One Thousand Tears

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.