Assassination (I)

The morning sun rose to the right, and Klein watched it cast a cold, clear radiance across the mining grounds.

He lowered the scope's light-gathering range by one level and watched shadows slowly retreat along the rough stone paving.

The morning light possessed a peculiar crystalline clarity, born of countless fine particles suspended in the air, carried here by the desert storm raging across the distant wilderness.

As the rain ceased, the humidity in the canyon gradually fell. The sniper rifle's internal systems automatically compensated, slightly raising the chamber temperature to keep the single round already loaded in its ideal pre-firing condition.

The sounds of the beast horde below carried all the way up to his lofty firing position.

The noise was shrill and clamorous, reminding him of gales over the sea, black mudflats, and waves breaking against gray rocks.

His brow furrowed beneath the eyepiece as he forced the thought deep into his mind. This was no time to let old memories disturb his composure.

With his thumb, he gently shifted the action selector from safe to firing mode, carefully avoiding moving the weapon even a millimeter.

The vertical indicator scale scrolling across the scope display told him that the weapon was ready to take a life.

Now, all Klein needed was his target.

He restrained the urge to look up at the sky, because his prey would soon appear.

After breaching the most critical node of Mount Mishil's inner defensive line, the Ork army had compressed humanity into the main peak and the few remaining ridgelines. The fall of this fortress was only a matter of time.

All the Guks would come here, to the largest mining site closest to Mount Mishil. There, he would meet with the warlords who had fought for days and discuss their next