Inspired by Girls und Panzer
By William J. Law
It was still early in the morning. A lone Panther G belonging to Kuromorimine sat on top of a hill, using some foliage for concealment. Their job was to act as the early warning system for the rest of the armored forces in the hills. The gunner climbed out of the tank as quietly as she could so she wouldn’t disturb anyone. After making her way to a small gathering of trees and bushes, the gunner pulled down her skirt and underwear, then knelt down. After she finished her business, she pulled her bottom back up and walked back to the Panther. She had just climbed onto the engine deck of her tank and after she had straightened up, there, no more than fifty feet away, was the barrel of Pravda’s IS-2. She blinked before reality caught up with her.
“What the-?!”
The IS-2 fired and destroyed the Panther. The gunner was blown off the tank. The IS-2 returned its gun to the forward position and left the white-flagged Panther to burn. The rest of the Kuromorimine forces jumped out of their sleeping bags at the sound of the IS-2’s gun going off.
“What was that?” someone asked.
“Misfire?”
They were soon given the answer when a horde of Kuromorimine’s T-34/76s crested a hill in the distance.
“Get in your tanks!” Anzu shouted.
The silent hills broke out into a clamor of orders and engines coming to life.
“Go, go, go!”
“Get the engine started!”
“Load AP!”
The first T-34 came over the hill and started firing. Geshiko was running towards her tank. Her loader was farther ahead and tripped.
“Come on, let’s go!” Geshiko said as she pulled her loader to her feet.
The T-34 fired and it bounced off the gun mantlet of the Panther. The Panther returned fire but missed. Geshiko and her loader finally made it to the tank.
“Get up there!” Geshiko pushed the loader onto the engine deck. The loader successfully made it up and crawled through the rear hatch in the turret. Geshiko was about to climb up herself when the T-34’s bow machinegun came to life. The stream of tracers headed right for her! She dove for cover behind the tank and proceeded to climb onto the back of the tank.
“What the hell do they think they’re doing?!” was all she could say before flinching when her tank became the center of attention of all the enemy tanks within a line of sight. Not bothering to climb into the tank, she took cover behind the turret.
“Back it up!” she shouted through the rear hatch.
The driver threw the stick into reverse and slammed her foot onto the pedal.
“How could they do something like this?” the radio operator whimpered. “We didn’t report that we were combat ready.”
“It’s just like that little brat to take this sport too far,” Geshiko said as she closed the rear hatch behind her. She was referring to last season when Pravda tried to level a building with Ooarai still inside it.
~o~
Erika held her jacket over her head as she made her way towards the dorms. It was raining and most of the tanks were deserted as the crews went for cover. There was no telling when the rain would stop so the vice-captain decided that it would be a good time for a quick nap. She made her way to her room and just as she put her head on the pillow, there was a furious knocking on her door. With an annoyed grunt, she swung open her door. The girl that had knocked on her door was already halfway down the hallway, knocking on all the other doors.
“Would you stop this immature act, you first-year!” Erika shouted. The doors of the other rooms opened as their occupants looked up and down the hall to figure out what is going on.
“Commander Nishizumi told me too,” the girl said.
At that moment, Maho spoke over the intercom.
“We have an emergency situation. Pravda has begun their attack on the hills again, so everyone get to your vehicles immediately!”
The formerly empty hallway instantly became crowded as all the girls rushed to their respected vehicle. Erika joined the fray. The rest of her crew were already in their positions. Saya held an ice pack to her head. She apparently still had a headache from the encounter with the KV-2. Eko, the radio operator, was tuning her radio to Maho’s frequency. Chikari, the loader, slipped on a pair of gloves and grabbed a shell from the rack. The driver, Maya, toggled the ignition, and the engine rumble to life.
~o~
Ahead of the advancing Kuromorimine reinforcements were the hills. Even through the downpour, the tankers could see a fiery orange glow coming from the other side of the hill as well as individual columns of black smoke.
Maho went over the hill and immediately started firing. The two Tiger IIs and Panthers did the same. Erika looked out of the viewports of Tiger 131’s cupola. The hill shrunk as the Tiger climbed and when she was able to look over the hill, all she saw was absolute chaos. Muzzle flashes dominated the battlefield as glowing tracers flew all around. Tanks burst into flames and the familiar clink of the white flags popped up. Most of Kuromorimine were slowly backing up and only stopped to fire. Pravda swarmed over the opposite ridge in an endless stream. The more aggressive commanders on Maho’s team ordered their drivers to charge in and meet the enemy. Erika was one such commander.
“Get in there!” she ordered Maya.
Maya shifted gears and planted her foot on the pedal. Saya already shot and Chikari was loading in another round. A T-34 was approaching rapidly. Saya turned the turret and knocked it out. She barely had to move the gun before acquiring and destroying another target. Maho was having similar results. Just like Erika, she was at the front. Luckily, mud streaked the Tiger 1 and covered up the identification markings so she wouldn’t be the center of attention of every Pravda tank.
“Commander, behind you!” Maho heard a Tiger II commander yell over the radio. Maho looked behind her and saw a T-34 coming up on her rear. The Tiger II turned its turret and fired. The white flag popped up.
“Thank y-. Watch out!” Maho shouted to the Tiger II.
The Tiger II commander turned her attention in front of her. A T-34 was barreling down a slope right towards the Tiger II. The heavy tried to turn its turret to engage it, but before it could, the medium used the front sloped armor of the Tiger and lodged itself on the Tiger. The Tiger II could not move its turret with a twenty-six ton tank sitting against it.
“What the hell are they doing?!” Erika exclaimed as she witnessed more T-34s ram their opponents. Some succeeded in ramping of the sloped front armor while others did not. One Panther traversed just as the T-34 made it onto the front armor and flipped it over. The Panther fired a shell into the belly of the Pravda tank in anger.
“Fall back!” Maho ordered. “Fall back immediately!”
Maho’s driver began to back up, but a T-34 stopped right behind it and fired. A hole was put through the storage box on the back of the Tiger’s turret but it was not white-flagged yet. Another T-34 tried to ram the Tiger I head on but was taken out, its carcass rolling down the slope into Maho’s tank.
Maya rammed the T-34 that was blocking Maho’s retreat and pushed it into a crater that was made by the KV-2 earlier in an earlier battle. While Maya backed up, Saya shot the already stricken T-34. Erika reprimanded her for that.
“You’re clear, commander!” Erika said.
The two Tiger Is turned around to retreat.
Anzu was at the very back of the pack with Kuromorimine’s tank destroyers when she spotted something approaching in the distance.
“Is that…?” she asked herself. The student council president couldn’t get a clear image of what was approaching. She opened her hatch and tried to look again through binoculars. “It is! Nishizumi, this is Kadotani! There are seven T-34/85s and an IS-2 headed your way!” Anzu exclaimed.
“Maya, get us out of here now!” Erika ordered upon hearing the incoming foes.
“I’m trying! This mud isn’t helping!”
A couple of Panthers put themselves between the incoming enemy and the Tigers. The Panthers halted in a line. They fired and took out two T-34s which left five mediums rushing towards them. Nonna hung back in the IS-2 and fired, taking out one of the Panthers. Four T-34s gunned their engines and rushed the Panthers. As the Panthers reloaded, they were met by a wall of fire. The bow guns of the T-34s opened up with flame. The Panthers were engulfed by the flamethrowers much to the surprise and shock of Kuromorimine. The T-34s fired and disabled the opposing Panthers.
The remaining Tiger II fired at the IS-2 and crippled its drive shaft. Nonna turned the turret and destroyed the heavy. She looked just to catch sight of the retreating tanks cross over the hill.
Erika ordered Saya to turn the turret around and fire. The 88mm shell found its target which was the IS-2’s turret ring. The commander of Tiger 131 looked on in dismay as she saw Pravda’s forces rushing towards them.
“They’re still coming for us!” Erika said.
“Launch smoke,” Maho ordered.
~o~
Night has fallen and Tiger 131 hid in a clump of trees as its crew decided what to do. After the smokescreen, Erika and her crew were separated by the poor visibility during their retreat.
“Stop here,” Erika ordered.
The weary Tiger creaked to a stop among a patch of bushes and shrubs.
“What’s our fuel like?”
“It’s almost empty,” Maya responded.
“Eko, can you call for assistance?” Erika asked.
The quiet girl turned the dials on the radio. After a couple of attempts, she looked at Erika and shook her head. The radio was shot.
“Okay. Let’s refuel and rest here for the night,” Erika said as she began to climb out of the commander’s hatch.
“Isn’t it dangerous to sleep outside?” Saya asked. “We can’t tell the marshals where we are.”
“We won’t be sleeping outside,” Erika declared.
“Wait. Are you serious?!” Maya exclaimed. “We spend all day inside a metal box and you expect us to sleep in it?”
Erika ignored her and was already out of the tank.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Maya said.
“Be thankful you’re not in a Panzer II,” Saya said as she climbed out.
When they were all outside, Maya filled the fuel tank with the only three remaining gas cans they had. Erika and Chikari were going around gathering branches and brush. They weaved and tied the plants onto the Tiger to allow it to blend easier in its immediate surroundings. Saya and Eko were gathering blankets and brought them into the tank.
The moon was high in the sky by the time they were finished preparing for the night. They were all obviously uncomfortable and it would not take much to set one of them off. Erika started to hum a tune. Maya and Chikari joined in. Saya sleepily blinked and Eko curled up in her blanket.
~o~
The sun was already above the horizon when Eko woke up. She yawned and tried to stretch but her hands hit the metal ceiling of the tank. Silently, she rubbed her hands in the brief moments of pain. Then her ears pricked. There was something moving outside. She leaned forward and looked through the hull machine gun’s sights. Thrown into full alert, she turned around and tapped Maya on the shoulder.
“What?” the driver asked. “What is it Eko?”
Eko excitedly pointing towards the front of the tank. Maya looked out the driver’s viewport. Once she saw what was out there, she pounded on Saya’s boot. Still half asleep, Saya accidently kicked the driver in the face.
“Wake up!” Maya shouted and hit the gunner’s leg.
“What?!” Saya demanded. Her shout woke up Erika and Chikari.
“We got tanks!” Maya said.
“Friendlies?” Erika asked as she opened the commander’s hatch.
“No. Shermans.”
Erika poked her head out of the cupola. Sure enough, there were four Sherman tanks traveling left to right on the road that was about 800 yards away. The Tiger roared to life as plumes of smoke came out of the exhausts.
“Gun’s loaded,” Chikari reported, shaking in anticipation.
Erika looked at the Shermans through her binoculars.
“Target Firefly. The last tank,” Erika ordered.
The turret moved as Saya found her target.
“Fire!”
Fiendish Fan Fiction 