Gate: Thus the World Fought There

Chapter 6: Preparation

Itami's POV

I walked out of the throne room. 

"Don't you think we could do something about it?" Ramirez asked.

"We have to get approval for another mission. I barely got through Lieutenant General Hazama to get our last mission approved," I explained, "I don't think we're going on another mission."

We walked outside and went into a private tent near the palace.

"We should at least talk about what we found," he reasoned.

We sat down across from each other. He pulled out a small map of the area and placed it on the table.

"We found the bullet casings here and here," he informed me.

He placed 2 red circles in the flanks of the path.

"And the body was over here," he continued.

He circled the edge of a small clearing in the forest about 5 meters from the path.

"The vehicle tracks were around here," I said.

I circled an area near the dead body.

"What do you think you can make up from this?" I asked him.

He tapped his pen on the table.

"I think they found them and set up an ambush over in the forest," he described, "They managed to get the drop on them and maybe some of them tried to attack them which lead them to fire the bullets."

He traced out a path with his pen that leads to the body. 

"I think one of the knights died during the battle, so they just left her there in the foliage," he continued.

"Okay, but that doesn't explain their sudden disappearance," I disagreed.

"Easy, those vehicle tracks are what they were taken in. What direction did they point in?"

I took out my pen and traced the vehicle track's direction. Ramirez took out a larger map of the Special Region and placed it on the table. He placed the small map over the same area on the map. He copied the directions onto the larger map.

"They could have gone anywhere in this direction," he said.

"Maybe they went somewhere seclusive," I reasoned.

"Likely but it's just as unlikely."

"Why's that?"

"Reverse psychology. I think it's best for us to have half of us go to this city over here. The other half checks out this wooded area here."

He pointed at a forest near the city of Pevel. 

"I'll get approval from my superiors this time," he said.

He got up from the table and walked out of the tent. I inspected the map before leaving the tent again.

<1600 hours>

I was sitting with Ramirez and Pina.

"We have reason to believe that the Order of the Rose is in enemy hands," Ramirez said, "We have gotten some solid information of some unknown vehicles parked inside of the city of Pevel."

"We think we might have found the knights," I finished, "All we need is your approval to let us go and get them."

"Yes, you can get them," Pina said.

We both walked out of the room and outside.

"We have to keep this quiet," he said, "Go and grab some suppressors from the armory's storage."