I sat on top of a pile of sandbags just in front of the Town Hall with Grapevine and Amber on my left, and Sparky and Hazel on my right. We had just went over the total casualty figures with the Colonels and Golden Oak said he was proud that we got through with so few lost. I shook my head at that. So few? Including the counter attack, we lost over 30 soldiers from across both companies! We had even gotten word that Charlie Company was completely wiped out. Seems they got surrounded and held off the Zebras long enough so we could finish our defenses. The only reason we held out for as long as we did, was because 90 of Equestria's finest lay down their lives. It hurt knowing that nearly one half of our fighting force lay six feet under, but I took a small amount of pride in the news that due to our success, we were receiving another 3 companies in addition to the replacement of Charlie. The 10th Airborne were getting new additions to our little family. Alongside these reinforcement companies, two new Airborne Divisions were being formed. We were known as 'Lightning', a name given to us by the Colonel, due to our decisive and effective attack on Mesa. The 14th Airborne had decided to call themselves, 'Discord's Own' as they saw they were going to be causing chaos behind enemy lines, the 20th, on the other hand, decided to call themselves 'Hellfire' as they had quite a few more pyrotechnics and demolitions experts than the other two divisions.

I had overheard from the Colonel that we would all be part of some massive operation the higher-ups were planning but nothing was set in stone yet. But a plan to use over 1000 Airborne had got to be one hell of a plan.

As we were lounging around, Captain Spearhead marched outside. "ATTENSHUN!" We all stood up, arms plastered to our sides. Even Members of the 5th Armored shot up at his call. "10th fall in! 5th dismissed!" With that, all us Airborne formed rank in front of the Captain as the tankers moved back to whatever they were doing. "Alright 10th Division!" The Captain focused on us again. "Orders from Command. We are to remain here in Mesa as a garrison force until either the arrival of the 3rd Equestrian Infantry or when the 5th create a large enough buffer zone between here and the front. I'm telling you now Fillies and Gentlecolts, sitting on your asses for a week is going to be a lot harder than what we faced last night-" A few chuckles rose from our ranks. "But I have the utmost faith that you will carry out your orders with the same effectiveness that you had when taking this very town. Form up into your platoons to receive orders from your COs. DISMISSED!" With that, our ranks broke apart and reformed into our respective platoons. Lieutenant Railspike gathered us around him.

"Alright 3rd Platoon, our job is inner security detail. Crescent, you, Hazel and Krieg are on prisoner watch, Grapevine, Amber and Gearbox will relieve you in a few hours." With that, the six of us broke from the huddle and made our way towards the impromptu prison camp. Grapevine, Amber and Gearbox, a tan unicorn mare who was part of our engineer section, separated from our little group and headed for the barracks/mess hall, mentioning resting up before they relieve us of our duties. The three of us continued to the prison camp, really just a dead end road we fenced off with some barbed wire and a half-assed guard tower. Inside the block, around 40 zebra prisoners milled about, most of them looked quite young, or old. As we approached, a few tankers from the 5th got our attention. "OI! You three taking over watching these striped bastards? We gotta get back to our rust bucket and make sure she's in working order before we move out!"

"Yeah, you grease monkeys can go. We got this area on lockdown." I responded. With that, the tankers went back the way we came. I turned to Hazel and Krieg. "Hazel, take your BAR and head up into the tower, Krieg you're with me in front of the gate. Hazel, you see anything fishy don't hesitate to call out to either me or Krieg." Two nods of acknowledgement and we moved into our positions. A small gatehouse had been constructed across the road from the tower. Calling it a Gatehouse would be giving it too much credit. It was just a small crescent of sandbags with a pair of crates set up as seats. Krieg and I sat upon these crates, angling our rifles to lean away from us. We sat there, watching either the prisoners or the other members of either the 5th or 10th walk by.

A few hours had passed before I heard some scuffling from just behind the wire. Grabbing my rifle and turning around, I saw a zebra soldier looking at me. He looked a little scruffy, I likely wasn't looking better myself, and was staring at me with bright blue eyes. In his hand he grasped a small piece of paper. Taking notice that my attention fell on him, he cleared his throat and spoke in a accented voice. "Excuse me, soldier?" He clearly didn't know our ranking system or what exactly my unit classification was, so I just nodded. He brightened up a little. "Mr. Soldier? Could you get this letter sent back to Cane? My family lives there and I want to make sure they know I and my brothers in arms that are also from Cane are alright."

I nodded. "I can't make any promises that this'll get sent or that half of it will make it through the censors, but I'll try."

The zebra nodded. "I understand sir. Even the chance of my family knowing I'm alive brings me some peace. Few of us actually wanted war, but our great leader deemed it so, so the least we can do is take up arms to protect our country and families. You and I, we are nor so different. Just two soldiers fighting for their countries." That got me thinking. All during training and since the war broke out, we were being fed propaganda about ' The Striped Menace' and the 'Talons of Evil', when in the end, many of them were likely just like us. Being fed lies about each other or just signing up to defend and support our country. I gave the zebra a smile. He gave me a smile back as he went back into the small camp keeping him safe from this crazy war. I went back to my guard post, with more on my mind, but somehow more at peace.

The week passed without much consequence. The letter the Zebra gave me went through, whether he got a response or it even getting there was still down to luck but it brought the soldier some peace. On the final day of our post in Mesa, Hazel, Krieg and I were just returning from the prison camp when a Halftrack passed down the road and the soldier in the gunner position waved us over. "You three form the 10th Airborne?"

"Yes, I'm Corporal Half Crescent of the 10th Airborne, what do you need." I replied.

The gunner smiled. "Got good news then, we're under orders to bring you boys to HQ for redeployment, apparently you're getting some leave days and extra training."

Hazel and Krieg perked up at the word 'leave' but groaned at 'training'. I shot them a look. I was technically in command so they both shut up pretty quick. "Alright, we got to pick up our platoon mates from the prison camp before we can head out." With that i motioned for the two to climb in, I did afterwards.

The Gunner nodded. "Right, we had our orders to gather up whoever we could fit in then direct the others to the square to load up and head out." We started to move through the town, gathering any and all Airborne troopers we passed. When we picked up the three in at the camp, we made our way back to the square, which was filled with halftracks and transport trucks, all set up in a long convoy line. The Colonel stood in a jeep, watching as the Division loaded up our supplies and troops. After we were all loaded up, the Colonel went through roll call, making sure we were all accounted for. After roll call, our convoy sprang forth making our way to the HQ and we made our way to our next mission.

Author's Note

Apologies on this chapter, kept sitting on it wanting to add more but not knowing what to add, so I finally decided to say 'screw it' and continue on. I know I haven't updated in months but I did promise I'll finish this!