Part Two: Bismallah Street

The sun rose the next day, like any other. Somehow, I managed to make it though the first night without being killed. "Leoni lets grab some breakfast." The food was terrible, but I was too hungry to care.

"Sure thing, let me finish lacing up these bastard boots, and I'll be right there." He looked up and smiled. I put on my hat, grabbed my rifle, and stood by the door. Leoni stood up, picked up his equipment, and walked towards me. "What do you reckon it'll be today?"

"Same crap, powdered eggs, powdered milk, powdered coffee, maybe some bacon." I felt less hungry.

"Not breakfast, I meant our recon. Do you think they'll send us out again?" We stopped walking; I turned and looked at him.

"Well, that's our job, ain't it? I just hope we're back before dark this time." I turned to continue down the hallway.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want another incident like last night, would we?" He snickered. I elbowed him in the gut, but he laughed it off as usual. He stopped dead again. "Remember when we were kids? All we did was play soldiers. It was so much fun blowing the hell out of each other. I think those have to be my fondest memories."

I looked up at him. "I was thinking about that yesterday, when we were in the city. In many ways, it was the same. The only difference was the fear." I looked down at the ground. "You were scared too, weren't you?"

"Me? Nah, you know my philosophy. We all end up dead, all that matters is how and why. I would rather die for something, than for myself, old and decrepit."

"Yeah... that's how I thought I felt too. However, when I had point, I could see the muzzles pointing down the street at me. They could have taken me any time they wanted to. And that's it man. You take a hit out here, and you are done. Even if its' in the leg, dust gets in there, infection sets in. Or you can get it in an artery, and bleed to death in a minute."

"Well, wouldn't' the heat of the bullet seal most of the wound up? I mean, that's what we were taught." He looked down on me. "You worry too much."

"I'm just being cautious man. I don't' know why we're even here. It's a total waste of funding. The state alchemists could clear this problem up in a matter of hours. Do you have any idea how much it costs to keep us out here? Even with the crap they feed us?"

"Nope, and I don't' care. That's politics; I try to stay detached from politics as much as possible. I wish they would just give me something to shoot." He chuckled. "I could care less who the Fuhrer is, or what he wants, all I'm here for is action, and money. After this is over, I want a pension too. Then I can retire, and get a real job."

I hated this side of him. I knew he cared as much as I did, but he wouldn't show it. "I was reading this book once. And it said 'We few, we happy few. We band of brothers. For he who sheds his blood with me today will never be vile.' What do you think it means?"

"What's vile?" he looked at me earnestly.

"Go to hell Leoni." We laughed together for a while.

After breakfast, we assembled with the rest of our company in what used to be a community hall. The Colonel from the train gave us our briefing for the day. It was very straight foreword. Bismallah Street, six kilometres northeast was what we suspected to be the rebel's HQ. Our mission was to surround it, and make sure nothing went sour. I hated this boring guard duty crap; we had drilled on this repeatedly during our training. It sounded safer than recon at least.

Two hours later, we neared the objective. Walking up the avenues of the city was indeed a great feeling. There were over a hundred of us, so I had nothing to worry about at all. The sound of the marching was incredible, and to a people like the Ishbal, I'm sure they had never seen such a structured and impressive force. And this was just a pittance of our militaries power. A single company. I kept my head foreword to look as professional as possible. Had I bothered too look around, I would have seen nothing but hatred on the faces of the locals. Their red eyes full of fury. Alchemy was deeply hated by them, but treasured by us. It was more than a political campaign; it was biased on religious belief. They believed that man shouldn't change what God created, and we believed... well we believed in domination, and knowledge.

We marched up Bismallah Street, and at the head of the company, a captain started shouting out where various sections would be stationed for the day. A company from the 7th Infantry had been patrolling all night, so various entrenchments were set up at chokepoints. The captain had my section take control of a small house. A family dwelling. An upstairs window had been fortified the night before, and a machinegun was mounted there. Leoni got all excited at the prospect of fully automatic weapons, so I sent him, and private Caan to operate it. The dwelling was completely deserted. I expected the residents had been forced out. Across the street was a building that looked important. Two Ishbali guards, armed with rifles were standing in front of the door. I sat down on the stoop, placed my rifle on my lap, and my pack of grenades in easy reach. Krauss sat down next to me.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I think that's the Ishbali headquarters for this area. Fancy us being right across the street from the objective. We'll be cut to pieces of anything happens." I looked over at Krauss, who had a terrified look on his face. I rethought my last statement. "I'm only screwing with you. They couldn't' hit the broad side of a barn with those bolt-action rifles. We'd have a hundred rounds off before they raised them to their shoulders." I was lying through my teeth. Command wouldn't waste a company on such an objective if it wasn't dangerous. Krauss grinned, and looked quite overconfident. I on the other hand knew exactly why we were stationed here. If the shit hit the fan, we were here so the people of Ishbal had someone to shoot. An hour and a half later, Leoni came downstairs. I sent Krauss upstairs to take over his position on the machinegun.

"Taybor." He said. "Why are we here?"

"Well, I suspect we're here as a deterrent. The same reason they have guards over there." I pointed to the Ishbal guards across the street, which shot back a horrible look.

"I'm bored man, and looking around, it seems as if I'm not the only one. I wanna shoot something man. That's what I joined this army for." He stood up and held his rifle across his chest. I heard him place the safety off, but said nothing. I knew him too well, he wouldn't' do anything wrong unless seriously provoked. All talk no action.

I decided this was a good time to inspect the rest of the section, which were spread out between various windows. When I reached the top floor, checked on Krauss and Caan. Something was wrong though. The headquarters across the street was full of commotion, I could hear shouting, and banging. Not gunshots, just the sound of doors slamming. Utter chaos. I quickly charged my weapon and ran down the stairs to where Leoni was now up on his knee, pointing his rifle across the street. Up and down the street, other soldiers were beginning to panic, as more and more took cover behind whatever they could find. "What's going on man?" I could hear stress in Leoni's voice.

"I don't know, just stay cool. Don't move, and don't shoot anyone." I turned around and shouted to address my entire section. "Be cautious! Don't shoot anything unless it fires first!" About eight steps away, Günter knelt with his rifle propped up on the window. He was shaking really badly. Somehow, I managed to stay cool. I grabbed my sack of grenades, and removed the magazine from my rifle. I slid a 16th round into the chamber, and charged it again.

There was a bright flash of light from an upper level window across the street. Less than a second later the house I was in shook. I hit the deck as Leoni opened fire, spraying the two guards standing in front of the headquarters. Gunfire erupted from every opening, of every building in range. I heard the electronic sounding zip of bullets smashing through the sound barrier over my head. Leoni crawled inside and leaned next to the doorframe to the right of the opening. I now had a full view of the outside. I could see burned body parts of Caan and Krauss lying on the street below their window. The machinegun just on the other side of their remains. "They've got a rocket propelled grenade Leoni, get to the back of the building or we're all dead!" The house shook again, and Günter exploded, along with the wall he was behind. Bits of him were thrown all over the room. I stopped functioning as a whole. This wasn't happening to me. I was just a boy, not a soldier. I was too special to die like this. Leoni smacked me in the side of the head.

"Taybor, I'm going to get that machinegun. Cover me!" He charged out the front door. I couldn't say anything, or act. I was frozen with shock. Leoni braced himself on the gravel street, and hoisted the machinegun up fearlessly. He opened fire on the headquarters. The rounds pierced through the thin wood and clay structure and for a moment, it seemed as if he might be suppressing them.

"Leoni, get back here!" I shouted, finally composing myself. "Get back here you bastard!" It was futile; he couldn't hear me over the noise of his gun. I watched as a round flew out of his back, obviously having flown straight through him. I screamed. It wasn't a recognizable word, just a scream. I started firing my weapon blindly out the door. Leoni still managed to keep himself up, and was going hard, blowing out window after window with his cannon. I wondered if he even realized he'd been hit.

Our soldiers rushed the headquarters, tossing in hand grenades. Their uniforms were no longer a deep blue, but red, or brown, from blood and dirt. Leoni collapsed as two medics reached him and pulled the machinegun off his quivering body. I pulled my stomach off the ground, and knelt in the doorway. I looked over at the place where Günter once sat. Turning my head back, I just managed to see a third story window on the headquarters swing open. The muzzle of a submachine gun came into view, but I couldn't access my rifle in time. It sprayed the street in front of me. Leoni, the medics, cut to pieces. I saw a flash from the same window, and the building shook violently again. I heard the support beams break up. I didn't even think about trying to get out. What was the point? I watched as the roof fell and then my world went black.