GuP: A Saga of Jouko

Chapter Three: The 62nd Tournament

500 meters away, first target. Enemy flag tank is well protected, might as well mess up their formation. "Stop here, Hannes." Feeling the tank come to a complete stop, Jouko gave a gentle tug on the trigger, and sent a shell straight into the leading Matilda's turret ring. A column of smoke erupted and a white flag could be seen popping out. "Good, let's get back to our team before we're turned into scrap metal." The rest of the Koala Forest tanks opened fire at the Sturmi, but before one could land, it was long gone. Seconds later, the rest of Continuation appeared, nine tanks strong, going in to wipe out the rest of Koala Forest Academy. But, where was the Sturmi? "Frisell, tell them we'll go around and try to take out their flag tank from behind." Circling around, the Sturmi maneuvered around the Koala Forest tanks, who were too preoccupied with the Continuation tanks in front of them to notice, or even care. As the two sides began firing at each other, Jouko had a clear shot on the enemy flag tank. This will be an easy match. Taking careful aim, she sent another shell zipping through the air heading for the flag tank, but in a stroke of misfortune, one of the M3 Light Tanks drove into the shell's path, and absorbed the shell hit in favor of the flag tank, getting knocked out in the process.

"Quick, Löfström, reload before they spot us!" Löfström slammed another shell into the turret as Jouko took aim, but the enemy Matilda was now taking evasive maneuvers. If we can't snipe it, looks like we're gonna have to get more personal. "Hannes, move in through the midst of those Koala tanks, chase that enemy flag tank best you can. They'll be distracting our team with their remaining tanks to allow that flag tank to get away, make sure it stays here." Hannes slammed  her foot on the throttle, and the Sturmi bolted into the Koala formation. Jouko fired several times, immobilizing two tanks as she focused on hitting the escaping Matilda. The Sturmi was bouncing several shells, but it couldn't hold much longer. Hannes was turning this way and that, trying to avoid both incoming rounds and colliding with tanks. Seconds later, though, the Matilda was now in Jouko's sights. In the split second of decision, she fired straight into the Matilda's engine, right as the Sturmi itself was hit and knocked out. This time, the round found its mark, with no stupid tank to move in front to block it. The announcement rang loud and clear.

"Victory for Continuation High School!"

Jouko congratulated each and every one of her crew, giving them compliments, praises, as much happiness she could heap on them. As they came out of the tank, they were surrounded by their teammates in celebration, showered in praise, embraced by everyone, it was their first official match and they had arguably delivered the best performance of the tournament so far. However, after doing away with the celebrations, the team approached Koala Forest Academy with Rumi to thank them for a fun match. Wallaby, the Vice-Commander, was speaking to her koala at the moment. "Say, commander, fine performance? Our opponents are approaching us right now for handshakes." Jouko was directed to shake the koala's hand, and grabbing hold of it, felt it hard to let go. Wallaby reassured her, "Oh, don't mind her, sometimes she gets a bit too sportsmanlike." After finally letting go, Jouko shook the rest of the Koala Forest team's hands before returning to her team to see which opponents they would face next. Arriving back at the school carrier, Rumi gathered everyone for planning the next battle, where she broke the news of their next opponents in the tournament.

They were facing Saunders.

The room was quiet, save for the faint heartbeats that could be heard. Saunders, the richest school which had the most tanks, most materiel, and a sniper with great aim, like Jouko. This was gonna be a hard match, especially since it was the quarterfinals, the furthest they always got in tournaments before being eliminated. Would this be any different? Mika first broke the silence. "The winds are growing stronger against us, we are about to face a hurricane with no shelter from the powerful gusts." Jouko understood, but she knew she had a capable tank, a capable team, and a capable person in herself to stand up to Saunders, especially their sniper. Her thoughts were interrupted by Mika. "Jouko, are you willing to face their sniper?" Jouko simply responded with an affirmative nod. The mood in the room was dark, but everyone knew that as long as Jouko was in the match, they had a chance of victory. Rumi outlined the plan: "We'll meet their tanks using our usual guerrilla warfare tactics. We'll be fighting in dense jungle, again not our home turf, but with more cover unlike in our match against Koala. Jouko, since you've agreed to, deal with that sniper so it doesn't give us a hard time. The plan is finalized?" All agreed with it. In the few days preceding the second round, Jouko and her crew practiced hard, maneuvering through dense forests on the school carrier and firing at long-range targets. They also worked on repainting the tank, given that white armor against a green backdrop was basically a free ticket to having your tank's white flag to pop out within the first 5 minutes of the match starting.

Finally, the day came for Continuation vs. Saunders. Jouko looked at the enemy team. Expectedly, they were shorter than her, but they bore similarities to Americans she had met. They enjoyed eating, were very loud, save for the sniper, and generally nice. Their commander was Megumi, another student who was going to All-Stars next year. Her Vice-Commander, named Kay, was next in line to succeed her.

As Jouko approached, she was greeted first by Kay, the energetic Vice-Commander.
"Howdy, great to see ya! Wow, you're a big one." 

Jouko giggled and replied, "Heh, great to meet you too. I see you bear similarities to Americans I've met in Finland. Say, who are those three behind you?"

"Short one with pigtails is Alisa, a chaotic girl who tends to lose her mind during matches. Kinda hard to sit through it but hey, once you get used to it you get used to it. Tall girl who looks like a boy is Naomi. She's pretty quiet, but she's really good when it comes to tanks. She can hit targets from far distances, all around great addition to the team. Last but certainly not least, the girl with the dark long hair is Megumi, our Commander. She's graduating highschool next year so we're hoping for a good run to give her a grand farewell."

"I see. Let's have a good match?"

"Of course! Sensha-do's always about the fun and games!"

When the time came, both teams were called to do the pre-match formalities. Jouko and her tank crew stood out like a sore thumb due to their heights, which amused some of the spectators watching the match. 

"Commanders, please bow." 

"We wish you a good match!" both sides shouted, and the crews manned their tanks to begin the match. A burst from the Bofors gun signaled the beginning of the match, and after a few minutes of driving, Jouko's Sturmi abandoned the formation. She kept a close eye on the Firefly, the enemy sniper, and subtly followed it into the dense forest as she played some pieces by Sibelius, albeit very quietly. Hannes did her best to maneuver as Jouko gave orders, and seeing the Firefly take its position, she stopped the tank. Pushing her face into her gunnery visor, she took several seconds to estimate the distance of the enemy and the angle of her gun as a shell was pushed into the turret. One-and-a-half kilometers away, 21 degrees upward. No wind to worry about this time. By the time her evaluation was completed, however, she noticed the Firefly turning its turret towards her position. They had been spotted. Acting fast, she pulled the trigger and fired a single round at the Firefly, but it missed by mere inches. A muzzle flash could be seen seconds later from the Firefly's position, and more seconds passed before the shell impacted and shuddered the ground around them, tearing up patches of dirt and grass and sending them flying into the air.

With seconds to think, Jouko instinctively opened the hatch and yelled, "Quickly, Frisell, the smoke grenade!" Frisell grabbed a smoke grenade from a compartment, activated it, and tossed it to Jouko, who tossed it outside, before quickly closing the hatch again. A few seconds passed as Jouko waited anxiously for the Firefly to budge, hoping her ruse of making it look like her tank was knocked out had worked. Indeed, it did, somehow, and the Firefly began to move from its position to rejoin the main Saunders formation. By now, Frisell had reloaded another shell, and Jouko took aim at the Firefly a second time, and fired. The wait felt as if everything had frozen, anxiously hoping her shot would find its mark. There was good and bad news that came from this. The round had indeed found its mark this time, but it failed to immobilize the Firefly, which noticed that the Sturmi was still very much operational, and realizing its potentially fatal mistake, had to act fast.

It began to turn its turret again, and targeted the Sturmi's position. Jouko muttered words of anger and regret under her breath.

For goodness' sake... I should've stayed with the main formation...

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(AN: Originally this was to be a single chapter, but I split it because it might get too long and I want to stretch the story out as much as possible given my writing capabilities. Hope you're still enjoying the story, we're gonna be leaving pre-anime lore soon.)