Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 43

Buy the book now at your preferred store: https://books2read.com/u/bM2Nna

***********************************

Once the others found the courage to make the jump, the squad advanced quickly along the ridge until they approached the hilltop they were supposed to take. Through a break in the trees, Rose studied the peak with her rifle scope, while Kayla looked over her shoulder. Behind them, the rest of their squad took cover as they waited for a plan.

Though she had ideas of her own, Kayla was happy to wait for Rose's orders. As far as she was concerned, their rivalry was long dead, and even more importantly, the princess needed to start acting like a Ranger.

"What do you think?" Kayla asked.

"Well," Rose said, "the obvious approach would be to follow the forest up along the ridgeline. Keep the cover of the trees until we get below the summit. It's quite exposed at the top, so the defenders won't have too much of an advantage."

"Sounds good." Kayla began to turn to the others, but hesitated. Rose still looked pensive.

"But the thing is," Rose said, "that's just too obvious, isn't it?"

Kayla nodded. "Because it's the right move."

"But... won't the cadre be expecting us to do that?"

Kayla inhaled slowly. "Yes. They are expecting us to demonstrate the basic tactics we've been taught."

"But it could be a trick," Rose protested. "They could have set up an ambush in the forest. What if they want us to think beyond the obvious? You said yourself they keep messing with us."

"You are overthinking the problem," Kayla said, and smiled politely. It would not be a good day if they all got shot again.

Rose raised her scope again. "Look, if we go below the ridge, we can approach the summit from the other side. There's a rock formation there, and we'll have much better cover from the top."

Kayla closed her eyes and counted to three. She took a breath and raised her own scope to examine the path Rose was indicating.

"Well," she said after a moment of contemplation, "we would leave the cover of the trees and be completely visible to everyone on the hill. Then, when we passed beneath that line of rocks, we would be shot to pieces by the machinegun that they have definitely placed to cover that approach." Kayla pointed to the top of the slope.

"I don't see anything."

"No, but that's the point. It's the perfect defensive position, with excellent fields of fire down the hillside, and they want to know that we are smart enough to go around it."

Rose pursed her lips. "I think that's too simple. We should do what they don't expect us to do."

There was a rustle nearby, and Kayla's head snapped around.

Thandi, had evidently been listening in to the conversation, and was low crawling over to join them. "Girls," she said, "I have too many bruises already. Can we please not screw this one up?"

"Rose," Kayla said carefully. "Remember the conversation we had about not trying to outsmart everyone all the time?"

"Do I need to remind you," Rose said testily, "that I have been placed in charge of the squad for this exercise?"

Kayla began to grind her teeth. "I'm really trying to help you out here."

"And I think that if we go through the forest, we will be ambushed," Rose said.

"It will be a much weaker ambush, because we will have trees to hide behind."

Rose glared at her. "Why is it that you still think you know everything? I have made a decision Kayla. Are you going to respect it?"