Johnson looked around, knowing full well it wouldn't do him any good. After their planning meeting, they waited until the next evening to execute, as usual. The dark clouds that had become increasingly common since the valley had become nearly lifeless made the night times eerily dark. He could barely see Jenkins, a mere two meters away. Lieutenant Rigger was supposed to be on Jenkins' other side, but he was out of view. Most sensor technology was also rendered useless in the valley, which is why it was so hard to locate the enemy, but also why they had a shot at taking them out.
The upside was that their camouflage was nearly unnecessary. Even without the unnatural cloak of dark, crawling through the mixture of dirt, dust, and ash created a much more effective disguise. Within minutes, they looked more like the dead valley itself than they did soldiers.
At least with the captain still at the base, they didn't have to listen to complaints about the war ravaged landscape or the resulting smell. At least, not unless he decided to radio them about it.
Careful to cover even the small glow of the non reflecting screen they'd brought as a map, they checked their progress. They only had a few more turns to go, and then they would hopefully be taking out any sentry guards they could find before the Captain radioed for the second, larger wave to sweep in.
They headed forward through the black, trusting their ability to remember the map. The one upside to the ashen terrain was that it helped them to move in near silence. One unlucky step at the wrong moment though could mean trouble, and it was a sifter card's draw as to whether they saw the sentries first or they got noticed. Jenkins and Rigger had their blasters pointed forward as they went, while Johnson held a vibroblade, hoping they could be as stealthy as possible.
After counting their paces for several minutes, they stopped. Watching and listening carefully for any sign of the inevitable trouble, they finally let out their collective breaths. Carefully, they took three more steps to the left, and found the landmark rock wall they were hoping to.
Jenkins was about to whisper something when they all barely caught sight of a shadow. Their breaths simultaneously stopped again. The shadow took half a step towards them and as they finally made out the human form, it turned its back to them. They could hear muffled whispers, presumably through a mouthguarded comm.
It wasn't how they planned it, but Johnson struck as quickly as he could as soon as the figure stopped speaking. It wasn't silent, but it was fast enough. The loudest sound of the night to that point by far was the gurgling noise the man made as he bled out through his neck and slumped to the ground. Fortunately, Johnson had the sense to rip away the comm unit as he attacked.
Their own comms crackled in their ears just moments later. The orders weren't making it through the natural jamming of the area though. Rigger cursed quietly, earning himself a nasty look from Jenkins. They knew what it meant though, the Captain realized they had gone beyond range and had given the order to advance prematurely. They had to act quickly.
A quick check of their map confirmed that they weren't far off from the next expected waypoint. They oriented themselves as best they could and headed forward in formation. They had to give up a bit of their stealth for increased speed. It was risky, but they had no other options.
As they neared the upcoming location, they began to hear a fighter closing in on them from behind, and it gave them immediate pause. They were out of time, and if there were other enemy sentries nearby, they would be hearing the noise too. Worse, if they were carrying anti-ship missiles, there would be trouble.
After another curse from Rigger, he turned on his rifle mounted lamp while Johnson quickly switched his blade for his own rifle. They doubled their speed forward, led by the light from the Lieutenant's weapon, and gave up all hope of remaining silent. As they expected, it didn't take long for them to be noticed.
A guard poked his head around a rock outcropping and nonchalantly tried to make out what the source of the light was. He was surprisingly unprepared for the two blaster bolts that greeted him. The first nailed his helmet, jerking his head back, and the second scored his throat as black as the valley night.
As winded as they were already becoming, they put on every last bit of speed they had to get to and turn the corner that guard had popped around. They managed to make it there without incurring any return fire, but they could see that there was light beginning to fill the area. Enemy reinforcements were no doubt about to flood out.
They hastily took cover, prepared for the sound of a few dozen boots double-timing it to them. When the sound hadn't hit them within a few seconds, Jenkins switched his stance so that he could peer over the rock. His inevitable reaction was delayed due to the fact that what he saw made absolutely no sense.
The light was coming from the open hatch of what had to be their bunker, and standing in front of it was one single soldier wearing his signature black boots, simply looking around. He was as unprepared as his compatriot had been, and with less reason to be so.
Jenkins grabbed his rifle, and had time to square his aim before taking the man's life in a single accurate shot.
Dropping back behind cover, he signaled to Johnson to toss him a grenade quickly. After he had it in hand, he prepared to arm it and look over the rock long enough to toss it into the hole leading into the enemy base.
Then their vision went blank as the entire area was overengulfed with light. It only took a moment for them to regain their senses, but when they did, they saw their fighter overhead. It was blaring every landing and flood lights right at them.
Over the loudspeakers, their Captain's voice rang. "Stand down. I repeat: Stand down. Order confirmation Sigma Delta 00963. Stand Down."
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