Chapter 2: At Your Command
He sat down on the floor with his back against the wall enjoying the morning rays through the building window and took a bite of his late breakfast. An MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) was as healthy as it was light, he didn't understand why it was the other soldiers disliked them so much, then again people always did tell him he had strange taste. He had been moving all night until dawn; he had orders to once again lay in wait for the enemy at the top of the building but decided he would have a better shot from the inside of the building somewhere near the middle floors. Plus he didn't like the idea of bugs crawling up and sneaking up on him, at least inside, he would have a chance to react if they came through the hallway of the abandoned buildings. He lay down on the floor again looking out the window at the clear sky, wondering how many bugs he was going to take out today; if he managed to take out more than 100 like last time he would treat himself to 3 MRE's.
He closed his eyes for a minute thinking about the outcome of the upcoming battle, he could provide cover for his fellow comrades but when the swarm takes over it's hard to aim and miss the friendlies. His fatigue and the meal from earlier made him drowsy, he could feel sleep taking over him. It was fine, the battle had not yet begun and he was the only one there.
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Time passed and he slept like a baby taking comfort in the sun's rays. As he began to dream he felt the earth shattering blast of a tank that had just gone off followed by multiple shots after. Thousands of guns going off at once could be heard within the second and it brought him back to reality and out of his sleep.
"Looks like it's time for me to get to work." The sniper doesn't give out the first shot because the bugs are alerted and the swarm comes after him; only until they're distracted are they easy pickings. He came up to the window and immediately caught a few in his sight making their way to the tanks.
"Like fish in a barrel, easy" He carried two main guns with him on his missions "The Lysander Z and the Stringer J3". "Lavender and Stinger" he would call them for nick names. He considered them to be siblings because they both complemented each other. Such was the force of each of these cannons that when fired. it would pass through the armor of each enemy and move on to the next one devastating their numbers; which is how he would get more enemies as they came at him.
"Stupid bugs" They would line up for his shots and expect only one to be taken down, the Stringer J3 would pass right through them taking down a few at a time while the Lysander Z would quickly follow up the remaining pests. Lavender and Stinger: armor piercers that would rip through them like paper, his guns were worthy of praise in any situation, of course the recoil was enough to nearly rip a normal person's arm off.
Through the corner of his eye he could see as the EDF army continued their advance into the abandoned city. Rangers and Fencers would be up close and personal while the wing diver got the ones crawling on the building walls, Air Raiders would call in the remaining cavalry. If they kept up this pace the bug's extermination would be close at hand.
As he kept shooting into the crowd of ants he noticed that there were fewer soldiers and less movement in the air. Did the Wing Divers retreat? No, there are still too many bugs on the ground and the soldiers were only keeping them at bay. Something was off about this situation but he didn't know how to describe it, just a gut feeling in his stomach. He stopped shooting for a few moments to investigate the situation. Up in the sky he could see a Wing Diver shooting frantically with no enemies around her. Suddenly it hit him; he raced to other side of the window to find a gigantic spider web, an ambush from behind. Now on the Spider Web, crawling repulsively towards its caught prey was a giant Retiarius spider the size of a whale, huge and disgusting was his only thought. He could hear the victims in its mouth as it used its massive pincers and took them apart little by little.
"Disgusting Freak!" He fired a shot and caught it straight through its eyes having the bullet rip through its head and on to its abdomen shredding the spider to pieces and leaving an arch trail of blood sprinkled in the sky. He shot at the web multiple times to keep it from catching any other unlucky Wing Diver, and proceeded to shoot down the other arachnids. He could have killed a lot more bugs on the ground but the Retiarius spiders came first. If those spiders shot its web toward the soldiers not only would they be immobilized but they would fall victim to other bug attacks in the process.
Each shot he fired hit its mark, precise and deadly. The soldiers on the ground were oblivious to his actions so continued the battle as their guardian and proceeded to take care of the pests.
Even though he would hit his marks, the web spread out across the buildings were wasting more shots than he anticipated at this rate he was going to run out of bullets soon. Thus he found the empty click on his lavender gun as his last shot was fired and he needed to reload from another canister. Turning around he noticed he left the other canisters in the room across him when he dashed toward the other end of the building. He was running towards the room when he heard a disturbing noise of spray coming at him, he dashed to the side as he saw a web spray across the lobby.
"Dammit!" If he had not run out of bullets he definitely would have been bug food. How could he have been so careless as to not notice earlier? No time to waste. His lavender was caught in the other room and caught in the web but he still had his stinger. He checked the magazine, one shot left. He had to make this count if he was going to survive. He could hear the abdomen of the giant Spider as it broke the buildings glass and sprayed the room full of deadly web. The spider was trying to sense his heat and his movement, if he moved now or touched the web it would notice him and immediately spray him. He would have to be careful, he could see the web dripping with something, fresh venom made mainly to paralyze but eventually kill. Just the way it likes its victim, screaming in horror as they see their intestine open and devoured by its predator, lucky for him the building had windows all around. He proceeded to the nearby window careful not to make any erratic movements to avoid being noticed. He got to the window, carefully pointed his gun outside and waited for his prey.
"We shall see who is hunting who." He was betting everything on one shot, no different from any other time. The building had been surrounded by a giant web on the other side. It didn't matter though, as soon as it came to this side that damn bug was done for. He could still hear the shots on the ground below and in the air but one shot was aiming near his location.
"Who is stupid enough to shoot at an ally?" He looked up directly and found that a Wing Diver was caught in the web directly above him. She had not been paralyzed but her armor was caught, any more movements and she would be dead for sure.
"Even better" He thought, the spider will sense her vibrations and walk straight into my trap. It sucked for the Wing Diver because even though the Retiarius spider won't eat her she isn't going to be able to get away, the poisonous web would eventually drain her life.
He looked through the scope at the struggling Wing Diver and wondered who she was. Did she know she was going to die? Did she have a family or was she alone like he was?
"How pathetic" He thought. This is war and she was just another casualty, there was no need to save her and he only had one final bullet for the spider if he used the bullet to cut the web it would mean he would risk the chance of the spider taking notice of him, killing him in the process and letting the other EDF soldiers die. This bit of common sense is what separate's humans from other beings; we think rationally.
For a second the Wing Diver stopped struggling, and noticed the sniper below her.
"I am sorry" he whispered under his breath like she could hear him.
"I only have one shot left, I either save you or let you die and save everyone else" Again he whispered under his breath. He stopped looking through the scope and waited for the spider. The Wing Diver had stopped struggling; he was beginning to think she had given up or that she was expecting him to save her.
"No, I won't save you, I can't" The spider had shown itself and was making its way towards the Wing Diver completely forgetting about the sniper in the building.
"Just a little more, give me one clear shot" He took one last look at the Wing Diver then aimed his Stinger at the spider.
"Dammit" He found his usual firm trigger finger shaking a little, why was this resting so hard on his conscious? It's the natural order of things; Kill or be killed it's what he believed. Then again it didn't matter what he believed since time was running out and he had to take the shot. He felt like a rookie again trying hard not to breathe when taking a shot. As he looked through the scope he noticed that the Wing Diver had stopped and reached out to grip her gun but was unable to shoot the spider due to the direction the gun was pointing. What was she thinking?
"… BLOODY HELL!" He turned his gun to the side and shot the side of the web at an angle allowing his shot to tear through the web and miss the giant spider. The Wing Diver was free but her equipment failed to start. She now had free reign over her gun and blasted the spider on her way down killing it and dropping to the bottom.
He stretched out his arm towards her and managed to catch her just in time, her equipment might not have been functioning at 100% but she still had enough thrust power and energy to catch his hand and make her way towards him. He pulled her towards him and was slammed into him with her small body. She lay on top of him gasping for breath as he tried to recover from the impact. She looked into his face and said:
"Wing Diver 7 at your command"
