"Take the shot."

Link reached up, and with a trembling hand, pushed his dirty blond hair out of his eyes.

"Link. Take it. That boy is holding enough red potion concentrate to make a Dodongo high."

"I... I..." Link was choking now, tears threatening to cloud his vision.

"Link. Take it, soldier."

Shaking violently, the sniper raised the rifle, slippery with sweat, to his eye.

"Link."

It would be so easy. With a pull of the trigger, the child would collapse, and his mission would be complete. Link forced himself to shakily breathe. The crosshairs were lined up. His finger was on the trigger.

"Link. Wake up sir, dammit."

Link opened his eyes, still bleary from sleep, and silently cursed. No matter how many years of combat I go through, I still can't buck the habit of oversleeping.

"What's going on?" Link cracked his neck, his back sore from a night sleeping against the side of the trench. He noted, with annoyance, that the nights drizzle had still not let up.

"They're moving," came the no-nonsense voice of Lucina, lowering her binoculars. Link froze mid-stretch.

"What? No, that's insane. The Green Hills are an invaluable strategic location. Why leave?"

Lucina sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand and giving Link the binoculars with the other. "Look, sir, I wish I had all the answers. But the fact of the matter is, the only info I have is that they are currently heading inland."

She was right. Through the binoculars he could tell; the infantry regiment they had been monitoring for the past week was mobilizing, and inland - to the left of Link and Lucina - to boot.

Link frowned."It just doesn't make sense," he muttered to himself. "It's too early for relief, and they're going entirely in the wrong direction for an offensive."

Vaguely to his left Link noticed the grumblings of his squad mate - but much more alarming was the progress of the infantry across the field. The major, a post reserved generally for those of a calm nature, was becoming increasingly frantic, nervously pacing and checking his pocket watch every few seconds.

"Y'know, I always thought that one a' these days I'd be waking up with you, private." The voice of Link's cocky commanding officer sounded almost as smug as Lucinas reply was cold.

"Please, sir, keep it professional. We are in a literal warzone."

"Show some respect to your captain. You won't regret it in b-"

"With all due respect, captain, you're nothing more than a sergeant. I have respect for you on a professional level, but as a person, I despise you."

Falcon ground his teeth, frustrated. "Whatever, you're ugly anyways." Not interested in pursuing a lost arguement, he sauntered over to Link and grabbed the binoculars out of the sniper's hands. "Sorry Keebler, but it's time for someone capable to take charge."

Link silently stepped backwards, picked up his rifle, and holstered it. As Lucina had so aptly proven, maintaining a stoic attitude was the best way to avoid a conflict with Falcon. "Well then. What do you suggest we do?"

Falcon took on a slightly more serious tone. "Well, it's not like we can follow- at this point, they're maybe a 5 minute march from the established border and the beginning of their territory. All we can really do is watch and file a report."

"Fair enough."

Lucina and Falcon promptly removed binoculars from their standard - issue satchels and began to watch the events occur below.

The regiments were in a full blown panic by this stage. Through the cold glass of the binoculars, the three scouts could almost taste the palpable tension.

"But, even beyond the fact that they're giving up a strategic location, why hurry?" Lucina lowered her binoculars for a second to clean the lenses of the ever- persistent moisture. "To my knowledge, there's no pressure on them by an-"

Bang.

Lucina quickly raised her binoculars back up to eye level and, in shock, witnessed what had just happened. Some sort of explosion had occurred, almost in the middle of the fully sprinting regiment. Judging by how loud it was, the nearby blackened fields and flattened trees, and the amount of now dead soldiers nearby it was quite a strong one.

"The hell wazzat?" Falcon encapsulated the squads feelings in a single phrase.

"I'm not sure; some s-"

Bang.Two more, synchronized, on either side of the explosion to the the enemy regiments left and right. They were also more visible- dirt, and bodies, flung into the air.

"What the fuc-"

Bang. Another two, on either side of the first three. A pattern was emerging.

Bang. More.

They came at greater and greater frequencies, working their way in either direction, extending past the field, past the scouts, to the distance - then stopped, presumably at the sky isles edges, almost like - no. It couldn't be.

Link frantically dropped to to the trench floor, manically scraping away the mud, all thoughts of the decimated regiment lost in panic.

"What are you doin'?" Came Falcons confused reaction.

"The runes!" Link gasped, not looking up.

"What about the runes?"

"The runes are the only damn thing keeping this big hunk of rock in the air!" A second passed before the 'captain' understood and was digging too, a cold veil of trepidation encircling his heart. Lucina was already digging, inwardly just as terrified.

Soon enough, a weakly flickering blue light shone out from underneath the grit.

"No, no, no!" Falcon punched the ground in anger, as if it would bring energy back to the ancient sigils.

Link was silent, gripping his rifle so hard it hurt.

Lucina drew a shaky breath. "It- it's not possible." She drew her legs beneath her and rested her head against the trench. "It goes against every law in the code. They mean to blow us off the islands forever."

"They already have," came Links voice. Lucina quickly turned back to the field. A rift was forming, right on the line of the explosions. Already the peculiar feeling of falling was beginning to settle on the trio.

Falcon chuckled darkly. "We're all gonna die."