0044 May 15th, 2020 CE

0322 Sun 45th, 196 AE

<<<“One of our war correspondents has an exclusive view of the current invasion. He is currently following an element of the 1st Armored Division. Mason Booker, to you.”>>>

The TV screen changes to a person standing on the deck of a ship. A few seconds of silence follow.

<<<“Ok, John, I’m currently on the USS Oak Hill, a sort of landing ship, off the shore of the Elven Nation. As you can see the soldiers here are preparing to deploy a lot of these smaller boats towards the shore.”

“Is this anything on the shore?”>>>

The camera pans towards the shore.

<<<“No. Nothing. It's only an empty beach. Much earlier I saw multiple of what I believe to be American jets fly over.”

“Seems like the landing ships are departing.”>>>

The camera swivels to where the ships are departing the Oak Hill.

Off the shore of the Elven Nation

Multiple ships pulled up to the beaches. The largest of them all, the USAV Major General Robert Smalls and USAV Major General Charles P. Gross, Landing Ship Vessels, dropped down its front door. One by one, a total of twenty-eight M1A2 Abrams, two armored companies worth of tanks, rolled off. This made up the entire tank force of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment. The 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment was one of the Armor Combined Arms Battalion of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team. It was made up of two armored companies and one mechanized rifle company.

Besides the Landing Ship Vessels, many LCUs, LCACs, and LCMs came ashore. From them, infantry jumped onto the beach. Humvees, M113A3 APCs, and M2A3 Bradleys also drove ashore from them. Multiple Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ships and Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships could be seen further out at sea still disgorging LCUs, LCACs, and LCMs.

Issac was among the infantry inside the M2A3 Bradleys coming ashore. He was part of the mechanized rifle company of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment.

The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team was the first Army unit to land on Elven shores. More Army units were coming but there was a limited number of military transport ships. A lot would have to come by civilian contracted ships.

Jaonor, Elven Nation

Johnson shook his head. “Two towns of hell and we have to fight our way through a major port city now. This is going to be a pain in the ass. The populace is just too hostile. I would prefer fighting the Taliban than this.”

Blake frowned. “Then why are we attacking a major port city?”

“Seems like the Army is using civilian contractors to get more things ashore. The civilian ships don’t have amphibious capabilities. They need a port.”

“Ah, the fucking Army. Makes sense. We are definitely not going to be able to do this by ourselves.”

“A brigade combat team from the 1st Armored is coming to assist. They should have already landed.”

???, Elven Nation

Tarron frowned as the officers of his General Staff bickered about his decision yesterday. He had no intention to intervene. Yet.

The voices of his generals mixed together. It was hard to distinguish who was speaking what but it was clear what they were saying.

“I protest this! We will be abandoning the civilians if we do!”

“To lose so much land is ridiculous!”

“The civilians are doing a worthy sacrifice. Even to a limited degree, we will still be assisting them. Do you dare question our leader?!”

“But for us to run away is undignified!”

“Dignity or not, it's important to ensure the survival of the nation.”

“This isn’t a fight for survival, we just have to find a way to beat them back!”

“The civilians that make up this nation are the nation. To abandon them is to abandon this nation!”

“Then they would understand that they have to do this. They are fighting for themselves!”

“We must reconsolidate our forces. We barely have a chain of command left. Sounding an all retreat to regroup and reorganize is important.”

“It isn’t an all retreat. There are units that have been specifically commanded to continue resisting. We need to delay the enemy whilst we retreat.”

Tarron coughed and the room fell silent. “I understand your concerns but my decision is final. We will conduct a retreat with some left behind to delay the enemy. The civilians must also fight for their country.”

0206 May 15th, 2020 CE

0403 Sun 45th, 196 AE

Nythnas Forest, Elven Nation.

The Nythnas Forest was a small forest that was only a few miles away from the sea. It was beside a major road that led to the Port City of Filanneas. In the forest, two elves sat on rocks and pointed at the map they laid out on the ground. Around them multiple tents were set up and two Knights sat idle nearby. A few magitracks and magitrucks were scattered around. They were what remained of the 29th Magipanzer Division. They were mostly survivors from the 13th Tracked Infantry Regiment and 4th Magipanzer Regiment.

Colonel Taenaran Elafaren of the 4th Magipanzer Regiment laid out his plan. “Our recon forces have reported that we have human forces advancing through here. The sun’s going down soon. A night attack would be able to catch them off guard. We are well hidden, they wouldn’t even know what happened before it's too late.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Major Allisa Krisjor of the 13th Tracked Infantry Regiment nodded. “We will form a line on this edge of the forest right beside the road. A Knight will stay there with its engines turned off. Once the human convoy reaches the end of our line, we will all open fire. The Knight will come out from the back of the convoy and block their retreat. Just a textbook ambush. Nothing complicated.”

“Sounds good.”

25 minutes later

Taenaran crouched down beside Allisa. “This is perfect. The moon isn’t bright today. We are completely concealed.”

The elves occupied a stretch of forest that bordered the road. Only the sound of crickets could be heard as they waited silently in the darkness. It wasn’t long before they heard a whirring sound.

The gunner in the lead Abrams spoke up.

<<<“Stop! I’m seeing some movement up ahead. Multiple elves… there’s a tank. They are hiding in the trees. Switching to thermals.”>>>

The lead Abrams came to a halt.

An elf observed the human convoy. He saw the lead magipanzer suddenly halt. He whispered to the soldier beside him. “They stopped.”

“Why did they stop? Did they see us?”

“They couldn’t have. It’s even hard to see them.”

Gunshots and explosions came over them. A shout came from somewhere.“The Knight has been destroyed!”

“How did they see us?!”

“Retreat! Get deeper into the forest. They can't get us in this dark.”

Their second Knight came out a mile down the road in front of the lead Abram. It fired a shot.

The driver tried to back up the Abrams but it only started circling right.

“The track is damaged!”

<<<“This is Grizzly 2-2. There’s an elven tank in front of us. They got our track.”>>>

The second Abrams in the convoy pulled off to the side of the road and aimed towards the Knight. A shot destroyed the Knight.

Issac snored with his arms crossed and head leaning back against the metal wall of the crew compartment of the Bradley. He was shaken awake by his staff sergeant, Jacob who had been sitting beside him.

“We found a bunch of elves trying to ambush us. Get your NVG and repare to get out.”

Because of his sore neck, Issac shook his head from left to right.

<<<“Grizzly 2-2. Stay back and stay in your tank.”>>>

The Abrams and Bradleys swiveled toward the forest. The .50 cals on the Abrams and 25 mm chain gun on the Bradley opened up. Heavy machine gunfire came from the elves.

<<<”This is Grizzly 3-1. I’m seeing half-tracks in the forest.”>>>

Three magitracks laid down heavy machine gun fire at the Bradleys and Abrams. The magibullets flashed through the air like bolts of electricity. They pinged off of the surfaces of the American armored vehicles. Using thermals, the Abrams and Bradleys could clearly see the magitracks. Rounds from a Bradley’s chain gun punctured holes into one of the magitracks which blew up a second after. The remaining two magitracks were quickly dealt with by the Abrams. The rapid fire of machine guns died down.

With their front facing the forest, the back doors of the Bradleys opened. Issac and his squad ran out. They positioned themselves besides their Bradley and towards the forest before opening up.

Jacob yelled. “We are moving up. Be careful. It’s vital that we clear them out. Don’t want an ambush happening because we left a couple of them.”

A bullet whizzed past and someone cussed.

“Open fire!”

The elves started panicking once more when the humans seemed to know where they were.

"How can they see us... AGHHH."

"Shoot back!"

"I can't see them!"

Retreating back to the camp, Allisa shouted at Taenaran. "They can see us at night!"

Taenaran threw his hands up in disbelief. "How!? Are they even humans!?"

"I don't know sir! They are coming!"

"Get to the trucks we need to get out of here! I'm not fighting monsters who can see at night."

The Bradleys and Abrams, supported by the infantry, advanced deeper into the forest. They soon came upon a clearing that had a few tents set up. A large amount of bullets started whizzing past the infantry. Many pinged off of the Abrams and Bradleys. Issac got his back to a tree. Someone shouted out. “I’m hit!”

Issac could see elves piling onto their magitrucks. A few elves stood in the open, firing their rifles and submachine guns. The Abrams opened up on the magitrucks while the Bradleys ripped apart the elves in the open. Issac peeked out of his cover and shot the nearest elf. He watched as a magitruck exploded from being hit by an HE shot from an Abrams. Bodies of the elves in the back of that magitruck were flung around. Some laid burning on the ground. The fighting soon died down.

<<<“This is Grizzly Actual. Forest is entirely clear. Move back to the roads.”>>>

A few minutes later

“Get the maintenance platoon up here! One of Grizzly 2-2’s tracks is bust.”

An engineer studied the broken track. Staff Sergeant Harry Bellau looked at the engineer. “Is it bad?”

“Shouldn’t take long to fix. Quite lucky. It’s only the track that broke. The wheels are fine”

The convoy stayed halted on the road to deal with the damage suffered. It wasn’t long before they started moving again.

???, Elven Nation

Tarron walked into the office of the Advancement Department. He walked up to Illrune Heleren, the new Head of Advancement. Illrune was the Vice Head of Advancement until Ruehnar met his demise when an American bomb struck the High Command Office. “Is it almost ready?”

Illrune nodded. “Yes but there is going to be an issue when it comes to crossing bridges. It’s too heavy even for our metal ones.”

“Then just go around them.”

“It’s also excruciatingly slow.”

Tarron frowned. “I don’t care as long as it can reach the Americans.”

“Understood sir.”

Tarron walked out into the hallway. There, Anafalen ran to him. “My Leader.”

Tarron raised his eyebrow. “What is it Anfalen?”

“I… I don’t believe we can win sir…”

Tarron laughed. “I know the situation looks bleak but don’t worry.”

“The American’s technology is much too superior to ours. I have been compiling and studying a list of the American’s capabilities. They are not a few years ahead. Based on our past speed of development, the Americans are at least 300 years ahead. Remember, it took us 150 years to get from our first magipanzers and submarines to the current ones we have.”

Tarron nodded and smiled. “I agree, but you see, the speed of our development is increasing. Our budget has become more and more focused on technological development. In just a few years, we created a plane superior to the propeller plane. Although it couldn’t beat the Americans, I have just unleashed my newest weapon on the Americans. This one should have an effect.”

“But sir, isn’t it too late?”

Tarron waved him off. “Nonsense. Elves are a superior species. I believe in our inner superiority. We have the resolve and confidence to fight on. The humans will tire out one day and that shall be our victory.”

“Sir, resolve and confidence can’t win a war.”

Tarron frowned. “Your continued opposition upsets me Anfalen. You should watch what you say.”

Anfalen froze. “... understood, sir”

“Good. Good. Also, Anfalen, just know that you are very important to me. It would sadden me if something happened to you.”

Tarron walked away.