Blueblood went over the facts.
Forces were re-divided so that there was an even coverage in all directions. Fortunately, their firepower was doubled with the additions of the two machine guns that they had salvaged from the Dauntless. They also increased their supply of food but, it was only enough for maybe a day if they rationed. Grenades were effectively out and ammunition supply was starting to get antsy.
In terms of manpower (pony power?), they had lost a eleven ponies in the attack with another dozen and a half wounded severely enough to completely compromise their fighting ability. All they had to worry about now, was just waiting for help however many days that took. Even with the new reinforcements from Wilson, they were still at a loss especially considering some of them had already been wounded to start with.
Sitting in a circle, Eric, Tran, Blueblood, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash sat in a circle passing around a brick of Logan's emergency food, lit up by only the moon's dim light. When Eric's turn came around, he damn near dropped the precious thing. His body was still packed with adrenaline from the battle and his hands were shaking like a Parkinson's patient being tased.
Applejack took notice and took off her stetson and pulled a large flask from it, popping it open and holding it out to Eric. "This'll calm ya down some." Eric took the flask and brought it to his face, immediately getting the odor of alcohol. Very, very strong alcohol. He took a sip and immediately went into a coughing fit. Applejack chuckled as he handed it back to her. "Yeah, get's ya every time." She took a sip herself and coughed once before composing herself. "Used tah make it mahself. Don't get to nowadays."
Applejack smiled and looked at her best friend, Rainbow Dash. She looked pretty ragged herself. Probably not used to fighting on the ground. For once, her boisterous self wasn't expressing its usual status, loud. "What's got your tail in a twist?"
Rainbow Dash frowned. "My wing's broken!" She said while displaying said appendage. She winced from the pain it caused it. "And when they attacked, my rifle wouldn't work! I had to use a pistol!" In that battle, she had fought in one of the foxhole groupings, one that was completely manned, getting no casualties from the initial mortar attack. She and the rest of the soldiers she was with were luckily able to easy stop the griffon attack in their section.
Applejack snorted in amusement before offering her the flask with a challenging grin. Rainbow Dash returned the grin with her own cheeky smile before taking the flask and taking a sip of it. The instant the liquid touched her throat, her eyes bulged and she immediately started coughing and heaving like she had just breathed in pure hate. Applejack started laughing like a banshee, having expected that outcome. "Holy Fucking Celestia, is this moonshine or poison!?" Rainbow Dash demanded.
"Little ah both," Applejack replied.
Rainbow Dash looked down at the flask with a frown before realizing her next move. She looked at Tran with the same challenging grin that Applejack had given her. She held it out. Tran stared at the flask, frozen in time as it seemed. "Chicken?" Rainbow Dash goaded.
Tran stared at the flask for another second before taking it and taking a deep inhale of its aroma. He looked at Applejack. "Apples and peaches?" he asked. Applejack nodded. He put the flask to his lips and took a long sip of the flask. After he had accumulated a significant amount in his mouth, he loudly swished it around to prove he had not falsified anything. He held it for a few seconds more in his mouth before swallowing it all. Everyone waited. Nothing else happened.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash's mouths were agape. "Reminds me I'm alive," Tran stated.
Eric eyed the two bayonets sticking out of him. The standard griffon and REA bayonets used half meter long blades. One was stuck in the upper right section of his back. A griffon had tried to bayonet him from behind, hitting the back plate of his armor. However, it slid off and then imbedded itself in his right shoulder left before the blade snapped off half way down. The other bayonet was stuck all the way through his thigh and out the other side and it was the entire bayonet, hilt and all but obviously disconnected from the rifle that it was originally mounted to. Pulling either out could possibly worsen or make a tremendous wound so all that had been done was a bandage being wrapped around the entrance and exit points of the bayonets, around the blades. He should be among the wounded, just waiting for help. He had more work to do.
Tran looked to Blueblood. Blueblood was originally, as they say, a deskie. He wasn't supposed to be fighting directly but here he was. Either way, it was his duty. Despite the battle at the train that he fought being long ago, his mind still hadn't moved on. Tran held the flask out to Blueblood. "Drink." It wasn't a suggestion. It wasn't a question. It wasn't an offer.
It was an order.
Blueblood's mind snapped out of it and he realized what Tran had said. Everyone watched as Blueblood tentatively reached out to take the flask. Everyone could see the uncertainty in Blueblood's mind. "Drink." Blueblood put the flask to his mouth and took a slow sip. Swallowing, a warm shiver went through Blueblood's body and he realized what he had done.
"Blech!" Blueblood exclaimed, sticking his tongue out. "Dear heavens, that is horrid!"
Applejack smiled while Rainbow Dash had her turn at laughing like a banshee. "As strong as Ah could make it," Applejack responded while taking the flask and tucking it away. "If y'all are hankering for somethin that ain't like drinking kerosene, Ah'll let yah have some. If'in we survive this mess." Rainbow Dash smiled, knowing what it meant. Tasty, tasty cider. As for Tran and Eric, they were up for any alcohol. Free alcohol is the best type of alcohol. As for he Blueblood, he reflected on the offer. He really wanted to refuse but he couldn't. He smiled for once and nodded.
-X-X-X-
Wilson eye's were closed. He wasn't trying to sleep. He was trying to listen. It was dark and he could hear everything. Soldiers' kits being banged around, the occasional griffon flapping about, undecipherable conversations, and some people/ponies heaving their lungs out, he heard.
He also heard pain. The wounded were suffering and he heard it. It wasn't isolated to just them either. In the act of defeating that attack, the griffon left behind a lot of dead and a lot of wounded. Letting out a weary sigh, he gripped his gun tighter. He had work to do.
-X-X-X-
Gilda, even wounded, was in her element. She could effectively see everything they were doing in this near darkness, watching with a new rifle at the ready. That human had stolen her submachine gun and there wasn't any other to replace it, being a relatively new firearm. She snarled, knowing her own gun was being used against them.
That was when one of the humans had jumped out of their defenses and ran towards their outer foxhole defenses. Surprisingly, he went past their foxholes and kept on going, as if they were about to conduct a raid on them. She raised her rifle and signaled to some nearby others to get ready for some action. What could he accomplish by himself? Was this another ruse?
She was getting ready to fire but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that he had stopped at where one of their own wounded soldiers had fallen. They had to be left behind in the retreat. If they had made an attempt to evacuate them, it would only result in more casualties. Astoundingly, the human, a member of the REA, were tending to their wounded, members of the Griffon Empire . What was going on? Gilda lowered her rifle and motioned for the others to do the same.
The human carried the downed griffon away and added it to their own wounded. Slowly and over a long period of time, at great risk to his own health and safety, the human went around and tended to the other wounded griffons while also adding them to the pile of their own wounded.
-X-X-X-
Wilson placed the last of the wounded enemy griffons with their their own wounded, having removed everything off of their bodies aside from uniforms. He tried his best to give the griffons some food and water while scavenging what supplies those griffons had.
Why had he done this despite the griffons being the enemy?
Their job was done now and there was no point in their continued suffering. They're wounded now, why would they be an enemy anymore?