The Forgotten Land by Keith McArdle

Author:Keith McArdle [McArdle, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Fiction, Men's Adventure
ISBN: 9781465776105
Google: QrmvvZAmIawC
Amazon: B005QSG2DK
Publisher: Keith McArdle
Published: 2011-09-29T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

The soldiers set off early the next morning. The horizon to the east glowed deep orange and bright pink as the sun made its presence known. After arguing relentlessly with her father, Heleena had left that morning with Will. Foothark knew she was in safe hands, but he hated that his little girl was growing up so quickly. Marie kept reminding him that she was not growing up, she had grown up. But to Foothark she would always be his little girl.

Tharkol had gone ahead of the men who were in patrol order, chest webbing strapped on, assault helmets fastened and weapons at the action condition. They had a bullet in the chamber and the safety catch on. They also carried handmade rucksacks given them by members of the village with their warm weather gear and food inside. The soldiers had thoroughly cleaned and oiled their weapons the night before, water bottles were filled and ammunition tallied. Nothing had been left to chance. The old clothes the villagers had supplied them were also stored in their rucksacks for later use.

“Fuckin’ cold,” commented Scott as they entered the forest, snow crunching under their feet.

“Yeah it is a bit,” replied Matt.

A bird took to flight, soared above the forest and disappeared from sight. Steve knew this would be a dangerous mission, but it was also an opportunity to win the hearts and minds of those villagers who did not trust them. If they returned with their chieftain unhurt then perhaps those few would finally come to trust them. Thormdall had told them it was not distrust; it was that the people still regarded them as gods. Steve was not convinced.

Distrust was a dangerous thing. In a situation where a foreign military force was occupying a town or city, the humble medic was its most potent weapon. The Australian and British defence forces in particular knew how to utilise this fact to their advantage and had done so with great success on countless occasions.

When infantry patrols were conducted in the surrounding areas, they would stop and talk to the locals, offer the children chocolates, and give basic medical attention to those who required it. If further, or more serious, medical attention was needed, these people were often taken back to the field hospital and treated. In this way the foreign force could show the locals they were there to help, that they cared, and in doing so win their hearts and minds. After that, information would soon follow. Locations of an enemy weapon cache, or perhaps the location of the enemy headquarters.

To simply drive around the city in armoured vehicles with mounted heavy machine guns at the ready, and ignore the people, had the opposite effect. People lost trust so the information from the locals dried up, and anger soon followed. Once it got to that stage, it was time to try and reverse the situation quickly before it became too far out of hand.

Steve was not undertaking this mission to please the villagers, he was doing it to try and win trust.

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