Wings of Honor: Meeting The Enemy

Chapter 3: Making A Plan

"Fuuuuucking hell."
I ducked my head away when I spotted a scope glint.
Shit!
What is it!
Carefully, I craned my neck to look over the small slope leading into the cave, holding my hand over my scope to prevent any chance of reflections.
"What do you see Captain?" Travers creeped up to me.
I pushed him down into the stone. "Stay low. Sniper."
I turned my attention back to the figures gathering around Jade Mountain. What I saw made me scowl, the familiar sting gathering in my eyes, clenching my teeth almost to the point of discomfort.
Not only was the largest NightWing ever known was in front of Jade Mountain Academy, but another familiar NightWing stood proudly next to him.
Surrounding them, if it weren't for their numbers, it would've been too far to make out any discernible shapes, but I made out roughly a company sized unit of khaki mustard colored uniforms against the dry grass surrounding the mountain.
"Fucking hell." I turned supine and began to scoot my way away from contact. Travers followed suit.
"What did you see? Marvin?"
Now that we were in cover, I sighed and rubbed the sweat from my forehead, looking up to meet a concerned Grace.
"Roughly a company of Japanese. Maybe more obscured by Goldman." Travers sucked air while Grace growled low. "And Darkstalker's with them."
For the first time in a not long enough while, Grace bared her teeth at me, and she tried to get up. But she didn't take two steps before the pain overwhelmed her, and nearly me too. She dropped down before the fire with a large thump and a heavy sigh.
"Easy Grace." I ran up and ran my hand down her neck.
She sneezed up another cloud of dust, sighing the brown mist away. "This really sucks."
Travers smirked.
"I know. But now that we know what's going on, we can start the planning phase." I looked over at Travers. "What's our ammo complement, Travers?"
Travers sighed, stepping up to me. "I have about 70 rounds."
"70?" I exclaimed. Thinking back, "I only have about a 'hundred for my MKB, maybe 20 or so rounds left for my Springfield."
Grace sighed. "So we only have a little over 200 rounds between us all."
"That's not even enough for a scouting patrol." I groaned. "And you don't have the cloning bowl."
Travers shook his head. "McManis took the ammo box, but he's God-knows-where."
"Dammit." I cursed under my breath.
Ammo was limited, very limited. Your standard rifleman can carry 80 rounds in his belt, with an additional 60 per bandolier, up to four bandoliers. And Travers only has 70-ish total.
And while my loadout is... far from standard, what I usually try to go for is enough magazines to fill all my pouches, six, usually with an additional four I carry in my backpack. That's 300 rounds, and I only have about a third of that now.
And while the Springfield is a new addition to my kit, and I don't need as much ammo for it compared to my other weapons, only five full stripper clips still pressures you to make your shots count. Equally so for my M1911, which I still have four goods as well, plus the one mag I still have loaded. Actually, all my weapons, except for my MKB, is holding an additional magazine from what I carry.
Either way, we're low on ammo. We don't have enough for a prolonged engagement, especially if any of them are enchanted to be invincible or something.
"We're outnumbered, and outgunned."
I heard a soft, scared breath escape Travers. We couldn't fight him head on. Not anymore, not like this. We did it once before, but that was with a lot more man-dragon-power. Now, we were three.
How in the hell am I going to make the best out of this?
I grumbled. "I need a plan." So concerned I started talking through my thought process. "What can we do to stop Darkstalker? Um... he's a mind-reader, prophet, animus immune from magic except for his own, he's invincible, immortal, really huge, and he wants to take over the world. Goldman, we know he's an animus as well, with several unknown spells. We know that he's In line with the Japanese, and he possibly might have access to armored vehicles. Um... they're at Jade Mountain, but and he says he wants to change the future. Killing the Founders could easily achieve that, but he isn't doing that for a reason."
"Because you'll be slaughtered before you even set up camp." We all turned to Grace. She craned her neck as if she was sitting up while still laying down. "If Goldman kills the founders, Glory would want revenge. Thorn would want revenge for Sunny. It would start another world war that would rage until the end of dragon-kind. And when you guys arrive, you'll drop right into an engagement."
I didn't need any more of a visualization to realize what she was talking about.
"So he's also limited in his decisions. We can work around that." I looked back towards them. "We know Darkstalker's going to try and take over the NightWing kingdom. We also know that Goldman has an alliance with the Talons of Power. That's NightWings and SandWings allied with the Japs. We'll be facing all three of them if we get into a direct fight."
The silence that overcame the both of them. We were really preparing to fight a war on our own.
"So." I stood up. "The only way we can trump Darkstalker and Goldman's spells is if we have as many animi on our team as we can. I guesstimate Darkstalker's experience equates him to two animi. So after the two of us, we need one more. That's your friend Stonemover Grace," Grace looked to frown. I turned my way back towards Jade Mountain. Able to get a line of sight into the great hall. Behind the gong, silhouetted by an emerald green figure of a Seawing. "Or Turtle." I looked back towards my rapidly healing Grace, looking determined. Travers looked to be locked and loaded. I brought my Springfield to ready carry. "He just might be our last opportunity."