1 Winds of Change

Hannah silently studied the crowd in Gregor Square from behind the living-room window of the tiny second-floor apartment. It was a sizable turnout, more than a thousand people as she would later find out. Her eyes were soon on the protection detail present in the square, as well as the many small upstairs apartments situated above shops that flanked the square. No one… Save for a lone marksman watching from the roof of a building behind the makeshift stage where PM Cowling would make his speech.

Indeed, her target was the Etrian PM. He was the head of the nation and without him, there would be chaos. That being said, a decapitation strike wasn't what Hannah was supposed to be doing… Not alone at least. But circumstances change and as a wise man once said: "no plan survives contact". It might not be what she was originally ordered to do, but it is her mission now and this Anthroraptor intends to fulfill her mission. She walks away from the window and sits down on the couch, completely unbothered by the lifeless corpse that lay mere feet away from her legs.

She was the one who put him there, after all.

Opening her backpack, she retrieves both ends of a Prudeau Rifle that had been sporterized and turned into a takedown rifle, a 4x-power scope, a bolt, and three en-bloc clips containing five 6.2x50mm Prudeau cartridges each. Hannah turns the back-half of the rifle 90-degrees counterclockwise and places it into the front-half of the rifle before twisting clockwise to lock both ends in place. Next, she attaches the scope onto the aftermarket side-rail, taking sure to seat and lock the scope in the pair of locking holes she had marked. Finally, she inserts the bolt into her rifle and pushes an en-bloc clip into the magazine. To keep the chamber empty, she pushes the bolt forward while keeping the round on top pressed down, doing so until the bolt rides over the cartridge, at which point she closes the bolt on an empty chamber and decocks the rifle.

The Anthrowolf places her rifle down and rests it next to the window as she peers out once more, frowning in disgust at the turnout. Why? Why would so many show up to see an oppressor of the peasants? Her frown didn't linger, however, for a convoy of cars pulled up behind the makeshift stage. Security personnel could be seen disembarking and dispersing from the row of blacked out cars and four of them flanked a particular Anthroraptor who was wearing a suit complimented by a blue tie. Hannah compares the Anthroraptor with a picture of the PM.

It was him alright.

In an almost machine-like fashion, Hannah grabs her rifle, operates the bolt to chamber a round, and braces the weapon against the window-frame as she conceals herself behind a wall, taking great care to present as little of herself and her rifle as possible. She looks down the glass of her 4x-power scope; it offered a tiny, but relatively crisp field of view. Using her left eye to track and her right eye to gauge where the gun was pointing, Hannah moves the rifle onto the form of PM Cowling as he steps on stage.

Once she had him squarely in her crosshairs, she closes her left eye and disengages the safety of her Prudeau rifle. Taking care not to jerk her weapon off target, she slowly moved her finger onto the trigger as the crosshairs and PM Cowling came to a stop behind the lectern, on which a microphone sits.

THUD

Hannah snaps around just as a human in tactical gear barges through the door with an Anthrofox following close behind in more "contemporary" gear. With haste, Hannah drops her rifle and dives behind one of the smaller couches while drawing her pistol as a few shots are fired by the human.

"It's over!" He shouts. "No more running for you!"

"Come out with your hands up!" The Anthrofox commanded. "Don't do anything stupid. This isn't a movie; you're not going to shoot your way out like Pumpfrey Steward!"

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