Somewhere In Wales
Lord Ravus, Lord Cull, Lord resident and Vice-President Aysee knew the blindfolds were being removed. They looked around at the small forest clearing for a moment, and then -
"What in the name of Stonehenge. . . ." resident thundered, his blasphemy going unnoticed in the heat of the moment.
"My lords, Mr. Vice-President - I am Lieutenant Athers." The voice came from a youngish-looking man about six feet tall standing by a table. He had a bow on his back, and a Irish bastard sword on his hip. The sword was inscribed with a curious insignia - an eagle with a full moon behind it. "I am commander of the Night Eagles. This is Second Lieutenant Masters and Captain Drashgorth of the
Morning Glory."
"Charmed." Said Drashgorth in a thick Scottish brogue. He pulled in hat a little lower.
"General Haulsee!" Aysee whirled.
"Is our commander and has been since our inception." Athers continued calmly. "It was President Lighthearter who created this unit and kept it secret from both President Ravus and President Cull. We have trained in Wales for years for special operations - I don't feel pompous saying we ARE the best."
"Why keep you secret?" Ravus asked calmly.
"There has never been a need for us and if our existence were to become known to certain . . . parties they might try to exact vengeance on us. We have some varied pasts. But the important bit is that I contacted President arya right before his departure - he told me to prepare to liberate the crewmen of the
Mermaid that are held hostage by the Russians. We found them."
"Where?" Asked Cull slowly.
"Here." Athers said, unrolling a map on the table. "This little island in the Baltic, not far from St. Petersburg. It's called Grand Buddha Island and really has nothing of value on it except for quality timber for shipbuilding. The old logging camp has been reconverted to a prison compound and we're going to hit it. Here's the catch - there's a small army outpost on the island. About a hundred men. There's only thirty-two of my commandos. We're good, but not that good. No one is. So we have three plans to rescue the hostages, and we want you to provide opinions on them. We have ways of contacting the president, and he shall decide which."
"Our first potential Course of Action is to attack directly from the north, beaching the
Morning Glory and swimming ashore. We then hit straight through the forest and sweep the camp clean. At that point we evacuate cleanly back on our original lines of attack and row out to the
Glory using the boats she'll send. At that point the tide should be coming back in and we make a clean get-away. This is our most direct plan. It's also my least favorite. While it possesses the advantage of speed and surprise, even a slight delay sending the ship in will force us to postpone another 24 hours, and given the current state of negotiations that's probably not acceptable. And if we are slowed on the retreat or in the fighting then we may miss the
Glory entirely as she'll be running minimum lights and will have re-floated on the high tide.
"Our second Course of Action is to come at the island from the west and attack the small supply port in the Bay. There are only a few Russians there, and if we sail in on no lights and swim ashore we could catch them all asleep and take THEM prisoner. Team One, my unit, will then haul over to the main road on the island and block it off in case the base has been alerted while Team Two attacks the compound. Then Team One can come in if the fight starts to go bad and his the Russian's rear. Team Two and the hostages evac to the
Glory, which then goes around the island and picks up Team One, which is buying time for the escape of Team Two. This plan has the advantage of surprise, again, but if the Russians are alert in the supply port all hell could break loose. And Team One will have to RUN to get in position in time straight through the forest. We'll be exhausted when we get there. But we do have an excellent chance of at least getting the hostages out IF we can land.
"COA#3 is my personal favorite. In it both Teams land at the secondary supply port near the army base and secure it, then Team Two attacks the compound, while Team One hides near the main road. If the enemy troops depart the base, we hit them in the rear and flanks and then withdraw into the night for pickup by the
Morning Glory. Then the
Glory picks up the rest and we're set! The main issues are that Team One is highly likely to be annihilated in combat and Team Two will have to take the compound itself. That may or may not be an issue. But this plan does allow us to attack all the Russians on the island and cause general uproar as they try to figure out what's happening.
"Those are the plans, lords. Now it's your turn to comment. The President will make a decision soon."
Mr. President, what is your decision?
- Lighthearter
