Girls und Panzer and the Wundermotor

The Drowned Panthers:

Maho sat in her office, reading over the e-mail sent by Kay, which asked for a small practice match between the two. Saunders would get to use their new tanks for the first time while Kuromorimine would get good exercise in their Panthers. There was just one problem. "Erika, how's the repairs on those Panthers going?"

Erika looked up from a piece of paper she was about to sign. "Hold on, commander..." Erika took out her smartphone, and called a number she had been constantly calling for the past two days. "Are the Panthers repaired yet?"

A nervous voice muttered over the sounds of machinery and engines. "I-I'm afraid not ma'am..."

"What!? How is this taking so long?"

"W-well you know how hard it is to repair Panthers, it's complicated, and we're still waiting for parts from factories-" But Erika cut out the call.

"Doesn't look like it." she growled. "What's on the agenda anyways? More matches? We can just use our Tigers and other tanks."

Maho scanned the email again. "Saunders wants a small match against us so they can use their new tanks, which I assume aren't the Sherman variants they bought from America. They specifically requested we field only Panthers in this battle, 'as many as we want' Kay says."

"Well just say no then, a good deal of our Panthers aren't at fighting status."

"That's the problem...We do owe Kay for 'that' incident after all..."

Erika blushed remembering what happened. To elaborate, it happened between her and Maho, and Saunders saw them doing something embarrassing which had evolved from a mere accident, but Kay resolved to keep it quiet. "Oh god...not that. Ugh, what can we do then?"

Maho put her strategizing brain into gear. This match of ours only uses ten tanks, and we don't have enough Panthers to fill ten slots, we can only fill six, seven if we're lucky with the repairs. If Koume and the other Panthers play their strategy right, they could win but Saunders said they were using completely new tanks so...Wait, where have I seen a Panther before? "Erika, can you call Miho? I need to think of a plan."

"Of course." Erika dialed Miho's phone number, which she remembered from seeing Maho's phone once. "Miho, you there?"

"Erika? Hello. What do you need me for?" Erika explained the basic situation.

"The Commander told me to call you, but I don't know how that helps us exactly. It's not like you have a Panther just lying around, right?"

"Wait...She can't be thinking of-"

"Erika, can I talk to her?" Erika handed the phone off to Maho. After the two greeted each other kindly(somewhat to Erika's jealousy) Maho finally unveiled her plan. "'He' has two Panthers, right?"

Koume stood in one of the smaller Kuromorimine tank hangers, where she and five other commanders were waiting with their Panthers, their crews loitering about. Nearby the massive doors, their commander Maho kept looking outside, as if she was waiting for someone. And finally someone did arrive. Or rather, two people. First to walk into the hangar was Faber, and Koume felt herself shiver as his one uncovered eye seemed to x-ray the Kuromorimine Panthers and their operators. Faber walked over and greeted Maho before the next person walked into the hanger, and Koume was slightly surprised at his stature. Brown haired with grey eyes, Peter followed his commanding officer into the hanger, glancing around at the Panthers. He wore a standard field grey tankers uniform from the Wehrmacht, although he left out the hat and any pins or medals. Matching colored pants he wore untucked with his boots making a light clack on the concrete.

"Right." Faber suddenly hopped backwards and clubbed Peter on the shoulders with both hands, causing the kid's knees to buckle slightly. "This is Peter, his Panther is just outside. He's a good commander. I can guarantee that, and now I must go."