by Tom Jones
“Are we going to take those two blokes with us?” Jason asked as he pointed in the direction of Jim and Bocchino. Arcades replied, “I don’t think we’ll need them right now. They probably want to take a minute to rest after we’ve been flying all day.” Jason then asked, “Where are we going to go then, mate?” The fox looked up at the sky, and he tried to figure out which direction was north. Since the sun was not obstructed by clouds, Arcades was able to determine his bearings. Arcades turned to face the eastern direction, “How about we go this way for a little bit and see if there is anything that sticks out?” Jason looked back at the helicopter, “What if we need to talk to them?” Arcades communicated his answer by pulling his Kenwood NX-5400 from his chest carrier’s radio pouch, “They’ve got one of these as well. We’ll be fine. They even have built-in GPS just in case we need it.” Arcades did not proceed until Jason agreed, “Right. This shouldn’t take too long I reckon. Now should it?” The fox shook his head reassuringly, “Nah, we’ll be fine. Let’s go.”
Jason inspected the HK433 he was carrying as he walked with Arcades, “When did you buy this gun?” Arcades briefly looked at the rifle, “I’ve had that one for a few years now. It’s not as good as my GRY, but it’s still a very decent rifle. Heckler & Koch makes some pretty quality weapons, but they do come with a hefty price tag sometimes. If I’m not mistaken, the special forces from your home country use the Heckler & Koch 416.” Jason did not know if the Australian Special Air Service used the HK416, “I wouldn’t be able to tell you.” Arcades smiled as he continued walking, “Not many people could, really.” Jason looked back at the rifle, “So does this thing use the same ammo as your rifle?” Arcades pulled the magazine out of his GRY, “Not only do they share the same chambered cartridge, they are both STANAG compliant. If need be, I can give you some of my magazines or vice versa, but I’m not really expecting an outcome like that.”
Both anthros were now standing at the top of a hill. Arcades looked down at the ground below, and he could see a small encampment. The fox pointed at the encampment, “Look at that down there. You think that’d be a place worth checking out?” The wolf squinted as he looked where Arcades was pointing, “How often do you see just one little campsite out here anyways?” The fox shrugged, “I have no idea. Maybe the people down there are friendly. What do you think?” Jason was somewhat reluctant, “I dunno mate. What if they don’t take too kindly to us coming in there?” Arcades replied, “If you ask me, I’m pretty sure it’s abandoned from the looks of it. Why would anybody stay in there anyways? You know what? That could actually be a place for us to stay.” The wolf was reminded that the collective group of four currently had no idea where they would be sleeping, “There would be better than nothing.” Arcades took his hands off of his rifle, “Then I say we should go down there.” Jason decided to trust the fox, “Alright. I’ll follow you then.” Arcades began making his way down the hill, and he briefly stopped to face Jason, “Let’s get moving down there. Shall we?”
After a brief trek down the hill, the two anthros were now meters away from the encampment. Arcades looked at the front entrance, “I guess this’ll be our way in. Provided it’s open, that is.” The wolf looked at the corners of the small building, but he didn’t see anything that was out of the ordinary. From the exterior view, the small encampment looked as if it was completely abandoned. After all, the crude building probably served as temporary shelter anyways. Arcades approached the right side of the door, and Jason followed behind the fox. Arcades took a deep breath, and he quietly counted down aloud, “Five, four, three…” Jason held his breath as his partner was preparing to make an entry. Since he was not wearing gloves, he could feel that his hands were having a slight difficulty firmly grasping the handguard of the HK433. Even though the fox was wearing gloves, he was practically sweating through them. Arcades was not sure if he would be able to even hold his weapons at all if he didn’t wear gloves. After all, the lack of footwear did not stop the fox’s feet from sweating either. As the two anthros were now ready to enter the shelter, Arcades pushed the door’s handle down, and he realized that the building was not locked. Arcades watched the doorway as he pushed it open with his left hand. While his Salient GRY was lighter than other AR-15 derivatives on the market, the fox sometimes struggled keeping it held upright with one hand. The L3Harris-made devices that Arcades attached to his rifle were not helping either.
After waiting a few moments for something to happen in the open doorway, Arcades turned to his right and nodded to Jason. Since the interior of the shelter looked relatively dark, Arcades moved his Oakley glasses on top of his boonie hat again. Arcades considered that having tinted lenses in an already dark room was not the best idea in the world. Jason was not wearing any eyewear, so he used the brief moment of downtime as an extra moment of preparation. After the fox successfully moved his eyewear out of the way, he gripped the Magpul angled foregrip of his rifle with his left hand, and he took a stance that would provide him with the best balance to move inside of the building. Jason noticed what the fox was planning, so he took up position behind the fox.
Arcades did not know if he wanted to enter the building with his weapon raised or not. He knew that his training would tell him to have his eye trained on the sightlines with his holographic sight, but he really did not want to shoot anybody. The fox decided to shoulder his weapon, but he would keep the weapon’s selector switch on safe. The fox pressed the up-arrow on his holographic sight, and the button enabled the sight to display the reticle. Jason patted the fox’s back once he saw that Arcades was looking down the rifle’s sights. Arcades began moving forwards into the building while Jason followed right behind. The fox cleared the first room of the building by sweeping his weapon’s barrel around to make sure that the room was completely absent of hostile forces. After clearing the first room, Arcades lowered his weapon since he knew that there were no hostiles in sight. The fox turned around to face Jason, “Phew. I’m glad nobody was here.” The wolf gave a smile of relief as he turned around to view the open door that was still letting sunlight enter the room they were in. Arcades began looking around the room some more, and he could see something that looked oddly unfitting for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The fox spoke as he recognized what he was looking at, “Huh? There’s a Blaser R93 sniper rifle sitting on a mat in here.” Jason looked at the fox, and then he noticed the rifle propped up with a bipod, “Is that what that is?” Arcades squatted down to inspect the rifle outfitted with modern tactical furniture, “That’s right. It’s a German made rifle. I really don’t see how one of these got all the way to a place like --”
The fox jumped back as his speech was interrupted. Arcades looked up, and he realized that he was staring down the barrel of a Glock G18C. The fox yelped, “W-Woah! Hey!” As Jason turned to face the source of the disturbance, three more figures popped out from behind cover, and they were all holding weapons of their own. The wolf did not have a chance to raise his weapon, so he merely held it downwards as he stared down the receiving ends of various firearms he could not identify by himself. The figure holding the Glock G18C stepped forwards as Arcades began to scoot backwards. The figure stepped into a sufficient light source, and Jason realized that another anthro was holding the fox at gunpoint. Arcades noticed this as well, “Hey! Hold up now! We’re anthos here, aren’t we?”
“You’re not the UN…” the figure finally spoke. Arcades was surprised to hear that the voice sounded as if a female was speaking. The fox was left in confusion, however, “The UN? What?” The female anthro spoke again, “Stand down you all.” The three other armed figures all lowered their weapons. Arcades tried to draw a smile in order to diffuse the situation as much as he could, “Glad to see that we’re not quick to shed blood here.” The female anthro spoke again, “Sure. I’m not sure what event brings a fox and a wolf all the way out here. You don’t even sound South African.” Arcades did not want to stand up yet, “Are you guys South African?” The female replied
, “You could say that. We’re up here doing some mercenary work, but then these humans wearing blue UN helmets started opening fire on us. We’ve been hiding here for the past day. We’ve seen some anthros go in and out of their little complex they have, but we don’t know what’s really happening to them. I’ve never seen POWs treated like that.”
The reported situation was intriguing to Arcades, “You’re telling me that members of the United Nations are taking anthros into some sort of prison that’s around here?” The female replied after she pulled down some cloth covering her face, “That’s right. We didn’t even know there were any UN forces currently deployed to this area. Not sure why a contractor would hire us if the UN is already out here.” The fox’s eyes were now adjusting to the lighting, and he could see that the female anthro standing before him was a medium-gray cat wearing a Soldier 2000 combat shirt with matching pants. Arcades eyes shifted towards the other figures in the room. The fox could see the tail of the female cat, but he could not see any tails on the rest of the people in the room. They had their faces covered up as well, and they were all wearing MICH 2000 helmets with goggles. None of them had their sleeves rolled up either, so Arcades couldn’t see any of their fur.
“Are you with CDI?” Arcades asked the female cat. The female replied, “Nope. We’re with one of the independent South African firms. How about you two? I can tell you’re definitely either an American or a Canadian.” Arcades replied, “I am an American. I used to have a company named Fox Security, but…” The fox paused to sigh as he remembered what had happened to his home, “It’s honestly a long story.” The female cat holstered her handgun, and she looked to Jason, “How about him, he’s with you, right?” Jason silently nodded. After a small moment of silence, Arcades spoke for the wolf, “He’s an Australian. He was in my company when it was still a thing. Now, we’re kinda just operating together.” Arcades began to slowly get to his feet since he did not want to cause undue alarm for the strangers in the room. The fox looked at the other three people standing behind the female cat, “Are those guys anthros as well?” After the fox asked the question, the three masked operatives began to pull the goggles off of their eyes, and they also pulled the masks down below their faces. Arcades could see that the three were all black cats, and they were all male cats as well, “You’re all anthros here? Why are you three hiding your tails?” The female cat spoke for the other cats, “They’re not hiding their tails. They were born without tails. Except for one of them, he’s got a very short tail, but he doesn’t get any pants that have a tail-hole.”
“That’s very interesting. Mind us ask for a name we can call you?” Arcades asked, for he did not know what the cats wanted to be called. The female cat pushed the brim of her Soldier 2000 boonie hat upwards. She also adjusted the khaki-colored lightweight chest rig that she was wearing. After briefly adjusting her gear, she spoke, “You can call me Spectre.” Arcades nodded, “Pleasure to meet you, Spectre. My name is Kurt Hofmeier, but I sometimes go by Saint Arcades.” Spectre slightly smiled, “Saint Arcades? Why that title?” Arcades adjusted the battle belt he was wearing, “Anybody who has been born again is a new creation of God. For no man can enter the Kingdom of God unless he has been born again. That’s the difference between a sinner and saint.” Spectre was not entirely impressed, “Spare me the preaching… I really don’t want to hear about your religion out here.” Arcades replied, “It’s not religion. You cannot gain salvation by doing a certain amount of work or anything such as that. Salvation is a free gift that is given by the Holy Spirit to whom repent and trust in the complete work of Jesus Christ for eternal salvation and forgiveness of sins. A true relationship with the Living God of Israel and religion are two entirely different things.”
The female cat was still not impressed, “Sure… Anyways, who are you supposed to be over there?” Jason realized that Spectre was motioning towards him, “Oh, right… My name is Jason Barter. I’ve known Kurt for a fair while now. He saved--- erm… rescued me in Alaska.” Spectre noticed the difference in Jason’s accent, “You sure are Australian enough. Well then,” the cat turned to face the three black cats, “Now, how about you boys introduce yourselves?” The three cats were all wearing Soldier 2000 combat uniforms with Pattern 83 battle jackets, so they were practically impossible to tell apart. The cat holding a Vektor R6 spoke first, “I’m Kohei. I’m the rifleman.” The cat wielding a Vektor Mini SS Compact spoke next, “Name’s Koh-Koh.” Arcades studies the two cats that spoke, and he turned to face the final cat that was holding a Milkor BXP outfitted with a Trijicon red dot sight and a suppressor. The cat spoke, “I’m Kitchi.”
The fox nodded, “It’s really nice to meet you four. Do you have any other friends around here?” Spectre answered, “We don’t. Unless we can count you two.” Arcades smiled, “I suppose you can count us two. It’s probably for the better anyways.” The fox looked back at the Blaser R93 still lying on a mat on the floor, “Is that supposed to be your rifle, Spectre? You’re wearing a sniper’s kit.” Spectre looked at the weapon and then looked back at the fox, “Yes. That’ll be my rifle. It’s chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum. What is that thing you’re carrying supposed to be? I’ve never seen an M4 with a front-end that looks quite like that?” Arcades replied, “That’s my Salient Arms International GRY rifle. It’s a custom M4, basically.” Spectre looked the fox up and down, and she recognized the camouflage pattern he was wearing, “Are you supposed to be dressed like the Zimbabwean Army or something?” Arcades replied, “Well, this is supposed to be Rhodesian Brushstroke, but I guess you could say that the Zimbabwean Army still uses this pattern anyways.”
Jason took the pause as an opportunity to make a suggestion, “How about we take this conversation back to the helicopter? We can all get acquainted with everyone there.” Spectre’s face indicated that she was mildly impressed, “You brought a helicopter with you? Who’s the pilot here?” The fox replied, “I can fly, but I had someone else fly us here. He’s still probably waiting by the helicopter. You all should come with us and meet them.” Spectre was not sure if she was ready to move out, “You didn’t see any UN guys on the way here, now did you?” Arcades shook his head, “We didn’t. The way back should be pretty safe. Unless you’d rather us bring them here?” Spectre made her decision, “I guess we should be alright if you said that they were gone. You know, I’ve never seen those guys before. They had this patch on their right shoulders. It looked like a blue and yellow wheel that had a large yellow omega symbol in the middle. The wheel had this design which looked almost like teeth. Weird.”
Arcades’ eyes widened as he heard Spectre describe the emblem that the “peacekeepers” were bearing. The fox looked to the wolf, and Arcades could tell that Jason was on the same page he was on. The fox replied, “That was not the United Nations.” Spectre was partially confused, “Hm? What do you mean they’re not the United Nations? They had the blue helmets and everything.” Arcades shook his head, “Did you hear about the NSS attack that happened last week?” Spectre nodded, “Of course. Even us South Africans heard about it. That was an international headline.” Arcades replied, “What if I told you that the NSS was a front organization that is headed by the same people who sent those fake UN troops out?” Spectre shrugged, “Here probably isn’t the best place to discuss this. We should really get going.” The gray cat bent down to collect her Blaser R93 that was on the mat. After folding the bipod upwards, Spectre slung the two-point sling over her left arm, and she then proceeded to roll up the mat and deposited it in her backpack. Spectre then looked towards the other three anthros, “Right then. Show us the way, Saint Arcades.”
Jason held the door open as he let the anthros out of the small building. Arcades put his sunglasses over his eyes when he stepped into the sunlight, “Gosh, it’s brighter out here than I remember.” Kitchi was the one to reply, “You better get used to it. The equator isn’t that far from here. The six anthros began making their way up the hill, and Spectre was following Arca
des’ lead. As the fox continued up the hill, Spectre now noticed that the fox was the only anthro that was not wearing any shoes. She commented on this, “Kurt. Why aren’t you wearing any shoes?” Arcades had a feeling that somebody would ask this question sooner or later, “I’ll make it simple: it’s an outward display of humility.” Spectre was not entirely satisfied by the fox’s answer, “Any reason in particular?” Arcades decided it was time to go Biblical again, “Humility is a very important virtue to have. After all, the Lord resists the proud, and He raises up the humble.”
The gray cat looked at her own boots as well as the footwear of the rest of the group. “I’m sure there’s other ways of showing humility that don’t involve getting your feet all scuffed up,” Spectre commented. Arcades spoke again, “Perhaps, but we anthros have better feet than humans do. We technically don’t need shoes.” Spectre had another objection, “I’d rather have shoes and stay in the fight than not wear shoes and get my feet hurt. Regardless, we only have two of them anyway.” Arcades shrugged as the group was almost at the top of the hill, “That’s your choice. I choose to not wear shoes. I believe there are other ways of winning wars. We are all sapient beings after all. Sometimes it just takes humility to reach a person.” Spectre was not entirely convinced by the fox’s rhetoric, “I guess that’ll be your opinion, Kurt.” Though the three black cats did not pay much attention to the conversation, Jason had been paying close attention to the exchange of words. One phrase that Arcades’ said stuck out to the wolf, “After all, the Lord resists the proud, and He raises up the humble.” Jason couldn’t help but be reminded of how Arcades treated him compared to how his brother, Jack, treated him. Jason couldn’t help but repeat the phrase over and over in his head.