Country road, between the Sino-Vietnamese border and the Xinhua ridge Artillery regiment. 0952 hrs.

The type 29 troop transporting truck bumped over the potholed country road. Everywhere there were signs of a country geared up for war. A regiment of mighty "Emperor" tanks were making their way towards the border, crunching trees like they were matchwood. It didn't take long for our truck to arrive. I had taken twenty men to lug a new piece of artillery hardware to the ridge. The truck arrived at the gate.

There was no one there. "What's going on? Where is everybody?" I asked in bewilderment to Sergeant Xung, my trusted N.C.O. "I don't know, sir, but I have a bad feeling about this." He responded. "Me too, Sarge, me too."

Xinhua ridge Artillery regiment base, Xinhua ridge. 0955 hrs
Two of my men hauled the gate open and the truck drove into the seemingly deserted base. I ordered the men to get out. "Spread out, search the base. Whoever finds their radio report to me or Sergeant Xung."
Viet-Tri, Vietnam. 0958hrs.
A T-80 tank rolled to a halt outside the centre of the city of Viet-Tri in northeast Vietnam. Captain Kai Hiwatari climbed out of the turret and strode to the warehouse. After unlocking the door, he furtively slipped inside.

Vietnamese airspace. 1005 hrs.

A flight of six SU 27 jets roared across the border with Vietnam. "Sir." Came a voice from Haotan's radio. "We have three Vietnamese MiG 21's to the west." He looked down at his radar- sure enough; there were three dots to the west of the SU 27's. "Roger, engage." The flankers banked left, opening their Russian designed engines to full throttle. Haotan opened fire with his 30 mm cannon. The shells smashed into the canopy of the lead fighter. It spiralled downwards. The second MiG, however, was quicker. The pilot pulled the fishbed down, firing an air-to-air (ATA) missile. It shot towards Haotan's SU 27. Haotan, an experienced pilot, waited until the missile was on a collision course, then wrenched his fighter to the left while realising chaff. The missile exploded into pieces as the MiG that launched it fell to an ATA missile launched by a wingman. The third MiG turned to flee, until Haotan's cannon shells crashed into his wing. He lost control of his fighter for a second. It was enough time for Haotan's cannon to explode his MiG into a burning fireball. The first casualties of the war had occurred.
Xinhua ridge artillery regiment base, Xinhua ridge. 1008 hrs

Corporal Chung Sun opened the door of the main barracks. As soon as he entered, a hail of machine gun fire cut him down. I heard the shots and flicked off the safety of my AK. "Let's go, move!" We advanced on the barracks. A soldier appeared. I fired at him and he fell, his chest blown open. I ran to the door and threw in a grenade. After the crump of the exploding grenade, we rushed into the room and shot the three men that were there. I pumped another soldier full of lead as he ran trough the doorway. Through the door we could see the artillery. This would be a hard battle.

A Vietnamese soldier sprayed rifle fire at us from behind the first gun. "Shit!" I reeled back as bullets slammed into the side of the doorway. I reached for another grenade and threw it. In the resulting explosion, a few marines and myself got into cover behind the artillery gun. We could hear the Vietnamese lead smacking into the metal of the gun and it's trailer, so we stayed down. Another marine had reached a truck parked in the open near the guns. "Sir!" He yelled across to me. "Sir! We've had a call from HQ. They've asked why the guns aren't firing. The attack has begun!"