The group finally reached the designated rendezvous point. Saster checked the pocket watch in his hand by the faint starlight filtering through the clouds. They still had time. Now they only needed to wait for the other squads to join them.
Over the next dozen minutes, the other three squads arrived one after another and joined Saster's unit.
"Deputy Regimental Commander, my squad has seventy-eight men. All seventy-eight are present and have reached the rendezvous point."
"My squad has sixty-five men. All sixty-five are present and have reached the rendezvous point."
"Our squad has seventy men..."
Saster looked at the arriving squads with satisfaction. The entire night-raid force numbered only three hundred, yet every member of these four squads had made it to the rendezvous point. Despite marching at night without a light source, none had been injured or lost. They were elite soldiers indeed.
After Saster and the squad leaders counted their men and supplies, he kept everyone concealed at the rendezvous point. All they had to do now was wait for the moment the operation began.
The force hid along the side of a small hill, where a patch of shrubs grew. Winter had stripped the branches of their leaves, but the dense twigs and the darkness beneath the faint starlight were still enough to conceal the soldiers.
Saster called the squad leaders aside and went over their assignments with them once more before the operation began.
"I'm responsible for Front Bay Village. Second Squad, you're responsible for Under-Bridge Village. Third Squad, you're responsible for West Ridge Village. Fourth Squad, you're responsible for...
"Everyone understands their assignment, right?"
The squad leaders nodded to show that they did.
Saster checked the time. There was still a little to spare, so he said, "Before we left, Regimental Commander Marvin told