//------------------------------// // One Bridge Too Far... // Story: Brothers in Arms // by Eagle //------------------------------// Baker After Red got hit…things felt like they should’ve stopped right there. It felt like we’d already done too much at too great a cost. Bringing him back to the aid station with Doc Gideon also forced me to see Twilight and her friends again; they all looked at me different, some worried, some angry…some were just blank. I didn’t talk to them, I still felt like I couldn’t. I just dropped Red off, and was on my way again; and again I felt like a weak bastard for not doing it. We got pulled aside for another mission before I got a chance to do anything else. Maybe I’d be lucky if I didn’t come back from this one; whatever fate holds for me there might be better than what Twilight and her friends have to say. “Baker?” The Sergeant looked up from his slouched spot against a wall to see Colonel Sink standing over him. “Yes sir?” “I need a quick moment of your time, son.” “Something wrong, sir?” Baker asked, standing to face him. “Well, the aid station made it clear Sgt. Hartsock ain’t comin’ back. Even if he does make it, he won’t be able to fight again for a while.” “I understand, sir; that leaves his squad without a leader.” “Well, because of its losses, it isn’t much of a squad anymore; there’s only three men left.” “Yes sir; Paddock, Campbell, and Roselli.” “So even if we made one of them a sergeant, there wouldn’t be much to command,” Sink explained. “Normally I wouldn’t do this, but you know these men better than anyone.” “Yes sir, I do.” “Right, so I’m going to be foldin’ what’s left of second squad into yours; that’ll bring your complement back up to thirteen men.” “Yes sir, I’ll take care of them.” “Good, now here’s what’s going to be happening,” Sink explained. “I’m here on behalf of Captain Wilder, we need to keep moving and time is essential. There’s another crossing to the north of here that we’re going to take. Unlike most of the previous ones, this one is over a major river, and it’s pretty damn big; there’s also some urban areas on both sides of the bridges. Most of the 502nd is going in to try and take it, including you boys.” “Yes sir, we’ll get on it.” Sink left with that, and Baker was preparing to sit down again before Corrion stopped him. “So we’re at thirteen again,” he stated simply. “Back to the Baker’s Dozen.” Baker just shook his head at the squad’s old nickname. “Thirteen was never a lucky number for us, Sam.” “Maybe it’ll be different this time.” “Maybe, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” October 13th “The town is divided up into two urban centers on either side of the bridge; the north one is called Jersey, the south one is called York,” the Captain explained to the group of men sitting in the cover of the forest. “Fox is going to be leading the attack through the center; there’s going to be a quick, heavy prep barrage on the area just before the attack by the division’s howitzers. More than likely the enemy will try to drop the bridge into the water, so hurry up and capture it before they can do so.” Baker got up and returned to his squad, who were waiting in their own hidden position. There was a good view of the bridge from where they were; it was certainly nothing like a small, stone structure or wooden walkway. This one was truly massive, made of concrete and iron and visible from a long ways away. It was easy to tell how important it was just from the sight. “Christ, could you imagine being on that thing when it gets blown into the river?” Dawson asked him. “I’m not too keen on this one.” “We’ll make it, Daws.” “Hope so; we’re nearly done here and I’d prefer to at least die in my own world.” They remained there, sitting in silence for a few more minutes, watching the town, until Dawson spoke up again. “Did Red ever touch it?” “What?” “The gun; your pistol.” Baker shook his head away from him. “Not the time, Daws.” “When is the bloody time then? You say it like there’s a better time but you never say when!” he said, still keeping his voice at a normal volume. “And what about those three little girls that died in the village? I’m sure you didn’t let them hold any weapons.” “For Christ sake, Dawson; this is going too far!” he retorted. “You don’t know what I do.” “Maybe not, but I know more than you think.” The two were interrupted by the sound of a constant, distant rumbling. “That’s us,” Baker said. “Squad, fall in!” The men gathered around Baker, as other groups of soldiers similarly did. The weapons team was carrying their machine gun this time, hoping they had made the right choice. Also present was the new support team, formed around the three survivors from Hartsock’s squad. “Ok guys, as soon as the shelling hits, we move; no hesitating, no getting held up. It’s our job to capture that bridge, so we have to move fast. Ok, the shells are coming; let’s get to it!” The area switched from seemingly peaceful to a complete hellish chaos in two seconds as the heavy guns smothered both sides of the river, taking care not to fire around the bridge itself. After the first volleys began to fall, the airborne troops hustled out from the woods towards the quaint hamlet. They received zero fire from the buildings, which did not surprise Baker. The bombardment was powerful enough to kill or stun most anything that was hiding away in there. Here and there explosions kicked up rubble and dust, damaging or collapsing the structures in its blast radius. Nearing the first set of houses after about half a minute, the troops had to sit and wait a bit for the shelling to stop. The guns were a bit off on their timing, but it was better than having them stop early. The hurricane barrage finally ended, rather abruptly, and the troops began fanning out through the center. “Corrion, first house, right up front!” “Got it; come one, team!” “Paddock, take the support team and clear the house on the right!” “The one with the big hole in its side?” “Bottom floor? Yea, that’s the one!” “Alright!” “Jasper, Zanovich; you guys are with me! Kill anything coming down the main street!” The two teams ran ahead a bit, finding respective bits of cover. There was noticeably little activity on the street, but they kept their eyes open all the same. A couple of Griffons ran out of a nearby basement in a daze and were quickly cut down. No others appeared as the two other teams finished clearing the houses. “Squad, on me; we have to get to that bridge!” Baker ordered. It’s a straight shot down the road; just keep going and don’t stop unless you have to!” The men got moving down the road, occasionally having to stop and deal with one or two stragglers. The other troops were also having a rather easy time, clearing out the shocked defenders from the shattered town. The move lasted around five minutes, but they reached the bridge itself easily. “Fall in and get ready; when I give the signal, we’re going across-” There were several separate, controlled explosions coming from the direction of the bridge. The spot the squad was standing in was darkened by dust, and all of them dropped to the ground and took cover. The shaking and rattling continued for a bit before things finally began to settle down. “Damn it, we’re too late,” Paddock observed. “Hang on, I think it’s still up!” Corrion noticed. “No way in hell that thing’s still standin’!” “It’s there; c’mon, we have to move!” Baker ordered. “Baker, you don’t really think we should go over that thing, do you?” “Yes, now go!” Baker was the first up, urging the others to follow in suite. Dragging a few up that still lay on the ground, the group finally got moving again. Getting through the cloud kicked up by the explosion, the men finally got onto the bridge. First glance saw some noticeable holes in it, but nothing that looked immediately threatening to the structure’s sturdiness. Moving across, they met no resistance, which was to be expected; most of the run was spent in an eerie silence. Nearly at the other side, that silence was broken by a crack. Baker stopped and looked behind him, and saw Corrion, towards the rear of the group, fall onto the deck. “Corrion’s hit!” “Where’d it come from!?” Franky yelled, also stopping. “Just go, you guys get to the other side! I’ll get him!” Baker ran over to the soldier, and found him still alive after a quick check. The bullet went through his side; though if it was life-threatening, he was not sure. Picking him up, he slowly carried him to the other side and set him next to a wall as several soldiers from other units followed his squad across. “Hey! Hey you, stop!” he called, grabbing a medic’s arm. “Can you take care of my man? I have to get back to the rest of my guys.” “Yea, don’t worry; I’ll handle things.” “Alright, thanks doc.” “Matt, hey Baker!” Baker looked around for the source of the voice, finding it to be Mac over down the road. “Mac, what’s going on?” “We’re still trying to clear out the buildings, but there’s a counterattack coming in from outside, probably behind those hills. Your squads already in a defensive position in a hotel down the road; you can’t miss it, it’s the only building that isn’t damaged.” “What about Sam?” “You can’t worry about that right now; get to your guys, or else we might lose a lot more of them.” “Christ, are we really losing more men for this damn bridge?” Baker asked. “How many have we taken already? How many do we have to take to begin with?” “Matt, we can’t argue about any of this right now.” “When then, when we’re taking the next bridge, or the one after that?” he asked. “This is starting to go way too far, Mac; we’re wasting all this in a war that we didn’t have anything to do to begin with.” “Baker, we do not! Have! The time!” “When will we!? When will we have the time to stop and look at what we’re doing so...so-” Baker stopped himself there; this conversation seemed familiar in a rather bad way. “Damn, alright Mac; I’ll take care of it. Sorry.” “Baker, can you do this?” “Yea…yea, I’ll take care of it.” “Alright…get at it then.” Baker turned and began slowly walking down the long road, thought he gradually broke into a run as he remembered where he was. Running past the shattered hulks of buildings, he finally got to the end and spotted a single, large, undamaged building. He also saw a handful of griffons charging across a field from a hill, who were quickly cut down by fire from the structure. “Zano, are you guys holding up ok?” Baker called, entering the hotel. “Yea, we’re fine. Is Sam ok?” “I don’t know, but I found him a medic before I left.” “Alright, let’s finish this up so we can get home.” The hotel was not very large, but was three stories; each man in the squad had his own window to fire from. The griffons, rather than attack in a concentrated form, charged towards the hamlet in piecemeal teams and squads; though several would come at once. Jasper’s decision to bring the machine gun paid off greatly here, easily cutting down the defenseless enemies from its excellent firing position. Indeed the whole attack, despite lasting some time, was rather half-hearted; with the attackers finally quitting as their numbers began to pile up for no real gain. Another group of paratroopers came to relieve Baker’s men, allowing them to return to the rear. Marching back through the shattered hamlets, they were glad to see the American forces had suffered relatively light casualties as compared to other attacks. They also saw a long line of prisoners being pushed towards the rear, a clear sign that the shock bombardment had worked; many seemed demoralized, and the anger the men put against the ‘crows’ would not help it to go up. The biggest surprise was the sighting of a jeep with a familiar soldier lying wounded on top. “Oh shit, Sam!”