Military Base

"Right...Once you get over the river there are three sentries, you know what to do, and do it with precision, understood?" Heinrich holt asked his men as they laid on the floor of the forest, fully camouflaged and out of sight amongst the bushes and leaves, looking at pictures taken from orbit over an elven base.
"Captain, we're didn't train our asses of for nothing, we know the drill," one of the snipers said, smirking, and then the group moved out.

First the snipers moved into position, taking their aim and then fired their weapons at the guards on the towers. In the meantime the main group had split up and were now moving in at different directions, attacking from the north, east and west of the elven base, all armed with weapons and had silencers on them. With the sentries taken out, the soldiers began to climb over the walls and entered the elven fort.
On the walls, the soldiers knew that there were patrols inside the fort and they opened fire on the paroling elven warriors, making quick work of them before they descended down and into the center of the fort from where they quickly moved from cover to cover.

A grenade was thrown into one of the houses, and those that came out due to the commodity, only to find themselves facing a hail of bullets. With record time and precision, the soldiers moved through the fort. Blowing the doors up, the soldiers stormed in, shooting the royal elven guards, and then moved up to the noble elf, " Captain Holt...And you, sire, is coming with us!" Holt said, pointed his gun at the elven noble and fired, shooting a single shot at the elf, hitting him with a single shot that sending a sleeping compound through the creature's body and making him unable to move.

A bell went off and the supposedly killed elves stood up and began to moan, "Damn it Holt...Why the hell do you need to be so fucking quick? I barely hit the floor before i had five bullets in my bulletproof vest," one the elves said and then began to take off the ears, clothes and other features that the elves had.
"Toughen up soldier," Holt commented, "You need to be able to take a few bullets when you are facing the elves. Those bastards aren't as easy, and you need to be smart, mobile, and most of all..be able to improvise at any time."
With that said the men turned around and began to walk back to the military base.

"What's the matter Hans? Can't you take a hit anymore?"
"I can, so shut up...You come before planned, and none of our scouts found you, how did-"
"That's cuz we killed them before any of them managed to spot us. How else do you think that we managed to get this close?"
"Damn bastard!"
"That's enough...Remember why we do this!" Holt called back as they approached the military base.
The group was approached by a lieutenant general who saluted Captain Holt and then said, "This cold war just got hell of a lot hot. We're on for a real war, and you, and your platoon is one of the first that will be send off to find more information about the elves."
"Sir?"
"Orbital pictures aren't enough for this army. We know a lot through their structure through that, yes, however we do not have sufficient information from the elves themselves, their society and their way of fighting. Can we count on you?"
"Sir, yes sir. Sir, doesn't the Field Marshal have captives from previous operations?"
"Captain...Some things are not said out load, understood?"
"sir, yes sir."
"Good. Now have your men ready, for any missions that will send you behind enemy lines, understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!"

"All loaded up?" Holt asked his men and looked at his men as they got their uniforms on and got their faces painted so it would better mix in with the soil of the forests that they would have to walk through to get to their objective.
"Why are you asking? We are ready to blow this camp up on your orders," Holt's sergeant said. The sergeant was the 'Anti-Elf' unit, specialized in dealing with elves and their society. He knew what there was to know when dealing with elves, it was a standard unit that all platoons had to have when they were off to fight the elves.
"I'll go over the plan, once again. We will go on this stealth plane, drop down behind enemy lines at 05:15 hours, parachutes folks. Followed by that, we will head North-West for thirteen clicks, so get ready for a hell of a march. Once we come within reach of the cave where the enemy is located, we will observe their defenses, that means you five scouts, understood? I hope you brought thermal scopes this time," Holt said and there was a small laughter amongst the troops. "That's good, now...Since there are no orbital pictures of the cave or how it is structured is beyound the entrance...so, what do we do?"
"Improvise!" all the men responded, and then they turned and walked towards the stealth plane that would carry them to the elven lands. On the way, a major approached Holt, saluted and then gave him a sheet of paper, saying, "change in plans, captain. You will have assigned some of the better soldier that you could wish for, amongst your ranks."
"what? A new medic?" Holt asked as he opened the papers and read them. "Sir, Permission to speak freely?"
"Granted."
"This is fucking bullshit! You are giving me a freak, a fucking half-breed! This monster should have been shot when it joined us, what does this bastard think he can do that my men can't? You tell me, sir?"
"She, captain, is an alchemist and she will assist you...whether you like it or not. Its from the Field Marshal's, and members of the Pentagon. Refuse this, you, and your hole damned platoon faces a firing squad. Have a good journey and get to know this new friend of yours," with that the major turned and walked off. "Fucking cunts!...Well, they haven't altered everything from the original plan."

Holt turned and walked over to the stealth air plan and then called, "Everyone get out, and off with the parachutes! Change in plans." Although the men were surprised with the sudden change in plans, they obeyed, took off their parachutes and then left the stealth aircraft and followed their captain. "Sir, what's the matter?"
"Bureaucrats, that's what's wrong."
"I see. So...What now?"
"we will have an alchemist attached to our platoon, and we use black hawks instead of the new stealth plane. Sucks...I was looking forward to that jump."
"We all were."

The platoon approached the readied black hawks were Holt could see there stood someone was waiting for them. Approaching the figure, Holt stopped when he saw the figure up close. It wasn't much bigger than a child, hell, it was a child! If this was a joke, then it was a very poor one, indeed.
"Captain Heinrich Holt, leader of the 3rd platoon in the 7th infantry regiment. And you must be...Private Kanade. The alchemist attached to my platoon. My apologies, but i find it hard to believe that a child would be in the army, yet of all...A Half bred one. What qualified you to be with the The Green Bastards? Can you go three days without food? Can you fire a gun under suppressive fire of the enemies? Do you have any experience with real battles? I doubt it, so listen up. I'm the captain of this platoon, and you better do what me and my sergeant says, do what we order you to do, and stay out of our way, understood?"
Holt wasn't treating Kanade unfairly, he had treated every single member of his squad similarly, and they had all turned out to be some of the best soldiers he could ever hope to get, now...He had to use these methods on a child. It seemed so unethical to do, however...Who was Holt to judge, alchemists could be skillful at an early age or at a later age, so he would have to wait and see.

"The men are on board sir!" one of the sergeants called.
"You can answer my questions on the tour, and I'll answers yours," Holt said and then went into the black hawk helicopter.

It was a long ride in the chopper and she was given a copy of the operation plan. She glanced through the report quickly. It would be a search and destroy in elven lands to make a hit on a hidden rebel crystal cache. It looked like a simple enough mission, get in, blow it up, get out. But as she knew, plans never went according to the papers. That was why they had The Green Bastards. She felt a slight childish thrill go through her. They were legends and she was actually going to be joining them. She didn't let it show and killed it quickly, if the stories were right she was heading into what would at first be a pretty bad situation. Some soldiers would link it to hell itself but, she had lived in hell, this would be nothing. She rechecked her armor and made sure all of it was in ship shape order and began applying her paint for the mission when she was about an hour out. After that she still had about 20 minutes before landing and she used that time to reapply her ice spells on her combat knife, further empowering it till the metal was cold to the touch and had taken on a blue color. With the release of energy she felt much better as the helicopter landed. She waited for awhile, about 10 minutes but it wasn't long before Captain Holt was coming her way and he looked pissed.

He got closer and she began to pick out individual pieces of his description, memorizing his looks for future reference. She felt almost like a giddy little girl meeting this legend in person, though she knew what to expect of him. He actually looked slightly amused at having what he must think, a child, in his platoon. She stood at attention and gave him a salute as he came by and readied herself for a mouthful.

"Captain Heinrich Holt, leader of the 3rd platoon in the 7th infantry regiment. And you must be...Private Kanade. The alchemist attached to my platoon. My apologies, but i find it hard to believe that a child would be in the army, yet of all...A Half bred one. What qualified you to be with the The Green Bastards? Can you go three days without food? Can you fire a gun under suppressive fire of the enemies? Do you have any experience with real battles? I doubt it, so listen up. I'm the captain of this platoon, and you better do what me and my sergeant says, do what we order you to do, and stay out of our way, understood?"

"Sir yes sir" She said still standing at attention. in front of him. Truth is she could answer all of his questions really easily, on top of that three days without food was nothing, try two and a half weeks with only some bread and a little soup at the end.

"You can answer my questions on the tour, and I'll answers yours"

That was interesting. He had questions about her. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as she thought. She climbed into the blackhawk after him and took her place. The squad members stared at her, she could feel their eyes digging into her, some were questioning, most were hateful though. They were all looking down on her but she was looking straight ahead and meeting the gaze.