An Overwatch BASTET short story has been released featuring Ana Amari and Jack "Soldier: 76" Morrison. The two heroes from Blizzard's first-person shooter find themselves in the midst of a perilous mission (and a good bit of downtime as well.)
The short story titled BASTET was written by Michael Chu—pretty much the head honcho in charge of writing story for Overwatch. It's presented in a format similar to Japanese light novels with the occasional illustration interspersed in-between the written text. The reveal of the story was announced in a tweet on the game's official account.
A never before seen Ana skin was also revealed in the Overwatch BASTET story:
As for the story itself, it details a mission undertaken by Ana and Soldier: 76 at some point after the fall of Overwatch. Actually, it's more like the aftermath of a mission—the Overwatch BASTET short story appears to be a continuation of Ana's comic Old Soldiers (also written by Michael Chu). Following the conclusion of the battle, Soldier: 76 and Ana must evade the local authorities and retreat to her base at Necropolis. They manage to just barely make it there, but Soldier: 76's health takes a turn for the worse.
Another interesting bit from the story happens right towards the end. It's best avoided if you want to skip spoilers, so maybe go ahead and read the story for yourself first [PDF] if you care about that sort of thing. (You can also just skip over the next paragraph.)
While Ana and Jack are reminiscing about the past, Jack looks at a photo of himself and another man. A few lines of dialogue imply that he was engaged in a homosexual relationship with a man named Vincent. Vincent has apparently moved on and married someone else. It's not really made clear whether Soldier: 76 is homosexual, bisexual, or something else entirely, but it's a pretty solid indication about the character's background. This would make for the second confirmed LGBT character in the game after the cover girl Lena "Tracer" Oxton. The final moments of the story also indicated that Ana and her husband's relationship may have not worked out as it emphasizes that she no longer wears her wedding ring.
Regardless of what you might think, the Overwatch BASTET made for a pretty good read. You can check it out for free over at Blizzard's website [PDF]. We don't know when we'll be getting the new Ana skin, but it certainly does look pretty cool!
Update: a tweet (spoilers abound!) from Michael Chu has clarified the situation regarding the ending of the short story.
What do you think of the Overwatch BASTET short story? What are your thoughts on the revelation at the end? Let us know in the comments below!
