by Tom Jones
“Vertex, this is Rattlesnake, friendlies have successfully deployed to the roof. Over,” the pilot of Rattlesnake reported the current status of the mission. Vertex soon replied to the pilot, “Copy, Rattlesnake. Do you have a visual on any hostile forces outside of the compound? Over.” The gunner heard the transmission as well, and he looked through the infrared scope while trying to locate any potential hostiles. The gunner could not see any, so he spoke to Vertex himself, “Negative, Vertex. We do not have eyes-on any hostile threats in the area. Standby.” The gunner switched modes on his helicopter’s night imaging avionics, and he tried to see if one setting would give him different results on the ground. The gunner looked at his scope, and he was able to see that the five squads had now entered the building one way or another since the roof was now empty. The gunner announced this to the pilot, “They just made it in the compound.” The pilot pushed the stick forwards, gave the helicopter more throttle, and pushed the right rudder pedal in order to maneuver the helicopter around the airspace surrounding Facility Nine, “Got it. I’ll try and get a good angle for you to take out any guys who might come out of the building.”
The ISG was quick to spot the incoming CDI personnel, “Contact! They’re here!” The CDI operatives quickly returned fire as the ISG shot first and then proceeded to retreat. While the ISG members retreated deeper into the compound, the CDI operatives did not want to proceed, for they believed that they were being set up to walk into a trap set by the ISG. After a couple of seconds, the CDI squad began to slowly move forwards, but they were checking their surroundings to make sure that they were not able to be seen by any nearby ISG personnel. The squad stopped upon hearing gunfire within the facility, and they wondered if the ISG was trying to draw them out into an ambush. The lead member of the CDI squad moved forwards until he reached the corner, and he waited.
After standing still for a few moments, the lead member was prepared to slice the corner to gain ground on the ISG. The CDI member kept his AK-15 held at such an angle so that he would give away neither his weapon’s barrel nor the silhouette of his shoulder. The operative quickly sliced the corner, but he did not see any ISG members prepared to return fire. The CDI member signaled for the rest of the squad to move forwards, and each squad member began to make their way forwards to keep up with the forward assault group. The CDI operatives could not find the Omega members which they had just run into, but CDI knew that they could not stay back and wait for the ISG to come back. After all, the ISG had the home field advantage. Castle Defense Industries was only here to assault the compound, contrary to the name of their organization. They would not be defending anything during this mission.
The Prince of Sealand was still talking on his cellphone, “Yeah, that’ll be two medium-lift helicopters and two civilian vehicles.” The Prince took a pause as he waited for the other party he was speaking with to respond. The rest of the people in the room were unable to hear what the Prince was hearing, but they still were trying to listen to what the other person on the phone was saying. The Prince finally spoke again after he was given an answer by the other party, “Yeah, it’s to the United States. Massachusetts.” The Prince waited again as he listened to the other person on the phone. Bocchino was still standing, and he was leaning up against a wall while he watched the Prince pace back and forth a few steps while speaking. He would sometimes look over to Jackie or Jim to see if either of them displayed any facial expressions as a result of hearing what the Prince was saying.
The Prince spoke again, “Yeah, lemme ask them real quick,” the Prince covered the microphone of his cellphone with his hand as he moved it away from his mouth. The Prince spoke to Bocchino, “He’ll do it for 10,000 pounds.” Bocchino shook his head; even though he did not know the currency’s exchange rate, he knew that he would still be spending Arcades’ money. The cat also knew that he would not have any other way to easily return to the United States, and he especially knew that time was definitely of the essence in this situation. He could not afford to stand idly by while Arcades and Jason had both been captured. The cat spoke under his breath before replying to the Prince, “Fuck…” Bocchino finally spoke with a hesitation clear in his voice, “Ugh, we’ll do it…” Upon hearing the answer, the Prince raised his mobile phone back up to his mouth, and he removed his hand from the microphone, “Yeah, they said they’ll do it.” The Prince waited for the person on the other end of the phone to finish before he spoke again, “Uh-huh. Sure, sure…” Jim was wondering what the other human was speaking about specifically, for the short responses that the Prince was given made it hard to derive context in regards to the situation. Jim heard the Prince speak again, “Yeah, I mean -- No, well you see, it’s kinda a little emergency that they’ve got going on. I don’t really wanna get too much in detail with specifics. Just know that it’s a bit of an issue. They need to get back to the US as soon as possible.” Bocchino closed his eyes and shook his head as he heard the Prince talk. He knew that he could not complain, though, since the cat knew that not many people would even believe the situation in the first place. After all, how many people would be happy to hear about a secret society harboring captured anthros for an international trafficking ring?
The Prince continued to speak over the phone, “For sure, for sure. Uhh…. I mean, this isn’t for me, like I said earlier. I’d have to ask them again. Hold on one moment mate, gimme a second,” the human removed his mobile phone from his face again to speak with Bocchino, “Does tomorrow night sound like a good time to get going? It’s the earliest he’ll do it.” Bocchino knew that it was very early in the morning, being only a few hours since midnight, but he also considered the time it would take to move all four vehicles to the ship to be boarded. Before the cat could say anything, the Prince spoke again upon hearing the man on the phone, “They’d probably like to know that, yeah. Go ahead, and tell me.” After a short moment, the Prince nodded his head, “Uh-huh. Sure, let me tell them real quick,” the Prince looked over to Bocchino again and spoke, “It’ll take seven days to make it to the United States. A boat is not a plane. I’m sorry mate, I can’t really make it go any faster for you. If you have any objections now, you’d better go ahead and make them.” Bocchino was visibly bothered by the news that the trip would take a full week, but he knew that he was practically out of options, “Damn. I guess this is our only chance.”
Jim had an objection, “Say, Bobby. How did you guys get here with those vehicles in the first place?” The Prince kept his phone down as he listened to the other human and the cat. Bocchino replied, “Kurt paid for a big cargo plane to take us over here. The plane was large enough to fit the helicopter and the two cars on board.” Jim knew the costs associated with such methods of travel, “That’d be very expensive.” Bocchino nodded in agreement, “Yeah, I know. Fuckin’ sucks, man. We’ve already spent a shitload on refueling the damned helicopter going to fucking Africa and back.” The human looked at the cat as he spoke again, “Perhaps things would be different if we’re only transporting people, but we’ve got two helicopters and two land vehicles. Sounds like the boat route would be our only option. We’d probably spend the same if not more if we were to fly Kurt’s S-70 over the North Atlantic given how many times we’d have to refuel in the air. I mean, sure, we’d arrive earlier, but we’d still be missing three vehicles. We’d still have to get those back one way or another.”
Bocchino decided to accept the fact that he would have to wait a full week in order to do anything about the Omega Foundation himself, “Sure… We’ll have to do it.” The Prince could tell that the cat was not thrilled about the situation at all, but he replied to the person on the other end of the phone, “Yeah, I guess you can consider it confirmed. They’ll be there to meet you. Don’t worry, I’ll fill them in on the rest of the details. Yeah, for sure. I know it’s kinda short notice, yeah. I mean -- thanks a lot for doing this for us, mate. For sure, for sure. Yeah, right. Of course. Alright.” The Prince wrapped up his conversation, “Thank
s again, mate. I’ll talk to you later. Right, bye.” The Prince disconnected from the call, and he relayed the information to Bocchino, “Tomorrow night at 6:00 P.M. he’ll be waiting for you at Harwich International Port. It’s not too far from Sealand. He wants payment via PayPal, so he’s about to send me which address he wants the money sent to. I’ll give you his mobile number, so you’ll be able to contact him in case you need to ask him anything else.” Bocchino was grateful that the Prince of Sealand was pulling such a favor on such short notice, “Thanks.”
Nine met with the Security Chief, who was already waiting outside of a black Oshkosh L-ATV. The human holstered his revolver, since there were other armed ISG members who were carrying larger firearms such as the XMP-1. The Security Chief spoke to Nine, “We’re ready to get out of here when you are. If we’re fast enough, we’ll be able to get out of here before CDI can notice us. The ISG is working on stalling them, so we have a bit of time left before we need to get going.” Nine listened to the gunfire which did not sound too far from his current location, “How about the anthros? Are all of them dead yet?” The Security Chief replied, “I haven’t heard an official response from the ISG, but I’m pretty sure most of them should be dead by now.” Nine moved over to the rear door of the L-ATV, “Too bad we had to put them down; we can’t sell dead anthros. Better than CDI getting them, right?” The Security Chief opened the driver side door of the vehicle, and he climbed inside after he saw Nine enter the vehicle, “The Overseer isn’t going to like hearing about this one, sir.”
Nine sat down in the seat, and he let the other two armed ISG members enter the vehicle as well, “We should worry about that later. Just get to driving.” The Security Chief started the vehicle, but he asked Nine for clarity, “You want us to leave now?” Nine nodded, “Yeah, get going. We’re going to need as much of a headstart as we can get.” The Security Chief shifted the vehicle into gear, and he pressed down on the accelerator. The vehicle began to accumulate speed, and the Security Chief took a hidden route which he knew he would be able to use to exit Facility Nine without running into CDI operatives looking for obvious exits. As the Security Chief drove, Nine only thought about what would happen to him in the Omega Foundation. He knew that he would be ultimately responsible for the downfall of Facility Nine, and he also knew that there would be plenty of evidence inside of the facility for CDI to easily locate many other Omega Foundation facilities. For all Nine knew, his botched raid on CDI’s base might have actually been the turning point of Omega’s downfall.
CDI operatives finally broke through the ISG, and they moved into some of the units which contained the now deceased anthros. While there were no dead humans nearby, all of the deceased were indeed anthros. One of the CDI members reported his sightings over the radio, “This is Tangent 3-2, I have located many deceased anthros. They appear to have been in… captivity. Please advise. Over.” The operative received a response moments later, “Affirmative Tangent 3-2, this is Tangent 1-Actual. What is your location? Over.” The human looked up at the bodies of the anthros before looking around for any landmarks he could potentially use to relay his location, “Tangent 1-Actual, this is Tangent 3-2, location is indeterminate. The GPS on the radio could probably provide you with my location. Over.” After what seemed like an extended moment of waiting, the operative received a response, “Affirmative. We have your location. We’re on our way. Standby.”
Arcades slowly awoke, and the fox was still unable to see or speak due to the devices which Omega forced him to wear as he was being transported. The fox woke up in a kneeling position, and he could immediately feel the discomfort from being in such a position for an extended period of time. Arcades did not immediately remember why he was confined and restrained in such a small space upon waking up, but he quickly remembered the situation which he was in. The fox attempted to shift his position, but he was stopped by the confines of the small cage he was put in. Arcades not only felt the discomfort from wearing the combined restraints for an extended period of time, he also felt the limited circulation his legs had been receiving from the position he was in. Arcades tried to look around his enclosed space, but he could not see anything as his entire surroundings appeared to him as total darkness. The fox was not sure if he couldn’t see due to being blindfolded, or if it was because the cage he was in was not lit by any form of lighting.
Arcades blinked a few times, and his eyelids could definitely feel the blindfold which he was wearing. The fox did remember from when he was outside, he could still somewhat see light through the black blindfold. Since light was completely absent from what he could see, Arcades figured that the small enclosure he was in was probably not even lit by any form of lighting. The fox tried to move his tongue, but it was still being held down by the inner gag of the muzzle which the ISG had placed in his mouth. The muzzle was both humiliating and extremely discomforting, for the fox had difficulty swallowing his own saliva due to the length of the inner device. Whenever Arcades did find himself able to swallow some saliva, he was able to feel the tight collar around his neck. Due to the difficulties of swallowing brought about by the restraints, Arcades tried to limit the amount of saliva he did swallow to prevent further discomfort.
Unfortunately for the fox, he would still be troubled due to the other apparatuses the ISG placed on his body. The device that had been shoved up Arcades’ rectum caused pain whenever he would make any movement, and the device encasing the fox’s genitals produced a similar effect. Arcades also had to keep his upper body still, for the clamps that were on his nipples caused him even more pain as his chest moved. As the fox tried to find a position that would result in the least amount of discomfort and pain, he began to wonder why the ISG wanted to excessively restrain him. He knew that he definitely did not have the strength to take on the armed men, and he also knew that he was not even a threat in the first place given the fact that the ISG found him already heavily bound in chains. Arcades considered whether or not the ISG added more devices and restraints only to further humiliate him. The fox was also unable to tell if he was in a moving vehicle or not. Arcades did not actually see the plane he was being taken to, and he had been blindfolded ever since he was placed into the BAE Caiman in the first place. Arcades used his fully operational ears to listen for ambient noise around his vicinity. He had flown numerous times in different aircraft, so he knew what air travel sounded and felt like. After a moment of listening for ambient noise, Arcades was able to reckon that he was indeed inside of an aircraft currently in flight. The fox was not sure where he was going, but he knew that he would not be given the answers he sought by the ISG themselves. Arcades also did not know how long he had been flying for, so he did not know if he would soon be arriving at the destination the ISG had planned.
“We’ll be out of the facility momentarily, sir,” the Security Chief spoke to Nine as he cleared another security door. The gunfire Nine had been listening to was now sounding more and more distant, and this indicated to Nine that CDI was in the opposite direction of their vehicle. The L-ATV took another turn, and the vehicle was able to finally exit Facility Nine. Nine looked outside, and he could see that it was indeed nighttime. The human hoped that the low-light conditions would mask their escape combined with the cover which the trees provided. The two ISG members raised their tinted Revision Locust goggles to their helmet upon entering the hardly lit environment, and they looked around the immediate surroundings as they searched for CDI operatives who might be waiting on the hidden road.
Rattlesnake’s gunner spoke upon seeing the lone Oshkosh L-ATV emerging from Facility Nine, “Spotted a vehicle. Looks like an MRAP.” The pilot knew that the heliborne assault did not include the use of any such land vehicles, “That truck’s not ours.” The gunner continued to watch the truck drive away with the use of infrared imaging, “Are we going to destroy the truck?” The pilot replied, “Yeah. Go ahead and take it down when ready.” The gunner was concerned that the helicopter’s autocannon may not be sufficient
to destroy the MRAP, “Will our main gun be enough to destroy it?” The pilot reassured the gunner, “Yeah, it’s plenty. The thing’s an MRAP. It’s no tank. Our gun fires 20x139mm rounds. That’s plenty for that little thing.” The gunner began the process of aiming the cannon at the moving vehicle. The pilot spoke again, “If it makes you feel any better, we can use one of our rockets on the vehicle. Just make sure to not waste all of our rockets on one little MRAP. Got it?” The gunner sighted in the vehicle and replied before firing upon the L-ATV, “Got it.” The gunner fired upon the L-ATV with the Super Hind’s main cannon.
Nine heard the sound of rounds impacting the vehicle’s armor, and he immediately began looking around to locate the source of the incoming gunfire. The human looked to the right and left, but neither of these directions proved to be the source of the incoming hail of gunfire. The two ISG operatives looked upwards at the roof of the vehicle, and they knew that they were being attacked from above. One of the ISG members provided details of this observation, “There’s an aircraft attacking us!” Neither of the ISG operatives were effectively armed to take down the Mi-35 Super Hind, and Nine’s revolver would definitely not be enough to take down the helicopter either. Nine shouted to the driver, for the incoming gunfire was louder than his voice, “Drive faster! We can’t let that helicopter have a shot on us!” The Security Chief pressed the gas pedal down, and he tried to evade the helicopter’s gunfire.