Dust Devils - A Girls Und Panzer Story

Chapter 70

Tuesday, September 10th 2013

After several days of sailing, Catalina's school ship reached the warmer waters of the Pacific Ocean, with them crossing the Panama Canal during the previous night. The ship now traveled south toward the Port of Iquique in Chile. For Madison she was excited. It has been too long since she's been to anywhere in South America. Already was she making all sorts of plans of things to do in Chile and the surrounding countries. Though before she allowed herself to daydream for too long, she did have an important matter to attend to. The crew for the Mojave Rose's new Churchill. It was the adults on the team, Martin and Gabrielle, to choose the new members out of a list of applicants which worked on first-come-first-serve basis. To get them to the ship was where Madison stepped in.

Mojave Rose had a unique problem compared to the rest of the schools participating in the world tournament. Per the rules set forth by the governing body that regulates international tankery, members of a tankery team must be current students of the school that team belongs to. The problem here was that the student body of Mojave Rose High School tends to be over a thousand miles away from Catalina's school ship.

A problem that did have a solution thanks to Madison who has arranged the air travel for the last two crews and now a third. In her dorm, she reviewed the flight information. How the new crew will get here will be a little different. She will for sure have Valarie close-by to see the crew arrive as it'll surely be a spectacle.

Once the flight info was sufficiently reviewed, she set aside her laptop and got dressed for the day. In was early in the morning as slipped into her school uniform. At first, one would be puzzled as to why a girl like Madison when she first came to Catalina would go and live in the dorms rather than the more spacious and luxurious student apartments. The answer was simple; she was enamored with the concept of a dorm room. A small space with every square inch used to its maximum efficiency. A bed, closet, shelves, and a desk. Of course, with Catalina being the wealthy school that it was, also had its dorms have a TV and a mini-fridge. Something not even some colleges have for their own dorms.

Once she finished brushing her hair, she got her bag and left the dorm building. There was a chill in the morning air as she headed toward the direction of the theater to do some business over there when just on the border of her peripheral vision was a girl leaning against a lamp post. A girl whose hair was as brown as freshly dug soil from the earth that was slightly wavy. On her hair was a pair of aviator sunglasses that Madison could tell were on the expensive side. There was a familiarity to her, Madison could feel it. The girl made her way over to her. She snapped her fingers as she tried to recall something.

"...Madison, right?" the girl asked.

"Right," Madison confirmed. "I know you from somewhere but for the life of me I can't attach a name to your face."

"Jacqueline," she told her with a grin. "Commander of Mojave Rose's artillery."

"Oh! Yes! That's where I remember you. You look awfully different when not in your tankery uniform."

"Mmmhmm," hummed Jacqueline. "Now, Madison, I understand that you've done a lot for this team. Hell, it was you that made it possible for us to even be on this ship in the first place making travel for our matches so much easier. That makes you what?"

"Your most generous benefactor." Madison said slowly and happily.

"Right. I wonder just how generous are you."

"I've bought tanks for your team and I'm more than willing to buy more."

"How about a plane?"

Madison narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to the side.