• Published 10th Oct 2015
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BLITZ - The Commandant



Two opposing soldiers on two different fronts must fight for their survival in a war they did not wish to be in.

  • ...
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Chapter 15 - Hoofington Part 1

Twenty three days later

I think I speak for everyone when I say I hate snow.

It's wet, it's freezing cold, and it forces all of us to change to the winter variant of the SAU. You have to sew on all the patches, and it takes hours. It sucks. Though, the fact that the winter jacket is more insulated than the summer one is a plus, except when you're doing all kinds of physical labor, then it still sucks.

Though, a few weeks ago the higher ups decided it would be a good idea for everyone to take mandatory classes about the AR-1, which is what I desperately needed. I finally know how to take the damn thing apart without getting extremely confused, or without jacking up halfway through. The classes themselves only took a few days to complete, and they were usually a few hours long. The great thing about the AR-1 is how surprisingly accurate it is for an Assault Rifle, but it obviously isn't a sniper. I guess the reason they had these classes available is because the AR-1 is slowly replacing the SAR-2 as the standard infantry weapon, and the SAR-2 lacks a fast rate-of-fire.

On the subject of infantry, the campaign in Northern Equestria has kicked off without a hitch, and things have been running smoothly for them, which means we are definitely getting to Canterlot. However, because of a few setbacks, like the Mk 2 Starswirl, we won't get there until next year.

The Mk 2 Starswirl is the magic tank we encountered in Sydneigh, and luckily, we've already figured most of it out. The Mk 2, from what I understand, uses magic amplifiers to heavily increase the output of the magic being cast by a unicorn sitting in the middle of the tank. The Mk 2 also has what most of us call a "Spell Caster", which was the weird thing strapped onto the front of the turret. There really isn't an engine, so to speak, it's all run by magic, which can be really cheap to manufacture if the material they use to make the amplifiers wasn't so rare. It would explain why the tank didn't explode or catch fire when it was hit. Even though our tanks aren't that resource efficient, we don't really have to worry about it that much since all our resources are free and practically infinite.

The major weakness of the Mk 2 is it's most powerful feature; the spell caster. The reason can be explained through the law of conservation, stating that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. Because the weapon requires massive amounts of magic to cast just one spell, the unicorn has to divert all power to the Spell caster, leaving the Mk 2 as a sitting duck. The armor of the Mk 2 has to be light enough for the "engine" to operate properly, so it leaves the crew severely exposed, but it only remains like this for a few seconds before the spell is cast, and the shield is once again raised. In those few seconds, you could fire off a single round and kill everyone inside pretty easily.

Though, I guess no matter what Equestria throws at us, we'll still brush it to the side as if it doesn't really matter.

"Hey, Mat? You got a sec?"

I turned to look behind me, and saw Anthony in the doorway, though his expression was telling me he wasn't really happy to discuss whatever he had on his mind.

"Yeah, I got a few." I replied, standing up from the desk I was sitting at. "Whatcha need?"

"I gotta tell you something, and I think it would be best to tell you outside." He replied, walking outside.

I got up and followed him out into the frozen forest, the snow crunching beneath my boots. I knew wasn't going to like what I'm about to hear, but I'd rather discuss it inside of the warm shack I was in.

"Mat," Anthony said, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I, uh... got some news from Jonathan. He, uh... he said that Johnny's been arrested."

...

"...what?" I said, stunned. "What for?!"

"I... I don't think I should say-"

"What the hell did he do wrong?!" I yelled, throwing Anthony's hand off my shoulder.

"He... he raped some of the female POWs we captured a few days ago..." Anthony said quietly. "The MPs had caught him with two other guys... and they had at least seven mares... two were civilians."

My gaze fell towards the ground, the moonlit snow glistening in the night, and I began to fall towards the earth. Anthony caught me before my head hit the ground, and he rested me in his arms.

"Why...?" I sobbed, laying my head on his shoulder. "Of a-all the officers in the DAF, w-why Johnny?!"

"I... I don't know, Mathew..." Anthony said, starting to cry himself. "I don't know why he would do that..."

"This isn't fair... why can't we just go home? Back to Earth?" I asked. I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear something different.

"I don't know..." Anthony said, trying to comfort me, and himself.

Then, something began to build up inside me, a weird sense that I could only describe as a mad rage, a hatred against the world I'm in. Eventually, it was too much. I shot straight up and ran as fast as I could towards one of the POW pens, Lucy was in my right hand.

"Mat!" Anthony yelled, trying to catch up with me.

By the time Anthony had caught up with me, I was already holding one of the POWs at gunpoint. The mare had absolutely no idea what was going on, so she began to scream for her life, which only made me more upset.

"Mat! Put the pistol down!" Anthony yelled.

I didn't respond.

"Mat, this doesn't make anything better! Killing her won't fix this!" Anthony yelled. "She hasn't done anything to affect the outcome of Johnny's fate! He, and he alone decided to do those things!"

I loosened my grip, but I still wanted vengeance for Johnny, so I still didn't respond.

"Mat... Just think!"

...

Dammit... he's right...

...

I put the mare back into the POW pen and walked off without saying anything. I could feel the mare's eyes stabbing me in the back of the head, as well as Anthony's.

...

I hate my life.


Two days later

"I wish the brass would get us some dry socks soon, or I think I'm gonna get trench foot or something."

"Y-yeah... I th-hink my balls are fr-rozen."

"Uh, socks won't keep your nuts warm, unless you're weird and... You know what? I'm not even going to finish that statement."

"D-damn... what I w-would do for a f-fire right now..."

"Hey, you could walk over to the Equestrians and ask them if we can borrow some clothing from them. I think they'll oblige."

"Real funny, sir."

I stood up from my sitting position inside of a terribly muddy and frozen trench, and walked past a few of the guys I was talking to. Our situation here reminded me of the Battle of the Bulge, especially since there were going to be paratroopers dropping into Hoofington pretty soon. The lack of good winter wear, rations, ammunition, and most of all, experienced men, makes it very reminiscent of the Ardennes. Though, there weren't any German Panzer units surrounding us, and we aren't technically American troops, even though that's where we, or he, originated from.

The DAF is apparently field testing the paratrooper idea by putting men into CT-4d Cargo planes and making them jump out at around 500 feet in altitude with parachutes, while carrying almost a hundred pounds of gear. The infantry (which is what I am) and Armor will be waiting for the planes to fly over and drop the paratroopers into the city, only then will we begin our offense. For now, we have to wait in a stupid trench, with no fire, no lights, and no randomly running out of the forest close to Hoofington without the proper clearance. I would only expect a newbie to run out into the battlefield, completely exposed. That reminds me...

"Hey, Zachary." I said.

"Yes, sir?" He replied, getting up from his cozy spot inside the trench.

"I have to tell you something. Come over here." I said.

"Yes, sir." Zachary replied, walking over to me. "What do you need, sir?"

"First off, how are you not freezing?" I asked, noticing that he wasn't wearing much.

"I don't know." He replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I guess I'm warm blooded."

"...we all are warm blooded." I stated.

"Uh... Right, right." Zachary said, nodding excessively.

"Uh... oh, right," I said to myself, trying to remember what I had Zachary over here for, "I wanted to talk about what you did a while back."

"Oh? What about it?" He asked, shooting me a curious glance.

"Well... I want to congratulate you." I said. "You're getting a promotion, and I think you've earned this one."

Zachary stared at me with a face that said 'Whaaaat?' on it. Then he leaned forwards and hugged me tightly.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Zachary said quickly and excitedly.

"Urgh... you're welcome, C-Corporal." I grunted.

"Oh, sorry sir. I didn't mean to crush you." Zachary said sheepishly.

"It's fine." I said.

"I can't believe I actually got a promotion!" Zachary exclaimed, jumping around like an excited child.

"Shhh!" I whispered, hushing Zachary. "Be a little quieter in your rejoicing. You don't want to give us away yet."

"Oh... sorry sir." Zachary replied.

"...it's fine. You just need to go and grab your new ranks, and then you'll officially be a Corporal."

"Alrigh- I mean, yes sir. Thank you, sir." Zachary said hurriedly, and walked off towards one of the few supply depots.

I rolled my eyes and went back into my spot in the trench, hoping that the planes would get here sooner.

"Hey! I see them! Just over the trees!" One man called out.

Every one turned to look behind us at the supposed fleet of incoming planes. At first, I couldn't see or hear anything other than the chatter from the guys all around me, but then I saw some barely noticeable dots in the night sky. Eventually, the distant roar of a thousand engines could be heard fast approaching us, and I could see most of the cargo planes' silhouettes.

"About time..." I said to myself.

The planes roared overhead and continued flying towards Hoofington. We still had to wait for the guys inside the planes to actually jump out and land in the city.

"I see a chute!" One guy called out. "Look, another one!"

Soon enough, the sky over Hoofington was filled with paratroopers ready to land and take on their designated targets. It was something to see all those men fall slowly towards the earth. That's about when the Equestrians finally woke up and began to fire at the planes above, flak shells exploding only a few hundred feet in the air.

"It's time! Go, go, go, go!" Someone yelled, causing everyone to launch themselves out of the trench and towards Hoofington.

The armor, having noticed the infantry running towards the city, began to drive forwards and follow the infantrymen. Some of the men weren't expecting the tanks to move forwards yet, so they were almost run over in their stupor.

Our squad ran full sprint towards Hoofington in the hopes of finding a place to dig in for a bit before we advanced further into the city. Above me, more planes were flying overhead, but some of them were dive bombers and attackers instead of cargo planes. The bombers began doing the job they were made for, and started unloading onto the city. With every bomb that was dropped, the cityscape became more hellish, as the orange glow that came from the fires burning in some of the wooden buildings made everything look like it was in hell. It was starting to scare me, so I could only imagine what the others were feeling.

"Come on guys! Not that much further!" I said, somewhat out of breath.

"My feet are killing me! Argh!" Zachary exclaimed, slowing down some. "I don't think I can go on..."

"Zachary, you haven't quit on me before, so don't quit on me now! Not when we're so close!" I said, trying to encourage him in some way.

"I... Ugh... It's so hard!" Zachary grunted.

"Just a few more yards!" I said, trying to get him going again. "If not for me, then do it for the possibility of getting home!"

That little phrase seemed to do it for him, right until we came up to some of the houses. When we walked inside the house, Zachary had collapsed onto the wooden boards, his fatigue finally subduing him.

"Hey, someone try to get him up, we don't have time to lay around." I said, walking towards a broken window.

"Yes sir." Someone replied.

As I looked through the broken window, I saw several planes still bombing Hoofington, even though our guys were now inside the city. Then I saw a few ponies that were not that far from where we were.

"Contacts! Four of them!" I said, gesturing everyone to the windows.

I unslung my AR and aimed as best I could at the unsuspecting ponies, who seemed terrified to leave their comfy spot.

"Fire on my command." I said, putting one of the ponies in my iron sights. "Fire!"

Everyone began to open fire, making me want to cover my ears just because of how loud it all was. I had barely hit my target, hitting her in the neck, just a few inches below an instant kill shot. The ponies had no time to react, and we managed to kill or fatally wound them within a few seconds.

"Sir, are there any more bogies?" Steven asked, scanning the snowy landscape in front of us.

"Uh... none that I see. You guys see anything?" I asked, getting only a few shrugs from the guys. "Alright, let's move out then."

I bashed a good sized hole in the window frame using the butt of my Attack Rifle, allowing me to climb through, though I don't know why I didn't use the door. The others followed me through, and landed on the crunchy snow that continued to fall from the sky.

We raced through a few houses, but found all of them completely abandoned, as if the civilians just got up and left without taking anything with them. As we approached the more densely populated part of Hoofington, close quarters combat became more common because of the heavy fighting going on here. We were traveling cautiously through the open streets between bombed out and burning buildings, spotting a few smoldering corpses of the ponies that were trapped in the burning structures.

"Jesus... this is terrifying." George said.

"No shit." Bill said.

BOOM!

The building in front of us explodes as it was hit by an artillery shell. Another artillery shell landed on another building close to us, making the house collapse.

"ARTILLERY! GET TO COVER!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Everyone scrambled to get out of the streets, hiding behind buildings to avoid the arced artillery barrage. My veins were pumping with adrenaline as I ran for cover, fearing for my life and everyone else's. As the barrage carried on, more houses and buildings began to explode all around us, making this truly terrifying.

"What's the status?!" I asked Anthony, trying to yell over the carnage.

"I have no idea!" Anthony yelled back to me, displaying the face of a man who was as terrified as me. "Is this friendly arty?!"

BOOM!

"Fred! Contact HQ to see if our artillery is barraging our coordinates!" I yelled, trying to figure this out.

"Alright sir! I'm on it!" Fredrick replied, setting up his radio.

"I don't think it's gonna let up anytime soon! You sure this is the best place to hide, sir?" George asked, yelling over the explosions.

"No! This isn't the best place to hide!" I admitted. "But so far it's pretty much the only place we can hide!"

"Alright! I trust you, sir!" George replied, and tried to look confident.

I turned to look towards Anthony, who was also trying to figure out how to get out of this situation.

BOOM!

"AAHH!" Someone yelled.

I immediately turned back around to look for the person that screamed, only to see George lying on the ground with a plank of wood sticking in his abdomen. It took only moments for me to form a response.

"TAYLOR! GET OVER HERE, NOW!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Alright! I'm coming!" Taylor yelled back, running full sprint towards us.

"Shit, shit, shit..." I said quickly to myself, unsure of what else to do. "Uh... SHIT!"

"Oh, God damn... Uh..." Taylor exclaimed when he reached us. "Let me get to work..."

"AAGH! IT'S AGONIZING!!" George screamed while kicking his legs and flailing his arms. "GET IT OUT!!"

BOOM!

"No... No! I ain't dealing with this anymore!"

I turned to look behind me, and saw Zachary running away from our position.

"Z... ZACHARY! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" I yelled, standing to my feet. "THAT'S AN ORDER!"

However, Zachary didn't turn around, but kept running forwards and eventually disappeared behind a building.

"Shit..." I said, trying to process everything that was now unfolding.

A few moments later, I realized that I had pretty much two options with a very little amount of time to execute any of them. I could go after Zachary, but then I would have to leave George with only a few guys keeping him company, or I could stay here and worry about the rest of the squad.

"... Anthony! I'm going after him!" I yelled, starting to walk over to where I saw Zachary last.

"Mat! What about the rest of the squad?!" Anthony asked, extremely distressed by my choice.

"You take care of them, I'll worry about Zachary! Got it?" I asked.

"At least take a few more men!" Anthony said.

"Alright, Bill, Gordon, Jones, Wade, Steven, and Ethan, come with me!" I said, running towards the alleyway Zachary went down.

Just as I went down the alley, I saw Zachary make a right turn and disappear behind another building. I ran as fast as I could down the narrow space between the buildings and turned right to see another alley that lead to another road.

"Zachary! Stop, now!" I yelled, but to no avail.

Zachary ran down the road and deeper into Equestrian territory. I realized this when there were ponies everywhere on the road ahead, and they were probably going to try to kill us.

"Hey sir, we could run through those bombed out buildings and avoid the road!" Ethan said, pointing to the row of destroyed buildings.

"Good idea." I replied, getting ready to run toward the fallen structures. "Let's go, men!"

We ran out from the alley and towards the burning rubble of destroyed homes and businesses. Carefully, we navigated through and over debris that could trip or burn us. We had passed several bodies of dead ponies, who had died in the initial bombing, and the bodies of DAF paratroopers were also present, as they must've landed in the fires that burned when the bombs fell.

"The poor bastards..." Bill said, walking along with a LSMG-4-.45 Submachine gun in his hands. "Didn't even have a chance to fight..."

"No, they didn't." I said, trying to focus on the task at hand.

Zachary had somehow survived his run down the road, and had made a left turn on a T junction ahead. Amidst the rubble, we found an alleyway that hopefully would lead to the road Zachary was on, but when we went into the alley, we encountered a few ERA infantry, alive and ready to cause some serious hurt to us.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, pulling out Lucy and aiming her at the nearest ERA soldier.

I pulled the trigger, but found that I had no ammo in the magazine of the .50 cal pistol. The soldier, who was an earth pony, tackled me to the ground and had overpowered me. I tried kicking him off, but he wouldn't budge. The other guys were engaged in close quarters combat, so I knew I was alone in this fight. Eventually, I realized that the stallion had left my right arm free, so I grabbed for my bayonet and threw it into his side. The stallion screamed in agony as I pulled down on the bayonet and partially cut open his gut.

The stallion let go of me and I pulled the bayonet out of his stomach. After I got up off of him, I bent over to grab the stallion's head, lifting it in the air, and then I continued to slit his throat. I dropped the choking pony and went over to help the other guys deal with the ponies they were engaged with. Eventually, we managed to eliminate all of the ponies in the alley and continue onwards in the wild chase for Zachary.

We managed to find our way out of the alley and onto the road we wanted to be on, but Zachary was nowhere to be seen.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, trying to figure out my next move.

"Uh... Sir?" Jones said. "Is that what I think it is?"

"What are you talking about, Jones?" I replied.

Then I saw what he was looking at; a Mk 2 Starswirl, just sitting there in the middle of the road. The Starswirl was facing away from us, but I wasn't going to take any chances with it, not after what I've seen it do.

"Uhh... We should try to avoid it, if possible." I said, walking cautiously along the sidewalk.

"I can agree." Bill said, following me down the edge of the road.

I was scanning the surrounding area all around us while walking alongside the buildings, and saw a bunch of houses that had just started to burn. I also looked around for any signs of ponies that might be lurking about, as the last thing I needed was another firefight out in the open.

BOOM!

"Sir, look out!" Someone yelled to me.

I turned around just in time to notice a tall building had been knocked over by the explosion, and was about to crush me to a bloody pulp. I jumped to the side away from my squad and barely avoided the falling tower, which spilled pieces of small debris all over me. My helmet made a loud CLANG when it hit the ground, and may have given me some head trauma in the process, because my head hurt like crazy.

"Ugh... H-hey! Guys!" I yelled, trying to communicate with the others. "You guys okay?!"

But all that I received was silence, and it worried me greatly. I looked around the tower to see if there was any obvious way past it, but the damn thing blocked the entire road, and even collapsed some of the buildings on my side of the road.

"Damn!" I exclaimed, wanting to punch the tower that had separated me from my men.

"Hey, you!" Someone yelled, "Infy, get over here!"

I turned to look around, expecting a pony to have a gun aimed at my face, but I only saw what I thought were two paratroopers standing on the other side of the road.

"Who... are you two paratroopers?" I asked from afar.

"No shit, Infy! Get over here, you're completely exposed!" One of the paratroopers said. "The ERA is gonna be crawling all over the place real soon, and they won't wait on you to show up!"

"Alright, I'm coming over!" I replied, running towards the airborne infantry.

When I reached the paratroopers, they dragged me inside the building they were hiding in.

"Firstly, what the hell are you doing here?!" One of the paratroopers asked me.

"Uh, I was looking for one of my men who ran off." I replied, confident in my answer.

"Just a single man?" The paratrooper asked.

"Yeah." I replied.

"You're a squad leader, yes?" The paratrooper asked.

"Yep, that's me." I replied, getting a little annoyed by their questions.

"Then you should know the life of one man isn't as important as the rest. You need to leave." The paratrooper responded coldly.

"Uh... What gives you any authority to tell me what to do?" I asked, unamused.

"My authority matches yours, as I'm a squad leader as well." The paratrooper responded, pointing to his Sergeant chevrons. "It's also a suggestion, Sergeant. You need to leave now and worry about the rest of your squad. Thinking about one man will get everyone else killed! And you look like the kind of man who doesn't want that much blood on your hands."

"My men will be fine for now, I just need to find this one man!" I replied stubbornly, getting frustrated.

"Sergeant, I'm telling you not to do this!" The paratrooper exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air. "For the sake of your men, go back and leave him alone! It's better this way!"

I stood there in deep thought, contemplating everything that has been said to me. Should I go after Zachary, or should I try to find a way back? All my men are important to me, but if what the sergeant said is totally true, then I should worry more about the majority than the minority. Though, I can't just leave Zachary to die, it would plague me forever if I left him for dead...

"Well? What's it gonna be, sergeant? You gonna listen to reason, or are you still hell bent on finding the bastard?" The paratrooper asked, impatiently waiting for a response.

"I... Uh..."

Author's Note:

Sorry for the wait, but here it is! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and be sure to tell me what you thought in the comments!

Thanks for your support! It really helps!

(If anything seems off, it's because I kinda rushed this chapter like last time. I have a terrible habit of that. :applejackunsure:)

I intentionally withheld information in this chapter, just FYI.