//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - San Fransiscolt Part 2 // Story: BLITZ // by The Commandant //------------------------------// As soon as I saw those tanks aim at me, I knew I was screwed if I stayed here, so I did the sensible thing. I ran. Really fast. I managed to get to the nearest piece of cover, a wall, and held onto it as if my life depended on it. My life did depend on it. That's when the Mk 1s began to open fire, and it was scary, what with the 50mm rounds impacting the buildings and road around me. Then I could hear them advancing forwards. "We have to pull back!" I yelled to Corporal Hodge. "Get that T-4 over here!" "Yes sir!" Hodge replied. With that, we all began to pull back, and headed straight towards the friendly armor. "What in the name of God is going on over there?!" The tank commander yelled to me. "Did you take care of that antitank team, Sergeant?" "Yes sir, we did, but we've got company!" I replied. "What kind of company are you talking about sergeant?" The tank commander asked. "The kind that only your crew can handle!" I replied. "Shit! How many?!" The tank commander asked. "Four of them!" I replied. "Aw fu-" The tank commander said, closing his hatch. The tank engine came to life, and the T-4 monster began to move forwards past the retreating infantry. The first Mk 1 to appear, was instantly destroyed by the T-4's 75mm gun. The T-4 moved onward, shoving the ruined Mk 1 out of the way. A 50mm round bounced off the T-4's hull, hitting the building behind the tank. Another hit and bounced off the turret, sending the bullet upward. The T-4's turret turned to meet the opposition, and fired at the Equestrians. An explosion was heard shortly after, meaning that the 75mm round found its mark. The Mk 1 is extremely prone to fire or combustion upon having its armor penetrated. However, they were slightly faster than the T-4, and could out maneuver it. This was made apparent when a fifth Mk 1 crept behind the T-4 and shot the rear of it, hitting the engine block. The T-4's engine sputtered before dying soon after, then a fire erupted from the rear. It must've damaged the fuel compartment. The other two Mk 1s saw their chance, and opened fire on the T-4, the first round bouncing off the hull once more, but the second was a direct hit. The ammo rack detonated inside and blew up the tank, which sent the turret into the air, and hard onto the ground. No one seemed to have survived. Aw shit. The Mk 1s continued their advance, and we were being zeroed in. I knew we couldn't stay here any longer, otherwise ERA forces would overwhelm us. "Men, we're getting our asses out of Dodge!" I yelled, running backwards. Everyone else followed me, a 50mm round bounced off the road beside of me. I just ran faster, hoping that I would survive, as well as everyone else. I looked up and saw several ERA planes in the air, combating the DAF air power. I thought I even saw the rumored Wonderbolt squad, they're supposedly made up of Equestria's best aces. I tripped over something when I was looking up, and I fell down hard. I managed to get back up, but a 50mm HE must've detonated behind me, because I was in the air again. When I made contact with the ground, a sharp pain erupted from everywhere, then everything went black. "Guys! He's waking up!" "Thank god!" I slowly opened my eyes, and saw a ceiling above me. Oh crap, did everyone make it? "Did... is everyone alright?" I asked weakly. "Sound... Sound off. I want names, not numbers" Silence. "I said 'Sound off'." I said louder. "Ryan." "Jones." "Hodge." "Uh... Daniel." "Wade." "Cole." "Michael, sir." "Anthony." "Fredrick." "Gordon." "James." "Steven." "Ethan." "Taylor, sir." "Bill." "Welder." "George." "Dylan." I counted eighteen men, including myself, but there was supposed to be twenty- Oh... "Anthony... where's Jacob?" I asked, praying the answer isn't what I think it is. "Mat, Jake is... well, he... didn't make it, remember?" He replied reluctantly. Shit. "..." "I'm so sorry, Mat. I-" "No." I said. "No, not this time. Please God, not today..." I felt the reoccurring liquid of pain and sorrow come from my eyes. It made its way over my cheeks, and onto the floor. I hate crying in front of people, it makes me look weak and useless, but what can you do? Other than mourn for those we've lost? I need some time... alone. I attempted to get up, but several fierce pains pinned my body to the ground. I tried to look, and found bandages wrapped on my limbs, with crimson stains. Damn it all. I can't move. At least without pain. "What's the damages, Doc?" I asked our medic, Taylor. "Well, from what I can tell, you've got several lacerations from shrapnel and rocks. Nothing major, I've been able to remove pieces from the deep wounds, I wouldn't worry about the smaller wounds now." Taylor replied. "Can I walk?" I asked. "Because it hurts like hell when I try to move." "It's might be the alcohol, it's probably been sitting there ever since I applied it twenty minutes ago. The rest of it should evaporate when you start to move, but it will sting a lot." He replied. "Great." I said. "Here goes nothing." I got up. That... was the second worst choice I've made today. I had to put my sleeve in my mouth and bite hard to prevent myself from what I thought would result in me spazzing on the wooden floor. I was biting so hard that my teeth began to ache after the ordeal. I recovered, but everything still hurt. "What happened when I was out?" I later asked. "Well, when we saw you, you were pretty beat up. We managed to get you out of there, but we didn't know if you had died, or what." Fredrick said. "HQ radioed everyone saying that an Equestrian Armored Division stormed through our lines, and killed a lot of our guys. They're saying that air support is on its way now to stop the ERA advance." "What kind of aircraft are on the way?" I asked. "Mainly dive bombers, attackers, and fighters." He replied. "The skies looked crowded earlier. How will they get through in one piece?" I said. "They probably won't. The skies are still crowded." George said. "So much for the flyboys." I said. I looked around for my SAR, but to my misfortune, it was no where to be seen. I then remembered that it was blown off of me during the skirmish with the ERA antitank team. I should have grabbed it on my way out. "Uh... do any of you have a spare gun?" I was later informed that the DAF was losing ground fast, and were losing a lot of troops and vehicles. HQ wanted everyone to stay in one spot before air support arrived, which the last time I checked was in ten minutes. Anything can go wrong in ten minutes. My squad met up with a retreating tank squad, and we hitched a ride aboard the tanks to get to the rally point HQ had set up. It wasn't a very eventful ride, until we got to the rally point, it was in complete discord. It was so badly packed that they couldn't correctly organize a defense to hold the position. Luckily, we managed to get reorganized and dig in right before the first wave of ERA tanks was encountered. It was ear rape, to say the least, because big guns and little guns were going off everywhere from both sides, with the occasional blood curdling scream. Tracers and magic bolts were flying through the air, as pegasi and biplanes attempted to strafe our troops. The battle was escalating fast, and it got to the point where troops engaged the ponies in close combat. My squad was close to the front, so we saw some nasty things. Mangled Human and Equestrian corpses lay every where. Some traumatized men continued to stab the corpses of fallen foes with their bayonets and trench knives, while some just sat and watched everything unfold before them. I had walked away from my squad to report to another squad, when a pegasus flew in and tackled me to the ground. I lost my grip on the replacement SAR and it flew out of my hands. The stallion had his beady eyes staring at me in fear and rage, as he tried to stab me with his knife. We were rolling in the dirt, I was throwing punches and trying to keep him from stabbing me. "I'm going to kill you!" He said angrily, and continued his attempt to impale me. I managed to turn the fight in my favor, as I gripped the knife, and slowly forced my way to his throat. "Wait. No. No, no!" He said panicking. The knife got closer to his throat. "Please, no! No! NO!" He began to yell. "PLEASE! NO!" The knife was a millimeter away from his neck. "NOOOO-" His cries for mercy became gurgles as the knife penetrated the artery and through the throat. "You would've done the same." I said coldly, before ending his misery. I retracted the knife from his neck, and thrusted it into his unprotected head. The gurgles stopped, as well as the jerky movements. I immediately let go of the knife, and got up off my haunches. I stared at the motionless body, he had a brown mane and tail with a blue coat. "NOO! MUSTANG!" A voice yelled above me. It was a mare pegasus. She went over to "Mustang's" corpse and began to sob on him. I pulled out my pistol in case she got any funny ideas- no, when she gets any funny ideas. I had her in my irons and waited for any hostility from her. She turned to stare at me. "You... you... YOU BAS-" She yelled before a bullet pierced her forehead and sent blood and gore all over the ground behind her. The mare's head jerked forcefully backwards, and her limp body fell onto the stallion's corpse, which was still bleeding. It was horrible, but it had to be done. I left the scene and realized I was still in a war. It was a miracle I could hear the ponies voices at all, what with all of the gunfire and explosions. I had forgotten about the mission, and I remembered what I was headed out for. There was a problem that presented itself greatly, it was the fact that the air support was being engaged by ERA fighters, and it was going to delay the support by a lot. We were fighting hard, but the DAF wasn't designed to dig in and stay alive for as long as possible, especially when the enemy had the advantage. When the defensive line was breached, ERA forces flooded in, and it was a flipping massacre for both sides. In order to avoid more casualties, we had to either withdraw our forces from San Fransiscolt, or risk everyone alive being captured and sent to "Equestrian Death Camps", which is a fate worse than death. The DAF made its choice to abandon all hope in capturing the city in the current state its in. Our forces began to retreat, and the Equestrians took the ground we just lost. The dive bombers could've changed the tide of the battle if they had showed up in time. They did show up and did bomb their targets, but by then it made no difference. We had suffered the painful first defeat in the Equestrian campaign. My squad made it back to the trucks, and I sat in the back this time, to fill the empty space where one man used to sit. I knew everyone in the truck was staring at me, while I gazed at the floorboards of the truck in awe and disbelief. We were bound to lose one battle eventually, but it always hurts when you do. "Sir?" Gordon said. "What now?" ... I don't really know. So I cried my problems away, sobbing in my folded arms. I mourned for Jacob. I mourned for the DAF. I mourned for all the Equestrians I've killed. I mourned for being put into this terrible existence. ... I mourned for my family on Earth. I remembered their faces, their voices. I sobbed more. I looked out of the truck, to see the burning city, the DAF forces in full retreat, and the Equestrians raising their flag high over one of the buildings. I closed my eyes and rested. At least I had my brothers here with me. Three days later The bombers were flying high over San Fransiscolt, dropping their deadly ordinance onto the ERA. I'll tell you, those four engine bombers can fly pretty far. Since we have few airfields here, those bombers had to come in from Antonia. I think that's far enough. First, there was artillery bombardment of the city, then came the aerial bombardment. It was one hell of a light show, to say the least. You could see magic bolts flying upwards towards the DAF bombers, and 700 lb. bombs detonating in the city. I saw an explosion in the sky, and saw a bomber, smoke and fire spewing from its engine, plummet to its doom. That was about ten men lost in that plane. It fell into the devastated city, and was swallowed up by a huge fireball. I looked away, and went back to what I was going to do. I walked passed a "POW pen" and saw the mare I had taken prisoner, who turned out to be an officer. We got some juicy information regarding the loss at San Fransiscolt from her. She looked at me, and must have recognized the markings on my helmet, because she cowered away from me, realizing who I was. I just looked away. "You... You're the one who-" "Who took you prisoner. Yes, it was me." I replied. "Why didn't you kill me?" She asked. "It wasn't an option." I replied, walking away from the cage. I approached the field officer's tent, and went in. "Sergeant Mathew reporting as ordered, sir." I said, giving a salute. One of my platoon officers, F.O. 'Johnny', returned the salute. "Mathew, we've got a lot to talk about."