BLITZ

by The Commandant

Chapter 1 - We Few Brothers

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,"

This applies to me and the men I lead very much. Brothers in arms, fighting practically for survival while trying to complete the mission at hand. We overcame mostly every mission that was assigned to us by the DAF, we followed orders to the letter, with some exceptions here and there, and yet we managed to stay alive through it all. Me and my men have seen the worst of the worst, the best of the best, and the ugliest of the ugly.

Some of my men have been killed in battle, under my command. I don't think the men blame me for their deaths, but I do. I can't stand watching men, my men, die in front of me. I try to learn from my mistakes, but the results are still the same; my men still die. No matter the hundred thousand times I've tried to keep everyone alive for at least a single campaign, someone still dies.

As for the thousand enemies I've killed, I don't even blink when I pull the trigger. I've probably orphaned thousands of children by killing their parents in the many campaigns I've fought in. I can't imagine how many enemies everyone in the DAF has killed, it's probably in the millions. All those bombs, bullets, and artillery flying everywhere probably kills more civilians than enemy soldiers.

I don't really feel bad about it at first, but thinking about it too deep will prevent you from defending yourself if necessary. I just say they aren't humans, so don't treat them like us, kill them if they want to kill you. It's cruel, but it gets the job done, and that's what matters most in war, aside from survival.

I haven't mentioned my name yet, have I? The name's Mathew, spelled with only one T. I'm a sergeant in the DAF, and I have the responsibility of leading a squad of twenty men, including me, and it's a hell of a job. I'm not much different from everyone else, since we're all practically the same person, but with slightly different personalities. Not that we're one person, we're essentially clones, or duplicates as the DAF calls them.

We've been fighting everything we've met, but in our defense, everything on this damn planet tries to attack us. First it was the Equestrians, then the zebras, then some other country attacked us. It may not seem like much, but it's enough to make a logical assumption that everything here hates us and will do anything to kill us.

We aren't a bunch of wimps, we kicked the ZC's ass in Operation Stripes! We destroyed the Griffon Empire, even when they had help from Equestria. Now we're kicking Equestria in the flank hard, thanks to our amazing technology.

We're making progress in Equestria, we've taken Neigh Orleans, the first city captured in the Equestrian campaign, followed by Les Manes, Reins, Neigh'les, Las Pegasus, and Roan. In just a few days we'll be headed to San Fransicolt to take the city and complete Operation Bronco. We will finally be getting a break after the operation is complete, and I've earned enough points to head back to Antonia afterwards for a week and enjoy the relaxing view.

I can't wait to get away from this war.

Anyway, you probably want to know what happens next, don't you?

Well, I'll tell you.

---

Somewhere in the Caballeria district of Equestria

I looked to the left, then I looked swiftly to the right.

No enemies. We're all clear.

"Place the MG over there." I said, pointing to a wall a few yards from my current position.

Immediately after I give the command, five men rushed forward from behind me and crouch behind the wall I pointed towards.

"Assault team, check the area over there for enemies." I said, pointing towards the courtyard in front of the wall the MG was being set up at. Six men then rushed forward and cautiously enter the courtyard.

"The rest of you, follow me." I said, and with that, I got up and sprinted for the house to the side of the courtyard.

The eight remaining soldiers sprinted to where I was, and I slowly entered the house, my SAR in both my hands, and my eyes looking down the sights.

I saw a flight of stairs to the right of me, and I headed towards it, but a table blocked the first few stairs.

"Help me move this table." I whispered, grabbing the leg of the overturned table.

Another man came to my aid and grabbed the other leg, and together we picked it up and gently set it down to my left.

The obstacle now moved, I went quietly up the stairs, clinging to the bullet-riddled wall.

I immediately stopped in my tracks when I heard hoof steps on the wood floor. I readied my SAR, and slowly made my way up the last few stairs onto the second floor. Light temporarily blinded me, as the sun was shining right through a large hole in the house. I continued to cling to the wall on my left, the hoof steps getting louder as I approached the end of the hall. Realizing that my SAR would be no good in close combat, I pulled out my HHP-3 pistol and slung the rifle around my back.

I approached the doorway, and peered inside through the ajar door, and saw the familiar silver armor of the Equestrian Royal Army. Then another pony appeared, wearing the same set of armor. I couldn't take on two ERA soldiers quickly enough with just one pistol, so I looked to my grenade pouch, and pulled out the pineapple of death.

Swiftly, I pulled the pin, flipped the igniter on, and lobbed the chunk of metal onto the unsuspecting ponies. I immediately walked away from the door as quietly and quickly as possible.

3...

2...

BOOM!

A large cloud of dust and wood flew out the door, as well as the leg of a pony, with blood spilling out of it. Some of the shingles on the roof were shaken off by the shockwave of the explosion, and fell through the hole onto the floor. I can never seem to get the fuse time to land on one.

After the dust settled, I moved towards the door frame and tried not to step in the pool of blood from the decapitated leg. I had gotten used to the gruesome scenes of war, but I never touched a dead body, even if they had something I wanted. When I entered the room, there was wood, dust, blood, guts all over the floor, and two mangled corpses with damaged silver armor on them.

After confirming that both targets were deceased, I walked out of the room and headed toward the flight of stairs and descended downward to the first floor. The men were waiting for me as I stepped off the final step.

"This house is clear guys, move out." I said in my normal voice, and walked out through the door.

I heard shots ring out all through the small village, realizing the MG team had encountered the enemy in the courtyard. Me and the eight men behind me rushed to the wall where the MG team was located.

"What's the situation, Corporal?" I yelled as bullets and magic flew over my head.

"The ponies were hiding in the house at the end of the courtyard!" The corporal yelled back, quickly pointing toward a house, and in front of it was a squad of eight ponies hiding behind some rubble. "They came out when that window blew out of its hinges!"

"Where did the Assault team go?" I yelled to the corporal.

"They ran into that house for cover when the window blew open, and they've been stuck there since!" The corporal yelled back to me, pointing to the house he said they went in to.

I had to figure out how to get the assault team out of that house, otherwise I would lose all those men. It took a second, but I thought of a plan, and I crawled over to the machine gunner.

"Private Jones! Use the MG to suppress those ponies over there so me and some guys can get over to that house and get the assault team out of there!" I yelled to Jones.

"Yes, sir!" Jones yelled back, and began to open up on the ponies position.

When the ponies were suppressed, I took four men with me, and we sprinted out of cover towards the house. When we reached the house, I found the Assault team huddled behind the wall of the house. I joined the huddle and told the guys they need to get out of here. I peered out of the house and watched to see if the ponies were still suppressed, and they were, so I moved everyone out. However, one of the ponies got lucky, and one of the men was hit in the leg by a rouge bullet while he was running back to cover. We managed to get him out of the open, but he was bleeding bad.

I could tell the ponies were no longer suppressed, and they began to fire at us again. I pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, took careful aim, activated the igniter, and tossed the grenade as far as I could at the ponies, but it only got halfway across the courtyard. It detonated and snapped the little tree in the middle of the courtyard into pieces, as it sent dirt and loose stone flying everywhere.

It must've scared the crap out of the ponies, because they stopped firing at us for a while. This gave me valuable time to position my men better, so I moved the MG team back into the house I had secured. I positioned them on the second floor of the house so that we could hit the ponies from above. Though, the MG team found the mess I left in the only room with a window facing the courtyard, and some got sick on sight.

The MG team set up in the house and began to fire short controlled bursts, and already killed three ponies. The ponies realized that they were being shot at from two different directions, which made them panic and try to reposition, but that was their fatal mistake. They all exposed themselves and were mowed down by the combined fire of the Assault and the MG team. The skirmish was over after that, so our squad managed to escape alive, and with only one casualty.

Our mission was to secure the village so that the DAF can go through with impunity, that's why we were there in the first place. After the battle, we got in our squad truck, I always call shotgun, and we drove back to camp, where we could get some rest for the day. Days like today are pretty much normal for a soldier in the DAF, except being squad leader doesn't make it any easier. It's has never been easy, and probably never will be.

The man who was hit later recovered, but had to be sent back to base for a full recovery, so we wouldn't have him back for a while.

After about an hour drive, we got back to our platoon and I gave my Field Officers the after-action report. After that, I took my nap I take everyday in the squadron tent, and for some reason dreamed about peanuts. I awoke for dinner time, and ate some food before I went to bed, I didn't want to read this evening because I needed a lot of sleep.

Because tomorrow, we're going to San Fransicolt, and its going be one hell of a day.

Author's Note:

This is the first story I've done in a while, so some constructive criticism would be very much appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Edit: I looked over it and saw several mistakes, so I fixed most of what I could find. Enjoy!

Comments

[Enclave mike]

orig09.deviantart.net/9210/f/2010/169/6/8/ambassador_pineapple_by_kuonrada.jpg

[ThatOneRussianDictator]

Pineapple OP.