weapons were beyond the scope of use. He with his buddy Sepoy Vikram Singh crawled through the orchard in front of the house with a hail of bullets crossings from the two ends over their heads. Having crossed the orchard the buddy pair charged into the house where they were met instantly with intense firing from the terrorist. His forearm was grazed by a bullet. In a quick reaction they changed the settings of their assault rifles and retaliated with a heavy fire killing one of the three terrorists then and there. Maj. Varadarajan knew how the local commander looked like and the dead man wasn't home. The remaining two terrorists including Hizbul Mujahideen top commander charged with grenade explosions and tried to escape from the scene of action. Acting just in time the two men dived to the ground,saving themselves from the shrapnel. In these quick series of events, Maj. Varadarajan saw the face of fleeing militants and recognised in no time one of them as the top commander he was out for hunting, he also saw them making their way to the outhouse next to the building. Maj. Varadarajan lobbed a grenade into the outhouse. The blast should have debilitated, if not killed commander. But as the two men stormed the outhouse, a volley of fire came smashing into Vikram. It became clear what had just happened—the grenade had killed one terrorist, but there was another with him. The commander wasn't alone when he fled from the debris of the residence and into the cement outhouse—the second terrorist had fled with him. It was this second terrorist who had been killed by the grenade. Hizbul commander had survived.Several rounds of fire were returned at the terrorist, but he was shielded by a row of logs stacked in the outhouse and was able to fire his weapon from the confined space he was in. Maj. Varadarajan saw his buddy collapse to the ground. Vikram Singh had taken two bullets: one had sliced his neck open, while the other had penetrated his jaw. A gunshot through the neck usually spells certain death. Maj. Varadarajan knew he was about to lose one of the most courageous and dependable soldiers in his team. He knew that not only was his buddy through with this fight, his life too was about to end. As in all encounters, there was not a moment for