Into Battle

Magnus landed in Europa, in the friendly territory of the UPC's allies. As soon as he got off the boat, he boarded the truck waiting for the fresh recruits. He went from the truck to a train to a truck to the trenches.

Magnus thought to himself, "Well, Anthony, what Europa's like won't matter."

Magnus realized as soon as he was in the dark, wet trenches that he wouldn't get to know what Europe was like. In fact, he thought it didn't matter, because he thought that staying alive was more important than that. All of these soldiers' faces showed how much pain they had to shrug off, all of the loss.

Magnus had to stop thinking so much. Magnus liked to daydream and think, but now he had to pay attention to what was happening in front of him. It was either kill or be killed, and Magnus didn't want to be on the receiving end.

Magnus' first orders were to keep watch. He did so, rarely seeing anyone else, rarely hearing anything except for the occasional set of steps as someone walked by or the sound gunfire after a flare went off.

"FLARE!"

Magnus aimed across to the other trench, his rifle resting on the sandbags, covering his head from anyone aiming at his trench.

Suddenly, Magnus saw a man running to him. Magnus thought, "Funny, that's not our uniform..."

Then Magnus realized that it was not one of the UPC soldiers at all. It was a soldier from the Deutschland Reich.

Magnus aimed at the enemy's body. Magnus could see the grey uniform sticking to the soldier's body as rain suddenly started pouring down just a moment ago. Magnus raised the sights directly to the helmet-clad head of the Deutschlandian soldier.

Magnus took a breath. Then he exhaled. He started to pull the trigger. Magnus hesitated. The body in the pink light got closer and closer. Magnus still hesitated.

Magnus could see every detail on that man's face as he aimed his own rifle at Magnus.

"Crack!"

Magnus heard a chink as a bullet hit a helmet, and flinched. The bullet hit not his own, but the Deutschlandian soldier's. When Magnus opened his eyes again, that same soldier was on the ground, lifeless, with a hole in his helmet and head directly underneath.

A UC soldier walked over to Magnus.

"Now never hesitate to pull that trigger again!", reprimanded Magnus' squad leader, "Hesitate again and you will end up as dead as that man right there!"

The squad leader pointed not to the dead body 15 meters in front of Magnus, but to the body of the man that Magnus replaced in the squad.

"You're lucky I was paying attention. Now go get some rest, your shift's about over anyways. Think about what happened here. Wake up at 0500, we are launching an assault on the enemy trenches, and our squad is one the front of the roster making the charge."

Magnus sped into the soldiers' quarters and got to sleep immediately.

Magnus dreamed of home. Of a comfortable bed. Of the girl he was going to marry. He then woke up, his watch saying 0410. Magnus thought it better he got up now and ate before the assault. A soldier can't fight on an empty stomach, now can he?

Magnus went over to the camp stoves. Nothing was cooking. He asked around, "Hey, is there anything to eat?", and repeatedly got, "No, go prepare what you need for the charge."

Magnus, on his third round of asking, also slipped in, "Is there any coffee?"

The soldier Magnus asked burst out into laughter

"Coffee?! Kid, we ain't had coffee since we got over here!"

Magnus, sorely disappointed by lack of sustenance, went back to his bunk. He grabbed his things and went out into the open area. He hesitated for a moment, staring at the long, brown hair of his fiancée in the black and white picture he had carried with him these long 2 and a half months.

He then exited the quarters into the open air. He promptly sat down in the cold mud and began to clean his rifle. It was an exquisitely designed rifle, and worked well too. Magnus never actually tried it on a person, as he forfeited his chance the night before. Magnus took apart the gun, cleaning the gun.

Magnus' gun had been used by him, only on one occasion. When he was waiting for the train, he staked cans on a fence about 100 yards away from the station, so as not to be heard. Magnus went 25 yards parallel to the station and shot at the 10 cans he had planted on the fence, and managed to hit seven.

The gun was quite dirty already from this, but Magnus did not take too much time, as he only had 35 minutes until they started the assault. He gathered up the rest of his things. He had his flashlight, ammo, grenades, knife, and threw all these things either on himself or into his backpack.

Magnus was ready to roll.

But he still had 30 minutes until the assault.

Thus Magnus decided to go sit with the other soldiers ready for combat in the cold mud.

"Hey pretty boy! You ready for the worst experience of your entire life?", someone asked Magnus, all the way at the other end of soldiers sitting in line, backs to dirt wall.

Someone between the two cut in, "Oh come on, John, it's not that bad."

John replied, "Not that bad? What do you mean? Getting shot at by foreigners trying to take over the continent? Have you even been in a battle?!"

The other replied, "Yes, I have. And I wouldn't say that it was the worst experience of my life."

John then hesitated, and spoke again, "Wait, I know you! You're that guy from the assault on the Western front from 3 days ago, aren't you? The easiest push-through in any war with no casualties! You don't even know what it's like to watch someone die in front of you! You don't know the pain of watching your best friend die in front of you, now do you?"

Magnus was tired of hearing either's antics, and had started to ignore them, until an officer arrived.

All of the soldiers stood up and saluted.

"Sir!", a chorus of soldiers shouting, all of them shivering from the cold mud on their behinds.

"At ease!", the officer responded, and walked past them to talk to another officer.

"Looks like the brass with the orders is here.", John said, now ignoring the big argument from moments ago.

"Platoon 4 Company 1!"

Magnus' platoon was called. His squad and one other were standing near an opening in the sandbags.

"You ready, kid?", the squad leader asked Magnus.

"As I'll ever be.", responded Magnus, stifling a yawn before he responded.

"Good, then you go first.", the squad leader suggested. Everyone around them was glad it wasn't them.

Magnus did not complain. He was happy to make up for his blunder last night.

The Commanding Officer started to count down.

"10.... 9.... 8.... 7.... 6.... Go! Go! Go!!!"

The sun hadn't risen yet. It was still dark out. The shouts in the cold, crisp air woke Magnus up fully. After a moment, Magnus ran through the opening onto the battlefield.