Chapter 50
Reports continued to trickle in throughout the night, Keeping Matt awake. First, he’d found out that two of the soldiers fighting the Chimera had been with Cabral’s detachment. When he’d asked them what happened, they’d admitted that the First Sergeant had split off from the main detachment, leaving SSG Davis and Lieutenant Jeckel in charge and that the 5 of them had followed the main element, expecting the elf prisoner to try escaping.
Matt felt insulted that his First Sergeant hadn’t trusted him enough to bring this possibility to his attention, but in a way he did kind of understand the reasoning. If the elf had found a way to mind control him, it would be hard to trust that she didn’t have some nefarious plan she’d enact once some of the other more powerful members of the attack element had left. It did however leave Matt worried about what had happened to both Cabral and SSG Davis.
Hours later, A single member of the 25-man detachment had returned, explaining that there was a large number of elves on the patrol route they’d investigated, indicating that something more was going on than just patrols. The soldier had been fairly sure that a few others escaped, including SSG Davis, but he’d felt the need to make it back to the main force rather than sticking around to try and re-group.
This worried Matt more than any other report from that night. He’d sent orders out to increase security in case they were attacked and sent the soldier and a few others to set up an LP/OP on the most likely course the elves would take if they pushed toward the element tonight. He’d also made sure everyone understood that they would need to leave the site early in the morning after a much shorter investigation of the church ruins.
If any of the detachment soldiers were captured and questioned, it was likely that the information about their attack would be discovered, and the elves at Fort Eisenhower would increase security, or set up an ambush of some kind. Further, because the elves had sent a force of scouts to counter and capture Matt’s detachment, it meant the question of the elf’s integrity was back under suspicion. Matt still felt that her willingness to stay when she likely could have easily escaped had to be worth something, but he couldn’t trust her or what she had to say until he had more of an idea of what really happened.
Finally, toward the small hours of the morning, a medic had informed him that the soldier who’d been partially burned hadn’t been dead after all, and had recovered enough to deliriously question where Cabral and the “black armor man” had gone. Rather than bring a sense of anxiety, this left Matt more confused than anything. If Cabral had been around to engage the Chimera, it made a certain kind of sense that the monster had been injured prior to its fight with Matt and the others. However, that meant either Cabral was inside the church, either dead and burned or alive and somehow hiding. The alternative was that he’d either been captured or had voluntarily left, maybe with this “black armor man”.
Between all of that, Matt had tried to get as much sleep as he could, but ultimately he hadn’t done more than toss and turn on his cot. Such were the costs of leadership. No matter how much you try to put things out of your mind, sometimes you just couldn’t set things down. Instead, he drank two cups of coffee, black as it came, and hoped for the best.
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As the rest of the camp picked up and prepared to roll out, Matt held another officers’ planning meeting. With the intel they now had, they needed to make a decision. Either they would need to redirect and pursue the Elvan unit who’d captured SSG Davis and the rest of the detachment, hopefully before they were able to communicate the presence of American forces to the enemy holding Fort Eisenhower. Or, they would need to make all speed for a direct assault on the base, aiming to attack within the next 18 to 24 hours.
Matt, being one of the least experienced Captains, but having been given overall command, listened carefully to what the others had to say.
“The possibility that the elves already know of us is fairly high.” the second tank company 1SG said. “Our best chance is to rush the attack, and hit them before they have time to prepare.”
“If we do that, we might lose the opportunity to rescue our men who’ve been captured. I understand that we need to strike while the iron is hot at Fort Eisenhower, but we should send a few soldiers at least to track down the POWs and let us know where they are.” A supply lieutenant proposed.
“I like the idea of sending men to track down our POWs, but who’s to say they won't get captured as well? I don’t like having that elf prisoner with us. I know it’s too late to do anything about it now, but I suspect she’s got some way of communicating with other elves via methods we don’t understand.” Lieutenant Soto countered.
“If that is even remotely true, we need to attack Fort Eisenhower immediately. The prisoner may be communicating with their commander even now, giving them time to plan a counterattack.” Captain Miller interrupted. “We can not risk having the enemy figure out how our technology works. It is the only real advantage we have over them.”
“Even if we want to send someone to follow the POWs' trail, who would we send? Cabral was by far our most experienced in that area, and it sounds like he was either captured or killed. Our best chance for rescuing any soldiers still alive at this point is to attack Fort Eisenhower while we still have a chance of success, then capture more members of the elf command structure and do a thorough interrogation session with some of the returnees present. That way we have the best chance of learning something useful while still preventing the enemy from easily figuring out our communications protocols.”
The group went quiet after that, and after waiting a beat, Matt made his decision.
“We'll head straight for Fort Eisenhower now. One tank company and the exo-mecha’s will rush there, and gather as much Intel as possible while positioning for the attack. The other tanker company and the infantry will follow behind, making the enemy believe we’re still following the original plan. When we get to the planned campsite for tonight, my tank will stay behind with the prisoner. If she’s feeding the enemy Intel, that’ll cause some confusion, and if not, one tank during the initial strike won’t make much difference. After the attack begins, we’ll come up and act as a security force of sorts, making sure none of the enemy escape in our direction. We'll plan to start the attack at 2 AM tomorrow morning. That’ll be all. Mount up and good luck everyone.”
Matt proceeded the elf into the tank that’d be their home for the next 18+ hours. She was likely aware something was different, but hopefully, she hadn’t overheard anything important. Hopefully letting the men see her yesterday had gotten the message across to keep their mouths shut outside of any official briefings. One way or another it was time once again to do or die, and Matt would do his part.