Chapter 6

The next day, at noon the Mustang Company arrived at their military base. The tired troops had just dismounted when the captains of the other two companies showed up.

"Well, well look who's back and empty handed it seems." Diamond Company's captain said smirking.

"For the moment yes. Get out of my way I need to speak to the general." The Scar Faced Captain said knocking into the shoulder of Hawk Company's captain.

"Geez what I'd do?" He complained.

"How about nothing." Diamonds captain said. "You left before anything happened, if your father wasn't a lord you wouldn't have been made a captain."

"Take that back!" Hawks captain said angrily.

"Then how about you prove yourself next time and actually do something." Diamonds captain retorted.

The rest of the conversation was lost to the scar faced Captain as he approached the Generals quarters. The General was a strict and aging man. He and the Captain had never gotten along, especially since the General is his ex-wife's father!

As the Captain approached the door he was about to knock when he heard a rather heated conversation going on. It sounded like the General and the voice of an unfamiliar woman. He decided it might be best to knock and break up whatever might be going on, he knew the General has a very short fuse when it comes to an argument.

Thump, thump, thump.

"Permission to enter Sir." The Captain called.

"Granted." The General answered.

The Scar Faced Captain opened the door to see the General standing behind his desk, a bad sign, and his silver hair was no longer combed to the side. Meaning he was doing a lot of head bobbing, an equally bad sign. In front of the desk was the woman. She was in green military dress with full armor on. She appeared to have just arrived at the base, but other than dust from the travel not one bit of her uniform was out of place. Her black hair was cut short just above her shoulders as was military regulation and her expression was serious.

"Ah not you, just what I need more annoyances." The General said tossing his hands up.

"Sir, I have a report." The Captain said ignoring the Generals remark.

"Fine, proceed." The General said sitting down behind the desk heavily.

"I will excuse myself." The woman said saluting and she turned to leave.

But the General held up his hand, "Wait, you're not finished here. Just stay put for the moment." She did as she was told. "Continue Captain."

"Sir, after leaving yesterday to support the town from the orc attack, we found that we arrived too late and proceeded to track the orcs eastbound of the town. We found their makeshift camp and Diamond Company and my Mustang Company attacked and defeated the orcs. Losses were minimal and the rest should have been reported by Diamonds Captain. However, my trackers and I discovered that three of orcs had escaped from the area and we split from the Diamond Company and tracked them. We capture one, killed the other and let the third escape."

At this point the woman cleared her through obviously upset at the statement. The Generals face was unmoved as he listed. The Captain ignored it and continued.

"We found out that the orcs making their raids far from the mountains by using an underground stream that had collapsed about half a day from any mountains."

He stepped forward and took a pencil and circled the area where the cave was.

"This is a rather dangerous area and needs to be closed. But that's not all, as we located the cave two hundred orcs arrived and entered into cave. Their banner Sir…"

The Captain smiled so hard his scars edges curled outwards like an orange being pealed, a quite unnerving sight.

"It's him, Helgrath is there."

The General sighed heavily and folded his arms across his belly. "Not this again, how can you be sure he's there? You see him?"

"No sir, but his symbol was on all their flags." The Captain said.

"If you think so. But two hundred orcs seen and the cave with still unknown numbers inside. I can't allow any attack on its location." The General said flatly.

"But Sir…" The Captain started but was cut off.

"That's enough Captain! I will not have you sending my soldiers to a certain death attack, especially under your command." The General said angrily standing up. "Now to another issue. This here will be your second in command. The Major has twenty men with her who will also be under you. Understood Major?" He said looking at the Major.

"Yes Sir." The Major said still in attention, but the blank expression told she wasn't pleased.

"Good." The General continued, "Your mission will be to go north west of here to the next town. Orc scouts, as we may now know, belong to Helgrath have been seen. Thin his forces there. Not at the cave. If you don't follow orders, you'll be locked up for insubordination."

The Captain was not very pleased with the outcome, but he still had a chance at getting his revenge if Helgrath came to that town. Or the chance to find out more from a potential captured orc.

"Yes sir." The Captain said saluting as did the Major.

"Good. Now you are to leave in the morning. I don't want the orcs getting there first this time. I doubt you'll wait but it goes without saying, speed is of the essence. Dismissed." The General said nodding to the door.

The Captain turned to leave and the Major followed. After the door closed behind them, he walked hurriedly to the barracks to inform the men not to get to comfortable.

The men groaned some once the Captain told them they would leave in the morning. He paid them no mind and was getting ready to return to his quarters when he realized that the Major was still following him.

"Major, you can be dismissed." He said but the Major didn't leave.

"Captain Sir, I need your orders to know what to prepare for the trip and what to do with my men. Will they join the rest, Sir?" She said staying in attention. She sounded like a Private fresh from boot camp.

"No need to prepare my men know the drill and requirements. As for the new soldiers yes, they will. Now dismissed Major." The Captain said. He was starting to see why the General was so flustered before.

"I have letters to write to the families of my fallen troops, be at my door at sun rise." He said turning to go.

"Yes Sir." The Major said saluting.

"This is going to be an interesting subordinate the General has dumped on me." The scar faced Captain thought to himself.