One Thousand Tearsby TheFlyingHippogriffChaptersWarlordsPasschendaeleGuns of AutumnAngels CallingIron ThunderCitizen/Soldier (The Battle of Falcon Ridge) Ambush (Battle of Der Wald)Song of WarIn Their WordsPlan of AttackWarlordsThe story you are about to read is true. What you will see was all seen through my eyes. I've seen death, and I have seen sorrow. In death, some of my comrades found peace while others suffered. I've seen soldiers missing limbs or holding their intestines in their talons. It is something I never want my eyes to see or my ears to hear again. But it happened, and our legacy will be written by scholars in the pages of history. My name is Galiana Von Adler, but you will address me as Colonel or Colonel Von Adler. I am a griffon, I am as black as night from beak to tail. I look at my soldiers. They trust me to lead them in battle. To lead them over lands that were once green, and scarred. If I can describe these frontlines in one word it would be this: Hell. There is mud, there are rats, and there isn't a single tree left standing on these fields. Shell holes cover the once fertile land, and fill with rainwater. In the bottom of many of them still lay the bodies of the dead. Through the hardships, you know only one thing: you are going to die. For that is the destiny of living things. Everything that lives will die. Here death takes many forms. I have seen them all. Disease was just as great a killer as the enemy. The thing is the enemy is us. History will look back on this conflict to show that we griffons will never be united as one. We constantly fight, and our kind, innocent griffons, suffer. Our lands are divided, and in chaos. Every griffon noble had their own private armies, and they all wanted the throne of the kingdom. I have never known any soldiers braver than those under my own command. They know who I am. They know that I am more than just a colonel in charge of them. I went to inspect my troops as sun began to rise. One would not expect me to be here. The way things are at this present time, the only way to this throne is to fight. My wish is to create a kingdom where everyone, pony and griffon can live in harmony. If said vision is to be set in stone by way of the rifle then so be it. There are so many private armies that one can not predict who will attack you. The armies use many weapons. Our weapons are the Mannlicher M95 rifle and Bergmann M1915 N.A. I trained my troops to be fast and mobile. I look at the faces of my troops. One of them was my cousin, Gabby. She was a mail delivery griffon. When the war came she was with me. I stroked her cheek, and saw her bright youth-filled eyes. We also use improvised weapons for close quarters. Along with my Walther Model 6, I carry a trench club at my side. I modeled mine after a mace I saw in a museum, all steel construction with ten 1 1/2 inch long spikes affixed on a cylinder shaped head. I mounted it on a round steel shaft with a turned handle. It is 22 inches long and 4 3/4 lbs Our uniform consisted of a M1918 Stahlhelm, and a jacket of a khaki-gray color with brass buttons, and a black leather waist belt. We wore leather webbing to hold five round stripper clips, and grenades. Officers like me are distinguishable by our M1917 Field Caps, but our troops under our command wear the standard Stahlhelm as standard issue. The sky was light grey and dreary. That could only mean one thing, "Strength in honor, Gabby," I smiled at my round-faced cousin and ruffling her head. Our troops were hidden among the rocks, and looking up at the fortified positons on a 20 degree hill. There were machine gun nests and artillery positions. I gave the order, "Fix bayonets!" It was around 200 yards between our positions and the hilltop forts. My plan was to divide our forces into two halves, and flank the hills. My second-in-command, Lieutenant Victoria Von Lowe, was going to attack the right flank, and I was to attack the left. Either way, we were going to have artillery and machine gun fire shoved down our beaks. With her white bald eagle head and talons and brown lion body, Victoria is your average looking griffon, and she is one of my best officers. I pulled out my Walther Model 6 pistol, and cocked the receiver. I signaled my troops to move in closer, but a Vickers machine gun snuffed them out. Two of my soldiers went down like briars to the scythe. "Move forward!" called out Victoria as her troops were moving to the left. The enemy artillery roared, and pounded the ground like the hammer of the war god. Schrapnel, smoke, and earth filled the air. I was able to get a look at the enemy in front. With their Pattern 05 stiff peaked caps and khaki green uniforms, it was the Gilda Clique Army. The artillery was murderous on our troops. I could feel the shock and the earth tremble and the sudden 'thump' sound of a dead soldier. Still our troops moved forward. For us there is no surrender and no retreat. Victoria's troops were being held up by artillery. A few of our troops found positions and started shooting, "Come, Gabby, stay with me!" She nodded and followed behind me with a ready rifle and bayonet amid the relentless onslaught of machine guns and artillery. Our losses were growing. We were being attacked from all sides. Another soldier followed my lead, but one shell fell too many. A black explosion of earth and tiny bits of burnt flesh came when an artillery shell hit her I felt something hit me on the head. I looked to see the only left of the soldier was her head, frozen with a dead look in her eyes and beak lightly agape. I looked back, and looked at Gabby. I nodded to her, and slid down the hill to find cover behind a rock. Gabby covered her head as a shell hit near our position, and landed directly on a soldier. I peaked over and saw the carnage unfold. A soldier was trying to get to a position when a shell hit near him, sending him flying through the air to the ground. A medic team was killed trying to pull away a wounded soldier. One tried to help a comrade to his talons, and was shot in the head. There were disembodied talons and dead everywhere. I reached for a rifle with a few rounds almost hitting my talons. I turned to Gabby and nodded to her. Gabby nodded back, and turned to start shooting at the machine gun nests. One by one, we killed the griffons at the helm of the Bren guns, and killed anyone that tried to replace them, "Push forward!" I called out to the troops, and we charged Gilda's lives began to break, and she was sent into retreat as we attacked. Gabby was at my side as we charged up the line. The will of Gilda's army had been broken. Soldiers ran bayonets into flesh and struck down soldiers with rifle stocks to any enemy that resisted. As wretched as it would make me, the only way to the throne was to conquer. PasschendaeleThe rains have come again, and the ground has turned to mud. The muck is so thick in some parts that it can stop an artillery shell. Our position was around one hundred miles southwest of Griffonstone. This war has devastated the land. With my eyes, I saw how this land looked like at peace and how war has made it so ugly and disfigured. Not only does it disfigure the lands, but also the griffons fighting for it. I secretly enlisted into the royalist forces when I was sixteen and remember the first time we took a position from the enemy. The problem is with civil wars is it is very difficult to tell who is friend and who is foe. You have to learn not to trust anyone with a different uniform. I had my rifle with a fixed bayonet that the chest of a Gilda Clique soldier. He looked so young, a little older than me and he had his bayonet at my chest as well. Neither was us were making a move, until a commanding officer came by and saw us. She took away my rifle, and handed me the enemy soldier's weapon. I saw him pleading for his life. He held his talons up to surrender, but his words fell on deaf ears as my officer run him through with a bayonet. It was then that my young eyes saw the savagery of the war, but it was only a taste of what was to come. It has been four years since then, and still I remember his brown eyes looking at me and when they closed at the end of his life. Night after night and day after day, the shelling never ceased. We are the dead, and it maybe on these fields that we will be buried. These lands used to be fertile farmland, and it will be us that may bring the next coming of spring. My soldiers covered their heads, and screamed as the land was hammered by artillery. It rained earth and shrapnel. I saw my cousin Gabby holding and comforting a young griffon in her arms named Gretchen. The glasses-wearing griffon closed her eyes with all her strength and screamed at the top of her lungs as the ground shook and exploded from heavy shelling. Her screams longed for all this suffering and pain to cease. I know we all wish for that in the end. I lightly tapped Lieutenant Von Lowe on the shoulder as the shelling stopped. She was at the helm of a machine gun, and I knew she could that position. Von Lowe smiled, and gestured for me to leave the position and went to see my cousin, and the young soldier with her. There is nowhere to hide other than in our foxholes filled with rainwater. The bodies of our dead were slumped over barbed wire and facedown in the mud. I suspected there is an enemy position ahead of us. A spray of machine gun bullets that almost hit me proved me right, "I did a flyby of the position, it's about one hundred yards ahead of us, I would say around 2,000 rifles with machine gun support," said Gabby, "We attack in two minutes, I need for you two to stay with me, alright?" I said to them, "your name is Gretchen, eh Zöpfe (pigtails)?" I asked, the light blue griffon nodded, she looked no different than me when I joined the army, "stay with me? alright? you stay with me and stay with Gabby, and we will all see to the end of this fight," I vowed. I signaled to Lieutenant Von Lowe that we had two minutes until the attack. I peered over the foxhole, and saw the bayonets of the enemy coming from the position. We have no artillery support, and no heavy weapons. The only thing we had were our rifles and machine guns to support us. I nodded to Gabby to tell her it was time, "Fix bayonets!" "Fix bayonets!" Von Lowe called out and the order circulated to the soldiers. I saw a Gilda Clique soldier peering out from behind a rock twenty yards from my position. It was a scout. My eyes met hers, and in my mind that was to be my first target. Thousands of M1895 bayonets were fixed to rifles. I saw a look in Gretchen's eyes, a look of trust. Machine gunners pulled back the receivers. The scout was about to alert his comrade. I took my chance, and came up from my shell hole and started shooting. Two bullets hit him in the chest, and a third hit the griffon behind him in the head. Amid the raining artillery shells, we came out of our holes and charged the field to attack the enemy trench The machine guns rattled off and provided fire support, and moved in behind us. Crossfire grinded the ground, and Gabby and Gretchen charged at my side with loud and proud battle-cries. We broke through the first line, shooting and running our bayonets into the flesh of the enemy. A few fell to the crossfire. No one ever said this was easy. I looked back and heard a splash. I saw a body fell facedown in a shell hole filled to the brim with rainwater. Gretchen was proving herself a soldier, and stabbed an enemy before he could radio for reinforcements. The machine guns did what they could to soften the lines, and we broke through smacking aside the enemy with rifle stocks and will. The last obstacle was up the hill, but was to be the toughest. I knew going into this battle that casualties will be high. I had to accept it, "Get down! Get on the ground!" I called out, but my order did not reach everyone. A machine gun nest mowed down my valiant troops, but Gabby and Gretchen followed my order with a handful of others. Crossfire hit the stone of a fence that we used for cover. It made me think there used to be a farm here before the war. One of my captains was trying to move a squad from one end of the field to the other, but one shell fell too many, and took her head clean off. Gretchen tried to peek her head up, but Gabby stopped her, "Keep you head down!" Among them was my second-in-command with her pistol, "Go! Go! Go!" She belted the handful as we moved to the take the last stronghold in the area. We managed to take the positions, but it came with a price. The fields and hill were covered in the dead. Bullet and shrapnel wounds reflected the carnage of the battle in a field now dark and red. The cries of the wounded filled the air on both sides as the field medics did what they could to treat them. Some were beyond saving from either physical damage or damage to the mind. Everybody goes through very difficult times in their lives, and they complain that their life is hell. Let me be the first to say this to you. You know nothing of hell. Guns of AutumnWhen I was a fletchling, I was trained to be the next heir to the kingdom, but I was not like other princesses. I was trained to rule with kindness and a gentle soul, but also trained as a soldier as the Griffon Kingdom have as many enemies as Equestria. To think that the greatest enemy we would ever face in our history is ourselves in this war? When the Gilda Clique Army invaded, I saw everything I was brought up to rule go up in flames. My mother was pregnant with a young prince that was to be my little brother. I was fighting on the Northwestern Front at the time. When I came to Griffonstone, I saw her troops had burned the city to the ground. Soon I found the body of my mother. I found her body in the ruins of the royal castle. Her charred talon still had the wedding ring my father had given her. I looked to see littered with dead villagers massacred by machine guns. I fell to my knees, and screamed at the top of my lungs to the heavens above. Five years have passed since that day, and now I must rebuild the kingdom. My talons now hold a trench club and a Walther Model 6 in the place of a specter. Instead of a crown, I wear a field cap. My father, my mother, and my baby brother are in a better place. Any place is better than these front line trenches. Still, I admire my soldiers. They have stood by my side through all the carnage. They are better than me. I flew down to our battery. We do have artillery, not much though. We have around ten batteries of 7.7 cm FK 16s, 7.5cm FK 16 NAs, and 10.5 cm leFH 16 howitzers with six guns in each battery. On top of that, we have to ration our ammunition for the guns. Thus accuracy is key when working in the artillery batteries as to not waste our shells. "Knock, knock," I said knocking on my cousin's helmet as if it were her own door. My cousin Gabby saluted and smiled with a hug and her usual enthusiasm, "Very funny, Big Butt," Gaby teased, I pushed down on her helmet to lower it over her eyes, "It is indeed amusing to me," I replied, normally I would scold her for making fun of me...or my butt. Yet we have other things to worry about on the frontlines. It seems nothing ever dampens her spirits even with being a front line soldier. Since seeing her smile can make the grayest skies seem blue. Her face is round and adorable. Her eyes so bright and cheerful. Her personality is as sweet as a cookie, "Be ready now, Gunther is coming by with rations," I said to Gabby whom is also our messenger griff. Gunther is the cook for our regiment. A griffon from a family of sausage-butchers, he will go through any lengths to make sure our soldiers get a hot meal. I have seen him go through barbed fire, artillery, and machine guns to get food to our troops. Like a lot of soldiers, he is very young, only 20 years old, but he says what everyone loves to hear. "Soups on!" he called out, and an artillery shell almost hit him and instead hit the edge of the trench line, "give it rest, you Gilda Clique Buzzards, I am a cook for Celestia's sake!" he blasted back, and filled the bowls of the waiting soldiers. I was beside my cousin whom was talking with Gretchen, her friend, "It is ham hock and lentil, Colonel," Gunther is a good-looking tercel. He has dark brown feathers, and wings with a yellow beak and light brown fur. He has a big responsibility. He and his staff have to make sure that our soldiers are fed. His food is good, and goes well with the hartkeks. You know, if by any chance we run out ammunition, we will throw our biscuits at the enemy. "It's good to have Gunther around," said Gabby, "I don't know what we would do without him, settle for hartkeks, I guess," "If we only had hartkeks, we wouldn't have beaks" Gretchen joked, I am a senior officer, but even I can laugh at the jokes my soldiers tell. If it were not for Gunther, we would have more nicknames for these godawful things: beak-dullers, worm castle, improvised throwing device. Rumor is if you throw it hard enough, you can kill somebody. With a hot meal in my belly, I went to check on the sentries on guard looking out at this empty wasteland. Millions of shells have turned our land to dust. Some areas of the trench lines are only 10 yards long while some are as wide as 2 miles. I patted a soldier on the shoulder. He looked at me and nodded and looked down the sight of his rifle. The enemy has a name for us. They call us 'Stormtroopers'. Like my trench club, I have seen my soldiers carry their own improvised weapons. Gabby has a trench club at her side too. Her weapon has a wood handle with two iron studded rings at top. Her friend Gretchen carries a sharpened spade which she can use with deadly efficiency in battle. Our most famous weapon is the grenade. Our enemy nickname them the 'potato-masher'. We have the weapons, and we have the skill. For as long as one of us still breathes, we will never surrender and we will never retreat. We will fight to the last griffon. Still, it is good that the shelling has stopped on our lines, still I hear cannons in the distance. That night I looked up at the moon at the clear night sky. One of the sentries seemed to have spotted something, "Colonel," he whispered, I pulled up, and looked through my binoculars after hearing odd 'plink' noises coming not far from our position, "Looks like we have guests tonight," I said, a machine gunner pulled back the receiver. I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "no..." I said to the soldier, and decided to take her of this, "Gretchen, Gabby, come with me, come armed," They nodded, and put on their stahlhelms while I pulled out my trusty Walther and cocked the receiver. We came out of the trench that night. I ordered the sentries to take a shot if they have one. We crawled across the field dotted with shell holes. I heard a gunshot from our trench, and saw a Gilda Clique soldier fall dead, one of five in the party. I led the squad to the cover of a small hill. Once the raiding party was in our sights, I gave the order, "Go, go, go," I whispered to them, and we flanked the party of four. Gretchen threw a stick grenade to give away their position. I shot one of them between the eyes while Gabby notched a kill with her trench club as did Gretchen with a spade. One of them was trying to make a break for her trench, but I shot her in the back of the leg to bring her down. Gabby and Gretchen readied their rifles from behind their backs and fixed bayonets. I was a bit surprised at who led the attack on our trench which was largely unsuccessful. I had my pistol at her temple, "Brash, Greta, too brash," Angels CallingYou cannot talk or reason with a machine gun or rifle. It will not listen to your words or pleas of mercy. It just laughs at your futile attempt to take a trench with words made of hot lead. These days it seems to be the same cycle of us attacking their trench, and then they attack ours. Just to even the score we attack their trench once more. With every attack on the lines I see more of my soldiers die as I see to the death of the enemy. Their bones still litter the ground. Some are never seen again. The price we pay for a unified kingdom is not in Bits, but in the lives of young griffons. Thousands of feet have marched with dreams of glory on the battlefield only to be blown to pieces. What will my soldiers get in return for their service in the restoration of my crown? Some of these soldiers do not have a home as they were destroyed by the Gilda Clique Army. The night before, a raiding party had captured Gilda's second-in-command, Greta. We were able to settle for terms, and we had her returned unharmed to her troops. Still the cycle goes on. I was in my quarters at the trench we captured a week ago. Outside the shells fell like the summer rains. I checked my pistol, and readied myself as I came out of my quarters. Gabby was their waiting with a ready rifle. I touched her on the crown of her helmet, and walked through the trench to meet up our soldiers. "This is it, lads and ladies, we have the Gilda Clique on the run, that means they will put up heavier resistance on the forward lines, I am sad to say that casualties will be high, many of you may not make it home, we are going to rebuild this kingdom stone by stone, but it all starts with the gun and bullet...fix bayonets!" I ordered my troops. I checked my pocket watch, and pulled back the receiver on my Walther. I soon gave the order, "Attack!" The machine guns were covering us, and moving behind us. The artillery was constant, but still we attack. Many fell to the onslaught of machine gun fire from a Vickers gun. One of my corporals was trying to move a squad until a sixty-pounder shell hit it's mark directly on him. In an explosion of blackened earth and a puff of smoke, he was gone. The cries of the wounded echoed in the air which smelled of gunpowder, and burning flesh. I moved the squad of soldiers to an area of raised earth to give them some cover while shooting at the enemy. I got two of them with my pistol, and dodged a grenade. With my back to the mound, I saw Gretchen and Gabby tending to a wounded soldier. She had her knee blown off by a shell. I was about to throw a grenade into a machine gun nest when I felt something tug at my belt. It was a wounded soldier. His lower half was gone, and his intestines were dragging on the ground as he pulled himself up to my eyes, "Shoot me...," he muttered, and with that I remember his last word, "mother," Before I could even pull the trigger, his eyes closed and he died clutching my belt. I will never forget that. I gently took his hand off my belt, and continued the assault. I had no time to grieve. I threw a grenade into the lines, and took out the Vickers gun. We got to the trench. The fighting got more brutal and personal. I had my trench club ready. I shot one in the head with my Model 6, and hit an enemy in the side of the head with my mace. A spurt of blood hit me in the beak. Victoria was leading half the troops to the right while I led the other half to the left to take care of any more resistance. Little did I know that there was a Lewis Gun in the trench that mowed down soldier after soldier. Amid a pile of bodies, I was able to kill the gunner and the loader, "Forward!" I called out as I paved the way for the others. We took the trench in a matter of hours. Lieutenant Von Lowe met with me as she holstered her pistol, "Let us collect the dead," She said, and I nodded lightly. Stretcher-bearers and medics were covering and collecting the bodies of the dead. Some had been shot, a clean death, others were missing limbs or headless. Such savage butchery. I helped pull the bodies away from the Lewis Gun. For a young soldier with the blue eyes. I did her the honor of closing her eyes, and helped the body onto a stretcher along with the others. The final tally was appalling. Out of twenty-five hundred troops, we lost five hundred in a single attack. I went to see to those that managed to survive. Gabby was being tended to by Gretchen. She had stopped a bayonet with a talon, and had a small head wound from a piece of stone, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," Gabby reassured me as I touched her soft, round cheek. I saw that her trench club was stained with blood, as was Gretchen's sharpened spade. Very brave soldiers they are. Even Gunther survived with bullet wound in his left front talon just above shoulder, "Umm...Colonel," He said, pointing to his beak, and I nodded to him as he noticed the blood. I wiped it off with a handkerchief from my pocket. I went to the communications bunker where troops were setting up radio and telephones to direct the artillery corps. We only had one telephone and one radio now. A few of them were destroyed in the shelling by the Gilda Clique and their operators were killed as a result. I looked out at the battlefield with the Lieutenant, "So many lives lost...and to think they follow my orders without any question," I said to her, she put a hand on my shoulder and lightly smiled. "Colonel...they fight not just for you, they fight for your crown, for our land...they fight the armies of hell, and so will I," said Victoria with the utmost seriousness. "Come, we have had enough fighting, let us find some food," said Victoria. Gunther had made a stew of smoked sausage, beans, lentils, chicken, and leftover ham hock. The food is good. A small comfort amid battle's roar. Some troops wrote home to loved ones or talked about their families. Gabby is to take their letters tomorrow in the morning. We got communications up with the artillery corps whom were now shelling the positions of the Gilda Clique Army. After dinner I went to look over the trench at the shelling to see if they shells were hitting their mark. Gretchen was watching as well looking down the sight of her M95 rifle, "Do you think anyone can survive that?" she asked me softly. "We are one hundred miles from Griffonstone, the enemy is going to dig in and make their stand," I replied, patting her lightly on the shoulder to keep her spirits up. I went to the bunker to telephone in the coordinates of the next salvo. Under the curtain of artillery, the only thing we can do is attack, yet I know Gilda will not give up without a fight. Iron ThunderWar effects everyone. When the call to arms was summoned, there seemed to be chaos in the streets. Griffons picking sides, and building factions. Any griffon noble took up arms and the chance to be the next ruler of the Griffon Kingdom. Now only two factions are left, and the war is going to a new front for the first time. This is where I come in. The war has been raging for years, not only on land but at sea. I would know. Factions build up navies in a naval arms race as they were separating from the kingdom. I allied my fleet with the Royalists and the banner of Galiana Von Adler. My name is Geneve Falke, Commodore Geneve Falke, and I am the leader of the 1st Royal Cruiser Flotilla. The final push was on to take back Griffonstone, and restore the rightful heiress to the monarchy. I am not one to predict the future, but I can see that the ships in my fleet, along with others in the Royalist Navy will clash with the Navy of the Gilda Faction. Our navies have sent the commissions and our industry has built our ships for this moment A navy is meant to show the muscle and industrial power of a country at sea. We have built every ship imaginable to protect our waters from Gilda's Faction, and any looming threats on the horizon should the war end. We have dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, armored cruisers, light cruisers, minelayers, destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines. I command the battlecruiser Kaiserin. She is a part of one of the strongest class of warships in Royalist Navy. She is 29,816 tons and ten 14 inch guns as her main armament, twelve 152 mm guns, eight in twin turrets and four in casemates, and eight 75mm guns. There are four vessels in her class: Kaiserin, Konigin Alexandra and the Konig Guto. With a top speed of twenty-seven knots, she can to do everything from commerce raiding to escorting convoys and bombarding offshore batteries. Escorting us are the armored cruisers Königliche Prinzessin and Penthisilea. They are each 16,800 tons and armed with eight 10 inch guns in four turrets making them a match for any cruiser. What makes the ship unique is there is a ten inch gun turret amidships between the first and second funnel facing forward like the fore turret. Her twenty 120mm guns are her secondary armament, and are located in the belts of the ship. These guns keep the pesky destroyers, light cruisers and torpedo boats from ruining such a nice sunny day. We needed something fast that can deliver the support needed for ground troops, and keep up with cruisers. Not all engagements will be with the massive capital ships. Most of the time, the major battles at sea are fought on ships like mine. In my opinion, I consider our armored cruisers to be some of the most dashing cruisers on the sea today. The other class of armored cruiser joining us is the Falkeland class. These are 17,500 ton ships, and the largest class of armored cruiser in our navy. She is armed with twelve 10 inch guns, eight 150mm guns, sixteen 88mm guns, and four torpedo tubes which are standard on all warships, sometimes a few more are added to warships like mine. The flotilla I command consists of battlecruisers, light cruisers and armored cruisers. Our job to make sure supplies get to the troops. The war started a naval arms race with the Gilda Faction. The Gilda Faction Navy has warships called dreadnoughts. Where they have battleships, so do we running training exercises in the Löwe class battleships. I was at her commissioning ceremony in Griffonstone Harbor when she came off the slipway just before the war, and the death of King Guto. It was the last time I ever saw him alive. The Löwe class are the first dreadnoughts to be commissioned by our navy. She is 23,000 tons with an armament of ten 14 inch guns, and a top speed of 21 knots. These are the first vessels to be named after non-griffon monarchs. The class includes Löwe, Prinzessin Celestia, Prinzessin Luna, and Konig Grover. They are also the first warships in our history to include telephone communication systems as standard. With that, our warships replaced the morse code machine with telephones which saved lives. Every warship has an Achilles Heel, and that is where the submarine or 'U-boat' comes into it's own. These are long range ships that provide support under the waves, and their torpedoes are just as deadly as our heavy guns. We have three U-boats giving us support: U-139, U-140, and U-141. They also act as scouts and relay us information. The 5.9 inch deck guns give our submarines the nickname 'U-Cruiser'. The captain of U-139, Gwendoline Spear, is a friend of mine. We were not getting the call to action yet. Today was the day of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's Diamond Jubilee, and they asked us to do be in attendance, and show our naval might. I am not one to show off. We may have powerful navies protecting the one thing in Equestria that cannot be conquered, but a warship is nothing without a crew. My crew have seen many battles since the war began. Some were victories, and some were defeats. Still they stood strong in the beak of overwhelming odds such as the battle against the battleship Queen Royal. The dreadnought had crippled our rudders leaving us dead in the water. We did what we could to fight back. I lost many of my crew. They were still at their gun positions even in death. It was not until the armored cruiser Kronprinz came with fire support from her 10 inch guns. If she did not come to our aid, I would not be here now telling our story. We met the Princesses of Equestria at the Royal Harbor in Cantorlot. Our ships made it through the river, and the shipping canals. The dreadnoughts Princesszin Celestia, Princesszin Luna and my battlecruiser Kaiserin were the centerpieces at the docks. I bowed before the Princesses, "Commodore, it is an honor to meet you, where is Galiana?" "She could not be in attendance, she has informed me that she is making plans for an offensive against the Gilda Faction at Falcon Ridge, we are to provide support from the bay," I explained to her majesty, then a realized something, "oh! How rude of me, these are the commanders of the fleet," they all shook talon to hoof with the princesses. "What business do you have with us? Surely you have not come for just the Diamond Jubilee," asked Princess Luna, I admire a monarch that wants to get straight to point of a matter. I smiled and nodded. I looked over at Princess Celestia, and noticed some similarities. She and I have the same color of fur and plumage, but I have a silver beak. "We come to ask for aid from the Equestrian Navy, and an expeditionary force from the Army, we need all we can get to help restore the crown of the Griffon Kingdom, in return for your services, we promise peace and friendship between the Kingdom and Equestria, look into my eyes, and know my word is honest, do we have terms?" I asked. Royalist Griffon Navy Warships Battleships Löwe class (Based off the Greek Battleship Salamis): Löwe, Prinzessin Celestia, Prinzessin Luna, Konig Grover Monschau class (Based off the Austro-Hungarian Tegetthoff class): Monschau, Kaiser, Prinzessin Von Griffonstone, Brunhilda Wotan class (A coastal defense battleship based off the semi-dreadnought Radetzky class): Wotan, Donner, Kronprinz Gunter Battlecruisers Kaiserin class (Based off the 1915 St. Jakobus class Battlecruiser): Kaiserin, Konigin Alexandra, Konig Guto Gepard class (Based off the SMS Von Der Tann): Gepard, Tiger Armored Cruisers Königliche Prinzessin class (Based off the Armored Cruiser Rurik from 'Without Tsushima'): Königliche Prinzessin, Kronprinz Falkeland class (Based off the Armored Cruiser Blucher with a British-style ram bow): Falkeland, Adlerland Light and Protected Cruisers Diana class (a protected cruiser based off the Königsberg-class cruiser (1915) with two funnels instead of three): Diana, Artemis, Amazon Diamant class (Based off the Cöln-class cruiser): Diamant, Rubin, Amethyst, Saphir, Perle Submarines Large MS. Type (U-135, U-136, U-137, U-138) Type U-139 (U-139, U-140, U-141) UB III Type (Their biggest class of submarines in terms of numbers) Destroyers V170-class Torpedo Boats V25-class Specialty Ships Triton class (Based off the British M-class of submarine monitors): Triton, Hai, Seehund Citizen/Soldier (The Battle of Falcon Ridge) Citizen/Soldier (The Battle of Falcon Ridge) I look at the faces of my troops. They come from all walks of life: sons, daughters, wives, husbands, and lovers. They look to me, they look to the officers to lead them into battle. None of them want to live a life under Gilda. If she comes to power, she will enslave us rebels, griffon subspecies, and make war on our neighbors to the south. That I cannot allow. I can see it in their eyes, a drive stronger than all. Lieutenant Von Lowe is right. They will follow me against the armies of hell, but the Gilda Faction will have to do for now. The gunfire never ceased from enemy artillery nor from the guns of our navy. The navy have been shelling the fortifications for several days now. "In war...sacrifices must be made, it pains me to say this as I care about you as I would my own family, you are all my family," I said to my gathered troops amid the roar of the cannons and shells slamming into the ground, "when this war is over, I promise to you all, to all the Griffon Kingdom, a future brighter than any time in our past," The navy has done all they could to soften the lines. When the shelling stopped, it was our turn, "FIX BAYONETS!" I ordered to my troops, the order echoed from the officers to the soldiers. The receivers of Bergmann machine guns were cocked back, "this is our time now...FORWARD!" with that, we charged with bayonets at the ends of our rifles. The cries for battle from thousands of soldiers came out of the trenches supported by our machine guns and artillery. Even with the shelling from naval guns, the Gilda Faction artillery rained shells upon us. Rifles were picking us apart bit by bit while machine guns reaped a harvest of flesh. Many commanders would have fallen back in retreat. Not these soldiers, from grenade to rifle they charged up the hill under my lead. I shot a maxim-gunner in the head with my Walther and helped pave the way. No matter how much ground we gain, there were still losses on our side. While I led the first line into the first line of concrete trenches into the forts, a machine pillbox was bringing death. I can feel the bullets fly passed me as I leaped over the trench to take out the pillbox. I fought off a couple Gilda Faction soldiers killing one by smacking him across the cheek and coming down on another to bash his brain in with my trench mace, and made my way to the back of the pillbox. I peered an eye into the back entrance and saw the crew. I tossed in a stick grenade, and the gun ceased firing. I went inside with my pistol, and saw the grenade had done the work it needed to do. Another pillbox was hit by a shell. We were attacking a line nearly two miles long between our trench and the forts, and nearly three miles wide. Through all of this, Gabby and Gretchen were still at my side. A bullet went passed me, and hit Gretchen in the back leg, "Gabby! Get me your dressing, NOW!" I yelled to her in the thunder of battle. Gabby was in a foxhole getting ammunition to a machine gun, and answered my call to help a wounded friend. She ran as fast as she could with shells bursting all around. Such bravery is a sight to behold. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of here," said Gabby stroking Gretchen's top feathers. Gretchen weakly smiled. I looked around at the field from the shellhole, and saw others that were not so lucky. Facedown in the mud, missing limbs or wings. Gabby was shooting back to cover her from her position. I attacked with the troops to attack the trench. I aimed a headshot between the eyes of the officer in the trench as the rest of the troops poured in to take the trench. They maybe the enemy, but they held their ground to the last griffon. What brave soldiers they are. We did what we could for them, and gave them a burial with full honors. Thousands of bodies littered the field from our trench. It seemed there was not one area of the field where there wasn't a dead body, killed in the most horrifying way imaginable on the field. There are worse ways to die than just getting shot. Sometimes living through it all is worse than dying. I saw a soldier where the only thing left was his head, looking at me with a dead look in his open blue eyes. I closed his eyes, "You are in a better place...any place is better than this," I said, and went to the foxhole and helped Gretchen to her feet to the trench with the help of Gabby. I went to the trench where Gunther was giving food to the survivors and wounded. I sighed, and shook my head. I swear that griffon has a guardian angel at his side. "Colonel! Colonel! We have a runner!" Gretchen called out, looking down the sight of her M1906 Luger Rifle. A few shots fired off at the escaping griffon. From her white head and brown fur and wings, I knew who it was. I had a shot, and took it as she was leaping for cover. I hit her in back of the thigh with my Model 6. A good pistol for the bits. I went up from the trench to the ravaged earth to see Gilda limping back to the fort. I caught up to her, and she looked back to see my pistol pointed at her head, "Nice shot," she smirked, the clicking sounds of thousands and machine guns aimed at me and Gilda sounded as we met in the middle of the field. I signaled my soldiers to hold their fire. I kneeled down to her, and pulled out my dressing from my belt, "You maybe my enemy, but your army cannot function without a leader," I said, turning an eye to her and dressing her wound, "I know of your plans after this...when you oust me...they are plans I cannot allow to go into effect, I will do everything in my power to stop you, Gilda," "You think you can stop me, your navy is wasting their shells...they will never break this fort, and when this war is over...I won't just kill you, no...I will have your head hang out the walls of Griffonstone Castle, and your soldiers will be my slaves, so no one will ever rise up against me," Gilda said with her back in the frozen mud, I shook my head. "No...history will remember you and I, how would you want the future to remember you? It is yours to do as you wish, good day to you," I said, and went back to the captured trench. I heard the click of her pistol. I turned and shot the Webley Self-Loading Pistol out of her talons with a hole in her taloned hand, "you best get that tended to, Gilda," Ambush (Battle of Der Wald)We are called 'Stormtroopers' for a reason, and one battle made that clear. With the Gilda Faction on the march to bolster the defenses at Griffonstone, we moved out of the trenches and into the woods. I looked around at the surroundings on the wooded trail from the small cliffs and drop-offs to the boulders and trees, "This is perfect," I stated, I am Lieutenant Victoria Von Lowe. I am the Colonel's second in command, I am a golden eagle griffon, a very common type, "What is the plan, Lieutenant?" asked Monika Krieger, my acting second-in-command. Galiana had given us the task to make sure that the second army does not make it to Griffonstone. I made a nod with a plan in mind. "If we control the road, we can control our flow of supplies and cut off their lines, I need rifles up on the ridge, find any cover that you can, a log, a boulder, a tree, anything works, I need machine guns in the thicket, now let's move!" my soldiers scrambled to find positions of cover while I cocked the receiver on my old Walther, ready for battle. Now we waited. The tension was palpable in the air. Minutes and hours seem to last like days until we heard voices coming up the trail. Monika peeked her head up to see the khaki uniforms of Gilda's soldiers. I decided to take a look, and two covered lorries with them. It was time to start the battle. I signaled her to throw a grenade at the lorry. She signaled for two other soldiers to do the same. They nodded, and they three stick grenades at the lorry. One landed in the cab, and the other two under the wheels. The explosion killed the driver, and sent the troops in a panic. We attacked from all sides with Bergmann machine guns shooting at them, and catching them all in the crossfire. Soldiers in the Gilda Faction were falling left and right with orders being yelled at them to get out of range, and return fire. Their rifles began to pick off my soldiers as well while we were reloading our rifles. It was then that I saw two soldiers going up to the wrecked lorries on the trail. Something about that did not sit well with me until I saw it. "What the hell...?" I said as the tarps on the lorries were taken off on the commander's orders to reveal 3.7cm Maxim 'Pom-Pom' Guns, "take cover!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, and the guns started shooting at us as we scrambled back to our positions. Shell bursts rip through the ground and stone, and made a mess of any griffon in it's path. A soldier was trying to get to my position for cover, but she got caught in the line of fire. A large splinter from a tree hit her in the neck, and chest as she fell beside me. Her green eyes looked at me as she gasped her last breaths while coughing up blood, and died in my talons. Her dead eyes still looking up at me. I knew then what I had to do. I picked up her rifle, and slid down the side to another boulder for cover. I cocked back the toggle action, aimed, and shot the gunner between the eyes, "I need support fire, now!" I called out to a machine gun crew harassing the infantry. They turned the gun on the lorries, and killed the crew. I was shooting at anyone that tried to get back on it. I threw a grenade into the bed of the lorry. It exploded in a fiery roar to the battle-cries of my troops. They charged the line with fixed bayonets under my lead. I killed a corporal with my Model 6, and bludgeoned a soldier in the cheek with the thing that made me an individual among the officers, a trench flail I modeled after a museum piece. Within a few hours, the army was defeated. I weaved to dodge a spade, hit the soldier upside the head with my pistol. The soldier was Greta, Gilda's second-in-command. She chuckled as she looked up at me, "You are all...finished," she said with a smile and coughing up blood. I snarled, and wanted nothing more from her, and shot her in the head. It was the last round in the magazine before I reloaded my pistol with another. I pity these soldiers. I see in there eyes the same look I see in my soldiers. You go to war for many reasons: fame, adventure, money, or family. The sad truth is that you will die, and come back home in a coffin or sometimes not come back home at all. It is very sad. "Let us report back to the Colonel, and tell her the attack was a success, and let us collect our dead," I said to Monika whom survived the skirmish. I reported back to Galiana, "good to see you," I said to the real heiress to the throne of this kingdom, "brave soldiers our enemy, brave soldiers all of them, it is too bad they fight for that mad buzzard," "It is a shame indeed, they are good soldiers, brave soldiers, they fight to the end" she replied, getting up from her desk in the officers quarters in the trench, "get your troops squared away, let them warm up, get some food and rest, I believe they have seen enough today," she said, I have never met an officer that shows such care for her troops. It makes me very proud to serve under her. Gunther was coming by with food. He smiled, and came to my steel bowl with his ladle, "Butternut squash and bacon," he said, "they attacked our trench a few times today," he said, "I am thinking Gilda tried to pull a cover over our heads," he added, and went to the other soldiers in my raiding party. Galiana has spoken to me of her problems, and I understand them all too well. At times it is hard to sleep even when the guns fall silent. Your mind will not let you forget what your eyes have seen. The guns still roar, your talons are covered in blood and the screams of the dead and the dying still echo in your ears. There is no escape from Hell. Still we fight. When this war is over, the memories will still remain. Galiana was finishing up her inspection of our troops, and sat down with her cousin Gabby, her only living family member. She was sharing a cigarette with Gretchen to keep warm on this cold evening. Gunther's cooking certainly helps. He should really take to writing a cookbook. Even in hell, there are small pieces of heaven in the form of food and the comfort of others. We are in this together. I am sure the enemy says the same thing to one another. As I rested, I took off my cap and knew that this truly means something. Galiana has told me of Gilda's plan, and like her I will not stand by and watch them come into being. Song of WarLieutenant Von Lowe's surprise attack on Gilda's forces should keep them on the tips of their talons, Gunther was making his rounds serving his famous sausage soup with knackwurst before taking the helm of his Bergmann machine gun. The guns were quiet for now, and there is peace amid Princess Luna's night. My soldiers can finally rest. One final push. Just one more to finally break the Gilda Faction. It will take every soldier we have, and every gun at the ready. So many have fought, and so many have died. I have lost many comrades, family, and friends to this war. The only living family I have is Gabby. My little Cookie Face. I fear she will not escape from this war unscarred. No one asked for this war. The call to arms came with the fall of the crown. Like the phoenix, the kingdom will rise again from the ashes. I promised the griffons that I will form a kingdom built on friendship and harmony. Ironically, it will be the rifle and bayonet plus artillery and might of the navy that will bring about such a momentous change. Many griffons will give praise if I triumph, and many will curse me. The same will go to Gilda should she take the crown. It is just the way things are. Gabby followed behind me. She is now my Second-in-Command. My cousin is a Sergeant now. She often leads stormtroopers on trench raids. She is growing into quite the soldier on the battlefield. Gretchen is now a Corporal. These young soldiers have shown bravery in battle. There is an old saying I heard once: 'Go into battle knowing you will die, and you will surely live, but go into battle knowing you will live and you will surely die'. After supper, I washed out my mess kit and looked up at the moon and closed my eyes as a tear escaped. I looked out at the enemy trench and saw the soldiers leaving that night. At first I thought they were surrendering. It seems Gilda called them back to reinforce the defenses at Griffonstone. By morning, I decided to send a few scouts to go over and have a look, "The trench is completely empty, Colonel" said one of the scouts catching his breath. "I see," I said with a light nod, and looked to Lieutenant Von Lowe, "let us gather our things, we are moving out," it was a relief for our soldiers. They know the war is finally at an end. The years of service spent in the trenches are now over. It has fallen to us to take back Griffonstone. I could hear the mighty roar of guns coming from the coast. Our soldiers were packed, shouldering rifles and machine guns. They smiled, and laughed or shared cigarettes amongst each other. For many years, I have kept my voice for commands and caring words to the soldiers. I came up to one soldier, and touched her cheek. She had bloody bandaging around her head and where her right eye used to be. Lieutenant Von Lowe told me that she lost her eye and had a head wound from wood splinters that came from a Maxim 'Pom-Pom' gun that was used against them during the surprise attack at Der Wald. She closed her eyes when I touched her cheek. She gently held my taloned front paw with both of hers, purring and rubbing her cheek against it. She had such bright eyes like Gabby. It is a shame battle took one away from her. She is similar to Gilda in coloration and facial features, but her feathers are grey around her eye. She looked like a soldier that enlisted before she was eighteen. She probably lied on her application. She wants to do her part in our fight. To me, that is very honorable. [Galiana:] Beten nächtelang Im Glauben, dass man uns erhört. Tief im Herzen Hoffnung und ein Lied kaum zu verstehn. Nun ist uns nicht mehr bang, weil auch die Furcht uns nicht mehr stört. Wie versetzten Berge längst doch konnten wir´s nicht sehn. Es werden Wunder wahr, glaubst du daran. Die Hoffnung weist den Weg uns klar. Was wohl ein Wunder noch vollbringen kann, glaubst du daran. Wie wunderbar! Es werden Wunder wahr. [Gabby:] Ängste hatten wir. Das Beten schien so nutzlos oft. Hoffnung, dieses Wort flog wie ein Vogelschwarm davon. Doch heute steh ich hier. [The soldiers:] Nachita v´chas d´cha am zu gaalta Nachita v´chas d´cha am zu gaalta Ashira Ashira Ashira Ashira ladonai ki ga oh ga ah Ashira ladonai ki ga oh ga ah micha mocha ba elim adonai micha mocha ne dar bakodesh Nachita v´chas´dcha am zu gaalta Nachita v´chas´d´cha am zu gaalta Ashira Ashira ashira Es werden Wunder wahr, glaubst du daran. Die Hoffnung weist den Weg uns klar. Was wohl ein Wunder noch vollbringen kann, glaubst du daran. Wie wunderbar! Wunderbar! Es werden Wunder wahr [Galiana and Gabby:] Es werden Wunder wahr! We had made it out of the trenches and into the forest and hills surrounding Griffonstone. The officers and I signaled our soldiers to keep their heads down and keep quiet. Their were ridges of raised earth giving us some cover from any snipers or machine guns. The Gilda Faction will throw every weapon they have at us. It will be a great battle. It will be a terrible battle. I know their will be great losses on our side. Many of the faces I see among the ranks may never see home again. I will give them hope that their will be a queen sitting on the throne of the Griffon Kingdom. If I die, then I die for them, my soldiers. They are my brothers and sisters. I die for them. They are the kingdom. A queen is still a griffon as a princess is still a pony. I am still one of them as my flesh and my heart are mortal. You want to know what real immortality is? Look at those griffons or ponies you maybe destined to rule. You put your life on the line for their safety. You give your life so that another may live. You may die, but your name lives on. That is immortality. You cannot live forever, but your name will. Gabby came to me with a light smile. It was not a smile of joy, but one of readiness, "I know...that many of us will not survive...if you fall, I will fight on, I will not stand for Gilda becoming the Queen, you taught me well, I will not give up, I will not give in and I will never surrender," From her salute, she gave me a hug and I hugged her back. It is the warmest one I ever received. She rubbed her cheek against mine, and did the same. Gabby is my family, my only family left now, "You tell your soldiers to be ready, and make sure their rifles are loaded," I said to her with my gentle talons on her shoulders, "the guns are coming," In Their WordsThe most comforting thing a soldier can have on the frontlines is a letter from home. I maybe a soldier, but that doesn't stop me from fulfilling my duty. I'm Gabriella but you can call me 'Gabby'. I am still a mail-delivery griffon, and I am also a sergeant in the Royalist Army. On these battlefields, ranks are never given, you have to earn them. I look around the trenches and observe soldiers in their foxholes, and you see them doing all manner of things. Some are cleaning their weapons or sharpening their knives and bayonets. Others are sharing rations and cigarettes. The most often thing you will see a soldier do when the guns fall silent is write a letter home to family or a loved one. You look at the letters these soldiers write to. Some write to fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters while others write to friends, girlfriends, wives, and lovers. There is one soldier in our ranks who has a male lover waiting for him to come home. That is very sweet. If he was in the Gilda Clique Army, that griffon would be executed by firing squad. He is a very good soldier, and the best sniper in our ranks. I remember when he told my older cousin that he is gay, and the words my cousin gave to him. She put a taloned hand on his shoulder and said: 'It does not matter who you are or where you are in your life, to me you are a brother-in-arms, my only advice to you is do not get captured' The hardest thing about being a mail-delivery griffon in these terrible times of war is that it is my responsibility to inform the families that their loved one has been killed in battle. It really pains me to tell the family that their loved one is dead as it does for the family. Someone has to tell the families the news. I am what I am, someone has to be. There is one rule to being a mail-delivery griffon: 'Don't Fly'. Too many times have we sent griffons to fly and send letters only to have them shot out of the sky. I have to rely on the mountain trails, and tracking skills. On these long excursions to get letters home to families, my aching talons are not easy to ignore. You have to think about others. When I go on a mail delivery, I always carry my Walther pistol and my trench knife. Gilda Clique soldiers patrol the trails leading to many of the villages. If you hear footsteps or the sound of a rifle, you keep off the trail and keep quiet. This is why I run my routes at night. My grey feathers and my feldgrau or 'field gray' uniform provide camouflage. I made it through the trail unseen and unharmed to the villages on my route. There are times I have been compromised, and I had to find other ways of getting back to camp. One time I had to dive off a big cliff and swim back to camp. Luckily, my mailbag was empty. When you're in my paws, you have to go above and beyond to get the job done. Many families were relieved to get letters from their loved ones at the front knowing they are alive. Others cried tears of sorrow at the news that their loved ones were killed. I am only the messenger. I bring the families the news be it good or bad. It is like my cousin says: 'Achieving physical immortality is impossible, but your name will live forever' When I came back, I received a salute from Gretchen and Monika followed by hugs from them. They are my best friends, and Gretchen is my acting second-in-command, "Job well done, Sargeant, other than Gunther, you have one of the biggest responsibilities in this army, and you run your routes without fail, I am proud of you," said the Colonel. I saluted my older cousin, and gave her a hug soon after. I am the only family she has left so our relationship is very close with added teasing to boot between the two of us. I call her Big Butt, and she calls me Cookie Face. I run this mail route at least once a month, and let me tell you that my task is very dangerous. It is not for the faint of heart. Monika rolled into my foxhole. The sky is so gray it was hard to tell at times if it was day or night, "Do you have any matches? Gretchen's out," said Monika, I sighed and shook my head, and handed her mine which were in a small brass tube. Suddenly, there came a whistle and Von Lowe calling out 'short shell!' that almost hit her, "shit-fuck," It has been a day since we arrived at our position. There was no trench this time. We were in foxholes, and using anything around for cover. The artillery was positioned about a mile behind us. At night you can hear the roar of the guns, shelling the defenses at Griffonstone. It makes me wonder at times if there will be a city left standing in the end? The ground is so littered with shell-holes that one would think we were not in the Griffon Kingdom anymore. I felt like I was on another planet like in those science-fiction dime novels I would read at the apothecary when I was a hatchling. No matter how ugly and disfigured the war has made our land, I will stand and fight for it like the others. I slung my Luger Rifle behind my back, and went to my cousin. She is all black from beak to tail. It makes it hard at time to see her at night if the trench is not lit. I found her in her foxhole looking through her binoculars as artillery shelled the defenses. She gave the binoculars so I can take a look, "I do not doubt their resilience, Gabby," she said, "Neither do I, yet I wonder if there will even be a city left after all this," I replied, Galiana nodded seeing the point I made. When I looked through the binoculars, I saw what was ahead of us. There are concrete bunkers, machine gun nests, barbed wire, mortars, artillery, and Celestia knows how many rifles. It's the deep breath before the plunge. "Still in the end, we will rebuild, such is the price of war, war can only destroy yet we can rebuild from the ruins, there will be a kingdom, Gabby, a great kingdom filled with friendship and harmony, it is a shame it has to be built by the gun," said Galiana, ever the wise one. She will be a great queen. I am sure Uncle Guto will be very proud of her. "I wish there was a better way, violence doesn't solve everything," I replied, so many have died in this war whether it be from sickness to combat. I am sure the enemy on the other side suffer as much as we do, and want to see the end of this war. Many of our soldiers are writing letters home. I am guessing many of them maybe their last ones. Plan of AttackThe artillery has arrived today. They have taken position about a mile behind our position. This way they are in range of the fortified positions of Griffonstone. I gathered Lieutenant Von Lowe and Sergeant Gabriella over a map to discuss how we are going to take back Griffonstone. This was going to be a great challenge for all our troops. "There are three lines of trenches defending the city here," I explained pointing a talon to each one, "the first is the red line, then yellow and finally the black line, our scouts have returned and reported that they have artillery emplacements, machine gun nests, plus a garrison of one thousand rifles, this is it, my friends, they will fight to the death" "So will we, you can count on that," said Victoria, "for kingdom...for queen...for the crown," "Here is what I think we should do," I said to my gathered officers, "we are going to utilize a curtain of artillery barrages, and have our troops follow behind them, make sure the artillery is accurate and aimed at machine gun nests and the artillery emplacements, we do not want our shells to hit our own troops," I advised to them as a key warning. "We will focus on taking each line one by one," said Gabby pointing to each line, "I say we should take and hold the red line in a morning attack under the curtain of artillery and take the next division to take the yellow line in the evening, if we take and hold all three lines, then we take the city," she concluded, but Von Lowe saw something else. "You are ambitious, Gabby, yes you are, but the enemy troops will keep falling back, we need to take note of resistance in the city," said Victoria. "On the first day we wait, they will attack first, and try and drive us out, the curtain of artillery should for the second and third lines," I concluded, "Gretchen," Gabby said, her second-in-command saluted her, and was given a message, "I need you to send this message to the artillery corps to confirm our battle plan and be quick about it," Gretchen saluted and was on her way over the hills and through shell holes to get to our artillery positions. She even dodged sniper and machine gun fire. For months since the meeting we trained our troops behind the lines for the upcoming attack. Instead of charging head on into the enemy lines, our troops will walk across the field and let the artillery do their part. The machine guns will support us from our flanks, and come in behind us. On paper, this strategy should work. It has yet to be tested. I looked out at the lines. Soldiers moved from position to position, readying for our attack, "This is it, Gabby, the greatest battle in history," I said to my cousin, "All those months behind the lines come down to this, the end of this war is in sight," said Gabby turning those very beautiful eyes to me, "you know, when the war ends, a new era in the history of the Griffon Kingdom will begin, your majesty," I turned to my little cousin and stroked and lightly tapped her right cheek earning a giggle from her. I put my talons on her shoulders, "When will it begin?" she asked, it depends on what beginning. We attack at first light. For Griffonstone the beginning has yet to begin. The city will have to be rebuilt from the ground up. What we are accomplishing is only the first step toward ending this war like a hatchling learning how to fly for the first time. "Soon, make sure your troops are ready, make sure they have plenty of ammunition and full rations," I ordered to the sergeant She saluted and had her troops ready themselves. If there is anything we have yet to run out of it is food. Gunther was making his rounds giving out the evening rations. We did not hear the usual call out for rations. He is smart enough to know that will alert the enemy. Instead, we watched out for his kettle of food, "Bacon, Split Pea and Lentil," "Our spirits are never damp when you are around," I said, getting the bowl of my mess kit filled with the evening rations. Gunther lightly chuckled at my comment. I swear that griffon can make anything edible. There were times when we were short on food that he brought us the morale we needed. We even ate 'Trench Chicken' which is frog. "That is what I do...besides operate a machine gun," he said with a wink, and went to the others and filled their bowls with food. Gunther makes a good soup, but the hartkeks are not getting any better. What do you expect from something made from water, flour and salt? You can expect a good meal from the rations, but when it comes to biscuits you might as well eat rocks. Most of the things asked from families back home are tins of cakes, blankets and other comforts. I wonder if Gunther is married or has a sweetheart back home. The fact he can cook will make him a great husband to any wife. I admire a tercel who can very well take care of himself. After washing out my mess kit, I laid back in my foxhole and looked up at the stars. It was a very clear night, and to think that tomorrow morning we make history. "It is a beautiful night, I think I saw Orion," said Victoria, joining me in the foxhole and looking up at the night sky, "how are you feeling?" she asked "It is difficult to say, Gabby left later this evening to deliver the post to the families, some of them maybe the last letters they ever write," I replied, "I do not have anyone to write to, I envy our soldiers," Victoria lightly smiled, and put her hands behind her head. The fate of the entire kingdom depends on this battle. I will not let my troops down. "Your majesty, you have a chance to make your own family at the end of all this" said the lieutenant, "and trust me, you will find yourself a king, no tercel in there right mind would look over you," Victoria left my foxhole and to her second-in-command, Corporal Monika Krieger. In my opinion, she and Gabby are the best scouts out of all our troops. Gabby came to my foxhole that morning with a ready rifle. I like a rifle just as much as my pistol. She offered her taloned hand, and a held it for her, "Thanks," These soldier are ready for hell. I pulled back the toggle action on the Luger Rifle, and looked down the sights. There were bayonets and rifles sticking up from the trench in front of us. That is the 'red line'. Suddenly, I heard a very familiar whistle through the air, "Here come the guns!" called out Lieutenant Von Lowe. The final battle has begun.
WarlordsThe story you are about to read is true. What you will see was all seen through my eyes. I've seen death, and I have seen sorrow. In death, some of my comrades found peace while others suffered. I've seen soldiers missing limbs or holding their intestines in their talons. It is something I never want my eyes to see or my ears to hear again. But it happened, and our legacy will be written by scholars in the pages of history. My name is Galiana Von Adler, but you will address me as Colonel or Colonel Von Adler. I am a griffon, I am as black as night from beak to tail. I look at my soldiers. They trust me to lead them in battle. To lead them over lands that were once green, and scarred. If I can describe these frontlines in one word it would be this: Hell. There is mud, there are rats, and there isn't a single tree left standing on these fields. Shell holes cover the once fertile land, and fill with rainwater. In the bottom of many of them still lay the bodies of the dead. Through the hardships, you know only one thing: you are going to die. For that is the destiny of living things. Everything that lives will die. Here death takes many forms. I have seen them all. Disease was just as great a killer as the enemy. The thing is the enemy is us. History will look back on this conflict to show that we griffons will never be united as one. We constantly fight, and our kind, innocent griffons, suffer. Our lands are divided, and in chaos. Every griffon noble had their own private armies, and they all wanted the throne of the kingdom. I have never known any soldiers braver than those under my own command. They know who I am. They know that I am more than just a colonel in charge of them. I went to inspect my troops as sun began to rise. One would not expect me to be here. The way things are at this present time, the only way to this throne is to fight. My wish is to create a kingdom where everyone, pony and griffon can live in harmony. If said vision is to be set in stone by way of the rifle then so be it. There are so many private armies that one can not predict who will attack you. The armies use many weapons. Our weapons are the Mannlicher M95 rifle and Bergmann M1915 N.A. I trained my troops to be fast and mobile. I look at the faces of my troops. One of them was my cousin, Gabby. She was a mail delivery griffon. When the war came she was with me. I stroked her cheek, and saw her bright youth-filled eyes. We also use improvised weapons for close quarters. Along with my Walther Model 6, I carry a trench club at my side. I modeled mine after a mace I saw in a museum, all steel construction with ten 1 1/2 inch long spikes affixed on a cylinder shaped head. I mounted it on a round steel shaft with a turned handle. It is 22 inches long and 4 3/4 lbs Our uniform consisted of a M1918 Stahlhelm, and a jacket of a khaki-gray color with brass buttons, and a black leather waist belt. We wore leather webbing to hold five round stripper clips, and grenades. Officers like me are distinguishable by our M1917 Field Caps, but our troops under our command wear the standard Stahlhelm as standard issue. The sky was light grey and dreary. That could only mean one thing, "Strength in honor, Gabby," I smiled at my round-faced cousin and ruffling her head. Our troops were hidden among the rocks, and looking up at the fortified positons on a 20 degree hill. There were machine gun nests and artillery positions. I gave the order, "Fix bayonets!" It was around 200 yards between our positions and the hilltop forts. My plan was to divide our forces into two halves, and flank the hills. My second-in-command, Lieutenant Victoria Von Lowe, was going to attack the right flank, and I was to attack the left. Either way, we were going to have artillery and machine gun fire shoved down our beaks. With her white bald eagle head and talons and brown lion body, Victoria is your average looking griffon, and she is one of my best officers. I pulled out my Walther Model 6 pistol, and cocked the receiver. I signaled my troops to move in closer, but a Vickers machine gun snuffed them out. Two of my soldiers went down like briars to the scythe. "Move forward!" called out Victoria as her troops were moving to the left. The enemy artillery roared, and pounded the ground like the hammer of the war god. Schrapnel, smoke, and earth filled the air. I was able to get a look at the enemy in front. With their Pattern 05 stiff peaked caps and khaki green uniforms, it was the Gilda Clique Army. The artillery was murderous on our troops. I could feel the shock and the earth tremble and the sudden 'thump' sound of a dead soldier. Still our troops moved forward. For us there is no surrender and no retreat. Victoria's troops were being held up by artillery. A few of our troops found positions and started shooting, "Come, Gabby, stay with me!" She nodded and followed behind me with a ready rifle and bayonet amid the relentless onslaught of machine guns and artillery. Our losses were growing. We were being attacked from all sides. Another soldier followed my lead, but one shell fell too many. A black explosion of earth and tiny bits of burnt flesh came when an artillery shell hit her I felt something hit me on the head. I looked to see the only left of the soldier was her head, frozen with a dead look in her eyes and beak lightly agape. I looked back, and looked at Gabby. I nodded to her, and slid down the hill to find cover behind a rock. Gabby covered her head as a shell hit near our position, and landed directly on a soldier. I peaked over and saw the carnage unfold. A soldier was trying to get to a position when a shell hit near him, sending him flying through the air to the ground. A medic team was killed trying to pull away a wounded soldier. One tried to help a comrade to his talons, and was shot in the head. There were disembodied talons and dead everywhere. I reached for a rifle with a few rounds almost hitting my talons. I turned to Gabby and nodded to her. Gabby nodded back, and turned to start shooting at the machine gun nests. One by one, we killed the griffons at the helm of the Bren guns, and killed anyone that tried to replace them, "Push forward!" I called out to the troops, and we charged Gilda's lives began to break, and she was sent into retreat as we attacked. Gabby was at my side as we charged up the line. The will of Gilda's army had been broken. Soldiers ran bayonets into flesh and struck down soldiers with rifle stocks to any enemy that resisted. As wretched as it would make me, the only way to the throne was to conquer.
PasschendaeleThe rains have come again, and the ground has turned to mud. The muck is so thick in some parts that it can stop an artillery shell. Our position was around one hundred miles southwest of Griffonstone. This war has devastated the land. With my eyes, I saw how this land looked like at peace and how war has made it so ugly and disfigured. Not only does it disfigure the lands, but also the griffons fighting for it. I secretly enlisted into the royalist forces when I was sixteen and remember the first time we took a position from the enemy. The problem is with civil wars is it is very difficult to tell who is friend and who is foe. You have to learn not to trust anyone with a different uniform. I had my rifle with a fixed bayonet that the chest of a Gilda Clique soldier. He looked so young, a little older than me and he had his bayonet at my chest as well. Neither was us were making a move, until a commanding officer came by and saw us. She took away my rifle, and handed me the enemy soldier's weapon. I saw him pleading for his life. He held his talons up to surrender, but his words fell on deaf ears as my officer run him through with a bayonet. It was then that my young eyes saw the savagery of the war, but it was only a taste of what was to come. It has been four years since then, and still I remember his brown eyes looking at me and when they closed at the end of his life. Night after night and day after day, the shelling never ceased. We are the dead, and it maybe on these fields that we will be buried. These lands used to be fertile farmland, and it will be us that may bring the next coming of spring. My soldiers covered their heads, and screamed as the land was hammered by artillery. It rained earth and shrapnel. I saw my cousin Gabby holding and comforting a young griffon in her arms named Gretchen. The glasses-wearing griffon closed her eyes with all her strength and screamed at the top of her lungs as the ground shook and exploded from heavy shelling. Her screams longed for all this suffering and pain to cease. I know we all wish for that in the end. I lightly tapped Lieutenant Von Lowe on the shoulder as the shelling stopped. She was at the helm of a machine gun, and I knew she could that position. Von Lowe smiled, and gestured for me to leave the position and went to see my cousin, and the young soldier with her. There is nowhere to hide other than in our foxholes filled with rainwater. The bodies of our dead were slumped over barbed wire and facedown in the mud. I suspected there is an enemy position ahead of us. A spray of machine gun bullets that almost hit me proved me right, "I did a flyby of the position, it's about one hundred yards ahead of us, I would say around 2,000 rifles with machine gun support," said Gabby, "We attack in two minutes, I need for you two to stay with me, alright?" I said to them, "your name is Gretchen, eh Zöpfe (pigtails)?" I asked, the light blue griffon nodded, she looked no different than me when I joined the army, "stay with me? alright? you stay with me and stay with Gabby, and we will all see to the end of this fight," I vowed. I signaled to Lieutenant Von Lowe that we had two minutes until the attack. I peered over the foxhole, and saw the bayonets of the enemy coming from the position. We have no artillery support, and no heavy weapons. The only thing we had were our rifles and machine guns to support us. I nodded to Gabby to tell her it was time, "Fix bayonets!" "Fix bayonets!" Von Lowe called out and the order circulated to the soldiers. I saw a Gilda Clique soldier peering out from behind a rock twenty yards from my position. It was a scout. My eyes met hers, and in my mind that was to be my first target. Thousands of M1895 bayonets were fixed to rifles. I saw a look in Gretchen's eyes, a look of trust. Machine gunners pulled back the receivers. The scout was about to alert his comrade. I took my chance, and came up from my shell hole and started shooting. Two bullets hit him in the chest, and a third hit the griffon behind him in the head. Amid the raining artillery shells, we came out of our holes and charged the field to attack the enemy trench The machine guns rattled off and provided fire support, and moved in behind us. Crossfire grinded the ground, and Gabby and Gretchen charged at my side with loud and proud battle-cries. We broke through the first line, shooting and running our bayonets into the flesh of the enemy. A few fell to the crossfire. No one ever said this was easy. I looked back and heard a splash. I saw a body fell facedown in a shell hole filled to the brim with rainwater. Gretchen was proving herself a soldier, and stabbed an enemy before he could radio for reinforcements. The machine guns did what they could to soften the lines, and we broke through smacking aside the enemy with rifle stocks and will. The last obstacle was up the hill, but was to be the toughest. I knew going into this battle that casualties will be high. I had to accept it, "Get down! Get on the ground!" I called out, but my order did not reach everyone. A machine gun nest mowed down my valiant troops, but Gabby and Gretchen followed my order with a handful of others. Crossfire hit the stone of a fence that we used for cover. It made me think there used to be a farm here before the war. One of my captains was trying to move a squad from one end of the field to the other, but one shell fell too many, and took her head clean off. Gretchen tried to peek her head up, but Gabby stopped her, "Keep you head down!" Among them was my second-in-command with her pistol, "Go! Go! Go!" She belted the handful as we moved to the take the last stronghold in the area. We managed to take the positions, but it came with a price. The fields and hill were covered in the dead. Bullet and shrapnel wounds reflected the carnage of the battle in a field now dark and red. The cries of the wounded filled the air on both sides as the field medics did what they could to treat them. Some were beyond saving from either physical damage or damage to the mind. Everybody goes through very difficult times in their lives, and they complain that their life is hell. Let me be the first to say this to you. You know nothing of hell.
Guns of AutumnWhen I was a fletchling, I was trained to be the next heir to the kingdom, but I was not like other princesses. I was trained to rule with kindness and a gentle soul, but also trained as a soldier as the Griffon Kingdom have as many enemies as Equestria. To think that the greatest enemy we would ever face in our history is ourselves in this war? When the Gilda Clique Army invaded, I saw everything I was brought up to rule go up in flames. My mother was pregnant with a young prince that was to be my little brother. I was fighting on the Northwestern Front at the time. When I came to Griffonstone, I saw her troops had burned the city to the ground. Soon I found the body of my mother. I found her body in the ruins of the royal castle. Her charred talon still had the wedding ring my father had given her. I looked to see littered with dead villagers massacred by machine guns. I fell to my knees, and screamed at the top of my lungs to the heavens above. Five years have passed since that day, and now I must rebuild the kingdom. My talons now hold a trench club and a Walther Model 6 in the place of a specter. Instead of a crown, I wear a field cap. My father, my mother, and my baby brother are in a better place. Any place is better than these front line trenches. Still, I admire my soldiers. They have stood by my side through all the carnage. They are better than me. I flew down to our battery. We do have artillery, not much though. We have around ten batteries of 7.7 cm FK 16s, 7.5cm FK 16 NAs, and 10.5 cm leFH 16 howitzers with six guns in each battery. On top of that, we have to ration our ammunition for the guns. Thus accuracy is key when working in the artillery batteries as to not waste our shells. "Knock, knock," I said knocking on my cousin's helmet as if it were her own door. My cousin Gabby saluted and smiled with a hug and her usual enthusiasm, "Very funny, Big Butt," Gaby teased, I pushed down on her helmet to lower it over her eyes, "It is indeed amusing to me," I replied, normally I would scold her for making fun of me...or my butt. Yet we have other things to worry about on the frontlines. It seems nothing ever dampens her spirits even with being a front line soldier. Since seeing her smile can make the grayest skies seem blue. Her face is round and adorable. Her eyes so bright and cheerful. Her personality is as sweet as a cookie, "Be ready now, Gunther is coming by with rations," I said to Gabby whom is also our messenger griff. Gunther is the cook for our regiment. A griffon from a family of sausage-butchers, he will go through any lengths to make sure our soldiers get a hot meal. I have seen him go through barbed fire, artillery, and machine guns to get food to our troops. Like a lot of soldiers, he is very young, only 20 years old, but he says what everyone loves to hear. "Soups on!" he called out, and an artillery shell almost hit him and instead hit the edge of the trench line, "give it rest, you Gilda Clique Buzzards, I am a cook for Celestia's sake!" he blasted back, and filled the bowls of the waiting soldiers. I was beside my cousin whom was talking with Gretchen, her friend, "It is ham hock and lentil, Colonel," Gunther is a good-looking tercel. He has dark brown feathers, and wings with a yellow beak and light brown fur. He has a big responsibility. He and his staff have to make sure that our soldiers are fed. His food is good, and goes well with the hartkeks. You know, if by any chance we run out ammunition, we will throw our biscuits at the enemy. "It's good to have Gunther around," said Gabby, "I don't know what we would do without him, settle for hartkeks, I guess," "If we only had hartkeks, we wouldn't have beaks" Gretchen joked, I am a senior officer, but even I can laugh at the jokes my soldiers tell. If it were not for Gunther, we would have more nicknames for these godawful things: beak-dullers, worm castle, improvised throwing device. Rumor is if you throw it hard enough, you can kill somebody. With a hot meal in my belly, I went to check on the sentries on guard looking out at this empty wasteland. Millions of shells have turned our land to dust. Some areas of the trench lines are only 10 yards long while some are as wide as 2 miles. I patted a soldier on the shoulder. He looked at me and nodded and looked down the sight of his rifle. The enemy has a name for us. They call us 'Stormtroopers'. Like my trench club, I have seen my soldiers carry their own improvised weapons. Gabby has a trench club at her side too. Her weapon has a wood handle with two iron studded rings at top. Her friend Gretchen carries a sharpened spade which she can use with deadly efficiency in battle. Our most famous weapon is the grenade. Our enemy nickname them the 'potato-masher'. We have the weapons, and we have the skill. For as long as one of us still breathes, we will never surrender and we will never retreat. We will fight to the last griffon. Still, it is good that the shelling has stopped on our lines, still I hear cannons in the distance. That night I looked up at the moon at the clear night sky. One of the sentries seemed to have spotted something, "Colonel," he whispered, I pulled up, and looked through my binoculars after hearing odd 'plink' noises coming not far from our position, "Looks like we have guests tonight," I said, a machine gunner pulled back the receiver. I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "no..." I said to the soldier, and decided to take her of this, "Gretchen, Gabby, come with me, come armed," They nodded, and put on their stahlhelms while I pulled out my trusty Walther and cocked the receiver. We came out of the trench that night. I ordered the sentries to take a shot if they have one. We crawled across the field dotted with shell holes. I heard a gunshot from our trench, and saw a Gilda Clique soldier fall dead, one of five in the party. I led the squad to the cover of a small hill. Once the raiding party was in our sights, I gave the order, "Go, go, go," I whispered to them, and we flanked the party of four. Gretchen threw a stick grenade to give away their position. I shot one of them between the eyes while Gabby notched a kill with her trench club as did Gretchen with a spade. One of them was trying to make a break for her trench, but I shot her in the back of the leg to bring her down. Gabby and Gretchen readied their rifles from behind their backs and fixed bayonets. I was a bit surprised at who led the attack on our trench which was largely unsuccessful. I had my pistol at her temple, "Brash, Greta, too brash,"
Angels CallingYou cannot talk or reason with a machine gun or rifle. It will not listen to your words or pleas of mercy. It just laughs at your futile attempt to take a trench with words made of hot lead. These days it seems to be the same cycle of us attacking their trench, and then they attack ours. Just to even the score we attack their trench once more. With every attack on the lines I see more of my soldiers die as I see to the death of the enemy. Their bones still litter the ground. Some are never seen again. The price we pay for a unified kingdom is not in Bits, but in the lives of young griffons. Thousands of feet have marched with dreams of glory on the battlefield only to be blown to pieces. What will my soldiers get in return for their service in the restoration of my crown? Some of these soldiers do not have a home as they were destroyed by the Gilda Clique Army. The night before, a raiding party had captured Gilda's second-in-command, Greta. We were able to settle for terms, and we had her returned unharmed to her troops. Still the cycle goes on. I was in my quarters at the trench we captured a week ago. Outside the shells fell like the summer rains. I checked my pistol, and readied myself as I came out of my quarters. Gabby was their waiting with a ready rifle. I touched her on the crown of her helmet, and walked through the trench to meet up our soldiers. "This is it, lads and ladies, we have the Gilda Clique on the run, that means they will put up heavier resistance on the forward lines, I am sad to say that casualties will be high, many of you may not make it home, we are going to rebuild this kingdom stone by stone, but it all starts with the gun and bullet...fix bayonets!" I ordered my troops. I checked my pocket watch, and pulled back the receiver on my Walther. I soon gave the order, "Attack!" The machine guns were covering us, and moving behind us. The artillery was constant, but still we attack. Many fell to the onslaught of machine gun fire from a Vickers gun. One of my corporals was trying to move a squad until a sixty-pounder shell hit it's mark directly on him. In an explosion of blackened earth and a puff of smoke, he was gone. The cries of the wounded echoed in the air which smelled of gunpowder, and burning flesh. I moved the squad of soldiers to an area of raised earth to give them some cover while shooting at the enemy. I got two of them with my pistol, and dodged a grenade. With my back to the mound, I saw Gretchen and Gabby tending to a wounded soldier. She had her knee blown off by a shell. I was about to throw a grenade into a machine gun nest when I felt something tug at my belt. It was a wounded soldier. His lower half was gone, and his intestines were dragging on the ground as he pulled himself up to my eyes, "Shoot me...," he muttered, and with that I remember his last word, "mother," Before I could even pull the trigger, his eyes closed and he died clutching my belt. I will never forget that. I gently took his hand off my belt, and continued the assault. I had no time to grieve. I threw a grenade into the lines, and took out the Vickers gun. We got to the trench. The fighting got more brutal and personal. I had my trench club ready. I shot one in the head with my Model 6, and hit an enemy in the side of the head with my mace. A spurt of blood hit me in the beak. Victoria was leading half the troops to the right while I led the other half to the left to take care of any more resistance. Little did I know that there was a Lewis Gun in the trench that mowed down soldier after soldier. Amid a pile of bodies, I was able to kill the gunner and the loader, "Forward!" I called out as I paved the way for the others. We took the trench in a matter of hours. Lieutenant Von Lowe met with me as she holstered her pistol, "Let us collect the dead," She said, and I nodded lightly. Stretcher-bearers and medics were covering and collecting the bodies of the dead. Some had been shot, a clean death, others were missing limbs or headless. Such savage butchery. I helped pull the bodies away from the Lewis Gun. For a young soldier with the blue eyes. I did her the honor of closing her eyes, and helped the body onto a stretcher along with the others. The final tally was appalling. Out of twenty-five hundred troops, we lost five hundred in a single attack. I went to see to those that managed to survive. Gabby was being tended to by Gretchen. She had stopped a bayonet with a talon, and had a small head wound from a piece of stone, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," Gabby reassured me as I touched her soft, round cheek. I saw that her trench club was stained with blood, as was Gretchen's sharpened spade. Very brave soldiers they are. Even Gunther survived with bullet wound in his left front talon just above shoulder, "Umm...Colonel," He said, pointing to his beak, and I nodded to him as he noticed the blood. I wiped it off with a handkerchief from my pocket. I went to the communications bunker where troops were setting up radio and telephones to direct the artillery corps. We only had one telephone and one radio now. A few of them were destroyed in the shelling by the Gilda Clique and their operators were killed as a result. I looked out at the battlefield with the Lieutenant, "So many lives lost...and to think they follow my orders without any question," I said to her, she put a hand on my shoulder and lightly smiled. "Colonel...they fight not just for you, they fight for your crown, for our land...they fight the armies of hell, and so will I," said Victoria with the utmost seriousness. "Come, we have had enough fighting, let us find some food," said Victoria. Gunther had made a stew of smoked sausage, beans, lentils, chicken, and leftover ham hock. The food is good. A small comfort amid battle's roar. Some troops wrote home to loved ones or talked about their families. Gabby is to take their letters tomorrow in the morning. We got communications up with the artillery corps whom were now shelling the positions of the Gilda Clique Army. After dinner I went to look over the trench at the shelling to see if they shells were hitting their mark. Gretchen was watching as well looking down the sight of her M95 rifle, "Do you think anyone can survive that?" she asked me softly. "We are one hundred miles from Griffonstone, the enemy is going to dig in and make their stand," I replied, patting her lightly on the shoulder to keep her spirits up. I went to the bunker to telephone in the coordinates of the next salvo. Under the curtain of artillery, the only thing we can do is attack, yet I know Gilda will not give up without a fight.
Iron ThunderWar effects everyone. When the call to arms was summoned, there seemed to be chaos in the streets. Griffons picking sides, and building factions. Any griffon noble took up arms and the chance to be the next ruler of the Griffon Kingdom. Now only two factions are left, and the war is going to a new front for the first time. This is where I come in. The war has been raging for years, not only on land but at sea. I would know. Factions build up navies in a naval arms race as they were separating from the kingdom. I allied my fleet with the Royalists and the banner of Galiana Von Adler. My name is Geneve Falke, Commodore Geneve Falke, and I am the leader of the 1st Royal Cruiser Flotilla. The final push was on to take back Griffonstone, and restore the rightful heiress to the monarchy. I am not one to predict the future, but I can see that the ships in my fleet, along with others in the Royalist Navy will clash with the Navy of the Gilda Faction. Our navies have sent the commissions and our industry has built our ships for this moment A navy is meant to show the muscle and industrial power of a country at sea. We have built every ship imaginable to protect our waters from Gilda's Faction, and any looming threats on the horizon should the war end. We have dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, armored cruisers, light cruisers, minelayers, destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines. I command the battlecruiser Kaiserin. She is a part of one of the strongest class of warships in Royalist Navy. She is 29,816 tons and ten 14 inch guns as her main armament, twelve 152 mm guns, eight in twin turrets and four in casemates, and eight 75mm guns. There are four vessels in her class: Kaiserin, Konigin Alexandra and the Konig Guto. With a top speed of twenty-seven knots, she can to do everything from commerce raiding to escorting convoys and bombarding offshore batteries. Escorting us are the armored cruisers Königliche Prinzessin and Penthisilea. They are each 16,800 tons and armed with eight 10 inch guns in four turrets making them a match for any cruiser. What makes the ship unique is there is a ten inch gun turret amidships between the first and second funnel facing forward like the fore turret. Her twenty 120mm guns are her secondary armament, and are located in the belts of the ship. These guns keep the pesky destroyers, light cruisers and torpedo boats from ruining such a nice sunny day. We needed something fast that can deliver the support needed for ground troops, and keep up with cruisers. Not all engagements will be with the massive capital ships. Most of the time, the major battles at sea are fought on ships like mine. In my opinion, I consider our armored cruisers to be some of the most dashing cruisers on the sea today. The other class of armored cruiser joining us is the Falkeland class. These are 17,500 ton ships, and the largest class of armored cruiser in our navy. She is armed with twelve 10 inch guns, eight 150mm guns, sixteen 88mm guns, and four torpedo tubes which are standard on all warships, sometimes a few more are added to warships like mine. The flotilla I command consists of battlecruisers, light cruisers and armored cruisers. Our job to make sure supplies get to the troops. The war started a naval arms race with the Gilda Faction. The Gilda Faction Navy has warships called dreadnoughts. Where they have battleships, so do we running training exercises in the Löwe class battleships. I was at her commissioning ceremony in Griffonstone Harbor when she came off the slipway just before the war, and the death of King Guto. It was the last time I ever saw him alive. The Löwe class are the first dreadnoughts to be commissioned by our navy. She is 23,000 tons with an armament of ten 14 inch guns, and a top speed of 21 knots. These are the first vessels to be named after non-griffon monarchs. The class includes Löwe, Prinzessin Celestia, Prinzessin Luna, and Konig Grover. They are also the first warships in our history to include telephone communication systems as standard. With that, our warships replaced the morse code machine with telephones which saved lives. Every warship has an Achilles Heel, and that is where the submarine or 'U-boat' comes into it's own. These are long range ships that provide support under the waves, and their torpedoes are just as deadly as our heavy guns. We have three U-boats giving us support: U-139, U-140, and U-141. They also act as scouts and relay us information. The 5.9 inch deck guns give our submarines the nickname 'U-Cruiser'. The captain of U-139, Gwendoline Spear, is a friend of mine. We were not getting the call to action yet. Today was the day of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's Diamond Jubilee, and they asked us to do be in attendance, and show our naval might. I am not one to show off. We may have powerful navies protecting the one thing in Equestria that cannot be conquered, but a warship is nothing without a crew. My crew have seen many battles since the war began. Some were victories, and some were defeats. Still they stood strong in the beak of overwhelming odds such as the battle against the battleship Queen Royal. The dreadnought had crippled our rudders leaving us dead in the water. We did what we could to fight back. I lost many of my crew. They were still at their gun positions even in death. It was not until the armored cruiser Kronprinz came with fire support from her 10 inch guns. If she did not come to our aid, I would not be here now telling our story. We met the Princesses of Equestria at the Royal Harbor in Cantorlot. Our ships made it through the river, and the shipping canals. The dreadnoughts Princesszin Celestia, Princesszin Luna and my battlecruiser Kaiserin were the centerpieces at the docks. I bowed before the Princesses, "Commodore, it is an honor to meet you, where is Galiana?" "She could not be in attendance, she has informed me that she is making plans for an offensive against the Gilda Faction at Falcon Ridge, we are to provide support from the bay," I explained to her majesty, then a realized something, "oh! How rude of me, these are the commanders of the fleet," they all shook talon to hoof with the princesses. "What business do you have with us? Surely you have not come for just the Diamond Jubilee," asked Princess Luna, I admire a monarch that wants to get straight to point of a matter. I smiled and nodded. I looked over at Princess Celestia, and noticed some similarities. She and I have the same color of fur and plumage, but I have a silver beak. "We come to ask for aid from the Equestrian Navy, and an expeditionary force from the Army, we need all we can get to help restore the crown of the Griffon Kingdom, in return for your services, we promise peace and friendship between the Kingdom and Equestria, look into my eyes, and know my word is honest, do we have terms?" I asked. Royalist Griffon Navy Warships Battleships Löwe class (Based off the Greek Battleship Salamis): Löwe, Prinzessin Celestia, Prinzessin Luna, Konig Grover Monschau class (Based off the Austro-Hungarian Tegetthoff class): Monschau, Kaiser, Prinzessin Von Griffonstone, Brunhilda Wotan class (A coastal defense battleship based off the semi-dreadnought Radetzky class): Wotan, Donner, Kronprinz Gunter Battlecruisers Kaiserin class (Based off the 1915 St. Jakobus class Battlecruiser): Kaiserin, Konigin Alexandra, Konig Guto Gepard class (Based off the SMS Von Der Tann): Gepard, Tiger Armored Cruisers Königliche Prinzessin class (Based off the Armored Cruiser Rurik from 'Without Tsushima'): Königliche Prinzessin, Kronprinz Falkeland class (Based off the Armored Cruiser Blucher with a British-style ram bow): Falkeland, Adlerland Light and Protected Cruisers Diana class (a protected cruiser based off the Königsberg-class cruiser (1915) with two funnels instead of three): Diana, Artemis, Amazon Diamant class (Based off the Cöln-class cruiser): Diamant, Rubin, Amethyst, Saphir, Perle Submarines Large MS. Type (U-135, U-136, U-137, U-138) Type U-139 (U-139, U-140, U-141) UB III Type (Their biggest class of submarines in terms of numbers) Destroyers V170-class Torpedo Boats V25-class Specialty Ships Triton class (Based off the British M-class of submarine monitors): Triton, Hai, Seehund
Citizen/Soldier (The Battle of Falcon Ridge) Citizen/Soldier (The Battle of Falcon Ridge) I look at the faces of my troops. They come from all walks of life: sons, daughters, wives, husbands, and lovers. They look to me, they look to the officers to lead them into battle. None of them want to live a life under Gilda. If she comes to power, she will enslave us rebels, griffon subspecies, and make war on our neighbors to the south. That I cannot allow. I can see it in their eyes, a drive stronger than all. Lieutenant Von Lowe is right. They will follow me against the armies of hell, but the Gilda Faction will have to do for now. The gunfire never ceased from enemy artillery nor from the guns of our navy. The navy have been shelling the fortifications for several days now. "In war...sacrifices must be made, it pains me to say this as I care about you as I would my own family, you are all my family," I said to my gathered troops amid the roar of the cannons and shells slamming into the ground, "when this war is over, I promise to you all, to all the Griffon Kingdom, a future brighter than any time in our past," The navy has done all they could to soften the lines. When the shelling stopped, it was our turn, "FIX BAYONETS!" I ordered to my troops, the order echoed from the officers to the soldiers. The receivers of Bergmann machine guns were cocked back, "this is our time now...FORWARD!" with that, we charged with bayonets at the ends of our rifles. The cries for battle from thousands of soldiers came out of the trenches supported by our machine guns and artillery. Even with the shelling from naval guns, the Gilda Faction artillery rained shells upon us. Rifles were picking us apart bit by bit while machine guns reaped a harvest of flesh. Many commanders would have fallen back in retreat. Not these soldiers, from grenade to rifle they charged up the hill under my lead. I shot a maxim-gunner in the head with my Walther and helped pave the way. No matter how much ground we gain, there were still losses on our side. While I led the first line into the first line of concrete trenches into the forts, a machine pillbox was bringing death. I can feel the bullets fly passed me as I leaped over the trench to take out the pillbox. I fought off a couple Gilda Faction soldiers killing one by smacking him across the cheek and coming down on another to bash his brain in with my trench mace, and made my way to the back of the pillbox. I peered an eye into the back entrance and saw the crew. I tossed in a stick grenade, and the gun ceased firing. I went inside with my pistol, and saw the grenade had done the work it needed to do. Another pillbox was hit by a shell. We were attacking a line nearly two miles long between our trench and the forts, and nearly three miles wide. Through all of this, Gabby and Gretchen were still at my side. A bullet went passed me, and hit Gretchen in the back leg, "Gabby! Get me your dressing, NOW!" I yelled to her in the thunder of battle. Gabby was in a foxhole getting ammunition to a machine gun, and answered my call to help a wounded friend. She ran as fast as she could with shells bursting all around. Such bravery is a sight to behold. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of here," said Gabby stroking Gretchen's top feathers. Gretchen weakly smiled. I looked around at the field from the shellhole, and saw others that were not so lucky. Facedown in the mud, missing limbs or wings. Gabby was shooting back to cover her from her position. I attacked with the troops to attack the trench. I aimed a headshot between the eyes of the officer in the trench as the rest of the troops poured in to take the trench. They maybe the enemy, but they held their ground to the last griffon. What brave soldiers they are. We did what we could for them, and gave them a burial with full honors. Thousands of bodies littered the field from our trench. It seemed there was not one area of the field where there wasn't a dead body, killed in the most horrifying way imaginable on the field. There are worse ways to die than just getting shot. Sometimes living through it all is worse than dying. I saw a soldier where the only thing left was his head, looking at me with a dead look in his open blue eyes. I closed his eyes, "You are in a better place...any place is better than this," I said, and went to the foxhole and helped Gretchen to her feet to the trench with the help of Gabby. I went to the trench where Gunther was giving food to the survivors and wounded. I sighed, and shook my head. I swear that griffon has a guardian angel at his side. "Colonel! Colonel! We have a runner!" Gretchen called out, looking down the sight of her M1906 Luger Rifle. A few shots fired off at the escaping griffon. From her white head and brown fur and wings, I knew who it was. I had a shot, and took it as she was leaping for cover. I hit her in back of the thigh with my Model 6. A good pistol for the bits. I went up from the trench to the ravaged earth to see Gilda limping back to the fort. I caught up to her, and she looked back to see my pistol pointed at her head, "Nice shot," she smirked, the clicking sounds of thousands and machine guns aimed at me and Gilda sounded as we met in the middle of the field. I signaled my soldiers to hold their fire. I kneeled down to her, and pulled out my dressing from my belt, "You maybe my enemy, but your army cannot function without a leader," I said, turning an eye to her and dressing her wound, "I know of your plans after this...when you oust me...they are plans I cannot allow to go into effect, I will do everything in my power to stop you, Gilda," "You think you can stop me, your navy is wasting their shells...they will never break this fort, and when this war is over...I won't just kill you, no...I will have your head hang out the walls of Griffonstone Castle, and your soldiers will be my slaves, so no one will ever rise up against me," Gilda said with her back in the frozen mud, I shook my head. "No...history will remember you and I, how would you want the future to remember you? It is yours to do as you wish, good day to you," I said, and went back to the captured trench. I heard the click of her pistol. I turned and shot the Webley Self-Loading Pistol out of her talons with a hole in her taloned hand, "you best get that tended to, Gilda,"
Ambush (Battle of Der Wald)We are called 'Stormtroopers' for a reason, and one battle made that clear. With the Gilda Faction on the march to bolster the defenses at Griffonstone, we moved out of the trenches and into the woods. I looked around at the surroundings on the wooded trail from the small cliffs and drop-offs to the boulders and trees, "This is perfect," I stated, I am Lieutenant Victoria Von Lowe. I am the Colonel's second in command, I am a golden eagle griffon, a very common type, "What is the plan, Lieutenant?" asked Monika Krieger, my acting second-in-command. Galiana had given us the task to make sure that the second army does not make it to Griffonstone. I made a nod with a plan in mind. "If we control the road, we can control our flow of supplies and cut off their lines, I need rifles up on the ridge, find any cover that you can, a log, a boulder, a tree, anything works, I need machine guns in the thicket, now let's move!" my soldiers scrambled to find positions of cover while I cocked the receiver on my old Walther, ready for battle. Now we waited. The tension was palpable in the air. Minutes and hours seem to last like days until we heard voices coming up the trail. Monika peeked her head up to see the khaki uniforms of Gilda's soldiers. I decided to take a look, and two covered lorries with them. It was time to start the battle. I signaled her to throw a grenade at the lorry. She signaled for two other soldiers to do the same. They nodded, and they three stick grenades at the lorry. One landed in the cab, and the other two under the wheels. The explosion killed the driver, and sent the troops in a panic. We attacked from all sides with Bergmann machine guns shooting at them, and catching them all in the crossfire. Soldiers in the Gilda Faction were falling left and right with orders being yelled at them to get out of range, and return fire. Their rifles began to pick off my soldiers as well while we were reloading our rifles. It was then that I saw two soldiers going up to the wrecked lorries on the trail. Something about that did not sit well with me until I saw it. "What the hell...?" I said as the tarps on the lorries were taken off on the commander's orders to reveal 3.7cm Maxim 'Pom-Pom' Guns, "take cover!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, and the guns started shooting at us as we scrambled back to our positions. Shell bursts rip through the ground and stone, and made a mess of any griffon in it's path. A soldier was trying to get to my position for cover, but she got caught in the line of fire. A large splinter from a tree hit her in the neck, and chest as she fell beside me. Her green eyes looked at me as she gasped her last breaths while coughing up blood, and died in my talons. Her dead eyes still looking up at me. I knew then what I had to do. I picked up her rifle, and slid down the side to another boulder for cover. I cocked back the toggle action, aimed, and shot the gunner between the eyes, "I need support fire, now!" I called out to a machine gun crew harassing the infantry. They turned the gun on the lorries, and killed the crew. I was shooting at anyone that tried to get back on it. I threw a grenade into the bed of the lorry. It exploded in a fiery roar to the battle-cries of my troops. They charged the line with fixed bayonets under my lead. I killed a corporal with my Model 6, and bludgeoned a soldier in the cheek with the thing that made me an individual among the officers, a trench flail I modeled after a museum piece. Within a few hours, the army was defeated. I weaved to dodge a spade, hit the soldier upside the head with my pistol. The soldier was Greta, Gilda's second-in-command. She chuckled as she looked up at me, "You are all...finished," she said with a smile and coughing up blood. I snarled, and wanted nothing more from her, and shot her in the head. It was the last round in the magazine before I reloaded my pistol with another. I pity these soldiers. I see in there eyes the same look I see in my soldiers. You go to war for many reasons: fame, adventure, money, or family. The sad truth is that you will die, and come back home in a coffin or sometimes not come back home at all. It is very sad. "Let us report back to the Colonel, and tell her the attack was a success, and let us collect our dead," I said to Monika whom survived the skirmish. I reported back to Galiana, "good to see you," I said to the real heiress to the throne of this kingdom, "brave soldiers our enemy, brave soldiers all of them, it is too bad they fight for that mad buzzard," "It is a shame indeed, they are good soldiers, brave soldiers, they fight to the end" she replied, getting up from her desk in the officers quarters in the trench, "get your troops squared away, let them warm up, get some food and rest, I believe they have seen enough today," she said, I have never met an officer that shows such care for her troops. It makes me very proud to serve under her. Gunther was coming by with food. He smiled, and came to my steel bowl with his ladle, "Butternut squash and bacon," he said, "they attacked our trench a few times today," he said, "I am thinking Gilda tried to pull a cover over our heads," he added, and went to the other soldiers in my raiding party. Galiana has spoken to me of her problems, and I understand them all too well. At times it is hard to sleep even when the guns fall silent. Your mind will not let you forget what your eyes have seen. The guns still roar, your talons are covered in blood and the screams of the dead and the dying still echo in your ears. There is no escape from Hell. Still we fight. When this war is over, the memories will still remain. Galiana was finishing up her inspection of our troops, and sat down with her cousin Gabby, her only living family member. She was sharing a cigarette with Gretchen to keep warm on this cold evening. Gunther's cooking certainly helps. He should really take to writing a cookbook. Even in hell, there are small pieces of heaven in the form of food and the comfort of others. We are in this together. I am sure the enemy says the same thing to one another. As I rested, I took off my cap and knew that this truly means something. Galiana has told me of Gilda's plan, and like her I will not stand by and watch them come into being.
Song of WarLieutenant Von Lowe's surprise attack on Gilda's forces should keep them on the tips of their talons, Gunther was making his rounds serving his famous sausage soup with knackwurst before taking the helm of his Bergmann machine gun. The guns were quiet for now, and there is peace amid Princess Luna's night. My soldiers can finally rest. One final push. Just one more to finally break the Gilda Faction. It will take every soldier we have, and every gun at the ready. So many have fought, and so many have died. I have lost many comrades, family, and friends to this war. The only living family I have is Gabby. My little Cookie Face. I fear she will not escape from this war unscarred. No one asked for this war. The call to arms came with the fall of the crown. Like the phoenix, the kingdom will rise again from the ashes. I promised the griffons that I will form a kingdom built on friendship and harmony. Ironically, it will be the rifle and bayonet plus artillery and might of the navy that will bring about such a momentous change. Many griffons will give praise if I triumph, and many will curse me. The same will go to Gilda should she take the crown. It is just the way things are. Gabby followed behind me. She is now my Second-in-Command. My cousin is a Sergeant now. She often leads stormtroopers on trench raids. She is growing into quite the soldier on the battlefield. Gretchen is now a Corporal. These young soldiers have shown bravery in battle. There is an old saying I heard once: 'Go into battle knowing you will die, and you will surely live, but go into battle knowing you will live and you will surely die'. After supper, I washed out my mess kit and looked up at the moon and closed my eyes as a tear escaped. I looked out at the enemy trench and saw the soldiers leaving that night. At first I thought they were surrendering. It seems Gilda called them back to reinforce the defenses at Griffonstone. By morning, I decided to send a few scouts to go over and have a look, "The trench is completely empty, Colonel" said one of the scouts catching his breath. "I see," I said with a light nod, and looked to Lieutenant Von Lowe, "let us gather our things, we are moving out," it was a relief for our soldiers. They know the war is finally at an end. The years of service spent in the trenches are now over. It has fallen to us to take back Griffonstone. I could hear the mighty roar of guns coming from the coast. Our soldiers were packed, shouldering rifles and machine guns. They smiled, and laughed or shared cigarettes amongst each other. For many years, I have kept my voice for commands and caring words to the soldiers. I came up to one soldier, and touched her cheek. She had bloody bandaging around her head and where her right eye used to be. Lieutenant Von Lowe told me that she lost her eye and had a head wound from wood splinters that came from a Maxim 'Pom-Pom' gun that was used against them during the surprise attack at Der Wald. She closed her eyes when I touched her cheek. She gently held my taloned front paw with both of hers, purring and rubbing her cheek against it. She had such bright eyes like Gabby. It is a shame battle took one away from her. She is similar to Gilda in coloration and facial features, but her feathers are grey around her eye. She looked like a soldier that enlisted before she was eighteen. She probably lied on her application. She wants to do her part in our fight. To me, that is very honorable. [Galiana:] Beten nächtelang Im Glauben, dass man uns erhört. Tief im Herzen Hoffnung und ein Lied kaum zu verstehn. Nun ist uns nicht mehr bang, weil auch die Furcht uns nicht mehr stört. Wie versetzten Berge längst doch konnten wir´s nicht sehn. Es werden Wunder wahr, glaubst du daran. Die Hoffnung weist den Weg uns klar. Was wohl ein Wunder noch vollbringen kann, glaubst du daran. Wie wunderbar! Es werden Wunder wahr. [Gabby:] Ängste hatten wir. Das Beten schien so nutzlos oft. Hoffnung, dieses Wort flog wie ein Vogelschwarm davon. Doch heute steh ich hier. [The soldiers:] Nachita v´chas d´cha am zu gaalta Nachita v´chas d´cha am zu gaalta Ashira Ashira Ashira Ashira ladonai ki ga oh ga ah Ashira ladonai ki ga oh ga ah micha mocha ba elim adonai micha mocha ne dar bakodesh Nachita v´chas´dcha am zu gaalta Nachita v´chas´d´cha am zu gaalta Ashira Ashira ashira Es werden Wunder wahr, glaubst du daran. Die Hoffnung weist den Weg uns klar. Was wohl ein Wunder noch vollbringen kann, glaubst du daran. Wie wunderbar! Wunderbar! Es werden Wunder wahr [Galiana and Gabby:] Es werden Wunder wahr! We had made it out of the trenches and into the forest and hills surrounding Griffonstone. The officers and I signaled our soldiers to keep their heads down and keep quiet. Their were ridges of raised earth giving us some cover from any snipers or machine guns. The Gilda Faction will throw every weapon they have at us. It will be a great battle. It will be a terrible battle. I know their will be great losses on our side. Many of the faces I see among the ranks may never see home again. I will give them hope that their will be a queen sitting on the throne of the Griffon Kingdom. If I die, then I die for them, my soldiers. They are my brothers and sisters. I die for them. They are the kingdom. A queen is still a griffon as a princess is still a pony. I am still one of them as my flesh and my heart are mortal. You want to know what real immortality is? Look at those griffons or ponies you maybe destined to rule. You put your life on the line for their safety. You give your life so that another may live. You may die, but your name lives on. That is immortality. You cannot live forever, but your name will. Gabby came to me with a light smile. It was not a smile of joy, but one of readiness, "I know...that many of us will not survive...if you fall, I will fight on, I will not stand for Gilda becoming the Queen, you taught me well, I will not give up, I will not give in and I will never surrender," From her salute, she gave me a hug and I hugged her back. It is the warmest one I ever received. She rubbed her cheek against mine, and did the same. Gabby is my family, my only family left now, "You tell your soldiers to be ready, and make sure their rifles are loaded," I said to her with my gentle talons on her shoulders, "the guns are coming,"
In Their WordsThe most comforting thing a soldier can have on the frontlines is a letter from home. I maybe a soldier, but that doesn't stop me from fulfilling my duty. I'm Gabriella but you can call me 'Gabby'. I am still a mail-delivery griffon, and I am also a sergeant in the Royalist Army. On these battlefields, ranks are never given, you have to earn them. I look around the trenches and observe soldiers in their foxholes, and you see them doing all manner of things. Some are cleaning their weapons or sharpening their knives and bayonets. Others are sharing rations and cigarettes. The most often thing you will see a soldier do when the guns fall silent is write a letter home to family or a loved one. You look at the letters these soldiers write to. Some write to fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters while others write to friends, girlfriends, wives, and lovers. There is one soldier in our ranks who has a male lover waiting for him to come home. That is very sweet. If he was in the Gilda Clique Army, that griffon would be executed by firing squad. He is a very good soldier, and the best sniper in our ranks. I remember when he told my older cousin that he is gay, and the words my cousin gave to him. She put a taloned hand on his shoulder and said: 'It does not matter who you are or where you are in your life, to me you are a brother-in-arms, my only advice to you is do not get captured' The hardest thing about being a mail-delivery griffon in these terrible times of war is that it is my responsibility to inform the families that their loved one has been killed in battle. It really pains me to tell the family that their loved one is dead as it does for the family. Someone has to tell the families the news. I am what I am, someone has to be. There is one rule to being a mail-delivery griffon: 'Don't Fly'. Too many times have we sent griffons to fly and send letters only to have them shot out of the sky. I have to rely on the mountain trails, and tracking skills. On these long excursions to get letters home to families, my aching talons are not easy to ignore. You have to think about others. When I go on a mail delivery, I always carry my Walther pistol and my trench knife. Gilda Clique soldiers patrol the trails leading to many of the villages. If you hear footsteps or the sound of a rifle, you keep off the trail and keep quiet. This is why I run my routes at night. My grey feathers and my feldgrau or 'field gray' uniform provide camouflage. I made it through the trail unseen and unharmed to the villages on my route. There are times I have been compromised, and I had to find other ways of getting back to camp. One time I had to dive off a big cliff and swim back to camp. Luckily, my mailbag was empty. When you're in my paws, you have to go above and beyond to get the job done. Many families were relieved to get letters from their loved ones at the front knowing they are alive. Others cried tears of sorrow at the news that their loved ones were killed. I am only the messenger. I bring the families the news be it good or bad. It is like my cousin says: 'Achieving physical immortality is impossible, but your name will live forever' When I came back, I received a salute from Gretchen and Monika followed by hugs from them. They are my best friends, and Gretchen is my acting second-in-command, "Job well done, Sargeant, other than Gunther, you have one of the biggest responsibilities in this army, and you run your routes without fail, I am proud of you," said the Colonel. I saluted my older cousin, and gave her a hug soon after. I am the only family she has left so our relationship is very close with added teasing to boot between the two of us. I call her Big Butt, and she calls me Cookie Face. I run this mail route at least once a month, and let me tell you that my task is very dangerous. It is not for the faint of heart. Monika rolled into my foxhole. The sky is so gray it was hard to tell at times if it was day or night, "Do you have any matches? Gretchen's out," said Monika, I sighed and shook my head, and handed her mine which were in a small brass tube. Suddenly, there came a whistle and Von Lowe calling out 'short shell!' that almost hit her, "shit-fuck," It has been a day since we arrived at our position. There was no trench this time. We were in foxholes, and using anything around for cover. The artillery was positioned about a mile behind us. At night you can hear the roar of the guns, shelling the defenses at Griffonstone. It makes me wonder at times if there will be a city left standing in the end? The ground is so littered with shell-holes that one would think we were not in the Griffon Kingdom anymore. I felt like I was on another planet like in those science-fiction dime novels I would read at the apothecary when I was a hatchling. No matter how ugly and disfigured the war has made our land, I will stand and fight for it like the others. I slung my Luger Rifle behind my back, and went to my cousin. She is all black from beak to tail. It makes it hard at time to see her at night if the trench is not lit. I found her in her foxhole looking through her binoculars as artillery shelled the defenses. She gave the binoculars so I can take a look, "I do not doubt their resilience, Gabby," she said, "Neither do I, yet I wonder if there will even be a city left after all this," I replied, Galiana nodded seeing the point I made. When I looked through the binoculars, I saw what was ahead of us. There are concrete bunkers, machine gun nests, barbed wire, mortars, artillery, and Celestia knows how many rifles. It's the deep breath before the plunge. "Still in the end, we will rebuild, such is the price of war, war can only destroy yet we can rebuild from the ruins, there will be a kingdom, Gabby, a great kingdom filled with friendship and harmony, it is a shame it has to be built by the gun," said Galiana, ever the wise one. She will be a great queen. I am sure Uncle Guto will be very proud of her. "I wish there was a better way, violence doesn't solve everything," I replied, so many have died in this war whether it be from sickness to combat. I am sure the enemy on the other side suffer as much as we do, and want to see the end of this war. Many of our soldiers are writing letters home. I am guessing many of them maybe their last ones.
Plan of AttackThe artillery has arrived today. They have taken position about a mile behind our position. This way they are in range of the fortified positions of Griffonstone. I gathered Lieutenant Von Lowe and Sergeant Gabriella over a map to discuss how we are going to take back Griffonstone. This was going to be a great challenge for all our troops. "There are three lines of trenches defending the city here," I explained pointing a talon to each one, "the first is the red line, then yellow and finally the black line, our scouts have returned and reported that they have artillery emplacements, machine gun nests, plus a garrison of one thousand rifles, this is it, my friends, they will fight to the death" "So will we, you can count on that," said Victoria, "for kingdom...for queen...for the crown," "Here is what I think we should do," I said to my gathered officers, "we are going to utilize a curtain of artillery barrages, and have our troops follow behind them, make sure the artillery is accurate and aimed at machine gun nests and the artillery emplacements, we do not want our shells to hit our own troops," I advised to them as a key warning. "We will focus on taking each line one by one," said Gabby pointing to each line, "I say we should take and hold the red line in a morning attack under the curtain of artillery and take the next division to take the yellow line in the evening, if we take and hold all three lines, then we take the city," she concluded, but Von Lowe saw something else. "You are ambitious, Gabby, yes you are, but the enemy troops will keep falling back, we need to take note of resistance in the city," said Victoria. "On the first day we wait, they will attack first, and try and drive us out, the curtain of artillery should for the second and third lines," I concluded, "Gretchen," Gabby said, her second-in-command saluted her, and was given a message, "I need you to send this message to the artillery corps to confirm our battle plan and be quick about it," Gretchen saluted and was on her way over the hills and through shell holes to get to our artillery positions. She even dodged sniper and machine gun fire. For months since the meeting we trained our troops behind the lines for the upcoming attack. Instead of charging head on into the enemy lines, our troops will walk across the field and let the artillery do their part. The machine guns will support us from our flanks, and come in behind us. On paper, this strategy should work. It has yet to be tested. I looked out at the lines. Soldiers moved from position to position, readying for our attack, "This is it, Gabby, the greatest battle in history," I said to my cousin, "All those months behind the lines come down to this, the end of this war is in sight," said Gabby turning those very beautiful eyes to me, "you know, when the war ends, a new era in the history of the Griffon Kingdom will begin, your majesty," I turned to my little cousin and stroked and lightly tapped her right cheek earning a giggle from her. I put my talons on her shoulders, "When will it begin?" she asked, it depends on what beginning. We attack at first light. For Griffonstone the beginning has yet to begin. The city will have to be rebuilt from the ground up. What we are accomplishing is only the first step toward ending this war like a hatchling learning how to fly for the first time. "Soon, make sure your troops are ready, make sure they have plenty of ammunition and full rations," I ordered to the sergeant She saluted and had her troops ready themselves. If there is anything we have yet to run out of it is food. Gunther was making his rounds giving out the evening rations. We did not hear the usual call out for rations. He is smart enough to know that will alert the enemy. Instead, we watched out for his kettle of food, "Bacon, Split Pea and Lentil," "Our spirits are never damp when you are around," I said, getting the bowl of my mess kit filled with the evening rations. Gunther lightly chuckled at my comment. I swear that griffon can make anything edible. There were times when we were short on food that he brought us the morale we needed. We even ate 'Trench Chicken' which is frog. "That is what I do...besides operate a machine gun," he said with a wink, and went to the others and filled their bowls with food. Gunther makes a good soup, but the hartkeks are not getting any better. What do you expect from something made from water, flour and salt? You can expect a good meal from the rations, but when it comes to biscuits you might as well eat rocks. Most of the things asked from families back home are tins of cakes, blankets and other comforts. I wonder if Gunther is married or has a sweetheart back home. The fact he can cook will make him a great husband to any wife. I admire a tercel who can very well take care of himself. After washing out my mess kit, I laid back in my foxhole and looked up at the stars. It was a very clear night, and to think that tomorrow morning we make history. "It is a beautiful night, I think I saw Orion," said Victoria, joining me in the foxhole and looking up at the night sky, "how are you feeling?" she asked "It is difficult to say, Gabby left later this evening to deliver the post to the families, some of them maybe the last letters they ever write," I replied, "I do not have anyone to write to, I envy our soldiers," Victoria lightly smiled, and put her hands behind her head. The fate of the entire kingdom depends on this battle. I will not let my troops down. "Your majesty, you have a chance to make your own family at the end of all this" said the lieutenant, "and trust me, you will find yourself a king, no tercel in there right mind would look over you," Victoria left my foxhole and to her second-in-command, Corporal Monika Krieger. In my opinion, she and Gabby are the best scouts out of all our troops. Gabby came to my foxhole that morning with a ready rifle. I like a rifle just as much as my pistol. She offered her taloned hand, and a held it for her, "Thanks," These soldier are ready for hell. I pulled back the toggle action on the Luger Rifle, and looked down the sights. There were bayonets and rifles sticking up from the trench in front of us. That is the 'red line'. Suddenly, I heard a very familiar whistle through the air, "Here come the guns!" called out Lieutenant Von Lowe. The final battle has begun.
