Man at War – Excerpt No. 208

A fresh team of three were sent into the complex. All the while gunfire continued to erupt sporadically, enough to draw the attention of a roving patrol.

Marc came down from his perch and approached the security detail. A sentry nearly panicked, and brought up his weapon with the intent to fire, but Sergeant Leblanc forced them to stand down. That might have ruined a perfectly good uniform.

“Sergeant,” Marc said as he passed by and tipped his service cap.

“Sir,” Leblanc said. “The Warrant reports they found their way into an old mine. The enemy is putting up light resistance.”

a surreal and vibrant cinematic photo of a British officer with a stern expression and worn leather boots being challenged by a group of five British soldiers in worn and muddy uniforms with peaked caps and wielding rifles, set against a dark and ominous nocturnal backdrop of No Man's Land in 1915, with barbed wire and shattered tree silhouettes, the scene illuminated by flashes of distant artillery fire, captured in a photorealistic style with film grain, the officer's face a picture of resolute determination, the soldiers' faces etched with a mix of exhaustion and defiance, the atmosphere tense and foreboding, with muted colors and deep shadows, the overall mood eerie and unsettling, the photography style reminiscent of a wartime documentary, with a shallow depth of field and a slight grainy texture.

Disclaimer: This novel is an work in progress and readers may encounter grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Please view this a draft and not a published work.