Girls und Panzer: The Eagles of Oarai

Disclaimer: I do not own Girls und Panzer nor any franchise associated with it.

U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Hub Zemke Aeronautical Academy school ship 0745 hrs.

"Can't believe they actually did it." A boy said as he and his three other comrades all dressed in flight gear surrounded a small television set in a small ready room.

"Yeah, never would have thought a small and un-heard of school like Oarai would have been able to pull something off like that." Another remarked as they all watched as the school's tankery team proudly lifted their victory banner into the air.

"It's incredible. They saved their entire school from being shut down thanks to their victory…if only we could have been as lucky….." said another lugubriously looking over at a recently won trophy marked with "7th Annual Aerial Combat Tournament."

"Well in any event," said the one appearing to be the leader, "that place is gonna be our new home here shortly."

"This next flight to their school ship could be our last one….." said the first.

"Well, at least if it is, we went out with a bang." Said the boy who had been staring at the trophy.

"Just like Cass would've wanted it." Said another.

"The last flight of Eagle Squadron will definitely be one for the books boys. Live in fame…" the leader remarked.

"Or go down in flame!" the rest resounded.

With that all four walked out onto the deck of their school ship, one that resembled a World War II escort carrier. They reached their airfield and climbed into four P-51D Mustang fighter planes, all which had a chrome paint job with a black lightning bolt running the length of the fuselage.

As one in particular climbed in, he took a last look at his squadron's insignia emblazoned on the tail, a bald eagle clutching an American flag in one talon and a rebel flag in its other. "Well Jake, this is gonna be interesting." He said to himself as he started his engine and taxied down the runway with his squadron.

Oarai Girls Academy School ship. 0820 hrs. Student Council room.

"So, this is the arrangement the board decided on?" Anzu said curiously to an American man dressed in a naval officer's uniform accompanied by another in a flight suit.

"Yes." The naval officer replied in perfect Japanese. "With your school's recent success in the tankery nationals, it has become quite popular."

Anzu tilted her head to one side. The man continued, "When we learned that our school's situation was quite similar to your own, we sent word to your board with a proposition."

"And the proposition was to allow for the merging of our school and yours?" Anzu said curiously.

"Precisely." The man replied.

"Then this means!?" Momo said piping up. "It means boys will be allowed into Oarai!" Yuzu exclaimed.

"Yes, as our school was co-ed, it means that Oarai will become co-ed as well. The students are mostly American as you may have guessed, but do not worry, because they have all been required to learn the Japanese language and customs so there need not be any changes to any lifestyles you already have." The American assured them.

All three girls simply stared in amazement before Anzu spoke up again, "Well that solves one barrier, but you mentioned that your school was an aeronautical school. Why join with Oarai?"

The man in the flight suit smiled a bit. "You do recall the recent changes to the rules of sensha-do correct?" Anzu looked confused.

"What changes are you talking about?" she asked before she was handed a booklet with the changes. Momo and Yuzu stood beside her and stared in shock as they read. "Then….you mean… we'll actually be able to," Yuzu started but was cut off by Momo, "FIELD AIRCRAFT!?"

"Yes" the man in the flight suit answered calmly.

"Prez, this changes everything! We'll have to get aircraft, pilots, and,"

"That's not necessary. I already have four fighter planes ready to go along with my four best boys to fly them." The flight officer said.

"BOYS!? IN SENSHA-DO!?" the girls all exclaimed. "Have another look at the rule changes." The naval officer said.

They looked and to their amazement, they saw that the tank crews would remain female only, but that the pilots of the aircraft fielded could be male or female. Anzu looked up from the rule changes.

"I see. When can we expect your pilot's as well as the new students?" The naval officer spoke back up, "They should be arriving this afternoon, just in time for their first day tomorrow."

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, 1030 hrs.

Jake Housten looked over the instrument panel in his P-51D Mustang once more. This had to have been the thousandth time in the past hour, but he needed something to keep him occupied during the long flight from the Kitty Hawk to he and his squadron's new home in Oarai.

He sighed under his oxygen mask as he looked down below his altimeter which read 8,000 feet. What had made him sigh was an old photograph taken after his squadron's victory in the semi-finals of the last Aerial Combat Tournament. He smiled as he saw the exuberant expressions of his squadron mates, but frowned when he came to the last one, a tall brunette girl who had formerly been their squadron commander.

Cassidy Ryan, or Cass for short, as they had all called her. She had been a great leader, and a real wildcat flier in her Mustang called "Pegasis." Unfortunately, she had died before the final match, and never lived to graduate high school.

Jake remembered how he and his squadron had fought heroically against the opposing team that had consisted of all German Me-262 jets, and had somehow won that tournament in Cass's memory. That victory, unfortunately however, wasn't enough to save their school. The U.S. had cut the budget for their aeronautical programs, and was re-directing the money into tankery. This had put Jake's school on the back burner, and eventually, headed for the dry dock and scrapyard. The school board however, had different plans. His squadron's teacher and mentor, Colonel Robert J. Jenkins along with the school's superintendent Admiral Walter A. Hornsby had somehow convinced Ooari to allow them to merge their two schools to alleviate the remaining debt Ooari had, and to, in a way, save their own school.

Jake pushed these thoughts out of his mind as he looked over to his wingman flying directly to his left. "Eagle 4, this is Eagle 2, how ya holdin' up over there Tex?" he radioed in his thick southern drawl.

"Just fine Eagle 2, but I'm awfully ready for this flight to be over!" his wingman called back in a drawl similar to his own.

Jake smiled. He and his wingman, Jeremy "Tex" Lyons were the only two members of the squadron from the American south, with Jake being from Georgia and Tex obviously hailing from Texas.

"You know, you two sure have some weird accents!" their leader's wingman, Chris Rowland, who hailed from Boston called over the radio.

Jake chuckled as his wingman called back, "Yeah? Well same could be said for you Eagle 3! Ya damn city slicker!"

Chris burst out laughing before replying with "Hey….watch it Eagle 4!"

"You boys all done with the tough love routine yet?" the squadron leader who hailed from Virginia, Richard, "Cap" Walker radioed them all.

"Roger that Eagle 1." Jake replied back.

"Solid copy Cap!" Tex replied.

"All clear sir!" Chris said.

They heard him laugh before he replied with, "Well, at least everyone is still in a good mood. We're gonna need to make a good impression on those people at Oarai though, so as soon as we land, you all keep your bearing just like the Colonel taught us." He said.

"Hey Eagle 1?" Chris said.

"What is it Eagle 3?" Richard replied.

"Is it really true we're gonna be flying in tankery matches this year? Seems kinda weird if you ask me." He stated.

"That's an affirmative Chris. We will be flying in tankery matches." Richard said back.

"Now why in the sam hell would we do that?" Tex questioned.

"Because that's the only thing that's gonna keep us flying Eagle 4. Besides, I can see why the sensha-do officials decided to allow fighter planes into it. Could make for some interesting matches." Jake said in response.

"Well whatever the reason, it's gonna be a different kind of ball game from here on out. How are you boys on fuel?" Richard asked.

Jake glanced down out his fuel gage. "Looks good here Cap. Used up about a quarter and a half in my drop tanks, and still got all of my internal fuel." Jake responded.

"Roughly the same here boss." Tex said.

"And for me!" Chris said.

"Thank the Lord for the P-51's long legs." Jake muttered under his breath.

"Alright then, but keep an eye on those gages. Won't be long before we reach Ooari now Eagles." Richard said.

Oarai city carrier, 1300 hrs. Apartment complex.

Hana Isuzu smiled pleasantly as she busied herself with another one of her flower arrangements. She had decided to take a quiet, relaxing day since school was to start soon, and she hadn't had much time to work on her arrangements lately.

As she worked, she thought about the events of the previous school year and her time in the school's sensha-do team; how the team had gotten their baptism by fire in their friendly match against St. Gloriana, and how her tank crew had been forced to do the Ankou dance for losing.

Hana grimaced as she thought of that, but smiled as she remembered their first victory against Saunders and how she had miraculously fired her Panzer IV's main gun and knocked out the flag tank from a ridge just when all had seemed lost.

She also recalled her shock during the match against Pravda when she learned that her school would be shut down if they did not win the tankery championship. But again, thanks large in part to her tank commander, one Miho Nishizumi, they had emerged victorious and had made it to the finals where they faced Miho's former school Kuromorimine.

It had been a hard fought victory, but they once again emerged victorious thanks to the crew of the Panzer IV and Miho's leadership.

Hana's gaze then shifted to a photo nearby of her and her friends in front of their Panzer IV Aufs H. Their commander, Miho Nishizumi was smiling timidly, while Hana's long time best friend and the crew's radio operator, Saori Takebe was flashing a peace sign. Their sleepy driver, Mako Reizei, looked half asleep as usual, and their loader, Yukari Akiyama was hugging Miho while Hana was off to the side smiling happily.

The gunner giggled a bit upon glancing at the photo, but then winced when she recalled a rumor that had been circulating around the ship lately; a co-ed school was merging with theirs to alleviate the rest of the debt the school still had.

Hana shuddered at the thought. It just seemed a bit strange. But she smiled and thought to herself, "At least I'll still be able to do tankery again this year with all of my friends."

She turned back to her arrangement when her cell phone vibrated.

"Huh?" she said out loud as she picked it up.

She looked at the caller ID expecting to see Saori or Miho's number, but instead she saw a text message from Momo, the student council PR Manager which read, "Meet at the tankery sheds in twenty minutes."

Hana cocked her head to one side curiously upon reading the message. "I wonder what's going?" she thought out loud before putting on her shoes and heading out to the sensha-do sheds.

Oarai Tankery sheds, 1345 hrs.

Hana and the rest of Anglerfish team made it to the tankery sheds before the rest of the other crews to find the Student Council Team standing near a large shipping crate.

"Oh, good to see you all made it!" Anzu said munching on a dried sweet potato.

"What on earth is that?" Saori said pointing to the crate.

"That's actually what we called everyone here to talk about…." Anzu responded.

"That is an awfully large crate." Miho remarked.

"Oh! Did we get a new tank! I hope it's a new tank! Like maybe a Tiger I, or an M-26 Pershing, or a," Yukari was cut off by Miho placing her hand on Yukari's shoulder and saying "Panzer halt."

Yukari blushed and said, "Uhhh, yeah sorry…."

The group laughed a bit before Hana remarked, "I didn't think the school treasury had enough for a new tank already."

"We don't." Yuzu replied.

"Then what is it?" Mako asked sleepily.

"We'll tell you once the other teams get here." Momo stated firmly.

Finally, the crews of the Hippo, Leopon, Rabbit, Anteater, Mallard, and Duck team all arrived and gathered curiously around the crate. Anzu stood atop the crate and said, "Good afternoon everybody, I'm sure you're all wondering why we called you here, and I have some very alarming news for you. Momo?"

Whispers began to circulate around the teams.

"As you all may have heard," Momo began," there have been rumors floating around that our school is being merged with an American school ship. Well, these rumors…are true."

Many gasps erupted from the teams before Momo raised her hand to silence the uprising.

"As you all may already know, this school, known as Hub Zemke Aeronautical Academy was co-ed," Momo continued,

"Which means…" Hana spoke up.

"BOYS!" Saori burst out with stars in her eyes. "I can finally get a real boyfriend now!" Saori continued to yell in excitement.

Hana and Miho blushed and shrugged slightly in embarrassment at their friend's outburst, but Hana began to wonder about what Saori had said.

"I wonder if there will be any boys who'd like me?" she thought to herself, but quickly shrugged that thought off as she knew she'd be busy enough trying to keep her best friend under control.

"So that's the big announcement?" Akebi Sasaki, the gunner of Duck team, and volleyball team member spoke up.

"But you still haven't told us what's in that big crate!" Aya, one of the young members of Rabbit team protested.

"Well, yeah that's also part of the announcement. Leopon team, if you'd be so kind?" Anzu said gesturing to the automotive club and crew of the Porsche Tiger.

"On it!" said Nakajima happily as she and her colleagues grabbed crowbars and began to pry at the crate.

After a minute or two or prying the front of the crate finally broke free and revealed what had been inside.

"Huh?" Miho and Hana both said in surprise.

They were both staring at the nose of an aircraft inside of the crate.

"What…" Miho began.

"is that?" Hana finished her sentence.

Yukari then jumped up excitedly. "OH! I know what it is! It's," she said before the automotive club pried open the rest of the crate to reveal the fuselage and wings of an American fighter plane.

"a P-51D Mustang!" Yukari cried.

"Ah, the Mustang, one of the greatest fighters of the Second World War. Shot down over a thousand German aircraft with its six Browning machine guns and could outperform almost any other fighter with its Rolls Royce Merlin engine." Erwin, the commander of the STuG III remarked.

"But what's this plane got to do with our school going co-ed!?" Saori asked confused.

"I told you that the school was an aeronautical school, and it had its own aerial combat team, somewhat similar to tankery." Momo explained.

"So we're getting an aerial combat team?" Mako asked dis-interested.

"Not exactly….." Anzu replied.

"What do you mean?" Hana asked.

"The new rules of sensha-do state that a total of four to five aircraft can now be fielded for reconnaissance, ground attack, and dogfighting against the opposing teams planes. So, in light of these new rules, we'll be getting new planes and pilots from the new school as our air support this season." Anzu stated.

Everyone was once again in shock.

"So when do we get to meet the pilots!? I hope they're a bunch of cute boys!" Saori said excited.

"They should be arriving with the rest of the new students this afternoon. Once they're here, we'll all be able to meet them, and go over how the team will be operating this year." Yuzu said in response.

"Everyone should stay near the sensha-do sheds until they arrive as we'll be riding in our tanks out to the airfield." Momo added.

"But until then, feel free to do whatever you want." Anzu said as she and her two comrades headed for their Hetzer.

Hana and her friends then walked up to the Mustang and observed it more closely. She marveled at the yellow and silver paint job that made it glisten in the afternoon sun. She also noted a small painting of a white winged horse with the name "Pegasis" emblazoned in red on the forward part of the fuselage.

Meanwhile, Miho was observing the insignia of a bald eagle with an American flag in one talon and a Rebel flag in the other on the Mustang's tail. Underneath the insignia was a number, "01" it had read, and Miho assumed it was the squadron leaders plane.

"It looks like this was probably the flight commander's plane." Yukari read Miho's thoughts.

"But I wonder why he or she wouldn't have flown it here." Saori wondered.

Hana looked again at the painting of the pegasis on the plane's nose.

"Pegasis….it's a Mustang, and a pegasis is a winged horse…it's a fitting name for such a pretty plane." Hana said giggling.

"Isuzu-dono, don't tell me you're getting a thing for airplanes!" Yukari said.

Everyone laughed a little before Hana replied with, "I just think it's a fitting name. But I bet whoever flew this was really good judging by those kill markers." She said pointing to the many marks below the cockpit.

"I really don't know much about the school, but I heard that it had one of the best aerial combat teams in the U.S." Yukari said.

"If it was so good, I wonder why they decided to close down the school." Miho said.

"From what I've gathered, the U.S. decided to start pooling more money into tankery because of how fast it's been growing, and they had to shut that other school down." Yukari replied.

"It sounds a lot like what almost happened to Oarai. That must have been really terrible for those students." Hana said.

"Yeah, but at least now they have a new place to call home, and I finally get to meet boys!" Saori said.

All laughed as Saori said, "It's official, I'm going to have at least three boyfriends and get engaged before this year is over!"

"Isn't that a bit much Saori?" Miho said sheepishly.

"C'mon Miporin! You should get a boyfriend yourself! Hana, you too!"

Both girls again blushed in embarrassment. The group continued to observe the Mustang and chat amongst themselves before the drone of aircraft engines could be heard. All the girls looked up to see small black dots on the horizon.

"The new students will be touching down soon! Everyone into your tanks! We'll be heading for the airfield immediately!" Momo called.

With that Hana and her team rushed to their Panzer IV Aufs H. As Mako started the engine and fell in behind the rest of the team, Hana leaned out of her hatch trying to get another glimpse of the incoming aircraft. She then spotted what looked like large propeller driven passenger planes, but then off to her right she spotted four other smaller specks.

They eventually came roaring over the column of tanks and Hana was able to clearly identify the planes as four more P-51D's colored in the same chrome as the first, but with a large black lightning bolt running the length of the fuselage. Hana watched as the planes circled waiting their turn to land as she and her comrades pulled into the airfield.

Meanwhile, as the girls waited for the planes to land, Turtle team was all sitting atop their Hetzer with the files of the four pilots in hand. Anzu looked down once more at the files as she laid them out across the roof of the tank. The files contained a basic photo of each pilot along with their names, ranks, height, weight, blood types, call-signs, flight hours logged, and their area of expertise. All were of Caucasian decent, and from various U.S. states. The first profile contained a picture of a tall boy about 18 in age with dark hair and blue eyes. The profile read:

Name: Richard Walker

Rank: Flight Captain

Height: 6'0

Weight: 165lbs

Blood type: A pos

Call-sign: Eagle 1

Combat specialty: squadron leadership

Flight hours logged: 500+ hrs. in P-51D Mustang, 80 hrs. in P-40 Warhawk, and 100+ simulator hrs. in F-15C Eagle.

Anzu knew that this was the squadron's leader, and turned her attention to the second profile which was of a boy about 17 in age with short dirty blonde hair and grey-blue eyes that were a shade similar to Hana's. This profile read:

Name: Jake Housten

Rank: Flight 1st Lieutenant

Height: 5'8

Weight: 155lbs

Blood type: B pos

Call-sign: Eagle 2

Combat specialty: Dogfighting

Flight Hours Logged: 500+ hrs. in P-51D Mustang, 90 hrs. in F6F-Hellcat, and 100+ simulator hrs. in F-15C Eagle.

Anzu was again impressed as she read the profile. Both pilots so far had quite a few flight hours in two different kinds of sensha-do eligible fighters, and simulator hours in one kind of modern jet fighter.

"How are they looking prez?" Yuzu asked as one of the C-47 Skytrains carrying the regular students touched down on the runway.

"I'm impressed so far. Let's see about these other two." She said looking at the next to last which was of another boy with brown hair and brown eyes, and 18 in age. This one read:

Name: Chris Rowland

Rank: Flight 2nd Lieutenant

Height: 5'5

Weight: 148lbs

Blood type: O neg

Call-sign: Eagle 3

Combat specialty: Ground Attack

Flight Hours Logged: 500+ hrs. in P-51D Mustang, 75 hrs. in P-47 Thunderbolt, and 100+ simulator hrs. in F-15C Eagle.

Anzu smiled as she saw this pilot's combat specialty.

"Looks like we know which one of these pilots will be knocking out most of our opposing panzers!" she said as another C-47 touched down.

"How bout' the last one?" Yuzu asked looking at the final profile of another boy with sandy blonde hair and green eyes about 17 in age. The final profile read:

Name: Jeremy "Tex" Lyons

Rank: Flight 2nd Lieutenant

Height: 5'6

Weight: 157 lbs

Blood type: B neg

Call-sign: Eagle 4

Combat specialty: Aerial Recon

Flight Hours Logged: 500+ hrs. in P-51D Mustang, 85 hrs. in P-38 Lightning, and 100+ simulator hrs. in F-15C Eagle.

Anzu again smiled pleased and said, "I think these pilots might just be our ticket to another national championship!"

"I hope you're right prez…." Yuzu said as the last C-47 touched down. Finally, the moment the girls had all been waiting for arrived; the four P-51's began their final approach for landing.