As Adrian moved out, Shona was right behind him – figuratively speaking, of course. She plotted her own course to the target site, not wanting to bunch up with the unit’s other sniper. Eventually, she set up on the next hill over from Adrian, hunkered down behind an almost-sheer rock face in the hilltop where a loop of road cut into the slope. Her own rifle barrel was resting on the grass at the top of the hill, her optics scanning the base below.

Her HUD was painted in an overlay constructed from the data coming in from the spotters and her own optics package – what she couldn’t see herself was visible as light silhouettes. Her priority targets were lit up for her – the SAM trucks and ballistic AA turrets on this side of the base. The two milspec GEARs were lit up too – they were worrying, a glitch in the plan, even as the engineer in her head admired the six-legged beauty. 

“I’m set up… eyes on bad guys, ready to engage…” She had reported in over the general channel, her voice low. Even though she could have yelled and screamed inside her cockpit and not alerted the opposition, it was had to shake the instinct to keep quiet. She was actually pretty glad to have both Silver and Adrian’s calm voices in her ear. She tapped the other sniper’s channel, frowning in concentration inside her helmet. “I hear you. Hit hard, move fast, trucks on the right, roger.” 

Her machine wasn’t a dedicated sniper unit, so she took a little extra time to line up her shots, swinging her gun between the two a few times. She was worried that her relatively light rifle wouldn’t pack the punch she needed to do this fast… she shook her head and forced that aside. No point second-guessing now. 

She settled her crosshairs on the first SAM and, as Adrian’s rifle cracked, pulled her own trigger. Two in the battery and one right under the rear axle. The last shot had barely left the barrel before she swung the rifle around, targeted the other truck, and fired again. Three more thumps from her weapon, two more hits, smacking into the truck’s cab and missile racks. She felt a twinge of annoyance at the misses, but her systems registered two kills. It was time to get out of there.

With thumping footfalls, the Rapier ducked down behind cover and started running, its pilot already plotting out a new firing position. “SAMs down! Moving to sweep on those turrets!”