“The battle was long and arduous. I suppose that’s what war is, isn’t it? I have no choice in the matter. Maybe I don’t love my homeland. Maybe I don’t have much to defend. But I am here to fight for my comrades.”
- Excerpt from Lieutenant Hans Hoffman’s Journal Entries.
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+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Unknown
Some would say that modern technology was imperfect. Hans refused to believe that.
The idea that his modern mech, his Wanderpanzer II Falke Ausf. H, would in any way, lose to a mere beast of nature was utterly unacceptable for him. What was his mind thinking, conjuring up such a nonsensical story for him? Just to make him fear nonsense. There was absolutely no way he could be killed by that thing.
Perhaps he was angered, angered by the idea that he, the Ace of the Southern Front, with a name so infamous that the Flandrians hated him with a special passion, would fall to a damned entity like that, and fail his Captain.
It was a joke! A damned joke.
Still, he controlled himself. As he drove with Adelyn hot behind him, his mind ran an endless analysis of the memories that were on his mind. First, his main mistake—he wasn’t in his Wanderfalke during the start of the engagement. Second of all, he went in blind. In every battle that he fought in, he knew the enemy, inside and out.
The Flandrians were a prideful bunch. Elan, as they would say, was the favorite nonsense of their officer corps. To charge forward like fools, prideful fools into the front. He had read history about it, of the many wars Lotharingia fought against the Flandrians. Of how they would charge to death to musket fire. Of how they would charge to cartridge-loaded rifles. Of how they would send human waves to machine guns, barbed wires, and trench lines. Of how they would send a column of armor against prepared anti-tank emplacements. Of how they would fight ambushing Lotharingian mechs in dense city blocks.
And he always used that in his style of fighting. To wait for them to attack him. To let them expose themselves, for him to take a shot. He would always be the one hiding, and the Flandrians foolishly on the offensive. And he’d punish them for it. He knew the speed of most of their vehicles based on how they moved. He knew the rates of their acceleration. He knew the maneuvers that a Murat MBM could not take. He knew how fast their turrets turned, and how fast their guns depressed.
All of it, all of it was how he hid, dodged their attacks, fired his main gun with dead-eyed accuracy, and one-shot them on the weak points of their armor.
And so he wondered, from that dream, what did he learn of that beast? It was fast, no doubt about it. His mech, according to it, was badly vulnerable. It could toss a damned eighteen-tonner vehicle if it charged on it. It had four extremely sharp tails that could slice his legs (and, from that, he deduced it could definitely slice through his nonexistent armor). And it was…perhaps impervious to his machine guns.
No, that must not be it. He never saw any of his shots hitting it. Perhaps it was too fast for his turret to catch up on. After all, even if his remote-controlled turret turned fast, it had limitations. That was simply a mechanical reality. No turret would make a three-hundred-sixty-degree turn within just two seconds. That would be ridiculous, and he imagined even point-defense AAA mounts would not do such a thing.
Especially when it seemed to operate close to him. On a close radius of engagement, thus greatly increasing its ability to outspeed his turret’s turn rate. Most of all, it used the cover and hid using the structures of that village.
Almost as if he was a Flandrian in a Murat MBM, and he was fighting himself.
Going from that…the best strategy, undoubtedly…
He didn’t need Adelyn. That was for sure. She was an extra factor to worry about. And her mech was slightly slower due to its protection upgrades. It was an MBM, not a street brawler. Her mech was designed to go hull-down, only expose its turret armor, fight an enemy tank or mech at medium to long ranges, and act as a C3 (Command, Control, and Communication) unit of E Company.
As far as analysis goes, he needed to weed off vulnerability factors. Adelyn’s unsuitable mech for an enemy of this type. The terrain disadvantage. The range disadvantage. And the movement disadvantage. His goal was to place himself in a position wherein he would be able to comfortably spot it, mark it, and fire a 90mm MPAT (Multi-Purpose Anti-Tank) shell set to airburst to scatter its innards on the road of that town.
Which means it would be best for me to engage it outside of the town. Outside of the forest. Preferably on an open road outside of the town.
The sun was still far from going down. He should have perfect visibility. If this thing…if it was truly there, and his vision was right, he would be able to hunt it with daylight. He needed to convince Adelyn to not follow him, and to remain far enough away to prevent her from falling prey to it. After all, it was not out of the possibility that its tails would not pierce through the Wanderadler’s notoriously weak side armor.
Endangering both of them would be unacceptable.
Just as being defeated by that thing was unacceptable. No, he would go on, and fight it on his terms, on his own. If that vision was true, and he would fail and die, then it was all fine if only he would meet such a grizzly end.
“Captain,” he said in his comms. “We are nearing a settlement. Please let me recce the area.”
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“Lieutenant? What do you mean? We can go—”
“Negative Captain,” Hans said. “The chance of ambush is too high. I am your recce unit, aren’t I? Your vanguard in all things. Let me do my job, and I’ll clear the path.”
“Why do you always insist on being this way, Lieutenant?”
“This isn’t just for your safety, Captain. You are holding a civvie. That’s for her too.” Hans took a deep breath, as he saw her mech take a stop on his electronic maps. “Thank you. I’ll be going in. Don’t come until I say so, Captain.”
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His mech stopped just five hundred meters from the abandoned town.
It was midday, so the sweltering sun was right above the battlefield. Visibility was utterly perfect. Hans had been in worse visibilities than this, and he triumphed. His eyes looked left and right. How strange that this town, for some reason, only had two roads going into it.
But it was whatever. Even now, there was no activity inside, or outside. His vision however was too sensitive, as he felt a familiar fear rush through him, pumping his blood with adrenaline. Even a simple pigeon took his attention. His eyes snapped again to the side.
Even a simple rustle of the wind.
He wouldn’t complain. It just meant that the creature wouldn’t too easily sneak up on him. He checked the environment further, looking for any flat area. Much of the place was covered by the thick forest outside of the town, but he could see that there were some flatlands near the river where the town was situated. Perhaps he could wait there for it.
Or perhaps, he could also fight it on the bridge on the other side of the town. If, assuming, it didn’t come from where they came from, but instead, in the direction that they were going toward, he could rush through the town, position himself on that bridge, and prepare an ambush. It could dash at him at ninety kilometers per hour for all he cared, he’d slap it with an MPAT at three hundred meters.
His mech drove down. The town was at a lower elevation, so Hans also considered the possibility of waiting for it here and firing at it once it came to his sight, but that would be impossible if it found cover on the town’s streets.
He raised his mech’s legs at full acceleration, and dashed through the entrance of the town like some racing sports car, as he kept himself on the main road. His eyes peeled left and right, as he passed through the minor streets of the town. He was assuming that the creature was outside of the town as of now (or non-existent), but he was taking precautions regardless.
After all, it would be an embarrassment if he—
Its fangs were ivory white as it snarled at him. It was a mere millisecond of him seeing it on the left side of his mech as he dashed through the main road. He passed through a street that merely led to what appeared to be the mansion area of this town’s administration. As he sped through so fast, he pulled on the brakes, and his mech’s chassis turned a sudden ninety-degree turn, his mech’s legs leaving a plume of smoke as it drifted to a halt.
Damn it! It’s real!
Weapons were engaged fast, and so was his turret. The creature charged on him, but just in time for his turret to turn—and fire.
An MPAT shell was fired from his main gun, sending a powerful boom that possibly terrorized the creature, and it ducked, the round passing just centimeters above it—allowing the MPAT to activate—and detonate in a violent boom.
Except…it didn’t…that was merely the product of his mind. He was too slow, and he fired it prematurely. The round was launched at the wrong angle of attack, too far on the left, and too high, multiple meters away from the ducked creature, enough that his MPAT’s proximity fuse didn’t sense it.
And it flew on the far distance—
He pushed his feet and slammed on the pedal hard, dodging the creature just in time as it almost pounced on him, one of its tails slicing a tiny part of his rear legs. His mech slid through the stone road, as his double coaxials opened up an angry barrage of machine gun fire behind him, just as the creature disappeared from his view.
Damn it! I can’t let it get away!
Quickly, his mech’s legs turned his chassis at one hundred eighty degrees, fully reorienting his mech back on the main road. Pre-emptively, he turned his turret straight into the direction where that creature disappeared, and emerged back on the main road, the creature definitely gone from his sight.
Where the hell did it go?
A sudden voice distracted him.
“Lieutenant! I just heard a gun discharge! Was it you?”
“Captain, stay put!” He said. “I am engaging an unknown biological lifeform.”
“Without my permission?!”
“This is not the time—”
Slash…straight through his frontal armor. Hans looked at the pierced display screen, as it turned off. Pain…indescribable pain. Slowly…he looked down at his abdomen. A pitch-black tail…extending straight inside…straight at his guts.
He was…
An iron-like taste flooded his mouth, as blood, his blood, oozed up his throat. Even more so when it suddenly pulled right out of him, his blood splattering the interior of his cockpit. A loud guttural scream came from Hans, as his gloved hand held the wide-open, blood spurting wound on his gut.
“Lieutenant?! Hans?! Hans?!”
He had no answer. He failed her. Again.
“I’m sorry, A-Adelyn,” he said in sheer agony. “I’m sorry, I’m so—”
He heard a powerful growl, as two of the tails of the beast slammed and pierced the top of his cockpit, their triangular arrow-like form locking on his hatch. The creature pulled it up and ripped the hatch off from his vehicle. He was truly a dead man.
The two tails stabbed Hans’ abdomen again, creating two wounds on him. He could only whimper this time as a reaction to the indescribable pain it gave him, as he was slowly pulled out of the mech, then roughly when a cracked metal that was sharp enough sliced through his right foot. Hans let off a cry of pain as he was raised up in the sky, hoisted on the hot sweltering midday sun.
The beast looked at him hungrily. Hans…he could only shout at it.
“Damn you!” He shouted with his last strength. “Damn you! You monster!”
A third tail, this one with a sharp claw-like mouth stabbed straight into his heart…and Hans fell silent as he stared at the creature one last time. Mercy…he begged for it without words…he begged for it again and again, perhaps a hundred times in just a mere second…but he found no mercy.
The tail ripped his heart away. Hans…could only stare at the tail…his heart inside its claw-like mouth.
What…?
What did I do to deserve this?
To die…like this?
What?
What?
No answers.
His vision…turned pitch black.