Major Gu Huang, 4th Tank Battalion, 18th Heavy Combined Arms Brigade, 104th Special Army Group People's Liberation Army Ground Force.

Shunan City, Shankou (Yamaguchi) Special Administrative Zone, occupied areas of Japan

Without thinking, I began to stand up to wave down the PCs not far from the hospital, in the process I shot down some stray enemy with my rifle; Japanese, whoever they were... 

Just as me and my gunner were about to straighten up, one of the ZBD cut loose with a burst from it's co-axial 7,62 caliber machine gun, The wild burst ripped through the walls above us, scattering splinters and pieces of concrete all over. Both of us dropped down like a ton of bricks. Suifang let out a stream of obscenities while I shouted "Friendly fire!" 

Then, I raised my right arm and waved it with my dear life. The shooting stopped. I slowly rose, ready to go down again if necessary. This time, they didn't.

"Comrade Major Huang, we thought you are dead!" It was Lieutenant Zuolin. He ordered the two PCs under his direct command to stop.

"Thanks to you, comrade we almost were. Is this all that's left of your platoon?" 

He answered "No, comrade Major. I left a squad defending the river bank overall under Comrade Captain Xiaojun, losing few of them in the process while most of the 1st and 2nd squad are with me. I see you got some before your tank was lost, Comrade."

"Yeah. We did. Have you been in radio contact with anyone else in the company?"

"Yes, comrade. Deputy Comrade Captain Guakuo. He's with the reserve platoon supporting 4th Mechanized Company at the other side of the river. That's where we're headed now. Some of the remaining armor had headed there as well. We need everything we have to defend until it's time to pull back."

I felt as if someone had just removed a stone from the top of my heart. There still was a 2nd Tank Company! Right now it didn't matter that it had lost so much. It didn't matter that the Japanese are currently on our tail. All that mattered was that there was at least something left, hopefully until we're back at the Homeland as instructed by the Party itself. 

Both Sergeant Lu Suifang and I proceed to mount the PCs, just in time for specks behind enemy lines indicated an incoming Japanese UAV swarm. They won't finish us here!

"Go, go, go!" 

After wandering cautiously through the ruined streets and several detours to confuse enemy drones, luckily without running to Japanese or Indian forces, we came up to the six remaining tanks of my company.  

The six tanks were deployed in a defensive line across the river and used alternate firing positions just as they should have been deployed to support the defense of Xiaojun's 4th Company. As the ZBDs came to a halt about fifty meters to the rear of
the tanks, I saw Guakuo dismount one of the tanks in the center, numbered LB 0112. Even in that distance, with his right arm in a sling and splint his state was clear for everyone. Me and Suifang dismounted and met him halfway. Guakuo with his left hand and asked if anyone else was coming. 

"Comrade, our contact with the battalion was zero."

Guakuo shook his head. "We're being blanketed by jamming from many nations; Indians, Japanese, as well as the British in the north part of the city. I'm trying to work things out, but only few messages went through before they cut all comms off again. The Imperialists seemed to be able to figure out our alternate frequencies, so far. In short, we blinded them, but they did the same at us." he sighed.

I turned to Lt. Zuolin and asked if he had made any contact with the battalion command before he found me. His reply. "Not really. Comrade Colonel Junhua called once, but it was cut off by the jamming."

"What did Comrade Colonel say?"

"Head here, as far as I remember, Comrade Major Huang." replied the infantry subaltern. So, to the best of my knowledge and everyone present, battalion command had no idea of our state.

"The good news is, before you come, Comrade Major, I had sent a messenger drone to the last known position of battalion HQ, but we cannot use too much electrical power, hence we only have two chances of pulling it off." replied my deputy. Meanwhile, citing his pre-written mission order, Lieutenant Zuolin proceeded to cross the river, back to Captain Xiaojun's position with Sgt. Suifang who volunteered to fight alongside him as infantry because of lack of positions on remaining tanks, leaving an infantry squad for security of the tanks.

"Comrade Major, we'll meet again, promise."

"I can't, comrade, but I'll try" I told Suifang before he left with Lt. Zuolin.

As I am going on my mind, upon consultation with Major Yiyue, I had decided that we are to stay here and fight according to the mission order until it's safe to withdraw, preferably with the battalion HQ being contactable.

Now back in the tank. I put matters clear to what was left of my unit, "First, we have to do something against those Indians." 

One of our remaining UGVs showed approaching Indian infantry on our left flank. They lacked heavy tanks like us, but their Russian made light tanks could not be underestimated as it's armed with the same 125mm gun as our tanks. Every radios were put on company's net frequency, a new one thanks to the blanket jamming.

"Fire!" I ordered the gunner, Sānjí jūnshìzhǎng or Master Sergeant Third Class Fu Zhangxi, who released the sabot at one approaching tank dangerously close to our position. The Indian light tank was trying to support the flanking maneuver from the infantry when it met it's demise at my hand. 

"Don't let them come through!" Major Yiyue had to give the command of his vehicle to his gunner as he threw himself into the fight with the infantry squad, as Indian infantry were renewing their assault as the clock struck 1800 that day.

One thing that we're grateful for was an assault bridge that had been built under intensive bombardment, for easier movements of our vehicles across Suetake River.

"Don't bunch up!" 

In the meantime as we pushed back the Indians a few miles, the radio went off with sketchy information about how our comrades in the northern part of the city were giving ground to the enemy, mainly British royal guards as far as we understood, but not without inflicting casualties on their own.

"It's clear now that the Europeans were not as weak as we believe over the last 10 years." I muttered as the gunner jerked the turret right in response of another enemy tank sighted. To my consternation the Indians inside popped smoke and called for a retreat.

The Gorkhas that we were facing were smart enough to use cover and concealment among the ruins, knowing that we had only one squad worth of infantry to defend us.

As the duel commenced with my machine gun engaged in support of the beleaguered squad against those dreaded Nepali mountain warriors, a sense of relief was somehow inside with the fact that I managed to send another note to my girlfriend as well as my family before our deployment here, now with the Japanese and it's allies were on the upper hand.

Breaking through the static, was the automatically translated message that came to my headset. "Swaraj 6 to Jiaolong 2..."

"What did they say?" asked my gunner, while the driver continued moving, as I had ordered him to change our firing position. 

"...We're on our way to reinforce you." The Indian accented English that we initially heard showed that they were remnants of the 65th "Naxalbari" Battalion, part of the 109th International Anti Imperialism Brigade; which we had been instructed to call "our Indian comrade". 

From there, our Indian comrades formed up and countercharged the Gorkha soldiers. 

It was followed by short barrage from what turned out to be our mortars and our Indian comrade's relentless forward assault, losing roughly an entire company in the process.

"Jiaolong Lead to all units... come in, come in..."

 "Fire!"

In order to acknowledge the incoming message, I gave the leeway to my gunner to prosecute any targets of opportunity, with main gun usage was given to his discretion, as on this rate, we might not have enough ammunition for two days of fighting.

"Jiaolong 2-6 to Jiaolong Lead, we hear you."

It was Colonel Junhua indeed, his survival was something for us to be happy.

"Be advised... 3rd Medium Bde had reached 1st Phase Line of Consolidation (in Yamaguchi) and continuing to withdraw, 9th Heavy Brigade is trailing behind. 45th Light Bde. supported by 1st and the recently arrived 2nd Battalion group of the 16th Heavy Bde. are still holding Taiwanese separatist army leading Coalition assault..."

By the way the Colonel told us, it's easy to figure out that we're about to be cut off from Shimonoseki where our enemy had been merciful enough to allow evacuation ships and aircraft to get through their blockade; they know what the Party had ordered. 

"Incoming!" shouted one of the allied Indian legionnaire. The familiar hum of propellers approaching from the general area of the enemy and tracked anti-aircraft guns and SAMs opening up were enough to tell us.

Ohka suicide drones raced towards our forward line, a good number of them were shot down. The rest was nothing I could do. In the meantime, our brigade command were still present, in form of assistance from what was left of our Z-10s. They ripped through the Indian and Japanese lines. 

Radio chatter indicated that the Japanese and Indians were pulling back to regroup. My gunner gave a small snort at the part of our enemies who refused to retreat, why couldn't they just give up. 

I want to remind him on what could happen, only for the Japanese and Indians to return the favor with their hand-held anti-aircraft missiles as well as their own AA guns, forcing our helos to scatter with two were unable to escape the Coalition air defenses.

"Target, tank, 1 o'clock!" 

Instead of a light tank, we got the same type of tank that had knocked out my first tank. We already knew that the Japanese had managed to cross the river, bypassing Captain Xiaojun's men completely. 

"Fire!"

The Type 10 was caught by surprise from a side hit, and the ensuing explosion put it to a screeching halt and it's turret jammed to the right. 

"Spare your ammo!" I ordered, as the stricken Japanese tank crew bailed out. It was a good choice as multiple gunfire and soon mortar fire rained down over our heads. 

Soon my radio crackled on the message from the infantry company. "This is Jiaolong 4-6... we can't hold much longer, request permission to fall back."

"This is Jiaolong Leader, permission granted, bring your men as quickly as possible!"

There were simply too many Imperialists to deal with, much more with a report from the gunner on how we're running low on ammo and supply was too scarce to be much use. Added with another report from the net.

"(static) The British and Italians... everywhere... we're falling back across Tonda River, going for the  the industrial district... repeat, industrial district and port area." It was from the neighboring unit; the 1st Mechanized Battalion. I remember what their commander told the Colonel when the first report of the arrival of the British Army in Japan, predominantly it's Foot Guard regiment, surfaced inside our brigade.

"British royal guards? I think they are only for show."

Comrade Colonel Liu Langhu, the said commander, had to eat his own words, and the entire unit suffered as the result. 

"This is Jiaolong Leader, all comrades, move to support the 1st Mechanized Battalion. We have to tighten our defense to buy more time for our comrades!" Now with his clear instruction, we packed things up, just as what was left of Captain Xiaojun's men showed themselves. A good number of them were then mounted on the engine deck of our tanks. 

It's a race against time, the driver, Sergeant Fu Xujin set the gear into reverse, and my tank was the last to leave as more and more drones were detected by our anti air guns, coupled with intermittent artillery barrage from almost everywhere.

We let them won the day, but we won't leave this town yet, it's our duty!

......................

A/N: I hope you enjoy!