Author's Note

Alright, gents and ladies. This is it. Our intrepid protagonist is finally going into his first campaign. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

LEAVE a comment if you liked or disliked it. Your criticism helps me make the best story I possibly can.

With that, Chapter 2: Cape Gloucester

Ch.2: Cape Gloucester

"Cape Gloucester was a tiny, heavily thick jungle island out in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean. Why any army would have wanted to take it, much less the Japanese Army, I will never know," James narrated to her, sounding very annoyed all of a sudden.

An environment began to generate around them. Massive, tall trees grew into the air, their large branches and great amount of leaves blocking the sun out and making a canopy over them. Thick vegetation grew around them, the long, large leaves banging into each other as they competed for more space and sunlight. Morning birds sang as many were heard flapping over the canopy. Some landed on the branches and were varying colors of bright red, blue, purple, and brown. A small breeze was blowing through, enough to announce its presence, but not as powerful as a strong gust. To their right, the calm pacific water was washing into a mangrove swamp.

James looked a little upset, a frown adorned on his face and his brows were furrowed.

"This doesn't seem so bad," Luna asserted to James.

"Yeah, that's cause it ain't monsoon season yet," James swiftly corrected, his person a little stiffer than usual.

"Monsoon season?"

"Rain season. The island rains and rains and RAINS for a solid two-three months and doesn't stop ever," he whimpered, "EVER."

A loud thunderclap BOOMED over them as a ton of rain rapidly started to fall. The scene changed dramatically. Not a single dry place was seen around her. The birds had evacuated the area, hiding themselves away in their nests for safety and warmth. The once dry soil that was powdery and easily shifted was now a thick, pasty mud that extended deep into the ground. Water currents 4 inches long and 2 inches high flowed freely through the now muddy ground, guaranteeing a unfortunate walker to wet the inside of their boots. The rain, aside from the occasional strike of lightning, drowned out any sound in the area that might try to peek its way into their ears. The whole place reeked of absolute misery.

The thunder shouted overhead of them again.

Luna was swiftly reminded of how different Earth was compared to Equus. A constant rain that never stopped? It would drown every crop and flood the entire country and this was just a normality for him? What a horrid way to live!

"If that's true, why even capture this?" she implored.

"The Japanese had constructed airfields on the island a little farther away from their major base at Rabaul. From what I was told before the assault, our commanders wanted to capture those airfields as a staging area for future assaults. They believed it would be of strategic value I suppose, but I don't really know if they actually used them in the end," James sadly informed.

The two stood there silently, letting the rain drench their surroundings as James relived his experiences.

"Alright," he said after a few minutes, "Let's keep going. It was Christmas Day, the day before H-Day."

The camp materialized once more at dusk. The flag still hung high in the air and was blown heavily by a breeze. Luna saw a few men walking together around the area, some lighting up lanterns and others turning the artificial lights on in anticipation of the night. A couple of small groups of men were gathered outside their tents, a few lighting smokes and conversing with one another. Some, however, were outside their tents with large amounts of equipment laid out in front of them. Luna watched as they began systematically packing their equipment into various pouches, packs, and pockets, some filling canteens and others rolling up ponchos. A few had taken apart their rifles and were gently, almost like cradling a newborn, cleaning out the barrels and other parts. The camp seemed alight with the preparation for the invasion. The "chow hall" was silent now and the steam that would announce its activity was extinguished. Everyone who wasn't preparing for war seemed to be winding down for the night.

A young James peeked his head out of the tent and looked around before exiting, putting the cap he had in his hand onto his head. Another man also stepped out of the tent with him, following close behind him.

"So, tomorrow's the day," James said, sounding allegedly unworried about tomorrow's fight. If he was having any nervousness about what could happen the next day, he certainly didn't show it to his friend.

"So it is," the man replied, sounding equally untroubled about the thought of combat. Luna got the feeling that both men were incredibly nervous about the next day, but, out of that masculine folly of wanting to sound unafraid, were trying to conceal it from the other.

They began to walk down away from the camp, heading towards the shoreline down the unpaved path that led to the sandy beach.

"Who is that man you're with James?" Luna inquired of her friend.

"He's Arthur Miller, a Yankee up from Augusta, Maine who was a replacement like myself. I met him the second day I was there and he was one of the other company corpsman aside from Perconte and Wilkins," he replied and listened in on their conversation.

"How do you feel about it?" James asked, his hands loosely hanging in the pockets of his blue work uniform.

"I dunno, Jim," Miller muttered. "I, I don't want to talk about tomorrow," he said, kicking a rock down the path.

"Ok," James answered softly, "How're the folks?"

"Fine. Haven't been allowed to say too much to them. Brass is too scared someone back home might "find out" what we're hitting tomorrow. Nobody's gonna know where to even look on a map! Ain't nobody even heard of Cape Gloucester before tonight," Miller snarked.

The two of them had by now reached the shore, the waves softly lapping at the sand. Miller and him began picking up rocks and skipping them across the water, trying to occupy themselves. The sun was slowly setting itself, its rays gleaming off the horizon and the sky glazing over in a delicate pink and orange.

The two men were silent for awhile, lightly skipping rocks and shells across the ocean.

"I'm afraid Jim...," Miller finally broke silence by acknowledging the elephant in the room and abandoning the concealment of his fear.

James was silent for awhile and didn't answer, "Yeah," he replied, "Me too Miller. I'm scared shitless."

"What if I crack up? What if I can't take the heat and turn yellow? Will I do my duty?" Miller looked visibly ill, his breathing becoming a little more strained. He gazed up at the setting Pacific sun.

"Will I ever see a sunset again?" he asked.

James was quiet for awhile, unsure of how to answer these questions, because he too was wondering the same. "I don't know, Arthur. Ah suppose... we'll just have to try our best. Help Marines that need helping and... comforting those we can't," James put his hand on Arthur's shoulder.

"Besides, we got two veteran corpsmen of Guadalcanal in our company. S'long we got them, ain't nothing gonna touch us," he reassured, seemingly trying to convince both himself and Arthur of his words.

"Well, I suppose we just gotta try our best," Arthur replied, resigning himself to his reality. The two were silent again and continued to skip rocks for a couple of minutes.

"C'mon, let's get back to camp and pack up. M'sure Gunny and the Lieutenant are going to start issuing our ammo soon. Can't miss that, now can we?" James tried to joke with his friend.

"Old Salt will have our heads," Arthur replied. The two began walking back down the unpaved path and getting back to the staging camp.

Luna and James followed behind them.

"Poor boy. He looks positively shaken," Luna sighed, her ears laid a bit back.

"Yes, I agree. I was thinking the exact same things as he was at the time. I just, tried not to show it. I thought that I'd be called a coward or yellow," James chuckled. "What a stupid thing to think."

The two men had by now reached their tent and started to bring their equipment out into the grass.

She watched as James dutifully laid out assorted things on a green blanket tarp and start to pocket them. There was, of course, medical supplies; gauze, a small pair of scissors, a couple syringes of liquid, morphine James called it, tourniquet, packets of what James called Sulfa Powder, small bottles and packets of medicines, anti-fungal ointments and other dressings. There was also his canteen, water purifying tablets, K rations, helmet, a "1911" handgun James told her and 4 magazines for it, a fountain pen, a small toothbrush and weapon oil for cleaning his piece, poncho, socks, his dungarees and boots, KABAR knife with a particularly lethal looking tip, his bandolier, pistol belt, and the small Bible he had been given.

The Lunar Princess was positively shocked at the volume of gear that these men were bringing out. A normal Guardspony only carried their weapon, armor, and some food and water if there was some long mission out of the castle. But these men looked as if they were preparing to storm a fortress with the amount of weapons and gear their commanders had them carry. Not only that, it was telling to her of his country's wealth if they were able to afford all this gear for every single man in the company.

She observed him uniformly pack all this gear tight and snug into his pouches and pockets, strapped his magazines to his bandolier, and assemble his kit for an easy adornment for tomorrow's invasion. Miller was finishing up his kit, sliding the last few magazines for his M1 Carbine into his ammo pouches.

The two men slowly got up and stowed their gear at their racks, Miller putting his under his rack while James put the pack next to his rack. They met up with each other outside the tent and stood there silently, Miller lighting up a smoke and James taking a swig from his "secret" flask.

James was just about to speak before he saw a huge plume of smoke rapidly rising into the air. He quickly stowed his flask in his jacket and rushed over to where it was coming from. Someone yelled out in the air, "FIRE!". A small chaos began to ensure. Men quickly began to grab buckets of water to bring to wherever the fire was. The two of them had finally located the source of the rising smoke and spied it steadily rising out of the sides of the Chow Hall. No active flame was seen on the tent fabric, but given a few minutes, that fact would swiftly change.

The both of them stood there dumbfounded before Miller briskly snapped out of it and ran off to help fight the fire inside. James was about to do the same, but a little movement caught his eye. In the confusion and chaos of the given moment, no one had noticed two men, one tall, lanky man hunched over and a shorter, stocky man, quietly and swiftly exit out the back of the Chow tent flap, carrying off what looked to be a large leftover Turkey from Christmas dinner.

"That looks like Howard and Gates!" the young James muttered to himself as Luna watched him run off to the aforementioned pair's tent. The two memory watchers ran after him, James wearing a giant grin on his face while Luna looked incredibly worried over the current fire in the Mess Hall.

The younger James stopped abruptly outside the tent of Howard and Gates and found 4 other B company men huddled outside it. They seemed to be holding their mess kits in their hands as they tried to reach their meal tins into the tent, trying to get some of the stolen goods. James pushed his way through them and stood in the corner of the tent.

He found a sitting Howard, wearing a massive, infectious grin on his face. In his lap, there was a giant, full roast turkey stolen from the chow hall that he was carving with his KABAR knife and handing pieces off to the other Marines.

"Oh my goodness you guys, did you start that fire in the chow hall?" James asked alarmingly.

"Relax, Jim, we just made a little fire in one of them large pots. Just a little smoke for distraction," the lanky Texan chuckled, the shit-eating grin still plastered across his face.

"Howard, you'll get in a HUGE amount of trouble if they find out. They could throw you in the brig or court martial you!"

"You mean, IF they find out," Howard poignantly pointed out.

James' mouth opened, as if he was about to give a retort to Howard, but it quickly closed and he looked away. "Yes, I suppose, only if they find out," he repeated.

"San Antoin Jim, don't get a stick up your ass. We got actual turkey and while you still can, you should enjoy it!" he nudged him with his elbow and began cutting up another slice of turkey breast for James. He put it in his metal mess plate and handed it off to him.

"Merry Christmas Jim," Howard said, the grin he had before now replaced with a warm, friendly smile.

"Yeah Merry Christmas, Doc," Gates joined in.

"Tch," he tsked at his comrades, "Merry Christmas you pack of Southern idiots."

The memory began to fade, the faint outline of the men enjoying a Christmas dinner traced into the air still before fading softly away, leaving the nothingness once more.

Luna smiled at what she saw, although she was a little disturbed by the sight of cooked meat. James was also smiling although his grin was much wider.

"That was incredibly irresponsible of them," Luna said, trying to act disciplinary, "But, I would have done the same for my soldiers if I was in their shoes," her face lit up in a small smile and chuckled at their antics.

"Any time I think of Howard, I always imagine the image of that warm Texan smile and him with a turkey in his lap. I always respected him for what he did for us that night before H-Day. I suppose, he reasoned as much as the rest of us, that many of B company's Marines wouldn't live to have turkey again, let alone see the next day. The fact that he went out of his way to have one last "hurrah" when all of us would be together greatly warmed my heart. He and I became great friends over our time in the Pacific. The kind of friendship that could only be forged between men in combat together," James reminisced.

Luna observed a warm smile on James face, as if he had been reunited with an old friend, which, in a way, is what had happened. She smiled as well, enjoying the mood of the moment and ogling James handsome face while he wasn't looking. He shook his head with a grin.

"Do you miss him?" she asked, knowing the answer already, but more asked for James' sake.

"Yes. Howard was the type of man who always had a joke on his lip and a cigar in the other. No matter what, he always was able to cheer me up a little, just by being around him. It is a rare trait, even rarer to find among soldiers fighting a war. The only other man I can remember having the same effect on me was Mad Dog," he stated.

"I can imagine," Luna agreed, passively playing with her hair and gazing at the man.

James began to talk once more. "I couldn't sleep too much that night. My thoughts were dominated by the questions Miller had asked me a few hours before. The next day, I would finally see combat and with that realization, my life had now become a treasured luxury rather than an ordinary commodity."

A dark morning replaced the black nothingness, the sun barely cresting over the Pacific horizon. The ocean lapped at the shore, pulling some sand into it as it gradually rose up the small slope. Hundreds of men were donning gear, each one helping the other put his pack on. Some who were ready were lighting smokes and waiting for their officers or NCO's to give the pre-assault briefing.

Luna felt her hand being pulled. James had taken it in his own and was pulling her along, likely trying to find himself among the crowds of men. They effortless phased through the crowd, this being a memory after all, until James stopped in front of himself and Miller, helping each other don their gear.

The two men were silent and didn't look very in the mood for a conversation. Their faces wore grim, determined expressions, their weapons and gear clinked and clanged as they jimmied and rustled it onto their persons.

A large intercom buzzed letting out an announcement, "Now hear this. Now hear this. All troops to the beach. All troops to the beach."

The officers and NCO's of the company parroted the order from the intercom, some of the men grumbling and some others looking scared out of their wits, but the order was followed swiftly and without hesitation. A testament to the superb training of the Marines Luna supposed.

"Our father, who art in heaven,"

"If I don't come back, will you give this to my wife?"

"Fuckin Japs...,"

Her ears swiveled and swerved, picking up the whisperings of the other men in the company accepting their fate as they trudged through the sand. Her heart sank a little.

The Marines reached their destination, stopping in front of the large landing boats which would ferry them over to the island. She looked out onto the surf only to see a MASSIVE amount of enormous warships, all 10 times bigger than any in the Equestrian fleet. The long guns gracing its deck jutted out proudly, firmly aimed at the island which was about to assaulted. Two, in particular, seemed to lack these massive guns, instead havnig a flat deck with almost no batteries at all. However, the ship seemed to be launching tiny flying contraptions in great number, all of which were heading straight towards Cape Gloucester. She assumed those were those "planes" she and James had talked about in a previous conversation.

"My word, any navy who possessed ships of that magnitude could conquer nations!" Luna marveled at the sight.

"The US Navy. The king of the seas only rivaled by the Japanese. The Marines and, sometimes myself, may have kidded the squids working on those ships, but when it came time to assault something, we were always whooping and cheering as they poured on their pre-assault bombardment," he explained.

"Men," Mad Dog grabbed the attention of the Marines, "Command says this should be a long one and I'm sorry to say it. Intelligence says a small garrison of 2000 Japs are in this island preparing to defend it to the death. Most are holed up at Rabaul, but we should expect a lot of resistance."

"When you land, get off the beach as fast as you can. We're expecting the Japs to pepper it with everything they've got. Meet up with your platoon commanders and head inland. Our objective is to hold our position and protect the 1st Marines landing, link up with them, and move on to take the airfields. Good luck men! When you see the Japs, kill 'em all!" the men and him cheered, a vigor etched into the men.

"Alright gentlemen, you know how I feel. Get to your LCT's. I'll see you on the beach. That's all," he waved his hand and turned away, heading towards his respective LCT. The rest of them did the same.

Luna and James followed the younger one into his landing craft, she and him phasing through the rest of the crowded compartment. James jumped up on the side of the boat and sat on the rim. He offered his hand to her and gently pulled her up with him. She tripped a little and fell into his side a tad, blushing a little at her compromising position.

"Sorry James," she blushed.

"No worries," he smiled, a tad red in the face.

The boats were soon full. "Shove off boatswain! You're full," the order came.

There was a WOOOOOSH and BANG off in the distance. The Navy had just begun its pre-landing bombardment and the trees were beginning to pay for it. The island quickly began smoking, the black plume rising high and touching the clouds. Fragments of trees rocketed into the sea and into each other and small bits of leaves fell from the sky, completely on fire. Anything presently on land was soon obliterated, as if they had never even existed.

The metal planes that had launched off the flat-top decked ships dove towards the island and dropped their ordinance onto the smoking trees below. Their payload exploded with a loud BANG, the shockwaves sprinting across the water and rocking the ships a little. The fireballs from these bombs rose into the air, adding even more smoke and ash to the already massive amount in the sky.

It was the greatest demonstration of concussive, absolutely dominant firepower Luna had ever seen, and she soon decided to never piss off James' countrymen if any more ever came to Equestria.

The men in the boat were beginning to become restless. The tension was palpable. Some muttered prayers to themselves, some took swigs from their canteens, and others, mostly veterans, seemed mostly at peace. One young private was so overcome with dread he unloaded his stomach contents on the floor in front of him. Thankfully, he was in the front of the craft, so he didn't upset the other Marines too much with his sickly projectile.

The shore was starting to grow near, the bombardment having ceased and the jungle growing closer and closer. Luna's ears were folded back, her heart sinking for the Marines as they approached their destination.

They felt a jolt as the driver hit the brake on the craft, stopping a distance of a small walk away from the shore and laid anchor.

This was it. Luna couldn't bare to watch as she closed her eyes and heard the slow clinking of the front door opening.

And,

...

...

Nothing.

No gunfire, no enemy, no enemy counter-bombardment. Nothing. Luna breathed a huge sigh of relief as she watched the men wade onto the shore unopposed. The men of B company began meeting up with their platoons and began their trek into the heavily vegetated jungle. The young James was running with the 1st platoon and was standing next to Howard.

"Alright Marines, form up and move out. We've got a lot of ground to cover and hold until the 1st Marines land, so ruck up. Let's go," an NCO ordered.

James looked up at the vast jungle in front of him, eyeing it much like a hiker eyes a mountain. As soon as he stepped into the trees, the next great chapter of his life would start. He would go in as one man and come out a completely different one. He seemed to hesitate to follow the Marines in.

"Jim, you coming?" Howard pulled the man out of his stupor.

It seemed time would wait for no man, especially a corpsman for the Marine Corps.

"Yeah, let's go," James answered.

The corpsman adjusted his gear and began to walk into the Gloucester jungle along with Howard, with Luna and James following close behind.