1711 June 7th, 2020 CE

Pentagon

Quincy had his reading glasses on as he scanned through a piece of paper. “So what are you here for today, Charles?”

“Um… Quincy.”

Quincy put the paper down and raised his eyebrow at Charles. “Spit it out, I don’t have all day.”

“Someone may have found out about what we are trying to do.”

That got Quincy’s full attention. “...who?”

“Not totally but someone I know believes that something was suspicious with the reports. He’s thinking about investigating it.”

“You fucking fool. Tell me their name.”

“Um… I don’t think we have to worry. He doesn’t seem…”

Quincy cut him off. “Spit it out or I swear your life will be a living hell from this point forward.”

Charles looked to the side. “Daniel Gretting. He’s a coworker. He talked to me about the civilian casualty reports being weird and wanted my advice.”

1025 June 7th, 2020 CE

0812 Sun 38th, 196 AE

Forest of Origin

Tarron reviewed the plan that Vuduin had given him. “And you are sure this is a good plan?”

“I have already talked with the other high ranking officers and they have approved. It’s better than us sitting here until we get bombed to oblivion.”

“And where will I be exactly?”

“You will be with your security company at an isolated location. It should be labeled on the map.” Vuduin pointed at the red circle with ‘LSC’ labeled on it. Then he pointed to another red circle labeled ‘Vuduin’. “I will be in command of the center. I will lead about 500 or so elves to garrison this town. We will subjugate any rogue elves we find. I don’t expect there to be much since this is less than 60 miles away from here.”

20 minutes later

In one of the rooms of the bunker system in the forest, Ara looked at the map presented to her by Vuduin. “So we are defecting to the humans then? I’m not sure how my elves will take this.”

Vuduin smiled. “Don’t worry. We will be surrounded and then ‘forced’ to surrender. Of course, we won’t be doing much fighting. We will be intentionally falling into a trap.”

1422 June 7th, 2020 CE

1011 Sun 38th, 196 AE

It had only been an hour since Vuduin and his unit set off in the cover of darkness when the elves at the front of the unit noticed a car barreling towards them.

Vuduin, who was on foot with his other aides, was approached by an elf from his unit. “Field Marshal, there’s an elf who claims to be your friend and has an important message.”

“Lead him to me.”

The elven messenger approached Vuduin. Vuduin looked at his aides. “Please give me some privacy. This is sensitive information.”

After getting out of hearing distance, Vuduin looked at the messenger. “Navarre, did you relay the message?”

Navarre nodded. “The humans have guaranteed a pardon to you and your soldiers and officers.”

“Well done. How long did it take you?”

“It was a short car ride. The humans are about 100 or so miles away from us. Wasn’t that long.”

“Okay. I need you to send another message. This time, stay with the humans and don’t come back. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Vuduin handed him a piece of paper. “I will see you there.”

One hours later

White House

The camera on the MQ-9 Reaper drone rotated. Ronell watched the green tinted video feed. Multiple others were watching it with him. “There are a lot of elven soldiers down there. This might be it. How many soldiers are we dealing with?”

“According to the elven messenger, there should be around two hundred of them with armored vehicles. That large group seems to be them. We have yet to confirm if Tarron is there.”

“I want his location to be confirmed and the surrounding area be surveyed before sending in Task Force 141.”

20 minutes later

“It has just been confirmed. They are in a very vulnerable position. There is no other elven soldiers in the surrounding area and we have confirmation that someone matching Tarron’s description is there.”

Ronell smiled. “Tell the commander in charge of this operation that I want that bastard alive.”

1533 June 7th, 2020 CE

1046 Sun 38th, 196 AE

40 miles from the Forest of Origin

Three AH-6 Little Birds, an egg-shaped helicopter with a minigun and rocket pod on each side, touched down. Four men jumped off the sides of each helicopter. The 12-men Delta Force team quickly disembarked and the Little Birds took off.

A hellfire missile shot out from the Reaper drone that had been observing the Leader Security Company. The Stallion exploded as the missile slammed into it. The elves took one glance at the burning husk of a light tank and moved into action. “The humans are here! Guard the Leader!”

Tarron looked around at the commotion. Suddenly an elf came up to him and saluted. “My Leader, we need to leave! Quickly!”

They rushed Tarron in the direction of the Forest of Origin.

Five Black Hawks and two Chinooks touched down on the plains a few miles in front of the elves. Men of Bravo Company, 1st Ranger Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment fanned out and crouched after they disembarked from their helicopters. The Chinooks left as soon as they were empty but the Black Hawks lifted off and pressed forwards. The ground a few miles in front of them lit up. Shots flew overhead the Rangers as the elves opened fire at the lights of the helicopter. The crouched Rangers immediately went prone. “Keep your head down!”

“Jesus Christ! Did they fucking land us too close?!"

The concentrated and accurate fire from the elves was overwhelming. >>

The Little Birds came from behind the elves and started pouring down lead and rockets. That momentarily broke the elven fire on the Rangers. That was just enough time for the Rangers to set up their Mk 48 machine gun and return fire.

The gunners on the doors of the Black Hawks spewed bullets down on the elves using minguns. Despite the support from the helicopters, the Rangers continued to face intense fire from the Security Company.

Ten minutes later

In the heat of the battle, one of the Little Bird pilots noticed that he was starting to lose control. Bullet holes riddled his glass but luckily none had hit him. He looked at the tail of his helicopter and in the darkness, barely noticed that smoke was pouring out.

>>

The pilot struggled with the controls as the helicopter started swishing left and right.

A platoon of twenty five elves hurried Tarron. They were moving away from the fighting. Two of the elves had a small fireball in their palms. Tarron turned to the Lieutenant that was closely following him. “Do we have any other units near us?”

“No, my Leader, they are too far away. The humans seem to have known we were isolated.”

Realization dawned on him. “Vuduin! You bastard!” The platoon looked at Tarron in surprise.

A crack was heard and one the elves dropped dead with blood gushing out of his head.

“Sniper!”

The elves get down and pull Tarron to the ground. They opened fire with their submachine guns towards the right, where the shot came from.

The Delta sniper kept his head down as bullets whizzed past him. “Shit. How the fuck did they see me so fast in the night. They don’t have night vision goggles. Fucking hell.”

>>

A stream of shots started coming towards the elves from their left. Tarron kept his head down as his ears felt deaf from the bullets whizzing overhead. It felt like forever but the shooting stopped and everything went silent. Tarron could hear the crunching of boots on the ground. He looked up. Humans approached him wearing strange headgear and pointing guns at him. Tarron looked around to see that the entire platoon protecting him was dead, mostly from headshots. Tarron raised his hands. One of the humans handled him roughly and tied him up while the other said something.

<<<“HVT has been secured. We have suffered two wounded. Awaiting extraction.”

“Five minutes out, good job team.”>>>

60 miles from the Forest of Origin

Vuduin received reports that his forward elements had ran into a large group of humans and were forced to retreat under intense fire. Vuduin’s magiradio operator spoke up again after giving that first report. “Field Marshal. We have reports of a large number of human soldiers to our flanks and read. We are surrounded!”

“Give me the magiradio.”

<<<“This is Field Marshal Roqen speaking. We are completely surrounded. Fellow elves, I pain to say this but, lay down your arms. I have just received reports that our Leader has been captured. The war is over.”>>>

The soldiers murmured among themselves. Some looked grim and a few started throwing down their weapons. Soon the rest joined. It was the final straw. They were clearly losing, they had suffered from intense human bombardment in the forests with no ability to fight back, and now they were surrounded and informed that their leader had been captured. Vuduin made the last part up but he was certain that Tarron was either dead or captured at this point.

White House

Ronell heaved a sigh of relief as he watched the video feed from the soldier’s camera. “I think this thing is about over.”

“Not quite yet, Mr.President. We still have rogue elven elements across this region.”