by Tom Jones
Arcades looked down the large CDI field office tower. Jason was the first to comment on it, “Crikey, that’s quite the tower.” The fox nodded in agreement, “Solid copy on that. I bet it was expensive. Here, hold on. I’m gonna put her down here.” The fox pushed the yoke forwards, and he was carefully adjusting the yaw with the rudder pedals in order to bring the HH-60 in for a landing. Bocchino was looking at the uniformed CDI personnel that were already standing on the building. They were wielding SA80s complete with flat dark earth furniture. All of their rifles were equipped with RIS, and most of them had Trijicon red dot sights on the top rails. Arcades however was more focused on landing the helicopter.
Bocchino sat silently in the helicopter as he was watching the group of humans on the rooftop. Arcades was nearing the helipad, and he carefully held the yoke to make sure that he would touchdown on the building softly. After hovering right above the building, the fox finally let go of some of the throttle. The helicopter landed on the helipad. The fox lifted the visor of his pilot’s helmet, and he began the process of powering down the helicopter. Arcades placed the helmet in the empty co-pilot’s seat, and he began taking his gloves off. He was wearing his favorite Oakley SI Assault Gloves when he was flying. They were previously called the Oakley SI Pilot Gloves, and Arcades always wore them during his missions. The fox unbuckled his seatbelt, and he began to disembark from the helicopter. Jason and Bocchino were waiting for him to get up before they would disembark.
Arcades laid eyes upon the uniformed CDI contractors in England. He immediately noticed that they were using British equipment, such as the SA80 and their MK7 helmets. They were also wearing the same Oakley SI Assault Gloves that Arcades liked to wear, and they matched the rest of the green and khaki uniforms that CDI was known for. The fox watched as the humans were just seemingly staring at the anthros as if they were out of place. They kind of were out of place, as CDI was a company that exclusively employed humans. Bocchino and Jason were quiet, as they were waiting for the fox to do the talking.
A man who was not uniformed, but rather wearing a black professional blazer came up to the fox and began speaking. Meanwhile, the fox was wearing what he usually did, a dark colored polo shirt that was tucked into a pair of solid colored tactical pants. Arcades immediately recognized the man’s British accent, “Welcome, you guys are from Fox Security, aren’t you? We figured that there’d be more of you.” The fox nodded in affirmation, “Nice to meet you. I’m Kurt Hofmeier of Fox Security.” The fox held out his hand for a handshake. The human wearing the suit shook the fox’s hand, but he skipped over shaking the cat and the wolf’s hands. Two CDI soldiers were standing behind the man that Arcades was meeting. The fox presumed that they were his bodyguards. Arcades was unarmed; However, as he did not grab any weapons from his 4Runner when they arrived at Ipswich.
The man then spoke once more, “Come on, I’ll show you three inside.” Arcades, Jason, and Bocchino all followed the man and his security detail inside of the building. He led them to an elevator, which all six of them boarded. The elevator began descending, and Arcades was looking at the men that were holding the rifles. He could tell that they were not very enthusiastic about letting a few anthros in their building. Arcades was quick to remember that he was a fox, and he already could tell that they did not trust him. The fox felt in his pocket for the USB stick that contained the evidence he was going to present. When he was doing so, he used his peripheral vision, and he could see one of the CDI soldiers looking closely at him. The fox slowly moved his hand out of his pocket, and he tried to play it off as if nothing happened. The CDI soldier directed his attention away from the fox, but the human was still keeping an eye on him. Arcades knew that especially humans did not trust foxes.
The elevator arrived at its destination, and the fox stepped out of the elevator once he waited for the suited man and the security guards to do so. The fox motioned for his employees to step out as well. Neither of his employees were armed, but Arcades did not see that there was a reason why they would be armed anyways. They planned to unload their stuff when they finished up; However, Arcades would have to drop Bocchino and Jason back off at the airport in order for them to retrieve the vehicles. They only brought the HH-60 out of the Super Galaxy in order to fly to the CDI office, and they had made it just in time.
The fox took a look around at all of the CDI employees that were in the field office. They all wore green and tan, which were CDI’s signature colors. Most of the employees were working desk jobs, and only a few of the men were armed personnel; However, he was seeing more armed personnel than he was used to seeing in one place. The fox did not even carry out weapons back at his own office, as he typically kept them in his room. Part of Arcades was thinking that these security measures were only set in place because the office was being visited by anthros. After all, human-anthro relations have never been all that great, and the surprise attack by the NSS only made things worse. However, Arcades knew the truth about the NSS, and he intended to show CDI the whole truth.
One of the CDI members looked up at the fox, and he recognized him from a message that he had been sent earlier. The man stood up, and he retreated to a place to make a phone call. He dialed a number that was in his contacts, and he spoke once the line picked up, “He’s here. He’ll be approaching the upper conference room. Be ready. I’ll be in there too, so watch what you’re doing.” The man hung up his phone, and then he returned to his desk after a walk back to his workstation.
“We have confirmation that Kurt Hofmeier is in the building. We have multiple Omega personnel in the building with him, so watch your fire. Over.” The human sniper listened through the radio. He checked his rifle to make sure it was ready. He was using a black Accuracy International AXMC chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum that featured a suppressor at the end of the barrel. The sniper was wearing a black and blue uniform that was much like the uniform worn by the Omega ISG personnel that Arcades saw on the roof of Facility Eleven. The sniper looked through his scope, and he had a clear view of the conference room. He was in a building across the street that was partially still under construction. There were no windows that he had to break out in order to fire on the target building, and this would be beneficial because it would be harder for CDI personnel to spot where the shots were coming from.
“Copy. I’m in position. Requesting a sitrep on the anthros. Over.” The sniper was speaking to another member that was part of the Omega Foundation. The first man replied, “Anthros are in a holding pattern due south of the building. They won’t be moving in until the conference starts. We need to take Hofmeier alive. Understood?” The sniper checked the safety of his rifle as he transitioned to a set of binoculars to get a better view of the conference room, “Roger. How do I know who’s part of Omega and who’s an actual CDI member? Over.” The man over the radio replied, “If you don’t remember, they’re wearing small black strips of tape on the back of their shirts. They should be large enough to see with your binoculars. They’re armed, but their weapons are all concealed. We gave them the orders to fire on armed CDI personnel once we kick this off. Over.”
The sniper was able to see the black tape provided he viewed the personnel with magnification. The strips looked to be almost the size of name tape that was commonly used on modern military uniforms. Looking through the binoculars, he was able to see Arcades. He held the PTT on his radio while looking at the fox, “Visual contact on a black and white fox. He looks to be about six feet tall with a bushy tail. Black polo shirt tucked into khaki pants, no shoes, and a black web belt. He looks unarmed. Is this our guy? Over.” The radio operator waited a moment while he verified the information before responding, “Confirmed. That’s Kurt Hofmeier. Wait until we confirm that the ground team is moving in before you begin firing. Over.” The sniper looked at Arcades again as the fox stepped up to a podium. He noticed that Bocchino and Jason were near, but they did not climb up to the podium with him. The sniper advised the radio operator of the other t
wo anthros, “Be advised, Hofmeier has some company with him. There is a gray and white wolf, and there is a brown, black, and white tabby cat. How do you want me to proceed with them? Over.”
“Roger. Do not fire on the other two anthros. The insiders should be able to grab all three of them. However, the other two anthros are of least concern. Hofmeier is the priority target. Over,” the radio operator spoke. The sniper directed his attention to the fox with his binoculars. He could see that Arcades was about to start presenting, so he moved back to the sniper rifle. The sniper disabled the safety, and he made sure that a round was chambered in the rifle. He was just waiting on the go-ahead from the ground team, for he knew that they should be moving in at any moment now. He would be the first one to shoot, and his shooting would be the signal for the men inside to move in and attempt to capture the fox.
A group of four anthros exited a vehicle that they had driven to the CDI office. They stepped out, and they began walking to the office. Two of them were wearing suicide vests that had included incendiary grenades among other explosive devices. The other two were wearing trench coats that concealed their weapons that they would be using once inside of the office. All four of the anthros were part of the canoid race, but none of them were foxes because those were too expensive. They were all common mixed breeds that did not sell for much. Hence, they would be used for this suicide mission. The anthros did not talk to each other as they were approaching the building, and they seemed as if they were emotionless and indifferent towards the suicide mission they were about to carry out for the Omega Foundation.
A couple Stealth Hawks flew over Arcades’ old Fox Security office. The helicopters began hovering over the base, and the doors soon opened. Rappel lines were deployed from both helicopters, and eight men kitted in UCP began rappelling down from each helicopter. The men hit the ground, and they aimed their XMP-1s at the base while expecting to see resistance of some kind. Once they all had reached the ground, the helicopters both parted ways in order to get far enough away from the base in order to not get shot down by anti-air defenses. However, the Omega personnel soon noticed that there were no such defense batteries set up. The group of sixteen began to converge on the building from all directions. They noticed that it was quieter than normal.
“This is Gamma 1 Actual, AO is quiet. No sign of any Fox Security personnel. Over,” one of the operatives spoke. Another human replied over the radio, “Copy. Move into the building, but proceed with caution. We don’t know if they have any traps set up inside or not. Sanitize the building, and then begin Phase Two of the operation. Over.” Gamma 1 Actual acknowledged the radio operator, and then he signaled his squad to move into the building. When the other squad saw that Gamma was moving, the second squad leader signaled for his men to proceed as well.
“This is Beta 1 Actual, we are on the move, and we are converging on the south side of the office. Over.” The radio operator was monitoring their progress with the help of a UAV that was tracking them via infrared and electronic signatures. Beta soon reached the building the same time that Gamma did. Both teams stacked up at their respective entrances and waited for the radio operator to give them the go-ahead to move inside simultaneously. After a moment of silence, the radio operator spoke to all sixteen of the men, “Gamma and Beta, you are cleared to begin your mission. Sanitize the building before moving to Phase Two.”
Both squads moved inside of the building, and they did it quickly. They had toggled the laser module on their XMP-1s that would help them paint their targets. They reached the main hallway, and they split up. They still had not encountered any other humans or even any anthros. The squad split up into smaller squads of four, and they were able to cover the most ground in the least amount of time. As they cleared rooms, they shouted clear in order to alert the other members that a room had been confirmed to be empty. Most of the men were surprised how empty the rooms were. Most of the rooms lacked furniture. Others did contain furniture, but there was nothing inside any of the closets or drawers.
Beta 2-4 was able to find the Fox Security weapons room, or what was left of it. All of the racks were completely cleared off, and all of the ammunition had already been taken. The operative announced, “Weapons room clear,” before he turned around with some other members of Beta 2 to check the other rooms in the base. However, everyone was hearing the word clear rather than words such as hostile or contact. Omega was almost sure that they would be encountering Fox Security personnel. They even had orders to shoot and kill them on sight if they were humans. However, they were ordered to capture anthros alive, and they were to hurt them as little as possible. A few members in the squad were even carrying muzzles that would fit most anthros. The humans realized that they probably won’t be needing them now since they had not seen a single soul in the building.
“Thank you all for coming out here today. My name is Kurt Hofmeier of Fox Security, and I have gathered some evidence on the Omega Foundation that might be of interest to you.” The fox began his presentation. He plugged in the USB stick into the computer, and he was going to open the file. Before he went to open the .mp4 file, the fox spoke again. This time, he was going to start the story from the very beginning, “We all know that last week, we had the surprise attack of the NSS. I went to Berlin in order to assist the Bundeswehr in order to drive out the NSS from Germany’s capital. However, while I was there, I was notified that the NSS had been spotted in Abu Kamal, Syria. I flew over there, and I found an Omega Foundation emblem that was in the pocket of a deceased NSS soldier.” Arcades opened up the video, but he kept it paused first. He still wanted to provide context in order to inform CDI as much as he could, “Using some resources on the internet not indexed by search engines, we were able to track down the location of a place being run by the Omega Foundation.”
“Hey, you can’t be in here!” a CDI guard shouted when he noticed the four anthros enter the building. Immediately, the anthros with the suicide vests stepped back to let the other two anthros drop their trench coats. They both pulled out Heckler & Koch MP5 PDWs, and they began firing them at the CDI guards. The CDI guards unholstered their FNP-9s, and they began firing back at the anthros. However, the anthros shot first, and they were able to fatally wound the humans. The human guards collapsed to the ground while the two armed anthros folded the MP5 stocks outwards before finishing them off. Immediately, the alarm sounded in the building. Several uniformed CDI personnel ran into the lobby with their SA80s ready, and they began shooting at the anthros. The two anthros with suicide vests detonated their vests in order to cover for the anthros that were currently working on ascending to a higher level.
Arcades was the first to notice the sound of an explosion, and this caused him to pause his presentation in the middle of a sentence. He was preparing to tell CDI about Facility Eleven. He looked down for a moment, but when he looked back up, he saw the glass break in front of him. The man in the suit that he had met on the helipad collapsed after a loud sound of a bullet impacting. Arcades did not hear a gunshot, but he was not expecting to as he already assumed that the shot had come from another building. The fox did not even get a chance to show the video to CDI yet. Arcades immediately grabbed the USB stick, hopped off the podium, and he began running.
“Get the fox! Anthros are attacking the building!” Arcades heard several men yelling as they began chasing him. Arcades was not sure if they were genuine CDI members, or if they were part of the Omega Foundation. Jason and Bocchino also began running with Arcades. He saw a few more CDI members run in the room, but they were quickly gunned down by an AH-6 Little Bird that was now hovering right outside of the building. Arcades had to keep his distance from walls, for he knew that the Little Bird’s guns were able to penetrate them. The guns did indeed penetrate the walls, and they struck several CDI personnel that were responding to the scene. The fox briefly looked back, and he could see that anthros were piloting the Little Bird.
“Lost visual contact on Hofmeier. Over,” the sn
iper reported. The radio operator then replied, “Copy. Neutralize any CDI personnel that are on the current floor. They’re going to call in for some reinforcements. Over.” The sniper acknowledged the radio operator, and he began looking through his rifle’s scope again. He spotted a CDI member that was taking cover from the helicopter’s guns, and he took a shot. He watched as the .338 Lapua Magnum round penetrated right through the CDI soldier’s vest. The soldier collapsed, and the sniper began to scan the rest of the floor for any other hostiles. Once he deemed the floor was clear enough, he reported it to the radio operator, “Floor is clear. Tell the Little Bird that they can deploy their units. Over.”
The little bird shot out the rest of the windows, and the helicopter began lowering its throttle in the middle of the large conference room. The helicopter was used due to its small size, and due to the fact that four anthros were able to sit on the side of the helicopter. They jumped off, and they checked their M4A1s. They were not using XMP-1s as they were not technically full fledged Omega Foundation personnel.
The fox, cat, and wolf continued ascending the stairwell that they hoped would bring them back to the helipad that would allow them to escape. They would have to make their escape to the roof fast enough to give the helicopter plenty of time to start up before they would be seen by the Omega Foundation; However, Arcades was not sure if they would be able to pull such a stunt off. They continued progressing up the stairwell. The cat asked, “Kurt, do you have the evidence? Omega is probably gonna raid that room soon.” The fox nodded, and he felt for the USB stick in his pocket, “I got it! We have to keep this evidence safe. I actually have an idea of where to go. Stick with me, and we can make it out of here!” Jason decided to trust the fox.