Storms of War

Dear Mom,

I know it has been a while. Four months already, and we have made huge strides in taking back Prance! We have taken yet another city, and the Imperial Gryphon Army is falling back on all fronts to the Brine River. They have built a mighty fortress there, but we have amassed such an army we will surely take them without much thought. Our commanders are tried and true, our sergeants are confident, and even our greenest troops have been in the field for a month. We are all blooded, and though I have lost some friends, I am happy to say my entire squad has stayed together so far. Radio Wave took a couple of hits, but he never even had to go to the hospital. I have not been in any real danger, as my enemies are all too far away to see me. I do as pegasi have always done: I watch from the skies for danger, and protect my friends.

Command says that we are to put a new plan into action, one that will have us home by Hearth’s Warming Eve. I cannot say what it is, both because I don't really know, and because of operational security, but I think it will work. With any luck, this will be one of the shortest wars in history. I hope this letter finds you well, and that the bits I have been earning have made it to you. Remember not to spend it all at once, but don't keep it all under a pillow either. Buy something nice. And maybe meet somepony?

Your Son,

Cpl Steel Wing

HQ Battalion

1st Infantry

        I sighed, folding the letter and shoving it in its envelope before handing it to the mail sergeant. She nodded and stuck a stamp on it before moving on. “Mail, anypony? Come on! Also, anyone seen Der-”

        “Hey! Wing! Gratz on the promotion!”

        I turned just in time to duck a beefy slap on the back from Fire Cracker. Behind him, Blaze and the rest were just arriving. Today had been one of celebration, as we were finally encamped on the west side of the Brine River. On the west, Gryphon guns had been trying (and failing) to reach us across the nearly half-a-mile wide river. For some reason, they had put all of their longest range artillery at the narrowest parts of the river, and vise-versa.

        That thought was slapped aside by Blaze’s hand, and I flushed furiously as she got me in a headlock and proceeded to mess up my mane. “Little Corporal Wing! Watch out, we got a big shot here!”

        “Ha-ha. Geroff!” I said, trying to free myself. After a few moments, she let me go and I rubbed my neck. “I thought you guys were off drinking again? I was finishing a letter. Mom’s gonna be getting some more bits now, I guess... “

        Blaze nodded while Night Walker started to fish around inside her shirt. Her brother nudged her, hissing and making a squeaking, popping noise that I had learned was their echolocation. The two lunar pegasi were known for troublemaking, and I braced myself for whatever they were about to hand out.

        “You know, there is a changing room in the barracks if you need to adjust anything…” piped up Radio Wave. We all shared a chuckle.

        “Yeah, up yours too… freaking wiseass. Hey, Corporal. Think Fast!” She called, before hurling a small object at me.

        After a short game of hot-potato between my hands, I gave it a closer look. It was a small leather bag full of…

        “Twenty bits? What for?” I ventured. Even now, I regretted that question.

        “I got the okay from Butter Bar. He said he’ll look the other way, as long as we don't make a habit of corrupting the youngsters!”

        My face by now was beet red. All around, lovely gryphons and scantily clad ponies danced, swayed, and did odd things on vertical bars that made my joints ache just watching. A gryphon with bright, rainbow-colored plumage winked at me as she sashayed by and served a plate of food to another table with two Braytish Paratroopers at it.

        “I really don't think this is appropriate…” I ventured for the third time. “I mean… I kinda promised I wouldn't.”

        My ears were folded so tightly over my head that I could hardly hear the music and noises of the bar. If my mother were here…

        “Look at how red he can get! I TOLD you, you put some paint on him and he’ll look like a Gryphon Flag!” Blaze guffawed. Their amusement at my embarrassment seemed to be a common theme, but I tolerated it. We were all family, after all. Though I suppose family didn't usually take their ‘little brothers’ into strip clubs.

        “Listen… Wing, listen” began a somewhat-tipsy Day Walker. “In every little colt’s life, one day he begins to have funny feelings-”

        I kinda knew what he was getting around to saying, having gotten that talk from my own mother when she found my shoebox under the bed… but I never got to hear it from him as a chunk of the wall came flying through and knocked the grin right off his face.

        Another chunk knocked me out.

        Screaming. No-matter where you were, who you were fighting, or what you were doing the killing with, the screams are the same. Stab somepony, shoot them, set them on fire, and they always scream for their mothers, their fathers, sisters or brothers… and the wounded are not the only screamers. When the smoke has cleared, squadmates hold eachother, the dead are counted, and those left behind scream themselves hoarse, or lapse into the same silence as the dead.

        The screaming was what finally pulled me out of the dark, and my vision was hazy as I was pulled into a sitting position. A familiar white and black face loomed over me, as Linen Wrap slapped my face a few times.

        “Corporal! Snap out of it! BLAZE! GET A PRESS ON THAT!” She shouted, looking over her shoulder towards Day Walker, who was spitting up blood from what used to be a face.

        “INCOMING! Artillery! Where the HELL are they hitting us from?”

        Another blast hit the building across the street. As the heat washed over me, I began to pick out the small details in the room…

        A pile of rainbow-feathers, poking out from under a bloody slab of brick.

        Day Walker, trying to breath past his own blood.

        Night Walker, cradling her mortally wounded twin.

        Blaze, trying to administer CPR and First Aid.

        Linen Wrap, stabbing something into my leg.

        A dull throb across my cheek, and blood in my eyes.

        “Corporal! Get up! You’re fine! Radio Wave! Where the HELL are you?!?”

        With a sudden snap, everything came back into sharp focus. Radio Wave was pulling somepony… or somebirdy out of the rubble, while a dazed officer I didn't recognize stumbled past the ruined wall, making it only a few steps before a shot rang out, and he fell over.

        There were troops inside the city. It was early evening, and somehow, they had troops inside the city. That explosion was too small to be artillery… And all their guns were at least half a mile out of range. That left one thing, as another whistling sound broke through and a plume of smoke erupted from the next building down the block.

        Sergeant Fire Cracker was down, bloody and being tended too. Thin Ice, as usual, was nowhere to be found. Butter Bar was back at the Officer’s Club, or somewhere that was not here when we needed him, and Iron Curtain, the only other NCO besides me was… stuck to a wall with a section of pipe through her right eye.

        Another explosion punctuated my thoughts before I suddenly knew exactly what to do. “Blaze! Radio, Night Light! Come on, we gotta find those guns! They have mortars inside the city!”

        Blaze only hesitated for a moment, before nodding and pulling her Braying Automatic Rifle from under a collapsed table, and tossed my rifle to me. Radio Wave grimaced as he pulled a sidearm from Iron Curtain. “Sorry… you won’t be needing this anymore, battle-sister….”

        Outside was panic. Everypony had been relaxing in preparation for the next movement, but none of us had expected an attack here, where we had been safe for two weeks. Those who were not out drinking or whorsing had been eating or sleeping, and ponies in only half their uniforms were stumbling outside. We didn’t get more than two steps before Radio swore and fired two shots into a nearby window.

        “They’re above us! BUCKING GRYPHONS! How the HELL did they get here?”

        A thump marked his marksmanship before I peered down the next alley, spotting two more gryphons in Imperial Uniforms. They were both looking away from us and motioning down the streets. I looked at Blaze and made a series of hand motions. She nodded, and Radio and Night Light both took up cover positions at the end. I drew my knife, and Blaze did the same. Until now, I had never had occasion to engage in hand to hand combat, and to my credit, I did fairly well. It was a maneuver our paranoid Sergeants had taught us.

        There was an art to slitting throats. The stunt you see in comic books or movies, where they pull the head back all the way and slice a ‘second smile’? That was horseapples. That let the Trachea, the Windpipe, provide limited protection to the two main arteries. Instead, you slid the knife under the chin, pushed the head down slightly, and either buried the knife in the neck and twisted, or made a quick slice as if you were scoring a plank of wood to mark a cut.

I followed my training, and wrapped one hand around the surprised trooper’s beak after cutting his throat, and pulled him backwards slowly. The amount of blood was incredible, and it painted the wall next to us a bright red as his eyes slowly glazed over and rolled back in his head. There was no time to think about this, as Blaze gave a muffled curse to the side. I looked over just in time to wince at a wet ‘shnick’ sound. His head dangled limply from a broken neck before she dropped him, and I waved Radio and Night Light down after us. Night Light peeked around the corner as another whistle marked another mortar round.

Corporal… I got…. Four guns, probably two-inch light mortars. Eight crew with six… no, eight guards. I can’t tell if they have a ‘42 covering them. I see alot of dead ponies out there… how did they get above without the guns spotting them? I don’t even hear any triple-A firing! What’s our anti-aircraft DOING, sitting on their bucking thumbs? How the HELL did bucking PARATROOPERS get inside the city without us knowin!”

        “They aren’t paratroopers…. Look between them” I said pointing at a sewer tunnel enterence just behind the mortar platform, where another trooper was climbing out and accepting his rifle from somebirdy below. “They just… came right through the tunnels. Radio… you need to find a hand-held or a backpack. We need to let batallion know what’s going on. Blaze, you got any Comp-B?”

        She patted her pockets, before nodding and pulling out a wad of Compound B, our high explosive of choice in the field. Intert until mixed with Compound A, a small liquid, it could then be detonated remotely or with a fuse. She began unrolling a bit and wrapping it around the putty, working quickly and quietly.

        “Corporal! Hey, CORPORAL! Over here!”

        I looked at the whispering. It seemed to be right next to me, but in an alley on the other side of the impromptu artillery site I could see a unicorn private with his horn glowing, speaking quietly into his hands. “Private Loud Speaker here… What are we gonna do sir? I can hear you just fine, whisper! I got five others with me, including a Bazooka. I think they’re coming out of the tunnels below the city!”

        I nodded at him, before ducking back in the alley and whispering, hoping he could indeed hear. “I know. We don't have a sergeant or an officer here… I don't think there are many survivors in this section. We need to catch them in a crossfire and take them by surprise before they get a chance to get anybirdy else up out of that tunnel. We have some Comp B that we’re gonna use to blow it. Load and get ready to attack in ten seconds. Open with frags, then spread out… don’t bunch up!”

        I heard a snicker behind me as I ducked a bit further back. Radio Wave had the panel of a backpack unit opened up and was messing with the wires, but he looked up at me. “Almost sound like you know what you’re doing, Wing! I almost got this fixed.”

        My mind raced. This was the first time I ever had to come up with a plan of any sort beyond “point and shoot”, and everypony’s lives depended on me to figure this out. But this was my calling… to fight, and to win.

        “Alright… Corporal, I got a signal to command. They don’t know what’s going on here. Can I report it?”

        I nodded. “Stay here, make the report. We gotta take out that mortar before anypony else dies. Everypony ready?”

        They nodded, and I looked across the street. The young pony from before, Loud Speaker, waved at me before pulling the pin on a grenade and lobbing it into the midst of the troopers. There was a loud squawk…

        And nothing happened. It was a dud.

        “SHIT!” Came across to us, as the other ponies ducked out of cover and began to fire, trying to spread out as a spray of machinegun bullets began to stitch across the street.

        “DAMMIT! The DO have a friggin machinegun up top! Nigh Light, get him suppressed!”

        Night Light nodded and began to fire in the machinegun’s general direction, causing the fire to taper off momentarilly. That was all we needed as blaze stood up, cradling her rifle, and began to sweep it back and forth over the suddenly surrounded troopers. There was surprised scream and a thump as a lucky shot hit the machine gunner, dropping him from a church steeple and removing the cover fire.

        The last three gryphons threw down their rifles and put their hands up, pleading in their language with us as one more crawled out of the tunnel and simply lay down, hands on top of his head.

        “Cease Fire! Blaze, drop that potato down the hatch!”

        The four remaining gryphons did not object as we tied their hands, destroyed the tunnel, and began to turn the mortar on other concealed positions marked carelessly on the map provided to the mortar crew. Three minutes later, Radio handed the reciever to me and grinned. “Command wants to talk to you, Corporal. Looks like the surprise attack isn’t going so well anymore.”

        I nodded. “Um… secure the area, I guess. Not much else to do here.” I picked up the radio-phone thing and held it to my ear. “Corporal Steel Wing, First Squad, Big Red One.”

        “Son, I hate to ask this of you… but looks like the gryphons really stepped in the pucky here. The commander who ordered this moved his own personal guard to pull this off so we wouldn’t see troop depletion on the other side of the river, and is totally exposed. We just got word from a few Prench Resistance that he’s in a manor about four miles north-east of this city, across the river. You are to detach from your squad and link up with a Pathfinder group to take him out. Oh, and Butter Bar says ‘thanks for holding the squad together’. Command out.”

        I stared at the phone. Let no good deed go unpunished….