"You'll definitely love Saunders, I'm sure of that!" Kay assured Louise as the both of them left the dorm room, the blonde-haired commander shutting and locking the door behind her. "You haven't seen anything yet! Have you ever seen a schoolship before?"

"I've heard of them, but I've never even seen one before, not even in pictures" the young Tuckerman replied honestly, albeit sheepishly. "I know they're a Japanese exclusive and are massive, but I've never looked them up or seen them on TV."

Kay grinned as they walked down the corridor. "That makes it even better! You'll not believe your eyes when you look at one for the first time, and Saunders is the largest schoolship in the world!"

"Ooh, really?"

"Yes! I'm not gonna spoil it for you, Lou, just see it for yourself!"

The young Tuckerman nodded, smiling. She had known Kay for only a few days, but the natural charisma and personality of the Saunders commander was certainly highly effective.

She's great!

"Oh," Kay continued, suddenly remembering something, "don't worry about the logistics. We'll be able to get all of those done when we get back! Your uniforms' sizes are already in stock, the final registration paperwork will be done on board and whatever I've not listed the headmaster will definitely deal with em all in a jiffy!"

"That's great! Must be a surprise and a bit of a hassle to them getting a student overseas at such short notice, though."

"Oh, it happens from time to time, we've got procedures that make stuff like this easy!" the Saunders commander reassured. "Saunders had received new students from abroad many times before, and they've all been settled in just as quickly as you! Hell, I think there's a new one this year that's in the team too! How they achieve all of that I've got no idea though, but hey, I'm just a sensha-do commander, just let it flow as long as it works!"

"Mmh!" Lou nodded.

"(Hi), commander!" a Saunders girl called out as she walked past. "Oh, hey there new girl!"

"(Hey!)" "(Hello~)"

The Saunders girl waved back at the two as she walked away.

"Oh, right! Judging from your age and education level here, you're going to be in Year 1! You're going to be our junior!" Kay grinned, rubbing the young Tuckerman on her head.

"Ehehe, I see," Lou replied sheepishly, not used to this amount of attention.

Shy... Kay thought to herself. We'll fix that soon enough.

"Wait, so what year are you?"

"Ah, (I'm Year Three!)" Kay replied proudly. "I'd be heading off for college next year, so I'll only be with you for a few more months."

"Aw..."

"Don't worry, we'll probably fight sometime together before I go! Besides, when I do, I'll always be watching you!" the Saunders commander assured with a smile. "Pity that I won't directly be there, but hey, you've still got Alisa and Naomi there, so I'm not worried! Both of them are Year 2!"

"That's great! Wait, Alisa too? I thought she'd be younger than you guys."

"Oh, no, she's just smaller than us!"

"That means this makes me a junior to all of you!" the young Tuckerman smiled.

"Yep, and we'll all look out for you!" the Saunders commander grinned. "Now, let's bring you to the garage and see how your new team operates, alright? You haven't been in a sensha-do team before, so we won't go hard on you, if we're even hard in the first place."

"Sure! I'll love to learn the ropes!"

Just at that moment, a black-haired girl in a uniform not that of Saunders stepped out from the stairs, followed by two other girls with roughly the same bob haircut the supposed leader of the trio has. On top of white-bloused green-skirt uniform of Ooarai, each of them wore a black band on their left arm.

The apparent leader noticed the two Saunders girls, one of which was the main reason why they were in the Saunders dorm. "Hey, you! Blondie!"

"Oh? Oh, hi Sodoko!" Kay waved, contrasting the stern tone of the leader of Ooarai's Public Morals Committee.

"It's Sono Midoriko!" the black-haired girl replied, annoyed. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?!"

"It's all fine, Sodoko!" the Saunders commander waved off casually, completely missing the angry correction from the girl. "What's up, anyway?"

Sodoko huffed. "The Sherman you were on! Don't you know that we've got a speed limit of 10 kilometers an hour?! You were clearly exceeding that! You of all people should know that rules and regulations are there for a reason, and your actions were dangerous! What if someone gets hurt?! Or what if you damage something?! If you were in Ooarai I'd have disciplined you along with the committee..."

"Psst, I think it's our time to go," Kay whispered to Lou, a look of slight exasperation on her face. "Let's get outta here before our ears start to bleed."

Nodding in agreement, the young Tuckerman, along with her commander, slipped away from the still-ranting Ooarai Public Morals Committee chairman. Kay waved back at Gomoyo and Pazomi, who both sighed and sheepishly waved back, not wanting to alert their leader to the two Saunders girls trying to escape.

"This is outrageous! The speed limit's there for a good reason, and that's to prevent damage and injury! Do you think it's funny defying the rules?! As a commander you know that..."

Once they were at the staircase, they bailed, sprinting down the steps as quickly as they could together before Sodoko realized anything.

—————

"W-we got away..." Lou muttered as she stopped sprinting away from the dormitory, panting slightly. "Who are those, anyway?"

"Those are the Public Morals Committee from Ooarai," Kay explained, somewhat out of breath as well. "Ooarai's great, but Sodoko in particular is a sticker to the rules for everything. Don't get me wrong, she's actually pretty nice."

"Oh? What about those other two?"

"Oh, Gomoyo and Pazomi, Gomoyo's the one with longer hair. They're sorta being dragged along by Sodoko, you know," the Saunders commander chuckled. "But you can sorta tell that already from just now, right."

"Mmh."

"Well, we're in the clear now," the blonde continued, the both of them walking towards the Saunders garage. "Don't worry bout them, if they do decide to chase us it'll be quite a while before they catch up."

She turned her head away from the young Tuckerman. "Maybe," she whispered to herself.

"Ehh?! I heard that! You said 'Maybe'!"

"Did I?" Kay smiled, feigning ignorance.

"Hey, I'm not deaf!" Lou pouted as they walked into the garage allocated to Saunders.

The Saunders commander looked at the new girl before suddenly laughing. "Oh, my, you look just like Alisa when you do that!"

"Do I?" the young Tuckerman asked, surprised.

"So, we fancy an Alisa Number 2?" Naomi suddenly asked, creeping up behind the both and hugging the young Tuckerman from behind.

"Eh?"

"Well, you've got one tail instead of two, and yours is longer, so..."

"Oh, Naomi!" Kay beamed as Lou looked up at the taller short-haired girl behind her, surprised. "How's all the packing going?"

"We're almost done!" the Saunders sharpshooter replied. "We'll probably be finished even before dinner! Right, guys?!"

A chorus of "Yeah!" and cheers came from the rest of the still-busy garage.

"Splendid!" Kay grinned. "I wonder what's for dinner today anyway."

"Only way to find out is to wait, of course," Naomi replied, her arms still lightly wrapped around an embarrassed Louise. "Oh, you really do feel like Alisa from here."

"D-do I?"

"Yeah, you do," Naomi grinned. "You're slightly bigger, though~"

"W-wait, wha?!" the young Tuckerman stammered, blushing, aware of what the older girl was talking about.

Meanwhile, Kay can only grin at the oddly-familiar scene, one that resembles Naomi's interactions with Alisa.

"Naomi!" a girl called out from afar, next to a Sherman. "We need your help here!"

"Oh, time to get back to work," the short-haired girl said, releasing Louise from her grasp and petting her on the head. "See you two later!"

"Naomi sure had her fun with you, eh?" Kay commented happily as the sharpshooter headed over to her team. "She's flirty like that, but only with girls apparently."

"Ooh, really?" Lou asked, blushing a little.

"Yeah! Besides, I think she likes you the same way she likes Alisa."

"That's good to hear," Lou replied sheepishly.

"Yeah, you'll be good friends with her for sure! Anyway, let's take a look at what we're doing now."

For the next few minutes, Kay brought Louise around the Saunders garage, showing her the various jobs the Saunders girls are doing at least for this particular. The young Tuckerman, interested throughout the "tour", observed the club's girls work on their Shermans, clean up their tools, run a few logistics trips and wash their tanks, to name a few.

Of course, Louise paid particular attention to the variants of tanks used by Saunders. She saw the 75 mm variants of the various M4 models up close for the very first time, her eyes wide and filled to the brim with enthusiasm. Kay then went on to explain how the 75 millimeter variants, although adequate for a good portion of the opponent tanks they face, are not up to par with heavier targets.

"They just don't penetrate enough and that gets pretty frustrating, to be honest," one of the girls from the crew of the particular M4 they were passing by chimed in. "I wish I get to crew in one with a 76."

"That's because the 75 isn't made specifically as an anti-tank gun," Louise explained. "This gun was meant to be an all-rounder and do stuff like fire at buildings or enemy infantry with HE, and the 75 mm HE shells pack quite the explosive punch that the 76 mm HE shell doesn't have. Back in the war they served well due to their anti-infantry and anti-building capabilities, but now that it's limited to just an anti-tank role of course they'll be slightly more lacking. Even then, it's still useful in situations not involving some heavy tank or a Panther."

"Interesting," the girl had replied, looking at her tank. "I guess it isn't that bad after all. Still would like more anti-tank firepower," she went on, grinning.

"I didn't actually know that," Kay replied sheepishly. "Thought they felt the 75 was too weak and planned to replace them all with the 76."

"You got the first part half-right," the young Tuckerman politely pointed out. "They put the 76 on Shermans because they recognized that the 75 was lacking against targets that the Shermans were facing, but they never thought of fully replacing the 75 with the bigger gun. Just some trivia, on D-Day all the US tank crews opted to use the 75 over the 76. The only people fielding Shermans with 'dedicated' anti-tank guns were the British with their Fireflies."

"Wow, really?" both the commander and the other girl had replied at the same time.

"Man, that makes my tank feel special," the latter went on, smiling. "Anyway, nice chatting with you, new girl! Gotta get back to work."

After the little chat, Kay and Louise continued on their tour, passing even more Shermans. Soon, they reached a Firefly; specifically, the one Naomi was the gunner of.

"VC Firefly," Kay told Lou as the latter walked around the tank.

"It's an M4A4 hull with the British 17-pounder, right?" the young Tuckerman asked.

"Yep!" Naomi replied. "Granted some will consider the modifications crude and that the tank's merely a filler before a suitable replacement is developed, but I still love this one nonetheless."

"Naomi, how's your command training going? Is Mizuki here giving you trouble letting you command her tank?"

The commander in question, Kaiba Mizuki, giggled and popped her head out of the commander's hatch. "Surely not, I hope! Naomi, am I giving you trouble whenever you take command?"

"Your judging eyes are always on me when I get into the commander's chair, and it's making me feel over-pressured," the short-haired girl joked.

"Aw, come on! Kay will kill me if I ever mistreat you, you know."

The Saunders team commander laughed. "And how's your shooting lessons, Mizuki?"

"It's been great! Eventually I'll surpass our ace sharpshooter over here," she grinned.

"We'll see," the short-haired girl grinned back.

Moving on, Kay and Louise passed a few more Fireflies before arriving at the US 76 mm variants, namely the M4A1s. Passing by them, the last M4A1(76) in the row is Alisa's, its engine hood open with the Wright-Continental R-975 running.

And, of course, parked last in the Saunders row is Ace of Spades, the M4A3E8 being occupied by a few girls, still being inspected.

"(Hey, Alisa!)" Kay called out to the M4A1.

A head popped up from the commander's hatch.

"Kay! We're almost done with my tank!" Alisa shouted back in reply over the sound of her tank's radial engine. "Naroko, gun it!"

The tank revved in response up to its redline a few times.

"It's all good!" an unfamiliar voice barely made it out to Lou's ears.

"Great!" the vice-commander shouted back, pleased. "We're done here! Shut her off!"

The radial engine was turned off, and out climbed Alisa, Yuko, Rin and another girl. The unfamiliar girl was slightly taller than Alisa, with yellowish hair tied into a ponytail that reached just after the area of her shoulders.

"Oh, so you're the new girl they were talking about," she commented, seeing the young Tuckerman. "My name's Narita Hiroko, but just call me Naroko. I'm the driver of Alisa's tank, nice to meet you! Louise, was it?"

The both of them shook hands. "Yep, Louise Tuckerman, but just call me Lou. Nice to meet you too!"

"Man, 'Lou' really caught on with her," Kay grinned, whispering to Alisa.

"As do all nicknames you give," the vice-commander smiled, replying just as quietly.

"Lou it is then!" Naroko grinned. "I'm Year 1, by the way. What year would you be in?"

"One as well, I'm told."

"Ooh, sweet! We're both Year Two!" Helmet-chan and Rin chimed in together.

"Well, you could kinda judge from her age, but that's still somewhat surprising considering the potential differences in educational structure between us and France," Alisa chimed in before grinning. "You're going to be our junior then, eh?"

"Mmh," the young Tuckerman replied cheerfully.

"We'll guide you properly, no worries!" Yuko grinned. "You can count on us!"

"Do come to me if you need aiming advice!" Rin smiled.

"Loading for me!" Helmet-chan continued.

"Come to me for driving lessons, I can show you the ropes as much as I can," Naroko offered.

"Oh, you better take driving lessons," Alisa grinned. "Your driving's gonna scar someone eventually."

The young Tuckerman chuckled. "Will do!"

"But Alisa's the only one that felt sick," Kay teased. "Lou drives well!"

"She definitely won't crash no matter what, but she'll still make me hurl while cruising!" Alisa groaned.

Feeling mischievous, Lou grinned. "Shall we take one of the jeeps and test that out?"

"Nonono, no thank you!" the vice-commander quickly rejected the idea, putting both hands up in fear as everyone laughed.

"Hey, Commander!" one of the girls in Ace called out to Kay, sticking her head out of the commander's hatch. "We're almost done with the inspection! All looks great, but we've got a question here."

"Go ahead!" the Saunders commander replied.

"What do we do with the shells on board?"

"Shells?"

"Oh, those shells are from the war," Louise explained. "We've taken them out and maintained them as well, degraded ammo's dangerous after all."

"What ammo do you have on board, Lou?" Helmet-chan asked.

"Some M62s, an equal amount of M93s, lesser M42s and a couple of M88s. Basically all the four types typically carried during the war."

"Interesting. But none of these shells are Federation-approved, right?"

"Yeah, so we can't use them in matches anyway," Alisa explained. "The JSF manufactures those shells of course, but only those from them are approved for official use."

"Aw, so we'll have to discard these?" Lou pouted.

"Why do you look so much like Alisa like that?" Rin commented, amused.

"Does it?" the pigtailed vice-commander asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Already mentioned it!" Kay grinned. "Well, let's take out one of each type and keep them as historical souvenirs or something, but we've got to use the rest up somehow."

"We've got a firing range here," Naomi said, walking up towards the group. "I'm done with the Firefly and I thought I'd check on you guys."

Variants of "Hey, Naomi!" were spoken by the other girls.

"Yo. And yeah, like I said, we've got a firing range here."

"Ooh, you're right!" Kay grinned. "That'll work! Hey, Lou, let's see how well you can load and shoot!"

—————

A few minutes later, a crowd had formed outside the base's firing range, which had a maximum range of 500 meters. With only space for one tank to have target practice, it was occupied by the Saunders' "new" Easy-8, which was the prime reason why everyone was watching.

Inside Ace was Naomi, Louise and Yuko; Yuko would be driving Ace while Naomi was in the commander's seat, observing Louise as she does her work.

Meanwhile, Kay, Alisa, Rin and Naroko were up in the nearby observation tower, watching everything.

"Wow, look at the crowd," Rin commented. "Ace and Lou sure are popular, aren't they?"

"Yep," Alisa replied. "It's been quite some time since we've attention like this."

"Man, that's quite some attention we're getting," Helmet-chan noted back in the Easy-8, sticking her head out of the driver's hatch.

"Indeed," Naomi agreed. "Well, let's put on a good show for them, then."

The Saunders sharpshooter picked up the radio's microphone, pressing her headset to her ear. "Kay, we're ready. Want to start now?"

"Go ahead!" was the reply from the Saunders commander.

"Roger," she replied, setting the microphone down. "We've got the green light. Lou, let's load an M62 in."

"Gotcha," the young Tuckerman replied, getting up from the gunner's seat and moving into the loader's spot. Bending down, she took an M62 out from the already-open ammunition rack and brought it up, slightly struggling due to the shell's weight. In one single, smooth movement, she moved the round nose-first into the breech, the guard mounted behind it preventing the APC round to be loaded straight in right from the start. Only when the projectile portion was in (or about the first third of the round) was Lou then able to move the M62 to face straight into the gun, the projectile's rear no longer being blocked. In the same single movement, the young Tuckerman shoved the round into the breech, the inertia tripping over the gun's two ejectors and automatically shutting it with the "clang" and short metallic buzz familiar to the Saunders girls. "Gun loaded!"

"Not bad!" Helmet-chan commented, having turned around to watch Lou load the gun right from the start. "I like how you move the shell and shove it in all in one movement."

"Really? Thanks," the young Tuckerman smiled, blushing slightly.

"Good work," Naomi nodded. "Now, let's see how well you can shoot."

"Alright!" Lou nodded, moving back into the gunner's seat.

She peered into the M71D telescopic sight. "I should say this first, I know how to aim and fire this gun but I've never actually shot this before."

"It's alright, just try your best," the Saunders sharpshooter assured. "But you know how to read the reticle, right?"

"Of course!" was the eager reply as the turret traversed slightly, the following elevation of the gun both visible and audible. "Alright, ready to fire! I hope this hits..."

"Only one way to find out, Tuckerman! I'll count down for you, is that fine?"

"Sure!"

"Alright then! Three! Two! One! Fire!"

Right on cue, Louise hit the fire button.

And with that, in over 70 years, the 76 mm M1A2 gun fired for the first time; its boom, familiar to Saunders ears, clearly audible throughout the camp and beyond. Inside the tank, as expected, the recoil automatically opened the breech, ejecting the hot casing out and into the waiting net. The main weapon was functioning perfectly, as the Saunders sharpshooter noted in her head.

At the same time, she was also pleasantly surprised at where the fired round had hit.

"No way!" Alisa gasped, looking through her binoculars as the Saunders girls in the crowd continued to cheer, both at the firing and at the projectile hitting the target.

"Ooh!" Kay shouted into the radio. "Naomi, did you see that?!"

"Roger! Right at the center!"

"Woah, bullseye!" Yuko shouted from the driver's seat, having watched the round herself.

"Well done, Tuckerman!" Naomi grinned. "This is your first time firing, right?"

"Y-yes..." the young Tuckerman blushed. "B-but I think it's more luck than skill..."

"You still got the bullseye on your first, Lou," Naomi grinned. "In my books, that's good enough."

Louise blushed further, not used to this sort of praise. "T-thanks..."

"Well, time to try something different. Yuko, you can help with the loading now! I want to see her shoot!"

"Okay!" was the eager reply as Helmet-chan got out of the driver's hatch, shutting it and hopping down into the loader's area from the now-open loader's hatch, shutting it when she was through.

She pulled out and put on her loading gloves."I'm ready!"

"Alright! Load M93!"

"Aye, Ma'am!"

Lighter than the M62... Lou thought as Helmet-chan pulled out the HVAP round from the rack. Unlike the young Tuckerman, the Saunders loader stopped for a while after she set the shell straight, before using her fist to shove it into the breech.

"Gun loaded!"

"Got it. Lou, just fire at will."

"Okay..." the new Saunders girl acknowledged, frowning as she looked through the telescopic sight again. The reticle, being made only for the M62, was unable to help the young Tuckerman accurately aim the M93.

Oh well, time to guess it is...

Aiming at a lower elevation than when she fired the previous shell, she hit the fire button.

With a boom, the cannon sent the projectile flying...

... which then proceeded to undershoot the bullseye by a fair margin.

"Oh, whoops!" Lou blushed sheepishly. "That was way off..."

"It's alright," Naomi smiled reassuringly. "Wanna try again?"

"Yes!"

The Saunders sharpshooter chuckled. "Alright then, load another M93!"

And a while later, the Sherman fired again, and this time the HVAP shell hit the target, this time just barely missing the bullseye.

"Oh, that's a close hit!" Kay commented on the tower, watching everything with her own pair of binoculars.

"She's actually doing okay as a gunner," Rin observed, also through binoculars. "The foundation's there. Now, if she can actually visualize ballistics..."

"Oh, that's right," Naroko suddenly realized. "Commander, what-"

The M4A1 driver quickly stopped when both Kay and Alisa looked at her simultaneously, Rin watching the scene in amusement. "I mean, Commander Kay! Sorry, Commander- I mean, Alisa!"

The pigtailed girl shrugged nonchalantly, right before Ace "downstairs" fired again, this time having fired an M42, the high-explosive shell hitting the dirt and blowing up, having undershot the target again.

"Wooh, that's HE for you," Alisa quipped. "We don't usually bother with them, since we only do anti-tank. What do you wanna ask again?"

Naroko opened her mouth, but looking down at the Easy-8, stopped before she could say anything. "Actually, that question I'll ask later. It's not the right time yet."

"Alright!" Kay replied cheerfully as the four of them continued to watch Ace.

Of course, the live firing cum target practice would go on until all of the Sherman's ammo was expended.

-----------

And by the time that was done, it was time for dinner.

"Hoo!" Lou huffed, tired, as she walked in queue with the Saunders group in the mess hall, a plate in her hands. "That took a while."

"But we managed to use up all of those shells!" Helmet-chan continued cheerfully. "That's a waste, though."

"And that strikes off Ace's gunnery tests as well," Naomi pointed out as food was dumped on her plate. "The 76 mm works well, much more than any of us expected. You sure your grandpa didn't send it off for restoration one day?"

"Positive," the young Tuckerman grinned, now her turn to receive food. "Maintained purely by the Tuckerman family!"

"All that we really need to do are repairs and to give it all the necessary Sensha-do modifications," Alisa noted behind. "Carbon coating, damage calculation systems and all of the other stuff."

"It's all coming well together!" Kay grinned.

A few minutes later, as the Saunders girls were done with their dinner and moving around to chat with their friends in the other schools, Louise looked around at everyone.

Just a few days ago, she had never anticipated that something extraordinary like this would occur to her. Deep down, the young Tuckerman was still coming to terms that somehow she was on the path of her dreams.

Her grandfather was a tanker. Her mother was a tanker.

And now, she was about to follow in their footsteps. If this were a dream, she hoped that she wouldn't wake up from this.

As the young girl continued looking at the activity of the mess hall, she looked over to a table occupied by the St Gloriana girls.

Attracted to something, her eyes rested on a certain energetic redhead.

She was there back home with the others that night, wasn't she? Rosehip, was it?

Louise took a sip from her can of Coke as she, almost dreamily, watched as the Crusader commander, out of earshot, shouted excitedly to her mates, moving her hands around as she talked passionately about something to her mates.

Noticing the new Saunders girl staring somewhere else, Kay grinned, moving next to the young Tuckerman and looking at the same direction. "Whatcha lookin' at?"

"Oh!" the girl jumped slightly, a little startled. "N-nothing much, no worries," she smiled.

Kay took another look in that direction again, before a grin grew on her face, realizing exactly who she was looking at. "Oh, I see. What's with Rosehip?"

"U-uh-" Tuckerman stammered, blushing. "I just find her interesting, is all. You see, all those from St Gloriana are quiet and graceful, which is good, while Rosehip on the other hand is the exact opposite. And that's what gets my attention," she explained, going back to watching the redhead as the latter laughed heartily at what was probably a joke.

"Yeah, she stands out," Kay nodded.

None of the two Saunders girls noticed a certain someone approaching them from behind.

"And that's great too, you know," Louise smiled. "Nothing wrong with having a bit of life in you, and you'd cheer everyone around you up too! I'd love to have someone like this in my life, for one."

"Ah, so you fancy our Rosehip?" Darjeeling chuckled from behind, a cup of tea in her hand.

This time, Lou properly jumped up in surprise.

"Darj!" Kay beamed, getting up to greet the St Gloriana commander. "How's everything on your side?"

"We've done all the preparations," she replied politely. "I suppose that's the same for Saunders?"

"Yep!" the Saunders commander grinned. "We're all ready!"

"That's good to hear. So, back on topic, Louise?"

A bright red was starting to appear on the girl's cheeks as she stood up. "Y-yes?"

"I heard what you said just now, and I think Rosehip will appreciate those words," Darjeeling teased, watching the new Saunders girl start to look properly flustered with amusement. "Would you like me to pass that on to her?"

"N-no, that's not necessary!" was the quick, embarrassed reply. "Please don't!"

"Aw, but don't you want to break the ice, especially since you say you will, I quote, 'love to have someone like this in your life'?" Darj continued, her usual polite smile hiding her teasing pleasure. "You'd start somewhere after all, why not make it now?"

Louise's cheeks flushed even redder, getting the hint the St Gloriana commander was giving. "T-that's not what I meant! I mean-... J-... just don't tell her!" the girl pleaded, giving up on explaining herself.

Darjeeling chuckled as Kay giggled beside the both them. "Fine, fine, I'll not tease you anymore. How's your day been so far?"

"O-oh? It's been great so far!" the young Tuckerman replied eagerly. "I can't wait to get to the schoolship tomorrow!"

Darj nodded. "Glad to hear it. I'd like to give a little advice, with my own experience in it; Louise, you've already taken the first step into something greater than you've ever imagined, something that will positively change and define the rest of your life forever. Allow it to change you, and you will only be able to get better over time."

Louise smiled and nodded. "Thank you, I definitely look forward to it. Though," she muttered, looking down slightly, almost somewhat ashamed, "none of this would've happened if you guys didn't show up. I've been lucky, and because of that a part of me says I don't really deserve this..."

The St Gloriana chuckled, but there was an understanding, relating tone in it. "I've been there, and let me tell you, it may be fate that allows us to meet, but it is yourself that got yourself here. The path of sensha-do is not a path that people join out of luck, but rather one that people choose to walk on. And you've chosen to walk with us; you've just gotten a helping hand from fate."

Louise looked up at Darjeeling, finding her words and eyes filled with wisdom and experience. "I understand. I... I don't know what to say other than 'Thank you'."

"And perhaps 'Thank you' is all that is really needed," Darj smiled, sipping her tea. "Louise Tuckerman, I can see it within your eyes; you will definitely go far. Saunders is lucky to have you, and while I'm at St Gloriana and quite a distance away from you, who knows, maybe we'll both share a path together in future."

"T-Thank you, Darjeeling."

"And you," the St Gloriana commander shifted her attention to Kay, "treat her well."

She got a thumbs-up in response, grabbing onto Louise. "Like you even need to tell me! I've got her covered!"

"That's good. Also, Kay, you've been busy for the past while, and I've been waiting for you to be free. You see, I want to, say, catch up with you?" Darj smiled, hinting at something underneath.

The Saunders commander grinned, and Louise thought she saw a slight blush. "Sure thing, Darj! I'll go off then, Lou!"

The young Tuckerman nodded. "Okay, see you later then."

Waving back, Kay turned around and walked off beside Darjeeling, one arm around the St Gloriana commander.

Deciding that she wouldn't want to pry into it, Louise walked around the mess hall, now unsure what to do. Does she socialize, get to bed early or walk around?

Deciding that she'd find her answer outside of the mess hall, she stepped out, nowhere in particular in mind.

---------

Eventually, Louise wandered into the now-quiet Saunders garage as the other girls moved around outside, standing right next to Ace.

Ace was now parked somewhere in between the other Saunders tanks, which made her presence even more obvious. Among all the olive-painted Shermans, the camouflage the Easy-8 was painted in made her stand out, and even from the side, the fake muzzle attached about halfway through the barrel of the 76 mm gun could not be ignored.

As some jeep drove by outside, the young Tuckerman put a hand on her tank.

"We're going to be great together, I promise," she muttered to the Sherman. "Let's do the Tuckerman family and its tank-involved lineage proud."

"Thought I would find you here," Alisa spoke out, just a few tanks away.

"Huh? Oh, Alisa," Lou smiled through the dim garage lights. "Were you looking for me?"

"Sorta," was the reply as the Saunders vice-commander strolled up. "Everyone else's catching up with their friends, and I, well," she paused, "I'm done with mine."

The young Tuckerman raised an eyebrow. "Not many friends?"

Alisa gave a wry smile and nodded. "I'm not really popular with everyone else, I guess. And I think I know why."

Louise nodded, turning around to lean back on Ace's front hull. "Want to share?"

Thinking for a moment, the pigtailed girl nodded. "Can I..." she asked, pointing to the Easy-8.

"Sure, by all means."

Sighing, Alisa rested her back against the Sherman's front hull next to Louise. "Well, I... like doing a lot of questionable stuff. And, well, I think that made me unlikeable with most."

"'Questionable stuff'?"

"Well, for example, just a few months ago, Saunders had a match against Ooarai in the Japanese Sensha-do Tournament. I wanted to give us a better chance at winning, so, I used a radio interception balloon and tapped Ooarai's radio in my tank," the vice-commander explained, her face looking somewhat forlorn. "The regulations state that while radio-tapping per se is legal, the usage of aircraft are not allowed, which would make radio-tapping practically impossible. But balloons are a grey area, so I was skirting around the rules."

She smiled, but it was a sad one. "They found out anyway and used it against me. Here I was listening to them in the M4A1, not knowing that they're baiting me into a trap with false orders. In the end, we ended up losing. Kay wasn't upset about the loss, but she was upset with me, and told me that she wanted to have a word with me after this. I've done stuff like this before, so I thought it would be another private lecture on how sportsmanship is important."

The vice-commander sighed, looking down on the ground. "But this time, in private, she dressed me down. I guess radio-tapping hit a major nerve in her, and although she wasn't showing it, it really pissed her off for once. It was uncharacteristically bad, I think a good number of the girls overheard it, Naomi certainly did. After the whole thing was over, I went up to the roof to cry, and Naomi came up to make me feel better."

Louise remained silent, momentarily not knowing what to reply. "Damn. I'm... sorry for making you recall this."

"No, I deserve that scolding," Alisa smiled wryly again. "It was unsportsmanlike and I was a major ass for doing that, I fully understood it that day. I just wanted to win, and I stooped so low I went too far. That same day I officially apologized to Kay, and Kay has forgiven me and apologized for her uncharacteristic harshness, and I haven't tried to skirt the rules ever since. People still don't like me, though."

The young Tuckerman watched the sad girl stare at the ground and decided to speak up. "You know, what you did was wrong and unsportsmanlike, but I can relate to your train of thought. It's natural for everyone to want to achieve victory and use any legal means to get there, absolutely nothing wrong with that; it's only human. You decided to do that for the sake of bringing Saunders to victory, and that by itself is an admirable cause."

Alisa looked up in surprise. "You really think so?"

"Mmh," Louise nodded, smiling. "Kay gave you that scolding not because she doesn't recognize your desire for Saunders to win, but because you were being, well, a major cunt to your opponents by practically cheating, and she needs you to understand that after one too many times of you trying to beat the system. I think you know she never wanted to embarrass you in front of everyone, thus why the private dressing-down, but she realized she got too heated after it was over. What's important is that you've learnt your lesson, and from what you've just told me, you clearly had."

Hearing those words, the vice-commander remained silent for a moment, not knowing what to say, before smiling. "Yeah, I suppose you're right."

"Even then, I don't think the others hate you in any way still," the young Tuckerman went on. "I'm sure the others understand your past motives, and you don't do stuff like that anymore. Maybe all it'll really take is for you to break the ice? I mean, assuming you've been waiting for someone to show up instead of looking for others."

"Hmm..."

The Saunders vice-commander thought it through. "Yeah, I haven't been the first to speak up, guess that's the major reason."

"Yep, you gotta say the first 'Hello' in order for things to progress! You should also get new friends from other schools, and who knows, maybe there's someone that wants to talk to you!"

Alisa nodded, now feeling better. "Yeah, I should. Thanks!"

"No prob!"

"I think there's someone in mind that I want to be friends with, but the problem's that she's from Ooarai," the vice-commander pondered. "She's been to Saunders before actually, as a spy-"

The sound of something metallic shifting on the floor got the attention of both Saunders girls, the both of them turning their heads to the left, right at the source.

Yukari froze, her foot right next to the toolbox she accidentally hit.

"Oddball," Alisa raised an eyebrow, getting up. "What are you doing here?"

"'Oddball'?" Lou asked curiously.

"Eheh, I've been here for a while already..." the Ooarai loader admitted sheepishly. "I just want to take a look at the Easy-Eight you guys got, but then I saw you two around, and I couldn't help but listen in. Nobody in Ooarai doesn't want to befriend you, Alisa. We may tease you repeatedly over your blunder with that balloon, but we'd never hate you over that."

The Saunders vice-commander looked surprised. "R-really?"

"Yeah, why would we hate you?" she smiled. "It's just as Louise said just now; we can relate."

Alisa was silent for a few moments, before smiling and nodding. "Thanks, Oddball. I'm glad, to say the least."

"No prob!" the messy-haired girl gave a thumbs-up. "Oh, and you, you're the new girl!" she said eagerly, her eyes now on Louise. "I heard your name earlier today, Louise Tuckerman, is it?"

"Yeah, I'm Louise," Lou nodded cheerfully. "Just call me Lou. And you are..."

"Akiyama Yukari!" the Ooarai loader saluted. "I'm the loader of Team Anglerfish, the Panzer 4 of Ooarai! Pleased to meet you!"

"The pleasure's mine, Yukari. Wait, then what's the 'Oddball' nickname Alisa used?"

Yukari blushed. "Well, long story, but..."

"Long story short, '6th Mechanized Division, Sergeant Oddball, Third Class' is what she introduced herself as when we caught her spying in Saunders and ask for her details," Alisa snickered. "It's a Kelly's Heroes reference, and yes, Yukari here will forevermore be 'Oddball' to Saunders."

"Eheh..." Oddball smiled sheepishly, scratching her cheek.

"Ah, I see. But I've never watched Kelly's Heroes before, eheheh..." the young Tuckerman muttered quietly.

The two other girls stared at her incredulously. "What?!"

"You're missing out!" Yukari commented eagerly. "That was a damn good movie! Alisa, get her to watch it someday!"

"Yep, Kelly's Heroes is the first thing on your new to-do list," the Saunders vice-commander declared in agreement. "The first club movie night we have after we return we're dragging you to the cinema hall and streaming it for you!"

Louise blinked. "Wait, a cinema hall?"

"Yes! We have our own cinema, and we'll book all of it!"

"Woah, really?!"

"Yes! With popcorn and drinks provided! And we'll be watching Kelly's Heroes in the booked hall!"

Lou blushed a little, a bit overwhelmed with especially Alisa's plan. "O-oh? T-thanks, but there's really no need to stream a certain movie just for me..."

"Oh, don't you worry," Alisa grinned, "when Kay hears about this she's going to make you watch it even if you don't want to! Hey, if you feel bad about it still, everyone likes watching Kelly's Heroes multiple times."

"I-is that so? Well," Lou smiled, fidgeting, not used to this kind of attention, "I'll gladly accept then. Thanks."

"Yes!" both the Saunders vice-commander and the Team Anglerfish loader grinned, high-fiving each other.

"Ah, right," Yukari continued, moving back to the reason why she was here. "I didn't get a good enough look at your Easy-Eight before you guys drove her off into your garage, so I thought I should come here now to look at her all I want. Is that okay with you two?"

"Why not?" Alisa smiled.

"By all means, yeah," the young Tuckerman grinned, pleased that Yukari was interested in Ace.

"Sweet!" the fluffy-haired girl grinned, staring at the Sherman like a kid looking at candy.

She moved a hand forward and touched the tank, practically drooling. "The Sherman's one of the first tanks I've known since childhood, and the E8's one of the first few variants I've been acquainted with. This is the first time I've ever seen an M4A3 of any variant in person, let alone the M4A3E8. The best Sherman variant of the war; 76.2 millimeter M1A2 gun, judging from the muzzle brake, paired with a Westinghouse stabilizer, Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension paired with the Ford GAA V8 all M4A3s use that, and last but not least, wet ammoracks. Simply amazing that you guys now have one."

"You know your stuff," Louise nodded, impressed. "You could tell the exact variant of the M1 just by looking at the muzzle brake."

"Mmh, I'm a proud tank nut!" Yukari grinned, her eyes moving around as she looked at the tank in detail. "She's kept in good condition, albeit still with wartime damage, she's still wearing wartime camo, and I like the touch with the barrel camo and fake muzzle," the girl smiled, excited like a kid with a new toy. "'Ace' is her name, yeah?"

"Yep, well, at least that's her shortened name," the young Tuckerman grinned, happy to interact with Oddball. "Her full name's Ace of Spades."

"Oh, I see," Yukari nodded, running her hand over the single spade painted on the hull. "The top card of the deck, indeed."

"My grandpa was her commander during the war, and his crew gave her that name," the young Tuckerman said rather proudly.

"Ooh, really?! Your grandpa's her commander?!" Oddball perked up excitedly, before something else got her attention. "Hold on. Oh, damn, that's quite blow," she noted as she looked at the 88 mm hole. "Judging from this size, it's caused by an eighty-eight I'm guessing, and if that goes through here..."

She looked up at Louise, deadpan serious. "What happened?"

Louise smiled fondly and solemnly, fully remembering the account her grandfather always recollected to her. "Well, it's one hell of a story. Wanna hear it?"

"You don't say!" Oddball smiled eagerly. "Alisa too, right?!"

That dream was still fresh in the mind of the Saunders vice-commander, but she still only knew the aftermath of the incident. "Yes, I'm curious as well."

The young Tuckerman grinned. "Sit down and relax, this will take a while."

The three of them sat down on the ground in a small circle, Louise leaning back on her Sherman with Yukari to her left and Alisa to her right.

She took a deep breath. "Now, this will sound unbelievable, but what I'm about to tell all happened not far from here. As in, where we're all are right now, that fight took place nearby."

The other two girls immediately sat up. "Really?" Yukari asked. "Woah. Hey, wait a minute..." she blinked, realizing something. "Does it have something to do with those four wrecked Shermans...?"

Louise smiled. "Right on, Oddball!"

The fluffy-haired girl's jaw dropped. "No way! Ace is the missing piece to the mystery?!"

"Wait, Oddball mentioned about some wrecks nearby two days ago," Alisa recalled before her jaw dropped as well. "That's related to Ace?!"

"Yep!" Tuckerman replied proudly. "That fight's actually the reason why my grandpa decided to settle here in France instead of going back, and thus why I'm not living in America right now. And also why I had to deal with not being able to do tankery thanks to the asses at the EU having banned sensha-do. (Thanks a bunch, buddy!)" she said with a playful, sarcastic tone, looking back at Ace with a cheeky grin and patting the Sherman on the hull. "I'm kidding, of course. Ace is a family member to me, and I wouldn't even be here in the first place without her. The butterfly effect, really."

She patted the Easy-8 again, this time more gently. "(Thanks, buddy,)" she muttered sincerely.

Alisa smiled to herself, understanding what Louise feels. Not just from her personal experience with her tank, but also having been shown a bit more about Louise and the Tuckerman family by the unlikely source.

"Having a tank that means so much to you," Yukari smiled, her eyes glistening, "you must feel proud!"

"I am!" Lou grinned. "So, anyway, my grandfather used to recount that day to me when I was a kid, I've heard it so much I've memorized it by now, heh."

"We're listening," the Saunders vice-commander said, both her and Yukari leaning in. While this would be the Ooarai loader's first time learning of the story, Alisa just wanted to hear Louise's take on the events.

"Well, so, it was 24 August 1944, on an overcast day," the young Tuckerman began to recount. "There was an Allied platoon, made up of five Shermans, travelling in a single line formation. In order, they were an M4A2(75) named Grey Wolf, Ace herself, a VC Firefly called Pluck, an M4A1(76) named Peaches, and last but not least an M4A3(75)D, Snowball."

The mention of Pluck in particular made Alisa recall the images in her head, the burning wrecks of those Shermans, especially that of the Firefly.

"Grey Wolf was the leader, of course, and second-in-command was Ace," Lou continued. "My grandfather, Joshua Tuckerman, was in his commander's seat, looking around. They were headed somewhere for an operation, and they were told there could be an enemy tank in the vicinity."

The young Tuckerman rested back against Ace. "Well, they found it. Or rather, it found them. Out of nowhere, Grey Wolf blew up right in front of Ace. No warning whatsoever. Just 'Boom!' and the turret came flying off. The entire column stopped. Grandpa's ears were ringing for a few seconds, unable to react, and just when he was just frantically looking around and his hearing returned, he heard the offending tank fire, and less than a second later he saw Snowball get hit and go completely dead."

"Firing on the lead tank, then on the last one," Yukari pondered. "That's standard tactics when ambushing a column."

"Mmh," Lou nodded. "Stop the column, then trap them. You really do know your stuff."

"Of course!" the Anglerfish loader grinned. "Anyway, go on!" she said eagerly.

"Well, back to Gramps, he correctly recognized the sound of a German 88 and saw it come from the right, and now that he's in command, he ordered everyone to turn 60 degrees to the right and told Butter to put in an M62."

The two other girls blinked in confusion.

"Who's 'Butter'?" the Anglerfish loader asked.

"Oh, my bad!" Louise smiled sheepishly. "Butter's the nickname of the loader of my Grandpa's crew. Short for 'Butterfingers', actually," she chuckled.

Yukari grinned, shaking her head as she and Alisa noticed the obvious irony. "Oh, boy..."

"That's not really a good name to give to a loader isn't it?" Alisa commented, amused.

"There's a little backstory to that!" the young Tuckerman pointed out. "Don't worry 'bout it, he doesn't actually drop his shells while loading. Anyway, while that happened Peaches got shot and died, and that leaves Ace and Pluck alive out of five so far. Obviously, this isn't looking good for the platoon, or rather what's left of it now. Pluck spotted the King Tiger hiding in a field of bushes first and reported it, some 400 meters away, directly towards their right. So, Grandpa ordered the Firefly to head towards the right, to the left of that Tiger, and just fire at will, while Ace will move towards the left, at 5 miles an hour. I suppose he wanted to split up so that the Germans could be distracted by one and thus at least the other tank could head close enough to land a killing blow."

"Hm, that makes sense in that situation," the Saunders vice-commander nodded. "Considering that it looked bleak."

"Yeah, they're in a bad spot now," Lou agreed. "Anyway, Grandpa told Archer, his gunner, to fire at will as well. The Firefly fired first, and it bounced off the Tiger's front hull plate. Then Ace fired, and that M62 bounced off the TIger's front hull plate, as did that previous 17-pounder shell from Pluck. So, while Gramps told Butter to start loading the M93 and just keep loading it until he tells him to stop, the King Tiger fired at Pluck, and the Firefly blew up."

Alisa remembered the burning wreck of the Firefly from her dream, picturing it in her head.

Unseen by the other two, she shuddered, the revealation that the images were genuine making her feel uncomfortable, especially when she thought about what happened to the crew.

"So, Ace is now alone," Tuckerman continued. "Gramps always said it was probably because the camo and false muzzle resulting in the Tiger 2 misidentifying Ace as a 75 mm Sherman, and thus a Firefly was highlighted as the greater immediate threat and taken out first. Either way, he decided that it was time to fight since running away isn't an option, so he decided to flank. The E8 sped up to 10 mph and fired another time, and the HVAP round bounced off the front hull armour. At this point Archer was aiming at the gun mantlet, so I guess that just fell short. The Tiger fired again, but for some reason it barely missed, landing just an inch behind the Sherman. Ace fired again, but the round just grazed past the right side of the turret. At this point the Tiger 2 was visible, and Gramps ordered Ford, the driver, to turn 40 degrees right."

"Your 'Gramps' has an odd nickname scheme, eh?" Alisa teased.

"Oh, that was a team effort," Louise chuckled. "Oh, yeah, the machinegunner's got a nickname too! He's called 'Baby' because he's the least experienced out of the team. And the youngest!"

"Cute nickname," Yukari giggled. "I guess they plan to change it after he advances?"

"Oh, hell no, that's permanent!" Lou laughed.

"Pffft-!"

"Aw, that's so mean!" Alisa chuckled. "That's not nice of them!"

"Four out of five thought otherwise!" the young Tuckerman giggled. "He's a good machinegunner, though. Not that it took a lot of skill, but he did his job well. Anyway, that veer to the right saved Ace, because the Tiger fired and the 88 shell landed right at where Ace was. If it had hit, they'd all be goners. Ace fired again, but the Tiger backed up at the last second, otherwise that would've been a hit. They're 200 meters apart now, and Gramps could see the King Tiger angling in response to his approach. It fired and grazed the left side of the turret, and you can still see that scar underneath the track armour," she said, pointing at the left side of the turret.

"Oh?" the Ooarai loader looked up, noticing the damage. "I didn't notice! That was a lucky miss!"

"Yeah, just a bit more in and it would've been bad! But anyway, with the knock making everyone's ears ring, Gramps ordered Butter to load the M62, thinking that at this range penetration with an APCBC is now possible, and the fragmentation will immediately incapacitate the German crew. So, Butter unloaded the M93 already and shoved in the M62. Right after he reported that the gun was loaded, well..."

She pointed to the 88 mm hole. "That happened."

"Damn..." Yukari commented. "Who..."

"Everyone except Grandpa was killed by that," Louise said solemnly. "Gramps barely escaped death."

The image of Joshua Tuckerman's dead crew from the dream flashed in Alisa's mind, which was, of course, by far the most gory and disturbing thing she had seen in the dream.

The Saunders vice-commander could only imagine the feeling of that hell every single crew of those Shermans went through. And yet, she came to terms with it; that was war, not sensha-do.

"Ace stopped dead, 150 meters away from the Tiger, but Gramps was alive but seriously injured. Looking out of his sights, he could see the King Tiger roll out of the bushes, the commander getting out of his hatch, pleased. Ace's engine had stalled but still had electricity from the battery. Then, he had an idea. With difficulty, he went down to the gunner's seat and checked the manual turret traverse and gun elevation systems. They were fine. He knew the M62 was ready to be fired, but he was not gonna do that yet. And that was how he survived; he played dead. Going back to the commander's hatch, he watched as the King Tiger roll right up beside Ace. He still remembers the sound of that Maybach from inside Ace, with the sight of the enemy right next to him, the commander watching his tank. It was the tensest moment of his life. Soon enough, though, the Germans lost interest and the Tiger turned left, moving away from Ace. And once it was a good distance away, he got down into the gunner's seat, turned the turret and aimed right at the back of the King Tiger's turret. The last thing he said before he pulled the trigger was just a single word; 'Die'."

Louise rested back, smiling as she looked at Yukari and Alisa, both of them wide-eyed in awe. "So, yeah, that's how that fight went down. My Gramps was the only Allied survivor, and there were no German survivors."

"Your grandpa's epic!" Yukari gleamed excitedly. "He took down a Tiger 2!"

"It was as much a team effort by the platoon as it was with him and his trick," Lou smiled. "But yeah, Ace took down a King Tiger! Not many tanks can claim that!"

"And do you think you can take a King Tiger down in future?" Alisa grinned.

"No confidence!" the young Tuckerman quickly raised both of her hands sheepishly. "W-well, I wanna leave that possibility open, but it'll be tough..."

"Oh, we'll whip you up to shape no prob!" the Saunders vice-commander smiled as the three of them stood up. "So, what happened after that battle?"

"Well, Gramps radioed for help, got to a hospital, did the after-action report and was put in reserve until the Nazis surrendered. The bodies were recovered. the wrecks and for some reason Ace as well were left alone there. After the war, Gramps resigned from the army, bought our house, went over to Ace, restarted her, drove her home and restored her. Oh, which reminds me; Yukari, you've been there, seen that cross?"

"Oh? Yeah, I did!" was the reply. "Only briefly, though, since Mako got really freaked out and we decided to leave. What about it?"

"Well, that's both in memory of all the lost souls and a marker; park Ace right behind it and it'll be at exactly where she was on that day."

"Woah, really?! That's neat!" was the enthusiastic reply.

"And there's a little box buried in front of it," Lou continued. "Inside it are three things; a copy of the after-action report, a picture of Gramps with his crew and Ace, and something else, I'm not sure what it is. He told me he wants it discovered, but only after he dies, and well, he kicked the bucket recently, so I guess-"

The sound of something being hit got all three girls' attention, and all of them turned their heads towards the source.

"Oh, whoops!" Kay grinned as both her and Darjeeling stepped out from behind a Sherman. "Sorry, we were just passing by and we heard you, we've been listening to the whole thing!"

"That was an interesting event," Darjeeling commented, sipping from her tea. "I hope you don't mind us having eavesdropped."

"Oh, not at all!" Louise grinned. "You shouldn't have hidden, though."

"Well, didn't wanna interrupt ya..." Kay replied sheepishly. "But yeah, that was amazing! Who knew you were this deeply tied to this place?"

"It's a shame we never got to meet such a remarkable man," Darjeeling commented. "At least his legacy lives on, inside the people and things he left behind, you and Ace included."

Lou gave a small smile. "Yeah, that's true."

"Hey Kay, Louise here has never watched Kelly's Heroes before," Alisa commented out of nowhere, snickering.

The Saunders commander looked at the new girl in disbelief. "Seriously?! You're missing out big time! First club movie night back on the schoolship, Kelly's Heroes, you'll be there!"

"Yeah, Alisa already made that clear for me earlier," Louise smiled sheepishly.

"I did!" the Saunders vice-commander chimed in.

"(Perfect!)" Kay grinned.

"Hey, I think we should head back and talk with the others," Yukari suggested. "I guess we're missing out with all the conversations, and we should bring Lou around and introduce her to everyone else!"

"O-oh?" the young Tuckerman replied timidly. "Well, sure, but I'm not good with crowds..."

"It'll be fine," Alisa reassured her, patting her on the back. "We're here to back you up, so don't worry!"

"We're gonna root out that timidness out of ya!" Kay smiled. "Let's go!"

"A-alright then," Lou smiled nervously as the group headed towards the garage exit.

"Oh, right!" Yukari suddenly remembered. "How did the name 'Ace' come about?"

"O-oh? Well, it's..."

--------------

July 1944

The newly-set-up Allied base was already bustling with life despite just being set up a week ago; people running around doing various things, soldiers being marched around, others striking up conversations with each other, the typical various military activities you'd find at any military base, really.

Of course, that includes the crews of the tanks stationed there doing their stuff; some of them were cleaning theirs, others were maintenance crews repairing damaged ones, others were looking at their tanks for the very first time.

And among that group of tanks and tankers, two young men were sitting on the turret of a brand-new Sherman playing cards.

There's nothing wrong with that.

"Ha! Flush!" one of them men, the one sitting on the right side of the turret, in front the open commander's hatch shouted, grinning as he dropped his cards face-up onto the olive drab Sherman.

"I can't believe this..." the other muttered in frustration as he watched his money being taken away by his friend. "You're either fucking lucky or I'm fucking unlucky."

"Well I hope I'm lucky enough to shove a shell up Hitler's ass!" the winning soldier laughed, shuffling the deck. "As for you, well, you just drive me to my parade."

"Fuck you, I'm going to shoot Krauts too!" the other soldier huffed indignantly.

"Well, the war ain't gonna win itself," a random voice called out from below them.

The two men looked down at the source of the voice, another young man, his arms folded as he looked up at the two.

"Now who the hell are you?" the man with the deck shot back.

"Joshua Tuckerman," was the reply. "I'm told that I'm going to be commanding this M4?"

"Oh!" the other man blinked, realizing who he was. "Sorry sir, I'm Roger Lumberg, assigned driver of this tank."

"Jim Lowe, I'm gonna be your gunner," the other man continued casually. "Lucky for you, you don't need to worry about me not shooting straight."

"Oh?" Joshua looked at his new gunner. "Why so?"

"Well, I'll tell you that I've shot every single fucking Kraut dead right at where it kills them," Jim grinned in pride, shifting his seating position and turning back to watch where he was moving to. As he did so, his right arm accidentally hit the commander's hatch, the hand holding onto the deck of cards momentarily opening up.

"Fuck!" he cursed, not noticing that a single card had fallen out of the deck as he placed it behind him. "Anyway, nothing stops me from killing a filthy Kraut, not even if they've got their guns and I'm using a fucking bow and arrow! I'll give them all an arrow to the fucking head!"

Tuckerman rolled his eyes, arms akimbo. "Whatever you say, 'Archer'."

"Just don't get us killed and we'd be happy, 'Archer'!" Roger laughed, slapping his friend on the shoulder.

"Yeah? Well maybe drive faster this time and try not to drive us into a ditch again!"

"Pfft- What, really?" the commander chuckled.

"It was an accident!" his driver immediately protested. "Besides, it's not my fault that the other M4s feel like slugs and turn like trucks. Well, at least this Easy-Eight here," he patted the tank confidently, "is much, much better."

"How can you be so sure, you haven't even driven it!" Archer shot back. "What the fuck's an 'Easy-Eight', anyway?

"Easy-Eight, nickname for this particular model of M4," Jim explained, the enthusiast side of him showing itself. "M4A3E8, or M4A3(76)W HVSS if you prefer the official term. If you bothered to look up the specs it doesn't take an idiot to figure out what's good on this! Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension are superior to Vertical Volute Spring Suspension and with HVSS comes the wider tracks the M4 seriously needs, and this thing has wet ammoracks so we won't die in a fucking fire! Besides, all M4A3 models use the 1100 cubic inch Ford GAA V8, which has an all-aluminum design and a 32-valve DOHC-"

"Yes yes I get it, 'Mr Ford'," the gunner interrupted. "We don't need to hear another 5 hours of your blabbering."

"Fuck you!"

Joshua chuckled. "You're something like a tank enthusiast, aren't ya?"

"Yep!" was the proud reply from Ford. "Well, I'm a car and plane guy as well, anything 'bout them I'd be happy to look em up!"

"So, why 'Easy-Eight'?" Archer continued.

"I think I can answer that," Tuckerman raised a finger, "I know quite a bit myself. It's obviously a play on the 'E8' designation, but since this model hit Europe late June it's been raking up a lot of popularity, and part of that reason's how comfortable the ride apparently is. Thus 'Easy-Eight'. You can ask those guys there," he offered, pointing behind him towards another E8, its crew busy washing their tank down. "They've crewed theirs for more than a month already."

"Glad to hear I won't puke every time this guy drives," Archer snarked, pointing at Ford.

"Fuck you!"

"Knock it off, you two," the commander sighed, hoping the two of them wouldn't affect crew performance. "Anyway, it seems like the E8 was planned for production a few months later than it had, think August or September. But I guess something went right with the design, thus why they've gone with production ahead of schedule. Ours here's fresh from the factory, I'm told."

"Yeah, I actually saw it arrive yesterday," Archer nodded. "Figured I'd be assigned to a new tank. What's your last tank?" he asked his new commander.

"M4A1(76)," was the reply. "I was the gunner on that one."

"Oh, new promotion?" the gunner perked up. "Well, you're the boss now, so just don't run us into an ambush or something and we'll be fine."

"Like hell I will."

"Hey!" another voice shouted as another guy, younger than the rest, ran up. "I'm told to report to this tank!"

"You?" Archer asked incrediously. "But you're a baby! Who are you?"

"W-well, I'm Thomas Anderson, assigned machine gunner, sir," was the nervous reply.

"Oh. Makes sense. Never been in a tank before?"

Tom shook his head.

"Figures. Well, you've got the easiest job, just sit there and shoot any Kraut you see. Even you can do that."

"S-sure!" was the enthusiastic reply.

"Yeah, your name's 'Baby' from now on," Ford snickered. "I'm Ford, he's Archer, and he's... well, your boss."

"Joshua Tuckerman, seems like you're under me now," the commander greeted.

"Y-yes, sir! Pleasure to meet you, sir!" Baby saluted.

"Uh, no need for that, but thanks."

"S-so, I'm 'Baby' now?" he asked doubtfully. "When do I get a change of nickname?"

"Oh hell no, that's permanent!" Archer replied as he and Ford laughed.

"Don't worry 'bout it, they'll come up with something else once you prove yourself," Josh assured the frowning young man, patting him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, whatever Boss says," the gunner sighed. "Oh yeah, we're missing a loader, where the fuck's-"

"I'm here!" a new face waved as he walked over. "Barclay Owens, I'm the loader."

"Yeah, that's about right. Hey, get here, help me shuffle this deck," Archer beckoned, grabbing the deck from behind him.

"Sure thing."

Archer reached his hand out, deck in hand, and Barclay grabbed onto it. The moment the gunner released his hand, however, the loader somehow lost his grip, fumbling as the deck fell to the ground. "Shit!"

"You're fucking kidding me, we've got fucking Butterfingers here as our loader!" Archer facepalmed.

"Sorry!" was the reply as the loader bent down to hastily pick the cards up. Beside him, Josh also went down and helped out, passing his half of the deck to Barclay.

"Thanks," the loader quietly muttered as he arranged the deck.

"Anyway, since you're all here, I want to set a few things out straight," Tuckerman said, addressing his crew. "From now on we're a crew, so I hope we all get along well. We're fighting the Germans already, no need to fight within each other. Now to business, we're going to fight tomorrow so I want to make sure our tank-"

"One's missing."

Everyone looked at Butter.

"What?" Josh asked.

The loader ran the deck through his fingers. "One card's missing."

The commander raised an eyebrow.

"Amazing, you didn't even look at the deck," Archer commented incredulously.

"No, I'm serious. Here, commander, you count," the loader said, passing the deck over to Josh.

Sighing, Joshua fanned the deck and looked down at the cards.

A few seconds passed, and he noticed that his loader was right.

"Ace of Spades isn't here," he said, passing the deck over to Archer.

"Really?" the gunner puzzled, looking around. "Well, it must be somewhere here..."

"Guess our first job as a crew is to find the card then," the commander laughed. "Get going."

Various calls of "Aye sir" and "Roger" returned in response as everyone looked around for the missing card.

Noting something he was earlier, Tuckerman climbed up to the turret and looked down the commander's hatch. "Oh, there it is."

"Where?" Ford asked, looking up.

"Right on my seat," was the reply as the commander got down the hatch, bent down and picked the card up.

"Oh, yeah, must've slipped," he heard Archer comment outside.

"You sure your hand won't slip when you want to pull the trigger?" Butter's voice asked, the commander almost able to hear the smirk on the loader's face.

"Oh, shut up!"

Joshua looked at the card as he stood up, holding the Ace of Spades up. "Seems like we're going to be lucky."

"Or rather, you're going to be lucky," Archer retorted. "It landed on your seat, after all."

"Oh come on, don't jinx us," Ford complained. "You say it as if we're all gonna die and he's not!"

Right on cue, an idea floated into the commander's head. "Well, I know how we can 'share my luck'. Say, why don't we name this M4 after this card?"

"'Ace of Spades'..." Baby muttered. "I like it."

"A bit too long though, don't you think?" Archer commented. "At least for painting the name on the barrel. Let's just put 'Ace' down, yeah?"

"That works with me," Ford nodded.

"Hell, let's paint a single spade on the tank too!" Butter suggested enthusiastically.

"Sure!" the gunner nodded. "Where, though?"

"On the front of the hull, right side relative to our tank. Would be somewhere in front of where the machinegunner is."

Tuckerman watched in amusement as his new crew began to work together for the first time. "All fine with me. Well," he decided, pulling himself out of the hatch, "let's get to it! Hitler's not gonna kill himself."

"I'll go get the paint," Ford volunteered as he walked off.

"I'll follow you!" Baby replied, following the Sherman driver away.

"We'll need to clean the tank first," Archer pointed out as he walked off. "Be right back Boss, gonna get water and buckets, maybe a hose if we're lucky."

"I'll get some cloth," Butter smiled as he headed off.

"Sure, sure," Joshua nodded before he realized he was the only one left. "Hey, what do I do?!"

"You're the commander! Stay there and let us do the job!" the loader yelled back, laughing.

Tuckerman sighed.

Well, off to a great start at least...

Hopping off the Sherman, he walked towards the front and looked at his new command.

Brand-new tank, brand-new crew...

He looked down at the Ace of Spades, still held by him, before looking up at his new tank.

"Something tells me you're gonna go far, Ace," he muttered to himself.