The whispered sound rushed like a gale in Sgt. Todd Ralston's ear. "I'm taking the shot," he heard over the coms.
"Wait, don't go yet, Steve isn't in position yet," he breathed back.
"I have the shot, I'm taking it," said the Lt. Craig George.
The three shot burst resulted in much screaming and running around. From what Ralston could see George hit but it wasn't a fatal shot.
Their mission was to assassinate an alien ambassador and the Pan Oceana governor that was bringing him through this area that had been devastated in a recent attack by an alien separatist group.
"Dammit, who shot," yelled Lt. Steve Hinkleman over the coms, "I'm not in position yet."
"He's coming your way, Steve," said Ralston.
The Pan Oceana governor ran behind a building for cover, but the paracommando was moving up towards the rear of that building.
He fired a grenade at the man striking him squarely in the back.
But the governor's robot servant scooped up the grenade and when it exploded there was nothing left of the robot but the governor was lying, stunned on the ground.
The two tank hunters had swung around to the outside to try to cut off the alien ambassador but were caught in fire from a sniper in a ruined building.
They were pinned down and a reaction force of Pan Oceana soldier came running in, two drone bots in the lead.
More American troops came up and took out the sniper but were in turn pinned down by one of the drone bots with a heavy machine gun.
Ralston was firing at the retreating diplomat at this point but it was too far.
Suddenly to his right a shimmering formed detached itself from one of the rock columns and fired at him. Machine gun bullets shredded the destroyed tank he was using as cover, one of them shattering his weapon, another his spine.
He slumped over the tank. He was surprised that there was so little pain.
Craig turned and tried to fire but fared worse in the exchange with the thermo-optic camouflaged TAG than Steve had. It looked like if the bullets hadn't killed him with their impact that Craig would have just died from exsanguination anyway.
He could see the glimmering form rush past him and towards the men coming up to try to draw off fire from the American pursuit force.
They drew off some fire alright. Three of them were moving behind the building when they engaged the TAG. One managed to escape.
As Ralston slipped into unconsciousness he heard the order to withdraw and the American forces slipped away.
The diplomat and the governor, while somewhat shook up and hurt, were still alive.