31 - Scouts

Merlin looked at the clear brownish liquid in his cup, it smelled like some sort of flower, needless to say, this was tea and not just any tea apparently it was the same kind of tea that Geo's late wife used to serve him every day. It had been 8 years since she passed away, Geo didn't say anything he just sipped the tea in silence, his face was the picture of serenity, Jane was all smiles so Merlin took a sip of the tea, to him it wasn't anything special to him, still, he complimented

"Good tea"

Jane nodded, Geo seemed to snap out of his zone of zen before he began speaking

"Ritta used to make this tea every day, she would have it ready once I came back from a long day on the walls…"

Jane's smile widened slightly before she added

"And since the orphanage laid right besides Geo's house I remember the smell, I caught a whiff of the smell when I was out shopping in the capital and tracked it down for a surprise"

Merlin nodded, truth be told he had been worried about Geo for a bit, to say it bluntly Geo was too good of a person to be a tank commander, as for Jane, she still appeared to be under the effect of Stockholm syndrome from the time they spent together in the wilderness

'She'll come to her senses at some point and leave me… They all do... eventually…'

Merlin shook his head as he tried to forget his painful memories, after a bit he looked towards the north as he had a positive thought

'Maybe someday I will be more than Stockholm syndrome…'

That evening the tanks were all in tiptop form, Merlin had gone each and every one of them over with the android crew to make sure that they all would remain operational for the next few days as they now had entered the critical part of their deployment where they would begin stalling Helga's troops, Merlin laid on his back in the Centurion Mk 3 tank Primus and thought about possible scenarios for a long time before he eventually closed his eyes and turned over on his side before he began regulating his breathing… Soon he fell asleep…

The next morning Merlin woke to the sound of someone knocking on the top of the driver's hatch, Merlin quickly got up and opened the driver's hatch, and saw Geo and Jane standing there, once his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight that is

"Wait, why is it so bright out?"

Jane sighed

"Because it's only a few hours before noon… What were you doing last night?"

"I reviewed our tactical situation and considered whether or not to summon more tanks and what kind it would be… In the end, I decided not to summon any more tanks"

Jane nodded, so did Geo before the two of them smiled, then Geo spoke

"Don't worry, we got this"

Jane quickly agreed

"Yeah, Geo's right, there's no need to be so nervous"

Merlin sighed, then he nodded and crawled out of the tank before he stood leaning against the tracks, then after thinking a bit he nodded

"Then let's get rolling and show those Helga invaders exactly what a tank is and most importantly, why they should fear it"

"Captain!"

"What is it, Lay?"

'Here she comes again, she always sticks to me like glue… Even when I joined the army and volunteered to be a scout captain…'

Lenard was a scout captain assigned to Helga's invasion force, his job title and job description was almost the same, he was as his title said, captain of a small group of scouts and reported their findings directly to the general, he looked over at his subordinate Lay whom he had known ever since the two of them were children, or in Lay's case, ever since she was a hatchling, Lenard looked over at the approaching Ley, her mother was a lizard woman while her father was a human, so she herself was half bread, looked mostly human with red scales on her arms, legs, back and stomach, her slender frame looked rather good in the scout uniform

"Captain!"

Lenard sighed again before he asked once more

"What is it, Lay?"

"We've discovered more of those strange tracks!"

Lenard sighed before his gaze sharpened slightly, they had been discovering tracks that lead further into the lands of Engir all over the place, first Lenard had dismissed it as a new type of magic beast, but now he wasn't so sure anymore, he quickly asked Lay that looked at him with her usual sparkling eyes

"Were they of the same width as the others?"

"Yes, they were also continuing and lead back towards the Northern capital of the Engir kingdom"

"So the way we're supposed to scout… I have a bad feeling about this… Let's return to camp and wait for the others"

As Lenard spoke distant thunder sound out again, he and Lay both looked in that direction before they sighed as Ley spoke

"There it is again…"

Lenard nodded before he gazed up at the thick grey clouds that hung in the sky before he muttered

"That doesn't sound like regular thunder… Whatever Let's move back to camp"

"Yes, captain!"

Lenard spurred his horse and so did Lay as the two of them quickly rode back to their camp, they returned soon and found the other scouts under Lenard's command, or that was what they expected to anyway, the camp was empty except for their tents and a burnt out campfire, the two of them dismounted their horses before Lenard spoke

"Strange… I sent out the signal to gather here so why…"

At the next moment, he was pushed to the ground by Lay as a shell impacted next to them

Merlin clicked his tongue as he looked at the last two scouts through the binoculars, he quickly spoke through the radio

"They dodged the shell! Fire another one, quickly!"

Geo's voice sounded out from the radio

"On it!"

Lay shock Lenard out of his daze, soon his eyes regained focus as Ley yelled as her ears rang

"-- ---- -- ----!"

Lenard looked at Lay that was yelling at him, his ears had been deafened by the explosion of the shell, still, he quickly understood the gravity of the situation and picked himself off the ground before he began running with Lay, the two of them quickly made it past a few trees as another shell impacted where Lenard had just been laying sending him flying forwards hitting a tree, at that moment his ears abruptly stopped ringing as Lay's voice entered his ears

"Lenard!"

Lay ran over and in one fluid motion she rolled over him and picked him up in a fireman's carry as she began running into the sparse forest that was next to them to try and break the line of sight with whatever were attacking them, then another shell impacted in front of them and a white smoke spread out, Lay dashed through the smoke and when she emerged on the other side she was covered in burns, still, she kept running… Around 10 minutes later she stumbled over an exposed root and landed on her stomach as she breathed deeply she crawled over to Lenard that had landed in front of her and shook him as she coughed, then she quickly spoke

"Captain… Captain… Wake up, please..! Wake up Lenard!"

Ley quickly started praying to every god she knew and soon her prayers seemed to have been answered as a hand reached out and stroked her face, she looked up and saw Lenard's face, it was awfully pale and like her, he was covered in burns from the white smoke still he contained a soldiers conviction as he spoke

"Lay… Report back to the general"

Lay's eyes teared up as she quickly shook her head and tried to pick him up again, it was then that she noticed the large piece of shrapnel that was embedded into his back, Lenard spoke again rather weakly

"Leave me… You have to report to the general"

"I'm not leaving you behind!"

Lay tired to muster strength in her arms as she tried to pick up Lenard again, it was only at the 5th attempt and by using a nearby tree that she succeeded then she spoke

"We're going home toge---"

Her words were drowned out by a shell that impacted on a tree that she stood next to…

Merlin's Centurian drove up next to the two corpses, he opened the hatch and quickly confirmed before he spoke into the radio

"They're gone, let's move onto the next stage of the plan"

Jane's voice sounded out over the radio

"Alright, now that we've eliminated 6 scout parties they're bound to realize something happening"

Merlin nodded, then he ducked down into the Centurion again and closed the hatch before he spoke into the radio again

"We're officially beginning stalling operations now"

Geo's voice sounded out over the radio

"Got it!"

Then came Jane's voice

"Roger!"