Girls und Panzer: Battle Europa (IC, Closed)

[Sonitusia]

A Short Distance Away

Unbeknownst to the girls, a plane had passed by several kilometers above them, too far to make any notable noise louder than the humming of their vehicles' engines. A single dark silhouette leaped out of the aircraft, making a speedy decent towards the earth. It continued to move as such for a few moments at terminal velocity, before something unfurled; a parachute. Slowly falling for the last few meters, it finally landed on the ground softly, the large cloth that kept it from smashing into the ground following suit.

Perhaps we should take a closer look?

It was a Prussian paratrooper, dressed in full VDV kit, but without a weapon on her person. What she lacked in firearms, she packed in a large metallic box; a tapper. Taking off her goggles along with helmet and shaking her head, one would've seen as a rather good looking brunette, with beautiful grey-blue eyes. But all the beauty in the world wouldn't have hidden the faint sadness written across her face. She looked too young to witness the horrors of war, too young to have lost people she had entrusted her life with. But for now, for the sake of the experience of a younger generation to find their way to enjoy their youth, she'd act as an overseer.

Someone to watch over a battle of metal and fire.

"Hello everyone!~" she exclaimed suddenly into the radio sets of every tanker in the junkyard, "Pleasant place to have a fight, among the rotting bodies of war heroes... Or losers, whatever floats your boats. I, Sergeant Emilia Espoire of the Vozdushno-desantnye voyska Prussii, will be the referee of this match!"

"The rules are simple: This is an elimination battle, your goal is to knock out the entire enemy team. You may not use parts or equipment not sanctioned by the European Tankery League, voluntarily leave the competition area, fire directly upon humans, fire within a ceasefire-zone, attack a vehicle that has been declared inoperable, disrespect the judges or other participants, or perform any other actions that are judged to be "throwing the match". Do I make myself clear?!"

[Republic of Hasgriu]

Buxtehude had been expecting the flare marking the match's commencement for quite a bit when the referee dropped in. As aware as when the crew had found the Bishop, Liliya called attention to the descending silhouette in the sky with a few taps to the turret crew's legs and an imperative "Look up."

"Ey, the Brit's got some competition now," remarked Maya, borrowing the sole shared pair of binoculars the crew had. The landing was certainly smoother than the time she got hit by a parachute in the National Education show, during which she learnt how light the things were. "We aren't using our own flares, then."

And suddenly, the lenses were magnifying Katya's pupils. "Not competition! Friend! SAS and ВДВ – с неба привет! Ультрама—"

Maya quickly interdicted the tuneless singing by firing off two amendments as she placed the binoculars down, one correcting herself and the other Yekaterina. "Friendly competition. And she's not SAS."

"Duh, she's V-D-V! She just said so!" Katya whirled a full circle and gestured to the radio set still in front of her, ambiguity shrouding just how genuine this obfuscating obliviousness was.

Either way, Maya was unconvinced, the first response coming in the form of the stink eye. "You know very well who I'm talking about. Though I'm surprised we have a referee at all. Seems like a lot for our first practice match."

"And the mode of transport, too. That's the second airborne insertion. No damaged roads this time, though..." Hanna had not witnessed the incident firsthand, but a number of credible accounts and the marks in the carpark were testament enough.

"Probably the principal's doing again." Maya shook her head. She personally hadn't inherited much influence from her pedigree, and they'd sooner gore her if she tried too much, that was very much verifiable. "How does she have all these connections with the most parachute-happy of the military? Kaufmann's a marine!"

"Eh, but you can't really climb the side of the carrier, definitely not with a tank!" Katya mused. Having gone mountaineering in the Tatra Mountains and the Hindu Kush before, the girl was actually the most experienced climber of the quartet, though this offerred no insight into the blatantly obvious.

"You can, however, board and bring the vehicles on like a normal person." Maya's eyes further shrunk as she made clear how poorly Yekaterina's attempts at persuasion were going. "I will be abnormal on my terms, thank you very much. And shouldn't we report in or something? That was a question Frau VDV ended with."

"Sergeant Emilia Espoire is the name!" piped up Katya, ducking down into the superstructure.

"Espoire? Madame VDV?" Sounded like a Bond girl. The apparently French name evoked memories, Maya resuming not with a statement, but with song. "Cœur de la—a nuit l'onde—e d'espoir..."

"Sentier de gloire," responded a melodic soprano, floating out of the open hatches in the front. None of them needed to look to confirm that it was Liliya who had joined the alto, her singing voice—heard arguably as often as her speaking voice—being easily recognised by the rest of Buxtehude.

"Ardeur de la vie, de la vie," challenged Maya. The sectional rivalry, previously non-existent, saw a sudden and great amplification.

"Sentier de gloire, sentier de gloire." Liliya successfully pulled off her heist of the alto part, to Maya's annoyance. "Bonheurs enfanti~ins, trop vite oubliés, éffacés~"

"Une lumière dorée brille sans fin tout au bout du—u che—emin," came Maya's revenge, demonstrating that she too was worthy of the melody.

As the two choristers continued in the background, Katya, after a bout of admiring applause, went on with her task on the radio. "Buxtehude Team, hear you loud and clear, ref! Let's get going!"

[Wolfenium]

A Short Distance Away

Unbeknownst to the girls, a plane had passed by several kilometers above them, too far to make any notable noise louder than the humming of their vehicles' engines. A single dark silhouette leaped out of the aircraft, making a speedy decent towards the earth. It continued to move as such for a few moments at terminal velocity, before something unfurled; a parachute. Slowly falling for the last few meters, it finally landed on the ground softly, the large cloth that kept it from smashing into the ground following suit.

Perhaps we should take a closer look?

It was a Prussian paratrooper, dressed in full VDV kit, but without a weapon on her person. What she lacked in firearms, she packed in a large metallic box; a tapper. Taking off her goggles along with helmet and shaking her head, one would've seen as a rather good looking brunette, with beautiful grey-blue eyes. But all the beauty in the world wouldn't have hidden the faint sadness written across her face. She looked too young to witness the horrors of war, too young to have lost people she had entrusted her life with. But for now, for the sake of the experience of a younger generation to find their way to enjoy their youth, she'd act as an overseer.

Someone to watch over a battle of metal and fire.

"Hello everyone!~" she exclaimed suddenly into the radio sets of every tanker in the junkyard, "Pleasant place to have a fight, among the rotting bodies of war heroes... Or losers, whatever floats your boats. I, Sergeant Emilia Espoire of the Vozdushno-desantnye voyska Prussii, will be the referee of this match!"

"The rules are simple: This is an elimination battle, your goal is to knock out the entire enemy team. You may not use parts or equipment not sanctioned by the European Tankery League, voluntarily leave the competition area, fire directly upon humans, fire within a ceasefire-zone, attack a vehicle that has been declared inoperable, disrespect the judges or other participants, or perform any other actions that are judged to be "throwing the match". Do I make myself clear?!"

"No need to put a dampener on their mood, Emil'," Astrid answered, as the PT-85's engines revved up, "they're just here to practice. Anyway, all clear here. Over."

Putting down the receiver, Astrid did not need to guess the source of her cynicism. They both served in Afghanistan's International Security Assistance Force, the very same place her trainers once fought under the Soviet flag years ago. The irony, she felt, was not lost to her. While she had always been a fiesty woman, she felt that she had become a lot more jaded after fighting the Taliban.

But Emilie was, if anything, lost. An emigrant from Western Europe, she was hardly the kind of person Astrid expects to be a world-weary person. Her cheerful facade reeked of melancholy, and her concise description of her family situation was chilling, to say the least. True, given some time, it might be easier to speak of a mother's fatal car crash after a while. But going on a tour of duty instead of tending to her suicide-prone father sounded incredibly irksome. She did not know her very well, but she was never one to like insincere people, especially those who lie to themselves.

"She sounds pretty sarcastic," Selene commented, turning up the engine as she gleaned through the manual, "you know her."

"Kind of..." Astrid grunted in a low voice, "never liked her. Would have hit her more than once if there wasn't others to stop me. She's even named 'Hope'. Don't make me laugh..."

"This is Aquarius," Iveta radioed in, "yea, we're ready. Over."

The instructor could only see to Iveta's plan. She was not sure if the unseasoned captain was up to it, but the most she could do was trust on her, and look into everyone's training.

[Krajstali]

"That should be enough, cease fire at once Gunner Krystyna." ordered Jozefa, looking down her binoculars at the lined array of destroyed machinery scattered across the horizon as he turned her head left to right. Letting her binoculars down, she lowered herself down into the turret and closed the hatch as the eyes of the crew had greeted her.

Jozefa took a sip of her half-filled cup,"Well then, all we have to do at the moment is be patient, maybe that instructor has something else up her sleeve-"

"Hallo, everyone," crooned Emma over the radio, "are you ready!?"

The sudden call over the radio caused a shock to Jozefa sending her cup nearly tumbling to the ground, luckily she was still able to keep most of the liquid in it. After the briefing, Jozefa's phone had vibrated indicating a message. Swiping up she saw a map of the junk yard as well as a list of the teams that the crews were designated in.

"We're gonna have the instructor on our team huh?" commented Krystyna as she peaked over her best friend's shoulder to look at her phone.

"Don't get your hopes high Krystyna, I'm pretty sure she isn't there to carry our team. Now back to your seat" Jozefa answered as she turned her head and gently pushed her back, "Everyone else to your positions at once!"

Jozefa's order had sent the crew scrambling to fill in their positions without delay.Another text message had followed this time from Iveta detailing the plan of their operation as the engine of the T-34 had started.

Pressing the send button on her phone, she radioed, "alright, Red Team! You know the plan. Once we get the signal to start, proceed with Phase 1. Copy? Let's go!"

"Zrozumiany,wojtek team on its way!" Krystyna replied over the radio. Endeleza had turned her head behind her, seeing a nod from the commander before pressing her foot down on the pedal and sending the tank on its way to the team's starting location through a shortcut. After a while of speeding through the dirt and junk, the T-34/85 arrived where it was intended to be as it turned around into formation. Anticipating another long wait for the match to start, Endeleza turned off the rumbling diesel engine of the tank.

"So, if Astrid is gonna join us in this match then who's going to be the referee?" wondered Lidia as she pinched her chin, met only with a shrug from Krystyna. Eventually another voice had entered into the radio set, this time from a paratrooper.

snip

"Huh, sounds simple enough I guess. Wojtek team is ready to go!" Krystyna confirmed, followed by the engine of the tank starting again.

Jozefa breathed in deeply and out, hoping that a repeat of the previous match wouldn't occur again. At least this time they would have allies as well as a task that they were designated to rather than being solo. She adjusted her rogatywka ensuring that it was pointed straight. Despite what the others were thinking, mostly being that they hoped to last much longer than they did before, all Jozefa thought of was to finish the match as quickly as possible since wearing a 19th century uniform in a tank was simply unpleasant.

[Sonitusia]

Undisclosed High Ground
VDV-P, Serzhánt Emilia Espoire

Following the chorus of approval from the impatient high school students, Emilia nodded to herself and took out the flare gun. Pointing it straight to the sky, she also brought out a stopwatch and began counting down to herself, thumb nudging on the button that would start the timer.

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

*POP!*

Whizzing to the sky loudly, the flare exploded as the light of the sun became dim, blanketing the tank graveyard in a hue of bright red. Looking at the burst made the woman flinch a little, her hands instinctively reaching for a non-existent rifle on her back. Panting slightly, she decided to climb the hill a bit further to get a better look, carrying along with her the radio tapper. I hope this is a good match...

---

Green Team
Komodo, Adelia Nachtmann

Watching the flare fly into the sky and burst, Adelia motioned for the team to move. There was no need to give off any vocal commands, silence was in fact a priority during times like this. So, as the Chi-Ha slowly crept forwards, the girl watched to the side as Geist team began their run, and expected for Hare to also do so in a similar manner. There wasn't much need for the Japanese tank right now, according to the plan the team had formulated, but she stayed on her guard anyways. The moment someone was visible, she had to be ready to give off a command.

"Stay on your guard, everyone."

---

Green Team
Geist, Fauna Pool

It as a rather bumpy ride.

Considering the low-light conditions, Fauna had a hard time leading Theodora through the junkyard's terrain. Since they were scouting, light was cut off, and this didn't help at all with dodging the random pieces of broken equipment scattered on the ground. The wheeled suspension wasn't able to fully sustain the force that the bumping created, and so the crew was forced to be forever bracing for impact.

"This isn't comfy at all," Mentari groaned, "Maybe we should get pillows in here next time..." The radio operator nodded in agreement, with Alberta sighing as she kept her hands on her seat. The commander of the armored car could only agree, and noted to herself that they would go shopping after this.

"Oy commander, we're about to reach or destination," Theodora reported through the intercom.

"Roger that Theo, just keep us running, once we get there we're going for a full stop."

[Republic of Hasgriu]

Buxtehude of Green Team

After reporting in, the four crew had gone back to a ready mode, each taking up their respective positions. The engine was quietly rumbling, the gun-howitzer loaded, with a dozen more shells and cartridges waiting, and the superstructure crammed with three schoolgirls, plus Liliya just outside the doors, kneeling on the hull.

The very moment Serzhánt Espoire's flare flew into her field of view, Liliya issued the tacit command to fire. A hard tap to Hanna's shoulder was succeeded by the blast of the 87.6mm artillery piece, sending the first shell of the match, a bursting smoke, to a pre-calculated point—Red Team's 'spawn' area.

"Righty right! Buxtehude, Vernike Sindrom is a go! Let's get to 8 r-p-m!" Katya came exclaiming, ejecting a still-smoking cartridge from the barrel, which Lilichka rapidly removed from the fighting compartment and put aside.

As Hanna made adjustments to the elevation and traverse, the concentration invested in the various knobs precluding a verbal reply to her commander, Maya shoved another round, of the same type as the first, through the breech. "Up!" she said, crisp and sharp, and with the pull of a lever, the 25-pounder was ready for another firing.

This time, it was Yekaterina who ordered, with much greater volume, "Fire!" And so, within ten seconds of starting, the second round of the match began its arc. For the remainder of the half-minute, the process would repeat twice more with base-ejecting zinc chloride smoke.

With luck, the warm light-scattering screen, coupled with the minimal amount of evening light to begin with and the obstacle course that was the graveyard, would hopefully throw the experience-deprived Red into disarray.

[Wolfenium]

Aquarius Team
The sudden explosion of smoke was an unwelcome sight, as a round exploded just behind the KV-1. Agitated, Kirke complained, "again!? Are they trying to burn down the junkyard too!?"

"They're just smoke rounds, don't panic," Iveta stated, "everyone, don't let the smoke blind you. Use GPS if you have to. Move out!"

At fifteen kilometers per hour, however, the KV-1 was in little danger of running into obstacles. Weaving its way out onto the main road, the tank chugged along towards its location, taking cover behind a rusted T-62 as they held their ground. Iveta had no idea what Adelia was planning, but she had a feeling she was trying to use the Bishop to slow them down or cover their advance. But she was not about to stay put. Iveta could only hope her plan works.

Instructor Team

Racing through the debris, the PT-85, even with its paper-thin armour, proved a tier above the rest. Running down the road to scale the hills, the instructor and her 'pick up group' were not doing that badly. As they halted right behind the ridgeline out of view, Astrid tapped on Emma's shoulder as she said, "I'm taking a look." With her binoculars on hand, she quickly hopped out of the tank and laid prone, crawling over the ridgeline to spot the incoming teams.

[Fantrum]

The flare hadn't so much as left the barrel of its gun before Emmi gunned the engines, throwing Lyra against the ring of her cupola and pressing the other crew members to their seats. Victoria grumbled to herself about having a word with Emmi while Sam and Jack simply chuckled at her antics. In the low light conditions Lyra found herself squinting out through her binoculars, struggling to make out even basic outlines and more than once scaring herself by mistaking the bust of a T55.

She'd fought those before, and didn't fancy a round two, but she needed to stay focused. They came up and around the hill from the west, avoiding the road and the dust it might kick up, even in the dying light it would be visible. Something the crew had learned the hard way in a competition match. Sooner rather than later they arrived at the hill crest and Lyra had them stop just shy of going over the top, to avoid skylining the tank. Another hard learned lesson.

Exposing herself fully by climbing out of the tank, Lyra crouched low over the turret, not standing atop it like she loved to do so often, and slid down the turret face to the right of the gun. Then she directed Emmi to creep the take forward until she could see just over the cusp of the hill and out over the field of battle. Then she leaned back against the turret, using her binoculars to scan the distant ridge lines and having Victoria watch behind them for any nasty surprises.

"Hare team is in position, no hostiles sighted yet, will update as needed." Jack whispered into her transmitter, not needing to destub the boss.

LOCATION: I can't edit the map but I'm near that oval shaped road parallel with Giest team.