NOVEL NEXT Chapter 40 Part 2 – Armored Advance
0100 April 5th, 2020 CE
0630 Sun 5th, 196 AE
In the jungles
Colonel Trakkas was unhappily talking to Colonel Arewakas on the radio. Because of the precarious situation that they were in, they decided not to meet outside.
<<<“More losses! We will be decimated by the time we even arrive at the designated position. Is your 2nd Battalion still intact?”
“They are. Some losses. Nothing too significant since they retreated.”
“We are stuck here with enemies on either side. Their air support is terrifying. Any ideas of what we could do.”
“Well, you mentioned earlier that we could abandon our magipanzers and try to escape without their planes noticing.”
“You know we will be demoted and called cowards for that. We will be losing more than 500 magipanzers.”
“Any bright ideas then?”
“Should we try to attack the other side again?”
“Their air support over there will wipe us out for sure.”>>>
Another radio message interrupted their conversation.
<<<“Enemy magipanzers!”
“Huh? Where? Who is this?
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Pahice of the 3rd Battalion. Our Medium Magipanzer Company is engaging human magipanzers on our road. They have come up behind them.”>>>
A few minutes earlier
The B Company of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment moved down the road of the jungle in a single file line. The lush green jungle surrounded them on all sides. Sunlight barely came through the canopy. The 14 Abrams of the company came to a stop.
<<<“This is Captain Bush of B Company. We have, um, come across a fork in the road. One’s leading left while the other’s leading right.”
“B company will take the right. C company will take the left.”>>>
A few minutes after taking the right road, B Company rounded a curved road and came to an abrupt stop again.
<<<”What the…uhhh...”
“Why did we stop?”
“Elf tank in front! Elf tank in front! Engaging!”>>>
Right around the curve was an entire elf tank company in a single file line. The front Abrams had just driven right up the back of one of the elf tanks. A round from the front Abrams blasted the back of it.
A large explosion caught the attention of the rest of the Medium Magipanzer Company of the 3rd Battalion. Soon they realized that a Knight in the back of their formation had just been destroyed.
<<<”Human tanks are attacking!”
“Engage! Magipanzers at the front of the formation turn around. Magipanzers that have a line of fire, get your turrets around and fire at will!”>>>
The Knights and Guards started traversing their turrets and their tanks to face the Abrams. The Knights at the back of the formation slowly turned their turrets.
The two Abrams behind the front one went off onto the left and right side of the road to engage the elves. With a rate of fire of more than 15 rounds a minute and the fact that it took a Knight about 30 seconds to traverse its turret 180 degrees, the three Abrams were able to take out all of the elf tanks in the back. Soon, they pushed aside the destroyed elf tanks and moved forward against the surviving ones that were in the middle of turning their tanks around.
Finally turned around, a shot from a Knight tank ricocheted off of the right cheek of one of the Abrams. An Abrams returned fire and knocked it out in one shot to its front armor. The other elf tanks joined in on the firing but all their rounds glanced off.
<<<“Ridiculous! What’s with their armor!”
“The armored piercing mana is just glancing off!”
“Adjust the mana to high explosive!”>>>
A high explosive round struck and exploded on the cheek of another Abram. The Knight crew that fired the shell cheered after it struck. The large explosion seemed to convince them that they had destroyed it. Then through the clearing smoke, it continued firing as if nothing had happened.
The high explosive rounds exploded all around the other Abrams but still, it had no effect.
<<<”The company commander is dead! Our magipanzers are completely ineffective against theirs! We can’t penetrate their armo…”>>>
The voice on the other side of LTC Pahice’s magiradio cut off.
<<<”This is B company. We have just engaged and destroyed around 20 elf tanks. No casualties suffered. Our tanks seem to be impervious to their rounds.”>>>
Destroyed Knights and Guards were strewn across the road in the jungle. It was basically like shooting fish in a barrel with a shotgun.
0112 April 5th, 2020 CE
0936 Sun 5th, 196 AE
One of the Elven Advance Landing Grounds
Two pilots were on break in one of the hastily constructed Temporary Buildings.
“I heard the Army got orders to stop their advance.”
“Eh, no concern to us. We are the Air Force. As long as the Army isn’t pushed back, we will be fine.”
“Well, I heard it was because of some special human aircraft. That definitely will concern us. What if they come to attack our airbases?”
“Nothing to worry about. We will detect them with our MUDs"
“The Mana Usage Detectors? I thought the humans didn’t use mana to power their aircraft.”
“Oh uhhh. I meant the MWEs… the uh yeah… the Mana Wave Emitters. You know what those are right?”
“Never heard of them.”
“Well, they are kind of a new invention. They send out mana waves in many directions and at large distances. When a mana wave hits an object in the sky, it bounces back towards us which allows us to detect it.”
“How do you know so much?”
“I asked one of the people who used them. He was kinda weird but gave me a very long explanation.”
A Magusian Airbase given to the US
Six F-35As took to the skies.