0740 January 12th, 2020 CE

0750 (Mid Hour) Start 12th, 196 AE

Near the town of Isca

Pomponia looks out of her house’s window as sand-colored tanks rumbled across. The first wave is the big tanks and then came the smaller ones. They have no semblance to the Machian tanks she had seen in the newspapers. It was clear whose tank those belonged to. Albeit a bit worried, she is glad that they seem to have ignored her lone house in the plains. About an hour earlier, she was in the town of Isca when soldiers who were retreating from the trenches came. They had said that all the Machian units on the front have been destroyed and warned the townsfolk of the possibility of the enemies coming through. It was just yesterday that some people from Andrea came to find their relatives or pass through. They had said that the soldiers claimed that the frontline defenses were destroyed and that the soldiers had to use the town as a last line of defense. 

Pomponia returns to drinking her tea after watching the scene for a bit. She wasn’t that concerned about what happened to the Mach Imperium. As long as she can continue to live her secluded lifestyle, she will be content. 

0820 January 12th, 2020 CE

0810 (Mid Hour) Start 12th, 196 AE

The eastern plains of the Mach Imperium

The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, part of the 1st Armored Division of the III Corps of the US Army, is the spearhead leading the charge for the III Corps and the 2nd Marine Division. The 1st ABCT consisted of their Headquarters and Headquarter Company; the 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment; the 2nd Battalion, 27th Armor Regiment; the 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment; the 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment; the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment; the 16th Brigade Engineer Battalion; and the 501st Brigade Support Battalion. This consisted of M1A2 Abrams, M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, M3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicles, M109A6 Paladin 155mm Howitzers, Humvees, M113 derived support vehicles, and various types of trucks.  

Attached to them is the II Marine Expeditionary Force is a platoon from the 2nd Tank Battalion.

After driving out of Andrea, they have quickly exited the forested area and into a wide-open plain. They have passed many towns but they were void of enemies. Only civilians were there. 

The platoon from the 2nd Tank Battalion of the Marines followed a tank company from the 2nd Battalion, 27th Armor Regiment as a forward element for the 1st ABCT. The tank company with its attached Marines tank platoon, which will total 18 tanks, is many miles ahead of the 1st ABCT. 

“OORAH!”

Uma is having the time of his life driving at full speed down the plains. The Abrams isn’t exactly fast with only a maximum offroad speed of 30 mph but it still is a nice experience. 

5 miles away

Sitting on top of the Industro 1 as it thunders forward on the plains, Furius groans and looks toward the sky. 

“This is much better. I’m never walking for that long ever again. Say, Mercator, when do you think we will ever get home?”

“Heard the railroads are all gone because of the enemy bombings. Where did you live again?”

“My town is quite close to the center of the Imperium. The nearest city is probably Burdi.”

“You will probably miss your sister’s wedding now.”

“Nothing I can do at this point. Would have loved to be there. Well, they might postpone it because of the war. Anyways, do you think we will win this war?”

“I’m not sure, the enemy bombings have been slacking off but their ground units are here. If we can push them back to the sea, we will win. We will probably encounter them along the way to Andrea and then hopefully push them back.”

A few minutes later

A soldier on a horse is quickly riding through the plains. He approaches the formations of men and tanks marching towards him and rides to an officer. 

“Sir, I’m with the recon group. There’s an enemy formation approaching us!”

“Numbers and composition?”

“I could see more than ten tanks, sir! They are about the size of our Industro Is but have the speed comparable to that of a horse.”

 

An officer shouts orders as men run around with shovels.

“Quickly! Get the tanks up to the front! A small enemy contingent will be here soon.”

Mercator, Furius, and a lot of other soldiers are digging a small mound to act as cover. The flat plains are not good terrain when you don’t want to be out in the open. 

“How did they get here so quickly?”

“Don’t worry, just keep digging, Furius. It’s a small number of tanks compared with the hundreds that we have, there's no way we will lose.”

0828 January 12th, 2020 CE

0814 (Mid Hour) Start 12th, 196 AE

What seemed to be a long small mound in the middle of the plains appears in their view. Of course, this won’t concern anyone in the tank company and the attached Marine tank platoon if not for the fact that there are multiple enemy tanks scattered behind it. The Captain of the company comes through on the radio. 

<<< “Multiple hostiles to the front. Fire at will. Continue moving forward.”>>>

The twin 57 mm of the Industro Is open fire as the battalion of Abrams charge headfirst towards them. 

Connolly shouts out while looking through his driver port. 

“What the heck?! Do their guns outrange ours?”

“Sure they might have more range but their accuracy is complete shit.” replies Dillion as explosions occur around them “Also, I don’t think they can even pen the armor on our tank.”

Just as he says it, some lucky shots explode on the nearby Abrams but do no damage. Rumbling across the plains, the Abrams gets the enemy tanks within the range of the Abram’s 120 mm. 

“I got my sights on one in range, do I fire?”

“For god sakes, Dillian, fire!”

Whilst charging straight at the Machian lines, the group of Abrams focus their fire on the Machian tanks. HEAT rounds create fiery explosions upon impact with the Machian tanks. 

The Industro IIs with their 40 mm gun are sitting ducks and can’t return fire because of the shorter range of their guns as compared to the older Industro Is. Their maximum of 22 mm of armor, although better than the Industro 1s’ maximum of 16 mm, also doesn’t help. The M830A1 HEAT round of the Abrams can penetrate up to 420 mm of steel. 

Shells from the 57 mm of the Industro IIs fly towards the Abrams but their inaccuracy and inability to go through the Abrams’ armor make the effort futile. 

Less than 10 minutes later

Still having no Abrams destroyed or even disabled, they continue getting closer while firing upon the enemy. Even after getting hit multiple times, the Abrams tanks just shrug everything off. On the other hand, the Machians are losing one tank for every second that goes by. The two hundred Industro Is and IIs have been whittled down to half their numbers. As the Abrams get closer to the mound, the front Abrams notices movement and heat signatures behind the mounds. 

<<< “Enemy infantry behind the mounds!”>>>

A few more minutes later

With his head nearly kissing the ground, Furius looks to his left as bullets whiz past above him. To the left of him is the Captain they had talked to when they had encountered the reinforcements. 

“Captain, what do we do?!? Our tanks are useless and we are pinned!”

The Captain lifts his head to answer Furius. 

“We will have to u…”

The Captain couldn’t finish the sentence as a 7.62 mm bullet enters his head and comes out the other side. The Captain’s head falls lifelessly onto the ground. Blood splatters across Furius’s face.

“Ah..ah…”

Furius turns toward Mercator and Mercator notices the shock in Furius’s eyes. 

“Furius! Calm down! Keep your head low!”

An enemy tank crests the mound and comes down crushing those who were below it. 

“I want to live. I want to live. I want to live.”

Furius is shaking uncontrollably in fear. Mercator has his face hugging the ground. 

“Just keep calm. Keep your head down.”

0850 January 12th, 2020 CE

0825 (Mid Hour) Start 12th, 196 AE

At this point, the morale of the Machian 6th Army Division broke.

“Retreat! Get outta here!”

Those shouts can be heard from those that took up positions behind them. Machian soldiers stood up and broke into a run. Machine-gun fire is all around them. The few remaining Machian tanks also start backing up. They were also subjected to heavy fire.

 

Still lying on the ground, Furius panics.

“Mercator, what do we do?!”

“Their fire doesn’t seem to be focusing on us.” Mercator raises his head a little. “We should run.”

Mercator and Furius quickly get off the ground and start sprinting. Some bullets still whiz past them. An Industro II explodes a few hundred feet behind them. 

“Agh!”

Furius looks behind him to see that Mercator has fallen onto the ground.

“Mercator!” Furius runs back to Mercator and extends a hand to help. “I got you! Come on get up!”

“I can’t! Something hit my leg! Just… just go! Wait, what are you doing?!”

Furius grabs Mercator. 

“I won’t leave you behind! Didn’t I say I couldn’t abandon you!”

With Mercator on his back, Furius starts sprinting out of the kill zone. 

More than ten minutes later 

<<<Ceasefire. Ceasefire. They are out of range. We have some infantry surrendering.>>>

The battlefield became quiet as the machine gun and tank fire from the Abrams stops. Across the plains, Machian soldiers stand up with their hands in the air.

 

Brian looks out of the tank hatch and whistles

“Wow, this is a lot of prisoners. What are we going to do with them? We still have to get to the capital but we can’t leave them behind.”

Nick watches as the Machian soldiers throw down their rifles. 

“We are going to link up with the rest of the 1st ABCT. They have space for prisoners.”

A few minutes later

“Mercator, are you alright?”

“Yeah… Yeah… I’m fine.”

Furius had sprinted quite far from the battle. He feels something trickling down the back of his pants. 

“I’m going to need to set you down and check on that wound.”

Further down, Furius sees a group of Machian soldiers lying on the ground near some sparse trees. There seem to be people tending to the wounded. Furius runs to them and sets Mercator down near one of the trees. There is a massive gash on the back of Mercator’s left leg. Something like shrapnel had ripped his legs. An expanding blood pool starts to form on the ground from that wound.

“Medic! Medic! Is there a medic here?”

A soldier comes running to them.

“I’m a medic. What’s the problem?”

“My friend… he’s been hit with something on the back of his leg and… and he’s losing a lot of blood!”

“Rip a piece of cloth and put it on the wound. Apply pressure to it. I still have to tend to some of the more heavily wounded.” 

The medic then went off.

 

In the first major land battle between the Mach Imperium and the United States of America, the Machian 6th Army division was nearly wiped out by the 2nd Battalion, 27th Regiment of the Army and its attached platoon of tanks from the 2nd Tank Battalion of the Marines in less than an hour. 18 American tanks victoriously contended with 200 Machian tanks and 9,000 Machian infantry. Out of the 200 Machian tanks, only 30 survived the battle. Out of the 9,000 Machian infantry, around 4,000 had died and 3,000 were captured.