Well I had a nice spring break
Well I had a nice spring break. Back to school, sigh. I've been reading some of the other School Rumble fanfictions on this website and the problem is that most people do not finish them. There are a lot of pretty good School Rumble fanfics, but I wish that the writers would stick with them. I promise that this story that I am writing will be finished; I've spent too much time on it to give up now. Also there is pretty good fanfic that HarimaAkira-sama is writing called 'Oniisama we Sugoi desu ne!' and it's pretty good. Check it out some time. Another good School Rumble fanfiction I would highly recommend would be an untitled story by a guy named John Biles. His story is extremely long, one of his chapters would be like half the length of my entire story to date, maybe more. It is one of the best fanfics I've ever read. John Biles's story is not on , but just google his name and you should be able to find his story quickly.
To Gin: thanks for your review. I don't know how much I'll expand on Keitaro Urashima in this story. I think I'll elaborate more towards the end or in the sequel. Oh and let me know how you like Army of Two.
To Lord Sivart: I noticed that typo and I'll fix it someday. I'm also sorry to disappoint you, but this will be an Onigiri Faction pairing (Kenji-Yakumo), but you were right that romance is kinda' a secondary for most of the story (I think I start making it more important). Actually I kinda' forgot to include Sawachika Eri… that was my bad sorry.
Speaking of characters I forgot about I don't really remember if I have mentioned Fuyuki Takeichi. Well for Fuyuki fans this chapter is for you.
I don't own any trademarked or copywrite items. Please review and/or tell a friend.
Chapter 46: Armored Cavalry
"The cavalry doesn't always come to the rescue."
Murphy's Laws of Combat
0800 Hours; October 19th, 2010; middle of nowhere, near a highway to Taejon; North Jeolla Province, Republic of Korea
Click.
"Ah, what a shot," said a young man with light brown hair, glasses, and a camera around his neck.
"Enjoying the view Corporal Fuyuki?" asked Sergeant 1st Class Kagami Shin.
"Hai, just taking a view pictures of the Korean country side."
"Why? We have mountains and rice paddies like that in Japan."
"Hai, but we don't have deserts like this in Japan," said Fuyuki pointing to a desert like in the valley ahead of them that led to another valley that eventually led to Taejon. The mountains in Korea created arid plains in between.
"Breakfast is ready!" shouted Pvt. Otani Shirai a large man with a shaved head. He was crouching over a portable propane stove placed in the shadow of a Mitsubishi Heavy Industry's Type 90 heavy tank.
"You didn't burn it did you?" asked PFC Kozu Yuuka hopping down from the top of the tank's turret.
The four of them crewed Mace 4-7, the callsign of their tank. The Type 90 at its basic was like any NATO tank. It had a driver at the front of the chasse. Fuel and the engine were in the rear of tank's chasse. It had a turret that could rotate 360 degrees. The turret had one main gun and a coaxial gun that was like on most tanks, even the Soviet ones, was a 7.62mm machine gun; NATO however used 7.62x51mm machine guns and the Soviets used a 7.62x54mm machine gun. The main gun was meant to destroy armor or fixed positions and the coaxial gun was to cut down infantry; both guns were operated by the gunner while the assistant gunner loaded the main gun. The tank commander, normally a non-commissioned officer, sat above the gunner and had observation equipment to see the battlefield or he could open the hatch to see the outside. Even with modern technology a tank commanders could generally see better outside, but risked being shot. Also if the tank commander had the hatch open he could operate the anti-air machine gun which was usually a 12.7mm heavy machine gun that in theory could shoot down low flying planes, but was better suited for shooting at helicopters and was normally used against infantry.
Both Soviet and NATO tanks had this set up, but with one notable difference. The Soviet and Chinese tanks had crews of 3 because they use automatic loaders. Tanks with the autoloaders are on late model T-54/55s, most of the T-62s, T-72s, T-80s, T-90s, and the T-95s, so they eliminate the assistant gunner. NATO never adopted the use of the automatic loader because they tended to malfunction, rattled a lot that poorly made ones could cause the round to fall off, and most of all they were much slower than a soldier manually loading the gun. With a person loading the gun a tank could fire 4 to 5 shells for every 1 shell with an automatic loader.
Kozu was the driver. Otani was the assistant gunner. Fuyuki was the gunner. Kagami was the commander.
They sat down on the dirt and started to eat.
"The area ahead is rice patties which we could get stuck in," said Kozu reporting what she was able to see standing on the tank.
"Some of the Chinese tanks are heavier than ours so I doubt we'll run into them there," said Kagami.
"We still have the worry about infantry," said Kozu. "They could ambush us. Besides, the rice patties seem to only stretch roughly one kilometer and then its open plains."
Maneuvering tanks around the Korean Peninsula was a nightmare. The country was mountainous, had several fast flowing rivers, and where the land was flat there was an often massive cities just like in Japan. Unlike Japan, there were open desert like plains in some areas that were perfect for tanks to be used in large numbers.
The valleys were usually areas that both NATO and the PLA fought because they liked to use heavy tanks in battle and the mountainous regions didn't allow for large scale tank battles. NATO soldiers for the past 63 years since the end of the One Year NATO-Soviet War had trained and prepared for large tank battles on the open grasslands and farmlands along the German-Polish border. Chinese soldiers were better train in mountain fighting, but their large heavy tanks still needed more open ground to maximize their capabilities.
"I heard Taegu fell yesterday," said Otani.
"That's good, now if we can only take Taejon," said Kagami with a sigh.
"Kozu, what are you reading?" asked Fuyuki curiously.
"Manga," she said simply.
"Which one?" asked Otani.
"You familiar with a guy called Harima Hario and his assistant Imōto Yakumo?"
"Hai, I remember when his work first appeared as a short comic in a magazine," said Fuyuki. "I don't remember the assistant though."
"Well, her name has only appeared with this series. It's a third volume to a series he started about the beginning of summer."
"What's it about?" asked Kagami.
"A heart broken guy who gets drafted in a war against China and North Korea."
"Gee, I wonder where he got that idea," said Otani sarcastically.
"I think this Harima guy must have been drafted. His accounts of the war are too accurate and too realistic for him not to be in battle. If he was just watching the news back home he would just have a censored report from the media and it wouldn't be this… graphic. I mean… just look at these pictures."
Otani, Fuyuki, and Kagami all looked at the images on the pages. Fuyuki could not help, but feel that three of the main characters looked extremely familiar. One wore large square glasses, second had bluish-black hair that stuck out a little above the forehead, and the third had sunglasses and his hair slicked back, but for some reason Fuyuki just couldn't figure out where he'd seen these men despite it being blatantly obvious.
The drawings of the battles were bloody, but accurate to what Fuyuki had seen. It seemed Harima Hario was neither glorifying nor demonizing the war. He was telling a story of people's lives and the war was just part of it. People who would normally have never met each other and had nothing in common going in, but coming out they were all each other had and how in their bid for survival they were as close as any family. It was something Fuyuki could sympathize and empathize with.
"Harima Hario… Harima… mmm," said Fuyuki out loud. "I know a guy name Harima Kenji… nah, it couldn't be the same guy."
"It's pretty different from most of his works. They were always about a guy trying to win this girl," said Kozu. "Still I love his mangas. I'm such a huge fan. I even help run a fansite for his works."
"I didn't know he had one."
"Well he isn't as famous as Clamp (1) or Nobuhiro Watsuki (2) and he isn't well known outside of the Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures, but he has a descent fan base."
"Kozu I hate to interrupt you," said Kagami who sounded like he really wanted to duct tape her mouth shut so he didn't have to hear about her obsession with obscure manga artist, "but we need to get moving."
0900 Hours; October 19th, 2010; middle of nowhere, near a highway to Taejon; North Jeolla Province, Republic of Korea
"Stick to the road," said Mace 4-1.
He didn't really have to say it though. It was obvious that the Type 90s shouldn't go into the rice patties where they'd get stuck or hit minefields that could easily be concealed among the rice stalks.
They were leaving the rice patties and approaching a grove of trees. Beyond the trees were the plains.
Kozu was gently steering the Type 90 at 45km/h. As they left the rice patties and the ground beside the road became solid the armor began to spread out. She slowed a little and drove off road. Kagami raised his seat so he could see outside the hatch. He was keeping low in case of snipers. Otani was sitting in his seat inside the turret to one side, he loaded a normal shrapnel round in the chamber in anticipation of infantry, but he was sitting at the ready to switch it out for an anti-tank round. Fuyuki was sitting beside the gun. He had three main monitors in front of him placed side by side and the two side ones angled so the three monitors gave Fuyuki almost a 180 degree view of the area in front of the turret. There was also an optical scope for aiming the guns in case the computerize system failed or lost power; the screens served as a HUD like on a fighter plane and could also be switched between normal view, inferred, and the image intensifier night vision. Kozu had a similar HUD for driving and Kagami had one too, but it had a much wider line of sight and could be rotated a full 360 degrees without the turret turning.
These kinds of HUDs were becoming more common in tanks, IFVs, APCs, self-propelled artillery, AA vehicles, and helicopters made within the last 5 years. Most tanks built before the 1990s or the beginning of the 21st century had cruder versions of these systems, but had narrower lines of sight and was sometimes better to stick one's head outside a hatch. Of course even highly advance tanks like the Type 90 still included hatches that could be opened and optical scopes to see outside just in case the systems failed.
Fuyuki was staring at his HUD. This was a new system only recently introduced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and had a better IFF. It was much harder to identify land vehicles because of obstructions and natural heat sources. Currently no computerize system existed that could identify infantry other than NATO soldiers who wore IR strobe so close air support could differentiate them from enemy soldiers. For these reasons Fuyuki could not trust the IFF to detect threats and enemies for him all the time.
He used a smaller monitor set above the main HUD to zoom in on the tree line. He was too far away to use thermal vision and it was too bright out to use IR (inferred) vision or image intensifier. In other words he had to rely on his eyes.
They reached the trees. These trees were thick with foliage, but were small and were crushed under the weight and force of the tanks.
No ambush. This was a little surprising for the tank crews who were used to repeated infantry ambushes which the Korean landscape naturally allowed it and which the PKAGF and PLAGF were very good at.
A Type 74 medium tank in front of them exploded.
"Shit!"
"Where the hell did that come from?!"
Kagami scanned the field. The Japanese were coming down from a foothill from the south. Roughly 100m ahead was a highway that NATO had used to supply their forces in Taejon.
A platoon of PLAGF Type 80 medium tanks were sitting in tank bunkers (3) on the hill on the opposite side of the highway.
"Kozu turn right! Fuyuki target third tank from the right!" shouted Kagami was he lowered his seat and closed the hatch; he didn't feel like having his head ripped off by incoming fire from hostile armor.
"Load sabot!" said Fuyuki as he turned the turret to acquire the designated target.
Otani opened the breach, removed the anti-personnel (AP) round, slid open the doors that had the munitions behind them (4), slid the AP round in its tube, pulled out a sabot anti-tank round, shoved it in the chamber, and stepped back.
"Sabot loaded!" said Otani.
"Target locked!" yelled Fuyuki up to Kagami.
"Fire!" ordered Kagami.
Mace 4-7 fired a sabot at a Type 80 Shortly after the round left the barrel, it broke apart and used the additional force to give the projectile an even hire velocity. It punctured the armor and exploded on the side of the Type 80, effectively destroying it.
"Target hostile tank right!"
Otani had a second round loaded in seconds and stood clear.
Once Fuyuki had the enemy tank in his sights, Kagami gave him permission to fire. The shell smashed into the wall of dirt piled protectively around the Type 80. There was an explosion of dirt, but no apparent damage was done to the enemy tank.
"Fuyuki, infantry 10 degrees left. Take 'em out. Fire when ready."
"Hai."
Fuyuki turned the turret. He used the smaller monitor above the HUD to zoom in and get a better look at a trench where PLAGF infantry were. Fuyuki squeezed the trigger for the coaxial gun and fired a burst of 7.62x51mm rounds. He saw some spurts of blood and soldiers fall out of sight, but he couldn't tell if he was killing any of them. Fuyuki was experienced enough to guess he had killed 4 or 5 soldiers.
"Kozu, turn left and bring us onto the road."
"On it!"
This was one of the hard parts of being a tank gunner. You had to be able to aim and compensate for sudden movements.
Japanese mech infantry were being deployed from APCs and IFVs. Under the support of Japanese armor they began to push for the enemy's defenses.
Suddenly the PLAGF soldiers climbed out of their trenches and began to fall back to higher ground. Although they had popped some smoke, high winds were blowing across the plains and clearing away the smoke.
"Fire at will!" shouted Kagami.
Otani loaded an AP around. Fuyuki fired it while firing short bursts of machine gun rounds. The AP round exploded in midair and showered the enemy with shrapnel.
'Well, here's something I don't want pictures of,' he thought dryly at the slaughter of soldiers. Although he couldn't hear much over the sounds of the guns or the engine and the radio, he could imagine the screams of pain and terror.
"Enemy reinforcements! Coming from the north!" shouted someone over the radio.
BAM!
The Mace 4-7 shuddered as a round hit them. The display that showed the tanks status showed virtually no damage.
"Kozu! Turn towards the enemy!" ordered Kagami wanting to prevent the broad side of the tank from being exposed. The tank that fired upon Mace 4-7 was a Type 62 light tank; it was quickly destroyed by Mace 2-8.
Fuyuki's HUD was showing five Type 62 light tanks, two Type 80 medium tanks, seven unidentified medium tanks, one Type 96 heavy tank, and three unidentified heavy tanks.
"Target the Type 96!" shouted Kagami highlighting the tank in question.
Otani loaded a HEAT round. Fuyuki took aim at where the chasse and the turret were joined. He fired. The shell hit where the driver was. Unfortunately, front of the chasse and the front of the turret were where tanks were best protected. The shell was deflected upwards where it exploded harmlessly. To make matters worse, the Type 96 turned to face Mace 4-7.
"Shit. Kozu reverse 20 degrees right!" shouted Kagami as he fired off the smoke dischargers to hide them from view. An 85mm shell from a light tank was something the armor on the Type 90 could take, but a 125mm shell from a heavy tank could rip right through them.
Fuyuki's HUD was now useless since he no loner had any visual on the enemy and no one was marking targets with laser designators.
The winds blowing out of the north soon cleared the smoke screen. They'd lost their visual on the Type 96, but Fuyuki had a Type 85-II heavy tank's broad side in his sights. He fired a HEAT at it. Fuyuki hit it in the side. There was an explosion. The Type 85-II was still moving, but now it had a large hole in the side and smoke was curling out of it. The Type 85-II turned for a crevasse where the crew would probably ditch the tank.
"Friendlies coming up the road from the west," said Mace leader over the radio, "looks like they're elements of the 30th Royal Guards Armor Division."
Kagami turned the cameras to see the incoming British. Challenger 2 heavy tanks and Chieftain Mk. 5 medium tanks were making their way towards the battle. A squadron of WAH-64 Apaches flew over the foothills to the northeast to attack Chinese tanks moving to attack the Japanese flank.
More Chinese armor was moving down from the north. It seems the original defenders had called for help. The Japanese were being caught between their British allies coming from the south and the Chinese reinforcements coming out of the north and northwest.
"Bandits! Coming out of the north!" screamed someone over the radio.
Fuyuki looked up to see a flight of Q-5 Fantans. Kagami prepared to fire off the smoke dischargers again and Kozu turned the tank so it was traveling perpendicular to the Fantans. Tanks weren't equipped to shoot down planes.
The Fantans fired a barrage of free-flight rockets at the Japanese. Despite Type 87 AA-vehicles and Type 93 mobile SAMs, the PLAAF fighter-bombers ripped through an entire platoon (5) of Japanese armor.
"Holy shit, there goes the center of our line!" shouted someone.
"Close the gap! Don't let the Chinese break through us!" shouted Mace 4-1.
"Where is our air support?" asked Mace 4-3.
"The British choppers broke off to R and R (6)."
"Type 99 2 O'clock!" yelled Kagami to Fuyuki. Fuyuki turned to engage the Chinese heavy tank. He fired a sabot at the Type 99. He hit the tank in the turret. It exploded, but didn't seem to cause any visible damage.
"Hurry! Load another…"
Kaboom!
The Type 99 fired its 125mm gun and hit Mace 4-7 in the side. The tank's right track and some of the wheel were flashing red on the status monitor. Kozu pushed at the controls, but the right track was completely out of commission and wouldn't respond.
"Sir! We can't move!" she shouted Kozu.
"Fuck," growled Kagami to himself. He grabbed the spoke into the microphone mounted on his helmet, "Mace 4-1, this is Mace 4-7. We're out of commission an we're bailing out, over."
"4-1 copies, get out of there."
"Okay guys! Bail out!"
Kozu pushed open the hatch above the driver's seat and climbed out. Kagami opened the commander's hatch and Fuyuki opened the hatch next to it which was for the gunners.
Fuyuki jumped down to the rear of the tank where Kozu, Otani, and Kagami gathered. Otani had a Remington 870 12-guage shotgun and the others had H&K UMP .45 sub-machine guns. They weren't infantrymen; they didn't carry a lot of ammunition. They had only two frag grenades and twelve smoke grenades between the four of them. Otani had 8 shells in the Remington 870 and another 24 shells. Kozu, Fuyuki, and Kagami each only had four clips plus one already loaded in their weapons.
"We can't stay here!" shouted Otani.
"We can't abandon the tank either!" shouted Kagami. NATO tanks were not only technologically superior then their Soviet or Chinese counter-parts, they were also much more expensive and more complex. The Type 90 was in fact the most expensive tank to ever enter mass production to this date. Although the tank wasn't able to move, the body, turret, engine, and cab were completely in tact. Only the track was damaged and a recovery vehicle could fix that fairly quickly (7). Standard NATO protocol was if possible to protect tanks like the Abrams or Challengers until they could be recovered for repairs.
Fuyuki edged towards the corner of the tank. He leaned towards the corner, but ducked back as a 5.8x42mm round ricocheted off the tank and nearly into his eye. PLAGF heavy assault mechanized infantry were advancing on Mace 4-7's position. They were heavier flak vests than the rapid assault infantry; these soldiers were geared to survive battle with infantry support by armor. The Japanese tanks and mech infantry were spread thin as they tried to hold their lines against the PLA counter-assault. Mace 4-7 was alone and their allies were in no position to aid them.
"Conserve ammo and good luck to you all," said Kagami.
Fuyuki fired single .45 caliber armored piercing cartridges at the Chinese infantry. The Chinese fired back with fully automatic bursts of rifle cartridges with superior accuracy over the pistol rounds the SMGs the Mace 4-7's crew used. Otani wasn't even bothering the fire his shotgun because the PLA mech infantry were outside of his range and he would merely be wasting valuable ammo.
"This is no good! They better armed then us!" shouted Fuyuki over the roaring battle.
"You got a better idea?!" asked Otani.
Fuyuki looked up at the turret for a second and then set down his SMG and clips. "I think so, but it'll probably get me killed!"
"Go ahead, we're fucked over anyways!" said Kagami.
Fuyuki climbed onto the rear of the tank keeping as low a possible. He then climbed onto the rear of turret. Onto of the tank in front of the commander's hatch was the anti-air machine gun. It was Browning M2 12.7x99mm (.50 caliber) heavy machine gun, licensed by Sumitomo Heavy Industries for production for the Japanese Federal Armed Forces. The M2 could rip through infantry and even lightly armored vehicles. It could repel the Chinese platoon attacking them.
Fuyuki started to climb onto the turret, but was nearly shot up by Chinese riflemen who saw him trying to get to the HMG. Fuyuki crouched down behind the turret as the PLAGF mech soldiers continued to keep him pinned knowing what would happen if he reached it.
"I'm pinned! Throw a grenade!" he shouted.
Kagami tossed an M67 fragmentation grenade at the mech infantry. There was no cover or protection other than disabled tank, trenches the Chinese dug, craters from the battle, or a couple of dried up creek beds. The Chinese soldiers attacking Mace 4-7 had no choice, but to scatter.
Fuyuki had a leap for the M2, he cocked the hammer, chambered a round, and aligned a Chinese soldier in his sights. The M2 made a loud thud like banging noise with every shot. It jerked back hard with every shot. The Chinese platoon leader that was attacking Mace 4-7 blew into a whistle and waved to his soldiers to retreat. Fuyuki mowed down the slower soldiers. They seemed to crumple and die with only one or two shots from the M2. Smoke billowed out from smoke grenades the Chinese laid down to cover their withdrawal.
The smoke dispersed as the wind blew it away. Fuyuki stared. He could see the battlefield perfectly. He could see the sea of Chinese armor coming out of the north. A column of stubborn British, Dutch, and Belgian armor was pushing up along the highway. A fresh Japanese tank company was coming from the east.
Fuyuki raised his camera. He stared at the smoke, the fire, the tracers, the carnage… the war. There was a small beep followed by a click.
USAF A-10 Thunderbolt-IIs streaked across the sky and strafed the Chinese armor with AGM-65 Mavericks and 30mm GUA-8A gatling cannon fire. Fuyuki took pictures rapidly catching the sea of steel being turned into a sea of flames.
F-15E Strike Eagles strafed the Chinese forward lines with CBU-87 Cluster Bombs. Chinese Type 95 AA-vehicles forced several strike fighters to abort their attack runs and even shot down three planes.
The valley was ablaze.
1700 Hours; October 19th, 2010; middle of nowhere, near a highway to Taejon; North Jeolla Province, Republic of Korea
"Okay, this here shoulda' get ya'll runnin' again," said a mechanic who spoke with an Osakan accent. He and his team were trying to keep as many tanks damaged in the battle functioning as possible.
"Arigato," said an exhausted Kagami.
Loud blasts were going off on top of the hill they were on. Not from incoming fire, but outgoing fire. The British had set up M777 155mm howitzers and were shelling the Chinese.
Fuyuki had no idea if they were winning or not.
'They must be,' he thought judging by the number of non-combat military vehicles heading up the highway, trucks with food and munitions, radar and communication vehicles, and heading down the road were ambulances.
No one knew what was the fate of Taejon was yet. All they knew was that the British, Dutch, Japanese, and Belgians were pushing up from the south. The French, Albanians, Greeks, South Koreans, Italians, and Austrians were pushing up at Taejon from the southeast. In the North Gyeongsang Province the Germans, Canadians, Americans, and Turks along with additional British, Japanese, and South Korean troops were setting up a perimeter around Taegu.
I know this isn't a very long chapter. Plot wise I know this chapter isn't that interesting. I really couldn't work with Fuyuki and I wasn't really sure how to use him in my story. Oh well, at the very least I hope this chapter will inform you on the life of the tank corps.
Ahgwa seems to want a chapter less about war and more about the civilian lives. I haven't really been sure what to do, but the other day I got an idea. I haven't really done an entire chapter where Yakumo (one of my favorite characters) is the focus. She's a fun character to work with in terms of plot and character development. I don't think I've done enough with her and it's about time for her to have a day in my story.
Coming soon: Chapter 47… uh I haven't thought of a title yet… or written it yet.
Respectfully
J. H. Kamiya
Appendix
1. Clamp is the author of Chobits and Card Captor Sakura.
2. Nobuhiro Watsuki is the author of Rurouni Kenshin.
3. A tank bunker is basically a foxhole large enough to put a tank in. Like the name implies it basically uses a tank as a makeshift bunker. It's usually deep enough so that some of the tank's weakest spots (tracks, rear, etc) were underground. Often sandbags or a pile of dirt was placed around the tank for additional protection. Also a good tank bunker would have a ramp in the rear so that the tank could be backed out in the event of a retreat.
4. All tanks keep the munitions in the back of the turret (turrets are well armored and are hard to penetrate). A number of tanks have a steel door that protects the crew if the munitions store explodes. Some tanks like the Abrams have it that the doors slid close on their own to further protect the crew.
5. An armor unit is not the same size or structure as regular infantry units. It should be noted that I am describing the US Armed Forces structure which is similar to other NATO nations (Soviets, Chinese use different structures). An armored squad to my understanding is 4 vehicles since a standard NATO tank has a crew of 4 which totals 16 soldiers; tanks are commanded by non-commissioned officers. A platoon would be about two to four squads. An armored company may vary in size because they usually have an infantry platoon or two assigned to them to support the armor.
6. Normally we use the term R and R as a shorten term for 'rest and relaxation'. In the case of choppers or planes it would mean 'rearm and refuel'.
7. Damage to the track (sometimes called a caterpillar) is a common place for a tank to be attacked and disabled. Naturally, militaries have developed ways to quickly fix the tracks and get a tank rolling again.
