After I beat the shit out of Jean and made him run away like a little.... well you know what some new wannabe hunters appeared trying to take revenge and get fame of true sharpshooter.
Well, they tried. One of the idiots have thought that by using concrete bunker behind first trench line he is safe from me and hunt leisurely. Unlike him I am not an idiot so instead of wasting time trying to snipe him out with my just 45/100 rifle skill I passed his coordinates to artillery and they just destroyed everything there with their heavy howitzers. I am not yet at the level of shooting squirrel 2000 meters away so have to use brains and not rely solely on rifle skill.
Other two were more sensible and tried to hunt me down similar way to Jean. But they clearly lacked his skills and imagination. So I just sniped them down. Although one of them survived due to combination of good and bad luck. Good luck, I made one of those few shots when bullet hits enemy sniper's scope. Bad luck, bullet lost its power and didn't reach the target although shattered optics damaged the sniper probably making him blind for one eye. So I can say that both of us had good and bad luck.
After dealing with them I started a free hunt, killing officers and wounding soldiers.
One day Robert passed a message requesting to have a chat about some interesting things. It turned out to be that republicans, their officers to be more specific, requested me to stop killing them. Wounding and giving warnings would be enough. They were ready to offer me money, gold and other valuable things.
Seems I got myself some sort of reputation since republicans are ready to pay me to ensure their survival. But situation feels fishy so I asked Robert for advice and opinion. He told me to accept it just to make sure that republicans don't cocky by giving them nasty wounds from time to time in case they start thinking they are having battalion of guardian angel behind their backs.
That's how I got myself new source of income and now in my inventory I have one gold ingot and a lot of jewellery. I also provide Robert his share since without his connections I would be on standard payment scheme which is not much. Now when this war will end I will have quite a sum in my pockets.
It was another boring day when I was polishing and doing minor repairs to my rifle in my dug out when Lt. Murphy requested me in his bunker.
- Akela, HQ passed urgent message requesting our battalion to provide support to our infiltrators returning from a mission. - he looked quite unhappy while explaining the reason for calling me.
- Lt. can I speak freely?
- Yes.
- It's going to be a mess and we are nose deep in shit. If I remember correctly there was similar situation before and extraction support turned out it into three day long meat grinder. - I heard about that story from Robert. It was a bloodbath back then.
- I know Akela but this is an order so we have to follow it. - Lt. said trying to look strict but I could see small signs of fear in his eyes.
- Understood. - I replied and went to prepare for shit to hit a fan.
It was night time and I was observing enemy positions using my scope. It all seemed to be calm and peaceful, only flares flying from time to time. But all of a sudden I saw small explosion and some shadows.
I heard orders telling people to get on positions and prepare for combat. I was busy observing MG crews and officers shooting flares. Right that moment I saw cloaked figures trying to cross No-man's land. but at least two or three MGs started shooting at them pinning and supressing them down.
I started sniping MG gunners and trying to damage their equipment by hitting the barrel and water cooling system. I was able to kill few crewmembers and damage two MGs and that turned a tide. Now we had clear upper hand in number of MGs firing so now it was our turn to supress them.
The only thing left to do is to get rid of flare shooters, so I started searching for them. I saw where flare was shot and made a lucky shot but seems I used up all my luck since I didn't see kill or wound confirmation from a system. But this provided infiltrators with time and opportunity to finally cross No-man's land. One of them even landed next to me.
- Thank you lads. Great job. - he started speaking but I cut him down.
- Get the fuck out of here. You got us some nasty headache here. Now shut up and start moving! - I yelled to him hastily reloading my rifle and trying to prevent dirt from getting in.
Next few moments night got as bright as a daytime since both sides started using mortars, cannons, howitzers and everything that can cause big explosion. I was trying my best to hide but artillery was turning trenches into large graveyard. Last thing I remember before losing consciousness was a big explosion near my dug out and feeling of being light as feather.