A War On Two Fronts

The shelling had not let up in some time while the wounded continued to enter the house turned aid station with increasing speed. Sam and Meadowbrook had been stuck at the house since the day before, though not by choice. The lines kept shifting, land that was secure one minute was in enemy hands the next. Several shells had come close to the building, but thankfully it seemed the Griffons had noticed the large white bedsheet which had been painted with a Red Circle on the roof that indicated it was a medical facility.

“Help me here.” Meadowbrook said to Sam as she looked over a minotaur who was writhing in pain on the dining room. “Try and keep him calm and still, I can’t work on him if he’s moving around like that.” Sam moved over to stand on the other side of the bull and leaned over him, the throbbing pain in her arm and ear were only minor compared to the wounds the minotaur had sustained. He only looked around twenty years old, slightly older than some of the other soldiers she had seen over the course of the day.

“Hey there…” Sam said in as soothing of a voice as she could, putting her hand on the soldier’s shoulder and gently pushing him back down onto the table. “You’re okay, but the Doctor needs you to keep still.” The soldier seemed to relax somewhat when he felt Sam’s hand on his shoulder, the fact that his eyes were so badly wounded he couldn’t see was likely the reason he had been so freaked out. “That’s better… I know it hurts, but we’re going to try and help with that.” Sam looked at Meadowbrook, the mare was working as hard as she could to stop the bleeding from several wounds in the minotaur’s stomach.

“W-Why can’t I feel my legs? Did you give me something? E-Everything hurts.” He asked, looking around blindly, Sam kept his shoulders down on the table while looking at Meadowbrook who merely shook her head. The mare took a syret of morphine from her medical bag and stuck the soldier with it, too often Sam had seen that all they could do was make them comfortable. “M-Mom…? Is that you?” He asked deliriously, Sam quietly patted him on the shoulder.

“I’m here…” Sam replied quietly, she wasn’t going to let him die in some unknown home, scared and alone. If she could make him comfortable she would, even if it tore her up inside. The minotaur reached out with his hand, which Sam clasped gently and held onto. She wished she could say this was the first time she had held the hand of a dying soldier, but the truth was she had been the ‘Mom’ of at least three other scared young soldiers as they passed on, all while holding her hand.

“I’m scared… I-It’s so dark…” The minotaur said as he began to sound more distant, the shelling outside seemed to quiet down as the soldier began to fade. Sam gave the minotaur’s hand a soft squeeze to show him he was still there.

“Shh… It’s okay, I’m here… You just rest.” Sam said, her voice cracking slightly as she watched a weak smile cross the minotaurs face. The woman watched his chest rise up and down several seconds longer before it came to a stop, she heard the death rattle and felt his grip on her hand loosen. The brief silence that followed was shattered by a tremendous boom outside, followed by the sound of chattering machine gun fire and yelling outside. The woman stepped away from the table as a few medics carried the minotaur’s body away to make room for another wounded soldier. There was a loud clatter as a soldier looked in through the back door covered in dirt and grime, a panicked look on his face.

“Griffs broke through our line! You need to grab everything you can and-” The unicorn crumpled to the ground as several shots hit him in the back, Sam, Meadowbrook, and several medics looked at one another.

“Grab as many as you can! We can take the truck outside, if it hasn’t been blown to hell!” Sam shouted as she moved towards one of the stretchers on the ground, one of the medics helped her lift the other end and they began to move towards the back door. Just as Sam stepped out, however, she was greeted by the sight of at least seven Griffon tanks rolling forward through the darkness of night straight towards the building. “Back inside! Hurry!” So back in they went, placing the stretcher down where it had been before as the tanks continued to roll closer.

“Bewegen Sie im Inneren!” Shouted a voice from outside as the tanks came to a halt, their engines rumbling loudly while the battle raged in the background. Meadowbrook and Sam stepped away from the doors towards while the medics did their best to keep working on the wounded. “Bringen Sie den verletzten!”

Several seconds passed before three Griffon soldiers surged through the back door, their weapons raised as they looked around the room. Their uniforms, illuminated by the oil lamps that lit up the room, were grey and their helmets reminded Sam of the ones she’d seen the Germans wear in World War Two films. They briefly looked around the room as the Medics stopped working briefly, they were unarmed and most had their hands covering a wound or cut. They regarded Sam and Meadowbrook with surprise and suspicion, until a few other Griffons came in behind them carrying stretchers loaded with wounded.

These griffons wore white helmets with a Red Circle painted on the side. It seemed that was the Equestrian equivalent of a Red Cross. They noticed that Sam and Meadowbrook seemed to have the most blood on the fronts of their clothing, which to them seemed to indicate they were doctors. One of the soldiers pointed at a wounded griffon that was being placed on the table, then at Meadowbrook.

“Helfen sie ihm!” The soldier shouted loudly, when meadowbrook seemed to hesitate the soldier leveled his weapon and shouted again. “Schnell!” One of the other Griffons wearing a white helmet walked over put his talon on the weapon, lowering it forcefully.

“Idioten! Tu das nicht!” The griffon said loudly before he looked back at Meadowbrook. “You, help him, ja?” The mare nodded quietly and moved over to the table where the Griffon was laying, Sam continued to stand their nervously as the Griffons fanned out through the house and began to examine both the wounded and the medics still working on them. The griffon in the white helmet removed his helmet and walked towards the couch and sat down, after a couple seconds he noticed the woman was watching him nervously. He looked her over, unsure he’d ever seen something like her before. “Sie sitzen wollen?”

The griffon gestured to the seat on the couch, Sam was nervous to say the least, but she had been on her feet pretty much all day and was exhausted. Hesitantly she walked over and sat down on the opposite end of the couch, at which point she gently rubbed her belly, another oddity that drew the attention of the Griffon. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that she was pregnant.

The griffon tiredly rubbed his eyes and yawned while the battle raged outside, taking a few moments to look around the room he noted several photos that had fallen from the walls in the shelling. He came to the realization rather quickly that this house belonged to the strange biped on the other end of the couch, his expression shifting as his thoughts progressed. Gradually more Griffons filed in, taking the wounded Equestrians out once they had stabilized them and replacing them with their own wounded. The Equestrian medics were also lead out, replaced by the Griffons in white helmets.

Sam did her best to sleep on what remained of the couch, and the Griffons did their best to leave her be. Sometimes she’d wake up and hear arguing, she’d see that one griffon was trying to take something of hers. The griffon that had first come in would always stop them before they could take anything, usually following up with several loud words in Griffish. He looked like one of the older ones, Sam had only had a few encounters with Griffons in her life but he seemed more level headed than the others as well.

By morning the shelling was too loud to sleep, Sam awoke to its pounding thuds as more explosions rocked the landscape. The woman looked around and found that the Griffons were pulling their wounded out as rapidly as they could, once again the fighting had shifted and once again the Equestrians were reclaiming the territory. Sam sighed tiredly as she saw that Meadowbrook was passed out asleep in a nearby corner, with any luck they’d be able to leave in the coming morning… If not, well, it was the start of another long day… She just hoped that Turner’s morning was going better, wherever he was.

The beaches of the Barbos Strait loomed in the distance as the first slivers of morning light began to shine from across the horizon. Turner, Thomas, and pretty much every other soldier that would be going ashore were standing on the deck of their assault ship, looking out at the the foreboding strip of sand in the distance. They could see bunkers build into tall cliff faces, arranged in a method to create a massive killing field. Either side of the straight boasted large mountains that would’ve made landing at a less defended site impossible.

“Fuck… We’re going there?” Garnet asked as he leaned against the railing. “They gotta have at least two dozen pillboxes.” The attention of the soldiers was drawn to the sound of hydraulics as the cruisers and destroyers that had escorted them from Isla De Barro rotated their weapons to face the beach. Even the Assault Ship’s smaller five inch guns that were intended for defense against enemy patrol boats were now turned to face the enemy controlled shore.

“The straight used to be a beautiful place…” One of the Minotaurs in Thomas’ group, an ornery and yet somehow passive fellow by the name of Duke. “We’re going to tear those bunkers down when we get there.”

“Just watch… This’ll shake ‘em up…” Thomas said under his breath.

”Attention All Personnel. The Barrage will begin in fifteen seconds. If you are not prepared for the noise you may experience hearing damage.” A voice came over the PA system, drawing the eyes of the soldiers to the guns. The weapons on the cruisers were big, at least ten inches in diameter, the Destroyers were outfitted with smaller eight inch guns. The deck fell silent, every soldier watched the guns intently. ”Commence firing! Fire at will! Commence firing! Fire at will!”

The weapons boomed to life almost in unison, from the large cruisers to the destroyers, to the assault ships themselves. Turner and the others were wearing earplugs, they weren’t going to miss this for anything. A chance to finally go on the offensive against the Griffons had present itself, even if it was costly it could still very well spell the beginning of the end for their Empire. Arches of smoke trails crisscrossed the sky as shells rained down on the beaches of The Barbos Strait.

Sand, dirt, mud and water began to fly into the air as explosions tore up the shore, the soldiers on the deck of the ship were able to see one of the pillboxes explode as a shell hit a munitions dump behind it and sent chunks of concrete and burning wooden crates scattering in all directions. The griffons sitting in their pillboxes and foxholes surely had to be shaking in their boots as the shells rained down around them.

After ten minutes of watching the beach get the crap blown out of it Turner and the others were given the word that they were to begin preparing for the landing. The forces of the Second Division and the other other troops that would be going ashore first filtered down into the decks of their assault ships, down to the belly of the vessel where a specially designed bay of sorts was waiting. As they went the grabbed their equipment, helmets, weapons, backpacks, everything they would need. Filled with landing craft that looked like they had been slapped together rapidly out of plywood, sheet metal, and outboard motors.

“We’d be better off swimming.” Garnet mused as they filed towards their assigned landing craft, Turner and Thomas were the first aboard and as such were in the back of the landing craft. The other ten men in their squad joined them. Garnet and Birch were right ahead of them followed by Iron Will and Duke, ahead of them was the rest of the the squad. As the landing craft began to depart a look of shock passed over Turner.

“Fuck! Fucking fuck!” Turner growled as he stomped his foot, Thomas looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I forgot to write a letter for Sam, in case… Y’know…” The man grit his teeth and adjusted his helmet. “Just more motivation to duck, I guess.”

The landing craft exited out the large metal doors at the read of the assault ship and began to make a turn, the guns still echoing loudly as they sent round after round to the shore. The water splashed over the sides of the wood and sheet metal walls of the landing craft. They began to circle in the water, joined by more landing craft waiting for the order to begin the landing. The shelling continued for what felt like an eternity, Turner was sure that they almost had to be completely out of shells by the time the guns finally stopped.

“Y’know, Tom!?” Turner shouted over the splashing waves while he covered his eyes to guard them from the bright rising sun, Thomas looked over at Turner. “I’m really not sure how well this plan was thought out! We’re going in with the sun in our eyes, against an enemy that’s probably well rested, and we’re in fucking dinghies!”

“Little late to mention it now!” Thomas replied as they came closer to the shore, when they were a hundred yards out the Griffons opened up with their shore batteries and field guns. Water splashed high as a shell went off beside the landing craft and caused it to rock from side to side, the pony driving it nearly was thrown from his seat. Thomas looked over the side to see how the other landing craft were faring, some were doing fine but he was dismayed when he saw a shell explode right in the center of one. “Y’know something, Paige? You’re right! You know what else?”

“What?” Turner asked, ducking down and holding his helmet on his head as a shell rocked the landing craft to the point it felt like it would fall apart.

“We’re going ashore anyway!” Thomas patted the Sergeant on the back, which prompted Turner to grit his teeth. He was already soaked from the spray of falling water, despite the warm weather the water was still somewhat cold. He gripped his weapon tightly,he had chose to switch over to a weapon with slightly more punch to it… If it not for a lack of range. The Tornado Submachine Gun, the closest approximation to a tommy gun in the Equestrian arsenal, great for clearing rooms… Lousy at long range.

“Alright, we’re almost there!” The pony driving the landing craft shouted over the noise. “Standby! Fifteen seconds!” The vehicle began to slow, the sound of machine gun rounds tearing through the water surrounded the soldiers within.

“Remember! Open ground is death! Do not bunch up!” Thomas announced as loudly as he could, the boxy narrow landing craft came to a shuddering halt when it bottomed out on a sandbar. The bottom of it split open and water began to spill in.

“Shit! We came in to close! How the hell am I gonna get back!?” THe pony driving the landingcraft shouted.

“By dropping the ramp and going in the hard way!” Turner shouted over his shoulder, the stallion nervously hit the button that released the ramp. “Move! Move! Move!” The first men in the landing craft were tore up by machine gun fire, the warm spray of blood and the cold spray of the sea was a disgusting mixture of sensations that Turner hoped he would never have to endure again. Iron Will and Duke managed to get out, followed by Garnet and Birch, and finally Turner and Thomas. The beach ahead was pocked with shell craters, dotted with enough tank traps and foxholes that Turner wasn’t sure where the beach ended and the fortifications began.

The water was stained red with blood, and as Turner trudged through the slurry of gore he chanced a brief look over his shoulder to see if the stallion that had become stranded with the landing craft had gotten out as well. He hadn’t, his corpse was slumped over the controls riddled with at least a dozen bullet holes. Turner felt someone grab his shirt and drag him down into the water seconds before a burst of machine gun fire flew past where he head had been.

“Quit standing around, Sergeant!” Thomas yelled as Turner straightened up somewhat, he looked around to get his bearings. Birch and Duke had taken cover behind a tank trap while Garnet and Iron Will seemed to be doing their best to do the same. A griffon gun nest straight ahead on the beach began to open up on the landing forces, adding to the carnage that came from the guns on the ridge. “Christ! The naval barrage was supposed to clear those things out! We need some grenades on that thing!”

Turner reached to his belt where he kept his grenades, mostly fragmentation grenades though he had two smoke grenades as well. He took one from his belt and looked at the gun nest, the muzzle flash of a machine gunner inside kicking up dust and sand with each burst. Each time the rounds would drop a cluster of soldiers or leave them screaming in pain.

“Give me covering fire.” Turner said as he looked at the grenade, Thomas hesitated, looking between the nest and Turner. “Damn it, Lieutenant! Our men are dying! Get your head back in the game!”

“Right!” Thomas shouted over the sound of another shell exploding, sand and rocks rained down around the soldiers taking cover in the water behind the tank traps. Sparks flew from time to time as the gun nest continued to blast away. It wasn’t alone, there were at least a dozen others like it scattered throughout the beach. “Suppressing fire!”

Garnet, Birch, and the others leaned out of cover and began to fire on the gun nest, bullets hit the sand bags that had been built up around it and some of the twigs that made up its roof were knocked loose as well. Turner wasted no time in running towards the nest a little to the right of where the suppressing fire was coming in. He passed by dozens of dead or dying soldiers of the 2nd Division and some from the 33rd Changelings, his heart pounding as he got closer and closer to the gun nest.

As he pulled the pin on the grenade his mind turned to home, to Sam and his unborn child… He wasn’t sure he’d live through the day to see them… He was snapped from his thoughts as he skidded next to the gun nest and tossed the grenade through one of the gun ports. He laid flat on the ground and covered his head as it tumbled down into the hole.

“Scheisse!” He heard a frantic voice yell from inside seconds before there was a thumping explosion. Sand, twigs, and all manner of unpleasant red goo rained down around the gun nest and coated Turner. Being above ground and behind the sandbags of the gun nest had saved him from shrapnel thankfully, but now he had another problem to content with… Moving forward. He rolled around to the portion of the gun nest that faced the beach best, the remains of the machine gun jutted out of the gun port here, ballooning out like an open banana peel and smoldering.

Just as he thought he was safe he heard a new noise begin to take hold in the gun nest, the sound of rounds cooking off as a fire began to rage inside. Looking back to the beach he could see that Duke had keeled over face down in the water while Thomas and the others remained pinned behind the tank traps. While the Equestrians lacked tanks at the moment, they did have trucks and other logistical equipment… All would be difficult to bring ashore with the traps in place… Of course, that all relied on them actually capturing the beach.

“Paige, you okay!?” Thomas shouted from down the beach, Turner ducked down as more rounds began to pop and bang in the inferno that was claiming the gun nest.

“The fuck do you think!?” Turner shouted back incredulously, he held his helmet atop his head as more sand rained down from the artillery that seemed to endlessly be shelling the beach. “We can’t fucking stay here, sir! Either way we’ll be killed, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather go in a place where I’m not knee deep in water!” Thomas looked around the rest of the beach for a second, the entire landing force was being pinned close to the water, it seemed no one was advancing. As Thomas seemed ready to give the order they heard something from down the beach, a sound that seemed so far out of place for the beach where they sat. “Are those fucking bagpipes!?”

Turner and the others watched as a stallion, the same stallion that had been playing at the battle of Isla De Barro, seemed to be marching up and down along the beach unscathed while playing away on the pipes. Accompanying him were at least twenty or thirty regular pony troops, causing pretty much everyone on the beach to raise their eyebrows. Between the 2nd Division and the ponies on the beach was the 33rd Changeling Regiment, all of them seemed just as surprised by the sudden sound of music.

“The fuck are they doing here!? I thought the only quadrupeds here were the Changelings, the rest were supposed to come in after we secure the beachhead!” Garnet yelled loudly as the bagpiper continued to play, bullets whizzed past him but he just kept playing. “What is with these goddamn ponies and their bagpipes!?”

“I’ll give him this, he’s braver than I am!” Birch added, watching as the ponies seemed to be starting to move further down the beach towards where the 33rd Division had bogged down. As the bagpiper continued to play the fire on the beach head began to shift in that direction. “Must be an officer over there, they tend to love that stuff!”

“Whoever they are, the Griffs seem more interested in them than us! Let’s move!” Thomas shouted before he pushed up from behind the tank trap and began to run up the beach, Garnet, Birch, Iron Will and Turner were soon to follow. He looked towards the other soldiers still pent up on the beach and pointed forward. “Come on, you bastards, you wanna live forever!? Clear those gun nests and move up!” While Majors and and Captains seemed hesitant to give the order, here came a lowly lieutenant running up the beach regardless of shot or shell.

The push up the beach began strong, the hundreds of soldiers on the beach began to push up as more soldiers from the assault ships began to land. The bunker that lined the ridge of the Strait of Barbos came closer into view. Despite the tenacity and charging, the 2nd Division and 33rd Regiment casualties were horrendous. While the charge up the beach had been necessary, the projected number of casualties was rising rapidly from twenty percent to thirty with each passing minute. By the time Thomas and his squad reached the middle of the beach the bagpipe player had fallen silent.

Three quarters of the way up the beach Thomas lead his squad down into a crater left by the earlier bombardment, it was deep enough to give them cover from the machine guns in the pillboxes on the ridge. The five of them were covered in dirt, mud and in some cases blood as well. More and more of the gun nests were being put out of commission, and as Turner chanced a peek up over the edge he was finally able to see the source of the mysterious other quadruped unit.

In actuality, it had been a small portion of the 33rd Regiment that had shape shifted to look like the staff of a General. The bagpipe player had also been a mirage, likely cast by battle mage to give the ruse a bit more authenticity. They had drawn the fire away from the Griffons and allowed the rest of the force to push up, Turner could see they had paid for that plan dearly. Many of their corpses floated face down in the water… Battering against the sand every time a wave would crash.

Turner ducked back down into the crater and moved up towards the edge of the pit where what remained of his squad was situated. He didn’t have time to think about the dead changelings that lay out on the beach or what they had done, if he took time to think on it or anything else too much he’d end up killed. The death toll was mounting into the thousands and they had only managed to make it up three quarters of the beach, the sun was now high in the sky and beating down in all its fury on the soldiers trapped on the that god forsake strip of sand.

Ahead of the crater was the large barbed wire fence, the last barrier between the beach and the first line of the enemy trenches. If they could make it to those trenches they could make their way up the ridge, and from there on to their objective in Acksyuk. Iron Will, being the largest of the group, would have the hardest time navigating the barbed wire.

“Well, now what!?” Iron Will asked, he had lost his helmet during the charge and one could tell he felt naked without it. Thomas looked around as if searching for answers, meanwhile more shells began to rain down around them. Some landed short on the other side of the fence, closer to the Griffon trench. Something that, if their yells were anything to go by, they were not happy about.

“Sir, I think I am having the formings of a thought that could be an idea!” Birch shouted, everyone in the crater looked at him. “We could let them keep shelling us, maybe a round will come up short and blow a hole in the fence for us?”

“Or it comes in right on top of us and kills us!” Garnet shouted back, briefly peeking up over the crater again to get a look around. Most of the landing forces had advanced up to the wire by this point, it seemed that those that had the proper tools were cutting through the wire. “Do we have any wire cutters?”

“Duke had ‘em!” Thomas replied, pointing back down the beach. “Fuck, I’d kill for a pair of tin snips right now!” It seemed that the Griffons were catching on to their location as more and more machine gun fire began to hit their location. The heat from the sun was also starting to set in, their mouths were becoming dry. “Or a canteen. It’s hotter than hell out here!” The man sighed. “Come on, give me ideas! No idea is too crazy, except letting them shell us!”

“Why don’t we melt through the fence?” Garnet asked, everyone looked at him with raised eyebrows. “I’m a dragon, remember!?” Just like that a light bulb went on over Thomas’ head. “I haven’t gotten to light anything on fire since I got to Equestria!”

“Turner, Birch, and I will give him suppressing fire….” Thomas announced as he looked around the crater as if it would give him another idea. “Turner, gimme your smoke grenades!” The sergeant nodded and handed the two grenades to his Captain. “Iron, when we suppress their lines toss one of those ahead of the wire! Garnet, once the concealment is up you go to work. If we can’t get through on the first try we have another smoke. Everyone good on what to do?!”

“Yes, sir!” The squad replied as yet another mortar round landed a few feet from the crater and gave them a fresh dusting of dirt and grime.

“Suppressing fire!” Thomas bellowed, Birch, Turner, and the Lieutenant popped up from the edge of the crater and began to pepper the enemy trench with fire. Thomas and Turner were armed with submachine guns while Birch had a semiautomatic rifle, the chatter of their weapons mixed with the fire power that came from the rifle shots easily coerced the enemy into taking cover.

“Grenade!” Iron tossed the grenade as planned, his large muscles aiding greatly in getting the distance that it needed. It landed on the other side of the fence and began to emit a large cloud of smoke, after a couple seconds the area was being consumed by the whitish grey haze.

“Garnet!” Thomas shouted, the Dragon stood up out of the hole and took a deep breath while the rest of the soldiers took cover. The heat that came when the dragon exhaled was surprising, like standing next to a blast furnace.

“Flammenwerfer! Feindlicher Flammenwerfer!” A griffon shouted frantically, it was accompanied by panicked screams that could only come from someone that had been set ablaze. When Garnet ducked back down the fence had been completely melted, the ground was scorched black while some of it seemed to have melted to glass. The griffons didn’t return fire, as it seemed their trench was burning and they were scrambling to put themselves out. The sound of screaming Griffon voices on the other side of the beach caught the attention of other units who had dragons in their group. Not long afterwards the entire beach was being lit up by gouts of flame.

“Alright, that’s cleared it, move up to the trench!” Thomas ordered, the squad rose up out of the crater and over the smoldering sand where the fence had stood. As they came up on the Griffon trench they were met by the sight of charred and black bodies, the heat had been so intense some had turned to carbon. “How the hell have you guys not beaten them already!?” Thomas asked aloud as they passed the bodies and jumped down into a section of the Trench that was less on fire.

“Disorganization! You ever seen the Dragon Lands? All anyone can agree on is that lava is hot and gems are good!” Garnet replied as they moved along until they came to a corner that turned off to the left sharply into a different portion of the trench. The soil here was different than the sand, it was richer and darker in color. The ridges to the left jutted up at least fifty feet, sometimes higher. The outer ridge wall had various plants growing on it, arid and hardy like the landscape. By now they were too far out of sight for the pill boxes on the ridge to hit them with any effectiveness, it was a matter now of clearing out the trenches and finding a way up the ridge.

“Bedecke mich im nachladen!” A voice shouted from the other side of the corner, it seemed unaware of their presence for the time being. Thomas swapped mags signaled for everyone to reload, Turner quietly nodded and swapped out the mag in his SMG. The others did so as well, loading their rifles and in some cases taking a few deep breaths. The chatter of enemy machine gun fire around the corner was followed by more shouting. “Besser du als ich, Zweifüßler!”

“Iron, Turner, take point, cover right and left. The rest of us will follow you.” Thomas ordered, the group nodded quietly. “Turner, give a burst from your SMG around the corner before we move out.”

Turner leaned slightly to the right around the corner, he gave a few bursts from the weapon before pulling back. Pained screams and frantic yelling came as a result, the squad moved forward through the trench. A few Griffons attempted to fly out of the trench, but Iron and Birch dropped them before they could get far. Turner moved forward, shouldering his SMG as he turned the corner and made his way down the straight length of the trench. There was a Griffon laying dead on the ground, another was was crawling away. As Turner got closer he rolled onto his back with a handgun.

In Equestria he had been in a similar situation, the memory of the first time he had killed someone. Something that had troubled him so, he had told himself he would always try to find a better way, but there was no room for that in war. So turner forced his screaming conscience back into his mind and unloaded a burst into the Griffon, a splatter of blood landed on his cheeks as he stepped over the bleeding corpse. As they moved further through the trenches they saw other Equestrian soldiers moving in as well, when they came to a left facing corner they could hear a fire fight between the Griffons and Equestrians.

“Keep moving! Clear the trenches and get up to those bunkers!” An officer was shouting from near one of the breaches in the fences, only to be cut down seconds later by a burst of fire. Turner rounded a corner and found himself face to face with another Griffon, before the Griffon could react he’d leveled his weapon and fired another burst. For the next hundred or so feet of the Trenches they cleared it was eerily empty, only the corpses of dead Griffon soldiers laying in the sandy soil seemed to remain. After a few more minutes they happened upon another group of Equestrians that were taking cover outside the concrete base of one of the taller pillbox bunkers.

“Hold up, pull three sixty.” Thomas ordered as they stopped near the other squad, Turner and the rest of the group nodded and each took it upon themselves to keep an eye on every angle of attack. Thomas meanwhile went ahead towards the group of soldiers, who occasionally would fire a few rounds into the bunker, which would often be replied to with a chattering machine gun firing back.

“They must be dug in like ticks.” Turner muttered as he checked the ammunition in his magazine before placing it back into his weapon. “How many bunkers are there again?”

“Twenty? I think?” Birch replied, the minotaur was looking around at the the landscape. It felt oddly familiar, though he’d never been to the Minotaur Republic before. “Hey, this place ain’t bad… I mean, minus the Griffons.”

“First time here, I take it.” Iron Will asked while watching the ridge for enemy snipers. “Shame you had to come to it like this…” The minotaur sighed as he looked briefly around the ground to see if anyone had dropped a spare helmet. “I think about all the time I spent away from here off in Equestria, seems kinda pointless now considering… Assertiveness courses, cruises… Maybe if I’d stayed things would’ve been different.”

“Not the time, Corporal.” Turner said while gritting his teeth, briefly looking back at the bunker when more weapons fire was exchanged. “How’re you holding up, Garnet? That flame breath stuff take anything out of you?”

“I got maybe four puffs left in me, Sarge. After that I’ll need some time before I can do it again, but other than that I should be good to go.” Garnet explained, looking down the trench in the direction they had come from. “I never did that before, y’know? Torched someone… Shot them, sure. But that’s quick.”

“I ever tell you what I used to do before the war, Garnet?” Turner asked, the dragon shook his head. “I was a Sergeant in the Sheriff’s Department… Before I made Sergeant I was a deputy.” The man quietly removed his helmet for a second to wipe the sweat from his brow before placing it back on his head. “I was on a drug raid, busting up a Zebrican Night Terror ring, when this kid came out with an automatic pointed right at me…” The man sighed and looked at the ground. “So, I dropped him, and it took me months to get past it. Still think about it a lot.” The man looked at Garnet.

“This is war, son. We gotta use every weapon we have to keep alive…” Turner added quietly while looking back towards the bunker. “If you hadn’t cut through that fence we’d all be dead, a lot of other guys would be as well. It’ll take time, but eventually, when this is all over… You may just be able to move past it.” The man sighed, watching as a few more Equestrians filtered through the trenches towards them. “Anyway, that’s my speech, who the fuck knows if I’m right?”

“I appreciate the attempt, Sarge.” Garnet added quietly, the group straightened up as the other Equestrians made their way past and seemed to bypass the bunker altogether with the intention of instead moving down the rest of the line. After a couple more tense minutes of silence Thomas returned from his discussion with the other soldiers.

“Listen up.” He announced, pointing towards the bunker. “Griffs aren’t keen on leaving, but we can’t secure this beach without clearing these bunkers. Garnet, Turner, come with me.” The two of them nodded and followed the Lieutenant through the trench towards the opening into the bunker. “Okay, now these guys speak a little English. Turner, I know you have some experience in talking people down. We go in there it could get bloody, see what you can do.”

“Right, sir.” Turner said before walking closer to the Bunker Entrance and taking cover near the door. “You guys hear me in there?”

“Fuck you!” A voice responded angrily from within the Bunker. “We will not surrender Equestrian!”

“I’d like to urge you to reconsider.” Turner shouted, to which there came a chatter of machine gun fire. “Look, motherfucker! You’re inside a big concrete building, essentially a giant blast furnace! You know what we got out here!? Fire hot enough to turn steel to butter! You wanna take your chances with me or that!?” Turner took a step back as the bullets from the gun impacted the concrete near his head.

“Alright! Fuck this! Not putting my men in danger for some fucking griffs!” Thomas grunted angrily as he walked up to Turner and pulled him back from the door. The man was brushing some chips of concrete off of his shoulders, but was otherwise okay. “Garnet, torch it!” The dragon nodded and moved into position beside the door, he took a few deep breaths in and out. Each time small flames would blow out, illuminating the tunnel into the bunker.

“Nicht schießen!” A voice shouted frantically as at least half a dozen Griffons came sprinting out of the bunker, completely unarmed. There was loud yelling inside followed by the sound of machine gun fire trying to cut down the griffons that had run. The Equestrians grabbed the surrendering Griffons out of harm's way, then Thomas gave the final nod. The dragon exhaled a large gout of flame into the entrance of the bunker, the soldiers had to take several steps back as the heat was so intense.

White hot fire began to vent from every gun port in the bunker, accompanied by panicked screams of pain inside. The fire and smoke emerged from the main gun port above that had previously been shooting down onto the beach at advancing forces. Unlike some of the movies that Turner had seen, the Griffons didn’t try to climb out of the burning structure. Garnet stopped pouring on the heat and took a step back, the screams had rapidly faded and been replaced with the crack and pop of burning interior and the sizzle of cooking flesh.

Turner could hear unfired rounds going banging and ricocheting around inside as they cooked off, grenades went off with far deeper bangs and often did so in clusters. The Sergeant put his hand on Garnet’s shoulder as he looked into the fiery hell that the bunker had become.

“You.” Thomas said, pointing at one of the soldiers that had been standing nearby. The squad was comprised minotaurs entirely. The soldier in question looked like he had just barely finished training, yet he was the highest ranking member of his squad as a Corporal… “Take the prisoners back through the trenches, the 33rd should be setting up the beachhead, they’ll know what to do with them.” The Corporal nodded and gave a quick salute before he and his squad began taking the prisoners back through the trenches. After a few moments Thomas rubbed his temples and looked up at the sky. “What time do you make it to be?”

“Gotta be noon by now, sir.” Birch said as he and the rest of the squad looked up at the sun directly overhead, the heat was almost as bad as the fire burning in the bunker beside them. Black smoke was rising up from various points on the beach and in the various bunkers that lined the shore.

“Well, then. Let’s keep moving…” Thomas said before straightening his helmet, he gestured for his squad to follow him. They began making their way through the trenches, clearing out areas that hadn’t been cleared until finally they reached an area with a path to get up the ridge line. As they ascended the ridge they had a good view of the beach that they had just come up.

The ocean was stained red with blood, burning and sinking landing craft were scattered in the surf and on the beach where the tide had come out. Most sobering of all was the staggering amount of corpses on the beach. It seemed easier to find dead bodies than it was to find a visible section of beach. Small streams of blood were draining down the beach where they were swept up into the ocean as it churned. The soldiers didn’t have time to dwell, however, they still had to take and secure the Acksyuk Crossroads. The day was already half done and there was still plenty of ground to cover.