by Tom Jones
Jim awoke and immediately noticed that it was the crack of dawn. The human blinked a couple of times to make sure that he was indeed awake, and he sat up in the seat where he was sleeping in. The human looked down at his navy blue flight suit, and he remembered that he was still in the pilot seat of the HH-60. Jim turned around to check on Bocchino and the vixen. He spotted both anthros still sleeping, so he figured that he did not want to wake them up. Jim quietly opened up the pilot door of the helicopter, and he stepped out onto the concrete of the helipad. The human stretched from being cramped up in the cockpit for so long, and he turned around to look at the helicopter itself. He knew that he would have to fly again today, but he wanted to wait until Bocchino and the vixen awoke first.
Jim studied the helicopter, and he noticed that he had placed covers over the Pave Hawk’s exhaust and intake ports in order to keep out foreign objects from getting inside of the helicopter’s important components during the night. The human figured that he should remove these covers now since he did not want to wait too long to get moving again. The group was currently in Carbonia, Italy, and they would have to stop at Portugal in order to refuel again before figuring out a way to cross the North Atlantic Ocean to reach the continental United States. Even when they were to arrive at Massachusetts, they would have to likely refuel the helicopter yet again during the journey to fly back to the Western United States. Jim climbed up on the helicopter, and he began to unbuckle the cover that was on the Pave Hawk’s port side engine. Jim knew that he technically did not need to put the covers on the helicopter since they only left it parked for a short period of time, but he figured that it would be best to place the covers on just in case the wind decided to blow some foreign objects into the intake or exhaust ports. The human removed the intake cover and the exhaust cover from the port side engine, and he stepped down off of the helicopter in order to toss the covers inside of the cockpit. Jim would properly put away the covers later. As he was moving to the starboard side of the aircraft, Jim tossed the covers in the cockpit. He then moved in front of the helicopter before arriving at the starboard side. When Jim arrived at the starboard side, he could see that the starboard door was already open, but he quickly remembered that the door was already open when the three went to sleep in the evening. Jim considered the fact that removing the covers might wake Bocchino and the vixen, but he wanted to remove the covers sooner rather than later. The human stepped up on the helicopter to reach the covers on the second engine. As he removed the covers, he looked down to see that Bocchino was waking up.
Bocchino awoke on a small mound of tactical gear that he had arranged so he would be able to sleep somewhat comfortably. The cat sat up, and he looked at Jim as the human was continuing to remove the covers from the helicopter. Bocchino spoke to the human, “Hm? What are you up to?” Jim looked down at the cat as he stepped off of the helicopter with both covers in hand, “Removing these before flight.” The cat took a second to recognize the engine covers, but he soon realized what Jim was doing. Bocchino yawned loudly before speaking again, “What’s the flight plan for today?” Jim responded, “We’re going to make one stop at Portugal to refuel, and then we’re gonna have to figure out a way to cross the North Atlantic. We’re probably gonna stop in Massachusetts or somewhere before we go any further into the US.” Bocchino replied to the human, “Massachusetts? That’s where I used to live.” Jim nodded, “Yeah, I think I remember you telling me that on the way here.” Bocchino stepped out of the helicopter and began to stretch, “Yeah, I think I did. That’s weird though, I had a dream about Massachusetts last night.” Jim opened the starboard cockpit door, and he tossed the remaining covers into the helicopter before replying, “Oh, really? What happened in your dream?” The cat immediately remembered Dillon, but he did not want to tell Jim about the incident. Bocchino made up an excuse to not tell what happened, “Oh, well… I don’t really remember it that well.” Jim believed the cat, “Welp, I guess I won’t be able to hear whatever happened.” Bocchino sighed, “Yeah… Oh well. When are we gonna get going today?” The human looked inside of the helicopter’s cabin, and he could see that the vixen was still asleep, “Whenever she wakes up. Then we’ll get going. I dunno when we could expect to get back to the US, but I know that where we currently are, it’s like nineteen hours ahead of the US.” Bocchino shook his head, “Fuckin’ time zones.”
Bocchino looked at the gear which Arcades left behind, “Did you ever check out some of Kurt’s stuff? He’s got some pretty good shit here. I wouldn’t mind keeping it for myself.” Jim looked at the pile of Arcades’ tactical gear, “Nah, I didn’t go through it. I did notice that M4 that he had with him was pretty nice.” The cat agreed, “Yeah, it is pretty nice. I’m gonna take it for myself -- Well, until he gets back, at least.” Jim took a deep breath, “Are you sure that he’d be alright with you doing that?” The cat returned a nod, “Yeah, I bet he’d be completely fine with that.” Jim knew that he had a Ruger Redhawk once owned by Facility Five’s upper management in the helicopter, but a mere handgun would not really be sufficient for any large operation. Jim looked at the XMP-1 that was sitting inside of the helicopter, “I guess I’ll be using the XMP, then.” Bocchino briefly turned around to see the weapon to which Jim was referring to, “Sure, sure. You can use that. I guess that if anybody else needs a weapon, they’ll get to use that other rifle we have here: the rifle that Jason used.” Jim reached into the cabin and pulled the XMP-1 out. The human spoke as he examined the weapon, “I can tell you that Omega made this weapon from a design that they recovered from a mission they went to in Hong Kong. I flew them in for that, and I remember them bringing out something that looked kinda like this. I think it was called the Norinco QTS-11 officially.”
Bocchino replied, “I think Kurt was there for that one, too. I wasn’t, but I think Jason was. I don’t think he saw the weapon. Where did Omega find it?” Jim looked up at the cat as he lowered the weapon, “In one of the other vaults, I think. From what I remember, the Jade Cane was inside Vault Three. That vault was open when Alpha-Omega got there. Did Kurt grab it out of there?” Bocchino shrugged, “I dunno what vault it was. What I do know is that Kurt did make it out of there with the Jade Cane. He melted it down into a cube and left the jewel on top of it. It should be in the helicopter, actually.” Bocchino began going through Arcades’ stuff once more, and he did not take long to pull out the golden cube with a jade gem on top of the cube, “Here it is.” Jim took the cube, and he examined it, “This seems about right. Why did he melt it down?”
Bocchino looked at the cube as Jim continued to examine it, “He mentioned something about symbols inscribed on the cane. I didn’t understand any of it, but he said that the people looking for it were going to use the symbols for some shit. I dunno.” Jim’s eyebrows raised, “Symbols? You know what that means, right?” The cat shook his head, “Nope. I don’t.” The human replied, “Omega was looking for this because of the symbols on it. Good thing Kurt erased them.” Bocchino was confused, “What’s the fucking importance of damn symbols? What type of shit is this supposed to be?” Jim placed the cube back inside of the helicopter’s cabin, “Omega was going to use those symbols for one of their rituals.” Bocchino’s face winced, “Rituals? Really? Fuckin’ hell, man. This shit just gets fucking crazier by the minute. Shit’s fucking whack.” Jim nodded, “Oh yeah, I’m not shitting you. Omega has been tracking down artifacts that have secret symbols engraved on them. Nobody can really understand them, but Omega hires some high-level occultists to try and figure out what they say.”
Bocchino looked at the cube again, “And they have the secrets of fuck-knows-what inscribed in a cane made of gold and a jade gem of all things? Fucking shit. What type of secrets could they possibly have anyways? Fucking cake recipies?” Jim scratched his head, “I really don’t know. Omega has only been able to recover a couple of similar artifacts. I don’t remember them being able to find out the meaning behind them, though. It’s probably for the bett
er, anyways. Y’know Omega has been trying to start stuff.” The cat rolled his eyes, “Well, ain’t that a fucking surprise, now ain’t it?” Jim shook his head, “No, I’m talking about something different.” Bocchino sighed, “What the fuck can they be up to now?” Jim began to speak, “Omega has been trying to summon demons into this world.” Bocchino was in disbelief, “Now that’s some shit Kurt would try and tell me. That fucking fox…”
Jim shook his head again, “No, no. This is for real. That’s why they’ve been trying to gather all of those relics. They use one of their best anthros as a blood sacrifice. They hope that a demonic spirit will enter into this world through that death. Unfortunately, such anthros are extremely limited in numbers. I heard that some facility was actually supposed to look into anthro cloning to produce an unlimited supply of those best anthros.” Bocchino did not want to listen, “What the fuck are you going on about, man? You sound like one of those shit-eating Scientology fucks. This damn shit is fucking unbelievable. You mean to tell me that the fucking Omega Foundation is just some big giant cult that captures anthros and fucks the living daylights out of them until they decide that they’ll just cut them open so a demon can come here?” Jim took a deep breath before continuing, “I know it sounds unbelievable, but that’s the honest truth.” Bocchino still did not believe the human, “Tell me that you’re fucking with me.” Jim replied, “I can’t because I’m not fucking with you.” Bocchino considered all that he knew about the Omega Foundation, “This shit sounds fucking whack.” Jim nodded, “I understand that you don’t believe this is happening, but I want you to remember that I was part of the Omega Foundation.”
Bocchino looked downwards and frowned, “You’re my best source, yet I’m still in disbelief.” Jim looked at the cat, “What you believe is your business. However, I’ll leave you with some thoughts: You know what you saw. You know who I am. You know where you’ve been. You know what Kurt’s been trying to tell you the entire time. You know that we don’t have him here anymore. You know that we still have a mission to complete.” The cat stood in silence as a result of the human’s statement. After a short period of time, Bocchino sighed and shook his head yet again, but he did not say anything. The cat turned away from the human, and he banged his fist on the side of the helicopter in frustration. Jim did not say anything else to Bocchino, as he only stood back and watched as Bocchino tried to alleviate some of his feelings.
Jim then noticed that the vixen had been awake. The female fox spoke, “When are we going to be leaving?” Bocchino’s moment of emotion was cut short by the vixen’s words, “In a little bit, I guess.” Jim looked at Bocchino again, and he watched as the cat turned away from the helicopter again. The human decided that he would let Bocchino use this period of downtime to calm himself down. Jim returned to the starboard side cockpit door, and he climbed inside in order to gather the engine covers which he had dropped inside of the cockpit. The human then moved back into the cabin, and he put the engine covers away. The human noticed the bag of supplies which they had brought along with them. The human spoke to the two anthros, “Why don’t you guys get something to eat from out of there? We can get going after that.” Bocchino turned around to face the tactical bag in question, “Alright. I suppose we can go ahead and do that.” The cat then looked at the vixen, who he still did not know the name of. Bocchino shook his head one more time, “I don’t believe that I’ve ever heard your name before.” The vixen turned her head to look at Bocchino. After a short moment of time, the female fox finally gave her name to the cat, “My name is Jackie.”
Chapter 7
Captives
Arcades found himself awoken by noises made by a vehicle’s engine outside. The fox looked upwards attempting to look outside, but the room which he and Jason were in did not have any windows, rendering it impossible to see what the source of the noise was. Arcades sat up the best he was able to, and he looked to the door in front of him. The fox listened closely, and he was able to roughly identify the sound as an engine of a medium or large-sized wheeled vehicle. Arcades was not sure who was driving the vehicle, but he did not have a way to find out. He also felt that his captors would not provide him with such information anyways. The fox looked to Jason, and he could see that the wolf was waking up from his sleep as well. Jason looked over to Arcades, and he could tell from the look on Arcades’ face that the fox did not know the source of the noise.
Jason asked the question anyways, “Kurt, what’s that sound?” Arcades stated what he knew, “I don’t know.” The fox then made a suggestion to the wolf, “Try and keep quiet. I dunno who is here, but I hope they’re not looking for us.” Jason looked at the fox, “Why would that be a bad thing?” Arcades replied, “There is no way Jim and Bobby would be back this early. If somebody else is looking for us, then that can only mean more problems for us.” Jason looked at the fox, and he stopped speaking. Arcades sat in silence as well, and both anthros were trying to listen to see what was happening outside of the room which they were currently held in. Both anthros were also trying to remain completely still, for the chains which they wore still made enough noise to be audible to people right outside of the room they were in.
Two humans Wearing M81 and blue UN helmets stepped out of a white BAE Systems Caiman MRAP truck after disabling the vehicle’s engine. Both humans were wielding XMP-1s, but they stowed their weapons away for the time being. Though both of the humans were wearing UN helmets and their truck was lettered UN on the side, neither of the men were actually from the United Nations. The human who was sitting in the passenger seat looked down at a tablet he was carrying, “This is where the drone spotted them last. It tracked them from Facility Twenty-Four to here.” The first human nodded to his colleague, “Alright, we’ll go in there and see what we can find.” The first human walked over to the front of the door, and he prepared to use the butt of his weapon to bust down the wooden front door. Right before the two humans began the process of breaching into the building, one of them spoke over the radio, “This is Tau 1. Preparing to breach into a building where suspected raiders are hiding. Standby for confirmation.” The human swung his weapon’s butt backwards, and he slammed it into the side of the door which held the handle. After a few more seconds of swinging, the human was able to successfully break the weak lock off the door. The humans prepared their XMP-1s before entering the small building.
Upon entering, the two humans encountered four anthro cats scrambling for their weapons. The Omega operatives wasted no time using the bean bag rounds loaded into the airburst compartment of their rifles to incapacitate the anthros scrambling for their weapons. Kitchi, Koh-Koh, and Kohei were quickly knocked out by the bean bag rounds since they were unable to ready their weapons in time. Spectre, on the other hand, was able to successfully dodge the incoming bean bag rounds that were fired at her. The gray cat grabbed her Glock G18C, and she prepared to fire upon the Omega operatives after switching the fire-selector to automatic. The Omega operatives both found they depleted their magazines carrying the less-lethal ammunition, so they quickly toggled their weapons to fire 5.56x45mm rounds instead of bean bag rounds. Spectre quickly assumed a shooting stance and prepared to pull the trigger under stress, but she was quickly shot by the two ISG members before she was able to do anything. As the cat collapsed to the ground, she held the trigger of her G18C, and rounds impacted the walls and the ceiling. Spectre fell to the ground as her G18C ran out of 9x19mm rounds in the magazine, and the ISG members shot her a couple more times for good measure.
“Fuck, maybe we shouldn’t’ve killed her,” one of the ISG members spoke. The second operative was already reloading another magazine of bean bag rounds into his XMP-1, “At least they can’t mess with us anymore. How many anthros were we expecting to find here?” The first operative began to reload his XMP-1 as well, “I think that’s about it. Here, we should check the other room. I doubt we’d find anything in it, but we should still check it anyway.” The second operative finished his relo
ading process, and he looked at the three incapacitated anthros, “What are we gonna do with these anthros? We only brought enough for two.” The first operative moved himself closer to the door that Arcades and Jason were behind, “Hold on. We’ll figure that out after we check this room. Now, are you ready?” The second operative moved up to the door, and he prepared the bean bag rounds for his XMP-1, “Yeah. Let’s get this going.” The first human stepped back away from the door, and he delivered a kick right next to the handle. The resulting kick was sufficient to break the handle from the weak wooden door, and the door swung open. Both humans entered the room.
Tau 1 immediately recognized the fox, and he nodded to Tau 2 to keep his XMP-1 pointed at Arcades. Tau 1 spoke over the radio, “This is Tau 1, we believe we have located the black and white fox. Over.” The fox was unable to hear the audio from the human’s headset, but Tau 1 heard a response relatively promptly, “Say again, Tau 1, can you confirm the anthro’s identity? Over.” Tau 1 replied while looking directly at the anthro, “There’s nothing here to confirm with. Over.” The radio operator then spoke again, “Copy. Does the fox have any accomplices? Over.” Tau 1 looked over at Jason, who was sitting right next to Arcades, “It looks like he’s with a gray wolf. There were four anthro cats in the room, but they seemed to have taken both the fox and the wolf captive. Over.”