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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Poland
Gender: Male
Posts: 120
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Stories from the Front- The Bridge
The Stories from the Front are not real stories if you are wandering. Its just a series of stories based on War I wrote. I use a specific style with these, some might find chaotic, trust me though its a great story. I would like to thank everyone who created the Band of Brothers, my main source of inspiration for this. On a side note things in [] are itallics, I just can't grasp this code.
Stories from the Front- The Bridge
[It was an ordinary day, an ordinary day at the front line that is. We could hear artillery shots from the other side of the river, a couple miles away. Tanks, trucks and transporters which drove past us were frsh replacements. Young people who wanted to participate in this Campaign, but who did not realise what was realy waiting for them. Private Alb was smoking a cigar, Private Sake watched his weapon carefuly for any sign of damage, rust or possible reason why it could jam. We all knew what waited for those who faced the enemy but could not fire back... and it just so happened that the weapons we were issued, "Stingers", had a tendency to jam in the wrong moment. Our leader Sergeant Mark was coming our way, and from the look on his face I could guess he had some bad news for us. As he approached we looked up at him and waited.]
"We are moving out." said Sergeant Mark, but he was not looking at us, like he always did. He watched his muddy boots.
"Where to, sir?" asked Alb, cigar in his mouth. It seemed Mark hesitated for a moment.
"Sector 4." The squad fell silent. Nobody dare ask why, because everybody knew what was in Sector 4. Death Zone. A squad which went there either never came back or requested fresh men after an hour. It was a dark spot on all the maps. Not even the tank divisions wanted to go there, mines and traps on every turn. Snipers and hidden Machine Gun nests. Also every few hours the area was bombed, and the few buildings that were still standing were so unstable that even the weakest wind could knock them down. Mark let the men think, but he had to continue. "We are to secure and destroy the last bridge there. Once that is done we will retreat. Any questions?"
[Everybody had questions. "Will we make it out alive?", "Why us?", but they were never asked, because there was no simple answer. You could only guess, but in Sector 4 it was a different story. You knew what you would get, ceratin death. I personally knew only one man who survived a mission to Sector 4. He was the first who started to run when the bombs came down on them... but he still lost one leg. He only survived because he flew just in reach of a friendly transporter who was supposed to get them out of there. He died 5 days after the mission. And now it was our turn. We all went through hell, but this was something much worse, some only a few, or none of us would survive. We went to the Depo and took explosives to destroy the bridge. Our transport would be a "Turtle". Slow but hardly anything could get through its armour. But it would only get us to the border, from there we would walk... and surely die on the way. The bridge we were supposed to take was close to the enemie's border, so we expected a hail of bullets. One of the other guys asked why don't they use bombers to do the job, the officer there gave us a very strange reason "We are scarce on bombs at the moment.". I did think this would happen... when you throw down bombs 24 hours a day on one spot. How else could you use these materials, wasted only for the sake of war?]
***
[We were on our way. With me there were 9 men. Mark, Alb, Sake, Bella, Karjo, and three replacements, who were very eager to go on their first mission, possibly last. The "Turtle" stopped after 4 hours. The driver looked at us with pity and said "This is it." . We already knew that before he said it, we could hear the church bells. As the hatch opened sun light entered the transporter and before we knew it we were already outside, and the "Turtle" was on its way back.]
"Okay men, stay low, eyes and ears open, mouth shut. If you see something pat the man next to you and whisper what it is." Everybody nodded and after a moment the squad was on its way. At first everybody thought a Nuke was dropped here, not a single soul, tree or house was standing. It was almost flat. Only a couple miles away you could see some cover. For the moment they had to go through flat terrain, using stones as their only cover. As the squad progressed everybody thought all would be well. It was baking hot, but that did not matter, everybody was battle ready. Suddenly something clicked. An explosion erupted. Everybody went down and hid behind the rubble.
"Stay down!" shouted Mark. "Who was it?" At first nobody answered.
"Its Karjo. He stepped on a trap." everybody went back on their legs. The massacred body of what was once Karjo lay in a half a meter creater. The head's eyes were wide open and it seemed he said something before he got killed. Most men could guess what it was: "Shit.".
[With one less man in the squad we went on. No time for a burial ceremony. Everybody in Sector 4 knew by now that we were coming, and they possibly waited for our heads to appear in their targeters. I promiseed myself that they will have a problem with doing so. As we reached the standing ruins and now continued behind much better cover we noticed something strange. There was nothing. The enemy was gone, as if they lost interest in this area. Not minding that we slowly reached the bridge. It was undefended. At first we though it was a trap, but when the bridge was finally destroyed we were completely confused. We ran back to the extraction point. No shots, nothing. Our tranport was waiting, the driver amased that we came back. "You guys are good." he said. But we were not so sure about that. We waited in silence as the tranporter moved back to base. After four hours of intense thinking we heard the driver say something unexpected. "Oh my god."]
The squad made a quick jump from the "Turtle" ready for anything. What they saw shocked them. The base lay in ruins. Craters the size of houses everywhere. Bodies of soldiers and wrecks of vehicles lay all over the Dead Land. This was not an ordinary small scale bombing. It seemed all the possible missiles were sent only here. The effect was devestating. Nothing, absolutely nothing. The squad went forward until they met the only one thing which was still standing...
[It was our flag. Flying in the air. The silver pole seemed untouched by the destruction around it. Could this mean something? Was this a sign, or a coincidence? What ever it was supposed to be they had to wait now, maybe somebody will notice that a base has dissapeared from the surface of the earth and maybe a rescue team will come looking for survivors... and they would fine a lonely squad and transporter and the bodies of 300 men. If the rescue team ever came.. Who ever said that Sector 4 was a hell hole was mistaken. The only hell hole is War. And we are in this hell hole fighting for our lives, and what else? Freedom of the people we don't know, Justice and Democracy? Or only because a group of angry politicians could not agree with each other? Who ever listens to men who fight or men who don't want o fight? Nobody. Because when you have a suit, you work in the government and the People elected you, you are smarter than anybody else. Why else would they choose you?]
The End
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"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."
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