Girls und Panzer: Downfall

Saunders

"Aren't you excited for your first match, Michael?" 
Michael wanted to say yes, but he wasn't only excited. He was also the most nervous he'd ever been in a while. He also hadn't been given too many details on the match itself.
"Yeah…so who are we up against?" Michael asked curiously.
"Saunders High." 
Michael knew about that particular school. And when he thought about it, nothing but one word came to his mind.
"Shermans…" 
"Yes, exactly! That's the only kind of tank they have, but don't get cocky. They have a lot of them. In fact, their main tactics take advantage of superior numbers…and their Firefly." 
When Miho pronounced the word "Firefly", Michael thought he'd misheard. Only when he searched thoroughly through his tank knowledge did he come to a conclusion.
"Wait…the English one?!" He yelled surprised. 
"Yeah…" 
"What the hell would a British tank do at Saunders High?" Michael asked perplexed. Miho just shrugged with her usual cute grin, thinking that Michael was just giving that too much importance.
"But the 17 pounder is like OP!" Michael pointed out. Only when he looked at Miho's weirded out expression he realized he'd just said "OP" and that he needed to explain. 
"Overpowered." He then said.
"Ahhh, okay. Well…yeah." Miho confirmed. 
"I mean, the Panther's frontal armor will hold up, but…the Tiger's won't." Michael thought out loud. 
"Hmm…well then I'll ask my sister to make Erika-San's tank the flag tank!" 
"Yeah…good idea. But the "Porsche-Turm" on her Königstiger won't hold either. The right idea, for me, is to make the flag tank something impenetrable from the front by all their Shermans. Like…the Jagdpanther. We need to dispatch a few tanks to give it some cover, while the bulk of our force holds them off." Michael said, realizing he'd come up with a battle plan in the space of seconds. He felt very professional.
"That is actually a good idea. Very well then, I will put you in charge of protecting the Jagdpanther, along with Akaboshi. Do me proud, Michael Shigure." 
Before Michael or Miho had time to react, Maho, who had just spoken and had probably been listening to the two's whole conversation, took off, leaving them at a loss for words.
"Ah…guess the Commander liked my plan." 

_-_-_-_-_-_-

After the start of the match… 

_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Alright, let's keep an eye out. The others aren't very far, so we should be fine." Michael started, saying that just to keep himself cool, and to remain convinced that he was going to actually be fine.
"You got it, Michael-San!" Koume answered happily, looking at Michael. The three commanders were looking out of their hatches, binoculars in hand. The Jagdpanther was in the middle, the Panzer IV to the left, the Panther to the right. 
"Tell me something I don't know, rookie." The Jagdpanther's commander said, scoffing Michael. She was a third year, and had a lot of battles under her belt. Her pitch black eyes were intensely looking into her binoculars, her long and straight black hair was waving around with the wind.
"Alright, Natsuka-Senpai. Then I'll tell you that Carius was the commander of a Jagdtiger platoon towards the end of the war." Michael said distractedly looking around in his binoculars. 
"Tsk…" 
Michael heard a distant laugh coming from his right, and saw Koume's happy expression. He couldn't help but smile at that. On the other hand, Natsuka, the Jagdpanther's commander, wasn't very fond of Michael having shut her up. 
"Save your little jabs, kid, I'm not in the mood to play." She muttered.
"Enemies spotted. They're…8 Shermans engaging our tanks." Michael said, and knowing that the match was a 10v10, he quickly did the math and figured 2 enemy tanks were missing.
"I see them!"
"So do I. But they ain't our problem." 
Suddenly, a shot flew over Michael's tank, scaring him shitless. 
"Fuck! Two enemy tanks in the bushes to the right! Long barrel Shermans, I repeat, 76mm shells incoming!" Michael yelled. 
"Turning to engage."
The Panther turned to face the two Shermans, and fired a round, but missed. The Jagdpanther turned as well, while Michael kept his tank behind, well protected. 
"Kid, you're supposed to protect my tank! Why are you in the fucking back?!" Natsuka yelled as her Jagdpanther fired a shot.
"You want me to go in the middle and take a shot for you? Fine, just don't complain when you'll have one less 75 providing cover." Michael spat at her.
"Rrrngh…fine. Just make sure to put your tank to good use." 
"I will. In fact, in exactly 5 minutes I'll be looking at both their sides. Sakura, load the smoke." 
"Hah, I'd like to see you try." Natsuka replied, with a cocky tone of voice.
"Just watch. Sakura, fire smoke to cover the pathway to the right. They still didn't see us, since we're hidden, so it'll be a piece of cake." 
Michael's orders were executed well. And so the Panzer IV started its daring flanking maneuver against the enemy Shermans.
Meanwhile at the main battle, the fight was oddly even. Saunders had taken away Kuromorimine's advantage by engaging in close combat. In one particular Sherman, a Commander was overlooking the battlefield. No, not a commander: the Commander. 
"We're doing good guys, keep it up. Alisa, how's the flank going?" She asked, speaking with a radio near her mouth.
"It's going good. They're on the defensive, since they fired smoke." A girl answered on the radio. The Commander nodded and yawned. 
"How many tanks are there?" The Commander asked. 
"2, Kay. The flag tank and a Panther." 
At that point, Kay thought she'd misheard. Or that she'd missed one enemy tank. But counting the tanks in Kuromorimine's main formation again, she stopped at 7.
"Hold up, you said 2 tanks are there, correct?" The Commander, whose name was Kay, asked. She felt a single drop of sweat flowing down her forehead.
"Yeah, why?" 
"There are 7 here…and you said they fired smoke…Alisa, watch your flank!" 
"Huh? What do you-" 
The signal was interrupted by the sound of an explosion, then silence for a few seconds. Then a few agitated voices and screams.
"Dammit Alisa…" 
What had happened there was that a Panzer IV had popped out to the two Shermans' left, and taken out one of them. The Panzer IV and the Firefly were now facing each other. The Firefly fired, and didn't miss, but all it did was blow off some of the Schürzen on the enemy tank's turret. The gunner behind that Firefly was a force to be reckoned with. She had short brown hair and brown eyes. And a chewing gum in her mouth. 
"Naomi, try to hit it this time!" 
"Workin' on it." 
The Panzer IV then fired, but the carcass of the other Sherman was in the way and the shot bounced off the Firefly's turret. 
As Naomi the gunner was about to fire, the Panzer rolled forward and drove around the Firefly. It rammed its side, making Naomi miss the shot, then it reversed backwards. 
"Dammit Naomi, kill it!" 
"I told you, I'm workin' on it!" 
The Panzer IV fired at the Firefly's side, but as it was reversing it hit a bump and the shot went too high. 
"Scheiße, load it!" The Panzer IV's commander yelled. 
As the Firefly was about to shoot the Panzer IV at point blank, a shot landed on its side and set it on fire. Michael then finally let out a sigh of relief and a long moan.
"Ohhh, that was stressful…" 
"Michael-San, are you okay?" 
As Michael looked ahead of him, he saw the Panther, with Koume on top of it. 
"Yeah…I had a heart attack for a moment, but I'm fine." 
The Jagdpanther then rolled up beside the Panther. Its commander had a pleased and at the same time amused expression on her face.
"I gotta give it to you two…nice job, kids." Natsuka mumbled, shaking her head. At that point, Michael ordered Noriko to call Maho.
"Commander, this is Michael. We've taken care of the enemies threatening the flag tank, we'll move in shortly." 
"Roger. We needed some reinforcements, so you came just at the right time."