Bad Batch One Shots

The New Sniper

(Echo is on vacation with Rex in this short)

Cyrene's POV

  I laid atop a cliff near the edge, by sniper rifle trained on the distant horizon. I squinted through the scope, then sighed in disappointment when nothing showed through. Just more trees. Lots and lots of trees. Oh, and mountains. They were pretty cool. But nothing happened on Ghul Fian. It was a beautiful world yet rather quiet, as it was a rare world that most of the galaxy did not know about.

  I shifted my aim. I'd been training as a sniper for some time now, as it was a hobby as well as a passion. I wanted to get out in the world and do some good, instead of living on this world in my boring village and stuck being an orphan. Yeah, an orphan. Wasn't fun. People cared for me, but didn't entirely support my hopes for leaving the planet and becoming an expert sniper. But I was determined. I was decently good at shooting, but nowhere near as good as the snipers I'd seen on the holonet. There were so many snipers out in the world that inspired me, but some more than others. Like...

  I twitched, squinting into the distance. Something was coming at me at top speed. And it was on fire. I looked through my scope and saw that it was a ship, speeding down at an alarming rate towards the village. I gasped and hung my sniper rifle on my back, then grabbed one of my pocket knives and slammed it into one of the vines hanging from the cliff and scaled my way down from the cliff. I landed nimbly and ran towards where the ship had now crashed landed near the village. I was fitter than anyone in the village so I reached their first. I leapt over bushes and ran through ferns, then skidded to a stop before the ship. I kept my knife unsheathed, just in case. But this was the first excitement I'd had in...well, ever. I approached the ship cautiously, then froze when I heard coughing coming from inside, then a figure staggered out of the ship. Then a few more, all coughing. My eyes widened in amazement at the strangeness of the figures, then quickly went back to stoney, so as to not let my guard down. One was very tall, and bulkily built, while another was very short and looked like a young girl. A man with scruffy, dark brown hair with half his face tattooed emerged lastly from the ship, following a shorter man with goggles. Well, I thought they were. They looked highly advanced. Then my eyes landed on the 5th member. A tall man, but not as tall as the bulky one, and completely bold. But that wasn't what caught my eye. He had a large sniper rifle on his back, and a target tattoo on his eye. A real life sniper. From another planet. Could things get any more exciting?

  I stepped forward hurriedly. "Are you guys alright?"

  Each member jumped and had weapons in hand in an instant. "Who are you?" demanded the scruffy haired man.

  "Hey, I'm not a threat," I said calmly. "I just saw your ship crash and decided that you might need some help. I mean, if you want me to go I'll go, but I haven't had this much excitement in, like, forever, so it might take a bit more than telling me to leave."

  The five of them hesitated, trying to determine if I was a threat. The scruffy-haired man's eyes flickered to my knives and sniper rifle. I sighed and sheathed my knife. After a moment's hesitation the man did the same, the others following. I smiled.

  "That's a pretty bad wreck you got there," I commented. "There's a village nearby that can help you. They're quite friendly. Looks like you might need shelter for the night."

  "Who are you?" asked the man, who seemed to be in charge of the group.

  "I'm Cyrene," I informed them.

  The man hesitated then stepped forward, gesturing to his crew as he listed the names. "I'm Hunter, this is Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair and Omega."

  "Pleasure to meet you," I smiled. "Looks like you could use some patching up." I gestured to Tech and Crosshair, who seemed to have taken the worst blow from the landing. Tech was struggling to stand, one hand on the ship, and Crosshair's arm was bent at an odd angle slightly. "I'll take you to the village."