1148 April 14th, 2020 CE

0554 Sun 14th, 2020 CE

Kingdom of Albea, Soane Continent

Miller stretched.

“That was quite some journey.”

“We still got work ahead.”

“Would prefer to have a short break.”

“I was the one who drove. You slept nearly the entire trip.”

“Still doesn’t feel comfortable being crammed into a vehicle for hours on end.”

“Weren’t you in the Marines?”

“You know my military background as clear as day, commander.”

Wolfred shook his head.

“Let’s go there’s no time to dally. We still have to get everything organized before we can actually go to bed.”

The area was bustling with soldiers of all shapes and sizes. Wolves, bears, tigers, and many other strong beastmen. There were also human knights.

Following Wolfred, Miller walked up to Flametail. Wolfred got her attention.

“We are here as support attached to your division but I would still like to join in on whatever meetings you high-level officers are having.”

“Of course. I was just told that we should be having one soon. You and your subcommander can join. Just follow me.”

They were welcomed by a large bear.

“Commander Flametail. Good to see you again.”

“It is too, Commander Grizzlyjack.”

Grizzlyjack looked down at Ron and smiled.

“Ron! How are you doing! Still falling off bridges?”

Commander Grizzlyjack chuckled at his own comment. Ron bowed.

“I’m doing well, Commander Grizzlyjack.”

“No need to be so formal. I still remember the time you were just this small and I had to dive into a river to save you after the bridge came out right under you."

He looked towards Miller and Wolfred.

“Ah, you two must be part of the human mercenaries that were hired.”

Miller felt as if the ground shook from the bear’s booming voice.

They got their introductions out of the way and were welcomed into the tent for the meeting. There were tigers, jaguars, wolves, bears, and a few other types of beastmen sitting around. There were also a few humans.

Sitting at the opposite end of the entrance was a very imposing rhino beastmen.

“Welcome Commander Flametail and Commander Grizzlyjack.”

They both saluted and replied at the same time.

“Reporting for duty, Lord Commander”

The rhino who was called the Lord Commander turned his attention to Miller and Wolfred.

“You two must be the mercenaries from the United States. Welcome, Commander Wolfred and Subcommander Miller I presume. I’m Lord Commander Darkhorn. I’m in command of all frontline forces.”

Wolfred and Miller acknowledged him and the meeting began. He began to speak.

“We have been fighting the elves for some time right now and we have only been on the defense and retreating. However, it is now time for us to begin our counterattack. We will push them out of the Kingdom of Albea!”

Murmurs rose up in the room among the commanders. Miller and Wolfred stayed quiet and looked around. One of the humans in the room raised his voice above the murmurs.

“Lord Commander.”

“Yes, Gladwine?”

“With all due respect, sir, how do you expect us to accomplish that? The elves have much more superior technology and there had been no way to get around that.”

“True until now. But with the help of the mercenaries we have hired…”

“The mercenaries?! Sir! This is a slight to the honor of knights! Depending on mere mercenaries!”

“Commander Flametail has written to me that she holds these mercenaries' abilities in high regard. I have also heard that their country has nearly pushed the elves out of the Imperitoria Continent, single-handedly.”

He looked towards Miller and Wolfred.

“I have high expectations. I hope that you do not disappoint.”

“But Lord Commander!”

Commander Gladwine sat down clearly upset.

“I will tolerate no more protests. We still have more matters to discuss.”

The meeting proceeded for around another hour. There was further discussion about the positioning of the units and the plan for the offensive.

Flametail walked out of the tent with Ron following closely behind.

“Still carrying that little kitten with you, Commander Flametail?”

Commander Grayears, a wolf beastmen, greeted them with that. Flametail turned around and nodded with a neutral expression.

“Ron is a very good squire, thank you.”

“I’m not that surprised that humans are with you too.”

He laughed before continuing.

“Typical. The weak always flock to you cats.”

Ron started hissing.

“Ron stop.”

His hissing immediately stopped but his hostile stare didn’t.

“Understood Madam Flametail.”

“Madam Flametail this. Madam Flametail that. It seems so funny. Well, now if you will excuse me, I have some important matters to attend to. You cats can go laze around in the sun.”

In a tent, Ron voiced his complaints in a child-like manner.

“But mom, he was being a prick again.”

“I know, Ron. But we can’t be having fights amongst ourselves right before a major offensive. If it was any other day, I would have given him a good beating.”

Ron was still clearly upset. Flametail shook her head.

“He’s just being jealous of our division's accomplishments. Now go get some rest. We will be marching into battle tomorrow.”

Ron nodded and walked off to his tent. His back felt very sore. He had been accidentally bumped off of the trucks multiple times.

Miller asked Wolfred as they were walking towards their supply trucks.

“I’m not sure if I had heard that rhino correctly but they want us to be the vanguard?”

“Seems like that Lord Commander guy is testing us. From the way this is planned, the only actual support we are getting in this battle for the first 30 minutes is from the Fifth Division.”

“Won’t it also be bad for him if we lost?”

“He’s being cautious. All the other forces are far enough that they will be able to quickly retreat if we fail. We are just some mercenary unit. Of course, he doesn’t trust us completely but he clearly has high hopes in us. We just gotta prove ourselves.”

“What are we going to do about those elven tanks? I thought we were planning to use hit and run tactics.”

Wolfred pulled something out of the back of the truck.

“Why do you think I brought these then?”

Less than an hour later

Miller started setting up his tent when a commotion got his attention. Wolfred was arguing with a human knight. As he got closer, he saw the human knight was Commander Gladwine.

“I challenge you to a duel!”

“I don’t use a sword.”

He laughed.

“You don’t have a sword?”

“The elves don’t have them either. And neither does the Imperials. And why do you think they don’t have them? Swords are archaic weapons.”

“I will give you a sword and we will…”

A booming voice disrupted Gladwine.

“What is happening here?”

Gladwine turned and immediately saluted.

“Lord Commander!”

“Commander Gladwine. What are you doing?”

“Sir, um, I just wanted to test the capabilities of these mercenaries. As they are a vital component of an operation that my men will participate in, I need to understand if they are qualified.”

“There is no need for that.”

“But sir!”

Darkhorn glared at Gladwine.

“Are you doubting the words of a superior officer?”

“No sir! I will take my leave, sir.”

Gladwine scampered away as Darkhorn looked over at Wolfred

“Sorry about that, he’s a proud knight.”

“It’s fine.”

Wolfred knew that even Darkhorn had some doubts about the Diamond Wolves' capabilities. It was hypocritical of Darkhorn but Wolfred was still happy that he was giving them a chance to prove themselves. Afterward, Darkhorn departed as quickly as he had arrived.

1535 April 14th, 2020 CE

0747 Sun 14th, 2020 CE

Elven Headquarters, Subican Kingdom

Field Marshal Nieven Ianna, commander of all elven forces on the Soane Continent, studied the laid-out map.

“The current line is finally stable. We can now restart the offensive.”

Their “allied” human kingdom, the Subican Kingdom, had finally mobilized their entire army. Even though it only consisted of human knights who were much weaker when compared to the beastmen, with this vast boost in manpower, the elves were able to regroup their spread-out forces without losing any territory. He laid out his plans to his subordinates.

“We will push through their center. When we cause that to collapse, the sides will give way.”

Having such a meager force, it was decided that it was best that they concentrated it into a heavy punch that could destabilize the technologically inferior enemy.

0825 April 15th, 2020 CE

0412 Sun 15th, 2020 CE

Frontline

The magipanzer engines roared to life. A division of them headed straight for the Soane League Army’s center.

“Report! Surprise attack! Multiple groups of tanks are coming!”

Scouts from the Soane League had quickly come back when they sighted a large magipanzer force headed straight towards them. The usual elven artillery fire and close air support that preceded attacks didn’t appear so the Soane League was caught completely off guard.

News of it spread quickly across the frontline. The Diamond Wolves had moved out earlier in the morning to take up the position from where they will be starting the offensive. A somewhat worried member of the Diamond Wolves was talking with Wolfred.

“What do we do about this commander? We can’t be expected to take on 100 tanks. We have never done this before. We are literally in the way of an armored spearhead.”

Wolfred shook his head.

“Well, it seems like the elves got a jump on us. Funny how we decided to go on an offensive at nearly the same time.”

Miller looked up from cleaning his gun.

“Well, we should be prepared for this.”

“Depends on how large that tank force is.”

“The scouts just said multiple groups of them. Any orders to pull out?”

Wolfred shook his head again.

“The Soanes is trying to stop it. Seems like that rhino is pulling units from the flanks to reinforce us. If they punch through, the Soanes is gonna have a major problem. I won’t be surprised if they had invested everything into this defensive position. Well, I guess we are using a different weapon. The Carl Gustafs won’t cut it.”

Wolfred stood up before talking again.

“We are moving out.”

The person who was talking to Wolfred earlier looked up.

“Where are we going?”

“Can’t stay on open ground when tanks are coming. We are going to a better position.”

“The Soanes instructed us not to move though.”

Miller laughed. He remembered that this guy was new.

“We are mercenaries, we don’t have to follow orders. We are getting paid to kill and defeat the enemy and that’s our objective. If the orders given don’t help us accomplish what we are being paid for, then we don’t need to heed them.”

More than an hour later

The first elven tank appeared from the horizon. It slowly got close and closer. Even more elven tanks appeared from out of the horizon.

“Like test these babies out. Fire!”

A TOW missile slid out of a TOW launcher.

An hour earlier

“100,000 dollars a pop. Didn’t put much of a dent to the gold we got from the Soanes. Though these things are still expensive. We only got two of them launchers so we have to use them well. Should have the range to take out them tanks.”

“You literally seem to be pulling these weapons out of thin air. Why don’t I know that we bought these.”

“What can I say, I love surprises.”

Miller sighed, he was getting a bit tired of his commander’s recent shenanigans.

“Where did you even get this? Was this approved? I can understand the Carl Gustaf getting through but TOW missile launchers? Don’t tell me you got these off some sort of black market.”

“Had some connections. When you are in the mercenary business, it's important to have them.”

Back to the present.

The forwardmost Guard tank exploded.

“Enemy attack!”

“They shouldn’t have ranged anti-tank weapons! Where is it coming from?”

“They are firing from somewhere hidden.”

“Spread out and move forward.”>>>

Another Guard tank went up in flames.

Wolfred laughed while looking down his binoculars.

“Ha! Look at them cook. They still haven’t seen us.”

“Pretty sure they are expecting some sort of massive anti-tank gun.”

“Keep up the fire. I only see 10 of them.”

“Now they’re spreading out.”

“Well, that won’t help much against guided missiles.”

A TOW missile slammed into another one of the elf tanks. It went up in flames as the tank lurched forward before stopping.