"Gunner, SABOT, TANK!" Cried the voice of the tank commander of Lead.
A Platoon of M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams MBTs rolled forward into the hills, flanked by two platoons of allied Soviet Armor. Callsigns were, going from the top of the triangle, to the right and then left, BOAR, WOLF and SHCHIT. The two Soviet platoons contained T72s and T80s, modernized up to 2020s standards, while the four Abrams that made the core of this formation now stared down the first line of the enemy. Alongside them was a US M3A3 Bradley platoon and a platoon of Air and Electronics Defense. The AEDs were the pulse EM cannons that'd swiped that swarm last.
BOAR-2, Lieutenant Jake Thompson, stared down the thermal sights of his tank's commander hatch at the sight of a battalion of enemy vehicles advancing toward them. Thankfully, most seemed to be small-fry units like those things the locals called 'Ameise'. The hexapedal drones with twin machine guns skittered forward, while, behind them, the larger Main Battle Tank-type enemy mechs rolled with impunity over the terrain. He spoke, "Gunner, target! Twelve o'clock! SABOT, TANK!"
"Sabot up!" Called the loader, private Watkins.
"Fire!" The commander bellowed.
"On the way!" The female gunner, Corporal Marie Rose, replied as she squeezed the trigger. The tank's gun let out a deafening roar, recoiling back and ejecting the spent 120mm casing of the MBT. Through the thermals, the Commander and her tracked the shell's trajectory, watching as the Depleted Uranium Dart lanced through the air and struck the enemy Main Battle Walker square in the front armor section.
Flames erupted from the base of the turret, the carousel ammunition autoloader igniting and flinging the tank's turret to the sky. No time to celebrate, Jake thought, calling out, "Traverse, left! SABOT!" only to feel the turret spin. He radioed over the com net, "Command! BOAR-2! No enemy Bug Swarms in sight, they must be keeping distance from the EM Cannons we have set up at the rear!"
"Copy last. Will be deploying tankbusters ASAP. Hang tight, BOAR." Was the reply from FOB.
"Up!" Watkins shouted, the panic in his voice rising.
"LASED!" Marie shouted back.
"FIRE!" Jake roared again. The tank shook around them, the spent casing ejecting with a muted clang as smoke billowed from the barrel, the platoons advancing into the enemy line. He called out, "KILL CONFIRMED! TRAVERSE RIGHT! GUNNER, HEAT, PC!" and turned to see Watkins slamming in the HEAT round he had held in his arms for the last couple of seconds. The breech closed.
"UP!"
"ON!"
"FIRE!"
Outside, the thunderous roar of the 120mm cannons of BOAR welcomed the Legion Ameise. A HEAT round punctured clean through two of the buggers, the jet-wash of molten metal tearing through their innards and luckily hitting important parts. The Ameise were about as armored as BMPs, if not less so. A Legion tank replied in kind, however, one of the APFSDS rounds from the tall enemy vehicle struck the turret cheek of BOAR-1.
It had luckily been non-penetrating, but it still gave the crew one helluva shake-up within the turret. SCHICHT-1's turret turned and the 125mm Soviet gun let loose its own APFSDS round. Though not DU, the Tungsten penetrator rod still made hellishly short work of the enemy autonomous tank, shredding its insides with all the force necessary to cause an engine blowout before the carousel detonated.
SCHICHT-3 meanwhile, aimed her gun at the Ameise, the copycat CROWS system on top of her turret already firing its high-caliber Dushka machine gun at any enemy drone smaller than the tanks. HEAT and 12,7x108mm rounds struck the lines, chopping through the enemy's smaller units. The Russian tank commander eyed the enemy vehicle and roared, "Navodchik! Broneboynyy! Vlevo, vlevo, vlevo!"
The T80's turret traversed toward the enemy's walker tank and the Commander bellowed her cry to fire the moment it was zeroed. The roar of the gun reverbed through the hull of the armored vehicle and the shell left the barrel, striking the target that was at incredibly close range. The commander pumped her fist up, hitting the ceiling of the turret and speaking out, "Good fucking hit, Aleksandra! Good fucking kill! Traverse left, enemy tank! SARA, AP!"
"UP!" The Russian loader cried out.
Yet again, the tank's main gun fired. The girls took pause, however, when the tank to their immediate right, SCHICHT-4, was struck, the deafening screech of armor penetration echoing throughout the line. The tank caught fire and rolled forward a couple more inches as its engine was burning like a fireworks display. The crew, however, mostly managed to evacuate. The Commander was ablaze and the gunner was missing, probably having been turned to paste.
SCHICHT-3's commander forced herself to look away and ordered, "FOCUS AND AVENGE THEM! ARMOR, FIRE!"
The Bradleys advanced behind them, TOW-II missiles lancing out from the tubes, wires guiding the top-attack missiles in toward their targets. Inches above a Legion Lion tank, the anti-tank missile detonated, sending a jet wash of molten metal into the upper turret hull, melting through and once again hitting ammunition. Meanwhile, their 25mm Bushmaster autocannons laid waste to the Ameise.
Aboard one of the Bradleys, an infantryman gripped his M4 tightly, murmuring, "I swear to fuck, if I die before I get to step one foot out of this thing, I'm haunting anyone who survives the hit..." before shifting the rifle and peering through the ACOG to make sure it was clean. He was aiming the weapon at the floor as he did so. His five other mates laughed.
"If you get a kill on these Mechs before I do, James, I'm gonna pop a round in your ass," A female comrade teased, shifting the two JAVELIN AT missile tubes below her feet, the launcher system strapped to her back. The two-piece Javelin was a personal favorite of the young, black-haired woman. She pushed her glasses onto the bridge of her nose and hit her helmet twice with her balled fist, then looked over to her assistant gunner and told him, "Keep it stead, Tom."
"Aye," The somewhat fresh recruit stated, tightening the grip on his M4, too, tapping his foot on the metal floor of the transport. All of them had been there during the Chinese Intervention, the biggest conventional war between peers since World War 2, a battle against the PLA and all of its constituent arms and SEATO and the Warsaw Pact's own deployed troops. It had been one hellishly bloody affair, with tens of thousands dead on both sides and some billions in damages, but... Well...
Debts would probably be forgiven, considering humanity was now engaged in an extrasolar war, pretty much, against a horde of machines that had decided it was a good idea to try and both screw the local humans of the planet and them when they invaded through whatever portal brought them to Beijing during the Occupation. One of the crewmen of the Bradley called out, "We're nearing Ridge 335! Prep to dismount and engage enemy armor!"
The entire group tensed up, checking their weapons one last time. The Javelin gal looked over the launcher, making sure it was operating nominally, before turning to the guy carrying the missiles and watching him sling them over his shoulder. The thunder of cannon fire, the rapid thump-thump-thump of the 25mm and the hiss of TOWs being fired told them that Combat was still going hard.
The rear hatch of the Bradley popped open. Two full platoons of infantry carrying anti-tank weapons dismounted and charged up to the top of the Ridge, dropping onto their stomachs as the armor stopped beside them. Tank cannons roared beside them as they set up their Javelins and fired their rifles, noting the advance of more enemy platoons in the AO.
Overhead, rotor-blades echoed. The group looked up to see KA-52 Alligators and AH-64 Apache Longbows, both armed with what looked to be their countries' specific ATGMs:Hellfires for the Apaches and Vikhrs for the Gators. Radio reports echoed from the gunship squadrons as their autocannons lit up the area ahead, high-caliber rounds slamming into Ameises and gutting them, sparks flying, mechs destroyed.
A Vikhr left its tube and banked, slamming into the body of a Legion tank. The explosion that came after was powerful enough to send shockwaves through the communication lines, audible as a feedback loop. Even with that, the troops didn't stop fighting, the first Javelin leaving the tube mere moments later and striking down upon the enemy's tanks like a virtuous hammer.
All the while, Shin and the others gazed around at the mass of gathered Allied troops and the portal itself from beyond the tent flap. The trio of officers in charge of this allied corps seemed to be pondering much of what they were told by the kids. The young man looked at the other staff and officers, noting that so many of them looked empathetic toward the members of SPEARHEAD.
Kaie, meanwhile, hummed as she hobbled a bit on her wounded leg, stating, "Well, ain't this a change of pace, boss...?" turning toward Shin. Her thoughts were a bit jumbled. She was thankful to have survived what would otherwise have been a most gruesome and presumably torturous ending at the hands of the Legion making her one of their own, but there was just something off about the men and women in this base. Like they'd seen more than they let on.
Shin nodded as he sat himself down, looking at the troopers marching about. The variations of their kits told of multiple allied nations, though it wasn't like Kaie's rescuers weren't obvious proof of that. The group watched pairs of soldiers marching about, chatting in the various languages of the present crews, before two Helicopters swung in for landing at the rear of the base, where air crews rearmed them with missiles.
"The logistical feat of mobilizing to fight an enemy in another universe feels like something out of a science-fiction book," Shin murmured as he watched non-combatant military men and women shifting boxes, supplies and weapons around for transport. He hummed and said, "I'll be back..." before marching back into the command tent of the place, to listen to the allied generals speaking.
Kaie chuckled, then shook her head as she dusted off her uniform, before noting a young Soviet soldier hauling some equipment with one of his friends, the two exchanging laughs and chatter as they did so. He seemed to notice her, too, before offering a kind smile. She blushed, then smiled and waved back, which garnered a snort out of Theo. He looked at her and asked, "You good there, Kaie?"
"H-Huh?" She paused and stammered, "Y-Yeah, I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?"
He followed her gaze toward the young Russian soldier as he and his friend set down the box, before snorting and asking, "Holy shit, Kaie, seriously?" as he sat himself down next to her, checking his FN FAL. Kaie glared at him as he told her, "Shin's probably gonna approve, heh. As for us, well, I don't think any of us mind you dating one of the guys who saved our asses."
While Kaie was inches short of blowing a fuse, Raiden sat at the back with a sandwich in one hand and a confused look on his face. When Kaie did finally blow up at Theo, the teardown reached all the way to him and made him snort. He, however, did some good for Kaie and wiped the words from his mind, only turning to watch Lecca walk toward him. She asked, "They're back at it again, huh...?"
"Hah, yeah," He replied, then pulled a sandwich from off to the side and handed it to her. She gave him a quick 'thank you' before unwrapping the food item and sitting herself down beside him. Looking around, the man spoke, "This may sound crazy, but they look like the Pre-War militaries of the world. Tracked tanks, IFVs on wheels, anti-tank missiles, jets, choppers..."
"Agreed," Lecca replied as she ate, "Like looking at the past."
Raiden hummed as he watched the two men Kaie had looked at chatting, with the taller one of the two urging his friend on. The guy Kaie had exchanged smiles with, meanwhile, seemed to be awfully fighty about it. The 'dad' of the team snorted and shook his head, before stating, "Seems like the rifleman's a little shy..." as Lecca laughed at them.
He did, however, see the boy finally gather up the guts and walk up to Kaie. Raiden murmured, "Good luck, dude..." as he continued eating.
The young man, meanwhile, approached Kaie indeed. At his friend's urge, he walked up to the young woman and greeted, "Hello there," his accent eerily famliar to Kaie. The black-haired eastern girl blanked and turned toward him, suddenly awkward. The two met in the middle, though, with both of them being awkward all of a sudden, unable to even string together another couple of words.
... Theo, who had nearly got a shoe to the back of his head from Kaie, sighed. They were hopeless.
