The Battle for Webding, SENSE side.
Webding, Malaya
SENSE sector
Hey, youre pretty exposed there. The mHzen corporal observed,
crouching just behind the turret.
True enough. Staff Sergeant Tan Xiao Yang noted, her FCS Armored
Gun System was dug into the rubble of a partially destroyed
building, with the gun tube just barely clearing the mound of
broken concrete and twisted steel. Calm and quiet as the scene was
before her, Yang knew that the enemy was coming, and soon.
Her presence in armor had risen the eyebrows of several of the
foreign SENSE soldiers around, but was a sight barely worth
attention to a Xing Shianan, unless some of them considered her
attractive of course. Compulsory military training for both genders
in Xing Shiana from the age of 15 had made sure that the gender
demographics in the Xing Shianian military was pretty much 50-50,
though more of the females took up non direct combatant roles in
the military, Yang had been one of the minority. When she had
driven in a few hours ago in the small, 9 tank force to reinforce
the SENSE armor in Webding, the MLF troopers had spent quite a bit
of time huddling up into groups, and talking excitedly as they view
her from a distance going on her routines around her tank. Bunch of
immature pigs, Yang had wanted to say then, but realized that the
average age amidst them was only 19.
Nobody doubted the quality of Xing Shianan female soldiers, entry
qualifications in the military were strictly based not on
affirmative action or quotas or all the other stuff the
politically-correct militaries of other countries were so caught up
in. In the XSAF, it went strictly by ability, where only the best
person for the role got the role, irregardless of race, language,
religion, and in her case, gender. Combat Xing Shianan women were
tough, independent, knew how to take care of themselves and every
bit as respected as their male counterparts, as any person who
tried to get funny with them quickly, and painfully realized.
Harassment was virtually unknown. They were tough.
You better go now, its gonna be Showtime soon. Yang said, waving
at the corporal as he scrabbled over the loose debris back to his
foxhole. A nice guy, Yang observed, he had come over to share a hot
meal with them. The first they had had for a while- almost any kind
of food was better then the supposedly improved MRE field
rations.
Yang hauled herself onto the low hull of the AGS, and dropped down
the open hatch into the crew compartment. Her crewmember was
already there, drumming his fingers on the control yokes on his
side of the duplicated controls.
Not a bad looking guy, The tanker said to her in that crass style
she had gotten used to. Maybe after all this we can ask the rest
to arrange a little something for you two? He laughed as he
buttoned up his hatch.
Shut up and get to work Dill. Yang snapped. Though he was
competent tanker and teammate, Yang had never quite gotten used to
Dillons relentless ribbing of whatever she did and endless supply
of senseless jokes. They had trained together since day one and she
had learned to tolerate these nuances, he was just one of the many
people in the unit she considered her brothers and sisters, perhaps
even much closer then her actual family. Over the years they had
gone through virtually every military training hardship together
and had learnt to depend on each other. She trusted him with her
life, as he did hers. It was pure comradeship.
She counted almost as much on her little tank to keep her safe in
battle as well. The AGS, essentially being the light tank variant
of the larger FCS MBT, came in far lighter at only 15 tons, but
shared almost all the features of found in its bigger brother. It
was a good light tank, the most advanced in the world. More then
just a mobile, protected space, it was a hotbed of advanced
technology that linked it up to countless other units in the large
invisible technological web of Force Integration. They fought their
war as much with advanced communications and information as they
did with their advanced 120mm ETC main gun.
Prussian artillery started to fall in the form of shells and
rockets. Pounding the SENSE sector of the town with a man made
storm of explosions and flying metal. Several rounds fell in Yangs
section, rocking the 15 ton tank steadily. Yang could hear and feel
the shrapnel pinging off the armor. Yang knew she had it easy, the
mHzen infantry must all now be huddled in their foxholes, slit
trenches or whatever shelter they could find. It would be pure
death to be caught in the open. The Prussian artillery bombardments
never lasted, the MLF counter battery fire always found them soon
enough if they stood around and cooked off too many rounds. The
Prussians would shoot off a salvo or two, and then scoot before the
superior MLF arty found them. Sure enough, the Prussian bombardment
stopped as abruptly as it had begun. They were coming.
Get ready, enemy contact estimated in 2 minutes, 2 minutes. Dill
glanced at the situational display. Her force of 9 AGS had been
arranged mixed with the MLF conventional armor to provide
overlapping zones of fire over the street to provide maximum
firepower to bear on the advancing Prussians. She read the
situational display again; she would be facing about 50 Prussian
Aquanix amphibious light tanks and more mechanized infantry.
The Prussian Aquanix light tanks outnumbered SENSE armor, which was
made up of her 9 AGS and 7 other MLF conventional MBTs, at about 3
to 1. Their infantry, some of which certainly were anti-tank units,
would make things worse. Due to the need to be light because of
their amphibious nature, the Aquanix tanks had weak armor, a
vulnerability the Prussians tried to reduce by adding add-on
modular armor. The 120mm low recoil main gun of the Aquanix would
be a concern though, for it stood a fair chance of penetrating the
armor of the SENSE tanks, including the level 3 protection package
her tank had been fitted out with.
Contact! Contact! Weapons free! Came the call over the radio from
armor commander in one of the MLF Challangers. The Prussians were
now within visual range.
Yang had seen the Prussians from over twice as far as the MLF tank
commander, thanks to the advanced sensors on her tank, and had been
tracking one all along. Target information sharing through the
wireless network made sure that everyone knew who was shooting at
what to make sure there were no over-engagement of targets and the
wasting of ammo.
Lets see where you can hide
Yang whispered as she depressed the
rangefinder button with both thumbs, she got the range, saw the
ready to shoot light, and pulled on the trigger to send a HEAT
round on its way.
At the command to shoot, the electrical electrodes in the120mm ETC
cannon fed a sudden surge of power to the plasma burner installed
in its breech. The resulting plasma arc generated evaporated the
propellant energetic chemical liquid, transitioning it violently
into a plasma whose gases have a lower molecular weight than
conventional powder gases, in turn, generating higher and constant
pressures possible in normal gun tubes. The reduction of gas masses
to be accelerated together with the projectile allows higher muzzle
velocities to be reached in any conventional weapon of similar
caliber. Riding on rapidly expanding plasma gases, the HEAT round
exited at over three times the speed of sound.
Though speed has little bearing on how well a HEAT warhead works,
as opposed to a dart penetrator, the flatter trajectories generated
by the greater speeds made gunnery computing simpler and reduced
error margins. Yang saw the HEAT round as a white streak on her
thermal view as it blasted its way to the target.
Eight hundred meters downrange, the 120mm HEAT round found its
target, a Prussian Aquanix tank. The shaped charged warhead of the
High Explosive Anti Tank shell exploded, discharging an extremely
fast ever-elongating stream of stream of copper particles and gas
into the armor of the tank at pressures in orders of hundreds of
kilobars per square inch. Pressured far beyond its physical
strength, the armor material of the tank flowed apart fluidly away
from the path of the HEAT jet. A tenth of a millisecond later, the
jet of warhead material entered the crew compartment, blasting
copper particles and explosive gases within, exacting hellish
overpressures. The hatches of the tank blew out moments before the
entire thing exploded like a plastic toy.
Good shot
Dill said absentmindedly as the main gun was slaved
over to his target while Yang acquired another target in the
hunter-killer mode that allowed them to engage and destroy targets
twice as fast as tanks lacking that ability. The small tank rocked
back from recoil again, it was another hit, another Aquanix lay
burning somewhere down the range.
Yangs next victim was a Prussian IFV; she speared the crosshairs
over the boxy profile of her target and fired a HEAT, which
exploded it and stopped it dead in its tracks. She cringed inwardly
as she saw burning Prussians start to bail of out their battle taxi
that had become a sudden inferno in a very small space. The human
torches stumbled out of their broken ride, swinging their arms
madly until mHzen snipers and their own troops ended their misery
with a few well-placed shots. Such was war.
A HEAT round impacted on the mould of rubble that was the cover for
their AGS, throwing up a shower of debris that pattered their
little tank. Dill had already acquired the antagonist responsible
for the shot and fired, narrowly missing over the engine
compartment of the enemy tank. The Prussians crewing this tank were
pros, they never drove straight and bobbed and weaved their tank in
and out of, in front and behind mounds of rubble. An mHzen
Chieftain beside their AGS blasted a round at it, and missed again
as the savvy tank commander ordered his tank to sudden turn and
head for cover behind a building. Just before it disappeared behind
the building however, it fired and the Chieftian burst into
flames.
Crap! Dill swore. The Prussians were getting real close now, the
infantry dismounting under suppressive fire and starting to fight.
It was going to be a close-quarter, slugfest.
Time to move. Yang backed the tank out from behind the defilade,
crunching stones with their polymer tracks as the 15 ton tank
backed up. The fight was getting really intense now, with the
streets alive with the cackle of rifle fire and the occasional
deeper thump of a larger weapon going off. Yang moved the tank back
to the second firing position, perfectly coordinated with the rest
of the SENSE armor without even having to speak a word. It was just
one of the advantages of fighting with information.
Woah! Yang flinched as a Po-1 rocket zipped by, clipping the AGS
turret and sliding along in a shower of sparks before riding off
into a building behind, exploding the concrete there. Infantry AT
fire getting hot, using the fifty cal.
While driving her tank backwards, Yang thumbed the selector for the
remote controlled, turret-mounted machine gun. Another reticule
blinked on in her visor, and following her head movements wherever
she looked. Up on the turret above, the .50cal machine gun went
through the same motions, mechanically taking bead at whatever Yang
was looking at. She turned her attention to some Prussian AT
infantry chasing her tank down the road and trying to get a shot
off with their Po-1s and sprayed a burst of .50cal as a
disincentive, three of them fell and the rest dodged for cover.
Yang backed her tank away and out of sight behind a building,
planning her next move.
The battle for Webding was growing desperate, SENSE was fighting
with its back to the wall, giving the Prussians incredible
resistence all throughout the town, fighting for every building
room by room, corridor by corridor. Tanks scuttled in and out of
sight of each other around and behind buildings, trying to snap in
shots in the brief moments they saw their targets. As the massive
street fight grew into its second hour, it became clear that SENSE
troops were on the verge of breaking.
Caught up in the fierce fighting, Yang noticed a new text message
blink on in her situational display it was from high command.
WTD ALPHA
Yang swallowed, that was the general order for all SENSE troops to
retreat out of the town to phase line alpha. She could see why; on
the eint, it was clearly obvious that SENSE forces in Webding were
in impending danger of being encircled by the Prussians as they
poured more men into the battle, so much that they were starting to
flow around the SENSE forces and box them in.
Okay, were gonna try to hold off them off while the infantry
withdraws. Yang radioed to the remaining SENSE armor. She drove
her tank from behind the building she had taken cover down the
street at full throttle, spraying the startled Prussian infantry
with .50cal fire. Several rockets fired hastily in response by
Prussian AT infantry all missed. Yang popped smoke, which
effectively blinded the Prussians but not themselves, thanks to
their electronic sensors. Dill blasted a window containing a
Prussian AT team while Yang swung the .50 cal in wide arcs, firing
at the Prussians on both sides of the street. The Prussians started
to scramble from the street, giving SENSE infantry a chance to
withdraw.
Yang saw a Prussian tank appear from behind a destroyed Challenger
in front of them, with several others following behind as the smoke
cleared enough for the Prussians to see them as well. Judging from
the way the lead tank drove, it had to be them savvy tank crew she
saw earlier. Dill managed to hit the Prussian tank this time with a
sabot and the crew was no more. While all this was happening, Yang
had already acquired the closest tank behind while all this was
happening and fired the moment the gun controls were slaved over to
her. The other Prussian exploded spectacularly as well flinging the
turret 40 feet into the air.
Yang felt cold panic when she realized that they were facing off
against over three more Prussian tanks down this street. She backed
her tank into reverse just as a shot wanged off the turret face of
the AGS.
Shoot the jokers! Yang shouted unnecessarily to Dill as she move
the AGS back, weaving the tank like she had seen the now-dead
Prussian tank crew did. A Prussian shot came crashing into the AGS
and she heard the scream of metal and composite as they failed
under the assault. Several areas on the graphic representing her
tank on the AGS flashed red and yellow, indicating internal damage.
But excellent redundancies and internal damage control systems had
made sure that the AGS was still functional. Dill exploded one
Prussian tank with a sabot and Yang nailed another in rapid
succession. Dill killed the last Prussian tank engaging at them
with a quick shot to the engine using a HEAT round.
It was time to retreat, Yang backed the tank into reverse and
started down the street back to join the retreating SENSE forces
when she noticed that in the heat of battle she had neglected
several threat indicators on her situational display that were now
going to be a large problem.
They were a Prussian AT squad that had managed to flank her tank,
and were now readying a shot to her side. She hit the controls for
the .50cal and swung the gun over to the side, maybe she could cut
the swine down before they could get off a shot-
It was too late, the Prussians snapped off a shot with their Po-1
and retreated behind cover as Yang sprayed after them with the .50
cal. The rocket struck the rear of the hull and exploded. For a
moment the AGS continued to back off, as if nothing happened, but
then Yang knew the tank was disabled when she saw that the
schematic representing the engine on the damage display was dark,
indicating the engine was destroyed. The tank ground to a halt,
powered only by auxiliary systems.
Okay, lets get out of here. Yang said calmly. Initiate non
recoverable drill.
As friendly forces could not recover the disabled AGS, all
sensitive material onboard had to be destroyed to avoid such high
technology falling into enemy hands. And that could be achieved by
the means of self-destruct incendiary thermite charges planted in
all the sensitive equipment of the tank that would burn out enough
to melt steel, leaving the highly classified advanced technology
nothing more then slag for the Prussians to find. Yang popped smoke
to cover their escape and unbuckled the bottom emergency escape
hatch. Just before they exited, she flipped the plastic cover off
the button to activate the thermite charges and hit it.
Arid sparks and smoke announced the successful self-destruction of
the sensitive technology as the thermite charges burned like mini
flares within the tank. Yang lowered herself out of the abandoned
tank and moved off with Dill to run to friendly lines, covered
another AGS, which had thankfully come up to give them covering
fire as they retreated. When they were clear, the AGS pumped two
HEAT rounds into the rear of the knocked out AGS to demolish it
further. Not much luck; it didnt catch fire or blow up much,
though nobody would be using it for a long while.
Back safely in friendly lines, Yang followed the chaotic retreat
back, she felt strange without the order and information the FCS
provided her with. Without her technological mount, she was just
another faceless and clueless SENSE trooper in the field. She
watched from the back of the three toner truck on the rough ride
rear as a Prussian flag was risen on the town hall. Well be back,
she promised.
The AGS had acquitted themselves well, losing only two of their
number disabled to 18 destroyed enemy tanks, with Yangs tank
taking seven of those kills. Besides tanks, an assortment of
countless other enemy vehicles also fell to the AGS. The mHzen
armor had also done well, though they were now only left with three
functional tanks, from the original seven.
However, now with SENSE lines in Malaya scattered and spread
perilously thin, there was no doubt about it. SENSE lines had been
breached in Webding and unless the gap was plugged, the rest of
Malaya will fall soon, and the doorstep of The Borderlands of 440
mHz was just a mere fifty kilometers away. Even as the situation
unfolded, COMMON SENSE commanders were collapsing the lines back,
trying to consolidate a serious defense to buy more time for more
SENSE reinforcements to arrive.