Auther notes
Been typing a while so the next update may be awhile away hope you have enjoyed it so far, if you have anything to say leave a review or send me a PM any feedback is welcome
Romania had always been a blight on the empire, sitting at the southern border it was a dictatorship with a starving people that screamed at every nation around it, it was a annoyance that had been tolerated too long, after the Romanians shelled a local town for no reason and after no provocation, in response the emperor declared a state of war to end the constant betrayal that the Romanians presented.
Arriving at the border with my unit I knew this war would be different, the orders where to take no prisoners and burn any residence we came across, I did not like this kind of war it was brutal, it was almost pointless in its barbarism but it was necessary to show the empires power, the difference was different right from the start as artillery shells where replaced by incendiary shells and chemical munitions.
We had been issued chemical masks for the invasion and they where tight and barely fit, but they kept us safe from the toxic clouds that drifted across the border from the initial bombardment, I was looking at a large building when it was struck by a shell and erupted into flames, as I watched I saw the inhabitants run out of the building lit up like torches, I was observing this with a grimace when the order to advance came through the radio, "All Tanks advance" I said into the radio and watched with a small smile as we and over a hundred thousand empire troops begun to advance into the country.
The roads in Romania are horrible, they are never maintained or updated all throughout the countries existence and now our tank treads and boots where mulching up the road as we advanced turning it into mud, so far we had met almost no resistance as any armed units where swept aside by the sheer power of the army assigned to pacify the country, most of the country armed forces had been sent to defend the capital.
The initial week of the invasion was very quick and efficient with over two hundred thousand troops taking territory left right and centre with almost no opposition, the operation was going so well that within a week we had arrived at the city of Bacau and where preparing to make the final march towards the capital, it was during the two days rest we had their that I met her for the first time, I had been going to the local headquarters when I spotted a very odd sight, a women in her early twenties arguing with a trooper of the empire over something, intrigued I approached.
"What is going on?" I demanded to the pair of them as I marched towards them, to his credit the soldier upon noticing my rank jumped to attention, before rattling his report off "Sir! I have detained this women for suspected insurgent links" he said but the women simply looked at the soldier with disdain before she said her side of the story "More like I was pulled out of my house so you could loot it" she said looking bemused, annoyed I dismissed the trooper and apologised to the women, she responded with a mock curtsy before replying "The pleasure was all mine, my name is Arculid" she said with a grin.
I don't believe in love at first sight but this would be damn close to something like that as I looked at the women more closely, she was tall over six foot blond with to my shock red irises, "Yes they are red" she mocked pointing at her eyes, I ignored the jab and asked her to accompany me to the command centre to sort this all out, "oh by all means" she said mocking me at every word "like, from her stance to the way she strolled around without a care in the world, even then in our first of many meetings I was fascinated by her but my fantasies about her would have to wait as we had just got to the front door of the mobile military police station.
We were met at the front door with a stern looking military police officer who I knew from reputation had a bit of a mean streak, as he was known to beat prisoners of war and was rumoured to be behind the mass execution of one hundred civilians during a incident in Denmark, I did not know his name personally but his name tag said he was a E, Kline and he held the rank of sergeant.
Kline looked us up and down with a sneer before he bothered to notice the captains insignia on my cap, I far outranked him and his instant snap to attention showed this, he clicked his heels together before rattling off "Captain sir!" and he swung up a salute, I returned it before saying "At ease Sergeant, I am taking her in for interrogation" he responded with a crisp salute before allowing entry to the building.
I had not been in a military police building in years and was happy to note no matter where you are in the world nearly all of their buildings look the same a grey drab building that spoke of complete bureaucracy and incompetence with a few well meaning men grounded up in it.
I escorted Arculid to the private interrogation room closest to the entrance before showing her to a seat in the room, I sat opposite her and begun the questions "Okay Arculid I know you don't want to be here so I will hurry this all up for you" she responded by looking me in the eyes and smirking she spoke quietly "You could just let me go you know" I looked back with clear annoyance before telling her " I am afraid, that this is necessary to understand what was happing when I met you" she looked at me with a bored expression and said simply "He was irritating me so I decided to annoy him" how incredibly vague I thought to myself before I responded " Why was he annoying you?" she looked at me with her red eyes, stretched straight out and sat there without responding.
After a full three minutes I begun to lose my patience "Can you please answer the question, why was the trooper of the empire annoying you?" she continued to give me the silent treatment before she stood up straight, I looked at her with questioning eyes as she wondered around the room, "Arculid please answer" she looked stunned as if she just realised some massive detail and looked at me with those blazing red eyes and said "Are you still here?" I frowned in straight annoyance before stating "Not reporting when asked is a crime against the empire, so for the love of the emperor please respond, why was the trooper annoying you?".
Giving up she huffed before sitting again, she looked straight at me before responding "the idiot boy was annoying me because of my eye colour of all things, I told him he and his empire could meet a similar fate and he got very annoyed for some reason or other" I gasped, this women deep in the bowels of the empires police force had just admitted to verbal treason, I could not believe it, she was not a idiot that was for sure yet she had committed a crime directly in front of me a officer of the empire.
Seeing my face she smirked her annoying smirk, and said simply "you fascinate me, I think I will hang around you more" she had just finished that sentence when a guard from the station and a detective who had been on the other side of the one way mirror walked in, they saluted me and rambled off a charge sheet against the woman "For crimes against the empire you are Herby sentenced to death by firing squad" she did not stop smirking as she was walked outside to be shot.
To say I was not shaken by the experience would be a lie, this woman had said those things right in the heart of the most twitchy police force in the world and had what, expected to come out unharmed? I could not wrap my head around it and walked back to my temporary housing inside the city.
The war was expected not to last much longer, the front lines had broken down and the Romanians where trapped in between the commonwealth, the Austrian's and the troops of the Empire, entire Romanian divisions where surrendering without a fight and troops from the empire had entered the capital, there was even rumours that the heads of government had been captured.
My tank unit however was going to be sent south to fight against the only remaining enemy unit still in the war, the Romanian 15th Calvary 10th Infantry and 2nd light tank divisions had fled to a small city deep in the rural part of the country and had set up defences, it looked like they were preparing to make a last stand against our troops and had been successful in halting any advance towards them.
The place they where holding out in was a wooded area deep in the country that had been hit by the effects of war, trees were burnt out everywhere and abandoned and destroyed vehicles where spread across the area, it looked like the divisions had built a set of tunnels on top off the tallest hill in the area.
We could barely see the Romanian positions from our holding area but we knew they where out there, the terrain favoured the defenders and they knew it, we had lost over a thousand troops here already and it looked like that number was only going to rise over time and as the battle intensified.
I was having a conversation with the first tank commander Wolfgang when we where summoned for our orders, I reached for the unit radio and called for a meeting with all of the tank commanders after my meeting with the general in charge of this operation, I was not surprised to see this operation had been given to the third prince and he seemed to be happier then ever with the entire situation, as I approached him and his aides I pulled a sharp salute and said "Captain Mackintosh reporting as ordered sir" he looked at me before he said with a grin "Ah you are the commander I was with in Ukraine yes?" "yes sir" I responded
"Good, then I will explain the situation to you as it is, we are going to bomb the shit out off them on the hill and you are to interdict any armoured units that attempt to counter attack, they only have light tanks but there are a shit load of them, if you need any support call this frequency and call Blitz Blitz, and we will send another wave of bombers."
The briefing was quick and simple just as I preferred, and when I explained it to my junior commanders I could tell they liked it too, "very simple" Wolfgang mused looking at our plan of attack, "yes it is but at least it is not too complex" I responded examining the paper map off the area.
"If we advance to the fold in the hills here, we should be able to set up some excellent firing positions, and we can also cut off their possible counter attack staging point, I want you guys in the apcs to use the machine guns to keep any enemy troops or horses at bay ok?" I asked, all the commanders nodded in agreement before going to their tanks to carry out their orders
We arrived at our staging point just as the first wave of aircraft flew overhead, the sky was filled with bombers off all shapes and sizes, I watched in rapt awe as the sky went black from the sheer amount of bombs filling the sky, I felt the tank rock back and forth as the tens of thousands of detonations rocked the entire area, the constant boom of the explosives gave way to the whoosh of incendiary munitions being dropped after the explosives.
I saw from the command view port the entire enemy hill ablaze, as a sea of fire swept over the hill in a inferno I could not begin to comprehend, and as we watched the first of the DP (Duel purpose) bombs hit the hill I saw the first of the enemy tanks make a run for it.
The first tank did not get far as Albert's tank destroyer blew it in half seconds after it appeared on my view port, it was followed by over thirty other tanks of all sizes seconds before I felt my command tank rocket back as the main gun was fired and I saw as the round hit what looked like the enemies version of a tank destroyer and made the tank explode sending the turret rocketing into the sky.
"Gunner command tank 160, one round" I ordered "Up, On the way!" Provsidg said as he sent another tank round towards the enemy formation, after this round I saw the first of many enemy troops charging out of hidden positions on the hill, even from the distance we where at I could see it was a last ditch do or die attack and they would put every effort into escaping the death of sitting on the hill.
Just as I finished the thought I saw thousands of machine gun tracers arc towards them knocking them over, the apcs where making their contribution by raking the enemy troops in a criss cross fashion piling the dead high as they did so.
Returning to the task at hand I saw we had wiped most of the enemy tanks out and where turning to three peculiar tanks, they where French built monsters, I watched as tank rounds just bounced off of their heavy frontal armour and thought quickly to myself.
I knew how deadly these tanks where as they were more than a match for any tank the empire built just from the sheer size of the things but they had one very exploitable weakness, "gunner one round white phosphorus on tank at 200 degrees" I ordered my gunner "roger that, up, on the way!" and I watched as a shell filled with incendiary ordinance hit the front off the enemy tank, and I watched with relief when the hundreds of vents on the tank began to visibly suck up the deadly substance coating their vehicle cooking the crew inside alive.
With a bang I hear a tank round bounce off of us sending the crew into a panic as we tried to find the culprit only to feel the impact of a second round hit the turret "gunner where is he!" I yelled into the radio, "I do not know!" he responded as he wrenched the gun sight left to right looking for the tank targeting us
Just as the gunner thought he saw what was shooting at us another round hit us this time piercing through, it smashed through the top of the turret before piercing out of the back without damaging much, it was then that I popped open my hatch and went for the machine-gun on the roof.
As I raised the machine-gun to my shoulder I saw the tidal wave of Romanian troops making a last ditch attempt to break through our lines and escape, the first burst I fired went high but made the group of soldiers I was aiming at to drop, I quickly pulled up the command radio before speaking into it "All units use your machine-guns they are closing on us too fast" I watched in satisfaction as I saw the other tank commanders begin to use the commanders machine-gun on the advancing troops.
Even as this was happening the Romanian armour made another attack towards us, this time there was eleven French built medium tank's and one tank destroyer, I pulled the radio up before speaking into it, "Gunner target the tank destroyer, everyone else fire at will" just as I finished our tank's main gun thundered and I saw with glee the top half of the tank destroyer burst into a sea of flames, my happieness was short lived however as once again another tank round hit us, this time it blew the right tread off of us.
"Gunner target that tank at 190 degrees" I ordered, "Target in sight, on the way" the gunner said following my order and once again I watched as a armour piercing warhead went straight through the crew compartment of a Romanian tank turning it into a miniature volcano of molten steel and fire, just as our tank fired that shot friendly aircraft in the sky begun to drop bombs on the mass of armour heading our way, most of it missed however a few struck true and the targeted tank's either out right detonated or where sent flying into the air from the sheer force of the blast.
I had just finished shouting out orders into the radio when 1st tank Wolfgang took a direct hit, I watched in horror as flames begun to slip from the tank and watched as only Wolfgang and his driver managed to get out, his gunner's hatch had malfunctioned and would not open, Wolfgang was stuck in the middle of hell I had forgotten just how much shrapnel and stray rounds where plunking off of the tank and sank back in horror as Wolfgang's driver was hit twice by stray rounds, after seeing the demise of his Driver Wolfgang made a run for the closest tank which was 3rd tank Ruff-en and managed to climb his way in before he was killed.
But the battle was not yet over for another wave this one the biggest so far seeped out of the Romanian positions and where heading straight for us, there were thousands of them and easy over a hundred light tanks, it must have been all that was left of the forces on the hill and I knew we could not contain them.
In a panic I grabbed the command radio and said a simple phrase "Blitz Blitz" and waited for the response "Blitz Blitz confirmed twenty seconds till impact" I quickly snatched up the unit radio before yelling into it "All units prepare for impact" and braced myself for the boom that would soon come.
I knew what they would send even if they thought that calling the rumours of the bombs existence as just propaganda I knew better and when I saw the so called "Mother off all bombs" split in half over the hill I knew the explosion was going to be immense and I was not disappointed.
The sheer shock wave of the blast lifted the front off our tank in a 45 degree incline before we plummeted straight down and I felt my self jar in my seat as the tank hit the ground again, when I looked back in the commander scope I saw the enemy tanks go flying through the air and the infantry vaporise in the explosion, when the fire from the blast disappeared I saw through the scope a complete lack of any movement almost everything that had been on the hill had been killed by the bomb and the entire hill was silent.
We left our position not long after leaving the clean up job to the infantry that was slowly advancing up the hill, in the time I was watching them I did not see them take any kind of return fire.
When we came back to the headquarters I saw the third prince there preparing to depart his job now over he was anxious to return to Berlin and the imperial palace, he met us before he departed and gave us some departing words, "Good job on the battlefield gentlemen, captain may I talk to you in private?" he asked looking at me with a grin, "Of course sir" I said bewildered.
He took me only a handful of meters away when he spoke again, "Pledge your service to me and I will put you in charge of my royal armoured unit" he said flicking his hair, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor, but first I adopted a kneeling position and swore my eternal loyalty to the man.
He responded simply be smiling and offering me his hand, "the ceremony will be in Berlin so I hope you have your bags packed," I nodded quickly and went off to make my arrangements, first I made Wolfgang commander then I went to my tent and packed my meagre belongings.