Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
Psh, c'mon April, shoot for the engine or the treads!
Gambatte Tally, enjoy your tank's time in the limelight, since it's gonna come down to you.
Hell On Tracks: Retracked (Girls und Panzer)
- Thread starter Lady Darkhound
- Start date
Gambatte Tally, enjoy your tank's time in the limelight, since it's gonna come down to you.
Tally Sketch
Part Fifty Eight
Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hell On Tracks
Part Fifty Eight
++++++++++
"Hammerhead, you're crazy." Naomi deadpanned, as I finished explaining my idea to the rest of the team.
"Crazy enough to make it work?" I asked, hope in my voice. Looking back, she was very correct. The plan was insane, but a dash of insanity might just be what we needed to win the day.
"Crazy enough to be at Jatkosota or Ooarai." I could hear the grin in Naomi's voice.
"I'll take it!" I cheered. "Speaking of, how did Ooarai do in their match yesterday?"
"Ooarai beat Anzio handily, but this really isn't the time." Arisa answered. "We can talk about their match after we win ours."
"Right, of course. Later, then." I agreed. I took a deep breath, and steadied myself. "Okay everyone, you know your roles. We head for Soissons as a group. Once we're there, Grizzly-Lead and I will split off to do our jobs. Kodiak, you have tactical command of the rest of Grizzly platoon."
"Yes ma'am!" Four voices answered me. Naomi and Arisa were in a well practiced unison, while Haruna and Grizzly-3 were staggered out just enough to make it sound weird. Almost as weird as it being directed at me.
"Now, there's only one more thing for you, Hammerhead." Arisa said cheerfully. "What are we naming this operation?"
I blinked, not expecting that. I immediately began racking my brain for something to use for the name. "Uhhh…. Gimme a minute… Let's call it… Operation Iceberg. More to the plan than is apparently visible."
"Works for me." Arisa replied.
Soissons was in the southern part of the map, where things opened up even more than they already were. The hill there would give Naomi excellent lines of sight, up to ranges where even she couldn't consistently land hits. It was a perfect sniping position, but Maginot had to know that. Naomi was a renowned sniper across the whole Japanese Sensha-do league, even more so than for her having a girl at every ship.
The challenge, then, would be baiting Maginot and the ARL into her gun. Step one for that was taking out the scouts. Cambrai was one of the drier, more deserty areas of the map, and with the constant pounding heat today, it would be even moreso. Perfect for throwing up a cloud of dust and catching all sorts of unwanted attention. Or in this case, laying bait.
"Tally, you're bleeding." April said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I blinked and looked over at her. She looked up at my forehead, and I gently touched it. My touch stung, and when I pulled it away, my finger had a fair amount of blood on it. When had I hit my head?
Oh right, during my aborted panic attack when we found Eclair in her ARL.
While I was discovering my injury, April had already pulled out a medical kit. "Come here so I can bandage that for you."
I complied with her order, and despite an ill-timed bump from Jane, my minor injury was cleaned up and bandaged easily. Excepting what had happened during the Ooarai match, I think this was my first actual injury during a Sensha-do match. Massive shells are always flying about, we have general access to machine guns like the co-ax, I'm constantly commanding from an unbuttoned position, and my worst injury comes from bonking my head.
That's Sensha-do for you.
It didn't take long for us to meet up with the rest of the team, and I unbuttoned to let the wind help cool me off a little bit as we set a course for Soissons.
"Grizzly Lead, how long do you think it'll take to get well entrenched?" I asked over radio, looking over at Naomi's tank. The Firefly was showing a few signs of battle damage, but it was also in good condition. At least the paint job wasn't nearly as scuffed up as the Stuart's was.
"Longer than we have." Naomi replied. "Even if we all get out and start digging, it's not something we're used to."
"Almost makes you wish we had one of those M2 dozer blades to stick on the front of one of our tanks." Arisa commented wistfully. She was also unbuttoned, and glanced over at me.
"We could always ask Kay..." I suggested with a slight shrug.
"Something tells me she would say no."
I laughed. "True. It's a bit of extra frontal armor, and being able to dig in that quick really doesn't fit our style of play."
"Still would be nice to have right about now…" Naomi grumped.
"All else fails, you should be able to go hull down and pop up only when we need your gun." I suggested.
Thankfully, Maginot didn't intercept us on our run down to Soissons. The last half mile or so, we threw up a lot of dirt as we sprinted across the open plains towards the hill, which for most teams would be a bad thing. In this case, every little bit helped.
"Good luck, Kodiak, Grizzly." I said into my radio, before giving Jane the order to split off.
"I feel like you'll need it more." Naomi replied.
"Probably."
With the amount of dust already in the air, I buttoned myself back up, though making sure that I could open the hatch quickly. Cambrai wasn't too far from Soissons, though the landmarks were somewhat difficult to spot at the best of times. This field was far too plain for my liking. It made figuring out where you were even harder than usual.
I scanned the area through my periscopes as we drove around, occasionally giving orders to Jane for where to drive. Nothing was coming here. Had Maginot seen through the plan to bait them in with the dust cloud? After what felt like forever, and was definitely plenty of time for Maginot to get here even with a slowed down ARL, I finally gave the order I hadn't wanted to.
"Driver, turn us around." There was a tinge of defeat in my voice, and I felt awful for it.
"Understood." Jane acknowledged, and after a moment of continuing forwards, she pulled us into a slow turn.
A shot bounced off our frontal armor. I didn't need to issue orders before Jane stepped on the gas pedal and we were off like the devil was behind us. It was getting hard enough to see through the dust cloud through my periscope that I had to unbutton if I wanted to have a good look at the tactical situation. I pulled on a pair of protective goggles, grabbed my binoculars, and immediately began scanning for our assailant.
I nearly missed her. With the dust cloud obscuring vision, the M22's bush-shaped camouflage was enough to make it very hard to tell from the background. If it hadn't been moving, I never would have seen it. "Locust, bearing 015. Estimate 700 yards. She's moving east, and fast."
"Tracking." April said, and the turret began to rotate towards where I'd seen the M22 before it slipped out of sight.
"Driver, take us in." I said, and Jane's wild driving smoothed out. Over the intercom, I could hear her quietly begging the Stuart for as much speed as it could give her. If that was how she wanted to do this, I wasn't going to stop her being weird in the middle of a match. Everyone has their own good luck charms.
With the two light tanks both throwing up lots of dust, and the wind in the area beginning to pick up, the dust cloud was only going to get worse. I was going to have to stay outside if I wanted to see anything, though.
"Tank left!" I called, spotting the M22 closing on us. Jane pulled the Stuart hard over, and for a moment I felt the rightside track leave the ground. Thankfully only a moment, and we were steady as Jane charged us towards the Locust.
April only needed a moment to get on target as the M22 appeared to us through the dust cloud. The other tank's TC must have had a similar idea to me, and if neither of us changed course, we were gonna crash head on.
"On the way!" April called calmly, and two 37mm guns barked in rapid succession. Only one scored a hit, and the white flag on the Locust popped up with a small 'thwip!' Jane pulled us into a hard maneuver to avoid crashing into the now disabled tank, and I gave a cheerful wave as we passed them by.
"Good game!" I called.
And then we were gone. I dropped back into my seat and immediately grabbed my radio once more.
"Kodiak, Hammerhead. One M22 disabled, no sign of the other." I reported.
"Good work, Hammerhead." Arisa replied. "Visibility is getting worse, I recommend you come back and we regroup."
I frowned, but understood where she was coming from. "Understood. Hammerhead returning to the team." I switched back to the intercom. "Driver, take us east, back to where the others are setting up."
"Aye aye!" Jane cheered. After a moment, though, she whispered something that her mic barely picked up. "Are you sure?"
"Jane?" I asked.
"It's nothing!" Jane quickly replied, and pulled us into a turn. I sighed softly at her weirdness, but didn't make any further comment.
As we drove, I thought back to my plan. Keeping Naomi's position safe and concealed was one of our goals, and a loose scout tank put her at risk. A sneaky 37mm shot into the side at close-ish range would be enough to knock her out. At the same time, Maginot had to know we were down here now, so delaying engaging them while hunting down the second Locust would be difficult.
I didn't let myself become too distracted by my thoughts, and kept one eye focused on my periscope at all times while we drove. The dust cloud was still obscuring visibility, but we were getting close to the edge, and it was reducing in intensity. Though I was keeping an eye out, I hadn't expected to see the other M22 driving almost directly in front of us, on the same bearing as us.
"What are the odds?" I murmured to myself, before raising my voice. "Tank, direct front, 200 yards!"
April wasn't as surprised by this as I was, and reacted immediately. The turret slewed over from its currently leftward orientation, and as soon as it was on, April fired. Her shot went wide, and slammed into the dirt maybe a hundred yards ahead of the Locust.
Credit where credit was due, the Locust reacted immediately. They pulled into a sharp turn and drew a bead on us in the time it took me to load the next round and for April to fire again. Both shots missed, but April's was a lot closer. Her third shot didn't miss, and slammed right into the M22's front plate.
The smaller light tank bucked with the impact before coming to a halt and popping the white flag.
I blinked. That had not been how I envisioned getting the second Locust would go. At least we didn't need to hunt it down in this awful visibility.
"Kodiak, Hammerhead." I called into my radio again. "Found and eliminated the second M22. We are returning to the main group now."
"Excellent job, Hammerhead!" Arisa said cheerfully. "Proceed to step two?"
"Proceed to step two." I replied.
Now that Maginot definitely knew we were here, and they had lost their scouts, they would have to commit their forces. With the two Locusts down, we had the numbers advantage for the moment, but since the Stuart wasn't all that useful in a straight up fight like what we were planning, it was still going to be a tough fight. Haruna and Grizzly-3 would need to take the brunt of it to protect Arisa, and we needed to turn it into a running battle to get Naomi into range.
Or Naomi would need to come to us.
Probably a mix of both.
"All callsigns, this is Hammerhead." I quietly called through the radio. On the other side of the bush the Stuart was hidden behind, Maginot's forces were pushing south. "I have eyes on. They're currently maybe 500 yards from my position."
"Copy that." Arisa replied. "Grizzly Platoon is in position and ready to engage. We're ready when you are."
"Driver, get ready." I said into my intercom, keeping the radio line open. "Gunner, target the M4A2. Fire when on."
Next to me, April nodded, and adjusted her aim to hit the M4. Maginot's Sherman was at the front of their line, with the two more classic French early-war tanks following behind it, and the ARL at the rear of the line.
"On the way." April announced calmly, and the 37mm fired. Her shot was on target, but the 37 just lacked the punch to hurt the M4A2 at this range. And then she fired the co-ax at them for good measure.
While the 37 got their attention, I'm fairly certain that the burst from the co-ax was actually what got Maginot's eyes on our pretty well concealed position.
"Driver, go go go!" I called out, as four turrets tracked over to our position. Jane didn't need to be told twice, and we very quickly accelerated up to speed. I ducked back down into the turret as the Maginot tanks opened fire, and their shots all just barely missed. The 90mm hit the ground next to us, and the whole tank shook from the near miss.
As we fled, April slewed our own turret over to keep firing at and agitating the Maginot tanks. I was impressed at how well their forces worked together as they pursued us. Never once did the medium tanks allow themselves to be baited away from the slower heavies. Another lesson I'd helped Maginot learn and that was immediately being used against me.
Dang it Eclair! I'm happy you learned from your mistakes with my help, but why did we have to immediately turn around and fight each other?!
"Grizzlies, we're coming in hot!" I called over the radio as we zipped towards Arisa's prepared position. There was a lot of open ground between us and them, and if we tried to cross that open field without any cover, the Stuart was going to get knocked out incredibly quickly. Thankfully, we had cover.
M4 Shermans come equipped with these handy little smoke grenade launchers attached to the turret. They aren't quite as good as a straight 75mm smoke shell, but when three tanks are launching three grenades in rapid succession, it's a rather useful smokescreen nonetheless.
Jane took us straight into the smoke screen, and as soon as we were through and could see Arisa's entrenched line, we veered off to one side and aimed for the low ground. Now, all we had to do was harass the flanks and take potshots at the readily available targets. Arisa had the hard part.
The smoke screen was clearing, but the dust cloud was getting worse again with the numerous shell impacts and tanks driving around at high speeds, limiting general visibility. While it would make skirmishing easier, diving into their backline for cheeky shots, Naomi wasn't going to be able to snipe with all this in the way.
As Jane pulled us to a stop in the low ground, I once again unbuttoned and went as high as was necessary to watch the ongoing battle. Maginot's M4 led the way through the rapidly dissipating smokescreen, followed closely by the SOMUA and B1. Directly across the open field from them was a rather well entrenched Arisa, Haruna, and Grizzly-3.
In an ironic turn of events, Saunders was the team turtling up, while Maginot stayed mobile and attempted to encircle or otherwise break our defensive line.
Arisa and the Grizzlies exchanged fire with Maginot's forces as they pushed through the smoke, and it very rapidly turned into a rapid fire, long range gunnery duel with limited visibility. A good situation for nobody. But one player on either side had yet to enter the field. For us it was Naomi and her Firefly, while for Maginot, it was Eclair in her ARL-44.
The heaviest tank on the field announced its entry into the duel with what felt like a resounding thunderclap compared to the relatively smaller 75mm and 47mm guns of the fighting forces. It felt like the world slowed down as I watched the 90mm shell race from one end of my vision to the other, where it slammed directly into the bow of Grizzly-3.
"Driver, get us in there. We need to keep Eclair busy so that Arisa and Grizzly-2 can take care of their fight." I ordered quickly. Jane immediately complied and we roared out of the ditch and back onto the battlefield. "Gunner, ARL-44, direct front, 400 yards. Hit them with both the 37 and the co-ax."
"I see her." April replied calmly.
"Fire!" I called. Moments later, the 37 barked, and was followed up by a short burst from the caliber .30 co-ax. The heavy tank's turret slewed over towards us, away from the battle.
Good. The distraction was working.
"AP up!" I called, immediately grabbing the next round in the ready rack.
"On the way!" April responded, firing the gun once more. This shot also pinged off of the ARL's armor, but I expected that every shot we fired would. The 37mm just lacked the punch to get a knockout blow on an ARL. We weren't even going to try.
"Driver, take us to the right, around her side. Let's try and keep her attention away from the battle." I ordered. "Kodiak, Grizzlies, I'm keeping the flag tank distracted, and will do so as long as possible. May your aim be true, and your fights be swift."
"That was oddly poetic of you, Hammerhead." Naomi snarked. "Best of luck to you too."
"That's the M4A2 knocked out!" Arisa called out.
"They're getting awfully close. We should start falling back towards Grizzly-Lead." Haruna suggested. I half tuned into the radio chatter, but was mostly focused on loading the gun for April and keeping Eclair distracted.
The 90mm roared again, and the Stuart rocked as the round ripped past us. A burst from the co-ax responded to the miss, and the machine gun bounced off of the heavy's armor to zero effect. It probably made a heck of a racket inside, though.
"Char B1, knocked out!" Haruna cheered over the radio, before immediately getting cut off.
"Grizzly-2 just get knocked out?" Naomi asked.
"Affirmative." Arisa replied.
"Keep running, I'm headed your way."
"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm just busy brawling with a tank three times as heavy as mine at close ranges." I snarked into my radio as I slammed another shell into the breach.
"You're doing wonderfully, Hammerhead." Arisa said. "We'd have lost already if not for you."
"Thanks." I nodded, though she couldn't see it. April fired at the heavy, once again to no effect, and I began scanning the area. No tanks appeared to me besides the ARL and Stuart. "Driver, get us moving towards Grizzly's position."
"Right!" Jane said, and immediately pulled us into a turn that both dodged another 90mm shell and gave us an escape vector. I slammed another shell into the breach, and kept an eye on the ARL until it faded away into the dust.
As soon as we were clear, I buttoned up, and removed my goggles, letting them hang on my neck. They were great protection, but absolutely awful for anything else, and my forehead was positively dripping with sweat.
"The SOMUA is right on our tail! Any day now Grizzly!" Arisa worried into the radio.
Naomi answered her with the sound of bubblegum popping. Moments later, the very distinctive roar of the 17-pdr echoed over the plains. The sniper put on her absolute worst fake Australian accent as she pulled her Bond one-liner. "Boom, headshot."
"Really? There's a whole world of witty one-liners out there, and you go with Meet the Sniper?" Arisa asked. She sounded rather disappointed. "Sometime in the near future, we are all having a Bond movie night. Kay, I know you're listening in, so don't think you can get out of this just because you got knocked out early."
"Can we take this a little more seriously?" I asked, as Jane pulled another wild maneuver to dodge a blind shot from the ARL behind us.
"As you wish." Naomi replied. "The dust cloud is making visibility awful. I could only see the SOMUA when it chased Kodiak out of the cloud, so I don't think sniping will work."
"Getting close enough to see it is a bad idea. Eclair will be able to react, and might be able to get a shot off first." I replied.
"She knows the dust is cover against Grizzly's long range, so she'll retreat and stay in it as long as possible." Arisa observed.
I frowned, and scanned the interior of my turret for anything that might spark an idea. How could we let Naomi see where we were? If I could get her onto me, I could lead her shot right to Eclair. My eyes zeroed in on an odd pistol grip with a cable wiring it into the tank. The handle for the spotlight.
"April, do we have a spotlight anywhere?" I asked as I grabbed the grip. I couldn't remember whether or not we had one, but if we did it might just be the piece of equipment that won us the match.
"Right side of the turret, mounted under the machine gun protective cover." April replied quickly. Trusting her with handling supplies around the tank had been the right move.
"Okay, rotate the turret 90 degrees to the right, I need to get at that spotlight." I said. I pulled my goggles back on, and as soon as I could, I clambered out of the turret and stood on the back deck of our rapidly moving tank. Despite the dust flying around everywhere, being upright while moving this fast was just an amazing feeling. I put that aside though, and removed the spotlight from its customized mounting.
Spotlight met pistol grip, and I tested it to make sure the light was functional. It was, and judging by how bright it was, that was an LED bulb instead of the traditional WW2 era light. Good. I'd need all the power I could get out of this if my plan was to work.
I grabbed my radio as I climbed back into the turret, and began shining the spotlight directly forward. "Grizzly, can you see my spotlight?"
"I think so. Wave it around a little." Naomi responded, and I quickly complied with her request. "Yes, I have eyes on. I can kind of see the source, too."
"Good. I'm going to keep shining this your way, and we're gonna turn around and charge the ARL. Track my position, and when I give the word, fire." I ordered.
I could hear the bafflement in Naomi's voice as she spoke. "Affirmative. Hammerhead, you're crazy."
"Crazy enough to make this work." I countered confidently.
"We'll see."
I cut my radio for the moment, and turned to the intercom. "Driver, take us back in. Turn a full 180 and go maximum speed towards Eclair's last known location."
"Yes ma'am!" Jane replied, and we drifted into a sharp turn to fully come around.
"We're coming in behind you, Hammerhead." Arisa said, and I acknowledged, focusing on keeping the spotlight pointed in their direction. It almost looked like the spotlight grew even more intense, but it was probably just the light reflecting off of some dust and into my protective goggles.
"Tank direct front!" April called.
"Naomi, do you have eyes on my light?" I asked, dispensing with the codenames.
"I do."
As soon as she said that, I turned off the spotlight. "Driver, hard left!"
The ARL reacted to our presence, and slowed to slew its turret over after the wildly maneuvering Stuart. Perfect.
"Fire!"
One shot was all Naomi got, and it was all she needed. Two guns roared in unison. Her shot was blind, but well guided. I had a moment to notice the APCBC round from the 17-pdr scream past me, before the ARL's shot slammed into the side of the Stuart. The light tank went spinning, and when we finally came to a stop, the ARL was just as dead in the water as we were. Two white flags popped up in quick succession with tiny 'thwips!' The Stuart was out, but so was the ARL.
We had won. It had been incredibly close, and required some crazy plans, but despite that, we had won.
Now to stop my head from spinning...
Part Fifty Eight
++++++++++
"Hammerhead, you're crazy." Naomi deadpanned, as I finished explaining my idea to the rest of the team.
"Crazy enough to make it work?" I asked, hope in my voice. Looking back, she was very correct. The plan was insane, but a dash of insanity might just be what we needed to win the day.
"Crazy enough to be at Jatkosota or Ooarai." I could hear the grin in Naomi's voice.
"I'll take it!" I cheered. "Speaking of, how did Ooarai do in their match yesterday?"
"Ooarai beat Anzio handily, but this really isn't the time." Arisa answered. "We can talk about their match after we win ours."
"Right, of course. Later, then." I agreed. I took a deep breath, and steadied myself. "Okay everyone, you know your roles. We head for Soissons as a group. Once we're there, Grizzly-Lead and I will split off to do our jobs. Kodiak, you have tactical command of the rest of Grizzly platoon."
"Yes ma'am!" Four voices answered me. Naomi and Arisa were in a well practiced unison, while Haruna and Grizzly-3 were staggered out just enough to make it sound weird. Almost as weird as it being directed at me.
"Now, there's only one more thing for you, Hammerhead." Arisa said cheerfully. "What are we naming this operation?"
I blinked, not expecting that. I immediately began racking my brain for something to use for the name. "Uhhh…. Gimme a minute… Let's call it… Operation Iceberg. More to the plan than is apparently visible."
"Works for me." Arisa replied.
Soissons was in the southern part of the map, where things opened up even more than they already were. The hill there would give Naomi excellent lines of sight, up to ranges where even she couldn't consistently land hits. It was a perfect sniping position, but Maginot had to know that. Naomi was a renowned sniper across the whole Japanese Sensha-do league, even more so than for her having a girl at every ship.
The challenge, then, would be baiting Maginot and the ARL into her gun. Step one for that was taking out the scouts. Cambrai was one of the drier, more deserty areas of the map, and with the constant pounding heat today, it would be even moreso. Perfect for throwing up a cloud of dust and catching all sorts of unwanted attention. Or in this case, laying bait.
"Tally, you're bleeding." April said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I blinked and looked over at her. She looked up at my forehead, and I gently touched it. My touch stung, and when I pulled it away, my finger had a fair amount of blood on it. When had I hit my head?
Oh right, during my aborted panic attack when we found Eclair in her ARL.
While I was discovering my injury, April had already pulled out a medical kit. "Come here so I can bandage that for you."
I complied with her order, and despite an ill-timed bump from Jane, my minor injury was cleaned up and bandaged easily. Excepting what had happened during the Ooarai match, I think this was my first actual injury during a Sensha-do match. Massive shells are always flying about, we have general access to machine guns like the co-ax, I'm constantly commanding from an unbuttoned position, and my worst injury comes from bonking my head.
That's Sensha-do for you.
It didn't take long for us to meet up with the rest of the team, and I unbuttoned to let the wind help cool me off a little bit as we set a course for Soissons.
"Grizzly Lead, how long do you think it'll take to get well entrenched?" I asked over radio, looking over at Naomi's tank. The Firefly was showing a few signs of battle damage, but it was also in good condition. At least the paint job wasn't nearly as scuffed up as the Stuart's was.
"Longer than we have." Naomi replied. "Even if we all get out and start digging, it's not something we're used to."
"Almost makes you wish we had one of those M2 dozer blades to stick on the front of one of our tanks." Arisa commented wistfully. She was also unbuttoned, and glanced over at me.
"We could always ask Kay..." I suggested with a slight shrug.
"Something tells me she would say no."
I laughed. "True. It's a bit of extra frontal armor, and being able to dig in that quick really doesn't fit our style of play."
"Still would be nice to have right about now…" Naomi grumped.
"All else fails, you should be able to go hull down and pop up only when we need your gun." I suggested.
Thankfully, Maginot didn't intercept us on our run down to Soissons. The last half mile or so, we threw up a lot of dirt as we sprinted across the open plains towards the hill, which for most teams would be a bad thing. In this case, every little bit helped.
"Good luck, Kodiak, Grizzly." I said into my radio, before giving Jane the order to split off.
"I feel like you'll need it more." Naomi replied.
"Probably."
With the amount of dust already in the air, I buttoned myself back up, though making sure that I could open the hatch quickly. Cambrai wasn't too far from Soissons, though the landmarks were somewhat difficult to spot at the best of times. This field was far too plain for my liking. It made figuring out where you were even harder than usual.
I scanned the area through my periscopes as we drove around, occasionally giving orders to Jane for where to drive. Nothing was coming here. Had Maginot seen through the plan to bait them in with the dust cloud? After what felt like forever, and was definitely plenty of time for Maginot to get here even with a slowed down ARL, I finally gave the order I hadn't wanted to.
"Driver, turn us around." There was a tinge of defeat in my voice, and I felt awful for it.
"Understood." Jane acknowledged, and after a moment of continuing forwards, she pulled us into a slow turn.
A shot bounced off our frontal armor. I didn't need to issue orders before Jane stepped on the gas pedal and we were off like the devil was behind us. It was getting hard enough to see through the dust cloud through my periscope that I had to unbutton if I wanted to have a good look at the tactical situation. I pulled on a pair of protective goggles, grabbed my binoculars, and immediately began scanning for our assailant.
I nearly missed her. With the dust cloud obscuring vision, the M22's bush-shaped camouflage was enough to make it very hard to tell from the background. If it hadn't been moving, I never would have seen it. "Locust, bearing 015. Estimate 700 yards. She's moving east, and fast."
"Tracking." April said, and the turret began to rotate towards where I'd seen the M22 before it slipped out of sight.
"Driver, take us in." I said, and Jane's wild driving smoothed out. Over the intercom, I could hear her quietly begging the Stuart for as much speed as it could give her. If that was how she wanted to do this, I wasn't going to stop her being weird in the middle of a match. Everyone has their own good luck charms.
With the two light tanks both throwing up lots of dust, and the wind in the area beginning to pick up, the dust cloud was only going to get worse. I was going to have to stay outside if I wanted to see anything, though.
"Tank left!" I called, spotting the M22 closing on us. Jane pulled the Stuart hard over, and for a moment I felt the rightside track leave the ground. Thankfully only a moment, and we were steady as Jane charged us towards the Locust.
April only needed a moment to get on target as the M22 appeared to us through the dust cloud. The other tank's TC must have had a similar idea to me, and if neither of us changed course, we were gonna crash head on.
"On the way!" April called calmly, and two 37mm guns barked in rapid succession. Only one scored a hit, and the white flag on the Locust popped up with a small 'thwip!' Jane pulled us into a hard maneuver to avoid crashing into the now disabled tank, and I gave a cheerful wave as we passed them by.
"Good game!" I called.
And then we were gone. I dropped back into my seat and immediately grabbed my radio once more.
"Kodiak, Hammerhead. One M22 disabled, no sign of the other." I reported.
"Good work, Hammerhead." Arisa replied. "Visibility is getting worse, I recommend you come back and we regroup."
I frowned, but understood where she was coming from. "Understood. Hammerhead returning to the team." I switched back to the intercom. "Driver, take us east, back to where the others are setting up."
"Aye aye!" Jane cheered. After a moment, though, she whispered something that her mic barely picked up. "Are you sure?"
"Jane?" I asked.
"It's nothing!" Jane quickly replied, and pulled us into a turn. I sighed softly at her weirdness, but didn't make any further comment.
As we drove, I thought back to my plan. Keeping Naomi's position safe and concealed was one of our goals, and a loose scout tank put her at risk. A sneaky 37mm shot into the side at close-ish range would be enough to knock her out. At the same time, Maginot had to know we were down here now, so delaying engaging them while hunting down the second Locust would be difficult.
I didn't let myself become too distracted by my thoughts, and kept one eye focused on my periscope at all times while we drove. The dust cloud was still obscuring visibility, but we were getting close to the edge, and it was reducing in intensity. Though I was keeping an eye out, I hadn't expected to see the other M22 driving almost directly in front of us, on the same bearing as us.
"What are the odds?" I murmured to myself, before raising my voice. "Tank, direct front, 200 yards!"
April wasn't as surprised by this as I was, and reacted immediately. The turret slewed over from its currently leftward orientation, and as soon as it was on, April fired. Her shot went wide, and slammed into the dirt maybe a hundred yards ahead of the Locust.
Credit where credit was due, the Locust reacted immediately. They pulled into a sharp turn and drew a bead on us in the time it took me to load the next round and for April to fire again. Both shots missed, but April's was a lot closer. Her third shot didn't miss, and slammed right into the M22's front plate.
The smaller light tank bucked with the impact before coming to a halt and popping the white flag.
I blinked. That had not been how I envisioned getting the second Locust would go. At least we didn't need to hunt it down in this awful visibility.
"Kodiak, Hammerhead." I called into my radio again. "Found and eliminated the second M22. We are returning to the main group now."
"Excellent job, Hammerhead!" Arisa said cheerfully. "Proceed to step two?"
"Proceed to step two." I replied.
Now that Maginot definitely knew we were here, and they had lost their scouts, they would have to commit their forces. With the two Locusts down, we had the numbers advantage for the moment, but since the Stuart wasn't all that useful in a straight up fight like what we were planning, it was still going to be a tough fight. Haruna and Grizzly-3 would need to take the brunt of it to protect Arisa, and we needed to turn it into a running battle to get Naomi into range.
Or Naomi would need to come to us.
Probably a mix of both.
"All callsigns, this is Hammerhead." I quietly called through the radio. On the other side of the bush the Stuart was hidden behind, Maginot's forces were pushing south. "I have eyes on. They're currently maybe 500 yards from my position."
"Copy that." Arisa replied. "Grizzly Platoon is in position and ready to engage. We're ready when you are."
"Driver, get ready." I said into my intercom, keeping the radio line open. "Gunner, target the M4A2. Fire when on."
Next to me, April nodded, and adjusted her aim to hit the M4. Maginot's Sherman was at the front of their line, with the two more classic French early-war tanks following behind it, and the ARL at the rear of the line.
"On the way." April announced calmly, and the 37mm fired. Her shot was on target, but the 37 just lacked the punch to hurt the M4A2 at this range. And then she fired the co-ax at them for good measure.
While the 37 got their attention, I'm fairly certain that the burst from the co-ax was actually what got Maginot's eyes on our pretty well concealed position.
"Driver, go go go!" I called out, as four turrets tracked over to our position. Jane didn't need to be told twice, and we very quickly accelerated up to speed. I ducked back down into the turret as the Maginot tanks opened fire, and their shots all just barely missed. The 90mm hit the ground next to us, and the whole tank shook from the near miss.
As we fled, April slewed our own turret over to keep firing at and agitating the Maginot tanks. I was impressed at how well their forces worked together as they pursued us. Never once did the medium tanks allow themselves to be baited away from the slower heavies. Another lesson I'd helped Maginot learn and that was immediately being used against me.
Dang it Eclair! I'm happy you learned from your mistakes with my help, but why did we have to immediately turn around and fight each other?!
"Grizzlies, we're coming in hot!" I called over the radio as we zipped towards Arisa's prepared position. There was a lot of open ground between us and them, and if we tried to cross that open field without any cover, the Stuart was going to get knocked out incredibly quickly. Thankfully, we had cover.
M4 Shermans come equipped with these handy little smoke grenade launchers attached to the turret. They aren't quite as good as a straight 75mm smoke shell, but when three tanks are launching three grenades in rapid succession, it's a rather useful smokescreen nonetheless.
Jane took us straight into the smoke screen, and as soon as we were through and could see Arisa's entrenched line, we veered off to one side and aimed for the low ground. Now, all we had to do was harass the flanks and take potshots at the readily available targets. Arisa had the hard part.
The smoke screen was clearing, but the dust cloud was getting worse again with the numerous shell impacts and tanks driving around at high speeds, limiting general visibility. While it would make skirmishing easier, diving into their backline for cheeky shots, Naomi wasn't going to be able to snipe with all this in the way.
As Jane pulled us to a stop in the low ground, I once again unbuttoned and went as high as was necessary to watch the ongoing battle. Maginot's M4 led the way through the rapidly dissipating smokescreen, followed closely by the SOMUA and B1. Directly across the open field from them was a rather well entrenched Arisa, Haruna, and Grizzly-3.
In an ironic turn of events, Saunders was the team turtling up, while Maginot stayed mobile and attempted to encircle or otherwise break our defensive line.
Arisa and the Grizzlies exchanged fire with Maginot's forces as they pushed through the smoke, and it very rapidly turned into a rapid fire, long range gunnery duel with limited visibility. A good situation for nobody. But one player on either side had yet to enter the field. For us it was Naomi and her Firefly, while for Maginot, it was Eclair in her ARL-44.
The heaviest tank on the field announced its entry into the duel with what felt like a resounding thunderclap compared to the relatively smaller 75mm and 47mm guns of the fighting forces. It felt like the world slowed down as I watched the 90mm shell race from one end of my vision to the other, where it slammed directly into the bow of Grizzly-3.
"Driver, get us in there. We need to keep Eclair busy so that Arisa and Grizzly-2 can take care of their fight." I ordered quickly. Jane immediately complied and we roared out of the ditch and back onto the battlefield. "Gunner, ARL-44, direct front, 400 yards. Hit them with both the 37 and the co-ax."
"I see her." April replied calmly.
"Fire!" I called. Moments later, the 37 barked, and was followed up by a short burst from the caliber .30 co-ax. The heavy tank's turret slewed over towards us, away from the battle.
Good. The distraction was working.
"AP up!" I called, immediately grabbing the next round in the ready rack.
"On the way!" April responded, firing the gun once more. This shot also pinged off of the ARL's armor, but I expected that every shot we fired would. The 37mm just lacked the punch to get a knockout blow on an ARL. We weren't even going to try.
"Driver, take us to the right, around her side. Let's try and keep her attention away from the battle." I ordered. "Kodiak, Grizzlies, I'm keeping the flag tank distracted, and will do so as long as possible. May your aim be true, and your fights be swift."
"That was oddly poetic of you, Hammerhead." Naomi snarked. "Best of luck to you too."
"That's the M4A2 knocked out!" Arisa called out.
"They're getting awfully close. We should start falling back towards Grizzly-Lead." Haruna suggested. I half tuned into the radio chatter, but was mostly focused on loading the gun for April and keeping Eclair distracted.
The 90mm roared again, and the Stuart rocked as the round ripped past us. A burst from the co-ax responded to the miss, and the machine gun bounced off of the heavy's armor to zero effect. It probably made a heck of a racket inside, though.
"Char B1, knocked out!" Haruna cheered over the radio, before immediately getting cut off.
"Grizzly-2 just get knocked out?" Naomi asked.
"Affirmative." Arisa replied.
"Keep running, I'm headed your way."
"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm just busy brawling with a tank three times as heavy as mine at close ranges." I snarked into my radio as I slammed another shell into the breach.
"You're doing wonderfully, Hammerhead." Arisa said. "We'd have lost already if not for you."
"Thanks." I nodded, though she couldn't see it. April fired at the heavy, once again to no effect, and I began scanning the area. No tanks appeared to me besides the ARL and Stuart. "Driver, get us moving towards Grizzly's position."
"Right!" Jane said, and immediately pulled us into a turn that both dodged another 90mm shell and gave us an escape vector. I slammed another shell into the breach, and kept an eye on the ARL until it faded away into the dust.
As soon as we were clear, I buttoned up, and removed my goggles, letting them hang on my neck. They were great protection, but absolutely awful for anything else, and my forehead was positively dripping with sweat.
"The SOMUA is right on our tail! Any day now Grizzly!" Arisa worried into the radio.
Naomi answered her with the sound of bubblegum popping. Moments later, the very distinctive roar of the 17-pdr echoed over the plains. The sniper put on her absolute worst fake Australian accent as she pulled her Bond one-liner. "Boom, headshot."
"Really? There's a whole world of witty one-liners out there, and you go with Meet the Sniper?" Arisa asked. She sounded rather disappointed. "Sometime in the near future, we are all having a Bond movie night. Kay, I know you're listening in, so don't think you can get out of this just because you got knocked out early."
"Can we take this a little more seriously?" I asked, as Jane pulled another wild maneuver to dodge a blind shot from the ARL behind us.
"As you wish." Naomi replied. "The dust cloud is making visibility awful. I could only see the SOMUA when it chased Kodiak out of the cloud, so I don't think sniping will work."
"Getting close enough to see it is a bad idea. Eclair will be able to react, and might be able to get a shot off first." I replied.
"She knows the dust is cover against Grizzly's long range, so she'll retreat and stay in it as long as possible." Arisa observed.
I frowned, and scanned the interior of my turret for anything that might spark an idea. How could we let Naomi see where we were? If I could get her onto me, I could lead her shot right to Eclair. My eyes zeroed in on an odd pistol grip with a cable wiring it into the tank. The handle for the spotlight.
"April, do we have a spotlight anywhere?" I asked as I grabbed the grip. I couldn't remember whether or not we had one, but if we did it might just be the piece of equipment that won us the match.
"Right side of the turret, mounted under the machine gun protective cover." April replied quickly. Trusting her with handling supplies around the tank had been the right move.
"Okay, rotate the turret 90 degrees to the right, I need to get at that spotlight." I said. I pulled my goggles back on, and as soon as I could, I clambered out of the turret and stood on the back deck of our rapidly moving tank. Despite the dust flying around everywhere, being upright while moving this fast was just an amazing feeling. I put that aside though, and removed the spotlight from its customized mounting.
Spotlight met pistol grip, and I tested it to make sure the light was functional. It was, and judging by how bright it was, that was an LED bulb instead of the traditional WW2 era light. Good. I'd need all the power I could get out of this if my plan was to work.
I grabbed my radio as I climbed back into the turret, and began shining the spotlight directly forward. "Grizzly, can you see my spotlight?"
"I think so. Wave it around a little." Naomi responded, and I quickly complied with her request. "Yes, I have eyes on. I can kind of see the source, too."
"Good. I'm going to keep shining this your way, and we're gonna turn around and charge the ARL. Track my position, and when I give the word, fire." I ordered.
I could hear the bafflement in Naomi's voice as she spoke. "Affirmative. Hammerhead, you're crazy."
"Crazy enough to make this work." I countered confidently.
"We'll see."
I cut my radio for the moment, and turned to the intercom. "Driver, take us back in. Turn a full 180 and go maximum speed towards Eclair's last known location."
"Yes ma'am!" Jane replied, and we drifted into a sharp turn to fully come around.
"We're coming in behind you, Hammerhead." Arisa said, and I acknowledged, focusing on keeping the spotlight pointed in their direction. It almost looked like the spotlight grew even more intense, but it was probably just the light reflecting off of some dust and into my protective goggles.
"Tank direct front!" April called.
"Naomi, do you have eyes on my light?" I asked, dispensing with the codenames.
"I do."
As soon as she said that, I turned off the spotlight. "Driver, hard left!"
The ARL reacted to our presence, and slowed to slew its turret over after the wildly maneuvering Stuart. Perfect.
"Fire!"
One shot was all Naomi got, and it was all she needed. Two guns roared in unison. Her shot was blind, but well guided. I had a moment to notice the APCBC round from the 17-pdr scream past me, before the ARL's shot slammed into the side of the Stuart. The light tank went spinning, and when we finally came to a stop, the ARL was just as dead in the water as we were. Two white flags popped up in quick succession with tiny 'thwips!' The Stuart was out, but so was the ARL.
We had won. It had been incredibly close, and required some crazy plans, but despite that, we had won.
Now to stop my head from spinning...
Gotta go fast!
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
Now, now, Jatkosota has the drivers to make it work.
GuP physics lol
Alternatively: wao Tally's hardcore enough to blade just to sell a low stakes match
Arisa plz
There's a whole host of WW2 films with good sniping to watch at least instead
Part Fifty Nine
Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hell On Tracks
Part Fifty Nine
++++++++++
With the match over, Naomi gave my crew and I a ride back to camp while we let the ARVs handle the disabled tanks. Kay was waiting for us, as were Rach and Trips. I grinned at the sight of my best friend among the group. As soon as the Firefly pulled to a stop, I hopped off of its engine deck and sprinted over to Kay and Rach.
"Tally, that was awesome!" Rach cheered loudly. "I don't know what that plan with the light was, but it clearly worked like a charm."
"Well done, Tally!" Trips said, a proud smile on her face.
"I let them listen in on the radio." Kay said by way of explanation.
"Gotcha." I nodded to Kay, before shifting over to Rach. "We couldn't see anything in that dust cloud. Visibility was awful, and we couldn't let Eclair escape, but didn't want to risk Firefly getting too close. So I grabbed the spotlight, used it to get Naomi's eyes on target, and then ducked out of the way right before I told her to fire. Had to be unbuttoned and aiming the spotlight backwards, too."
Rach let out a whistle. "That's… wow. Naomi may be onto something."
"Really, you too?" I asked with an exaggerated pout.
Rach grinned. "Seriously though, good job. I thought you guys were done for once Kay got knocked out. Instead, you took control and did an amazing job at coming up with something that worked."
"Thanks Rach." I said, my smile growing even wider. The way Kay was nodding along with all of her points only made the praise even better. "So how did you get down here?"
"I got a plane. Darj gave me the day off with permission from the Sensha-do team. Officially, I'm doing reconnaissance and have to give Darjeeling and Assam a report of what I saw when I get back, but really I'm just here so I could watch your match in person." Rach explained. "I'll be flying back to Yokohama tomorrow morning, unless I can get a ride from you guys tonight."
"We'll see if we can work something out." Kay said.
"Thanks."
"Did you notice anything interesting, Rach? Something worthy of reporting to your team captain?" I asked, folding my arms and leaning back on my hips.
"Maginot is getting very proficient at those hit and run tactics they used against you in the early part of the match, but they abandoned their entrenchments too early. A simple HE barrage shouldn't have driven them off, even if it was to bait you into a trap. The ARL is a huge potential threat, but it also exhibited lackluster mobility, and that slowness could be used to isolate targets."
"Like how I distracted the ARL while Arisa and Naomi's group dealt with the lighter tanks?" I asked.
"More or less." Rach gave a so-so wave of her hand. "Visibility was bad for us too. Cameras couldn't see into the cloud, so we only knew the match was over when Maginot's flag tank sent out the signal that it had been KO'd."
"Have you got anything for Saunders?" Trips asked, entering into the conversation.
"Up until Kay got KO'd, your tactics were pretty standard for Saunders. The arty barrage was new, but also wasn't very effective. My biggest critique was that Tally was too far from the team to be able to support them or be supported by them. Combine that with the Locusts baiting you away from the team, and it was a perfect setup for the ambush that got Kay." Rach said.
"So what, I should try and think of my role more as a pathfinder for the team rather than a detached recon element?" I asked.
Rach shrugged. "I'm just making observations. You get to come up with your own solutions. Figure out what being a light tank and scout should mean in the Saunders style of Tankery."
"Rach has a point." Trips said. "If your scouting element is too far from the main force, they're liable to get isolated and knocked out. A dead - or knocked out - scout is a useless scout."
I nodded along with their points. "I'll have to think on it."
"I have a few ideas, but we'll discuss them tonight, after the party." Kay said.
"You guys are having a party?" Rach asked.
"Oh yeah! We have parties all the time, but the ones after matches are always great. You're always invited if you want to come."
"Sounds like fun!" Rach grinned.
Kay flashed Rach a big thumbs up. "We've got the Chief and Miss Houston cooking up a proper barbecue for us back at the Sensha-do garage."
"You got Liz to help?" Trips asked, surprised.
"Of course." Kay grinned.
"Nice!" Trips matched Kay's grin. "I think you'll like her, Tally. Liz's cornbread is almost as good as Bannie's potato salad. And that's not touching on the rest of everything she's gonna make."
I let out a low whistle, and promptly coughed. I didn't realize how dry my throat had gotten from all that dust in the air. "Water please."
"Hadley!" Trips shouted, pivoting towards her food stall. Somehow the brunette not only heard her shout over the crowd, but knew exactly what Trips had wanted, because moments later I saw a water bottle arc upwards over the crowd, aimed towards us.
"I got it!" I called out, suppressing another cough. I didn't even need to move. The water bottle was somehow perfectly aimed, and it landed in my outstretched hands. Mere moments later, I had the water bottle cracked open, and I took a deep swig.
Trips cradled her face with her hands. "I need to go yell at her. Again."
"Go light on her this time, will you?" I requested. "That toss was amazing."
"Alright." Trips acquiesced after a moment of staring me down. "I'll see you all at the party."
"See you later, Trips!" Kay waved, as the cook ran back to her stand. As soon as Trips was out of earshot, Kay shook her head. "Honestly, what was she expecting from Hadley?"
"Is that… normal?" Rach asked. She looked only slightly more confused about things that I felt.
"More or less." I shrugged. "Faye Faith and her crew can be strange at times."
"You don't know the half of it." Kay added. "Come on, let's go help the others with unloading, and do all of the post-match official stuff that needs doing."
Eclair had wanted to talk to me after the match, and Rach stuck with me while Kay went to help the others in packing up all of our disabled vehicles. We talked about how the match went, what was up with her ARL, and what the various plans we'd pulled during the match had looked like. According to her, the ARL's engine was barely functional, but they'd pushed through since they needed the extra firepower of the heavy tank. It had been a huge risk to make it her flag, because if the engine gave out, that was game, but that had also inspired the hit and run tactics and ambushes. If you bring the enemy to you, you don't need to risk the engine giving out. I had to explain my spotlight trick to her as well, and just like everyone else, she seemed impressed by the sheer gall of it.
We exchanged congratulations over a well fought match and hard earned victory, and promised to keep in touch before Rach and I headed off to rejoin the rest of the Saunders crew. Eclair was looking forward to meeting us on the field in Tankathlon season this fall, where Saunders' weight advantage wasn't nearly as impactful. I just grinned at her in response before we went our separate ways.
When Rach and I finally made it to the Tankery garage, the party was in full swing. Food hadn't quite been served yet, but judging by the wonderful smells coming from the Chieftain's grill, it was going to be soon. Trips and her crew were already setting up their food stand, if in a much smaller capacity than at the match, and a woman I didn't recognize was laying out trays of food along one of the long tables. Though judging by the Stetson she was wearing, which nearly matched the Chief's cavalry hat for sheer size, I would bet she was Miss Houston.
"So, what do you usually do at these parties?" Rach asked.
"What do I do, or what is there that's going on?" I asked.
Rach considered my question. "Let's start with you."
"I usually just hang out with Arisa near the party's edge, and get food if I'm hungry enough." I answered, gesturing over to where Arisa was already sitting. She looked like she was getting into a book, but I couldn't tell what from here.
"Well, at least you don't do it alone!" Rach said with a smile.
I returned her smile. Rach's cheer was infectious, and her positive attitude was always uplifting. Haha, friendship!
"There's a whole bunch of other stuff going on around during the parties too. Hannah runs the dance floor just inside the main entrance, I've heard rumors of board games being hidden somewhere in there, and there are plenty of opportunities to meet people and socialize." I said, continuing my explanation of the stuff to do.
"The dance floor sounds like fun." Rach said. "And a good way to burn off some energy."
She grabbed my wrist to start dragging me over to it, but I pulled back as hard as I could, managing to pull my wrist free from her grip. "You know I can't dance."
"It's not about being good at dancing, it's about having fun!"
"I'm not going over there, and you can't make me." I said firmly.
Rach stared at me, her look somewhere between awe and confusion. For a moment I thought she was doing that thing where she spaces out for a few minutes when she needs to make an important decision of some kind, but she grinned well before we got to that point.
Comprehension dawned upon me as I realized what was going to happen, moments too late to escape.
"What's this? Tally's learning how to say no? I'm so proud of you!" Rach said, maintaining her huge grin. She pulled me into a tight side hug, despite my attempts to escape.
"Nonononono!" I said rapidly, as Rach started mussing my hair. Thankfully, my braid kept it mostly under control, but she did manage to shake up a surprising amount of dust and dirt from the earlier match. Unlike earlier, I couldn't rip myself free of Rach's grip, and was stuck there until she released me.
Desperation turned to laughter as Rach released me, and we took a moment to just laugh. Despite my annoyance at her antics, I grinned at my best friend. "You can go have fun on the dance floor and wear yourself out. I am going to go hang out with Arisa in our usual seats. I'll grab some food for you if you aren't back by the time it's ready, okay?"
Rach considered it a moment before shaking her head. "Nah. I'm here to hang out with you."
I blinked, momentarily snapped out of my cheer by the unexpected answer. It was only a moment, and I smiled widely at my friend. "Thanks Rach!"
"No problem, Tally." Rach replied with a smile of her own.
I led Rach over to where Arisa was waiting, and waved at my other friend as I called out to her. "Hey Arisa!"
"I see where you get your energy from." Arisa said dryly, looking up from her novel. It was one of the many Bond novels floating around, but I couldn't tell which from this angle.
I shook my head, laughing softly. "Actually, I've always been the more energetic of the two of us. Rach is usually more cheerful than me, but she can't keep up with me."
Arisa looked over to Rach. "So you're both a handful, got it. You aren't gonna go enjoy the other activities together?"
"I can't dance." I said simply. A thought occurred to me, and I sat down next to Arisa while I pondered it. "Though I should probably try to learn at least a little bit before prom. It's what, three weeks out?"
"Something like that. It's the weekend after the second to last round of the loser's bracket." Arisa answered. "I still need to ask Takashi out."
"I take it he has yet to notice your existence?"
"Pretty much…" Arisa slumped slightly at the admission.
"I can't claim to know how boys function, but I'm sure you'll get his attention sooner or later."
From there, our conversation devolved into whatever struck our fancy. We didn't really talk about the match, but everything else was fair game. The post-match review was to wait until after the party, at Kay's dorm. Arisa was very adamant that tonight we were going to watch a Bond movie after the meeting instead of the usual pickings of anime. And so long as it was one of the good Bond films, I was okay with that.
Rach regaled us with tales of the oddities of St Gloriana's, as well as some of the more interesting parts of her career in their Sensha-do team. Darjeeling hadn't allowed her or Rosehip to actually participate in a tournament match yet, but Rach was confident that it was only a matter of time before the rookies got their shot at the field.
She was momentarily interrupted by Hadley walking over from the food tables to let us know that dinner was ready, and the tale paused while we grabbed food. The brunette actually joined our little gathering after we'd all grabbed food.
"I hope you girls don't mind. Trips is cycling us through half hour breaks, since we've been on all day." Hadley said by way of explanation.
"It's fine." I said. "So, Rach, what's up with the tea names at St. Glo?"
"What's up with all the English names at Saunders?" Rach countered, grinning. "It's an old St Glo tradition. The Tea Garden is where the most prestigious students gather, and get tea soul names. You have to get recommended to even have a shot at joining them. The fact that Rosehip got herself a tea name so quickly is incredibly impressive, actually. Pekoe, too."
"Have you been offered a spot?" Hadley asked around a mouthful of food.
"Darj would never allow it. I'm too American for her. Though I heard she did manage to come up with a tea name for me." Rach said with a grin.
"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow, and Arisa momentarily put down her burger to pay attention.
"Arizona." Rach stated proudly. In three seconds flat, all four of us had broken down laughing. Canned tea. Darjeeling wanted to nickname Rach after canned tea! If that wasn't a high class insult, I don't know what was!
"Oh that…" Hadley was cut off as she descended back into laughter. "That is just too perfect!"
I was the first to recompose myself, but I took a deep breath just to be sure. "If you did get the offer, would you accept being Arizona, member of the Tea Garden of St Gloriana's?"
Hadley cracked up again as I asked my question, while Rach merely grinned. "Of course!"
Arisa rolled her eyes and huffed. "Americans."
"Oh trust me, we get worse." Rach grinned. "Tasha isn't here."
"Tasha?" Arisa asked, glancing over at Hadley who was still laughing like a maniac.
"My Russian evil twin." Rach answered easily. "No relation between us whatsoever, but we're nearly identical twins, in everything but attitude. Heck, Tally's probably closer related to Tasha than I am."
I shook my head. "Nah. My dad just knows her uncle."
"Huh." Arisa huh'd.
"So, I had this really weird dream the other day." I began, changing the subject once more. It seemed that Hadley had finally managed to calm herself, and she quietly tuned in while diving into her brisket.
"Really? I thought you didn't ever remember your dreams." Rach commented.
"I don't, which is what makes it really weird. I think it was an alien invasion of some sort. There were evil looking bugs, human-ish aliens in suits with plasma guns, and floating squid-like robots."
"I've seen enough- "
"Don't even finish that thought." I cut Arisa off quickly. "It was an alien invasion or something, and I was one of the people fighting them. I had this really cool looking mech suit and a big laser gun. Me and this other mech were acting as a flanking force to attack a crashed UFO, while the rest of our team engaged conventionally. One of the squid robots grabbed someone, and I pulled off a very hard shot to free them before it could start crushing them. The other mech and I were ambushed by the murderbugs as we pushed forward, but her gun was also a sword. The bugs didn't stand a chance, and together we fought our way through to the command center of the UFO. It was really cool, and right as we started assaulting the main command center, I woke up."
"That's… anti-climactic." Arisa observed.
"I can't control my dreams." I shrugged.
"Anybody you recognize there?" Hadley asked.
"I don't think so, but everyone had a helmet on."
Hadley merely nodded. "You're right, that does sound pretty weird."
"Yeah. At least if we get attacked by aliens, we have tanks. Tanks are cooler than mechs." I said with a grin.
Rach matched my grin with a cry of "Haha, tanks!" while Arisa just rolled her eyes.
"You've been watching too much anime."
"Probably."
We carried on chatting for a while. Hadley eventually had to leave to get back to work at the food stall, and Kay came to collect the rest of us not long after. Rach politely declined a ride and a place to stay in my dorm room, saying she already had her own transportation and accommodations.
"Alright everyone, shuffle in." Kay said, opening the door to her dorm room. Arisa had insisted on a quick stop at our dorm building before we reached Kay's, just so she could grab her James Bond DVD collection, but otherwise the trip over had been uneventful.
I settled down at the kotatsu, while Naomi and Hannah each grabbed themselves a soda from Kay's minifridge. Kay sat down next to me and gave me a small hug as everyone else made themselves comfortable.
"First things first, congratulations on a well earned victory!" Kay said cheerfully. "But just because we won doesn't mean this match can't be a learning experience. So, as usual, good stuff first. Naomi, you're up."
"Eight points for ingenuity." Naomi said quickly. "This applies to both us and Maginot, really. The HE bombardment, that buried light tank trap, well planned and executed maneuvers on all sides, and of course Tally's absolutely insane spotlight trick."
"Flexibility." I said, going next. "We spent a lot of time reacting to what Maginot did, but also trying to get ahead of them. Adapting to the situation as it developed, even when unexpected challenges presented themselves." I pondered it for a moment, thinking up my score. "Nine points."
"Ten points for perseverance." Hannah said with a wide smile. "Even when we started losing tanks left and right, I never once heard people panic or give up. It was always just how do we overcome this obstacle, or stuff like that."
"Oooh, that's a high score." Kay said cheerfully. "Eight points for sportsmanship. This is more before and after the match than during it, but I never heard anybody complaining about us loaning Maginot our tanks even after we knew we were fighting them next. We were very welcoming in the pre-match, I saw people eating lunch with the Maginot girls, and it was pretty similar in the post-match."
The room fell silent for a moment as Arisa pondered her own answer. After what seemed like an eternity, she settled on something. "Six points coordination. It wasn't perfect, and there was a lot of chaos during the early chases and especially after Kay got knocked out, but we recovered from that, and a couple of the things we did would not have worked out so well if not for that coordination."
"Good points all around!" Kay said with a big thumbs up. "Since I got knocked out fairly early into the match, I had a good opportunity to watch how the finale played out. As such, I have a few observations to share, but before I do, is there anything anybody would like to comment on?"
"Caution." Arisa said immediately. "We charged straight into too many ambushes, so caught up in our pursuit of Maginot's tanks."
Kay nodded. "We'll have to figure out a training session for commanders and drivers for the purposes of not wandering into traps. Arisa, can I trust you to handle that?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Good. Tally, since TDs are ambush weapons, I want you helping her. It'll be good practice for when we get you into the Hellcat."
"Can do." I nodded at Kay.
"Any other general concerns?" Kay asked. When we all shook our heads, she continued on with her criticisms. "Tally, Rach mentioned that you were too far from the team on your scouting missions, and she had a point. Stay closer to the team, so that we can support you, and you can support us. Arisa, as soon as we have the numbers to spare, I'm sticking an escort on you. As flag tank, we can't take risks with you, but we need that 76mm gun in the fighting. For now, pick a platoon and join them in close support, staying just behind their back line. Naomi, you were hanging back more this match, which is good, but you need to find that balance between sniping and working with your platoon. That final skirmish is a perfect example of why you need to be closer. Your 17-pdr is no good if it isn't firing."
All three of us nodded, taking in Kay's words.
"What about you?" Hannah asked, looking at Kay.
"I need to work on not running into ambushes!" Kay said with a grin. "I'm looking forward to what you two come up with, Arisa and Tally."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be enlightening." Naomi agreed.
"I do have one more criticism, for the whole team. Call out when you get engaged and when you get knocked out." Kay said. "Tally, when you ran into the Locusts while you were in the dust cloud, you didn't call them out. If you had gotten knocked out, nobody would have known, and the plan might have fallen apart. But this doesn't just apply to you, it hits the whole team. Tally didn't know I had been knocked out until after the fact, and we probably could have saved a tank or two from ambushes just by calling out targets. In addition, there's a short period of time after you get knocked out where your radio still works. We try not to abuse this, but if you get knocked out, call it."
The three of us who were TCs nodded along.
"And now the news that I'm sure everyone wants to hear!" Kay said, cheering back up. "Our next opponent will be Yogurt Academy. St Gloriana beat them two days ago. Pravda beat Viking, Kuromorimine beat Jatkosota, and Ooarai annihilated Anzio."
"Speaking of Ooarai…" Arisa interjected. "I did some digging, and with Naomi's help found out something interesting. You know how the school is slated to shut down next spring?"
"Yeah…?" I answered, and everyone else nodded along.
"Apparently, the school's student council didn't take this well, and they made a deal with the administration. If they can win the Sensha-do national tournament, they wouldn't close the school." Arisa stated.
I blinked, and there was a wall of silence from myself, Kay, and Hannah. After what felt like a solid minute of stunned silence, Kay broke the silence. "Twenty bucks on Ooarai winning the tournament!"
"No way. I'm not gonna take that bet." I said, shaking my head. Arisa and Naomi agreed with me by shaking their heads.
"Sure, I'll take that." Hannah said. "I'll match you, but I think Kuromorimine's gonna regain their title."
The two shook on it.
"What makes you think they'll win?" I asked. "They've only got five tanks."
"Seven, actually, though their Porsche Tiger is buried deep in their school ship and they probably won't have it ready until after their match with Pravda." Arisa said.
"They have something worth fighting for. We play to have fun, KMM plays to win because that's all they know, but Ooarai is fighting because they need to win. They'll fight harder than any other team, and even if their gear is generally subpar and they don't have as many tanks as everyone else, I think they can do it." Kay explained.
"Oh." Hannah said. She looked like she regretted her bet with Kay. "Is there anything we can do to help them?"
"They already said they didn't want any materiel assistance." Naomi answered. "But Momo has asked if I could come over to Ooarai sometime to help her with her gunnery."
"Which one is Momo?" I asked.
"Monocle girl. She's the gunner of their 38(t), and somehow, she's a worse shot than you, Tally."
"That's impressively bad." Arisa murmured.
"Hey!"
"If you can find the time in your schedule to go help Ooarai, you have my permission to go, Naomi. If they need any other help, we would be happy to provide assistance." Kay said. "Now, if nobody has anything else they would like to address, I believe Arisa has some films she would like us to watch."
Part Fifty Nine
++++++++++
With the match over, Naomi gave my crew and I a ride back to camp while we let the ARVs handle the disabled tanks. Kay was waiting for us, as were Rach and Trips. I grinned at the sight of my best friend among the group. As soon as the Firefly pulled to a stop, I hopped off of its engine deck and sprinted over to Kay and Rach.
"Tally, that was awesome!" Rach cheered loudly. "I don't know what that plan with the light was, but it clearly worked like a charm."
"Well done, Tally!" Trips said, a proud smile on her face.
"I let them listen in on the radio." Kay said by way of explanation.
"Gotcha." I nodded to Kay, before shifting over to Rach. "We couldn't see anything in that dust cloud. Visibility was awful, and we couldn't let Eclair escape, but didn't want to risk Firefly getting too close. So I grabbed the spotlight, used it to get Naomi's eyes on target, and then ducked out of the way right before I told her to fire. Had to be unbuttoned and aiming the spotlight backwards, too."
Rach let out a whistle. "That's… wow. Naomi may be onto something."
"Really, you too?" I asked with an exaggerated pout.
Rach grinned. "Seriously though, good job. I thought you guys were done for once Kay got knocked out. Instead, you took control and did an amazing job at coming up with something that worked."
"Thanks Rach." I said, my smile growing even wider. The way Kay was nodding along with all of her points only made the praise even better. "So how did you get down here?"
"I got a plane. Darj gave me the day off with permission from the Sensha-do team. Officially, I'm doing reconnaissance and have to give Darjeeling and Assam a report of what I saw when I get back, but really I'm just here so I could watch your match in person." Rach explained. "I'll be flying back to Yokohama tomorrow morning, unless I can get a ride from you guys tonight."
"We'll see if we can work something out." Kay said.
"Thanks."
"Did you notice anything interesting, Rach? Something worthy of reporting to your team captain?" I asked, folding my arms and leaning back on my hips.
"Maginot is getting very proficient at those hit and run tactics they used against you in the early part of the match, but they abandoned their entrenchments too early. A simple HE barrage shouldn't have driven them off, even if it was to bait you into a trap. The ARL is a huge potential threat, but it also exhibited lackluster mobility, and that slowness could be used to isolate targets."
"Like how I distracted the ARL while Arisa and Naomi's group dealt with the lighter tanks?" I asked.
"More or less." Rach gave a so-so wave of her hand. "Visibility was bad for us too. Cameras couldn't see into the cloud, so we only knew the match was over when Maginot's flag tank sent out the signal that it had been KO'd."
"Have you got anything for Saunders?" Trips asked, entering into the conversation.
"Up until Kay got KO'd, your tactics were pretty standard for Saunders. The arty barrage was new, but also wasn't very effective. My biggest critique was that Tally was too far from the team to be able to support them or be supported by them. Combine that with the Locusts baiting you away from the team, and it was a perfect setup for the ambush that got Kay." Rach said.
"So what, I should try and think of my role more as a pathfinder for the team rather than a detached recon element?" I asked.
Rach shrugged. "I'm just making observations. You get to come up with your own solutions. Figure out what being a light tank and scout should mean in the Saunders style of Tankery."
"Rach has a point." Trips said. "If your scouting element is too far from the main force, they're liable to get isolated and knocked out. A dead - or knocked out - scout is a useless scout."
I nodded along with their points. "I'll have to think on it."
"I have a few ideas, but we'll discuss them tonight, after the party." Kay said.
"You guys are having a party?" Rach asked.
"Oh yeah! We have parties all the time, but the ones after matches are always great. You're always invited if you want to come."
"Sounds like fun!" Rach grinned.
Kay flashed Rach a big thumbs up. "We've got the Chief and Miss Houston cooking up a proper barbecue for us back at the Sensha-do garage."
"You got Liz to help?" Trips asked, surprised.
"Of course." Kay grinned.
"Nice!" Trips matched Kay's grin. "I think you'll like her, Tally. Liz's cornbread is almost as good as Bannie's potato salad. And that's not touching on the rest of everything she's gonna make."
I let out a low whistle, and promptly coughed. I didn't realize how dry my throat had gotten from all that dust in the air. "Water please."
"Hadley!" Trips shouted, pivoting towards her food stall. Somehow the brunette not only heard her shout over the crowd, but knew exactly what Trips had wanted, because moments later I saw a water bottle arc upwards over the crowd, aimed towards us.
"I got it!" I called out, suppressing another cough. I didn't even need to move. The water bottle was somehow perfectly aimed, and it landed in my outstretched hands. Mere moments later, I had the water bottle cracked open, and I took a deep swig.
Trips cradled her face with her hands. "I need to go yell at her. Again."
"Go light on her this time, will you?" I requested. "That toss was amazing."
"Alright." Trips acquiesced after a moment of staring me down. "I'll see you all at the party."
"See you later, Trips!" Kay waved, as the cook ran back to her stand. As soon as Trips was out of earshot, Kay shook her head. "Honestly, what was she expecting from Hadley?"
"Is that… normal?" Rach asked. She looked only slightly more confused about things that I felt.
"More or less." I shrugged. "Faye Faith and her crew can be strange at times."
"You don't know the half of it." Kay added. "Come on, let's go help the others with unloading, and do all of the post-match official stuff that needs doing."
Eclair had wanted to talk to me after the match, and Rach stuck with me while Kay went to help the others in packing up all of our disabled vehicles. We talked about how the match went, what was up with her ARL, and what the various plans we'd pulled during the match had looked like. According to her, the ARL's engine was barely functional, but they'd pushed through since they needed the extra firepower of the heavy tank. It had been a huge risk to make it her flag, because if the engine gave out, that was game, but that had also inspired the hit and run tactics and ambushes. If you bring the enemy to you, you don't need to risk the engine giving out. I had to explain my spotlight trick to her as well, and just like everyone else, she seemed impressed by the sheer gall of it.
We exchanged congratulations over a well fought match and hard earned victory, and promised to keep in touch before Rach and I headed off to rejoin the rest of the Saunders crew. Eclair was looking forward to meeting us on the field in Tankathlon season this fall, where Saunders' weight advantage wasn't nearly as impactful. I just grinned at her in response before we went our separate ways.
When Rach and I finally made it to the Tankery garage, the party was in full swing. Food hadn't quite been served yet, but judging by the wonderful smells coming from the Chieftain's grill, it was going to be soon. Trips and her crew were already setting up their food stand, if in a much smaller capacity than at the match, and a woman I didn't recognize was laying out trays of food along one of the long tables. Though judging by the Stetson she was wearing, which nearly matched the Chief's cavalry hat for sheer size, I would bet she was Miss Houston.
"So, what do you usually do at these parties?" Rach asked.
"What do I do, or what is there that's going on?" I asked.
Rach considered my question. "Let's start with you."
"I usually just hang out with Arisa near the party's edge, and get food if I'm hungry enough." I answered, gesturing over to where Arisa was already sitting. She looked like she was getting into a book, but I couldn't tell what from here.
"Well, at least you don't do it alone!" Rach said with a smile.
I returned her smile. Rach's cheer was infectious, and her positive attitude was always uplifting. Haha, friendship!
"There's a whole bunch of other stuff going on around during the parties too. Hannah runs the dance floor just inside the main entrance, I've heard rumors of board games being hidden somewhere in there, and there are plenty of opportunities to meet people and socialize." I said, continuing my explanation of the stuff to do.
"The dance floor sounds like fun." Rach said. "And a good way to burn off some energy."
She grabbed my wrist to start dragging me over to it, but I pulled back as hard as I could, managing to pull my wrist free from her grip. "You know I can't dance."
"It's not about being good at dancing, it's about having fun!"
"I'm not going over there, and you can't make me." I said firmly.
Rach stared at me, her look somewhere between awe and confusion. For a moment I thought she was doing that thing where she spaces out for a few minutes when she needs to make an important decision of some kind, but she grinned well before we got to that point.
Comprehension dawned upon me as I realized what was going to happen, moments too late to escape.
"What's this? Tally's learning how to say no? I'm so proud of you!" Rach said, maintaining her huge grin. She pulled me into a tight side hug, despite my attempts to escape.
"Nonononono!" I said rapidly, as Rach started mussing my hair. Thankfully, my braid kept it mostly under control, but she did manage to shake up a surprising amount of dust and dirt from the earlier match. Unlike earlier, I couldn't rip myself free of Rach's grip, and was stuck there until she released me.
Desperation turned to laughter as Rach released me, and we took a moment to just laugh. Despite my annoyance at her antics, I grinned at my best friend. "You can go have fun on the dance floor and wear yourself out. I am going to go hang out with Arisa in our usual seats. I'll grab some food for you if you aren't back by the time it's ready, okay?"
Rach considered it a moment before shaking her head. "Nah. I'm here to hang out with you."
I blinked, momentarily snapped out of my cheer by the unexpected answer. It was only a moment, and I smiled widely at my friend. "Thanks Rach!"
"No problem, Tally." Rach replied with a smile of her own.
I led Rach over to where Arisa was waiting, and waved at my other friend as I called out to her. "Hey Arisa!"
"I see where you get your energy from." Arisa said dryly, looking up from her novel. It was one of the many Bond novels floating around, but I couldn't tell which from this angle.
I shook my head, laughing softly. "Actually, I've always been the more energetic of the two of us. Rach is usually more cheerful than me, but she can't keep up with me."
Arisa looked over to Rach. "So you're both a handful, got it. You aren't gonna go enjoy the other activities together?"
"I can't dance." I said simply. A thought occurred to me, and I sat down next to Arisa while I pondered it. "Though I should probably try to learn at least a little bit before prom. It's what, three weeks out?"
"Something like that. It's the weekend after the second to last round of the loser's bracket." Arisa answered. "I still need to ask Takashi out."
"I take it he has yet to notice your existence?"
"Pretty much…" Arisa slumped slightly at the admission.
"I can't claim to know how boys function, but I'm sure you'll get his attention sooner or later."
From there, our conversation devolved into whatever struck our fancy. We didn't really talk about the match, but everything else was fair game. The post-match review was to wait until after the party, at Kay's dorm. Arisa was very adamant that tonight we were going to watch a Bond movie after the meeting instead of the usual pickings of anime. And so long as it was one of the good Bond films, I was okay with that.
Rach regaled us with tales of the oddities of St Gloriana's, as well as some of the more interesting parts of her career in their Sensha-do team. Darjeeling hadn't allowed her or Rosehip to actually participate in a tournament match yet, but Rach was confident that it was only a matter of time before the rookies got their shot at the field.
She was momentarily interrupted by Hadley walking over from the food tables to let us know that dinner was ready, and the tale paused while we grabbed food. The brunette actually joined our little gathering after we'd all grabbed food.
"I hope you girls don't mind. Trips is cycling us through half hour breaks, since we've been on all day." Hadley said by way of explanation.
"It's fine." I said. "So, Rach, what's up with the tea names at St. Glo?"
"What's up with all the English names at Saunders?" Rach countered, grinning. "It's an old St Glo tradition. The Tea Garden is where the most prestigious students gather, and get tea soul names. You have to get recommended to even have a shot at joining them. The fact that Rosehip got herself a tea name so quickly is incredibly impressive, actually. Pekoe, too."
"Have you been offered a spot?" Hadley asked around a mouthful of food.
"Darj would never allow it. I'm too American for her. Though I heard she did manage to come up with a tea name for me." Rach said with a grin.
"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow, and Arisa momentarily put down her burger to pay attention.
"Arizona." Rach stated proudly. In three seconds flat, all four of us had broken down laughing. Canned tea. Darjeeling wanted to nickname Rach after canned tea! If that wasn't a high class insult, I don't know what was!
"Oh that…" Hadley was cut off as she descended back into laughter. "That is just too perfect!"
I was the first to recompose myself, but I took a deep breath just to be sure. "If you did get the offer, would you accept being Arizona, member of the Tea Garden of St Gloriana's?"
Hadley cracked up again as I asked my question, while Rach merely grinned. "Of course!"
Arisa rolled her eyes and huffed. "Americans."
"Oh trust me, we get worse." Rach grinned. "Tasha isn't here."
"Tasha?" Arisa asked, glancing over at Hadley who was still laughing like a maniac.
"My Russian evil twin." Rach answered easily. "No relation between us whatsoever, but we're nearly identical twins, in everything but attitude. Heck, Tally's probably closer related to Tasha than I am."
I shook my head. "Nah. My dad just knows her uncle."
"Huh." Arisa huh'd.
"So, I had this really weird dream the other day." I began, changing the subject once more. It seemed that Hadley had finally managed to calm herself, and she quietly tuned in while diving into her brisket.
"Really? I thought you didn't ever remember your dreams." Rach commented.
"I don't, which is what makes it really weird. I think it was an alien invasion of some sort. There were evil looking bugs, human-ish aliens in suits with plasma guns, and floating squid-like robots."
"I've seen enough- "
"Don't even finish that thought." I cut Arisa off quickly. "It was an alien invasion or something, and I was one of the people fighting them. I had this really cool looking mech suit and a big laser gun. Me and this other mech were acting as a flanking force to attack a crashed UFO, while the rest of our team engaged conventionally. One of the squid robots grabbed someone, and I pulled off a very hard shot to free them before it could start crushing them. The other mech and I were ambushed by the murderbugs as we pushed forward, but her gun was also a sword. The bugs didn't stand a chance, and together we fought our way through to the command center of the UFO. It was really cool, and right as we started assaulting the main command center, I woke up."
"That's… anti-climactic." Arisa observed.
"I can't control my dreams." I shrugged.
"Anybody you recognize there?" Hadley asked.
"I don't think so, but everyone had a helmet on."
Hadley merely nodded. "You're right, that does sound pretty weird."
"Yeah. At least if we get attacked by aliens, we have tanks. Tanks are cooler than mechs." I said with a grin.
Rach matched my grin with a cry of "Haha, tanks!" while Arisa just rolled her eyes.
"You've been watching too much anime."
"Probably."
We carried on chatting for a while. Hadley eventually had to leave to get back to work at the food stall, and Kay came to collect the rest of us not long after. Rach politely declined a ride and a place to stay in my dorm room, saying she already had her own transportation and accommodations.
"Alright everyone, shuffle in." Kay said, opening the door to her dorm room. Arisa had insisted on a quick stop at our dorm building before we reached Kay's, just so she could grab her James Bond DVD collection, but otherwise the trip over had been uneventful.
I settled down at the kotatsu, while Naomi and Hannah each grabbed themselves a soda from Kay's minifridge. Kay sat down next to me and gave me a small hug as everyone else made themselves comfortable.
"First things first, congratulations on a well earned victory!" Kay said cheerfully. "But just because we won doesn't mean this match can't be a learning experience. So, as usual, good stuff first. Naomi, you're up."
"Eight points for ingenuity." Naomi said quickly. "This applies to both us and Maginot, really. The HE bombardment, that buried light tank trap, well planned and executed maneuvers on all sides, and of course Tally's absolutely insane spotlight trick."
"Flexibility." I said, going next. "We spent a lot of time reacting to what Maginot did, but also trying to get ahead of them. Adapting to the situation as it developed, even when unexpected challenges presented themselves." I pondered it for a moment, thinking up my score. "Nine points."
"Ten points for perseverance." Hannah said with a wide smile. "Even when we started losing tanks left and right, I never once heard people panic or give up. It was always just how do we overcome this obstacle, or stuff like that."
"Oooh, that's a high score." Kay said cheerfully. "Eight points for sportsmanship. This is more before and after the match than during it, but I never heard anybody complaining about us loaning Maginot our tanks even after we knew we were fighting them next. We were very welcoming in the pre-match, I saw people eating lunch with the Maginot girls, and it was pretty similar in the post-match."
The room fell silent for a moment as Arisa pondered her own answer. After what seemed like an eternity, she settled on something. "Six points coordination. It wasn't perfect, and there was a lot of chaos during the early chases and especially after Kay got knocked out, but we recovered from that, and a couple of the things we did would not have worked out so well if not for that coordination."
"Good points all around!" Kay said with a big thumbs up. "Since I got knocked out fairly early into the match, I had a good opportunity to watch how the finale played out. As such, I have a few observations to share, but before I do, is there anything anybody would like to comment on?"
"Caution." Arisa said immediately. "We charged straight into too many ambushes, so caught up in our pursuit of Maginot's tanks."
Kay nodded. "We'll have to figure out a training session for commanders and drivers for the purposes of not wandering into traps. Arisa, can I trust you to handle that?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Good. Tally, since TDs are ambush weapons, I want you helping her. It'll be good practice for when we get you into the Hellcat."
"Can do." I nodded at Kay.
"Any other general concerns?" Kay asked. When we all shook our heads, she continued on with her criticisms. "Tally, Rach mentioned that you were too far from the team on your scouting missions, and she had a point. Stay closer to the team, so that we can support you, and you can support us. Arisa, as soon as we have the numbers to spare, I'm sticking an escort on you. As flag tank, we can't take risks with you, but we need that 76mm gun in the fighting. For now, pick a platoon and join them in close support, staying just behind their back line. Naomi, you were hanging back more this match, which is good, but you need to find that balance between sniping and working with your platoon. That final skirmish is a perfect example of why you need to be closer. Your 17-pdr is no good if it isn't firing."
All three of us nodded, taking in Kay's words.
"What about you?" Hannah asked, looking at Kay.
"I need to work on not running into ambushes!" Kay said with a grin. "I'm looking forward to what you two come up with, Arisa and Tally."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be enlightening." Naomi agreed.
"I do have one more criticism, for the whole team. Call out when you get engaged and when you get knocked out." Kay said. "Tally, when you ran into the Locusts while you were in the dust cloud, you didn't call them out. If you had gotten knocked out, nobody would have known, and the plan might have fallen apart. But this doesn't just apply to you, it hits the whole team. Tally didn't know I had been knocked out until after the fact, and we probably could have saved a tank or two from ambushes just by calling out targets. In addition, there's a short period of time after you get knocked out where your radio still works. We try not to abuse this, but if you get knocked out, call it."
The three of us who were TCs nodded along.
"And now the news that I'm sure everyone wants to hear!" Kay said, cheering back up. "Our next opponent will be Yogurt Academy. St Gloriana beat them two days ago. Pravda beat Viking, Kuromorimine beat Jatkosota, and Ooarai annihilated Anzio."
"Speaking of Ooarai…" Arisa interjected. "I did some digging, and with Naomi's help found out something interesting. You know how the school is slated to shut down next spring?"
"Yeah…?" I answered, and everyone else nodded along.
"Apparently, the school's student council didn't take this well, and they made a deal with the administration. If they can win the Sensha-do national tournament, they wouldn't close the school." Arisa stated.
I blinked, and there was a wall of silence from myself, Kay, and Hannah. After what felt like a solid minute of stunned silence, Kay broke the silence. "Twenty bucks on Ooarai winning the tournament!"
"No way. I'm not gonna take that bet." I said, shaking my head. Arisa and Naomi agreed with me by shaking their heads.
"Sure, I'll take that." Hannah said. "I'll match you, but I think Kuromorimine's gonna regain their title."
The two shook on it.
"What makes you think they'll win?" I asked. "They've only got five tanks."
"Seven, actually, though their Porsche Tiger is buried deep in their school ship and they probably won't have it ready until after their match with Pravda." Arisa said.
"They have something worth fighting for. We play to have fun, KMM plays to win because that's all they know, but Ooarai is fighting because they need to win. They'll fight harder than any other team, and even if their gear is generally subpar and they don't have as many tanks as everyone else, I think they can do it." Kay explained.
"Oh." Hannah said. She looked like she regretted her bet with Kay. "Is there anything we can do to help them?"
"They already said they didn't want any materiel assistance." Naomi answered. "But Momo has asked if I could come over to Ooarai sometime to help her with her gunnery."
"Which one is Momo?" I asked.
"Monocle girl. She's the gunner of their 38(t), and somehow, she's a worse shot than you, Tally."
"That's impressively bad." Arisa murmured.
"Hey!"
"If you can find the time in your schedule to go help Ooarai, you have my permission to go, Naomi. If they need any other help, we would be happy to provide assistance." Kay said. "Now, if nobody has anything else they would like to address, I believe Arisa has some films she would like us to watch."
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SeaSirocco
Formerly 'Sanae Aran' / Aspiring Artist
- Location
- The Seaside
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Geez, did everyone except the Orari Tankery team know that Orari was shutting down?
At least Momo's aim might get better with Naomi's help. Though I'm not sure if even she can fix Momo's supernaturally bad aim.
At least Momo's aim might get better with Naomi's help. Though I'm not sure if even she can fix Momo's supernaturally bad aim.
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Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Shutting down a school ship is such a massive endeavor that it's hard to hide, you just have to know where to look. It helps that Naomi has a contact in Ooarai's student council who can confirm stuff for her. And I most certainly wouldn't bet on Naomi being able to help Momo much. It took Naomi weeks of work to get anywhere with Tally in the Ships at Saunders miniseries, and she'll have a few days with Momo at best.
Part Sixty
Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hell On Tracks
Part Sixty
++++++++++
I snapped awake, coughing and gasping for air. Despite my layers of blankets, I shivered violently. The nightmare was already fading, but it had been bad. Bad enough to wake me up. As I started calming down, I made a note to talk about nightmares with Miss Gale the next time I saw her. It would probably do some good, even if I was already struggling to remember what it had been about.
To my great relief, it wasn't that early. Roughly twenty minutes before I usually woke up, so not enough time to roll over and go back to sleep. It was, however, raining. A storm had cropped up as Saunders was passing the Philippines, and I swear it has been following us for ever since. It must have finally caught up to us as we shifted course to dock in Nagasaki, and judging by the hammering of rain against my window, it was quite the storm.
Sensha-do was going to be fun today.
I set my grumpiness at the weather and the hour I had awoken aside, and set to work preparing for my day. There was a math test today, which I thankfully wasn't worried about, and Arisa wanted to meet this afternoon before Sensha-do to work on planning that TD training session Kay had asked us for. The Chieftain had a bunch of manuals on the subject, and we were working our way through them, picking out what was applicable to Sensha-do and what wasn't.
A lot of it was really interesting material, and I found myself having to pull away from a really cool passage or strategy because it didn't work in modern tankery. You don't exactly need a 76mm gun for busting bunkers anymore…
My kettle beeped at me, and I set about making my morning tea. After a moment of deliberation, I settled on lavender tea this morning. Not my favorite, but it helps me calm down, and that nightmare had me tense. I couldn't even remember what it had been about or what had caused me to wake up so violently.
The common room was nearly empty when I entered it. Usually, there were a few people crazier than I, or just faster at getting ready for the day, since most of them don't have to braid their own hair, but today I was the first student there. The only other occupant of the room was one of the dorm staff, Miss Houston. I recognized her from the party after the Maginot match, and gave her a polite nod as I grabbed an apple from the basket of fruit on one of the counters.
Hannah led a once-again-dead-to-the-world Arisa into the common room not too much later. As soon as Hannah had Arisa's coffee and her own ready, the two of them joined me at one of the couches.
"Mornin' Tally." Hannah said with a yawn. "You're up early."
"Had a rough night's sleep." I answered with a shrug. I took another bite from the apple. It wasn't nearly as good as a fresh one from back home, but it was alright.
"You too?" Hannah asked. I nodded. "Thunder woke me up in the middle of the night. It must have been going constantly for a good half-hour before it finally slowed enough that I could go back to sleep."
"Yikes. I just had nightmares."
"What about?" Hannah asked, before taking a sip of her coffee.
"Can't remember. It faded pretty quickly. But it woke me twenty minutes early." I said, shaking my head. I thought about it for a moment, and a small smile crossed my face as I realized something. I raised up my tea mug towards Hannah in a pseudo-toast. "Here's to not sleeping well."
Hannah smiled as well, and tapped her styrofoam cup to my insulated travel mug. "Hear hear!"
Even the zombie-like Arisa got in on it, groaning something indecipherable as we toasted.
After a moment of laughter and then silence, I spoke up again. "So, what do we know about the next match? I know we're up against Yogurt, but I've been out of the loop over the weekend."
"Yogurt's a pretty good mid-tier team. They beat Waffle and lost to St. Glo, which honestly isn't a very useful range of capability." Hannah chuckled at her own joke. "Tanks wise, I would put them roughly on par with Maginot, maybe a bit lower. Panther, Panzer IV, Flatpanzer with the L/70, Hetzer -"
"Jagdpanzer 38(t). You know what the Chief says about calling it Hetzer." I interrupted.
"Right, right. Jagdpanzer 38(t), and StuG III for the threats. The rest of their team was regular 38(t)s, Hotchkiss H39s, and CV.33s."
"So half of them are pretty good, and half of them are varying levels of not effective against us." I said, summing it up.
"More or less. I'd guess that Kay wants a heavy to counter the Panther in some regard, but otherwise the usual team comp should be just fine."
"You aren't volunteering for M6 duty, are you?" I asked.
"God no!" Hannah quickly shook her head. "It was nearly as bad for me as it was for you. I don't want to have to handle two different ammo types in the same turret. Any idea how the Jumbos are looking?"
"One of them is good to go, and just needs some minor maintenance, at least last I checked. The other is still in the repair bay, and I don't know if we actually have the materials and manpower to repair it. There's some pretty significant structural damage." I said.
"Yikes." Hannah intoned.
"Yeah. It's not my call, though. I just volunteer to help out our mechanics and auto club." I shrugged. "I probably don't even know the half of it. Oh! We'll also be getting those Pershing parts today, so we might be able to fix that one up in time."
"I doubt it." Hannah countered. "The match is Wednesday. Thankfully, we'll be basically right on our home turf. We're gonna stay on Kyushu for this one."
"I was worried about how bad transportation might be. Less than a week to get from Australia to basically anywhere in Japan is a little rough when you're moving by ship." I let out a sigh of relief. Two days. Two days of practice, and for me and Arisa to come up with that TD training. One day, really, since there wouldn't be practice Wednesday.
The day was as miserable as I had been expecting with all this rain. Travelling belowdecks was never a comfortable experience for me, but it was better than getting soaked to the bone. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the belowdecks passages, and they were well lit, but there was something about them that just felt confining in a way that being in a tank didn't. Maybe I just don't like being underground (or the equivalent).
Classes themselves went fine, and the math test went really well, despite it being on a Monday. I ran into Bannie, quite literally, on the way to lunch. She waved the collision off, and I managed to not freak out over bumping into someone. It was certainly an improvement over even a couple weeks ago when I crashed into Sergeant Oddball. The Irish girl was clearly grumpy about something, but before I could ask her about it, she was gone, moving towards the lunch hall.
I tried to catch her, but the crowd of students all going to the same place made that impossible. By the time I reached the lunch hall, Bannie had disappeared, and so I merely joined Jane and April for lunch, at our usual table.
"Hey Tally!" Jane called cheerfully.
I smiled and waved at her, before setting my salad down and taking a seat. "Heya Jane, April. How are you doing?"
April wordlessly passed me a muffin from her stack of baked goods, which I happily accepted. It was an impressive stack of baked goods that wouldn't last the day, but I only ever took one thing from whatever April offered.
"I'm doing good." Jane said. "Though my favorite teacher called in sick today."
"Oh?" I asked. "Is there a cold running around the naval studies students and staff or something?"
Jane shrugged. "All I know is that we had a substitute in history today. We got an educational film on the school ships rather than one of Miss Io's lectures."
"I hate it when that happens." I said sympathetically. "Was the film at least good?"
"It was alright." Jane said, once again shrugging. "I've seen better."
We spent the rest of lunch chatting about how our days had been, what we did over the weekend, and everything in between. Everything except Sensha-do. As much as I could go on for hours about the martial art, Jane and April just weren't as enthusiastic about it as I was. They were good, but they were also only on the team because I had asked them.
"God, I can't see anything!" I complained, peering through my periscope. It was still pounding rain, and I wasn't going to open the hatch and get even more soaked than I already had today.
"If you can't see them, it also means they can't see you." Arisa replied over the radio.
"That's easy for you to say!" I grumbled. "You're the flag tank, so you're sitting in the back all safe and protected by the team, while I'm out here having to spot through this absolutely awful rain that I can't see anything through! If we move up at all, I'm half expecting to drive straight into an ambush!"
"Tally, calm." It was all Arisa needed to say.
I took a deep breath. In for four, hold for four, out for four. The exercise helped, and I shook my head to clear away the rest of my frustration. "Right, sorry."
"It's fine." Arisa waved off my concerns. "Can you lead the advance through the pass?"
"Yeah, I'll be your pathfinder. If I get KO'd, at least try and make sure you get one or two for me."
"How about you don't get KO'd, and we don't have to worry about it?"
I scoffed. "Ha! I wish."
"We've got your back." Arisa confirmed after a moment of companionable silence.
"Alright." I said, and lowered my radio receiver. "Driver, advance! Tally ho!"
I saw April grin out of the corner of my eye, but I wasn't expecting the array of laughter from the radio. Arisa's laughter sometimes felt like it was two steps from descending into maniacal cackling, Naomi chuckled but rarely broke into full laughter, and Kay's laughter almost sounded like bright bell tones. All three of them were laughing at my silliness, despite the fact that only Arisa should have been on this net with me.
"Come on!" I whined into the radio. "Were you all listening in?"
"It's the command radio net. We all have access to it." Naomi answered. "You would have thought Arisa would think about that after what she did against Ooarai."
"So there's an ambush waiting for us?" I asked in a deadpan.
Naomi took a moment to respond, and only did so after the pop of her ever-present bubble gum came through the radio. "Yup."
I sighed. This helped explain a lot about why Arisa and I were losing so badly. We'd lost five tanks to Kay and Naomi only losing two, since apparently they were listening in on every word we said over the command net. After taking a moment to make sure my radio was not transmitting, I keyed the Stuart's intercom. "Driver, full speed, as much as you can coax out of her. As soon as we're clear of the pass, veer left and take us into the riverbed."
"You got it!" Jane replied cheerfully.
I keyed my radio again. "Arisa, follow me. I have an idea."
"Is it going to be something crazy?" Naomi asked.
"What? No! You know me. The epitome of sanity and reasonable plans." I lied. Blatantly. The blatant lies were important. If I made them think I was going to pull something in the realm of the Maginot match's finale, they wouldn't expect something as reasonable as using the low ground to get around their team.
I could feel Arisa's eyes boring into the back of my head through the Stuart's armor. And probably through the armor on her Sherman, as well.
Either this was going to work, or we would lose very quickly. As an old man once said; live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse.
It's… not the best mantra out there, but I really like the first part of it.
Arisa didn't audibly acknowledge my request, but she didn't need to. I had faith that the rest of the team was going to follow, because like it or not, going along with something crazy was better than running straight into an ambush we knew had been set up. Not that this plan was particularly crazy.
The Stuart barrelled down the road, and pulled a hard turn as soon as we were out of the pass. A hail of 75mm rounds whipped overhead, and I heard one of the tanks behind us get hit and KO'd. I bit off a sharp not-quite-curse in Russian, and encouraged Jane to keep us moving.
"Tally, don't stop, but you're on your own." Arisa called over the radio.
"Wasn't planning on stopping!" I replied.
We rounded a corner, and I was very fortunate to spy a familiar green shape amongst the gray rocks and pouring rain. "Gunner, Sherman, direct front!"
April quickly slewed the turret over to service the target, but the Sherman got the first shot off. The round flew overhead, and April took the chance to return fire. A clean miss, though not unexpected at this speed and in these conditions. Without looking away from my periscope, I grabbed a round off the ready rack and shoved it into the breach. "AP up!"
"On the way!" April replied, and we got our second shot off before the Sherman did. Another miss. It took me a moment to realize two important things about the tank we were facing. First, it was being commanded by an unbuttoned TC, and second, there was a little blue flag waving on its engine deck.
"Arisa, I've found Kay. She's their flag and in the riverbed!" I called out.
"We're a little busy here!" Arisa replied.
I didn't get a chance to respond to her before Kay's next round slammed into the side of the Stuart. I shook my head and hit my radio once more, using the grace period everyone got. "Tally KO'd. Kay got me."
"Don't worry about it Tally!" Kay called cheerfully over the command net. "You and your crew are getting very good!"
I just grumbled something under my breath, and tried to keep an eye on the action through my periscope. There wasn't much going on, and it didn't take long until the match was over. Arisa had made a fight out of it, but three against six isn't a fight you can win easily, especially when you're on the receiving end of an ambush.
Naturally, the first thing Arisa did when we met up in the Leadership room at the end of practice was pout at Kay and Naomi. "That was a dirty trick."
Naomi rolled her eyes. "Says the queen of dirty tricks."
"If you could find a way around the no aircraft rule to listen in on Ooarai's radio, who's to say that Pravda hasn't figured out the exact same thing? Or one of the smaller schools desperate for a leg up on us?" Kay asked rhetorically.
I stepped forward. "Well, isn't that why we use codenames and callouts for locations instead of directly referencing the map? So that someone wouldn't be able to pull an Arisa on us?"
"Hey!" Arisa exclaimed, objecting to her use as a verb. "If anything, you doing that was just practicing how to use the radio interception trick again. And I did confirm it with the officials, it is legal, though I have been politely informed that there will be a rules patch after the tournament is over to explicitly exclude aerial balloons and radio interception gear."
"So it's something to keep in our back pocket." Naomi mused.
"Only against a top tier team. Until we face them, no radio interception." Kay said firmly. Arisa and Naomi nodded. "We're facing Yogurt in two days, with only one practice between now and then. Arisa, Tally, should we expect the TD training tomorrow?"
I shook my head. "We're still working through material. I wouldn't expect it until at least next week."
Kay nodded. "Okay, okay. Naomi, any word on the supplies we ordered?"
"We do." Naomi said. "The warehouse reported that we have both the parts and spare parts for Pershing, and the canopy for Hellcat available. I tasked some of our mechanics to go pick them up during practice."
"The Hellcat's going to be ready?" I asked cheerfully.
"It's going to take time to get it inspected and approved, and for you and your crew to retrain to Hellcat." Kay said. "Two weeks of training, I'd say. If we win on Wednesday, the first week of Hellcat training, I want you swapping between Stuart and Hellcat, so that you're ready for the next match."
I grinned. So I'd be stuck in Stuart a little longer, but Hellcat! I was going to be in my favorite tank (destroyer)! Haha, Hellcat! "Sounds good to me!"
"Don't wear yourself out on geeking over your TD and making sure it's up to snuff until after we kick Yogurt's butts." Hannah said, inserting herself into the conversation.
"Hey!" I objected. "I'm not gonna wear myself out when we have a match in two days!"
"If only because your energy is limitless when you get excited." Naomi deadpanned.
"Well yeah!" I objected cheerfully.
"Oh no, what monster have we unleashed?" Arisa snarked.
"Tally on a tanks high." Hannah replied, equally sarcastic.
"We're doomed."
I rolled my eyes, still grinning like a loon.
"Okay, okay, that's enough teasing for now." Kay said, waving her hands to get everyone's attention. "I want everyone here early tomorrow morning for match planning. Expect Yogurt's forces to be the same as what they brought against St Gloriana's last week."
"Yes ma'am!" We all called in unison.
Kay grinned. "Dismissed. Have a good night, everyone!"
"You too!" Arisa called, and she and Hannah slipped away.
I lingered and waited while Naomi and Kay quietly discussed something. I couldn't overhear, and I wasn't particularly interested in eavesdropping, so I just played a bit of solitaire on my cellphone while I waited. It didn't take too long, and I nodded at Naomi as she left.
"What's up, Tally?" Kay asked, once Naomi had exited the room.
"So, you know how I can't dance, right?" I asked, fidgeting. God… I felt so nervous all of a sudden.
"You may have mentioned it once or twice." Kay answered with a nod.
"Well, if we're going to prom, dancing is one of the things that is traditional, right?"
"It usually is, yeah. I don't think anyone would mind if we went for the fancy clothes, social environment, and free snacks, though."
I sighed. "I mean, yeah, that sounds fun, but dancing at prom is part of the tradition. And I kind of want to take part in that tradition at least a little bit."
"So we do." Kay answered simply. "If you want to dance, we can dance, and if you don't want to, then we don't. Unless?"
"I want to go to a dance class with you." I finally just managed to spit it out. "Just to learn the basics, you know?"
"Oh, sure, that sounds fun!" Kay said cheerfully. "Did you have one picked out, or did you want to ask before you looked?"
"Sort of?" I answered uncertainly. "I picked one out, but I wanted your opinion before anything else. It's a beginner's dance class, led by…" I paused, and grabbed the flyer from my bag to double check the names. "Miss Wesley Virginia and Miss Clara Belknap."
Kay perked right up. "Oh, I know them! They're great!"
I breathed a sigh of relief. "So they're good? Nice people and all that?"
"Yeah!" Kay said, nodding enthusiastically. "They aren't always the swiftest, but I've seen them dance a few times, and they are amazing at it. And, y'know, they're really nice people. I think they'd like you."
I passed Kay the flyer I'd grabbed over the weekend, and she took a moment to look it over.
"This seems doable, and sounds fun! Let's do it!" Kay said cheerfully.
My happy grin hadn't faded by the time I got back to my dorm, and even the oppressiveness of the still pounding rain wasn't enough to dampen my spirits. Now all I had to do was call Rach and let her know what was going on.
Part Sixty
++++++++++
I snapped awake, coughing and gasping for air. Despite my layers of blankets, I shivered violently. The nightmare was already fading, but it had been bad. Bad enough to wake me up. As I started calming down, I made a note to talk about nightmares with Miss Gale the next time I saw her. It would probably do some good, even if I was already struggling to remember what it had been about.
To my great relief, it wasn't that early. Roughly twenty minutes before I usually woke up, so not enough time to roll over and go back to sleep. It was, however, raining. A storm had cropped up as Saunders was passing the Philippines, and I swear it has been following us for ever since. It must have finally caught up to us as we shifted course to dock in Nagasaki, and judging by the hammering of rain against my window, it was quite the storm.
Sensha-do was going to be fun today.
I set my grumpiness at the weather and the hour I had awoken aside, and set to work preparing for my day. There was a math test today, which I thankfully wasn't worried about, and Arisa wanted to meet this afternoon before Sensha-do to work on planning that TD training session Kay had asked us for. The Chieftain had a bunch of manuals on the subject, and we were working our way through them, picking out what was applicable to Sensha-do and what wasn't.
A lot of it was really interesting material, and I found myself having to pull away from a really cool passage or strategy because it didn't work in modern tankery. You don't exactly need a 76mm gun for busting bunkers anymore…
My kettle beeped at me, and I set about making my morning tea. After a moment of deliberation, I settled on lavender tea this morning. Not my favorite, but it helps me calm down, and that nightmare had me tense. I couldn't even remember what it had been about or what had caused me to wake up so violently.
The common room was nearly empty when I entered it. Usually, there were a few people crazier than I, or just faster at getting ready for the day, since most of them don't have to braid their own hair, but today I was the first student there. The only other occupant of the room was one of the dorm staff, Miss Houston. I recognized her from the party after the Maginot match, and gave her a polite nod as I grabbed an apple from the basket of fruit on one of the counters.
Hannah led a once-again-dead-to-the-world Arisa into the common room not too much later. As soon as Hannah had Arisa's coffee and her own ready, the two of them joined me at one of the couches.
"Mornin' Tally." Hannah said with a yawn. "You're up early."
"Had a rough night's sleep." I answered with a shrug. I took another bite from the apple. It wasn't nearly as good as a fresh one from back home, but it was alright.
"You too?" Hannah asked. I nodded. "Thunder woke me up in the middle of the night. It must have been going constantly for a good half-hour before it finally slowed enough that I could go back to sleep."
"Yikes. I just had nightmares."
"What about?" Hannah asked, before taking a sip of her coffee.
"Can't remember. It faded pretty quickly. But it woke me twenty minutes early." I said, shaking my head. I thought about it for a moment, and a small smile crossed my face as I realized something. I raised up my tea mug towards Hannah in a pseudo-toast. "Here's to not sleeping well."
Hannah smiled as well, and tapped her styrofoam cup to my insulated travel mug. "Hear hear!"
Even the zombie-like Arisa got in on it, groaning something indecipherable as we toasted.
After a moment of laughter and then silence, I spoke up again. "So, what do we know about the next match? I know we're up against Yogurt, but I've been out of the loop over the weekend."
"Yogurt's a pretty good mid-tier team. They beat Waffle and lost to St. Glo, which honestly isn't a very useful range of capability." Hannah chuckled at her own joke. "Tanks wise, I would put them roughly on par with Maginot, maybe a bit lower. Panther, Panzer IV, Flatpanzer with the L/70, Hetzer -"
"Jagdpanzer 38(t). You know what the Chief says about calling it Hetzer." I interrupted.
"Right, right. Jagdpanzer 38(t), and StuG III for the threats. The rest of their team was regular 38(t)s, Hotchkiss H39s, and CV.33s."
"So half of them are pretty good, and half of them are varying levels of not effective against us." I said, summing it up.
"More or less. I'd guess that Kay wants a heavy to counter the Panther in some regard, but otherwise the usual team comp should be just fine."
"You aren't volunteering for M6 duty, are you?" I asked.
"God no!" Hannah quickly shook her head. "It was nearly as bad for me as it was for you. I don't want to have to handle two different ammo types in the same turret. Any idea how the Jumbos are looking?"
"One of them is good to go, and just needs some minor maintenance, at least last I checked. The other is still in the repair bay, and I don't know if we actually have the materials and manpower to repair it. There's some pretty significant structural damage." I said.
"Yikes." Hannah intoned.
"Yeah. It's not my call, though. I just volunteer to help out our mechanics and auto club." I shrugged. "I probably don't even know the half of it. Oh! We'll also be getting those Pershing parts today, so we might be able to fix that one up in time."
"I doubt it." Hannah countered. "The match is Wednesday. Thankfully, we'll be basically right on our home turf. We're gonna stay on Kyushu for this one."
"I was worried about how bad transportation might be. Less than a week to get from Australia to basically anywhere in Japan is a little rough when you're moving by ship." I let out a sigh of relief. Two days. Two days of practice, and for me and Arisa to come up with that TD training. One day, really, since there wouldn't be practice Wednesday.
The day was as miserable as I had been expecting with all this rain. Travelling belowdecks was never a comfortable experience for me, but it was better than getting soaked to the bone. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the belowdecks passages, and they were well lit, but there was something about them that just felt confining in a way that being in a tank didn't. Maybe I just don't like being underground (or the equivalent).
Classes themselves went fine, and the math test went really well, despite it being on a Monday. I ran into Bannie, quite literally, on the way to lunch. She waved the collision off, and I managed to not freak out over bumping into someone. It was certainly an improvement over even a couple weeks ago when I crashed into Sergeant Oddball. The Irish girl was clearly grumpy about something, but before I could ask her about it, she was gone, moving towards the lunch hall.
I tried to catch her, but the crowd of students all going to the same place made that impossible. By the time I reached the lunch hall, Bannie had disappeared, and so I merely joined Jane and April for lunch, at our usual table.
"Hey Tally!" Jane called cheerfully.
I smiled and waved at her, before setting my salad down and taking a seat. "Heya Jane, April. How are you doing?"
April wordlessly passed me a muffin from her stack of baked goods, which I happily accepted. It was an impressive stack of baked goods that wouldn't last the day, but I only ever took one thing from whatever April offered.
"I'm doing good." Jane said. "Though my favorite teacher called in sick today."
"Oh?" I asked. "Is there a cold running around the naval studies students and staff or something?"
Jane shrugged. "All I know is that we had a substitute in history today. We got an educational film on the school ships rather than one of Miss Io's lectures."
"I hate it when that happens." I said sympathetically. "Was the film at least good?"
"It was alright." Jane said, once again shrugging. "I've seen better."
We spent the rest of lunch chatting about how our days had been, what we did over the weekend, and everything in between. Everything except Sensha-do. As much as I could go on for hours about the martial art, Jane and April just weren't as enthusiastic about it as I was. They were good, but they were also only on the team because I had asked them.
"God, I can't see anything!" I complained, peering through my periscope. It was still pounding rain, and I wasn't going to open the hatch and get even more soaked than I already had today.
"If you can't see them, it also means they can't see you." Arisa replied over the radio.
"That's easy for you to say!" I grumbled. "You're the flag tank, so you're sitting in the back all safe and protected by the team, while I'm out here having to spot through this absolutely awful rain that I can't see anything through! If we move up at all, I'm half expecting to drive straight into an ambush!"
"Tally, calm." It was all Arisa needed to say.
I took a deep breath. In for four, hold for four, out for four. The exercise helped, and I shook my head to clear away the rest of my frustration. "Right, sorry."
"It's fine." Arisa waved off my concerns. "Can you lead the advance through the pass?"
"Yeah, I'll be your pathfinder. If I get KO'd, at least try and make sure you get one or two for me."
"How about you don't get KO'd, and we don't have to worry about it?"
I scoffed. "Ha! I wish."
"We've got your back." Arisa confirmed after a moment of companionable silence.
"Alright." I said, and lowered my radio receiver. "Driver, advance! Tally ho!"
I saw April grin out of the corner of my eye, but I wasn't expecting the array of laughter from the radio. Arisa's laughter sometimes felt like it was two steps from descending into maniacal cackling, Naomi chuckled but rarely broke into full laughter, and Kay's laughter almost sounded like bright bell tones. All three of them were laughing at my silliness, despite the fact that only Arisa should have been on this net with me.
"Come on!" I whined into the radio. "Were you all listening in?"
"It's the command radio net. We all have access to it." Naomi answered. "You would have thought Arisa would think about that after what she did against Ooarai."
"So there's an ambush waiting for us?" I asked in a deadpan.
Naomi took a moment to respond, and only did so after the pop of her ever-present bubble gum came through the radio. "Yup."
I sighed. This helped explain a lot about why Arisa and I were losing so badly. We'd lost five tanks to Kay and Naomi only losing two, since apparently they were listening in on every word we said over the command net. After taking a moment to make sure my radio was not transmitting, I keyed the Stuart's intercom. "Driver, full speed, as much as you can coax out of her. As soon as we're clear of the pass, veer left and take us into the riverbed."
"You got it!" Jane replied cheerfully.
I keyed my radio again. "Arisa, follow me. I have an idea."
"Is it going to be something crazy?" Naomi asked.
"What? No! You know me. The epitome of sanity and reasonable plans." I lied. Blatantly. The blatant lies were important. If I made them think I was going to pull something in the realm of the Maginot match's finale, they wouldn't expect something as reasonable as using the low ground to get around their team.
I could feel Arisa's eyes boring into the back of my head through the Stuart's armor. And probably through the armor on her Sherman, as well.
Either this was going to work, or we would lose very quickly. As an old man once said; live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse.
It's… not the best mantra out there, but I really like the first part of it.
Arisa didn't audibly acknowledge my request, but she didn't need to. I had faith that the rest of the team was going to follow, because like it or not, going along with something crazy was better than running straight into an ambush we knew had been set up. Not that this plan was particularly crazy.
The Stuart barrelled down the road, and pulled a hard turn as soon as we were out of the pass. A hail of 75mm rounds whipped overhead, and I heard one of the tanks behind us get hit and KO'd. I bit off a sharp not-quite-curse in Russian, and encouraged Jane to keep us moving.
"Tally, don't stop, but you're on your own." Arisa called over the radio.
"Wasn't planning on stopping!" I replied.
We rounded a corner, and I was very fortunate to spy a familiar green shape amongst the gray rocks and pouring rain. "Gunner, Sherman, direct front!"
April quickly slewed the turret over to service the target, but the Sherman got the first shot off. The round flew overhead, and April took the chance to return fire. A clean miss, though not unexpected at this speed and in these conditions. Without looking away from my periscope, I grabbed a round off the ready rack and shoved it into the breach. "AP up!"
"On the way!" April replied, and we got our second shot off before the Sherman did. Another miss. It took me a moment to realize two important things about the tank we were facing. First, it was being commanded by an unbuttoned TC, and second, there was a little blue flag waving on its engine deck.
"Arisa, I've found Kay. She's their flag and in the riverbed!" I called out.
"We're a little busy here!" Arisa replied.
I didn't get a chance to respond to her before Kay's next round slammed into the side of the Stuart. I shook my head and hit my radio once more, using the grace period everyone got. "Tally KO'd. Kay got me."
"Don't worry about it Tally!" Kay called cheerfully over the command net. "You and your crew are getting very good!"
I just grumbled something under my breath, and tried to keep an eye on the action through my periscope. There wasn't much going on, and it didn't take long until the match was over. Arisa had made a fight out of it, but three against six isn't a fight you can win easily, especially when you're on the receiving end of an ambush.
Naturally, the first thing Arisa did when we met up in the Leadership room at the end of practice was pout at Kay and Naomi. "That was a dirty trick."
Naomi rolled her eyes. "Says the queen of dirty tricks."
"If you could find a way around the no aircraft rule to listen in on Ooarai's radio, who's to say that Pravda hasn't figured out the exact same thing? Or one of the smaller schools desperate for a leg up on us?" Kay asked rhetorically.
I stepped forward. "Well, isn't that why we use codenames and callouts for locations instead of directly referencing the map? So that someone wouldn't be able to pull an Arisa on us?"
"Hey!" Arisa exclaimed, objecting to her use as a verb. "If anything, you doing that was just practicing how to use the radio interception trick again. And I did confirm it with the officials, it is legal, though I have been politely informed that there will be a rules patch after the tournament is over to explicitly exclude aerial balloons and radio interception gear."
"So it's something to keep in our back pocket." Naomi mused.
"Only against a top tier team. Until we face them, no radio interception." Kay said firmly. Arisa and Naomi nodded. "We're facing Yogurt in two days, with only one practice between now and then. Arisa, Tally, should we expect the TD training tomorrow?"
I shook my head. "We're still working through material. I wouldn't expect it until at least next week."
Kay nodded. "Okay, okay. Naomi, any word on the supplies we ordered?"
"We do." Naomi said. "The warehouse reported that we have both the parts and spare parts for Pershing, and the canopy for Hellcat available. I tasked some of our mechanics to go pick them up during practice."
"The Hellcat's going to be ready?" I asked cheerfully.
"It's going to take time to get it inspected and approved, and for you and your crew to retrain to Hellcat." Kay said. "Two weeks of training, I'd say. If we win on Wednesday, the first week of Hellcat training, I want you swapping between Stuart and Hellcat, so that you're ready for the next match."
I grinned. So I'd be stuck in Stuart a little longer, but Hellcat! I was going to be in my favorite tank (destroyer)! Haha, Hellcat! "Sounds good to me!"
"Don't wear yourself out on geeking over your TD and making sure it's up to snuff until after we kick Yogurt's butts." Hannah said, inserting herself into the conversation.
"Hey!" I objected. "I'm not gonna wear myself out when we have a match in two days!"
"If only because your energy is limitless when you get excited." Naomi deadpanned.
"Well yeah!" I objected cheerfully.
"Oh no, what monster have we unleashed?" Arisa snarked.
"Tally on a tanks high." Hannah replied, equally sarcastic.
"We're doomed."
I rolled my eyes, still grinning like a loon.
"Okay, okay, that's enough teasing for now." Kay said, waving her hands to get everyone's attention. "I want everyone here early tomorrow morning for match planning. Expect Yogurt's forces to be the same as what they brought against St Gloriana's last week."
"Yes ma'am!" We all called in unison.
Kay grinned. "Dismissed. Have a good night, everyone!"
"You too!" Arisa called, and she and Hannah slipped away.
I lingered and waited while Naomi and Kay quietly discussed something. I couldn't overhear, and I wasn't particularly interested in eavesdropping, so I just played a bit of solitaire on my cellphone while I waited. It didn't take too long, and I nodded at Naomi as she left.
"What's up, Tally?" Kay asked, once Naomi had exited the room.
"So, you know how I can't dance, right?" I asked, fidgeting. God… I felt so nervous all of a sudden.
"You may have mentioned it once or twice." Kay answered with a nod.
"Well, if we're going to prom, dancing is one of the things that is traditional, right?"
"It usually is, yeah. I don't think anyone would mind if we went for the fancy clothes, social environment, and free snacks, though."
I sighed. "I mean, yeah, that sounds fun, but dancing at prom is part of the tradition. And I kind of want to take part in that tradition at least a little bit."
"So we do." Kay answered simply. "If you want to dance, we can dance, and if you don't want to, then we don't. Unless?"
"I want to go to a dance class with you." I finally just managed to spit it out. "Just to learn the basics, you know?"
"Oh, sure, that sounds fun!" Kay said cheerfully. "Did you have one picked out, or did you want to ask before you looked?"
"Sort of?" I answered uncertainly. "I picked one out, but I wanted your opinion before anything else. It's a beginner's dance class, led by…" I paused, and grabbed the flyer from my bag to double check the names. "Miss Wesley Virginia and Miss Clara Belknap."
Kay perked right up. "Oh, I know them! They're great!"
I breathed a sigh of relief. "So they're good? Nice people and all that?"
"Yeah!" Kay said, nodding enthusiastically. "They aren't always the swiftest, but I've seen them dance a few times, and they are amazing at it. And, y'know, they're really nice people. I think they'd like you."
I passed Kay the flyer I'd grabbed over the weekend, and she took a moment to look it over.
"This seems doable, and sounds fun! Let's do it!" Kay said cheerfully.
My happy grin hadn't faded by the time I got back to my dorm, and even the oppressiveness of the still pounding rain wasn't enough to dampen my spirits. Now all I had to do was call Rach and let her know what was going on.
Hey everyone, sorry this one took a little longer than usual. I usually try to aim for every two weeks, but real life caught up to me, and then I decided that I was going to finish and post this on my birthday. I hope you all enjoy the chapter!
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Non-canon Ships at Saunders 8
Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hell On Tracks
Non-canon Ships at Saunders 8
++++++++++
Kay left Hannah and I to run Sensha-do for a few days. She said that she was taking Arisa and Naomi on a Yukari-style infiltration mission to Aoshidan, but I'm pretty sure she just wanted to visit her sister. The only reason Hannah and I got left behind was that our red hair would stick out at Aoshidan, like her blonde would be any less inconspicuous.
Which left the two of us, the least extroverted members of the Saunders leadership team, the two with the worst people skills, to lead the whole team through practice for a few days. Now, I am getting a lot better at being social, especially thanks to the efforts of Trips and the rest of DesRon 73, but better doesn't equal good. Together, Hannah and I managed to get through the first day and the announcements on the second day before we turned practice over to the Chieftain. He was actually good at this sort of thing.
"She couldn't have at least left Naomi or something?" I grumbled for what seemed like the hundredth time in the back room. Hannah gave me a sympathetic look and we both sipped our hot cocoas.
"Going with just Arisa would have been a bad idea. You need two people to keep her contained." Hannah said with a shrug.
"That explains why you never succeed in stopping her shenanigans." I deadpanned.
"I do manage to reign her in from time to time, but yeah…"
"Well, Kay said she should be back tomorrow, so, at the worst, we should only need to plan tomorrow's practice." I said.
"At the worst, they all get caught and we don't see hide or hair of them until the day of the match." Hannah countered.
"El wouldn't do that to her sister." I said, shaking my head. "And voluntarily keeping Arisa around is just asking for her to get into trouble."
"Okay fair." Hannah nodded, conceding the point. "I've got to say, it's surprising that Kay and El are sisters."
I blinked at her. "They are literally identical twins. El's just dyed her hair brown and gotten a tan."
"Hair dye would explain it…" Hannah muttered. "I was just expecting her whole family to be blondes. Her mom and older sister both are."
"Older sister?" I asked.
"Yeah, Lulu. You didn't know? I thought you and Kay were an item."
"We don't exactly talk about our families." I said with a shrug. "Heck, it took until the Pravda match for any of you to learn that I know Russian."
"Not just know…" Hannah said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes. Some people were still impressed by the deluge of curses I'd unleashed back in the summer. I don't know why; according to my Dad, five minutes straight with three languages was practically nothing. He can go that hard in English or in Russian alone. "We should really get back to business."
"You're the one who started this."
"Anyways…" I intoned. "What's on the schedule today? After the Chief's lecture, I mean."
"Training Company is going to continue evaluating the newbies, Practice has fire and move drills, and we're judging a skirmish for Combat Company." Hannah answered, checking her notebook.
"How big a skirmish?"
"Full team. We're down four, so eight vs eight."
I nodded. "And tomorrow's more drills for everyone then skirmishes, right?"
"Yup!"
"Okay. I am so glad that planning a general practice session is easy. I would hate to be Kuromorimine and have to handle a situation like this." I said. Hannah laughed.
Before we could carry on any more conversation, my phone buzzed in my hold. I quickly extracted it and answered without bothering to check caller ID. "Evans here."
"Hey Tally!" Kay's cheerful voice rang through the speakers.
"Oh, hiya Kay! How's the trip going?"
"It went well, and I can confirm that Aoshidan doesn't have any unexpected surprises. And then Arisa got our cover broken and we all got captured before we could make our escape." Kay answered, never once losing a bit of her cheer.
I raised an eyebrow. "How did that happen?"
"You don't want to know." The sudden seriousness in Kay's voice shocked me for a moment, until she broke out laughing. "Ask Arisa when we get back."
"Riiiight." I drew the word out. "Hannah, make sure to ask Arisa how they got caught once they're back."
"Yes ma'am!"
"So, when are you three expecting to be back?" I asked, getting back on track.
"Hey Tally, it's Hadley. Are you busy?" Hadley's voice suddenly came over my radio, and I had to work to not immediately facepalm. I swear, Hadley has the worst timing.
"Actually, hold that thought, Kay. Hadley is calling." I said with a sigh. I quickly put Kay on hold, but held my phone back up to my ear to answer Hadley without raising Hannah's suspicions. "Hadley, I swear to god. Your timing is atrocious, and you always call when I'm in the middle of something."
"Sorry…." Hadley apologized. "I need homework help."
"Ask Trips or one of the others."
"I did. They're all taking physics instead of chem, and we all suck at social studies."
I sighed again. "I will be over at the apartment after Sensha-do. Do your best to work through it until then. And maybe if you paid attention in class for once this wouldn't be so difficult for you."
"Tallllyyyyy…" Hadley whined. This wasn't the first time we'd had this particular argument in the past few weeks. Hadley was one of my best friends, but it wouldn't kill her to try a little bit in class.
"After. Sensha-do. Now I need to get back to what I was working on."
"Fine. I'll see you then."
I cut the line and shook my head. "I swear… her timing is so damn frustrating."
Hannah blinked at me. "Did you just cuss? Casually? Who are you and what have you done with the real Tally?"
"Not the time." I countered, and resumed the call with Kay. "I'm really sorry about that. You know how Hadley is."
"I do." Kay agreed. "Anyways, I just wanted to call and let you know that we got caught. El says she's looking forward to our match, and that she'll be sending us home after her Tankery practice wraps up."
"Okay. Hannah and I have practice plans ready for tomorrow, but we'll see you tonight. Well, probably tomorrow."
"We'll see you then!" Kay said cheerfully, and then she hung up. I let my phone linger at my ear for a moment before I slipped it back into my hold.
Hannah was peering at me curiously. "You've really grown close to Faye Faith and her food stall crew. I've never seen you swear casually like that before."
"I blame Hadley." I stated simply. "She's nice, but she has this annoying tendency to be stubborn and not listen to people. Otherwise, she'd have stopped throwing stuff at people ages ago."
"Stubborn and not listening to advice… where have I seen that before?" Hannah asked rhetorically, grinning at me. It was definitely me she was talking about.
"Ha ha, very funny." I deadpanned at her. "We should go start getting stuff set up."
"Probably…" Hannah answered. Somehow, I don't think I allayed her suspicions.
"Thanks Tally!" Hadley said cheerfully. I nodded at her, and helped her start gathering up all of her schoolwork and textbooks. "Now we just need to work on Chem."
"Later. I think we both need a bit of a break after that." I said, fighting off a yawn. Social studies were not my strong suit, even if I was a fair bit better at them than my shipgirl friends.
"Okay!" Hadley was all for the idea. "What do you want to do in the meantime?"
I looked around the apartment, still not a hundred percent confident in my idea. "Well, there was something I wanted to ask someone about, and you're right here."
Hadley grinned. "Something fun?"
I shook my head. "Not yet. You know how we all have radios, and how they function more like cell phones than a proper radio?"
"Uh huh." Hadley intoned with a nod.
"Would I be able to tune my radio into a different network? Say, connect to the other Sensha-do radios and talk with the other tanks that way?"
"I have no idea." Hadley said with a shrug. She rotated in her chair, facing towards the bedrooms, and shouted across the apartment. "Fletch! Question for you!"
My eldest sister emerged from her room and walked over to us. "Hadley, how many times do I have to tell you to not shout across the apartment?"
Hadley just grinned at her. "Tally has a question for you."
I sighed, and repeated my question to Fletcher. She merely raised an eyebrow at it. "You could probably rig something up. I don't know how easy or difficult it would be. I'd ask Kay when she gets back."
"Alright. Being able to talk on the radio from anywhere should be useful." I said. Fletcher smiled at me.
"Keep coming up with out of the box solutions, Tally. If you stick with Sensha-do, I'm sure you'll go far." Fletcher reached over and gently patted my head. I smiled widely at her, appreciating the headpats. There was something about headpats that just felt really good, and getting them from my big sister was even better.
Fletcher paused. "I'm gonna get started on dinner now. Can you two make sure to clear the table, and then report to the kitchen to help cook?"
"Can do!" Hadley said, snapping a sloppy salute.
"I, uh… I don't know how to cook." I admitted.
Fletcher was appalled. "No sister of mine is going to go around not knowing how to cook. Tally, report to the kitchen ASAP, Hadley, you're on table cleaning and setting duty."
I complied with her orders, and quickly found myself with an apron on and in front of a cutting board. "I'm about to regret mentioning that, aren't I…"
"Probably!" Fletcher said cheerfully, before she got to work teaching me. Thankfully, it seemed like most of cooking was fairly easy. You just follow the recipe, and keep an eye on everything while it cooks. "The important thing is to know when it's done. You see how the sausage is all brown now?"
After a quick moment of examining the pan and its contents, I nodded.
"That means it's ready to go in with everything else. When you're browning stuff like this, you don't want to see any pink when you mix it in."
Fletcher was a really good cook. Good enough that she probably could take it professional if she weren't busy with shipgirl life and wrangling 174 sisters. I'd only met a half dozen of my sister ships so far, but it was pretty evident that being the responsible big sister to all of us was a full time job.
It didn't take long until dinner was ready, with much more effort from her than from me, but I still felt a little proud to have cooked my first proper meal. That it was a large enough meal to serve five hungry destroyers was just a bonus.
"Not bad." Fletcher said with an approving nod as she sampled the skillet lasagna. "Tally, if Kay doesn't need you for anything in the pre- and post-match at our next match, I'd like you to work the food stall with us."
I blinked at her, halfway into my seat at the table. "Oh, uh…"
"Don't worry about it." Bannie said with a smile. "Trips is always trying to get extra help, and we'll constantly be with you so you don't need to worry."
"Actually, I was gonna say that I don't have a food handler's card." I said.
"That's the first thing you think of?" Nikki asked, mirthfully.
"We can take care of that." Fletcher answered, waving off the concern. "Stop by here tomorrow morning, and we'll handle it then."
"You know that her definition of morning is different from ours, right?" Hadley asked. I rolled my eyes. Of course she was still annoyed that I'm a morning person. She doesn't like to get up before reveille.
"I'll see what I can do." I said with a nod. "Now, I believe we have dinner to eat?"
"Food!" Hadley cheered, which we all took as a signal to sit down and dig in.
Dinner was really good. From what I understood it was a rather simple lasagna that was easy to produce in large quantities - a perfect meal for shipgirls at home - but even then, it didn't taste like a simple meal. Maybe it was just because this was the product of my own hands, with a lot of help from Fletcher. Whatever the cause, it was a good dinner, and since I didn't have to be too careful about how much I ate, I ate until my bunkers were stuffed.
"Y'know what we should do?" Nikki asked the table. Fletcher was already working on cleaning everything, and I was tempted to join her. "Poker."
The suggestion immediately caught my attention, and I shifted over to face her. I'd pulled the 'go easy on the newbie' routine on the Bandits earlier this year, maybe I could pull it on her, too.
"Sure, I'm down." Bannie said with a shrug.
"Well, I'm not very good at it." I lied smoothly. "Go easy on me?"
Nikki stared at me. I stared back, doing my best to not give anything away. Her eyes narrowed, and I was pretty sure the game was up, but until she said as much I was going to keep up the facade.
"I will guarantee nothing." Nikki stated. She proceeded to pull a deck of cards, and five stacks of pennies from her hold. The cards went to the middle of the table, and the pennies were distributed around the table. Judging by the varying size of the stacks, they were continuing from a previous game. Nikki had the largest stack, Hadley the smallest, and mine was roughly equal to Fletcher's.
Nikki explained the rules, and once everyone was sat down at the table, we started playing. It only took a few hands of me "getting lucky" for everyone to wise up to the fact that I was actually pretty good at poker. Nikki was the first to realize, and hands quickly got significantly harder. Not impossible to win, but hard enough that something was up.
"Okay..." I grumbled after losing another hand. Nikki's straight flush was staring my full house in the face and laughing at it. "Is there a rule I'm missing?"
Fletcher, Nikki, and Bannie all exchanged looks. After a quick moment of silent argument, Fletcher spoke up. "Yeah. Fletcher-class house rules. Expect cheating, and if you can successfully identify and call out how someone is cheating, they lose the hand and have to stop."
"Well geez, just give up the game, why don't you?" Nikki grumbled.
I nodded. "In that case... Nikki has at least a full deck up her sleeve - in her hold - and is using it liberally. Bannie is counting cards with only reasonable levels of success, and Hadley-" I cut myself off to slap Hadley's hand away from my pile of pennies. "-keeps trying to steal directly from my pile. Unsuccessfully."
Bannie let out a low whistle. "You're good."
"And what about me?" Fletcher asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Nikki remove a deck of cards from her hold and place it on the table.
"Are you cheating?" I asked.
"I am."
"Hmm." I hummed, considering my options. "Well, you and I have pretty similar piles, so you can't be cheating that hard or that successfully, but I don't know."
Fletcher just grinned mischievously. "Alright Nikki, she called you out. Give her the money."
Nikki sighed and pushed a not inconsiderable pile of pennies my way.
I grinned. "So, what's the story behind the cheating? You don't strike me as the type to casually cheat hard enough to have a house rule about it."
"Submarines." Bannie answered, dealing a new hand. Pocket sevens. Not great, but good enough to not fold immediately. "Back when we were at Sasebo instead of stationed here, the submarines on base had a weekly poker night. Everyone came, and everyone lost money to them. It was pretty subtle cheating at first, and we destroyers managed to pick up on it while everyone else was fooled. Slowly, the subs got more bold with their cheating, and we picked up everything."
"And then you turned it on them?" I asked.
"And then we turned it on them." Bannie answered with a proud smirk. "We could pick up on what they were doing, but as hard as they cheated, they were awful at catching us doing it right back at them.
"They created a monster that they couldn't handle." Nikki added. "So they pretty quickly stopped playing poker with us. I hear they're making a killing in Yokosuka against the Japanese girls."
I paused, and considered the flop. Nothing that went well with my sevens, and Fletcher was raising. "I fold. That's an interesting tale. You'll have to teach me some day."
Nikki shook her head. "Nope! You've gotta figure it out yourself, same way we had to."
"You just want me to keep playing poker with you." I deadpanned.
"Trips doesn't like playing often, and Hadley has no poker face. You, on the other hand, are pretty good. I like a challenge."
"I do too have a poker face!" Hadley insisted. It was even more of a blatant lie than me saying I was a rookie at poker.
"Just keep telling yourself that…" Bannie said with a smile.
Non-canon Ships at Saunders 8
++++++++++
Kay left Hannah and I to run Sensha-do for a few days. She said that she was taking Arisa and Naomi on a Yukari-style infiltration mission to Aoshidan, but I'm pretty sure she just wanted to visit her sister. The only reason Hannah and I got left behind was that our red hair would stick out at Aoshidan, like her blonde would be any less inconspicuous.
Which left the two of us, the least extroverted members of the Saunders leadership team, the two with the worst people skills, to lead the whole team through practice for a few days. Now, I am getting a lot better at being social, especially thanks to the efforts of Trips and the rest of DesRon 73, but better doesn't equal good. Together, Hannah and I managed to get through the first day and the announcements on the second day before we turned practice over to the Chieftain. He was actually good at this sort of thing.
"She couldn't have at least left Naomi or something?" I grumbled for what seemed like the hundredth time in the back room. Hannah gave me a sympathetic look and we both sipped our hot cocoas.
"Going with just Arisa would have been a bad idea. You need two people to keep her contained." Hannah said with a shrug.
"That explains why you never succeed in stopping her shenanigans." I deadpanned.
"I do manage to reign her in from time to time, but yeah…"
"Well, Kay said she should be back tomorrow, so, at the worst, we should only need to plan tomorrow's practice." I said.
"At the worst, they all get caught and we don't see hide or hair of them until the day of the match." Hannah countered.
"El wouldn't do that to her sister." I said, shaking my head. "And voluntarily keeping Arisa around is just asking for her to get into trouble."
"Okay fair." Hannah nodded, conceding the point. "I've got to say, it's surprising that Kay and El are sisters."
I blinked at her. "They are literally identical twins. El's just dyed her hair brown and gotten a tan."
"Hair dye would explain it…" Hannah muttered. "I was just expecting her whole family to be blondes. Her mom and older sister both are."
"Older sister?" I asked.
"Yeah, Lulu. You didn't know? I thought you and Kay were an item."
"We don't exactly talk about our families." I said with a shrug. "Heck, it took until the Pravda match for any of you to learn that I know Russian."
"Not just know…" Hannah said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes. Some people were still impressed by the deluge of curses I'd unleashed back in the summer. I don't know why; according to my Dad, five minutes straight with three languages was practically nothing. He can go that hard in English or in Russian alone. "We should really get back to business."
"You're the one who started this."
"Anyways…" I intoned. "What's on the schedule today? After the Chief's lecture, I mean."
"Training Company is going to continue evaluating the newbies, Practice has fire and move drills, and we're judging a skirmish for Combat Company." Hannah answered, checking her notebook.
"How big a skirmish?"
"Full team. We're down four, so eight vs eight."
I nodded. "And tomorrow's more drills for everyone then skirmishes, right?"
"Yup!"
"Okay. I am so glad that planning a general practice session is easy. I would hate to be Kuromorimine and have to handle a situation like this." I said. Hannah laughed.
Before we could carry on any more conversation, my phone buzzed in my hold. I quickly extracted it and answered without bothering to check caller ID. "Evans here."
"Hey Tally!" Kay's cheerful voice rang through the speakers.
"Oh, hiya Kay! How's the trip going?"
"It went well, and I can confirm that Aoshidan doesn't have any unexpected surprises. And then Arisa got our cover broken and we all got captured before we could make our escape." Kay answered, never once losing a bit of her cheer.
I raised an eyebrow. "How did that happen?"
"You don't want to know." The sudden seriousness in Kay's voice shocked me for a moment, until she broke out laughing. "Ask Arisa when we get back."
"Riiiight." I drew the word out. "Hannah, make sure to ask Arisa how they got caught once they're back."
"Yes ma'am!"
"So, when are you three expecting to be back?" I asked, getting back on track.
"Hey Tally, it's Hadley. Are you busy?" Hadley's voice suddenly came over my radio, and I had to work to not immediately facepalm. I swear, Hadley has the worst timing.
"Actually, hold that thought, Kay. Hadley is calling." I said with a sigh. I quickly put Kay on hold, but held my phone back up to my ear to answer Hadley without raising Hannah's suspicions. "Hadley, I swear to god. Your timing is atrocious, and you always call when I'm in the middle of something."
"Sorry…." Hadley apologized. "I need homework help."
"Ask Trips or one of the others."
"I did. They're all taking physics instead of chem, and we all suck at social studies."
I sighed again. "I will be over at the apartment after Sensha-do. Do your best to work through it until then. And maybe if you paid attention in class for once this wouldn't be so difficult for you."
"Tallllyyyyy…" Hadley whined. This wasn't the first time we'd had this particular argument in the past few weeks. Hadley was one of my best friends, but it wouldn't kill her to try a little bit in class.
"After. Sensha-do. Now I need to get back to what I was working on."
"Fine. I'll see you then."
I cut the line and shook my head. "I swear… her timing is so damn frustrating."
Hannah blinked at me. "Did you just cuss? Casually? Who are you and what have you done with the real Tally?"
"Not the time." I countered, and resumed the call with Kay. "I'm really sorry about that. You know how Hadley is."
"I do." Kay agreed. "Anyways, I just wanted to call and let you know that we got caught. El says she's looking forward to our match, and that she'll be sending us home after her Tankery practice wraps up."
"Okay. Hannah and I have practice plans ready for tomorrow, but we'll see you tonight. Well, probably tomorrow."
"We'll see you then!" Kay said cheerfully, and then she hung up. I let my phone linger at my ear for a moment before I slipped it back into my hold.
Hannah was peering at me curiously. "You've really grown close to Faye Faith and her food stall crew. I've never seen you swear casually like that before."
"I blame Hadley." I stated simply. "She's nice, but she has this annoying tendency to be stubborn and not listen to people. Otherwise, she'd have stopped throwing stuff at people ages ago."
"Stubborn and not listening to advice… where have I seen that before?" Hannah asked rhetorically, grinning at me. It was definitely me she was talking about.
"Ha ha, very funny." I deadpanned at her. "We should go start getting stuff set up."
"Probably…" Hannah answered. Somehow, I don't think I allayed her suspicions.
"Thanks Tally!" Hadley said cheerfully. I nodded at her, and helped her start gathering up all of her schoolwork and textbooks. "Now we just need to work on Chem."
"Later. I think we both need a bit of a break after that." I said, fighting off a yawn. Social studies were not my strong suit, even if I was a fair bit better at them than my shipgirl friends.
"Okay!" Hadley was all for the idea. "What do you want to do in the meantime?"
I looked around the apartment, still not a hundred percent confident in my idea. "Well, there was something I wanted to ask someone about, and you're right here."
Hadley grinned. "Something fun?"
I shook my head. "Not yet. You know how we all have radios, and how they function more like cell phones than a proper radio?"
"Uh huh." Hadley intoned with a nod.
"Would I be able to tune my radio into a different network? Say, connect to the other Sensha-do radios and talk with the other tanks that way?"
"I have no idea." Hadley said with a shrug. She rotated in her chair, facing towards the bedrooms, and shouted across the apartment. "Fletch! Question for you!"
My eldest sister emerged from her room and walked over to us. "Hadley, how many times do I have to tell you to not shout across the apartment?"
Hadley just grinned at her. "Tally has a question for you."
I sighed, and repeated my question to Fletcher. She merely raised an eyebrow at it. "You could probably rig something up. I don't know how easy or difficult it would be. I'd ask Kay when she gets back."
"Alright. Being able to talk on the radio from anywhere should be useful." I said. Fletcher smiled at me.
"Keep coming up with out of the box solutions, Tally. If you stick with Sensha-do, I'm sure you'll go far." Fletcher reached over and gently patted my head. I smiled widely at her, appreciating the headpats. There was something about headpats that just felt really good, and getting them from my big sister was even better.
Fletcher paused. "I'm gonna get started on dinner now. Can you two make sure to clear the table, and then report to the kitchen to help cook?"
"Can do!" Hadley said, snapping a sloppy salute.
"I, uh… I don't know how to cook." I admitted.
Fletcher was appalled. "No sister of mine is going to go around not knowing how to cook. Tally, report to the kitchen ASAP, Hadley, you're on table cleaning and setting duty."
I complied with her orders, and quickly found myself with an apron on and in front of a cutting board. "I'm about to regret mentioning that, aren't I…"
"Probably!" Fletcher said cheerfully, before she got to work teaching me. Thankfully, it seemed like most of cooking was fairly easy. You just follow the recipe, and keep an eye on everything while it cooks. "The important thing is to know when it's done. You see how the sausage is all brown now?"
After a quick moment of examining the pan and its contents, I nodded.
"That means it's ready to go in with everything else. When you're browning stuff like this, you don't want to see any pink when you mix it in."
Fletcher was a really good cook. Good enough that she probably could take it professional if she weren't busy with shipgirl life and wrangling 174 sisters. I'd only met a half dozen of my sister ships so far, but it was pretty evident that being the responsible big sister to all of us was a full time job.
It didn't take long until dinner was ready, with much more effort from her than from me, but I still felt a little proud to have cooked my first proper meal. That it was a large enough meal to serve five hungry destroyers was just a bonus.
"Not bad." Fletcher said with an approving nod as she sampled the skillet lasagna. "Tally, if Kay doesn't need you for anything in the pre- and post-match at our next match, I'd like you to work the food stall with us."
I blinked at her, halfway into my seat at the table. "Oh, uh…"
"Don't worry about it." Bannie said with a smile. "Trips is always trying to get extra help, and we'll constantly be with you so you don't need to worry."
"Actually, I was gonna say that I don't have a food handler's card." I said.
"That's the first thing you think of?" Nikki asked, mirthfully.
"We can take care of that." Fletcher answered, waving off the concern. "Stop by here tomorrow morning, and we'll handle it then."
"You know that her definition of morning is different from ours, right?" Hadley asked. I rolled my eyes. Of course she was still annoyed that I'm a morning person. She doesn't like to get up before reveille.
"I'll see what I can do." I said with a nod. "Now, I believe we have dinner to eat?"
"Food!" Hadley cheered, which we all took as a signal to sit down and dig in.
Dinner was really good. From what I understood it was a rather simple lasagna that was easy to produce in large quantities - a perfect meal for shipgirls at home - but even then, it didn't taste like a simple meal. Maybe it was just because this was the product of my own hands, with a lot of help from Fletcher. Whatever the cause, it was a good dinner, and since I didn't have to be too careful about how much I ate, I ate until my bunkers were stuffed.
"Y'know what we should do?" Nikki asked the table. Fletcher was already working on cleaning everything, and I was tempted to join her. "Poker."
The suggestion immediately caught my attention, and I shifted over to face her. I'd pulled the 'go easy on the newbie' routine on the Bandits earlier this year, maybe I could pull it on her, too.
"Sure, I'm down." Bannie said with a shrug.
"Well, I'm not very good at it." I lied smoothly. "Go easy on me?"
Nikki stared at me. I stared back, doing my best to not give anything away. Her eyes narrowed, and I was pretty sure the game was up, but until she said as much I was going to keep up the facade.
"I will guarantee nothing." Nikki stated. She proceeded to pull a deck of cards, and five stacks of pennies from her hold. The cards went to the middle of the table, and the pennies were distributed around the table. Judging by the varying size of the stacks, they were continuing from a previous game. Nikki had the largest stack, Hadley the smallest, and mine was roughly equal to Fletcher's.
Nikki explained the rules, and once everyone was sat down at the table, we started playing. It only took a few hands of me "getting lucky" for everyone to wise up to the fact that I was actually pretty good at poker. Nikki was the first to realize, and hands quickly got significantly harder. Not impossible to win, but hard enough that something was up.
"Okay..." I grumbled after losing another hand. Nikki's straight flush was staring my full house in the face and laughing at it. "Is there a rule I'm missing?"
Fletcher, Nikki, and Bannie all exchanged looks. After a quick moment of silent argument, Fletcher spoke up. "Yeah. Fletcher-class house rules. Expect cheating, and if you can successfully identify and call out how someone is cheating, they lose the hand and have to stop."
"Well geez, just give up the game, why don't you?" Nikki grumbled.
I nodded. "In that case... Nikki has at least a full deck up her sleeve - in her hold - and is using it liberally. Bannie is counting cards with only reasonable levels of success, and Hadley-" I cut myself off to slap Hadley's hand away from my pile of pennies. "-keeps trying to steal directly from my pile. Unsuccessfully."
Bannie let out a low whistle. "You're good."
"And what about me?" Fletcher asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Nikki remove a deck of cards from her hold and place it on the table.
"Are you cheating?" I asked.
"I am."
"Hmm." I hummed, considering my options. "Well, you and I have pretty similar piles, so you can't be cheating that hard or that successfully, but I don't know."
Fletcher just grinned mischievously. "Alright Nikki, she called you out. Give her the money."
Nikki sighed and pushed a not inconsiderable pile of pennies my way.
I grinned. "So, what's the story behind the cheating? You don't strike me as the type to casually cheat hard enough to have a house rule about it."
"Submarines." Bannie answered, dealing a new hand. Pocket sevens. Not great, but good enough to not fold immediately. "Back when we were at Sasebo instead of stationed here, the submarines on base had a weekly poker night. Everyone came, and everyone lost money to them. It was pretty subtle cheating at first, and we destroyers managed to pick up on it while everyone else was fooled. Slowly, the subs got more bold with their cheating, and we picked up everything."
"And then you turned it on them?" I asked.
"And then we turned it on them." Bannie answered with a proud smirk. "We could pick up on what they were doing, but as hard as they cheated, they were awful at catching us doing it right back at them.
"They created a monster that they couldn't handle." Nikki added. "So they pretty quickly stopped playing poker with us. I hear they're making a killing in Yokosuka against the Japanese girls."
I paused, and considered the flop. Nothing that went well with my sevens, and Fletcher was raising. "I fold. That's an interesting tale. You'll have to teach me some day."
Nikki shook her head. "Nope! You've gotta figure it out yourself, same way we had to."
"You just want me to keep playing poker with you." I deadpanned.
"Trips doesn't like playing often, and Hadley has no poker face. You, on the other hand, are pretty good. I like a challenge."
"I do too have a poker face!" Hadley insisted. It was even more of a blatant lie than me saying I was a rookie at poker.
"Just keep telling yourself that…" Bannie said with a smile.
FlyingScanian
Tea Addict
- Location
- Land of Eternal Night
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Happy birthday, then. Although I think you got it backwards, we're supposed to bring you gifts, not you bringing us wonderful gifts of tonks (and botes)
Part Sixty One
Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hell On Tracks
Part Sixty One
++++++++++
Instead of my usual beeline for the best seat at the kotatsu, I went straight for Kay's futon. I ignored the odd looks everyone else gave me as I flopped down onto the futon and let out a contented sigh. That bliss lasted all of five seconds before I wiggled around a bit, trying to figure out why Kay's futon felt so different compared to mine.
"Is this softer than mine?" I asked. "Kay, do you have a softer futon than I do?"
"I dunno." Kay admitted.
"Oh, this is so nice… I could fall asleep right here and be happy." I said. A yawn escaped my mouth, and I heard someone sigh audibly.
"But you aren't going to. We still have a post-match review to do." Arisa was annoyed with my antics, but I didn't care. I was exhausted, and this was comfy.
"Tally, get up." Naomi said firmly.
"Fine." I whined, sitting up. Arisa was facepalming and pinching the bridge of her nose, Naomi was shaking her head, and Kay was laughing quietly in the background.
"You didn't manage to get a nap in after the match?" Hannah asked.
I shook my head. "God, I wish. But I was too busy helping dig my tank out of the rubble to catch some shuteye back in the command tent."
"Well, it's nice to see that even the limitless energy of Tally has its limits." Naomi snarked.
"All it took was the better part of a week of poor sleep, a half dozen projects keeping me busy all at once, a match where I had to be constantly on edge, and getting buried. Hopefully, this will never need to happen again." I countered. At Kay's gesture, I hauled myself off of her futon, and joined her next to the kotatsu.
"We should keep this brief, for Tally's sake." Kay said. As she spoke, I sat at the kotatsu, and the heater underneath the table felt almost as good, if not better than her futon. I could probably fall asleep right here, too. Kay must have noticed, because she squeezed my shoulders in a hug once she was sat down next to me.
The others all took their places around the kotatsu as well, and we settled in for the review.
"Okay everyone! Congratulations on a decisive victory against Yogurt Academy! Let's start with the good stuff. Hannah, you're up!" Kay said, pointing at the still-helmeted loader.
Hannah looked at Kay and I for a moment before grinning. "Seven points for mobility."
"Aww… I was gonna say mobility." I whined.
"We know." The response was unanimous, and in unison from everyone else around the kotatsu, though their smiles clearly indicated it was all in good fun.
"Moving through the city was awful for everyone, even with Arisa and I coordinating everyone from atop the parking garage." Hannah said, carrying on like it was nothing. "But we managed to outmaneuver Yogurt's heavier tanks and get them from the sides and rear. The Panther, Jagdpanzers, and StuG never stood a chance."
Arisa went next, and had a grin on her face that matched Hannah's. "Six points for gunnery. In every encounter, no matter the range, our tanks were making good use of the training Tally and I worked on, and every tank scored at least a couple hits against Yogurt."
"I see how it is… Seven points for sportsmanship." Naomi said, echoing the smiles of Arisa and Hannah. Her smile grew into a full grin when she noticed Kay's pout. "The rain kept us from being as social as we usually are in the pre-match, and concessions were basically shut down, but I did spot a few people hanging out with friends from different schools, not just Yogurt. Heck, we were all very nice to Maho when she stopped by the command tent to say hi."
Maho was another girlfriend of Naomi's, this time from Kuromorimine, and she was nice. A little on the reserved side, but she relaxed fairly quickly once she was inside the command tent. She was the commander of one of KMM's heavy tanks, and we got into a debate about the merits of heavy tanks versus light tanks, though Naomi shut it down before we could get heated. I didn't agree with heavy tanks being the be all, end all best tanks on the field, but Maho was attached to that stance, and I could respect that.
I blinked as everyone looked at me. "Oh, am I up?"
"Yeah. I want to go last." Kay said.
"You're just saying that because I stole yours and you need time to come up with a new one." Naomi accused.
"Well yeah, but I'd wanted to go last even before then."
I scoffed and quickly brainstormed an idea for what I would say, since Hannah stole mine. The environmental conditions more than anything else had made the match a rough one, being a tight city with heavy rain. Once again, we'd done two platoons of four plus Arisa and I as solo support tanks, and Arisa had done her find a hiding place and coordinate via radio thing. There were a couple of trades where we lost a Sherman and Yogurt lost a lighter tank, and then we split up into smaller units and began harassing and encircling Yogurt forces.
Jane, April, and I had gotten very lucky with an ambush on the Panther, knocking it out, but the retaliation shot from the Panzer IV next to it had brought down a building on top of our heads. If I had been unbuttoned, it could have been bad. The Stuart was stuck, and when we were unable to extricate our tank from the rubble with Naomi's help, the judges ruled us as knocked out.
It looked like Yogurt might be making a comeback. The Panzer IV managed to get Naomi as well before Haruna got it in the same engagement, but Kay's platoon circled around and took out the Jagdpanzer IV and StuG before closing in on Yogurt's 38(t) flag tank and knocking it out.
"Eight points for perseverance." I said after a moment. "We took a couple bad losses right around the point where I got buried, and yet we didn't lose hope. Naomi was there right away to try and get me out of the mess, and while that didn't work, and she got knocked out a little bit later, we kept up the pressure, kept up the cheer, and came back to win the match."
"Ten points for communication!" Kay said cheerfully. "Arisa and Hannah, you played an absolutely key role in this match by coordinating everyone with your radios, but you weren't the only ones. Everyone did a stellar job communicating within and between the platoons, and when people asked for help, someone was always available to answer the call and provide assistance, whether it was flanking a known Yogurt position, or helping pull a tank out of some rubble."
"Trying to." I amended.
"Right. Trying to help pull you out of rubble." Kay agreed. "Is there anything that we need to improve upon?"
I hummed. "Getting Arisa more involved. That's twice now where she's sat in the back and coordinated everyone, and we know that just like last time, everyone was watching the match. KMM was there, St Glo was there, I'd be surprised if Pravda wasn't there, they all saw how we kept Arisa on top of that parking garage. She's an easy target, and with her being focused on coordinating everyone, she's not as attentive to immediate threats. If I were on the other team, she'd be a perfect target for me to try and hunt down solo, while the rest of you deal with the main threats."
Arisa frowned. "As much as I'd rather stick to coordinating, Tally has a point. Next match is up to fifteen tanks, so give me a platoon. Or maybe just a bodyguard. Three platoons of four, plus Tally, me as flag, and my escort."
"I don't feel comfortable leaving you with just one escort." Kay said. "Not after what happened last time we tried."
"We don't have the Bandits anymore. I doubt anyone else is rude or angry enough to willingly abandon the flag tank if they get escort duty." Arisa countered. I winced at the mention of my former crew, and Kay patted my back as soon as she noticed my discomfort.
"We'll have to think about it. We're facing Jatkosota next, and Mika is the type of commander to see that weakness and dive for you." Kay replied.
Naomi cursed under her breath, and I frowned at her. "I knew it was too much to hope Koala beat them."
"What's wrong with facing Jatkosota?" I asked, confused. I knew they were good, just not Big 4 good, so Naomi's dislike of them was startling.
"Nothing on the field." Arisa explained. "They're really good, good enough to challenge any of the Big 4 even if we have a winning record against them. The problem is before and after the match."
"Or off the field during the match." Naomi amended. "Jatkosota has a reputation for being thieves. They've, ah, 'requisitioned' tanks from Pravda, KMM, and Chi-Ha-Tan that they use semi-regularly, and we've caught their crews trying to siphon gas from tanks we aren't using in the match or steal general supplies from our depot."
"Stuff we would happily give them if they asked." Kay added.
"Oh." I oh'd. Saunders was certainly generous, constantly lend-leasing stuff to whoever needed it, or just straight up giving away gear, but if the Bandits had taught me anything, it was that Saunders as a whole did not like thieves.
The room fell silent for a moment before Kay spoke up. "Anybody have anything else?"
I shook my head and yawned, and the others similarly gave negative answers.
"In that case, meeting adjourned. I'll see you all tomorrow before Sensha-do practice. In the meantime, Naomi has some anime." Kay paused, and glanced over at me. "Tally, do you want to head home now?"
I yawned again. "Nah, I think I'll stay and hang out for a little while. This seat is comfy."
"Okay." Kay smiled as Naomi started the anime up. Despite the catchy and energetic theme music for Steel Knights, I had dozed off before the intro was done.
For what felt like the first time this week, I had a good night's rest. I woke up slowly, the light of the morning sun shining on my face. My bed was comfy and super soft this morning, and the person sleeping next to me made sure the bed was nice and warm…
I wanted to curl up and go back to bed, but as I did so, my back came into contact with something unfamiliar. There was another person in my bed. I snapped awake and scrambled off of the futon, hitting the floor with a thud. This was not my dorm room.
Kay rolled over and smiled at me. "Mornin' sleepyhead."
My mind went into overdrive as I froze in place, my eyes locked on Kay's. Kay and I had been sleeping together! Kay and I had been sleeping together! Kay and I had been sleeping together!
"Hey! Tally, snap out of it!" Kay said, scrambling out of bed and snapping her fingers in front of my face. I blinked and scooted away from her, coming back to my senses.
"W-what happened? Why am I in your room?" I asked, still shocked.
"You fell asleep during the meeting, and we didn't want to have to carry you back to your own dorm and dig through your stuff for your keys, so Arisa and Naomi helped move you onto my bed to rest. I didn't really have anywhere else to sleep, so I just went to bed next to you." Kay explained quickly.
I blinked at her, taking longer than I would have liked to comprehend. "Oh. Ohhhh. So nothing…?"
Kay laughed and shook her head. "No, nothing like that."
"Sorry for that…" I said sheepishly. I could feel my face heating up, and there was no way I was suppressing that blush or embarrassment. "I'm just gonna- I… Well… I should go."
Before either of us could say anything else, I rushed out of the room. Thankfully, it was early enough that the halls were empty, and I was outside before too many people could spot me.
It was light enough out that I could probably go for a short run before cleaning myself up for the day. Might help me clear my head, too. I was still slightly freaking out over the fact that I'd overnighted at Kay's, and that my mind had immediately zeroed in on… that. My face heated up even thinking about it, and I knew my face was more or less matching my hair. It was far too embarrassing to ever mention to anyone. Ever.
I shook my head and banished those thoughts. I was going for a run. It only took a bit of brainstorming to come up with a route that looped around the area before ending at my own dorm. With the route in mind, I double checked my shoes, made sure nothing was going to fly away from me on accident as I ran, and once that was done, I started running.
The grass was still damp from the recent rains, but the early morning sun was shining, and the sidewalks were all dry. It was a beautiful morning for running, and I took it all in while maintaining a steady pace.
My first real break came at a stoplight at the edge of the residential area. I had to wait for the light to change, and I caught my breath while I waited.
"Good morning, Tally!" A familiar voice called. "You're out early!"
I turned to face Trips as she jogged towards me. "Mornin', Trips! It's a beautiful morning, I couldn't help myself. And I had the first good night's sleep since that darned storm rolled in, so I actually have the energy to run!"
Trips frowned, considering something. It only remained on her face for a moment before she smiled again. "Well, it's good to see you up and moving around! Sorry we couldn't make you lunch yesterday, storm had us shut down."
"It's no problem." I said, waving off her concerns. "The weather was awful to play in yesterday. I couldn't see more than ten feet out of my periscope, but at least it was better than getting soaked and crushed under a collapsing building."
"Collapsing…? What happened?"
"A shell from Yogurt's Panzer IV brought down a building right next to me after I took out their team's Panther. It came down right on top of the Stuart, pinning us in place. We didn't get out until the ARVs came by after the match was over." I explained.
"Oh my gosh, that's horrible! At least you all made it out safely?" Trips exclaimed, covering her mouth to hide her shock.
"Yeah. We got shaken around but nobody was seriously hurt." I answered. The light changed, and the crosswalk opened. I started jogging, and Trips joined me pace for pace. I'm a better runner than most people I know, but Trips didn't seem to have any issues maintaining this pace while we chatted.
"It's funny… You survive having a building dropped on you with a few scratches and bruises, but when Bannie trips and drops a sack of potatoes she was carrying, she breaks her foot and gets bedrest for a week while it heals enough to walk on."
"Is she okay? Beyond the hurt foot, I mean." I asked.
"A couple scratches and bruises, but nothing serious. The potatoes didn't survive the encounter though." Trips had a smile on her face despite her friend's injury. I guess I could tell why they called Bannie "Potato Girl" from time to time. It's either that or her Irish origins.
The run didn't last as long as I would have liked, even slowed down to let Trips keep pace and chat with her. It was too beautiful a day to spend cooped up in classrooms, but that was what I was going to have to do once I made it back to my dorm. Eventually, we had to go our separate ways, me back to my dorm and Trips back to her apartment. I waved goodbye as I ran off towards home.
Hannah and Arisa were in the common room when I got there, and they both gave me a big smug grin. Arisa was the first to speak up despite my glowering at her. "So, are the two of you an item yet?"
"Shut up. I don't want to talk about it." I said quickly, emphasizing my point with a finger.
"That's not a no~" Arisa teased. I flushed again.
Oh, it was on. Driver, front towards enemy! Gunner, AP! Target: Arisa! Fire!
"How about you ask Takashi out on a date, then I'll spill the beans about my love life." I countered. Arisa sputtered and deflated, much to Hannah's amusement, and I took the opportunity to sneak out of the common room and route to my room to get cleaned up.
Direct hit! Target disabled, and withdrawal successful.
I made my way down to the repair shop before practice started. The Pershing was starting to look like an actual tank again, and would probably only need a couple more days of people working on it during Sensha-do practice before it was ready to go. But I wasn't down here for the Pershing today.
Instead, I walked past where the Chaffee's wrecked turret was still sitting (someone had modified the sign over it to say 'Still How not to repair a tank'), because Lina had promised to have a certain vehicle ready for practice today, in return for getting to be my loader. Sitting there, in all of its lightly armored glory, was my beloved M18 Hellcat, now with the roof kit firmly attached. The roof reduced visibility a fair bit, but not enough that I was going to be as blind as I was in Stuart without my hatch open.
"Afternoon, Lina!" I called to the hispanic girl moving the crane away from the Hellcat.
"Heya, Tally! Perfect timing! Your baby is all ready to go!" Lina shouted back. "I even checked track tension!"
"You're the best!" I replied with a grin. It was time to take command of my single favorite vehicle. Lina hopped down to join me as I reached the tank destroyer. I ran a hand over the TD's fender, and my grin grew even wider. This was going to be great!
"Now if only you didn't give us a new challenge before you took this one off our hands." Lina said with a sigh, shaking her head. "And we need the Stuart up in less than a week? After you buried it?"
"That's not my fault! How was I supposed to know one shot would be all it took to bring the building down on top of us?" I whined.
"Well, ideally you would never have been in a situation where that was possible." Lina snarked back.
"Yeah… no. Did you see how tight the quarters were on the field? Even the wider boulevards had houses on either side, ones that would absolutely be able to stop a tank, at least for a little while."
"Well, either way, the Stuart is messed up. Carbon layer may have kept you all safe, but the exterior's dented to hell and back, and your air intakes are all…" Lina trailed off under my glare. "They're clogged, and all your filters need replacin'. Might steal the power pack from the other Stuart, just in case."
"Well, we can worry about that after practice. Right now, I've got a TD to get up to the garage, and a loader to recruit." I said, patting the glacis plate of the Hellcat.
Lina crossed her arms, ignoring the grease she was spreading around her arms and chest. "So what, you're just lookin' for someone else? Just like that?"
"Well… not exactly." I admitted. "I did promise someone the slot though."
Lina's withering glare only intensified, and I sighed.
"Fine, it's you. Do you want the spot or do I actually have to go looking for a loader? Hadley, from Trips' food stall, seems nice enough, and can definitely sling shells for a few hours."
"You gave me the role way back when. You're stuck with me, compadre." Lina said.
"Good!" I grinned. "You said she's all ready to move?"
At Lina's nod, I moved around to the side of the TD and climbed up. The mantlet didn't cover the two hull hatches, and I dropped down into the driver's hull. Soon enough, the radial was humming quietly. As soon as it was warmed up, I goosed the accelerator and brought the TD over to the service elevator. People were going to be surprised to see me on the practice field in Hellcat today. Even more so when I come out from an unexpected angle and knock them out.
To say I was looking forward to it would be like calling a hurricane a mild sprinkling of rain. The M18 was my favorite tank destroyer for a reason. Haha, tanks!
Part Sixty One
++++++++++
Instead of my usual beeline for the best seat at the kotatsu, I went straight for Kay's futon. I ignored the odd looks everyone else gave me as I flopped down onto the futon and let out a contented sigh. That bliss lasted all of five seconds before I wiggled around a bit, trying to figure out why Kay's futon felt so different compared to mine.
"Is this softer than mine?" I asked. "Kay, do you have a softer futon than I do?"
"I dunno." Kay admitted.
"Oh, this is so nice… I could fall asleep right here and be happy." I said. A yawn escaped my mouth, and I heard someone sigh audibly.
"But you aren't going to. We still have a post-match review to do." Arisa was annoyed with my antics, but I didn't care. I was exhausted, and this was comfy.
"Tally, get up." Naomi said firmly.
"Fine." I whined, sitting up. Arisa was facepalming and pinching the bridge of her nose, Naomi was shaking her head, and Kay was laughing quietly in the background.
"You didn't manage to get a nap in after the match?" Hannah asked.
I shook my head. "God, I wish. But I was too busy helping dig my tank out of the rubble to catch some shuteye back in the command tent."
"Well, it's nice to see that even the limitless energy of Tally has its limits." Naomi snarked.
"All it took was the better part of a week of poor sleep, a half dozen projects keeping me busy all at once, a match where I had to be constantly on edge, and getting buried. Hopefully, this will never need to happen again." I countered. At Kay's gesture, I hauled myself off of her futon, and joined her next to the kotatsu.
"We should keep this brief, for Tally's sake." Kay said. As she spoke, I sat at the kotatsu, and the heater underneath the table felt almost as good, if not better than her futon. I could probably fall asleep right here, too. Kay must have noticed, because she squeezed my shoulders in a hug once she was sat down next to me.
The others all took their places around the kotatsu as well, and we settled in for the review.
"Okay everyone! Congratulations on a decisive victory against Yogurt Academy! Let's start with the good stuff. Hannah, you're up!" Kay said, pointing at the still-helmeted loader.
Hannah looked at Kay and I for a moment before grinning. "Seven points for mobility."
"Aww… I was gonna say mobility." I whined.
"We know." The response was unanimous, and in unison from everyone else around the kotatsu, though their smiles clearly indicated it was all in good fun.
"Moving through the city was awful for everyone, even with Arisa and I coordinating everyone from atop the parking garage." Hannah said, carrying on like it was nothing. "But we managed to outmaneuver Yogurt's heavier tanks and get them from the sides and rear. The Panther, Jagdpanzers, and StuG never stood a chance."
Arisa went next, and had a grin on her face that matched Hannah's. "Six points for gunnery. In every encounter, no matter the range, our tanks were making good use of the training Tally and I worked on, and every tank scored at least a couple hits against Yogurt."
"I see how it is… Seven points for sportsmanship." Naomi said, echoing the smiles of Arisa and Hannah. Her smile grew into a full grin when she noticed Kay's pout. "The rain kept us from being as social as we usually are in the pre-match, and concessions were basically shut down, but I did spot a few people hanging out with friends from different schools, not just Yogurt. Heck, we were all very nice to Maho when she stopped by the command tent to say hi."
Maho was another girlfriend of Naomi's, this time from Kuromorimine, and she was nice. A little on the reserved side, but she relaxed fairly quickly once she was inside the command tent. She was the commander of one of KMM's heavy tanks, and we got into a debate about the merits of heavy tanks versus light tanks, though Naomi shut it down before we could get heated. I didn't agree with heavy tanks being the be all, end all best tanks on the field, but Maho was attached to that stance, and I could respect that.
I blinked as everyone looked at me. "Oh, am I up?"
"Yeah. I want to go last." Kay said.
"You're just saying that because I stole yours and you need time to come up with a new one." Naomi accused.
"Well yeah, but I'd wanted to go last even before then."
I scoffed and quickly brainstormed an idea for what I would say, since Hannah stole mine. The environmental conditions more than anything else had made the match a rough one, being a tight city with heavy rain. Once again, we'd done two platoons of four plus Arisa and I as solo support tanks, and Arisa had done her find a hiding place and coordinate via radio thing. There were a couple of trades where we lost a Sherman and Yogurt lost a lighter tank, and then we split up into smaller units and began harassing and encircling Yogurt forces.
Jane, April, and I had gotten very lucky with an ambush on the Panther, knocking it out, but the retaliation shot from the Panzer IV next to it had brought down a building on top of our heads. If I had been unbuttoned, it could have been bad. The Stuart was stuck, and when we were unable to extricate our tank from the rubble with Naomi's help, the judges ruled us as knocked out.
It looked like Yogurt might be making a comeback. The Panzer IV managed to get Naomi as well before Haruna got it in the same engagement, but Kay's platoon circled around and took out the Jagdpanzer IV and StuG before closing in on Yogurt's 38(t) flag tank and knocking it out.
"Eight points for perseverance." I said after a moment. "We took a couple bad losses right around the point where I got buried, and yet we didn't lose hope. Naomi was there right away to try and get me out of the mess, and while that didn't work, and she got knocked out a little bit later, we kept up the pressure, kept up the cheer, and came back to win the match."
"Ten points for communication!" Kay said cheerfully. "Arisa and Hannah, you played an absolutely key role in this match by coordinating everyone with your radios, but you weren't the only ones. Everyone did a stellar job communicating within and between the platoons, and when people asked for help, someone was always available to answer the call and provide assistance, whether it was flanking a known Yogurt position, or helping pull a tank out of some rubble."
"Trying to." I amended.
"Right. Trying to help pull you out of rubble." Kay agreed. "Is there anything that we need to improve upon?"
I hummed. "Getting Arisa more involved. That's twice now where she's sat in the back and coordinated everyone, and we know that just like last time, everyone was watching the match. KMM was there, St Glo was there, I'd be surprised if Pravda wasn't there, they all saw how we kept Arisa on top of that parking garage. She's an easy target, and with her being focused on coordinating everyone, she's not as attentive to immediate threats. If I were on the other team, she'd be a perfect target for me to try and hunt down solo, while the rest of you deal with the main threats."
Arisa frowned. "As much as I'd rather stick to coordinating, Tally has a point. Next match is up to fifteen tanks, so give me a platoon. Or maybe just a bodyguard. Three platoons of four, plus Tally, me as flag, and my escort."
"I don't feel comfortable leaving you with just one escort." Kay said. "Not after what happened last time we tried."
"We don't have the Bandits anymore. I doubt anyone else is rude or angry enough to willingly abandon the flag tank if they get escort duty." Arisa countered. I winced at the mention of my former crew, and Kay patted my back as soon as she noticed my discomfort.
"We'll have to think about it. We're facing Jatkosota next, and Mika is the type of commander to see that weakness and dive for you." Kay replied.
Naomi cursed under her breath, and I frowned at her. "I knew it was too much to hope Koala beat them."
"What's wrong with facing Jatkosota?" I asked, confused. I knew they were good, just not Big 4 good, so Naomi's dislike of them was startling.
"Nothing on the field." Arisa explained. "They're really good, good enough to challenge any of the Big 4 even if we have a winning record against them. The problem is before and after the match."
"Or off the field during the match." Naomi amended. "Jatkosota has a reputation for being thieves. They've, ah, 'requisitioned' tanks from Pravda, KMM, and Chi-Ha-Tan that they use semi-regularly, and we've caught their crews trying to siphon gas from tanks we aren't using in the match or steal general supplies from our depot."
"Stuff we would happily give them if they asked." Kay added.
"Oh." I oh'd. Saunders was certainly generous, constantly lend-leasing stuff to whoever needed it, or just straight up giving away gear, but if the Bandits had taught me anything, it was that Saunders as a whole did not like thieves.
The room fell silent for a moment before Kay spoke up. "Anybody have anything else?"
I shook my head and yawned, and the others similarly gave negative answers.
"In that case, meeting adjourned. I'll see you all tomorrow before Sensha-do practice. In the meantime, Naomi has some anime." Kay paused, and glanced over at me. "Tally, do you want to head home now?"
I yawned again. "Nah, I think I'll stay and hang out for a little while. This seat is comfy."
"Okay." Kay smiled as Naomi started the anime up. Despite the catchy and energetic theme music for Steel Knights, I had dozed off before the intro was done.
For what felt like the first time this week, I had a good night's rest. I woke up slowly, the light of the morning sun shining on my face. My bed was comfy and super soft this morning, and the person sleeping next to me made sure the bed was nice and warm…
I wanted to curl up and go back to bed, but as I did so, my back came into contact with something unfamiliar. There was another person in my bed. I snapped awake and scrambled off of the futon, hitting the floor with a thud. This was not my dorm room.
Kay rolled over and smiled at me. "Mornin' sleepyhead."
My mind went into overdrive as I froze in place, my eyes locked on Kay's. Kay and I had been sleeping together! Kay and I had been sleeping together! Kay and I had been sleeping together!
"Hey! Tally, snap out of it!" Kay said, scrambling out of bed and snapping her fingers in front of my face. I blinked and scooted away from her, coming back to my senses.
"W-what happened? Why am I in your room?" I asked, still shocked.
"You fell asleep during the meeting, and we didn't want to have to carry you back to your own dorm and dig through your stuff for your keys, so Arisa and Naomi helped move you onto my bed to rest. I didn't really have anywhere else to sleep, so I just went to bed next to you." Kay explained quickly.
I blinked at her, taking longer than I would have liked to comprehend. "Oh. Ohhhh. So nothing…?"
Kay laughed and shook her head. "No, nothing like that."
"Sorry for that…" I said sheepishly. I could feel my face heating up, and there was no way I was suppressing that blush or embarrassment. "I'm just gonna- I… Well… I should go."
Before either of us could say anything else, I rushed out of the room. Thankfully, it was early enough that the halls were empty, and I was outside before too many people could spot me.
It was light enough out that I could probably go for a short run before cleaning myself up for the day. Might help me clear my head, too. I was still slightly freaking out over the fact that I'd overnighted at Kay's, and that my mind had immediately zeroed in on… that. My face heated up even thinking about it, and I knew my face was more or less matching my hair. It was far too embarrassing to ever mention to anyone. Ever.
I shook my head and banished those thoughts. I was going for a run. It only took a bit of brainstorming to come up with a route that looped around the area before ending at my own dorm. With the route in mind, I double checked my shoes, made sure nothing was going to fly away from me on accident as I ran, and once that was done, I started running.
The grass was still damp from the recent rains, but the early morning sun was shining, and the sidewalks were all dry. It was a beautiful morning for running, and I took it all in while maintaining a steady pace.
My first real break came at a stoplight at the edge of the residential area. I had to wait for the light to change, and I caught my breath while I waited.
"Good morning, Tally!" A familiar voice called. "You're out early!"
I turned to face Trips as she jogged towards me. "Mornin', Trips! It's a beautiful morning, I couldn't help myself. And I had the first good night's sleep since that darned storm rolled in, so I actually have the energy to run!"
Trips frowned, considering something. It only remained on her face for a moment before she smiled again. "Well, it's good to see you up and moving around! Sorry we couldn't make you lunch yesterday, storm had us shut down."
"It's no problem." I said, waving off her concerns. "The weather was awful to play in yesterday. I couldn't see more than ten feet out of my periscope, but at least it was better than getting soaked and crushed under a collapsing building."
"Collapsing…? What happened?"
"A shell from Yogurt's Panzer IV brought down a building right next to me after I took out their team's Panther. It came down right on top of the Stuart, pinning us in place. We didn't get out until the ARVs came by after the match was over." I explained.
"Oh my gosh, that's horrible! At least you all made it out safely?" Trips exclaimed, covering her mouth to hide her shock.
"Yeah. We got shaken around but nobody was seriously hurt." I answered. The light changed, and the crosswalk opened. I started jogging, and Trips joined me pace for pace. I'm a better runner than most people I know, but Trips didn't seem to have any issues maintaining this pace while we chatted.
"It's funny… You survive having a building dropped on you with a few scratches and bruises, but when Bannie trips and drops a sack of potatoes she was carrying, she breaks her foot and gets bedrest for a week while it heals enough to walk on."
"Is she okay? Beyond the hurt foot, I mean." I asked.
"A couple scratches and bruises, but nothing serious. The potatoes didn't survive the encounter though." Trips had a smile on her face despite her friend's injury. I guess I could tell why they called Bannie "Potato Girl" from time to time. It's either that or her Irish origins.
The run didn't last as long as I would have liked, even slowed down to let Trips keep pace and chat with her. It was too beautiful a day to spend cooped up in classrooms, but that was what I was going to have to do once I made it back to my dorm. Eventually, we had to go our separate ways, me back to my dorm and Trips back to her apartment. I waved goodbye as I ran off towards home.
Hannah and Arisa were in the common room when I got there, and they both gave me a big smug grin. Arisa was the first to speak up despite my glowering at her. "So, are the two of you an item yet?"
"Shut up. I don't want to talk about it." I said quickly, emphasizing my point with a finger.
"That's not a no~" Arisa teased. I flushed again.
Oh, it was on. Driver, front towards enemy! Gunner, AP! Target: Arisa! Fire!
"How about you ask Takashi out on a date, then I'll spill the beans about my love life." I countered. Arisa sputtered and deflated, much to Hannah's amusement, and I took the opportunity to sneak out of the common room and route to my room to get cleaned up.
Direct hit! Target disabled, and withdrawal successful.
I made my way down to the repair shop before practice started. The Pershing was starting to look like an actual tank again, and would probably only need a couple more days of people working on it during Sensha-do practice before it was ready to go. But I wasn't down here for the Pershing today.
Instead, I walked past where the Chaffee's wrecked turret was still sitting (someone had modified the sign over it to say 'Still How not to repair a tank'), because Lina had promised to have a certain vehicle ready for practice today, in return for getting to be my loader. Sitting there, in all of its lightly armored glory, was my beloved M18 Hellcat, now with the roof kit firmly attached. The roof reduced visibility a fair bit, but not enough that I was going to be as blind as I was in Stuart without my hatch open.
"Afternoon, Lina!" I called to the hispanic girl moving the crane away from the Hellcat.
"Heya, Tally! Perfect timing! Your baby is all ready to go!" Lina shouted back. "I even checked track tension!"
"You're the best!" I replied with a grin. It was time to take command of my single favorite vehicle. Lina hopped down to join me as I reached the tank destroyer. I ran a hand over the TD's fender, and my grin grew even wider. This was going to be great!
"Now if only you didn't give us a new challenge before you took this one off our hands." Lina said with a sigh, shaking her head. "And we need the Stuart up in less than a week? After you buried it?"
"That's not my fault! How was I supposed to know one shot would be all it took to bring the building down on top of us?" I whined.
"Well, ideally you would never have been in a situation where that was possible." Lina snarked back.
"Yeah… no. Did you see how tight the quarters were on the field? Even the wider boulevards had houses on either side, ones that would absolutely be able to stop a tank, at least for a little while."
"Well, either way, the Stuart is messed up. Carbon layer may have kept you all safe, but the exterior's dented to hell and back, and your air intakes are all…" Lina trailed off under my glare. "They're clogged, and all your filters need replacin'. Might steal the power pack from the other Stuart, just in case."
"Well, we can worry about that after practice. Right now, I've got a TD to get up to the garage, and a loader to recruit." I said, patting the glacis plate of the Hellcat.
Lina crossed her arms, ignoring the grease she was spreading around her arms and chest. "So what, you're just lookin' for someone else? Just like that?"
"Well… not exactly." I admitted. "I did promise someone the slot though."
Lina's withering glare only intensified, and I sighed.
"Fine, it's you. Do you want the spot or do I actually have to go looking for a loader? Hadley, from Trips' food stall, seems nice enough, and can definitely sling shells for a few hours."
"You gave me the role way back when. You're stuck with me, compadre." Lina said.
"Good!" I grinned. "You said she's all ready to move?"
At Lina's nod, I moved around to the side of the TD and climbed up. The mantlet didn't cover the two hull hatches, and I dropped down into the driver's hull. Soon enough, the radial was humming quietly. As soon as it was warmed up, I goosed the accelerator and brought the TD over to the service elevator. People were going to be surprised to see me on the practice field in Hellcat today. Even more so when I come out from an unexpected angle and knock them out.
To say I was looking forward to it would be like calling a hurricane a mild sprinkling of rain. The M18 was my favorite tank destroyer for a reason. Haha, tanks!
This chapter fought me hard, as did planning for the Yogurt match to try and make it interesting, since we don't know any characters from that school. Hopefully this is an okay substitute, and we can quickly get back into the meat of the story.
Finally time to Go Fast
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
Oh, I wondered what happened there.
TD time, huh? Can't say that I've ever been a huge fan of that entire class, Hetzer memes aside.
Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Not quite. Tally's got one more match in Stuart while she and the others train on the Hellcat. And I can guarantee that the Jatkosota match will not be the last time we see Tally being a madlass in the Stuart. Saunders may have permission to use the Hellcat, but Ooarai certainly doesn't...
FlyingScanian
Tea Addict
- Location
- Land of Eternal Night
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean, it's not as if GuP itself sets a precedent for skipping a match somewhat like this.
And soon, time for kitty crunching tanks.
And soon, time for kitty crunching tanks.
esseresse
R'lyth Power Make-up
- Location
- divorceville, state of depression
- Pronouns
- They/Her
Now i want a loud speaker attached to the m18 that meows when ever the gun is fired.
Part Sixty Two
Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hell On Tracks
Part Sixty Two
++++++++++
It would be a massive lie to say I wasn't grinning like a loon. Oh, sure, this practice match was going to go horribly, what with Arisa and Naomi being on the other team, leaving me all on my lonesome to command, but that didn't matter right now. I was going into this match in a Hellcat!
We'd had less than a day in the TD, and while Jane was already a master driver, April was still getting used to the much more powerful 76mm gun, and this was Lina's first time loading an actual gun instead of practicing with dummy shells. None of this mattered right now, because Hellcat! Haha, tank destroyers!
"Not worried about your match?" Kay asked as the teams loaded ammo and did the final pre-match checks.
"Oh, we're going to lose. I don't think I've won a single practice match since the tournament started." I shrugged, hopping down from my seat atop the TD. "I don't think I've survived many, either. Sure, I get a few KOs, and make a fight of it, but I lose every time. And since I know I'm going to lose, there's no reason to stress about it. And I get to take the Hellcat out! Haha, tanks!"
"Haha, tanks!" Kay echoed my exclamation. "Just because you haven't won against either of them yet doesn't mean you won't ever. None of us can come up with crazy plans similar to yours, and that makes you hard to react to."
I blinked at her. My grin faded to a mere smile as I went over her words in my head. "Nobody can match my plans?"
"Just look at the Maginot match. That was indisputably your plan, and look where it got us. A close but decisive win." Kay said. "Arisa and Naomi would never have come up with something like that. Arisa was close to panicking, and Naomi likes to sit too far back, she would have come up with something much more passive to play to her strengths."
"Huh." I huh'd. I'd never thought about it like that. Kay was very much our jack of all trades, Arisa preferred to coordinate rather than be directly involved, and would panic if she lost control of a situation, Naomi preferred to snipe and take advantage of her gunnery skills, and I… Speed, daring, and violence of action were my forte.
The practice field aboard the carrier was tiny, barely a square kilometer, which meant that matches were short, and well contained. There wasn't room for crazy maneuvering, and we all knew the field incredibly well. There were a number of choke points that if seized gave you great control over the entire field. But teams were often vulnerable as they went for one of the two primary advantageous positions…
There's an idea!
"Kay, thank you so much, you're a genius." I said, pulling her into a hug.
"I think that title falls to you, Tally." Kay said cheerfully, returning the hug and squeezing tight. My ribs ached, but I didn't care. "Genius and insanity are often two sides of the same coin."
I muttered something unkind and Russian as she laughed at her own joke, and we mutually released the hug.
"That may be the first time you've hugged me, instead of me hugging you." Kay observed.
"I have a feeling there will be a few firsts today." I said with a smile.
"Like a first kiss?" Kay waggled her eyebrows suggestively, and I laughed.
"I'm pretty sure all I agreed to was prom. This whole girlfriend thing isn't happening yet." I said.
"So dinner and a movie first, got it." Kay grinned, and I matched it.
"Or maybe I'll find a nice tea parlor to take you to. Y'know, to celebrate my victory."
"That's a far cry from you always losing."
"That was before my lovely assistant gave me hints at how to beat my competition." I said teasingly.
"Assistant?" Kay asked, but the way she smiled at me told me she was both enjoying this and planning a sweet, sweet revenge.
"Get a room you two!" A grumpy voice called from inside the Hellcat. Lina was clearly not pleased. "Gettin' everything organized is hard enough without the two of you flirtin' like there ain't nobody to watch!"
"F-flirting?" I stuttered, going red. My face probably matched my hair.
"The match will be starting soon. I should go and get set up in the judge's tower." Kay said, smiling widely at me. She pulled me into a hug, and gently kissed my cheek before she dashed off.
Kay kissed me.
My thought processes ground to a halt as that fact sunk in.
Kay had kissed me!
My legs turned to jelly, and I had to lean against the Hellcat's flank to not collapse to the ground in a giddy puddle of giggles.
Kay had kissed me!
That, more than anything else I could think of, was inspiration to win this match. I'd promised her a date to a tea parlor if I won, and there might be more of that in the books.
Oh my god, I was seriously considering this. No excuses about not wanting to commit, nothing about how I was probably in a bad place mentally, no panic at the thought of anything romantic, just… just everything that had just happened. Kay liked me a lot, and I liked her back. No excuses.
Across the parking lot, I saw Arisa slam some money into Naomi's waiting hand. The short intel officer was clearly annoyed about something.
She was about to have a lot more to be upset about when I kicked her butt into next week.
My team had every right to be apprehensive as I explained my plan to them. While it wasn't as crazy as my plans against Maginot had been, it didn't need to be. Against Maginot I'd needed to completely turn the tide of the match, seize the initiative and keep it long enough to put Maginot in a position where they could lose. Against Naomi and Arisa, I already had the initiative. I had the fastest armored vehicle here at Saunders, and a prodigy of a driver who was already amazing despite only having the Hellcat a few hours.
Speed, daring, and violence of action. Today, I had all three in spades.
"Remember, Naomi is your priority target. Take shots if you have them, but the Firefly needs to be taken out." I said over the radio, making sure I was talking over the assigned radio channel for my team. Seven affirmatives answered me.
After the month I'd been commanding the Stuart and being loader simultaneously, sitting in the TC's seat with the hatch open and half my body sticking out of it felt odd. There was nothing for me to do but spot, and issue orders as needed. I had my binoculars in hand, but I really doubted that I would need them today. Not at the ranges I was planning on fighting.
Kay launched her flare from the tower, signaling the start of the match.
"All tanks, go go go!" I ordered, speaking into my radio and intercom piece.
Jane was, naturally, the first to get a tank moving. The Hellcat jerked forward from a stop with a surprising amount of oomph, and we were approaching full speed a lot faster than even Stuart could manage.
The center of our practice field was widely considered a no-man's land. There were a few buildings to hide behind, but the hill and starting areas both had excellent lines of fire across it, while the riverbed and valley were the only places around the field with actual cover against those superior positions. The bridge across the riverbed was a fool's errand trying to cross.
Today, I didn't care. Naomi would have wanted to take the hill and use it to snipe, while Arisa would expect me to want to do the same with my brand new, poorly armored tank destroyer, and would take the valley for a more defensive posture against April's gunnery. They would either pick one flank or the other, or they would split their team and hit both.
In any of those cases, it would take time for their forces to reach the best firing positions. Time that they would not get today.
The Hellcat sprung across the bridge like a bolt of lightning. The rest of the team's Shermans were much slower, and much less enthusiastic on the get go, and they were lagging behind.
"Target, M4, eleven o'clock!" I called, spotting the first tank. So they were following Naomi's plan and going for the hill.
"On target!" April called. She still wasn't used to the Hellcat's 76mm gun, but hopefully surprise would be enough for us to get a couple good shots off.
"Driver, halt! Gunner, hold your fire until you see the Firefly!" I ordered, and the Hellcat skidded to a stop. We almost went too far, and barely avoided slamming into a house as Jane frantically pulled back on the brakes.
"I see her!" April called.
"Good! Fire when on!"
The tank destroyer recoiled as the powerful 76mm fired at another tank for the first time. The entire TD rocked back, despite the brakes, and I heard a clatter down in the turret. Whatever it was - Lina was cursing up a storm - it could wait until I confirmed effect on target.
I didn't have to wait long. While the round missed the Firefly, and Arisa's M4A1 also peeking around a corner as their eight tanks advanced as one big group, it did slam into one of the flank tanks of their formation. The white flag popped.
"Driver, move!" I ordered, not giving a direction. I trusted Jane's intuition, she'd know where I wanted us to go. "Gunner, next round!"
"That'll have to wait a minute!" Lina nearly shouted. "Dropped the round!"
That was not good. Not in the slightest.
I dropped down into the turret to see what was going on. Lina was bent down in her seat, scrambling for something. April had the gun depressed as far as it would go, so that Lina could get under the breach. I surged into action, dropping down as far as I could go. Jane's wild driving, plus the sheer power of the Hellcat meant that the turret was rocking around constantly, and Lina was having trouble grabbing the loose round with all that.
My hand wrapped around the base of the projectile, and as soon as I had it steady, I shoved it over to Lina's waiting arms. She nodded at me, and we both got up as carefully as possible.
"AP up!" Lina roared as soon as the round found the breach.
"On the way!" April replied, and the TD shook again as she fired. On the move, her shot went wide, and all it did was give Arisa and Naomi an idea of where we were.
"Driver, take us further towards their starting zone." I ordered quietly.
"Right!" Was Jane's confident reply. We slid around for a moment before Jane regained control and we rocketed forward once more. Arisa and Naomi's team was reacting to our presence here, abandoning their advance on the hill to engage and pursue the tank destroyer running around their back line. April fired a few more wild shots that did a grand total of nothing, and then we disappeared into the low ground.
"Haruna, status?" I asked into my radio.
"We're about to engage." Haruna, my 2IC for this match, reported.
"Hold fire just a moment. Let me make sure I have their attention."
"Copy that."
I turned on my intercom piece. "Driver, take us back up the hill, nice and slow. Gunner, let her know once we're hull down."
The Hellcat crept up to the ridge. My fingers were drumming against the rim of my turret hatch as I kept an eye on things. With my head out the hatch, I was the first to see how Naomi and Arisa were reacting. In short, they weren't reacting well.
"Gunner, hit the Firefly." I ordered. The turret below me shifted as April zeroed in on the target.
"On!"
"Send it!"
"On the way!"
This time, April's first shot went high, missing completely. A hail of fire from the other team answered it, landing all around us, but not hitting. April's second shot was dead on, and it slammed into the front glacis of Naomi's tank. I grabbed my radio mouthpiece.
"Haruna, engage!"
While Arisa reacted to my presence and the elimination of Naomi's tank, her team was suddenly caught in a crossfire. Some of them were still running for the hill, but most of them were after the Hellcat, and that was their mistake. They were out in the open, and Haruna's flanking shots were well placed.
In a matter of moments, Arisa's team lost half of their remaining members. Arisa coordinated a counterattack with what remained of her team, and they exchanged fire and knock outs with Haruna's forces.
"Gunner, target the A1." I ordered.
"Sending!"
The Hellcat rocked back once more, and April's shot found the A1's flank. The white flag once again flew merrily over Arisa's tank. That left two… one… and that was game. Eight KOs to three.
If that wasn't a decisive victory, I didn't know what was.
"What was that?" Arisa demanded as I entered the leadership room after practice.
"What was what?" I asked. I immediately zeroed in on the hot cocoa that Hannah had prepared, and filled up a foam cup.
"The practice match!"
"Are you just upset that you lost?" I asked, setting down my cup and crossing my arms.
"And in spectacular fashion, too!" Kay added cheerfully. Arisa glowered at her.
"If you must know, I used the speed of my new TD to gain an advantageous position on the field, one that would work no matter which flank you chose, and caught your team in a crossfire when you reacted to the Hellcat marauding around your back line." I explained. "I wouldn't have been able to make that run in Stuart or a Sherman."
"Tally, you're crazy." Naomi deadpanned.
I grinned and picked my cup back up. "Crazy enough to make it work!"
"That crazy is a lot less amusing when it's aimed at me instead of the enemy team." Naomi complained, keeping her deadpan tone.
"So just keep teaming up with me against Arisa. What's the worst that could happen?" I asked with a grin. Tempting fate, I know, but tempting it is part of the fun.
"If you're done…" Kay interjected. I nodded and sipped my hot cocoa, letting her speak. "Let's go over today's practice, and then I have some news."
We did just that, reviewing everything that we'd done today. It was just a bunch of drills, and the practice match, nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary.
"And the news?" Arisa asked, tapping her foot.
"During the practice match, I got an email from Katyusha. She's the team captain at Pravda." Key explained. I nodded my thanks. "She has invited the Saunders leadership team to observe their match against Ooarai, though her words were more along the lines of taunting us and watching as she obliterates the team that defeated us in the opening round."
"She seems… pleasant." Hannah observed.
"Small girl, big ego." Naomi said. "And it only inflated after she defeated KMM in the finals last year."
"And she's up against that same team captain as last year, Nishizumi." I said, realization dawning on me. This was going to be a good match, even if Ooarai was still running less than half of the allowed number of tanks.
"Where and when?" Arisa asked Kay.
"This weekend, in Sapporo. There's a fairly good chance we'll see St Go and Kuromorimine send people to watch too, since they're fighting each other tomorrow." Kay answered.
"We'll want to pack warm." Naomi said, looking at something on the computer. She turned the cart to face the rest of us, and I blinked, not believing what I was reading. I pulled out my cellphone to check an independent source, and…
"Hey Naomi?" I asked, still not believing.
"Yeah?"
"It's June, right?"
"Yup." Naomi answered, popping the 'P.'
"So it should be late spring, early summer in the northern hemisphere, right?"
"Yup." Naomi agreed with a nod, once again popping the 'P.'
"The weather report for this weekend is expecting blizzard conditions in Sapporo."
"Yup."
I hesitated, looking for words. "A week long rainstorm that ruins my sleep, and follows the ship, I can handle. Intense heat in the Australian outback, I can handle. It sucks, but I can handle it. But a blizzard? In the middle of summer?"
"Even in the middle of summer, Pravda has General Winter on their side." Naomi said, as if that explained everything.
I just stared at her, emotions battling my sheer disbelief. After a moment of silence, I spoke. "I hate you."
"I know."
The room went dead silent for a long moment before Kay burst out laughing. Soon, we all joined her. We managed to quiet down, only for Hannah to descend back into laughter, and bring everyone else with her.
When we finally got everyone's giggles under control, Kay addressed us again. "I think that'll help remind everyone to pack warm. Bring lots of extra layers, too. It may end up even colder than the weather reports say. Naomi, can you see about arranging a flight for the five of us and the M20, and lodgings?"
"Can do. Two hotel rooms?"
"Yeah. We'll have to do a pair and a trio." Kay agreed.
"I'll get right on it." Naomi said simply.
The ride back to my dorm was quiet tonight. With just Kay and I, there wasn't much to talk about beyond the elephant in the room, and I wasn't ready to talk about that. But at the same time… Mom says one of the most important parts of romancing someone is confidence. The story of how she and Dad met perfectly highlights that.
When Kay pulled up in front of my dorm, I didn't immediately hop out like I normally would. I was still trying to find my words, but I wasn't going to get out until I said something. I had to do that much.
"Tally?" Kay asked. She was looking at me, and as I met her eyes, I could see concern as clear as day. "If this is about earlier-"
"It is." I said, cutting her off with a slight nod. "I'm just looking for words."
"Okay." Kay said. She hit the gas, and started driving away. I could tell she didn't really have a location in mind, and was just driving to drive.
"So, about earlier." I began.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." Kay said as I said "I liked it!"
"What?" Kay asked, blinking. She glanced over at me for a moment, but had to keep her eyes on the road.
"I liked it." I said. "I've liked you like that for a while, but I'm just too scared to commit to anything. I don't want to leave you in a panic like what happened this morning. It's why I said no to being your girlfriend."
"I don't blame you for that. I know how hard things have been for you, and I'm here for you. Whether you want to be in a relationship or you just need a friend who you can lean on, all you need to do is ask." Kay said. She drove us into the parking lot of one of the various apartment complexes, and parked the Jeep.
As soon as we were parked, Kay scooted closer to me and pulled me into a tight hug. This time, it didn't feel uncomfortably tight, just warm. One thing I was coming to realize was that Kay gives great hugs.
"Thank you." I whispered into her ear, returning the hug as tightly as I could. "I… I want to try. I don't know if I'm ready for a girlfriend, but I want to try."
"That's all I can ask for." Kay replied. She broke off the hug to gently kiss my cheek. I once again nearly melted into a gooey puddle of giggles. Her hugs were amazing, but her kisses were nearly as good!
"Now about that date to a tea parlor…"
"Rain check?" Kay asked, as if she already knew what I was going to ask.
"Yeah. I'll figure something out once we're back from Sapporo."
Kay smiled brightly at me. "It's a date, then!"
On an impulse, I leaned in towards her. She must have gotten the same idea, because she leaned towards me as well. We closed in on each other - and were interrupted by a flash. I jerked away from Kay and began scanning the area for the culprit.
For once, it wasn't Arisa snooping around and infringing on other people's private time. Faye Faith Fletcher at least had the presence of mind to be embarrassed about her camera having flash on, though only for a moment. She very quickly fled under Kay's glare, and my own, for that matter.
"Well! That ruined the moment." Kay stated simply.
"How about we don't have our emotional talks in the Jeep, like, ever again?" I asked.
"Sounds good! I should probably get you back to your dorm now."
"Probably." I agreed.
It was a short drive back to the dorm, and I rushed inside. Arisa and Hannah weren't waiting in the common room for once, and I made it back to my room intact. As soon as the door was closed behind me, I scrambled for my cellphone. I needed to let Rach know!
Part Sixty Two
++++++++++
It would be a massive lie to say I wasn't grinning like a loon. Oh, sure, this practice match was going to go horribly, what with Arisa and Naomi being on the other team, leaving me all on my lonesome to command, but that didn't matter right now. I was going into this match in a Hellcat!
We'd had less than a day in the TD, and while Jane was already a master driver, April was still getting used to the much more powerful 76mm gun, and this was Lina's first time loading an actual gun instead of practicing with dummy shells. None of this mattered right now, because Hellcat! Haha, tank destroyers!
"Not worried about your match?" Kay asked as the teams loaded ammo and did the final pre-match checks.
"Oh, we're going to lose. I don't think I've won a single practice match since the tournament started." I shrugged, hopping down from my seat atop the TD. "I don't think I've survived many, either. Sure, I get a few KOs, and make a fight of it, but I lose every time. And since I know I'm going to lose, there's no reason to stress about it. And I get to take the Hellcat out! Haha, tanks!"
"Haha, tanks!" Kay echoed my exclamation. "Just because you haven't won against either of them yet doesn't mean you won't ever. None of us can come up with crazy plans similar to yours, and that makes you hard to react to."
I blinked at her. My grin faded to a mere smile as I went over her words in my head. "Nobody can match my plans?"
"Just look at the Maginot match. That was indisputably your plan, and look where it got us. A close but decisive win." Kay said. "Arisa and Naomi would never have come up with something like that. Arisa was close to panicking, and Naomi likes to sit too far back, she would have come up with something much more passive to play to her strengths."
"Huh." I huh'd. I'd never thought about it like that. Kay was very much our jack of all trades, Arisa preferred to coordinate rather than be directly involved, and would panic if she lost control of a situation, Naomi preferred to snipe and take advantage of her gunnery skills, and I… Speed, daring, and violence of action were my forte.
The practice field aboard the carrier was tiny, barely a square kilometer, which meant that matches were short, and well contained. There wasn't room for crazy maneuvering, and we all knew the field incredibly well. There were a number of choke points that if seized gave you great control over the entire field. But teams were often vulnerable as they went for one of the two primary advantageous positions…
There's an idea!
"Kay, thank you so much, you're a genius." I said, pulling her into a hug.
"I think that title falls to you, Tally." Kay said cheerfully, returning the hug and squeezing tight. My ribs ached, but I didn't care. "Genius and insanity are often two sides of the same coin."
I muttered something unkind and Russian as she laughed at her own joke, and we mutually released the hug.
"That may be the first time you've hugged me, instead of me hugging you." Kay observed.
"I have a feeling there will be a few firsts today." I said with a smile.
"Like a first kiss?" Kay waggled her eyebrows suggestively, and I laughed.
"I'm pretty sure all I agreed to was prom. This whole girlfriend thing isn't happening yet." I said.
"So dinner and a movie first, got it." Kay grinned, and I matched it.
"Or maybe I'll find a nice tea parlor to take you to. Y'know, to celebrate my victory."
"That's a far cry from you always losing."
"That was before my lovely assistant gave me hints at how to beat my competition." I said teasingly.
"Assistant?" Kay asked, but the way she smiled at me told me she was both enjoying this and planning a sweet, sweet revenge.
"Get a room you two!" A grumpy voice called from inside the Hellcat. Lina was clearly not pleased. "Gettin' everything organized is hard enough without the two of you flirtin' like there ain't nobody to watch!"
"F-flirting?" I stuttered, going red. My face probably matched my hair.
"The match will be starting soon. I should go and get set up in the judge's tower." Kay said, smiling widely at me. She pulled me into a hug, and gently kissed my cheek before she dashed off.
Kay kissed me.
My thought processes ground to a halt as that fact sunk in.
Kay had kissed me!
My legs turned to jelly, and I had to lean against the Hellcat's flank to not collapse to the ground in a giddy puddle of giggles.
Kay had kissed me!
That, more than anything else I could think of, was inspiration to win this match. I'd promised her a date to a tea parlor if I won, and there might be more of that in the books.
Oh my god, I was seriously considering this. No excuses about not wanting to commit, nothing about how I was probably in a bad place mentally, no panic at the thought of anything romantic, just… just everything that had just happened. Kay liked me a lot, and I liked her back. No excuses.
Across the parking lot, I saw Arisa slam some money into Naomi's waiting hand. The short intel officer was clearly annoyed about something.
She was about to have a lot more to be upset about when I kicked her butt into next week.
My team had every right to be apprehensive as I explained my plan to them. While it wasn't as crazy as my plans against Maginot had been, it didn't need to be. Against Maginot I'd needed to completely turn the tide of the match, seize the initiative and keep it long enough to put Maginot in a position where they could lose. Against Naomi and Arisa, I already had the initiative. I had the fastest armored vehicle here at Saunders, and a prodigy of a driver who was already amazing despite only having the Hellcat a few hours.
Speed, daring, and violence of action. Today, I had all three in spades.
"Remember, Naomi is your priority target. Take shots if you have them, but the Firefly needs to be taken out." I said over the radio, making sure I was talking over the assigned radio channel for my team. Seven affirmatives answered me.
After the month I'd been commanding the Stuart and being loader simultaneously, sitting in the TC's seat with the hatch open and half my body sticking out of it felt odd. There was nothing for me to do but spot, and issue orders as needed. I had my binoculars in hand, but I really doubted that I would need them today. Not at the ranges I was planning on fighting.
Kay launched her flare from the tower, signaling the start of the match.
"All tanks, go go go!" I ordered, speaking into my radio and intercom piece.
Jane was, naturally, the first to get a tank moving. The Hellcat jerked forward from a stop with a surprising amount of oomph, and we were approaching full speed a lot faster than even Stuart could manage.
The center of our practice field was widely considered a no-man's land. There were a few buildings to hide behind, but the hill and starting areas both had excellent lines of fire across it, while the riverbed and valley were the only places around the field with actual cover against those superior positions. The bridge across the riverbed was a fool's errand trying to cross.
Today, I didn't care. Naomi would have wanted to take the hill and use it to snipe, while Arisa would expect me to want to do the same with my brand new, poorly armored tank destroyer, and would take the valley for a more defensive posture against April's gunnery. They would either pick one flank or the other, or they would split their team and hit both.
In any of those cases, it would take time for their forces to reach the best firing positions. Time that they would not get today.
The Hellcat sprung across the bridge like a bolt of lightning. The rest of the team's Shermans were much slower, and much less enthusiastic on the get go, and they were lagging behind.
"Target, M4, eleven o'clock!" I called, spotting the first tank. So they were following Naomi's plan and going for the hill.
"On target!" April called. She still wasn't used to the Hellcat's 76mm gun, but hopefully surprise would be enough for us to get a couple good shots off.
"Driver, halt! Gunner, hold your fire until you see the Firefly!" I ordered, and the Hellcat skidded to a stop. We almost went too far, and barely avoided slamming into a house as Jane frantically pulled back on the brakes.
"I see her!" April called.
"Good! Fire when on!"
The tank destroyer recoiled as the powerful 76mm fired at another tank for the first time. The entire TD rocked back, despite the brakes, and I heard a clatter down in the turret. Whatever it was - Lina was cursing up a storm - it could wait until I confirmed effect on target.
I didn't have to wait long. While the round missed the Firefly, and Arisa's M4A1 also peeking around a corner as their eight tanks advanced as one big group, it did slam into one of the flank tanks of their formation. The white flag popped.
"Driver, move!" I ordered, not giving a direction. I trusted Jane's intuition, she'd know where I wanted us to go. "Gunner, next round!"
"That'll have to wait a minute!" Lina nearly shouted. "Dropped the round!"
That was not good. Not in the slightest.
I dropped down into the turret to see what was going on. Lina was bent down in her seat, scrambling for something. April had the gun depressed as far as it would go, so that Lina could get under the breach. I surged into action, dropping down as far as I could go. Jane's wild driving, plus the sheer power of the Hellcat meant that the turret was rocking around constantly, and Lina was having trouble grabbing the loose round with all that.
My hand wrapped around the base of the projectile, and as soon as I had it steady, I shoved it over to Lina's waiting arms. She nodded at me, and we both got up as carefully as possible.
"AP up!" Lina roared as soon as the round found the breach.
"On the way!" April replied, and the TD shook again as she fired. On the move, her shot went wide, and all it did was give Arisa and Naomi an idea of where we were.
"Driver, take us further towards their starting zone." I ordered quietly.
"Right!" Was Jane's confident reply. We slid around for a moment before Jane regained control and we rocketed forward once more. Arisa and Naomi's team was reacting to our presence here, abandoning their advance on the hill to engage and pursue the tank destroyer running around their back line. April fired a few more wild shots that did a grand total of nothing, and then we disappeared into the low ground.
"Haruna, status?" I asked into my radio.
"We're about to engage." Haruna, my 2IC for this match, reported.
"Hold fire just a moment. Let me make sure I have their attention."
"Copy that."
I turned on my intercom piece. "Driver, take us back up the hill, nice and slow. Gunner, let her know once we're hull down."
The Hellcat crept up to the ridge. My fingers were drumming against the rim of my turret hatch as I kept an eye on things. With my head out the hatch, I was the first to see how Naomi and Arisa were reacting. In short, they weren't reacting well.
"Gunner, hit the Firefly." I ordered. The turret below me shifted as April zeroed in on the target.
"On!"
"Send it!"
"On the way!"
This time, April's first shot went high, missing completely. A hail of fire from the other team answered it, landing all around us, but not hitting. April's second shot was dead on, and it slammed into the front glacis of Naomi's tank. I grabbed my radio mouthpiece.
"Haruna, engage!"
While Arisa reacted to my presence and the elimination of Naomi's tank, her team was suddenly caught in a crossfire. Some of them were still running for the hill, but most of them were after the Hellcat, and that was their mistake. They were out in the open, and Haruna's flanking shots were well placed.
In a matter of moments, Arisa's team lost half of their remaining members. Arisa coordinated a counterattack with what remained of her team, and they exchanged fire and knock outs with Haruna's forces.
"Gunner, target the A1." I ordered.
"Sending!"
The Hellcat rocked back once more, and April's shot found the A1's flank. The white flag once again flew merrily over Arisa's tank. That left two… one… and that was game. Eight KOs to three.
If that wasn't a decisive victory, I didn't know what was.
"What was that?" Arisa demanded as I entered the leadership room after practice.
"What was what?" I asked. I immediately zeroed in on the hot cocoa that Hannah had prepared, and filled up a foam cup.
"The practice match!"
"Are you just upset that you lost?" I asked, setting down my cup and crossing my arms.
"And in spectacular fashion, too!" Kay added cheerfully. Arisa glowered at her.
"If you must know, I used the speed of my new TD to gain an advantageous position on the field, one that would work no matter which flank you chose, and caught your team in a crossfire when you reacted to the Hellcat marauding around your back line." I explained. "I wouldn't have been able to make that run in Stuart or a Sherman."
"Tally, you're crazy." Naomi deadpanned.
I grinned and picked my cup back up. "Crazy enough to make it work!"
"That crazy is a lot less amusing when it's aimed at me instead of the enemy team." Naomi complained, keeping her deadpan tone.
"So just keep teaming up with me against Arisa. What's the worst that could happen?" I asked with a grin. Tempting fate, I know, but tempting it is part of the fun.
"If you're done…" Kay interjected. I nodded and sipped my hot cocoa, letting her speak. "Let's go over today's practice, and then I have some news."
We did just that, reviewing everything that we'd done today. It was just a bunch of drills, and the practice match, nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary.
"And the news?" Arisa asked, tapping her foot.
"During the practice match, I got an email from Katyusha. She's the team captain at Pravda." Key explained. I nodded my thanks. "She has invited the Saunders leadership team to observe their match against Ooarai, though her words were more along the lines of taunting us and watching as she obliterates the team that defeated us in the opening round."
"She seems… pleasant." Hannah observed.
"Small girl, big ego." Naomi said. "And it only inflated after she defeated KMM in the finals last year."
"And she's up against that same team captain as last year, Nishizumi." I said, realization dawning on me. This was going to be a good match, even if Ooarai was still running less than half of the allowed number of tanks.
"Where and when?" Arisa asked Kay.
"This weekend, in Sapporo. There's a fairly good chance we'll see St Go and Kuromorimine send people to watch too, since they're fighting each other tomorrow." Kay answered.
"We'll want to pack warm." Naomi said, looking at something on the computer. She turned the cart to face the rest of us, and I blinked, not believing what I was reading. I pulled out my cellphone to check an independent source, and…
"Hey Naomi?" I asked, still not believing.
"Yeah?"
"It's June, right?"
"Yup." Naomi answered, popping the 'P.'
"So it should be late spring, early summer in the northern hemisphere, right?"
"Yup." Naomi agreed with a nod, once again popping the 'P.'
"The weather report for this weekend is expecting blizzard conditions in Sapporo."
"Yup."
I hesitated, looking for words. "A week long rainstorm that ruins my sleep, and follows the ship, I can handle. Intense heat in the Australian outback, I can handle. It sucks, but I can handle it. But a blizzard? In the middle of summer?"
"Even in the middle of summer, Pravda has General Winter on their side." Naomi said, as if that explained everything.
I just stared at her, emotions battling my sheer disbelief. After a moment of silence, I spoke. "I hate you."
"I know."
The room went dead silent for a long moment before Kay burst out laughing. Soon, we all joined her. We managed to quiet down, only for Hannah to descend back into laughter, and bring everyone else with her.
When we finally got everyone's giggles under control, Kay addressed us again. "I think that'll help remind everyone to pack warm. Bring lots of extra layers, too. It may end up even colder than the weather reports say. Naomi, can you see about arranging a flight for the five of us and the M20, and lodgings?"
"Can do. Two hotel rooms?"
"Yeah. We'll have to do a pair and a trio." Kay agreed.
"I'll get right on it." Naomi said simply.
The ride back to my dorm was quiet tonight. With just Kay and I, there wasn't much to talk about beyond the elephant in the room, and I wasn't ready to talk about that. But at the same time… Mom says one of the most important parts of romancing someone is confidence. The story of how she and Dad met perfectly highlights that.
When Kay pulled up in front of my dorm, I didn't immediately hop out like I normally would. I was still trying to find my words, but I wasn't going to get out until I said something. I had to do that much.
"Tally?" Kay asked. She was looking at me, and as I met her eyes, I could see concern as clear as day. "If this is about earlier-"
"It is." I said, cutting her off with a slight nod. "I'm just looking for words."
"Okay." Kay said. She hit the gas, and started driving away. I could tell she didn't really have a location in mind, and was just driving to drive.
"So, about earlier." I began.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." Kay said as I said "I liked it!"
"What?" Kay asked, blinking. She glanced over at me for a moment, but had to keep her eyes on the road.
"I liked it." I said. "I've liked you like that for a while, but I'm just too scared to commit to anything. I don't want to leave you in a panic like what happened this morning. It's why I said no to being your girlfriend."
"I don't blame you for that. I know how hard things have been for you, and I'm here for you. Whether you want to be in a relationship or you just need a friend who you can lean on, all you need to do is ask." Kay said. She drove us into the parking lot of one of the various apartment complexes, and parked the Jeep.
As soon as we were parked, Kay scooted closer to me and pulled me into a tight hug. This time, it didn't feel uncomfortably tight, just warm. One thing I was coming to realize was that Kay gives great hugs.
"Thank you." I whispered into her ear, returning the hug as tightly as I could. "I… I want to try. I don't know if I'm ready for a girlfriend, but I want to try."
"That's all I can ask for." Kay replied. She broke off the hug to gently kiss my cheek. I once again nearly melted into a gooey puddle of giggles. Her hugs were amazing, but her kisses were nearly as good!
"Now about that date to a tea parlor…"
"Rain check?" Kay asked, as if she already knew what I was going to ask.
"Yeah. I'll figure something out once we're back from Sapporo."
Kay smiled brightly at me. "It's a date, then!"
On an impulse, I leaned in towards her. She must have gotten the same idea, because she leaned towards me as well. We closed in on each other - and were interrupted by a flash. I jerked away from Kay and began scanning the area for the culprit.
For once, it wasn't Arisa snooping around and infringing on other people's private time. Faye Faith Fletcher at least had the presence of mind to be embarrassed about her camera having flash on, though only for a moment. She very quickly fled under Kay's glare, and my own, for that matter.
"Well! That ruined the moment." Kay stated simply.
"How about we don't have our emotional talks in the Jeep, like, ever again?" I asked.
"Sounds good! I should probably get you back to your dorm now."
"Probably." I agreed.
It was a short drive back to the dorm, and I rushed inside. Arisa and Hannah weren't waiting in the common room for once, and I made it back to my room intact. As soon as the door was closed behind me, I scrambled for my cellphone. I needed to let Rach know!
Goes fast (in romance too!)
Lady Darkhound
Haha, tanks!
- Location
- My very own personal hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Probably not very much. More firepower is not something that Tally gets excited for. She likes going fast, not blowing stuff up.
*pounds table* por que no los dos Tally!