[No Dachi]

Cortana IV

Fluffie
Neo: "Yessir..."

You see the dark shape of the balloon suddenly fall to the ground. Neo manages to interpose himself between the falling object and the ground in order to prevent the crashing of breaking metal and machinery from alerting the guards.

Neo: "...ow..."

You order Morpheus to hold position, try to listen in on the coms and start collecting co-ordinates for artillery bombardment.

Morpheus: "I can't see the targets from here, sir, trees in the way. I'll get Sabre to help..."
Sabre: "Affirmative, taking up sniping position and beginning surveillance..."

Silence follows, you assume that Sabre is communicating man-to-man with Morpheus in order not to clutter up the radio traffic with co-ordinates. With the balloon stored ((it might be fixable, then again it might not)), you order Timothy to lead the tech group away. He moves around to the right and dissapears from view. Presently, you draw Hannson to one side and outline a frontal assault plan to him.

Hannson: "A frontal assault might not be the best plan, sir. Look, they'll be able to lay fire down on us from both sides of the valley using the trenches as cover. I think it would be best if we got Sabre to locate the main concentration of enemy troops and then used the artillery support to keep them surpressed while we clean the AA batteries out."

You then order the combat group to form up on the edge of the clearing. You can now see all three batteries, and the command centre. You can see a couple of soldiers walking about in the trenches, and all the batteries are fully-manned by gunners.