Humanity Forward: The Boen War

Heinrich fell back into his trenches. He was only sixteen years old but the loud noises of artillery, explosions gun fire and the piercing screams of injured infantry are already familiar to him. Heinrich was no longer the overweight teenager he once was two years ago, it wasn't conscript "training" that made him slim down, it was the lack of rations. Often times he and his men went up to three days without basic rations, sometimes the soldiers ate grass and hunted whatever small animal they can find to feed themselves. Heinrich was drafted into the Boensin army on the day he turned sixteen about three months after the war broke out with Jugona. Since he was a conscript he was only given a rifle with a bayonet, no side arms, if you were a conscript, you were only issued a pistol once you ranked up to corporal, regular soldiers were of course given much better weapons and equipment, regular soldiers are issued assault rifles while the conscripts were often if not always issued older weapons, the casualty rate for conscripts are also much higher, about more than five times higher than that of a regular soldier since the regulars are much better trained and armed.
One night Heinrich was on night watch, him and another soldier had to watch for Jugo F-15 Strike Eagles that killed many soldiers at night while they were sleeping. During the day they continued their march into Jugona. Boensia had been winning the war even if the country had a high casualty amount from breaking through Jugonian defensive lines.
Heinrich along with his comrades-in-arms find themselves near the heart of Jugonia, Boensin troops and armor march and tread across the farmland getting into small skirmishes with Jugonian militia and guerillas. After the break in the defensive lines, the Boensin conscripts rarely went up against Jugo regulars since they were garrisoned in the major cities and industrial centers.


It was another day for Heinrich and his war comrades. They had to do more patrols in the Jugonian countrysides. Heinrich looked at his rifle and his fellow soldiers in his half-track. He looked at the guy sitting next to him, he was a skinny blonde man, he wasn't skinny from malnutrition either, it was as though it was his natural civilian body, he also had dark blue eyes. Heinrich decided to strike up a conversation with him.
"So, how long have you been fighting?" he asked the blonde boy
"Since I turned sixteen a month ago" the blonde said
One could tell the blonde kid was a conscript, not just by the uniform, age or even his child-like face but you could tell by his rifle, he was holding an M1 Garand, the standard issue weapon for Boensin conscripts. Regular soldiers usually if not always looked more mature and usually carried M1 Carbines, M-16s or newer guns, regulars also get better and sometimes safer jobs since conscripts are more expendable.
"What's your name pal?" Heinrich asked the blonde
"My name is Rian, what's yours?" he asked back
"Heinrich, and I've been fighting this for almost a year." Heinrich replied
"Wow, you've lasted longer than many conscripts!" He said
What Rian said was fact, conscripts often dropped dead like flies around a bug-zapper, Heinrich is one of the lucky bastards that outlived the life expectancy of the typical Boensin conscript during the war. Rian was a farm boy, he comes from a family of well-to-do farmers that grew an assortment of valuable cash crops. Our conversation fell short when Jugo militia fired rocket propelled grenades at our column, the RPG hit the engine of the half-track in front of our and bullets from assault rifles whizzed passed our heads, everyone was then order to leave their vehicles and fire back at the militia. Heinrich and Rian scrambled my hands for the proper firing position. What Heinrich saw was a sad site, many of the conscripts were shaking while firing their rifles, there were much more conscripts than militiamen but the Jugo militia were far better shots than the Boensin soldiers, especially conscripts. 1st Lieutenant Cronsnak called in air support, all the troops had to do now was to fire at the militia unit for an hour before Mi-24 attack copters could reach our position from it's outpost. Heinrich and Rian fired away with a M1 Garands, sometimes they wished they had at least had carbines so we could fire off more shots without having to reload. One hour has passed the Hind didn't show up until fifteen minutes after the promised time, a hundred and eleven men have died in the ambush and three half-tracks were lost to RPG attacks. The Mi-24 Hind blasted the enemy position with rockets and machine gun fire and then left the battlefield. One the militia popped up twenty meters infront of Heinrich with an MP-5 submachine gun and fire five shots into his left arm. The militiaman that hat shot him appeared to be not a man but a boy, a preteen boy who looked as though he was fourteen but seeing that he was pitted against Heinrich, he shot the boy through the waist and then through the neck when Heinrich fired back. The boy dropped dead with blood comming out of his body through the bullet holes while Heinrich only had an injured arm, he still managed to fire a few shots with my left arm injured by small submachine gun bullets.
After the fighting died down, Heinrich and Rian looked at the kid
"Heinrich, he was...just a...kid." Rian said with sorrow in his eyes
"Yes, but the bastard shot me! I had to kill him before he could kill me!" I responded with anger.
The boy wasn't the first guy killed by Heinrich, believe it or not, a young conscript like Heinrich had shot and killed up to ten men, most of them ironically were regular soldiers of Jugo army. Lieutenant Cronsnak saw the dead boy and the found that the boy was a suicide bomber wired with plastic explosives.
"Who killed this young boy!" The Lieutenant hollered
Heinrich raised his hand
"I did"
Cronsnak was stunned
"Bullshit!" he said, then he laughed
"Are you really the boy that killed the other boy?"
"Yes, he did, he really did" Rian told him
Other soldiers who had witness Heinrich killing the young suicide bomber also joined with Rian to clarify his kill
"Well, boy, how do you feel about the fact that you saved alot of lives including your own today! That pee wee sonofabitch was tapped with enough explosives to kill off this whole platoon in one blow. I ought to have my superior award you a medal! But those a-holes in the higher ranks don't give out medals to conscripts, if I were them, I'd give you a platinum medal or at least a better gun.
Heinrich looked at Cronsnak with some fear in his eyes, he know Cronsnak to be a trash talker but he never knew that the lieutenant would single him out for his words. Heinrich was still relieved at the fact that he was being complemented instead of scolded by him.



Almost a year's time has passed since Heinrich was drafter into the army, it was the dead of winter. Outside the bunker was deadly subzero temperatures, many of the conscript were shivering and sneezing, Heinrich was trying to pass the time by reading books on Lizhong, a country Heinrich wanted to visit.
"Boy, you have proven yourself to me, for that I will address you by your real name." Lieutenant Cronsnak told him.
"What is your name?" he then asked
Heinrich the answered his question "My name is Heinrich.........." he was then cut short by the Lieutenant
"The first name is fine, don't tell me your last name. Just in case you're going to die soon, I don't want your name to be in vain, whether you die gallantly in battle, foolishly in battle or even more foolishly in this weather but knowing you, you probably won't die."
"Eh"
"You're a good soldier Heinrich, better than all the other bastards I have here. You saved their sorry asses months ago and you killed a few bastards on top of that. It's a pity that those deeds go unnoticed when a conscript such as yourself commits them. To the big-shot generals and in high-command you're nothing but sacrificial shit, to me you're not and to the rest of those poor bastards, you're a god and to the enemy, you're the devil. If I were one of those generals, I'd recommend you to something like the" Cronsnak paused and looked at Heinrich's book "I'd recommend you to the Lizhong Foreign Legions but I doubt that those Lizhong big-shots will select a conscript like you, even the higher-ups there are just like our bosses in the Boensin army, they only have an eye for rank and not skill."
A week has passed since the platoon became holed up in the bunker, the temperature had warmed up significantly to around ten degree celsius. The soldiers were ready to move on. As the troops head out of the bunker into the pleasantly cool weather, they saw eight Boensin F-15 fighters escort two B-52 bombers head for the capital city which was just down our path, suddenly the Lieutanant recieved orders on his communication radio to back away from the city and head for the forests.
"Alright boys, let's back to where we came from....the forests!"
The troops groaned, they wanted some sort of victory parade on the streets of Willinka, the capital city of Jugonia but there was a reason why we were told to pull back. We heard a deafening explosion, felt the ground shaking and saw a sudden flash of bright light. Everyone including Lieutenant Cronsnak turn around to witness the nuclear explosion that annihilated Willinka, even Cronsnak was stunned by the massive explosion and the destruction the bomb left behind, what stunned him even more was the sniper bullet that his back, Heinrich saw the lieutenant fall down and he turned around to look for a sniper or any traces of him, a red dot moved around and become focused on Rian. Heinrich then pushed him out of the way, the sniper bullet nearly hit them. Heinrich and Rian manuevered from tree to shrub looking for the sniper, eventually Heinrich was the unlucky man to be targeted by the sniper, he could tell by the red dot moving around the uniform, he forgot to reload his rifle was down to his last bullet. He blindly fired a shot from his rifle at the tree tops. He then heard a scream and instantly learned that he was luck on was his side. The sniper fell down from the tree and laid on the ground dead, Heinrich and Rian head back to the place where the Lieutenant fell, the medics couldn't get the potassium bullet out of Cronsnak fast enough. The last thing Cronsnak saw was a giant fireball.