Chapter 10

The morning light brought Ninian hope, and some fear. While he could see better, he could now be seen. It would be easier for patrols to find him and attack him. The best thing would be to find a wadi to hide the truck until nightfall. However, he is still too close to the destroyed missiles to do that, his only choice is to continue.

A few hours pass, and the hope Ninian felt is now fear. In the distance is a patrol. From the looks of it, they are not friendly, and by now, word about last night has gotten out. In an effort to try to go around the patrol, Ninian gets off the road, heading towards the Roman lines at a diagonal. His plan goes to shit when the patrol changes their direction as well, still heading to Ninian.

Ninian now had no choice he had to engage them. As they got closer, he could see they were in an open top truck. Thankfully, the truck did not have a Javelin in the back. Both trucks also had the driver's side on the right, this would allow Ninian to shoot while driving, giving him some protection. Less than 2000 ps now separated the two trucks, and they were closing fast. Ninian got his Spatha out the window, ready to fire when he got in range.

He now thanked Apollinarius for telling his Cont. to get tracer rounds for the mission. Tracers lit up day or night and would help him aim. Ninian started to fire as soon as got in range. He kept his bursts short, but still they went wild. The other truck opened fire as well. They did not have the same problem as Ninian. Rounds ricocheted off the trucks skin. The windshield exploded in front of Ninian, flying glass everywhere. Some smaller pieces caught him in the face, scratching him; other slightly bigger pieces get him in his left arm.

One lucky round hits the driver, jerking the wheel to the left. What happened next, Ninian had only seen in the movies. The truck hits a good-sized rock and flips over, killing all passengers. Ninian stopped the truck in disbelief, not trusting what he witnessed. He gets out seeing if any are alive, so they do not report they saw him. He found them all dead, but he takes all their ammo and takes off. In his mirrors, he sees black smoky clouds. The missiles still burn, sending their smoke in the air.