Five-Oh-Sink
Baker
I never asked to be squad leader, but I had no choice. In Normandy I had thirteen soldiers under my command. Thirteen men depended on me to make the right decisions and not get them killed. Thirteen families relied on me to bring their husbands and sons home. Thirteen. Thirteen is not a lucky number. I failed seven of those men. I’ll be damned if I fail any of these before I get them back home.
September 20th
Sink, Cole, Mac, Baker, and several other officers were standing over a map of their target are in a tent, going over the battle plan. The griffons had already seized most of the roads leading to Ponyville. Today would mark the beginning of the battle to reclaim them.
They were about to begin when Twilight entered the tent. She was followed by a larger, white unicorn stallion.
“Matt, I want you to meet my brother, Shining Armor,” she said. “He’s the captain of the Royal Guards.”
“I just wanted to thank you in person for saving my guards,” he said. “And ask if I could watch you plan the battle.”
“Why do you want to know our battle plan?” Cole asked. “Are planning on helping us?”
“I’m afraid most of my guards are busy dealing with griffon incursions elsewhere,” he said. “But, I figured seeing experienced leaders do it would be a good learning experience.”
“Wait, so you’ve never even lead troops into battle?” Mac asked. “Great, talk about SNAFU.”
“Is that another of those German words?” Twilight asked, causing Mac to give her a confused look. “I asked a soldier who spoke German and he just laughed at me.”
“Uh, let’s just get back to the briefing,” Mac suggested. “Col. Sink, what’s the plan, sir?”
“Well, we’ve noticed that while the town is the major center, there are several small, unnamed concentrations of buildings spread out along the roads; they’re quite similar to the hamlets in France.”
“That’s good news,” Baker said. “We’ll have some sort of experience to go on.”
“Yea, this particularly large cluster right here sits on a river next to a wooden bridge,” Sink said, pointing to the map. “We’ve given it the codename Carolina.”
“And you want us to take it and the bridge, right sir?” Cole asked.
“That’s right,” he responded. “I’ve already asked artillery to fire a short but intense barrage before the attack. We’re also operating heavily in other sectors today, so there’ll be no reinforcements available; but, I’m going to lend you Easy company from one of my battalions in the 506 to assist. And one more thing; we’ve been receiving sporadic mortar and artillery fire lately. We do have reason to believe they have 8 or 12 Pounder cannons and howitzers. If you find any, take them out. Good luck, Cole.”
“Yes sir,” Cole responded. “Ok, we’ll send Fox in to take the town with Easy. We’ll split up our platoons so we’ll have one moving down each flank to cover the center one’s assault. We’re going to try a broad front advance. Baker, since your squad’s already seen combat against these creatures, your platoon gets the honor of playing center.”
“Yes sir,” Baker replied.
Stepping outside, he saw the men gathering their gear. Some of the men were talking with their new friends. Franky seemed to be trying to calm down his new girlfriend, or marefriend as Baker had learned.
“You got let me go at some point,” Franky said while Lyra grappled him in a hug.
“You promise you’ll come back?” she asked.
“I promise,” he said.
“And in one piece?”
“I’ll be fine,” he assured her.
“Alright, but you’d better come back,” she said, kissing him and finally releasing her hug.
The men moved through the woods quietly in the direction of the town. It was a clear, warm day with good visibility. Upon coming closer, they heard the impact of artillery shells hitting their targeted area in the village. Coming close to the tree line, the village came into view. There was a short distance of open fields that separated the forest and village, with the only cover being a small shack.
The men stopped moving in columns and spread themselves out; crouching and moving to the tree line and taking cover behind the trunks. While the other troops kept watch, a squad of men from Easy ran out of the tree line and towards the nearest building in the village; a three story café.
Suddenly, a machine gun opened fire from the bottom window, killing two men and forcing the other two to take cover behind the shed. Small arms fire also opened up from the top windows; focusing on the troops taking cover in the forest, who took cover behind the various tree trunks.
“Hey, where the fuck is everybody!?” the sergeant hiding behind the shed yelled upon seeing that him and the other soldier were alone and pinned in the open. “Where did everybody go!?”
“I have no idea!” the soldier replied.
“Christ we gotta get the assault moving!” one of the sergeants yelled, trying to get his men up. “We can’t afford to get pinned down here!”
Baker quickly thought of a solution.
“Jasper!” he called out. “Bring up the bazooka!”
The gunner and his loader moved up to one of the farthest trees. Jasper holstered the large green tube, which he named Stella, after his girlfriend. He shouldered it and took aim while Connor loaded a round into the back.
“Target MG!” Baker called out, spotting for him. “In that café! Bottom floor, left window!”
“I got him!” Jasper replied.
“Take him out!” Baker replied.
“Firing!”
The rocket flew out of the launcher, across the field, and into its intended target. There was a large explosion where the window was and the clearing smoke revealed a large hole. The shooters on the upper floors must have been stunned by this new weapon, as they stopped firing as well.
“Ok, everyone move! Now!” one of the sergeants yelled.
“Third squad, move in!” Baker ordered.
“Second squad, go!” Harstock ordered.
“Easy and Fox, move in and secure the buildings,” a nearby Lieutenant ordered. “Watch yourself in close quarters!”
The troops hustled across the field and towards the town. One of the surviving griffons tried to run out the front of the café, but was shot by an Easy Company soldier. Another Easy trooper threw a grenade into the top floor.
“Ok, let’s keep advancing down the main road through town,” Baker told Hartsock. “We have to get to the bridge!”
The men moved down the street while the Easy soldiers cleared out the houses. There was a constant sound of weapons firing. The men moved from cover to cover; always at the ready and getting the better of a few enemies that popped out of the buildings during their advance.
About halfway through town, they saw another squad from another Easy platoon advancing close by down the left flank. Suddenly, there was a loud crack and one of the men fell dead. Most of the squad ran into the safety of a nearby alley. One soldier, being too far away, dived for cover behind a picket fence.
“Sniper!” one of the men yelled as the Fox men found their own cover.
The sniper singled out the soldier near the fence, and bullets began to tear his cover apart.
“Ah, shit!” he yelled. “Help!”
“Sergeant, can you take out the sniper!?” the Easy squad leader yelled to Baker.
“Where is he?” Baker asked.
“He’s in that small bell tower near the market square!”
“Jas, you see the bell tower?” Baker asked.
“I got it, sarge!”
“Ok, topple it!” Baker order.
Jasper fired the rocket, which hit its target. The top of the spire collapsed and fell backwards. The rest was seen to catch fire.
“Thanks!” The Easy sergeant said before turning to the private. “You okay?”
The relieved soldier gave a smile and a thumbs up.
Baker and his men moved towards the market square. It was a large, rectangular, two story building. Baker sent the assault team to enter through a rear exit on one side while he and the fire team entered through the front.
Zanovich and Dawson stacked up on both sides of the door. Dawson readied a grenade and Zanovich readied his BAR. Baker gave the order and Zanovich kicked the door down before spinning back to his side of the wall. Dawson tossed a grenade in and, upon hearing an explosion and muffled screams, the four men entered. Franky shot a wounded one that was trying to get up and Zanovich got one that was coming down the stairs. They heard muffled explosions and gunfire from the room on the other side of the building before someone spoke.
“Matt, we’re coming through the door,” Corrion said. “Hold fire.”
The squad regrouped and took a tally; ten enemies dead, five in each room.
“Alright, go ahead and clear out the top floor,” Baker ordered.
“You herd the man!” Corrion said. “Let’s move!”
Baker was going to join them when he noticed something familiar on a nearby table. He stopped and walked over to it slowly. Picking them up, he couldn’t believe what he was holding.
They were a pair of glasses; specifically, glasses that had belonged to one private Kevin Leggett. All the memories came flooding back; what happened with Leggett and his death at Hill 30. But, how did they end up here?
A large explosion and the shattering of windows reminded him of where he was. It also reminded him of what Sink had told him about the artillery. The rest of his men came jogging down the stairs.
“Upstairs clear sir,” Zanovich reported.
“Alright, now all we have to do is take the bridge,” Baker said. “Move out!”
As the troops in the town converged on the bridge, a dug in 12 pounder cannon on the other side began to lob high explosive cannonballs at them. They also came under heavy return fire from across the river.
“Keep moving!” an officer yelled. “We can’t get bogged down here!”
Baker was taking cover in a house by the doorway. Looking over he saw Hartsock taking cover behind a wagon closer to the bridge. Taking a deep breath, he ran out the doorway and across the road. A soldier was hit and fell down in front of Baker, but he hopped over and continued; barely reaching the cover with Hartsock.
“I count fifteen, maybe sixteen to the bridge!” Hartsock yelled. “Not to mention that arty lobbing shells at us! There’s no telling when the Colonel will show up!”
“I think, with both our squads, we can put enough fire on them to push them back until he does,” Baker said. “On three.”
“Three!” they both yelled.
The men ran towards the bridge, still taking heavy fire. As they got closer to the bridge, there was a massive explosion and wood went flying everywhere. Baker was knocked on his back; one of the larger, sharper pieces of wood landing in front of him and nearly impaling him. Hartsock helped him back on his feet.
“You spend more time on your back than Paddock’s sister,” he joked.
“Fuck you, Red!” Paddock replied.
“Sonuvabitch!” they turned around to meet a very unhappy Col. Sink. “Get across that river and take that artillery and secure the goddamn area!”
Looking closely at the river, they saw the water was about waist high, so they decided to cross on foot.
“Let’s move!” Hartsock yelled.
Troops waded into the water and attempted to get across. They came under heavy fire from the other side. Some troops were hit; with the soldier in front of Baker getting hit in the head. Some of the men took cover behind the debris in the river and returned fire.
Mortars also came into play now. The first round was close, landing a ways away. The second was closer, knocking a few troops down. The next round found a target, sending a soldier’s body flying before it fell back into the river. The final round was closest; it hit and killed a group of three soldiers and caused Baker to lose his balance and fall under the blood-strewn waters. As he got back, he could have sworn he saw Leggett’s glasses float by.
As the men exited the river, the first initial cover was a long wooden fence. They quickly pushed forward and secured better cover in the form of a stone wall. The main target was the artillery and mortars, dug in deep in the center of the road in between some houses. Jasper tried to hit it with a rocket, but it hit the dirt instead. It was also protected by MG’s, so rushing it was not an option.
“Red, can you clear the houses while we deal with the artillery?” Baker asked.
“Yea, we’ll handle it.”
“Alright, Zano,” Baker said. “You and the support team lay down fire and keep them occupied! Corrion, you’re with me!”
The two teams fired heavily on the dirt and sandbag emplacement while Baker and the assault team ran towards one of the houses flanking it. The artillery did try to fire directly on them; luckily, its aim wasn’t very good. The four troops sprinted to the side of the house and, after seeing it was clear, climbed through a window.
While McCreary and Courtland checked upstairs, Corrion and Baker moved to a window close to the emplacement. They spotted an opening and both readied a grenade. Baker opened it quietly and the two tossed the explosives into the hole. There was a large explosion and the entire enemy position turned into a black hole in the ground; apparently the grenades had found the artillery’s ammo boxes.
More men mad it across the river. The rest of the houses were cleared. The remaining griffons ran a short ways outside to try and fly away. A machine gun team form Easy got into a position in a window by a house. Firing mercilessly at the running targets, they got about half of the group before the rest took off.
The troops regrouped and reorganized. Baker and Hartsock walked to the bridge to examine the damage. It was completely gone; no salvaging.
“How you gettin’ back across the river?” Sink yelled to Baker and Hartsock from the other side.
“What did he say?” Baker asked.
“Dunno,” Hartsock replied. “My ears are still ringing.”
They made some hand gestures asking Sink to repeat the message.
“How the sam hell you getting’ back across the river?”
“Ok, that time I definitely heard ‘liver’; maybe he’s drunk,” Hartsock joked. “We’ll just swim back across the liver sir!”
“Ok,” Sink replied.
The troops returned triumphantly to their camp on the outskirts of Ponyville. Though the bridge had been destroyed, it could be replaced. Also, they had seized the area and bested their enemy in a real battle.
Moving back in, they arrived in time to see the end of what looked like a magic show. It didn’t surprise Baker much; the ponies had been doing all sorts of things to show their gratitude since the troops arrived. What surprised him was that the magician, a blue unicorn with a cape and an odd hat, trotted up to where he sat when it was all over.
“That was quite a show you put on,” Baker said. “At least from the parts I saw.”
“But of course,” she replied. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is the best magician in Equestria, after all.”
“Well, this one’s humble," Baker sarcastically thought.
“You are the leader of those soldiers who rescued the guards, correct?” she asked.
“Yea, that was my squad,” he said. “The name’s Baker.”
“You and your men seem to get a lot of praise for what you do,” she continued. “Everypony holds you as heroes.”
“Well, I guess if everyone say’s we’re heroes, then I suppose we are,” Baker said. “Anyways, is there something you wanted to ask me?”
“Yes,” she replied. “The Great and Powerful Trixie would like to offer her assistance and join your unit.”
“What?” Baker replied, confused.
“To fight with you.”
“Oh,” Baker said. “Well that’s kind of you, but we can take care of ourselves. I really don’t think you could help much; you haven’t seen combat, aren’t trained, unequipped, and you’d only be putting yourself in danger.”
“What!?” she yelled. “Trixie is more than capable of taking care of herself. In fact, Trixie could be the best soldier in your unit!”
“What’s with the speaking in third person?” Baker wondered. “Must have to do with her ego.”
“Look, I think you’re overestimating yourself and underestimating the challenge,” Baker said. “In war, it gets bad; real bad.”
“Trixie is not afraid,” she said confidently. “She could easily help win your battles and the recognition that goes with them.”
She probably shouldn’t have said the last part.
“Wait, that’s what you’re after!?” Baker said. “You’re looking for medals and glory; not fighting for what’s right or the men besides you!”
“And?” Trixie added. “Trixie wants the recognition she deserves; and a war seems to be the best place to do so.”
“The one’s like you are usually the ones who want to go to war the most,” Baker said, “and you’re usually the one’s getting shot first.”
The two shared a cold stare and a long silence.
“Alright, I know there’s a spell that lets you look at my dreams,” Baker said. “You wanna see what real war is like? Come and see what I dream about every night and you’ll see.”
“Fine, Trixie will!” she said.
Sure enough, she decided to take up Bakers offer. Walking up to where he was sleeping, she readied the spell to teleport her into the dream world; seeing his face twitch gave her the sign that he was having a nightmare. For a moment, she thought about walking away; but, she decided against it.
Launching the spell, she found herself in Baker’s dream. There were six soldiers standing next to a building, one of which was Baker. Another lay on the ground; his hands were wrapped around his thought where he had been shot while he squirmed and turned in the dirt.
“C’mon Rivas, look at me,” one said, trying to help.
“That shot wasn’t far off!” another yelled. “We gotta go!”
“He’s not even dead yet, hang on!” the other replied.
“Obi! Zano! Let’s move!” the red haired one ordered.
“What are you doing!?” asked the crouching one.
“I’m saving your ass!”
The soldier on the ground stopped twitching and lay still on the ground.
“Fuck,” the crouching soldier sighed. “Let’s go.”
She proceeded to watch Baker and his men fight their way through a swamp. Baker, equipped with a sniper rifle, took out most of the Germans there. They hustled under a stone bridge where two other soldiers waited; one she recognized as the Lt. Col. Cole she had heard about.
“This is it; one squad!?” he yelled. “Well shit; today’s as good a day to die as any! If we’re gonna make it up this goddamn causeway alive, we’re gonna have to lay suppressive fire on those Krauts. There’s a helluva lot of Germans out there; and from what I gather they don’t like us too much.”
Cole stood up and the men formed up behind him.
“Let’s go!” he shouted. “Follow me and don’t stop shooting!”
All troops ran up from under the bridge and onto the road. They came under small arms and mortar fire from another swamp to the right. They didn’t stop sprinting; returning fire towards the swamp as they ran along.
Eventually, they made it to the other side safely; where several others were waiting. There was another bridge, but this one was blocked by a gate. The men had to squeeze through one at a time.
“If you wanna live, you’d better suck it in and squeeze through that gate!” a soldier yelled.
The troops began to move through; including one of the men from Baker’s squad. Over the noise of the battle, there was a humming and screaming noise. Two planes flew into the area, aiming for the bridge and releasing a large weapon.
“Desola, look out!” Baker yelled.
There was a large explosion and the dream went to black, but didn’t end. Slowly, the world came back into being. It was morning; and, it was completely quiet. Baker had been knocked out and had been lying on the bridge. His red haired squad mate woke him up.
“Take it easy; you’ve been out for a while,” he said, helping him up.
“Geez I thought you were dead,” the second soldier said. “Matt, Desola didn’t make it.”
The men gathered around the remains of their dead comrade. His entire torso had been blown open; as if a grenade had exploded from inside his chest. The ground around was littered with his innards and blood painted the ground red. The rest of the body, if it could be called that anymore, was blackened.
“It doesn’t make sense,” the red one said. “It doesn’t make any goddamn sense!”
“We gotta go red,” the other soldier said. “Red! We gotta go.”
The men got up and walked slowly down the highway.
Trixie couldn’t take any more after that. She ended it all right there; coming back to the real world with only a look of disbelief on her face. Baker woke up calmly, opening his eye and slowly sitting up.
“Still want to go to war?”
“N-no” she quivered. “I’m s-sorry about everything I said.”
“It’s ok,” Baker said. “I was shocked the first time, too. You just keep doing what you’re already good at.”
“Yea,” she replied. “I think I’ll stick to magic.”
I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! Let me know!
Fun Fact: Did you know the History Channel used footage and animation from BIA in their 2005 special titled 'Brothers in Arms: The Untold Story of the 502nd'? I'm serious, watch the special on this youtube link; it's pretty good. Let me know what you think of it.
Yes, I dared to add Band of Brothers references from the episode 'Carentan' because it's a great show. (Please don't hate me)
Please comment/like/favorite/etc. And thanks again for the great feedback!
I enjoy doing the battle chapters, but it's kind of hard on you. Almost 70 years ago around this time, the heaviest fighting in France was going on. My thanks go out again to those men. We will never forget.
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I KNOW DAMN WELL THAT THIS IS GOING TO ROCK!
And I haven't read it yet!
2902123
Well, let me know if it does!
2902152 It did. Oooh it did.
2902424
Excellent!
I think I saw Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan reference. not sure which one. Got confused between these two.
2903936
Band of Brothers
2914094 I do it a little differently, I type a paragraph on Fimfic, then I copy it on to Microsoft Word, when you do that it won't auto-correct, then I check it over by reading it about ten times. *Mumbles* Normally changing twenty things while I do that because the first version never sounds "right".
Would've been more fun if you showed more reaction from the ponies to the song, maybe it's in the next chapter, I'll find out tomorrow when I read it.
2914110
Right, thanks man. I did things like the songs or what happens with Franky (You'll find out in 'Over by Christmas') just as small add-ons. I figured if you focused too much on them, they'd take away from the main idea.
2914130 I see. As the Doctor would say: Allons-y!
Curious... They arent being offered some Royal Guard unicorns to help minimize losses on frontal assaults, or asking their hosts what magic can do on that situation.
I'm sure its not just Shiny or Twi who can do shields. It may not cover a city, but a shield dome the size of a chevy van is the sort of thing the troops were praying for the scientists to "Buck Rodgers" into existance back then.
Stuff it with seriously POed Airborne troops with the uni in the middle and charge a MG position like a rolling bunker and the birds wont know what hit them!
The Griffs weapons do seem oddly efficient. Most people hit IRL in history were various levels of wounded instead of an outright kill, particularly with the weapon era the griffs are using. (MGs being the exception, a lot of bullets per second tended to mean more DOA)
I wonder if the Griffs are using poison on the bullets...
sure showed trixie some manners AND THIS FIC ROCKS
Grr, Hulk mad, Hulk SMASH!
Erm...what?
See? I'm ever so slowly trudging to the end here.
So Im seeing that wat happens 2 Baker and his squad in Hell's Highway is kinda getting transferred here because only a certain "liver river" joke was in the city battle at the beginning of the game, nice scenario picking on ur part
No...NO NO NOOOOO PLEASE DON'T DIE!! THAT WILL HURT MY FEELS!!!
Please don't die
Your characterization and storytelling made me feel. I BESTOW UPON THEE MY HIGHEST HONOR: REFERENCE MATERIAL!!
I`m pretty damn sure that you got Baker's dream from Road yo Hill 30, the prequel of Hell's Highway
Okay so - I like this story quite a lot, but you've made the lieutenant from Easy company a sergeant. Story earned my like still though!
Told Trixie what for!
2902152 i see a spelling error its river not liver