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More Backstory

Excerpted from the 50th Armor Regiment regimental history:
In AY195, after almost 90 years of intransigence from the republican leadership of the former Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick (the République du Québec et Nouveau-Brunswick, colloquially known as Quebec) over tariffs on the St Lawrence, the Foreign Office of the Republic of Nova Anglia issued a final ultimatum, threatening war if Quebec (the capital) didn’t reduce the tariffs, then Nova Anglia would be forced to use force.
In the years since the founding, Nova Anglia’s War Department scavenged military installations, museums, municipal, county, and state parks; and veterans organizations for combat arms equipment. While most functional combat service support equipment was pooled from existing former National Guard, Reserve, and Active Duty component stocks, ever since AY1 - the year the Russians detonated a nuclear device over one of their cities at a portal - the more advanced combat equipment, such as the vaunted M-1 Abrams MBT were rendered non-operational. The 50th Armored Regiment could be considered a logistics nightmare, with battalions equipped with recovered and reactivated M4A3s (E2s, E4s, E8s), others fielding a mix of M26, M48-series and M60A1/A3 variants. All reactivated armor, if formerly powered by av/mogas, received new turbodiesel engines and automatic transmissions.
As H-Hour for Operation Thunderbolt, the invasion of Quebec, ticked closer, Team Panther went into their staging area in the Black Turn Brook (VT) State Park. Team Panther comprised 1st Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 50th Armored Regiment (M4A3E8*), 42ID, under the command of 1st Lieutenant Alystra T’Siir; and 3rd Platoon, D Company, 2d Battalion (Mech (M1126A3 (Degraded))), 14th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain, commanded by 2d Lieutenant Yosef Montoya.
At H minus 30, Team Panther conducted the last pre-step inspections and fueling, before stepping off in the predawn gloom at H minus 10, and motoring up VT-114 to the border, crossing through the Nova Anglican Border Patrol checkpoint at H minus 1, and through the DCPAF (République du Québec et Nouveau-Brunswick Direction centrale de la police aux frontières) checkpoint, before dropping the hammer and commencing a thunder run towards its first objective of Coaticook, Quebec, capturing the town within minutes with zero rounds expended; the only Québecois casualty was a member of the Gendarmerie nationale breaking an arm bailing out of his police cruiser before A5, under the command of Platoon Sergeant Sawyer Perkins ran over it.
Infantry with M1126A3 and M4A3E8* support quickly swept through Coaticook, and noted no resistance. Refueled by tankers from 250th BSB and relieved by follow on units of Task Force Predator, Team Panther split into two elements, with one with two Shermans and 3 Strykers, commanded by 1LT T’Siir, the other with three Shermans and two Strykers, commanded by 2LT Montoya and P/Sgt Perkins. T’Siir’s element continued up Highway 147; 2LT Montoya and P/Sgt Perkins’ provided overwatch and flank support along Chemin de Cochrane. Rendezvousing at the local Québec PTT (Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones) office in Compton, Lieutenants T’Siir and Montoya conferred, and decided to push for the Mont Bellevue suburb of Sherbrooke.
Aerial reconnaissance reports were lacking, and Lieutenant T’Siir was uncertain of the disposition of forces coming out of QFB Valcartier, particularly the 12th Armoured Regiment and 1st Division, Forces Québec. Making the executive decision, Lt T’Siir ordered fuel topped from the local gas station, draining the diesel tanks of the Compton Sonic dry. Rolling out of the gas station, with a pair of their attached Strykers acting as a scout element, Team Panther headed for its objective two hours after crossing the border, eventually joining with the morning rush on the 410 expressway…to the astonished looks of the civilians. 1LT T’Siir, cognizant of the difficulties of interfacing armored combat vehicles in civilian traffic, had ordered hatches open and heads out while the convoy rolled along the shoulder of the expressway towards Exit 10 and Rue Belvédère Sud, even taking the opportunity to wave at a school bus full of kids heading to school.
Arriving at and taking over the local municipal building for her headquarters, 1LT T’Siir began placing her small forces. Two two tank sections, with an infantry squad each, one at Parc du Mont Bellevue, setting up a wide ambush for Rue Dunant and any force coming over the mountain, through the park. The second section, with an additional squad, was set up in the woods behind the shopping center at the intersection of Rue Dunant, Rue Belvédère, and Rue de l’Union, with the second infantry squad backstopping the ambush point at the intersection of Rue Belvédère and Rue Picard. Her tank, Chronic Pain, and 3rd Platoon’s platoon sergeant’s Stryker and embarked squad formed the flying reserve until reinforced by elements of Task Force Predator.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Hey, El-Tee!  Alfa Three’s in contact.”  Specialist Owen shouted as they came running into the breakroom.
I had just started pouring a cup of fresh coffee when my gunner came running in.  These gendarmes were living the high life.  Real, fresh ground coffee.  I remember my two times great grandfather, well into his dotage, reminiscing about how good, and not so good, coffee was available everywhere even at gas stations.  His son, my great grandfather, would agree with him, and bring up how much changed after AY1.  Or as they liked to call it, the year 2020.  My first cup of real coffee in Gods knew how long, and now Forces Québec are going to ruin that.  “Where?”
“Rue Belvédère; two LAVs.  Sergeant Farxisys reported they’ve pulled back into the woodline behind smoke rounds…and fire.  Farxisys said the Quebecois took out both the gas station and the stores next to it.”
“My compliments to Sergeant Heimark, and she’s to take her squad and support our ambush in place.  Get Caballero in here, so we can go over the route.”  I put the coffee mug I was going to use back in the cabinet and started pulling out paper coffee cups.  There was no way I was going to waste this pot of coffee.  Owen was waiting for me to dismiss them.  “One last thing, Quin, then you can go.  Get on the company net and advise Captain Asquith that we’re in contact.  Now go.”
“You wanted to see me, El-Tee?”
I nodded.  “We’re in contact.”
“Great!  What’s the route?”
I rolled my eyes internally.  Caballero was a great driver, could make a Sherman do things I doubt the designers could have ever thought possible, but she was trouble.  She joked that her service dress jacket sleeves were so discolored from all the promotions and demotions.  I referred to the map on the counter, with the route I’d penciled in.  “Got it?”
“Thunder run?”  I could see the gleam in her eyes.
“Until we get to Cambrai.  No use letting them know we’re coming up behind them.”
“Got it El-Tee.”
“Let’s go do the thing, Private.”
“Now, El-Tee,” Caballero asked, smirking as she grabbed the paper carrier full of cups.  “Before we go into a fight?  What’s the rest of the crew gonna think?”
“You are trouble, Miah,” I said rolling my eyes.  “No wonder you can’t keep stripes on your sleeves.”
“I just wanna drive, ma’am.  It ain’t like I wanna become a platoon sergeant or higher, like Owen.”
Chronic Pain was already idling.  “Hey cherry!  Get outta my seat,” I heard Caballero shout into her hatch.  I didn’t hear PV1 Peters’ reply, but Caballero’s reply of “Yeah, but I got time in service, pendejo!” I could infer its content.
“Kids, behave,” I growled over the intercom.  “Slap fight after we go deal with the Quebecois.  Take us out, Miah.”
With a cloud of diesel soot, Chronic Pain rolled out of the parking lot and began accelerating down Thibault.  The clatter of tracks was a dull thud through the earphones of my CVC.  As we made the right on Dunant, I could see the smoke from the shopping center at the fork.  Pulling an earphone back, I could barely make out the chatter of machine guns, and the duller, louder bark of the Quebecois autocannons.  Farxisys and Sergeant Ibn Miswar were fighting smart – letting the Quebecois forces be the villains in the eyes of the folks they’re supposed to be defending.
I felt the tank slow, and the turret start to rotate as we began our turn on to Cambrai.  “SHIT!  Stop! Stop! STOP!  Two tangos, twelve o’clock relative.  Gunner fire!  Load HEAT.”  I ducked down as the Coyotes opened fire with their Bushmasters.
“Sabot on the way,” I heard Owen call back over the intercom.  The tank rocked from the recoil, and almost immediately the closest Coyote was hit by the round and exploded.
“HEAT up!”
I felt the turret traverse slightly as Owen lined up on the second Coyote.  “On the way!”
The second Coyote was pulling back, but shuddered to a halt as the nose of the armored car was wrapped in an explosion.  Secondaries blew the turret hatches open, as fire jetted out of the crew compartment.  Then a realization hit me.  These are reconnaissance vehicles.  If they have dismounted infantry, we’re fucked.  “Caballero, get us the fuck out of here.

Description
More Backstory

Excerpted from the 50th Armor Regiment regimental history:
In AY195, after almost 90 years of intransigence from the republican leadership of the former Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick (the République du Québec et Nouveau-Brunswick, colloquially known as Quebec) over tariffs on the St Lawrence, the Foreign Office of the Republic of Nova Anglia issued a final ultimatum, threatening war if Quebec (the capital) didn’t reduce the tariffs, then Nova Anglia would be forced to use force.
In the years since the founding, Nova Anglia’s War Department scavenged military installations, museums, municipal, county, and state parks; and veterans organizations for combat arms equipment. While most functional combat service support equipment was pooled from existing former National Guard, Reserve, and Active Duty component stocks, ever since AY1 - the year the Russians detonated a nuclear device over one of their cities at a portal - the more advanced combat equipment, such as the vaunted M-1 Abrams MBT were rendered non-operational. The 50th Armored Regiment could be considered a logistics nightmare, with battalions equipped with recovered and reactivated M4A3s (E2s, E4s, E8s), others fielding a mix of M26, M48-series and M60A1/A3 variants. All reactivated armor, if formerly powered by av/mogas, received new turbodiesel engines and automatic transmissions.
As H-Hour for Operation Thunderbolt, the invasion of Quebec, ticked closer, Team Panther went into their staging area in the Black Turn Brook (VT) State Park. Team Panther comprised 1st Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 50th Armored Regiment (M4A3E8*), 42ID, under the command of 1st Lieutenant Alystra T’Siir; and 3rd Platoon, D Company, 2d Battalion (Mech (M1126A3 (Degraded))), 14th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain, commanded by 2d Lieutenant Yosef Montoya.
At H minus 30, Team Panther conducted the last pre-step inspections and fueling, before stepping off in the predawn gloom at H minus 10, and motoring up VT-114 to the border, crossing through the Nova Anglican Border Patrol checkpoint at H minus 1, and through the DCPAF (République du Québec et Nouveau-Brunswick Direction centrale de la police aux frontières) checkpoint, before dropping the hammer and commencing a thunder run towards its first objective of Coaticook, Quebec, capturing the town within minutes with zero rounds expended; the only Québecois casualty was a member of the Gendarmerie nationale breaking an arm bailing out of his police cruiser before A5, under the command of Platoon Sergeant Sawyer Perkins ran over it.
Infantry with M1126A3 and M4A3E8* support quickly swept through Coaticook, and noted no resistance. Refueled by tankers from 250th BSB and relieved by follow on units of Task Force Predator, Team Panther split into two elements, with one with two Shermans and 3 Strykers, commanded by 1LT T’Siir, the other with three Shermans and two Strykers, commanded by 2LT Montoya and P/Sgt Perkins. T’Siir’s element continued up Highway 147; 2LT Montoya and P/Sgt Perkins’ provided overwatch and flank support along Chemin de Cochrane. Rendezvousing at the local Québec PTT (Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones) office in Compton, Lieutenants T’Siir and Montoya conferred, and decided to push for the Mont Bellevue suburb of Sherbrooke.
Aerial reconnaissance reports were lacking, and Lieutenant T’Siir was uncertain of the disposition of forces coming out of QFB Valcartier, particularly the 12th Armoured Regiment and 1st Division, Forces Québec. Making the executive decision, Lt T’Siir ordered fuel topped from the local gas station, draining the diesel tanks of the Compton Sonic dry. Rolling out of the gas station, with a pair of their attached Strykers acting as a scout element, Team Panther headed for its objective two hours after crossing the border, eventually joining with the morning rush on the 410 expressway…to the astonished looks of the civilians. 1LT T’Siir, cognizant of the difficulties of interfacing armored combat vehicles in civilian traffic, had ordered hatches open and heads out while the convoy rolled along the shoulder of the expressway towards Exit 10 and Rue Belvédère Sud, even taking the opportunity to wave at a school bus full of kids heading to school.
Arriving at and taking over the local municipal building for her headquarters, 1LT T’Siir began placing her small forces. Two two tank sections, with an infantry squad each, one at Parc du Mont Bellevue, setting up a wide ambush for Rue Dunant and any force coming over the mountain, through the park. The second section, with an additional squad, was set up in the woods behind the shopping center at the intersection of Rue Dunant, Rue Belvédère, and Rue de l’Union, with the second infantry squad backstopping the ambush point at the intersection of Rue Belvédère and Rue Picard. Her tank, Chronic Pain, and 3rd Platoon’s platoon sergeant’s Stryker and embarked squad formed the flying reserve until reinforced by elements of Task Force Predator.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Hey, El-Tee!  Alfa Three’s in contact.”  Specialist Owen shouted as they came running into the breakroom.
I had just started pouring a cup of fresh coffee when my gunner came running in.  These gendarmes were living the high life.  Real, fresh ground coffee.  I remember my two times great grandfather, well into his dotage, reminiscing about how good, and not so good, coffee was available everywhere even at gas stations.  His son, my great grandfather, would agree with him, and bring up how much changed after AY1.  Or as they liked to call it, the year 2020.  My first cup of real coffee in Gods knew how long, and now Forces Québec are going to ruin that.  “Where?”
“Rue Belvédère; two LAVs.  Sergeant Farxisys reported they’ve pulled back into the woodline behind smoke rounds…and fire.  Farxisys said the Quebecois took out both the gas station and the stores next to it.”
“My compliments to Sergeant Heimark, and she’s to take her squad and support our ambush in place.  Get Caballero in here, so we can go over the route.”  I put the coffee mug I was going to use back in the cabinet and started pulling out paper coffee cups.  There was no way I was going to waste this pot of coffee.  Owen was waiting for me to dismiss them.  “One last thing, Quin, then you can go.  Get on the company net and advise Captain Asquith that we’re in contact.  Now go.”
“You wanted to see me, El-Tee?”
I nodded.  “We’re in contact.”
“Great!  What’s the route?”
I rolled my eyes internally.  Caballero was a great driver, could make a Sherman do things I doubt the designers could have ever thought possible, but she was trouble.  She joked that her service dress jacket sleeves were so discolored from all the promotions and demotions.  I referred to the map on the counter, with the route I’d penciled in.  “Got it?”
“Thunder run?”  I could see the gleam in her eyes.
“Until we get to Cambrai.  No use letting them know we’re coming up behind them.”
“Got it El-Tee.”
“Let’s go do the thing, Private.”
“Now, El-Tee,” Caballero asked, smirking as she grabbed the paper carrier full of cups.  “Before we go into a fight?  What’s the rest of the crew gonna think?”
“You are trouble, Miah,” I said rolling my eyes.  “No wonder you can’t keep stripes on your sleeves.”
“I just wanna drive, ma’am.  It ain’t like I wanna become a platoon sergeant or higher, like Owen.”
Chronic Pain was already idling.  “Hey cherry!  Get outta my seat,” I heard Caballero shout into her hatch.  I didn’t hear PV1 Peters’ reply, but Caballero’s reply of “Yeah, but I got time in service, pendejo!” I could infer its content.
“Kids, behave,” I growled over the intercom.  “Slap fight after we go deal with the Quebecois.  Take us out, Miah.”
With a cloud of diesel soot, Chronic Pain rolled out of the parking lot and began accelerating down Thibault.  The clatter of tracks was a dull thud through the earphones of my CVC.  As we made the right on Dunant, I could see the smoke from the shopping center at the fork.  Pulling an earphone back, I could barely make out the chatter of machine guns, and the duller, louder bark of the Quebecois autocannons.  Farxisys and Sergeant Ibn Miswar were fighting smart – letting the Quebecois forces be the villains in the eyes of the folks they’re supposed to be defending.
I felt the tank slow, and the turret start to rotate as we began our turn on to Cambrai.  “SHIT!  Stop! Stop! STOP!  Two tangos, twelve o’clock relative.  Gunner fire!  Load HEAT.”  I ducked down as the Coyotes opened fire with their Bushmasters.
“Sabot on the way,” I heard Owen call back over the intercom.  The tank rocked from the recoil, and almost immediately the closest Coyote was hit by the round and exploded.
“HEAT up!”
I felt the turret traverse slightly as Owen lined up on the second Coyote.  “On the way!”
The second Coyote was pulling back, but shuddered to a halt as the nose of the armored car was wrapped in an explosion.  Secondaries blew the turret hatches open, as fire jetted out of the crew compartment.  Then a realization hit me.  These are reconnaissance vehicles.  If they have dismounted infantry, we’re fucked.  “Caballero, get us the fuck out of here.