Chapter 5: We're Fighting Our Cousins! II

A/N: I finally found the name for the kind of terrain I had in mind for the match! I was never pleased with calling it a 'forest' or 'woods' with 'dense foliage', because it almost sounded like I was describing a jungle. But I found it! The kind of terrain I had in mind was 'shrubland'! Go Google it!

The tanks rolled forward, the M6 leading the way, protecting the Chaffee behind it. To its right, the Valiant and Sherman DD drivers struggled to not slam their feet on the throttle. To the M6's left, the SU-76I and Nahuel were expertly keeping in line.

All the commanders were unbuttoned, they needed as much visibility as they could get for the plan to be effective. Friedrich didn't usually ride unbuttoned, usually only in tense situations where she was sick of not being able to spot an enemy only a few feet away.

The tanks carved through the thick foliage, only vaguely being slowed down. Friedrich only just now started to appreciate how dense the forest was. There were very few footpaths, a few trees had fallen over and uprooted, and nowhere stayed level for too long before either dipping or rising.

"Two of Clubs to all commanders, remember to keep your eyes peeled and on the horizon," Friedrich relayed into the radio.

"Are we firing as soon as we spot them, or do we alert you and shoot as one?" Hijiri asked one tank over. It was uncanny to watch her talk whilst being only so far away and yet - due to the cacophony of engines - to only hear her voice through the radio.

"Alert the rest of the squad to the enemy's position, but don't wait for the rest of us to aim to start shooting. We want to harass the target as much as possible to suppress them, and eventually eliminate them. I'll alert you all if your orders change. Understood?"

"Three of Diamonds, understood, Commander," said Hijiri.

"Five of Hearts, loud and clear!" said Sakura.

"Seven of Diamonds, sure thing," said Bellagio.

"Eight of Spades, understood," said Yui.

"You got it, Freddy!" said Aika.

Friedrich smiled. On any other day she might have rolled her eyes and felt silently irritated over a near perfect roll call, but she just couldn't stay mad at Aika's enthusiasm.

"Pepperoni, give me a visual report," Anchovy was sweeping through the forest in the east, giving the middle of the map a wide berth. A Semovente rolled alongside her to provide bodyguard support, as the P40 was Anzio's flag tank for the match. The second Semovente was sweeping around the west.

Pepperoni and her squad of CV.33s had zipped off the moment they had heard Anchovy utter the first syllable of 'Avanti'. They were storming through the forest down the middle, their driving akin to dirt rally racers. The constant changes in elevation with all the humps in the terrain made it feel like a rollercoaster ride.

"Nothing to report yet, Duce!" Pepperoni relayed back enthusiastically with a big grin. Anchovy rolled her eyes. Only Pepperoni could sound excited over seeing nothing. "We're approximately a few klicks into the woods now, and all is crispy!"

"Wait... you're that far in and you haven't seen them?"

"Nope, nothing!"

"Then where are they?" Anchovy muttered, more to herself than anything. The tankettes weren't that fast, they should've met at least one enemy tank by now. Bending at the knees, she called through, "Driver, go slower, they could be having the same idea as us and lurking along the outskirts."

"Si!"

"Pepperoni, change formation from 'salami stick' to 'pizza sauce'. I want every inch of that forest surveyed!"

"You got it, Duce!"

Roulette team had drifted towards the east, partly because Friedrich didn't want to charge straight through the middle of the map, but mostly because the terrain had forced them. There had been a sheer ten foot drop they wanted to avoid, and the only way forward was to drift east.

Friedrich was starting to worry. Some of the commanders were asking to pick up the pace or break formation as the crew were getting bored. Not only that, but the longer they went without seeing the enemy, the more skittish she felt. The anticipation of finally seeing the yellows of a Semovente's eyes was crushing.

Bored of being forced to cruise at five kilometres an hour, Chiyo opened up a radio transmission with Sumi in the Sherman DD, "Hey, Sumi. Who do you think would win in a race between us?"

"Are you seriously asking that? The Sherman beats the Valiant any day!"

Friedrich allowed it. So long as the commanders were on the look out, all the drivers needed to worry about was keeping in a straight line.

"Yeah, but we all know I'm a better driver," Chiyo retorted.

A few others jumped into the transmission from other tanks to offer some "ooooh!"s. "Them's fightin' words!", Sakura added.

Sumi responded with, "This coming from a dwarf who can't reach the pedals without sitting in her high chair."

Even Friedrich couldn't help but snigger at the retort.

"That was a low blow!" said Chiyo.

"Not as low as your height," quipped Bellagio.

"Hey!" snapped Chiyo, "Nobody asked you, you skank!"

Bellagio flashed daggers in the direction of the Valiant. "You want to crawl out of your hole and say that to my face, you dirty cow!"

"Come over here and grab her yourself!" Aika said in Bellagio's direction with a beat of her chest, "But you'll have to get past me first!"

"I wasn't talking to you, you filthy masochist!"

"Masochist?!" Aika said, slapping herself in the face to get some adrenaline pumping. "What's wrong with masochism, sadist?"

"Guys, please..." Friedrich pleaded, a little too quietly.

"Oh the irony of retorting with the old 'I wasn't talking to you' excuse, when you yourself invaded the conversation," Yui shook her head with a rather patronising tut.

"Oh the irony that you're doing that right now!" Bellagio hissed.

"Am I? I was merely making an observation."

"Don't you get sassy with me, gaijin!"

"And now we descend into completely meaningless insults. Doesn't your family have Italian ancestry?"

"My Daddy owns our ship! So don't you-!"

"'My Daddy' this, 'my Daddy' that," Ocean whined from the Nahuel gunner seat, "Just be glad none of you live with her. It's like this 24/7."

That earned a few chuckles.

"Ocean! I SWEAR TO GOD!"

"Duce, I don't think we have anything to worry about," Pepperoni reported into the radio.

"What's going on?"

"I'm observing the enemy as we speak. The commanders are all shouting at each other. Their hierarchy appears to be in complete disarray."

"Really? I expected Friedrich would be able to command respect from her troops. Do you mean they're physically shouting at each other?"

"Si."

"So they're all together?"

"They're travelling in a spread formation with the flag tank hiding behind the M6. They're moving at a slow pace through the forest."

"So despite their bickering they're maintaining formation?"

"Yeah, but only just."

"Attacking them will be too dangerous then. A team like that might have an itchy trigger finger. I can't sacrifice a single Semovente just to take out one of their own."

"So what's the plan?"

Anchovy sniggered on the other end of the line. Pepperoni grew an all-knowing shark smile. She knew the Duce had a plan.

Friedrich finally managed to get the team under control again and they continued combing through the forest in their wide convoy.

When suddenly, Aika gasped like it was Christmas. In her excitement, she frantically blurted, "Keiko! Onetwothree o'clock! On the ridge! Firefirefire!" she hopped up and down in the basket.

Keiko swung the Valiant's gun to the right, raising the gun as she went. She saw a streak of yellow as her optics shot past a Semovente.

A mere second after Aika had started giving her orders, to her right Hijiri was giving her own orders to her Sherman DD.

"Azumi! Twenty degrees up, left a bit!"

Keiko lined the shot up in the Valiant, and Azumi was on the target in a flash. Keiko cursed as she saw the target start to roll out of sight. The guns fired and the two tracer shells soared through the air toward the target.

The Semovente just crawled out of sight into the foliage, and the shells harmlessly struck either the ground or the tree near where it had just been.

As per their orders, the volley of fire from the other tanks soon followed. Four shells fired at staggered times bombarded the rough area around where the Semovente had been spotted. They were either off target from the frantic aiming, or they disappeared harmlessly into the bushes.

As the loaders then got to work with reloading the guns as quickly as they could, Aika opened up a team-wide transmission.

"Freddy, we've got the bastard on the run, let's chase it!"

"No," came Friedrich's response, "We avert our course to advance in that direction, but we can't go rushing into-"

A loud bang could then be heard, and a shell scraped the side of the Valiant's hull.

"You bitch!" Aika screeched. She darted her bloodshot eyes to the source and saw what she thought to be the same Semovente in the same spot with its gun pointed their way.

"All tanks..." Friedrich started her order, "Load up, aim and-"

"CHARGE!" Aika yelled.

"What?! No-!"

"Up!" Aika heard Ume call from inside the vehicle.

"Chiyo, full speed ahead!" Aika squawked, leaning forward in an adrenaline fuelled craze, "Keiko, I want that Semi Venti's head on a platter!"

The Valiant roared - as best a Valiant could - as the throttle was slammed down. Chiyo screamed, "We'll make you eat sh-"

"Red Joker, get back here!" Friedrich half ordered, half pleaded. She started to hear a series of "ready"s in her ear from the other commanders as their loaders finished up. The Valiant spoke as a shell was fired haphazardly and uselessly chewed through a tree branch. Friedrich grit her teeth.

"Scheisse! All tanks, seize fire!"

She bent her knees and yelled directly into the compartment, "Yeka! Shoot that Semovente!"

Yekaterina wordlessly peered through the optics. She knew the urgency of the situation, but didn't fire blindly. Her gun was already aiming at the spot from earlier. All she had to do was make a slight adjustment and...

BANG

"Miss," she relayed. The Semovente had moved out of the way again.

"Dammit!" Friedrich balled her fist.

"Commander!" Hijiri jumped into the transmission, "Shall we go ahead and retrieve Red Joker? Or at least keep them safe?"

Friedrich knew bringing the Valiant back wasn't an option at this point, Aika was out of control. She had had too much of a head start, and the only tank that could catch them that wasn't the Chaffee was the Sherman.

"Three of Diamonds," Friedrich began to respond, "Go with them and provide covering fire..." the Sherman was already on the move, "Hijiri will assume command of this new squadron. Try not to engage the enemy if you can help it!"

"You got it, Commander!" Hijiri called with her hands cupped to her mouth. She gave a big smile and a peace sign as they zoomed off.

The Valiant was struggling to climb the incline up to the Semovente's vantage point. The Sherman would eventually catch up with it.

"Alright, Roulette," Friedrich said into the radio, "Let's continue advancing in formation."

The Valiant crawled up the hill.

"Go faster you useless piece of junk!" Chiyo shouted at the pedals.

"Maybe I should get out and push?" Ume asked half seriously, shoving a shell into the gun with her fist.

"It probably would make the thing go faster!" said Chiyo.

"Up, by the way," said Ume.

"Heeeey! Aikaaaa!" Aika turned to see the Sherman DD almost effortlessly catching up to them and rolling alongside them. Hijiri, still unbuttoned, was waving. Aika pouted at the sight of the Sherman making the climb look easy.

"If you're going into battle, you could at least use some help!" Hijiri smiled.

"And a better driver," Sumi said over the transmission.

Chiyo rammed the Valiant into the side of the Sherman. It didn't do much.

"Aika," Hijiri continued, "I'm going to circle around the spot we saw the Semovente. You should do the same, it could be waiting for us in ambush."

"Exactly!" Aika tapped her temple, "They know that we know they're waiting for us! So we double bluff them and go straight through!"

Hijiri... didn't know how to respond. She stared blankly with her mouth partially hanging open.

"Fine, go straight through if you want," Hijiri waved her hand, "But we're going ahead to-"

"NO! The Venti is ours! They shot us first!"

Hijiri held us her hands, "Alright! You can shoot the Semovente but we're still going to circle it!"

Aika grumbled to herself. "Fine!" she said. She turned to face forwards, laced her fingers together and pushed her palms out to crack her fingers. And then she slapped herself in the face and pumped her fist, "NOW LET'S DO THIS!"

Hijiri rolled her eyes and commanded Sumi to drive ahead. The Sherman picked up speed, and at further orders turned right to swoop around the dense foliage the Semovente was suspected to be hiding in. On top of this fill there was a cluster of trees, bushes and shrubs, with a ring of flat ground around it.

Hijiri kept her eyes peeled. She suspected the Semovente to be lying in ambush, but something else didn't feel right. Why would a single Semovente attack the entire Roulette force?

Whilst glancing around, she noticed tank tracks in the mud ahead. They looked like they came out of the foliage and then made a left turn to go around.

"I wonder where those ca-" she stopped suddenly at the realisation. "No, those tracks reversed! SUMI! STOP!"

Sumi nearly tore her arms off wrenching back on the levers. The Sherman braked sharply , tossing around everyone inside. And just in the nick of time.

Hijiri was deafened and scared half to death as a gun fired to the left. The shell glanced off the steep angled hull of the Sherman and ricocheted into the woods.

Hijiri didn't wait around to find out what that was. Disappearing into the cupola and pulling the hatch closed with her heart going at a million miles an hour, she ordered, "Reverse! Azumi, left!"

The Sherman started pulling backwards while the turret swung to the left. Hijiri couldn't see the target in the brush, so as soon as the gun was aiming vaguely to the far left, she ordered, "Fire!"

The shell tore through the foliage. The Sherman continued to reverse.

"You okay?" Aika asked over the radio.

"Come in, Three of Diamonds, what was that?" Friedrich asked.

"We were shot at by an unknown enemy!"

"Ha! So much for the middle being a lost cause!" Aika gloated. "We'll go through and cover your- oh SHI-"

Chiyo drove the Valiant straight through the brush. Aika was slapped about by branches as the Valiant tore through.

"Chiyo, what are you-?!"

"Realising my dream, Aika!"

The Valiant then crashed right into the Semovente Aika had spotted hiding in the foliage.

"Ah!" Aika panicked, "Keiko! Shoot!"

"I can hardly move the turret!" Keiko shouted back as the turret got tangled in strands.

"Chiyo, reverse!" Aika ordered.

The Semovente had had the same idea. Its crew were also panicking inside as the Valiant had done the unexpected.

"Red Joker, Three of Diamonds, what is going on?" Friedrich demanded.

"I'll call you back later, Freddy!" Aika answered. "Reverse, Chiyo! REVERSE!"

Over at the Sherman, Sumi tried to brake one tread sharply to do a 180 turn. An ambitious manoeuvre that saw little success. She'd only managed to kick the Sherman into a ninety degree turn and was now face to face with the mass of shrubs.

"Dammit!" she cursed.

Sumi wrestled with the controls to get the Sherman back on course. Hijiri glanced to where they had just been to only watch in horror as the P40 pulled itself out of the brush. She spotted the yellow golf flag erected on its hull. The turret was turning in their direction.

"Sumi! Just reverse!"

The Sherman rolled backward and a shell from the P40 shot past where they had just been. Azumi was already turning the turret to shoot at the P40.

"Up!" Akira called.

"Fire!" Hijiri ordered.

Azumi grimaced and fired. In her desperation to end the match by killing the flag tank, her aim was off. The shot ricocheted off the side of the P40's hull. "Dammit!

"Don't worry!" Hijiri assured, "Azumi, get us out of-"

Hijiri changed her mind when she saw the P40 turning and bolting for it.

"Scratch that, chase the flag tank!"

Sumi turned the Sherman and gave chase.

"Friedrich, this is Hijiri! We're currently in pursuit of their flag tank, the P40!"

"The flag tank is up there?! Which way is it going?"

"We're chasing it along the rim of this hill, around all these bushes in the middle! It's going to start heading back north!"

"Roger! We will maintain formation and advance forwards to intercept it!"

Meanwhile, the Semovente was desperately trying to reverse back through all the thick brush. Chiyo had managed to reverse the tank just enough for Keiko to get some wiggle room to turn the turret.

"That's perfect, Chiyo!" Keiko said, "Now-"

"Now ram the bitch again!" Aika ordered.

"What?! No, don't-!"

The Valiant rumbled as the engine pushed the tank forwards. Keiko tutted and aimed as best she could and fired. The shell scraped over the top of the Semovente. The Semovente fired in turn, but the impact of the Valiant ramming into it again jolted the gun and the shell flew off into the sky.

"Push!" Aika yelled.

"What good would that-?"

"PUSH!" Aika bellowed over Keiko.

The Valiant smothered against the Semovente, which was in turn reversing. The constant scraping and jolting forced the gunners in both tanks to give up on any attempts to get a clear shot.

The two tanks broke free of the thick foliage. The Semovente broke away from the Valiant with its reversing.

"Great!" Keiko said, "Now I can-"

She lined up the shot. And her heart sank when the Semovente disappeared as it reverse down a slope. "No!"

And then the P40 was speeding past her optics.

"Where did that come from?!" she hollered.

"It doesn't matter!" Aika shouted, "Catch that Semi Venti! It will not get away!"

"B-but it's the flag tan-"

"The Venti will rue the day it shot at us!"

Chiyo drove forwards, giving chase to the Semovente.

The Sherman DD, in full pursuit of the P40, had followed it around the brush. The P40 had cut between the Semovente and Valiant which had been pushing through the brush.

Sumi got the fright of her life when the Valiant suddenly cut in front of her. Screaming, she pulled hard on the brakes, but in her panic she didn't get the grip on one and it slipped out of her hand back into position.

The Sherman still collided with the Valiant, and the Valiant's momentum pulled the Sherman into facing the same direction as it. Now, the two tanks were on a one way trip down a very steep slope in pursuit of the Semovente.

With the Chaffee behind her, and the Nahuel and SU-76I to her left, Friedrich was keeping an eye out along the ridge to the right. The ground was quite high and stayed like that some ways up north. Climbing the incline would slow all the tanks down to the point the P40 could zip away.

Friedrich didn't want to separate the group, but understood that worrying about formation was not going to help them in chasing the flag tank. Friedrich took a moment to sit down in her commander's seat to inspect the map. After some quick consideration, she stood back up again.

"Eight of Spades..." she said into the radio to the SU-76I, "And Seven of Diamonds..." and to the Nahuel crew, "You two go ahead. Track down that P40 and eliminate it."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Commander?" asked Yui.

"We're quite close to the Eastern border of the map. The P40 has only one direction to go in, and that's North. If either of you can pull ahead of it and cut it off while the other comes up from the rear, we've got our victory."

"You got it, Friedrich!" Bellagio responded.

"I'll be guarding the Chaffee, so you two will have to take the initiative. Neither one of you is in command. Work together, not against each other."

The Nahuel and SU-76I pulled away, tearing ahead with speeds the M6 could not hope to match.

"So, Friedrich," said Sakura, "What's our plan?"

"We will move into the heart of the woods to hide from the enemy. My M6 will act as your bodyguard and escort."

"Geez, I hope we get to do some hectic shooting of our own eventually! Everyone else is off doing their own thing!"

And right on cue, they heard a cannon firing somewhere in the forest.

"Sorry, Sakura, but I'm taking all precautions I can to keep the flag tank safe."

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry honey, I hear ya!"

Chiyo and Sumi wrestled with their driver controls in a desperate attempt to keep the tank straight. Not so they could drive it, they had no hope in hell of doing that. Whilst slipping down this extremely steep incline, they had to keep the tanks as straight as possible so they didn't flip over. At some point the Valiant had pulled slightly ahead of the Sherman in the descent.

The Semovente was bouncing and trotting as well as it reversed down the hill. None of the gunners in any of the three tanks bothered to take their chances with a lucky shot. Their optics were being tossed around in all directions and looking anywhere from the blue sky to the dirt in the ground.

Hijiri held the sides of her basket to avoid slamming her head against the sides. Aika on the other hand had foam padding on the sharp edges. She bust the cupola open and stuck her head out, whilst getting tossed around inside the basket.

And she gasped in delight.

"It's the trenches!" she cried.

As Friedrich had said, the network of trenches left behind by small rivers and stream was present in this bowl in the terrain. All the land around them was much higher, except for a slight parting in between the hills where all the water would've spilled out.

As the ground started to even off, and get muddier in the process, the Semovente made one last drop into one of the dry stream beds, several feet deep.

"Follow them!" Aika ordered.

Chiyo slammed her foot on the throttle, and the treads of the Valiant started kicking up mud, spraying the front of the Sherman behind it.

"I can't see!" cried Sumi as her vision slits were sprayed with mud.

The Valiant made a nosedive into the trenches after the Semovente. With a blind driver and a commander that couldn't see much better, the Sherman followed it in. The girls inside screamed in terror as they felt all the weight of the vehicle tip forward. Azumi grabbed onto the nearest thing she could think of for support, and accidentally fired the gun right into the ground, which would become the cannon fire that Friedrich heard.

"What was that?!" cried Azumi, her knuckles white from gripping the handles of the gun in terror.

"Did we fall of a cliff?" asked Sumi.

"That wasn't a steep enough drop to be a cliff..." said Youmi.

"Those damn Jokers!" cursed Sumi. She popped the driver's hatch open and crawled out. "We're in a trench!" she relayed back to the crew. She lent forwards over the front of the Sherman and scraped the mud off her visor.

"Where's Red Joker?" asked Hijiri.

"I can't see them."

"Come in, Red Joker, this is Three of Diamonds. Where are you?"

"Red Joker is currently in pursuit of the enemy! We're chasing this bitch around this maze!"

"Which direction did you go?"

"Right? No, left... I can't remember! Just drive around until you find the Venti and shoot it!"

"Maybe we could drive out?" asked Azumi. "And we could drive around the trenches or in between them?"

"These slopes seem too slippery and steep," said Sumi, twisting in her driver's seat with an arm slumped over the backrest.

"The Semovente is too low to spot from up there," said Hijiri, thinking aloud, "And we don't have the gun depression to shoot down."

"How about driving back up the hill and using it to aim lower?" asked Akira.

"If the Semovente spots us doing that, we're a sitting duck," Hijiri shook her head, "We'll be really slow driving up that slope."

"So our only option is to drive around like a rat in a maze with the Jokers, hoping we find the Vente and shoot it before it shoots us?" Azumi asked worriedly.

"It seems like it," Hijiri nodded, "Everyone back to your positions. Sumi, I'm going to give you driving orders. Azumi, I want your gun always pointing forward when on straight paths, but turn the turret around corners ahead of the tank, our short barrel will help us here. Youmi, I want Red Joker to tell us when they spot the Semovente and what its position is."

Hijiri pulled out a map and folded it over to the part with the trenches on it, then laid it out across her lap. She pulled out a marker pen and jotted down the spot where they were.

"You're not unbuttoning, Hijiri?" asked Azumi.

"No," Hijiri responded, "I'm going to guide you by map, and I need to mark down the Semovente's last sightings."

"Good idea!" said Sumi. "Which way?"

"Left."

Neither of the drivers of the SU-76I or Nahuel were waiting around for the other. They also paid little attention to the damage they might be inflicting on their poor transmission. Or the people in the vehicle. Much to some of the latter's despair.

"Dammit, Emgie!" cried Bellagio, "Slow down!"

"I can't, sis! The P40 has already got a head start!"

"Good for the P40!" Bellagio snarked sarcastically.

"Oh sweet, a ramp!" Emgie cried.

"Now you're just doing it for the-" Bellagio was cut short as she felt all the weight of her body leave her like she was going down in a fast elevator. The tracks of the Nahuel crashed back down to the ground and everyone was jolted inside.

"I'm going to get whiplash!" Ocean complained.

"Finally, something we agree on..." said Bellagio.

"You still keeping up with us?" Yui asked.

"Unfortunately," Bellagio responded. She then cursed as she remembered what they were meant to be doing. She popped her head out of the cupola to get a better view to look around. Nearby she could see Yui, already with her torso sticking out of her turret. Yui waved with what Bellagio could swear was a smirk.

"Have you spotted anything?" Bellagio asked.

"Negative," said Yui, watching the ridge above them to their right, "I've been keeping my eye on that ridge line and I haven't-"

"Behind you!"

Yui darted her head in the other direction and immediately saw the Semovente coming out of the clearing that Bellagio had spotted. They had been travelling parallel to a wall of shrubbery on their left and were sticking to flatter ground. The Semovente was emerging from a parting in the foliage.

"Maria, brake left!" Yui ordered.

Maria yanked on the brakes and the SU-76I skidded to a stop, with the braking angling the tank to face in the direction of the Semovente.

"Akisa," Yui shouted in Russian, as she did when she spoke to her sister in the tank, "Fire!"

Akisa wasn't ready for the shot, she couldn't shoot in time. The Semovente fired at them, and the shell glanced off their side armour. It then turned to its right and vanished into the forest.

"That was lucky they missed," Yui noted.

"You okay?" Bellagio asked, the Nahuel pulling beside the SU-76I within shouting distance.

"We're fine," Yui responded. "Did you see any other hostiles?"

Bellagio gave a quick glance around the forest. "None. Just the one."

"We need to keep moving, it could be coming back, and the P40 is going to be getting away."

And the duo set off again, desperately trying to make up lost ground. The Semovente wasn't important to them right now, as its elimination wasn't going to win them the game. That didn't stop both Yui and Bellagio giving a few quick glances behind to make sure they weren't being followed.

After a couple of minutes, something dawned on Yui.

"How did they know where we were?" she asked into the radio.

Bellagio paused, unable to respond. "That's... a good question..."

"I have a theory."

"Well, don't leave me hanging."

"Do you think the commander could've been correct in her predictions of a reconnaissance unit?"

The conversation was bizarre for the two. They were having a face to face discussion, looking between each other over their tanks, but speaking into radios because of all the noise.

"Maybe, but why spy on us and not the flag tank?" asked Bellagio.

"Because we're going after their flag tank. It's just as important, if not more so, that their flag tank stays alive and safe."

"So we've got tankettes watching us right now?"

"It's not implausi- No, it makes complete sense! How did they know to where we were to shoot us from the hill earlier?"

"Well, damn! Maybe we should split up to find the little tykes, then? Spread them out a bit?"

"No, because right now our priority is- TANK!" Yui fisted the air with a pointing finger.

Bellagio's head snapped in the direction Yui was looking and she saw it. The P40 was above them driving on the ridge in the same direction as them, its little yellow golf flag springing about. The SU and Nahuel were ever so slightly faster than it and they were slowly gaining on it.

"Ocean, 45 degrees right, aim up!" Bellagio ordered.

"Akisa, target 60 degrees right, about ten to fifteen high!" Yui commanded.

The gunners responded, executing their respective commander's orders.

"Come on, Ocean, we could win the match with this!" said Bellagio.

"Don't pressure me!"

"Akisa," Yui said in Russian, "One shot, one kill, that's all it needs..."

"Maria, stop the tank, I can't aim like this."

Maria saw a request like that from Roulette's best sniper like an order from her commander. She pulled back on the brakes to give Akisa the stability she needed.

In the Nahuel, Ocean was banking on a moving shot to get the kill. The optics bounced up and down, the P40 was rarely ever in sight.

"Fire when ready," said Bellagio.

Ocean took the shot. And it almost hit. It struck the ground near the tracks and caused the ridge to collapse beneath the P40. The tank almost fell down with it, with the rear half of the vehicle being dragged down, but the driver managed to keep it under control. That was right when Akisa took her own shot, and had the P40 kept moving, the shot would've intercepted the flag tank. Instead, it missed.

"дерьмо!" Akisa cursed.

"Don't worry, Akisa!" said Airi, shoving in the next shell she already had ready, "You'll get the next one!"

"Akisa, we have company coming from the rear!" said Yui.

"Seriously?" Akisa groaned and started to rotate the turret.

"Maria, get us moving, our rear is exposed!"

Maria started to turn the tank on the spot, without much thought for the direction. She rotated the tank in the opposite way to Akisa rotating the turret.

"What are you doing?!' Akisa exclaimed, "Go the other way!"

"Oh, sorry!" Maria cried.

"No, don't go the other way!" shouted Yui, "You've already started one way, don't stop now!"

"What do you want me to do?!" Maria threw her arms up.

"Just rotate the fu-!" Yui's ears exploded as she heard a shell strike the side of their tank. Cursing profusely, she waited for the schwift of the white flag.

The Semovente that shot them from behind, satisfied with its kill, adjusted its course to make a beeline for the Nahuel.

At this point, Bellagio only just noticed what was going on with her comrades that she had left in the dust.

"They found us again?!" she growled. She gave a quick glance back up to the ridge only to find the P40 had disappeared, probably into the woods above them. "Well, they're gone now. Emgie! One eighty!"

Emgie pulled on the right brake and the Nahuel did a sweeping U-turn, and charged toward the Semovente that was heading directly toward them.

"Don't mess this one up, Ocean!" said Bellagio.

"I will with all this rocking!"

"Get ready to fire!"

Ocean gritted her teeth.

"Emgie! Break!"

Emgie pushed with her feet against the driver's compartment to pull the brakes back. The tank rocked forward from the momentum, digging its tracks into the dirt from the brake force. The Semovente had fired at that moment, narrowly missing the top of Bellagio's head.

Ocean took the shot as soon as the gun had levelled off, but the Semovente veered off to the side after firing and the shell only chipped the corner of its rear hull.

"Dammit!" Ocean stamped her foot, "So close!"

Bellagio watched as the Semovente disappeared into the woods once more.

"Those damn cowardly Italians!" she hissed, "These bait-and-retreat tactics are really starting to grind my gears!"

Bellagio ordered the Nahuel to pull up alongside the SU-76I, just as the crew of said tank were starting to clamber out of it with extra track parts.

"How's it going?" asked Bellagio. "Your treads have seen better days."

"Yeah, turns out the Semovente just detracked us," said Yui, "We're still in the game, thankfully."

"How long do you think that Semovente was following us? It couldn't have been radio'd in by the P40, it responded far too quickly."

"I don't think it was following us. That foliage is too thick to keep up with us at our speed. We're travelling on the only flat ground."

"Then how did they find us?"

"My money is still on the-" and Yui stopped speaking, like she had seen a ghost.

"What?" asked Bellagio.

"Don't turn around," said Yui with a lowered voice, making some random hand and finger gestures in the air, like she was coordinating a battle plan. "But right behind you, on the ridge where the P40 was, is a CV.33."

"Seriously?" Bellagio asked.

"Give me a second..." said Yui. She turned to her crew and said in a raised voice, "Keep working on the tracks, guys, I'm going to contact the commander."

Yui climbed inside the tank. Bellagio did her best to look bored by resting her chin on her hand, propped up by her elbow on the rim of the cupola. She desperately wanted to turn around to look at the CV.33.

A moment later, the SU-76I's gun started moving. It aimed up at the ridge and fired, giving the girls the fright of their life.

The CV.33 tried to make a mad dash for it, but was caught off guard. Yui was no gunner, however, and the shot didn't land where she wanted. It struck the ridge line and once again the ground crumbled beneath the intended target.

The little tankette wasn't as lucky as the P40, and it fell down the almost vertical cliff face.

"That has to be the tankette that's been watching us," Bellagio heard Yui say over the radio.

"Right, that's it," Bellagio growled, "These little snakes have pushed me to my limit! Emgie, turn the tank!"

"Wh-what?" Yui poked her head out of the cupola, radio headset in hand. "What are you doing?"

The tankette flipped and turned several times as it fell down to their level. The crew inside were not comfortable. But with adrenaline coursing through their veins, the driver was quick to get the tankette moving again as soon as it landed back on its tracks.

"I'm going after them!" Bellagio responded, and as the Nahuel starting to pull away, Bellagio waved a finger at Yui as she shouted, "Get your track fixed ASAP and go find Friedrich! Tell her we lost the P40! NOW COME HERE YOU LITTLE FU-!"

"Language, sis."

Yui blinked as she watched Bellagio's Nahuel give chase to the little tankette. Stopping her was futile.

"What do we do, Yui?" asked Airi.

"Exactly as she said," Yui responded, "We get the track fixed and then go find Friedrich."

A couple of minutes later, while she was helping her crew attach the new track parts, Yui and the others heard an engine revving. Looking in its direction, they saw the P40 coming out from around the curving cliff face, heading west back into the forest, completely oblivious to the fact the SU wasn't eliminated yet.

"Oh no..." Yui croaked.

Friedrich's eyes stung from lack of blinking as the M6 rolled slowly through the forest. She didn't want to take any chances. She was looking at every bush, every hill, every parting in the foliage, behind them, anywhere a search and destroy force could be hiding or watching them from. Over and over in her head she weighed the pros and cons as to whether she should let the Chaffee go in front or behind, or if she should recall a tank to come and help protect the flag tank.

Her knuckles were white from gripping the rims on the hatch. Her heart was beating faster. The calm before the storm was unbearable. She held her breath repeatedly to anticipate the need to bellow an order.

And then she heard it. An engine. She already had two engines rumbling in her ears, but she'd been hearing them for so long now they had become white noise. No, this engine she was hearing through the noise was different, and distant.

She darted her head from left and right.

"Where...?" she whispered to herself. "Where are you?"

With so much noise, she couldn't make out which way it was coming from. Left? Right?

It was both.

From either side, some ways into the forest, the shrubs were being disturbed.

"Yeka, aim right! Sakura, aim left!"

The two turrets turned to aim towards their targets. Friedrich couldn't see the approaching tanks, which only worried her more. They were definitely coming, then why couldn't they...?

It occurred to her.

"Aim low! Tankettes, approaching from both sides!"

Yekaterina depressed the gun and fired. The shell ripped through the foliage and got a lucky hit on a CV.33, evidenced by the shower of smoke and pyrotechnics. Over in the Chaffee, Yuno wasn't so lucky with her blind fire.

"Dammit! Bastard tiny tankettes the size of golf balls!" she cursed.

A CV.33 leapt out of the bushes on the left and fired uselessly into the side of the M6, its pathetic machine gun rounds pinging off. It swerved and drove parallel to it and then made a sharp turn into a drift, and fired at the Chaffee as it slid across the ground.

"Aah!" Sakura squealed, "Friedrich we're under fire!"

"Then fire back!"

The Chaffee reversed with its incredible speed. Mai worked frantically to get another shell loaded into the Chaffee's gun. Yekaterina turned the turret as quickly as she could, waiting for Nelson to say the magic word 'Up'.

The CV.33 straightened itself, shooting the Chaffee with a few more glancing shots before disappearing into the woods.

"Phew," said Sakura, "Lucky we survived that!"

Friedrich wasn't convinced. Sending in two tankettes to take out a Chaffee guarded by an M6 was too risky.

Suddenly, from the right, a CV.33 leapt out of nowhere.

"Yeka! Shoot it!"

The CV.33 shot at the Chaffee a few times before weaving through the gap between the M6 and Chaffee. It turned to be parallel to the flag tank and disappeared into the woods like the first.

"What is going on? I thought you shot that one?" asked Sakura.

"Probably just a glancing shot that didn't eliminate the tank." Friedrich theorised, based on the Ooarai vs Anzio footage she watched. "Right now, they're baiting us, trying to break our formation. Sakura, turn around, and reverse as we continue. I want your rear guarded by mine."

"Ooh la la, Friedrich!"

Friedrich rolled her eyes.

"But you're asking Allison to drive blind! She can't see backwards!"

"Then you're going to have to direct her. If those tankettes come back, they're going to try shooting you in the back. You're a light tank, and even MGs from that close will eliminate you."

"Tch. Fiiiiiiiine!"

Allison spun the tank 180 degrees and reversed it, almost ramming the back of the Chaffee into the rear of the M6 with the lack of rear sight.

"Now, keep your gun aimed forwards and-"

"Your forwards or my forwards?"

"Yours. Keep it aimed forwards and shoot any tank you see."

"You got it!"

"Friedrich, come in!"

"Oh, gott. What now?" Friedrich groaned. "Friedrich here. What's wrong?"

"This is Yui! The P40 disabled our track! It's heading west back into the forest!"

"What about the Nahuel?"

"They've gone looking for the CV.33 that's acting as a recon unit. We were attacked by a Semovente before we ever even saw the P40. They always seem to know where we are!"

"So the P40 is heading in our direction?"

"Yes, possibly even with a Semovente."

The desperation of their scenario dawned on Friedrich. She had two tanks missing in the forest subduing a single enemy, one tank with its track broken several miles away, another tank going AWOL, and it was just her to protect the flag-tank while two tankettes circled them with two more enemy vehicles heading in their direction.

"This... this isn't good..."

A/N: Phew. Writing tank battles is hard. You have to think about the positions of everyone involved, and you need to come up with two plans to work against each other that could plausibly sound like they were made by their respective commanders without making either one seem too stupid.

Let me know what you thought of this one. It's nowhere near perfect. The pacing is way too fast, but at 7k words I didn't want to make the chapter any bigger.