by Tom Jones
Bocchino placed the keycard back in his pocket, but Jim soon noticed the collar that the vixen was wearing, “Oh damn, you’re in yellow tier?” Bocchino was unfamiliar with the term, “What’s yellow tier?” The human replied, “Omega uses a collar system to rate the anthros that they’ve got. Green is the best, then yellow, then orange, and finally red.” Bocchino was curious, “What are the colors exactly supposed to represent?” Jim then said, “I think I told you guys about this back at Sealand, but I’ll go over it again. It’s a combination of how willing the anthro is to obey Omega, amongst other things…” Bocchino decided he did not want to ask anything further, and that was partially because he remembered the conversation from Sealand, “Alright. Sure… I’m about ready to get out of here now. I can’t fucking believe we lost Kurt and Jason.” Jim put his pilot helmet on, “Tell me about it. Hey while you’re at it, use your keycard to remove her collar. Omega can track it via GPS. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out that this facility has fallen.”
The cat stood up from his seat, and he moved his hand to his back pocket to grab the keycard Arcades handed to him back in the building. Bocchino looked at the vixen, “Here, lemme get that collar off of you.” The vixen turned around in order to let Bocchino get a closer look at the collar. Jim had one other thing to say, “By the way, Omega probably tracked her walking out here. When they see that her collar has been removed, they’ll be sending somebody here to try and find her. We won’t be able to stay here for a while, so I’m gonna go ahead and start the engine. I have no idea where their closest facility is, but they’ll probably send somebody from there to come and find her.” The cat sighed, “Alright, I guess we’ll have to leave Kurt and Jason behind then.” Jim tried to view the anthros by looking out the window of the helicopter, “We’ll find a way to get them back.” Bocchino was angry with himself, “Fucking… I should’ve killed those fuckers in there.” Jim did not witness what happened inside of the facility, “What happened in there?” Bocchino did not feel like answering the question, “It’s a long story. I don’t really want to get into it right now.” The cat aligned the keycard with the scanner on the collar the vixen was wearing around her neck, “Hold still…”
Within a few moments, the vixen’s neck was now free from the collar. Bocchino tossed the opened collar outside of the helicopter, and the vixen watched as the collar landed on the ground in silence. Bocchino took a brief look outside of the helicopter, and he could see that the rotors were still spinning up. Jim took another look at the equipment that was piled in the cabin, “Where’s the XMP-1?” Bocchino looked at the equipment, and he did not see the rifle, “Shit, I think I left it in there.” Jim spoke as he strapped his pilot helmet on, “Go and get it. The chopper will be ready by the time you come back. Use the keycard Kurt gave you.” Bocchino turned to the vixen before disembarking from the helicopter, “Stay here. We’re almost out of this.” The cat hopped off of the helicopter, and he proceeded to make his way back to the facility.
Taking the keycard out of his pocket, Bocchino swiped the keycard on the door’s scanner when he moved back to the building, and he was soon inside of the facility once more. The cat looked around the room, and he remembered the brief battle that had occurred earlier. However, he did not really want to think about the battle in general since he was just about ready to leave for good. Bocchino quickly made his way up the stairs as he did not want to keep Jim waiting, and he made it to the floor where he remembered that he dropped his XMP-1 on. Bocchino saw an XMP-1 lying on the ground next to a few deceased ISG personnel, and the cat bent over to pick up the rifle. Suddenly, the cat felt something grab his right leg. Turning around to view what had grabbed his leg, he could see an ISG member who looked mortally wounded. The human looked as if he was barely holding on to dear life, as he seemed to be pleading with the cat for mercy. Bocchino looked the human over, and he could see that the ISG member had been shot several times in the limbs and chest. The human was missing his combat helmet and weapon, but Bocchino did not have anything to say to the human.
The cat pointed the barrel of his rifle at the human’s head, and he pulled the trigger. However, the rifle did not fire. Bocchino looked at the rifle’s chamber, and he could tell that it was already locked open. The weapon’s magazine was depleted. He dropped the magazine on the floor next to the human, and he pulled out another STANAG from a magazine pouch he wore on his equipment. Bocchino placed the magazine into the magwell, and he pulled the charging handle back to chamber a round. The human watched as the cat placed the barrel in front of his head before pulling the trigger. The human immediately went limp, and blood began to spill from the human’s nose and mouth. The blood was quickly accumulating on the floor and on Bocchino’s left boot. The cat kicked the human’s deceased remains off of his boot, and he witnessed the red blood soak his flat dark earth boot.
Bocchino picked up the magazine that he had dropped before depositing it into his dump pouch and making his way back outside to finally leave. As the cat proceeded down the stairs, he noticed that he was leaving bloody boot prints, but he decided to pay no mind to the bloody prints covering the already bloody floor. Descending down the stairs, Bocchino was finally ready to leave the facility for good as the cat removed the keycard from his pocket to insert it into the scanner. The door opened for the last time, and the cat exited. Bocchino looked ahead, and he could see that the HH-60 was now ready to take off. The cat set the selector switch of the XMP-1 to its safe setting before climbing aboard the helicopter. Right before the cat climbed aboard the cabin of the helicopter, he wiped as much blood as he could off of his boot. The vixen was already sitting down in the cabin, and Bocchino climbed aboard to place his weapon on the floor next to the other two rifles that the group had brought. The cat closed the helicopter door, and he took his seat right next to Jim. The human pilot looked towards Bocchino, but he did not say anything. Rather, Jim flipped down the visor on his helmet, and he gave the helicopter throttle. As the helicopter finally began to rise, all Bocchino had left to say was, “Let’s just get out of here…”
Chapter 5
Complications
“Hop aboard,” Sentry 2 said as he opened the passenger door from the driver’s seat. Sentry 1 stowed away his weapon as he climbed aboard the CDI transport truck. As Sentry 1 took his seat, Sentry 2 waited for him to buckle his seatbelt before he began to drive. As the flat dark earth KamAZ 43501 began to slowly accelerate, Sentry 1 removed his helmet from his head before placing it in his lap, “Are they sure they’ve searched the whole area?” Sentry 2 nodded as he took a left turn, “Yeah. They only found a bunch of dead anthros, though. Looks as if those NSS looking guys were the ones who killed them.” Sentry 1 then asked, “Did they ever figure out who were those guys? Are they with the NSS or what? They almost look the same.” Sentry 2 shrugged, “There ain’t no telling. I mean, we don’t really think so right now, anyways.” Sentry 1 looked outside of the windows and observed the wooded area, “I guess this really isn’t that bad of a place to hide such a facility.”
Sentry 1 asked his colleague, “Any idea of what CDI plans to do with those anthros that we found?” Sentry 2 shook his head as he turned down another path, “Nope. All of them are going to CDI’s larger base in Nevada, and that’s exactly where we’re going. Then, it’s gonna be a matter of trying to sort everything out.” Sentry 1 looked at the other CDI vehicles that were travelling in the same direction, “What is CDI gonna tell people who ask about what’s going on? We surely can’t tell them about the anthros. Imagine how the public would react to that kind of event.” Sentry 2 continued to follow the other CDI vehicles on the road, “CDI’s supposed to stick to the same story that they’ve been using since this whole ordeal started. It’s just a training operation.”
Sentry 1 shook his head as he remembered the number of CDI trucks that came in to take up all of the anthros, “Are you sure people are going to believe that? Just think about the sheer number of resources that
CDI used in the past two days.” Sentry 2 replied, “As long as there ain’t extra evidence floating around the internet or anything, the public shouldn’t know about this. CDI will hopefully have this cleared up before long.” Sentry 1 had an objection, “What about the anthros? Where are they supposed to go? Also, we don’t even know where they’re from in the first place.” Sentry 2 shrugged, “I dunno man, those questions ain’t for us. It’s up for the higher-ups to figure out all that shit. You know, right now, I’m kinda glad I’m not one of the higher-ups. I’d have no fucking clue of what to do with all those motherfuckers.” Sentry 1 nodded in agreement, “You could say that again. I definitely don’t want that to be my problem.” Sentry 2 then remembered something else, “Oh, do you remember that terror attack that happened in England a few days ago?” Sentry 1 replied, “Yeah. They don’t know who was behind the attack still?” Sentry 2 shook his head, “Nope. I mean, they first thought it was the NSS. That didn’t go that far when they figured out that the terrorists were anthros themselves.” Sentry 1 asked, “They figure out a motive?” Sentry 2 replied, “Nope. Those anthro fucks even had a helicopter, so you know whatever group they’re with has resources.” Sentry 1 sighed, “Shit’s crazy.”
“I need to speak with Alpha-Omega right now,” One said as he spoke over the phone. The person on the other end replied, “Sir, Alpha-Omega are still in transit from--” One cut the voice on the phone off, “What part of Facility Twenty-Four was lost don’t you understand?! Someone fucking found out where Facility Twenty-Four is, and they killed everyone inside!” One considered that he did not need to say anything more, so he immediately disconnected from the call. One took a cigarette he had on his desk, and he lit it up before inhaling some of the smoke. One had no idea how he would be able to report the recent happenings to the Overseer of the Omega Foundation. One then noticed that his monitor lit up, and he saw that the Overseer was currently trying to contact him. One hesitated for a moment, but he accepted the communication. There was no video, but One could hear a distorted voice the Overseer used to disguise his identity, “Facility Eleven was infiltrated. Then Facility Five was overthrown. Now, Facility Twenty-Four is gone as well. Care to explain what happened?” One was not sure how to respond, “Zero, please. I can assure you that this had nothing to do with the NSS attack we staged.” Zero replied, “The timing lines up too well. Are you sure that nobody found any evidence linking the Foundation to those attacks?” One held his breath, for he did know that several NSS members carried information relating to the Omega Foundation. One then replied, “I can’t be entirely sure about that --” Zero interrupted One, “No, I want you to tell me how those facilities were compromised!”
One hesitated again as he tried to figure out what to say, “Sir, the intruder at Facility Eleven was the same intruder who broke into Facility Five. He was able to escape both times.” Zero was skeptical, “Are you sure it is just this one fox?” One shook his head, though Zero was not able to see this, “No… Five told me that he was the owner of some private security firm. We killed him with the attack we staged in England. That was all before we lost Facility Five, though.” Zero wanted confirmation of Arcades’ death, “Has the body of said anthro been located?” One did not hear about such evidence being recovered, “No, sir. The building burned down, and it hasn’t even been officially investigated yet. We don’t have a total death toll.” Zero moved on to the more recent issues, “How did CDI know where Facility Five was?”
“The fox must’ve told them where it was,” One answered the Overseer’s question. Zero came back with another question, “If the fox told CDI where Facility Five was, then how did that fox come about knowing the location of Facility Five in the first place?” One could think of a couple of possible sources, but he was not sure which one was the truth, “I mean, he could’ve seen it leaked on the deep web. There’s really no way of telling. We try to remove all of the evidence surrounding Omega as soon as it surfaces, but some evidence manages to stay up longer than others.” Zero was not entirely satisfied with the reply, “So if that fox learned where Facility Five was from the internet, who figured out where Facility Twenty-Four was? According to your report, that fox is dead.” One did not know the answer, “Sir, we don’t know. All we know is that the attackers were extracted by helicopter. Since the Facility Five attack, we’ve instructed all facilities to execute as many anthros as possible if they are compromised.”
Zero proceeded to ask another question, “How many anthros were taken from Facility Twenty-Four?” One gave the answer since he did know it, “Only one. The rest were apparently killed by the ISG, but our tracking shows that one collar was removed right at the extraction point.” Zero asked more about the anthro that was rescued, “So, what was the anthro that was taken? What tier was that anthro in?” One replied, “The anthro that was taken was a female red fox in yellow-tier. We were keeping her at Facility Twenty-Four while waiting for a buyer to pick her up as well as a male yellow-tier red fox.” Zero asked about the financial status of the transfer, “Has the buyer demanded a refund?” One replied, “ISG reports that the buyer was on-site during the attack since he came that day to pick up the two anthros. His body was recovered next to the body of the male red fox.”
Zero expressed his relief of at least one issue, “At least we get to keep the money. Anyways, have you spoken with Alpha-Omega yet?” One replied, “No sir. I was actually trying to contact them right before you called.” Zero replied, “Alright. Sure. When you do get ahold of them, I want you to tell them that they shall assume control of the Internal Security Group for the time being.” One was not sure why Zero ordered this, “Sir, may I ask why you are doing this?” Zero replied, “I’m meeting with the Trilateral Commission in a week, and I don’t want this episode to interfere with that. I’m giving Alpha-Omega control of the ISG until further notice. Is that clear?” One replied, “Yes, sir.” Zero thought that there was not anything to discuss further, “Unless you’ve got anything else to say, I’ll leave you to deal with this mess. I don’t want to hear about losing another facility. Understand?” One acknowledged the Overseer, “Yes sir…” Zero was now preparing to disconnect, so he restated his last point yet again, “Good. I don’t want to hear about another intrusion again. Out.” As the Overseer disconnected from the call, One blew out more smoke from his cigarette. One shook his head as he inhaled more smoke in an attempt to relieve some of the stress he was feeling.
“Hey Jim,” Bocchino spoke to the pilot since they were back in the air after refueling. Jim continued looking out the front window as he replied, “What’s up, Bobby?” Bocchino spoke, “You don’t suppose Omega knows about our involvement, right? Weren’t they mainly looking for Kurt?” Jim nodded, “I believe so, yeah. That’s what I heard at least. He was the one who broke into Facility Five and Facility Eleven.” Bocchino had another question for the human, “You don’t suppose that Omega had cameras in there that saw us?” Jim shook his head, “No, actually. Omega doesn’t use security cameras because they don’t even trust their own people with handling the footage. Omega is very paranoid about leaks from within facilities. Most of the leaks you see are done by outsiders, and they’re always fast to find and remove those leaks. Some leaks don’t last two minutes before being taken down. Other leaks get posted from multiple mirrors and hidden servers, so they get to stay up a bit longer.”
The cat remembered that Jim used to work for Omega, “What would happen if Omega found out that you were helping us?” Jim’s eyebrows went up for a moment, “Yeesh. I’d be fucked… Let’s just say Omega has their own ways of dealing with people who leak secrets.” Given what the cat knew about the Foundation itself, he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to ask about any specifics. Bocchino shifted the subject, “Do you think we’d be able to find them?” Jim remembered that they were going back to the town Fox Security used to be located in, “From what you told me about them, they sound like green-tier. It’s kinda a toss-up at this point. I dunno if we’
ll be able to find them.” Bocchino remembered what Jim had to say about the way Omega rated their anthros, “So, green-tier means that they’re loyal to Omega or something?” Jim replied, “Yeah, that’s right. However, people who buy them are supposed to be able to tell them to do whatever they want. Green-tiered anthros are supposed to do anything. They’re almost like damn robots. It’s scary…” Jim paused to restate his thought before going too far off on a tangent, “I guess you could say that green-tier anthros are supposed to listen to whatever they’re told, basically.”
Bocchino did indeed remember the two anthros he was looking for, “Alright, yeah I think I remember something like that happening. The thing is, Kurt kinda dismissed them before we left to go to England. How would they do on their own?” Jim thought for a moment while considering the fact that the two anthros were green-tier, “Hmmm… I’m not really sure, actually. Green-tier anthros are not supposed to make their own decisions, and anthros of that tier take a long time to be ‘trained’ by Omega. They’re also some of the most expensive anthros that Omega offers. Which race were they of, again?” Bocchino replied, “A coyote and a lynx. You took those two away from Facility Eleven, right? Before we attacked the train the next day?” Jim nodded, “Yeah, I did. I flew the helicopter, but I never got a look at them. The box they were transported in was completely covered. Omega doesn’t want their anthros to know where they are no matter how loyal they are to Omega themselves.”
Bocchino knew that returning to the last known location would not guarantee to be met with a positive outcome, “I hope going back is not going to be a waste of a trip.” Jim assured Bocchino that even a negative outcome would not be the worst result, “Don’t think of it like that. Remember that we still have her on board, and we’re going to need to set aside some time to make sure that we know what we can do next after we find her a place for the time being. We’re down two men now.” Bocchino remembered his other two companions who were now lost, “But Kurt and Jason are still back in the Congo for who knows how long.” Jim reminded the cat of the vixen, “We should get her to safety first. It’s what Kurt would’ve wanted us to do. He can take care of himself. You should know that since he’s already successfully infiltrated three Omega facilities so far.” Bocchino sighed again, “But the problem is, he’s basically fucked. Think about it, we just saw him being led away with that faggot wolf while both of them were bumass naked. That’s not a fucking good sign.”