Chapter 4: The Unexpected
Spree stood outside the make-shift medical center with Trips and Blue. Neither of them had bothered to remove their armor and still wore their helmets due to the fact they had rushed back to Home to get Axle the medical attention he needed. Blue wasn't able to bring his regular medical supplies along due to the disguises the scouts had to wear and so he wasn't able to patch him up on the spot where he had been shot. Spree had decided to change back into his regular, more comfortable off-duty uniform after an hour of waiting at the gates. The three squad-mates stood silently as they awaited the news of their comrades fate. Captain Walker soon exited the domed building, opening the silver door with a relieved expression. "He'll be alright. The laser fire didn't fully sear through his chest-plate and only made enough contact to cause external bleeding, which the fine medical officers here were able to patch up after using a couple loads of bandages." He said in a happy tone. It turns out, Spree wasn't the only sniper posted outside the camp during the assassination.
There had been a rebel assassin armed with the same weapon as him, but was too late to take the shot at his target, also the Strategic Commander. It seems the Rebellion didn't like the fact of their spy being captured, tortured and forced to talk. Of course, the Empire didn't need him to talk as they had already gathered most of the information he had through an inside-man they posted with him when they first suspected the man of being a traitor. A spy spying on a spy. Hence the reason for an assassination and not an arrest.
The sniper must've thought that his cover was perfect, thinking that the base would be looking for a shooter in a different direction. Unfortunately for him, he just happened to be in the spot where the scouts had planned to send the perusers. He was, as expected of the Stormtroopers who found him, shot on sight. But before he was found he did deal some extra damage and was able to send a shot into an fuel station which burst into scorching flames. He also managed to take out three unsuspecting Imperial troopers, one being Axle. Luckily, Axle wasn't killed from the blow, but the other troopers weren't as fortunate.
The rebel eliminated the suspicion of any Imperial sniper firing on the Commander which helped solved the issue of his loyal followers doing something stupid. "He'll be up and running after a few injections of bacta." Walker continued as he stood in-front of his remaining squad. "He won't be able to come with us if we do have another mission in the next couple of days." The captain added.
The groups body language showed relief as they new Axle was important to the group as the electrical and technology specialist, even though his didn't talk as much as most people. "Sign back in and get some rest." Captain Walker ordered. He turned his helmeted head towards Spree. "You're on watch tonight so get your sleep now." It was supposed to be Axle's night to watch over the camp for anything strange that might signal an attack, but he was obviously injured. "Understood, sir." The sniper replied with a slight nod. "Good man."
Walker nodded in return and walked back to the center of the camp where the Information/Meeting house was placed to sign back in along with Trips and Blue. Trips gave Spree a slight punch in the arm as he walked past. "Give us a warning next time you shoot. You nearly made me jump out of my boots!" Spree laughed and returned the punch to Trips's chest. "Where's the fun in that?" Trips just gave a single, "Ha!" in return as he turned back around to sign back into base. Spree strolled down to the barracks and took a much needed rest before his long night at watch.
{Approximately 6 hours after nightfall}
The moon shone brightly over the night sky like a sliver sun. The base was not close to any native cities or rebel outposts and the chances of an attack were minimal. Spree lay down on a platform laid out across the branches of a tall and sturdy looking tree. As usual, he had taken an injection from the medical center to help keep him awake and fully aware of his surroundings. His visor shown a slight shade of green as his night vision scope displayed a slightly distorted image of the dark shapes surrounding him. Delta outpost was a small base and only needed one man to guard to entire place. His position on the tree was perfectly laid out as Spree kept his gaze moving across the landscape. He had four more hours before his watch shift would be taken over by a trooper from a separate squad. A small timer that was slowly counting the seconds was glowing white inside the sniper's visor and he quickly flashed his focus on it to check his remaining hours until sleep. "Six down, four to go." He said to himself.
The only movement in the forest ahead was the rustling of the leaves from the slight breeze and the occasional animal taking a look outside to gaze at the moon, only to return back into the darkened foliage below. The next three-and-a-half hours were just like that. No strange movements, no strange noises, and no strange heat signatures poking out in the darkness. Spree double checked his timer and sighed in boredom and relief. Sure, the breeze felt nice and the forest could be considered calming, but it was also nerve racking. Ten hours of waiting for something to show up in the dark can be over-exaggerated once you have that long amount of time to think about all the possibilities. But now his ten hours were almost up and he felt slightly more relaxed.
Something shown a slightly brighter shade of green on Spree's night vision for a fraction of a second. The flash was quick, but it was long enough for the sniper's trained eyes to notice it. Swiveling his view to the point where he noticed the quick heat signature, he waited five minutes for another flash. The foliage below rustled as a green heat signature quickly poked out of the bushes beneath a tree which was slightly illuminated by the moons bright reflection. As the sniper recognized the signature was the shape of a man, a red bolt screamed out of another nearby bush crashing directly above Spree. He tucked his head next to his arm instinctively. Shards of bark and burnt wood crumbled onto his body.
His armor protected him from any slivers or burns and Spree quickly rose his eyes to his scope unharmed. He quickly found three heat signatures sprinting away from the base sending a hail of noises into the once silent air as they snapped broken tree limbs and crushed bushes. Spree quickly aimed his rifle at the man in the front of the crew and fired his own red bolt without hesitation. The man dropped with an ugly scream of pain as the laser connected with his back and the two men behind him dove behind separate trees. The heat the laser left behind in the air still shown dimly in the sniper's night vision and he quickly panned his view between the two separate trees. Spree tried to shoot a lucky shot at the base of one of the thinner trees to see if the laser would break through it.
The laser harmlessly crashed into the tree instead, only sending bits of wood soaring into the sky. One of the heat signatures stepped out from behind his tree and fired a barrage of random lasers that destroyed trees and branches that Spree wasn't even close to. Spree quickly fired out a shot at the man, the deadly streak of light broke the dark shade of the surrounding trees and it rammed into the head of the unsuspecting man. He fell without a sound into the dense pile of leaves below him. Spree heard the sickening sound of a blaster firing off rounds in Spree's exact direction. Obviously the third man had seen where Spree had shot from and was firing in his general location. The first few bolts of energy bounced dangerously close to Spree as he calmly placed his crosshairs on the man. He squeezed the trigger just as the heat signature dove behind another tree, this once much thicker than the rest.
His bolt hit the ground without hitting his target. He missed the man's head by inches. He cursed to himself and quickly reloaded, knowing that he couldn't run out of ammo if the man decided to shoot at him again. Spree quickly looked into his scope as he clipped a new round of charges into his rifle. The man then stepped out from behind the tree, firing directly where Spree was hiding. Spree released the last shot just as two of the attacking lasers struck Spree in his shoulder area and his exposed thigh which he had pulled closer to grab his extra charges earlier. Both the sniper and the man grunted in pain as they felt the impact of the lasers connecting with their targets. The intruding man less so, as he fell dead before his body could collide with the soft ground.
Spotlights in the camp suddenly flashed on outside, illuminating the now finished firefight. Spree lay his helmeted head face down on the platform that was now covered in pieces of wood and shards of broken armor. Spree took quick breaths as the pain in his lower right thigh increased. The bolt that hit his shoulder had only broken off a piece of green plastoid composite armor and would only leave a nasty bruise. His thigh had no armor plating and he felt like it was on fire. He knew if he tried to move it, the pain would engulf his entire body. But knowing he had to get down from his post Spree strapped his weapon onto his back, which took some extra effort than usual, and propped himself up on one elbow.
He could leave any extra equipment up on the tree for the next trooper on watch and he turned his head towards the ladder leading down to the exposed ground. Gasping in effort, Spree spun himself around the hung his legs off the side of the platform, his uninjured leg searching for the ladder. His foot connected with the first swaying rung and he let himself slide down farther to get a grip on the sides of it. Spree shut his eyes tightly underneath his helmet as the burning in his leg intensified.
Spree grabbed the top of platform with his gloved hands and slowly lowered his body to the next rung. Taking in short intakes of breath with each painful movement, Spree slowly descended the ladder. His injured leg hung limp beside his left leg which was reaching out is desperately to find the next rung each time Spree lowered himself down. He repeated this action of grabbing and lowering for a little while longer and the spot lights on the base finally found and illuminated his hidden station. Spree had almost reached the safety of the ground when his left foot slipped to the side the swaying rubber ladder and he tumbled onto the leafy dirt with a deep thud and a crack as the weapon beneath him added more pain to his chest. It was a thirteen-foot drop and Spree landed on his back, the impact stealing his breath away. He rolled onto his side, gasping in air, being careful not to move his injured leg. Spree's E-11 didn't help as it added more weight as he tried to crawl back into the base, inching slowly forward.
Spree had drug himself at least sixty feet when a medical officer rushed out of the front gate of the base. He was accompanied by Blue, who ran ahead of him fully dressed in his armor. Spree took a deep breath and rolled onto his back, relieved that he didn't need to crawl back to the base by himself. Blue carefully grabbed Spree by the arms and hoisted him up onto his good leg. "I've got yah." He said, allowing Spree to use him as support to walk. The medical officer arrived and injected an instant pain-killer into Spree's neck. "Get him inside," the officer ordered.
Spree hung his head down in tired relief as the pain-killer removed the pain and the injection that kept him awake. "C'mon." Blue said as he helped the sniper limp back into the base. Trips was at the gate with his blaster rifle pointed in the direction of the three dead men Spree had shot. The wound on Spree's leg had opened up even more from his fall and was now beginning to bleed onto his boots. Trips waited to close the gates as a search party consisting of white armored Stormtroopers rushed out to see if there were any more attackers sneaking around the area. Spree and Blue were greeted inside the base with a white stretcher and the wounded sniper eagerly rested on it, happy to take any pressure off of his burning body. The medical crew quickly carried Spree to the medical center. Trips walked along with the stretcher, keeping a black gloved hand on Spree's arm but was told to, "stay outside", as the wounded scout was lowered onto an operating bed.
Spree fell asleep due to the dose of General anesthesia so he wouldn't feel the pain of the medical crew working on his leg and two cracked ribs from his ugly fall on the ladder. His vision faded as soon as his chest-plate and helmet were removed. The doctors cut open his torn, black, body-glove and got to work on his ribs and bleeding leg. His shoulder had a major bruise, but the discoloration would disappear in a few days to a week. They removed his shoulder-plate anyways so they could check for any broken bones or torn muscles there.
The operation on his chest and leg took the remainder of the nighttime hours and Spree awoke mid-way through the next day, the pain in his leg was minimal and the swelling in his chest had died down. A tight bandage wrapped around his chest and upper abdominal area covered a bacta strap and a few closed cuts from one rib that decided to shoot part of itself through his skin. This was most likely due to Spree's E-11 that was strapped on his back that had caused extra pressure onto his ribs when he had fallen from the ladder.
Spree fell back asleep, knowing that his squad wouldn't be able to visit him until after a mandatory patrol they had scheduled for that day. Though he didn't know what time it was, he guess he would have to wait to see his comrades for at least a few more hours. So he did what any other injured man that didn't die in a firefight would do. He took a victory nap for still being alive.
