Reconnaissance

To remain hidden, you have to remain as still as possible. Holding my L96A1 Sniper Rifle close to me, I followed my squad through the hostile areas of the jungles. The operation was simple, we were the reconnaissance squad. We go in first, collect information and get out. Enough said.
The enemy base was coming up to half a mile away. It was time for the Sniper Teams to get into position. I was part of Alpha Squad, me, Lieutenant Cross and Caption Nickels. We were to take position at the front of the base and find out as much as we could on the Frontal defences.
The rain hampered down on my Yeti Camouflage suit and smudged the camo paint on my face. I wasn’t too bothered, the rain could cause a slight distraction for the enemy and they may not stay as focused. Through the trees a small enemy outpost could be seen. It was a small bunker on the outskirts of the jungle, perfectly hidden from the rest of the jungle.
As we moved slowly forward, the gates could be seen. We got onto our stomachs and began to leopard crawl forward for another ten meters. Pushing away the branches of the trees, we eventually reached a small trench that we could use. We slowly began to kitten crawl there. It took us three minutes to get there but it was better then being caught.
“Status on Sniper teams.” Said the Intel on the other end of the radio line. We were hooked on a secure network to our Harbour area forty miles away from our current position.
“Alpha team Green.” I whispered into my microphone. We reached the trench and took up sniper positions. Cross placed down his M4A1 rifle and pulled out his binoculars. He was our spotter and fire support; if we were caught we had to rely on him to keep us alive.
“Targets are wearing casual clothing, no particular uniform. Enemies are carrying MP5 Sub-machine guns at the gate and one is standing smoking with an RPG on his shoulder. Enemy is equipment with mostly close quarter weapons.” Cross whispered to us. I moved my sniper around the top of the fenced wall and saw a few towers. I zoomed in and switched to heat sensors.
“Three machine gun towers, too far to distinct weapon but there are three men within the tour. They are all sitting down playing a game and not focusing on their posts.” I whispered into my microphone, we were all hooked up to microphone headsets to communicate. We weren’t going to be heard but that didn’t mean we weren’t going to be seen.
“This is Sniper Team Delta-02; enemy is slowly advancing on our position. Any sightings of any other targets heading to the eastern wing of the bunker?” Came a voice from my headset, I looked to the other men on the ground. They were slowly advancing to the eastern wall of the bunker.
“Delta-02, men are advancing on your position, remain calm.” I whispered into my microphone. It was all going so well.
Suddenly the sound of open fire came from the eastern wall. I moved my sniper to the machine gun towers to see the men gripping onto the guns. Within seconds the sound of heavy machine guns came from the tower.
“We have been spotted, machine gunners most accurate we are retreating back to the forest someone take out the machine gunners now!” Delta-02 shouted into his microphone. I pulled my sniper to the tower and held my breath. Slowly, I took a clear shot on the Gunners and squeezed the trigger.
For an entire second I was no longer myself. I became a machine of destruction and the claimer of lives. A small ping could be heard from me and my squad from the silencer at the end of the Rifle, hopefully they did not.
The bullet had hit and killed one of the machine gunners. I turned off the heat sensor on the scope and tried to see what had happened. A small fence blocked the view of the target, but it was clear he was dead. One of the other gunners had gotten off his weapon to try and perform emergency aid only to fail. Another second later the gunner was killed but not by my hands.
I held my breath and aimed at the final gunner who had moved to the recently killed gunner’s machine gun to try and take out the target. Becoming the beast that waited dormant inside me, I killed the other gunner that had taken the machine gun.
“Delta-02 the machine gunners are down, no sign of enemy awareness.” I whispered into the microphone. There was no reply from Delta-02, either they were dead or they wanted to keep radio silence. I pray for the second choice.
“Alpha-03 the enemy have returned to their regular posts. Charlie and Echo team are turning to extraction point Alpha finish your report and inform us when you’re returning to your extraction Bravo or Whiskey. Radio silence from here on.” I placed my hand on my helmet and turned to radio silence.
Looking through the area I could see the enemy were becoming more aware of their position and stepped up on their patrolling. The targets who were by the front gate had replaced their MP5s with what looked like R700 Sniper rifles.
“Enemy snipers, Cross watch the snipers and tell us when they look in our direction through the snipers.” I ordered him; he tapped my leg in acknowledgement.
Looking through the scope I could see that the enemy had suddenly become more focused on their position. More aware of the danger they were in, there were no noticeable indication from the other targets to know if they had succeeded in killing Delta squad. There was still hope that they could be alive.
A tap on my leg indicated me to put my head down. I slowly placed my head done hoping not to attract attention to myself. Keeping my head down, the adrenaline began to pump through my body. The fear of being caught, the chance that I may be killed; it kept me going through these hard times. But we had been trained not to react too much to the thrill, we had to be calm and not do anything stupid.
I slowly looked up to see the snipers had relaxed slightly and stopped looking in our direction. I tapped my leg on Cross’s leg and pulled my sniper back to the bunker.
From the corner of my eye I noticed someone walking to the gates. As he crossed past the guards, they all stood to attention. He must have been a leader. I turned my head to the other two and gave them the orders.
“Front of the gates, white string vest, camouflaged trousers and black boots. Nickels track the target and watch his movements, don’t fire on his location. Cross move to the west wing and on my order fire on the bunker, aimed if possible. We’ll support you but once you have made your move get to Extraction point Whiskey, we’ll rendezvous as quickly as we can.” They both nodded and Cross backed away from the trench and made his way to his position.
I looked back through my sniper scope and looked to the machine gunner tower. The corpses were still there but four new men had taken their posts. This was going to be difficult.
A few minutes later, a silent beep came from my headset indicating that Cross was in position.
“When you’ve got the shot take it.” I whispered to Nickels. I placed my hand to my microphone and spoke into it. “Fire on my mark.” I whispered into it. A few seconds later, Nickels sniper released the bullet followed by the small ping.
“Target down.” He whispered. “Fire.” I whispered into the microphone.
As I did, loud bursts of rounds rang through the jungle and distracted the attention from now dead leader. I looked through my scope to see the machine gunners begin to spoon their weapons. I took aim at the gunner on west side and fired on him, killing him in an instant. The other gunners looked at the now dead gunner but someone quickly moved to his weapon and began spooning it.
Again, I took aim and fired upon him. The adrenaline rushed through my like a bullet and took me to another world. The ability to take life was in my hands and I was using it.
Before I could take out the other gunner, he fell dead along with the next. Nickels must have taken him out. Turned over to the targets advancing on Cross’s location and took aim. I held my breath and pulled the trigger, only to find the magazine was empty. In the high of the moment I must have lost track of my weapon.
“Lets get moving.” I whispered to Nickels, we pushed ourselves up and got out the trench. We began to run back through the forest, thrusting our feet through the puddles and getting as far away from the base as possible.
“Alpha-02 what’s your status?” I cried into the microphone. The other end was riddled with the sound of gun fire but I could make out his voice.
“Heavy fire… reaching the extraction point… can’t see any helicopters!” He cried through the microphone. I placed my hand onto the radio in my helmet and traced to Intel.
“This is Alpha Sniper squad, we are waiting for evacuation at points Whiskey and Bravo where is our support?!” I cried down the microphone.
“We are getting reports of heavy fire from Whiskey it’s too hot to get evacuation. Sending birds to Bravo now.” Shit I thought, Cross is in real danger and I needed to get him out.
“Alpha-02 fire is too heavy; I’ll get the birds to go to pick you up at extraction point Echo do you think you can make it?” I cried into the microphone hoping he could hear me over the gun fire.
“Wilco, I’m going to need fast extraction there gaining on me.” He said through the headset, I could hear the raging gun fire blazing through his head.
After a few more minutes of sprinting we saw a Gazelle coming into view. Its propellers were still running and several marines stood outside in defensive positions. We ran over to them, catching our breathing we told them about Cross.
“Alpha-02 is heading to extraction point Echo we need to get there now.” I told the pilot as I pulled myself into the helicopter. He nodded his head and began to rise as the final marine pulled himself onto the Gazelle.
“This is Venom heading over to Extraction point Echo status report on Echo?” The pilot said into his radio mic as he began his short journey to the extraction point.
“Small arms fire coming from the west, reports of Alpha-02 spotted, area is safe for extraction of Alpha-02.” A voice came from the speakers of the helicopter. One of the marines took control of the Mini gun that was position on the left side of the helicopter. A few minutes later the sound of gun fire came blistering from below us.
The marine fired down, I couldn’t see clearly enough to see if he had killed but it was clear that they had find heavier resistance then expected. As the marine fired the Mini Gun, the helicopter gentle rocked from side to side from the recoil. It made it harder to relax, but it the fear of not finding Cross was worse. I had ordered him to cause a distraction; I was responsible for his death.
The helicopter scooped down low the second it touched the ground, Cross lunged himself onto the Gazelle, barely getting on top of it as it pulled itself back up. I slide off my seat to help him up onto the helicopter as it lifted off from the ground.
He quickly got on board and we were getting out of the hot zone. Our part of the Operation was over, but the Operation had only just begun.
“Thanks Major-” That was all I heard before the RPG hit the Gazelle. I don’t remember anything else from their. All I know is that what had been reconnaissance was now survival.