by Tom Jones
“Human-anthro relations were never good in the first place, Kurt. Humans have always come up with ways to kill us and make it look unintentional. Remember that one scandal in 2003, when a small group of human hunters intentionally killed quite a few anthros? They used the excuse, ‘Oh, we thought they were animals.’ You know what I mean?” The fox nodded, “Yeah, I read up about that. They did that in retaliation because the anthros took over Malbork Castle. I think they were Polish, too.” The cat nodded in agreement, “Yes. Humans would not listen to us. It doesn't matter what you show them. They’ll just blame it on us anthros like they did before.” The fox shook his head, “I still think we have a chance. Those hunters were not part of CDI. They were still a new company back then. It would ruin their reputation to sponsor those guys to do that.”
Bocchino shrugged, “Eh. You know that CDI tends to look the other way when anthros are involved. Though they’re not supposed to just shoot on sight, it happens sometimes. You’re way more likely to be spared by them if you’re a human rather than an anthro.” Arcades frowned, “I know that it’s unfortunate, Bobby. We have to do something, though. Things are only going to keep getting worse if we just sit around and not do anything. Remember when I did my internet campaign that I started all those years ago? You were one of the guys that I met because of that. You told me that I inspired you because I had the drive to try and fix human-anthro relations back then.”
Bocchino remembered the past, “Yeah… I mean, you did help the relations back then on a small-scale. However, you can’t fix everything.” Arcades confidently said, “Well, I certainly want to give this a shot. This is a chance that I am willing to take. If we get this evidence, it can turn the tides. Remember, the people orchestrating all of this are humans. Imagine how it would look if this ring was exposed to have been run by humans the entire time.” Bocchino shook his head, “It doesn't make sense. What is their endgame? What are they hoping to accomplish?” Arcades replied, “Maybe they want to keep human-anthro relations in the declining state that it is currently in. Think about it. One major thing that humans always say about anthros is that anthros do a lot of sexually deplorable things. A lot of anthros try and deny this, but it gets harder and harder for them to do so, for new stuff constantly surfaces to the public. There is just way too much evidence stacked against them.”
“Yeah? What are you getting at, Kurt?” Bocchino questioned. Arcades answered, “Remember what you told me that one train car you searched contained? You said it featured sex toys. The two anthros that we pulled out of the train car that Jason and I entered were practically wearing gimp suits. They even had sex toys in their orifices when we found them. I took that cage off of Cipher’s penis, by the way.” Bocchino snickered, “Holy shit, you have more courage than I do down there, damn!” Arcades frowned before brushing off the cat’s comment and returning to his thought, “I think that Omega is doing this on purpose. They’re making the anthros driven by sexual pleasures in order to methodically wreck human-anthro relations. Maybe they hope that they can drive us to extinction.”
“I dunno, Kurt. Seems kind of far fetched if you ask me. However, I’ll let you believe that if it makes you feel any better,” Bocchino said. Arcades frowned, “I don’t have to get permission from you to believe this.” The cat shook his head, “No, I didn’t mean it like that.” Arcades raised his eyebrows, “Well, let’s just leave it as that then.” Bocchino decided to ask Arcades for confirmation, “Are you doing this or not?” The fox nodded, “I sure am.” Bocchino was not sure what to think. The cat objected again, “So, assuming that you can make your way out of the complex. What are you going to do for exfil? I don’t think we’d be able to just land the Pave Hawk and pick you up. Especially if they notice you as you’re leaving. They probably wouldn’t hesitate to just shoot us right out of the sky.
“How about I make my way to the nearest town or something, and you guys can pick me up via vehicle? We can take the Mustang or the 4Runner with us on the C-17. Maybe even both if we need to.” Bocchino considered the vehicles, “Which would you prefer? The speed of the Mustang, or the fact that you had the 4Runner armor plated?” Arcades considered the vehicles as well. The fox reached a conclusion, “Well, if we can get both on the C-17, then we can bring them both. You guys can decide I guess when I make my exit. I’ll probably keep in touch via comms.” Bocchino shook his head, “Not sure if we can get close enough for comms. Remember, the internet says that they’re pretty touchy with people coming near their complex. That’s all we really have to go by, as there ain’t jack shit on the internet besides that.”
Arcades came up with another idea, “How about you leave the cars in a designated location? I can find you guys myself after I leave. Though I wouldn’t be in touch via radio, I still would be able to find the vehicle and make my way back to a predetermined rendezvous point.” The cat decided the idea could work, but he had another objection, “Perhaps. However, I don’t think we’re going to just standby until you find the car you’re looking for.” The fox nodded, “Yeah. How about you just leave the car somewhere that I would know, and you just give me the keys? I would be able to drive the car myself to the RV point.” Bocchino nodded, “Alright… You’re a fucking madman, Kurt. Don’t forget that. I think you’re one crazy son of a bitch.” Arcades nodded, but he had mixed emotions due to the cat’s comments, “Not the first time someone has told me that…”
“Approaching the drop zone. Get ready back there, Arcades,” the pilot announced to the fox. Arcades stood up from his seat, and he adjusted the oxygen mask that he was wearing. Thomas was also in the plane with the fox, and he was there to make sure that Arcades was ready to jump. Thomas spoke, “Boss, lemme check your parachute.” Arcades turned around to let Thomas check the parachute. While the human was checking the parachute, the fox felt his FAST helmet. It was not rated for ballistic protection, but it did provide some bump protection. On the right hand rail of the helmet, Arcades had his Contour ROAM ready to record. It was attached with a reinforced polymer mount that clipped onto the rails to hold it in place.
The fox looked down at his black pants. They were the same pants that the fox wore during his Hong Kong mission, and he even wore them when he infiltrated the hotel. Arcades was wearing his black JPC 2.0 again, but he was not wearing any plates inside of them. He only had the vest to carry equipment that he needed. The vest was light enough by itself already. Arcades was also not wearing a battle belt over his web belt. He did have a dump pouch attached to his web belt in case he needed to put away some equipment.
Arcades’ Salient G17 and his multi-tool was all the fox had to protect himself with. He knew that he would not be able to take on all of the Omega Foundation personnel if he was placed in the situation. Arcades did not even have a round chambered in his G17. He did not like carrying his weapons while they were loaded, especially since he was not planning on shooting anybody.
“Alright, you’re good to go, boss,” Thomas said. Arcades turned his neck to look at the human. The fox nodded, “Alright. Sounds good.” Arcades had planned to stuff all of his parachuting equipment into his Crye Precision General Purpose Pouch that was attached to the back of his JPC 2.0 once he landed, and he knew that burning the parachute would likely draw attention due to the lighting conditions. He did not want to leave any evidence for the Omega Foundation to find. Arcades moved his Oakley goggles from the top of his helmet to his eyes. He checked to make sure everything was fully sealed. Arcades checked his oxygen mask again. He did not want to deal with hypoxia while parachuting from the high altitude.
The fox looked at the red light that turned on in the aircraft. He knew that he would be jumping soon. Thomas stood back away from Arcades, “Alright, boss. This is it. You’re ready to go. Good luck down there!” The rear door began to open, and Arcades prepared himself for the jump. Part of Arcades wanted to record the jump, but he knew that would only waste his camera’s battery and storage space. He needed to use all of the storage
space in order to gather enough evidence. Arcades looked down out of the plane, and he could see that it was still dark outside. It would not be daytime for another few hours. Arcades decided he would use the cloak of night to make his way in and then escape in the daytime. He figured in case he was detected, Omega would not follow him to a town in broad daylight, and Arcades would be able to escape easier.
The fox was still not wearing shoes, but he was confident that his fur would keep his feet warm enough on the way down. Thomas walked away from the door, and he kept his distance. He wanted to give the fox all the space he needed, even though Arcades did not require all of that space. The pilot announced, “Ten seconds to drop. Get ready.” Arcades’ heart was beating as he was counting down the seconds before he would deploy. He silently prayed to God that he would make it to the ground in one piece. After Arcades finished, he looked up to see that the light changed from red to green. The pilot announced, “You’re over the drop zone. Drop now!” Arcades took a deep breath, and he threw himself from the aircraft.
All Arcades could hear was the noise from the wind. His ears were not covered by the helmet as they flared outwards instead. Arcades tried to look for where he was supposed to be going, but he could not see due to the layer of clouds that prevented him from making visual contact with the ground and the complex. Arcades also was not wearing night vision equipment, so he would have to look hard in order to find his deployment zone.
The fox entered the layer of clouds after falling through the sky for a good moment. He still could not see where he was going, but he knew that he would not open his parachute until he came close to the ground. After all, HALO did stand for High Altitude Low Opening. Arcades could feel his dump pouch was rubbing up against his tail again, but he would not be able to move it until he reached the ground. His black dump pouch attached with buttons that were sturdier than the velcro on his Multicam dump pouch. Arcades was waiting to exit the clouds before he would think about opening his chute.
As Arcades finally exited the clouds after falling through them, he was now having an easier time looking at the complex that was down below. Arcades waited a couple of seconds before pulling his ripcord. He barely heard the parachute deploy over the noise of the air. He could feel the drag that the parachute generated, and Arcades was yanked backwards due to the force of the drag. The fox looked down at his objective, and he worked on steering himself towards the complex. He did not seem to have been detected, so he felt that was a good thing. Arcades did not notice any searchlights that were around the complex, so he assumed that they probably used some form of infrared imaging technology. He was hoping that none of them were aimed directly upwards, otherwise they would easily be able to see the fox and the large chute.
Arcades was now fast approaching the ground, and he noticed that he would be able to land directly on the roof of the main complex. He felt that would be a good thing, because it would allow him to hopefully gain access to the facility. However, he was hoping that the roof entrances were not activated by RFID technology like the doors in the hotel were. Arcades was not quite sure what to expect. He finally was able to move his dump pouch away from his tail this time. Arcades also checked his other gear to make sure that he did not lose any of it. He brought less gear to this mission because he wanted less stuff that he would be able to lose on the way down. He also did not want heavy SAPI plates to be weighing him down during his escape.
Arcades assumed the landing position as he was now very close to the roof. The wind was not too heavy, and the fox thanked God for this. Arcades landed feet first on the roof, and he could feel that the roof was colder than the air that he was falling through. Finally on the roof of the complex, Arcades worked on getting his parachute off of himself. He unbuckled the parachute from his person, and he began compacting it to be as small as it would be able to go. He also removed his oxygen mask, and he placed it with the parachute that he was preparing to stuff in his large pouch that was strapped to his plate carrier.
When the fox finished compacting everything down to a small enough size, he doffed his plate carrier in order to access the pouch on the back. Arcades opened the pouch as wide as it would go, and he began stuffing the parachute and the oxygen mask inside of the pouch. Once he finished, the fox closed the pouch up, and he put his plate carrier back on. He was glad that he was not wearing any plates. Plates would just slow him down, and he did not need that happening in this environment. Arcades also removed the goggles that he was wearing, for they were slightly inhibiting his ability to see. He moved them from his eyes and placed them back on his helmet; he figured that they should be secure enough resting on top of his helmet. He also felt the camera lens to make sure that he was not missing his camera. After all, the camera was the most important mission related item that the fox was carrying with him. If he was missing it, the mission would be over before it started.
Before Arcades proceeded, he rolled up his dump pouch, and he secured it by using the velcro that was integrated on the pouch. He wished that he did this before he jumped from the plane, as he wouldn’t have to deal with the pouch flapping on his tail on the way down. Now that he was ready to begin the mission, the fox looked around to see where he would be able to enter the complex from. Arcades began lightly walking on the roof of the complex. He knew that he could not make too much noise, otherwise he would probably be detected by the people inside. However, the fox was not even sure if there were people that were directly below him. Arcades continued to search around for a way inside of the complex.
After walking around a good portion of the roof while looking for a way in, it was not looking too promising for Arcades. Though the fox did spot a couple ventilation shafts that he could potentially use to gain entry to the complex, he did not see any doors that seemed to take him inside. However, Arcades was only on one part of the complex. Since the complex was so large, the fox thought that there could be an entrance in a different part of the facility. Arcades did not want to spend too much time on the roof, for he felt that he could be detected if he took too long. Arcades was starting to feel that the ventilation shaft might be his best way inside again. He knew that he would definitely be shrouded in dust from crawling through a shaft again, but he considered that it could have the potential to camouflage him almost. Arcades decided the vent would be his best way in.
The fox approached one of the ventilation shafts. He did not know where they led to, but he decided to take his chances. When Arcades crouched down to open the vent, he noticed that it was locked. Arcades was expecting some things to be locked, so he opened one of the thigh pockets on his combat pants, and he removed his lockpicking set. Arcades took out one of the tools and a pin, and the fox worked on opening the vent. After a few moments, he was able to unlock the ventilation grate. Arcades put his tools back away, and he removed the grate from the shaft. The fox assumed the prone position, and he began crawling into the vent to proceed with the mission.
Making his way through the vent, Arcades was listening to what he could hear from the vent. However, he could not hear as much as he was hoping to. Arcades stopped in the vent to look at his gloved hand; dust had already claimed a large chunk of the palm of his glove. The fox continued. As the vent was just large enough for him to crawl through, Arcades was glad that he was as skinny as he was; Otherwise, he would not be able to crawl through the vent at all. Arcades stopped crawling when he heard a loud creaking noise. He held his breath, and he wondered what the noise was coming from. He then could feel his crawl space starting to warp. Arcades was not sure what was going on. Suddenly, the fox was dropped from the vent. He had broken right through, for the vent apparently couldn’t support the skinny fox’s weight.
Arcades hit the ground head first, but his helmet took the blow for him. The noise generated by the breaking vent was fairly loud, and the fox hoped that nobody heard the loud crashing sound. The fox stood up, and he brushed some of the dust off of his clothes. However, dust completely covered his uniform
and equipment again. Arcades was having a few flashbacks to the hotel again, as the sight looked very familiar. Trying to gather some bearings, the fox was not sure where he landed. He looked around the room that he was in, and he could tell that it almost seemed like a storage room. Arcades looked at the shelves that were in the room, and he checked the shelves to see what they contained. However, he did not notice anything that he wanted to take. Arcades decided that it would be best to continue with the mission.
When the fox opened the door, he was immediately met with a smell that was familiar to him. It smelled like it did when he was infiltrating the hotel. Arcades’ face contorted when he took in the smell. Arcades looked around, and what he saw was all the more horrifying. He looked upwards and downwards to see anthros of all kinds that were locked in cells. It almost looked like a prison of some sort. Arcades spotted several guards wearing full UCP kits that were walking around. They looked just like the NSS troopers, but they had MICH 2000 derived helmets rather than PASGTs. Arcades could also see that they were wielding XMP-1s rather than Steyr AUGs. None of the guards were wearing any patches either, not even a national flag or emblem.
The fox flipped on his Contour ROAM, and he began recording the guards and the cells. As he panned the camera around while slowly moving his head, Arcades was trying to find a way to get better footage as his camera did not have a zoom function. The fox turned around, and he was standing directly in front of one of the cells. Inside was a light brown anthro wolf. The wolf was bound with his hands chained above him, and the chain was connected to the ceiling. His legs were spread apart by a metal rod, and he was outfitted in the same latex suit that Arcades saw Cipher and Pixy were in when he rescued them from the train. Arcades noticed a small device on the floor, and he used his eyes to follow the wire that was connected to the device. The wire seemed to be connected to the wolf’s crotch area. Arcades looked closely, and he was able to see that the wire did run past the zipper that closed the crotch area up on the suit. Arcades looked at the wolf’s face, but he couldn’t gather much since the wolf was blindfolded, collared, and muzzled.