Let me briefly brief you all in this briefing.
Oram looked at his audience, at the seven pairs of eyes (including a small pair of red ones underneath his table) and composed his thoughts. ”We’re here to talk about patrols,” he announced simply. ”To decide what ones we’re going to do in the coming trials, and what we’re going to look for on them.” He waited to see if…well, he wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. It was his briefing. So he continued:
”I’ve numbered some places on the map here that I think we should focus on.” He hummed and hawed awkwardly as he glanced back and forth quickly between the map and his slate. ”Number One.” He pointed at the numeral next to the northeastern bridge. ”This bridge is along a road that leads east from Scalvoris all the way to Egilrun. It leads to a fork in the road that goes to Slag’s Deep, too.” Belatedly, he realized he should be pointing to what he was talking about, so he awkwardly pointed at the things he just mentioned.
”This is not the road we took to get here from Scal or Darbyton; it’s not a road I’m personally familiar with at all, but I figure that if we know what’s crossing that bridge, we know what’s on the road. So I think we should guard it.”
Hop had been sitting quietly in the corner as Oram had spoken, right up until the last phrase. ”Did you say guard?” he asked. ”Or maybe screen? Or maybe just observe?” Even though his voice was soft, all heads instantly snapped around to him, except Jim’s, which remained trained on Oram.
Oram hesitated, baffled by the senior ranger’s question. The next five trills or so were some of the longest he had ever lived to that point. Forunately, Hop himself came to the hapless traveler’s aid. ”We use specific terms in the Rangers for specific missions. So for example, a guard mission suggests… Recruit Bertine, explain to Mr. Mednix the differences among the various missions I just mentioned!”
The female ranger Oram had noticed coming in earlier started. After a moment she stammered: ”A g-guard mission i-is when one is to protect the main body by actually fighting any encroaching enemy,” she paused and glanced uncertainly at Hopkin, who gestured for her to continue: ”with a screen mission, the detachment is charged with maintaining contact with the hostiles, but not becoming decisively engaged with them, and simply providing early warning and information about them to the main body.”
”Correct,” approved Hopkins. ”Those are both security operations. Oram? Are either of those what you want us to do?”
Oram was taken aback, shook his head. ”No, I…” he stumbled a moment before his thoughts regained their footing. ”I just want to keep an eye on the bridge and the road. I’d want the rangers to get out of their if they’re even so much as approached.”
Hopkins sat up and looked over at the female recruit once more. ”So, Bertine, what sort of mission is Mr. Mednix describing?”
The female recruit fidgeted with her hands. She looked almost as anxious and embarrassed as Oram felt. ”A reconnaissance?” she ventured.
”Can you be more specific?” Hopkins pressed.
”A…route reconnaissance?”
The old ranger nodded. ”Right, so we want a route reconnaissance in the vicinity of this bridge. What are we looking for, Mr. Mednix?”
Oram felt like his head was spinning and his feet were going numb. He took a sharp breath. ”Right, so we’re interested in traffic to and from Scalvoris across that bridge, and whether the other end of it is Slag’s Deep or Egilrun proper. There’s a fork in the road just beyond the bridge itself, which I suppose is at least as important to reconnoiter as the bridge.” He pointed with the chalk at a point roughly where the road would be. ”We probably need two teams for that, then.”
Hopkins frowned ”Why two?” he asked. ”I agree the bridge is important, but securing it should probably be the Elements’ task, not ours. Observing the crossroads is probably more important for us, don’t you think?”
Oram looked at the old ranger. He must think I’m a fool, he thought. They all must think that. ”I agree…no, no actually I don’t.” He surprised himself with his sudden change of mind. Having made it, though, he pushed on with his new train of thought. ”Someone from Slag’s Deep might try to take control of it before the Elements arrive to secure it. We need to have eyes on in case that happens. Not to guard it,” he added hastily, remembering the lecture he’d just gotten from ‘Recruit Bertine’. ”But just to know when it happens. Also, to warn the other team, the crossroads team in case they didn’t catch it.” He gazed at the map, then realized something. ”I guess that means we need to find a fording site away from the bridge, in case the bridge gets cut off.”
Hopkins continued to nod knowingly, reclining on his stool. ”We’ll have to work out the exfiltration particulars when we get there. Then we’ll write ‘em up for the other teams.”
Oram looked at him, feeling his control of the meeting just slipping away. ”Other teams?” he asked, just knowing it was a stupid question.
”Well, the relief teams. I’m assuming this mission is going to continue for more than a couple trials, right? We’ll be rotating,”
Oram sighed, at once relieved he understood where Hopkins was going and embarrassed that he hadn’t already thought of it. ”Of course, sorry. I don’t know how long we’ll be out there before we’re done, but it will likely be more than a couple trials, as you say, and in that case we will of course be rotating rangers in and out regularly.” He breathed once more, then said: ”Alright, now, I have four more objectives on that list, but the next one I want to mention is actually the last one: number five.”
”Aren’t you going to tell us what sorts of things you want the teams at the bridge and crossroads to watch for? I mean besides just counting the traffic?”
Oram didn’t even notice who had asked that, apart from the fact that it had been one of the other male rangers who hadn’t spoken before. For a brief moment he went cold with panic. He had some general ideas, but not really a prepared list. He gave an answer that might have been desperate, or inspired, or both: ”The teams will be given those instructions at the time they are placed. They may change from time to time.” To his amazement and relief, that answer seemed to go over well with the group.
He willed the meeting to move on and not get bogged down. ”Number five is an…area reconnaissance. We don’t know much about the area along that road, what the surrounding terrain is like, what the inhabitants are like. I intend to do that reconnaissance mainly on the way back from emplacing the first teams on the bridge and crossroads.”
”By yourself?” came the challenge from Hopkins. Oram pushed back on it, although he wasn’t sure he was right to do so.
”Yes, I don’t want to waste more ranger resources than necessary on it, so I’ll just do five on return trips from rotating teams at one.”
”That’s fine,” cut in Hopkins. ”But don’t you want me along for that? I’ll be with you on the return trip, right? So we can do five together.”
Oram felt drenched in nervous sweat by now. He wondered how badly the room smelled of it. ”Of course,” he conceded. ”We’ll do those together…”
He continued with the other items. These went more smoothly, somehow. The rangers seemed especially interested in the route he described north of Slag’s Deep into the mountains (number two). He would take Hopkins with him up there, he decided, that way the experienced ranger could take future patrols into that area by himself in the future, leaving Oram to do other things.
When he got to the port, Jim, who had stood silently in the back, broke his silence. ”Leave the port to me,” he said simply. ”I’ll keep you in the loop, and Hopkins, too, but I’ve already got an op for that.”
That announcement left Oram feeling simultaneously relieved and shorn. He was happy to have Jim take that mission off his hands; he wished it had been his idea, though, or at least that he could have pretended it was his idea.
With that done, Oram realized he had covered all his points. ”Right then, that’s it. Everyone’s dismissed I guess. Except I’d like to talk to Jim and Hopkins, if they have time.” The two senior rangers both nodded their assent, not stirring from their places as the junior rangers filed out. Once they had, Oram practically ran back to his table and sagged into his seat, certain that he reeked of sweat and failure.