Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1536266
Life in the county goes on as usual, cars drive by, something's happening in the fields, someone's walking their dog in the woods… Occasionally a truck passes, someone zips by on a scooter nearby. We've got a solid battery reserve, over 20 – we can fly non-stop. The guys are getting better at handling our larger drone, combining powerful zoom with smart positioning. Eventually, our agents turn up, meet with the "cyclists" – we cover their meeting at the village cemetery from above. The climax of the day is the main section crossing a key road. If we were the ones securing the area against saboteurs, this is where we'd place patrols and observers. Suddenly we hear a drone overhead. An unknown drone. I instinctively grab the drone backpack and dive under the leaves of a nearby apple tree. Kondor does the same thing. Dave and Marcel look at us, confused. For a moment, no one knows what to do – are we just paranoid, or are they not used to reacting to drones? Probably the latter :) Fortunately, the drone flies off, but for the next hour, every loud noise makes us twitch – thinking a Jelcz full of light infantry is already rolling in for us… That diving under a tree can save you from being spotted by a drone – that comes from hours of searching for people from the air. Finding people from a drone without knowing where to look is like finding a needle in a haystack. People are usually given away by movement, while tree canopies provide cover. So if you hear a drone – either freeze and blend in or dive for cover – the right call can mean the difference between life and death. Assuming the drone doesn't have thermal imaging capability, of course – in that case, your chances of hiding drop drastically. But we know TDF's gear well – chances they have thermals are close to zero. The fact they even have a drone and flew near our area is already a success. Dusk is approaching, we scan the critical road – detect nothing, and give the go-ahead when no vehicles are approaching from either side. Our ground team crosses and enters a dense forest. Ahead of them lies a night of infiltration with night vision. We head back to the safe house, repack, and blend into normal road traffic, posing as civilians. TRAINING