanted to boost inter-team cooperation and friendship."

Well, now which car are you going to ride in?

[_] Take Lilly and go Join the rest of the team in the Tankery car.
[_] Let Lilly go flirt and find out what Miss Lucille is doing.
[_] What the hell, join Lilly and go see if any of the Rotorcraft guys are worth your time.

(OOC: Apologies about the delay, I've been distracted lately: I'll try to make the updates faster, hopefully a daily thing.)

On any other day you'd probably go with Lilly, if for no other reason than to see the Rotorcraft boys squirm(and certainly not because you're at that special age, right?).

But with the dreams and that Spirit Vision from earlier, you've got a bad feeling about today. And Miss Lucille going off with her sister into the parts car is giving your sixth sense a bit of a tingle.

"Go ahead and join the Rotorcraft boys Lilly," you say waving your hand in the direction of that passenger car, "Just don't don't distract them too much before their match with your 'Team Building exercises.'"

"EVE!" she stammers while glaring at you, face beet red. You just chuckle, laughing at your friends reaction while walking towards the rear entrance to the Tankery car, where it connects to the parts car.

"Have fun!" You shout back, the train conductors calling out for last boarding as you slip onto the train.

It's not long before the train is underway, and you slip in to the parts car as stealthily as you can. The Car does have a few seats, but the Automotive club that handles the repairs for the Rotorcraft and Tankery teams usually splits up and sits with the combat focused clubs; leaving the car empty of anyone but the sprockets, rockets, and shells it's supposed to carry...

Except for the two short African-American girls who make up team Gris-Gris standing next to the ammo crates. You've known Lucille Mercier, or Miss Lucille as she insists everyone call her, for nearly as long as you've known Lilly; the eccentric girl's steeped in voodoo and her mystic know how has more than once helped you make sense of some of the weird shit you've seen in your spirit visions. You can still remember the days she used to braid your hair like her own while saying with confidence what the latest strange sight or dream you had meant.

Her twin sister Gisèle though was always something of a mystery though, as she appeared like a bolt from the blue about five years ago. Her family claimed she was a long lost twin that got abducted from birth, only to finally be returned to them, a story most people bought quite handily. You always thought it odd though, especially since you'd think that sort of story would have hit the news but it never did. You definitely don't remember Lucille or her parents mentioning a lost sister before she appeared.

The strange 'condition' that caused her to have random nose bleeds with headaches from time to time were strange too know that you think about it.


Shaking your head, you focus on hiding and observing what those two are doing. From the looks of things Lucille is waving her Gris-Gris over the crates of munitions, muttering words while Gisèle stands by with a bowl. Probably gunpowder by the smell of things, it looks like they must be trying to get the spirits to bless the ammo. They've done that before, usually in matches where Lucille or you aren't sure of victory; you won't say it works per-say, but you do feel the team's aim is better on those matches.

But usually you and her get the idea something might not go right at least a week before, and usually hold a ritual to do this with some of the team commanders and other team mates the night before.

She normally doesn't do it secretly on the train ride over and to the Rotorcraft teams ammo too, as you notice she's standing in front of a crate of Hydra 70 rockets.

What has her spooked?

"Do you think this will be enough?" Gisèle says just loud enough that you can hear, interrupting her sister. Lucille lowers her talisman and turns to her sister.

"It'll have to be if the storm has finally caught up with us," she replies quietly, and from her tone you can tell she's trying to hide her own fears, "I don't know what else we'll be able to do if it isn't."

"Do you think... do you think he's coming for me?" the lost twin replies, the fear loud and clear from her, "He brought Columbia to that other place, what if he bring's it here to Miami or New Orleans?"

The 'older' sister grabs her twins hand and puts on a confident smile.

"I don't think that old bastard even knows your're here," she says, before the smile slides into a sterner neutral line as she looks to the ammo, "I think they'll be too busy up in Boston to even swing round this way.

"And I don't think that's how this storm works Gisèle," she says after a few moments of staring harder at the munitions while deep in though, "It felt like it was pulling things in like those islands in the news paper we saw."

Wait, did she see something like the BBC site too?

Finally see turns back to look at her sister, before pulling her into a tight hug; whispering a barely audible "It'll be okay sis, I won't let you go."

Its a minute or two before they release each other, looking more confident if nothing else.

"Now lets get these done, we don't have much time left before we arrive at the course," she says, "and if we're lucky the storm just passes by us and we'll have nothing to worry about," smiling again as her twin nods.


You find yourself with more questions and not enough answers... is something going to happen today?

What should you do?
-[_] Interrupt the important looking ritual and demand answers from your friend.
-[_] Sneak out and talk tankery with Emilia, what Lucille and Gisèle are doing seems important and has been delayed long enough: and as Miss Lucille said, maybe nothing happens today.
-[_] Other(write in)