Two days of preparation gave Sigrid some minimal satisfaction. Tomorrow would be go day. The seven teams of mercenaries were coming together. Team coordination and communication gradually improved from trial to trial. Intel showed through and in the details built within the new fight house. Control had discovered a major enemy battle center. The wealth of weapons, tech, and captured intel might be enough to propel them past both their allies and enemies to final victory.
Sigrid tamped down his own growing enthusiasm and took the teams through their fifteenth trial exercise. They would get it right. No one was with him in the control booth. He schooled his face automatically and watched the teams go through his well-rehearsed attack. Twenty-five minutes later it was debriefing time.
"Good job, everyone. We are very close on coordination. This has gone better than I expected. Now the hard work begins. Stay on your toes. Communicate! The next twelve events will throw unexpected elements at each team. Several will require a coordinated response."
"The teams smacked shoulders, high fived, chatted excitedly, and shared other expressions of self approval and congratulation. Approval from Sigrid was rare. Sigrid gave them, grudgingly, a few minutes of celebration while he grit his teeth and kept smiling.His eyes remained bleak.
His own personal training module, demanded by his superiors, showed him the power of those so-called kind words that he hated to set free from his mouth. His interpretation was a few properly placed lies made his teams work better. That wasn't quite the message of the module, but that's how Sigrid understood it.
He did notice that he wasn't threatening or killing off team members. That was a good enough outcome.Lesson learned. Don't waste resources. Use them. He expected that most of the attack teams would die. His data suggested 55%-60%. Predictions showed a far worse report for enemy casualties. That was always the goal. They were only numbers for his attention. His men would never see them. Tomorrow they would find out. Tomorrow people would die.
The building they were attacking was a well protected bunker. Intel identified the typically used entrances and the single exit and sent the data. Sigrid was not satisfied with the data. He doubted there was only one exit. It did not fit the Center profile. He sent a second team who discovered two more hidden and rarely used ones. The teams also reported on the high level of activity within the facility. They found, in addition, a prepped alternate exit in use for training that was missed by Intelligence.
Sigrid's exploration further showed the new discoveries offered useful entrances for a surprise attack. Monitoring suggested the cautious explorations completed by Control's best, highly trained, probe team remained unnoticed. Intel monitoring did not even show the results of Sigrid's efforts of the second probe. He wondered if the new tech they were using in the field was the reason why. In the final analysis, he really didn't care, as long as the attack was successful.
One worry gnawed at his thoughts. The fear of entrapment scorched his mind, feeling like napalm spreading through his plans. It could all be a ruse. The opportunity seemed too easy. Sigrid pushed his teams through the additional tactical training. The next twelve exercises all dealt with the possibilities of trap after trap. Traps were only good when he set them up. Seeing traps set by others was harder. They must be seen and avoided or used for his own purposes. His teams would be as aware of potential traps after this day was done as Sigrid could make them. His teams would realize what could happen.