I do not own any part of the "One Piece" franchise. Nobody will ever make any money from this. Thank you for reading this Mr. Lawyer...

Property of Pvt. Arthur James Kelly

Member of the 16th Marine Division, 125th Regiment, Shark Company, Alpha Squad

Seriously, Aki. I know you'll find this thing eventually. Don't read it.

May 10

They told us to start writing these memoirs. I didn't even know what a memoir was until today. According to Lieutenant Harps, it's so "future generations can understand what we fought and died for."

Well, I don't know about him, but I don't plan on dying anytime soon. I didn't go through that hell that they call training on Melogia just so I can die on some speck of dirt in the middle of nowhere. I'll be there when we take the Holy Land, you mark my words.

May 11

They gathered the 16th up in the briefing station today. Finally found out where we're going. Some island halfway through the New World called "Kryks." Nobody really knew how to pronounce it, but the Lieutenant made a pretty good effort. He said the Y is pronounced like an I, so "Kriks?" He seemed to know what he was talking about, so I took his word for it. Not that it really matters...

It's supposed to be some kind of staging area for the Marines. If we let them keep it, it'll give them a straight shot to Gangress, and from there they could attack Melogia. Basically, the island is useless to us, but we can't let the enemy keep it, so they're sending a whole Task Force to take the island. Around 35 ships in all, not counting the landing craft. Kind of ironic if you ask me.

May 12

Lieutenant Harps told us to spend the day getting to know our squads. I don't really know what he means by that. Except for the Sarge, we've all been together since boot camp.

There's Sergeant Hun. The oldest among us, and the only one with visible wrinkles. He's a good squad lead, but he's a bit odd. Keeps a pet cricket named Cheep in a shoe box under his bunk.

Corporal Yuri. Real nice guy, but he thinks he's funnier than he actually is. He's good looking though, so the opposite sex seems to not mind his cheesy jokes.

Corporal Bloom. She comes off as cold, but we all know that she cares about us. She'll check our gear when she thinks we're not looking and quietly puts in anything we're missing. We all pretend not to notice.

Private Aki. I met him in boot camp, found out that he's as big a fan of the Soul King as I am, and we kind of just naturally became friends after that.

Private Ketch, Private Lams, and Private Renner. They're our mortar crew. They've been together since they were kids, so it's kind of hard to get friendly with them, but they're a decent bunch.

And then there's me...

May 13

The Lieutenant said that Kryks will be in sight by tomorrow. Everyone's on edge. Even caught Bloom pacing in her bunk when I went to go fetch her for chow time. I laughed, which looking back really wasn't the best idea. She might be half a head shorter than me, but she hits like a 24lber...

Aki and I spent the time after dinner playing poker. He owes me 10,000 berries.

May 14

It's almost midnight. I can see Kryks from here. It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be. The Sarge said that the whole island is around 50 square kilometers, most of it heavy forest with a few scattered towns. We're keeping the transports out of range for now, but the combat ships have closed in and opened up on the beaches. Those 308lber guns on our 3 battleships are loud as all hell. Here's hoping they chase the defenders off.

May 14

They took us to the briefing room again. You could still hear the boom of the battleships from inside. They said not to write down any specifics, but the basic plan is for the combat ships to soften up the beach defenses before we land tomorrow. We're to secure the kilometer wide beach for the 9th Armored Division to land. Commander Atkins says that what we're attacking is the least defended beach on the island. Just some scattered pillboxes, but the big guns should reduce most of them to rubble. Honestly, I don't put much faith in the Striders. They just do the sailing. I'll be surprised if any of them have ever even seen a marine. Then again, I haven't either, but that'll change tomorrow...

May 15

We're about to board the landing craft. 1 squad to a boat and around 20 boats to a company. The Lieutenant gave a nice speech about how this will be the Shark Company's baptism by fire. Told us that what we're fighting for is worth giving our lives to. That our comrades will be looking besides them and any sign of weakness from us will drag them down too. Bloom and Renner scoffed, but I thought it was a nice speech.

May 15

I'm alive... The more I say it the more unreal it seems. The sea crossing was a lot bumpier than we had trained for. I thought to myself that there was a lot more shooting in the distance than I thought there would be, considering the beach defenses were supposed to be out of the picture.

After a few minutes, the transponder starts blowing up. Whale and Frog Company had already hit the beach ahead of us, but the bombardment hadn't been as effective as they thought it would be. Most of the pillboxes were still standing, and over night they had somehow managed to get a few heavy cannons to the beach. It was suspected that a DF user was involved. Whale and Frog were getting torn up by gatlings from the pillboxes and mortars from inside the forest, using whatever rocks or fallen tree trunks they could find for cover.

We'd have to run the gauntlet of cannon balls on our way over and when we did land, they were somehow expecting Shark Company to pull something out of our asses. To top it off, the Lieutenant came over the snail and said "Not to worry lads. We'll take care of it."

Hun didn't even say anything. Grizzled bastard just looked over at us and started praying. He's the only one of us with any real combat experience, so that was kind of a downer. Then the cannons opened up on us.

By the time I felt the thump of the boat striking sand, my fingernails had already managed to gouge out marks into the wooden stock of my Model 12. When the ramp dropped, none of us hesitated. We rushed out and dashed towards whatever cover we could find like we had been trained.

I don't think any of us had been prepared for the noise though. The steady rat-tat-tat of the merry-go-rounds from the pillboxes, the whistle of falling mortar bombs, the thundering boom of the cannons still firing on the boats that hadn't made it to the beach, the screams of the wounded. They all blended together into a single hellish melody.

We all scrambled behind the same fallen tree, laying down on our stomachs and trying to keep our heads down. I flinched every time I heard a bullet whistle overhead or felt the ground shake from a mortar round hitting the sand, knowing that every single one might be the last one I ever heard.

None of us knew what to do. We would have died there if it wasn't for the Sarge. I'll never forget what he told us as we were cowering behind that tree. He opened his mouth, his eyes just as wide and terrified as the rest of us, and yelled "Keep it moving kids! They're only bullets!"

Then he stands up and sort of crouch runs over to the next piece of cover, a big rock in this case, one hand on his helmet and the other on his gun. We all stood up and ran after him like a bunch of ducklings following their mother. I would have laughed if it weren't for the bullets kicking up sprays of sand at our feet.

Not half a second after we all tuck in behind the rock, I hear the whistle of another falling mortar round. I paid special attention to this one because it sounded a bit different from the others. I'd later learn that they make the shriller sound when they're coming directly towards you...

The round fell behind the tree we had been taking cover behind not 10 seconds ago, obliterating the remains of the trunk.

Ketch almost started to lose it, before the Sarge jumped out from the rock and began to make another mad dash up the beach. Lams grabbed his hand and sort of dragged him after her as the rest of us made a run for it. I guess his fear of being left behind overpowered whatever else was going through that head of his. He hitched the mortar tube over his shoulder and ran as if the hounds of hell were on his heels. Then again, all of us did.

By the time we got to what was left of Whale company, we were exhausted. We had left the rest of Shark behind. Whale had taken cover behind a long sand bar. Apparently, after they'd reached it they'd gotten pinned by a couple of gatlings from inside 2 of the pillboxes and just been sitting there getting whittled away by the mortars. The first thing Sergeant Hun did was begin screaming for their Lieutenant. One of the medics pointed at one of the bodies lined up behind the dune. There the Lieutenant was, a clean hole straight through his temple. Their XO was missing too. Nobody even knew what happened to him. They were without leadership and without any idea of what to do next.

There was a lot of cursing from the Sarge before he started shouting out instructions. The soldiers looked as if Dragon himself had come to watch over them. None of them questioned him, even though a couple of them were probably the same rank. The few mortars they had left were set up and began barraging the ground directly in front of the pillboxes. Someone asked why not drop them on the pillboxes themselves.

The Sarge looked them right in the eye and said, "If 308lbers couldn't dent the damn things, what makes you think a pound of explosives will?"

I was pretty confused myself. What was the point of wasting mortar rounds?

It didn't take long to find out. "Bloom, Yuri, Kelly, Aki. Come here."

"Those 2 merry-go-rounds inside the pillboxes will cut the whole company to ribbons if we try to advance. So, the five of us are going to take them out."

I literally felt my tongue drying out inside my mouth. "And how would we do that, sir?"

"Whale's going to lay fire down across the entire treeline. That should keep the Marines suppressed. The sand and shrapnel that the mortars are flinging into the loopholes in those pillboxes should keep their heads down too. At least until we make it past their field of fire."

Aki seemed just as hesitant as I was. It was as if Hun could read our minds. "Like it or not, you're soldiers now. Running into gatling fire is part of the job. We either get this done or we all die hiding behind this sand dune in the middle of nowhere. Now hop to it."

All of us gave a "Yes, sir."

The orders were given, we lined up, and Whale began unloading into the trees. As for us, we ran. The whole time I was praying to whatever powers that be that I wouldn't stumble on an unseen rock or something.

The sarge had been right about the gatlings. Their crews were so busy rubbing sand from their eyes that we were only a few meters from the forest before one of them opened fire.

Yuri was hit. All of us shouted his name when we saw the bullet spark on his helmet. It was as if my heart stopped beating for a second as he stumbled and fell into the trees. Me and Aki grabbed him by the armpits and dragged him deeper in. We all stared at him after we set him down. And to our surprise, he stared right back.

"I'm alive?" he said.

There was a round of relieved sighs, and that was that. The only damage had been a groove carved into the top of his helmet. The angle the bullet had struck had been too shallow for it to penetrate.

The Sarge split us up. Me, Aki, and Bloom were to clear out one pillbox, he and Yuri would deal with the other. The pillboxes were only a few square meters big, so it should have been a simple matter of flanking around and chucking a grenade through the loophole. Anyone inside would have two options. Die in the explosion or try to leave the bunker and get shot by us. The only problem was that our mortars were still pounding the area in front of the bunkers, meaning one of us would have to run the gauntlet during the 5 seconds it took for the crews to chamber and launch the next volley.

We played rock-paper-scissors for it. I lost.

The other pillbox had already been taken out. It was down to us.

I tried to time it right, and I managed for the most part. I lit the fuse of the grenade right before the explosions passed and rushed up the side of the pillbox, tossed the grenade in, and turned around to rush back to the trees as I hear Aki and Bloom open fire on the poor fools that tried to escape the blast.

Then I see a mortar bomb buried in the sand, the fuse still burning. Some idiot had cut the fuse too long, and it was set to explode almost a full 2 seconds after it hit the ground. The spark fizzled and disappeared inside of the bomb. But it didn't explode. It was a dud...

I should have died there. Maybe there is a God out there, looking down on us and deciding who lives and who dies. The thought isn't very comforting...

With the pillboxes on our stretch of the beach out of the picture, Whale and the rest of Shark were able to push through and secure a perimeter in the forest. They began flanking the pillboxes through the trees as well and captured the guns firing on the landing craft. Most of the enemy mortars managed to retreat deeper into the woods.

Frog was eventually able to push through on their end as well, with the help of Ray and Gator company. Their casualties were so severe that the survivors had to be reassigned all over the 16th.

Found out later that Bravo Squad didn't make it. 108lber went straight through the front of their boat and out the back. They didn't stand a chance. 8 soldiers, just gone. Didn't even make it onto the beach. I didn't know any of them that well, but Yuri was pretty torn up about it. Found out later that he'd been having an affair with their Squad Lead. It was a shame. She'd come around from time to time to chat with Yuri, but I'd never known that they were that close.

Most of Echo Squad was wiped out by a stray mortar bomb. The one that hit them hadn't been a dud. I'd known one of the guys from there. Skinny little thing named Tess. He always used to offer me any meat that they served back at boot camp, being a die hard vegetarian.

All in all, over 300 of our soldiers died on this stretch of beach, with several hundred more wounded. The distance from the shore to the trees was a total of 100 meters. Funny. It had felt like a lot more while we were crossing it.

Poor Whale and Gator company now have to sweep through the forest and begin clearing it out. I wish them the best. Our next target is some town nearby called Braxys. We'll take the roads there, and it should go quickly now that we have armored support alongside 2 full infantry battalions.

As I'm writing this, the Steam Shells of the 9th armored division are unloading from their landing craft. Something about watching these 10 ton wooden monstrosities slowly roll their way across the sand gives me hope. Hope that we'll be able to take this speck of dirt in the middle of nowhere that they call an island quickly. Hope that just maybe it won't take too many more lives to do so.

And that's it folks. Hope you enjoyed this short little piece I wrote. I think they call it a one-shot? There are so many technical terms floating around...

I wanted to try out something different. This is the result.