Disclaimer: I do not own the current image cover of the story. I'm thinking of making my own in the future (and if that happens, I let you know), but for now I'll be using this one.
Chapter III-It's the Eye of the Eagle, It's the Thrill of the Shot
It was midday, the sun was high up and it shone brightly upon the lands on the south of Vale, the sky was clear, and the only sounds present in this peaceful scenery at the moment were the light breeze and the birds chirping...until a soaring Bullhead past by, ruining the peacefulness with it's loud engines.
Inside the Bullhead's metal structure, the passengers present were men wearing militaristic outfits, complete with bullet vests, waist pouches, spare ammo clips and tactical grenades and each were doing something while they waited for the bullhead to arrive at their destination, weather it was making small talks to each other or maintaining their weapons.
Everyone were minding their business, until one of those man that was cleaning his combat knife decided to speak up to one particular passenger present in front of him.
"Hey, huuuh... Gale right? Why are you here again?" the man questioned, looking up while stopping what he was doing. "We might not be on Atlas's soldiers level, but we can still deal with a simple terrorist situation on our own."
The passenger in question known as Gale was a young man with short black hair with high slicked sides and yellow piercing eyes. He was wearing a lumberjack jacket made of leather that was partially opened, revealing a dark gray undershirt beneath, a leather strap with sniper rounds diagonally positioned around his torso that was slung over his right shoulder, and combat gloves. He also had beige colored cargo pants, with a belt with few pouches, grenades and a sheathed machete behind, and ankle high combat boots.
Gale, turning his gaze away from a person beside him that he was previously talking, gave the man in front of him his attention with a curious glance, noting the man's slight disdain undertone when he questioned Gale's presence. The young man knew that the negative emotion was not exactly directed at him.
"Oh, don't take it too personal, it's not like they doubted Vale's Militia skills." Gale casually pointed out. "The General just caught on to the fact you guys were short on one man, so he took that has opportunity to put my skills to the test, sorta like a training."
The militia soldier was a bit skeptical, but still considered the response satisfactory. "Hmm, I see..."
The soldier next to Gale frowned a bit to his colleague, but smiled nonetheless. "Ooh come on, lay off him! The kid's just fighting for his future career."
Seeing this, Gale just waved his hand dismissively with a friendly smirk.
"Nah, I get it dude. Atlas has a shitty habit of sticking into other kingdoms business, so some fucking guy from Atlas suddenly interfering into Vale's problems would be sketchy. "
Gale's words took any passenger within earshot by surprise. Usually most of the people that come from Atlas took pride in their kingdom's technological advances and militaristic government and are more easily offended if their kingdom is mocked in anyway. But the yellow eyed teenager just casually pointed out his own kingdom's flaws without too much of care.
Shaking off his surprise, the soilder in front of Gale decided to change the topic.
"Yes, right...So by the looks of it you're gonna be our dead-shot." he observed, taking notice of the weapon that was beside Gale. "Aiming to become Atlas's top sniper?"
The young sniper took a glance at his weapon that was leaned in a seat beside him.
It was an AWP sniper rifle that was costumed painted with a white body color with black and yellow ochre patterns organised in a sci-fi design (pretty much an AWP with Assimov skin, except the orange color is replaced with a yellow shade). On the side of the stock there was a circle with a symbol in it that was composed of an eagle's eye with wings on it's sides and a sniper bullet vertically crossing the eye. There was also a black and purple zebra patterned cowboy hat hanging from the top of the barrel.
"I'm not exactly trying to. Not to brag, but I'm just good at it." seeing the looks he was receiving, Gale quickly clarified. "Of course it ain't as easy as I making it sound, but I had less struggles owning my skills than other sharpshooters." 'Well, considering my semblance...'
"So it's like a gift you got?" the soldier next to him guessed.
"Yeah, you could say that. Not the first time that people put it that way."
The conversation and the small talks went on for a few more minutes, until they were all interrupted by the Bullhead's intercom:
"Destination in sight. ETA 3 minutes." the voice of the pilot came out bit static from the intercom.
After it went silent, every passenger started to pick their weapons and tactical gear.
Gale reached for his jacket's pocket and took out a white cloth mask with two holes for his eyes that had slight burn marks on the outlines. He put the mask on, it hugged loosely on his face and reached to his collarbone, grabbed the cowboy hat hanging from his weapon, he then grabbed the weapon and slung it to his back where the weapon vertically hanged there.
"Alright people!" one the soldiers called every passengers attention. "We all know that they came for the pipelines in that village, but remember: there are two spots where they can use as a bomb site. Also, remember the callouts."
Everyone present gave a sign of understanding, they had previously studied the village's layout and decided that it was better giving names to specific locations of the map in case somebody needed to call out for emergency.
Gale gazed at the nearest window and took notice of the approaching town. The small town had old Vale architecture, considering the loosely rectangular layout, two- story houses with roof tiles and chimneys, and finally the religious looking tower that was almost in the center of the town.
But his eyes took notice of something else. Squinting his eyes more, he realized that there was human activity in a corner of the small town.
"Huh, would you look at that. The idiots with the capital T are already on the scene, boys." Gale stated in a joking tone.
"What?! Let me see!" the man who spoke earlier took a pair of binoculars while approaching the window. After four seconds of observing, he came to a conclusion: "God damn it, now they know we're here."
"Well it's not like we were gonna be stealthy in the first place." another soldier said.
"Yeah, but it kinda ruins the surprise factor." Gale pointed out.
The man with the binoculars could only sigh. "This doesn't change anything. Pilot, drop us at the opposite corner!"
Following the order, the pilot started progressively descending the aircraft as it crossed the town into an open area that was surrounded by houses and had also a well covered by a small tile roof. The Bullhead soon stopped and stayed afloat three meters from the ground. The aircraft's side door slid open and the soldiers jumped out one by one, each landing in a crouching position, and after the last passenger got out the Bullhead started ascending again.
Gale analysed his surroundings including his companions. The militia team consisted of seven men including himself: two with assault rifles, two with SMGs, one with a LMG, one with a shotgun and himself with a sniper rifle. All in all, the young sniper considered the team well balanced enough.
"Gale, how many targets did you spot?"
"Heh, about 10 ten guys."
"Okay, let's split up." One the soldier with the assault rifle decided. "One group will be camping at A-site, the other will cover the B-site from any threat coming from Banana."
"Seriously, of all the names we could've picked for that alley..." Gale muttered jokingly.
"Let's do this then!" Another soldier stated as everyone readied their firearms.
And so the team split up, Gale's group, which consisted of him, the two SMGs and the rifle, proceed to jog through a path in front of them, passing the well, while the other group of three went through a underpass to their left.
Gale's group continued on the path for a few more meters until they came upon a fountain in a corner surrounded by wooden crates and barrels.
"CT3, you'll be camping here at B-site." The lead rifle ordered one the SMGs users, who nodded and walked to an isolated corner covered by boxes.
With possible bombing site covered, the rest of the team started heading down the path until they've reached an alleyway. It was then that the team heard approaching footsteps from the other side of the alley, and Gale's eyes caught the sight of a small cylindrical object being thrown in the middle of the path.
"Oh shit! Take cover!" Gale shouted.
As soon the sniper ended the sentence, men wearing military equipment appeared around the corner and began to fire their rifles at the group. Thinking quick on his feet, Gale rolled behind a car that was to his right, the lead rifle of the team did similar by taking cover behind a corner to his left. Unfortunately, the soldier with the SMG did not react fast enough and was immediately thrown to the ground with a pained shout by the opposing firepower. The object that was thrown earlier produced a hissing sound and started releasing a large amount of dark grey smoke, obscuring the terrorists location as they kept laying down fire.
The lead rifle could only grit his teeth in anger. "Great, smoke 'nade, just what we needed!"
"Don't worry man, I got this!" Gale exclaimed as he aimed his AWP over the hood of the car.
"Are you nuts!?" the man shouted in disbelieve, firing a few times his weapon from his corner in hopes to hold down the enemy a bit. "You can't just peak them through the smoke!"
"Wanna fucking bet!?" Gale responded confidently with a grin hidden beneath his mask, and at that moment the man noticed something changing in Gale's eyes, black marks started appearing on the sniper's iris, creating a cross around the pupil.
Gale closed one eye and looked through the sniper scope, zooming on the dense smoke, and several faint, white outlines started to appear in his vision that took shape of rough humanoid figures. Aiming at an outline to the farthest left, he took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger.
BOOM
The sniper projectile flew straight through the smoke with the loud roar from the weapon, and an agony filled yell was heard from the other side of the smoke. Gale released his breath, pushed the weapon's bolt action back, letting an empty bullet shell pop out of the chamber and hit the floor, pushed the bolt action back to it's place, felling another round entering the chamber, and aimed at another outline on his field of vision.
"One T down!"
BOOM
"And another one!"
BOOM
After the third shot, Gale noticed one of the two remaining outlines performing a throwing movement with it's arm and not much after a flaming molotov flew out of the smoke aimed at his location. Without a second thought, the young sniper jumped over the car, his previous cover being set ablaze after the sound of glass shattering, and dashed to the smoke's direction. As he was sprinting, he pressed a small lever on his AWP, and the weapon started shifting.
The barrel of the AWP and the scope retracted to the weapon's body, which shifted into a more blunt rectangular shape, and a cylindrical grip slid out from the center of the weapon's butt. With the transformation complete, the sniper rifle had shifted into a cricket bat.
Holding the bat to his right side, he prepared for a left swing as he darted through the smoke towards the outline figure to the left of his vision. As soon as he dashed out through the other side of the smoke, he was met with the terrorists shocking expressions, who were totally unprepared for their enemy's recklessness.
"Surprise idiots!" Gale exclaimed as he swung his bat to the man on his left.
Gale's bat ended up meeting with the enemy's temple that produced a bone-shattering sound on impact and the man was send rocketing to the wall beside him with a loud thud. The other terrorist, shaking off his shock, aimed his rifle at Gale, ready to retaliate. But Gale, using the momentum of his swing, spun around and hit the man's solar plexus with the pommel of his bat, causing man to double over in a pain-infused coughing fit and misfire his weapon to the side. Taking this opportunity, Gale swung his bat to the man's right leg, forcing the enemy on one knee, before preparing another swing and unleashing it on the man's forehead, sending him sprawling to the ground.
After the last man went down, the smoke finally cleared, giving the lead rifle, who was still near his cover, a clear view of the five bodies all sprawled out on the floor. Getting out of his cover, he began approaching the young sniper, giving the bodies and Gale dumbfounded looks along the way. When he was beside Gale, he gave one last stupefied look before shaking his head.
"I swear, for an Atlas sniper, you're way more reckless than I thought."
Gale only snorted his response. "Hey man, no guts, no glory."
As they went on their way, their hearing picked on the sound of gunfire in the distance, and not long after, static sounds started emerging from their earplugs.
"We need assistance at B-site ASAP!" came a man's static voice from the earplugs, accompanied with the sound of gunshots . "I'm pinned at Library with CT7, he's hounded! CT5 is down!"
The leader put a finger on his earplug and clicked it. "This is CT1, we're on our way!"
"Hey, we can just go through Arch an-"
Gale did not finished his suggestion, as he was interrupted by an explosion in the distance that made the ground shake slightly.
"Shit! Arch and Kitchen are blocked!"
Gale could only gain a deadpanned look. "...Well fuck."
"Then we gotta move, FAST!" CT1 declared.
The young sniper, however, stopped him "Okay, hold up a sec! How about you go through Mid and flank them on Arch side, while I go through Balcony when you're providing distraction."
"But-"
"They planted the bomb!"
The man wanted to object, but he couldn't come up with a better plan at the moment and they were short on time more than ever, so he had no other choice but to agree with it. "Fine! I'll give you a signal!"
"Roger that." Gale replied, giving, a mocking salute.
With that, they proceeded to run down the path before turning to the left, where crossed an underpass. The duo then reached the point where they separated, while CT1 continued on the current path, Gale turned to path on his right, running a few more meters before stopping in front of an entrance to a building to his left. He put his AWP back behind him and took out his machete from his sheath, which started shifting until it took form of an TEC-9.
With his semi-automatic pistol ready, he went inside the building and took the stairs in front of him before reaching a long hallway. After crossing the dark hallway, he came upon a corner and saw an exit that lead to balcony, noticing an enemy in it with his back turned.
"Be veeewy quiet. I'm hunting idiots." Gale jokingly whispered to himself as he observed the enemy on the balcony, waiting for a opportunity.
"I'm in position." came the static voice from CT1.
"Alright, do it now." Gale whispered.
And not long after, sudden gunfire was heard from outside along with some yelling, distracting the terrorist on the balcony. Gale took the window opportunity and sprinted to the balcony while firing a stream of dust-infused bullets that pierced the enemy's body, making the man loose his balance and trip off the balcony's railing with a scream. When he reached the balcony, he quickly took notice of the nearest enemy on the level below. Shifting his TEC-9 back to a machete, he stepped on the rail and leaped forward off the balcony, rapidly descending towards the enemy.
"Good night, baby!" were last words that the unsuspected enemy heard, before Gale forcefully landed on his back and plunged the machete to his neck.
As Gale took the machete out of the body's neck, he realized CT1 already took care of two targets, leaving one last terrorist who was a few meters from him. With the target distracted, Gale made a bee line and lunged at the terrorist, machete ready. The last survivor turned around but did not have enough time to avoid the incoming assault, leaving Gale an opening as reached his enemy and stabbed his foe's abdomen.
The two were face to face, staring at each other for a moment, before the terrorist started coughing out blood. The young sniper forcefully pushed his foe off his blade, making him fall against a box behind him. As the remaining team was approaching him, noticed something on his fallen enemy: even though the enemy was dying and covering his hound, he gave Gale a disturbing bloody smile, before closing his eyes. And soon after, Gale felt a wave of negativity coming from the dying man, and after a few moments, his eyes widened in realization.
"Oh, you piece of shit!" Gale immediately shifted the machete to gun mode and killed the dying man with a well placed shot to the head.
As the body slid down to the floor, the rest of his team was already beside him.
"Uuuooh, what the hell was that for!? The guy was alr-" the soilder could not finish his phrase as he was interrupted by a dreadful noise.
ROOOAAAAARR
All of their heads snapped to the direction where the monstrous roar came from.
"...What was that?" CT1 slowly asked.
"Grimm." Gale responded, slight worry present in his voice. "This bastard attracted Grimm on purpose as a last ditch out effort!"
"Damn it! We don't have time for them!" The soldier with the shotgun, CT6, desperately exclaimed. "We still have a bomb to defuse."
"Then you defuse the bomb, while me and Gale cover you, CT3 will be covering CT7." the leader ordered.
CT6 could only nod hesitantly before he headed to the bomb that was in the middle of the crates. "Alrigth, but it's gonna take me sometime without a propper defusal kit."
"Don't worry dude, we got you covered." Gale reassured, putting his pistol on the belt and readying his AWP. "Just do your thing."
As CT6 worked on the bomb, Gale and CT1 stood on guard with their weapons ready, waiting for the wave of Grimm. A few more seconds passed, and they started hearing several Grimm growls getting rapidly closer, making the duo's bodies tense. Suddenly, several Beowulfs jumped off the roofs of the houses, growling ferociously at the humans.
Without a second thought, the duo started firing their respective weapons, gunfire music filling the air, laying waste of any opposition who came even remotely close to the site, a few came sometimes too close, but were quickly dealt with, courtesy of Gale's machete and precise strikes. A roar erupted not too far from them, and an Ursa came out of the corner in the distance that immediately charged at the duo. CT1 fired a few bursts at it, but it proved ineffective at stopping the dark creature on it's tracks, so he dove out the it's path. Gale, however, stood his ground with tense muscles waiting for the right moment to counter-attack. The moment the Ursa came close to him, Gale jumped high over the creature, performing an aerial twist, before aiming his AWP down with his right hand and firing a round that obliterated the Ursa's head, splattering black blood on the pavement.
After landing on his feet, took a glance at the headless corpse laid on the floor, slowly disintegrating, before giving his full attention at the group of Grimm present before his eyes, all hissing and growling as if they were promising pain.
"This ain't gonna cut it, I need to get messier." Gale muttered as he reloaded his weapon, letting the empty clip hit the ground and smacking a new one in, before shifting his weapon back into a bat. Grabbing the grip, he gave it a little twist and small triangular blades resembling spikes popped out of the sides of the bat.
"Cover me!" he yelled at his companion, holding the bat in a stance ready for a swing, and the lead rifle who was already on his feet nodded, aiming his rifle.
Gale immediately charged at the opposing wave in front of him, CT1's shots staggering any Grimm who tried to flank the charging sniper, and swung at the first Grimm that was on his way, an Beowulf, and the spiked bat sawed through the beast's neck, decapitating it. An Ursa tried to take a swipe at him, only for Gale to roll out of the way and perform a downward diagonal strike, enabling the bat a few inches deep on the Ursa's shoulder, who gave a pained growl. Seeing that his weapon was stuck on the beast's shoulder, Gale pulled a trigger present on the grip, and a sniper round was fired from the top the bat, the recoil of the weapon helping Gale on cleaving the Ursa diagonally in half. Two Beowulfs approached from his right, and Gale bisected both of them by the waist with two shot-propelled swings before grabbing his machete with his left hand and stabbing it to a third Beowulf that came up behind him on the head.
Removing the machete from the dead creature's head, he shifted into it's gun mode and fired a few rapid bursts upon three incoming threats, killing them with precise shots. Another Ursa came charging at him, only for Gale to jump out the way, rip through one of it's legs with his bat held on his right hand, which caused the creature to trip slide through the ground with a pained roar, before Gale spun around and emptied the rest of the TEC-9's clip on the beast's head. A few more incoming threats charged at him, but he dealt with by performing a combination of bat swings and machete swipes. Another Beowulf tried to get a drop on him, and Gale stabbed it in his chest with his machete. Still impaled in the sharp weapon, the canine beast tried to bite Gale a few times, only for the young sniper to draw a frag grenade from his belt, shoving it on the creature's mouth, removing the safety-pin, and kicking the beast of his blade. The Beowulf was staggered back near a group of Grimm, and before it could react, the canine and the rest of the group were blown up with a blast, kicking dust and Grimm limbs in the air.
Only one Beowulf remained and it stood there for a few moments growling, before charging straight at Gale. The yellow eyed sniper patiently waited for the Grimm to get close, as soon as it was close Gale swung at it...only for the canine to jump over him, surprising him. Following the creature's movement's with his eyes, Gale noticed that Beowulf was not charging for CT1 either, so it went for...the man defusing the bomb, who also took notice of it and started panicking.
"No, you don't!" Gale yelled with widened eyes.
Reacting fast, he quickly changed the bat back to the AWP and aimed at the Beowulf who was already jumping towards the man. Time seemed to slow down as Gale took a deep breath and aimed at the beast's head, before all coming back to normal when he pulled the trigger and sending the round obliterating the Grimm's head, his headless body falling over the man.
"Boom! Headshot!" Gale exclaimed in glee, popping the empty shell out of the chamber with a pull of the weapon's bolt, before noticing the man still sprawled on the ground. "Huuuuh, dude? The bomb."
The man, quickly shaking off his shock, got up and continued on finishing the defusal. After the few more seconds, the bomb stopped repeatedly beeping and the man gave a huge sigh of relief before raising a thumbs up in the air.
Seeing the job done, Gale raised his arms in the air "And it's good!"
The rest of the team could not help but to chuckle at his comedic display of enthusiasm.
The leader put a hand on his earplug and clicked it. "This is CT1. Objective has been completed, you can pick us back up."
"Roger that."
The remaining team were back on the seats of the Bullhead, resting their tired muscles. As the time passed on, the leader looked at the young sniper seated across him and decided to strike a conversation.
"So, where do you go from here?"
Gale, who had already took off his hat and his mask, opened one his eyes to give the man his attention "Hhmm, I was thinking about becoming a hunstman, but I think I'll be joining at an Academy out of Atlas."
The man was slighty surprised. "Really? I heard the one from Atlas is one of the most prestigious academies."
"Yeah, I just don't like the way they persuade their student's to enlist in the Special Operatives unit by shoving it down our throats." Gale explained with a slight disdain present his voice. "I wanted to join something more 'loose', know what I mean?"
"I guess you have a point." the leader agreed. "If that's the case, do have already an alternative choice in mind?"
Gale stood there, thinking for a few moments, before finally giving a response with a small smile. "...Well, I heard a lot great things about Beacon Academy, so you never know."
And there you go. Before you say it, yes, this chapter was based on CS GO (the town in this chapter his pretty much a replica from the map Inferno).
The character was heavily based on a Youtuber named Smii7y and his persona (I based Gale's outfit on one of Smii7y's H1Z1 videos), so there's that. Finally I'll be presenting the final character on the next chapter before moving on to the main story. So that's all I have to say, I appreciate your reviews, hope you enjoyed this chapter and i'll see in the next one.
See ya.