Battlefield Assassin

I carefully took aim and then, with a soft exhalation, pulled the trigger of my snipe-rifle, watching my target through its scope. The Butcher felt the impact of my capsule, looking round wildly while brushing off fragments of broken glass, but as a silvery stain grew outwards from the point of impact and the tips of her fingers began disappearing a look of calm acceptance settled over her sculpted facial features.

After collecting the spent cartridge, slipping it into a pouch on my belt, I returned my attention to the Butcher. Some of the nanites had devoured her hands and were moving up through her wrists, the main group enthusiastically spreading up her neck and the side of her head. I could already see patches of white, of exposed bone, and carefully moved to take stock of the wider situation around us.

A company of infantry was stationed within an old fort on the edge of the Skiran Flats,  exchanging fire with the sizable gang of raiders finally lured out in the open by false intel. Little glints of light flickered between the two groups, each one a capsule virtually identical to the one I'd fired, and every so often someone would stagger away from their position. Amazingly none of the Butcher's people had noticed their leader being eaten behind them, too focussed on scuttling between inadequate pieces of cover, but some of the infantry troopers had, the word passing along the line like wildfire.

Squirming back from my perch atop a hill near the battlefield, my last sight of the Butcher being a heavily-dissolved woman dropping to her knees, I gracefully rose once on flat ground, breaking into a light jog as I made my way towards the fort. My part in the battle was technically over but there was always the chance Captain Stover wanted me to do more.

Slipping into the fort through a gap in its crumbling eastern wall I skidded to a halt upon reaching the main courtyard. A small artillery piece nearly filled the space and Stover jumped down from it when he noticed me.
"Target eliminated?"
With a brief nod I moved to stand at attention.
"Yes sir. The Butcher will be just her clothing by now."
Stover turned towards the artillery piece and after a second it launched a single shell, the projectile simply a larger version of the capsules issued to troopers.
"That'll land among her bitches and then we can call an end to this exercise. Good job."