0702 April 5th, 2020 CE

0631 Sun 5th, 196 AE

Outside of the jungle

“Dammit!”

Colonel Trakkas stood with hands on his hips as he looked at the wreckage of a Knight. His regiment had caught up to the 37th which had been stalled by an attack. Nearly a hundred magitrucks, magipanzers, anti-aircraft thauguns from the I Battalion of the 37th Magipanzer Regiment were destroyed. The attackers, the special human aircraft, also got away. He was pretty sure that the 5th Magipanzer Division has so far suffered the most casualties out of all other divisions in this war.

Even though the special human aircraft seemed slow and cumbersome, his anti-aircraft thauguns haven’t been able to shoot any of them down. This time, the 88s were completely blinded by the jungle.

“Should we retreat and regroup before starting another push?”

The commander of the 37th Magipanzer Regiment looked at COL Trakkas whilst saying that. COL Trakkas stood there staring at the destroyed magipanzer. He looked into the sky and thought for a bit. Before long, he came to a conclusion.

“Push forward. There’s a reason why the human aircraft are constantly retreating. They need to reload. We have to take advantage of this and overrun their airbases. Or at least get to the other side of the jungle and set up defenses so that they can’t attack us anymore. My II Battalion will take the lead this time. We don’t need the infantry on foot anymore.”

Magusian Secondary Defense Line

“The Apaches only gave them a short pause. They seem to have reorganized and are continuing. They definitely aren’t flinching.”

Lieutenant Colonel Parker nodded at that statement. He already knew that it was too hopeful to think that they will.

“Get the men ready for an engagement.”

It wasn’t going to be an easy fight against such a large number of tanks.

Hundreds of miles to the west

Charred magipanzers littered the plains yet again.

The 25th Magipanzer Corps, part of the Western Army, came to a standstill. Because of the heavy losses, the commanders of the magipanzer divisions were unwilling to advance further. Against orders, they dug in.

0723 April 5th, 2020 CE

0641 Sun 5th, 196 AE

Jungles

COL Trakkas heard a voice through his radio. It was the commander of his II Battalion

“Colonel, we have come up to a couple of destroyed Stallions on the road.”

“Keep moving forward, I will inspect them once I get there.”>>>

Colonel Trakkas once again stood in front of a destroyed magipanzer. This time, it was a Stallion.

“These are from the recon units.”

His aide slid his hand on the blackened armor of the Stallion before coming to a conclusion.

“Seems like they got attacked by those human aircraft. I’m seeing the exact same damage.”

“Only having those weapons is not enough to stop us. All we have to do is to destroy their airbases to prevent any more attacks.”

“Even more reason to get there as fast as possible, then, Sir.”

A few minutes later

A soldier looked out from a bush using a pair of binoculars. He watched as the tanks whizzed by.

>>

Because of the thick canopy, the Air Force’s high-flying drones were having trouble keeping track of the Elven tanks as they drove through the jungle. Infantry was sent into the forest to keep an eye on them.

In an effort to also slow them down, the recon forces came well prepared.

A rocket from an AT4 slammed into the side of a speeding Knight. Its turret flung into the sky at the impact. Another Knight behind it crashed into its mangled metal corpse.

As the recon force quickly went back deeper into the jungle, their commander looked back.

“That should give them a shock.”

”Why are we stopping?”

“Colonel, one of the Knights in our formation was blown up!”

“Is it those human aircraft, again? ”

“We don’t know. We aren’t seeing or hearing anything. It seemed like some anti-tank gun hit it at the side.”

COL Trakkas bit his lip. A big huff came out of his nose.

“You are positive you don’t see anything?”

“Positive. We sent infantry to investigate our surrounding area and we have found nothing.”

“Continue forward.”>>>

<<<”Command, the elves don’t seem to be stopping.”

“That was to be expected. The Apaches didn’t scare them. I don’t expect you guys to either. Just continue harassing them”>>>

0815 April 5th, 2020 CE

0707 Sun 5th, 196 AE

Magusian Secondary Defense Line

Humvees sat in several dug up positions with sandbags around them.

“Fire!”

A TOW missile slid out of the tube that sat on top of one of the entrenched Humvees. It flew towards a small tank that was barely out of the jungle.

A fiery explosion engulfed the Stallion’s turret as the TOW missile blew up in the air on top of it. The turret popped off during the explosion.

The Stallion behind the destroyed one turned to the left side of the road and started to traverse its turret toward the Humvee. A TOW missile from another Humvee disabled it.

When the II Battalion had finally gotten out of the jungle after facing multiple attacks, they were immediately met with another attack.

“Colonel, the humans have set up defenses right outside of the jungle. We are currently engaging them.”>>>

Colonel Trakkas wanted to throw something on the ground. He was tired of it.

The Stallion company had been ordered to retreat after their two losses. The humans seem to have placed a lot of anti-tank thauguns so the Stallions wouldn’t be effective. They needed something with much more armor.

A few minutes later

A Fortress smashed right through the two destroyed Stallions that had blocked the road. It traversed its cumbersome turret towards one of the Humvees.

The gunner got his finger near the trigger as the shot lined up. Just as it was about to fire, orange flames appeared on top of the Fortress, and then it exploded.

Colonel Trakkas huffed again as he listened to the II Battalion commander.

<<<“Their weird anti-tank weaponry destroyed a Fortress in one shot! Being destroyed by air is understandable because of the weak top armor but they are capable of penetrating the front armor! This is ridiculous! I thought these were heavy magipanzers?!”

“Can’t you rush them?! Why are you sending magipanzers one by one like an imbecile?!”

“The road isn’t wide enough and our magipanzers can’t traverse the jungle, sending them one by one is the only option.”>>>

Because of the time, it took to reload the TOW missiles on the Humvees, 3 had been positioned so that they could give a continuous fire if the enemy tried to rush out of the road. Luckily, only three tanks have shown up so far. Even though the elves had such a large number of tanks, they didn’t seem to be using it to their advantage.

During the entire time, Major General Bernart watched the American weapons with great interest. MG Bernart and Lieutenant Colonel Parker had repositioned the HQ to a small mound that gave them a view of the battlefield.

“What amazing firepower you have! What were those weapons you used to destroy their magitanks?”

“TOW missiles. It’s an anti-tank weapon.”

“An anti-tank rifle?”

LTC Parker wasn’t really a maker of the weapons, he just used them. So explaining the actual workings of it was too much of a hassle for him. He could but it wasn’t in his job description.

“Uhhh… yeah sure something like that.”

“Strangest anti-tank rifle I have ever seen.”

After a while

The destroyed pile of tanks started moving forward.

<<<“Shit! They are using the destroyed tanks as a shield.”

“These are top attack missiles, the destroyed tanks are only covering its front. Just keep firing.”>>>

The tank was destroyed in no time without even being able to shoot back. Unexpectedly to the crew inside, the destroyed magipanzers it used didn’t protect it.

A few minutes later

On a branch of a tree, Simon Holayra looked through his scope as he chewed on an army-issued ration cracker. Through the leaves, he lined up his scope with one of the humans manning the strange anti-tank thaugun. He much preferred his usual iron sights over the scope but using that in the middle of a jungle would have been problematic. His gun gave off a ‘crack’ as he squeezed the trigger.

An infantryman that was manning the TOW launcher slumped over.

“Shit! Sniper! They got Jones!”

At that moment, multiple bullets pinged off the Humvees.

“Enemy infantry in the jungle! Light ‘em up, light ‘em up!”

A full fusillade of machine-gun and rifle fire descended upon the forest. In addition, the Magusian soldiers that were sitting in the newly dug trenches behind the Humvees opened up as well.

In the jungles, the elves crouched on the ground. Hundreds of bullets flew overhead. Those who had been standing when the humans started firing had been either turned into red mist or were on the ground full of bullet holes. A commander shouted over the gunfire.

“These inferiors’ firepower is immense! Keep your head down and return fire! For the Vaterland!”

MG Bernard stared through his binoculars at the firefight in wonder. Especially at the American positions. Completely ignoring the current situation, he turned to LTC Parker to inquire about it.

“Are all of your soldiers armed with machine guns?!”

“No, just rifles.”

“But they can shoot nonstop!”

LTC Parker didn’t really like how much questions this guy was asking.

“Uhhh… well… basically think of a machine gun but the size of a rifle.”

“Amazing! Is your country willing to sell this to us? I guarantee that we are willing to buy your guns at any price!”

“I don’t have a say in this. You will have to ask my government. From what I know, it’s not likely. However, it is possible that we can give you some of our older versions.”

Radio chatter among the infantry nearly became a jumbled mess.

<<<“FUCK! They destroyed one of the TOW Humvees!”

“Tank front!”

“There still is goddamn snipers!”

“Who let the fucking tank through!”

“Keep firing, you idiots!”

“Man down! Man down!”>>>

The .50 cals on the Humvees didn’t let up as they continuously peppered the jungle in front of them. The infantry with their M4 rifles took shots wherever they saw an elf. The fire from the other side wasn’t as intense but an elven sniper was definitely picking them off one by one.

<<<”Where the fuck is that sniper?!”

“Man down! FUCK!”>>>

In the chaos of the firefight, a Knight was able to maneuver itself out of the jungle. The gun traversed directly to a TOW Humvee. It fired. The Knight’s shell smashed into the Humvee and it blew up in a blaze of orange. It wasn’t long before the Knight was taken out by a TOW missile.

Then a Fortress rumbled out of the forest. Stallions were right behind it.

LTC Parker sighed. He looked as the elven heavy tanks and light tanks came out of the jungles. If the elves kept on getting tanks through...

“I don’t think we can hold this for any longer.”

Then his radio made some noise.

“Anyone call for a guardian angel?”