"Arthur, I don't care how much training you have done, the fact is you are not risking your neck to impress your troops." Geraint said firmly.
"Geraint, I understand what you are saying, but you don't have a say in it. I have to show the troops that their future King is not afraid to put himself on the line for what he believes in." Arthur argued.
"That may be what you think, Arthur, but I am the Chief of the Army and I am not going to allow you to put yourself in harm's way out of some ideological belief in the leader leading from the front. I will not be responsible for your death." Geraint was becoming angry.
"General, I am going with the Third Powered Armour. You can rant all you want, but I will be with them." Arthur told Geraint and walked from the room before Geraint had a chance to say another word. Geraint picked up his coffee mug and took a sip, the brown liquid was cold. Geraint snarled and hurled the cup across the room, shattering it against the far wall. A brown stain ran down the wall as splinters of mug shot all over the room. He swore at himself and then stormed out of the room. There was a briefing he was due at and this was not the time to show any emotional stress.
An hour later Cornwall was sitting in a briefing room with the rest of her fellow Squad Leaders, they were all on edge, going into battle was one thing, but going into battle against your own people was another completely. A side door opened and a Colonel entered and called them to attention. They stood in silence as a procession of seriously senior brass walked in. Everyone took a double take as the Chief of the Army and the Prince Regent walked in.
"Everyone take a seat, smoke if like." General Geraint Rolph said. "As you are aware, we are currently about to launch an attack against Loyalist Forces just south of here, please do not get me wrong, this is not the path that we wanted to take, but Mad Harold has made all other options unviable. You will be faced with troops from the Royal Army and yes they are all Brits. They will be firing real bullets and real shells at you, so I expect you to have your big boy pants on and return the favour. The Loyalists believe that we are nothing more than a rabble and incapable of being anything more than target practice. This is a major error on their part, we have been training for months now and I believe we have the sharpest and deadliest military force on the planet. Don't make me eat my words." Geraint looked around the room like he was ready to feast upon the first nervous face he saw.
"You're such a killjoy, Geraint." Arthur said, making most of the officers in the room laugh.
"You all know who I am and what my intent is. I want you to know that I am not that interested in being the King, I was raised in Hon Kong and the thought of the Realm was far from my thoughts. But, I want you all to know something, much to the chagrin of General cranky pants here." He looked at Geraint who just flushed and mumbled under his breath. "I will be a part of the Armoured Infantry force that will be wandering through the countryside with you. On a far more serious note, I know that there is a very good chance that some of you will not return, I will mourn each and every loss we take. I will not stand by and watch Harold destroy this country for his own amusement."
"You are the very best that we have and I know that each and every one of you will fight for the country you were born in, and those that have suffered the ultimate fate under this debacle of a King. Know that I will stand beside you every step of the way and I will not falter in my commitment to the people of the British Empire. Good Luck, God Speed and see you on the other side." Arthur stood back and was shocked at the silence that his speech was met with. A hand clap started at the back of the room and in seconds all of the officers present were standing and cheering him. He stood up straight and saluted the best parade salute he could muster. The applause ceased immediately and the entire room was standing to attention returning his honour.
"Alright people, we have trained, studied the tactics, now it is time to send a message that the Born King's army will not be ignored." Geraint announced. "We move out in one hour. Get to it." Even though the seasons were changing and winter was rapidly approaching, the days were light well into the evening. Once the clock struck eighteen hundred (6pm) the Loyalists will start to relax thinking that an attack would not come before the full light of the next day. It showed the lack of training preparedness that the Loyalists showed, just the fact that they would relax, gave Royalist Rebels the tactical advantage. The chance to catch the loyalists sitting down to dinner as the Leviathans start rolling through the lines would be the shock and awe that makes the difference in a battle where the attacker has a smaller force than the defenders.
Advance Recon Units had identified a force that was heavily leaning to light infantry, with a small light armour support battalion. The sight of two heavy armour battalions bearing down with armoured infantry support was bound the cause panic and confusion among the Loyalist forces. Cornwall called her commanders in to lay out the plan for the coming attack. She knew that she had some of the best commanders in the regiment, each of them had shown to have excellent awareness and skill in tank warfare. Each of the commanders had included their seconds, mostly drivers, in the briefing. One had to always allow for the worst case scenario, if the commander was injured or killed, they needed to be sure that the second could continue if their equipment was able to continue.
"Ok, we will be moving in through the right flank and making first contact, our goal is to pull the primary defenders off to the right, from there the main thrust will drive in from the left and three squads will smash straight down the middle." She explained. "The defenders should be caught well off guard and the subsequent confusion will cause the enemy to split their forces and we should be able to dismantle them in detail. I want a tight formation and good tactical awareness, if the shit hits the tank I want to be able to change up on the fly."
"Are we aware of the enemy numbers?" MacDiarmid asked.
"We are looking at three battalions of light infantry and one of light armour, Jock."
"What about air support?" He followed up with.
"We have three squadrons of Reapers in reserve. That should give us the overall advantage." Everyone nodded and looked at the maps on the small camp table in front of them. The overall numbers of unpowered infantry allowed to the more breathing room, that a heavy presence of powered armour would have restricted. "Everyone should be spun up and ready to move out, yes?" They all answered in the positive. "Right then, mount up and prepare to move out as soon as the signal comes through." She nodded at her people and they headed off to prepare to move out.
Cornwall found herself feeling nerves as she dropped through her hatch, it was a strange feeling, one she found quite disturbing. She and her team had trained the house down in preparation for this day, now she was nervous, not for herself, but for the people she had come to know and respect over a number of years. She wasn't so foolish as to think that there was no chance of losing people, but it still made her feel a little sick at the thought. She forced the feeling down deep and focused on the task at hand, she needed to be completely focused on her job if she wanted to minimise the risk to her crew and her squad. She stood up through the hatch and looked across her squad, ten of the most powerful land based weapons ever designed and built. The line-up of Leviathans was the most impressive sight she could imagine, and ten of them lined up and ready, lifted her spirits.
"Goldilocks this is Papa Bear, Move out." The radio crackled.
"Papa Bear Goldilocks, roger." She switched to the squad channel. "First Squad, Lead, Move out, Repeat, Move out. Goldilocks 2, 3, 4 and 5 on me, 6 through 10 two hundred separation west." The squad responded in the affirmative and moved out. The sight of ten massive Battle Tanks, virtually silently moving off into the late afternoon gloom was intimidating to say the least. It was just over three kilometres to the enemy lines and the recon squads had reported that the Loyalists were currently lining up for their evening meal. The Spec Ops soldiers had already infiltrated the lines and were prepared to set off diversions when Cornwall made the call.
First Squad moved through the fields that skirted a rather large hill that hid the squad from direct sight. The Operators had removed the forward observation teams the Loyalists had in place, so with luck, the first the Loyalists would know about their attack would be when the first rounds slammed into their positions.
"Goldilocks 1, Ghost Walker 1, you are clear for four hundred metres."
"Thank You Ghost Walker, get your head down, it's going to get loud out there."
"Roger, Goldilocks, going to ground as we speak. Out."
"First Squad move into first position, at my order, Battle Speed, open fire and be careful. On my mark," she looked at her watch waiting for the second hand to reach the top of the dial. "Mark!" To be honest, there was nothing awesome about the tanks rushing forward, no roar of engines and no plumes of exhaust, the Leviathan's were electrically driven.
That soon changed as the tanks crashed to the ground at speeds that would boggle a civilian, then the main gun opened up. The explosion of fire, smoke and noise was enough to stun anyone standing too closely. In the distance the encampment still had no idea that they were in danger, until the ground, trees, tents and men started exploded. For a few seconds most of the Loyalist soldiers sat there stunned by the sudden attack. Round after round was lobbed onto the encampment, throwing dirt and clods of grass and the remains of the trees and men into the air. Officers and NCO's were running around screaming at men to get to their combat positions and return fire. The Command Tent exploded, throwing officers and pieces of furniture in every direction. Some soldiers just couldn't cope with the sights and sounds, they simply stood there mute, with looks of complete disconnection.
Light Armour units flew out of the trees to the east firing their fifty millimetre canons at the Leviathan assault, but soon realised the pointless nature of the act as they watched their shells bouncing off the massive tanks, barely scratching the paint. They were soon in retreat, it was an everyman for himself scenario. The side mounted twin 60mm supplementary Anti Air canon was far and away enough power to overcome the Light Armoured units. The increased rate of fire gave the lighter assault vehicles very little chance to manoeuvre and stay clear of fire. The men on the ground were becoming more organised and took up defensive positions in a line to meet the tanks. Return fire started pinging off the thick armour, too small to do even the most minor of damage. The odd shoulder mounted rocket was fired, but again they were all be useless.
The resistance from the Loyalists was holding the line, the advancing Leviathans were far too much for them and they realised fairly quickly and started a fighting withdrawal. The Loyalist artillery finally got the word and were starting to land shells ahead of the advancing tanks. Cornwall called her left flank into the game and another five Leviathans tore over the hill advancing from the Loyalist left flank, firing a withering amount of fire into the encampment. Led by Warrant Officer Michelle Gossper, the second squad of tanks were advancing in a perfect line separated by 100 metres. The advance threw the remaining front line defenders into disarray and they broke cover and ran. In seconds the line was abandoned and the Loyalists had retreated into the heavily wooded area behind their camp.
"Lead to all Goldilocks, cease fire, repeat, cease fire." She looked through the periscope at the scene before her tank. It was more like a moonscape than a lightly wooded area.
"Alpha India 1, Goldilocks Lead."
"Go for Alpha India 1."
"Alpha India 1, you are clear to engage ground troops, we will stay on over watch and root out the light armour."
"Roger Goldilocks, received."