“Alright…ok”, Bannon said slowly, taking in everything. “Anyone got targets?”
“No sir,” Folk replied.
“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEES-ALL TARGETS DOWN-HOLD FIRE AND REMAIN ON STANDBY-OUT”
Bannon forgot to ask for a reply, but he wasn’t too worried. The enemy had no chance; they had only got off one or two shots in their direction. No one had been lost. Everything, for the moment, was perfect.
“Ok, I’m going to check up on our little friends,” Bannon said as he took off the CVC and climbed out. “Folk keep an eye out and let me know if anything pops up.”
Bannon hopped out and down from the tank. He took a minute to survey the battlefield. Most of the field was covered by the burning, blackened, and shattered hulks of vehicles. Some were still burning, their ammo cooking off slowly. Most of the hostile ponies couldn’t be seen, but here and there a corpse, blackened by burns or shattered by some other force.
It was an interesting scene, to say the least. It got to him a bit, but it felt easier when he understood that it wasn’t his battalion.
“But, what happens if- No, when it is?” he asked himself. “Guess I’ll have to try my best when it does come.”
The ponies in their little dugout were a bit more shocked. Bannon saw the look on their faces as he approached and was worried that one of them had been hit. He didn’t see anything wrong with them, though.
“You all ok?”
“My, that was…horrific,” Celestia responded. “Still, I feel better that nothing happened to the town.”
“Uh huh, and you?” he asked Luna.
“I’m…stunned,” she commented, the shock throwing her into her normal voice. “I certainly underestimated you.”
“You’re welcome,” Bannon replied. “And what about you, captain?”
“Well, it’s certainly more effective than what the guards try.”
“I kind of thought I’d be used to it after seeing it the first time,” Twilight added in. “But now, it just feels worse now that there’s more. I just don’t understand…”
“It’s simple, you don’t get used to it,” Bannon explained. “But, you don’t worry over it. We’re the ones that do the fighting, not you.”
“Right, thanks for helping, too,” she added. “I don’t think we could have saved Ponyville by ourselves.”
“It’s alright; I think they’ll think twice before coming here again.”
“You think they’ll give up now?” Fluttershy asked.
“Not likely,” Bannon answered. “Now that they know we are here, or at least that they’re vulnerable to something, they’ll start trying to find ways to stop us, in turn. Hopefully, that’ll be a while from now.”
“Which means we should keep attacking while we have the advantage,” Shining realized.
“Looks like someone know strategy and tactics,” Bannon said. “So, do you know where the attack came from?”
“Yes, Russage has a single base inside the country that they operate from. They launch all attacks from there.”
“Well, that’s our next target. Where is it?”
“A ways beyond from here, just keep going east and there will be a long, flat plain up until you reach a small ridge. It’s just beyond that, near the border.”
“Ok, you guys stay here. We’ll move out and handle it.”
“You’re going right now!?” Luna asked. “You just finished one battle!”
“And now we have to win another,” Bannon replied as he started back towards the tank. “We’ll stop and rest when we can afford it.”
“But are you sure you can do it?”
Bannon could have sworn she sounded genuinely worried for him and the team.
“Don’t worry about us!” Bannon shouted back, climbing back onto the tank. “We’ll kick them out of your country for good!”
The first thing that woke up Sean was a phone. He shot up quickly to answer it; his wife, Pat, was a bit slower in getting up. Hanging up, he sighed and got out of bed.
“Are you going in already?” she asked.
“Yes. Gotta. Wouldn’t look good for a CO to be late, would it?”
“Will you be home for breakfast?”
“No, I won’t”
“Should I hold supper for you tonight?”
“No, no need,” he looked back at her, and the return gaze said that she understood. “Pat, the battalion is moving to the border in an hour. I don’t know when we will be back.”
“Is everyone going?”
“Everyone. NATO is mobilizing and the civilians are being sent home.”
“Are they really going to evacuate?”
“No doubt, starting at 0900.”
If it hurt Sean that he had to let his wife know, the kids would be worse. He was going to war and they were going back stateside. He couldn’t help but say a quick goodbye to his two sleepy children.
“Captain. Captain, wake up.”
“You be good when you’re with mommy, ok? I'll try to be back with you guys as soon as I can.”
“When will we see you again, daddy?”
“Captain Bannon, sir! Could you please focus?”
Bannon shot back to reality. He was sitting in the cupola, while Kelp was calling him. The tank was moving fast over a long plain towards another fight, no doubt.
“Kelp, you think we’re doing the right thing, here?”
Bannon had been mumbling to himself while he was daydreaming, so Kelp knew why he asked this.
“You’ll be fine, Sean,” calling his captain by the first name, hoping to ease him, or at least take his mind off it. “We’ll all be fine and back home in no time.”
Kelp went back down his hatch while Bannon surveyed the scene. The team was deployed in a tactical wedge formation, with his and Uleski’s tanks sandwiched between 1st and 2nd platoons on the left, and 3rd and 4th on the right. The Mech platoon was bringing up the rear.
“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEES-MISSION LAUNCH FOR OBJECTIVE DOOR-ADVANCE TO FIRST CHECKPOINT-OVER”
“COPY YANKEE ACTUAL-ADVANCING TO PHASE LINE ONE-OUT”
“YANKEE TWO-TWO-INTERROGATIVE-DO WE KNOW THE ENEMY’S SIZE AND IF THEY’RE EXPECTING US-OVER?”
“UNKNOWN-BUT WE’RE ATTACKING ALL THE SAME-OUT”
The invasion had gone just fine, now the Russagian general had to just wait for the attacking unit to report back. It had been some time, and he starting to get impatient when one of his men reported a large force coming in their direction.
“What? Why are they returning!?” he yelled. “They couldn’t have possibly been defeated by the Equestrians!”
He took a look towards the incoming force with binoculars. His rage turned to confusion, then to outright horror. Whoever’s tanks those were, they weren’t his.
“Get everyone to their positions! Send out the metal to stop them! And someone find a radio and report to high command that the enemy has them, too.”
Bannon dropped back down into the tank and squinted to get a look at the ridge.
“YANKEE ACTAUL TO ALL UNITS-I SEE MOVEMENT COMIGN OVER THE RIDGE-WE’RE IN ENEMY TERRITORY, SO WEAPONS FREE ON ANYTHING THAT ISN’T PART OF THE TEAM-OVER”
“ROGER ACTAUL-YANKEE SEVEN HAS YOUR BACK-OUT”
That feeling came back to Uleski. It wasn’t as bad as before, but it was still there. This time, the fear was mixed with irritation; he really just wanted it to be gone once and for all.
“OK, CREW REPORT”
“GUNNER READY”
“LOADER READY”
“DRIVER DRIVING”
“OK, HERE THEY COME-LOADER-CARRY SABOT”
“ROGER THA-”
The last of Folk’s reply was drowned out by a loud explosion right in front of the tank.
“SABOT UP”
Bannon grabbed the radio again.
“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL VICTORS-IDENTIFY MULTIPLE TANKS CLOSING IN FAST-ALL STOP AND ENGAGE”
He immediately went back to his own tank’s work.
“GUNNER-IDENTIFY-T-72-FIRE-FIRE SABOT”
“ON THE WAY”
The entire team stopped in a crooked line and began to fire away at the twelve tanks coming at them. They were a bit more difficult, as they had more room to maneuver and saw their enemy. As 66 fired, Bannon was rocked by a large explosion on the side of the tank.
“WE’RE HIT! IT DIDN'T PENATRATE!"
He quickly noticed there was almost no damage. Other enemy shots were just bouncing off or exploding harmlessly. Bannon also remembered that the Equestrians didn’t have any vehicles that he knew of.
“THEY MUST NOT HAVE ANY KIND OF AP ROUND”
“SO WE’RE PRETTY MUCH SAFE?” Folk asked.
“YEA, BUT LET’S NOT PUSH OUR LUCK”
“AGREED”
“GUNNER-TARGET LAST TANK-HE’S TRYING TO RUN”
“IDENTIFIED”
“FIRE”
“OUT”
The last tank exploded, not having stood a chance.
“ALL YANKEES-CONTINUE ADVANCE TO THE RIDGE-HOLD THERE AND WAIT FOR YANKEE FIVE TO CATCH UP-OVER”
The M1s rolled up in a line and stopped at the ridge. They had to wait there for the slower M113s to catch up. Moving the tank up just enough to see the other side, Bannon saw even more tanks coming at them.
“ALL YANKEES BE ADVISED-LARGE ENEMY FORCE COUNTERATTACKING-HOLD REVERSE SLOPE POSITION ON THE RIDGE AND DRIVE THEM BACK”
The tanks moved up to where there was just enough to see over the ridge and opened fire. The return rounds impacted on the ridge. Bannon was about to call a target when his vision was obscured by smoke.
“ALL YANKEES BE ADVISED-ENEMY IS USING SMOKE-SWITCH TO THERMAL AND CONTINUE ENGAGING”
Bannon switched the thermal view on. There were plenty of large heat blobs to choose from. The team did just that; picking away at the enemy, who apparently didn’t know about thermal optics, either. By the time the Mech platoon had caught up, the enemy counter attack had been defeated.
“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEES-PREPARE TO CHARGE ON MY MARK-WHEN WE REACH THE BASE, I WANT IT SURROUNDED-YANKEE TWO-FLANK AROUND TO THE LEFT; YANKEE FOUR-FLANK AROUND RIGHT-YANKEE FIVE-MAKE SURE TO DISMOUNT AND SECURE THE BASE ASAP”
“YANKEE TWO-ROGER”
“YANKEE FOUR-ROGER”
“YANKEE FIVE-ROGER”
Bannon turned back to Kelp.
“LOADER-LOAD HEAT”
“ROGER-HEAT UP”
HEAT would work better in the close quarters of the base.
“3-2-1-MARK!”
As a group, the team surged over the ridge and drove at full speed towards the base. There were a few remaining tanks there that fired on them; they were quickly destroyed by return fire from the team. The Yankees moved out as planned, encircling the base like a pack of wolves surrounding their prey.
The Mech platoon reached the opening gate and rolled through behind Bannon and Uleski’s tanks. They quickly pulled over and unloaded their infantry. Now came the time to match up the average conscripted pony, who had little knowledge or training with their new guns, against the average American infantryman.
If the ponies were stunned by the large machines coming at them, they were shocked to see just who, or rather what, operated them. It only got worse as the infantry dismounted and began to clear each building in room-to-room, house-to-house fighting.
The Americans, who had been trained in CQC and had the advantage of having their tanks right there for support, quickly overwhelmed the enemy for no loss. Whenever a machine gun or sniper fired from a building, a tank would blast it away. Indeed, the team captured a large number of prisoners, including the general who commanded the invasion force, for no losses. Polgar was visibly happy at getting into the action himself.
Now, it was done. Bannon had the large Russage flag flying in the center of the camp replaced with the Stars and Stripes. The prisoners, who were only confused even further by the new banner, were tied up and placed in a small, one story building for holding. But as all this wrapped up, Bannon saw a massive amount of dust and smoke being kicked up back to the east.