Empire of Hebei

Zhenzhu City

I OEF-Hebei

4th Mobile Assault Brigade

18th Light Mech Battalion

B Company

December 20, 2025

Lieutenant Charles Rupkoff’s M20 LSS “Panther” drove as the lead vehicle when B Company was unloaded at the South Hebeian port city of Zhenzhu. It only took a few hours of reorganization and assembly, and the entire 18th Light Mech Battalion immediately headed out straight into the Hebeian metropole.

“They seem to like us,” his gunner, Corporal Hector Smith, excitedly said as he popped his head from his hatch. Charles merely shook his head as he cracked a small grin, watching the onlooking Hebeians who cheered at them. They carried the flags of the Orlish tricolor—and the highway itself was cleared of any civilian traffic. It was almost as if an impromptu parade was happening.

“Yeah, well…maybe it’s because we’re here to save their arse,” Charles said. He looked at one of the high-rise buildings that had a massive Orlish tricolor draped on it. “This place has been buttfucked like Orland. Guess that makes us close allies rather quickly.”

Both of their radios soon buzzed.

“El-tee,” his driver, Corporal Jenkins Schleit, spoke through the comms. “Can we save them though?”

That elicited a dry laugh from Hector on the side. Charles picked up his radio.

“Probably not, Jenkins,” Charles looked onwards. “But, as the Queen said: we gotta try.”

They drove further forward. The almost alien six-legged mechs of the Orlish Army certainly were new to the Hebeians. The fact that they watched and gawked at them as if they were some new piece of kit that would save everything reminded Charles that these people were expecting high things from them. He doubted he’d be able to deliver.

Still, this is our second foreign deployment since the Civil War started. Charles looked at the crowd. Then, he tried to give them a confident thumbs up. Just do your job and we will come back home. Hopefully.

He wondered what it would be like to fight revolutionary Larissans and Hebeians. He even heard that there were Pozneki and Lombardian troopers around. It was certainly going to be a coalition that they were up against. But, it didn’t chip away from Charles’ spirits.

There was the Hebeian Imperial Army around, many of them on the road with their parked military vehicles. Their soldiers all keep a close watch over the crowd to not let them block the Orlish deployment. Ahead of Charles, was also an Imperial Asanaian convoy of their Type 14 main battle tanks.

He also heard that behind them, the ships carrying elements of the Lorathian 24th Royal Hussars, which was a brigade-sized armored unit. They were all armed with the new Lorathian Cipher 2 main battle tanks, which to Charles’ recent knowledge, was as good as a Löwe EP4B and the Asanaian Type 14 tanks.

It was thus going to be a continuous deployment of the MN’s best kit. From Lorathia, Asanai, Gallia, and Orland. He even heard that the Arkelians would be sending their forces too. Still, Charles felt more pride over his vehicle. With all these new tanks coming out, they still were the only ones using a true mech.

Can’t be overconfident though. He looked at one of the flags. It was Asanai’s flag. Who knows what those revolutionaries have up there?

By mid-day, they were out of the city traffic. They drove out of Zhenzhu already. The Hebeian countryside so far was calm and quaint. Much of their formation had already scattered to other highways and roads. All that was left was the platoon-by-platoon columns of B Company.

By this point, Charles’ fifth platoon had already been relegated to the rear of B Company. Regardless, he was at the front of his now six-mech-strong platoon. Their numbers had risen and waned as the realities of war took their toll. He remembered back then when his platoon had eight mechs in it.

At their worst point, they even went down to four mechs, which was the standard for most armored platoons. Due to the nature of mechs, however, it seemed that four mechs were usually too few for the wide and aggressive urban assault missions that they were relegated to.

It was a bit ironic considering that their vehicle was called “Light Support System”. But Charles was already expecting the worst of the missions would be their job. Especially since the Ginzhu Metropolitan Area was an urban nightmare. He already knew that his battalion would be the main breaching force.

Soon, they reached one of the settlements used as a deployment hub for MN forces active in the area. They entered the small city and drove straight toward the nearby train station. Each of their mechs was soon parked near the residential apartments and various stores and establishments. When Charles received his orders to wait for the next train that would be transporting them to the deployment areas in the front, he ordered his men to finally ease up and find food from the locals.

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He stretched a bit after finishing his radio orders. On his side, Hector seemed to be preparing tea for himself. Charles curiously looked at it.

“Want some?” his Lorathian gunner asked. “It’s pretty nice.”

“Sure,” Charles gratuitously took it and tasted it. “Yeah, that one’s good.”

“Didn’t know a coffee sipper can appreciate good tea.”

“Well, it’s good, but it’s beneath coffee.”

“I’ll murder you, wanker.”

Charles just laughed at him, while Hector took his tea to sip it. Charles pulled out his wallet and then popped his hatch open. He looked around the area they were parked on. Much of his men had already dismounted their mechs.

Some seemed to have banded together to explore the place and buy food. Others seemed to be sitting on their mech’s turrets while staring blankly at the skies. Others were already hard at work checking their mech’s legs, guns, and engines. He even saw a few soldiers already setting up chairs they borrowed from the locals to play card games. Then there were a few who were taking pictures with their cameras.

Charles breathed in the fresh Hebeian air.

“Well, it seems like we’ll be stuck here for a while,” he looked at the sky. Suddenly, two fighter jets streaked above them. “Well…yeah. It is what it is.”

+++

The frontlines itself was a dreary place as Charles had expected. They arrived at last by midnight by rail. Hebei, unfortunately, wasn’t a forgiving place it seemed. The train that bought them, which carried both their mechs and various supplies and weapons, departed with corpses. He could only sigh as he watched it leave.

The rest of B Company soon drove out into the countryside. This time around, in the darkness, they could finally hear the distant war. Occasionally, as they drove through the countryside, they’d see flashes in the distance from what appeared to be Regal SAM launchers. There were even various SPAA vehicles that he’d spot on the road.

Their guns and radar seemed fixed permanently on the skies as if they were expecting the worst at all times.

Whenever they stopped on the road, he’d find that activity was near constant. Various Hebeian military vehicles would drive past them. Many soldiers even seemed to walk on foot on the muddy and crater-filled remnants of Hebei’s infrastructure. It was also strange to watch. Their kit seemed to be a hodgepodge of everything.

They wore Orlish, Hebeian, Asanian, and even Lorathian helmets. They carried guns of differing types. Even the vehicles they used seemed to originate from different countries, with the most common ones being Orlish trucks and HMLVs. Charles sighed at the sight of it.

It seemed clear that the South Hebeian Army was being pushed to the brink whenever he looked at them. As if they were simply scratching together whatever tools and equipment they could get into the fight. It was something that Charles was at least grateful to avoid. In the Orlish Army, they had everything. The best kit. Standardized. And unless heavily disrupted by logistical restraints due to battlefield conditions, they seemed to rarely run out of anything.

“Man, I hope the northerners are just as shite,” Hector commented as he rose from his hatch. He placed his tray on the turret’s roof. Then, he dug in on his heated ration’s main dish. It was braised beef in tomato sauce. Certainly a decent dinner in Charles’ mind.

Charles on the other hand cracked open his biscuits from the ration he recently opened and consumed. He dipped it momentarily on the cup of coffee that he held, before chewing on it.

“Well, considering the size of them, they might be,” Charles said. “Though, they still have a lot of armor. So expect to be shooting a lot once we roll in.”

“Been a while since I last opened fire on a tank.”

“Yeah. We got lucky with our deployments after Lieplatz. It’s a bit different now though.”

“I doubt the Larissans can match the Feds though,” Hector chuckled as he took another spoonful. Then, he dipped his bread in tomato sauce and ate it. “Maybe they’ll have numbers, but they suck at fighting.”

“True. Somewhat. Who knows. Maybe the Larissans of today are very different from the Larissans of the Great War.”

“Why?”

“I mean, they’re not led by out-of-touch women nobles.”

Hector shook his head.

“So what?” he laughed. “They’re led by political commissars instead.”

“Well, who knows how they’ll perform. Haven’t met them yet.”

“Maybe like the Lieplatzans?”

“You’re oddly optimistic.”

Hector finished his main course as he nodded.

“Yeah, well, what can a man do? Expecting the worst kinda gets old.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah,” he frowned. “I don’t know man. Back then I'd never think like this. I’m not sure what changed…but, yeah. It’s nice to kinda hope for the better.”

“Dumbass, when the Queen gave us that speech, she was saying hope for things to be better, as in, our future prospects,” Charles laughed, almost slapping his gunner’s helmet. “She wasn’t saying that we should be hoping that the enemy sucks ass so bad they die quickly.”

“Oh come on. Why can’t you hope for the better while being psychotic?”

“We’ll never get out of this war mentality aren’t we,” Charles shook his head as he continued laughing. “Hah…it’s going to be a long damned operation.”

“Yeah…” Hector nodded. “That it will be. Hope we rack decent kills. You wager that’d get me a better job post-war.”

“Yeah, right. You’ll go to a job interview and the first thing that comes out of your mouth is that ‘I murdered a dozen Larissan tanks in Gallia’. Yeah, that’ll get you a nice job. Surely.”

“Piss off man. It’s a good plan,” Hector pulled out his plate as he chuckled. He then went back down inside their turret. “Wake me up when we’re Oscar Mike.”

“Copy that,” Charles replied, shrugging. He then looked up again at the night sky, straight at the moon above them, its pink glow slightly illuminating his face. “It’s all the same nonsense again…”