The early morning sun was shining between the hills now, lighting up the barricade made of tanks, the mounted guns and the people that sat behind them, cold and tired from the long night. One of them was Saori, who was particularly tired and sick of being a base guard. It was both boring and mentally exhausting at the same time. Just thirty more minutes and I am free.

This was hours before the day became tumultuous and beyond anyone's control.

Hearing steps approach behind her, Saori turned around carefully so to not throw off the warmth providing blanket that all border guards had available to them to starve off the cold of the night. There were a number of people it could have been. An early relief from duty, someone from higher up the command structure to give her new orders or one of the mechanics, who worked around the clock and liked to take their breaks in the company of the guards; to talk to someone that wasn't covered in oil and grease. But it was none of the above.

Hana had gotten up early and joined Saori, sitting not just by her side but slipping beneath the blanket, that now barely covered the two of them instead of offering plentiful space to move. "Here. Satoko and Hoshino used one of the excess engines to make some hot coffee for the early birds." Handing a small metal cup to her girlfriend, Hana used her now free left hand to pull Saori closer, her arm going around Saori's back and her hand resting soundly on Saori's left hip. "Nothing to report?" Hana carried another cup for herself, white steam still rising from the cheap instant brew. But out there on the battlefield, instant coffee was still a scarce resource. Both she and Saori were more of the tea drinking type, but tea was in such high demand that coffee was almost readily available compared.

"Thanks." Lightly blowing on the surface of the black liquid, Saori breathed a sigh of relief. "After we got back, nothing else happened. Bellwall was still bustling and hustling until two or three hours ago. Who knows what they are doing."

Looking to her right, Hana saw that she wasn't the only girlfriend that brought coffee to their exhausted other half. I'm glad I decided to be brave and make a move. There are so many couples forming now that I fear someone might have taken Saori from me. She's quite beautiful and kind, so there must be a number of girls out there that were eying her. "I'm sorry we don't have sugar."

Saori herself had gotten the hang of her new situation with impressive speed, at least everyone that viewed her new relationship from the outside thought so. But deep down, she was just gently pushing dealing with it off. For now, she was fine cuddling, holding hands and even kissing Hana, but anything further than that would fluster her well beyond the capacity limit of her coping mechanism. The realization that she was just as interested in girls as everyone around her had come like a big ohh moment to as she thought back about all the times she felt strangely captivated by the other girls when it was time to change clothes.

Right now, Saori lived by a very simple principle; I'll deal with it later. Later! When everything has calmed down! And for the time being, it worked, partially because Hana was very traditional and didn't ever so much as tempt Saori into going beyond a kiss or some close bodily contact.

Leaning her head against Hana's shoulder, Saori kept blowing on the coffee so she wouldn't burn her tongue. "Sleep well?"

"I could hear the volleyball team from two tents over for a while." Hana could in no way say that without blushing. "They are very passionate individuals."

"Jeez, what are you talking about so early in the morning?" Despite her complaint, Saori remained leaned against Hana, finally trying the coffee and finding it both way too strong, too bitter and a bit gross all at the same time. But it filled her stomach with heat and it would provide a bit of a pick me up before her shift was over and she could turn in for about four to six hours unless another emergency rallied everyone. "How is Miporin doing?"

"Not up yet. Neither is Kuromorimine|s commander. I think they are just exhausted after the events of last night." Hana sipped on her own coffee and immediately burned her tongue and stuck it out. "Ow."

Letting out a long yawn, Saori leaned even more against Hana. I'm glad I'm a bit shorter than her. "I just wanna go home when I think about having to stay up most of the night for another week or however long this is going to take."

"If you keep that up, you will sound like Mako soon. Let me sleep. It's too early. I'm tired. Sodoko~."

"I sound nothing like Mako!" Puffing up her cheeks in defiant protest, Saori remained perfectly still, watching the steam from her coffee mug with great intensity. "Your voice sounds more like Mako than I do."

"Do I?" Hana was not so easily rattled. "I will have to be careful then."

Spending a few minutes in silence, Saori's willpower broke first. "It's so peaceful now… you wouldn't think there might be a battle to the death going on somewhere out there."

"They must not have any Makos in their midst if they can fight that early in the morning."

"Jeez, will you stop bringing up Mako already."

"She left quite the impression with the other drivers. They were asking her questions even after she finished her work last night. Her expression looked like that of an ogre."

"I should tell Mako on you."

"Are you going to desert your post?"

Grumbling and mumbling under her breath, Saori focused more on her coffee. "Do we know what Miporin is gonna do next? I heard we were had pretty good last night."

"I think she is going to contemplate that as soon as she wakes up."

Sipping one her coffee again, Saori felt a little less tired by now. Having Hana here helps more than the coffee does. "My hair ends are in terrible condition already..." Playing with a strand of her light ginger hair, Saori looked dejected for a moment. "This war is dragging on..."

"The Americans, British and French are such a big force now that we had to join forces with the Germans, making us an equal force. And when that many soldiers are on the line, things move a lot more slowly. I'm just glad we do not have to spread ourselves thin protecting supply lines and national borders."

"We still have to go out and search for supply crates." Saori had been on those searches twice already and they were just as mind numbingly boring yet tense as standing guard was. "We haven't really fought anything in days."

"My, I didn't know you were such a battle maniac, Saori."

Instead of responding her usual way, Saori glanced at Hana from the side with a really annoyed expression. "At least you get to shoot at people. All I get is having six people shout into my ears all at once."

"Are you still angry about that?"

"I'm not angry," Saori said in the most obviously passive-aggressive way one could imagine.

"I am sure the rabbit team is sorry about that."

"At least it didn't happen when we were deployed with Kuromorimine. We would have looked like amateurs."

"They do have impressive discipline. It is almost strange, comparing Bellwall and Kuromorimine, considering they are both of German nationality."

"Makes sense that if one side is super disciplined that the other side is really wild."

"When we returned to base last night, I heard some of the girls from Bellwall talk about you."

"W-What were they saying?"

"I'm afraid I didn't catch much of what they discussed."

"Were you always such a tease?"

"My, I am certainly not teasing you. It is simply a matter of fact that I didn't overhear much of what they said. Merely that they were talking about the prettiest girl in the Japanese army and-"

"Ah! You liar! They had to have been talking in German! There is no way you could have overheard them!"

"How astute of you. I am sure they were talking about that however. I did hear one of them say your name."

"They could have been saying how my hair is terrible looking!" Trying to stand up, she realized too late she didn't have full control over her legs and spilled coffee over her hand. "Hot, hot, hot!"

With Hana and Saori going about an odd morning routine, the rest of the base was waking up, one by one. Moral was at an all time low and the late rising of Maho and Miho didn't do much to improve that. And when they finally left their tent, the two commanders were bombarded immediately with damage and casualty reports, with demands for orders and questions regarding the attack the last night.

It was ten forty-five, and the night shift was getting some much needed Zs now, when Miho and Maho caught their first break and found time to eat something. While Maho was shoveling dry cereal into her mouth with a large spoon and looking over newly manufactured inventory reports, which had been produced over night by the hard working accountants of Kuromorimine. That was not so much to realize what was gone, as that would require old records, but to know what was there.

Miho was resting her forehead on the table, on top of a pile of papers, feeling like she shouldn't have gotten up that morning. It especially hurt that she couldn't be affectionate with Maho in public, like any other couple could. She knew that would be the case, she knew it would always be the case, and still, until it became a reality instead of being a hypothetical, she hadn't realized just how much it would bother her. Sometimes I wish I could just go overseas with Maho and pretend we're a normal couple. "Maho… are we gonna be doing this all day?" And right after saying that out loud, she realized the language barrier stopped her sister from responding.

Instead of an actual response, Maho shoved the dish with crackers and preserved sausage to Miho. "{Eat.}" She didn't bother to say a lot since Erwin was still gone and nobody could really translate. In general, communication between the two armies had largely broken down and it made them realize just how absolutely important translators were.

For some of the soldiers from Kuromorimine, who had been used to German for a while now, hearing Japanese almost let them just tune out the actual words, generating a real and live language barrier. Maho was not among them, but she was much better than the average soldier at pretending she didn't hear anything.

If she could have talked to her little sister, she would have found out that she was thinking much the same thing as Miho. I am the commander of Kuromorimine, the Black Forest, and yet here I am shuffling papers like an office worker. I must properly direct the second years so that a much clearer and more distinct bureaucratic hierarchy exists when this war is repeated next year. But I must not show how incredibly much I tire of this paperwork. Miho is counting on me. Everyone else, too.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

"{Hey. Yano.}"

Nakasuga Emi and her sharpshooting buddy Yano had gotten themselves caught, escorted and locked up tight. Not too tight, considering they were basically just confined to a part of the cave sealed off by tanks, tents, crates and four armed guards – of which only three did their job.

"{Fucking answer when I'm talking to you Yano!}" Emi had been shot in the legs, but it was nothing she couldn't tough out if push came to shove. Bandages were covering the wounds and even she understood when the medic was gesturing the bullet had gone through and through.

"{Your commander is kinda scary.}"

The situation was, in few words, messed up really badly. In many more words, Nakasuga Emi was sitting on a crate, with her legs crossed and showcasing her panties to three somewhat embarrassed Finnish guards. The fourth guard was from Anzio – a brunette whose hair was tied into a messy ponytail. Like many of the girls at Anzio, she had a tick that made her easily recognizable even by enemy combatants – hers was the habit to respond to everything with "Si" and sometimes "Si, si". And said girl was currently hanging her arms around Yano's neck, sitting on her lap and making bedroom eyes at her newly acquired crush, much to Emi's dismay.

And to further her dismay, Yano was completely ignoring her commanding and publicly flirting with the Italian guard. "{She's just loud. I could easily take her in a fight.}" Yano's face lit up like a stoplight when the Italian girl, who Yano had curiously dubbed Siko in her mind, kissed her on the cheek, squeezing her not insignificantly sized breasts tightly against Yano's arm.

"{Yeah right! I'd mop the floor with you! Just wait until we're out of here!}" Grumbling and hissing, Emi was incredibly annoyed over a lot of things. Getting caught, getting imprisoned and that stupid Finnish girl smirking at her like she was some dumbass from way out in the boonies.

"{You must be a really successful searcher if you found our hiding place. And you're a sniper, si? So you have very good eyes, si?}" Siko spoke decent German, but not at a level where her sentences weren't rich with ill-fitting synonyms here and there. "{I love long hair. You ever think about carrying ponytail? I think it would look much good, si?}"

Reaching for the back of her head, Yano threw Siko off just in time to dodge a blow from Emi, who threw caution to the wind and jumped her comrade without hesitation. "{You think you're Golgo or something?!}" Both of them crashed to the ground, rolling around on the hard stone until they finally came to a stop, with Yano on top, hesitating not a second to punch her commander in the face, not just once, but twice. And the third punch would have landed too if Emi didn't bolt upwards, headbutting Yano and causing her to stagger off her. Kicking, literally, Yano's ass, Emi pulled on her hair to make Yano face up, puching her in the face.

Ramming her fist into Emi's stomach and getting her to back off, Yano got on her feet and spat a little bit of blood. "{You've gone soft, Emi.}"

"{You hit like a girl!}"

"{You monkey faced runt, I am a girl.}" Yano clicked her tongue.

"{Sure could have fooled me. What? Nobody would bat a fucking eye if you took a piss standing up.}" Emi knew exactly what to say to rile up Yano.

"{At least I ain't got bullshit coming out of my fucking mouth.}"

"{You have a death wish or something?! You forget who gives the orders around here, huh?}"

"{Look where your crappy orders got us!}"

Siko had just been standing by, looking back and forth between the two girls. "{Now, now, please calm bottom. We all are friendly here, si?}" Taking a step towards Yano, Siko was swept off her feet by the tall girl, turned around and held hostage. At the same time, Emi jumped one of the guards that had been paying attention to the ruckus and disarmed her by literally punching her lights out. Throwing the gun to Yano, Emi suddenly felt the cold nuzzle of a full automatic rifle against her forehead.

"{Drop your weapon!}" Yano shouted and hoped the damn guard understood her. But the guard didn't react to the command and instead kept Emi at gunpoint, who was suddenly a lot less eager to bounce around than before. "{You, translate.}"

Speaking in fluent Italian to her fellow guard, Siko got her to lower her gun and within a second, Emi and Yano made a run for it – dragging Siko along as insurance. They got almost fifteen meters away from the tent before the alarms went off – Italian and then Finnish shouting and some kind of handmade siren that was unbelievably obnoxious.

Despite their mad dash – and Yano could dash at full power all the while carrying Siko like a shield – they only got a third through the cave before they were surrounded by Finnish forces, who didn't seem very likely to care about one Italian casualty. Siko shouted something at them in Finnish, which sounded like complete gibberish to Emi and Yano, and to the surprise of the two Germans, they slowly backed off.

Moving quickly past the first barricade of soldiers, Yano couldn't help but ask. "{You, what did you tell them?}"

"{I tell them I on secret mission. But I like Yano! I wish to defect, si!}" Looking kinda happy to be dragged around by Yano, Siko still didn't manage to get her feet on the ground. She's so strong. Are all Germans just muscle heads?

"{I am definitely punching you in the face for that, Yano.}" Grabbing a handgun that she happened to see abandoned on a crate, Emi. "{This is the exact same shit that happened when we went on that trip and you were seducing that shrine maiden with that stupid tall look of yours!}"

"{Not my fault you're a shrimp.}" While Yano didn't talk much normally, her tongue was quite loose when it came to spewing obscene or angry things. "{No girl wants a dwarf like you, get over it.}"

Aching to stop and kick Yano's ass, this time metaphorically and literally both, Emi held on and kept running. "{You're gonna fucking scrub the bathroom when we get back! With your tongue!}"

"{Try and make me.}" There is no way I am taking this girl with me. She says she wants to defect, but… well, she doesn't seem like a liar, but trusting some random Italian girl sounds totally dangerous. Tho, Germany and Italy are supposed to be allies, si? Shit, now I'm saying it too. It's contagious. Ah, screw it, I'll just knock her out or something so she won't know where we're going. I haven't gotten laid in weeks thanks to Emi's retarded training menu.

"{I'll fucking make you!}" Why are all the guards just making threatening gestures? Are they so chicken that they're scared of killing one of their own? Hell, they're not even taking shots at me and I'm a couple meters ahead of Yano. Chickens, man. No wonder they're hiding out here. Booooook, book, book, book! "{I can see the exit! Just drop her already, what the hell is wrong with you?}"

"{Why don't I drop you instead? Would make a great distraction.}" Yano was not going to let go of Siko unless she absolutely had to. It had very little to do with Siko herself, but sticking it to Emi was just a favorite past time of the entire tankery team. Push came to shove, they would all take a bullet for her, but when push wasn't shoving, they'd act however they wanted.

Firing randomly at the guards that were mounting a final defense at the entrance, Emi got them to jump out of the way like headless chickens. And with one Italian captive, the top brass of Bellwall broke right through the entrance and into freedom – only to immediately get blinded by the sun, stumble, crash and start a devastating sequence of rolling, falling, swearing and getting dirt in every possible orifice available.

"Mio dio, tu sei senza speranza!" Cursing about how horrible the two from Bellwall were, Siko pulled a twig out of her hair and looked up at where the entrance to their hidden base was. "Ci dobbiamo sbrigare!" Clicking her tongue, Siko switched gears. "Hurry!"

"{Who the hell do you think you're telling that, huh?}" Getting back on her feet and firing twice at the general direction of the entrance, Emi looked around and couldn't see any vehicle to steal. Shit. I didn't think they'd have nothing out here. "{Hey, pasta girl! Where can we get a ride?}"

"{I'm not pasta girl! I'm-}"

"{I ain't gonna repeat myself!}"

"{Emergency car behind hill. Hidden with green.}" Siko lost her breath when Yano just picked her up, making a dash for the back of the hill.

While all of this was going on, Mika was abrasively arguing with Anchovy. "{I still retain the opinion that it would have been much easier to coerce the information out of them through torture.}"

"{And I keep telling you, it's Bellwall. They beat each other up for fun! You could fake having a bunch of them in captivity and shoot them or try to beat it out of them, they'd never budge. I'm in charge of human resources, you're in charge if grand strategy so listen to me when I tell you about people stuff!}"

Mika clicked her tongue almost without changing her expression at all. She was the de facto brains behind their entire operation and she thought this was an unnecessarily high risk to take. Letting them escape and sending a double agent with them is highly risky. With the Imperial Army on the rise on three fronts, we do not have the leisure time to wait for her to report back. There is also the possibility that she will switch allegiance completely.

"{Y-You can click your tongue at me all you want. What's done is done.}" I swear she was really going to have faux radio transmissions to guilt them into thinking they are responsible for their comrades being shot. Or use some kind of loophole in the rules to put them through hell. I didn't get the impression from her that she was this kind of ruthless person, but I guess everyone reacts to war differently. Carpacio has been getting on my nerves with that Ooarai girl for a full week now. "{What are we going to do about the IJA anyway? That's your job.}"

"{They are quite inconvenient. For now, retain all operations and prepare for operation Normandy. I will inform you when our general strategy changes.}" For all of Mika's qualities, she was not someone that did well with war in general. A single battle, a prolonged battle, a series of battles, but not the continued and expanded turmoil of war. To become accomplished, to pull off the grand scheme she thought of when she realized how far the numbers were skewing the results, she needed to be much tougher, much colder. Her troops knew that she wasn't really like that, but she needed to do it anyway. Both for her own sake and for that of her allies.

"{We can't really send in anyone to spy on them. It's one thing when the armies have a small age range, but someone in their late teens is gonna stick out like a sore thumb over there.}" Anchovy, the same as Mika, used English to communicate. Mika spoke no Italian and Anchovy's knowledge of Finnish was limited to a few words like Alarm, Bathroom, Food, Bathroom Urgently and so on. "{What are they even doing here? I'm just glad we didn't lose anyone when Chi-Ha-Tan went down the river.}"

The drain. It is down the drain. "{I have suspicions on what caused them to involve themselves and what their goal is. But without more conclusive information, I cannot adjust our strategy based on their presence.}"

"{The allies and the axis are still around. Maybe we get lucky and they pick a fight with the IJA and they all kill each other.}" Anchovy sat down on a folding chair, leaned back, crossing her arms and legs. "{But we probably don't get lucky.}"

"{Have you dealt with your reservations regarding operation Normandy?}" She should have come around by now. I need to be able to trust her and not micromanage the Italians.

"{No. But I know better than to say we can't do it. If we want to get first and second place in this, we can't be the goody two shoes, I know that.}" Deep down I don't really care that much. The arrogant Germans got this coming a long time now and the dumb Americans and stuck up British don't really deserve any better either. This is gonna be some serious fireworks. Lots of people are gonna die. "{I still think we could have gone with a lottery.}"

"{That would simply create unnecessary risk. Being a soldier is a job of duty. Following orders is not open for debate and neither is the content of the orders.}"

"{Yes, yes, you said that like a dozen times already. I still don't like it.}"

"{Do you want to win?}"

"{Of course I do. That's why we teamed up with you in the first place.}" I wish I could just go and say we would have won on our own, but this is way different from a normal tankery match. There's almost no restrictions on the amount of tanks and gear you can bring into this. Saunders had so many tanks they could have driven circles around us. And then they teamed up with Gloriana, who has that stupid Darjeeling so you can't even count on tricking the Americans. Well, we teamed up way before that, but the alliance thing just made everything worse for us.

"{I must say I was impressed by how well your people handled the attack on the Axis last night.}"

"{Of course! What we lack in money we make- hey, are you being sarcastic?}"

Mika didn't react whatsoever to that accusation. "{I see no reason to be sarcastic. Your people completed a mission at almost no loss of life. The final death toll was just slightly above my best scenario estimation.}"

I'm sure the two that were tasked with kidnapping Ooarai's translator are dead. Mika must be thinking that too. They didn't check in, which meant that something went wrong. The distraction itself was a success, and the operation as a whole was also successful… losing two people hurts more than I expected, even though I knew this was a relatively high risk mission. "{All those distractions, including that assault on the freshly unified Axis, only to raise their paranoid instincts and jump at the kidnapping of their translator. And that too was a distraction. We learn anything useful from the data we stole?}"

"{The data is still being evaluated. There was a lot more than I anticipated. A slight miscalculation on my part. For reasons unknown to me, Ooarai and Kuromorimine kept their confidential data in the same tent.}"

"{Kinda stupid.}" Anchovy was aware that she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. She wasn't an idiot, but when it came to strategy, especially grand strategy, Mika was leagues ahead of her. But because this was the case, Mika didn't want to be the victor of the war herself. As she told Anchovy, the ones that were really making all the decisions remained in the shadow of those that appeared to make the decisions.

"{Don't underestimate the Axis. To fight two Nishizumis is a dangerous endeavor, no matter how much we plan or how many contingencies we have.}"

"{You know, I never thought you'd be this kind of person.}"

"{I, and much of my army, thought that the Italians are idiots. A preconception that was corrected after we begun working with you.}"

"{Hey.}"

"{Why did you insist on that girl being the double agent?}" Mika changed the topic because she was making adjustments to the plans for their next operation. On the table before her was a large map that had dozens of circles, triangles and comments written in small font sizes on it. If this operation succeeds, it will severely cripple the ability of both the Axis and the Allies to move around.

"{She looks innocent, right?}" Anchovy smirked wide. Oh man are they gonna be in for a surprise when they realize just who they kidnapped. I wouldn't wanna be them.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

My feet hurt! I'm thirsty! I don't wanna walk anymore. I wanna make out with Yukari! Erika, you seriously need a shower, you smell like unpronounceable things. Erwin's head was just full of thoughts like that. I really wish I had a change of underwear. Or better shoes. Or a yuri manga. I'm horny. Yukari's butt is cute. There were some more questionable thoughts as well.

"{Do we know where we're going?}" I wanna ask Yukari to carry me, but I think I would totally freak out. Not to mention that I can't just let her think I'm weak. Yukari definitely likes the strong, independent type, like Miho.

"{Easy enough with the sun in the sky. That way is west. We ended up in the south. There's a big ass river running to the south of the cliff at the back of our base. If we reach the river, we go north and we'll hit the base in no time flat.}" Erika tried to sound optimistic. We'll probably have to pick up the pace if we're gonna make it to the base before nightfall. Even if we march all day long, we went pretty damn fast on that bike. I worry about Maho… A sudden wave of depression and hopelessness hit Erika. I still can't believe Maho… my Maho is a siscon. Letting out a huge sigh that wasn't intended to be heard by anyone, Erika didn't even notice until Yukari jumped ahead a few steps and looked at her from the side. "{What?}"

As usual, Yukari couldn't really communicate with Erika and shot a pleading look towards Erwin, who translated for her. "What are you sighing for?"

"{We got no idea what happened at the base after we left. We can't even send word to HQ about where we are or that we're in one piece.}" Erika's stomach grumbled. "{And that we got nothing to eat.}"

"I'm hungry too. But we'll have to hold out until we get back. Erwin isn't complaining. We should learn from her." Yukari saying this made it awkward because Erwin had to talk about herself in the third person now.

"No more translating, it tires me out." Why the heck didn't we get more than one person to learn German? There's two powerhouse schools out there that use it. And sorry Yukari! I'm complaining a whole lot in my head.

Marching and marching some more in the continuously rising sun, Erwin was the first to need a break. After fifteen more minutes of walking, they found a spot where they could take a break without being wide out in the open. A small patch of forest, so small that one could walk around the patch in five minutes, provided adequate cover for them and a bit of shade. Not that the shade was helping a whole lot when you're thirsty, hungry and groggy.

"A kingdom for a bottle of soda..." Maybe I'll just jump into that river Erika mentioned when we get there. If we get there. Before we die of old age.

"Soda actually makes you even thirstier. Mineral water is best in situations like this." Yukari was full of general purpose wisdom relating to activities like marching long distances.

"{This reminds me of a survival movie where two people were trapped in a spaceship and one of them had to drink the piss of the other.}" Erika just wanted to get her mind off of drinking and water, so she remembered something gross.

"I am definitely not translating that." Erwin felt like she wouldn't be able to look at lemonade for a while."

With the conversation suddenly having died off, Erwin felt responsible for starting it back up. The more they talked – as long as it wasn't about water or soda or questionable movie choices – the less they thought about their thirst. "{What was your training like?}" Saying it in German and then again in Japanese, Erwin wanted to know what exactly they had gone through to become almost superhuman like this.

Yukari was quicker to respond than Erika. "Wake up at four in the morning. Make a special protein shake, raw eggs, some bacon, protein powder, some vegetables for the taste. Go running for twenty kilometers. Take a cold shower. Usually it is around five thirty then. Get dressed for the academy. Attend training exercises. During lunch break, two hundred situps, push ups, a few other exercises and skip rope jumping. Before lunch is over, I eat a home made lunch that I prepare in the evenings. Then-"

"Okay, I get it, G.I. Joe." Erwin tried to cut her off, already feeling exhausted just listening to that insane workout regiment.

"At four, after the traditional exercises at the academy, I start personal training."

"You start? What is that stuff in the morning then?!"

"I start with some light weight lifting. Currently it's dumbbells weighting each around forty kilos. After that is more running, twenty kilometers again, this time faster. Shooting practice comes after the running to simulate combat exhaustion. Then I train my lower back, my shoulders and my other muscles by pulling old car tires. It is usually around seven by now, at which point I go home to cook myself something filling and nourishing. After dinner I rest by taking another shower and then I prepare the lunch for the next day. After that I do some stretching and flexibility exercises and study for the academy. I go to bed at midnight."

Erwin was at a complete loss for words. Yukari was counting her exercises like they were some sort of checklist she went through. And she didn't have to pause even once to think about the next step. Is that even something a human can endure? I think I would snap in half trying to do that. Or end up dead. But that sure explains how strong she is. I was honestly wondering why I never saw her hang out with Miho and the others anymore. Although they were all doing their own individual training I guess. I was, too.

"{So she trains a lot?}" Erika had to fake not understanding the long list.

"{If this was a video game she would be level 99 and the rest of us are around level 20 or something. Did you also do crazy training?}" Now it was Yukari who couldn't understand the conversation.

As it turned out, Erika had a routine that was very similar to Yukari's but less archaic and more focused on having access to actual training machines. She also got one more hour of sleep a day compared to Yukari.

Erwin felt sore after hearing both of their regiments. "And I thought I was getting a real workout with the infantry training we did." No wonder Yukari only participated in that on rare occasions. She'd make all of us look like amateurs. I mean, technically speaking, we are amateurs, but come on. "{Did everyone at Kuromorimine go through infantry training?}"

"{No. We have four groups, each with their own assigned training regiment. A select handful of us had their own routines, like me. Tankery, Infantry, Logistics and Maintenance. Commander Maho knew from the start that logistics and maintenance would play a big role in making a sustained war effort, so we have over thirty people just doing those two and foregoing other training.}"

"{We don't have the numbers for that. Would be nice to have like a hundred people.}"

"{At the beginning of the war, our personnel count was 245 people. Out of those, 160 were trained specifically for tankery strategy and maneuvers in this war. Depending on our deploying situation, we can field forty to fifty tanks at the same time. Of those 160, 50 also received infantry training. Of the remaining 85 people, fifty people specialized in infantry operations, bringing the total to fifty infantry specialists and fifty trained infantry.}" Erika finished her explanation and looked at Erwin, who seemed very impressed. "{Ooarai needs to recruit more people.}"

"{Even if we did, tanks for use don't just magically appear out of nowhere.}" Erwin usually liked to exert an almost arrogant and very confident aura, but in this situation, sitting between two human weapons, that seemed completely misplaced.

"{Before the war begun we had specialized intelligence regarding the numbers of the armies we would be fighting. As expected, the Americans are numerically speaking the greatest threat. They brought 280 trained individuals with them. The British Empire is recorded as having brought 137 soldiers. The part of the French that is currently a part of the Allied Forces had… around a hundred people flat if memory serves.}"

"{So you have really good memory too. Is there anything you can't do?}"

"{There are a few things. I would rather not go into that.}" Erika knew that she had one really big fatal weakness that she definitely should fix, but that was easier said than done. Especially now that so many of the Kuromorimine girls looked up to her she couldn't just ask one of them for help with something like that.

"I think we should go before the sun gets any higher. It looks like it is gonna be really hot today." Yukari didn't need to try very hard to keep up with a conversation she couldn't really understand. She picked up that it was something about numbers, soldiers and the armies. It wasn't hard to guess what they were talking about.

"Ugh," was really all Erwin could muster to the suggestion of going back to marching.

Fifteen minutes passed and the sun was mercilessly beaming down on them now, high in zenith. Not a cloud was in sight, not a single tree dared to grow anywhere near their route and no hill was conveniently offering shade. A single, uninterrupted walk through the now boiling sun of noon. Tall grass was giving off that particular smell that one could only find way out in nature on a hot day. Soon they could hear the river over the sound of their foot steps and the green that refused to stay down as they stepped on it. For how draining it was to march on an empty stomach, the artificial nature around them was doing its best to distract them from that.

"{I wanna catch something and grill it.}" Erika just blurted that out without warning after her stomach wouldn't stop grumbling.

"{Do you even know how to skin and gut something?}" Erwin felt grossed out by this train of thought. She wasn't that hungry just yet.

"{Fish, yes. Other stuff not so much.}" Maybe if I keep talking...

"{I didn't take you for the type to know how to cook.}"

"{The army expects a certain level of self-sufficient capability of its top executives.}" The truth is that I like fishing to sort out my thoughts.

"What are you two talking about?" Yukari, who had been at the rear, was curious, and also a little bored with herself.

"Fish, basically." Erwin moved her shoulders back and forth, feeling sore. "I hope next time they kidnap me they put me down in a position that doesn't screw up my shoulders. It's nothing, really, just annoying." Trying to maintain her usual overconfident attitude was difficult at best in a situation like this.

"You think there is any in the river up ahead? We should see it any second now." And exactly as Yukari predicted, the river came into view a few steps later.

None of them had the energy or motivation to run up there. Twelve more minutes passed before they got to the edge of the riverbed. "It's not that deep." I mean, you gotta figure it isn't. They have to be pumping that water out of the ship and then cycle it through. Kneeling down and dipping her hand into the water, Erwin licked her fingers. I'm impressed that's not just plain seawater though. Would be a lot cheaper. Saying that out loud would totally break the illusion of real though, so… Scooping water with both her hands from the river, Erwin leaned in too much and before she knew it, her face was mere centimeters from the river itself, having fallen forward.

"What are you doing?" Yukari was preventing her from falling into the river by grabbing the back of her uniform. But luck just wasn't on their side. The very ground that Yukari stood on couldn't withstand the burden of two people's weight and gravity – and gave in. The splash was big enough to douse Erika, right next to Yukari but on safe ground.

Already being wet from head to toe, Erika just accepted her fate and jumped into the river herself, reaching all the way to her shoulders. "{Who said this isn't shallow?!}" A little panicked, Erika tried desperately to calm down.

They were all pretty much the same height, which meant that Yukari and Erwin were both submerged all the way to their shoulders. "{We can still stand. What's the problem?}" Erwin was completely unfazed by it. "Ugh… I should have listened to Caesar and brought more spare clothes..."

"I have some spares. I can give you some dry clothes when we get back to base." Yukari figured that since they were both the same height, her things would fit.

The shirt is gonna be so loose… "Thanks. Appreciate it."

Erika tried to climb out of the river and immediately caused more of the ground to break and fall back in, submerged completely for a brief moment. Coming up, gasping for air like a fish and panic written all over her face, she couldn't pretend that didn't happen.

"{You can't swim?}"

"{Of course I can swim!}" To prove a point, Erika not only demonstrated that she could swim but also knew how to play dead man. Floating for a half a meter, she got back on her feet. "{I just hate diving.}"

"Oh, that's a great idea." Yukari couldn't follow their conversation, as usual, and so she took some initiative, got on her back and started kicking the water, swimming with the flower of the river.

"{Looks like Yukari is opting for getting to base this way.}" Erwin wasn't too hot on the idea, but marching through the sun was not really a better option. Not to mention that this was faster than marching. Trying to do it the same way Yukari and Erika had done, Erwin got on her back and immediately sunk like a rock. Coming up, spitting a bit of water, Erwin looked more annoyed with herself than anything else. "The hard way then." Instead of just floating, Erwin used both her arms and legs to swim backwards, with the flow of the river.

Erika was left behind for a full thirty seconds before she got over herself and followed the other two. I can never tell anyone that this is how I got back to base.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

Maho was flapping her lips in a moment when she thought nobody could see her, other than Miho. They had also figured out a way to talk to each other without talking and without, technically, violating the language barrier. All documents were in Japanese simply because speaking a language was difficult enough – expecting high school girls to also learn to properly write up military documents in a language they generally hadn't touched until several months ago was just unreasonable. Since the documents itself were primarily for the girls and not the audience, it was decided to use Japanese for all documents, although it was not mandatory. Secret messages or top secret documents could be written in another language if whoever made the document wanted to do that.

Miho read the tiny, tiny writing on the edge of the inventory paper she was holding. Do you want to take a lunch break? Miho scribbled down an answer. The commanders often marked or noted things on documents so it didn't occur to anyone that she was secretly communicating with her sister.

Writing her answer and handing the document over, Miho prodded her sister's foot with her own under the table. One prod meant yes, two prods meant no. Three prods meant I changed my mind.

It was, in a way, the middle of the day now, at three in the afternoon. The Axis was still in full recovery mode and Bellwall had conveniently waited until almost high noon to tell the other Axis members that their commander was MIA.

You think we can get away with eating in our tent so we can talk? The message came from Miho, who was regretting not picking up German more and more with every second. It was bad enough that she couldn't be openly flirtatious with the girl she liked, no, she couldn't even talk to her publicly. For all of Miho's qualities, she didn't excel at self-restraint with things like this, or so she found out now.

Maho prodded her sister's foot twice. The next message that Miho got was very commander-like. We have to show we are on top of things. Everyone is worried about how hard we got hit. The font was even tinier than before and Miho had to quint to read it.

Exchanging a meaningful and secretive look, the two sisters got up at the same time, heading to where one might procure food. And to their surprise, there was a bit of a spectacle going on. Or not so much a spectacle as a bloodbath of some kind. Left and right, on top of crates and beside, gulping down refilled bottles of water or just panting for air, at least forty girls were just barely hanging in there. And the root of the problem, the cause of the disaster, the origin of the pain was a number of very large pots, emitting a smell that would most definitely have belonged to lava if the universe was more accurate with how smell and taste correlated.

"I wonder what everyone is complaining about?" Hana was sitting with Saori a little by the side, an empty plate in front of her while Saori's was still half full. And they were not the only duo there. Saemonza and Oryou were there as well, the former bravely and valiantly swallowing her complaints and the latter, having already finished, downing the largest containers of water that she could carry.

The chaos didn't end there yet. Behind the large pot, at the food station, was Mako, who was currently being yelled at by Sodoko, whose lips were so red and somewhat swollen that she looked comical doing the yelling.

"Pipe down. You're the one that said it's fine if it's a little spicy." Mako, known among both armies for her lack of enthusiasm and being able to sleep just about anywhere, had been chosen as the stand-in for Erwin, whose turn it had been to make food. And what a disaster that had turned out to be. The spiciness of Mako's chilly and rice could wake the dead, or so her customers were saying.

"A little spicy I said! I didn't mention anything about making sulfuric acid! You could melt through a tank's armor with this! It isn't fit for human consumption."

"So you're not human? You cleaned your plate."

"Because I don't wanna waste food!" That you made. "We can't afford to be that picky." And when am I ever gonna get another chance to eat something you made? "Look at the battlefield you created!"

"They look happy to me. Faces all red and flushed and stuff. Like they're in love."

"They faces are red because they're overheating!" Sodoko was literally jumping up and down on the spot, wildly flailing her arms at Mako, who just took the opportunity to shove a large spoonful of pure chilly into Sodoko's mouth, with masterful precision. Sodoko's agony scream could be heard through most of the base.

At the same time, Miho was desperately looking for a way to escape the situation that Maho's personality for show had created. Being the iron general, she was expected to not fear anything – especially not mere food. And with Miho being her sister and the general commander of Ooarai, of course she was expected to suck it up and meet the example her older sister was setting.

The smell alone was making their noses itch and Mako just filled their dishes with a lot more than they wanted – which was none. Sitting down, they both could feel a lot of eyes on them. Maho suppressed her right hand shaking and swallowed her regrets first. This is going to be fine. I need to set an example for Miho, too. And we can't afford to waste food. Mother always says that being a picky eater is not the Nishizumi way… now that I think about it, that doesn't have anything to do with tankery and our way. Do… do I really have to eat this? It looks and smells like it could be used as tank fuel. No… others have eaten it so it must at least not be deadly. H-Here we go… Maho filled one large spoon worth with chilly and rice and hesitated. W-What are you waiting for, Nishizumi Maho? Is this the extent of your resolve? Fired up by thinking to herself like that, she shoved the devil's treat into her mouth and immediately felt like someone had filled her mouth with pure alcohol and then dropped a match stick into there. The pain was enough to make tears shoot to her eyes. If she could have formed a single decent thought, she would have wanted to spit it out. But her pride and the expectations of everyone were weighting her down. A second spoon, and a third. Ah… I'm gonna die.

Miho wasn't doing any better. Everyone from Ooarai was watching her and after Maho was valiantly shoveling the chilly into her mouth, she had to follow her example. Miho was not as strong as Maho and immediately started coughing after the first spoon, tears running down her cheeks and her chest suddenly on fire. Both sisters continued to eat, unwilling to set a bad example for their troops. And at the same time, they both regretted being the commander like never before.

The younger Nishizumi was done first, losing control and just quickly gorging down the food to get it over with. Her face was almost as red as the food had been and her stomach was already giving her some trouble. Maho was pacing herself more, able to take the pain as she kept going. Ooarai has some scary people if they can eat this normally.

Seeing their commanders put in the effort, and put away the chilly, those that had considered going hungry for the time being reconsidered and subjected themselves to the same pain and agony as everyone else.

Both commanders were saved by the timely arrival of their missing super soldiers and translator. The trio was soaked to the bone and their mood left quite a lot to be desired. Searching for their commanders first and foremost, they unintentionally managed to save them from being the center of attention and an example for others to commit chilly suicide.

The five of them retreated to a nearby and empty tent. Miho and Maho both couldn't talk a whole lot without being in pain and luckily there was not much need for them to talk. Erika gave her report and Erwin translated for Miho.

"{At an unknown time last night, we recovered private Matsumoto from hostile captivity and dispatched two hostiles by force. We took possession of their vehicle in an attempt to return to base. The vehicle broke down and I judged that we would not be able to repair it without a mechanic. We commenced walking before dawn. We continued walking for several hours until we rested. During the resting, private Matsumoto regained consciousness. At an unknown time shortly after that, estimated to be between zero five hundred and zero eight hundred hours, we encountered a highly trained and well organized army approaching from the southern territory, where we had ended up. The army advanced towards our location and we quickly retreated. We were not pursued, for reasons unknown. I surmise that we were not seen. We have little detail regarding the unknown army.}" Erika made no attempt to apologize for that. Under the circumstances, it was almost a miracle they had gotten back in one piece. If the lesser schools had still been around, we might not have been so lucky.

Miho and Maho thanked Erika and Yukari for their service and immediately moved to business. While two of the three were dismissed, they needed Erwin for a little while longer. "{Speak candidly. What do you make of the unknown army?}" Maho didn't want routine and protocol to get in the way.

"{Most likely an outside force that is intent on forcing the conflict between us and the allied forces.}" It's not like I can bring up the pro league here, It's one thing to talk about that out there, where nobody was watching. Although, come to think of it, they probably were watching and we're gonna get a warning issued. Shit.

Maho gave Miho a quick look that didn't really mean anything specific. "Erwin, find some dry clothes and some towels. I'll need your help coordinating with our allies. Before you go, translate this for me." Relaying orders to Maho through Erwin was still as inconvenient as ever, but Maho had planned on doing the same thing.

Fifteen minutes later, twenty-five total after the three had returned, a joint force of nine soldiers departed in three Krupp Protze, a six wheeler type truck without roof and a large cargo space that Kuromorimine used frequently. Their mission was simple, in a way. Find out what exactly the new threat from the south was. The rules were equally simple. Don't engage. Bring everyone back alive.

Kuromorimine's part in the scouting mission was limited to three trained infantry women and the vehicles being lent to Ooarai. The other six were split into two categories. The drivers; Mako, Satoko, Momoga. The guards; Piyotan, Saemonza and Akebi.

"I'm worried about this new army from the south." Finding a quiet place to talk away from prying eyes and drones was not easy. It was a little unbecoming of them, but Miho and Maho had retreated inside Miho's tank and closed the hatch to talk privately. "If Erika and Yukari don't know who they belong to, that means it isn't anyone we're familiar with fighting." Miho paused. "My mouth still hurts. We're really unlucky. Bellwall's commander is still missing, we got robbed, Mako messes up everyone's food, there's a new army coming from the south… it's like someone has it out for us."

"Erwin, Yukari and Erika encountering that new army while it is still far away is a stroke of luck." Maho didn't want to adopt a pessimistic outlook just yet. "It's true that we're in a bad situation but… isn't it odd to have an army come from the south?"

"Now that you say it… if they wanted to attack us, it would have been easier to come from the east. If they wanted to attack the allies, the west. Pravda is in the north and Chi-Ha-Tan were also in the west last we heard."

"You're a more creative thinker than me, Miho. What do you make of it?"

"The tournament is running on for too long so they are sending in someone to force the conflict or get rid of whoever is left."

"In that case, coming from the south makes no sense."

"If they are only coming from the south, yes." Miho felt the little hairs on her neck stand up. "We need to send a scouting mission to the east. If there is another army over there, we will have to decide how we fight soon."

Maho understood why Miho didn't even mention the possibility of retreat. If Ooarai was on their own, they might be able to withdraw from this position and evade any aggressors, even a really large army. But now that they were so intimately tied with us, there is no escaping. Bellwall won't be able to operate well without their leader and the time we would need to break camp might well exceed what time we have before an eventual aggressor reaches us. "In the event of an enemy to the east, we have pretty much two choices. Take everything we need for one final battle, push west and fight it out with the allied forces. Or we defeat the encroaching enemy first and take our time taking the fight to the allies."

"There are worse scenarios still." Miho liked to have contingencies prepared. "If there is not only an army to the south but every edge of the ship, north, south, east and west… that might force Pravda and the Allies into action, possibly against us."

"And Chi-Ha-Tan."

"There's so many variables… do you think Pravda will tell us if there's an enemy to the north?"

"We have no obligation to warn them. This is a war, not a friendship building exercise."

"You're merciless, sis." Miho thought about the possibility of Pravda unexpectedly being confronted by a large force from the pro league. They'd be done for. "Come to think of it, there is still the matter with Katyusha and our deal with Pravda regarding that."

"We have bigger issues now. For all we know, the Italians have her."

"I'm surprised we still have no idea where they made camp."

"If there is an army in the south and yet we know of no army to the south, that would mean they are most likely there." Maho was thinking about things very rationally, like usual.

That sounds so reasonable and logical that I'm doubting it. They were so careful about manipulating everyone else while staying hidden. For all our fighting and bravery, they might be the most skilled of us at war. "We might be lucky and the professional league takes out both Pravda and Anzio for us."

"In any case, before we commit to anything, we need information. Mother always says that crushing the enemy with overwhelming force is the Nishizumi way, but that is a dangerous path to take in war."

"I feel bad, breaking the rules like this. But having to run everything through Erwin is really tiring for all three of us."

"When we agreed to ally with Ooarai, I knew there would be a language barrier, but I didn't anticipate it would be this much."

"For next year, if there is another event next year, I am learning enough German to translate myself."

"I'll be cheering you on."

"Speaking of studying, are you gonna be okay with your grades?"

"You don't believe in your older sister to have good grades?"

Miho slightly averted her eyes. "I trust you."

"I saw that. You looked away."

"Must be shadows."

"You're such a terrible liar, Miho."

"I don't wanna hear that from you."

"Nobody suspects I am much kinder than I let on!"

"Acting and lying are different things!"

Maho chuckled. "We stole away to talk about this in private?"

"Mom is gonna court martial us."

"Me. She's gonna court martial me. You're not in any trouble because you're off doing your own Nishizumi style thing!"

"Do you want your little sis to comfort you? What a wimpy older sis I have." Miho bend forward, got on her knees and crawled half a step towards Maho, who sat on the iron floor. "I could do that."

"Sorry Miho, but with everything that is going on I can't really find the mood. But I'm glad you're here with me. If I had to deal with the pro league all on my own I'd definitely end up charging right into battle and probably get my ass handed to me."

"Happy to be of service." Sitting down, Miho fixed her bangs. "You know, you think Mom signed off on the pro league's involvement?"

"Whoever gave the order is gonna wind up five centimeters tall and scarred for life if they went over her head."

"I wish Mom was as expressive with the rest of her feelings as she can be with her anger."

"Mother is… Mother. There's no changing her. Sometimes I do wonder how she and dad managed to marry."

"You call him dad?"

"What? You do too."

"Yeah, but you call Mom Mother, you know? She gets all the respect and he doesn't."

"It's not like that."

"He's hardly around so it's easier to call him dad, right?"

"Yeah. Honestly, I see a lot of the pro league people around the house more than dad."

"I miss talking to you like this."

"Making fun of dad together?"

"We're not making fun of him!"

"I know what you meant."

"So making fun of Miho then?!" Talking about herself in the third person, Miho looked as upset as someone with a huge smile on their face possibly could. "I'm happy we can be together like this. Even make fun of each other."

"Mother would have our hides if she knew."

"I wonder what would upset her more, that we both like girls or that we like each other."

"And I try not to think about a situation where I have to confront either of those."

"Coward."

Now it was Maho's turn to look angry with a smile. "I am most definitely not-"

"Then you'll be fine telling Mom that you're into girls, right? And me too."

"That's not bravery, that is foolishness!"

Miho got on her feet, squatted, angled her elbows and moved them up and down while making chicken noises.

"That is not going to work Miho. I do want some chicken soup now..."

"With the pro league looming on the horizon, we'll be out of here soon."

"That sounded really cool."

Miho cleared her throat, trying to sound more like her mother. "With the pro league looming on the horizon."

"You sound nothing like Mother."

"I do! A little!"

"Not even close."

"Stupid sis."

"Stupid older sis, for you!"

Someone banged on the tank from above. "Commander! And if think the Kuromorimine commander is in there too! Alice is rotating in the situation tent because you both went AWOL. We just got information from the brokers! And everyone is going nuts over it!" The belonged to Kawashima Momo, who was usually inseparable from Anzu, Ooarai's student council president.

Duty was, in the literal sense of the word, calling for them.

=== Panzer Halt ===