War Band on the Move

Many of the developments in the new alliance, though breathtaking in scope and speed, still occurred over a matter of several weeks to a couple of months, and will be an ongoing process for the near future. Not so with the war band. They were training hard from the time the original joint party returned to the Salayan settlement, which received a new name as the elfs started referring to it as Mountain Home, and the Salayans liked it so well that it became official through popular usage. Similarly, the location of the Elfen fleet took on the moniker of Elfport. Neither name is too ostentatious, and both are descriptors of reality, so easily adopted by all concerned.

At any rate, the war band took only a few days to integrate the reinforcements brought in by the Wocan, and they wasted no time to move out and rescue the captives when they reappeared at the rendezvous. The Wocan, now using her true name, was referred to as General Karyn. She had established a standard formation for the war band. Each of the two lead companies sent out three scouts to avoid surprises. These companies traveled in a loose formation abreast, in order to maintain an effective fighting stance, while covering as wide a swath of territory as possible. Behind the lead formation came the command group, followed by Major Marta with her unit traveling in close order, ready to move on order to wherever they should be needed in event of a heavy clash. For two days they traveled this way, running drills and alternating commanders, so that General Anaya could learn more of General Karyn's method of precision unit operations.

As they approached the rendezvous area, they stopped short, set up camp, and established communications with the two elfen scouting parties. They would try to contact the two human groups by runner, but their positions were only loosely known. The lack of telepathic communication was a major reason to ensure scouting parties were integrated as soon as possible. Two limit noise and the chance of detection, each company continued to train on a rotation, moving quietly to the rear area, away from camp, and spending a day training on whatever the company commanders felt they needed most. The other two companies would spend each day relaxing, and doing classroom style thought exercises to learn standardized tactics and automatic reaction drills to develop what they nicknamed pops, or primary operating procedures. The stand down time in wait for the rendezvous was important. Even though they had come far and fast, everyone from general to squad mate still had new skills to learn and new people to get to know better. This was essential to developing the esprit de corps that separates the great units from the merely good units.