So much for this stealth operation...

It seemed easy enough at first glance: sneak up on the bee encampment, make some notes, and get OUT. Your squad was designated recon, and you weren't ready to deal with a full frontal assault on a well-garrisoned bee compound.

But then the chameleon attacked your commando at two meters out; and the bee scout teams put some holes in Big Red, your heavy weapons specialist (and what mother would name her child Big Red?); and don't even get started on the minefield and the ranger...

In spite of everything, you'd made it. Somehow, you'd crawled and scratched your way to the gates of the bee compound, much to your amazement. You made a quick pass around the camp, jotted a few notes, and prepared to move out.

But then your flamethrower operator got an itchy trigger-finger. Although he swears that the tower guard had seen you through the brush, you think he was just looking for a fight. Ten minutes later, it really didn't matter. The bee camp was a smoldering ruin, and the few bees that had escaped were now on their way to the hive to alert the Wasp Empress of the attack. Your team was battered and bruised, but all miraculously still alive.

Your base commander was going to have a field day. You imagined kitchen patrol for a week, with two weeks of latrine duty after that. You had barely broken in your sergeant rank patch, and now visions of it being ripped from your shoulder in a fit of obscenities and degradation ran through your head. Oh, well. Maybe you were born to be a grunt, taking orders and blasting things. It was nice to have been in charge, though, even if it was only for one mission.

Then it hit you. The base commander didn't need to know what really happened. What if these bees had been planning an attack on the hill? What if they had a bomb- no- a missile: a missile that was poised to strike the hill at any moment? You had no choice, even in the face of overwhelming odds and incredibly adversity, to attack: throw caution to the wind and sacrifice yourself for the good of queen and hill.

You gathered the squad together to make sure that everyone was on the same page. Maybe this wasn't going to work out so badly after all.