The cramped interior of the LAV was silent except for the occasional bump and thud of gear as it rolled down the empty and rough-hewn dirt road. Other LAVs followed, along with APCs and light tactical vehicles.
After the flight in the cargo bay of the troop airlifter, the inside of the metal troop transport vehicle felt unnervingly silent—just the rolling of wheels and the unsettling whirr of electronics.
The turret gunner for the LAV sat in his raised rotating platform, scanning the surroundings for possible threats through the turret's night and thermal vision panels. His hands clutched the controls of the turret's 30mm cannon.
They hadn't made contact so far, and the 'resupply convoy' continued in the night without incident.
- - -
The LAV slowed to a halt and cut its engines.
The LAV commander, a lieutenant, ordered the TRACE teams out of the back.
"We're here," he said in a hushed voice, peeking his head out from the right side of the turret. His cavalry[1] combat helmet shone in the dim light of instruments, his mask and visor gleaming.
"Once you exit from the vehicle, grab one of the supply packages and take them with you. The outpost will be out on the left side of the vehicle. Once you drop them off, you're on your own. It was an honour to ride with you. Good luck."
Eve leaned forwards and offered him a fist bump, which he gladly accepted.
The rear door of the LAV opened, thumping mutely onto the forest floor. Eve grabbed the supply crate from underneath her seat and exited from the vehicle. Her team and two other TRACE squads—including Elisa's Seaward team—followed her off of the armoured vehicle.
She saw the other squads that had ridden with other APCs and LAVs exit as well, filtering out of the vehicles without so much as a sound.
Even before Eve stepped into the LAV, her night-vision-capable visor flickered to life in white phosphor and it painted the night in shifting shades of grey as she dismounted.
At first, she didn't see anything. Then, she picked out tents, sandbags, a small makeshift command post, and patrolling security detail perhaps 20 meters away—the convoy had driven them straight through a hidden forest path to the outpost.
The position was extremely well camouflaged, with meshes of foliage and other greenery draped over the observation post.
As they moved, hunched over to keep their silhouettes low, Halcyon regular army soldiers were already heading their way to help relieve them of the resupply.
A captain, presumably in charge of this forward observation post, rushed over to the convoy commander, exchanged a few sparse words, then walked back to the outpost.
The convoy kicked their engines back in gear and rolled off, back the way they came.
The spec ops squad dropped off the supplies at a supply tent.
Understandably, some of the Halcyon regular forces soldiers gawked at the sight of the SFCOM and other highly trained units passing through their post.
The captain tasked them to unpacking the resupply. That shut them up rather quickly.
Eve breathed out. Signalling her squad to get into formation, the task force spread out in a sparse comb, each squad staying connected while they each acted independently so as to be harder to notice.
Eve and her squad trudged through the deciduous forest, nocturnal birds calling with the occasional owl hoot from above. Leaf litter and undergrowth were trampled underfoot as they continued onwards.
- - -
Soon, the squads grew more and more sparse as they spread out to comb the massive area. Moving low amongst the undergrowth, Eve's team carefully treaded through the contested nighttime forest, their weapons raised, eyes up and wary of possible threats.
There was a high possibility of the Asphodelians using night vision, and they couldn't be too careful.
Not even ten minutes after leaving the forward observation post, a distant firefight echoed in the distance before quickly falling silent. Given that no one had reported engagement over the task force's comms, Eve assumed it was a regular forces skirmish.
Some time passed before Seo, who was the point of the formation, raised a fist, signalling a halt before her hushed voice came over comms.
"We've got a dug in position a hundred meters to our front. It looks Asphodelian. The amount of tangoes is unclear, but I do see two heat signatures on lookout. The entire thing is… 100 meters long, I'd say."
Eve quickly flipped through a couple of her thoughts. Would it be worth it to sneak on past? Could they have parts of the drone here? No, it's too far up and not well-defended enough. If we engage here, then that could possibly alert them to our movements.
"We move around it," Eve said quietly. "We'll head to the right. Keep your guns trained on those lookouts."
"Roger."
They quickly got back on their feet and kept moving. It was only the beginning of the operation, and the mental game had begun already.
It was always a mental game on operations. What decisions to make, and what decisions would be the right call. Keeping your focus on the task at hand. Being mentally prepared for anything.
Eve's finger eased over the trigger of her FLR as they passed the trenchline. She saw the glowing heat signatures of the two guards as they silently moved by. A 100 meter long dug in position with only two sentries? Strange, Eve thought.
Nevertheless, she marked the position of the trench for later. While it wasn't the purpose of the operation, any intel they could get would help their regular forces on the ground.
The TRACE team successfully moved past without being detected, and time ticked by as Eve and her squad treaded through the forest, searching for any trenches or areas that could possibly contain the drone.
No luck.
It was then that a voice crackled over their comms network. It was Lieutenant Nia, who was operating in the TOC back at FOB D-2.
"Glen, this is TOC. BHISL squad one has located the drone and are requesting reinforcements. The trenchline is too large for them to raid alone."
She shared a location, pinging it as a waypoint for Eve and her squads' HUDs.
"TOC, this is Glen—moving now. How did BHISL find it so quickly?" She asked. After all, we'd been told that the operation could last for days.
"They saw it returning to a dug in mini-airstrip."
They've got a mini-airstrip? This close to the front line? The Asphodelians have to be up to something. Eve nodded. "On our way. TRACE 1 out."
Eve shared the location of the drone and her team immediately changed directions, heading to their current 3 o'clock. Apparently, there was another trenchline relatively close that they hadn't spotted—roughly 600 meters out from their current position.
We must've missed the drone because of the canopy—and if it landed only 600 meters away, then that drone must be pretty quiet.
They moved the fastest that reasonable caution would allow and upon their arrival, Eve pinged their position to Warrant Falin of BHISL using IFF so that they wouldn't be fired upon.
Warrant Falin responded in kind, as Eve and her squad could now see the edge of the trench dug into the forest floor through many layers of forest. The trench was far larger than the ones they'd encountered in training and what Eve was expecting. Eve stopped her squad before they drew closer, even though her squad would've stopped on their own.
Until they committed to an attack it was better to stay a distance away and observe. At their current distance, they could both easily rush forwards to attack and use many layers of trees as concealment.
Warrant Falin's voice crackled over comms. "Hold your position, Sergeant. We're waiting on a couple other squads before we crash in."
"Wilco."
Eve signaled her squad to pull back a few meters, melting deeper into the forest undergrowth.
She dropped to one knee and flipped up her magnifier. She scanned the short stretch of trench in view—more than two dozen sentries, all regular Asphodelian troops. Their entire faces were obscured—helmets, visors, masks, the works. While this didn't confirm anything, Eve now had to be very wary that they could possibly be spotted on thermal or night vision.
Looking over the sentries, one bore the BAR patch. Eve couldn't decide if that was lucky or not.
The trench lacked barbed wire as with most modern trenches; barbed wire was obsolete now with rapidly advancing tech. However, the sandbags remained, piled high into solid, reliable barricades.
Taeyeon settled down prone, propping her DMR between a trunk and a thick bush. Eve knew that her scope's crosshairs were already on a sentry's beating heart.
Meanwhile, Vian trained her rifle on the trench while Eve and Seo kept eyes around them, holding security as they were still in contested and even enemy held territory.
Behind them, leaves crunched under approaching boots. Eve's IFF tagged them as Elisa's Seaward Team and seconds later, Elisa appeared, followed by her squad. Lynn, their designated marksman, set up shop a little ways apart but still beside Taeyeon with her own DMR.
Within minutes, nearly every squad had arrived at the trench network—only the Marines, TRACE squad 5, and a BHISL unit were still en route from farther out.
They settled down, expecting to wait for a while until all their forces arrived—only luck wouldn't allow that didn't happen.
"Shit," Falin's voice came over comms. "All squads, mark your targets. Do it now. Some of the sentries are getting twitchy—one just ducked into the trench, he might've gone in to report. We might've been spotted. Some of them on our side of the trench are already searching. Be ready to fire on my mark."
The warrant paused. Eve and her squad eased their fingers to their triggers, clicking off safeties. Elisa's squad emulated this beside them.
"...Mark."
The sound of suppressed gunfire tore through the night sky.
[1] Ofc, this used to be units on horses but now this usually refers to military units who operate with ground vehicles, especially light infantry fighting vehicles, APCs, LAVs, tanks, etc.