Fandom Panzer Vorwärts!...Aber mit Anime: a Girls und Panzer RP (IC)

[Jackson123]

Rule of the RP:

- Each player would be controlling a whole crew of tank.

- Short paragraph to multi-para would be preferable. One liner should be avoided under all circumstances.

- Additional details about how your tank operates would be nice.

- No god modding aka control other people's character without permission.

- Overpowering are not allowed, really I don't think anyone want to see a Mary Sue destroyed the entire enemy team single-handedly. So please no captain marvel or rey palpatine.

- Firing directly on humans are prohibited in the Sensha-do rules, some people might've skipped the reading so I put it here again.

- "War is the continuation of politics"-- Clausewitz. Political discussion would be allowed in OOC, but no cuss words with malicious intent please. No matter your political alignment, here we're all cultured anime fans, so let's be friends while having discussion.

- Last but not least: Have fun!

 

[Jackson123]

The campus of Suwa Girls Academy (SGA) is rather unique compared to other Japanese high schools.

Those elegant red brick façade had been standing for more than a century with it’s granite foundations, wooden staircases and wooden floors filling the interior with those warm, earthy reassuring “woody” scents, ornately decorated with exquisite craftsmanship, with laurel leaves on the pillars and layers of scrolling carvings, intricate decorations, arches, protruding front porches, long lines of stylish Roman columns could be seen lining the side of some of the buildings, creating classic Stoa walkway as sheltered open-air spaces for multi-purposes. The Victorian era architecture was designed and built in 1885, not only did the campus offer a relaxed atmosphere for students to study, those red bricks are also excellent at thermal insulation and moisture resistance. Despite various campus expansion projects, red bricks are still very much what defines the visual identity of the Suwa Girls Academy.

Compared to the fine art of architectural design that is the main campus, the area for the Suwa Tankery club would seem rather simple and crude. At the front gate of the training ground, a Großtraktor could be seen on exhibition, that was the first tank Suwa Tankery team operated and it was retired due to lack of spare parts a few years ago. The garage itself is a wooden barn, like one of those horse barns one would expect to see in an old western movie —— that’s because it was. It’s the old horse barn of the SGA Equestrian club before they moved to a new clubhouse when the takery club was formed. Tank crews in the past had made some new additions to the old horse barn to make it a functional tank garage, but that’s about all there is to it.

After the groundbreaking performance from the underdog Oorai Academy, public interest in Sensha-do had skyrocketed in the city of Suwa, and the SGA tankery team was finally given a significant increase in their budget this year. With the scholarship provided, the team also saw a lot of newcomers this year. What comes next, that would be determined by how the team performs.

Today is 1st April, the start of the new academic year in Japan, a season in which cherry blossoms would flourish and wither. After the matriculation ceremony in the morning, it would be free time for students for the rest of the day.

 

[Jackson123]

Tiger I
​

The matriculation day always felt shorter than other ordinary days she spent at school. Hilda basically slept through those speeches in the grand hall, from the principal, from the representative of new students, welcoming speech from senior students, etc etc. Nobody really cares, at least that’s what she believed. The grey-haired girl was only woken up by the time students are required to stand up and choir the school anthem, not long after which the students would be free to go.

In the club building section of the campus, the fruit trees and flowers in the nearby gardening club are blossoming with fragrance. Hilda opens the small door at the side of the tank garage, and is immediately greeted by the familiar odor of gasoline, lubricant oil and electrolytes.

There she is, the Tiger tank. Huge and menacing, with a monstrous 8.8cm main gun as her massive appendage of destruction, overhanging the rectangular hull of the enormous heavy tank. A new replica built in Germany last year, Hilda could still remember when she and all her senpais had to make budget cuts by only eating two meals a day for half the semester to save up money for this beauty. “The Panzer of Dreams” they called it. And it was, it really was. Hilda could still remember that smell of fresh paint, the kampfwagenkanone had never been used, the leather seat had never been sat on…

Sounds of metal tinkering had pulled Hilda back from indulging in her memories. It’s from the other side of the track where she is standing. And then she saw the head of a brunette girl stick out from behind the hull. The girl had the same eye colour as she does, the type of green like the hue of an eutrophic lake in summer.

“Ah, Onee-san. Didn’t expect to see you so early!” The brunette girl smiled warmly, she tried wiping out the gear oil on her face with the sleeve of her tanker uniform. Needless to say it only makes it worse.

“I’m just that eager to see you, Misaki.” Hilda jokingly said to her sister when she walked around the hull to see what’s going on. “What are you doing there? Oh...”

The track on this side had been released, the whole 2 tons assembly of steel plates now have its front section laying on the floor while the other half stayed on top of the Tiger’s rollers, a steel cable is attached from the end of the tracks to the sprocket wheel in front, so the tracks could be dragged back to place with the tank’s own power once the work with the roller is done.

Misaki was using a wrench to diagonally release those bolts that hold those interleaved steel rollers in place, she had already taken off half a dozen and a few axles, getting to the innermost roller at the left frontal hull.

“Did you get all this done by yourself?” Hilda sighed ever so slightly. Her sister is great and all but sometimes even Hilda doesn’t know if she’s pushing her limits. “Here, let me help you out.”

Misaki shrugged and smiled. “Just thinking I might as well get some work done before you arrive.”

Hilda puts on a pair of mechanic gloves, just in time to help move the innermost roller away. All the roller wheels appear to be in functional condition, so Hilda can almost guess what Misaki is doing by now, this is the only way to get to the suspension of a Tiger tank.

“Finally got the parts, or is it another jury rigging?” Hilda said as she looked at the torsion bar that is now fully exposed after removing the roller wheels.

(A Tiger tank with layers of roller wheels removed, notice the exposed torsion bar. The tiger in this picture is a early model with 24 roller wheels each side. Late model like the one used by Hilda’s team in this RP had their roller count reduced to 16 per side)

“Yeah, finally got the parts. The torsion bar linked to the second row of the left side roller had been loose for a while. I can hear the poor thing grinding from the driver seat everytime we make a corner.” Misaki rubbed her oily hands on the tanker uniform and gestured to the new parts packed in a cardboard box, shipped from Germany.

“Ach, I remembered. They always give us the same story, spare parts in short supply, we don’t have the budget, the gasoline costs went up again, etc etc, every time, excuses and excuses.”

“Exactly.” Misaki replied with a brief word as she started to focus on installing the new parts for the torsion bar, the sound of metal knocking on metal echoes in the large garage.

“It’s so quiet in here now. This place used to be so lively and bustling with noises...” it took a while before Misaki broke the silence.

“Having no new member for a whole year does that.” Hilda said in a defeated tone. “Those 3rd year seniors have all graduated, now we’re the few old guards left.”

“Let’s hope things will get better from here.” Misaki said with a wry smile.

“Misaki, you’ve been driving this Tiger for a year, would you like to shoot guns for a change? I’m going to be the commander after all.”

“Alright, but then who’s going to drive…” before Misaki could finish her sentence, a voice came from the small door that Hilda came in from.

“I’m Miura Mei, I’ve heard I can drive tanks if I join this club?” There stood the girl with long hair and wearing a mask, with her pleated skirt covering all the way down to her calf like a stereotypical delinquent girl you may find in manga.

“Sure!” Hilda put up her brightest business smile “We’re just looking for a driver! Do you have any experience driving manual shift?”

“Ha! The last time I drove an auto I slammed on the brake 7 times trying to clutch.”

“That sounds perfect, you’re in. Come and help us get these rollers installed and we can get you started after we connected the tracks!”

 

[SpazTheButcher]

From the back of the garage a loud voice yelled out.
"Trombley! What the hell did you do with the ammo for the 75!" Boomed from the inside of a Sherman. The tank was heavily modded, with camo hand painted on it as well as various crates and supplies strapped upon the outside of it. "I was writing cool stuff on them!" A girl with dirty blond hair yelled back from the area above the tank's engine. Around her were shells, on each of them a message was written in chalk, some having "Adios" written ind bold lettering, others saying more complex words on the casings themselves instead of the head of the round. An example of which being "I killed a Tiger". Yet another voice joined the fray, this one also in the tank, yelling "Jane, please shut up. I would like to get some sleep." The first voice retorted, "Isn't sleeping on sentry duty against your code Colbert?" Yet another voice joined the fray, this one less angry and loud than the others, and barely audible from outside the tank, "Why is it that you all argue so much? Is there some sort of story there?" "Jane" responded, "We are like siblings. If we ain't arguing, we are fighting someone else." Then Jane popped her head out of the main hatch and yelled down to Trombley. "Get those shells in here!" Trombley began handing shells to Jane.

 

[AJustKnight]

"If anything, I reckon we should count ourselves lucky it got in on time. Hauling this thing to the school, I don't envy you, Tamura-san." Tsukuda Morika let out a low whistle before she spoke, the raven hiared girl standing before the hulking mass of metal that was their tank. An ISU-152. It sat off center to the room, not as tall as she had expected but still a solid slab of steel. Of course she wasn't the only member of Owl Team looking over the ISU-152. The person she was speaking to, Tamura Hinata, was currently crawling over the tank, the twin tails of her hair flowing along with the simple style of the armored box. It was a fair descriptor of the vehicle.

"It cost me an arm and a leg to get it expedited, but she was worth every yen." Hinata replied from her awkward position on top of the tank, crawling on her hand and knees as she inspected it for any damages during its transport. If it had any issues, they would need to be be dealt with quickly. The more time they spent practicing with it, the quicker they could cement in their mastery of it. This would obviously be waylaid by repairs. And if there was any damage during transport she could refund some of her expenses.

"Huh? But I thought tanks with a main gun were male and ones with only machine guns were female. So, isn't the ISU a boy and not a girl?" The smallest member of their team, Nijiko piped up, cupping her chin in her hand in thought as she took Hinata's words at face value. Morika gave a light chuckle, turning towards the airheaded girl.

"its a figure of speech, kind of like how we call the ship a her too." Morika explained, earning a surprised 'ahh' from Nijiko. Morika was glad that NIjiko was willing to accept the explanation without any additional questions. She was more interested in getting into the ISU-152 then getting into the history of why people call ships and tanks with gendered terms. Both Morika and Nijiko were brought away from the topic regardless, as Hinata let out a surprised shriek.

The commanders cupola had popped open on Hinata, surprising the girl and sending her sprawling backwards and over the side of the tank. Morika moved forward, arms outstretched. Hinata tumbled off the tank, falling backwards and into Morika's waiting arms. To the farm girls credit, she caught Hinata with a fair amount of grace, holding her bridal style for a moment as the two both looked up at the lip of the tanks fighting compartment.

"Oh, hey prez." Nijiko called out before the two saw Hinata's assailant pop over the side. Nagao Etsuko. Her long black hair flowed down towards them as she leaned over the side of the tank, looking down at the two. She had a quizzical expression on her face, almost as if she was asking what had happened. Hinata, realizing the situation they were in began to wiggle her way out of Morika's arms and onto her own two feet.

"I was wondering where you got off too after the 1st years ceremony. Should've guessed you'd be in the tank." Morika said, watching as Hinata's face turned more and more red at the situation. Etsuko merely nodded in confirmation.

"How's the inside?" Nijiko asked, moving closer. She asked half out of curiosity and half because she knew Hinata's concern for the tank far overshadowed her anger. As soon as the question was asked Hinata perked up, the crimson embarrassment draining from her face as she looked up to Etsuko for the answer. And Etsuko, being Etsuko, simply gave a small smile and a thumbs up. Hinata frowned in defeat, figuring that was the best answer they were going to get until they got inside themselves. Though, another question crossed her mind.

"Who's going to take what role?" Hinata asked quietly, almost to herself rather the group. Morika overheard her and answered. It was the answer Hinata had expected but dreaded.

"Well, since Nagao-san is already the student council president, she already fits the role of commander. I'll handle loading since you and Masuda-tan are too small to load shells. So, you two will have to figure out driver and gunner." Morika said while hefting herself up the side of the tank, to join Etsuko who was now sitting on the side, observing the other crews in the garage. Hinata closed her eyes for a moment. She already knew she wouldn't win the argument that she could be commander as Nijiko and Morika would both just vote for Etsuko. She had wanted to be the commander, but it would be selfish to try and argue it when the others were already okay with it.

"Fine. I'll take gunner then. You okay with that Masuda-san?" Hinata asked, noting the tiny girl was now also moving to climb up the tank, though she was nearly half its size, making it a little more rough for her. Morika reached down, letting Nijiko cling to her arm and be pulled up onto the tank's fighting compartment like a little kid. Once she was up, she copied Etsuko and simply gave a thumbs up. Hinata let out a quiet sigh as she as she started her own ascent.

"Well, at least we got that settled then. Once everyone settles it, we should probably get introductions out of the way." Hinata said, joining the rest of Owl team in watching the others from the top of their tank.

 

[Kinzu Hekmatyar]

The Ke-Ni crew linger around their tank, with the shock of their first day still weighing on them. But soon, Marshal would climb up onto the tank as if she needed a platform before she spoke to O'conner and Jennings, "Alright guys, we made it here now. Let's show them that this joint venture is worth it !". This statement caused Jenning to tilt her head to the side, "Woah Woah calm down, Marshal.... let's not get ahead of ourselves", with an open palm, she patted the Ke-Ni, "We need to check out our cohort workers first before committing to any heroic or any verbal promises....I just came to get away from my responsibility so let's not rush get more." O'conner scowled at the pair, "You know we could've tried to get into saunders or one of the well-known school," with several sideways glances," Plus this Japanese squiggles chatter makes no sense to me." Marshal felt a general disdain from her crew a new setting, and a new place could cause some unease, "Now now all I ask is that you both do your best after all you volunteered of your free will, right?".
Jenning sucked her teeth and rocked from side to side," Fair enough, it would look bad on the cadets if I get sent home due to performance." O'conner didn't seem annoyed by the comment volunteer, "You two got an option? They said I was coming here to visit the Kiso village and the old Shogun checkpoints ". This comment made Jenning look at O'conner, "Hrm that explains why you can't read or understand Japanese, huh" Marshal only seem to beam at the exchange, "Don't worry, we're a team now, so we'll support each other." With a defeated sigh, "I just came here to turn wrenches and paint I didn't I would have to attend classes," O'conner crouched and leaned on the tank supporting her self. Jenning shook her head, "Well, it looks like we got our work cut out both in school and here...so Marshal, are you the commander, and I'll shoot the gun, and our slacker will drive..wait, is that even safe? You can't even read the signs". Marshal spoke out before O'conner could, "Well, I was thinking since you from JROTC, you would be a better commander since you know... you like a military member ...I'll do the shooting thing. I'm sure O'conner will be a good driver since she put the Ke-ni together". O'conner's temper being somewhat calmed by the praise remarks, "Eh, are you able to even see out of the tank your certainly on. The short side Jenning...And yeah, I can drive. I know the signs, and worst come to worst, I'll claim I didn't know".
They would keep chattering away in English but got to work now with Jenning giving the other two a brief tutorial about the tanks and system's specs. Now with O'conner climbing to the "stage" also known as the top of the tank, "Alright, pay attention you two dopes, this thing is a light tank, so our armor is our speed and our size, and this" O'conner patted the 37mm, "This ignores this it's only to look nice this thing is a pea-shooter that just gonna makes other want to shoot us more." Marshal put her hand up," Wait, can't we just, you know, hit enemies weak points?" O'conner scoffed, "We'll have to be lucky for that Marshal, but it would be best not even to waste time firing if it allows us to be ignored, "but With Jenning's hand sliding to pat the top of the turret, "As for armor a 50.cal could knock us out so that means anything with a gun can kill us per-say". Jenning, "Soooooo from what you're telling us if we get sneezed or try to fight back, we're gonna get beat upright ?". O'conner gave the nod, "Yes, pretty much this thing came as an improvement from the Ha-Go...and at least we have thicker armor than that thing..". They would go on chattering about that for a bit, and finally, Jenning climbs to the top of the tank for her part of the informal brief," Hello, I'll be the commander, but Jennings is good enough no titles are needed, but on to my part of the brief. Here our roles and planned actions I will accept from the command. After the gear brief, I decided we are only fit for two rolls scouting and prodding or testing the enemy firepower. Other than that, any other directing us to front line combat will be met with resistance and question." This chatter plans and such would go on until the trio were now just practiced mounting up and dismount in case of a fire and learning the tank's ins and outs.

 

[CatJones]

Suwa Hisako adjusted her jacket, pulling the zipper down to open it up and using it to fan herself off. It wasn't a particularly hot day, rather she was boiling alive from the contents of her lunch. She was eating later then usual, sitting next to the copula of the tank her team was going to be driving. Being a little more rambunctious then her teammates, Hisako had ditched the last class of her day to come see the tank she was going to be commanding. Sleeker then she had anticipated, thinking that it with its rather large main gun it would have been more heavily armored. She wasn't thinking it would have been King Tiger levels but that it's frame was rather similar to a Matlida II in design. She took another bite of her curry, scrunching her mouth up in response to the sheer spiciness of it. She had occasionally looked around at the other crews in the garage but decided to focus on eating and waiting for her own team rather then make small talk.

And as luck would have it, they came in just as she was starting to grow impatient. The three other girls entered in a line, heads looking around as they took note of the new surroundings. Hisako stood up, making her possibly the tallest person in the room for a brief moment, to give an enthusiastic wave to show them where she was. As expected, Nakano Yasu noted her first. The short blond pointed her out to the other two, who followed Yasu over as they weaved through the mild chaos that was multiple teams figuring out their own vehicles. Yasu was HIsako's opposite, far more relaxed and mild. She was shorter, with blond hair and a face that seemed to be drawn in a constant tight lipped frown.

After her was Watabe Riko, the tallest member of their team and possibly most mature person in the room, physically at least. She was more of a natural Japanese beauty, with long brown hair and a calming visage. Her vibrant forest green eyes the only western influence in her body. A light smile on her face, per usual. And lastly was the runt of their group, Okada Shion. Similar in personality to both Yasu and Riko, Shion was kind of the middle person of their group. She was far less extreme in her personality. She was more plain looking as well, despite her blond hair and gold colored eyes.

"Yo." Hisako greeted them, not seeing a need to be formal since they were already used to each other. Yasu and Riko were more focused on the tank, with Shion being the only one willing to answer her.

"G-good afternoon, Suwa-san." Despite the familiarity, Shion responded without thinking. Hisako smiled.

"Shion-chan, is seeing me on this tank making you think you need to respect me? Is it making me more mature just by being on it, like in those recruitment videos?" Hisako teased, moving to lay across the barrel of the 17-pdr in the turret. She was mocking the usual position that pin-up girls took, one leg up just enough to show the gym shorts she wore underneath her skirt. Shion reacted as expected, covering her eyes at such a sight.

"That's enough, Hisako-san. Unless you want to hold that pose for me?" Riko interjected, already withdrawing a pen notepad from her pocket. Hisako, knowing full well the damage Riko could do with her art, sat back up, straddling where the tank and turret met. a blush on her face at the prospect.

"Can you guys take this seriously? You lot need to focus and start doing your reference work. We won't have a lot of time during matches to think about how the tank works." Yasu spoke now, in her usual chiding manner. She meant well but her bluntly pessimistic view could easily turn people off. Hisako hated to agree but she was right.

"Yeah, yeah. We need to memorize as much as we can during out matches too though. Design and interior is one thing but if we want Tank Arts Online to do really well, we need to capture the thrill of battle too." Hisako replied, throwing her hands on her hips as she stood on the turret. "The rush of reloading, the sound of a shell flying through the air and penetrating armor. We have to capture that too."

Yasu remained stone faced.

"Well, at least she's fired up." Riko tried to encourage, getting only an eye roll from Yasu.

"That's the problem, she's always fired up. Never thinking about what she's doing." Yasu replied, not hiding her emotions.

"You know I can hear you right?" Hisako mumbled back.

They had already decided what roles they were going to take in the tank long before they had even fully joined the Sensha-do team. Hisako, despite her lack of academic success, was the only one who had the willpower to make tough decisions. In the ever changing tides of a battle, someone who was both steady and fluid and knew when to be which one, was highly sought after. Though she was just as green as most of the teams, she at least the drive if nothing else. Yasu was to be the gunner. The argument had essentially been that it was the job that required the most attention to detail. Plus, she was able to do the math fastest for attacking targets are multiple ranges.

Shion had volunteered to be the loader as it offered her a blind spot in the tank. Nor being able to see the fighting nor having to directly participate made her feel more comfortable with idea of being shot at for fun. Riko had chosen to be the driver since she was already taking lessons from her families driver. To anyone else they probably seemed like a gaggle of infighting social outcasts (besides Riko) but in reality they were a team that was ready to go to the ends of the earth to get what they wanted. Either a good heaping of experience or the title of champions.

 

[Catden]

"Arnia! Arina wait up!" Sonya quickly jogged up along her sister who unlike her had not stopped to talk with some members of the gardening club who were out watering their plants. "You think everyone's going to be here?" She asked quite excitedly.

"да" Was the unenthusiastic reply. As the sisters made their way into the barn Sonya took a long moment too look over each of the tanks, watching as the crews went about working on them or checking them out. Even Arina let herself take in the sights, eyeing up each of the tanks one by one. Slowly the two second years made their way through the hanger, Sonya taking her time admiring each of the tanks and waving to anyone who so much as glanced in her direction. Slowly the twins approached their baby, her steal exterior shining slightly under the lights.

A light tapping sound caught both of the sisters attentions, moments later their commander emerged from behind the tank, tapping on it's metal ever so slowly. The blonde girl had an ever so disappointed look on her face. Walking over to the twins Eri crossed her arms as she leant on the track cover of their tank.

“2 minutes late girls.” Eri looked between the sisters, Arina had a fairly stern look while Sonya was looking quite embarrassed andhad shifted her focus to the ground. Eri’s features softened slightly before she got off the tank, placing her hands on the shoulders of her teammates. “I’ll let it slide today, but don’t let it happen again”

“Yes senpai” the twins responded in unison, nodding their heads with each other. Quickly all three girls started mulling about their tank. Arina Disappearing inside of it, Sonya taking her time and climbing over it. Eri simply watched, occasionally checking her watch. A few minutes later the last member of their finally appeared, jogging her way to the back and the tank.

“Hi! I’m so sorry for being late!!” The first year exclaimed looking at a fairly dissatisfied Eri. “I got stopped at orientation and then I couldn’t find my way back here!”

“No matter today, just don’t let it happen again” Eri was harsher with their newest member than she was with the twins, scoffing slightly before Turing her back to her and walking back around the tank.

Kaiya stood there silently for about another second before Sonya slid down from the top of the tank, her typical big smile plastered on her face.

“Don’t pay any mind to her, she gets better, just giving you a hard time ‘cause you’re new”

With a slight roll of her eyes kaiya relaxed, walking over to the Russian.

“To bad she can’t get better sooner!” Kaiya responded, before climbing up onto the tank. The two continued to talk for sometime I too if the tank as Arnia began fiddling with the interior.

 

[Inactive User 002]

Walking towards the tank garage three girls chatted away on there way there.

"So what tank did you all choose while I was sick? Did you remember to get one with a 75mm gun or bigger like I asked?" Namika asked her team mates and long time friends. She always had to be the one to organise them so imagining what they got up to while she was sick was frightening. If they didn't have a big enough gun they would have problems dealing damage to most tanks.

It was the girl with pink haired and blue eyes playing a racing game on her handheld that responded "sure we did! It was even cheap for the club though I don't know why such a pretty tank wouldn't cost more?"

Namika sighed "I know I just worry. So what is this cheap tank you got?" She was a bit leery why a tank armed with a 75mm gun wouldn't be more popular and command a higher price. But she would get answer soon enough.

It was the tall muscular brunette that replied "Well we got an Stridsvagn m/42 TH and I just can't wait to get my hands on that beautiful Swedish piece of machinery." By the end she was drooling just thinking about all that work ahead of her to fine tuning their tank.

Namika just stopped and shook her black locks in frustration "you mean tell me we have a tank that was made by a neutral country? That was never tested in an actual battle! Well that's jus great!" She was getting louder and her voice was sounding very sarcastic.

It was the girl with a lazy smile and a yellow beanie covered in little pixel art game sprites that tried to calm her friend "Namika relax will you there's nothing to do about it now and the tank did meet your requirements. Besides no one is gonna know much about are tank so that's an advantage right." Hoshi hoped that this would clam her overly organised friend down. Tucking some white hair back into her beanie she waited as her friend mulled over her argument. Her other two friends were still looking rather sheepish about choosing the tank they did.

Namika ran her hands through her hair and tousled it as she thought before shoving them into her pockets and sighing "I guess your right." Her friends Fumiko and Emiko visibly relaxed and let out a sigh while hoshi just continued looking pleased with everything.

The silence was short lived as Namika asked another question "Oh did you also agree on whose doing what in the tank while I was sick?"

"Yeah kinda. Fumiko wanted to drive and we don't know how so we kinda had to. Me and Hoshi wanted to do the gun but we couldn't decide on who was gonna do the shooting until we looked at the diagrams and found out Hoshi was the only one small enough to fit." At this point Emiko huffed and kicked a nearby rock. Clearly she was still very unhappy about not getting to shoot the big gun.

Thankfully Namika didn't need to know anything more to deduce her position though knowing she had been made the commander of the tank because her friends wanted to do other things was kinda a bummer. She thought they would make her commander because she was the most organised and the most natural leader of the group. So sighed shook her head and smiled at her friends again. Hopefully they wouldn't let that embarrassing piece of info out in front of others. It was to late now as they were standing in the doorway to tank shed.

Stepping in Namika realised they were late looking over at the other tank crews. She should of realised that they would be late after having to deal with the gardening club after Fumiko pinched a few apples. Apologising to them had taken a fair bit of time. Also pulling Fumiko away from the Großtraktor had been hard and eaten up their time. But in the end she loved the goofy girl so she sighed before starting to apologise "Sorry were late we got a bit side tracked." Her friends nodded along as she spoke.

 

[Jackson123]

After getting the roller wheels installed, Hilda and Misaki taught Mei how to start up the Tiger tank by cranking. (there’s a button for emergency electric engine start but crank starting is the correct way for cold starting). They removed the armoured access cover in the back of the tiger, at the lower middle of the two exhaust pipes, and got the adopter in place, before inserting the crank handle and had it locked into place. The high gear ratio in the starting motor makes the starting handle extremely heavy, Hilda and Misaki used their weight in addition to their strength to have the handle spinning clockwise, and there’s starting to have some humming sound coming from the engine.

“This time you watch, next time you’re gonna help us in this, Mei.” After cranking for half a minute, Hilda and Misaki removed the handle with unspoken tacit, Hilda then took out the starter key and push it through a hole at the adapter, which pushed a lever that had the gear in the inertia starter engage with the flywheel and it in turn rotates the crankshaft, and the Maybach gasoline engine would then have the power to start itself.

With white smokes burst out of the exhaust pipe, this Tiger from Germania have the world hear her reverberating roar.

“Haha, satisfying doesn’t it?” Hilda wiped the sweat off from her forehead and said to Mei.

“Yeah, definitely. Never saw anyone crank started anything before in my life” Mei also said with a smile.

“Da kannst du Gift drauf nehmen!” delighted, Hilda grinned and patted Mei on her upper arm.

“Eh? What does that mean?”

“Nothing. *ahem* Now, you haven’t drive a Tiger before so I’ll have Misaki move the tank forward into place so we can reattach the track. Misaki, is the cable already secured 3 times around the sprocket?”

“Aye aye!” Misaki double checked and give an OK.

“Super(German context)! Let’s get to work then. Watch your step Mei, don’t put your feet under the track or any of these rollers.”

After moving the heavy tank forward for a bit, with a steel rod and a bit of lever action, the girls got the 2 tons of steel that is the track back into place and latched firmly together.

“That will do!” Hilda let out a heavy breathe and pick up a large wrench. “Now I’ll adjust the track tension and tidy up our backside armour, Misaki, you show our new girl around the driver station...is that helicopter sound I’m hearing?”

That was indeed the sound of rotor and helicopter blades cutting through air in supersonic speed. Hilda and her crew ran out of the barn and saw a UH-60 approaching...

—Instructor Hendrika's POV

The sound of the rotor blades on the UH-60JA utility helicopter is deafening, even from the inside, the intercom headset is the only way one can have conversation.

“We’re almost there, we can already see the Shinano.” The pilot said.

No matter how many times she had saw the school ships, Hendrika couldn’t help but marvel at the modern engineering miracle that are these floating cities built around a school.

Measuring at 11 kilometre in length, the Shinano is larger than Oorai’s Zuikaku but a bit smaller than ships like Pravda’s Kiev or Kuromorimine’s Graf Zeppelin. The battlement that one would find on a military aircraft carrier for AA mounts are being used as seaside public parks, with beautiful promenade and bench for people to rest.

The flight deck itself is a well planned city complete with highway networks, area around the superstructure like the bridge had been developed as coliseums, residential estates, even manmade forest and mountains, upon which the school buildings are located on the mid-level of the mountain side.

This floating city is built to the capacity of a population of 50,000 people, with unlimited operational range provided by the vast farmlands and her own nuclear fusion reactor. The ship itself is an administrative region of the Suwa city, some sort of exclave that is constantly operating around the open sea at 20 knots like any other school ships with their respective city/town.

Hendrika was looking at the traffic on the highways when the pilot turn around to look at her with a naughty smile on his face, like you would expect from a child about to play a prank. He asked over the mic “Miss Hagen, do you know what would happen if the engine cuts off?”

“I’m not sure what would happen.”

So he shuts down the engine without saying anything.

The downward whine of the engine became more apparent as Hendrika felt her stomach lurch, and the UH-60 descent swiftly towards the ground. The pilot pitched the nose down sharply towards the heavy traffic on the highway. The blades were feathering as the altitude plummeted with the helicopter at an almost vertical angle. The stick was pulled slightly and the descent rate decreased. The pilot aimed for the mountain across the highway, continued to ‘glide’ the UH-60J on top of the cars underneath them, until he pitched up and softly landed the helicopter on the ground, just outside the garage of Suwa Sensha-do club. The sound of the helicopter had attracted some students to check what happened outside.

”Autorotation is what we do” the pilot turn around and said with a professional smile.

“Ik snap verdomme niet wat je probleem is.” Hendrika said with her voice still trembling, sweats still running down her face and had her hands firmly holding the side of her seat despite she’s already wearing a seatbelt “Are you just can’t wait to meet Kobe or what?”

The pilot gave out a laughter and scratched his head as Hendrika pulls open the side door and jump out of the helicopter.
—————

The students didn’t saw the commotion inside the UH-60, all they saw was a helicopter descended in crazy style and safely landed, before a tall woman in military uniform jumped out of the helicopter, neatly, without wrinkling the hem of her pencil skirt.

She’s really tall, Hilda just looked at her and think she must be standing around as tall as a M22 Locust light tank, probably taller. Her well formed body is outlined by her Royal Dutch Army dress uniform with her curves, but her right eye is covered by an eyepatch——which enhances her first impression as a battle scarred professional officer. It reminds Hilda of a manga she read a long time ago”

“I’m Hendrika van der Hagen, former Major in the Royal Netherlands Army, 501st Combined Arms Battalion.” The tall woman said with a resounding voice “From now on I’ll be the tankery instructor of you pupils of Suwa Girls Academy...Is everyone present? I think there should be another tank...a T-44 I believe?”

 

[SpazTheButcher]

Trombley hopped down from the tank, finally done loading her "marked" shells to Jane. She stood at attention as Colbert, Hassner, and Wright all opened hatches and ran down to the front of the Liberator, and Jane used the 75mm barrel to swing her way down from the turret. She landed with her steel toed leather cowboy boots planting firmly on the ground, and the entire crew straightened their posture, standing at attention. Jane whispered to Trombley, "Trombley! Status report."

Trombley pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, "Ma'am, current roster lists us working with a Type 98, M/42, an ISU 152, an IS-2, a T-44-100..."

Jane cut her off, "We're working with those? Damn, who the hell chose three Russian tanks? And a Swede? They didn't even fight."

Trombley quickly responded, "Well, there is an AC IV."

"Wait, Aussies? Yes! We got some Anzacs backing us up. And their version of a Easy Eight at that? Even better. I like these odds much better now. Wright, fighting odds?"

Wright pushed up her glasses and began calculating mentally, "I say we have a, 80% fighting efficiency."

Jane looked at her hopefully, "Against?"

"Pravda"

Jane let out a sigh, "Well better than nothing."

 

[AJustKnight]

Morika pricked up at a distant sound. She heard it first in her group, turning her torso enough to look outside of the garage. It didn't take long for the other three girls to notice the sound as well. Nijiko crawled over to the front of the tank, straining to lean as far forward as she could to listen.

"A helicopter? All the way out here?" Morika asked, turning to the others and being met with equally surprised faces from her teammates. "Nagao-san, do you know anything about it?" Etsuko replied with a simple shoulder shrug. Morika closed her eyes in thought. Surely someone would have mentioned if someone important was coming that day. No one, besides Hinata, would fly out to the school on a whim. And even then, Hinata would do everything in her power to avoid doing that.

"Its the instructor." Hinata said, before moving to the side of the tank and preparing to slide off the side. Before she got the chance to, the instructor entered the garage and announced herself. She was interesting in appearance, to say the least. Hinata gave a slight frown as the woman appeared. "Really, not at all what I was expecting."

As Hinata slid off the side, Nijiko stood up behind Morika placing her hands on her other girls shoulders so she would look up at her. Nijiko smiled down at Morika as she posed a dangerous question, "Who do you think is stronger, you or the instructor?" She followed it up with a beaming smile.

Morika scoffed at the idea. Not that she wasn't certain she would be the stronger of the two but that it would be disrespectful of her to challenge their instructor to something as trivial and childlike as an arm wrestling competition. "C''mon now, be serious, Masuda-tan. It'd be wrong to try and show her up like that." Morika stood up, not caring that Nijiko was still attached to her shoulders and simply lifting her up as well. As Morika moved to hop off the tank, Nijiko wrapped her legs around the other girl so she wouldn't be flung off.

"C'mon, Nagao-san, we need to do the whole meeting thing. It'll be awkward if you try and bow on top of the tank." Morika called up to the sole girl still on top of the tank. Etsuko nodded and slid off the tank, joining the others who were now standing in front of their tank. It would have been more proper for Etsuko to call out their crew was fully assembled but Morika knew that was like wishing for a snowstorm in August.

"Student council team is present and accounted for, Instructor-san." Morika called out over the garage din, not sure what exactly she was supposed to do to present themselves outside of the usual Japanese norm.

 

[Kinzu Hekmatyar]

The Trio stop after noticing the other wandering toward the exit, and along with the sound of the helo, it stopped that didn't make sense in O'conner's mind causing her to look around the barn as if expecting the craft to come crashing through the roof. But didn't, which made O'conner furrow her brow, but her train of thought was disrupted once Marshal and Jenning bounded out of the tank. "Come on, O'conner; the instructor is here letting got see what's she like," remark Jenning, who had her arms resting behind her head and began to wander toward the exit, with Marshal in tow. O'conner would climb out of the tank and jog over toward her teammates, "You guys didn't hear that?" causing Marshal to tilt her head, "Huh, what are you talking about?". Jenning responded next, "Must have been that. " Jennings jabbed her finger toward Helo, though it calmed O'conner to see the craft on the ground but didn't make her feel better about those who came out of it. They see calm for somebody who survived or avoided a crash landing, so perhaps this was a stunt or something? O'conner aside, Jenning study the woman with a poker face but made no motion to introduce herself, with Marshal watching her two crewmates but responded, "all U.S military exchange student is present."

 

[CatJones]

"it's kind of a weird line up, when you look at all of them." Hisako said as she wolfed down the last few bites of her curry, her head craning around at the outfit around them. An American tank, three Russian, a Japanese and one she didn't recognize right away. It must have been from a smaller nation, maybe one of the neutrals. She didn't have any issue with the idea of them all being made by different nations, in fact it meant that they might have a more well fit team that had fewer weakness in their composition. They were mostly heavy and medium tanks, meaning they wouldn't be the most nimble force in the world. However they were mostly tank killers as far as armaments went. That was a good start. The ISU-152 would make a good center for formations, since it seemed to be their only stationary turret tank.

"Mmm." Shion nodded, her head following HIsako's as she surveyed the room. "It's a pretty good mix. We'll need to see if the other crews will let us take reference photos in their tanks later." Shion didn't have as much of an eye for tactics, she was far more interested in simply being a follower. But the first step to being a leader was being a follower, HIsako thought. Maybe Shion would be good at small unit tactics if she put in the time to learn them.

"Yasu-chan, what do you know about the student council team?" Hisako asked, leaning back on her outstretched arms. Yasu stopped reading over the technical manual she had produced from inside the tank as they had shifted and waited for the instructor to show up. She of course scrunched her face at the honorific but bit back her opinion as she answered.

"The president is quiet and calm, almost no one has ever heard her speak. Tsukuda-san speaks her mind and Tamura-san is a samurai wannabe. Why, what are you planning this time?" Yasu offered what she knew, eyeing their mischievous tank commander. Hisako smiled back as she slid back, resting her head on her crossed arms. She was being as sneaky as when she skipped class or swiped something.

"I just figured that if we were going to be the team commanders, they would be our biggest competition. They're already leaders, after all." Hisako said, resting now that she was done eating.

"Us? Team leaders? Those are some pretty big dreams you have, Suwa-san." Riko finally chimed in, the most mature member of their team sitting formally and a little off to the side of the team. She brought her hands up to her face in embarrassment at the idea of them being the teams de facto leaders. "It's good to have big dreams though, among other things."

Hisako, Shion and Yasu all enviously noted the last thing she said as they kept their attention away from her for a moment, if only to regain their own wounded pride.

"Well, whatever. The only other people I could imagine thinking they're qualified would be those larpers over there, in the basic American tank." Hisako nodded her head in their direction as the faint sound of a helicopter began to weave between her words. "Oh, that must be the instructor. Well, we should probably get ready to meet her, huh?"

The crew of Emu Team started to get off their tank, not sure if they were meeting the instructor outside or waiting with the tank. They ended up milling around their armor as they waited and felt up the other teams response to the newcomer.

 

[Inactive User 002]

Namika visibly relaxed as she breathed out a sigh of relief realising that no one cared they were a bit late. It was only by a few minutes but to an organised girl like Namika it felt so much longer. She thought about introducing herself to the other tank commanders though she would leave the fact she was only chosen as commander because there was no other position a secret. That little fact still made her cheeks burn when she thought about it. However before she could take her first step towards towards one of the groups the wind started picking up and she was forced to hold down her skirt as she hadn't changed out of her school uniform yet. There were only two thoughts passing through her mind as the thing landed the first being who the hell was landing a helicopter here and I'm bloody freezing now. When the occupant stepped out her thoughts were replaced with two new ones. One of which made her cheeks turn red. The unembarrassing thought was her thinking to herself that this was probably there instructor. The other more embarrassing thought was that for an older woman she was very hot. So here she was stood in the doorway to the tank garage to paralysed by embarrassment. Unfortunately for Namika her friends had wandered into the tank garage while she had been thinking.

Looking around the tank garage like a kid a sweet shop was Fumiko. The smell of so many engines was simply heaven to her and she wanted to fix and fine tune each and every one of them. So started by looking at their tanks engines making a mental note of everything she would have to do before closing up the engine bay. She squealed with joy just thinking about it. Afterwards she started making her way around the other tanks commenting fairly loudly as she made mental notes about what needed to be done on them. Fumiko was so absentminded at the time that she didn't think about asking each tanks crew before she opened up their tanks engine bays. The helicopter landing was interesting but she decided to focus on engines she could actually work on. She sulked a bit remembering the numerous amount of no's she received from both pilots and engineers when she would go to the local helicopter pads and asked if she could have a tinker.

The other two members of Badger Team had stuck close to their tank and stayed there. The first thing Emiko did was try to fit into the gunners seat even though the diagrams said she was too small. Second later Hoshi was helping to Emiko get out after she got herself a bit stuck trying to get in and comfortable. Other could here Emiko whine and pout as she got out of the tank and took out her tablet. Emiko loved to do art as it helped her get rid of her negative emotions. Plus coming up with a new paint scheme for there tank was important and would be a challenge. As she drew Emiko pondered about using a modern digital camouflage or a more traditional look. In the end she would try to draw several examples of both. Meanwhile back inside the tank Hoshi tank slapping video game stickers all around her gunner position making sure not to cover anything important. Thinking things through as she went Hoshi began to think getting some pillows would make the tank so much more comfortable.

 

[Jackson123]

Hendrika looked around her surroundings with her only eye left, the students that would be under her care. Some of them seemed more experienced, some seems downright greener than grass.

“Looks like some of you haven’t made it here in time. Not very punctual of them.” Hendrika furrowed her brow in disapproval.

“Either way, I understand some of you here are new to tankery. To those newcomers, now I don’t know what have you heard about tanks. Some grunts may tell you that it’s cozy and lazy, that we’re sitting in air-conditioned crew compartment, shooting at shits 2 km away or whatever. Those who said that, 11 out of 10 are not from armoured units, guaranteed. Those who are tankers, they won't tell you anything, because it's something you can only understand if you've experienced it yourself, what it’s like when you’re unable to sleep well, eat well, can’t bathe, while being crammed 24 hours inside the vehicle in full combat readiness, having to fight when you can barely see what’s going on outside. What it’s like when you have to get out in the open every time shall nature calls and you have to take a dump, not knowing if the enemy will sneak up on you when you’re taking care of business. To pee was easier, you only need an empty shell case or ammo box of the machine gun, and whoever needs to take a piss will pee into in, when it reaches certain volume just empty the case outside, but when it’s winter sometimes the urine would frozen into ice and you’ll have to heat up the thing before you can dispose of the content, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the trouble tankers would face. Conjunctivitis associated with lack of sleep and sciatica from continuously sitting in a cramped seat are normal occurrences, and when we were on the front there was only one meal a day, usually at night, thanks to the field service company risking their neck under enemy fire, at best there would be some coffee early in the morning, most of the time even the coffee aren’t real, just chicory, brown sadness water pretending to be coffee to cheer our days up...” Hendrika pulled the topic back before her memory drifts her too far away.

“Anyway, the virtues that Sensha-do expect students to learn, ladies, is such endurances, perseverance, adaptability, perceptiveness and most importantly, teamwork. Remember a chain is only as good as it’s weakest link.” Hendrika said, and then she notices she already bored the students with the ramblings. She sighed, perhaps she’s just not good at teaching. Hendrika knew other instructors like Capt. Chono Ami would just let students into the tank and let them do whatever, she couldn’t quite understand where that courage came from.

“Before you can start taking your tank down the road, there are something I want those of you who are new to keep in mind. If you see thick smokes appears in your tank, disembark at once, don’t try to put on gas mask or extinguish the fire, just jump out of there. Tanks with turrets would have 1 minute emergency power for you to move the turret to a position everyone can get out, don’t leave the driver or radio operator stuck in the tank by the gun barrel.”

“Second, it doesn’t happen often in tankery, but it’s dangerous. When the gunner pull the trigger, but nothing happens. First thing, loader check the safety on the breech, gunner check the emergency firing button, or the hand crank electric primer, if applicable. If you did all that, and still the gun doesn’t shoot, then it’s a confirmed dud. When that happens, cut off the turret power and switch off engine, then get out of the tank. If you’re lucky, the gun might fire 3~5 minutes late, that’s a hang fire. If not, then you find me or other tankery teachers. Don’t try to disarm or dispose the malfunctioning shell unless you know what you’re doing, why? Well if your hand slip and drops it, you can ignite the propellent, then a fireball would gone up in the compartment and skins that are not covered in uniform would get burned. Or you can detonate the ammo rack. The ammo are designed and produced with extremely strict quality control so the chances are low on these situations, but keep in mind while the tanks are equipped with carbon armour to protect from any outside impact, it doesn’t help you from an internal explosion.”

“If there are no further questions, you are free to go get familiar with your tank. Dismissed.”

 

[Jackson123]

Tiger I Crew​

"Come on in Mei, let's get driving!" Hilda shouted over the engine noise and went to the top of the tiger's hull, before lending the new driver her hand to climb up the 2 meter tall body of the steel beast. The interior of the tiger tank have a mixture of odour, Mei can felt the scent of gasoline, gear oil and sweat filled her nostril. She is no stranger to this smell, and to the two experienced member of the tiger crew this is almost a smell of home that would bring peace to their mind.

Thanks to the rectangular armour layout of the German heavy panzer, the inside of a tiger tank doesn't feel restricted compare to a lot of their contemporary counterparts. Mei went down the left hatch of the tiger hull and situated herself in the leather seat that is still warmth of the heat of Misaki's. Mei was pleasantly surprised to see a steering wheel, in all honesty she was expecting two control sticks.



The noise of the Maybach HL230 engine are thunderous, Misaki handed a headphone over to Mei to cover her ears, it's the only way the crew can conduct intercom.

"The driver seat on the tiger is on the left side of the tank, because, well, in Germany they operate on right hand traffic, so you'll have to get used to changing gear with your right hand. Have you ever tried driving in RHT countries before?" Misaki is behind the back of Mei to show her all the driving apparatus.

"No I haven't" Mei smiled ruefully to herself "I can already imagine myself kept banging my left elbow to the side when trying to change gear"

"Don't worry, you will learn that quickly. Good news is there aren't any indicator and windshield wipers for you to mix up" Misaki winked and said jokingly. "The pedal are the same, left is clutch, middle is brake and the one on the right side is the gas. That handle to your left is the handbrake, remember to apply it when you park the tank, you don't want to one day wake up to see your 57 tons of steel down in the end of a slope and totalled someone's house. And then there's these dashboard to your right here..." She pointed to the instruments to the right side of the driver position.



"Very simple stuff, analogue measuring instruments from 1940s. That big dial is the rev, and then there's speedometer, oil pressure, and coolant temperature." Misaki said to Mei when pointing at them one by one "Do not try to race the engine over 3000 rev, otherwise she will overheat, and I mean that by the water boils, oil ceases to lubricate, bearings, pistons and valves burn and freeze. Our girl has a lot of temper, I'm telling you. Ideal operation rev is around 2600 rpm."

"Never go over 3000. got it." Mei said, nodded.

"As for the other things you need to handle...there's the fuel valves, fuel tank must be emptied one after another, and shut down the engine if you run very low on gas, otherwise that'll be a lot of work to do if the fuel pump run empty, simply refueling to the fuel tank won't work, you must remove the air filter and housing, remove the access screws at the carburettor, prime with the electric fuel pump all that without a spill, I seriously hate it when that happens...let me see if there's other things, ah, you see that's the bottom plug for vent, that's blower switch, fuel vent, you can leave them set on land, I haven't heard of any matches that would need us to traverse underwater, haha. That's vent flap, you keep it closed, fuel pump on...Now that over there is the choke lever, we use it to enrich the gasoline mixture when starting the engine, remember to release it once the engine runs smoothly and evenly, otherwise the spark plug fouls. Catching up so far?" The brunette got a bit too excited and almost running on sentences when introducing the driving instrument that she had been spending time with for a year, so she gave Mei a worried look when she finished.

"Yea...yeah I think I might need to write them down, just give me a second." Sweats starts dripping down Mei's face as this is more complicated than she thought. She had took out a notebook and jotted down some points.

"Here's the little cheat notes I used when I first started last year." Misaki gave her a piece of paper.

"You two can start driving whenever you're ready. There's no rush." Hilda said from above in her commander seat. The hatch is open so she can get a clear outside view.

"I can't see anything from this...hole?" Mei look out tried to see the road and said, confused.

"These are called vision port, and yes, bad news you won't see much of anything outside when operating this 57 tons of steel, even with the hatch open, and even if you see it you won't be able to brake in time," Misaki said "So always pay attention to the commander's order, try to respond quickly and precisely, she will be your eyes."

"Now, let's get this tank moving, depress clutch. yep, directional lever forward, it's that lever next to your right thigh, good, select gear 1, give a light touch to the throttle, now engage clutch and release the handbrake..."

And the Tiger jerks violently on the start of the move. Mei felt the adrenaline running in her as the tiger tank starts moving forward.

"......You engaged the clutch too fast." Misaki barely avoided hitting her head on the many instruments of the tiger, but still said calmly. "Don't race the engine, upshift. Try keeping an eye on the oil pressure as well, should be at least 3 when the engine is running, and 7 on the move."

"It's like learning to get a driving license all over again." Mei said with a nervous laughter.

"Let's take us to the firing range, driver turn right to 3 o'clock, on the spot." Once the tiger moved out of the barn, Hilda gave the command.

"To turn on the spot, you can only do this in first through third gear, try pulling the wheel right, you see the right side track is locked and the tank is turning with only the left track moving. Now depress clutch and push that large button on the transmission housing."

Mei did as Misaki said, and the right track starts moving backwards, thus the 57 tons tiger tank starts turning right on the spot. To Mei it's a weird driving experience that is unlike any other vehicle she had ever driven, with a heavy tank moving under her control.

"Misaki, for now you keep an eye on Mei's driving, after we got to the firing range you can try shooting the Acht-acht."

 

[SpazTheButcher]

Hanging on to every word she said, Jane took the dismissed as a chance for her crew to test their mettle. She did the rally up hand motion and yelled, "Liberators! Mount up!" Hassner climbed up the tank an threw herself down the driver's hatch, while Wright took her time, still not used to the tank's body. Colbert and Trombley got up on the turret and opened their respective hatches, while Person took her time, sitting settling into the driver's hatch just as Hassner started the engine.

As the tank pulls forward from the garage, Jane began rapping, "Liberators, we liberate anyone we need to, and we damn good too, but you can't be any geek off the street, Gotta be handy with the steel if you know what I mean" She patted the tank, "to earn your keep"

Trombley shouted, "Liberators, mount up!"

Jane resumed, "It was a clear ass day, close to a white moon, Jane P was on the streets, trying to consume and get some for the eve, so I can get some fun, just rollin' in my tank, chillin' with my homes."

Colbert spoke now, going with the tone, "Just hit the Eastside of the Combat Z, n a mission trying to defend Ms. Jane P. Seen a tank full of girls ain't no need to tweak, all you tankers know what's up with 213."

Jane spoke now, an epiphany dawning on her, "Wanna do a mock match? The Tiger just left, and we could probably get them when they least expect us to."

 

[Kinzu Hekmatyar]

The trio didn't say anything, but it didn't take too much to tell that they didn't take much of what their new teacher went on about. Jennings's expression shows that she got lost once the teacher began with grunts and her whatnot, but she had a good poker face, so she kept a blank look. Frankie couldn't tell what the teacher's intention was; was she trying to scare them off or inspire some militaristic hype, perhaps? Marshal listened and nodded her head though it mostly went over her head, and though she didn't get it, she felt like the teacher was spirited and meant well. That was all water under the bridge once they were released, so went off to the tank with Marshal speaking. "Uh, so what was she talking about? "Jennings reacted with an eye-rolling and sigh, "Beside the safety tips, ignore everything else. It just a bunch of chaff or something. I dunno maybe she misses the campaign trail or something" Frankie was the first into the tank since she was the drive, "We'll just start at block one driving and communication forget the gun like I said it's useless." With that, Frankie climbed into her seat, followed by Marshal and Jennings. Frankie would start the tank up with a low rumble then hum; with a sigh, Frankie had to think about what did what and which action would get them on the road. The Type 97 began to jerk forward and stopping, and stuttering, Jenning yelling out, "Woah Woah Woah time out, Frankie lets put on our safety kit first before you drive us in a ditch.” The trio don helmets, gloves, and gloves, and then after another pause and a few more jerking motions, the tank halted, now ready to leave the barn. "Foward Frankie, let's take it slow. We aren't here to impress anyone just out for a drive.” Jenning was standing half out of the turret, just observing the other two tank crews.

 

[Jackson123]

The Tiger slowly rolled to the fighting position set up at the edge of the shooting range. It’s a trench build for tanks, essentially a large ramp complete with hull defilade and turret defilade, covered with tarpaulin and dug to be large enough to fit the German heavy panzer into the entrenched position.




“Forward, Forward! OK Halt!” Hilda was outside the tank to guide Mei into position. The Tiger gracefully stopped at a steady hull down position, with only the turret exposed outside the defence position. Hilda only now looks around and saw that back in the barn the M4 Sherman and the Type 97 had also rolled out for their exercise. She heard the rapping from the Sherman, and the motion of the Type 97 looked as clumsy as it can get. Although she couldn’t say for sure if her own Tiger is doing worse. It’s inadequately crewed with only 3 members and the driver is brand new. Hilda could only hope more people would join later on. After all a tank is only as good as her crew.

The tank firing range is a hill littered with tank wrecks, broken cars, sandbag emplacements as targets for the big guns.

Hilda climb back into the heavy panzer and noticed her sister Misaki had already position herself at the gunner station directly under and in front of the commander’s seat. Hilda descended to the loader’s station since it’s vacant, while trying help Misaki to get around the gunner equipments.

Misaki had saw the seniors operating the main gun, so it didn’t take long for her to realise what those wheels and pedals are for. One of the pedals control the hydraulic motor whose pump was powered by mechanical drive from the engine to rotate the 11 tonne turret, the other pedal is for the coaxial machine gun. Directly under the gun sights there’s a handwheel for slight horizontal adjustments, while to her right underneath the main gun is the elevation handwheel, which was connected by a shaft to the elevation gearbox on the right side of the turret, also attached is the firing trigger behind the wheel.

“See inside the sights, do you remember the basics of the Zeiss optics layouts?” Hilda asked.

“I’ve read about them I think. The triangles are divided by mils....or ticks, are they not?”



“Precisely. Each mils resembles 1 meter as seen from 1000 meters away. Therefore, to get the distance of the target, all you got to do is to know the targets size and match it against your sights. The formula is the size of the target divided by mils, and times it by 1000. Now, let’s try shooting something....”

Hilda hang on to the side of the loader’s hatch and looked around the parameter. “OK, let’s shoot at that red Honda Accord at our 2 o’clock. The size of an Accord is around 4.7 meters in length and 1.7 meters in width.”

“Got it, ermmm....so it’s occupying the bottom of two triangles, thats...6 mils, divide 4.7 meters, times 1000....”

It took a bit of time for Misaki to calculate 4.7/6*1000 in her head, and set the sight to 780 meters. At the meantime, an 8.8cm Panzergranate had been swiftly loaded into the breech by Hilda.

“Safety off, you may fire when ready.” Hilda said.

The main gun fired only a split second after she gave the words. An explosion of sound and smoke, the turret was filled with the mild acrid smell of the nitroguanidine propellent before the ventilation drawn them out of the crew compartment.

Hilda held up the binoculars and observes the target. The shell falls exactly in front of the Honda Accord.

“Misaki, these 8.8cm shells had very high muzzle velocity, and they travels in a long stretched arc.” Hilda reminded her sister as she pick up another training round to load it into the breech. “When you set the distance, you have to add it up by mils from ground to the middle of your target and times it by 100.”

It took a few more shots before the TNT filled practice projectile had finally hit the Honda Accord it was intended for.

 

[Kinzu Hekmatyar]

The Type 97 crawled along at a quarter of its speed, with Frankie grumbling about controls, and with a quick motion, she opens the vision port. She and Jennings saw the flash of the 8.8 from the tiger, and Jenning whistled aloud, "That's a big gun right there.” Marshal flinched from inside the tank, "Uwah, what was that ? Are we under fire !? ". This causes Frankie to snicker, "Not even close...the tiger tank just took a shot at something out there...can't tell if they hit or miss though". The Type 97 would soon make it to the trench, with Jenning observing it before nodding, "Go ahead and find us a snug spot in this trench, Frankie I just need to be able to see, “and after the pause, the light tank enters the trench rolling a distance down and stop to expose just the turret. Jenning had no intention of using the gun but was going to play the part. After getting a set of binoculars from the tank, she scans the horizon. "Marshal feels free to rotate the turret to 11'clock, and I'll say elevation to uhm 50 degrees and fire for effect," She said with a rather relax and neutral tone and would lean back reclining on the back of the turret. Below is the tank. Marshal’s face brightens up at the orders Jennings was going to let her shoot after all ,"On the way !" Marshal began to look around the tank, then it clicked. There was no ammo in the tank. They never loaded any. Marshal would meekly call up to Jenning, "We forgot to load ammo after the brief Jenning.." and though she had a share of the blame, she expected Jenning to explode at her. It didn't happen, though. With a glance down and shrug, "Don't worry about it, just get used to the gun and practice locating the target I call out and the degrees...". Frankie sucked her teeth," it’s a pity after seeing the 8.8 fire; I doubt we could've held a flame to that sound". Frankie did, however, close her vision port and began to study her control silently. While the current began to jerk to 10 ‘clock and the degree was closer to 60 than 50. This kind of shadowboxing would focus on their gunnery, with Jenning contently calling out directions and the turret either overshooting and creeping back after Jenning calling out corrections.

 

[Inactive User 002]

Back in the tank garage while people are out having fun with there tank all but only one member of Strv m/42 crew was having fun at the moment. Fumiko was cheerfully fiddling and fixing the engine on there tank making sure everything was perfect. Sitting spread out on the turret top where the other team members who where board to tears. Hoshi hanging upside down on top of the tank ask in a sweetly begging voice "Please Fumiko can we just go I wanna shoot something please please please." Still working on the engine Fumiko just mumbles "just a couple more minutes." What Fumiko doesn't realise is that is what she said a while ago. Emiko chooses this moment to chirp "please Fumiko can we go I'm out of games and I've already braided Namika's hair as much as I can." That got Namika's attention away from coding on her laptop as she turns around shouting "WHAT! I never said you could to do that." Namika runs her fingers over her new braids chewing her lip concerned what they look like. Lifting her head up Hoshi sits up to comfort her friend "relax Namika they make you look cute." Emiko just nods "I think she's extra cute." Namika just blushes hiding her scarlet face behind her laptop while Emiko and Hoshi just give her a hug. Unfortunately while this is going on they miss Fumiko finishing up until she starts the engine and the tank jerks forward. All three girls on top of the tank just fall in a heap on top of the turret and they all yell the same thing "Hey we're not in the tank!" A sheepish "sorry" calls up from inside the tank. Sighing all three friend start climbing in rolling their eyes at their friends obliviousness.