0028 April 8th, 2020 CE

0314 Sun 8th, 196 AE

US Airbase miles behind the Jungle

First Lieutenant Scott Miller got out of the dressing room with the rest of his squadron.

One of the men in his squadron, First Lieutenant Hayden Chambers, made an off-hand remark as they walked through the hallway.

“Kinda lucky we got the airbase next to a town. Wanna go out to eat tomorrow or something. I heard they had taverns there. Always wanted to try food from the past.”

Scott chuckled and commented on that

“I prefer not to get food poisoning.”

“People in the past ate that. I think people nowadays can still eat it.”

First Lieutenant George Cooper, another one of the men in the squadron, shook his head and agreed with Scott.

“Nah man, ain’t no one eating that shit. I heard they don’t even have something like the FDA. You gonna get sick as fuck.”

Scott nodded his head.

“Besides, how are you going to tell them what you want to order? You can’t even speak Latin.”

“Yes, I can.”

Hayden coughed before speaking his so-called Latin.

“¿Qué hay en tu menú? See.”

A few seconds of silence was immediately followed with bellowing laughter.

“That’s Spanish dumbass.”

Hayden looked around unhappily.

“Well, Latin Americans speak Spanish.”

The laughing was even louder than last time.

“Ah, Hayden, you never fail to make us laugh.”

“What?”

They stepped out onto the runway of the airfield. Scott scanned around. It looked much better than when he first came here. Originally the runway was just bumpy, uneven dirt. Now it was smoothed out and sandy colored. The old Magusian buildings have been renovated and makeshift ones have been added.

Scott and his squadron walked towards their aircraft that were lined up on the dirt.

“Ready to blow some of them pointy ears to smithereens?”

“Pointy ears? Seriously?”

“Yeah, what else we gonna call them? Tree huggers?”

Scott watched as an F-15E Strike Eagle taxied down the runway. It felt extremely out of place with the early 20th-century village in the background.

A Few minutes later

Scott’s F-15E started moving down the runway. He took off along with the rest of his squadron.

20 minutes later

It wasn’t that long before they got to their designated target. They were performing the first strike of Operation Vengeance Hammer.

“Targets are within range. Firing.”

AGM-65 Mavericks were dropped from the hardpoints on his F-15.

On the ground a few miles away

“Lieutenant Colonel! We got reports of enemy aircraft being detected by our madars.”

“Keep an eye in the sky and open fire immediately if any enemy aircraft draws near.”

He started to scan the skies for any Human aircraft. Suddenly an explosion that rocked the ground cut off his scan.

“Get to cover! Artillery fire!”

The lined-up AA emplacements were blown up in succession.

“They’re targeting the AA arcannons!”

“Call headquarters and tell them that we suspect enemy artillery nearby.”

Something overhead zoomed by loudly. Suddenly more explosions occurred.

In the sky

“Bombs away! Yeehaw!”

GBUs dropped onto the AA guns below.

Back on the ground

A single elf was sitting down next to what seemed like a grey block. He held a “phone” that was connected to the grey block. The ground rumbled from the nearby explosions.

“There is Human aircraft! This is the heavy machine gun company of the 23rd Infantry Division. I repeat, we are under attack by Human aircraft! Requesting immediate air cover!”>>>

The heavy machine gun company, their company, despite its name, had no machine guns but were equipped with anti-aircraft guns.

In the air

“Oooohhhh! Good hits! Good hits, boys! Seems like we got a majority of their AA guns in this sector. RTB now.”

20 minutes later

“Good job!”

Scott stepped down the ladders of his F-15 and jumped onto the dusty runway.

The ground crew ran to refuel and rearm their aircraft.

“Seems like we are going for another sortie soon.”

“We will be getting air cover from the F-16s this time. The elves got their planes up.”

A few hours later

They have suffered no losses and have bombed a large portion of the enemy defenses. Using AMRAAMs, the F-16Cs were also able to quickly take out any elven aircraft in the vicinity.

0440 April 8th, 2020 CE

0520 Sun 8th, 196 AE

The plains

Jets could be heard zooming by overhead. Issac Miles looked tired on his seat in the Bradley.

“Are we there yet?”

Issac’s team leader, Sergeant Andrew Bennett, sighed.

“For the last time, Private, no. We literally just took a break. We will know when we get the signal.”

“For all their seeming ferociousness, these elves seem to know how to run better than how to fight.”

An hour earlier, they had come up to a deserted human village. Blood was splattered everywhere and buildings were razed to the ground. The elves seemed to have showed no mercy.

While thinking about that, the distinct sound of the M1A2 Abrams firing its main gun could be heard. The squad leader, Staff Sergeant David Walker commented on the noise.

“Seems like we have come up to the first group of elven defenses.”

“Human magipanzers are cresting the hill!”

The elves adjusted their anti-tank arcannon, an AP 75 (Anti-Panzer 75mm), towards the closest human magipanzer that was racing down the hill towards them.

“Fire!”

Their first shot missed and whizzed past the speeding magipanzers. The speed of the human magipanzers made aiming extremely difficult.

A shot from the moving human magipanzer destroyed the AP 75 and the sandbags acting as cover.

Captain Josh Rose’s Abrams flattened the remaining barbed wire and sandbags covering the road. With their anti-tank gun destroyed, the elves blocking the road had dispersed and ran from a hail of machine gunfire.

Nearby town

Lieutenant General Ara Belra’s subordinate knocked on the door of the house that she was occupying.

“Come in.”

“The road blockade has been breached. The humans are coming.”

“Get the men up. We will engage them in the plains.”

Ara got into her Knight with her crew. She then got onto her magiradio.

“All magipanzers to your positions. We will fight for every inch of territory.”

She had already received reports that the defenses outside of the city have been under heavy air attack and were mostly destroyed so she understood the value of defending this town. The towns occupied by the elves were their last bastions of defense. A good number of her magipanzers in her division have already been destroyed outside of the town. It had been noted, although a bit late, that the humans seemed to avoid bombing the towns. She had gathered almost all of her magipanzers in the town so it had become a bit crowded.

A few minutes later

“I’m seeing a lot of elf tanks ahead.”

“Fire!”

The shot instantly took out one of the larger elf tanks. It punctured a hole in its front armor. The other Abrams followed up with shots.

The elf tanks sat there while the Abrams continued to fire whilst moving. The elf tanks had to stop to shoot in order for their shots to be accurate. Their magipanzers had no stabilizers so if it wanted to hit something, firing on the move was not recommended.

Shots from the Knights and Stallions hit a few of the Abrams but had little effect. The Abrams returned fire in accurate and rapid shots.

An explosion rocked the bottom of Josh’s Abrams

“Seems that we are on a minefield.”

A few minutes later

The Abrams quickly overran another position that consisted of anti-tank guns and elves hiding behind sandbags.

The Elven defenses that were hastily prepared outside of the town crumbled in front of the Abram’s advance. Their anti-tank gun emplacements, trenches, mines, and tanks were swept aside.

Less than 20 minutes later

A single Knight sat on one of the roads into town. It fired towards the approaching Abrams. The shot hit directly on the heavily armored cheeks and ricocheted off. The Knight blew up after being shot and the approaching Abrams pushed it aside. The Bradleys and the rest of Abrams entered the town.

“Go! Go! Go!”

The back door of the Bradley opened. Issac jumped out with the rest of his squad. The Abrams had cleared a way for them into the town. Now it was up to them to clear the town itself. The Abrams will follow them as support.

Just as they were checking the area outside of their Bradley, machine gunfire came from the windows of one of the houses on the side of the road. Private Fred Butler, the Grenadier of his squad, quickly fired a grenade from the grenade launcher attached under his gun into the window. It made a distinct “pomp” sound. The room exploded and black smoke came out of the window.

Issac and his squad went into the house where the machine-gun fire originated from.

When they opened the door, they were greeted with a large open space room that was the entire first floor.

“Clear! Move upstairs!”

They slowly walked up in a line.

On the top floor of the house was a hallway with multiple doors. This house seemed to be a tavern.

They quickly cleared the rooms one by one until they came to the last one at the right. The first soldier who entered immediately fired his gun. A single elf was crouching in there. The elf quickly went down before he even got to shoot his gun.

0644 April 8th, 2020 CE

0622 Sun 8th, 196 AE

The plains far behind

Simon Holayra approached a group of humans with his hands raised. He was on his last legs. He ran out of food and couldn’t scavenge anything from the nearby towns since they were all burned down during his army’s advance. The entire area seemed to be crawling with humans. They were definitely hunting him. He had made his way further and further south but there were no signs of the elven army. He wasn’t sure what to do. The only options were either die of hunger or surrender to the humans.

As he approached, the humans seemed to raise what seemed to be their guns at him.

“I surrender!”

“Drop your gun!”

One of the humans shouted at him and pointed their gun towards his rifle that was slung on him. Simon immediately unclipped his sling and the rifle dropped onto the ground. The humans approached him and tied his hands.

“Seems like this is the sniper we were looking for.”

0907 April 8th, 2020 CE

0745 Sun 8th, 196 AE

In the ocean

Seaman James Murray out across the ocean.

“Well, this was a waste of a trip.”

He blew the smoke from his cigarette out into the sky. His friend, Seaman Zach Stevens, replies to that.

“Shot down a lot of planes though. We will be coming back soon enough.”

“When will that be?”

“Another week or so. This time hopefully the brass loads up with more AMRAAMs.”

James threw the cigarette onto the ground and stepped on it.