[h2][color=lightblue]PFC Kane O'Connor[/color][/h2]

[color=lightblue]"Yeah just noticed- "[/color]

The report rang out half a second later, a sharp crack piercing through the noise. Moments later he saw Callum's vitals in his HUD go haywire.

He'd been hit. Judging by the screaming in the comms network, it was an affirmative.

This wasn't just an exercise. This was a real war.

[color=lightblue]"F-fuck! Callum's hit! Callum's hit! Corporal Craster, he needs help!"[/color]

Panic began to fill his being. His normally steady hands began shaking. Not once during his entire time here had he expected to be at war with Tellosia. Now they were in the thick of it, and one of the men he'd been around with in the loneliness had been shot.

What if he were next?

His scope was already zeroed in on where the scope glint had been, but he lowered it in panic. The enemy sniper might've been doing the same thing.

Just then a round tore through the air, the crack following half a second after. He'd been right.

The panic in him slowly replaced itself with anger. How dare he! The gall of him! To think he could get away with hurting Callum that easily!

[color=lightblue]"Motherfucker! Callum, I'm gonna get revenge for you! Hold tight man!"[/color]

Kane raised a hand and tapped the side of his helmet. His lenses switched through vision modes until he settled on infra-red. A cursory glance over the wall of the sentry tower confirmed his guess: most of the terrain was a nice, dark blue. Cold. And, out in the fields of snow, sat a single, albeit tiny, spot of white.

A heat signature. A slightly man-shaped heat signature.

Apparently the Tellosian snipers didn't have heat-camoflage like the real Interum snipers did. Advantage Interum.

Kane steadied his breathing and gripped his rifle tight, then stood. He turned, sat the bipod down on the ledge and scoped in on where the heat signature was. His scope gave him an accurate distance reading and wind heading, and all he had to do was adjust accordingly.

Then a spurt of white interrupted his calculations. The sniper twitched and slumped onto the floor. He was followed shortly by two more men getting shot and collapsing.

Esther. She was in the same bunker as Cal. She'd been faster.

[color=lightblue]"Fuck!"[/color]

In anger he ducked back down. A fist slammed into the tower wall, Kane's fury evident.

[color=lightblue]"Mother [b]FUCK[/B]! Fucking shit! I did not fucking sign up for this!"[/color]

Panic, anger and fear made a powerful cocktail that paralysed the poor scout in his tower. Trembling, he drew his knees in to his chest and held his rifle in his arms.