Chapter 26

Rivers pushed aside a branch of leaves and narrowed his gaze. He took notice of the Federation checkpoint and marked down every detail he could. Three challenger 2's stationed by the toll gate, several dozen Federation women doing a variety of tasks, and low and behold, Akari herself was standing only twenty yards away from Rivers current position.

A sneer plastered itself on Rivers face. His detest of the Federation leader had grown significantly over the course of the breakout. Up until Commander Maho's collapse Rivers was fine with hating her for her actions. Now Rivers believed that Akari was just a dreadful person. Maho wasn't someone Rivers was exponentially close to, but he was good friends with Ed, and Ed had gotten remarkably close to Maho over the time of the match.

"Keep the traffic flowing, I want all Challenger tanks that come through here to reach Homedale by the end of the month. There's only seven months left for this war game and I want to win It before summers over." Akari said.

Rivers took mental note of this. It seemed Akari was gathering as large a force as she could. But for what? Could she be reading an attack on Glendale? The Association is on a defensive style, but they are by no means pushovers. What could Akari be planning?

With the information he now had Rivers decided not to press his luck. He slowly started moving backwards and kept himself low to the ground. The forest camouflage poncho he was wearing granted him better concealment. However the human eye tracks movement. If he rushed this, he would be caught and the whole operation would be put in jeopardy.

'Easy. Let the poncho and bushes do the work. Just like that Ranger book you read last year. They wont see you if you don't move to fast.' Rivers thought to himself.

Several minutes later Rivers made it around a small bend in the hills and rose to a low crouch. He then moved his way further away from the checkpoint and reached the rendezvous. He saw another figure covered in a poncho like him and made his way towards him.

"Any luck?" Donovan asked.

"Got some information, nothing about the cannon. But I think the others will want to hear what I have. How about you?" Rivers asked.

"Same. I did manage to swipe paper of troop movements. for the next several days we'll have complete knowledge of where the Federation forces are congregated." Donovan said.

"Homedale." Rivers stated.

Donovan looked at him with wide eyes. "How'd you know?" He asked.

"Akari was at the checkpoint I scouted. She wanted all Challenger tanks moving through that checkpoint to reach Homedale by months end. Something big is going down and we need to learn what." Rivers said. With that the two headed back to where Kay and the others were hiding, intent on using this new information to any advantage they could get.

Davis would have grinned had the sight not been so terrifying. Through his binoculars Davis saw the 32-meter-long barrel of the Gustav Cannon. The sight filled him with dread. How could they possibly destroy that thing? Sure Virginia's tanks were all M6 heavy's, but that cannon had almost fourteen-hundred tons of metal adorned into it. It would be difficult to take that thing down with 76mm shells.

"Quite the adversary we've to face wouldn't you say?" Darjeeling asked standing next to Davis.

"Quite." Was all Davis said. His mind trying and failing to formulate a sequential plan that entails the destruction of the cannon whilst the tanks under his command make it out unscathed. Davis just sighed and lowered his binoculars nearly giving into defeat. "For most of my life I have been a tactical mastermind and here I find myself against an obstacle that would ruin me."

"No good idea, and the fact that your acknowledging your opponent, gives off the essence that your considering defeat." Darjeeling said. Davis laughed; how perceptive could this woman be? Back in Hoja City she figured out his plans within an hour of him implementing them.

"You had been outnumbered and outgunned in Hoja City and found every tactful advantage you could get to keep us stalled. If anyone could figure out a strategy its you Davis." Darjeeling walked off.

Davis exhaled and continued to reconnoiter the cannon and its surroundings. For two hours he stood on that overlook and pondered himself. He was getting ever frustrated. He never lost a game of chess, checkers, or any other game of strategy in his life. He was so gifted with abilities of a tactician that he felt unstoppable. However that felling eventually grows into overconfidence. Something that Davis was still completely unaware of.

Davis sighs for the umpteenth time and begins walking back to camp. he still ponders possible offensive points and defensive breaking tactics, but he just couldn't come up with anything. He felt completely-.

"Useless. Just useless." Davis heard a voice say. He turned his head to the direction of the voice and saw a petite girl from Saunders. She sat alone in front of one of the lanterns, leaning back onto one of the Sherman's, looking over a small radio connected to a small antenna. Davis recognized her as Alisa. She was Kays vice-commander and close friend. Her face also had the look of defeat as she fumbled away with the radio. Intrigue took precedence over Davis's mind and ventured over to the girl.

"Having trouble?" He asked. Alisa looked up at him startled but eased up after a second to recognize him in return.

"Something like that. I cant get this stupid radio to pick up on any frequency. Its all connected and the antenna has full signals but for some reason the radio isn't connecting." Alisa said. Davis nodded somewhat understanding what she had said. For all he knew she just spoke in Greek.

"Mind if I pop a squat?" he asked.

"What?" Alisa said giving him a confused look.

"Mind if I sit down?" He rephrased.

"Oh, no not at all, go ahead." Alisa said. Davis nodded his thanks and sat down a few feet away from her leaning onto the Sherman as well. He pulled out a small notebook from his bag and opened it revealing a pencil and a page with a drawing on it. The drawing was of a bird. A cardinal.

"Oh wow, did you draw that?" Alisa asked glancing at his notebook.

"Yeah, but it could be better. I don't think I got the beak right. Darned thing flew away fore I could finish." Davis said.

"Oh come on that looks amazing. I can only draw stickmen or square bodied people." Alisa said. Davis laughed. Not in an insulting way, but more of a bemused way.

"My cousin was a fanatic with drawing stickmen battles and wars when he was little. Now he draws for an animation studio back home." Davis said.

"Quite impressive I guess." Alisa said going back to work on the radio. Davis also tapped his pencil on his chin thinking about what to draw. He looked around until he realized something perfect for him to sketch. He immediately began work.

"So whats the radio supposed to do? You trying to catch the frequency for the Angels and Dodgers game?" Davis asked.

"As much as my older brother loves baseball, I do not. I'm trying to catch radio frequencies from the Federation team. Maybe if we had some more intelligence it would help you make a better plan." Alisa said. Davis was surprised. Not just because she actually knew two American baseball teams, but because of her knowing he was the one forming a plan.

"I think it would help me make a plan in general. I've come up with diddly squat." Davis said. Now Alisa was the one to be surprised. She had heard of Davis's amazing tactics from Pekoe from the fighting back in Hoja City, but she didn't think that he would never actually be struggling to create a plan of action.

For some time, the two just sat in silence as they both worked on their respective projects. Alisa on the Radio and Davis on his drawing. With the minimal noise from around the camp and fact that to the west was raining, meaning that overcast was over their camp, the setting was comfortable. Especially with the polite distance the two were giving each other.

Davis quietly observed Alisa. She was quite focused and hadn't really noticed much outside of what she was doing. That was admirable. A focused individual was one of extreme accomplishments. Her stature was, to him at least, quite attractive. He was never into a woman who had the means to flabbergast men into doing their bidding or taking advantage of people. It just seemed to him that when someone had something others envied, like a better built body, they tend to misuse it. Davis's alleged fiancé his parents arranged for him was one of that ilk. She was incredibly beautiful he wouldn't lie. But she didn't have that attractiveness Davis loved. He loved a genuine woman. One who had not the assets but the means to make man fall in love. For whatever reason, his intrigue was garnered by Alisa, he knew of her 'antics' back during last years Sensha Do tournament and how she did things, however that was one of the things Davis thought was interesting. She had the tenacity to go against the system and make a means of winning. Davis himself, as an American, could respect that.

Alisa, In turn, silently studied Davis. He to was focused on his drawing not giving the outer world much thought about what was going on or who was in it. Alisa grew confused and then jealous. She had guessed that someone like him would tend to flock for other women like Darjeeling or Kay even. But he decided to talk and sit with her. it was strange to her, she wasn't pretty as Kay, not as mature as Naomi, why would he take any interest in her. Alisa's mind wondered over to Takashi. The guy from the school ship who's family owned a bakery. He was a well-built guy who had many of the girls from Saunders buying bread from his families bakery just to get a look at him. Alisa wouldn't lie, she was one of those girls once. However time had advanced and she, well and true, got over her little school girls crush of him. Now with Davis sitting next to her, she saw a different formed stature of man. Davis wasn't bulky or even had much muscle. He was very lean in that regard. Alisa knew that Takashi was one of the type of men that, much like how the more 'Mature' girls she knew told her, would try to use their muscular bodies to take advantage of girls and use them to acquire things. Alisa was NOT into all that, at least not anymore. Last year she would give up anything to have Takashi notice her. but now she wanted someone more real. And to be honest, Davis fit that picture quite perfectly. She had never talked with him before, but from her interactions with the guys from Virginia Davis was a rather level headed and understanding guy.

"I have a question?" Davis asked shocking Alisa out of her trance. "What plan did you use against Ooarai when you first went up against them? I never did catch that match." Davis asked.

"Oh, uh. Well in the beginning I used a wiretapping device to listen in on their communications so we could intercept them. I stopped doing that after we got caught, but I know knowledge is still one of the most important pieces to warfare." Alisa said.

"To true. Knowledge is power, believe it or not. With that knowledge you could come up with a great strategy in order to defeat your foes. However I seem to be lacking on that at the moment." Davis said. Alisa saw his mind struggling to accept this truth.

"How many tanks are guarding the cannon?" Alisa asked.

"Oh I think, a dozen. Maybe fourteen." Davis said. Alisa began to think, what could work against that.

"What if we encircle them? pick them off from the afar?" Alisa said.

"It wont work. Despite the trees blocking the way we'd need to get close. And those challenger tanks would be able to break out of our line. No offense to you girls but the Sherman's and Matilda's you have aren't exactly strong in terms of taking punishment." Davis said. Alisa was a little hurt but knew what he said to be true. In fact she still wondered how her Sherman survived for as long as it did back during the university match.

"What about a charge like how Uncle Sam did against the Karl's?" She asked. Again Davis shacked his head.

"It would only cause unwanted chaos. We are more likely to hit our own tanks then just the Federation. Plus we need to make sure the least amount of us are taken out if possible. When that cannon goes up we need to be long gone." Davis said. Alisa thought to herself. Davis had really come up with that many scenarios in his head trying to find the best approach. A diversionary tactic? No the Federation are more mentally strong compared to the University team, they had underestimated the joint high schools back then. Pincer movement? Not with the line of sight the Challengers would have. They'd be in a better defensive position before they arrived. What about?

"A night raid?" Alisa asked. Davis stopped his sketching and looked at Alisa.

"What?" He asked.

"A night raid. Send in one tank with a crew to demolish the cannon from the inside. Sensha Do and Tankery rules state that if any and all plans utilize the need to be on foot anything goes so long as no one is in risk of getting hurt from tank fire. We could sneak into the cannons shadow and have someone go inside and plant an I.E.D. so we could shut the whole thing down with out them even knowing how or where we did it." Alisa said.

Davis just looked at her. he wanted to refuse the plan. Say it was bad for a multitude of reasons. Yet he couldn't find even one. A muffler over a Sherman engine would make it quiet to the distinct engine noise of the Challenger, and with nearly fourteen tanks moving at once blending in would be no problem either. Only sneaking in would be a hassle. Besides, who ever heard of using a tank for a stealth mission.

"I think that's the best idea I have ever heard in a long time. It would be completely unexpected. It's brilliant." Davis said standing up. "I got to go over every detail. Get the right crew together and workout how to make some Improvised explosives. Thank you Alisa, your amazing." Davis said. Alisa was shocked to hear that. All she did was give a suggestion and he thought she was amazing? How strange. "Oh by the way, here. I think you'll need some motivation yourself." Davis said handing his newly drawn sketch to her. after which Davis jogged towards his tank.

Alisa just watched him go disbelief still on her face. how could he think so highly of her? she wasn't that smart. Alisa sighed, the short-lived excitement of the compliment now over, making a way for intrigue with Davis's drawing. She brought the paper up and she gasped, a hue of pink on her cheeks. Davis's drawing wasn't of some tree or rodent no, he had drawn her. A full body drawing of her exact position she was sitting to be precise. Her back against the tank, her right leg crossed under her left which had its knee pointed upward. Her hands held the radio and with looking at her face Alisa blushed deeper. He had drawn her face much more beautifully then it actually looked. In fact her eyes looked so innocent and focused, her lips looked so smooth and lush. The thought that Davis drew this made Alisa's heart skip a beat. Did he really think she looked this good, did he really think she was beautiful? She wasn't the most 'Mature' or naturally smooth as Kay. But the drawing had shown her figure much praise. Her Jacket actually hugged her body showing off what assets she had, not like the baggy hand me down she currently wore. In fact Alisa even thought that she was looking at someone else.

Alisa looked up and tried to find Davis again, however he was already gone. She exhaled and held the drawing to her chest. She then looked at the radio that had been giving her much trouble. If someone thought that way about her then maybe things weren't always so bad. She tried one last sequence with the radio and antenna and, as if luck would have it, the radio spewed to life with voices coming from Federation territory. Alisa gasped again at her finally getting success. She could only think that Davis had helped her with this. With new found motivation it was easy to say her next thought aloud.

"If someone helps me, I guess I'm not so useless after all."