DISCLAIMER
This story is a fan-based fiction
All things related to Arknights doesn't belong to me,
The only thing I own, is my OC
With that out of the way, please enjoy
Chapter 1 - Start of a New Story
"Do you like a good story?"
[Not really. Books around here are pretty boring. Maybe we should write our own~]
"Not with the beginning of our journey."
I remembers it vividly, like it was just yesterday. How the pain burns at my abdomen, the blood staining my white shirt.
Stumbling about in the rain, I only can lean to a wall while staring the moon seemingly in a trance. My left hand holding my wound shut, trying to keep the blood stay inside.
I remembers, how I picked up my pistol and pulled the slide back, watching a round entered the chamber before pressing the cold barrel against my temple.
[We hesitated right?]
My consciousness was already at the edge from falling I to the deep abyss known as death.
With an index finger on the trigger, I though I was ready to pull it. To give myself one last peace, an eternal rest that I deserved.
But no.
"I even question myself sometimes... Why did I hesitated back then? It was death by my hands, or execution in Laterano."
Executors of the Notarial Hall of Laterano. Operators trained to fulfill and applying rights of the Laterano Citizen.
When needed, they will be your best helper, or the worst assassins. Unfortunately, with my past they're the latter for me.
I killed tens of Executors, collected their guardian guns and sold some to the black market. It's no wonder they are very much bitter of me, especially when I killed potentially hundreds of Laterano's citizen just to escape from their grip.
[It would suck to die like that, if we're going down then we're going down in a blaze!]
"Yeah, we will. But nevertheless, I'm glad we survived, if not we will never met her."
My grip on the pistol was weakening, even my finger can't even pull the trigger. I've lost too many blood and about to fall unconscious.
Before the darkness claimed me, I heard shouting in the distance before my vision went blank.
"We're lucky they decided to follow the gunshot sounds and found us."
[Hmph, enough lamenting about the past, Gabriel. Let's go.]
"Indeed, let's go." I agreed and stood up to my feet.
The sun was rising on the horizon, proudly shining this dark world with it's warm light. While humming a familiar gentle tune, I shielded my eyes with a small smile.
"What's happen today will leave it's mark in history..."
-o-
Mobile City of Chernobog
Ursus
Unknown Time
-o-
"They are breaking through!"
"We can do this!"
"Everyone turning tail will be shot on the spot! FOR THE EMPEROR, STAND YOUR GROUND!"
A pair of blazing red eyes watches from afar with twinkles of amusement. She observed how the Ursus Guards fared against a large wave of rioters.
Through the scope of her crossbow, she could see how the rioters looks with equipment comparable to mercenary squads.
Blades, blank white masks to cover their identities, and a combat vest above a white coat with orange highlight. What interested her however, are the patches on their arms.
An orange patch with a black logo that looks like a stylized 'X' or a hourglass, both works for her.
She applaud the Ursus Guards to be able to hold out for a relatively long time. Unfortunately, the communication transmission in Chernobog was jammed.
"Hm,"
Her slender fingers pulled out a single arrow with red tip and fletching, before loading it into her crossbow.
She lined the scope's crosshair down towards the man standing on top of a car, barking orders to his men with threats to shoot them if they faltered.
The dark halo above her head glows an ominous red along with the dark, almost black, fragmented wings on her back.
Her lips made a thin smirk as her finger impatiently tapping the trigger of the crossbow.
The man was too late to notice the glint of a scope from far away. He barely registered it into his mind before a loud sound nearly halted every movement in the street.
BANG!
A single loud gunshot-like sound muted every other noises followed with an arrow sailing through the air, leaving a trail of red Arts behind.
Nobody were able to react as the arrow pierced through the armor of the Ursus Captain and embedded itself into his torso.
The Arts shrouding it became violent before it reached an end point.
BOOM!
A massive explosion erupted in place of the Ursus Captain, the wave of energy knocked off some of the Ursusians and Reunion soldiers alike.
With their captain dead, all of the rioters let out a terrifying battle cry with a renewed vigor and determination. They broke through the wavering Ursus Guards without much difficulty.
Cries of despair, fear, and suffering were muted under the victorious roar. All of the chaos currently unfolding on the streets below her.
A satisfied smile replaced the smirk as she let the crossbow hanged from the sling.
Dusts dirtied her once clean white button-up shirt under the white jacket with red accents.
She straighten the red tie from around her neck and checked the pistol inside a holster located under her armpit.
A small relieved sigh escaped her lips once she recognized the familiar grip, still securely strapped to it's holster.
One of her hand went back and dusted off her black short pants and checked the shoelaces of her combat boots.
For an additional accessories, she have a tactical pouch bag attached to the left side of her belt. At a glance it can appear like a medical bag, but upon closer inspection it's actually filled with crossbow bolts in stripper clips neatly stacked on top of each other.
On her right side, there's a leg back of equal size like the pouch attached to her leg. It's filled with a small amount of necessities like ration bars, a map that she stole from the government office of Chernobog, and two spares of standard issue Caster staves.
"Mission accomplished,"
[Remind me that we still didn't work under those guys...]
Gabriel hid a thin amused smile behind her fist before she answered, "We'll never work under those guys."
She turned around and was about to leave before a distant sound attracted her attention; the sounds of explosion from Arts.
There's an itching feeling inside of her, an old sense of curiosity from her life as a mercenary. 'Information are power' after all.
[What are we waiting for?! Let's go!]
Gabriel set off in haste, not wanting to miss the action in the slightest. She leaped over the edge of a rooftop to another, repeating the process several times. Basically travelling through rooftops to rooftops, it's fortunate Chernobog styled their city with near identical building height limit.
She did have to crash through windows once in a while, but anything to clear her curiosity and earn more paycheck.
It were nearly three to four blocks away to the south west before she arrived at the location.
The streets, unlike before, have civilians running for their dear life with Reunion members killing whoever were left behind. But what surprises her the most were the unknown combatants fighting the Reunions and saving the civilians.
Those people in black jackets with blue highlights fought valiantly, their Snipers and Casters firings ferocious barrages of projectiles and Arts.
Guards, Defenders, and Vanguards secured a frontline and began fighting the waves of Reunion members.
That scene alone made something snap inside Gabriel's mind. Although equipped with good gears, Reunions are in fact still just thugs with minimal trainings.
They gained an advantage for their numbers, but their lack of training still became a huge problem when they can't access their overwhelming numbers.
One figure caught her eyes, a blonde Kuranta woman fighting on the front.
She's not like the other unknowns, geared with a white and black armor like those knights from Kazimierz she saw once. But she uses a warhammer or mace instead of a sword.
For the first time in quite a long period of time, she declared someone as dangerous for herself.
"Casters, hold the left flank! Snipers, conserve ammunition! Guards secure the right side! Vanguards and Defenders with me!"
By ordering the Snipers to conserve ammo, it would be harder for the others to fought back. Then again, Gabriel doesn't know how many ammunition they actually brought.
She pulled the string of her crossbow back, and took aim again. Being carefully to channel her own Arts into the crossbow. This time, she cocked the charging handle at the side of the crossbow and flicked a switch to 'Auto'.
An option in her mind made her frown, should she shoot to kill, or simply scare them?
Like before, she opted to observe through her scope. The crosshair lining to the unknown combatants, watching intently.
A triangle with an etching of a rook chess piece in the middle. The name of their organization or company sat proudly under the rook.
Rhodes Island.
"That pharmaceutical company? What are they doing in Chernobog?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow in question.
She had seen their promotion brochures before, remembering their motto in her mind.
[May I enjoy life and practice my Arts,
Respected by all men, and in all time.]
It's an honorable cause, defending innocent Infected and trying to find the cure for Oripathy. Although Gabriel now question their liner of work seeing they combating against Reunion Movement.
Her crosshair went to the Kuranta and saw the same logo on her shield.
Then suddenly, red eyes met with yellow. For the briefest of moment a sudden chill ran down their backs.
"Snipers! The building to our left, enemy on the rooftop!"
Gabriel took some steps back from the edge, avoiding the incoming arrows, bolts, and bullets.
'Enemy?' Gabriel deadpanned, noticing her clothing theme does looks like one of the Reunion.
[So be it.]
She pulled out one grenade and pulled the pin before throwing it lazily over the edge, but she didn't hear any of them panics.
Boom!
The grenade was shot in mid air, exploding it right where it was hit. Honestly, it impressed Gabriel because shooting a grenade mid air wasn't a easy trick.
Soon, her awe was replaced by a small malicious grin as the grenade didn't launch shrapnels everywhere, rather making a large cloud of smoke that slowly descend to the street.
"That's..."
"Gas! Back up!" An operator shouted, they appears to have a sharp nose to be able to smell the gas from a distance.
The group of around 15 people retreated carefully. Maintaining a secure front while beating back any Reunion soldiers brave enough to enter the could of gas to assault them.
A second grenade soon followed before everyone can get out of the gas to safety, this time it only make a small explosion.
Incendiary explosion.
BOOM!
The gas erupted into a massive fireball that engulfed everyone inside of the gas, burning everything to cinders.
"IT BURNS! IT BURNS!"
"SAVE ME!"
"PULL ME OUT! PULL ME OUT! PLEASE!"
Rhodes Island could only watched in horror as the fire swallowed everyone from Reunion or civilians. Some closed their ears, not wanting to hear the screams of those who burned.
The Kuranta glared towards Gabriel who peeked over the edge and let out a small giggle.
"So? How will you save them, Rhodes Island?"
The sweet voice of Gabriel taunted Rhodes Island who can't do anything but to fire another barrage at her.
But before the Kuranta could stop them from wasting ammo, Gabriel was already gone.
"Nearl! Yellow flare!" an operator yelled towards the leader of the combined teams of Rhodes Island combatants.
Nearl, the Kuranta in armor, also saw the flare and nodded for the notification.
"The main team needs reinforcement. Whoever can still fight follow me! Those who can't, escort the civilian out of the west exit and we'll rendezvous there. Let's go!"
She instructed for two medics to stay behind with the civilians and immediately went to link up with the main team along with anyone still able to fight.
"What about that girl from earlier, Nearl?" one asked her.
She nearly stopped in her tracks, if that girl still around she will definitely saw the flare too. Worst case scenario, she still have those flammable gasses.
Yet, Nearl can't spare anymore Operators to chase after her since she was already gone. Their ammunition were also dwindling.
"...we'll cross that bridge later." she concluded with a cold sweat running down her forehead.
-o-
[That flare... what's yellow means again?]
"Depends, mercenaries: retreat. Babel: reinforcement." Gabriel muttered in reply, keeping her eyes trained at the yellow flare.
In the dark sky of Chernobog, that light will indeed attract attention of enemies and friendlies alike. A shining beacon amidst the dark gray clouds.
It came from the north, about several blocks away from her current position.
But regardless of that, the sky was turning grim. The dark clouds seemingly converge into one another forming a large swirl in the sky.
A catastrophe is coming, and she doesn't want to go through it.
-o-
Mobile city of Chernobog
Ursus
Unknown Time
-o-
"What the hell is happening here?"
Gabriel lifted her crossbow and looked through the scope again. This time she kept her distance in mind, along with concealment because she didn't want to repeat that previous encounter with the Kuranta.
There's another group of Rhodes Island Operators in the area, surrounded with Reunion soldiers and a boy. A particularly young boy with white hair and white uniform like clothing with a staff in hand.
Gabriel saw the Kuranta from before with a smaller sized team breaking the Reunion's encirclement, making way for the other group to link up and create a stable front.
The Sanktha took a good picture of the engagement so she directed her attention to somewhere else.
A certain man in the other group of Rhodes Island operators. One of a great size with muscles, a thick beard and sunglasses. He wields a warhammer and a shield.
"That's... Ace?!"
Gabriel's red eyes dilated in genuine surprise as she saw an ex-comrade of hers fighting for Rhodes Island.
Her trigger finger steeled itself against the cold steel, her mind running scenarios of what could have happened.
She shifted her attention to elsewhere, noting how the Kuranta and the boy were talking before the latter scowled, pointing towards the woman.
Without any warning whatsoever, the sound of Arts charging up entered her ears.
An arrow were fired from one of the building surrounding the park, on the opposite side of where Gabriel was.
It flew through the air with a trail of violet Arts behind it.
The Kuranta took a stance and took the arrow with her shield. The impact alone made her took two steps back and pointed her entire weight to hold her shield.
Gabriel hummed, she survived the first but was clearly injured from it. She won't survive a second arrow.
So, she decided to take action.
-o-
"Faust, Do it again! Blow her to pieces!" the white haired Liberi boy ordered with a deep scowl.
But the next shot doesn't came from this 'Faust'
BANG!
A single loud gunshot-like sound took the attention of Reunion and Rhodes Island alike.
A crossbow bolt embedded itself into the ground right besides Nearl's feet.
On their left side, a woman was seen standing on the rooftop pointing her weapon down towards them
They couldn't identify her uniform or clothing, thus unable to determine if she's a friendly or not.
But Nearl's team members seems to know who she is.
"Dammit, it's her again!"
"She's following us?!"
They saw her propping herself for another shot, this time Nearl was pushed away and Ace took her spot with his shield ready.
BANG! BANG!
Two powerful crossbow bolts pierced through Ace's shield, he grunted in pain as one of it scratched his shield arm.
As he recoiled from the impact, a third followed soon after.
BANG!
"Ace!" one brace operator shoved Ace out of the way with his shield, and tried to block the third bolt.
It was his last attempt for a heroic act.
The bolt broke through the top part of the poor operator's shield, piercing through his helmet and ultimately, his head.
body went limp before he fell to the ground with a bolt protruding out of his head.
"SHIT!" Ace cursed loudly before gaining his footing back and joined the lines of Rhodes Island.
"There only one person I know who can shoot a crossbow three times continuously like that." he said to a girl with Cautus features who widened her eyes.
"You don't mean?!"
"It's her, Gabriel. The worst person we can have as an enemy, especially here." He said loud enough for some of the others to hear.
"Do not let her notice we have the Doctor with us." He warned
-o-
[Gabriel, who's that in the middle of the defensive line?]
The girl cocked her head and looked through her scope towards it.
A masked person, unarmed, but clearly important to Rhodes Island if they're defending them like that.
"That's,"
She recognize the mask, the coat that person was wearing.
"...the Doctor!"
A/N:
Finally it's done! After countless scenarios I wrote, rewrites I edited, finally it's done!
Thank you for reading the first chapter of this fanfic. Really, many thanks to you all!
Reviews are always welcomed, advices too as long as I can understand what you mean...
I can't really describe how Gabriel's looks like, but let's just say I have Blaze and W in mind as I wrote her appearance.
Her clothing naturally, came from both of them with minor improvements like a quiver and the bags.
That's all for today,
Good day to you all and stay safe friends~
Cheers~