Armored Tears (22 page)

28.

Colonel
Robert Mbala of the UEN Peace Force looked over the controlled chaos of the
operations camp and smiled. Not only a the largest field command he'd ever had,
but a command on another world... and perhaps the most crucial command in the
history of the UEN Peace Force.

General
Bannerman would go down in history as the brains behind the operation, the
planner, the thinker. But Mbala planned to have his own name recorded as the
commander who won the battle.

"Sir,"
reported one of his aides, a Peace Force major, trim and neat in perfectly
pressed camouflage fatigues. "We have a satellite communication from Major
Hafez at the gate facility. Our forces hold the facility and are currently
holding back Arcadian attacks of increasing strength. The major asks if it
would be possible to expedite our push from the south to relieve pressure on
his forces."

"And
the cleaning up operations on our end? Are we ready to move to help
Hafez?" Mbala asked.

"Sir,
we've encountered a few disorganized Arcadians units. For the most part, we've
scattered them. We've also taken control of several Arcadian settlements. The
irregular forces set up by our Special Operations came in quite useful for that.

 
"Good," Mbala said. "Now,
what's the status on those Arcadian tanks in the highlands?"

"Confirmed
at reduced battalion strength. We have their exact positions as of the last
orbital pass by the
Yang Liwei.
However,
they do seem to move around quite a bit, so those positions aren't certain
anymore."

"And
the probing attack?" Mbala asked.

"As
ordered, a reconnaissance in force was undertaken by 1st company, 2nd
battalion. The probing attack was repelled, though we estimate that the
Arcadians took severe losses. The Arcadian's tanks are modified Japanese
Type-51s. Not as modern as our T-66s."

"Very
well," Mbala said. "Send in the entire 2nd Battalion. Bring it up to
full strength, drawing units from 1st Battalion if needed. Let's push past
these highlands. Once we take out the laser installation that our orbital
reconnaissance says is there, we'll have some room to deploy those aircraft
that we brought at such a cost of toil and effort.

"Meanwhile,
I want you to make sure that 1st and 3rd Battalions are ready to move as soon
as we've cleared the Arcadian armor out of the way. I want the 3rd Battalion in
particular to be ready to hit the main Arcadian positions facing Major Hafez's
forces in the rear. We've paid a lot of money for those fancy Korean tanks and
I want to make sure the UEN gets its money's worth. I particularly want Major
Hafez —
and
his Public
Information Section camera crews— to
see
it when our most cutting-edge forces rescue him."

29.

"Drones
are picking up several formations of enemy tanks, Colonel," came the
report from one of Younger's platoon leaders, a young lieutenant named Wasserman,
fresh out of Armored Corps Officer School. Younger had mentioned that he was
"house-broken."

God
save me from baby lieutenants, Tara thought.

"Get
as good a count as you can, Lieutenant," she said, "but don't expose
your platoon to enemy fire unless you can get flanking shots. Keep under cover,
and fall back to your main fighting positions if you're in danger of being cut
off."

Switching
to the Battalion Command push, she said, "OK, people. They're coming back,
like we thought they would. Not a little nudge this time, either. Looks like a
multiple-company-strength attack. Younger, Feldman, we do this like we planned,
OK? Stay behind cover, let them come into range. Then we unmask your 3rd
platoon, Younger, off to the east. And when the pissers reorient to engage, we
hit them at a flanking angle from the west."

"We
got it, Boss," Younger replied.

"My
company is ready," Feldman added.

"OK,
then," Tara said. "One more thing, Feldman. If I get taken out, it's
your show. Follow the plan, or come up with your own plan; you'll be in charge.
But, remember, we cannot fall back past the laser installation. Can. Not. We
have got to hold the line forward of that laser. Otherwise we give the pissers
an air-corridor right into the north."

"Understood
Colonel," Feldman replied. "But if it's all the same to you, I'd just
as soon you stay alive. It's not that I don't have ambitions about battalion
command, but I'd really rather get promoted for my own merits, and not because
you managed to get yourself killed."

"I'll
see what I can do, Feldman," Tara answered.

***

"Ma'am,"
said the sensors operator, "the lead enemy tanks have crossed line 'x-ray'
and launched drones."

"Good.
Right on schedule. Nice when the enemy cooperates by being so predictable,"
Tara remarked.

"OK,"
she said into the all-units battalion comm push, "All units, stand by to
execute the plan. And good hunting."
       

Around
her, the twenty-nine tanks of her battalion prepared for battle.

Off
to one side, a platoon of three of Younger's tanks rolled up a shallow slope to
bring their guns to bear over the rocks they had hidden behind, and opened
fire.

The
first bursts struck among the UEN tanks' leading platoon. At five kilometers,
the shots took less than three seconds to reach their targets. The first UEN
tank was hit twice, but its armor held. A second later, it was obscured by
smoke as it launched a salvo of concealment grenades and backed off, evading at
high speed.
          

The
other UEN tanks started evading before the next rounds reached them, but the
Arcadian tanks were firing long bursts, tracking 41 megajoule rounds across
their targets to compensate for possible evasions. Two more UEN tanks took
hits. One shrugged them off from its thick armor, but the other one took a
round that either found a weak-spot or came in at just the right angle. The UEN
T-66 rolled to a stop and began to vent fire from its hatches and exhausts in a
series of short, explosive bursts as its internal fuel and ammunition cooked
off.

A
dozen UEN tanks returned fire, traversing their turrets to bear on the Arcadian
tanks that had engaged them. Before the first round hit, the Arcadian tanks had
popped smoke and backed away, reversing back under cover.

At
the same moment, another seven Arcadian tanks, off to the opposite side of the
Arcadian defensive line, rolled forward, unmasking their guns from behind
cover, and opened fire. Their targets were the UEN tanks that had traversed
their turrets to bear on the first Arcadian tanks to engage, which gave them
shots at the side turret armor of the UEN T-66s.

The
first salvo saw six of the UEN tanks hit. Five of them began to burn as 41
megajoule shots from the Arcadian slammed through their thinner side armor and
sprayed showers of burning magnesium into their turrets. The sixth managed to
turn in time, dodging three shots and taking one that glanced off the heavier
front armor of its turret.

UEN
tanks near the rear of the enemy formation opened fire on the newly visible
Arcadian tanks, but the range was long, and the seven tanks —two platoons
from Major Feldman's 2nd Company— reversed back behind cover in the
roughly three seconds it took the return fire to arrive. 44 megajoule shots
shattered rocks and threw up huge plumes of debris, but not a single Arcadian
tank was hit.
       

"Yes!"
Tara shouted, watching the carnage among the UEN tanks. Six tanks, almost two
platoons worth of enemy armor, wiped out without a single hit inflicted in
return!

"That's
the way to do it!" she called into the Battalion Command comm push.
"They can't take this for long!"

The
UEN tank commanders seemed to agree. Almost every UEN tank began to pump out
concealment grenades and back away.

"Hold
your fire, all units. Hold your fire," Tara ordered.

The
UEN tanks were heavily armored enough that long range sniping wouldn't be
decisive, and their heavier guns made them more likely to take out a War-Hammer
in reply. Not to mention that the battalion had to watch its ammo expenditure.
Some of her tanks' ammo loads were already down by close to 30%.

"
That
went well," Younger said over
the comm. "Let's have them do that again two or three times and we can all
just go home."

"Well,
Younger, if you can get them on the comm and convince 'em to cooperate, I'll
put you in for a medal and a promotion," Tara replied.

"Multiple
enemy drones inbound," reported the sensors operator.

"Here
we go," Tara said. "Too much to hope for that they'd have stayed dumb
the whole time."

The
UEN drones began to climb up, getting an angle to see over the rocky cover
where the Arcadian tanks were hiding. Arcadian tanks responded with a storm of
auto-smartgun fire, sending burst after burst into the sky. Drones, their wings
and fuselages shattered by heavy 10.5mm bullets, fell from the sky in broken
pieces. Other drones evaded, or got by on luck. And every drone that got an
angle on an Arcadian position meant that the UEN tanks now knew where one of
the battalion's War-Hammers was.

"Battalion;
all tanks, stand by for fire on your positions," Tara sent. "Get
ready to pop smoke and stand by to move to your alternate firing
positions!"

Ahead,
the UEN forces were preparing to move forward. A line of a dozen tanks formed
behind a barrage of concealment grenades. Behind the first line, a second line
of a dozen more prepared to follow, lagging by a precise kilometer, ready to
engage anything the first line uncovered.

"Colonel!"
announced the sensors operator. "Some of our drones are picking up long
range anti-tank missiles inbound... coming in over the UEN formation."

"Fuck,"
Tara said. "Stand by missile defenses! All units, missiles inbound!"
she called into the all-units comm push.

Dozens
of missiles skimmed in, flying low over the barren, rocky terrain. Each missile
was targeted on a position that had been marked by a drone, going after a tank
that was behind cover, which meant that the targeted tanks didn't have clear
sight or clear targeting on the inbound missiles.

Tara
watched through one of her drones as the missile salvo roared in. Realization
of what was about to happen hit her like a sledgehammer.

"All
units! Reverse and unmask your anti-missile systems. Missiles coming in low
over the terrain! Unmask your defenses!" she shouted into the comm.

Some
of the battalion's tanks backed up in time; counter-missile salvos flashed out
to detonate among the inbound missiles and Metal Storm turrets filled the air
with projectiles.

Other
tanks weren't fast enough. Anti-tank missiles streaked on over their cover,
giving them no time to fire counter-missiles. Some didn't even have time for
their Metal Storm turrets to traverse and acquire the inbounds. Three tanks
were hit. One, by luck or chance, took the missile at an angle, right in the
center of its turret's frontal armor. The armor held, though half the tank's
sensors and two of its four auto-smartguns were wiped out in the explosion.

Two
other tanks, one of Younger's, in 3rd Company, and one in Tara's own 1st
Company, weren't that lucky. One was struck on the turret top by a single
missile; everything inside the turret was eradicated in a blast of focused high
explosive force; only the driver managed to eject. The other tank was hit by
two missiles. The first hit shot a blast of black smoke from every hatch and
vent in the tank. The second missile set off the ammunition and blew the
War-Hammer's turret thirty meters into the air, flipping the 30 ton armored
mass like a leaf, to land with a massive crash next to the fire-gutted shell of
the tank. There were no survivors.

Two
other tanks reversed too far. Counter-missile salvos killed the missiles aimed
at them, but they found themselves unmasked against the main guns of the UEN
tanks. One tank, from Major Feldman's own platoon, newly commanded by Corporal
Velazquez, managed to get back into cover in time. Only a single 44 megajoule
shot struck and rang off the frontal armor of its turret. The other tank, one
from the 3rd Platoon of Tara's company, took two hits that punched through the
base of the turret, setting the tank on fire and killing two of the turret
crew. The driver and sensors operator punched out alive.
    

Three
of her tanks gone in as many seconds, Tara realized. And the UEN formation was
moving in.

"Battalion!
All tanks, maneuver into your firing positions and engage!" she ordered.
No more time for clever ruses. Now it was going to be a slugging match.

The
twenty-six surviving tanks of the battalion rolled forward to unmask their guns
and join the fight. Thirty surviving UEN tanks drove forward to meet them.

The
UEN tanks had the advantage of heavier armor and a marginally more powerful
gun, but that margin was often the difference between penetration and a
glancing hit that bounced off. The Arcadian tanks had the advantage of
carefully chosen firing positions, showing only as much of their turrets as was
needed to allow their guns to bear. The UEN tanks could evade as they advanced.
The Arcadian tanks could reverse back into cover in a matter of seconds.
           

Hundreds
of main gun shots crisscrossed across the deadly space separating the two lines
of armor. At about four kilometers range, the shots took barely two seconds to
cross the distance. Misses gouged craters into the dirt and stone of the rocky
ground. Hits rang off of armor, or punched through with a sound like a drop-forge
to set tanks alight.

Firing
from cover gave Tara's battalion an advantage. In the first salvos, three UEN
tanks went down under concentrated fire, smashed into burning wrecks by
multiple 41 megajoule hits. A single War-Hammer was hit in return, the 44
megajoule shell penetrating the turret just next to the main gun tube. An
ammunition explosion reduced the War-Hammer to a gutted wreck spewing a geyser
of fire-shot debris and sent its turret tumbling into the air;
electrothermal-chemical propellant was hard to cook off, but very energetic
when it went.

Another
salvo lashed out from the battalions positions, kicking up rolling clouds of
dust in front of each firing tank. War-Hammers fired, retreated to cover, tried
to guess at the next target with data from short-lived drones, or from pure
intuition, then rolled forward to fire again. More and more of her tanks were
shifting to alternate firing positions, popping smoke and racing backwards at
angles to alternate cover that they had picked out —and practiced driving
to— before the fight had started.

The
UEN tankers were dodging like madmen as they drove forward, punctuating their
advance with bursts of smoke from salvos of concealment grenades. Even so,
another UEN tank was hit and knocked out, and then one more.

As
the range closed, the UEN tanks' fire became more accurate; there was no longer
time to reverse behind cover before an enemy could fire and hit. And the 44
megajoule main guns of the T-66s began to exact an ever more severe toll.

Tara
watched as another two of her tanks were hit, dead on the thick frontal turret
armor, and penetrated anyway. One managed to reverse away, its turret burning
but its engine, tracks and driver intact. The other exploded in a spray of
fireworks sparks and smoke. No crewmembers ejected.

Another
UEN tank died in exchange, sniped at an angle by a 41 megajoule burst —from
one of the tanks from Feldman's own platoon, she thought— that punched
two rounds through its side armor. But the damn pissers kept coming, soaking up
their losses but not slowing down.

"All
units, fall back to the next line of firing positions. Fall back!" she
ordered. "Driver, reverse to our next firing position," she added via
the intercom, triggering a salvo of concealment grenades as she did.