“During Helm, the snipers were shooting at night.”
“And you knew right where the fire was coming from. Is that concept too hard for your pea-brain to fathom?”
Harris chuckled. “OK. Point taken.”
“Dream of day, dead of night. Used to be our saying.”
Harris checked his wrist. “We have two hours of daylight. Want to scratch off those four ultimate targets?”
Tawn sighed. “We do one. After that, we give things an hour to settle. If all looks good, we’ll take on target two at that time.”
Harris nodded as he looked through his scope. “Conveyor motor… we have a truck interrupting your line of sight about every forty seconds. Various personnel walking around, but they don’t look to be in the way.”
Tawn said, “See that control box? I’ll hit that first and follow up with the motor casing. With luck we’ll get it to crack where we can damage the windings with a follow-on shot.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to hit it while it’s running? If it cracks under load I would expect more damage.”
Tawn shook her head. “Not while powered. Our plasma round will have about a third less impact with the EM field surrounding that motor while its running. At stop is better.”
“They teach you that in sniper training?”
“Actually they did. It’s not just about hitting the target. It’s about hitting it at the moment when you can effect maximum damage.”
“Won’t you have the same issue with that control box?”
“Those control circuits don’t have much of an EM field. That big spinning motor does. And yes, those are things we were taught in sniper school.”
Harris got the rhythm of the trucks as they passed. “Coming up… and clear. You have the box sighted?”
“In the hairs. Next opening is a go.”
Harris nodded. “OK. Fifteen seconds… ten… five… truck is passing. Clear.”
A plasma round left the sniper rifle with a whump. A puff of dust was kicked up in front of the blind. Twelve hundred forty-two meters away, a motor control box exploded, shattering into hundreds of pieces. The conveyor slowed to a stop, sending Earther workers scrambling to figure out what had happened.
Three successive shots saw the motor casing split, with a final hit sending wires from the winding out into the open Eden air.
Tawn smiled. “Scratch one conveyor.”
“So we’re done for an hour?”
Tawn gave a short laugh. “Hardly. See all that scramble down there? This is where we look for our targets of opportunity. If we can get them to reveal any equipment that is vital for a repair we take it out as well.”
Harris scanned the field. “Wait… one of the diggers just went down. I see smoke coming from a fuel tank. We have flame and… whoa. Scratch one digger. That thing is a fireball.”
“Good. Now bring your focus back here. I’m thinking that pull cart with what looks like welding gear might be just what we’re looking for.”
Harris nodded. “Got it. Nothing but personnel around it. No vehicles moving.”
A pair of whumps saw an equipment cart explode and then burst into flames.
Harris grinned. “Beautiful work. What’s next?”
“Now we sit back and wait for things to settle.”
Harris winced. “You’re kidding, right? The place is in chaos. Strike when it’s hot.”
Tawn shook her head. “Nope. At the moment that could be equipment failures.”
“Nobody is buying that. Motors don’t just explode.”
“Not true. These are extreme conditions out here. Now it’s true they are not likely to buy it, but we need it to be a possibility. Otherwise their efforts to find and stop us will go full bore. Look at each of those watchtowers. Tell me what you see the occupants doing.”
Harris looked through his scope. “They’re looking out at the hills.”
“Precisely. How about any guards on the ground?”
“Uh… they’re watching the chaos.”
Tawn reached up, pulling the flap of the blind closed. “Once they’re certain it’s snipers they’ll have patrols walking all of these hills. At the moment their priority will be searching for spies. We’re hidden pretty good out here, but not if they walk up to us.”
“So when they send out patrols we leave?”
“Only if they appear to be mobilizing a large part of their force for that. You have to keep in mind we aren’t all that stealthy when we’re in the open. With what we just did they’ll send out a few patrols. If we kept going they’d send out everyone.”
“Won’t they eventually do that anyway?”
“Probably.”
Then I would say we open up on everything we can and then leave. We’ll go hide out in the APC for a couple days and then come back.”
Harris opened the flap.
“What are you looking for?” Tawn asked.
“That fighter. Sure wish we had an angle looking into that bay. The fighter hasn’t moved, by the way. If it was me down there, I’d have it in the air.”
“You see any patrols forming up down there?”
“Let’s see… one—no, two.”
Tawn reached up, flipping the flap shut. “Good. Then we wait. Remember I told you this sniper game is about being patient. Well, this is where the patience comes in. Relax. I have an alert set for us in an hour.”
“What are we supposed to do in the meantime?”
Tawn shook her head. “Can you not self entertain for an hour? What are you, five years old?”
Harris frowned. “Last time you said I was twelve. So I’m slipping back now?”
“Are you planning to be a chatterbug this entire deployment?”
Harris chuckled. “Does that irritate you?”
Tawn sighed. “I’m not gonna answer that. Just keep yourself busy for a while. Count your fingers and toes or something.”
The hour passed without further conversation.
Harris sat up as the alert sounded. “Thank goodness. Thought I was gonna die of boredom.”
“This is what being a sniper is. Very short periods of extreme stimuli followed by long periods of reflection. You should be happy with our current schedule. If things get too active out there, we might just have to sit out for a day.”
Harris scoffed. “Can I at least observe during our downtime?”
“No. That flap is closed for a purpose. When open it defines a dark spot to a lookout or a scout, which draws attention.”
Harris rolled his eyes. “Glad I was never a great shot then. Had they sent me to sniper school I’d have had to shoot off my foot or something to get out.”
“Other than the hike in and out, you don’t need your foot. That wouldn’t disqualify you.”
“Well, fine then. I’d shoot off my trigger hand. No way I could do this full time.”
As the sun got low in the sky, Tawn reached up and opened the flap. “I’d say things are settling down. The conveyor is down, but there’s a crew there working it over. Looks like they got another motor. Doesn’t look the same though. Must be improvising.”
Harris added, “That digger has been pulled out of the pit. There’s another already in its place.”
“They have a new maintenance cart out there as well.”
“Next on the target list is the fusion reactor by the maintenance tent. After that we have the sensor on the nose of that fighter.”
Tawn looked over the maintenance cart as Harris eyed the fusion reactor. “How we looking with that next target?”
“Not good. They have a truck parked right in our line-of-sight. Let’s move on the fighter. We’re clear on the fighter.”
Tawn nodded. “Good. Give me a minute to set up this cart. Let me know if anything changes with the fighter.”
Harris reached out, grabbing Tawn by the shoulder. “Wait. Bax just walked out of the dome.”
“How do you know it’s her?”
“Who else has a red, vanity, environmenta
l suit? That has to be her.”
Tawn sighed. “Doesn’t matter. She’s not a priority.”
“How you figure?”
“We’re not targeting people, for one. Other than that, we still don’t know who she works for. If it is the DDI, we are killing off one of our best agents.”
Harris rolled his eyes. “Just can’t get rid of her, can we.”
Tawn looked back through her scope. “Let’s focus on the task at hand, shall we?”
The maintenance cart was targeted. A whump was followed by a small explosion as the power source was compromised by an invisible plasma round. Next was the fighter. In an instant the protruding nose sensor fractured and fell to the ground in pieces. Tawn reached up and closed the flap.
“I thought we were supposed to observe the aftermath?”
Tawn nodded. “We will. Give it five for them to get it in gear.”
“I’d like to see what Red does down there.”
“You’ll see in five minutes.”
Harris sat back. “Definitely wasn’t cut out to be a sniper.”
Tawn laughed. “You’re such a baby. I thought stumps were tough, thought they could take it. You’re whining like a little puppy who has to pee.”
“Wish Farker were here. He’s at least pleasant to talk to, even if all he does is grin at you.”
The five minutes ticked by slowly.
Tawn reached up, flipping open the flap. “Let’s see what we have. Activity around the strike sites. No sign of patrols forming up. I think we’re good.”
“Bax went back inside.”
The next two days saw the targeting slow to every fourth hour. On the third day, supplies pointed toward a visit to the APC. The blind was taken down. They made the fifty kilometer trek under the added cover of darkness.
Chapter 10
_______________________
Harris was the first into the back of the armored carrier. “Home at last.”
Tawn followed, sealing the hatch before adjusting the temperature to a more tolerable level.
Harris removed his helmet. “Ah. Feels good to breath the natural air. Never liked the forced air in those suits.”
“Keep that helmet handy. If we get visitors, you’ll want to snap that on in a hurry.”
Harris chuckled. “I’ve done this before you know.”
“Just saying. We all need that reminder at times.”
Harris sat in the driver’s seat, powering up the comm console. “We have a message from the other team.”
“Play it.”
“This is Alpha. Welcome back to Eden. Since your arrival we’ve dropped our targeting to two per day. Would suggest you do the same. I’ve also recommended to the colonel that no more teams are necessary. We had their production down 80 percent in our first week. Since that time we have knocked off another 10. Your addition got a shot at that conveyor that we didn’t have. Nice options by the way.
“So we’ve been in contact with the base. Sorry to hear about the loss of gamma. I’ve put in a recommendation to the colonel that we rotate teams in and out every two weeks. That will keep us fresh and well supplied at all times.
“We noticed you took a shot at the fighter sensor. Just so you know, the four fighters in that bay are all out of commission. Those were our first priority. They keep their ships up in the destroyer bays above now. Haven’t sent anyone out after us either.
“On that note, we believe they are searching their ranks for spies. They’ve sent repeated patrols out to twelve hundred meters. If you’re within that distance, I would suggest moving out to at least fifteen hundred. Might take an extra shot on a target, but not a show stopper. Anyway, this message was delivered at fourteen hundred standard time. We’ll be heading out at sixteen hundred. If you catch us before then, give us a comm.”
Harris checked for the time. “Uh. Just missed them by forty minutes.”
“Looks like you get an early release gift. Only two weeks and you’re out.”
Harris nodded as he stood. “Good. Forgot how much I despised this furnace of a planet. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ll be changing out my undergarments and getting a shower.”
Tawn nodded. “Have at it. I’ll post up our response message and file a report back to base. We’ll be heading out in four hours, so enjoy being clean while you’ve got it.”
Harris scowled as he removed the breastplate of the suit. “Ugh. I smell the stench already. You never feel uncomfortable in these things until you start to take them off.”
Tawn waved her hand. “Just hurry up and get it in that sanitation box. The filtration system on this rig is good, but not that good.”
Twenty minutes later, Harris emerged. “That felt great. I feel Human again.”
Tawn shook her head. “Well, act like a Human and put some clothes on.”
Harris pulled a fresh set of undergarments from his locker. He then stretched out on his bunk.
Tawn stood, walking back to the small shower, pulling a curtain across for privacy.
Harris said, “Had some good times camping in these APCs. Nothing like sleeping in a bunk with a military mattress. Especially when you’ve been dumped on some empty planet with about two dozen others. Kind of gives you that feeling of home.”
Tawn shook her head as she stepped into the shower. “You’re an odd bird sometimes. Entertaining, but odd.”
The sound of a door closing brought the familiar hum of a sonic shower. Ten minutes later, Tawn emerged, dressed, and put on her environmental suit.
Harris chuckled. “How can you stand to put that right back on?”
“I’m clean. And I like to be prepared. If an Earther comes knocking at that door I don’t want to be running around in my skivvies. I’ll be pulling this Fox and taking the heat to them outside. Now, what will you have? We need to eat before we head back out.”
“How many bogler ribs do we have left?”
“Two.”
Harris scowled. “And we have eleven days left? This is turning out to be a harsh deployment.”
Tawn laughed. “Harsh, yeah. As you lay back on your mattress in your underwear. Now, which one you want?”
Harris sighed. “Give me the bogler burger. I know I have to eat at least a few of them before we get relieved, so it might as well be now.”
The meals were had, rest was taken, and a final report sent back to the main base. Two hours later, Harris suited up, stuffed his pack with supplies, and followed Tawn out into the heat. The fifty kilometer trek took nine hours.
Tawn stretched out her arm as they approached the previous hideaway. “Hold up. We have company. Over behind that dune.”
A short jog had the sniper team out of sight.
Harris said, “Don’t like the fact they found that place. Thought we cleaned it up pretty good.”
“We did. Not sure why they’ve stopped there.”
“If I was them I’d have laid out a line-of-sight to every hilltop surrounding this place. Forget checking ravines. Focus on where you can be seen from.”
Tawn nodded. “Might be just what they’re doing. They were on our hill, but not at our spot. Might just be a patrol.”
“Time to head back to the fifteen hundred meter mark like team one suggested?”
“I think so. While you were napping I pegged two such spots. One looked perfect. High angle. Wide view. Good incline to come up and down from the backside.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go.”
Tawn shook her head. “Not going that way. I don’t like perfect. That’s gonna be one of the first places a patrol squad will be sent should they decide to go out that far. We’re taking position two.”
Harris gestured with his arm. “Lead the way.”
A forty minute walk had the team coming up on the new location.
Tawn crawled to the top of the ridge first. “Hmm. That’s not good.”
“What?”
Tawn nodded her head toward the previous hill. “That look like they’re setting up camp?
”
Harris peered through his spotter scope. “It does. Looks like we made the move at the right time.”
Tawn scanned the other hilltops. “We’ve got more company. There’s a squad straight out. And one to the left. Correct that, three to the left. Looks like every half kilometer at the thousand meter mark. We may not be able to make team one’s quota of two targets per day. This just got a lot more dangerous for us.”
“We could just pick them off from here. Heck, I could even hit some of those.”
Tawn shook her head. “No personnel. They would flood these hills. Probably why they haven’t already done so.”
“Where we putting the blind?”
Tawn glanced to either side. “This as good a spot as any. Kind of on a mild divot. We put it up and fill in sand around it and she’ll flatten out nicely.”
Harris reached back for his pack.
“Stop!”
“What happened?”
“You happened, you moron. Bring your arm back around slowly, slide back over that hill edge. Then you can empty your pack. Always do the minimum when you’re in direct line-of-sight.”
“Got it. Won’t happen again.”
The blind was pieced together and moved into place. Scoops of sand were pushed into place with a makeshift shovel. A full can of matching spray saw a blind that appeared to be nothing more than a sand hump.
Harris said, “Can hardly see it from two meters away. You know your blinds.”
Tawn nodded. “Yeah. Now shut up and get inside. Time for some observation.”
Harris again pulled his scope. “View from the other hill was better.”
“We only need two targets a day now.”
“The conveyor is running again.”
Tawn nodded. “Looks like you just found our first.”
A voice came from behind the blind. “Hey… idiots. You in there?”
Tawn’s eyes grew wide. “Bax?”
“Yeah. Slide back out here. We need to talk.”
Tawn emerged with her Fox-40 aimed at her former boss.
Bax waved. “Here, back over the hill.”
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