Peter laid on his stomach, peering through a pair of binoculars. Concealed behind a number of bushes in a small grove, he watched as a number of M4 Shermans rolled by down the road. One British Firefly, four short barrel 75mm Shermans, and one more with the longer 76mm gun. Right, I should get ready. Standing up, he briefly touched his throat worn microphone. "[Gunner, are you ready?]"
"[Jawohl.]" Peter's gunner grinned inside. If they try and wiretap, they won't be able to tell. We're Germans after all. "[Permission to begin firing?]"
"[Offenes Feuer]" Mere feet away, covered in bushes, Peter's Panther G roared, sending a 75mm shell right into one of the M4 Shermans. Peter grinned with satisfaction as he watched the Firefly go up in smoke, and a white flag popped out of the turret. The Shermans began to scramble for Peter's position, which was a small, forested hill with a flat top. Perfect for sniping. A mere three seconds later and the gun roared again, cutting down the M4A1(76). Climbing back into the turret through the back hatch, Peter reached for the overall radio piece, which his radio operator gladly handed over. "Koume, how're things on your end?"
"Good. We've run into a few of Saunders' tank destroyers, but we took them out. I lost two Panthers though. What about you, Peter?" Koume's voice buzzed over the radio.
"We've just started opening fire on a Sherman tank column. They don't know we're on the hill right now. So we're alright. Did Maho or Faber give any orders yet? I've been doing radio silence in case they try to wiretap."
"None yet. Maho is just telling us to hold our positions and wait for Saunders. Faber has just been watching this all unfold." Koume paused as a 75mm gun roared on Peter's end. "You sound busy. I'll check in with you later, over and out." and the radio went back to silence. Climbing back out of the turret, Peter scoped back in with his binoculars. All the Shermans but one M4A1 were left, in which the cupola was opened and Peter barely saw a hand throw out several smoke grenades around the tank manually. Peter's gunner grinned for real at the feeble attempt at covering herself. The smoke may have obscured her position but as the M4A1 began to drive out of the smoke, it was cut down by another shot from Peter's Gunner.
"[And that's the last one. What next Peter?]" Peter's gunner asked, turning around to see his young commander.
Right on queue, the radio crackled so the entire crew could hear. And from it, they heard the familiar voice of their direct commanding officer. [Peter, join up with the rest of the other Panthers. The Panzer IIs and IIIs report that the Americans are going to make a massive charge, and considering you've been spending the last half an hour cutting down their tank columns, they'll most likely try and overwhelm you with numbers. Got it?]"
"[Jawohl, kommandant Faber.]" Peter climbed into the commander's seat of his Panther, closing the hatch tightly behind him. "[Driver, get us to where the others are waiting. I believe they're in a forest in the middle of the field. I'll radio Koume and she should be able to tell you if she sees us.]"
"[Of course Peter.]" putting the German Medium Tank into forward gear, it rumbled down the hill's path, before continuing down the main road, passing the defeated M4 Shermans and their crews, who watched as the war beaten Panther roared by at a surprisingly quick speed. "[Hey Peter?]"
"[Ja?]" the boy said.
"[What do you think of that Koume girl?]" Peter's driver asked.
Peter jumped, somewhat caught off guard by such a question. "[W-well I think she's a good commander, so I'm glad we get to fight together.]"
"[No, not her skills. I meant personally, outside of battle.]" Peter jumped again, this time blushing. "[You and that Koume girl really like talking a lot, did something happen between the two of you after that battle against the American school?]"
"[N-No!]" and Peter went back to being his meek, 16 year old self rather than a Panther tank ace. "[I mean...I think she's a good friend, we've got a lot in common. A surprising amount actually, and I think she's nice and easy to talk to. I-it's nothing more than that though.]"
Peter's gunner cut in. "[They held hands.]" he added calmly.
Peter's entire face turned red. "[Gunner!? I t-thought I told you-]" the damage was already done. The rest of Peter's crew were looking at him with renewed interest with the new nugget of knowledge. Knowledge that totally wouldn't give Maho(or Erika, or anyone at Kuromorimine, really)a reason to "accidentally" put Peter out of a fight with an injury. And knowledge that now everyone could tease Peter with. "[L-look it was raining and stuff, we talked, and then I thought I'd hold her hand to get warm, that's all!]" Peter explained bashfully.
"[Really? You and Koume were blushing though. And you looked like you were enjoying it too.]" Peter's gunner continued to tease his commander, which prompted Peter to kick him in the shoulder. "[Ow.]" the gunner said in fake pain. Even though Peter was a soldier of the Fatherland, he wasn't very strong. It made sense though, considering he was only 16 while everyone else in the Stahlrattes were in their mid-twenties. The teasing and berating continued until the radio crackled.
"Peter? We see you." Koume's voice called out.
"[H-huh!? Ah, right! Sorry!]" Peter jumped high.
"What? Sorry I didn't catch that, you...said that in German?" Koume raised an amused eyebrow from her commander's seat. They took German at Kuromorimine, and Koume considered herself fluent, but she chose to tease Peter instead of responding.
"Ah, s-sorry. Yeah, I think I can see you know, I'll tell my driver to go over to where you're at. [Driver, move us over to where Koume and the other's are.]"
"[Gotcha.]" Peter's driver turned the steering sticks to the left, bringing the Panther into position before going straight forwards into a small forest. Breaking through and entering the empty area behind the bushes and trees, the veteran Panther crew looked and saw several other Panthers, along with a few Panzer IV Hs and a familiar Tiger II. Said Tiger II then had its cupola opened up, and it's commander poked her head out.
"Took you long enough!" the silver-haired commander yelled.
"Ehhhh, sorry Erika." Peter moaned as he climbed to stand in his Panther's cupola. "Anyways," Peter's crew straightened, which Koume and Erika could feel as well. Peter was about to get serious again. "Where's the Americans? We're going to ambush them here?"
"Yup. Keep an eye out though, they could try and flank us." Erika replied.
"Koume, should I go cover our flank?"
Koume shook her head right away. "You have one of the best gunners, and you're also our flag tank, so we can't risk having you get flanked and shot, Peter." Koume gestured towards the blood red flag attached to Peter's Panther, signifying that he was the flag tank.
"Ah, alright then. Thanks." The Panther G turned around, facing it's armor towards where they came. Erika growled. "Hm?"
Erika growled. "Nothing." Hmph. Being so friendly with us, especially with Koume...
One of the Panzer IV H commander's radioed Erika. "Vice-Commander Erika, the Panzer IIs are saying Saunders is getting closer. 'Get ready in three minutes' Sanguo says."
"I see. Panzer IIs," Erika commanded. "Follow Saunders, but stay out of sight. Once we spring our ambush, attack them while their guns and armor are turned around. Sanguo, use your Panzer III to take out the more powerful Shermans, got it?"
"Gotcha Erika!" Sanguo radioed back. Adjusting her large, circular glasses, Sanguo watched as her squadron of Panzer IIs kept their pace. From a high hill, they were able to read Saunders' movements and relay them with little flaw. They also had a few skirmishes with Saunders' scout tanks, which consisted of M22 Locusts and M2A4s. Fortunately, they had only lost four Panzer IIs out of the ten, and Sanguo's Panzer III J made quick work of any unlucky scout tanks. "Scout tanks, did you hear that?"
"Yes ma'am!"
Three minutes later...
"There." Peter pointed out. Around 300m away, on the main dirt road, was the main force of the Saunders team. Many, many Shermans, some of which were Fireflies and Easy Eights, and concerningly for Kuromorimine, several Jumbos. Through his binoculars, Peter could see that Kay was in one of these Jumbos, as she sat atop the turret, her legs hanging in the commander's hatch. Kay was looking around for any Kuromorimine tanks that could ambush them. They were forming a sort of shell pattern, covering the flanks of their flag tank, an M26 Pershing which had a blue flag, with their Shermans. Well they're certainly using numbers to their advantage. "Get ready to open fire." The other Panthers, Panzer IV Hs, and Erika's Tiger II sat, ready and waiting to begin their barrage. But the battle started, not from Kuromorimine firing a shot, but rather, an M18 Hellcat firing a shell right into one of the Panzer IV Hs rear, sending its white flag up.
"Crap, they've flanked us!" Erika cried into her radio. "Panzer IVs, bombard Saunders! Me and the Panthers will deal with the tank destroyers."
"Erika," Peter began to object. "We need our heavier guns if we want to take out that M26 Heavy. Have the Panzer IVs deal with those Hellcats."
"Rrrgh. Alright then, change of plans, Panzer IVs, you deal with the tank destroyers, the rest of us will bombard Saunders!" Erika turned her Tiger II back around mid turn to face the Saunders formation, who had begun to turn towards the sound of the fighting. "Open fire!" and the forest camouflage was blown apart from the force of all the guns firing. Erika watched with satisfaction as a Sherman Jumbo was too late to turn and was knocked out of the match by her Tiger IIs 88mm gun.
"Prioritize the Fireflies and Easy Eights! Especially the Fireflies, they can penetrate our armor frontally!" Peter called out. A few shells bounced off the front of his Panther, one coming close and hitting his mantlet, but doing nothing. "[Feuer!]" and Peter's gunner sniped down a Firefly. "[Feuer!]" The gun didn't fire. Peter dropped himself down into the turret. "[What's wrong?]" he said to his loader, who was stuck holding a shell.
"[Ah, sorry I just...I got this bad feeling when I picked up this shell.]"
"[It's probably nothing.]" Peter replied firmly. "[Load it.]"
"[Alright. Clear!]" the loader yelled over the clanging against the Panther's armor.
Then, Peter's gunner opened fire on a Sherman Easy Eight, which had been firing at their cupla for some time. The shell struck true, smashing into the front armor of the Sherman. Then it went silent. Peter sighed in relief. Yeah, it's probably nothing...Wait...Peter watched confused as the crew of the Sherman suddenly jumped out like they were on fire. Then, one of them came out. And she was on fire, but she ripped off her jacket, which was the only part that was burning. That same girl ran back to the Sherman and reached into the driver's hatch, pulling at someone. It was the driver, but Peter could barely see much from 300m away, not even the burning girl. Why're they bailing out in the middle of a firefight? It's much safer in the tank. The girl succeeded in pulling out the driver, and Peter got his answer seconds later, when the entire Easy Eight exploded, sending it's turret sky high and creating a fireworks display of detonated ammunition.
Several minutes before...
Bailey lounged back in her seat as the co-driver and co-axial gunner of a Sherman Easy Eight. She fingered the trigger of the M1919 .30 cal machine gun, before she turned her head backwards to look at her commander. Emma, a girl with her coffee brown hair tied back into a ponytail. She wore the standard Saunders Sensha-do uniform, as well as an American flag motif bandanna around her neck. To Bailey's right was Maya, the main-driver of the Easy Eight. A girl with reddish-brown hair and glasses. What do tanks need a co-driver anyways? Bullets are useless against tanks unless they have paper thin armor and it's not like someone's gonna get knocked out by a shell or something...I guess it's for when the concussive force of a shell is too much. Bailey herself was a girl with average features, green eyes and black hair, bangs forward. She used to wear glasses, but when in a tank, she'd wear eye contacts instead.
Emma was in the middle of giving out a command when she stopped. "Ah hold on, Kay's calling." Emma paused to listen to Kay's commands.
"Alrighty everyone, listen up. We're gonna move our flag tank, the M26 Pershing, down the southern main road. We'll cover it on both sides, that way Kuromorimine can't ambush us. Then, we can take em out with our Fireflies, Easy Eights, and the M18s! Sound good girls?"
"Yeah!" Emma cheered enthusiastically. "Alright girls, let's get into formation! Alright May, you know what to do."
"Gotcha."
Suddenly, a new message came onto the radios of all Saunders tanks. "This is B Platoon, we've been wiped out."
"Eh!?" Kay gawked from within her Sherman Jumbo. "W-what happened?"
"Well, we got attacked from somewhere, and before we could get away we all got sniped. I think it's that Peter guy again."
"Dang, really? Argh, and we've already been losing our lighter tanks to Kuromorimine's scouting force. And we've got that kid now...Oh well, we'll just play out our plan and see how it goes!" Kay exclaimed, perking right up.
"Ehhh, are you sure Kay?" Alisa groaned into the radio. "Kuromorimine might try and ambush us, and even if we do our shell formation, they can still do a lot of damage."
"Ah, your right about that...Hmmm, alright, if we get ambushed, I'll send the Hellcats to flank them, that way they'll be caught between our Tank Destroyers and us! The ambushers are ambushed!"
"Sounds good." Naomi replied calmly. She looked around for targets in her M4 Firefly, and so far, she managed to claim a few Panzer IIs and a Panther that got too far out from the formation.
Soon, they were in the shell formation. Emma found herself covering the right flank of the M26 Pershing flag tank. "Gunner, get our gun turned to 2 o'clock. We wanna be able to retaliate if we get ambushed like Kay said we would."
"Roger." Emma's gunner turned the turret of the Easy Eight to the right, getting the 76mm long barreled gun ready for a potential ambush. And come that ambush did. Suddenly, from the woods was the sound of a 76mm gun, and with that, Kay knew that her trap had been sprung.
"Alright! We've found Kuromorimine! Everyone, get the armor turned around and start firing! We've got numbers on our side!" Kay commanded, cheerful and peppy as ever. With that, Maya began to turn the Easy Eight around, when: CLANG
"Agh! Oh, that was just a ricochet, thank goodness." a shell from one of the Kuromorimine Panthers had slid off of the front of the glacis, having aimed too far right from its gunner's perspective. Emma commanded Maya to continue turning the tank so the heavy armor was facing it and for her Gunner to get the 76mm gun turned. Once the gun was facing the enemy Panthers, Emma immediately called for the guns to "Rip 'em a new one!" The 76mm long barreled gun began to open fire, although not to any effect against the thickly armored Panthers, and especially against the Kuromorimine Vice-Commander's Konigstiger. In the Co-Driver and Co-Axial gunners seat, Bailey opened fire with the M1919, spraying armor piercing tracers about the bushes and trees in which the Kuromorimine forces were firing from.
"Hey, Emma?"
"What's up Bailey?"
"You think that German kid is here? I'm kinda worried he'll suddenly swing out of nowhere and wipe us out like when we first used the Pershings and tank destroyers."
"What? Nah, he's their flag tank, to put himself here? That's suicide." Emma replied confidently. Standing up a little, Emma looked into the commander's cupola to get a better view. And right ahead of her, was an unfamiliar, tan colored Panther G, and sitting in the cupola, was a brown haired boy. "Ah crap it's the Jerry kid!" Just as Emma said this, a Firefly that was next to them was shot by the Panther G, sending up it's white flag.
"I told you so!" Bailey yelled, as she continued to spray the area with tracers. They clanged off the armor harmlessly, but they did expose the position of some tanks. "Crap, he's aiming right for us!"
"Hold on!" Emma yelled, before she braced for the oncoming 75mm shell.
What happened next, none of the Easy Eight's crew would ever be able to forget. Bailey held on for the oncoming impact of a shell against the hull, but instead, her eyes widened as the hull was blown open. Time felt like it suddenly crawled, and Bailey watched as the armor piercing shell ripped through the front armor, spraying out hot red shrapnel, travelled through the crew compartment, miraculously not hitting anyone directly, and slamming into the engine compartment with a blast. "Holy shit!" Bailey heard someone cry. Smoke began to engulf the crew compartment, filling Bailey's lungs with scorching hot air, and she could smell oil and other liquids beginning to leak out.
"E-everyone, bail out! Bail out now!" Emma screamed. She opened her hatch, throwing herself out onto the grass, her loader and gunner quickly following from their respective hatches. Bailey tried to sit up and run, but her leg suddenly got caught on something. Opening her co-drivers hatch, she wretched herself from her seat, screaming in terror as she felt something hot on her back. Ripping off her jacket, she flung it onto the ground, where it burned. Miraculously, only her jacket caught fire.
"M-Maya, get out of there! Maya!?" Bailey yelled.
"O-oh god!" Emma could feel her legs beginning to go weak. Bailey climbed atop the burning Easy Eight, ripping open the driver's hatch. What she saw struck her to the core. Maya, the driver of the Sherman Easy Eight, was covered in blood, bleeding from a wound in her right side. Gritting her teeth, Bailey grabbed Maya around the collar, pulling her out of the stricken Easy Eight, but she was stuck.
"Come on god damn it!" with one last surge of adrenaline Bailey finally pulled Maya out of the Easy Eight, falling back onto the ground. Emma and the rest of her crew grabbed Maya and Bailey, dragging them away from the Sherman, and just in time too...A mere five seconds later, the ammo cooked off. A large explosion from within the Sherman rang out for all to hear, with an accompanying fireball and blast, the Easy Eight's turret was shot off into the sky from the explosion, while a column fireworks display of detonated ammo crackled and popped.
Just moments before, Kay was shouting out and replaying commanders to the other Shermans to concentrate fire on Peter and Erika, when Emma's Easy Eight detonated. Kay instinctively threw her head down, and when she looked to her right, she felt nothing but utter shock and terror. The once proud and strong Easy Eight was now nothing more than a burning hull. The fighting effectively froze, just as Kay began to scream out a new command. "Cease fire, cease fire!" But no one needed the command, none of them had ever seen such a horrible scene play out. But a few had seen such scenes before.
Peter watched as the Sherman Easy Eight detonated. "[Alright, ne-wait...]" Peter squinted. Wait, I'm not in Europe, why am I giving out a command to fire? No, I have to, if I hesitate, we could get killed-wait I'm not in the middle of a real warzone, this is all just a sport-but then why did that Sherman just explode? Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no....Peter flinched at the sounds of shells flying by. But there weren't any. His eyes darted around, looking for something to grab onto before his consciousness lapsed into delusion. He saw the Saunders flag tank-wait, the flag tank? Then why was it aiming straight for him, no flag on it's hull, ready to kill him? And now there were more of them, him against an entire squadron of Pershings and Sherman Fireflies. But Saunders only had 6-7, not over a dozen. To his right, there should've been Koume's Panther, and her familiar face, but instead, Peter only saw a destroyed Panther, burning, dying. Peter felt sweat and tears going down his face as he was forced to remember one of many battles...There was a Konigstiger, but it was colored white, like the snow, not the dark tan of Kuromorimine...There was a Tiger H1, under fire from half a dozen Shermans, a familiar voice buzzed in his ear, but he couldn't make out what it was saying to him. The bullets and shells and explosions were too loud.
The entire Kuromorimine team froze in horror when they saw the Easy Eight detonate, and they stopped firing. They had to stop firing. Koume felt her eye's widen and her jaw dropped. She climbed out of her cupola, turning to look at Peter, who was at her right. Peter was frozen clutching the rim of his Panther's cupola. "Peter?" Koume jumped down, ran over and climbed onto the turret. "Peter!" she practically yelled into his ear, but Peter was frozen, trembling, a stricken expression on his face.
Oh no oh no oh no oh no, what do I do? I'm not in Europe-but I'm fighting Shermans alongside other Panzers-but they don't have the balkenkreuz, and they're crewed by girls-but they're my allies, and the ones in front of me are my enemies, so that means to shoot them...right? Peter could feel a voice yelling at him, screaming, to do something. But whoever was yelling at him was doing nothing. The sounds of war and death and bullets and shells roared in his ears, drowning out the voice. He felt his conscious falling...falling down from where he was grounded in reality...But-Peter's stupor was shattered, when he felt someone slap him across the left cheek.
"Peter, snap out of it!" Koume screamed in his face.
"W-what?" Peter sounded so weak that it was honestly surprising to himself, Koume, and his crew, who were waiting for Peter's command. "W-what happened?" he squeaked.
"Your shell blew up that Sherman! Come on, we have to help!"
"W-R-right..." Peter took Koume's outstretched hand, climbing out of his Panther. Touching down on the grass, he joined her in running towards the Saunders formation, with Peter's gunner following with a first-aid kit. A few others tried to help, but they faltered. Erika was frozen in shock, she had never seen something like this before. As the trio neared the blown out Easy Eight, they spotted several other Saunders girls gathered around the Easy Eight's crew, some of whom were applying first aid onto a girl who was laying on the ground, unmoving.
"Oh god...Get the med-kits!" Emma screamed at her teammates, as she put pressure on Maya's wound. A large piece of shrapnel from the shell had torn straight through her side, and she was bleeding profusely. Bailey was on her knees, staring at her blood stained hands, tears dripping onto her hands. The others were trembling in shock, or trying to plug up Maya's wound. Kay, Alisa, and Naomi were nearby, trying to radio Maho and Faber to stop the match, and that was when the Saunders girls finally noticed the two Germans and Kuromorimine commander running towards them.
"H-hey are you-" Peter tried calling out, but his voice snapped Bailey out of her catatonia. Grabbing a shovel that was part of the Sherman's field kit, she screamed, leaping at Peter and cutting him on the shoulder with a hard swing. "AGH!" Peter cried out in pain. Kay and Alisa lept from the radio, grabbing Bailey to stop her from attacking Peter any further in pure rage. Peter, grabbing his wounded shoulder, felt his left arm instinctively grab at something within his jacket, and when he pulled it back out, he had a Mauser C96 in hand, fully loaded with real bullets.
Koume's eyes widened at both Peter being attacked and the sight of his pistol. "Peter!" Peter fell backwards right onto her, the two fell over, his Mauser falling into the dirt from his hand. Peter's gunner stopped to look at his commander, before continuing over to Maya to tend to her. His shoulder beginning to bleed, everything was beginning to become too much for Peter. Before he blacked out from the overwhelming emotions and the growing pain, he saw Maho and Faber arriving on the scene in a BMW Motorcycle.