Tuesday, April 14th, 1925.
We were to move to position ZD15 to prepare against an upcoming Moskurg push into our territory. Most of our trucks were destroyed by a surprise attack by a Breaker a few days ago so we had the unique displeasure of carrying some of the pieces manually with just some rope to help us. One of the boys died of heatstroke on the way, but we made it.
I can't say at what time we made it since my watch's been broken for months, but it was around early morning. ZD15 was chosen because of large, stable dune that we could position our artillery on, give us a clear view. We took a break while our only truck hauled the artillery pieces up on the dune one by one.
We'd received a report that we'd be fighting a couple squads of Struunks and a Breaker. With some decent preparation and line of sight, taking down a Breaker isn't too difficult with our arties, but Struunks are too quick to be hit. Luckily, High Command managed to get enough MV21s out on the field that commanders could requisition full squads of the things to help out. Ours was Commander Emilovich. He'd requisitioned such an MV21 squad but he also asked they bring in landmines of all things. One of the other privates asked if we were fighting infantry but the lieutenant he'd asked told him it was classified. That got us a bit worried. What got us really worried was the size of the crate they brought. It was massive! It was like we were preparing for a full-on assault. Cavalry and infantry, not just cars and tanks. We were a small regiment after the beating we took from the Breaker. We were down to three pieces and now a squad of five cars. No way could we beat an army on our own.
The commander got us planting those landmines for most of the day. It takes little to arm and place a landmine, but to camouflage it properly you need to put some sand on it. It's careful work to make sure you don't put on too much and set off the pressure-sensitive thing. One needs to be patient. I remember a motorcycle coming in at some point, but he left after a few minutes. We were to busy to ask what it was about. We'd just finished and had started setting up the sandbags when our lookout shouted at us. "Moskurgo! 12 o'clock! Three car squads! No, four! Wait..." There was a pause. We all knew it was bad. "No, it's three squad cars. Shit, those other cars...Breakers! Three Breaker!"
We could handle cars. Ours were much better. Better armour, faster speed, and their guns could shred their cars like paper. Three on one isn't good odds in any case, but we guessed that's what the landmines were for. To their credit, the Struunks weren't so shit that anti-personnel mines could go through the armour, but they had no problem going through their rubber tires. We could probably take them out without the MV21s!
The Breakers, though. The Breakers are nightmares. Just one is enough to take down a squad of MV21s. The last one that attacked us nearly killed us all. We only got away because of that one guy...I forget his name, but he was the damn bravest man I ever met. Saved all of our lives. Our regiment was split up in two. We were both in the same group, the guy and me. The other group was getting destroyed by the Breaker. It looked like it was the end for us. Our gun couldn't fire from such short range. We were alone, isolated, and fighting a Breaker. Then, that guy picks up one of the shells all by himself, lugs it all the way to the bloody tank, and sticks it right under the barrel. The gunner on top was having too much fun killing our countrymen. He didn't notice that brave son of a bitch, not until it was too late. The tank shot, it hit the shell, and we witnessed that crazy bastard as he took out that tank. It was a bad battle though. Each artillery regiment has 10 guns and 10 trucks. We were left with 3 guns and 1 truck. Now we were supposed to kill three of the bloody things.
We could've run. We could've all piled onto the cars and just left, but we didn't. We'd lost too many good men and we were tired of running. We told the commander this. All he did was smile and tell us to get into position. We got ready. Once they got into range we'd blast as many of them as we could and hope for the best. The commander told us to hold fire, though. He told us to wait until they got closer to the mines. We didn't know what was going on. The mines wouldn't even slow the Breakers down. They'd just go over them on their metal treads. They wouldn't be slowed down enough to hit. Then, before the tanks could even got to the mines, the commander gave us the order to fire in a spread and to aim for the landmines. Why on earth we'd do that when it was our only shot of at least killing the Struunks I didn't know, but we did it anyway because he's our commander. It's just what you do.
We fired volley after volley like the commander said. The mines blew up. Sand flew up everywhere. Now we couldn't even aim at the Breakers. It was over. Next thing I hear, though, is our cars rev up followed by them rushing out into the sandscreen. Commander Emilovich tells us to hold fire. We heard a shit ton of autocannon fire. We heard explosions. Flashes of light from within the smoke. Just a minute later, we see two of the MV21s come out of the smoke, shot up and slightly blown up but fine. When the smoke disappeared, we saw the shells of three Breakers, one shot up and destroyed Struunk, one flipped over and destroyed MV21, another destroyed MV21 but not flipped over, and another MV21 that was mostly destroyed, but the guy on the autocannon was still shooting. The Breakers couldn't see in the cloud and couldn't aim at the MV21s. Once they got close the tanks could fire on them and their Brumbies couldn't pierce their armour. They were encircled and destroyed with close-up autocannon fire.
The other Struunks freaked at that and went to go around the wrecks, but that's when they hit the landmines that we missed. With them flat, the MV21s took car of a squad and a half of the Struunks. The guy in the wreck still shooting the autocannon got shot in the neck by a Struunk gunner but besides that, we took no more casualties as the other Struunks routed.
After a few hours we made camp on the ground, sleeping in shifts in case the Struunks came back but they never did. Early in the morning, the motorbike guy came back and talked to the commander a bit then left. A few hours later, some replacement trucks came by to haul our pieces. Apparently we hadn't done so well everywhere against the Breakers and we were being sent back to the Plains to prepare for the Moskurgs. So then we packed up and left. That's pretty much how it ended. I just hope someone reads this and gets Commander Emilovich promoted. That guy is a real tactical genius and we could do a lot better with him in charge of more guys. A medal for that crazy bastard who saved us too. None of us would be here if it weren't for him.
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