6 June 2034, Somewhere on the Cipanas-Rangkasbitung Road (National Road 11)

13.10 Western Indonesia Time

Cpl. William

"Anyone recording this?"

Janice answered "Me. If I'm lucky I will upload it to my Youtube channel, and Telegram."

"I suggest get it to Funker530 as well if you have time, Jan."

"What is it, Sergeant?" Her eyes went on the source of the statement.

"A YouTube channel of war veterans, showing recording of combat all over the world since the start of this century - Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Philippines, Colombia, India, Korea, the Caucasus, Ukraine, even now across Europe, you name it all... You boys and girls should get your hands on it one day."

"Thanks for the recommendation, sir... wait. Enemy scouts..." Janice's scope had turned towards the first sign of hostiles. 12 of them.

"Open fire."

Immediately my SS2 claimed it's first victim, the rest were mowed down by machine gun fire.

"Incoming technicals, from the dirt village road, 10 o'clock!"

"Here it comes, people." Stephen exclaimed. "Abe, make sure your rocket is ready."

"Loaded sir."

"Good, you know when to fire it. Conserve as much as you can."

Before he even put himself into position, the first technical burst to flames. The electric humming of turret being trained indicated that our medium tank is now in action.

The explosion also caught the second truck on it's wake, vaporizing every ragheads nearby.

"Oh yeah! We are kicking their asses!"

"Rudi, pay attention!" Sergeant Stephen was right; as drone feed confirmed that more troop-carrying technicals and several unarmed minibus were racing towards our lines.

"Look out, suicide car bombs, from the main road!"

Behind us, "All heavy weapon squads, ready to fire!"

Rockets went out from our position, followed by multiple blasts from detonating vehicles.

The AT troopers were backed by two Komodo-mounted heavy machine guns, using it's mobility, the crew did a terrific job keeping jihadists at bay.

"What a show!" I exclaimed, clearly amused by the sight. Behind us, one of the anti-armor specialists swore.

"Rest in pieces, scumbag. How's the promise of heaven for you now?"

More explosions and shrapnel tore through the enemy formation as their suicide vests prematurely detonated, compounding their misery.

"Heads up, hostile drones are heading towards your position," said the battalion command while we still engaged a considerable number of rebel foot soldiers.

"Brace yourself. Suicide and bomber drones are one of the main causes of casualties here especially in the initial phase when they overran police and army facilities in several provinces." exhorted the Lieutenant at us.

"Look!" My left hand pointed skywards as a small fixed-wing drone were closing into us.

"Activating jammers," a Guardsmen behind us raised his anti drone gun which proceeded to bring down the drone which has started its diving phase. There were three soldiers with similar weapon. Suddenly one of the drones burst open in a loud bang and a searing heat that almost caught us .

"Allahu Akbar (takbir)!" shouted the Palestinian.

The expression underscored the shock generated by the explosion which was large enough to maim a soldier if it was much closer.

"More technicals and suicide cars incoming, 12 o'clock!" Following the drone the second round of our engagement began.

"Clear the backblast!"

Out from his foxhole, Abe squeezed the trigger of his RPG-32 and serviced the first suicide car bomb, while the other vehicle was taken down by the 1st squad guys. However the technicals continued their assault with their machine guns blazing.

"Heads down!" barked Stephen.

"Those people are insane as fuck."

"Don't know you can say such word?" I replied at Ramlan in surprise of his statement, while my SS2 took out a rebel fighter which attempted to position himself into prone in the head.

"War is hell, Corporal," he replied while continue firing. More rebels fell, especially as I could hear Janice were counting her kills "5..., 10, 11, 12, 13.." in ascending order.

"Be advised enemy scrapyard panzer inbound!" followed by a creaking clanking noise that resembled a tracked vehicle.

"Sounds like a bulldozer", I heard a regular army corporal called his anti-armor crew. He later ordered, "Get the Hyungung armed."

I also asked Abe, "Have you reloaded your RPG?"

"Certainly",

Abe had sighted the bulldozer, perfectly ready.

"Fire"

Unfortunately for us the rocket went off course and instead it hit a civilian truck which was carrying more enemy fighters, obliterating it and the blast also destroyed an enemy technical.

"Fuck!" he cursed. But later an explosion ripped through the bulldozer, and everything went silent.

We sighed in relief, the regular soldiers with their Korean-made Hyungung anti-tank missile had destroyed the bulldozer and the remnant of the jihadi force turned their back in retreat from the general area covered by surviving technicals which had also quickly dispatched by heavy machine gun and tank fire.

"Banzai!"

The excitement showed by Fujita on our left flank that translated to his fireteam continuous fire, which we followed to the rebel's rearguard, ready to die a certain death; and we gave them what they crave.

Rokhim exhorted us to hold our position as our position went silent after hours of firefight. "They might regroup and ambush us with their bombs or renew their attacks. We cannot advance yet" As he said that I saw several wheeled combat robots from the battalion's engineer units went down the road to look for ambushes or IEDs.

As we expected, multiple detonations.

"Someone will be hurt." Agnes told me.

"And I hope it will be those terrorists." that's what Rudi pointed at us. But then we have a new set of troubles to look out - in the form of our comm.

"Sir, I think we start to have interference with our GPS receiver," I said.

"That's right, corporal. They have GPS jammers." Stephen's response was quick, as well as Lieutenant Rokhim. Not for long support went in, from the sky in form of two stealth IF-33 fighters.

"This is Arus 2-1, we detected a box truck inside the town camouflaged with camnets, Lasing the target now." Said a male voice over the radio. The jets went on beyond the horizon and released their laser-guided bombs. Sure enough, we cleared the jamming which allowed us to be on the line with our UAVs - the enemy's primary target to blind us, as well as the Lieutenant's order to check our individual gears.

"Be advised, drones had detected another group of suspects heading your way." Moments later, our radio went alive with a report from local HANRA fighters serving as additional eyes on the ground. "We saw several groups of bandits but we can confirm they are not Islamists. Those people have a red armband and cap with a red star and heading towards your position".

"Communists", Stephen's voice went to a growl, clearly showed his displeasure upon the confirmation of their identifying marks. "Those men might try to mop up those rats from NII and gathering weapons for their own forces but don't be lethargic, the enemy of our enemy, in this case, is also the enemy and they were also fanatical bastards. Never forget the Medan Incident. Fucking looters, all of them... We won't forget and will not forgive."

He referred to a hostage-taking incident in Medan that occurred 4 months ago in a Chinese restaurant when we were still in training, perpetrated by the FDNI.

"No sane Indonesian want communism, Sergeant. It's in our constitution! So congratulations, you are really part of us now!" exclaimed Rudi as he was checking his gun.

"Not even I whose homeland was as elusive as ever want to be subjected to a bunch of Godless politicos, oppressing us for our own good, they say... despite their propaganda. You know that I once lived in America and had seen it by myself, reinforced by my Uyghur friends who managed to flee China to the US, before the Great Change in China... I am grateful to God everyday for fact that they had came back to their senses, and embrace what had made their nation great in the past..."

"...which allowed America to back us in the fight." said Janice in reply to Ahmad's statement.

"Exactly."

The Communists were not much different than the Islamists in term of savagery; 10 female hostages were raped during the standoff and as the result, the whole event ended up bloody with the entire hostage-takers, save two gunmen, killed in the police assault that follows and 9 hostages, 4 of them were children, died of their wounds. The resulting city-wide lockdown yielded three cells of FDNI fighters exposed and their members were convicted. 3 from 30 captured fighters later cooperated with the apparatus in return of full amnesty while the rest were put into an internment-labor camp in the outskirts of a city called Doloksanggul. That operation also uncovered three NII sleeper cells. All save for 2 captured jihadists were hanged upon trial.

I suggested, "How about airstrike?" 

"Good idea". After forwarding my idea into the Lieutenant, Stephen responded: "Airstrike authorized and we got Apaches already airborne."

"Roger that, coordinates received, this is Trenggiling 3-1, airstrikes inbound".

Two Army AH-64E Apache Guardians flew over and firing their laser-guided rockets, Several trees were knocked out. A second pass saw both Boeing-made attack helicopters were circling their targets before unleashing their deadly load of 30mm cannons and 70mm rockets. We're lucky today that nobody seems to care to carry MANPADS, a nightmare for helicopters. "Strike effective. Red fighters are all KIA. Hold on... Be advised, we are having a few more target of opportunity; NII jihadists. Engaging now!"

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

Same location, 1720 Western Indonesia Time

Pvt. Handy Jayakusuma.

After the airstrike, there was a significant reduction of engagements by the rebels. However, due to the terrain and vegetations in the area. Sporadic fire from stragglers remained, and there were always possibility that snipers were left behind to pick us up one by one. Nevertheless, our reinforcements were here in form of a fresh mechanized company from 1125th Battalion and supporting ground drones as well as an attachment of digital blue-clad Brimob police officers, and so medium tanks supporting us were re-deployed to support the push by the said company.

Subsequently Capt. Wuwur ordered the whole to prepare a bivouac for night's rest. While I anticipating a night operation, I start to understand why we were ordered to not advance. And so, the rest of the day was spent to clear up any stragglers.

"Shit, sniper!"

Thankfully nobody reported hits, and thuds from autocannons ahead of us were enough to alleviate our concern. Further beyond the horizon, we can hear intermittent boom of our artillery and roar of jets circling above Rangkasbitung.

Later the entire task force prepared their own bivouacs for shelter while the vehicles return to the FOB in Jasinga. After that in the evaluation debriefing, our entire battalion was told that we were all decorated with our first medal for active combat operation, the Combat Action Medal (Satyalencana Pertempuran) (1) while three members of the 3rd squad, Corporal Indra which was wounded in combat and Pvt. Gibran Martowardojo and Pvt. Diana Effendi - both volunteers from universities like us - who were KIA were also given the Satyalencana Bhakti (2).

In 19.00 Major Wambe personally addressed us and the officers later put those medals in our chests, in a silent ceremony in an abandoned school's field nearby. The pride was immense, as we know that we are not alone, and people cared enough for us.

Followed by debriefing session.

"We've managed to push back the enemy for today, and secure the way to Rangkasbitung in this sector" said Capt. Wuwur in her debriefing. "On the other front, our forces in the Cilegon-Merak Pocket of Resistance - which had been reinforced from Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Jakarta - had advanced into Serang and 15% of the city had been reclaimed, assisted by local fighters holed up in the city and strikes from our naval and air assets. Intelligence said the enemy there was showing the sign of exhaustion after suppressing the Kulon Commune so some fighters from Rangkas have been redirected to relieve them, which means their defense capacity in Rangkas will be reduced. This will be a good opportunity to finish the rebels in this province once and for all. Even that, those people are hard to break, because this is their last stand at all."

"Remember; we have no tolerance with cowards. 15th Brigade's 204th Battalion which had cleared Maja has reported that three of their men had been shot due to attempted desertion while two were sent to penal units after a quick trial. Also, any enemy propaganda leaflet you found must be immediately given to your superiors..."

"...And as I speak, your IFS gear was being recharged and upgraded by our technicians to be more resistant to jamming and additional Michibiki (3) software receivers as backups for the GPS, because the NII possesses GPS jamming capability. The Air Force had neutralized one of their jammers but they still have more in reserve... You were already trained using this system in your basic training alongside the American one, as well as the Chinese and Indian ones so this will not be such a problem. 'Always have plan B' is a relevant saying here."

"...Soldiers scheduled for guard duty, man your position while others may take their rest. Dismissed!"

After briefings, It's my turn for duty tonight, started in 21.30 with my Maximi machine gun that I named Theresa, after my girlfriend back home in Bekasi.

I can't be more grateful with the fact that during the less intense moment of combat, I managed to catch several rounds of 10-20 minutes nap in the foxhole. Don't make me wrong; this pattern is approved (even encouraged) by the highest command. A good rest, even brief, can result in better performance and less chance for mistakes, and most importantly, a chance to commit so-called "human rights violations".

William broke the silent night with a hushed voice.

"Do you know or at least heard what actually causes this conflict other than European Civil War and Middle East World War? Is that economic, like some of the pundits on TV and newspapers said in the beginning? We are becoming a new Korea, Taiwan, or Singapore in terms of economic performance in the last four years so those people definitely wrong this time. Wealth inequality? Come on, I know you and I have pretty much "class privilege" and with due respect to poor people who became it not due to their fault; we cannot all be equal (the same), period. Equality over the law, yes, for example, but some parts, we humans are inherently unequal and no social engineering programs can eradicate it."

"...Corruption? Yeah, I know it's still troublesome shit here including in the apparatus, judiciary, and the parliament, but the stamping out and prevention effort of it also much more extensive and much more successful than the past. Hell, the method even outraged some human rights defenders busybodies for example. Transparency by gun barrels, collective punishment, and whips, they say, with all credits for other work they've done."

We referred to how the president was more than popular thanks to the often decried policy of pauperization of corrupt, terror-supporting, and any other disgraced government official's family to the point that some of them were forced to live on cheap apartments, while the more unlucky ones were reduced to hand to mouth existence.

Lee Kuan Yew will surely blush on one of his emulators, while detractors had openly said that we are now under a minority tyranny.

Other punishment also involved permanent revocation of their right to work for the government including to vote and be voted to public office until fourth generation.

With those so called NGOs had lost their teeth due to civil war in their main backer, European countries, our reform was terribly effective, I dare to say.

On the other hand, the popularity itself was offset by the sometimes unpopular reformation of land tenure as well as social security that left some groups seething.

The said policy of collective punishment had also targeted extra-parliamentary activists in the left-wing side down to disgraced national athletes especially with bad attitude or other scandalous events, especially if he or she was caught using banned substances.

I remembered when Pelita Harapan U Eagles' varsity team was permanently scarred when one of it's brightest, Joseph Huangjaya, a basketball player for national team was caught using such stuff and was sent straight home from Asian Basketball Championship.

Upon arriving in Indonesia, he was quickly arraigned into custody, given notice of expulsion from our campus which permanently landed him to the black-list of athletes which came with many handicaps. For example, you and your family cannot vote and be voted to political office, and finally, he was disowned from the family and condemned to be a vagrant.

Increased suicides by the former officials, divorces, juvenile delinquency and crime including in cyberspace, drug and alcohol abuse, and many more.

"This might trigger our Muslim friend but the truth must be told, Corporal. I think this actually related to their ideology, this rottenness, and penchant for violence are embedded in their system and sorry to say, it might already beyond repair, without a wish to hate most of our countrymen..."

"Don't forget, those who commit 1998 riots were affiliated with political Islam which back in early to mid-1990s Eyang (Grandpa) Harto used them as a tool to retain his power after his relationship with the army were soured. Yes in our case those people are mostly opportunists but examining the truth to their ideology isn't an invalid option, either. On the other hand, those so called Islamists inside the Parliament did a good service by joining the nationwide condemnation of this foreign manufactured crisis."

"...Real news from Europe I have seen in the net and what the sergeant told us... The usual defense like all religions are good is no longer valid by the Europeans... terrible things..." 

"Those who thought that they have control turned out to have none in the end. The Chinese got their own crisis, but so the West..."

"Yeah, that's their own affairs, while it affected us too. private."

"Also... about the commies, I never expected that they are as fierce, Corporal. Their propaganda was strong during and after the new constitution was passed, it's clear that their outrage over the past five years was a real thing; not just hot air. In addition, they opposed the start of the transition to Federalism, something that honestly I never expected as an idea for this land, until now."

"Speaking of our New Transition Course for Federalism, private... what if I told you that some people who want to accelerate it are behind those rebels?"

"Who knows. Those want to force things like carbides used to accelerate ripening had shot themselves in the foot, I dare to say."

"Other than the accelerationists, private, it's clear that for many reason, a lot of people have ax to grind against our new course."

"And so be it, Corporal" just in time as a voice on the horizon was clearly heard by the two of us.

"Hijau!" (Green) 

We answered "Api" (Fire). The signal means that a friendly unit or individual wants to enter our camp especially for passing important intelligence to the nearest army unit. William pressed a button on his radio to summon the commander. A band of four HANRA fighters all armed with CZ-805 assault rifles head inside the camp and greeted by Major Wambe.

We cannot hear clearly what they said, because they met with him behind an armored vehicle. But it definitely a piece of important information pertaining to the enemy situation. Then an update came from the outer perimeter; a group of local militias and regular army outside the wire had captured three suspected NII spy/infiltrators. But thankfully, rest of our guard duty went without any significant event with intermittent sleep, and when time struck 4, came the Reveille.

It's time to fight again.

Notes:

(1) Satyalencana Pertempuran = fictional decoration. Equivalent with the Combat Action Medal (US Navy, US Coast Guard, US Air Force), and Combat Action/Infantryman Badge (US Army) in terms of eligibility which is "active engagement in combat with the enemy".

(2) Satyalencana Bhakti = Equivalent with the Purple Heart in the US Military "wounded or killed in action as the result of the direct enemy action". Source (note in this official government source it only mentioned wounded but I think in case of KIA this decoration will be awarded too): http://www.setneg.go.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5297

(3) Michibiki = Japanese satellite navigation system

Military Vehicles mentioned:

1. Black Tiger (Harimau Hitam) tank or Kaplan MMWT (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Medium_Weight_Tank)

2. Kobra armored fighting vehicle (in this story, a license manufactured General Dynamics Pandur II)