Dust Devils - A Girls Und Panzer Story

Chapter 93

Sunday, October 13th 2013

Early Morning

Catalina's school ship has left the waters of the Pacific behind them and now sailed the waves of the Atlantic. The vessel was somewhere between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, firmly planting the vessel along the sea of the Caribbean. In these fair waters, the weather matched. Despite the growing lateness of the year, the temperature was pleasant. On this Sunday morning, most of the ship lay asleep, enjoying one more day of the weekend. However, the whole ship would soon receive their wakeup call.

Over at the garage, the Mojave Rose team was minutes away from starting that day's practice. In the midst of these final preparations, Valarie lay idle, leaning against one of the sides of the T-44. She was in a quiet pondering, though anyone who happened to take a glance at her would think she was staring off into space. Still omnipresent in her mind was the quirk with the team's radio. The issue had bedeviled her in every sense of the word. To the extent that Valarie has begun to believe it is a "her" problem and not something that truly is worth remedying.

"You alright?"

Emma's voice snapped Valarie from her thinking. "Yeah, I am."

"Still on that radio thing?"

Valarie nodded. "It's not the biggest thing in the world, but it's still annoying the hell out of me."

"You'll figure out something for sure. It would be the letdown of the century if this is what defeated you. Just use your head."

"Right, right, use my head," Valarie repeated quietly to herself a few times. All the while, she reflexively drummed her fingers against the top of her helmet. "Using my head..."

When she became aware of her tapping, she stopped and glanced at her CVC helmet. It was the only one like it in the team. After all, it was a gift from the people from the Grafenwoehr Training Area, the NATO base back in Germany to which the team had been invited some time ago. She looked around the garage, looking at the team, her friends. They all wore the older style of U.S. tanker helmet that dated from the Second World War, with some of them actually being that old. They do the job well enough, but Valarie's helmet was objectively superior. Not only was it obviously more modern, but it was also more robust in construction. Anyone wearing such a helmet would feel much more confident in being protected from all manner of harm. There was built-in ear protection that was better than the usual ear plugs used by the majority of the team. Perhaps the best feature of all was the integrated microphone that hung less than a quarter of an inch from Valarie's lips. It made radio and intercom communication easy.

It made it easy.

At that moment, it dawned on her. Without saying a word, she rushed over to the team's supply area. She sought a walkie-talkie, the same kind Gabrielle used while supervising the team during their practices. Once finding one, she attached the headset wire of her helmet to the radio. Rushing back to the T-44 in a great sprint, she managed to sync that radio to the one in the tank after a spat of troubleshooting. Once synced, Valarie could communicate to her crew and the whole team wherever she was, inside or out of her tank. It was a kind of freedom she never knew she wanted before.

But this couldn't only be something only for her to enjoy. No, for this to be fully realized to its potential, every commander on the team needed this setup. So, every commander needed CVC helmets just like her. This, Valarie was dead sure, would resolve the radio quirk that had been the thorn in her side these past few days. Communication uniformity.

Eyeing Gabrielle entering the building, Valarie hastily scribbled down a list of required items and rushed off to the woman.

"Is this in budget?!" she asked, breathlessly.