0910 May 14th, 2020 CE

0735 Sun 44th, 196 AE

Near the shore of the Elven Nation

By the end of the day, the Marines had secured a beachhead spanning miles. Nick sat in his Abrams while keeping an eye out for any threats.

The anti-tank gun fired and the shell ricocheted off of the Abram's cheek. After Nick turned the turret towards the anti-tank gun, Dillian quickly dispatched it with a single shot.

<<<<“We are holding our position right outside of the town. We just destroyed an anti-tank gun. I think the town can be considered hostile. Over”

“We are just a couple of minutes behind. Hold until we get there. Out.”>>>

AAVs and Humvees pulled up right beside the Abrams. Marines exited their vehicles and started moving into town. Nick’s Abram followed the infantry as they entered the town. The AAVs and Humvees lined up right behind.

Although the town seemed empty, the air felt tense to Nick. “This town doesn’t feel right.”

Uma commented nonchalantly. “I guess the civilians evacuated.”

Nick wondered to himself. “Then why was there an anti-tank gun right outside of the town?”

“I dunno. Maybe they were a part of the defenses that they had set up.”

Brian, the loader, interjected. “Well so far, considering the lack of noise, the houses should be empty.”

The infantry was kicking open the doors to the surrounding houses on the street. So far, there was no sound of battle.

Uma laughed. “We are in a tank and fighting a country that can’t even field modern weaponry. What are we so worried about?”

Brian shrugged. “It's still a war. Who knows what could happen.”

Shots rang out. Nick wrinkled his nose. More shooting started.

Finn slammed his back to a wall beside him as soon as he saw the partially concealed machine gun peeking out of a house’s window. “Machine gun!”

It opened up and wildly sprayed bullets at them. Finn returned fire with the rest of his squad. From another window, a grenade was lobbed towards them. It landed right beside Blake. “Aw fuck!”

Blake knew that what was shown in movies and video games where people just threw back grenades was utter bullcrap. Grenades only had around a 3 to 5-second fuse and he wasn’t superhuman. Blake dived for the ground. A few seconds went by and no explosion occurred. From his prone position, he looked back at the grenade. “Oh, they forgot to pull the pin.”

Finn got his back on the wall next to the door that led into the house where the grenade came from. He threw a flashbang in. Hearing it go off, he burst in with two others from his squad. Seeing armed elves covering their eyes, Finn started shooting. They cleared the living room in no time. Shots rang out from the stairs. Whoever was firing seemed to be randomly firing at the first floor. “Johnson. Get your team and keep us covered downstairs. The rest of you guys in here, we are going up. Some guy is trying to blind fire or something. I’m throwing a grenade up.”

Finn tossed one upstairs and it clinked onto the ground of the second floor. Shouting was heard and then an explosion. Finn moved up first followed by his men. Two bodies laid strewn on the ground. “I’m checking the first door.”

They methodically checked each room of the house which in the end were all clear.

One of Finn’s men, Curtis Sheridan, stared at one of the dead bodies. “They are just fucking civilians.”

Blake seemed to come to an understanding. “Explains why that pin wasn’t pulled.”

Finn shook his head. “This feels just like I’m back in Afghanistan.”

Blake nodded. “Well, at least there aren’t any children.”

“I hope it stays that way.”

Multiple gunshots rang out from outside the house. Finn patted Curtis who was still staring at the body. “Ok. We don’t have time to chit-chat. Let's move. We still have a job to do.”

Nick’s Abrams moved up the road. A firefight was occurring between US infantry and elves who were taking cover behind a makeshift barricade. Firing an HE, the barricade exploded. Nick and Dillian opened up with the machine guns on the tank at the surviving elves.

Something flew towards the Abrams at high speeds. It exploded on the glacis plate of the tank. Connolly shouted. “Is that an anti-tank gun?”

Nick shrugged. “I don’t see anything. Well, it didn’t damage the tank, keep moving forward.”

Finn ran to his platoon leader, Second Lieutenant Albery Gray, who was standing outside with another squad of their platoon. Albery had split the platoon in order to cover more houses. Finn shouted over the gunshots. “Sir, we cleared out the house. Killed a couple of elves in there. Seemed to be armed civvies. What’s happening out there?”

“Same thing as you got. Armed civvies. Now, we got a Humvee coming as support. There are reports that the elves got barricades and cover set up on the streets all around town. The Humvee is gonna help a lot. I want you and your squad to keep the Humvee covered. We got lots of elves further ahead. The rest of the platoon will clear out the nearby houses.”

“Got it, sir!”

It wasn’t long before the Humvee pulled up. Finn slapped the side of the Humvee a couple of times.

“We got ya covered. The rest of our platoon is clearing the houses further up.”

The .50 cal gunner started eyeing the windows further ahead. Bullets pinged off the Humvee as shots came from the second floor of a house up ahead.

“Fuck! Get down.”

The .50 cal gunner blasted the window where the shots came from.

With the nearby houses cleared, they moved up the road.

“RPG!”

A rocket slammed into the front of the Humvee. Finn and the rest of the squad were flung to the ground. His ears rang and his surroundings looked blurry. He put his hand down on the ground as he tried to get up. He heard shooting and a lot of gunshots. A soldier, he wasn’t sure who, helped him up and got him into cover. Gaining back his senses, he took in his surroundings. One of the men in his squad, Private Dave Hunts, was screaming as he clutched his left leg which was clearly blown off.

“Motherfucker, what was that?!”

“The elves have RPGs!”

“Dave! Hold on we are getting you outta here. We need a CASEVAC!”

“This zone’s too fucking hot. Carry him out of here first. We don’t want the heli to get blown out of the sky.”

Bullets whizzed around as elves in plain cloth popped out and started firing.

An hour later

Finn sat in a chair in one of the houses as he munched on his MRE which was some sort of meat in barbecue sauce. Corporal Johnson looked very pissed. It was obvious why. Dave was one of the men in his team. “When the fuck did the elves get fucking RPGs?”

Blake responded while eating his MRE. “Well, I guess today.”

“And they gave them to fucking civilians.”

Curtis cut in. “Is Dave gonna be alright?”

Blake shrugged. “Not sure.”

“Man, he still has a wife and kids at home.”

A silence filled the room as they ate their rations. The silence was soon broken by Curtis. “Those were civilians weren’t they.”

Blake looked over. “Yep.”

It was clear that Curtis didn’t look too well.“And you guys are okay with this?”

Finn sighed. After the first house that they had cleared, Curtis seemingly started to put in less effort. “Well terrorists were once civilians and we shot them without a blink of an eye. Look soldier,” Finn stood up. “If they are armed and trying to kill you, you gotta kill them or they are gonna kill your friends.”

Curtis still looked upset. “Some of them were women.”

“I know this is different from what you have been experiencing so far. You have only been deployed for a year but it's no different from the old world. You see most of us here. We were deployed to Camp Dwyer in Afghanistan. We had to kill kids sometimes. Nobody wants to kill a kid. But when you have one running at you and your friends with a bomb strapped to their chest, you gotta do what you have to do.”

Blake shook his head. “At least the elves in this town haven’t armed their kids. We got 10 who are probably orphans now.”

At this, Curtis looked uneasy again. Finn stared unhappily at Blake.

Near Port City of Ilysesari, Elven Nation

Ara set out in her Knight with another Knight and two Stallions. A few platoons of infantry and magipanzers have already set off earlier. It wasn’t long before she came upon the damage wrought by the humans. From her open commander’s hatch, she scanned the blackened fields of destroyed magipanzers and thauguns.

“What was this all for?” She said to no one in particular. Staring at the destruction, she thought back to her childhood. At only 59, she was still a young elf so it wasn’t hard. She remembered how she was taught that the world was destined to be for the elves. How she learned about the inferiority of humans. There was even a mandatory class studying the shortcomings of the humans. Their magic was inferior. Their technology was inferior. They were just inferior beings. She remembered how she was so excited when she had joined the army and learned that they were preparing to invade the humans. To finally defeat an enemy that she had learned to curse at from youth.

Looking at the scene in front of her brought her much anger but also a lot of doubt. She was scared of the doubt growing in her. In fact, she hated it. To doubt something she had believed her whole life. She pushed it to the back of her head.