Day seven had gone well enough, I suppose. This morning we polished off the last of our main rations, including the wormy bread; so for lunch today, it was the common ordeal of eating the remains of our pemmican while resting our feet and chuffing back as many darts as we could.

I wonder if I can get the Marelboro corporation to sponsor our campaign? After all, they’ve become the new trendy cigarette of choice when they realized that they could use ammonia to improve the flavor and add body to their smokes. The ration cigarettes are… okay… but they’re a cheap local brand. Say what you want about Equestria, they sell excellent cigarettes.

But anyways, these past couple days, I’ve noticed that the terrain has gotten hillier; not only that, but on a clear, sunny day- you could faintly see mountain peaks in the distance. When Mamma and I last traveled to Nalot, the mountain regions were the hardest part to pass through. If we weren’t careful with the map, we could easily get lost within the many mountain trails and cave passes… or if the rumors were true, find ourselves climbing the wrong mountain and becoming slaves.

Again, though- rumors.

The mountain we were heading to was a smaller one which held Goldcairn within its base. Air shafts all around the mountain lead directly into the den, where we would make our grand entrance.

But for tonight, we would be camping outside the walls of Ravenna; a decently sized city about 10 miles south of Goldcairn. The Duke of this city is the king’s cousin- so he’s probably the main reason we were striking the MacDoggal clan first. The Duke was so sure of our victory that he had gold refineries on standby and would eventually arrange for a company to build a railroad between the city and the mine.

We were met with a fucking carnival going on outside the city walls, that’s how hyped these people were. Large tents were there to cater to us one last meal before we descended into the darkness. We received mail from our loved ones, who were told we’d be here by now. I walked into town to get a newspaper and to see what people were saying…

Well- imagine my surprise to see my face plastered all over as propaganda. One photo they used was a picture of me wing saluting and winking at the camera, with the caption “I’m doing my part; so should you!”

Thankfully, this city had a massive bathhouse, which I decided to visit before exploring the city proper. It would’ve been really embarrassing if I smelled like dick cheese whilst being surrounded by this crowd of excited bystanders. I even had my yellow cloak washed.

I looked at them crowding the market, looking at me with shocked expressions. I simply smirked and winked while saluting. “I’m doing my part!” I yelled out, the crowd cheering that they got to meet the, and I quote, “Poster child of griffon pride!”

Immediately, I started getting swarmed with questions- so I knew I had to take control of this mayhem. Overtop one of the shops, I saw a rounded stone balcony.

I pointed up and yelled, “Who owns that balcony, mind if I borrowed it?”

An older hen came up to me and said, Go ahead, dearie. Speak your mind. As you know, every Italian politician worth their salt just had to address a crowd from a balcony, at least once. It was tradition at this point. I leaned against the balcony with a wide grin and waved, and the cheering slowed to make room for what I had to say.

“Name’s Leona. Leona Grimfeather. Imagine my surprise when I saw my face plastered all over the place.” The crowd giggled faintly and I continued, “But really- it is a great honor, all things considered. But let’s not forget the rest of our boys goin’ to the front!”

By this point, I saw Sinan and Adrian approaching the crowd, probably wondering what all the fuss was about.

“I cannot describe, personally, how honorable it feels to have the opportunity to undo an injustice that was done to so many of us, so long ago. It’s an utter travesty that there are children born today which have never seen the true greatness of our nation.” The crowd started shouting out agreement, so I continued- “We bring with us not just promises of a good life, but we are harbingers of a new golden age of Griffonian science and technology!”

The crowd cheered as I basically blew smoke up their asses. “We will see unprecedented prosperity in the wake of this upcoming battle!” The crowd's cheers swelled and hats were tossed in the air. The whole speech I was gesticulating madly as to make sure the media people in the crowd got plenty of good photos. One of said media griffons approached me with a notepad and asked,

“What happens after the MacDoggals are convinced to work with us?” She asked, and I answered.

“Presumably, we’ll continue to hit other clans if they haven’t surrendered. However, I personally believe we should hit the Bushidog clan next, as their mountains are filled with coal, iron, and other good resources. But the end goal, I believe, is total command and control.” The crowd was muttering their approval.

It was starting to get late and dinner would be starting soon, so I didn’t want to miss that. I raised a fist in the air and yelled, “FOR PROSPERITY!” and the crowd echoed back with choruses of PROSPERITY!

It was something I pulled out of my ass at the last second… but that does make a good political slogan. I hope Dee catches up on it. I would write to her my ideas, but that’s too risky. If the king suspects something, he might check our mail.

We all disbanded and I joined Sinan and Adrian on the trek back to camp.

“What in the world was that?” Adrian asked, and I giggled.

“Come on, now. Surely you must have figured out by now I have ambitions beyond being a soldier.” Both my compatriots looked at me incredulously, and I felt a little hurt.

“You? A politician?” Adrian spoke, and Sinan chuckled.

“The big, bad Leona wants to be… a career politician.” He said with a snort. I just huffed in annoyance.

“And you want to be a soldier. How is that less bizarre than my wanting to help run this nation and preventing it from literally going to the dogs?” I said to Adrian with a glare. He stopped walking for a moment and I pointed to him, “My goals and ambitions are my own, thank you very much.” Sinan, never one to give a fuck, just kept moving.

Adrian and I were alone on this dark street, now. “And just what are your ambitions?” He asked, eyebrow raised. I huffed once more, but then chuckled.

“Girl stuff, I guess. How much can I trust you, Adrian?” I asked him, and he held a hand to his heart.

“Whatever’s on your mind, you can trust me with, friend.” He said solemnly, and I smirked.

“I’m a simple gal. I married a pretty girl who helps manage my house and finances. I want to help this nation out of its eternal struggle. Maybe I’ll even have kids someday, who knows.” I got close to him and whispered, “And I want to become the Queen of half the free world.” His eyes widened in shock.

I pulled out a pistol, which was concealed by the yellow cloak. “I’ll ask one more time. Can I trust you?” His face remained straight, not even batting an eye to the barrel held to his chin.

“Leona, I come from a royal family. I’m used to the lying. To the cheating. To the backstabbing. I’m well versed in it. And I also understand posturing.” He said to me with a smug grin, “You’d never shoot me because it’d be against your best interest to.” My eyes widened in surprise.

I nodded my approval and holstered my pistol. With an impressed grin, I said “No one’s ever called me out like that before. Good job. But seriously- we cool?” He snorted with a wide grin.

“If you do wind up in a position of great power, keep me in mind. After this is all over, I’d make a great asset for any court.” I rolled my eyes with a giggle.

“Well, mail your application in and we’ll see. But seriously- I’m always looking for people with certain skills.” We were walking back to camp together side by side, and with a cheeky grin I added, “Like I could always use a court jester.” I said, receiving a wing to the back of the head.

I deserved it.

At the camp outside the city walls, there were large tents which served our meals. It was a pretty big ordeal- all sorts of people volunteered to help our troops and that.

Good news! It turns out, I wouldn’t be dying for want of some good pasta… yet. The cooks heaped a massive pile of homemade spaghetti with meat sauce and grated fresh parmesan cheese on top, served with garlic toast made from fresh Fertilian bread.

For drinks, they had assortments of all sorts of fancy local boozes and wines to taste, as well as plenty of beer… they also had lots of water and juices, if you were a square like I am. I just filled my canteen with apple juice before making my way to the fire that the xanthous team claimed. There was also a bar set up in one of the tents, but we decided not to go.

I took my seat between Sinan and Rosco. Sinan had finished eating and had at some point gotten a guitar from his visit to town, which he was idly strumming at. Adrian and the Twins joined soon, and we were all happily eating our dinners and listening to Sinan strum away.

“Lemme tell ya’s, I’m in heaven right now.” I said, taking a good bite of my spaghetti. “There’s an old Fertilian saying. If you can’t have good food, why live?” I’d already polished off my plate and was considering getting more, but I was already so full.

“Damn straight… Urrp!” Rosco said, punctuating his sentence with a belch. Classy as always.

I set my plate aside and reached into my bag for my mail. “Did ya’s open your mail yet?” I asked, and everyone else reached into their bags. “Guess we’re doing this all at once, eh?”

I had two envelopes which were bigger than normal. It felt like each one had a magazine or something inside it. Everyone else just had standard letters- except for the twins, who got no mail. Kinda felt bad for them.

“Let’s see what my wife sent… woah!” I said when I ripped the envelope open. Inside was the latest issue of Weird Tales, which was a cheap pulp magazine I liked. Apparently, I had just missed the latest issue. There was also a letter from my wife included.

Hey, baby! Not sure when you’ll get this but the bottom line is that I’ve missed you from the second you left. My heart yearns for the day we may meet again, my love <3

Also, a copy of that terribly magazine you like showed up the day after you left~

“It’s not terrible…” I mumbled quietly to myself,

Turn to page 6 for a little surprise~
Until meet again, my love. You’ll be on my mind constantly.

I tilted my head in confusion, wondering what sort of surprise awaited me.

“What do we have here?” I said aloud, pulling the magazine out of its sleeve.

Apparently, I didn’t even have to turn to the page to get the surprise. Two polaroid photos slid out the bottom, and the one that landed face up had a picture of my wifes snatch as the foreground focus.

“AH WHATTHEFUCK” I yelled out, snatching those up quick and holding them against my chest. All the chucklefucks around the campfire started giggling, and Jos spoke up-

“Whew! She must really miss you!” She yelled out, and I slowly pulled the photo away from my chest.

“Mmf… goddamn… Adrian, you might wanna plug your ears tonight.”

“I will do no such thing.” He said sternly, and I just shrugged, throwing the photos and the magazine into my bag. I was about to ask what everyone else got- but then I noticed that Rosco was being pretty quiet.

“You good, bud?” I asked him, and he was just staring at the paper with an expression of utter joy. He slowly looked at us and turned the paper around, pointing towards a certain passage. For his privacy’s sake, I ignored the rest of the letter…

But the part I did read made me want to tackle him into a hug. It said simply; We have another on the way!

“Oh, shit! Congrats, man!” Fin and Jos yelled out in unison, with Fin backing off with a blush.

“Indeed, what wonderful news!” Adrian said, and I nodded in agreement. The only one who wasn’t overtly excited was Sinan- who instead had a bit of a sad look in his eyes, barely even perceptible. I was going to ask why, but then I remembered a crucial detail about hippogriff biology; they’re hopelessly infertile.

Tears rolled down Rosco’s beak. I asked him, “You bankin’ on a son or a daughter this time?” and he looked at me and shrugged.

“Bah, what they are hardly matters! I’m gonna be a daddy again!” I beamed at him and patted his back, grabbing my canteen and raising it in the air.

“Hey, I’ll toast to that!” I yelled, and Rosco laughed.

“I’ll do ya’ one better!” He reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of good ol’ rotgut. He yanked the cork with a satisfying pop and took a big swig, cringing fiercely.

“YEEE-HAWWW!” He yelled out and passed the bottle to me.

“No thanks.” I said a little too fast and perhaps defensively. “Sorry. I just wanted to make sure at least one of us wouldn’t be too hungover tomorrow.” I quickly added, and he shrugged and passed it to Adrian instead. I don’t know why I felt the need to lie about why I didn’t drink, to be honest.

Soon, between the wine and the rotgut, the entire xanthous team was in various stages of tippled and trashed.

“Ya know, hic, Ah wuz savin that fer… fer tomerrer.” Rosco slurred out, his speech barely comprehensible. “But I figger this’s a good enough reason’ fer celebratin’.”

“There’s an ancient tradition amongst my father’s tribe.” Despite the fact that Sinan was pretty drunk, he still spoke quite eloquently. “Where the night before a battle or a fight, they would all party and get drunk- because they know that then might be their last chance.” He took a swig from his canteen, which he told us was filled with wine.

“Kyeh, heheheheee!” Fin burst out into laughter- she was so drunk she was swaying on the log she was sitting on- her sister didn’t fare much better. “Cheers! Ah’ll drink ta’ that.” She said, taking a long pull from the bottle. Jos took it next,

“He he. Yeah.” Apparently, their personalities swap when they get drunk.

I couldn’t help but sigh wistfully. “Wish I had a blunt or something… preferably laced with catnip. Man, I miss Zecora.” I said aloud, and Sinan’s head turned rapidly.

“This… Zecora… does she speak in rhymes?” I blinked twice in surprise.

“Yeah… why?” I asked cautiously, adding “I ain’t a snitch, ya dig?” Sinan shook his head,

“No, no, that’s… She’s an old friend of my father’s. Used to be around all the time when I was little.” He said with a faint smile, “What happened to her, if you don’t mind me asking?”

I just shrugged. “Among other things, she grows some of the best weed I have ever smoked. Apparently she crossbreeds some Zebrican strain with some weird magic Everfree bullshit. Other than that, she just lives on the outskirts of Ponyville. She does brew potions, though.” I said to Sinan, who was looking up at the stars.

“I’ll have to let my father know. Perhaps someday I will be able to visit.” He looked at me and said, “Aunt Zecora was who got me into poetry in the first place… though admittedly, I’m not very good.”

“Fuckin’ small world, isn’t it?” I said, lighting up a cigarette. Then I remembered something-

“Oh, right!” I yelled aloud, pulling the other envelope out of my bag. “Almost forgot Mamma’s letter.” I mumbled to myself. I ripped open the top without looking inside and pulled out the letter.

Hey baby! Dee told me that you’d be doing a lot of marching, so I found this under your bed in Ponyville and figured you’d want some entertainment for the road!

I’ll keep this brief- you’re my sunshine and I love you. Stay safe- that is a fucking order!

I cocked my eyebrow in confusion, wondering what she meant. Without thinking, I yanked the magazine out of its sleeve.

“What the fuck, mom.” It was a copy of Red Rocket magazine, to my embarrassment. And I just pulled it out in front of my whole team. Naturally they all laughed at me, the traitors!

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” I muttered, shuffling the magazine into my bag for later. That was probably to get back at me for all the times I made fun of her while she was in heat.

“Hey, Sinan, give ush a song!” Adrian slurred out. He was quite red-faced, despite the conservative sips he was taking from the bottle.

Sinan hummed in response. “How about…” He muttered to himself, then smiled. He started playing and sang,

“When I was just a colt, you know- I met a hen from ol’ Bordeaux!
She had long hair and blue eyes too, took me for a ride on the ring-dang-doo!”

We all smiled and belted out the chorus, while Adrian blushed at the suggestive nature of the song. We were up late into the night just singing, talking and having a good time. When we realized that Ulysses was passed out in an alcoholic stupor, we realized we wouldn’t be getting up on time anyway.

And so, for the last day before the battle, we all let loose. The next morning, we awoke to the burning sun and groaning. I was fine, though.

Breakfast was served to us in the same sort of manner as last night, except with no alcohol. There was bacon, eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, pancakes, sausage gravy and biscuits… it was fuckin heaven is what it was!

I took my seat on the log like I did yesterday, eating my breakfast and washing it down with coffee that wasn’t shitty.

“You guys look a wreck.” I said, and received a chorus of moans in response. The Twins and Rosco had it the worst, since they didn’t really pace themselves all that well.

“Agh… any way ah can bum some tylenol offa ye?” Rosco asked, and I complied. I extended the same generosity to the twins, who were all grateful.

“Drink your coffee and look alive. We got a big day today.” I said, flipping through the copy of Red Rocket. Adrian looked at me and cocked an eyebrow.

“What?” I said, taking a sip of coffee. “I read it for the articles… goddamn, that’s a big article.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

We finished our meals in relative silence before helping each other put our gear on. It was time to go over the plan.

“Alright, gather ‘round.” I said, unscrolling the map on a log. It was a rough map with local landmarks and all sorts of things highlighted and circled. In the center of the map was a star- which represented the main entrance.

“So the way this entrance is set up is that there’s a cave at the base of this mountain. In front of the wide, boarded up entrance are wooden forges and storehouses, all surrounded by a log wall with a wide-ish gate. Our line troopers will wreak havoc by firing upon this area relentlessly. A good wall of lead will ensure any fleeing occupants either get fucked or surrender.”

My teammates nodded along with my explanation. All around the mountain were circles labeled with colors, each corresponding to a squad of stormtroopers. “As you can see, we’ll be making our entrance here, slightly north of this old river mill. Resistance should hopefully be minimal.” I lit up a cigarette and took a drag.

“When we get the signal, we’ll drop a can of gas down and rappel down by rope, since our wings will be covered.” I dragged my finger from the point towards the middle, “From there, we’ll use our memory to guide us slowly towards the center, where hopefully we’ll meet everyone else at the same time. Simple enough?”

Everyone nodded, and it was time to collect the gas. Each of us got two tanks- each one being about six inches in diameter and about two feet long, and labeled with skulls and crossbones. It was activated with a simple turn valve which had a safety pin, much like a fire extinguisher. They used a custom harness and belt system to attach one to each of our sides, where they would be concealed by the cloak.

The way we had things worked out, all the stormtroopers would split off from here to get into position and wait for the line troops to hurry up. We’d be flying there, too- so that was nice. It turned a trip that would take half a day by walking into a couple hours with a couple rest stops.

Looking at Goldcairn from a distance, the “mountain” was a bit underwhelming in size- but that was fine. The sky was also somewhat cloudy… and someone with a keen eye might question why they were all the same size.

We got into position and I yelled at the cloud.

Okay, it wasn’t actually a cloud- it was a mobile hospital platform. The idea is that it could float off the ground and move around in case something were to happen.

Our destination was a hole in the ground, a good ways north of an old grain mill. The nurse cloud slowly made its way down and stopped about 30 feet in the air. They actually had a pretty smart system for this- basically if one of us got injured, there are two ropes which drop down the hole- one attached to a bell, and the other a winch. The bell is to tell them “AY GIVE US A HAND!” and the winch is to pull up whoever’s injured.

Hopefully, we’d never need it.

The wait was… quite dreadful. With nothing left to do but sit and contemplate, reality sank in. This was really it. This is what damn near two decades of hardship has come to. Fear, anticipation, anger… relief, excitement, pride. All our dearest emotions were being teased out and we were just sitting around.

I took my helmet off and ran a hand over that picture of my wife and I. I smiled and sighed, putting it back on my head. I just sat on that hillside gazing at the distance- I started to sing softly.

“But should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never cross your mind…” Immediately and almost without thinking, the guys sang with me, “should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne.”

I looked at my team with a smile. “We’ll make it through this, boys.” I waved a fist in the air, “For Prosperity.”

“FOR PROSPERITY!” They yelled out, and a grin threatened to crack my beak. In the distance- we all heard the sound; The first volley had been fired- it was showtime.

“Remember!” I yelled to the doctors as I tried to get my mask out, “If you see a green cloud, get away from it. If you smell pineapple and pepper, run.” The nurse who was looking down smiled and nodded. “When we get to the bottom, we’re gonna test the bell. Shake the rope a bunch to let us know it’s working.” We tightened our masks and made sure the filters were on good.

Thankfully, much like our suits the filters were full of good, clean asbestos- so I had full confidence. It did come with downsides, though- the asbestos made our suits a little itchy, after all.

Before we threw down the ropes, Rosco grabbed a can of gas and twisted the knob quickly before throwing it down the hole. The can dropped quickly, leaving a trail of toxic gas which sank behind it.

“Let’s roll!” I yelled out, though my voice was muffled considerably by the mask. We dropped the ropes down and Adrian led the way. We heard the bell ring twice and the nurses started vigorously shaking the rope.

When the rest of us joined down below- a problem had already been noted.

It was dark as shit. Thankfully, we each had an oil lamp which could hang off our hips. Unfortunately, even with the brightness all the way up, seeing was still difficult but not impossible.

I looked around, unsure even of where the walls were. I closed my eyes to try and picture where we were in relation to everything else.

“I see…” I muttered to myself. The memories were… strange. It felt like looking at a liminal space- seeing a place normally so full of life now abandoned is always an odd feeling… but I couldn’t help but notice how dark and empty the place was in the memory. There were no real furnishings to think of, just vague stone shapes reminiscent of furniture, as though they were part of the stone floor, for example.

I originally assumed it was a problem with how the louse collects non-specific memories… but now I wondered.

Despite this distraction, I figured out where we were and led the way. It was so dark you couldn’t see two feet in front of you. As we walked down the hallway, Adrian set both of his canisters to slow.

“You think the gas is putting torches out?” Adrian asked, assuming that the glass of our lanterns was protecting the flame.

“No torches.” Sinan pointed at the wall, which was covered in gouges from dog paws and definitely held no torches.

“Well, you have to consider that in a mine they’re constantly making new areas. Maybe they just carry around lamps?” Jos said, and I shrugged, other things occupying my mind.

First and foremost- where are the dogs?

“Wait. Stop.” Adrian held a wing out, halting us. “You hear that?” I could hardly understand him through the mask.

Coughing.

“Heads up. Something’s ahead.” I said, and we approached with utter caution. I was nervously stroking the backstrap of my pistol with a thumb. The coughing slowed and I heard a loud thunk.

Rather than another extension of this hallway, we entered a wide room with a high-ish ceiling. Another interesting quirk of the memory is that nothing was labeled- so whatever purpose this room served is unknown. Maybe it was a sort of resting area or staging area in the middle of the mine? I knew for a fact that we weren’t in the center, yet.

One thing that was for certain though was that the gas was quite effective. Several guards wearing kilts and with large swords were on the ground, wheezing and coughing up blood and pieces of their lungs. The scene… made me a little uneasy.

“Should… should we put ‘em down?” Rosco asked. I couldn’t see his face, but something told me he didn’t have his normal smile. I looked to the ground to see one of the guards slowly pick himself back up. It was a herculean task, one which earned him a pistol pointed at his chest.

“I’ll not HACK! COUGH! Aye… I’ll not let ye’s pass.” He could barely speak from how much pain he was apparently in. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem pulling the trigger, but…

“Lay back down and accept defeat. Resisting the tide of change is futile.” I yelled out, and the dog… smiled. “You cannot hope to win this battle.” I said to him. He took a single step forward and tripped.

“‘Bout… time…” He muttered aloud before letting out one final breath.

I just mouthed the words what the fuck…

“Let’s just keep going.” Jos said, throwing a covered wing around my back. I nodded, feeling somewhat… numb?

And so, we pressed on. Occasionally we’d come across one that thought to cover their mouth using a damp rag. It merely delayed the inevitable… but it allowed them a chance to fight. There was one instance where I got tricked by one laying in wait and almost pissed myself.

I was walking and it was dark as shit. I was taking extra care to not trip on any corpses. My back left foot happened to land near one that was face down… so when he jumped and grabbed my leg, I shrieked in terror.

“GETITOFFGETITOFF!” I screamed,

BANG! The loud roar of Sinan’s blunderbuss filled my ears and I jumped away from the now headless dog, Adrian grabbed me to make sure I was alright.

“Calm down, he’s dead.” I took a deep breath and shuddered.

“Thanks… that was embarrassing.” I admitted, blushing beneath my mask.

We started calling these dogs “zombies” because that’s what they fuckin’ look like.

As we got closer and closer to the center, the bodies came more and more frequently, and they grew more diverse, too. Some had clothes, some didn’t, there were males and females, stuff like that. Many of them were unarmed too, but I didn’t make note of that the first time around. Interestingly enough- there were no portable light sources, as Sinan pointed out. Do these dogs just dig in the dark?

Furthermore, where are the living spaces? Next to the entrance is a decent sized chamber above this next large one, so maybe that’s it?

Anyways, said large chamber was marked with a wooden wall and an iron door. We took three tanks and set them to high, tossing them and shutting the door behind. Thankfully, the door was meant to be locked from this side, since they didn’t expect anyone to approach from this direction.

What happened next was… harrowing. It was still quite dark, so we never saw into the room before we threw the gas cans. On the other side of the door, screams could be heard.

We could not see each other's faces, but I could feel the utter disgust and horror that descended upon my team, myself included. These weren’t the screams of dying warriors or the howls of dying beasts. They were cries for mercy, begging us to stop. People cried out for their mothers, a chorus of coughing rang out. Women lamented the loss of… of…

I couldn’t believe it. When the noise died down, I felt numb. We entered the room even though everything told us not to.

“Can’t believe it…” I heard Rosco mutter. Bodies absolutely everywhere. Not just men- women and children were all over the place.

“Turn the gas off.” I commanded Adrian, and he did as instructed. “Why… why would they make this the living quarters? Don’t they know that natural gas could work its way up and kill them all?” I looked up and noticed something- the ceiling was quite high. So I’m thinking that the floor above this collapsed at some point, making this onto one large chamber. Elevator and pulley systems were next to the entrance. And it must have happened recently, too- there were no beds, just thin sheets of animal fur all around.

My eyes shot open and the feathers on my neck spiked outward. “Did… did you guys hear that?” I asked, and my comrades shrugged. “You seriously can’t hear it?” I asked them, slowly making my way towards the offending noise.

“Leona, what’re you talkin’ about?” Jos asked, following behind me. I was extra careful with all the corpses, making sure to not step on any of them.

“It’s over here! It’s getting louder!” I came across a large pile of bodies- evidently, they were all huddled together when they fell, one by one. “In here! It’s still alive!”

“Leona! Snap out of it!” Adrian said, stomping a foot down. I moved corpses out of the way, looking for the source of the noise.

“There!” I yelled. It was the body of a woman, laying overtop of a much, much smaller body. “Under here, it’s still alive! I can hear its cries!” I moved the woman out of the way and held the baby in my arms.

“Look! A survivor!” With their masks on, they could only stare with blank expressions… but if they didn’t have the masks on, they probably would’ve looked at me with sheer, abject horror.

The crying had stopped suddenly. I shook terribly as I slowly looked down. The baby had been crying blood, his chin and chest covered in blood and pink sputum. It was very clearly dead and must have been for some time- so what was I hearing just now?

I don’t know why I was so transfixed. I just stared down at the small, innocent pup, expecting it to suddenly come back to life like nothing had happened. If I wasn’t wearing a mask, you’d see me smiling like a clown as tears ran down my beak. My nose started running, making breathing with the gas mask a difficult endeavor.

Adrian came up to my side and put a wing around my back. “Come on. Let’s go.” My smile fell and I nodded. I didn’t dare try speaking- the last thing I wanted to do was to choke back a sob. I unceremoniously dropped the baby and muttered out a quick sorry.

I really, really wanted my Mamma just then.

The other teams started filtering in, and I’d calmed myself down by then. We took the lift up- the heavy gas staying below us so that when all 48 of us reached the top, we all busted down the upstairs door and menacingly made our way forward.

Free of the gas, I took my mask off since I’d be the one doing the talking. The entrance way was surprisingly long, wide, and tall- I wanna say about 350 diamond dogs were crowding the area. And they were afraid- by God, were they afraid.

I was wearing a different mask, though; the mask of a cold hearted killer.

“I truly am sorry it had to be this way. Really, I am.” the tartan wearing dogs trembled in fear at us. “Our goal is not genocide. Our goal is resources. We want your cooperation- but any resistance will be met with punishment.” One of the dogs growled.

“Yer an evil witch!” He yelled, left eye covered with an eyepatch. “Ye killed ‘em! There was pups doon there!” I rolled my eyes, lighting up a cigarette.

“You think I care?” I cared immensely. The dog just continued his glare, cracking his knuckles.

“Enough. We settle this by blood.” Apparently, eyepatch was the leader of this… village? “You and I, harpy.” I took a drag from my cigarette as he unsheathed a claymore. His fellow people all took several steps back, as did mine, to my confusion.

“Wait, we really doing this?” I asked, more annoyed than anything else. He stood there twirling his sword around in a mesmerizing display. He flipped it around, swapped hands, tossed it in the air and caught it with one hand before holding it in a combat position.

I rolled my eyes,

BANG! A bullet flew past his sword and buried itself somewhere in the dog's sternum, causing him to drop like a sack of potatoes.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” The crowd of dogs who crowded their dying leader looked up in fear. “If we can ensure your total cooperation, your clan will receive many benefits such as…” I pulled a scroll out of my bag and read off in a flat voice, “Improvements to infrastructure and technology, permits and allowances for some industrial sectors, uhh…” I read down the list, but…

That baby appeared in my head again and I sighed. “Look, let me be honest. This whole isolationism thing has been hell on all of us. My nation has been falling apart while you all live in utter squalor. Am I wrong to assume that?” I asked, and the crowd actually seemed to think about what I said. “Imagine if you could all have proper beds, and above ground housing. Imagine having prospects beyond just mining all day. I’m not saying it’ll be an immediate change, but clearly something hasn’t been working.”

“And what if we refuse?” Someone from the crowd spoke up, to which I pointed at the dying dog.

I handed the rolled up piece of paper to whoever would take it. “Sign that and we’ll be on our way. We’ll even bring in people to help clear the gas and bury bodies tomorrow.” I clicked a pen and handed it off to a dog.

With a quick scribble, the treaty was signed. I smiled, “Perhaps someday our nations may be independent again. Alright boys, let's move out!”

We left and never looked back. For tonight, a platoon of line soldiers will stay behind to make sure these fucks don’t try anything. Even better- there was a whole convoy consisting of eight wagons which would cart us stormtroopers back to town. All around we could see battalions of line troopers celebrating our victory.

The mood among the stormtroopers was more… subdued.

Each wagon could hold six occupants, and I was the last one on the Xanthous team to climb on. Well, just my luck- as I was climbing on my foot slipped, and I fell off the wagon and landed on my back.

“For fucks sake.” I groaned in annoyance, laying on my back like a dopey fuck. Sinan and Adrian helped me back up.

I wanted to say something, but I just couldn’t. The twins seemed fine, just looking around along with Sinan… Rosco had a thousand yard stare and Adrian was constantly staring back at the mine entrance.

Outside the walls of Ravenna, there were crowds of people cheering our victorious return. I forced myself to smile and wave, and I urged everyone else to do the same.

“How do we tell ‘em…” Rosco muttered, and I shook my head.

“We don’t.” After a few seconds he took in a deep breath.

There were people there to take our clothes for a good washing and we left our armor in our tents. Now that the battle was over, we all had something we planned to do together afterward.

We made reservations for a booth at the local pub. The waitress asked, “Can I get ya’s anything?” and we all made our orders. Originally, we all planned on ordering a massive bowl of wings- but recent events have soured our mood and killed our appetite.

Sinan lit up a cigarette when she walked away. “Now, we are all sons of bitches.” Jos snorted.

“Fuck ‘em.” Rosco looked at Jos and cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah, it’s messed up… but then when I think about my mum, what we’re doing don’t seem so bad.” After a few moments, Adrian said-

“She’s… she’s right. What we’ve done today is abhorrent and has likely damned us forever… but any progress is better than the sweet fuck all that’s been happening.” I lit up a cigarette too.

“That’s true. Rosco, think about it like this- we’re making the world a better place for your child. Even better- we’re fighting so that they don’t have to.” He blinked twice then sighed with a faint smile.

“Yeah, suppose you’re right. In that case, we’d better fight like hell… Keekeekee…” He gave that goofy chuckle, but it didn’t sound as cheery as it normally does.

I took a deep drag of my cigarette. “Being a sinner ain’t so bad. When you know you’re damned either way, it makes certain choices a bit… easier.” I was gonna elaborate, but the waitress arrived.

“I got… a gin and tonic.” Which she handed to Adrian.

“I got a rum and soda.” Which she handed off to Sinan.

“Here’s a tequila sunrise.” For Jos. “And a vodka orange.” for Fin.

“An old fashioned, extra strong…” For Rosco.

And last but not least.

“And a whiskey on the rocks.” I grabbed the glass and brought it up to my beak for a whiff.

“Lemme know if you need anything else!” She said,

“Well, boys.” I raised my glass in the air, and we all looked at one another with weary eyes and faint smiles. “To prosperity!” I yelled out.

“Prosperity!” We yelled before we all took large swigs of our drinks. The rotgut burned my throat wonderfully, the ice barely doing anything to smooth it out.

Just the way I liked it.

Here’s to three years of sobriety down the shitter.

And on that somber note...

Not bad for the first battle of a long campaign :3

As always, thank you for reading! Likes and comments are always greatly appreciated :3