Tess had felt like shit that morning, the result of a few too many hours spent staring at the ceiling as her thoughts had raced and the hours had slowly passed by. She’d already dyed her hair black in preparation for the operation and she sourly wished there had been something else to do instead of being left alone with nothing but her own thoughts for company. She also hadn’t particularly enjoyed the early trip to the airport and a grim resting scowl had settled over her features as they’d arrived. 

Fortunately, it was a private flight and things had moved swiftly and without incident as they rapidly passed through the airport with minimal interactions or delay. The other operators kept to themselves for the most part and she was more than happy to follow suit as they boarded what she recognised as a Gulfstream G550 and took a seat in the cabin. 

She briefly cast her mind to the last time she’d seen one of these aircraft. It’d be about four or five years ago now, though the optical scope of a M24 as it had sat inside of a huge private hanger outside of Muscat. She was part of a team hired to assist in the ‘disappearance’ of some upper tier oil magnate employee, they’d been hired by the guys own boss of all people and so it’d been a rather effective ambush. A rare smirk came to her face as she recalled the success and more specifically the celebrations that had followed. That had been one of a handful of fleeting good times she could recall as she cast her mind back. The smirk disappeared as quickly as it had come as she then remembered how it’d all ended and she snapped her thoughts back to the present. 

Throughout the flight she drifted in and out of an uneasy sleep as she’d decided against taking the pills Bakker had given her and instead pocketed them. Before she knew it the sudden jolt of the plane’s wheels hitting the African ground jolted her awake with a start and she gazed around bleary eyed for a few moments as she mumbled a few curses to herself as she stretched out and sighed. 
The rest of Algiers was a bit of a blur. She occupied herself by chain smoking as some of the others organised the drones. The heat and dry air always seemed to make her want to smoke, she supposed it was a habit that she’d picked up from an old Italian bugger she’d once worked with. He was almost certainly dead now, she pointed out to herself cheerily as she thought about it, but boy he’d been a funny bastard. 

The flight to Tamanrasset was fucking awful. It was cramped, hot and she somehow ended up sat next to some middle-aged  Algerian woman who insisted on trying to speak to her throughout the entire flight in semi-literate English. She glanced around for Bakker and shot him a look of frustration as the woman continued despite her attempts to completely ignore her. About three hours later they were finally out and searching for supplies and provisions before finally arriving at the garage where they’d wait until nightfall. Despite the sunscreen and headscarf she’d been wearing all day she’d picked up the sun quite a bit and the skin on her face and arms was already a little burnt. Fortunately the disguise did the job despite being fairly uncomfortable and making her look like some kind of toy soldier. She noted that the greasy makeup and uniform might be an issue in the heat of the day and the lenses were already a little irritating as she glanced at herself in a cracked mirror and made sure she looked the part. She could figure out and hopefully get rid off them at some point, she supposed it depended on how long it took them to find this kid and how long they needed to keep up appearances. 

She’d checked over the Dragunov and magazines and was fairly impressed with the state of the weapon despite its obvious age. She’d used an SVD before however it’d been much newer with a folding stock and was significantly lighter than this one – not that it mattered too much as beyond that it was the same. 

She sat beside Hector in the rear car as they pulled out into the night and made their way through the city and onto the highway, she offered him a smoke before lighting up one herself – she figured better to do it now rather than when they were ‘off-roading’. Eventually the lead car indicated before swerving off the road and onto the desert, Zeus following suit albeit without the indication. Hypatia suppressed another smirk as she glanced behind them watching the road for any signs of pursuit. She had to resist the urge to itch her eye as she did, the thick brown contacts beginning to irritate her and she took a few moments to try and rearrange them. Once she was done, she continued to watch behind them and after only a few minutes was sure she could see something through the clouds of sand they were kicking up. She relayed her concerns to the others and moments before they were about to radio the lead car Brick’s voice crackled through to them confirming he’d spotted it too. 

“Heads-up, something’s behind us. I can’t make sense of what it is, we’re not going to turn to face it yet; if its OPFOR we’ll let them think they’re a step ahead of us when they’re not, save some time.”

Hypatia continued to try and make out whatever it was, but with the dust and movement of the Nimr it was a futile exercise – though she doubted it would be anything too interesting so soon after they’d left Tamanrasset. Eventually they crested the peak of a large dune before coming to a stop and with a flurry of movement they all exited the vehicles. Hypatia was impressed at how quickly and professionally the others moved, nothing but focus as they readied their weapons and took up positions. Brick began unpacking the drones as he gave her the instruction to climb the dune and get a look at whatever was behind them. She needed little prompt and turning she unslung her rifle and moved as quickly as she could up towards the crest that was behind them. Throwing herself into the sand she crawled the last little bit before she lifted her goggles and peered down the side mounted PSO sights of the rifle and began to scan the desert. 

It was a clear but dark night, the view before her was rather astonishing and in a different situation she’d possibly have spent more time gazing around and taking in and appreciating the natural sights. After a few short moments she spotted some movement before focusing in on a trotting dromedary camel. Rolling her eyes at the thought of stopping for this she continued to scan around to make sure there was nothing else, however moments later something obscured her vision as something moved in front of the scope. Moving her head slightly to the side she focused on a rather huge spider that had just climbed onto the lens and she violently jerked backwards, crying out profanity as she involuntarily jumped and managed to knock a plume of sand into her own face as she did. The critter surprisingly clung to the barrel and a few moments after regaining some her composure and spitting the sand from her mouth she nudged the spider which promptly scuttled off as she tried to blink the sand from her eyes. Fucking sand. She hated sand. Realising the others probably heard her outburst she mumbled “fucking spider…” into the radio before she resumed her survey. 

This time however she spotted more than just a dromedary as she soon saw the tell-tale clouds of approaching rolling dust and moments after the distant glare of headlights speeding towards them as she counted three separate sets of lights emerging. She suddenly resented the few moments she’d taken to compose herself as she struggled to understand how she’d missed them. Focusing in more as she hissed into her mic “We have fucking company” and frowned as she listened hard for a moment. At this distance they should have heard the approaching vehicles more than clearly as she soon realised they’d probably modified the vehicles mufflers to hide their approach at night. She started to quickly relay what she’d determined and could see to the others as she peered down her scope.

“We have a Jeep and Lada moving in fast, I can’t make out how many are in there” she reported before focusing in on the third vehicle.

“Oh shit, they’ve got a Ford with a mounted MG. They’re coming in real fucking fast! Looks like it could be the Bedouins or any other sandy dickheads from around these parts”. 

She glanced briefly behind her and down at the group to see what they were doing and asked, “What’s our plan here?” 

Her instincts had told her to start shooting, but she really didn’t like the idea of being caught out with nothing but a sand dune for cover if they got into a prolonged firefight. Hell if she missed at this distance and they opened up with the HMG she’d likely not get another opportunity to get off a shot, not to mention would probably end up dead surprisingly quickly.