28 miles from the City of Halekauwila
Lohi Mountains
Ewa Province, Republic of Ala Moana
For almost 2 weeks, Leuitenant Kopala had led a contingent of the Ala Moanan Army threw the highest mountains upon the rain forest embedded island. Ewa, meaning 'South-West' in Native Scottopian, was the smallest of the 3 major islands of the Republic, as well as it was the least developed with only 1 city and a few individual villages spread between 2 old highways had twisted with the contour of the mountain range and linked the South shore with the Northern, but they had both been deemed impassable after the destruction of tunnels, after battling with 'Uncle Oprus' Rebels. Pushing his forces to take abandoned, overgrown roads and dirt pathways across the hills and mountains, Lt. Kopala was searching for the dissapearance of a NEGI scientific group from their headquarters upon the mountain tops. It was a long journey, but he knew he was gaining ground. It would be either today, or early the next morning he beleived he would catch up to the end of the clues he was finding. A few days prior, he and his men had come across an emcampment that had been quickly ditched, it had only confirmed his thoughts.
Just above 30 of his soldiers remained from the 45 he had departed the Ewa Army Depot with at that time, and they had encountered Rebels, Seperatists and Scottopian Bombing efforts but had so far stayed the victor in ground battles. They were marching along one route between a mountain village and coastal village several miles away, a drop in eleveation by several hundred feet had given the men an extra boost of energy to make up lost time while following the suspected trial of the Astyrian nationals. Leuitenant Kopala understood the reason command had behind attempting to capture them before they were rescued. Foregin citizens were greet bargining chips infront of the international community in to try and deter the continued EATA bombing campaign across the islands. He finally reached a fork in the pathway, where he looked across the other side of a valley, to which he could see the waters of the the Eastern Scottopian Straights. Behind him, the men in single file took a knee while the Sergeants jogged forward to the standing Leuitenant.
"I want 2 teams of a dozen men, one will follow the ridgeline to cover a second team that will desend down the pathway into the valley below. This is the closest coastal village to the research center, I only assume they would make way for it to attempt to get ahold of their government" said Leuitenant Kopala while pointing towards the coast. "The valley road will be the most direct way to the town, but the ridgleine also has a pathway which takes longer but provides better cover. Either route is a few miles, the remaining soldiers will take postions here and defend the split in the pathway incase of attack from behind."
The leaders quickly and silently assembled thier squads and began to proceed their seperate ways passing the leiutenant who stood viewing down the mountain pass into the valley. He grabbed the last group of soldiers at the end of the line and informed them to take positions with him at the fork in the dirt path. Just incase he had led his team past the researchers, he knew they would be passing this point at sometime to get quickly to the sea. Additionally, the ridgeline stood a couple of hundred feet above the valley floor as it decended towards sea level, so in the case that one team needed assistance, his team could reach the squads faster than if the other needed to reach the others location.
One Sergeant led his men down into the valley pathway, dissapearing into the brush with his team. Within moments, the path began to make a steep decline which sent the mountain walls towering above them as the foliage began to become denser, blocking out more light breaking threw the conopy. As they continued into a clearing to where the Sergeant immediatly kneeled to the ground where the soldiers took positions around him. He was inspecting a few blades of grass that had been bent over, leaning sideways facing downhill. He picked himself and inspected the surrounding landscape, veiwing small amounts of dirt clots that were fanned out with the trail, discolored from the top soil showing they had recently been kicked up by quickly moving feet. He selected one of his troops to return uphill to inform the Leuitenant of the find.
The team continued forward into the clearing closer to the treeline just as the messenger was taking off, following the path of least resitance, they left the sun soaked spot of the jungle and slowly reemerged into the dark abyss of plant matter when a sudden vocal outburst grabbed their attention. The Sergeant turned to the Coporal under his command to ask if he had heard that too. "Doesnt sound local, cant be Rebels" he replied while raising his weapon. A few of the Privates loaded their guns for the expected skirmish while the Sergeant returned his sights forward, he too lifting his weapon to the ready. The soldiers followed their leader, who began to deter them to the shrubs of bushes alongside the mountain path, away from the group located in front of them.
Silently, the Sergeant turned and kneeled onto the jungle floor, motioning for the troops to continue walking along and taking up a position 10 to 12 feet from each other while keeping their sights onto pathway where they could see the forigen nationals talking amoungst each other. Their was more targets than anticipated, and had as what seemed to the Ala Moanan Sergeant, they had their own security force with them, which again was not expected. As the Sergeant toiled with these thoughts, the Corporal took his postion 50 feet away from him, and watched as the last 2 soldiers move past him to their postions. Glancing toward the groups leader, the Corporal saw him looking towards the nationals just 10 feet away between the treeline and molding his plan. He looked back to check on the soldiers who had taken postions behind him, but they were suddenly gone.
He was confused, standing to get a better look of where they had gone to. He took a few steps towards their last postion, where he glanced for a final time towards the rest of the squad. With deadly effictancy, a Blackhelm Venatore pounced from the plant life with knife in hand, to which he grabbed the Corporal by the mouth silencing him while slashing the blade across his throat. The Blackhelm soldier pulled the lifeless body further into the brush and placed it next to the missing Ala Moanan forces, the 3 men ultimatley meeting the same fate. The Sergeant, unknowing that a quarter of his squad had been eliminated without a shot, pushed forward and raised his weapon. He peered down his rifle towards one of the talking individuals and began to place his finger upon the trigger.
