==Angels of Korea I==
The Korean Civil War, one of the final conflicts to occur on Earth before the days of Seppuku's organization. As Korea and Japan remain the only independent nations on Earth, and Manchurian region of Korea that was acquired after the dissolution of China now strives to join the United Powers. The Korean capital had been moved to the Manchurian city of Changchun shortly after the peninsula of Korea and Manchurian region unified. After centuries of remaining a Korean state, the Manchurians soon desired to leave Korea and become annexed by the United Powers—mostly for economic opportunities. The government of Korea found this unacceptable and refused to acknowledge the petitions done by the Manchurian population for freedom.
The two cultures had since remained fairly hostile towards each other, yet the Manchurians remained optimistic, continuing to hold rallies and protests. Korea found that the Manchurian region provided the peninsula with much needed resources and simply couldn't give away the region. The government mutually agreed that reverting back into the mere peninsula of Korea would eventually lead to economic collapse, and finally, leave them also to be annexed by the much greater United Powers. This would have left only Japan. The Korean government simply continued to decline any proposals for freedom, but this only further provoked the Manchurian population.
A fateful day that will forever be viewed as a national tragedy was when a massive rally of Manchurians entered the peninsula to protest at Pyongyang. A great misunderstanding led the government to believe that this was a military coup—and so the crowd had been briefly fired upon. While the attacks on the crowd immediately ceased, this had broken the line of tranquility—and the Confederate Republic of Manchuria had been formed the next day. With much of the population being turned into conscripts and taking up arms, the Korean government now found themselves in a difficult situation. Korea was not only reduced back to their peninsula size, but many of their leaders were captured in Changchun—which had now become the capital for the Confederacy. The ministers of Pyongyang and Seoul had now come together to form a regency council. The odds were not on Korea's side from the start however, as the Confederacy stormed right into Northern Korea without a struggle.
Korea was left badly needing to mobilize what military assets they still had, most coming from Southern Korea. Korea now find themselves in a tricky situation, after having mobilized many armies and airborne units to the north, they must now come up with a plan on how to push the rebellion back into Manchuria.
Amongst the mobilized units was an elite tank battalion, the Angels of Korea, led by 22 year old Earl Bendek. Earl was renowned in Korea for being a trickster and gambler—which he used in his war tactics. Earl had passed through training without a problem, proved that he could single handedly fix a downed tank if he had to, and that he can remain calm under pressuring situations. Earl was regarded as a perfect commander when Korea had its annual War Games event.
The Angels of Korea was comprised of about fifteen heavy tanks, and about six armored battery units for artillery-purposes. Earl had already waged battle with the Manchurians several times, and was now tasked with cutting the captured territory into two parts by driving up the center of the invasion. The main objective was to liberate a captured northern city-Jonchon. The city of Jonchon held four valuable supply routes, capturing the city would cut every supply line available to the rebels. The only way they would obtain supplies would be to drive through the country land.
Miles away from Jonchon in a city called Ryongrim was where the Angels of Korea had remained stationed at for rest. Most of the tanks were hidden by trees and other vegetation to reduce the risk of being detected overnight. A full moon shun down upon the city of Ryongrim. The city was fairly silent, except for a local bar in the center of the city. Loud music and constant gleeful shouting could easily be heard coming from this establishment.
Several Korean tank operators were laughing amongst each other as they drank. Many were drunk beyond comprehension as they shared tales and enjoyed the company of local women. No one was enjoying the women as much as one young man however. A Korean flag patch was sewn into the leather jacket of the commander, he had a thin beard and a visor cap on his head as three women stroked his shoulders constantly. He lifted up a glass of beer to his lips and chuckled.
An operator smirked at him and raised an eyebrow, "How many of em' you plan on taking back with us Bendek?" he joked.
Earl swished his hand in the air and chuckled, "Na-ah, I'd never put such pretty ladies into a battle."
"So, you don't wanna' take them in the back room and-"
"Of course not. I may be a player, but I'm saving myself for someone special," Earl rubbed a woman's chin and smirked, "Though I am always up for some tongue wrestling."
"You are a player, sir."
Earl dipped his head down and let out an intoxicated groan, "But regardless, my breath must be awful so I won't pester these ladies with that."
Earl continued to have his shoulders rubbed, but he momentarily stood up and rubbed his forehead, "I- I had one too many, I need a restroom."
"In the back," the operator responded.
Earl nodded and walked across the bar with a wobbly stance. One of the biggest flaws about Earl as a commander, was that he saw nothing wrong with drinking off-duty. While he was allowed to do so, it wasn't recommended as a Manchurian surprise attack could occur at any moment. Earl certainly wouldn't be able to direct his men in his current state.
Earl quickly opened the restroom door and groaned while holding his stomach. He ran into the bathroom and instantly spotted the garbage bin, but he grunted and glared at what he was seeing. An operator was already on his knees vomiting into the garbage bin.
"Oh, honestly!"
The operator wiped his mouth and looked back up at him, "Sorry sir."
Earl was about to further complain, but momentarily got a bloated face and widened his eyes. He turned towards a bathroom stall and forced himself inside, quickly closing it behind him. The operator stared at the door as he could hear Earl vomit into the toilet constantly. Earl momentarily let out a groan and walked out of the stall without flushing.
"Terrible…" he muttered aloud.
"Sir, maybe you've- maybe we've both had enough?"
Earl walked back towards the door and nodded, "I can't afford to be sick. I'll be in my tank."
"You know, we have all of these buildings available to sleep at."
Earl held the door open and nodded, "Yeah, I like having time to myself. You'll all be sharing beds with each other—and I hate the idea of doing this."
Earl later found himself inside of his tank with all hatches open. He simply laid around kicking his foot up constantly as he gazed at the stars. He crossed his arms and quirked his mouth as he stared at the bright moon. Despite the fact that Earl was finally honoring his family and nation, he couldn't help but feel that something was missing in his life. Earl considered his tank battalion part of his family, but he wasn't necessarily looking for family. He was in dire need of a friend with common interests.
Earl had no problem in high school as far as popularity went, but even to this day he lacked a quality friend that enjoyed some of the hobbies he much enjoyed—minus the girlfriend addiction.
He tilted his visor cap down and quirked his mouth as he closed his eyes. Every day he had to live in fear of being killed by explosives. As the tank commander he would always be the priority target in any battle they participate in. An attack on a city as valuable as Jonchon would certainly present him with a challenge. Their mission was to soften up the Manchurian for the Korean soldiers.
Earl exhaled and turned his head as he now attempted to sleep.
The day had passed and it was now early in the morning. Earl had awoken and now had all of his men stationed in their tanks. He was sitting in his chair and yawned loudly, momentarily biting his lip and tilting her visor cap up.
"You look a bit hung-over, sir."
Earl glanced up at the shell loader and shook negatively, "I'm fine."
The radioman smirked at Earl, "Command's gonna' be pissed if you're too drunk to do this."
"I'm fine!" he reinstated hostilely.
Everyone remained silent as Earl yawned again and nodded. He glanced over at an electronic map and hummed aloud, "Power up the tanks. Let's get an early start on these guys."
The radioman nodded and returned to the installed computer, issuing the order to the entire battalion. Earl crossed his arms and sniffed the air as the engine momentarily came on, a consistent rumbling could be felt as the tank remained idle. Earl had finally gotten out of his seat and climbed up through the turret. He popped his body out through the top and looked around at all of the powered on tanks.
"Damn majestic pieces of machinery…"
After a few moments of waiting, Earl's leg was tugged on. He looked back down the hatch at the radioman.
"Point of destination, sir?"
Earl entered the tank again and stared at the map which was divided into quadrants. Earl rubbed his chin and hummed aloud, "Well, we know that they'll have the good stuff on the outskirts. But we always risk the chance of them having anti-armor hidden away in the trees."
Earl smirked and moved his finger across the screen, he lowered his eyebrows and studied what appeared to be a forest. He slowly nodded and tapped his finger on the quadrant.
"There, I recommend entering a row formation right through the forest. We'll return to line formation once we get through it."
"Don't wanna' risk getting uncovered by knocking down trees?"
Earl closed his eyes and smirked at him, patting his back gently, "Nah, just wouldn't want to damage the environment," he joked.
Earl brought himself back up the turret and looked back at the city. He rubbed his chin and hummed cautiously, somewhat fearing that a Manchurian spy could have located their battalion and warned the rebels in Jonchon. He simply decided to rule out this concern—as he knew that the rebels were anticipating an attack either way.
His tank momentarily began to move away from the trees and onto the road. The other tanks followed him in row formation. Earl turned out of the turret once more with a serious look as he gazed upon his battalion. The tanks were all hovercraft, however the sidings remained the weak spot much like earlier tanks with tracks. The reason for this was because tanks now use hover-tracks, therefore still vulnerable. The benefit of hover-tracks over regular tracks was that they could maneuver over tough terrain; the drawback was that the hover-tracks could be easily destroyed or malfunction. Earl's tank in particular had a thick side skirt to protect the tracks.
Earl sat back and exhaled as they traveled. The one thing that he was certain of was that each mission would get harder and harder in the event that they successfully begin the drive into enemy controlled Korea. Entering Manchuria would be an entirely new battlefield for him, especially if the populace would take up arms and resist the Korean liberation.
Report:
We find ourselves en-route to the city of Jonchon. We all seem pretty optimistic about this upcoming battle, however the cautiousness of my men is easily noticeable. The Manchurian people aren't bad, but I do fear what we may find in Jonchon. I've yet to understand if these are radicals or mere rebels-if they're radicals, I'm fearing that they may have committed various war crimes in Jonchon to the Koreans living there. I would hope that this isn't a war of intolerance towards the Korean people.
We've made the decision to attack the city through the woods to provide ourselves with better cover, as we would like to get the first strike on the city. Priority one is to soften up their defense while keeping the damage done to the city at a minimal. The Manchurians likely have their own tank battalions in the proximity, undoubtfully we have the superior armor-but we have to stay on our toes for any aerial strikes. As of this moment, we find ourselves about three minutes away from entering the woods. I pray that I live through this battle, but I live by a code of honor-and I will die protecting whom I love…
The Angels of Korea had later entered a large forest on the outskirt of Jonchon. Despite the caution they were taking they still ran into several trees, fortunately this wasn't very noticeable. Earl now had a much more concentrated look as they made their way towards the city. He was unsure of how the attack would be commenced if they truly were the ones to make the first shot. He rubbed his chin and hummed a few times. He turned back into the tank and turned his head towards the radioman.
"Hey, do you think-"
"-because Mighty Gazelle's got an advantage on these upcoming tracks. You know, cause' he can calculate turns and all that."
Earl lowered his eyebrows in frustration and grabbed his shoulder, "Hey! We could be blown to bits at any given moment, let's stay focused guys!"
The shell loader smirked at Earl, "Who are you rooting for, sir?"
Earl narrowed his eyes, "Captain Falcon, but we're not talking about F-Zero right now, got it?"
"Yes sir."
Earl leaned in towards the radioman's screen and hummed again, "I think we'll stop short of the forest's exit and use our optics to spot any enemy armor in the area."
"What if we find landed aircraft?"
Earl closed his eyes and sighed, "Geez, I guess that does affect my decision…"
The shell loader raised his hand, "I think we should go for any landed air units. We can take on armor without a problem."
Earl nodded, "Technically, the aircraft presents more danger to us than armor. Unless their armor is very tight." Earl closed his eyes and growled, "I don't trust the bastards of the United Powers. Don't be surprised if we encounter some lent super-heavy armor."
"That'd be the end of us…" the radioman muttered.
Earl bit his lip and slowly turned out of the tank again. He could hear birds chirping loudly as the loud roaring engines of their tanks ravaged the forest. Earl's ears pranced up momentarily, he raised an eyebrow as he could see slight movement near some bushes.
"What the…"
He gasped and shot his eyes open as the long barrel of a tank momentarily turned towards him from the bush. He slapped his hands down and prepared to enter the tank again, but the enemy tank had fired. Earl was instantly knocked back in shock as the tank shell made collision with Earl's tank-fortunately it bounced off of the thick armor. The tanks had all suddenly come to a standstill, Earl shut the lid of the turret up and got back down.
"In the left bush about thirty meters!" he reported.
Within mere seconds, the sounds of machine gun and turret fire could be heard throughout the forest. The Angels of Korea were now in a contested battle with a tank battalion. Earl grunted constantly and tapped his fingers down frantically.
"How did they know..?"
What Earl didn't know, was that the Manchurians had set up a camouflaged defense of tanks inside of the forest. The purpose of doing so was so that when Korean tanks arrived into the city, they could have easily fired upon them from the rear. But instead, both sides ended up meeting inside of the forest.
"AP shell loaded!"
Earl threw his finger forward, "Fire!"
The tank was slightly knocked back as they fired a blazing red shell towards the opposing tank. The shell whistled through the air and ran right through the armor of the tank-momentarily exploding. The Manchurian tank was pushed back slightly by the explosion. Earl stared at the smoking tank and narrowed his eyes.
"Slight penetration!" a crewman reported.
"Hit its main gun," ordered Earl.
The group all cringed and rocked forward as they were hit by another shell. This time it exploded, however it failed to penetrate the armor-thus it only burnt the metal of the tank. Earl brought his head back up and gritted his teeth.
"Firing!"
They fired a second shell at the tank, this time sending it into a blaze. Earl crawled up to the small window of the tank and looked outside, he grunted and rubbed his forehead.
"Jesus Christ, t- there's more!"
"No friendly losses, we're just fighting light armor," the radioman reported.
"In that case, there's no reason we should lose anyone. Order everyone to load up HE shells."
"Yes sir."
The shell loader reopened the loader and took out the AP shell, putting in a dark red shell instead. He gave Earl a thumbs up and nodded.
"Heavy Explosive loaded."
"Fire at their western flank."
The tank fired a shell towards a light tank with an exposed siding, a simple hit on the body had completely destroyed the tank. Earl nodded and looked back out towards the east, seeing that there were only two tanks attacking them.
"Order our east group to charge forward."
Moments later, five heavy Korean tanks moved up the field. They were being fired at by the light tanks-but to little avail. The tanks all began to open fire upon the light tanks and easily demolished them. The tanks momentarily moved past the burning tanks and came to a stop near the end of the forest. Earl's tank had also begun to move up at this point as they began to encircle their enemies. Earl tilted his visor cap down and quirked his mouth.
"I want all units to merely attack their turret-there's no need to kill our enemy if they pose little of a threat to begin with."
The radioman lowered his eyebrows, "Are you sure?"
Earl nodded, "Destroy the turrets."
With this change in tactics being issued, the tanks all began to fire higher up on the light tanks. Some turrets were easily being destroyed, while some tanks still simply exploded. Earl momentarily moved forward with five other tanks, leaving the other nine to continue fighting. The six tanks stopped on the edge of the forest and could now see the city of Jonchon from below.
"This must have been an intended ambush for us, but we've clearly stopped it."
"Would it have worked?"
Earl nodded, "If they had caught us by the rear, then yes. Even a light tank can cause serious damage to our engines."
The rest of the tanks momentarily came forward and stopped outside of the forest. The tanks all got into a stretched out formation, now looking down at the small city. Earl turned out of the turret and held up an electronic optics device. He quirked his mouth and hummed as he scanned down at the city. He raised an eyebrow and nodded.
"I see…"
He turned back down into the turret and sighed. The radioman grabbed his shoulder with a concerned look.
"What's down there?"
Earl tipped his visor cap down and smirked, "Unlucky bastards. They've got pretty much nothing but machine gun bunkers and other fortifications set up for soldiers. They're sitting ducks."
"No aircraft?"
Earl shrugged, "Not in plain sight. We could win this entire battle ourselves right from here if we want."
The shell loader smirked, "Well, let's do it!"
Earl held his hand out with a serious look on his face, he turned towards his radioman, "Get me on the phone…"
"With?"
Earl took off his visor cap as he looked down at the city, "A Manchurian militant. Any militant."
After about an hour of waiting with no further confrontation, Earl had successfully made contact with a Manchurian Confederate official that was present in Jonchon. This was an action authorized by the Korean military, as Earl planned on putting diplomacy before battle.
Earl grasped his fingers around the phone tightly, "This is Angels of Korea battalion leader Bendek speaking. We have the city of Jonchon surrounded with armored units, I'm prepared to offer you, sir, a chance to run while you still can. Do so, and we'll allow all of your men to retreat back to the peninsula border without confrontation. I implore you accept the proposal."
Earl pointed at one of his operators and nodded, "To prove that indeed have the firepower to destroy your defense, we will now commence a warning barrage on the outskirts of Jonchon."
Earl quirked his mouth and snapped his fingers, and within seconds all fifteen of the tanks had fired Heavy Explosive shells towards the city. Several Manchurian soldiers began to panic as the blinding red shells glided through the air towards them. Many of them leapt down onto the ground with their heads down. The shells momentarily began to hit the outskirt of the city, leaving a wall of gigantic fireball explosions. The sun was completely blocked from the Manchurians perspective.
Earl watched as the smoke quickly rose into the air above the city. He nodded and waited a few moments to respond, as he was waiting for the man on the phone to stop panicking aloud. Earl smirked and closed his eyes slowly.
"This has been a warning barrage, in fifteen minutes if your men have yet to leave their current position, we'll have assumed that you're holding your ground and send over an actual barrage. I assure you-we won't miss."
All of the operators in Earl's tank was staring at him silently, Earl slowly lowered his eyebrows as he listened to the loud response. He nodded and exhaled slowly.
"Well, you have fifteen minutes to make that decision, sir," Earl responded.
He handed the phone back to the radioman and stretched while yawning. The radioman raised an eyebrow at Earl.
"Sir, the plan was to take the city by force."
Earl chuckled, "Down there are soldiers-not monsters. If you were commander, you could go ahead and push the attack; but I live by an old saying: Make love, not war…"
For the next ten minutes, Earl had sat speaking amongst his men on how they would go about firing at their enemies without damaging the actual city. Hurting any civilian in war was a war crime, but Earl especially didn't want to be held responsible for hurting his own people-on the account that Jonchon is a city still on the Korean peninsula. Earl tapped his fingers down a few times and quirked his mouth as he held his knees.
"What are we to do after we win?"
Earl raised an eyebrow and hummed, "Hm, well, we'll probably be told to stay on guard for a day or two."
"Then?"
Earl lowered his cap, "Either we push into the Manchurian mainland, or we help liberate the entire Pyongyang region."
"Maybe we can go drinking-"
Everyone widened their eyes at the sound of a system powering down. Earl swished his head to his left, and they suddenly hit the ground. Earl grabbed his forehead and grunted loudly.
"We're minus a hover-track!"
"Are we under attack!?"
Earl turned out of the turret and leaned out towards the left hover-track, he gritted his teeth and grunted at the sight of a large burnt hole. The hover-track had taken a heavy hit earlier and was leaking without his knowledge. Earl growled and slapped his knee, turning back inside the tank.
"Why didn't T17 report that we had a damaged hover-track!?"
The radioman shrugged, "Is it noticeable damage?"
"Noticeable? The hole's the size of a soccer ball!"
Earl rubbed his chin and hummed, the shell loader quirked his mouth, "Do we bail out?"
Earl nodded, "Kinda' have to; we're not going anywhere in this for a while."
The radioman widened his eyes and grinned as he looked out the window, "Well, we've got some good news at least."
Earl raised an eyebrow and turned back out of the tank, he held up his optics and quirked his mouth as he looked upon the city. A Manchurian soldier had planted a white flag in the outskirt of the city and had ran back into the city. Earl exhaled in relief and nodded to himself.
"Thank God, we all live to fight another day…"
Later on that evening, Jonchon had been liberated by the Korean military. Earl now stood around his damaged tank and was shining a flashlight into the hole. He sighed and very carefully extracted an unexploded shell from the hole. Had the shell exploded, the entire hover-track would have been destroyed. Earl gently set the shell on the ground and looked back inside of the hole, there was slight damage done to the fuel tank.
"Damn…"
"Commander Bendek!"
Earl raised his head up and blinked a few times, he spun around and found a decorated Korean officer coming towards him. Earl saluted him and nodded.
"Sir."
Earl grunted as he was immediately handed a silver medal, he raised an eyebrow at the medal and rubbed his thumb against what was a silver yin yang medal.
"For delivering Korea with a decisive victory through ethical means, I've been ordered to award you with the Prosperity of Love medal."
Earl closed his hand and looked up at the man, "I'm honored to receive this."
The officer nodded at him, "Of course, realize that this scenario would likely never succeed again. What you did was a once in a life time method of victory."
Earl nodded, then smirked, "Can't stop me from trying again."
The man growled somewhat and nodded, "Only if you're given permission to do so by your superior."
Earl turned back towards the tank and nodded, "Human life is valuable. My code of honor instructs me that I must protect my family. Those Manchurians were born alongside me, I grew up with them. As far as I'm concerned this is a cultural civil war."
The officer nodded and began walking away, "Fix that tank up quickly, we're expecting a counter-attack to arrive any day."
Earl continued to stare at the medal for a few moments with a dramatic look, he slowly pinned the medal onto his brown leather jacket and continued to observe his tank.
"We were attacked by the Manchurians the following day. Several buildings in Jonchon were destroyed, but ultimately we pushed the soldiers away through hard fighting." Earl flipped the yin yang medal in the air as he looked back into Chiya's eyes, "Is it possible that by initially destroying the defensive set up at Jonchon, we may have had an easier time came the day we attacked Manchuria? Sure."
"But did you end up killing them in the end?" asked Chiya.
Earl smirked and shrugged, "That, will always remain a mystery. I choose to believe that we never did confront them again, but what I do know, is that regardless if we did or not, some of the soldiers must've made it back home to their loved ones. If we had attacked Jonchon while they were practically defenseless, our barrage would have slaughtered them like chicken."
Earl sat down beside Chiya and closed his eyes with a smile.
"There's a soldier in all of us. I've done both wrong and good to the Manchurian people, despite what I did to them in the end, I look back happily knowing that up to that point I had done my job as a hero." He sighed and dipped his head down, "But unfortunately, I was young and lacked good judgment…"
He stood up and set the medal back on his shelf of war trophies, "Hopefully, our youth will look at both deeds I've done, both good and bad, and take lessons. They will understand how our enemy should be treated, and how they shouldn't be treated."
Earl sat back down with Chiya and wrapped his arm around her.
"I can only hope that in the end I changed lives mostly for the better…"
