Chapter 4

BC Freedom was stationed in Mishima in order to act as the go between radio operators for all of the High schools. They didn't mind much, mostly because of the split divide between the two social groups of the school, the Eclair and Examination students. This did cause some discussion about how the two groups could work together but the talk never happened.

Marie had groaned in frustration when Andou and Ruka didn't even try to reconcile their position, and she groaned now as the two were still arguing. She could let it slide earlier, but now there was a meeting between some of the minor schools to discuss their next move.

Anchovy from Anzio and Nishi from Chi-ha Tan were already awaiting for her to arrive, though Marie would have liked to have been the first one there instead of the last. Her two Vice Commanders really weren't helping her situation.

"I apologize for being late." Marie said as she entered the meeting room. Anchovy and Nishi sat patiently and smiled when she entered the room.

"Don't worry about it, lets get started." Anchovy said enthusiastically.

"Yes, I am excited to see what our new mission will be." Nishi said in turn.

"Did any of our major commanders send us any information?" Marie asked, not having received anything herself. Anchovy brought out a manila envelope and pulled out its contents. She split them up and handed two smaller piles to the other two.

"These are the orders that Maho sent us. She's concerned about the ongoing stalemate in the mountain just north of Hoja City, so she's taking her school south and wants us three to go to Leimberg and back up Saunders until they move north. That means that we're going to be sieging down the town of Homedale." Anchovy said.

"What about the Americans? Do they have defenders at Homedale?" Nishi asked.

"Of course they do, Saunders is going to move north to try to take some of them to follow. That way there should be only one school defending the town. The three of us could take that easily." Anchovy said.

"So what plan should we have?" Marie asked. Anchovy and Nishi both were silent. Individually they could come up with something that benefited their own forces but when all three of their schools were going to be together? Miho was the one who could do that well, as evident from the All-Star battle. Marie sighed before speaking again. "I believe it would be best if my schools ARL-44's acted as our frontal unites. Then we can have Nishi's Chi-Ha's and my SOMUA's as support. Anzio's CV-33's can act as interference while using the Semoventes and the P-40 as reserve. Does that work?"

"That seems fine." Nishi said. Anchovy was a little less inclined.

"Why do I have to stay in the back?" She asked.

"If you have a better plan on how to use all our forces then please share it." Marie said putting Anchovy on the defensive. The pigtail girl couldn't think of something else that was better then Marie's plan. In all honesty it sounded good. Anzio's tanks were smaller then most and the only power house of their school was the P-40.

"Fine, I'll play rear guard. So we should be ready to leave by tomorrow, Maho wants us at Leimberg as soon as can be." Anchovy said.

"Then I shall get my team ready." Nishi said standing and leaving. Marie and Anchovy both stood and left the room together with the latter having a question in mind.

"Which American school do you think we'll find?" She asked. Marie frowned, she didn't know. There were ten American schools on the island, Virginia was in Hoja, Uncle Sam was on the Mountain fighting Pravda, Montana and Washington were at Homedale, but Saunders was planning to draw one away, so she didn't know which one would stay. She didn't know where the other schools were either.

"I cant say. All I can say is that we need to be prepared. I'm starting to wish I'd stayed at school." Marie said. Anchovy sighed and responded.

"Same. My girls and I are tired."

"Then we better get some rest." Marie said as she and Anchovy walked to their schools stations.

A young black-haired man walked into the command center within the town of Homedale. He stops as he sees Commander Rivers Pines looking over a map of the surrounding area. With the inevitable attack by the Federation It wasn't a surprise that Rivers would want to have everything set up and perfected to a T.

Washington's Tankery team has just finished some much-needed R&R, what with them being the ones who faced much of Kuromorimine's recent attacks they needed it and have gotten back into setting up defenses around the town, with what they could salvage.

"Moose, there you are, get over here I got a situation update." Rivers said as he saw the young man. Moose groaned as he walked up to Rivers.

"I told you to not call me that, my name is Albert, not Moose." Moose told him, to which Rivers just shrugged.

"You're from Canada and all the Moose are in British Columbia right?" Rivers asked receiving a glare from the young Canadian born.

"I'm from Saskatchewan." Moose said.

"Potato, Tomato. Never mind that, listen the girls at Leimberg got reinforcements." Rivers said getting Moose's attention. "We don't think it's the Federation proper as most of them are more south, so we believe its more of the High Schools."

"How many?" Moose asked.

"Two or three. Problem is that Saunders is moving north, possibly trying to flank us, so someone is going to have to go north and chase them down." Rivers said.

"My guys and I could do that." Moose said getting an instant reaction from Rivers.

"No! My team will go after Saunders, I need to pay them back for Hoja City anyway." Rivers said as a dark look played in his eyes that sent a shiver up Moose's spine.

"Fine, but how can my team fight against three Federation schools? We don't have the numbers to fight them, and while all our tanks are M10 Wolverines we still can't fight that many." Moose brought up.

"That's why I called for Los Angeles and South Texas to reinforce you here. They'll be here within two days so you can just turtle up and wait for them to show up and they'll help give those girls a what for." Rivers said.

"Two schools? Where are the rest going?" Moose asked.

"Don't know, don't care. I have pay back to give." Rivers said as he walked out of the room. Moose sighed and took a look at the map. Homedale was easily defendable, at least against an enemy that didn't outnumber his own team, but with the help of two other schools then he and his team could hold out indefinitely.

Moose folded the map up and pocketed it before leaving the room and walking to where his school's tanks were garaged. His boys had started fixing up the Wolverines and getting them already to go.

"Claude, whats the status?" Moose asked one of his Vice Commanders. Claude was tall, taller then Moose was, and held himself in little regard. His Tankery Jacket was dirty and open, his hair was unkempt, and he had little way of a clean face.

"Hey boss, Wolverines are good. We stocked up on shells for the 76.2 mm guns and reinforced the armor up to 57.2 mm." Claude said.

"And the engines running good?" Moose asked.

"Yup. 375 horse power at 2,100 RPM." Claude answered.

"Good. Where's Arthur?"

"Who cares, probably cleaning his hair for the umpteenth time." Claude said.

"Well when he gets here tell him to load up all his tanks and get them out into a line. Montana is heading north so its going to be us here until help arrives." Moose said sparking Claudes interest.

"When will that be?" he asked.

"Two days at most. We just need to wait till then and that's when we get the fight again."