Alexei waited patiently for his spotter to load the rocket into the launcher. He held the large green tube to his side, the several warnings on the weapon stating obvious and mildly amusing things such as: 'This way towards the enemy' or 'Do not insert rocket backwards'. All things most teenagers could get right given time to work it out. However there was a reason the warnings were there, because shamefully enough, some newbie soldiers still managed to get it wrong during training. With a loud 'Clunk' the rocket finally settled into it's place inside the tube and was ready to be fired.
"Take it steady, make it count. Let's nail this first time." Alexei said as he went back to his scope and peered through to examine the target once more. There wasn't much of the buildings base left, in fact he was surprised it was still standing. As long as the rocket landed on the wall it would go down, there was no need to hit any specific point on the structure. Which was lucky, as at a couple hundred metres a rocket can veer off a little.
He pulled back the bolt on his rifle and listened for the sound of the ejected round to bounce around beside him. Once he knew the round had been successfully ejected he pushed the bolt back and locked it to load a new one. He was more than ready for the next shot. His target would be dazed, possibly injured and in the open. There was no way he could miss this one.
"Ready?" The spotter asked quietly.
"As ever." The sniper responded gruffly, shuffling to ensure he was as comfortable as possible before they continued. He listened to the sound of his partner in arms breathing and steadying himself as he adjusted his position so that the rocket pointed naturally toward the target before taking a more firm hold of the weapon, slowly drawing the trigger back.
A few seconds of silence followed before the spotter pulled the trigger all the way. A loud rush of smoke and the noise of a rocket's fuse lighting ripped through the air as the projectile was sent soaring through the air, heading directly for it's target. Alexei kept his eye on the building, watching for the pony who would inevitably come tumbling down with it. The rocket landed and a small but focused explosion shook the structure with a mighty force. They watched ans the building began to violently break down, base up.
It lurched in the direction of the street until it collided with the ground and the second floor snapped in half under the force of it's own weight. Sure enough, a pony followed, landing on the second half of the floor in a dazed heap. Alexei moved his crosshair over to the disoriented figure, noting it had landed awkwardly on one of it's hind legs and it seemed to be twisted into an unnatural position.
"-He won't be going very far.-" He thought. He began to gently squeeze the trigger when the pony noticed the higher half of the second floor leaning towards him and he jumped to his hooves to escape being crushed. Alexei was ready however and moved his crosshair along with the little quadruped. It rested over the clumsily panicked pony's heart before he finished off his trigger pull. The rifle kicked back into his shoulder with a deafening 'Pop', and a small cloud of red mist escaped the other side of the pony's body. It crumpled to the ground, motionless.
The echo of the shot sounded throughout the entire valley, bouncing off mountains miles apart like a message going out to everyone in the vicinity. Alexei released a breath he didn't know he was holding and observed the body for a few seconds to ensure it didn't move. It's chest stopped rising and it didn't so much as even twitch. Once he was sure the target was dead, he removed his eye from the glass and rested on folded arms with a loud sigh.
"Nicely done." His spotter commented.
Alexei nodded and turned to a small booklet sat next to him. In the open pages were eighty blue lines, all laid out in a box pattern that covered the whole two pages. All except for one had been crossed out either in red marker or in a more personal purple one. He took out the purple marker and crossed out the final, eightieth line.
"Alpha one, Beta Six- Two reporting. His spotter said to a radio.
"This is Alpha One, report your status Beta Six- Two." A crackling voice came back.
"Confirmed kill, last member of backup EDG platoon Killed In Action."