“MN forces grind through the North Hebeian defenses in Ginzhu hard, with casualties now ranging into the high thousands from both sides. The skies above Ginzhu are dominated by MN airpower, with glide bombs and guided ordnance dropping at an astounding rate of nearly thirty-thousand tons of bombs dropped since the start of the offensive. Hundreds of ballistic missiles have also struck the logistical pipelines of the North Hebeian Army, as they struggle to resist their currently badly disrupted air defenses. The North Hebeian leadership has already called for their soldiers to ‘stalwartly defend and counterattack’, with generals vowing to hold Ginzhu at all costs.”

  - Geopol Press

  Empire of Hebei

  Ginzhu Province

  B/18-4 Mobile Assault Brigade

  January 8, 2026

  Lieutenant Charles Rupkoff sighed as he watched the destroyed urban district ahead of them. Their mechs were currently parked on the side of the destroyed buildings behind him, as military trucks passed by them.

  The battle had turned into a grinding offensive. The enemy seemed to be progressively more stubborn and dug in as they punched through the easternmost areas of the Ginzhu Metropolitan Area.

  He looked to his side, as one of the trucks, which drove to the rear of their lines instead of the frontlines, passed by their parked mechs. They could hear the pained screams of the injured behind the military vehicle.

  He sighed.

  “Those sewer rats are crazy,” Corporal Hector Smith said, as he dropped a box of machine gun rounds on the side of their mech. He was slowly stacking them up, carrying them one by one from a parked logistical truck behind them. “They said one of our mechs was hit by some handheld MANPAT ahead of us.”

  “It’s to be expected,” Charles said, puffing a smoke from the lit-up cigarette in his hand. “So you better keep your eyes peeled once we rejoin at the attack. You bet your ass that someone from beneath will pull off nasty shit on us.”

  “Right,” the man groaned, as he went back to the truck on the rear, scratching the back of his head. Charles on the other hand dropped his cigarette and used his shoes to kill its embers. With a heavy breath, he began taking the boxes of ammunition and placing them inside of their mech’s turret.

  One by one, he stowed them in their dedicated store areas. It was quite a tedious task, but such was warfare. When he was done, Hector simply climbed their mech to place the last box he had carried from the truck. They were finally full of ammunition and battle-ready.

  “Fuel’s a check,” Charles said, placing a check on his notepad. “We got HEs too. Fuel is checked too, well…we’re set then.”

  Hector settled on his seat, grabbing for his canteen after a deep exhale, clearly tired.

  “Man, I just want to sleep…”

  “Sleep then,” Charles ordered, climbing back out of his hatch. “I’ll disturb you once we move out.”

  “Thanks, el-tee!” was Hector’s response, before Charles jumped off his mech. On the side of the driver’s hatch, Corporal Jenkins Schleit was calmly sipping coffee while watching the other mech crewmen in front of them work. As he dipped his cracker on his mug, Charles approached him.

  “Oi,” Charles called out from behind. “Word of warning, once we drive, you keep your eyes extra cautious on those sewers.”

  “Sure, why not?” Jenkins replied, enjoying his softened crackers. “I always do that anyway.”

  “Yeah, sure you do, asshat,” Charles gave a skeptical chuckle. “You always drive too fast, I’m starting to doubt you even look at the debris below us.”

  “Hey, I assure you I do!” Jenkins replied, defensive. “Come on, if I don’t look well on the debris ahead of us, I’d screw up.”

  “I’m just saying, tone down the recklessness. We’re not in an open battlefield, we’re in tight urban areas.”

  “Yeah, sure, sure, I understand,” Jenkins groaned. “The last few days have been too tedious. When’s the last time we engaged an actual hostile vehicle?”

  “Being a glorified HE carrier opening fire at buildings isn’t so bad,” Charles said. “It’s funny how the two of you are laser-focused on getting kills on our name.”

  “Of course we are!” Jenkins said. “Have you not heard, the ladies coming in the Army like the guys with more kills.”

  “Where the hell did you get those rumors from? That’s stupid.”

  “Or, or, they say, if you perform better, you’ll get better jobs after this war.”

  “You’re still listening to their bullshit?!”

  “Of course not, but…you know, what if it’s true?” Jenkins laughed. “Then better kill more of those North Hebeian bastards.”

  He gave Charles a smug grin and a thumbs up.

  “Yeah, sure…sure,” Charles shook his head. “Can’t believe my men now believe in nonsense. Here I thought I drilled you all to stop believing in bullshit.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “But like, what if it’s true, El-tee?”

  +++

  “Take the shot now,” Charles ordered, eyeing one of the apartments ahead of them that had guns still cracking left and right. Hector grunted him before he pulled the trigger for their main gun. An explosion immediately struck the apartment, but the bastards continued to fight. “Take a second shot, HE again.”

  “Gotcha!”

  A high-explosive round was immediately pulled out of their mech’s bustle rack, the autoloader slamming it straight into the barrel of their main gun. Hector took a few seconds to adjust it before he pulled it again.

  These fools are quite stubborn.

  “Give it another pummeling,” Charles ordered. “Those bastards seem to like to hold on to that building hard.”

  “Well, it’s a damn good position, sir,” Hector replied, laughing. “HE loaded again.”

  “Fire.”

  He watched as the third round finally collapsed nearly half of the building. Then, taking control of the coaxial machine guns, Charles began peppering the remnants of the building with controlled bursts. Within a few minutes, they received confirmation from the drone teams that the enemy had either vacated it or died.

  “That was a good one,” Charles commented, as their mech backed up a bit. Above them, the whistling screams of descending rockets thundered through the skies. In seconds, four explosions blanketed the already badly bombarded residential apartments ahead of them.

  “Wish it was a tank,” Hector said. “Oh well…”

  “It’s still going to your battlefield records, dumbass.”

  South Hebeian soldiers soon appeared on the streets ahead of them, their squads charging through already suppressed North Hebeian positions. Their assault was determined, dropping grenades on the houses and buildings occupied by the North Hebeian troops.

  Charles ordered Jenkins to drive forward, as his platoon also began advancing alongside their allies. Rifles and machine guns began to dominate the battlefield, with their mech slowly getting closer and closer to the furthermost areas of the advancing frontlines.

  They stopped behind a squad of South Hebeian troopers, who were storming a house beside them when suddenly, a dozen North Hebeian soldiers appeared ahead of them. Charles screamed at Hector to open fire, while Jenkins moved their mech backwards slightly just in time to dodge an incoming ATGM.

  “That was a close one!” Jenkins shouted as the battlefield intensified.

  “I’m gonna waste these assholes!” Hector said, sending an HE straight at their positions. The round exploded, badly suppressing them and leaving at least three dead on the streets. Behind them, the South Hebeian troops began joining in, their rifles opening fire in conjunction with their Panther’s machine gun fire.

  Behind them, Charles began communicating with the rest of his platoon, trying to get them to respond close to their position. One of the mechs of the fifth platoon, designated as Five-Three, responded close behind them, climbing on one of the apartments to give fire support.

  An MPAT round came from the mech’s main gun, seemingly by mistake, as it was set up in the armor-piercing configuration. Charles frowned, as he ordered Jenkins to stay still, even with them already taking direct heavy fire.

  I don’t need to appear useless to the guys on the ground.

  He took brief control of the coaxials, taking controlled fire on what appeared to be a soldier who carried a light machine gun, who was hiding behind the wreck of a long-destroyed civilian sedan. Meanwhile, Hector prepared another HE round, aiming it at an area where four soldiers hid behind car wrecks.

  “Five-Three, coordinate fire with us,” Charles ordered. “HE!”

  “Copy that, Five-One,” replied the commander of Five-Three. In a second, two HE rounds blasted the North Hebeian soldiers, completely lighting up the street ahead of them. A panicked rout consumed the enemy, causing them all to flee as the South Hebeian soldiers around Charles’ mech rose, and charged ahead.

  “Yeah, right!” Hector cheered. “Take those bastards out as they run!”

  “Jenkins, advance slowly,” Charles ordered using their intercom. “Hector, just keep giving them fire support. We’re doing well, let’s not screw this up.”

  “Gotcha,” Hector replied.

  “I’m on it,” Jenkins replied as well.

  Soon, their mech finally advanced, their main gun and coaxials continuously raging as the battle continued.

  +++

  As night approached, their ammunition finally began running low. All in all, Charles estimated based on how far they advanced, that they indeed marched forward at least ten kilometers from their starting positions yesterday.

  “It’s impressive,” Charles said, after checking his map. “We’re getting closer and closer to B Company’s assigned objectives.”

  “Think we’ll reach it tomorrow?” Hector asked beside him. “I wanna be rotated out of this crap soon.”

  “We’re not getting rotated out of here dumbass,” Charles said, throwing the map at him. Then, he climbed up his hatch, opening it and watching the dark and burning city ahead of them. “Can’t escape this place until we’ve liberated it all.”

  Hector climbed to his hatch as well, his head popping up to look at the stars above them.

  “I just calculated by the way,” Hector said, right beside him. “That we’ve fired a total of forty-nine HE rounds today, alongside three thousand rounds from our machine guns.”

  “That much?”

  “We’ve practically only fired HE and machine gun rounds,” Hector sighed. “I kinda regret using our MPAT stocks early on.”

  “They’re not going to be sending new ones until next week,” Charles said, sighing. “Most of the HEs we’re getting are from the South Hebeian logistics. And they only have cheap rounds available, like old APFSDS and HE.”

  “To be fair, if you think about it, their HE kinda performs better against footsoldiers than our MPAT rounds,” Hector pointed out, smirking. “It’s not so bad.”

  “Sure, sure, but the next time we face a tank, you’re going to regret it when the only thing we have loaded is HE.”

  “Then we’ll switch fast to APFSDS!”

  “Yeah, sure,” Charles climbed back down on their turret, going straight to the containers that held their rations. He checked each bag, before picking one of them. “I’m going to eat now, by the way. Hit me up when something happens!”

  “Sure, el-tee!” Hector responded from the top.

  Charles on the other hand settled on his seat, opening the pack of rations on his hands.

  Thank Goddess we still haven’t lost anyone in the platoon.

  He began heating his main while taking a few bites of his crackers. Then, when his main was ready, he tore it open and began eating from the retour pouch itself. He stared at the pork stew inside.

  Damn long road for us still.

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