The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Dark Edge Op

"You're going in there, aren't you," Naryan said, looking over at the big vampire.

Lash returned her gaze for a moment, then looked over at the gathered Ventru still unwinding from their extraction of the Force Recon legionnaires.

"Ventru. I need volunteers for an undercover operation into the Dark Edge enclave in Esbjerg!"

"You got one right here," Naryan immediately said.

"Another here, boss," Absinthe quickly said, followed by Ballan. "Oui, I'm your vampire, Wolf."

"Don't forget me, boss man," Narcist said into his ear piece.

"No way you're leaving me behind, Wolf," Truk quickly chimed in.

As the rest of the Ventru clamored to be added to the infil force, Lash held up a hand.

"The rest of you prep for a hard extraction." He shifted his eyes to Naryan's master sergeant. "Tanner, put together a plan for a hard drop into the heart of the enclave to pull out the liliths once we locate them."

"Copy that, boss," Tanner, a square-shouldered vampiress with a touch of a Cockney London accent in her voice.

He touched his ear piece.

"Ford, prep your Ventru to support a hard extract once we locate the liliths in the Dark Edge enclave. And advise Galloway to have her squad ready to join Tanner in spearheading the extraction, which is a hard drop extraction from the center of held territory."

"Copy that, boss man," the North African Ventru quickly replied. "We'll be ready when you need us!"

With a nod to Ellie and the liliths, Lash stepped away from the map table and gestured for Ballan, Naryan, and Absinthe join him.

"Narcist and Truk have worked under these conditions for almost two weeks now so I won't bother telling them to pay attention," he said to start. "But plainclothes means we won't be able to tap many of the Qos Viran tactical gear you used at Blutholt. No Kali's, or Shiva's, no EM generators, neuron armor only, standard sidearms, and Stingers." His eyes swung over the attentive faces looking at him. "None of our tech can fall into the hands of the enemy. And make no mistake: this place will be filled with our enemies."

He made a gesture over his shoulder.

"Once the queens get us some information about the set up, we'll look at where and how we want to penetrate the enclave, where we'll look and what to do when we find what we're looking for. And we'll go at dusk, to promote the idea that we're ordinary vampires, not daywalking freaks of nature looking to lay waste to our enemies."

A ghost of a smile played across his lips for a moment.

"Even though that's exactly what we are!" he said, earning quiet chuckles. Then he sobered. "So grab some rest, sleep if you can, finish unwinding from this afternoon and get ready to do some damage when the sun hits the horizon!"

****

A quick shower and Lash took his own advice, crawling into one of the sleeping berths to see if he could get some sleep, or, at least, a little meditation in, to settle his mind. The Nighthawks were back out over the water, hovering about two meters above the surface, with good fuel levels, most of their ordnance intact, and their electronic surveillance keeping an eye out for any hostile moves in their direction. It was a good place to lay low and get ready.

The only downside, of course, was that they didn't know the slave market's schedule, if it truly was a slave market the liliths were taken to for sale to the highest bidder. Which meant, in the days following the distress call and now, the liliths could have already been sold and moved out of Esbjerg. Then this whole thing would be a waste of valuable time and resources while Anna van Tallert continued to dig in and prepared for them to return for her.