Chapter 1

Jaegis

The Bullet of Bullets. Great. Real shitstorm you've gotten yourself into this time.

My eyes darted around the crowded waiting room, landing on several players. There was that black clothed chick who'd won her preliminary with a photon sword and a pistol, that green sniper girl, Yamikaze, and not to mention all the others that had made it this far. My eyes glanced over another girl, this one in a of armored medic get-up. I mentally marked down all of them. I'd be damned if I wasn't ready for every single one of them.

I looked to my right at my Kar98 and picked it up, hands moving over it, checking for any abnormalities. I tightened the suppressor on the end and made sure that the strap was on well. I narrowed my eyes at a particularly stubborn piece of fabric that refused to stay on its clip. I fiddled with it for a moment before moving on.

There was definitely an atmosphere of tenseness and apprehension. Some people paced back and forth, some stared off into space. Some, like me, checked over their opponents worriedly. I closed my eyes and forced my mind to move on to something else, to get something done.

I checked my belt and bandolier, making sure everything was in order there. Twelve HE grenades… Check. Six flashbangs… check. Two smokes, two gasses… Check, and check some more. I sighed shakily, trying to clear the adrenaline from my system. My hands grazed over the combat knife on the right side of my belt. Good, it hadn't fallen off. I checked the left and back side of my belt. One, two, three, four, five, six pouches of ammunition. Good, all there.

The announcer sounded off, "The third BoB begins now!" I heard a loud beep and a blue light engulfed me, setting me in the middle of the woods.

It was quiet, very quiet. There were no shouts around me, no footsteps yet. Just some chirping from virtual birds. I let my eyes drift over my surroundings, studying every inch of the terrain. Through the trees I spotted a bridge going across a river, connecting my side to a ruinous city. I started to move towards the treeline near it, but then I hear a twig snap. I whirled on my heels and leveled my Kar98, sights locking onto the area that the sound came from.

For a moment, there was no sound. Even the birds had stopped chirping. This was a bit early for an attack but I guess some people were going to be rushers, going for a quick and easy kill.

A few rounds streaked past my head and prediction lines started appearing all over me. I dove behind a tree before several more bullets spat through the air where I had been. I peeked out from behind the trunk, and several rounds struck next to my face. My health meter dropped a little. Not much, but enough to make me shoot back behind my cover. My eyes drifted down to my grenades, and I ran through them. HE? No, too loud. Smoke? No, too… expectable. Gas? No, should probably save those. Flash?

Screw it, why not.

I snatched one off my bandolier and primed it. I counted to two and then released the pin and hurled it towards where the fire had came from. A loud bang sounded, and I heard curses from my left. I spun out from behind my cover and raised my rifle. My sights found my attackers large cowboy hat and put a hole in it. I watched his form shimmer before exploding into thousands of red shards.

I lowered my Kar98 and smiled under my bandana. Simple enough.

I lay down on my stomach and started to crawl for the treeline. No such thing as being too cautious, right?

- 10 minutes of crawling later-

I finally reached my destination and shimmied under a bush. I sighed and whispered to myself, "Never being that cautious again…"

Shots rang out at the bridge and I sighted in, looking for their origin. There, on the other side of the bridge was a man with an assault rifle, trying to shoot what was nothing more than a white blur against the bridge. The blur swiftly dodged all the bullets the man could fire, swinging from the different columns and pylons that held the bridge together. The man rose from his crouched position and reloaded, intent on keeping up the fire, but the pale blur had other plans. A shot rang out, and it connected with the man. He stumbled backwards and raised his gun to fire again, but the blur already had his gun to his head. They stood there for a quiet moment, and then the pale one fired, and the man dropped to the floor before a marker appeared above his body, confirming that he was dead.

With my eyes wide I silently congratulated the surviving one's feat… of stepping right into my crosshairs. I began to squeeze the trigger, but a sudden blue spark stuck him in the chest, and he dropped to the ground.

"What the…" I listened for a shot, but no sound came from the bridge, and I felt my gut tighten in apprehension.

Then, a man in a dark cloak stepped out from behind a pylon and shouldered a silenced sniper rifle. He stalked up to the one on the ground and raised a pistol. He began to draw some sort of cross across his chest. I saw the pixels of the pistol's hammer moving back when a sound so loud it made my ears ring rebounded across the river. After I got over the ringing I looked back down my sights and saw a crater formed by a Hecate round, an anti material sniper rifle. The man in the cloak had just side stepped it. He looked up to where the shot came from and then turned back to the white clad player. He fired once and his health dropped a fraction. Then the pale one spun upwards and raised his gun, putting the barrel to the cloaked man's head. I waited for the shot, but the one clad in white just dropped his gun and clutched his heart. He writhed on the ground for a moment before stopping and disconnecting. I took my finger off the trigger as fear's iron grip closed around my heart.

"Nope, not doing it."

I stayed in my position for a moment and watched the one in the cloak, too afraid to move. After I was sure no one saw me, I rushed backwards, away from my position. I stepped out of the bushes and ran down the side of the river. If there was one bridge, surely there was another. I ran for a solid ten minutes, unable to find another crossing.

"This is going to be fucking cold…" I whispered as I removed my gear and put it in storage.

I backed up and took off, diving into the icy waters of the river. I rose out of the water on the other side of the bridge and equipped my clothing. I shivered. Mental note: Don't do that again either. Right before I could equip my rifle though, I heard gunshots. And gunshots meant people. Dead people, in particular.

I moved into the rubble of a building and took the round about way to the firefight, and came up behind the shooter. A man clad in urban camo was firing at stone a column, the barrel of a gun visible at about knee height. I snuck up behind the man firing the light machine gun before provoking him.

"Good morning motherf-" I brought my knife down towards him but his hand grabbed my wrist, cutting me off mid sentence and trying to twist the knife away. I rolled him onto the ground with me as we wrestled for dominance. I finally gave up on the ground war and stood up, trying to regroup. He pulled his machine gun back up from where it was harnessed and it finally clicked that he'd had it on his waist. I tried to dodge the most serious of the bullet lines but I was struck in the arms, legs and stomach pretty badly. I was at 10% health and bleeding. I couldn't bleed to death but it could make it to where a sneeze in the wrong direction could drop me dead.

I was about to peek around and take a popshot when the original person he was engaging ended him in nothing more than three well placed shots. I spun on my back to point the barrel of my gun into the face of a girl, a very small girl might I add. The barrel of my gun nearly touched her face. Surely she was going to kill me, my health having drained down to 1%. I was preparing to fire when a wall of solid steel covered her face and her rifle pointed backwards, her outstretched hand coming up in that of the universal friendly signal. I kept my gun in her face, refusing to give way. That is until she bent down and shoved a needle into my leg, sending a feeling rushing over me of exhilaration as my health shot upwards. If a single syringe could do that much, her specs for medicine must have been through the roof. I shot upwards but couldn't keep my gun held to her, not after what she'd done for me. I offered my hand and she took it, coming to a full heighted stance, though that wasn't much to speak of itself.

"Taoreta," she said, her helmet's steel plating sliding upwards and into the top panel, revealing her smiling face.

No. No teaming up. Just say thanks, and leave. I simply shook her hand. "Jaegis."

"So, where are we going?"