Turtles

Back In Control Part 2

See, this is why the Panther is the best tank.

As a general rule, Koume's main problem with the Panzer 38t was the girls she had to share it with. She had good memories of this tank, and it was a good vehicle for the job it was designed for (which also happened to be essentially what they were about to try and do with it).

But right now, crammed into the 38t's tiny turret and trying to do about five different things at once, she silently cursed the vehicle's long-dead designers. It's almost enough to make me wish we'd ended up playing Gregor, just so we could shoot at Czechs. Even if they're really just cosplaying Japanese schoolgirls.

Koume was, at the moment, holding the map of the local area that she'd been given the previous night on her knee, and staring at the area of low hills and ridges along the western edge of the field of play, just to the north of Ooarai Town, that the enemy Crusader (and therefore her tank as well) was heading towards. This had two purposes: first, to get as many details about the area as possible, and second, to try and make a guess as to precisely where they were going to encounter the enemy.

Saint Gloriana's deployment zone is... here. And the hills are... here, about equidistant between the two team's start positions. About five and a half kilometers away, the Crusader was even further away if we look at it like three points of a triangle, this really must've pushed Miho's ears to the limit to pick up. They had a head start over us, but they're going off-road the whole way, whereas we can use the highway leading inland from town for a couple kilometers, so both tanks should arrive in the hilly area at about the same time. Which should be in about... roughly seven minutes? Ughhh, I hate math.

That kind of calculation was part of a tank commander's job description (even if she hated it), as was keeping an eye on the actual landscape as you drove through it to match it to the map. The problem arose when the only way to do the latter was through a tiny little forward facing slit that the map was blocking half of. If she'd been in the gunner's seat like the commander was supposed to be in this tank, she'd at least have had a hatch she could poke out of to get a good view... but then she wouldn't actually be manning the gun if they suddenly came under fire.

Bottom line, this was why a dedicated space for the tank commander as well as cupolas and roomier turrets had been invented.

"Can you put that stupid thing away, Akaboshi?" Kawashima grumbled as the corner of the map poked her in the side of the head.

"Almost," Koume replied. She looked at the map for a moment more, then folded it back up and stuffed it awkwardly in her pants pocket. She'd gotten all she was going to get out of it.

Wishing for a cupola (or a periscope, or a hatch that she could look out of without having to essentially stand on Kawashima) wasn't going to make one appear, sadly. She pressed her face to her vision slit. Even through it, she could already see the tree-lined hills that were their destination.

"Koyama, after this bend in the road, go another half kilometer then turn off the road, to the right."

"Got it," came the reply.

This type of engagement was not something she'd really trained for at Kuromorimine. A duel between two tanks demanded initiative and flexibility from the tank commander and her crew, something the Nishizumi Style dictated was to be avoided in favor of efficiency and obedience to the chain of command. Initiative was for the captain and vice-captain alone. Yay, I'm finally allowed to think for myself! More pragmatically, why send one tank to deal with that flanker when you could send two or three, and pound it into the dust with superior firepower from long range? Not coincidentally, "pounding things into the dust with superior firepower from long range" was the raison d'etre of the Panther, and all the other vehicles typically used by the Kuromorimine high school division.