Chapter 21
Lieutenant Lyndis Soto sat in the MRAP that Savage Company had requisitioned and watched the map of the city as it was updated in real time. There hadn’t been any requests coming in for civilian pickup, which worried her. The Infrared feed of the drone had showed at most a hundred or so human prisoners. For a city of almost two hundred thousand, the numbers just weren’t adding up.
Unfortunately Lyndis couldn’t keep worrying about that. It was 0445, and according to the map, most of the patrols were already heading back toward her position. Soon they’d have to roll out and head for the airport. She'd received the signal from First Sergeant Cabral an hour or so before, letting her know they were in place, then the signal letting her know that some elves had left the encampment, but not the one signifying the start of the rescue operation. Likely not enough elves had left the clearing, so she’d have to use the backup plan.
She would have to call off the gun ship and allow the elves to engage with the company long enough and carefully enough to allow the company to exit the AO quickly right before the bombing run. It'd be tight, but they could save the spectre gunship for another time.
Soon the other members of Savage Company and their extra stand-ins began to pull up. Within 30 minutes the whole company plus roughly another two of extras, some 400 soldiers plus or minus the handful with the First Sergeant were standing around their assigned vehicles waiting for further orders.
A company of tanks was already on the way to the airport, having had orders to set up in the surrounding forest to act as surprise reinforcements if needed. The artillery guns at Fr. Moore that had enough range to reach the airport had been set up to target that area, and currently two B-2 bombers were being loaded and fueled up.
Knowing this was the last opportunity to talk to the troops before they were in the shit, Lyndis stepped out of the command vehicle. Extra personnel had been assigned to drive and man the weapons on the vehicle, so Lyndis would be focused on command. However, it bothered her that she wouldn’t be in her exo-mecha. If the system had given her the [Battlesuit Pilot] class, shouldn’t she be trying to advance that class?
The army needed her to be a commander right now, and she knew the exo-mecha would soon lose it’s edge against the elves, as they were going up against higher level enemies, but she hadn’t received much of any experience for leading things, only progressing when she was actively joining the fight in the battle suit. She would have to discuss this with the Captain and the First Sergeant to see what ideas they had.
She did her best to let such thoughts filter back into her subconscious. She needed to focus up and give her first official pre-battle “captain speech”. She figured as long as she didn’t use the terms “piggy back”, “behoove”, and “Army values”, she would be fine.
“Savage Company! Listen up! Things are going to get real out there, and I want you all to know what to do. Right now there’s a group of between 10 and 50 high level elf warriors heading toward the Columbus Airport.”
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A cheer went up among the soldiers in front of her, and Lyndis realized this would be a bit more difficult than she’d thought.
“We have a group of soldiers in the forest not far from here waiting to rescue a group of roughly 100 civilians. However our plan hasn’t gone quite perfectly. There are still too many guards watching the POW’s. We need to engage the elves at the airport and stand off long enough for them to call in reinforcements. As soon as the rescue team sees the reinforcements leave their camp, they will begin the hostage rescue operation, and signal us to vacate the airport.”
The soldiers were somewhat quieter this time, likely grasping the scope of what they would soon be doing.
“Once we are off the x, the Air Force is planning a bombing run, which should eliminate the threat. We will then move through the city and link up with the hostage rescue team wherever they are and if we run into the elf reinforcements along the way, we will light them up. This is a no-fail operation. If we lose here, we start the long slow decline of the human race. If we win here, we start the long, slow process of kicking these invaders the fuck off our planet.”
This time the soldiers cheered again. Most knew by now the risks they were facing, and the probability that humanity was going to lose. They had chosen to fight anyway. They understood their duty to protect the week, and after tonight most likely felt they had failed in some regard. 200,000 civilians called Columbus home, and only 100 were left. The invaders certainly had some answering to do, and the soldiers of Savage Company were ready to force some answers. Even if it cost them their lives.
“We will not give up! We will not give in! We will never surrender! We will never give ground! We will always defeat the enemy! We are the US Army!”
This time the cheating was deafening. Lyndis knew she was likely sending some of these men to die, but they would die proudly, costing the enemy for every inch they gained and every life they took. And Lyndis would be proud of them, even if she was the last one standing. This time there would be no reinforcements. This time there wouldn’t be any aces in the sleeve, waiting for just the right moment. This time the captain wouldn’t be able to save them at the last second. This time they would be fighting with everything they had, in a beat down, drag out, knuckle duster battle for the few marbles humanity had left.
Lyndis stepped back, turning to a chaplain who gave a short prayer, and then everyone loaded back up into their vehicles, Lyndis’s MRAP leading the way. The plan called for speed, since the elves were likely getting close to the airport by now, and the Human forces would need as much time as they could get to set up.
As the faintest edges of morning began to creep across the city, not bringing light, not yet, but bringing the sort of gray that signaled the sun was on its way, Savage company pulled up to the airport. And Lyndis found the perfect surprise waiting for her. Her Exo-Mecha had been repaired, re-tuned, and re-supplied. Somehow it’d been delivered with the tank company, and waited for her, ready to stand against the elves one more time.
Soldiers engaged in a flurry of activity, setting up razor wire, barricades, and placing machine guns. They arranged the vehicles in a formation from the American pioneer era, with all the vehicles pulled into a tight circle, guns out. Tanks on the outside, then the MRAPs, with the relatively lightly armored HUMMWVs on the inside. This allowed the soldiers to engage the enemy regardless of what direction they came from. Then the other vehicles would be able to pull out of the circle and form a firing line to maximize outgoing fire regardless of where the elves were coming from. Lyndis directed a group to take two M-2 machine guns, several boxes of .50 caliber Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) ammunition, and all the available AT-4s (Anti Tank weapons for destroying lightly armored vehicles) to set up in the elevated Air Traffic Control building.
With all that done, the waiting began.