The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace,
whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.
-Sun Tzu
It has been almost a year since the conflict started, and quickly escalated into full waged war.
Sebastian had been part of this modern day massacre from the beginning and had lost too many friends to it to care much anymore
as the anger had planted itself way back in primary school where he was a reject.
He was now 23 years old. Friends he had made in the military service when he was drafted were all gone.
Blown to pieces by artillery or mines, shot dead where they stood or bled to death on their way to medical care.
Sebastian had started to question his luck of not being one of those statistics of the casualties. He was hit by a shrapnel from an artillery
shell to his left arm bicep muscle. Spending quite long time in military hospital, eventually the wound had healed and let him back fighting the invading enemy force.
Seeing how many friends he had lost so far he mostly kept to himself and rarely talked about his personal life to others.
But there was one of his squad members who he'd been assigned as partners.
Jonas was his name, the only one left in the squad who Sebastian actually talked with. Nothing deep but regular talk and exchanging jokes.
He was alright and since they were assigned as partners they really had to get to know each other if they would want to perform well in combat.
They watched each others backs.
The day came when their regiment was ordered to retake a lost section of the defencive line which the army had previously built but lost the region to the enemy not long ago.
It was an early Friday morning in late of July.
The company they were in had set up a camp not far as sixty kilometers away from the potential combat zone to come. Officers were circling around the tents informing the guards outside of every tent to wake up the men so they can get ready to eat breakfast and receive orders.
The guard stepped in the tent and woke up everyone and Sebastian bolted out from his sleeping bag, rubbing his eyes from sleep and started to equip his gear after packing the sleeping bag and his personal belongings to his backpack.
Once outside fully in his combat gear, with helmet as they were supposed to wear them at all times unless ordered otherwise.
They all knew what was going to happen that day so only a handful had the motivation to do personal hygiene this morning, brushing teeth and so on.
But still there was that lovely ten minutes to get yourselves ready before anything else, so Sebastian used this time to smoke a cigarette with
Jonas, standing under a big oak tree not far from their tent.
Not really having anything to say, being somewhat scared and getting lost in their thoughts.
Almost done with their smokes, they heard the lieutenant order to form a group for briefing.
"Our company has been asked to clear out the enemy presence in the forest not far from a nearby town sixty kilometers east of our location.
The HQ insist that we take and hold the objective until our friends from north-east move in there and take it in their custody.
"The town is critical for transporting our heavy armor and artillery around the surrounding region. We cannot do that with enemy presence nearby.
"Men from the 37th was driven out of there with an artillery strike and armor support and we are going to take it back!
"The regiment had given us plenty of Leo's and BMP's to blow the enemy to kingdom come, we are also having some artillery pieces
backing us up. The NCOs have been given the tactical map of the area with plans of assault and ideal gun placements.
"The MT-LB/v's will take you to the destination and when you arrive at the area where you will dismount the vehicles, they will stay there in case you should need them.
"You'll be marching through the forest one kilometer to the target, backed up with Leopards to counter enemy armor that will most likely
be present. The BMPs will stay there to provide suppressing fire.
"But for now. Prepare yourselves and eat breakfast. Set to move out in sixty minutes."
When the men were dismissed, first group got the order to line up for breakfast at the mobile kitchen not that far away from the tents.
Sebastian double checked his ammunition in his vest, cleaned his RK-62 and glock-17 out of the little oil he usually kept them in during the nights to keep them in good condition.
As they were going to be leaving their belongings behind to the camp area he didn't have much to take with him, just his combat equipment,
weapons, grenades and such, but kept his phone and smokes.
Quite soon and just in time it was their time to get something to eat before taking off.
They served some mush, bread, juice and some energy crackers, but in mornings like this they had double the energy crackers they would usually have.
After lining up to the mobile kitchen by crouching in hiding with two men under a single tree to help prevent airborne operations from seeing them.
Sebastian and Jonas received their breakfast and moved aside to eat under the same oak tree they had the morning smoke earlier.
Still not really talking much, rather only occasional small talk lasting few moments.
After eating it was just waiting a while more, until everyone was ready and they would mount the armored troop transport vehicles.
As the vehicles would hold 11 passengers, during times like these they would mostly just hold only 8 or 9 men because how much equipment
they needed to load in with the soldiers.
The MT-LB/v's were parked in a rather smooth ground area in the forest with only small grass and few saplings and their camouflage nets
had been removed when the drivers started the engines to warm up for the long and bumpy ride to come.
As Sebastian entered the vehicle he was one of the last ones to enter it, so it would mean he would get out of it as one of the first.
He rolled his M72-LAW anti-tank bazooka from his back to his front so he would more or less sit straight in there, holding his LAW and rifle between his legs, saw the back door slam shut.
Soon after the driver started raving the engine indicating that they were moving out in a moment.
The sound of the V-8 diesel engine was so loud you could've hit a T-mine and not hear it, but given the situation. No one seemed to bother thinking about it.
Most of the men were just staring at their rifles or simply just keeping their eyes on the floor.
An hour passed, probably more until the vehicle came to a halt and just moments ago the lights inside turned red, indicating that the men should get ready to leave the vehicle.
But when the lights turned green and the two closest men opened the back doors, the men on the left row ran out of the vehicle heading to the left of the now stopped MT-LB/v and right row ran to its right side.
During this Sebastian could see dozens of other MT-LB/Vs all around unloading the men as fast as possible.
Jonas tapped Sebastian on the shoulder and when he looked at Jonas behind him, Jonas just gave a thumbs up with his left hand and gave a small smirk of a smile.
The loud noise produced by the transports drowned the words spoken by the sergeant when he tried to give orders.
Sergeant signaled by hands that they were to take a V shape formation, with at least three meters between them and ordered to move forward.
Heads down as possible, they moved a bit faster for comfort in Sebastian's mind in the half totaled part of the forest, blown away by previous artillery strikes.
Scouts one hundred meters in front of them to radio in anything they saw and kept hidden.
Until.
The scouts informed that the enemy truly had armor in the area, saw five main battle tanks, most likely T-90's. Which would've been a major problem unless they wouldn't have been promised Leopard support... And speaking of Leo's, they weren't anywhere in sight.
The only thing Sebastian saw was some BMP's behind the infantry. But his thoughts were cut off by small bass like pops in the distance.
Jones quickly yelled "Artillery!" which made Sebastian run straight into a small pit in the ground not more than three meters away from him to take cover.
The shells started blowing up the last tall trees that still were covering the area and throwing up the ground they hit.
It lasted not more than couple minutes but for Jonas and Sebastian it felt like hours, being rained on by rocks, pieces of wood and dirt.
Covering the barrel of his rifle under him Sebastian quickly rose up after the firing had been halted and went to check up on Jonas.
Who, in Sebastian's luck was still in one piece and breathing. Heavily, but still breathing.
The sergeant closest to them started yelling to move forward.
Meaning that the partners would team up and start to advance together towards the enemy, but there wasn't any enemy fire yet.
While one of them moved from one cover to another, the other was pointing their rifle towards the enemy, and when the person moving had found their spot to take cover, it was the other guys turn to move.
After some minutes passed, the enemy started firing with a volley of bullets and shells
As soon as the enemy started firing, the infantry hit the ground and let the enemy slow down on the firing, and when they did, the BMP's started hurling their 73 mm cannons towards the enemy positions from behind the infantry line, just far enough that the enemy would have hard time hitting them with standard anti tank weaponry carried by foot soldiers. But there still were the main battle tanks wich switched their sights from the advansing infantry to the BMPs further away.
Not much later after that the High Explosive shells coming shooting from enemy lines halted and Armor Piercing shells started being fired towards the BMP's, hitting two and sending them in flames.
Jonas was shouting "What the fuck fuck fuck! wheres the Leo's! without those BMP's we're getting massacred!" when laying there on the ground, looking back and seeing the two assault vehicles in pieces.
But before Sebastian could shout back to Jonas behind him he heard a loud explosion from the enemy line seeing a pieces of metal plates and flames in the air.
Looking to his left flank, seeing two Leopards in full camouflage that had just rolled in, giving hell to the enemy armor, firing two times and backing up. then to emerge again to fire another two quick and precise shots.
From the right flank emerged one Leopard, and so did from the midst of the BMP's behind them.
The sheer awe of the heavy armor showing the enemy how armored warfare is done, our style, left Sebastian just staring at the beauty of the
tanks covered with tree branches and different plants.
Moving closer and closer to the enemy lines, the infantry was halted by a danger close artillery strike from friendly units that were promised, and they were late as usual.
Giving the opportunity for the BMP's and couple of Leo's to move up right next to the infantry while the debris from the artillery strike was still in the air.
Jonas ran behind one of the Leo's and waves Sebastian to come to him, they would now just follow the armors as they would roll over the enemy lines protecting the infantry behind them.
While infantry keeping sure that nothing would surprise the armor from the sides or back, they begun rolling over the trenches. Giving infantry the job of clearing the trenches and secure them.
But before Sebastian and Jonas could reach the trenches as their Leo was having trouble with the terrain it had picked for advance, there was a huge fallen tree trunk which was positioned just right to give the driver hard to see it and giving the tank trouble moving forward.
Sebastian saw that and quickly ran forward and checked the tree trunk and thought to himself that it could be easily forced over if the tank would change its course a bit to the left or right.
As he climbed the tank (which would in no situation ever to be suggested) and tried to yell the tank commander to just traverse a bit and take a slight turn either way moving forward.
In middle sentence he saw something moving in the trees to his right, which he was facing, and it was another T-90 flanking the line of assault.
It fired a single shot towards the Leo Sebastian was just climbed on and hit it to the side armor, penetrating it and setting the ammunition off, blowing up the turret and Sebastian was sent in air when the tanks ammunition exploded.
Everything faded into darkness for Sebastian before his body even hit the ground.
What might've been hours or days, Sebastian came in to consciousness, taking few heavy breaths before realising what had just happened. Quickly snapped to check his body of any damage.
Both arms and legs were still in place and intact, no bodily harm what he could see or feel other than light headiness and as it felt like every muscle of his body aced.
Total silence was what he heard, other than some random birds chirping. No gunfire, screams of wounded men or explosions. He was all alone in the forest.
"The forest... these trees? Everything? Why its all different?" Sebastian started to wonder under his breath as he rose up to his feet which barely carried his weight at the moment as his muscles were still very sore.
The trees were intact, almost looked old for what he could see. No holes in the ground and no nothing, just a normal looking forest.
He saw his rifle not more than two meters away from where he was laying and grabbed it, took cover behind a small mound of dirt with tall grass growing around it, feeling somewhat safe from anyone seeing him as he counted his ammunition, which only was one magazine of bullets, maybe two or three rounds fired but nearly full and his sidearm was still fully armed with two clips still in his vest pockets.
As he was confident enough about his situation, he grabbed some of the grass and fern from the reach of his hand, took off his helmet and added the plants on it to provide stationary camouflage as he was peeking out of his hideout in the grass, laying there.
After what felt like an hour as he did not hear anything hostile or signs of danger he moved next to a large tree that had some kind of vines or other plants dangling off of it, placed his rifle next to him.
and took out one of his energy crackers to munch on, trying to think what to do or where the heck he was.
Sebastian looked up and saw the sun was so high in the sky that it didn't really provide any sense of direction which side the sun would be setting so he could head west where his regiment campground would be located, but still wanted to scout out the area trying to find anything to give him a hint of what direction to start moving.
He happened to find an ant hive, from what he remembered from his training the ant hives never point north from the direction of a tree they're built next to.
He was almost certain the hives mostly being build to the southern side of the tree, he had an idea where west was and started his hike through the forest.
Hours passed and still not knowing where he was, but from the position of the sun he was certain he was traveling west.
Eventually he needed to start thinking of a shelter for the night and stopped at a promising little spot where he took out his combat knife, checking the sharpness of it and started to cut some small trees with its edged blade meant for the purpose similar to a saw.
Sharpened the wood before sticking them into the ground, bending them to form an arc which he tied together with the shoelace of his right boot, from there on he cut few more pieces of wood to make the arch more like a half dome in which he added some twigs and branches
to make it firm and to act as a makeshift roof in case it starts raining.
He stood proud of his work standing in front of the shelter thinking he should prepare a fire. As the forest was so thick around his location he could almost bet that the fire will not be seen by anyone from distance.
Collected some rocks he could find and placed them in a circle just outside of his shelter, and after went off collecting some dried bark from old trees, grass and cut off some pieces of the
dead trees here and there to make a fire.
Here Sebastian was sitting by the fire he had just recently built, thinking of where he was and why there was no traces of humans anywhere he had been walking through.
Despite these thoughts he felt relaxed as he had always loved the nature. Meaning he didn't give a damn seeing the nature get blown up or burnt but just the silence and fresh air in solitude, middle of nowhere.
Haven't seen or heard anything of indicating enemy presence, or friendly. He could lower his guard for a moment and light up a cigarette,
just to sit there besides the fire waving in a small wind current.
Thinking what happened to Jonas and would he find anything tomorrow or with his luck, being captured by a night patrol or something during the night.
Not much sleep was received that night.
Just as the sun had risen, the little sleep Sebastian had was interrupted by sounds of something moving not far away. He snapped up, grabbed his rifle, helmet and ran some distance away from his temporary camp, taking a hiding spot behind some fern and other tall plants where he could see his campground and if someone was patrolling the area, he kept hearing the footsteps as the twigs being cracked, coming closer.
Pointing his rifle towards the area the noises were coming from, he lowered his aim a bit and slightly tilted his head with confused look on his face as he saw a white horse figure with saddlebags walking towards his campsite.
"Alright, what the fuck is going on...?"
The horse seemed to notice the campsite and slowly walked to, investigate? what?
Sebastian just laid there with mouth half open having a really confused look on his face as the white horse was going through the site, poking the fire pit and looking at the shelter, then looking around making some weird noises just as it would've been trying to communicate, it seemed unearthly smart for an equine with its actions.
Sebastian slowly rose up from the bushes, first to his knees but the horse didn't seem to notice him. When he stood up on his legs and accidentally stepped on some sticks, the horse thing snapped its head towards Sebastian immediately. Seeing the horse bit better from clear way of sight Sebastian saw that the horse had huge eyes compared to its head.
The eyes went wide as possible with pupils shrinking to a fourth of the size and the ears flicked back as it just stood there for a moment, clearly afraid.
"Okey... Umm... Hey there?" Sebastian said while setting his rifle on his back, crouching a bit and tried to approach the horse.
The horse's head was up to his upper chest as he realised when he moved slowly closer.
The horse backed up a bit with what seemed to be terrified expression on its face which made Sebastian stop for a moment and take a knee not to look threatening.
It stopped backing up as soon as Sebastian halted his movement and kept its eyes firmly on him, quickly looking around every now and then.
Sebastian really didn't know what to do at this point. The only animals he ever had was few cats and an aquarium.
Keeping his eyes focused on the miniature horse thing, slowly went through his pockets and tried to find the crackers. If he could earn this things trust maybe it could lead him where everit came from perhaps.
But the problem was he only had two left so he opened one and cracked it half, with his arm stretched out trying to offer the thing the half of a cracker, the mini horse started making the same sounding voices as before looking bit baffled and moving its front hoof.
"Okey, okey, okey, now this has launched it officially on the weird territory... Trying to communicate?" Sebastian was thinking with eyes open wide.
"Sigh... Alright, if you tell anyone about me trying to communicate with a horse, we will have a problem..."
Sebastian pointed at himself "Sebastian. Human. Friend."
For his wonder the mini horse actually did the same thing, as it pointed itself and made some noises. "OK, i'm not getting this, its a sentient white mini horse... and it has some kind of mark on its ass...?"
It kept making the odd noises and motioning with its front hoof, but still looking quite alert.
Sebastian kept muttering. "If this thing is sentient, maybe it could help me...?" He soon realised that he must've been looking quite threatening with his combat equipment, so he pointed at his helmet, slowly removed it and placed it on the ground. Showing the horse his open hands afterwards, he slowly reached for the clips and battle belt of his combat vest to remove it and place it on the ground.
He also lowered his other knee to be completely on his knees to be on the same level as the mini horse.
It clearly felt not so threatened anymore but it could be seen that the thing was still afraid, but for Sebastian's surprise it took few steps forward and sit down two meters from Sebastian.
Sebastian tried to extend his arm just like humans would greet each other with handshake just to see what it would do.
The mini horse actually rose up and walked to meet his hand and touched it with its front hoof, still really careful with its moves tough,
It had a short but very soft white fur.
As the two of them sat there for some time mostly quiet, just looking at each other, Sebastian wanted to try to talk with it if he could.
"Me, Sebastian. See...Baaaa...Stiaaaan. Human. What are you?"
The mini horse only tilted its head and kept doing those voices, pretty sure its a language of some kind.
"Look. I don't understand a word... well if those are even words you are trying to spill out. Taking this whole weird situation and shoving it aside i'm still lost and i have basicly no food left.
"Im short on clean water, AND I'M HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH A HORSE!"
The equine flinched a bit but didn't seem give it no mind when after the human started sobbing behind his hands on his face.
Sebastian kept sobbing, hiding his face with his hands but when he felt something touch him he lowered his hands and for his surprise the horse had moved next to him and placed a hoof on his shoulder, as it kept trying to say something, what Sebastian couldn't understand,
it pointed at the shelter Sebastian had made and started pointing at the ground.
Most of what Sebastian could understand would've been a question if he was staying here.
As he nodded few times thinking if that was what it was asking, Sebastian reached for his waist where two of his water canisters were and took a sip of one but it only had a tiny bit of water left and after that it was empty.
The horse saw that, pointed at the canister and made a gesture similar of one drinking, Sebastian nodded to and tilted the water canister upside down with only few drops of water coming out.
By asking the canister with its hoof out Sebastian gave it and the horse most likely tried to ask about food as it gestured as someone eating.
Realising that Sebastian showed the creature the two crackers with one of them cracked it half and put them back in his pockets.
Seeing that the mini horse nodded and rose up walking few meters, then stopping. Pointing at Sebastian and then back at the campsite, afterwards pointing itself and stomping the ground and walking away with a small wave from its front hoof.
Sebastian was still sitting there with really puzzled face. "Alright... I'm lost as fuck, and i think i just met a sentient mini horse with a mark on its ass, who, i think promised to bring me food and water? If i ever manage to get back to my regiment they're sure to lock me up for being a lunatic..."
