//------------------------------//
// Your Heaviest Artillery Will Be Your Will to Live 
// Story: If You Want Peace, Prepare For War 
// by tranhdxrbntd 
//------------------------------//

Tran lied down in his medical cot. Pain wracked his body, even with all of the pain meds he was allowed. Even breathing was painful. All he could do was close his eyes and listen to the sounds of the battle filling the air. 

"Get up!" Logan yelled at him over the sounds of battle, from no particular direction. Tran's eyes shot open and he shot up from his cot, looking around for Logan. He didn't find the source. He looked around more before lying back down and closing his eyes again. "I said, get up! We got a war to win!"

Tran let out a sigh before opening his eyes and sitting up. He look at the ground surrounding his gear and found his clothes and gear sitting in a pile. He reached down to grab it when he heard a voice call out to him, this time being Fluttershy once again. 

"Lie back down or I will tie you to your cot!" Fluttershy yelled at him as she ran to his cot. Tran took a deep breathe in, finding that it no longer hurt to breathe so he looked down at his bandaged chest and tore off some of the bandages. "What are you do-" Fluttershy's voice trailed off. Tran's deathly pale chest was free of any injury that he had mere minutes ago. She reached up with a hoof and tried to check Tran's chest but the instant her hoof touched his skin, she reeled back her hoof. Her leg felt like it had been trapped in a frozen lake for a century. She hissed in pain as she tried to bring back feeling and warmth to the limb. 

Tran was internally shocked to see her do that but didn't have time to ask questions. He reached down, rushing and from an outside view, it seemed like all of his gear teleported onto his body. Before Fluttershy could say anything, Tran shot off into the horizon.

-X-X-X-

Everyone (Eric, Wilson, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Rarity, Blueblood, Applejack, Spitfire, Soarin, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, the Engineer, the quartermaster) was gathered at one of the trenches that was holding other soldiers that were getting ready to charge into the meat grinder. The sound of artillery guns firing filled the air, leaving everyone unable to hear anything. Eric and Wilson's attention was redirected somewhere else when someone tapped them on the shoulder. When they turned around, they were astounded to see Tran standing behind them. Wilson's temper started to flare up but it died back down when he saw that Tran's chest was exposed with no wounds, with his coat unbuttoned and his body armor off. He had questions but they didn't have the time. Wilson nodded, knowing that Tran wasn't going to kill himself by pushing himself too hard. Wilson handed Tran the bazooka he borrowed for the battle. 

Tran rebuttoned his coat and body armor before grabbing the attention of Gilda, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Blueblood, the Stray, Soarin, Spitfire, and Pinkie Pie. When he had their surprised attention, he pointed to each of them before pointing to himself, hoping that they understood what he was trying to tell them. Right as that happened, all of the artillery stopped and the battlefield was dead silent. "With me!" Tran yelled out as the silence was immediately filled with the sound of whistles being blown. 

From every trench line, soldiers started climbing out of the trench lines. Thousands of soldiers were making the charge but the first ones out were Tran, Wilson, and Eric in unperceivable speeds. Just as the humans were leading the charge, flight able soldiers from both trench lines started to fill the air with flesh while machine guns from both sides filled the air with metal. Once the humans were on No Man's Land, they could see their objective from here, the enemy trench line, with completely unrestricted sightlines. It was only a mere, one hundred meters away, and those lines were teaming with griffons. 

Eric was the furthest one forward and he was blasting away with his AK, not bothering to aim properly but merely providing, hopefully, suppressive fire that would scare the enemy enough to not shoot back at them accurately. Whilst still sprinting forward, he turned his head to look backwards, making sure that he was being followed by his allies. Confirming his thoughts, by the time Eric looked back forward, he had easily covered half the distance. From here, he slowed down and started taking more careful shots, easily hitting any griffons that had popped up to take pot shots. One griffon that had taken flight initially managed to surprise dive and attempt to stop Eric in his path but a quick shot from Tran's hand cannon saved him. 

As Eric took more steps, he felt a bullet impact his chest and another graze his arm but neither fazed him. As he reached the griffon trench line, he didn't slow down and jumped into it. Falling twelve feet into the griffon trenches, he found himself crashing into the wall of the trench line before sliding to the ground in a heap. He didn't bother to climb back up, looking down one side of the trench to see a bunch of surprised griffons. Unfortunately for Eric, the crash had caused him to lose his weapon in the mishap and by the time he had realized, the griffons had started scrambling to shoot him. The closest to Eric was then cut down by Wilson, who was standing at the lip of the trench line. Wilson started shooting at the other griffons in one direction as Tran reached the trench line and was shooting at the griffons from the other direction of the trench line. 

Once this section of the trench was clear of any hostile griffons, Eric found his rifle and was going down one end of the trench line while Wilson and Tran took over clearing the other direction of the trench line. Just as the three of them were making their way through this trench line, REA ponies (and griffon) reached the trench line and were swarming in. Eric's AK74, while being a full sized AK pattern rifle, was still significantly shorter than the very long rifles the griffons used and was a vastly dangerous tool in clearing the griffons while Tran's handguns and Wilson's short 10mm Vector were even smaller and just as, in some ways more, handy and devastating to use. 

Across the entire griffon trench line, the enemy griffons found themselves swarmed and losing this up close fight. Most of the ponies didn't even bother trying to shoot, resorting to bayonet charging every griffon they came across even the ones with short carbines. This didn't mean it was perfect and flawless. Many REA ponies found themselves victim to the griffon's ability to fight. However, the griffons suffered far more casualties. They were easily outnumber by the attacking REA. Just as predicted, the incoming enemy fire was far more intense coming in from the ammo depot the griffons had freshly taken when compared to the incoming fire from the main griffon trench line. 

As the fight continued, Tran, Wilson, and Eric regrouped with everyone in their cadre to prepare what was to come while ponies throughout tried to shoot down airborne griffons that were engaging friendly pegasi forces. Eric immediately went to Applejack, the quartermaster, and the engineer. Charging into the battle, the quartermaster and some of the other larger built ponies had strapped machine guns to themselves. Now, they were unloading them and setting them up. Meanwhile, Wilson, and Rarity were grabbing the emplaced griffon machine guns and turned them 180 degrees around to face the other direction. 

From histories sake, whenever a trench assault succeeded, you would always expect an immediate counter attack to see if it could be retaken in the surprise before the enemy could build up defenses in the taken trench system. The others, Spitfire, Soarin, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Blueblood, and Gilda followed Tran who then immediately climbed out of their captured trench line, in the opposite direction (going back towards the allied REA trench line). The others didn't follow him. They didn't have to. Tran hadn't gone very far, a few meters at most. He quickly handed his bazooka and sniper rifle to Spitfire. "The fuck are you doing?!" Spitfire called out to him. 

Tran didn't answer. He immediately dove to the ground in the wettest pile of mud he could find. He rolled around in the filth, coating his entire body in a thick layer of mud. He crawled around until he found himself sitting next to a mound of dirt, completely blending in with the ground. Reaching out to Spitfire, she knew what he was doing and handed him back his sniper rifle and only that.

There was the loud call of a trench whistle that rang throughout the battlefield but this time, it came from the griffons. Waves of griffons charged from various griffon holdings and towards the freshy taken trench line that the REA and humans now held. Tran looked towards his ragtag group and pointed at Rainbow Dash. "They got a team of minotaurs carrying machine guns. 50 meters left. Get to Eric and have him reinforce that section!" he commanded her. "Repeat what I said, then go!"

Rainbow Dash's mind worked hard for a few seconds, her head almost releasing steam. "Minotaurs, Machine guns, 50 meters left. Got it!" she repeated.

Tran nodded. "Good! Go, then return!" As Rainbow Dash ran down the trench line, Tran looked to the other members in his team. "Do not fire your weapon unless absolutely necessary!" he commanded. 

Spitfire, Soarin, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, Blueblood, and Gilda all had varying thoughts. Gilda was the first to speak up. "What, we're just sitting her and watching!?" 

"More important than you think!" Tran retorted. He looked at Gilda, releasing what she was, a griffon. "Get up here with me and help keep an eye out!" 

Gilda looked at the mud/filth covered man. Her skin/feathers/fur crawled. As a Jaeger, who'd never usually be touching the mud, this was an insult. She handed her weapon off to Soarin before crawling out of the parapet and covering herself up in filth. As she finished up with her costume, she was handed back her weapon. "Why me?!" annoyed, she demanded  Tran.

Tran reached out and plucked one of her feathers. "You're a griffon, hopefully, they'll think twice before shooting you," he answered. 

The answer stuck in her head, realizing she was going against her people but that thought burned away when she remember how the IGM (Imperial Griffon Military) shelled her and how Tran had personally saved her from from what would have been torture and a firing squad. "Where do you want me, coach?" She jokingly asked Tran. 

Tran pointed to the right. "Find a hide to the right (south) and keep watch. Call out anything to note." Tran then pointed to Blueblood and Pinkie Pie. "You two, go with her. You're her runners! Once Rainbow is back, I'll have her link up with you three. Do not engage anything unless its a direct threat to your life! Relocate if you fire or you're found! Always have someone watching up above! Now, GO!!!" With that, the three of them ran off to find their own section to watch.

Tran turned his attention back to the rest of his soldiers. He pointed at Spitfire. "Get back to headquarters and have a artillery battery fire a salvo between this trench line and the next! Repeat!"

Spitfire got her rifle ready and shook off some nerves before getting ready to jump out of the trench. "Headquarters, artillery between this trench and the next!"

"Go!" Tran yelled. Soarin, on four legs, squatted down to lower himself down where Spitfire jumped up on his back and then out of the trench line, gunning it back to REA main holdings. 

Soarin looked up at Tran. "So, this is Overwatch?"

"Yep."

"Seems a little boring but I can see how its important." Tran, instead of replying back, fired his rifle. He quickly reloaded and fired again. Then, he reloaded and fired again. With the third shot, Soarin covered his ears with his hooves. "Holy fucking Celestia that is fucking loud!"

Tran directed his attention towards Soarin. "Hey!" he called out. Soarin looked up at the Tran who was now holding his rifle out to the amputee. "Take this and follow me!" 

Soarin took the rifle. "Where we going and why?" he asked. Tran while still outside of the trench line, started crawling while hugging the ground, towards the left (north) of the trench. Mere seconds after he left, bullets started striking Tran's old position, kicking the mud into the air and raining down in all directions. After losing a mortar team's crew, the griffons noticed where Tran was, especially with how loud and bright the .338 Lapua's muzzle flash was, and directed machine guns to fire at Tran's previous position. 

By the time Tran found a new position, Rainbow Dash returned and seconds later, Spitfire did too. Tran sent Rainbow Dash to regroup with the other three while Spitfire took a position next to Soarin and Scootaloo, who were dutifully watching the skies above for any griffon. Tran, having been resupplied with his sniper rifle from Soarin, surveyed the no man's land that existed between this freshly capture trench line and the next griffon's defense lines. The counterattack the griffons had sent in an attempt to retake this captured trench line had ground down to a halt. Those unfortunate griffons were holed up in craters or behind mounds of dirt to stay safe. 

Tran looked down at the trio of ponies and pointed at Scootaloo. "Find Eric and let him know an artillery strike is inbound! Repeat!" 

Scootaloo stood at attention. "Find Eric, artillery strike inbound!" she repeated.

"Go!" Tran yelled. He then looked at Spitfire. "What's expected?" 

Spitfire looked away from the sky and at Tran. "Mortars will be firing any second now! Standard saturation bombardment!" This captured formerly-griffon trench line was only a mere hundred meters away from the closest REA trench line. Behind the REA trench line were many other layers of trench lines, defenses, and small bases. If mortars were to be expected, they'd prolly be firing from a kilometer away. If Spitfire had ran as fast as possible to give the request for an artillery barrage at the closest REA trench line, then they'd have to send their own runner, most likely a pegasus to fly instead of run the 1 kilometer distance from there to the mortars. That second runner would probably take, at worst, ten seconds. Hell, it took Spitfire about twenty seconds to run the 100 meters.

So, Spitfire was indeed correct. Any second now, which, by now, was now. The sound of another whistle filled the air. However, this was no trench whistle. If only. It was something much worse. This was the sound of an artillery shell flying overhead. A random section in the middle of no man's land between this formerly-griffon trench line and the next griffon's defense lines, exploded. Seconds later, the sound of more mortar shells soaring overhead overpowered the sound of gunfire with its all too familiar cry. Everyone, on both sides ducked down. 

Unfortunately for one side, the side that currently had hundreds, possibly thousands, of soldiers stuck on open land, it was not going to be merciful. The air, having previously been nothing but gunfire had made way for the screeches of griffons. The shelling continued, with no regard for any cries of help. It was a complete slaughter. Lasting not even thirty seconds, it lasted long enough to wipe out the vast majority of the exposed griffons. When it ended, silence filled the air, with the exception of cries of help. The victim's pained screams tugged at both side's heart strings. To be cut down like this, having your entire existence extinguished in mere seconds by something you couldn't see nor avoid was something everyone could regrettably understand. 

What remaining griffons started to fall back. There weren't many left able bodied to retreat but those that did, found it a rather harrowing task for their attempts at finding sanctuary was hampered by the renewed continuation of gunfire from both sides. There was no easy way out for it was war and she was a cruel mistress.