"There is our spot."
You stood with your comrades over a rough map loaned by Herr Witte depicting the trail your enemies would follow. You pointed to a sharp loop in the trail where the path had to cut around a steep incline. The bump was nearly 270 degrees of curve with limited visibility. Above it was the top of a wooded ridge, below was a slope down to an old riverbed.
"If we set ourselves up at the top of this ridge, we will have lines of fire on every vehicle in their convoy. They'll have no easy way to attack us, especially if their tankette can't aim its gun up."
"That's assuming three things," Nadja interjected. "That they're driving in a tight formation, that this map is accurate, and that they won't have already passed this point by the time you arrive."
"We'll fall back on our bikes if need be and harass them. Regardless, this is what we're aiming for."
You placed a few homemade grenades on the map with small blotches of paint marked across them, the only way to tell which color of smoke they would create.
"We'll fire a flare to indicate that the ambush has begun and for you to close in. Until then, I want you flying as far away as you can while still being able to reach us. Green smoke will be your cue to bomb infantry, and yellow smoke for bombing tanks. If we drop red smoke, we're retreating."
"Will the green smoke be on your position or the enemy?"
"On us," you replied. "Do not bomb the people in green smoke."
"I'll try to keep that in mind," she said with a wry smile. "Also remember that I'll have to take off much later than all of you. No matter how fast your bikes are, I'll out pace them."
You thought about it for a moment and replied, "Leave a half hour after us. I'd rather risk using a lot of fuel than not having you in the fight. Think of it this way; you can tell us yourself when the enemy isn't where we expect them to be."
She ignored your bait and simply said, "Well I had better get my pre-flight checks done." She turned and left you with your squad.
About ten minutes later the seven of you stood, armored up, next to your bikes. You slung the familiar weight of your gun over your shoulder and crouched to crank the engine. It started on the first turn and you mounted up, feeling every bit the champion going out to save this town.
With a series of loud coughs you drove out of town onto the rough dirt paths that crisscrossed the surrounding farmland. As the minutes rolled by you led them from farmland, to steppe, to taiga, and entered the Wild proper. You did not pray, but you hoped there would be no monsters this time.
The journey was shorter than you had feared, and blessedly uneventful. After a few hours you found yourselves at the top of the ridge from the map, looking down on the trail below. This whole valley seemed to have been cut from the earth long ago, with dirt and rock sliced at unusually sharp angles. You couldn't say precisely, but the slope was likely 40 degrees in most places, climbable while walking, but strenuous and easy to slip. If not for the dense tree cover this whole slope would probably just fall into the riverbed below.
At any rate, you were only about ten meters up from the packed dirt road, and that's exactly where you wanted to be. The road below looked firm and dry. It was wide enough for large vehicles, but the slope would still give you excellent cover.
"We hid the bikes, Eli," Ivana said as she walked up beside you. "What next?"
[ ] "We should set some traps on the road below. Something that will force them to stop." (Write in details)
[ ] "We should dig in while we have the chance. Get everyone started making foxholes that can't be seen from below."
[ ] Write in any other final prep.
