Hey guys! I felt bad for uploading such a short chapter that I have decided to give you a bumper chapter! Look out for the next installment this time next week! Remember to review, follow, favourite etc!

The patrol left at 0300 hours, with Corporal Wright as pointman and Lieutenant Buckle behind him. Sharp was seventh in the order, in charge of the five guys at the rear during a firefight, when Buckle would take command of the front five. The patrol left the base and were met with a huge expanse of scrubland. They immediately established themselves in arrowhead formation and moved forward very slowly, weapons constantly in the shoulder, looking through NV goggles.

Sharp loved the night-time patrol. It was tense, seeing as your vision was limited to whatever showed up in your monocle, bathed in a green glow but it was also very relaxing, being alone with your thoughts.

He was constantly scanning around him, looking around from one guy to the next. He also checked the ground, making sure that there were no trip lines that could set off flares or explosives. The ground was flat for as far as the eye could see. Sharp could even make out Al-Asad in the background. It showed up as a light green glow in his monocle, compared to the dark green around it.

Something closer to him caught his eye. He looked over to where John Wright was. He had put up his left hand in a closed fist. Stop. Instinctively Sharp took a knee and motioned to the soldiers behind him to do the same. He looked up at Wright again and saw him double over to Buckle. He took a knee near Buckle and started pointing at something ahead of them.

"Alpha-0-7, this is Alpha-0-2, come in over."

Alpha-0-2. Lieutenant Buckle was talking to him.

"Go ahead, Alpha-0-2."

"Alpha-0-1 has spotted something up ahead. At least one vehicle, engine switched off. He can hear talking, not Arabic. I want the whole patrol to crawl up another thirty metres, see if we can get a better idea of how many vehicles there are. Out."

"Copy that. Moving now."

Sharp turned behind him and moved his hand, palm down, towards the ground. Get on your belt buckles. He then got onto his own belt buckle and started crawling up, making sure he kept a good pace with the rest of the patrol. Once they had crawled forward thirty metres, Wright put his hand up again and the patrol stopped.

"Alpha-0-7, this is Alpha-0-2, come in, over." Buckle again.

"Go ahead, Alpha-0-2."

"There's just one vehicle up ahead. Two people, looking out away from us. I want you and Alpha-0-8 to neutralise them. Search the bodies for intel, you know the sort of thing. Keep it quiet! Out."

Sharp looked over at Alpha-0-8 to see if he heard what we were to do. Sharp looked through his NV goggles and saw a change in the shade of green around his head. Whether he nodded or not was a different matter but Sharp took it as a signal and motioned for him to get up. They stayed in single file of each other as they walked quickly to where the jeep was. They stayed low so as to remain undetected and weapons were kept high in the shoulder, one eye down the scope, the other looking through the NV goggles.

Sharp and Alpha-0-8 reached the jeep without a problem and crouched down beside it. The two men were the other side of it. Sharp and Alpha-0-8 listen intently to the conversation, but it wasn't English. Sharp looked at his partner.

'English?' He mouthed.

Alpha-0-8 shook his head.

'Arabic?' Again, he shook his head and listened for a bit longer. Finally he mouthed a word back.

'Russian.'

Sharp's stomach dropped. Russians? Out here? They had enough problems at home, not a few thousand miles away. Sharp stood up slightly and peered through the windows of the jeep. It was empty. He looked through the windows to their two targets on the other side. They stood a few metres away from the jeep, trying to use a pack of cigarettes as fast as they could. Sharp crouched down again and relayed this information to Alpha-0-8. They then took off their weapons, got down on belt buckles and crawled underneath the jeep.

Thank fuck for the high clearance, Sharp thought, as he felt his smock brush against the chassis above him, but it made little noise. When they had made it all the way under the jeep they got up and stood behind the men. They were standing side by side so didn't see Sharp and Alpha-0-8 at all. Sharp's right hand reached down to his thigh and he slid his Blackhawk Tatang knife out of its sheath. The reinforced ballistic nylon sheath made very little noise as the knife was drawn, a feature that Sharp was grateful for. He held his Tatang at the rear of its handle and swung it from high, straight into his target's neck. As he lodged the knife solidly in his neck blood exploded out from either side of the blade. Sharp kept pressure on the blade and kept going until he felt the serrated blade reach bone. The man gurgled and barely had time to get a hand up to his neck before he expired. Sharp lowered him to the ground and pulled his knife out as Alpha-0-8 next to Sharp did the same. Once his target was on the ground Sharp started looking over his kit.

"Hey, these don't match the photos we have of OpFor fatigues," Sharp said. The man was wearing digital camouflage and a three-hole balaclava. The intel Sharp had on OpFor was olive green fatigues and ballistic helmets. Alpha-0-8 spoke up after he had cased his guy.

"Dude, check the waistcoat. This has to be what, Russian?"

Sharp rolled his guy over and had a look. The quality was certainly better than expected and was packed with high-tech equipment; brand new magazines, a night vision monocle and half-decent rations.

"Alpha-0-2 this is Alpha-0-7 come in, over."

"Alpha-0-7 this is Alpha-0-2, go ahead, over."

"Sir, you need to see this. Out."

Sharp looked over to the patrol and saw eight figures get up and move towards him. When they arrived Buckle took a knee next to Sharp and the others spread out in a circle.

"Sir, these guys are dressed to kill. Russian ops waistcoats, grenades, tons of ammo, and these." Sharp held up the weapon the Russian had been using. A G36C, German made and lighter and smaller than other G36 models. The weapon only had iron sights; no doubt its handler would have needed NV to use the weapon effectively. Either way, not what was to be expected from OpFor.

"Very good Sharp. I'll radio it in to Baseplate as we move on. We're only about 10 kilometres from the first safehouse. Get the men moving, Sharp."