Ghillie

"*What do I Have in Common with a Painter? We Can Both Cover Blue in Red.*"

Ghillie is a RED Sniper TF2 Freak created by the user ScoutCommandoProx, and a member of the 10-man team known as Spectre Squadron.

His theme song is “Inside a House - Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker OST”

His combat theme is “Time Window - Payday 2 OST”

## Story

Born in Wellington, New Zealand but raised in Sydney, Australia, Ghillie always enjoyed pranking his friends, performing the water-bucket-on-the-door prank already at an age of six. When he was a schoolboy, he enjoyed natural science classes, focusing his studies on those subjects. He grew very fond behind both nature and animals, but also behind the physics of magnetics.

Although he finished his education, he did not succeed very well in getting a full-time job, upon which he decided he would try to start off a living on hunting, believing he would be able to gain some money off of it. He then started practicing with bolt-action rifles and hunter equipment, until he saw it fit to go out into the wild and begin hunting. He was very successful, and had been able to gain a pretty large sum of cash. In a time of five years, Ghillie was completely reliant on his hunting skills, and practiced a lot to increase his effectivity.

However, one day things turned the wrong way. When Ghillie was out hunting in one of Australia’s rainforests, he accidentally trespassed into territory belonging to the company BLU. Unaware of his situation, he proceeded to hunt some animals in the area, which caused bells inside a nearby facility to ring due to the gunfire. Ghillie at first believed he had simply accidentally hit something inside the facility, and went to apologize and offer to pay for any damage done, only to discover that he had become the hunted, as BLU sent a team of mercenaries to locate and dispose of the hunter, believing he was an immediate threat to the facility.

As the mercenaries started firing at Ghillie, he became aware that the only way he would survive was if he would fight back, which he did. He shot five mercenaries, trapped three with hastily made snare traps, and left one to escape. After this event, he chose to lay low and never speak about what had happened in that rainforest, though it did not go unnoticed. He soon discovered that BLU was spying on him, and shortly after he decided to seek protection at BLU’s rival company, RED. It was accepted, and when the company leaders discovered what had actually happened, they decided to train him into the mercenary ranks of the company.

Ghillie received months of training, both with snipers as well as other weapons and equipment, and from his time in the field, he discovered how aggressive BLU’s mercenaries actually were. Based on this knowledge, he built strategies based on ambushing and trapping enemies whilst remaining effective at longer ranges. Due to this, he was able to score many victories for the teams he was placed into. As time passed, he was eventually offered a spot in the newly built Spectre Squadron, a unit dedicated to highly skilled, professional and freakishly uncommon mercenaries.

As he joined the squad, he quickly became friends with fellow teammate and engineer Houston, who agreed to help Ghillie with developing a few tools to help him in combat, such as his goggles, capable of tracking statistics and enemies, and one of his traps, capable of defying the laws of magnetics, something that confused Houston at first but amused Ghillie.
Despite being pretty much forced into his job, his new gadgets and training made him actually enjoy it, and he quickly lived up to the expectations that were set for Spectre Squadron members. These gadgets as well as his excessive training eventually led to him getting enhanced reaction time and agility.

## Appearance

"*Either you're blind, or I'm invisible.*"

Ghillie has two outfits, one casual and one for combat.

His combat outfit consists of the Bushman, Hawk-Eyed Hunter, Forest Fatigues, Marksman's Mudders and the Over and Outer Wear. In addition to this, he does not wear the common Sniper's shades with this outfit.

His casual outfit consists of the Camo Commando, the Chronomancer and the Triggerman’s Tacticals.

## Personality and Behavior

"*50 Dollars for that hat? I could have shot you another five times and it would have been cheaper!*"

Ghillie is mostly a cheery person, mixing it with his pranks and fooling around. He is very friendly, and will often try to cheer up his allies when something is wrong. Sometimes, he questions his position in the squad due to him simply being a hunter who ended up in a bad situation. He sometimes talks about returning to his life as a hunter when the conflict between RED and BLU cools down and he will no longer be needed in the ranks. As such, he heavily believes and hopes in ending the war before it ends him.

However, when he enters combat, his personality almost straight up changes to a different person, becoming an almost frightening level of professional and serious. Despite this, he gets very amused when enemies walk into his traps, and might even taunt the enemy if they are incapacitated due to his traps. He shows a particular dislike against Heavies, due to their ability to use suppressive fire against him, essentially preventing him from returning fire.

Ghillie smokes fairly often, and will gladly give cigarettes to his teammates, often using it as a means to start conversations.

## Powers and Abilities

"*What's the matter mate? Attracted to me or somethin'?*"

Ghillie acts as the team’s Sniper, and as such carries a sniper rifle to complete his job. However, he does carry more gadgets that allow him to enter areas unavailable to other Snipers, as well as carrying tools for stealth and camping. In addition to this, he acts as the team’s trapper, using magnet-based traps to disable enemies from attacking. In addition, he has impressive reaction speed, capable of reacting in a fraction of a second. His enhanced agility is still far from being on the levels of a Scout, but it allows him to temporarily move at higher speeds as well as climbing walls and obstacles to reach vantage points unavailable even to normal Snipers.

* **L.O.H-U Goggles:** Ghillie wears a set of goggles that appears to be common night vision goggles, but they also provide him with a rangefinder, wind speed and air moisture measurements, as well as a targeting system featuring bullet compensation for moving targets. The goggles can be connected to Ghillie’s sniper rifle with a wireless connection, increasing efficiency. The rangefinder and measurements work with any rifle, but the bullet compensation function only works when connected to his own sniper rifle.
* **Deadeye:** Ghillie mixes an increase of bolting speed and charge speed for his sniper rifle along with a semi-lock targeting system, allowing him to become a much more dangerous unit in long-range combat.
* **Magnetic Pads:** Ghillie is capable of placing down magnetic pads that allow him to manually activate a powerful experimental magnetic field, capable of instantaneously disarming enemies of their weapons, as long as they are made of metal. The field is capable of attracting metals that normally are not magnetic, but it is obviously not capable of attracting weapons made of for example wood or polymers. This means that the trap can also disable enemies made of/wearing metal.
* **Shock Trap:** Ghillie’s second trap tool, this piece of equipment is a “shockwave” taser with six slots for cartridges, each capable of releasing 50 000 volts of electricity into the victim of the trap. Although the trap is not always very discreet, it can be manually triggered using a detonator coupled to the box with an extendable cable.
* **Hunter’s Hollowpoint:** Ghillie is able to load in a magazine of hollow-point rounds, dealing double damage as well as inflicting bleed and slowed movement on the victim. This however has no penetration value, and also deals half damage against machines and Engineer buildings. In addition, the weapon becomes twice as loud when firing one of these rounds.
* **Portable ECM Jammer:** This handheld tool allows Ghillie to disrupt signals on three different settings: Radar & Inf.Red, Camera, and Communications. When placed onto a setting, it completely jams the machinery mentioned on the setting, for example, if placed onto the Camera setting, Ghillie is able to slip past CCTV cameras without being spotted.

In terms of armory, Ghillie carries a setup quite similar to that of common Snipers, but with heavy modifications and enhancements. His choice of armory is:

* **Modified Designated Marksman Rifle:** This rifle chambers 7.62x51mm rounds, perfect for long-range anti-personell use. This rifle is also modified to be wirelessly used with Ghillie’s goggles to generate a heads-up display providing vital information to the wearer. This rifle is also semi-automatic, allowing for a fairly quick rate of fire in comparison to a common sniper rifle.
* **Tactical Shotgun:** A famous shotgun design, remade into a lever-action weapon. Packing modularity and compact frame into one, this weapon will stop any close-up foes in their tracks. In comparison to a common shotgun, this weapon has a faster fire-rate, upgraded recoil control and tighter muzzle spread, as well as being loaded with Flechette shells, with increased amounts of pellets and penetration.
* **Jagged Machete:** This Machete has an increased damage output, as well as a high durability. Its saw-bladed backside can turn it into a utility knife, capable of cutting wires, wood and even thin metal. It is however fairly heavy, and therefore has a longer swinging time.

* **Infra-Red Smoke Grenade:** When this grenade detonates, it creates a large cloud of smoke mixed with particles of brass and graphite, capable of disrupting laser-based systems. As an example, it is capable of disabling the charge-up connected to Sniper rifle lasers and disrupting lock-on systems. Therefore, it can act as a shield against many modern-design projectiles. It is also capable of disrupting nearby radar systems.

## Faults and Weaknesses

"*You and I are a lot like mate. Except you're a big-head, and I'm outta here.*"

* Ghillie heavily relies on the functions of his L.O.H-U goggles. Therefore, disabling the goggles using for example EMP pulses or other disrupting tools will make it somewhat harder for him to effectively use his sniper rifle, though this is mostly noticable if fighting in rough environment like a tropical storm.
* Ghillie wears no armor, and therefore takes full damage from all sources.
* Ghillie only has a little more health than a normal Sniper, and can be taken down in one critical hit from a shotgun.
* Disarming Ghillie of his melee weapon makes him much weaker in close quarters, due to his physical strength being somewhat weaker than an average mercenary.
* The placement of Ghillie’s Shock Trap can become a weakness, since the cable for the detonator will lead straight to him, therefore easily giving away his position to cautious enemies.
* If one catches Ghillie off guard, it is possible to move his Shock Trap to a position where it will instead tase Ghillie himself upon being triggered.
* Hunter’s Hollowpoint is unable to pierce armor, and therefore juggernaut-like- and armored characters can become nearly invincible to the high damage output of these rounds.
* Ghillie is still very vulnerable to Spies. Although he will most likely notice the Spy before they backstab him, he will most likely panic and fumble to get his machete or shotgun, giving a small window of time to attack before he strikes back with full force.
* Ghillie’s Magnetic Pads will obviously not disarm weapons that are not made of metal, therefore, as an example, Huntsman Snipers and Sandman Scouts are not affected by the trap.
* Ghillie is often oblivious to Dead Ringer Spies, and can therefore easily be ambushed by one due to him often taunting lone enemies in close quarters.
* Despite Ghillie’s rifle being fitted with a suppressor, Hunter’s Hollowpoint makes the rifle even louder than if it didn’t have one. This means that he might easily reveal his position as he fires one of these rounds.
* The IR Smoke Grenade will not stop incoming projectiles, it will only disrupt laser systems such as lock-on targeting and Sniper's charge-up shots.

## Trivia

* “Ghillie” is a term used for camouflage made to resemble vegetation and background environment. As such, it allows its wearer to blend in with foliage, snow or sand depending on the design of the suit, which is normally handmade by its wearer. These kinds of suits are generally associated with snipers, due to their highly camouflaging nature, but they are used by normal military infantry as well.
* Interestingly enough, the Australian military refers to ghillie suits as “yowie suits”, meaning that it would make more sense if Ghillie’s name was Yowie. His name was however kept Ghillie due to it being a more widely-known term.
* Despite being called Ghillie, his outfit does not actually resemble a ghillie suit, the only part that could be considered so would be his headwear.
* Interestingly, his L.O.H-U Goggles only cover his left eye, despite him using his right eye to aim down the scope of his rifle.
* Ghillie's radio callsign is Double-Sierra-Eight. Sierra is NATO Phonetic alphabet for S, and Double-Sierra translates to SS (Most likely the initials for Spectre Squadron) and Eight refers to Ghillie being the eight member of the squad. Interestingly, in the ingame class selection screen, the Sniper is number eight in order with the other classes.
* Hunter’s Hollowpoint are most likely slightly modified hollowpoint-type rounds, a bullet type that features a hollowed-out tip, intended to cause the bullet to expand once it strikes its target. Therefore, when fired, it puts all of its kinetic force into the target, dealing significantly more damage to tissue, at the cost of penetration, as the bullet folds out inside of its target, which can be useful when the user wants to avoid collateral damage.
* Ghillie’s Shock Trap is based on a similar real tool, occasionally used by S.W.A.T teams to incapacitate enemies.
* The acronym for the L.O.H-U Goggles stands for “Laser Oriented Heads-Up”, referring to the HUD systems that the goggles provide.
* Ironically, Ghillie’s smoking habit would likely have an effect on his job, since effective sniping often relies on the use of lungs to increase precision as well as maintaining focus and keeping your heart frequency at a calm level.
* The Tactical Shotgun is a massively shortened and modified Benelli SPAS-12.
* Infra-Red Smoke is a tool used in real-life military vehicles as a countermeasure against thermal imaging and laser designators, and is usually fired out of launchers to create a large smokescreen, which features particles of brass and graphite.
* Ghillie was the fourth character in Spectre Squadron to receive his design, the first three being Commando, Tsar and Echo respectively.
* Ghillie's appearance made a very large jump from Garry's Mod to Source Filmmaker, replacing nearly all of his cosmetics with updated ones.