Ephraim sighed as he briefly glanced over the reports of all the operatives being sent to reinforce him. Some he knew by reputation, others he'd never heard of except in broad reports of other branches' missions. None of them were intelligence personnel, and it seemed a few of them would be lacking equipment.

Checking in on the drone feed, he furrowed his brow and mused over his options. The machine gun nests were getting their sandbags placed down. A few riflemen were moving into the huts for cover. The insurgents knew enough to establish overlapping fields of fire and a clear line of sight to all approaches to the village. It certainly didn't help that most of the area around the village was farmland. Flat expanse of crops where it would be easy to spot any attacking force if the defenders paid attention.

"I'm synchronizing my drone's surveillance feed to your visors." Ephraim began, sending the relevant information to the squad. "Long Nine, you'll want to set up on the hill to the west, plenty of foliage and high ground there. I'll meet be approaching from that direction as well."

"Rzeka, Fleur, you'll be arriving from the north. There's plenty of cover from the crops and buildings. Your priority is to secure the hostages in the red barn. Do not be spotted and stay silent. We'll engage once the hostages are secure. Papa Thunder, if your armor is still serviceable, you're going to be drawing their attention once we go loud."

[hr]

The plan was solid. At least, he hoped so. They only had so much time before more PLM reinforcements arrived to tighten the noose. Jormungand was a relatively new organization, and its opponents were eager to see it fail. It drew a much larger target on the backs of the operatives than usual.

He was crouched behind a tree, waiting for the rest of the team to get in position. On the edge of the forest, there wasn't much further Ephraim could move down the hill before he was spotted by the PLM forces in the village. ARES was flying overhead, continually monitoring enemy positions and chatter, and he wished he had swapped out its rifle armament for a grenade launcher instead. A few rounds into the machine gun nests and their job would be a lot easier.

Someone else would have to pick up the slack. Ephraim checked his watch. 8 AM. There wasn't much time left. He had decided against a dawn attack since the PLM would expect it, and attacking from the west would put the sun in face and light him up that much clearer for the insurgents. Now that the light was brighter and the sun a little higher, the advantage was nulled. The PLM had selected a noon deadline exactly because they knew where he'd be coming from and didn't want to risk a dusk time attack when the reverse would be true for them.

"Confirm your positions and be ready to move. We've only got 4 hours left before the deadline." He whispered into his comms. "We'll engage once the first shot is fired. Fleur and Rzeka, that means you can feel free to go loud if you need to. Long Nine, it's up to you otherwise."