Hot Shot

by Reserved Rodent

Special Forces commando – Corporal Sharp – crept through the forest underbrush, carefully placing his large feet. His camouflaged headband kept the sweat out of his eyes, as well as helping to keep his long ears down. The hare hated having to bind them, but even with his tan fur blending into the shadows beneath the thick canopy, long ears sticking out of a bush would give him away. His kind had evolved to hide in the tall prairie grasslands, not this damn steamy jungle.

Unfortunately, while restraining the ears helped the commando hide, it had several drawbacks. It muffled sounds, making him jumpy as he realized he wasn’t as alert to enemy soldiers. It also made the blasted heat worse, since his folded ears weren’t able to cool him off like they normally would.

The muggy summer heat built up despite the shade, trapped away from any breeze – but Corporal Sharp couldn’t let possible heat stroke stop him. He had already lost several of his fellow commandos to the thrice-cursed rebels.

The remainder of his team had decided to split up in hopes of confusing their enemy and bettering the chance of someone being able to catch the rebels going after the others. Unfortunately, the team had drifted too far away from Sharp. The hare had not wanted to cross a clearing, so had moved further away from the others and was now creeping up a hill under cover of heavy foliage. Small seeds clung like Velcro to his fur and managed to get – inexplicably – into the hare’s underpants.

Moving silently though the thick brush, Sharp wished he could hear better. He fully expected at least one, but probably three – since they seemed to team up like that – of the wicked rebels to be keeping watch at the top of the hill. While an unimpaired ability to hear might not matter, it felt like it would. No cooling breeze also meant scents lingered instead of traveling to betray an enemy presence. If he were careful enough and nothing went wrong, he should be able to be the ambush-er instead of getting ambushed like his fallen companions.

Certainly, the hare wanted to pay the rebels back tenfold for what they had done to his team.

Keeping close to the ground, Sharp crept to the edge of his cover to look at the scattered trees near the top of the hill.

Half a dozen tall pines, trunks thick but without branches until six feet or higher, towered on top of the hill. Carefully scanning the area, the hare could see three martens, dressed in black with blood red armbands, standing in different positions. They were chatting softly about some fox from the nearby village they all hoped to spend a night or more with.

Several minutes passed as Sharp watched the enemy banter. While three had been expected, he wanted to be sure he could take them all out quickly and then get away from the scene before other enemy soldiers could investigate. If a fourth was standing up there hidden from view, it would make any conceivable plan fail.

Taking out all three without being hit by return fire would be tricky in and of itself – he had to take the chance while they were not on full alert. A team of three, aware and focused, would make this position near impossible to take without bloodshed on the part of the attackers.

He had no doubt he’d be able to take two of the three down before they realized he was there, but the third would be tricky. They weren’t grouped close enough together to be sure of hitting more than two before the third would be able to spray the area he was shooting from – and all it would take is one unlucky hit to end his life.

Scanning the area, the hare thought he was quick enough on his feet to make it to the nearest tree, which would give him cover from one of the enemy and buy precious moments needed to finish them all off.

As Sharp took aim for the first kill, the target's round, furry ears perked up.

The hare heard it too – gunfire from the other side of the hill.

“The enemy is working their way up the stone-fall! They’ve taken out Vicious!” another of the Blood Martens called from the woods. “I need backup!”

More gunfire rattled out. Corporal Sharp watched a fourth enemy carefully move into sight from where he had been hidden by a tree trunk. “Heartless, Merciless you're with me,” the newly revealed enemy barked, getting nods from two of the three others “Callous, stay up here and make sure none of them are working around on us.”

The other marten's shoulders slumped. “Why don't I ever get to go shoot rabbits, Chief?”

The leader pointed his gun at the complaining soldier. “After what you did to Wicked the last engagement, you're lucky I haven't already shot you myself!”

“He said no hard feelings...” Callous stopped talking when the marten pointing a gun at him started growling.

“You shot him, which took him out of the fight when we needed him!”

Sharp considered attacking right then and there. With the four of them closer together and distracted, he might manage to take them all out before they could react. Unfortunately, three of them had their weapons ready now – and all of them were psyched.

Callous frowned, looked down at his footpaws and chose not to say anything.

“You will stay up here and watch out for enemy soldiers. Make sure they are the enemy and not us coming back before you shoot!”

Gunfire and shouting continued from the other side of the hilltop.

The pouting Blood Marten nodded. “Yes, Chief.”

“Good boy,” the leader said before he and the other two slipped into the underbrush on the far side of the hilltop clearing. Sharp assumed they were headed to the treeline above the dead-fall to try and catch his fellow commandos. The Corporal had no idea what possessed his fellow soldiers to make their way up what they had to know could easily turn into a death-trap. Even with limited knowledge of this steamy forest, that landmark had a bad history.

The rocks might provide decent cover from some angles, but it was just too hard to maneuver quickly to enemy fire from different angles – easily reached by a smart enemy.

Callous stomped over to lean against the far side of a tree, watching his companions go off without him to ambush the commandos. When they were out of sight the marten grumbled and whined, mimicking his leader's words. “'You're lucky I haven't shot you myself.' Stupid, arrogant bastard. You're lucky I wasn't ready for you or I'd have shot you. Accidents happen.”

Keeping close to the ground, the hare snuck closer to the larger trees, creeping slowly, trying to get the lone marten in his sights without being heard or seen. While the loud complaints would help mask sounds, the hare knew how a stray snap of a twig could ring out even among other noises to an alert soldier.

The remaining rebel came into sight. The dark-furred marten was looking off towards the dead-fall, small rounded ears twitching to the sound of gunfire.

The Corporal took aim at the soldier’s back. The hare knew he needed to take the enemy combatant out. Then he could try and sneak up behind those going to ambush the rest of his team. His rifle was designed to muffle the sound, but noise carried oddly through the woods sometimes, so he had to time it while other gunfire was happening in the distance. Hopefully the soft sound would be lost in the noise of the distant gunfight. He hoped to catch the other three unaware, not stumble into them as they were coming back to investigate a gunshot. It was a risk, but one that had to be taken,

The hare pulled the trigger of his gun, whiskers twitching at the muffled pop. Bright red splashed from the center of the marten's back, taking the enemy soldier out instantly.

Jogging up to take cover behind the closest tree to the direction the three others had headed, the Corporal once again hated having his ears secured down and back. He could hear the distant gunfire, and there was no immediate sense of anyone coming back, but then the soldiers that left would be just as quiet coming back to investigate.

In any case, the longer he waited the more likely the enemy would wipe out his fellow commandos and come back to find him.

So, the hare jogged to the underbrush and started stalking along the trail the three had left behind them. To remain silent, he had to go slower than he liked. The other three had not been trying to creep along, wanting to get into position to support the ongoing battle. Gunfire was still ringing out ahead of Sharp, so at least some of his unit was alive.

He wouldn't be any good to them if he didn't get there in time, but neither could he help if her were dead. It was a nerve-wracking balance that would have had him sweating if the cursed muggy heat hadn't already started that process.

Sharp froze as he heard a gunshot nearby to his right, but didn't feel a hit. There was no sound of a near-miss either. The commando carefully turned his attention in the direction the sound came from and could just barely make out the form of an enemy soldier, seeing the blood red armband as the dark-furred solder rebel and fired several more shots down the slope before him.

The hare edged forward just enough to get a clear shot. Waiting for the marten to duck back to his cover from the return fire of the commandos pinned in the stone-fall below, Sharp aimed.

A soft pop sounded the killing shot to the enemy soldier, who died with a shocked look on his muzzle.

Corporal Sharp crept on down the trail. That Blood Marten had not been one of the three. There was no telling if it was the one that had called for help or if there were still more than the three he followed to account for.

More gunfire sounded close ahead, so the hare moved off the trail to sneak through the underbrush and gain extra cover from a few trees as he neared the location the remnants of his team were still firing from.

A deep voice ahead grumbled, “Dude, we need to spread out so one of us can get a better line of fire like Chief told us to!”

“No way, man, you saw what happened when Ruthless got out from cover. We will sit here and keep them pinned and let them think they have us stuck while the big guy flanks them!”

The hare peeked around the tree and saw Heartless and Merciless crouched behind a fallen tree. Unfortunately, one of them had just ducked back down to reload, so saw the commando.

“Behind us!” the Blood Martin said, dropping his gun to move his body between the hare and his companion. Sharp hit the unarmed enemy, but was not fast enough to tag the other before the marten snapped his weapon around and hit the hare's shoulder.

“Damn it!” Sharp said. “I'm out.”

“Sneaky moves, buddy,” Merciless said as he came over to sit by the hare to watch the paintball match finish up.”

“Thanks,” Sharp said, letting his ears loose to help him cool off. “This has been a fun game.”