by Dave Hazel
“Yeah,” Mykal said with a heavy sigh. “So whadda ya think we oughta do?”
“I’m all for going straight through and taking the army by surprise and taking them out quickly,” Lieutenant Finley was the first to give his opinion.
“Damn, that’s a lot of soldiers we’re killing all of a sudden,” Mykal laughed.
“Yeah but Mykal, we’ll be supporting our mission to rescue her,” Finley said. “We’ll be saving time and preventing them from returning and sneaking up on us when we would least expect it.”
“Plus if you keep the big picture in mind,” Roy Jr. said. “How many good people are we going to spare by killing them here as opposed to allowing them to get to the Pass?”
“They may never go to the Pass,” Randy laughed at his brother’s farfetched idea. “That’s just a cheap excuse to kill some more bad guys,” he said and continued to laugh which made Mykal laugh with him.
“Well, they’re like Sosos. You never know. They might get sent to the Pass,” Roy Jr. added and laughed with them.
Mykal realized they were laughing and talking about these lives as if they were nothing of value. “The truth is, it would be good to catch them here and now while we have the Mk 19s and the .50 caliber machine guns with us,” Mykal said and rubbed his hand over his face. “I honestly don’t wanna add any more time on to the mission by going the long way so for that reason alone I say we should just meet them head on and pulverize them. And this time we will not let them separate and get around us like the last time.”
“Now you’re talking my language,” Roy Jr. chortled and held out his hand to high five Mykal.
“Why, they’re not Sosos?” Randy asked. “Don’t get me wrong bro cuz I agree with you. But they’re not Sosos.”
“They’re just as bad as Sosos,” Roy Jr. said in an acidic tone that sounded like he could easily become angered over the discussion. He looked to make sure Hidtotim and his three men were not standing there. “The Big Zee, Ziggy Stardust or whatever stupid name we can call that stupid Zee bastard was the one behind the push of the Sosos into Towbar’s land. These are his soldiers so they’re all just as guilty of Baby Ray’s death as the Sosos are cuz they’re all tied to that Zee-hole. I’ll kill every damn Soso I have the chance to. So that means I’ll kill every damn Zeeman that I have the opportunity to as well. As far as I’m concerned these soldiers are just cleaned up versions of Sosos, so they’re just as guilty. And if you press me to be honest and say okay, they didn’t have anything to do with Baby Ray’s death, fine. They’re guilty of all the crimes they do around here to the innocent men, women and children who gets abused and murdered for no reason. Besides, they wanna kill us if they get the chance, so let’s beat them to the punch.”
“Right on brother,” Mykal laughed and raised his hand to high five Roy Jr. again. “You got my support and if you were running for office you’d have my vote too,” Mykal joked but the foreigners didn’t understand.
“I’m with ya too bro,” Randy said and snickered at his brother’s hostility. “I just wanted to know why and you cleared that up. I never thought about them all being under the same Zee-hole as you called him.”
“Are we getting ready to depart?” Sergeant Barry asked when he and some of his Army transportation teams joined them.
“Yes, we will start loading up momentarily,” Captain Diaz answered.
“Sergeant Barry, I have a question for you,” Mykal said when an idea popped into his mind. “You said the Mk 19s don’t have to be mounted on the vehicles, am I right?”
“You’re right. We actually have the M3 tripods so they don’t have to be mounted on the vehicles.”
“Is it hard to un-mount or mount them to the vehicles?”
“No, not really. They weigh about seventy-eight pounds and a crew of two can easily set it up and use them rather quickly.”
“Good, good. Whadda ya think about when we come up to the next group of soldiers, if we take the Mk 19s off the turret and set them up on the ground so this way we can have your teams be able to use the .50 cals at the same time instead of one or the other? This way we can blast the hell outta them before they know what’s hit ‘em?”
“Great idea Mykal,” Lieutenant Finley said while eyeing the vehicles and the dual weapons mounted on them.
“Yeah, this way we can be blasting them apart once they start to split up,” Roy Jr. said. “We would be able to open up on them with maximum force all at once.”
“There would be no difficulty in that whatsoever,” Barry replied and looked at his men who all nodded in agreement. “With our four man teams we can have two men on the ground with the Mark 19, one man in the turret with the .50 caliber and the fourth will stay behind ready to help reload or change barrels or whatever we would need, unless he is called on by the others.”
“I would say have the driver’s stay behind the wheel,” Captain Diaz spoke up quickly. “And we will supply a fourth person for each one of your teams to do whatever may be needed. I would prefer to have the driver for each vehicle freed up and to stay behind the wheel just in case we have to make a hasty departure.”
“Not a problem here Sir,” Barry said. “We have plenty of ammo for both weapons and if we run out we will vacate the scene.”
“Alright, let’s get moving,” Mykal said and clapped his hands together.
6.
When the vehicles came to a stop it had almost become dark. They needed the headlights on if they were going to continue but Mykal said to keep the lights off so they wouldn’t be seen by the enemy. “Hey Mykal, Captain Diaz wants to talk at ya,” Mathis said while he handed him the radio handset.
“Myk here.”
“I got some news Mykal,” Diaz said and sounded distracted. He was clearly listening to several other voices while he was trying to communicate with Mykal. “Yes sure, let me finish talking to Mykal and I’ll be right there. Okay, first things first. As you can see it’s obviously getting too dark to continue if we’re not going to turn the headlights on. Good news, Lanorear and the Hawkmen confirmed the army is about a half a mile to a mile away on the other side of a little hill. He also said they are bedding down for the night. You should find out from Hidtotim what they do as far as security. See if you can find out from him if they send out night patrols. We need to be sure they don’t send out night patrols to check out the area.”
“I’ll ask him right away.”
“I would say we should camp down for the night and hit them first thing in the morning just before they get up and start moving about. Unless you want to take the chance and try to hit them with a night raid,” Diaz suggested though he didn’t sound too enthused by his own proposal.
“No. Definitely no,” Mykal said and shook his head adamantly. All it takes is for just one of them to get away and our whole operation could be blown. I think a morning raid right before they get up will surely screw them up.”
“Great, I would agree. Finley and I both agree that we should wait until the morning. Based on what Lanorear said we should be fine here unless they do send out patrols. But we will be sure to be deep on our night watch.”
“After we get settled I might take a handful of people and sneak up to their camp and see what we can find out,” Mykal said. “Towbar and the Elves and the Dwarves for that matter have great eye sight in the dark,” he added and didn’t tell that his eye sight was just as good in the dark. “Let’s see how things go and see if they wanna go check it out. Tell everyone to keep the lights off and we’ll set up camp here unless you think we should back up a little. I’ll talk to Hidtotim. Tell the men to get as much rest as they can get when they’re not on guard duty.”
“Will do. Be sure to let one of us know if you find out any information.”
“So what’s the plan?” Randy asked.
“We’re going to hit them right at the crack of dawn,” Mykal said and moved quickly to get outside of the vehicle. “Come on with me,” he said to Towbar, the Dosch brothers and
Mathis. Mykal found Hidtotim and his three men near the side of their vehicle. “Hidtotim, I have a couple questions for you.”
“Yes Mykal,” Hidtotim greeted Mykal with a broad smile. “We have just been discussing what we should eat for our evening meal. We are not decided on whether to eat the packaged meals your men provide or to open our special gifted boxes of Lucka Charms,” he said and still didn’t get the name correct.
Mykal had to think for a moment and couldn’t keep the humorous smile from his face. “Do what you want and after we complete our mission, I’ll get you a couple more big boxes of that cereal.”
“Them boys loves them some Lucky Charms,” Roy Jr. said in a way that was comical even to Towbar who rarely expressed a sense of humor. “Good thing they didn’t get any Cocoa Puffs cuz them boys would be Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.”
The foreigners and Towbar didn’t understand what Roy Jr. was saying, but Mykal, Randy and Mathis laughed out loud.
“We could probably pull a bank job and we wouldn’t have to split the cash with them. All we’d have to do is promise to give ‘em some breakfast cereal,” Roy Jr. said and kept the others laughing. “I’m afraid to see what would happen if we give dem ol’ boys some Pop Tarts,” he added and continued laughing with the others.
“He’s joking,” Mykal laughed. “Don’t worry about it,” he added when the four soldiers looked back and forth at each other to see if any of them understood what Roy Jr. meant. “Seriously though. I have some questions for you guys. When your armies camp out for the night do they put up a heavy guard duty to keep watch over the sleeping soldiers?”
“Not much of a guard duty. However, that would also be determined by where their location is,” Hidtotim answered. “Our soldiers are fierce warriors and those who would oppose us would have to be a very mighty army because they would understand the consequences if they tried to do harm to one of our armies. They would know that they would be hunted down and killed. If they were to be captured they would be tortured viciously for attempting to violate the Supreme Ruler’s plan. They would also understand that their families would be hunted down and tortured in front of them if possible. The deterrence to such actions is very strong.”
“If the army is stationed in a land where the population is hostile toward us,” one of the three soldiers name Nomorek spoke. “Then there would be a greater risk of insurgents, those willing to die for their fight against the Supreme Ruler. So to further answer your question the guard duties would be greatly increased to help limit or eliminate the attacks.”
“Correct,” Hidtotim turned to nod in agreement to Nomorek. “Since the army is in neutral to friendly lands in this area the guard duty will be lax.”
“Do you know what time of day they usually start their routines? When do you think as a group they would all be awake, up and about and ready to move out?”
“That would depend on each specific commander from each army. For the most part they would start when daylight fills the air.”
“Good, that’s what I was thinking. Do they ever send out night patrols?” Mykal waited and the four of them looked confused. “Would they send mend out walking at night time to see if anyone is in the area?”
“No. Especially, since they are still so close to the home base. There would be no need to. There are no potential threats in this area.
“Okay thanks guys,” Mykal said with a friendly smile. “Make sure you get a good night sleep and if you wanna eat up all your Lucky Charms,” he laughed at their child like fascination with breakfast cereal, “then go ahead and like I said we will get you a whole bunch more.”
“Great,” Hidtotim said and the four of them expressed a strange excitement.”
“Towbar do you wanna take a walk with me?” Mykal asked when they were out of ear shot from the four soldiers.
“Take a walk to where my friend?”
“I was thinking about me, you, any of the Elves and any of the Dwarves who would want to, to go sneaking up to their camp and see if we can gather any information. It may turn out to be a waste of time, but we might be able to hear something that would be helpful to us.”
“I would not object if you think it may benefit our situation.”
“Do you want us to come along Myk?” Roy Jr. asked.
“No for two reasons. To be honest I would love to take you guys with me, but number one I don’t wanna put you guys in any unnecessary risk, but for two, Towbar, the Elves and the Dwarves have amazing eyesight in the dark and they also have increased hearing.”
“Sure. That makes sense,” Randy replied.
“Besides, I trust Hidtotim and the other three but I wanna make sure you guys keep an eye on the four just in case. I don’t wanna take a chance of them sneaking out in the middle of the night and warning the bad guys that we’re here. I honestly don’t think they would do something like that, especially since I had Hidtotim help in killing some of the soldiers earlier today, and I really believe they wanna go to the other side of Towbar’s world to live out the rest of their lives.”
“Not a problem Myk,” Randy answered. “We can do that. Make sure, in case I forget, one of you guys tells Captain Diaz what I just said so they can tell all those keeping watch during the night to keep their eyes watchful on the four of them. Just in case. Alright?”
“Definitely,” Roy Jr. said and winked. “I’ll gladly watch them Lucky Charms lovin’ foreigners,” he added and they all laughed.
“Let’s go see if we can get any of the Elves and Dwarves to come with us.”
7.
“Once again, I’m really thankful that all of you decided to come along,” Mykal spoke quietly to his small group. His group included Towbar, Nordad and his two men Codlon and Agnor. All four Dwarves agreed to come along. All six Elves including the newest Elf who took the position of Gwellon who had been killed in the last battle where they had suffered many casualties.
The sixth and newest Elf, named Glamdir, had to give his word he would not lose his cool and become angry and put them at risk of being discovered. Being the youngest Elf he had been prone to angry outbursts when confronted with or confronting humans who held racist attitudes toward Elves. When Glamdir was very young he hid when their home was attacked by hateful humans and he watched as twenty-three human soldiers tortured his father, mother and younger sister. He knew he would have died as well if he tried to help them. His hatred for humans ran very deep. He had to learn that many humans are different than the soldiers who destroyed his family. At his young age he vowed revenge but he had never had the opportunity to confront soldiers of Zizmon-Tarl.
Mykal took Starling, Leeno and Blair aside to get their assurance that Glamdir could be trusted not to be foolish and lose his temper. “If you guys wanna bring him, I’ll allow it cuz I trust you guys like my closest friends. But if he does anything stupid to endanger us I will stop him,” he said in a way that could only be taken as a threat to kill him. “I’m not gonna risk everyone else’s life because he’s filled with hatred. Don’t get me wrong, I understand his pain and hatred. I do, I really do and when the time comes I’ll even help him to find an opportunity to release his pent up rage and hatred. Just make sure he understands we’re on his side and we’re just going to try to get some information that may be of value to us.”
“We understand that Mykal,” Leeno replied. “And he knows he will put all of us at risk. He will not break his word and violate the trust we put into him.”
“If he has such a hateful rage problem, why was he selected to come along with us?”
“We decided we would try to help him cope with his hateful passions in a way that would be productive and not destructive to him,” Starling answered. “We knew there would be opportunities to battle soldiers.”
“The greater reason is Glamdir is a close family relation of mine,” Blair announced.
Mykal expected the three of them to joke and laugh as if that was part of the punch line, but they showed n
o humor as always. “Oh, okay.”
“I need to do what I can to watch over him and keep him safe as he grows through such dangerous times,” Blair answered.
“We three are close enough to be family so we agreed to help Blair with his dilemma,” Leeno said,
“Alright. Cool. As long as you guys keep him from getting us in trouble--”
“We will do that,” Starling agreed.
The group of fifteen walked quietly. They moved slowly, watched and listened for anything that could be a threat as they neared the outskirts of the military camp. When they topped a small hill they easily found the small fires and the quiet peacefulness of the camp that bedded down for the night. They were spread over a large piece of ground. The army consisted of two thousand nine hundred eighty-nine soldiers including the leaders. This group was larger than Commander Ingledoss’s army though it was hard to see that at night. The security around the camp was lax because this was an experienced group of warriors that had been in many conflicts together. They had been known as an elite group of warriors who had been tasked to move into an especially difficult area near the border with Elves.
As Hidtotim told Mykal they were close to home and being they were well trained, battle tested experienced soldiers of Zizmon-Tarl, and they would be laidback until they drew nearer to the forested areas populated with their Elvin enemy. Who would dare try to provoke trouble with them when the punishment would be horrendous for the offender and their families?
The Dwarves stayed back because they couldn’t understand the common tongue language very well, but Mykal asked them along because of their increased eyesight and hearing could help them in the dark. Agnor stayed with the Dwarves and kept watch for any potential surprises. The other ten crept to the edges of the camp to pick up on any discussions in order to gather any information. They had discussed prior that they would not kill any of the soldiers only because it wouldn’t help them when the army awoke in the morning and found dead soldiers. That would put the entire army on alert and their attack may not come as a complete surprise.