Cavalry vs Mechanized Infantry

"Firing," Maria said as she aimed the reticle to the bandit encampment.

The cannon was fired to the bandit camp. Lots of ball projectiles got out from the hole of the cannon. About 500 tungsten ball was flying, killing all of the bandits In the vicinity. Garth was busy loading the ammunition to the barrel of the tank.

I manned the remote heavy machine gun and scanned for the enemy. I fired the HMG to the bandits. The casings of the heavy machine gun raining down to the tank. Garth was busy loading the round to the cannon. I saw a bandit taking cover at a nearby structure.

Wilson: "Load High Explosive ammo!"

Garth picked up the round from the shell rack. Without any struggle, he put it into the barrel.

Garth: "Ready to fire!"

Wilson: "Fire!"

Maria aimed at the bandits then fire the cannon. The high explosive round shattered the wall that protecting the bandits. The building had a hole in its wall, inside of it only dead bodies could be found.

Wilson: "Maria, status report?"

Maria: "Most of the bandits are dead. The heavy armored ones look injured, and there were some non-bandits."

Garth: "Slaves?"

Maria: "Nope, it's just some noble person,"

Suddenly a lot of ping sound could be heard from outside of the tank. I observed my surroundings and found out that archers were attacking us from high ground. I aimed the HMG and fired it to provide suppressing fire.

Garth: "What was that?"

Wilson: "It was arrows from the marksman of the bandit."

Cecile: "Arrows? Usually, a carriage will be penetrated by that thing."

Maria: "For a reminder, this is a tank, not a carriage. Even our weapon is obsolete against this thing.

Wilson: "She is right. Load fragmentation round then fire at the archer!"

Garth: "Round loaded!!"

Maria: "Firing"

A loud explosion could be heard from the distance.

Maria: "Confirmed hit."

Wilson: "Has the enemy number decreased significantly?

Garth opened the hatch then look around. He had that confused look on his face.

Garth: "Don't know, I can't see anything."

Annoyed by his idiotic act, I handled him his night vision goggle.

Wilson: "Use your NVG, for god, sakes."

He wore the NVG on his head and started scanning the area.

Garth: "There is some survivor, but they're not in shape for combat."

Wilson: "Do you see the most obvious looking one?"

Garth: "I see it, but it's dead."

Wilson: "You guys wait here. Maria and I will check the perimeter."

I grab my SCAR-H CQB then opened the hatch while wearing my NVG. I had my SCAR-H CQB on my back and held a Glock 18 at my hand. Maria followed me from behind while using an NVG on her head and M4 carbine on her back. She held the P90 with her hands. Garth sat on the loader's hatch while wearing an NVG and holding a package of crackers.

The encampment full of crater and the green grass had turned charred. The building that we shot at was on fire, and the camp was destroyed without leaving any trace of existence. The dead bodies were scattered here and there.

"Well, we might have overdone it," Maria said while holding the hand one of the dead bodies.

The body was full of holes, and its head was crushed into a mist of blood.

"There is no such thing called overkill," I said as I picked up one of the tungsten balls.

Cecile: "Anvil to Roach team, Anvil to Roach team, please copy."

Wilson: "This is Roach, anything to report, over."

Cecile: "I find heat signature in the direction of 2-7-0, over."

Maria: "I will check it, over and out."

While still checking and looting the dead bodies, Maria was looking in the west direction.

"Maria, what do you see?" I said. I looted coins from all the dead bodies.

"Knight," She said while looking at the west direction.

"Knights or a knight?" I asked her.

"Knights, and a bunch of them," She thought for a second then looked at me panicky, "The knights are heading toward us, RUN!!"

Wilson: "Roach to Anvil, Roach to Anvil please copy,"

Garth: "(Eating noise), this is Anvil, I'm eating Wilson."

Wilson: "START THE ENGINE NOW!!! WE ARE LEAVING!!!"

Garth: "Calm, ok, we still have a bunch of time."

Wilson: "THERE ARE A BATALLION OF KNIGHTS LOOKING FORWARD TO KILLING US, AND YOU'RE TOLD ME TO BE CALM???"

Garth: "Battalion? What the heck? Cecile, start the engine!!"

Wilson: "Open the hatch, we are coming in.

The tank engine started, and we ran as fast as we could to the tank. Maria entered first followed by me. Garth came back to the tank.

The first thing we saw was Garth eating his crackers. Maria had that worried face and Cecile were drinking tea. We dropped our NVG and sat on our own seat.

Wilson: "Maria, deploy the smoke grenades. We are getting out of here."

Maria: "Smoke deployed."

The tank moved away from the encampment. With the speed of 30 miles per hour. I sat on top of the hatch while holding the .50 BMG turret while the others were inside.

Garth: "How the hell did we attract the attention of one battalion?"

Cecile: "Our cannon was pretty loud, but don't worry, I think they will be busy with the bandit's encampment."

Wilson: "I don't think it will be that easy."

100 knights follow our tail. The knights were heavily armored units that served the military. Most Of them were wearing bulky plate armor.

Wilson: "Garth, get on the machine gun turret.

Garth: "Roger that"

Garth appeared with an NVG on his head from the hatch then joined me on top of the tank.

While holding the machine gun, Garth asked me, "How fucked are we?"

Still holding the binocular in front of my eyes, I answered, "Well, does a hundred knight in a horse considered a fucked up."

Garth pulled the handle of the M240 and press the button on the back of the gun, "Here they come, FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!!" He fired the M240 turret.

The horse got really scared by the sound that they never heard. The formation had gone wild. Garth shot the horse so that there were no casualties and no ruckus for the human. The soldier fell one by one from the horse. In the middle of the formation, there was a knight in dark blue armor, looks like it was its leader.

"That's a mithril armor. How to deal with that?" As Garth shot at the other knights.

"Kepp shooting the horse, they are not armored," I said.

The horse fell on the ground leaving the knight in the ground. The pursuing knight finally retreated after their commander fell down.

After we got away, Garth grab his crackers from the inside of the tank, "Why did you not use the .50 cal?" He asked while chewing the biscuits.

"Because I was lazy to use it, besides if I shot them their body will be disintegrated," I said.

As he put a cracker in his mouth, "Fair enough," he said.

The tank crossed the dark grassland. Since we were not in a combat situation, I decided to have a small talk.

We got into the tank then closed the hatch.

"Ok, Maria, where was it?" I asked her.

"You were asking me about the academy," She answered.

"Yeah right, so what is it?" I asked while chuckled.

With such hand gesture that I was amazed, she explained, "it is a prestigious school for noble and talented people."

"How about those who don't include in those categories," I asked.

"Well, they don't go to school. Besides the non-noble get some special treatment at that school," Maria answered.

"What exactly the special treatment is?" I asked while scratching my head and grabbed Garth' s crackers package.

"Hey, that's my crackers," He protested.

"Shut up," I said

"Give my crackers back," he said while grabbing the crackers package from my hand.

"Ok, back to the question," I said.

"Well, I hate to say it, but servant must wear slave collar in that school," Maria answered.

"Say what??" Garth, Cecile, and I got shocked.

"Well, that's the price that you have to pay if you want to enter," She answered.

"I will think of something," I said.

"Wilson, destroying the academy with this thing is NOT an option, by the way, do you see the building a big building in the middle of the town," Maria said.

"No, why?" As I got out of the tank into the machine gun port.

I used the radio integrated into the helmet to communicate with her.

Wilson: "Maria, which building?"

Maria: "in the direction of 0-7-5, there is a large structure."

I looked at that direction and saw a town with a two castle. I asked Maria again.

Wilson: "Which one? I get two large building. The white castle with a large tower or the white castle with an absurdly huge garden?"

Maria: "The huge garden one."

The academy was a 4 square kilometer compound. In the middle, there was this large white building that looked like a classroom and the teacher's office. There was also a lot of small building, but my attention was focused on a statue in the middle of the academy.

Wilson: "Garth, Load, APFSDS!"

Garth: "I'm loading it, but for what?"

Maria: "Oh, Wilson, what are you planning to do?"

We were 2 km away from the city wall, and the academy was 1 km away from the town. I searched for a target and found a statue in the middle of the academy. The total distance would be 4000 meters.

Wilson: "Do you see that statue in the middle? I want you to shoot it."

Maria: "Wilson, are you nuts? That's the principal statue."

Wilson: "Exactly, that's why I want you to shoot it down.

Cecile: "Maria is right, that's the statue of the person that we rescued 7 years ago."

Garth and I: "I regret to rescue her, then."

Wilson: "Fire!!!"

A tungsten dart flew from the barrel of the tank and hit the principal statue in the head, tearing it down.

Wilson: "Barrage, fire!!"

Barrage fire meaning was an order for loader and gunner to fire the cannon non-stop.

Garth: "Roger that"

A barrage of tungsten dart rained to the academy statue. The dart is designed to penetrate tank armor didn't have any difficulties in destroying a mere statue.

Maria: "Let's get out of here quick."

Wilson: "evacuate out of the A.O now."

The tank roared through the dark grassland and escaping the Costellia town region.