by Ryan King
*******
Joshua lay on the top of the hill with his binoculars, looking at the boats. He figured the best time to slow them down was right before they loaded the transports to depart. If the men were already loaded, they might just push ahead despite what Joshua and his team were doing. He also didn’t want to start messing with them too soon and cause them to speed up their own timeline. He sensed it would be soon though. The men had stopped working on the small boats and there was a flurry of activity in the camp.
A sniper lay to each side of Joshua. Each shouldered the large, and somehow beautiful, Barrett M83 .50 caliber sniper rifle. Joshua was in love with the rifles and wanted to fire one, but the ammo was too scarce. As a matter of fact, none of them had fired the weapons since they were taken from Fort Campbell. They had been checked for functionality and cleaned, but not yet zeroed to the individual shooters who had trained with other, more plentiful, calibers. Joshua decided to use this opportunity to do exactly that. Accuracy was not necessarily important to accomplish what he had in mind, anyway.
He looked back down the hill to his rear, but could not see Henry and the other two men who were providing them security. They had laid out claymore mines and prepared an escape route. There wasn’t much more they could do to prepare and were as ready as they would probably ever be.
Joshua looked back though the binoculars and saw men lining up in front of the boats in formations. “Alright boys, get ready. On my command, right gun first, then left, then alternate so we can adjust fire. Aim for the nearest two gangplanks to start off. Understood?”
Both men answered that they did.
“Okay then,” said Joshua slowly. “Make sure you have earplugs in. I bet these babies are wicked loud.” He looked again and decided the time had come. He had a moment’s hesitation wondering if he was doing the right thing. Was he doing what his father wanted him to do? He didn’t have any way to talk to anyone, but this seemed best. He would roll with it.
“Right gun,” said Joshua, “fire, when ready.”
A second later the Barrett to Joshua’s right boomed and he saw a splash of water near the gangplank. “Three feet to the right and two feet down,” Joshua said and the sniper began making the adjustments on his scope. Joshua looked down at the men along the shore and surprisingly nothing seemed to have happened. He imagined it from their point of view and they likely only heard a splash like someone throwing a rock into the water followed several seconds later by a boom in the distance.
“Left gunner, fire when ready,” said Joshua.
The second gun boomed and Joshua called out adjustments. He now saw several men yelling and seeking cover as understanding dawned, but the vast majority still stood dumbly in formation. They took several more shots until they were zeroed and then Joshua decided to bring it home to them.
“Target any leaders. Fire when ready, fire at will,” said Joshua.
He looked through the binoculars as the guns boomed repeatedly beside him and saw officers and NCO’s falling to the ground with horrific wounds. Chaos ensued as the soldiers scrambled into the cover of the wood line.
“That’s enough for now, save the ammo,” said Joshua, stopping them for the moment. “Let’s wait and see what they do.” Joshua again looked through his binoculars and smiled.
It appears to be working for now, he thought. Will it be enough?
