Sniper

Location: Planet-side Military Installation 462-b
System: Classified
Constellation: Classified
Region: Hemitar
Time: 7:00 hours

It had been three years since Jarik Utoni had been abducted from the planet of Matar. It was his birthday in 6 days, he had kept track of that sort of thing, the only way he could keep himself sane through the lectures and exercises. Since that day in the 'Dark Room' he had been slowly and carefully trained in the arts of stealth by his instructors. Most of the other kids ignored him which is just as well, fights were regular here, and often deadly. Jarik was shaken from his daydreams by the sound of the lock on his door being rattled. He focused on the door and activated his ocular implant's infrared and saw the faint outline of three men, one of whom had the build of his commanding officer, Captain Jor Atkin. Jarik relaxed, if Cpt. Atkin was with them these men couldn't hurt him.

Captain Jor Atkin was furious,
"Tell me again how many dead?"
Cpl. Loon glanced down at the datapad,
"Most of the gate guards were killed as well as three of the recruits before they were able to get back inside."
Jor glanced at the guard attempting to unlock the door to his best recruit's cell
"Numbers, Jessica, I need numbers!"
"Approximately 25 personnel Captain."
"Fuck," He glared at the guard. "Give me those... you couldn't unlock a door if your life depended on it, which it might."
Jarik was standing at attention when Jor finally unlocked the door.
"Burn," he said "Stand easy, we have a problem."

"What can i do to solve the problem Captain?"
"Well Burn, it's probably best if you knew the problem in the first place."
He motioned towards Cpl. Loon,
"Please enlighten him Jessica, full disclosure please."
Cpl. Loon seemed distressed,
"But sir, he doesn't have the proper security clearance, in fact he doesn't have any."
Jor looked annoyed,
"That's an order Jessica, he is our only chance to fix this without outside help."
"Alright captain, alright."
She turned to Jarik, angry at being forced into this.
"Two days ago we received word that a covert ops frigate had breached the perimeter on the gates to this system. This morning at approximately 3:00 hours we lost contact with our field operations team. At 5:00 hours we lost contact with our guards on the gate. since that time anyone trying to check on the guards or get anywhere near the front gates has been shot down."
She turned the datapad to Jarik to show him the map.
"Here are the known dead and the presumed dead, shown as maroon and red 'X's on the map"
A large yellow circle was highlighted over the entire front of the base
"Here is the estimated killzone based on patters in the dead and the shot trajectory triangulated by our spotters."
Jor spoke up,
"In all honesty Burn, you are the last 'expendable' asset we have to deal with this threat."
Jarik smiled, seeing an opportunity.
"I will help you under one condition,"
Cpl. Loon's expression was one of mortification whilst Jor just smiled,
"I would like my branding ring back, and anything I salvage in the field will be mine to keep."
"Absolutely NOT!" Screamed Cpl. Loon, "If you think that we would be stupid enough to....."
Jor cut her off,
"I will personally train you in the use of any weapons you find while you are out there and we will immediately go to the impound to get you the ring."
Cpl. Loon just stared whilst Jarik smiled.
"Then let's get started shall we?"

4 hours later---

Jarik Slowly crept through the grass, it had taken him a while but he was now near the estimated location of the enemy sniper. The forest surrounding him lay still as if waiting for what was to come. He taped the mic twice to indicate that he was in position. Suddenly he heard the retort of the snipers weapon.
Once...
Twice...
It came from behind him and above. He uploaded his implant's visual feed to the base and began to advance on the position. Suddenly he heart a warning shout and was attacked from the side by What must have been the sniper's spotter. Jarik sprung from his spot and rolled into a riverbed to dodge the incoming fire from what sounded like a revolver.
"No, no, don't bother, I'll take care of him." he heard his assailant say.
Jarik thought back to his covert movement courses, a distraction, he needed a distraction. He grabbed a stone from the stream and lobbed it over the mans head and into the tree behind him. The distraction worked and as the man turned to look behind him Jarik was able to lunge from his hiding place and catapult to the mans back, executing him with a swift twist of the neck.

Now to set a trap for the sniper, He propped up the spotter's head and used his revolver to shoot the dead man in the gut, he then emptied all but one bullet into the ground and placed its barrel in one of the spotter's hands posing the other one over the slowly widening blood stain. He had no idea if the sniper was watching but this was his only chance to catch him. Jarik took up position near the body and splayed himself out making sure to have one hand holding the gun by the handle. He switched to infrared and waited breathing shallow and slow.
Not ten minutes later the Jarik's ocular implant registered movement in the clearing,
"Ah fuck, he couldn't even handle a ten year old kid."
The man approached the body and began searching taking bandoleers of ammunition and canteens among other things. Jarik slowly repositioned the revolver and aimed it at the sniper's head.
The man did not scream as he died, he didn't have enough time to, at close range the 50 caliber round from the revolver vented the sniper's skull sending gore and chunks of skull flying into trees on the edge of the clearing. Jarik got up and eyed his handiwork and activated the branding ring. Two marked corpses later he began collecting weapons.

Both of the men were using Minmatar Weapons, despite being Caldari themselves. from the site he recovered two 50 caliber revolvers and ammunition, a spotting scope with multiple interchangeable lenses and 150x zoom, and a Sniper rifle, interchangeable barrels, multiple weapon mounts and ammo calibration software built in to maximise penetration and accuracy. After he gathered all the stuff together he keyed the 'all clear' to the base and made double time back to the gates.

Jor met him at the gate,
"Burn, I am pleased with your work, these weapons will be returned to you when we deem it appropriate."
Two guards advanced weapons trained in Jarik.
"This is not unreasonable Captain, as long as I have access to them for training."
"You shall Burn, you shall."
He motioned to the guards to retrieve his weapons.
"Your firearms will be kept in a weapon locker that only I have access to, you will get full access when your training is complete."
Jarik smiled as he turned over the weapons,
"When does my training start sir?"
"Immediately, report to the Quartermaster to be briefed on the weapons you recovered. Then later we'll calibrate them."