Girls Und Panzer Tankery's End

Alt. Chapter 2

"Loaded." Ark said.

Rivers took aim. He targeted a little above the Firefly to compensate for drop. He veered the barrel right five inches for wind direction. He squeezed the trigger and out the shell came at the exact same time as the Firefly. Their shells flew for several seconds before Rivers, with his keen eyes, noticed the shells clipped each other. Rivers eyes widened, of all the rotten luck the Firefly had to shoot her shell at the exact same time AND both shells had to clip one another. What were the odds?

Both shells veered off course and Rivers felt the scrap of metal as the shell skidded off the side of the cupola. He looked back at the Firefly and noticed his shot had missed entirely. Damn his rotten luck! He gets clipped and the Firefly gets off scot-free!?

At this point Saunders hooked up their defeated tanks and began a withdrawal. Rivers watched, teeth gnarling against each other, as the Firefly started reversing away from sight behind the hill.

"Their retreating! Let's advance and take them out!" One of Rivers men said.

"Commander lets charge them! Wipe them out!" Another said agreeing, and Rivers couldn't agree more.

"All tanks forward, do not let them get away!" Rivers ordered. Every E-75 spurred forward and charged across the destroyed meadow, trampling over the flowers, and leaving nothing but tracks and dust.

Kay smacked the inside of her tank in frustration. Montana has been following them for nearly fifteen minutes now. If this kept up they would be overrun and at the mercy of the enemy. This left Kay with only three options. Continue running and get caught while trying to transport their eliminated tanks, find a place to hold up and call for reinforcements from Leimberg, where Kuromorimine was stationed, or fast track it to Leimberg with Montana hot on their tails and overwhelm them.

Kay had to admit she did not like any of these options, but she had to choose something cause Montana was closing In by the minute. Thinking to herself she those option three, but she would at least let Maho know whats happening.

"This is Saunders calling Kuromorimine, do you copy!?" Kay called over the radio.

"Kay? This is Kuromorimine, whats happened?" Erika answered.

"Erika, We're falling back to Leimberg with the whole of Montana on our tail, they keep chasing us and aren't giving us any breathing room. Need support now!" Kay said.

"Roger that, we'll get our defenses set up. Once you crest the hill keep going until you make it to Leimberg proper. We'll cover you." Erika said.

"Copy that." Kay acknowledged before switching radio channel to her teams network. "Alright girls haul steel to Leimberg, our friends in Kuromorimine are expecting us at their party but I told them about the uninvited guests that are following us. Get to the town now!"

A collective acknowledgment came over the radio and Saunders sped up to get to Leimberg and their allies faster. Montana didn't seem to pick up on things, but they did increase their own speed as well.

Saunders didn't take long, with Montana on their tail they drove like their lives depended on it. Driving over a ridge Kay saw Leimberg only a kilometer away, and with it was Kuromorimine's defense.

When the Saunders tanks all passed the ridge Kuromorimine's tanks lined up their shot and waited. Not one minute later one E-75 reared its barrel over the ridge and one of Kuromorimine's Panzer III's shot first. The shell hit the tank, but it didn't knock it out, and once the E-75 had its own shot it fired back knocking the III out of commission.

"Fire!" Erika called out over radio.

The mass of German tanks fired their rounds and peppered the E-75 and the ground around it. Surprisingly the Montana tank was still functional, and it began reversing itself over the ridge to get out of the line of sight.

Kuromorimine waited for one minute, then two minutes, three, four, after seven minutes Maho ordered one of the Panzer III's to scout ahead of the ridge. After the III disappeared behind the ridge a few minutes passed before they heard anything, but the radio did come to life when they did.

"Commander all is clear. I think Montana retreated." The Panzer III's commander reported.

"Ok, return to us and good job out there. Ok lets get the defensive line around the town back up." Maho ordered. The girls of Kuromorimine did as instructed and began setting up their defenses, all the while Maho and Erika visited Kay. "What happened?"

"We ambushed Montana outside Homedale when we saw they were coming up from the south. We thought we could take some of them out before they got there and do some damage, but they ended up matching everything we threw at them. After that I decided to retreat but they chased after us." Kay said. Erika rolled her eyes as Kay sighed.

"At least everyone is back safely. Lets get your girls set up here and we'll go over the plans we have later." Maho said.

Rivers had fallen back once his tank took such a beating after that one volley. He immediately knew Leimberg was in no way going to be taken now, not with Kuromorimine with all their heavy tanks. Thus the decision was to make it to Homedale and fix up the tanks that were taken out. Rivers groaned at the mess that they were in, it this was anywhere else he could have handled Saunders retreat, but they fled into a small, wooded area and Montana wasn't so good when it came to woods.

"Another time Saunders." Rivers said to himself as Montana pulled into Homedale.