Sister Corporal Jena had lain in position now for two hours and was, all things considered, comfortable, finding a flat area on the slope 3 days before with a stunted oak to help with cover from the ridge, padding it out with thermal groundsheet's and moss, her ghillie suit augmented with dry grass and bracken, she, and her spotter Mariel were invisible to all but infrared.
The mountain sheep had threatened to be a problem, a place like this facing the morning sun and out of the prevailing wind already had its fan base, a Soay ram and his harem, not a problem if it could see them of course, they were wild and kept well clear of humans, but it couldn't, if it came down the incline with the wind behind it, then problems,
killing the damn thing was apparently not an option, post operation bleed, everything that lived here was logged, finding an alpha ram riddled with combat shotgun pellets, again problems.
The Lieutenant had said she would fix it,and had in her own fashion, a pair of ravens had been waiting for them today in the tree, taking keen interest in their preparations but showing no fear. Half an hour later Mariel had whispered, “Sheep” as the Ravens took off to harass the ram and his entourage, dive bombing until they fled back up the hill, now one was in permanent residence above them, effective.
She liked to rely on more conventional methods and her favourite was in her hands now, the AXMC sniper rifle, loaded with .338 Finnish ammunition, the finest gun in the world, this one she called Ankou.
Currently aimed at a narrow coastal path just where a 3 foot drop in the trail on to a sloping wet rock made people pause, a third of a mile away it was a one shot kill she could make all day and since the mist had covered all the rest of the island, boiling off at the eastern cliffs, leaving just wisps down here, the only effective place she could be.
Now if the Raven would just stop periodically shitting on them and cackling, her day would be perfect.