>>5368434Mason was in a difficult position, very carefully, he made sure that his forces had perfect coordination and yet his new allies didn't know about the C4 system. The best of his forces were able to do a lightning rush and take a few farms, along with the airfield. However, Mason could tell from his own display, that the enemy had not detected their radios, but they had possibly heard the sound of their trucks. Looking at the various displays and checking the drones he had access to, he was able to notice a few GIN trucks speeding into the most populated area of Gao. Despite all their advanced technology, they couldn't locate where the enemy was positioned and they had no indications the GIN had fled the area. As far as they could tell, Gao had 80,000 people and was a decently suburban area about 2 klicks away from the airfield.
If they attacked, they would be ambushed. They could dismount from their trucks, but their trucks could be seen currently and likely would be seen coming in. The men could possibly walk the two kilometers, but there was reports of medium and heavy machine guns mounted on trucks or buildings. Already the NAU forces and their allies were taking simulants, just as the GIN likely were. The local militia arrived after being sent directions, they had stayed a specific and careful distance behind.
Mason was left with tough decisions. Both sides had access to mobile vehicles and long range machine guns. His forces were better at looking and more powerful, their forces were better at hiding. Most of his forces were worse at hiding, than the enemy was at looking. If he doubled up the digging operation, he could get an area of 600 x 300 meters into a trench. It would be a lot more help to the green militia that barely had any protection. The problem was that his forces were likely to get tired and would have to fall back, leaving behind dug trenches that might have to be retaken later. At the other hand, he had captured the airport..... Maybe someone could land and reinforce? Then again, there was the risk of someone firing a missile at any planes that went by.
His forces could stay here maybe 18 hours, and then they would have to leave. If he was attacked just after 9 hours, digging in would've really helped him. 9 hours from now would be daylight. Both sides possibly had an equal number of long range machine guns, but... perhaps his forces might get ambushed at a distance? Charged? Both?
