380 Rolling Thunder (1/2)
Second Imperial Army Camp, 'Centre' of the Front
The General in charge of the Second Army paced about his tent in frustration. Braziers of burning coal lit and warmed the tent against the night. His army of a hundred thousand was bogged by the numerous enemy forts and defensives laid before their path of advance! The rebels were like the pesty prairie burrowers, which liked to dig burrows and hunters who hunted the prairie burrowers for their pelt had to stop and check each and every mound.
And that was not all, the rebels had developed some kind of hit and run tactics, laying traps and ambushes out of nowhere. His best trackers tried their best to track down the rebels but they always came to a dead end as the rebels' tracks seemed to stop in the middle of a field and vanish into thin air.
His dragons also fared poorly against the rebel's demonic flying crosses. The rebel's fliers could outfly his fastest light weights and even take on the strongest heavy weight dragons in his command. Thankfully, those thrice cursed giant flying crosses no longer appeared and hound his forces with their egg shaped fire bombs.
The General paused in his tracks and glared at his retinue who shrank back from his fearsome gaze. ”Another supply camp destroyed? Was the rebel scums caught this time?”
The men in the command tent looked at each other sheepishly before the bearer of the bad news bowed and said. ”No Lord General...”
”The rebels had disappeared before our trackers manage to find them...” The bearer said.
”AGAIN!” The General roared and slammed his fist against the table. ”AGAIN AND AGAIN! Are you all fools? How can a small group of rebel scum sneak in and out of our lines? ARE ALL YOUR EYES BLIND?!”
The men all kept their heads down and remained quiet at their Lord General's tirade. ”How many men do we have? Yet the rebels couldn't even be caught EVERY SINGLE TIME!”
”FIND THEM!” The General roared. ”USE ALL MEANS... BUT FIND THEM! Or you lot will be hanging by the end of the day! GO!”
The General's retinue frightened by his threat all rushed out of the tent to carry out the General's orders.
”Damn you rebels!” The General sat down. ”Curse you!”
-----
3 km From Extraction Point Alpha
The shadowy figure in the front suddenly froze and shot up a clenched fist. Instantly the men behind him froze as well and ever so slowly lowered to a crouch.
The point man gave a thumbs down to indicate the presence of the enemy and raised two fingers followed by a fist and pointed. The section leader nodded and spread his fingers before his face and waved the men to deploy on the left and right.
The glow of several torches slowly came into view as the patrol of Imperial soldiers marched over. The Marines could hear the Imperial's grumbling as they stumbled in the dark in such an ungodly hour trying to find the rebels that had earlier just burnt down a camp filled with supplies.
The section leader chopped his hand down and the section of Marines fired their suppressed rifles and seconds later, the entire column of Imperial soldiers laid dead or dying.
”Stamp out the fires!” The section leader hissed. ”And silence those still alive!”
The Marine raiders move out of cover and started the grim job of finishing off any wounded or dying. Others stamped on the fallen torches and the area once again was shrouded in darkness.
”Trap the bodies!” The SL ordered next. A couple of Marines removed the pins of the grenades and carefully rested the bodies of the Imperials facing downwards on top of the grenade' arming spoon. Should the bodies be turned over, the arming spoon will bounce off and whoever is still standing there will get a bellyful of shrapnel.
”Hurry up!” The SL checked his illuminated watch face. ”Pickup coming soon!”
”Done! Sarge!” The Marines setting the booby traps replied.
”Let's go!” The SL waved the men forward and they silently left the area.
-----
Arche used to be a hunter until he got caught by Imperial soldiers for poaching inside the Emperor's forest. He was given a choice, lose an arm, become a slave or serve the Imperial Army. Now, he served the same Emperor as a tracker for the Second Imperial Army.
He was not the best nor was he the worse tracker in the Army. And tonight, he was roused out of his thin bedding to track a group of rebels that had sneaked past the Imperial lines and torched a camp full of supplies.
He squatted down and carefully observed the ground under the light of the burning torches. There were a few trampled prints on the soft soil and lowered his head to ground level. ”Looks like a small group heading that way, maybe five or eight people...”
The Imperial Captain nodded and shouted a few commands to his men who climbed to their feet and got ready to move off. Arche straightened up and followed the tracks while the rest of the soldiers followed behind.
Arche suddenly stopped and sniffed the air, he touched the leaves of the undergrowth and hissed, ”I can smell blood!”
The Imperials soldiers immediately readied themselves and cast alert glances around their surroundings. Arche crept forward and yelled for the soldiers to come, ”We are too late!”
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Bodies of Imperial soldiers laid sprawled where they had been ambushed. The smell of blood had attracted a few small night scavengers which scurried off when the soldiers appeared. The Imperial Captain growled at the sight while the other soldiers felt anger at seeing their own dead.
Arche slowly and carefully bent over the terrain around the bodies as he studied the ground for any tracks of the rebels. He frowned and picked up a large fine ring with a piece of slim two pronged metal attached to it.
He held the strange ring up to the light and observed its fine craftsmanship and slipped it into his pocket and returned to observing the ground around the bodies. He noticed the bodies were not looted despite the number of tracks around them. ”Strange...”