Next, Augustus and Warfield took out an internal map of Fort Howe to discuss their next move, while the remaining men of 1st Company gathered around to listen to them. Before he knew it, Warfield had come to regard Augustus as his second-in-command. Aside from 3rd Platoon, he only had three platoon and squad leaders left in total.
"Alpha Squadron may not be much in a fight, but their combat style has always been known for being fierce and rough. No matter what, they really are a highly elite unit. They should be able to retake most of the important facilities and buildings in the fort soon enough," Augustus said.
"But Duke's troops have no objective. They're just going to charge around the fort blindly. Even one difficult tower could hold them up for quite a while."
"Right, and we need to take back the arsenal first. We can't let the Kel-Morians clean the place out," Warfield said. "Fall in, brothers of 1st Company. We've still got a hard fight ahead of us. Find some armored personnel carriers that can still run."
Though the company's soldiers had fought through the entire night with their nerves stretched taut and were utterly exhausted, they still obeyed Warfield's orders and formed up before him again, checking their weapons as they awaited instructions. Reagan, commander of 3rd Platoon, took some men to find the vehicles the company commander had requested.
"I've been to the arsenal. Brand-new sets of CMC-300 Power Armor were hanging on the walls, while crates upon crates of twenty-round shotgun magazines and Piercer rifle ammunition covered the floor. There were about two truckloads of Umojan-imported Spider Mines inside. That's premium stuff—supposedly, they can automatically identify enemies and effectively prevent friendly fire."
Augustus said, "If we can secure or recover that batch