Dust Devils - A Girls Und Panzer Story

Chapter 66

Monday, September 2nd 2013

Catalina's School Carrier

Atlantic Ocean

With another victory secured, the Mojave Rose tankery were made their departure from Europe, leaving the Port of Hamburg behind them. Their destination, of as now, was unknown as the location of their next match has yet to be determined. So, the school ship charted a course to sail around the Atlantic till such news were to arrive.

It was the crack of dawn and Valarie was awoken not by the alarm on her phone but by the cries of the seagulls perched on the railing of the balcony. She rose from bed and went to the balcony, with the act of her opening the sliding doors enough to shoo away the birds. Valarie remained out there a moment to gaze out to the open ocean. Though she adored the desert views back home with every ounce of her being, the majesty of the ocean was a close second.

A wind chill compelled her to go back inside where she then went to the bathroom to check herself. She rolled up the sleeve on her left arm and unwrapped her bandage, it stained with dried blood. Using the mirror, she analyzed her wound. It was in the early stages of healing, though the bleeding has stopped. Her injury looked like she received a slash from a knife. A slight touch from her finger made her wince in pain.

"Heh, a little souvenir from Germany." she joked to herself.

A clean bandage was applied and once it was snug she left the bathroom. She found Emma awake and on her phone.

"Good morning." she said without looking up from her device.

"Morning," Valarie replied. She got back in bed next to her. "Sleep well?"

"When you recently win a match, that tends to make people sleep like a baby."

"...And?" Valarie said grinning.

Emma leaned in to kiss her on the lips. "Sleeping next to a lovely girl is pretty magical if I do say so myself."

The two rested and lounged on the bed together, their hands held tight. For Valarie, she reflected on the recent match. On one part in particular. Thinking about it caused the smile on her face to smile and her mood to shift to something more serious.

"Can I tell you something, Emma?"

"Yes, always. What's up?"

"Before our match, during that captain's meetup, Port Chalmers knew about the Cromwell having the rockets, the Jumbo and its new gun, and our new Type 97."

"How? How do they know all that?" Emma questioned with concern. "Our match against them should've been the first time Port Chalmers would've learned of them."

"They saw pictures of them before hand."

"Pictures? But who took them and where were they shared?"

"Hmm," Valarie hummed. "I've got a hunch..."

She got out her laptop and immediately went online. The first place she went to was a massive web forum that was solely dedicated to tankery that all tankery athletes were privy too as it was immensely popular. Out of the plethora of topics being simultaneously discussed by hundreds of users, one was about the internationals. Unsurprisingly, this thread has received an obscene amount of attention from tankery fans all over the world. Valarie started her search on the most recent page of discussion and worked backwards steadily reading older and older content. It didn't take long for her to come across pictures of very familiar machines.

"There it is," Valarie remarked. "Whoever took the photos shared them here on this website. The place is so popular that at least someone from Port Chalmers was bound to come across it sooner or later."