Chapter 20
First Sergeant Dirk Cabral and his hand picked team snuck through the dark forest. It was 0300, and the captain’s beacon hadn’t moved much for the last 45 minutes. It was time to set up the ambush. They’d entered the forest before the captain had given his briefing, coming from the opposite side the captain would.
An operation like this required a lot of stealth. They would need to position inside visual range of the human POWs, then wait for the right moment. The plan called to wait until there were no more than 8 of the elven guards before they launched their attack.
The hope was that the elves would hear the message being broadcast in the city, and attack the airfield around 0600. Air Force had promised to have a C-130J Spectre gunship on station to light the whole area up, and had plans for a follow up bombing run by a wing of B-2’s.
Apparently, the elves were still having issues with detecting stealth tech on their advanced scans, so even though most older air superiority fighters had been destroyed in dog fights in the first couple days of the fight, so long as the elves didn’t have any craft in visual range, the Air Force could send up stealth runs and encounter zero resistance. It also helped that the elf aircraft had huge radar cross sections, so they were fairly easy to detect.
All this translated to the rescue team having a very small insert window between when the guards got lazy enough after the captain was brought in, but before the whole force started prepping to move out to raid the Columbus Airport.
There would also be the need to camouflage themselves almost perfectly. Nobody knew what actions the elves might take, and calling in reinforcements or relocating the prisoners were just two possibilities that could put the elves directly on the rescue team.
This and other possibilities were why the team had been selected so carefully. Most of the volunteers had little or no actual combat experience, outside of the invasion, but they all had specialized SERE training, PT scores at the top of the scoring spectrum, and expert level marksmanship skills. They were also people who possessed extreme discipline.
As the team moved single file down the trail that Dirk was making, bounding from cover to cover and stopping often to conduct SLLS (Stop, Look, Listen, Smell), he found himself moderately impressed. None of these people had even applied for the SOF Q-course, but they were doing well. Carrying almost 40 kg (85+ lbs) of gear, and doing so silently, while maintaining noise and light discipline, and staying fully alert while doing so was no small feat. Even more so, the fact that they’d covered a little over 19 miles in 4 hours.
The last mile and a half they were significantly reducing speed, focusing on moving as quietly as possible. At points the whole group found themselves crawling across small open areas on their bellies. The last half mile was excruciatingly slow. They couldn’t risk detection, and that meant stopping quite often.
Finally the team was in place. Quietly, each soldier found their own hide site, and began to camouflage themselves into the location. Best case scenario, they had between 10 and 30 minutes before the elves started moving, one way or another. Dirk found a tree with a hole in the roots, and carefully, quietly removed his pack. He removed the cloth wrapped e-tool he had placed on the outside pocket, and unwrapped it. He would need the camouflage wrap soon enough.
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Dirk used the tool to dig the hole slightly wider and deeper, then used the excess dirt to form a small mound in front of the hole. Anyone who happened into the area would think it was a raccoon nest. Dirk gathered a handful of leaves and other forest detritus, then backed into the whole, carefully placing his pack in front of him. He placed his M-7 rifle on the pack, aiming toward the faint outlines of the elven camp he could just make out, then placed the camouflage wrap on top of everything, making sure the top edge of the cloth was caught on some of the tree roots. Lastly, the handful of leaves was spread over the material.
A quiet 8 minutes of work were all it took for the experienced operator to fade almost entirely from even a detailed visual inspection of the area. Some of the others were still at work, but overall Dirk expected they’d be ready. He carefully tapped the PTT (Push To Talk) button on the comms link he wore twice, signaling to Lieutenant Soto that the group was in place. He then carefully positioned his head to look through the optic attached to his weapon towards the enemy camp.
The elf guards seemed preoccupied with intimidating the human prisoners, keeping them in line. This didn’t surprise Dirk. The guards were likely under pressure from their leaders after the captain’s infiltration. Dirk kept a careful eye on the guards, counting them carefully. 36 guards seemed to rotate between various positions around the encampment.
The two things that did concern Dirk was his inability to find the captain among the prisoners, and the apparent lack of any leadership in the camp. A few minutes later, both issues resolved themselves as an almost naked Captain Williams was led back towards the camp by 6 additional elves. 5 of them seemed to be the same rank and file soldiers as the other guards, but the 6th was obviously some kind of leader. They also appeared to be female, wearing a long white cape and armor that sparkled, even in the dim lighting, as though it were made of diamonds.
As the group drew closer, Dirk realized they’d likely just come from one of the nearby streams or ponds. Captain Williams was dripping wet, as was one of the elves, wearing leather armor and a cloak, from the waist down. The small group of elves stopped, and the leading elf wearing the white cloak turned away from Dirk’s position, facing the captain.
Dirk watched as the captain was beaten and bruised by the other elves, a fire growing in his gut. Something was wrong, but the Captain hadn't broken the cell transmitting chip, meaning he still thought the operation had a chance of succeeding. Dirk didn’t like it, but if the captain wasn’t going to call it off, neither would he. Dirk knew that watching the scene with the captain would be trying for the soldiers he’d brought, and he hoped none of them were stupid enough to break concealment over this.
A handful of minutes later the captain was dragged to the rest of the POWs and allowed to slump to the ground. The elf leader stormed off towards a large tent, and the other 5 elves that had been with her began heading away from the camp, likely going on some kind of scouting or recon mission to patrol the perimeter. Dirk felt his ass hole pucker slightly, knowing that the moment of truth for the rescue team was coming soon. Either they’d done enough, and would remain hidden, or they had somehow failed to hide themselves well enough, and would be caught, possibly ruining the operation.
Fortunately, just as the small band reached the edge of camp closest to Dirk, an elf dressed in leather armor, but without a cape dashed into the clearing. A flurry of activity followed, and soon the commander elf exited her tent. A short meeting was held, the commander gesticulating wildly, before 21 of the elves left the camp, the female commander with them. That left 18 elves still present, and Dirk began to worry.
The plan called to hold off on the rescue until enough of the elves left the area, but now that he was within visual range, Dirk could feel the power washing of the remaining guards. Some 6th sense he hadn’t known he possessed, or maybe something that had changed when he’d reached level 5 let him know that his current group wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the elves. They needed more to leave the camp.