The damn fortress felt like a heated oven in the unrelenting sun. The several layers of gear and his mask did nothing to relieve the boiling heat he felt cursing through his veins. Why did it have to be the Middle East.

So many other assignments, other countries to put a secret base in and yet these buggers had to choose the middle of nowhere.

Even worse, the order to infiltrate was given in June. JUNE.

He was boiling. The only thing keeping him relatively sane was the insane amount of water he drank on a daily basis and the cool of the nights.

Just another great surprise to this nightmare of a mission. Days it got up to 45 Celsius, nights it slid all the way down to -10. So you had enough time to thoroughly sweat through all your clothes and then become a popsicle if you didn’t change quick enough.

Just f*cking great.

At least all the recon missions happened at night, they had the pleasure of not evaporating in the sun. Still they had more than enough time to get deeply intimate with the sand. He stopped trying to rid himself of it on the third day of their stay here. Gave up. It was useless. The sh*t was everywhere. Shoes, socks, pockets, hair.

He wouldn’t be surprised if his eye sockets had collected some by the end of this.

The more days they sat here without the order to finally attack, the more he felt himself getting twitchy. He wasn’t a fan of cramped spaces to begin with. And this place wasn’t only cramped, it was a stone heating pot.

His only refuge were the small watch towers that served as their lookouts and sniping spots. At there he could get away from all the noise that inevitably accumulated with the presence of people.