Chapter 313 - Brazen

Brinaeth crouched against the side of the barracks, checking her surroundings for any alert guards nearby. There wasn’t anyone with their attention on her little corner, so she allowed herself to relax just a little. She didn’t stop actively using her Stealth Skills, but she did take deep, calming breaths, allowing her heart rate to return to normal. She had experienced a spike of adrenaline from traversing the open top of the wall and the exposure from climbing down.

Her Skills would have made it difficult to spot her in the dark, but if anyone had gotten lucky enough to look right at where she was, there would have been no hiding as she descended into the interior of the fort. That knowledge had kept her blood pumping. Now that she knew she was in the clear, she could finally allow her body to relax.

She almost yelped as she jumped a bit when another person sidled up right next to her, brushing against her as they got super close. There was no shouting, challenges, or attack, so she managed to rein in her reaction after the brief jump, and she turned to see one of her Squad Mates crouching against the barracks with her.

They didn’t know how far away any soldiers around the corner of the building were or if there was an open window or anything, so they didn’t risk speaking to each other out loud. Brinaeth held her hand against her chest and closed her eyes to once more calm the spike of adrenaline before opening her eyes and glaring at her partner.

They used hand signals and pantomiming to communicate a brief plan of action. Their Special Unit Squad had broken up to infiltrate the fort from various locations so they didn’t put all of their eggs in one basket, but they were close enough together they could meet up in pairs on the inside. The thinking was that the added obstacles of the various buildings providing more hiding spots would allow them to combine their Skills together to increase their chances of making it to the objective.

The test wasn’t just a test on their Special Unit as a whole, nor was it entirely a solo mission for each of them. They would each be individually graded, of course, but Major Reivyn had made it clear it was also reflective of their entire team. It would be considered a win for an individual if one person made it to the objective, and it would be considered a win for the whole team if two of them made it.

Brinaeth hadn’t heard any alarms raised anywhere else in the fort, so she was fairly confident they were all still on the table as making it to the objective.

After a brief exchange, Brinaeth turned and waddled over to the edge of the building, maintaining her crouched position as she walked. She peered around the corner to see if there were any patrols or guards standing watch. There was nobody standing outside of the barracks, though there was probably someone awake and alert just inside, so she made a mental note to keep that in mind.

She motioned for her partner to move closer to her, turning her head to gesture that there were no patrols nearby. The fort wasn’t small, but it wasn’t that large, either. It was the size of a small town, nowhere near large enough to be comparable to a city. There were many different paths they could take to lead to the central building.

Brinaeth and her mate took turns pointing out various routes before they agreed on the simplest move. There was no reason to make things complicated, so they just decided to head to the closest, darkest alley to their position. There were no completely dark alleyways anywhere in the fort, having decent amounts of lighting for the soldiers to see at night, but that didn’t mean they were all equal.

The two of them raised their crouched positions a bit, turning it more into a hunch, and fast-walked across the open space, keeping to the errant shadows as much as possible. They quickly made it to the alley just as a squad of patrolling soldiers appeared on the street between the buildings and the barracks.

Brinaeth and her Squad Mate crouched down in the darkness, conforming to the shadows as much as they could, as they waited for the patrol to pass. There was no telling what kind of Perception Skills any of the soldiers had, and any kind of movement or noise could give them away. They simply hunkered down just out of the open as the patrol quickly moved past them.

The light of torches spread across the rocky ground as the soldiers Marched past, but it wasn’t enough to extend meaningfully into the alley. The two infiltrators managed to stay concealed in the shadow as Brinaeth’s heart rate once more beat powerfully in her chest.

She was nowhere near having the same problem as the soldiers standing watch with their tiredness. If anything she would be wired for hours beyond sunrise with all the excitement and adrenaline flowing through her body. There were high Level people with Skills enough to pick up on even that subtle sound from someone’s body, so Brinaeth was hopeful to either unlock a Skill to help her regulate it, or just gain enough experience that she naturally didn’t get as excitable. She would have to ask Major Reivyn or Lieutenant Teilon if either of them knew a way to manage it.

Once the patrol was past, they once more moved through the alley at a crouch. The buildings weren’t homes or places of business. Each one could possibly contain any combination of alert soldiers, so they were careful with their movements to remain silent even with no patrols nearby. There was no reason to get complacent when they weren’t at their objective. They could fully relax once the mission was over.

The buildings weren’t huge, and there weren’t a lot of them, but there were enough to create several back alley paths winding through the fort toward the central headquarters. If the headquarters had been in the true center of the fort instead of against the mountain, it would have been much quicker for them to arrive at their destination, but as it was, they had to spend half an hour moving about in the small spaces between buildings.

There were a few open windows with light shining through them, but they were elevated to a height they didn’t have to worry about being seen as long as they kept their bodies against that building, simply slinking past below the window. A couple of times Brinaeth could hear people talking inside the buildings, but their conversations weren’t loud enough to pick out actual words. If she stopped to focus on her Eavesdropping Skill, she might be able to pick something out, but that wasn’t part of the mission. There was no reason to halt their progress for some inane conversation that was most likely of no significant military value.

Eventually, they finally made it to the open space leading to the central headquarters building. Brinaeth’s heart dropped into her stomach as she surveyed the space they needed to cross. The open area was a parade ground with zero places to hide, and there were multiple patrols all over the place at any given time. There were no avenues to approach the building unseen.

Brinaeth ducked back into the alley and once again had a brief hand-flashing conversation with her partner. They weren’t necessarily in a hurry, yet, so they agreed to simply wait and observe for now.

Brinaeth watched the patrols March about. After a few minutes of watching, she noticed there was a pattern to it. None of the patrols stayed in the area. The only reason they could see so many at once was the nature of the wide-open parade ground. They were simply Marching along their designated routes that happened to move across the parade ground.

Brinaeth made note of several individual soldiers in the patrols. She kept track of their movement until they disappeared from sight along their route. After waiting for another half an hour, she noted that they reappeared from different directions, obviously having traversed some sort of circuit.

Brinaeth put her focus on the patrols that passed by the very front of their objective and watched their positioning. After another several minutes of watching, she noted that they passed by areas close to some of the alleys. A crazy idea wormed its way into her head upon this discovery.

She motioned to her Squad Mate, and the two of them reversed direction and headed deeper into the alley once more. Using the mental map she had maintained in her head, she led them to a different opening from an alley where one of the patrols passing by the front of the headquarters building would pass by.

Brinaeth pantomimed her plan to her buddy. He gave her an incredulous stare, but he simply shrugged and nodded his head after a moment. The two of them waited for several minutes for a patrol to pass by.

Once a patrol came into view, the two of them hunkered as close to the edge of the alley as they could without risking exposing themselves to the light of the torches held by the passing patrol. Once the soldiers were just barely past them, they crouched-ran to the back of the patrolling squad and fell-in to the formation.

They assumed a similar posture as the patrolling soldiers and matched their footsteps to the soldiers in front of them, triggering the Marching Skill.

Just don’t look back. Just don’t look back, Brinaeth repeated to herself as her heart rate went wild.

Having watched the different patrol squads for almost an hour, she had noticed that while they were all very professional, they had allowed that professionalism to bite them in the rear. None of them turned to watch directly behind themselves.

The patrol they had infiltrated, they were none the wiser, and to any passing patrols, unless they scrutinized them closely and counted the number of men in the patrol, they would just appear as if they were supposed to be there. Each patrol squad was composed of sixteen men marching in a column of two, shoulder to shoulder. If anyone paid attention to this squad, they would notice that there were eighteen men.

The real test was the difference in their gear. If anyone paid too much attention, they would notice that Brinaeth and her fellow Special Unit Squad Mate were wearing hardened leather armor with metal plating as compared to the heavier mail of the other soldiers.

Brinaeth and her Squad Mate kept up their appearance as they stepped out onto the parade ground, right out in the open. They passed another patrol squad heading in the other direction, but none of the soldiers in that patrol spared them a second glance. Brinaeth didn’t know if their eyes just glanced over the patrol squads, their eyes just glancing over the discrepancy in armor, or if it was too dark for them to notice, anyway, but either way, no alarms were sounded.

The two continued their March at the rear of a patrol squad for several minutes, eventually walking right past the headquarters building. The entryway to the main building was quite wide. There was a small stair step flanked by two short walls, and there were two guards standing at attention in front of either wall at the end of the entryway leading to the building. They stood just in front of the walls, still as statues.

Getting past those two guards would be the final test, but Brinaeth was hopeful. They were wearing their full armor, including their helmets. It was a gamble that it would obstruct their peripheral vision enough for them to slip by. If they didn’t spot the discrepancy in number and armor of the patrol, Brinaeth was confident they could sneak by them with her plan.

She held her breath as the patrol Marched past the first guard standing at attention. She could feel the sweat trickle down her back as her heart tried to pump its way out of her chest as she walked abreast of the guard.

The man didn’t react.

Brinaeth didn’t calm down, yet. They still had one final move to get to the entrance of the headquarters, their target for the mission.

Brinaeth watched the center of the entranceway as she approached it. The front of the patrol was already past the second guardsman as she and her Squad Mate reached the center. The distance wasn’t that great, but hopefully it was enough that the obstruction of the guards’ helmets would block their peripheral vision.

They reached the center, and Brinaeth and her Squad Mate simply stopped Marching with the patrol squad and shuffled over to the side. It was only a couple of steps, and they squatted down on the steps, holding their breath, waiting for either of the final two guards to notice the small movement.

It would seem like now was the time to make a dash for the goal, but that would have been the wrong answer. Time and again, small, slow, deliberate movements had proven to be the right course of action. The one time Brinaeth had hurried, she had almost been spotted. She was banking on the same principle applying here.

If they squatted down on the steps, not moving, there was a chance that if the guards on either end did notice anything, they would have chalked it up to shadows playing tricks on them. With no further movements drawing their attention, either directly or through their subconscious, Brinaeth was hopeful they wouldn’t pay attention to what was happening on the edge of their vision, if they could see it.

After a count to ten in her head and nothing happening, Brinaeth silently reached out and squeezed the hand of her Squad Mate. The two slowly crept forward, ascending the short steps. They kept their upper bodies low as they walked up the few steps, keeping their profile below the short walls on either side.

Brinaeth and her companion practically crawled the last bit of distance to their goal, scared that any second someone would look up and see them. None of the patrols were particularly paying attention to the front of the headquarters building, but it only took one person to glance over while lined up with the walkway to see them. Other than the purely aesthetic walls on either side, they were right out in the open.

The last stretch fel like an eternity to Brinaeth. She couldn’t risk raising her head enough to see the edge of the building without either lifting her head too high or contorting her neck in a way it didn’t want to move, so she just moved forward, knowing the end was right there.

Suddenly, the darkness lifted as the two were bathed in soft, yellow light. They both froze, completely exposed to the light of whoever had spotted them and targeted them with the light. Brinaeth’s heart once more dropped, this time with the knowledge that they had failed at the final step.

When nothing was said for several seconds, she finally lifted her head to see who had spotted her.

Standing in the open door to the headquarters building was a smiling Major Reivyn. He hadn’t said anything until Brinaeth looked up, but as soon as they made eye contact, he motioned for them to stand up.

“Excellent,” Major Reivyn said. “You two are the first to make it, and, quite frankly, much ahead of schedule for any guesses I made. Come in, come in.”

Instead of standing to obey the order of invitation, Brinaeth sagged to the floor in relief, all the tension flooding out of her body at their success. It had been a crazy gamble, and if they had taken a bit more time to survey the surroundings and the patrols, Brinaeth was sure they would have found any number of alternative plans, but she had chosen the quickest, most direct method.

They had practically just Marched right up to the door, and they had gotten away with it.