Chapter 2: The Battle of the Line
Blaine, Washington, USA
Captain Charlie Zhang, a Vancouver native, rolls his Leopard C2 tank force across the US-Canada border, the ground shaking as the heavy weight of Canada's main battle tank, heading south on Interstate 5. Civilians rush north, either by vehicle or even by foot, past the Peace Arch that is on the border.
"You know, I never thought I'd be going into the United States with a tank." One of his tank commanders remarks on the radio, with others agreeing. Two bulldozers push away abandoned cars and litter out of the tanks' way, not needing to have some treads get damaged crushing a car.
Three CF-18As fly overhead, staying close to the surface as they head south, at the same time, four very, very beautiful A-10 Warthogs follow behind, slower, and lower than the Hornets, but at least they look intimidating.
As the sortie disappears into the horizon, helicopters begin flying back and forth from the town, over the border, and back, picking up civilians unable to evacuate themselves. A Huey helicopter, something they must have pulled out of a local museum, takes off from Whatcom Community College, flying north back across the border.
"Fuck, they're pulling everything out for this, aren't they? What's next? We're going to recreate the intro to Apocalypse Now with 25 year old museum pieces?" Zhang rhetorically asks his commanders, only to get half of his tank crews humming and Da Da Daing Ride of the Valkyries from the beginning attack on the town.
"Oh shut the fuck up, all of you!" Zhang yells at his crews, including the ones in his own tank. "That includes you Conrad!" After a while, everybody, including Charlie, starts laughing from the image in his head…though reality kicks in, and the movie playing in his mind suddenly falls apart when he imagines Hinds strafing his home along Vancouver's suburbs.
Numerous and large explosions rip across the horizon, and all seven aircraft return safely back across the border. "Captain Zhang? This is Redcoat, or acting Major Timmins of the White Knight Squadron, based out of CFB Comox, they're not that far out, we might be able to get another sortie out to tear a few more holes into them, but after that, you'll be under heavy attack. I have five F-15s in the air covering your ass from any Hinds or enemy tactical support. If you see artillery, call it in, I'll take care of it personally. Redcoat out."
"Thank you Major Timmins, good luck up there." Spoiled air force assholes. Pussies get to fly away when they're in trouble.
Zhang sighs, looking around this soon to be fortress. He, and the US Captain, Captain Peterson, begins positioning their tanks in and around Blaine Schools Campus, or the tract of land with the elementary, middle, and the high school. US and Canadian infantry garrison all of the school buildings, as well as any structure made out of brick or concrete, while the tanks dig in and use whatever cover they can find, to hopefully get the first, and most likely deadly first shot upon the enemy. Zhang's 22 Leopard C2 tanks, as well as 12 Cougar AVGP, as well as four ADATS (Anti-Defense, Anti-Tank System) meet up with Peterson's 14 M1A2 Abrams, 8 M2 Bradley, and one M88 Recovery Vehicle. An assortment of Humvees and M113 APCs move around in the background, either helping evacuate civilians, or moving military personnel from location to location.
"Alright, remember, take out any tanks with two antennae, those are commanders' tanks. Understood?" Zhang barks out, and his subordinates acknowledge. "Yes sir!"
The seven aircraft fly overhead once more, but this time the explosions are much closer than they were only a few minutes before. "Shit…they're almost on top of us…" Zhang grumbles, a bit worried for the tanks under his command, but…they're all competent crews, at least they were the best crews the Canadian government could get into British Columbia in a few days.
Zhang whispers a short prayer in his mother tongue. His grandparents and parents were able to get out of China before the Japanese Invasion through the help of Canadian missionaries, and even though he still speaks Chinese, he'll always be Canadian.
As he finishes praying, three of the Eagles swoop down and launch Air-to-Air missiles at incoming Mi-24 Hinds, turning six of them into molten fireballs, crashing into empty suburban homes. One of the Mi-24s escapes the Eagle barrage, launching its rockets at a Bradley, turning it into a burning wreck. The machine gunner on Zhang's tank, as well as a number of the others, starts using their anti-infantry weapons against the surviving Hind, to no avail.
"Shit shit, he's looking right at us!" Zhang kicks the tank driver, knowing that even if they don't all die instantly, the tank would be useless in the true battle to come. Luckily for Zhang, one of the infantry on the roof of the high school launches a Stinger at the enemy Hind, the back rotor falls apart, and the helicopter quickly loses altitude.
"That was close…" Zhang breathes a sigh of relief. His tank crew also does the same, some choking from holding in their breath so long.
"Here they come…" Peterson calls out, him being the tank closest to highway 543, seeing the first outlines of T-80s and T-72 Soviet tanks, too many to count. "All tanks, coordinate with your peers and make every shot count."
Soon enough, the Abrams and Leopard tanks begin working with each other, picking out their targets out of the many available. Tanks were their priorities; anything else will be taken out by the infantry. After five seconds, the volleys of 9 Abrams and 3 Leopard fire their rounds, getting ten kills, with one impacting a disabled city bus, and the other tears a hole into a ranch style home's living room.
The rest of the tanks fire their rounds, including Zhang's, and most hit their mark, but there are too many behind them. "Shit…we need to fall back. Alright you guys, move back to G Street…"
"Is that the real name sir?" One of his tanks asks him, and Zhang confirms.
"Yeah, G Street. Move back after firing your second volley!"
Zhang looks though the tank's scope, looking ahead, and finding a tank with two antennae. "Commander's tank, 1 o'clock!"
"Got him, sir! Firing!" The gunner responds, and the recoil of the 120mm gun shakes the chassis of the tank. "That's a kill!"
Without needing to get ordered back, the driver reverses the tank, moving backwards, squeezing between the elementary and middle schools. After a while, the Soviets start returning fire, but thankfully the older T-72s don't have any stabilizers and have a hard time while moving. One of the shells fly over Zhang's tank, exploding into the third storey of the local community centre. Of course, not everybody was so lucky, and some of the T-80s are able to knock out 2 Abrams and 1 Leopard.
The M88 hooks itself onto the disabled Abrams, with a medic tending to the surviving commander and the gunner, rushing them both into an APC to bring them north of the border. Slowly but surely, the tow truck on the tank chassis pulls the tank as fast as it can into cover, using the side streets to make it across.
The last tanks make their way past the schools, the remaining infantry, Canadian Special Forces, start hooking the buildings' natural gas heaters, as well as its kitchens, with C4 plastic explosive. They rush out and quickly run into cover, behind the burning community center. As the last of our tanks pull away, the Soviets move ahead, proud of routing the imperial capitalist pigdogs, or whatever the Soviet propaganda machine is calling NATO lately, moving past 7 destroyed Leopard, 3 Abrams, 2 Bradleys, 1 ADATs, and 4 Cougars, all burning husks of their former, proud selves. Of course, the battle isn't over yet. As the first Soviet tanks, the infamous T-80s, drive in between the three schools, the Special Forces unit detonates its C4, the propane and natural gas tanks explode into giant fireballs, consuming the structures, as well and its local surroundings, including three T-80s, and two Soviet infantry carriers.
"Fuck yeah!" Zhang screams in excitement, watching the three fireballs consume hopefully some enemy forces. The tanks fire randomly over the burning ruins on what used to be single family homes. His tank keeps moving back, crushing swings and BBQs, even driving through the wooden frames of homes to keep moving back. The roofs collapse upon Zhang's tank, creating a camouflage of sorts…
"We're at the fucking border sir!" Half of Zhang's tanks are gone, with Peterson not doing much better.
"Zhang, this is Peterson, we need to fall back, there are too many of them and not enough of us. The M88 is working overtime to pull as many of our tanks out, as well as some of the APCs!"
Zhang grumbles, before Redcoat returns. "Captain Zhang and Peterson, get across the border and move towards Vancouver, we're going to make sure none of these bastards get across, not for a while."
Redcoat, and his squadron engages as many enemy tanks as he can, taking out a good number of the enemy. "Alright, get your asses back as far north as possible, we have a surprise for them. Call it an early Christmas present for the fuckers." Redcoat pulls away, and his squadron follows suit, the CF-18s flying high, while the A-10s stick to the ground.
"You heard him. This is Captain Zhang, I'm ordering a general retreat of all forces from Blaine, Washington, at 4:57 PM. As of this moment, the Soviet Union is now invading the Dominion of Canada. May God have mercy on us all."
Zhang, pulls away, driving as fast as he can across of the border. He watches as every surviving infantry and vehicle cross the border, with the Soviet tanks awaiting slowly reorganizing and moving north to chase them.
Thankfully, the various jet fighters weren't the only ones to make it across the border into relative safety of Canada. Four of the Eagles, from before, along with five B-52s, fly in formation heading south from CFB Comox. Zhang pulls onto a small hill, small, but high enough to look at the battle scarred city in front of him. Peterson follows him up, as the five B-52s begin raining down their bomb droplets onto the city below, the bombers at an equal distance enough to cause the maximum damage and destruction upon the town. The five aircraft lay waste upon the city, and everything inside.
The two captains watch as they see nothing but ruins and partially intact structures left, and seemingly nothing left of the Soviet force….but, that was just the first wave, and on the horizon, another wave of Soviet armor is speeding its way north.
"Oh fuck…we're going to need reinforcements."
"Or a miracle."
