Aidan Bao

In the sleepy, seaside village of Harbor Town, few things were more exciting than the arrival of a blonde haired stranger.  What his purpose was no one knows but he claimed he was a simple fisherman, looking to settle down.  One day, this man nearly drowned in a storm, saved by a beautiful coast guardswoman named Alina.  In time the two were wed, and Aidan was born.  This is the extent of the story Aidan knows of them anyway, as not long after his birth the man was killed in a barfight, and his mother died not three years later while trying to rescue another fishing boat during one particularly hazardous storm.  The young Aidan, orphaned and alone, would instead be raised by his uncle, Commander Jan Vin of the United Forces.

Growing up on ships and bases his entire life, Aidan was constantly surrounded by soldiers.  The military was his entire life as his uncle didn’t really have the time, or the expertise, to raise the child in a conventional manner.  Instead his uncle taught him the virtues of a man who would be of great service to the United Forces.  While never getting very good at the sheer strengthening exercises, young Aidan was always quick on his feet.  Taught how to deal with all sorts of bending through dodging, ambushing, and generally being as far away from the threat as possible and deal with it from a distance.  Should fighting turn hand to hand, he was taught how to fight in a manner that would allow his escape, to create as much distance as possible between himself and his target.  Aidan was taught the values of loyalty, honor, duty to his Republic and to protect the innocent.  His uncle had a phrase that Aidan learned to internalize rather quickly.  “There are three kinds of people on this world, sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs.  Most are sheep, simply trying to live their daily lives.  There are wolves in the shadows, which always prey on the sheep.  Sheepdogs look like wolves, can fight like wolves, and bear the same sharp teeth, though they devote their lives to defending those who cannot defend themselves from the wolves.  Remember what you are, always.  A sheepdog.”  His uncle would die living those words while taking down a pirate base, leaving Aidan alone at 15.

For two years, Aidan tried to join the army but to no avail.  Not allowed to live on base any further, he traveled up and down the United Republic, where he would mainly shine shoes to make a living, calling any place he rested his head "home".  Every time he entered a new town he would try to join at the local recruitment office, and each time sent back, being told he was “too young.”  Finally, at 17, Aidan tried in his home town of Harbor Town to join the United Forces.  The recruiter, recognizing the orphan who entered his office as "Alina's kid", took pity on him and helped him lie on his recruitment forms, making him “18,” and sent him to basic training.  There he excelled and was soon picked up by men in blue uniforms, stating they wanted him for “special assignment.”  Soon after he was sent to special schools where he learned self-reliance, became one of the best shots with a crossbow in the United Forces, and became a part of Special Operations, codenamed “Hawkeye.”  Though that nearly wasn’t the case.  In one of the early training accidents Aidan was nearly incinerated when a firebender got a bit too overzealous in the fighting.  He survived, but he still bear the marks on his arm and leg to this day.

His first few assignments were relatively simple.  Stopping a bandit group here, hunting and tracking some threat or another.  But when the equalists started to build in strength Aidan had a new assignment.  Infiltrate them and report back to UF command on the goings on of Ammon and his Equalists.  After earning their trust, he learned of the Equalist plot to overtake the city and the council Aidan returned to his unit and they quickly went underground, preparing to fight.  During the assault his team was one of the few forces loyal to the council to survive, and consistently harassed Equalist supplies and forces until the Avatar was finally able to bring Ammon down.

For his work, Aidan was promoted to Corporal, and set about helping  train the next batch of crossbowmen for the United Forces when a new assignment came in.  A secret assignment, one which if the president ever discovered it would get him and his team possibly dishonorably discharged.  The United Forces needed information on the situation in the South Pole, but the President had explicitly banned all military operations in aid of either side.  Disguising themselves as traders they snuck into the capital city of the South Pole and began to get to work.  Reporting back to General Iroh on the oppression of the Southern Water tribe, sabotaging Northern supply depots, aiding the resistance, all sorts of missions that thankfully the President never found out about.  After the events of the Harmonic Convergence Aidan returned to the Capital City, the now Sergeant Aidan Bao helps the United Forces relief efforts and attempting to keep the Republic safe.  To say he's not happy with his new neighbors is something of a mild understatement, though he doesn't really know what else to do aside from just ignore the spirits and try to go on with his life.

“Hawkeye, report in.  Do you see them?”
“Aye, I got them in my sights, permission to engage?”
“Not yet.  We’re not in position.”

Aidan grimaced as he sat in a bell tower with the crossbow pointed down at the square below.  The Equalists had set up a large checkpoint and begun weeding out the benders from the non-benders.  He couldn’t stand it, just sitting there waiting as the sad sight below unfolded in front of him.  Mothers crying out as their child is ripped from their arms, desperate men trying to wield what element they knew before being pinned to the ground and bound and gagged.  It sickened him watching these so called “equalists” enforcing their rule through force and fear.  They didn’t want ‘equality’ they wanted superiority for themselves.  They wanted power, a blind man could see that, and they were simply trying to take the greatest threat to their future power out.  The fact that he had had to hide out amongst their number for even a day still sickened him.

“Hawkeye, we’re in position.”
“Took you long enough Team leader.”  Aidan grinned, aiming at the man shouting commands at civilians and placing his fingers on the lever.  Taking a slow, easy breath, he exhaled and lined up the cross hairs of his crossbow.  Just as the equalist was shouting through his megaphone at his soldiers Aidan pulled the trigger.  The bolt flew straight and true through the air and struck the man with the megaphone in the neck.  As the blood spurt forth from the man’s neck Aidan re-loaded his crossbow and fired again, striking the shoulder of the man next to the commander.  Soon, the rest of his team charged in with a combination of fire, water, and earth, bringing the equalist tank to the ground and attempting to evacuate the civilians.  Aidan kept up the fire, shooting from his perch at the masked men who charged at his comrades.  As he stopped to reload, he looked up to see one of Ammon’s airships turning towards the square.

“Sir, we need to wrap this up.  Big boys are coming down.”
“Roger Hawkeye.  Pack up and bug out, we’ll rendezvous at safehouse F.”
“Aye aye sir.”  Pressing a button on the stock of his crossbow, the bow collapsed into it and he slung it back over his back.  His job for now was done.  The civilians all escaped into the alleys and tunnels of the city, with the operatives escaping not long after.  Running down the stairs, Aidan wondered just how much longer they could keep up open resistance like this.  The enemy was better armed, better organized, and they had already defeated the first force try to retake the city.  The Avatar better figure out something soon…