A War On Two Fronts

Thomas and Turner led what remained of their squad up the ridge, the artillery had been silenced for the time being as it seemed the Griffons were withdrawing so they could set up further away. They passed other units, some squads had been reduced to two man teams, others had been completely wiped out. As the soldiers crested the ridge for the first time they got their first look at the landscape of the Minotaur Republic.

The terrain was comprised of rough looking hills of dry rough brownish tan soil. The soil was broken up by equally ornery looking bushes with pale green leaves, tall tan grass similar to that of Evergreen County, and trees that twisted into gnarled shapes that were oddly pleasant to look at. Their bark was brownish-red. The leaves were small and numerous, colored with a mix of light green and soothing gold. They fluttered daintily in the breeze that blew in from the sea.

Beyond these beautiful trees and rough looking bushes, at the top of a ridge approximately four hundred yards inland, was a town comprised mostly of buildings like those of Spain or Italy. Stone structures covered in stucco painted in varying colors of yellow and tans. Several of the buildings on the ridge had been destroyed, in their place it seemed the Griffons had placed five field guns behind walls of sandbags. As the majority of soldiers rose up from the beaches onto the ridge Turner and Thomas could see the artillery begin to fire.

“That’s Acksyuk! We need to regroup with the rest of Baker Company if we’re gonna take it! Come on!” Thomas shouted as he began running towards the other soldiers that were making their way forward from the first ridge towards the town. Turner heard the familiar scream of incoming shells, the ground shook as explosions began to rain down around him and his squadmates. “Fuck! The’ve got this area pre-sighted! Keep moving!”

Thomas and his men continued running, storming past the bushes and trees that had captivated them for a brief moment of quiet. Between them and the steep ridge was nothing but open ground with no cover to speak of. In all the confusion the Lieutenant was still able to spot his superior, a minotaur Captain named Sylvo. He looked a bit like Iron Will in size and strength, but he was older, with far more grey fur present. Sylvo and his troops were charging towards the ridge along with the other companies.

Thomas wouldn’t say it aloud, as undermining the Captain’s authority could get him courtmartialed, but he had his doubts about Sylvo’s competency to command a modern army. Sylvo had been an officer in the Minotaur Army, as the Equestrians lacked experienced officers he’d been snatched up and promoted rapidly. Of course, prior to the war the Minotaur’s Military had still been using swords and battle axes.

This was one of many reasons why the Minotaur Republic’s Army, one of the most well respected forces in the world, had been absolutely pasted by the Griffons. Sylvo seemed to forget that he had access to far more effective ranged weapons, and his men were paying for that ignorance. Of course, this was compounded by a general lack of experience in the Equestrian military as a whole.

“Keep moving, damn it! Don’t stop for a second!” Sylvo shouted loudly in a booming voice as Turner’s squad merged with the rest of the surging company of minotaurs, dragons, and diamond dogs. Left and right soldiers were being tossed like ragdolls as shells exploded around them. “The sooner we get close in the sooner we’ll be too close for them to hit us!”

“God damn it! We’re gonna fucking die!” Garnet shouted as they kept running. It wasn’t like they could stop to argue with Sylvo about the right way to advance, it wouldn’t have been possible to tell him to wait and perhaps have the ships offshore shell the enemy emplacement to soften it up over the noise. At least, Thomas kept telling himself that. As they continued running Birch stumbled and nearly fell, but Iron Will grabbed him before he hit the ground and they kept moving.

Things only got worse when the Griffons opened up on the advancing Equestrians with machine guns that they’d set up in windows and on the sandbag walls. It was almost like charging up the beach again, only this time there were no tank traps or craters to hide in. Minotaurs fell like flies as the Griffons poured on unrelenting fire, mowing them down with ruthless efficiency. Some teams would hold their fire until another team needed to reload or change out the barrels, ensuring that there was a constant chattering of machine guns with little respite.

After what felt like an eternity the charge finally got into the defilade where the Griffon Guns could no longer fire on them directly, not long after the machine gunners also lost sight of them. A third of the troops moving towards the ridge had been slaughtered in the process, and dozens more were wounded or exhausted. Miraculously Thomas, Turner and the rest of their squad had made it to the base of the ridge without injury…

“Captain Sylvo!” Thomas shouted as the Griffons on the ridge began to lean out over it and take pot shots at the soldiers taking cover at the base. “What’s the plan!?”

“Come here and I’ll tell it to you!” Sylvo replied, Thomas nervously straightened his helmet and looked at the others.

“Keep in cover, don’t get sloppy…” The man said firmly before he began making his way along the base of the ridge, slipping past the other soldiers that had now bunched up there. Turner straightened his helmet and took a knee, as they seemed to have time he began to repack his magazines.

“We’re fucked! We’re fucked, man!” Garnet said in an annoyed voice as he began to look through his medical bag to make sure his equipment had survived the trip. “When he talked about ‘Charging in to the teeth of the enemy’ back in basic I thought he was being metaphorical!”

“Whatever happens, we gotta stay calm! Less likely to die that way!” Birch replied as he looked up the ridge and saw a Griffon lean out. The minotaur shouldered his weapon and fired a couple rounds, seconds later the body of the griffon fell to the ground with a thud.

“The boy’s right! The lieutenant will find a way, he always does! Very persuasive, that one!” Iron Will added as he too watched above for more griffons that might’ve been lurking about, seeking to fire over the edge. Turner finished repacking his magazines and adjusted his helmet, looking out over the field they had just crossed and beyond towards the sea where the distant silhouettes of the cruisers and destroyers lay.

“We need some goddamn air support.” Turner muttered under his breath as he looked over the corpses that lay strewn about the field. Some wounded were still writhing around, only to be picked off by snipers on the ridge above. Turner and many others were tired, they were hungry, and they were just about fed up with how things were going for them. The quadruped units were landing on the beaches now, beaches that the 2nd Division had cleared… Turner was starting to think that maybe calling them ‘Shock Troops’ was just another way of saying ‘Expendable’.

Thomas made his way back towards the group, they could tell by the look on his face that things had not gone well. He looked back over his shoulder at Sylvo, who had already started to put his plan into action. The minotaur was climbing up the ridge, and it seemed he’d ordered his troops to follow him. Thomas came to a stop near his squad and took a knee, watching the other soldiers start to climb reluctantly. Many of them ended up sliding back down, unable to hold on or just too annoyed to care. The only one making any sort of headway was Sylvo, who was already halfway up the ridge face.

“Captain wants us to climb up and overwhelm the Griffons…” Thomas said quietly as he looked at the ridge. “God… Is this what they felt like in the trenches?” The others quietly stood up and readied themselves to climb up, Turner briefly put his hand into his uniform and gripped his rosary before saying a quick ‘Hail Mary’. “Alright, start climbing.”

Thomas began to climb the hill, as did the others, but the soil was so dry that it crumbled every time they seemed to get a foothold. It was exhausting, and the fact that they’d been denied water for so long made each attempt to try again a new experience in pain. Right as they were starting to make progress a griffon leaned out and began to fire at the bunched up force with a machine gun. With no room to move or hide, he ended up taking out six of the climbing soldiers in his single burst, sending them falling back down the ridge to the ground. Thomas looked over to see who had been hit, and to his surprise Captain Sylvo didn’t seem to be climbing up anymore.

“Hey! Hey! Stop!” He yelled loudly, prompting the other climbers to stop and look at him. “Where’s the Captain?” A few of them looked around, but the Captain didn’t reply. After a few seconds Thomas saw the body of Captain Sylvo laying on the ground among the dead that had been killed by the machine gun blast. “He’s dead, I’m taking command! All of you, stop climbing and head back down.”

Baker Company slid back down the rough dirt, landing with thuds as they came to a stop on the ground. The soldiers from different companies seemed to be without leadership, so they too decided to follow Thomas’ order. Turner rubbed his forehead as a headache was beginning to set in, the heat from the sun overhead was immense.

“Any diamond dogs among us!?” Thomas shouted, a few hands were raised. “Get over here! I also need a man with a radio!” Five diamond dogs and a dragon with a radio pack made their way over, careful to stay as close to the wall of dirt as possible. As they assembled around the lieutenant he looked up the hill, then back at the diamond dogs. “You guys dug the tunnels on Barro, right?”

“Yes, sir.” One of the diamond dogs said, he looked a bit like a bull dog while the others seemed to be more like rottweilers or german shepherds in their coloring and the structure of their faces.

“How long would it take you to dig up through this on an angle that’s easy enough to walk up but quick enough it won’t take all day?” Thomas said, tapping the ridge firmly. He was interrupted briefly as another griffon leaned out and this time tossed down a grenade. “Grenade!” As he had many times before, Turner grabbed the grenade and threw it as hard as he could out into the field before dropping to the ground and covering his head. It landed in the crater he’d been aiming for thankfully and went off without hitting anyone. Thomas looked at the dogs again while the Griffons started trying to fire down the ridge with more frequency. “Well!? How long!”

“Fifteen minutes minimum, maybe twenty! If we had more it’d be done faster but most of our team got schwacked back there!” The diamond dog stated over the gunfire as he looked at the ridge.

“You’ve got ten minutes or we’re all fucked!” Thomas shouted bellowed, the diamond dogs didn’t say anything else and simply began to burrow their way through the dirt. The lieutenant then turned to the dragon with the radio. “You hooked in to our ships offshore!?”

“Yes, sir!” The dragon replied, handing Thomas the mic to the radio on his back.

“I need a map and a compass!” Thomas shouted, after a couple seconds both a map and a compass were handed down the line of soldiers, which took a little doing as they were huddling against the wall as closely as they could. “Sergeant!” Turner moved closer as Thomas laid out the map and the compass on the ground. “You have any idea where we are!?” Turner looked over the map for a few seconds. “Well!?”

“I’m working on it!” Turner shouted back before he placed his finger on the map. “We’re here, on the south west side of Acksyuk! Grid ref… Uh… One Nine Seven… Two Three Nine!” Thomas looked at the map where he was pointing before holding up the microphone. A griffon leaned out from above and took a few more potshots, winging one of the Minotaurs bunched up beside Iron Will and Birch.

“God damn it that is enough!” Thomas shouted angrily before he depressed the button on the mic. “Steel Rain, this is Alpha Foxtrot Baker!” Several more griffons leaned out, they were getting more and more brave. Several Minotaurs fired back up, prompting several dead Griffons to fall down the ridge and tumble to the ground.

“This is Steel Rain, send traffic.” The radio operator on the other end replied.

“We need a fire mission at… Actually… Disregard!” Thomas shouted before lowering the radio and looking at Turner. “I call in artillery now it’ll either hit us or collapse the tunnel!”

“Fuck!” Turner growled as he stood up and began to fire up at a Griffon that had leaned out. “Well we need to do something, we stay here any longer and we’re dead either way!” By now a considerable bit of dirt was piling up from the hole where the Diamond Dogs had started digging.

“What’s the status on that tunnel, Corporal!?” Thomas shouted into the tunnel as he packed up the map and the compass before putting them into his pocket.

“We’re almost through!” A voice shouted back from inside.

“Alright, men! Start heading into the hole!” Thomas shouted before he went in, Turner and the others followed close behind him, followed by the rest of the company that had bunched up around the base of the ridge. They moved through the darkness, the tunnel was at a slight slope but not to terrible. Just as Thomas and the others reached the top of the tunnel the diamond dogs had finished the tunnel. Cobble stones from the road had been tossed aside and the bright sunlight shined down inside. The ridge had been about fifty feet up, and the tunnel had made things so much easier.

The dogs stood to the side as the soldiers came up through the tunnel, it seemed the Griffons hadn’t noticed that the number of soldiers at the bottom of the ridge was decreasing. The tunnel had come up in a square in the downtown area of Acksyuk, it was somewhat picturesque if one discounted the rubble and various Griffon propaganda posters pasted on the sides of some buildings. To the right they could see the field gun batteries and Griffons that were taking shots down the ridge.

Thomas and the others gradually came up out of the whole, keeping quiet as they moved into a firing line. Turner took a knee and aimed his SMG at the group of Griffons, while Birch and Iron Will kept an eye on the windows. The Griffons finally noticed something was amiss, but by then at least forty other soldiers had come up through the tunnel. One of the Griffons turned around as he heard one of the soldiers stumble. The look on his face went from confused to terrified.

“Waste ‘em!” Thomas ordered, the firing line obliged. The Griffon soldiers standing near the sandbags all began whipping around as they were cut apart in a hail of withering fire. It was likely they would have surrendered as they were faced with certain death, but Turner had seen too many good men die… Part of him didn’t want to risk a blood bath, and a darker part of him wanted revenge. So he unloaded an entire magazine into the panicking Griffons while more troops flooded through the tunnel and fanned out through the down.

“Fire team, split into groups of two and start clearing these buildings!” Turner ordered as he reloaded his weapon, Thomas meanwhile was directing the other makeshift squads of the company. Turner paired off with Birch, and Garnet went with Iron Will. Clearing the town was far different from the battles they had fought on Barro, or on their way up the beaches… But it was something Turner was intimately familiar with from his time in the Sheriff’s Department.

Turner and Birch started down the right side of a street leading away from the square while Iron and Garnet took the left. They approached one of the buildings that seemed to be a residence or maybe a hotel of some kind, passing a few store fronts that had already been cleared by other troops. The buildings were rather quaint, with doorways that could provide cover if necessary. Decorative wrought iron railings accented the stone stairways.

At the end of the street there was another street that ran across. The buildings there looking down the street seemed boarded up… All seemed fine, but over the sound of gunfire and the rumble of distant artillery as more forces moved up from the beaches, Turner thought he heard something.

“Hold up.” Turner said, stopping and taking a knee in one of the doorways while Birch watched the other side of the street beside him. “You hear something?” All that came was the gunfire of the rest of the force taking the town. “Fuck it…” The man stood up and looked at the door they were standing by. Quietly he stood up and took cover to the side of it, then silently he gestured for Birch to do the same. He kicked the door open from cover and moved back out of sight as the door fell inward. He’d expected gunfire to have come out of the doorway, but nothing happened. “Remember what I taught you… Slice the pie.”

Birch nodded and the two of them carefully moved through the door, the further in they went the more they could see. They finished clearing the room, but there was no one inside so far. It was an entry way for a rather upscale looking place, there were paintings on the walls and some nice looking furniture. The room opened up into a living room, as well as a hallway which had a stairway going to the second floor.

“Living room clear.” Turner said quietly as they moved into the living room, from there they could see into the kitchen and dining area, which in turn opened up to a small patio area. “Kitchen clear…” Turner moved up to the door to the rear patio while Birch checked the dining area. The patio was on a bit of a balcony, as it seemed the back part of the house was up higher than the front. There was a similar wrought iron railing around the edge of the balcony that looked out at across to another building on the opposite side. “Patio’s clear.”

Turner came back inside and found Birch, the two of them moved back through the living room to the stairs. Just as calmly as before they moved upstairs, checking each corner inch by inch until they reached the top. The railing here was made of wood, and it seperated the stairs from a string of three doors to the left. Two of the wooden doors were open already, leading into a bedroom and a bathroom. Both were empty. Turner and Birch approached the last door as quietly as they could, doing their best to keep the wood floor below their boots from squeaking. The Sergeant gave one last look at Birch before nodding and booting open the door, a fearful shriek erupted from inside as Turner and Birch moved in with their weapons up.

The room was another bedroom by the looks of it, larger than the other one. It was decorated with various photographs and large king size bed. As well as some tasteful looking dressers that somewhat reminded Turner of the ones back home. Most importantly there were three Minotaurs nervously huddled in the corner, from their clothing they appeared to be civilians. Birch moved in behind Turner while the Sergeant kept an eye on the cowering citizenry. Birch checked under the bed and in a nearby closet before turning back to the Sergeant.

“Clear, sarge.” He said, Turner lowered his weapon and nodded. As they began to leave one of the minotaurs suddenly stood up, both Birch and Turner whirled around with their weapons raised. It was a female by the looks of it, maybe about twenty five years old if Turner had to guess. The look of fear on her face as the two soldiers turned their weapons towards her was hard to ignore.

“¡Lo siento!” The minotaur shouted as she put her hands up, Turner raised an eyebrow as he ran the words through his head and came to a rather annoying conclusion. These minotaurs dressed similar to those that Turner had seen in movies about Spain, and the fact that they were part bull, made it hard to ignore.

“Spanish… Of course they speak fucking Spanish. I should’a asked Sam to teach me!” Turner muttered under his breath before looking at Birch. “You understand what she said?” He asked, Birch paused for a moment before nodding. “You speak Minotaur?”

“Yeah, my parents made sure I learned.” Birch replied before looking at the minotaur female. “Estamos aquí para ayudar. No te preocupes.” Birch lowered his weapon slowly, Turner was a little less quick to do so. “¿Hay más grifos cerca?”

“Sí, en el edificio de al lado.” The minotaur replied, pointing out the window at the building next to the residence. Birch nodded quietly and looked back over to Turner, the Sergeant was quietly peeking out the window at the building in question.

“She says there’s more griffons in the building over there.” Birch explained, Turner nodded and gestured for the Corporal to follow him.

“Well, let’s move then. We have to finish clearing this street.” Turner added, Birch fell in behind him but paused to stop in the doorway and wave goodbye to the female. “Mind clearing something up for me?”

“What, Sarge?” Birch replied as they walked down the steps towards the front door, their weapons still raised in case some Griffons had decided to come in behind them.

“I know that ‘Bull’ is the word for a male minotaur…” Turner trailed off and checked in the living room again before nodding and moving towards the front door. “Is the female one Cow?” Birch shook his head as they stepped out into the doorway and peeked around the corner.

“Unless you want one to bust your nose, it’s Heifer.” Birch replied, Turner nodded and carefully stepped out to make his way to the next building over where the Griffons supposedly were. “She didn’t mention how many there were, should we be doing this alone?”

“Do you see anyone else here?” Turner asked, gesturing around them. They could hear their fellows moving through the town, but the other side of the street had already been cleared by Iron and Garnet so they were basically alone. Birch sighed, nervously peeking over his shoulder at the residence they had left. He could see the heifers inside were watching them from the window. “Birch, head in the game, damn it! Don’t get your ass shot off because your minds on her!” The Corporal sighed but nodded as the two approached the front door and stood on either side of it, Turner reached to his belt and grabbed one of his remaining grenades. “If you see any Griff grenades, pick ‘em up. On my go, bust that window.” His voice was quiet and low, barely audible over the noise of battle.

“You got it.” Birch looked at the door they were standing hear, the window in the identified it as some sort of law office when translated. Turner nodded quietly as he gripped the grenade, Birch used the butt of his weapon to smash the glass inward with a tremendous crash.

“Feind nahe der tür!” A frantic voice shouted from inside as Turner pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it through the shattered glass pane. “Granate!” There was a mad scramble inside followed by a tremendous boom.

Shrapnel flew out the window, but Turner and Birch were both safe as they had taken cover on either side of the stone structures entryway. Pained yells inside began to come closer as dust began to waft out through the doorway, the door swung outward prompting Turner and Birch to fire several bursts into the dust cloud. The groans came to an end not long after, once more of the dust had settled Birch entered the building to begin clearing it out. The heifer hadn’t been lying, it appeared the grenade had taken out four or five Griffons in the initial blast, two more had been downed when Birch and Turner fired through the door.

They cleared the rest of the building quickly, in the process they found a six Griffon Stick Grenades and a few canteens full of water on the corpses of the dead soldiers. Since it was being carried by the soldiers it seemed a safe bet it hadn’t been poisoned or tampered with, so Turner and Birch drank two whole canteens. Sure enough, no ill effects befell them. As Turner and Birch were leaving the building the Sergeant stopped and looked back inside at where the grenade had gone off… He couldn’t have tossed it in a better location if he had tried. Either he had been lucky, or was just getting a lot of practice… The latter of which made him a bit uncomfortable.

The third building they cleared was empty, except for a few older heifers who almost smacked Turner with their handbags when he stormed through the front door into the middle of their bridge game. They’d explained that they had been playing Bridge together since the occupation started and ‘A silly little invasion’ wouldn’t change that. At least that was how Birch relayed it, Turner had no idea what any of them were saying.

“Y’know, Sarge…?” Birch said as they moved through the town towards the rally point near the town hall. “There’s some real peculiar people on this strait.” After ten or so minutes they arrived at the town hall where Thomas was directing soldiers to begin setting up defenses in the various buildings. The lieutenant looked over when he caught sight of them out of his peripheral vision, his expression lightened up slightly.

“Sergeant, Corporal. Everything cleared out?” Thomas asked, Turner nodded as he removed his helmet and wiped his forehead. He noted that trucks were starting to drive in from the beaches, likely through a tunnel similar to the one that had allowed them to take the town. There were ponies walking about, some were leading captured Griffons down towards the beach while others were directing traffic.

“We cleared our sector, sir. Ran into a squad of Griffs, terminated same.” Turner put his helmet back on his head and sighed. “Also found some civies hold up in a few houses.” Thomas nodded quietly and reached into his pack, after a couple seconds of rummaging he withdrew a folded Equestrian flag.

“Command wants us to signal we’ve secured the town with this.” The Lieutenant said before gesturing to the town hall. It was an impressive structure, three stories tall, which put it a full story over the rest of the town. It had carved pillars and a large gold dome on the roof, from which flew a grey and gold Griffon flag. “Would you two run that up the pole for me, I’ve got my hands full down here.”

“Yes, sir.” Turner said as he took the flag, he paused for a second as he noted the sun in the sky. It was starting to get low on the horizon ahead, out over the sea and beach that he could barely sea through the cluttered buildings. “What time is it, sir?” Thomas paused and quietly took a gold pocket watch from his bag, it looked like he had snagged it off a dead Griffon Officer.

“Holy fuck, it’s just past five.” Thomas said with surprise before looking at Turner again. “Get that up there, Sergeant.” Turner nodded and began to walk towards the building, he paused one more time and cleared his throat.

“Sir?” The Sergeant asked, Thomas looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Does this mean we took the crossroads?” Thomas nodded. “Good…” Turner looked at Birch. “Come on, Corporal. Let’s get that rag down from up there.” The two of them walked up the stone steps of the town hall, then made their way inside the building. It was in disarray, the Griffons had been trying to destroy certain documents while others seemed to be in the process of being gathered, all of them were now being sorted through and pieced together by unicorns wearing pristine looking fatigues.

It occurred to him that every pony they had seen had been wearing similarly clean fatigues, he looked down at himself and at birch. They were absolutely filthy, covered in mud, dirt, grime and blood from head to toe. Not unlike they had been at Isla De Barro, but there the ponies had fought just as hard. Turner shook his head and continued on up through the building’s winding stairway, they only stopped when they heard the sound of a radio on the third floor. Briefly they considered listening to it, but they had work to be done.

So they continued up to the dome, the soft breeze of an ending day greeted their faces as they stepped out onto the round balcony that surrounded the dome and the flagpole above. Turner looked at Birch and sighed as he saw how high up the pole was.

“Alright, Corporal. Gimme a boost.” Turner ordered, Birch nodded and helped the man climb up the dome to the flagpole. He took a moment to examine the Griffon flag, it was mostly grey with a Golden talon in the center and a horizontal white bar going horizontally along both the top and bottom. The man lowered it down the pole and once it had been removed he tucked it into his belt before he hung the Equestrian colors on the pole and raised them to their full height. With a sigh he climbed back down to the balcony.

“Sarge… Check out that view.” Birch said, pointing to the west and the setting sun. Turner stood beside the corporal, looking out at the ships in the distance that were landing supplies and more troops on the beaches that were now fully in their control. “We came all that way, through all that shit…” The Corporal looked down at the town, noting just how many ponies there were compared to members of the 2nd Division. “Sylvo’s dead, Lieutenant Clemons is in command, and I’m not sure but I think we lost half our entire company… I know we lost half our squad.” The minotaur removed his helmet and sighed. “Duke and those other guys, I barely even knew ‘em.”

“I didn’t know them all that well either, aside from Duke I don’t think I even remember their names…” Turner admitted as he too removed his helmet and set it on the ground, the warmth of the setting sun on his cheeks. “That’s something we’re gonna have to live with, I suppose.” The man put a hand on Birch’s shoulder. “But hey, we took Acksyuk. If they’re right this’ll mean the end for the Griffs campaign in Equestria’s mainland.” The man sighed and yawned, the exhaustion of the day settling in. “We’re living a day that people are gonna be talking about long after we’re dead and gone.” The man put his helmet on. “Now come on, let’s get some chow and some sleep.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Birch said with a nod as he too put his helmet back on and the two of them made their way down the stairway once again. As they went they once again heard the radio, as well as some chattering around it. When they reached the third floor they found several ponies and a few minotaurs standing around the radio, so Turner and Birch walked over to listen as well.

“... following the advance of Equestrian forces this morning, three thousand Griffon troops surrendered. This brings an end to the short lived but brutal Griffon campaign in Southern Equestria.” A news announcer was boasting, but while the ponies in the room seemed cheerful, Turner and Birch were far from it. In fact, so were the rest of the minotaurs. “Reports indicate that the surrender came as a result of a sudden thrust of Equestrian infantry breaking through the Griffon flanks.” Turner quietly walked away from the radio, followed shortly by Birch and then the rest of the minotaurs.

Turner had never been more conflicted in his life, nor had he been so furious. The entire point of the operation was to take the Strait and prevent the Griffons from supplying their forces in Equestria, but the forces in Equestria had surrendered before the landings at Barbos had even started. While the Strait was of some strategic value, it was not nearly as important as it had been… It certainly didn’t justify the cost in lives it had taken to secure it, at least, not to Turner or the soldiers that had charged up the beaches.

The man emerged from the town hall as the sun continued to set, he felt ten years older, his bones ached, and he just wanted to sleep. He was on an entirely different level of anger, too angry to do anything but close his eyes and slip into slumber, but at the moment he had nowhere to sleep. While he was glad the front in Equestria had been secured, he was downright pissed about everything else.

To add insult to injury, it was revealed later that night that the landings for the second portion of the strait had been cancelled to support the initial landing. The Equestrians only controlled the southern strait, and were surrounded on pretty much every side. Breaking out of there small foothold would be difficult and cost many more lives.

Officially the landings on Barbos, also known as Operation Ox Yoke, were deemed a Costly Victory. The after action report put the death toll at four thousand Equestrians, many of whom were members of the 2nd Division or other bipedal units, and two thousand Griffons. An additional fifteen hundred were wounded or missing. The entirety of the 33rd Changeling Regiment was killed on the beaches of the Strait of Barbos, for their heroism in drawing fire and allowing the other landing forces to they were posthumously awarded the Celestial Cross, the second highest commendation in the Equestrian military.

In the days that followed the invasion, for his actions leading men up the beaches and in taking control of Acksyuk, Lieutenant Thomas Clemons was promoted to Captain and placed in command of Baker Company. He replaced Captain Sylvo who was killed in action. Sergeant Paige W. Turner was promoted to Staff Sergeant and would serve as Clemons replacement for leading the depleted squad. Sergeant Digger and his squad of the 8th Engineering Company were commended for their work in establishing the means for capturing Acksyuk, their actions would give the Lunar Bipedal Corps their motto. ‘Superius, Inferius, Interius’, meaning ‘Above, Below, Within’.

One of the first photographs of the war was taken in the aftermath, a below shot of two bipedal soldiers standing atop the town hall of Acksyuck, looking out towards the ocean as the Equestrian flag flew on the pole above and behind them.

Operation Ox Yoke was considered to be one of the costliest operations of the war and history in general, despite taking control of a significant portion of the Barbos Strait. While the reason for landing mainly bipedal troops was due to their perceived better suitability for amphibious landings, the news that the majority of casualties had been bipedal troops while quadrupedal troops went almost unscathed would lead to civil unrest and lowered morale in the Equestrian mainland and military alike…