by Tom Jones
“Fire back at that car!” Rho-2-2 exclaimed as he pushed the barrel of his SCAR 16 outside of the window. The human held the trigger, and the rifle fired a few rounds at the Mustang, but none of them hit Jason. The wolf’s hail of gunfire from the 9mm submachine gun struck the side door of the GMC Yukon XL, but the SUV was outfitted with armor to protect it against small arms fire. Rho-2-3 racked the charging handle of his FN P90, and he pressed the button to open the sunroof. Once the sunroof opened, the human stood up on the seat he was on, and his upper body emerged from the SUV. The operative pointed his weapon at the Ford Mustang, and he held down the trigger. Despite the fact that the human was unable to see Jason from the position he was firing from, he still fired at the roof while hoping that he would hit something. The Mustang finally slowed down when it started taking fire, but the human shooting from the sunroof continued to fire since he had a good view of the vehicle. The magazine of the P90 held fifty cartridges, so the operative would not have to reload for the time being.
Arcades saw the operative shoot the P90 at the wolf, and he spoke to the vixen, “Jackie, I need you to get the wheel for me. Jason needs a hand.” The vixen reached over to grab the wheel without questioning the fox, and Arcades, with the window still rolled down, undid his seatbelt while still holding the select-fire Glock 17. Arcades emerged from the window while using his left hand to stabilize himself, and he outstretched his right arm as he prepared to take his shot at the submachine gunner. The fox toggled the fire mode on his Glock; he needed to take a precise shot, and he did not want to waste more ammunition. Arcades was not sure how many rounds he had left in his handgun, but he hoped that he had enough to deal with the gunner firing from the sunroof. It did not take long for Arcades to see that the driver of the GMC Yukon was trying to alert the standing operative that he was in danger, but the submachine gunner would not be able to hear since he was firing his weapon without hearing protection. Arcades held the red dot of his handgun’s sights directly over the back of the submachine gunner, and he fired a shot. The gunner reacted to the shot almost instantly, but the plate carrier took the impact. The fox fired again, and then he fired three more times: All of his rounds had struck the plate carrier of the operative. After the fox fired one more round, he saw that the slide of his handgun had locked open from being out of ammunition. Arcades maneuvered back inside of the vehicle, and he dropped the empty magazine on the floor of the 4Runner. The fox did not see another magazine which he had readily available to load into the Glock, so he began to roll up the window. After the window was back up and the fox put his seatbelt back on, he took back control of the vehicle from the vixen.
“That damn fox shot me!” The submachine gunner exclaimed as he sat back inside of the vehicle. Rho-2-4 spoke in response, “We tried to tell you that he was pointing his gun at you.” Rho-2-Actual spoke next as he checked the partially depleted magazine of his MCX Rattler, “Ask command what the ETA of our backup is. One vehicle can’t take on two.” After recovering from being shot in the plate carrier, Rho-2-3 took the speaker microphone and said, “Sorcerer, this is Rho-2-3, what is the current status of our reinforcements? Over.” Sorcerer replied quickly, “Rho-2, this is Sorcerer, Rho-3 is in position about a half-mile north of your current location. Standby.” Rho-2-2 reloaded his SCAR 16, and he began rolling his window back up as he tried to figure out a better strategy to deal with the Ford Mustang that was still behind them.
Jason applied more pressure to the gas pedal, and he looked at the MP5K he still held. He figured that he should have about seven rounds left in his magazine. Like Arcades, the wolf did not load any spare magazines he would use, so he only had one magazine that he had to make count. As the wolf approached the side of the Yukon XL, he aimed directly at the MTG operative holding the SCAR 16, and he pulled the trigger. Unfortunately for Jason, the SUV was fitted with armored glass, so his bullets were ineffective against the vehicle. To make matters worse, the MP5K had depleted its magazine, so the wolf was forced to discard the weapon by dropping it in the passenger seat. Jason rolled up the passenger window, and he backed off from the SUV before they decided to return fire back at him. To the wolf’s surprise, he did not see any of them acting in retaliation for his last attack. Jason moved to the oncoming lane again, and he could see another black SUV parked in the middle of the road. Unsure of whether or not Arcades was aware of the vehicle in the road, the wolf grabbed the Kenwood NX-5400 and spoke into it, “Kurt, I think I see a sport ute or something parked in the middle of the road.” Arcades grabbed the radio and replied, “Yeah, I see it. I’m gonna do something risky. Cancel your current engagement and increase your following distance. I’m gonna try and see if they’ll crash into that parked vehicle.” Jason listened to the fox, and he released some pressure from the gas pedal. The wolf found that the GMC Yukon XL was now further away from the Mustang he was driving. Jason spoke quietly to himself, “I bloody hope you know what you’re doing, mate.”
Arcades saw that the SUV pursuing him was just about tailgating him. Though he could brake check the Yukon XL, the fox decided that he would wait until the last possible moment before he would move out of the way to avoid crashing into the parked SUV he was about to run into. Jackie could see the stopped vehicle rapidly approaching, and she could also see multiple MTG units standing outside of the vehicle with their guns all pointed in the direction of the 4Runner, “Kurt? Kurt!” Arcades only pressed his foot harder on the accelerator, and he was surprised that the armed gunmen were neither shooting at him nor fleeing to avoid getting hit by the speeding Toyota 4Runner. Jackie began to scream, fearing she was about to be involved in a nasty collision, but the fox quickly yanked the steering wheel to the right in order to avoid a side impact with the black Ford Explorer. The 4Runner was a TRD model with offroad suspension, so it was able to easily handle driving off of the roadway without losing control. The pursuing vehicle was unable to turn fast enough, so it collided directly into the rear left quarter panel of the Ford Explorer. One MTG member was crushed by the initial impact, for he was standing directly in front of the area stuck. Arcades prepared to grab the handbrake of the 4Runner, but he was able to return back to the roadway without needing to perform any additional maneuvers to get his vehicle back on the roadway. The fox realized that Jason was still behind the scene of the wreck, so he took the radio and said, “Jason, they crashed. We should stop our cars and regroup. We don’t want to get separated.”
The wolf replied, “Got it, mate. Where are you stopping at?” Arcades said, “I’m going to drive for about two miles in case some of them decide to go on foot. That should give us enough of a gap to regroup. Do you see the wreck from where you’re at?” Jason looked outside of his undamaged windscreen, and he could indeed see the aftermath of the collision: The two SUVs were heavily damaged from the crash, but the wolf could not really see if all of the MTG operatives were incapacitated or not. Since Jason was already driving fairly slow, all he had to do was move off of the roadway for a brief period of time before getting back on the road after passing the wreckage. The wolf was able to get back on the road, and he continued driving as he looked at the carnage present in his rearview mirror. After traveling on the road for another two miles, he saw where Arcades had stopped his own vehicle. The wolf pulled up behind the 4Runner, and he could see that both anthros occupying the vehicle were stepping out. When Jason disabled the engine of the Mustang, he stepped out as well.
“Load up some guns, Jason. One mag ain’t gonna cut it out here,” Arcades spoke as he moved over to the trunk of the 4Runner to open it and retrieve more ammunition. The wolf looked back at the direction he came from, and he was not able to see anybody who followed them. Jason looked back at the fox with a question, “Um. How did they know we were out on the road?” Arcades looked at the wolf, and he understood what Jason was implying. The fox looked all around on the ground, and Jason looked up at the sky to see if there were any UAVs following them. After a few moments spent looking, the wolf was
able to spot a quadrotor helicopter flying in the air about one hundred meters away. Jason pointed at the UAV, “Right there! They’ve a drone! We gotta take it out!” Arcades could not initially see the aircraft which the wolf was trying to show him, “Where is it? I can’t see it.” Jason quickly ran to the trunk of the Mustang, and he opened it before grabbing the first weapon he was able to grab, the XMP-1. The wolf grabbed a loaded STANAG magazine, inserted it into the rifle, pulled the charging handle for the KE module, and he looked down the sights in the direction of the UAV. To Jason’s surprise, once he turned on the custom scope, the UAV actually appeared with a blue square around it, and it even had text that said ‘ALLY’ displayed right next to the unmanned aircraft. The wolf aimed directly at the UAV, and he pulled the trigger. After about five rounds fired from the XMP-1, the quadcopter started losing altitude, and it crashed into the ground seconds later.
Arcades only saw the UAV when the wolf had finally fired upon it. The fox spoke with some astonishment, “Wow, how did you see that from here?” Jason looked down at the XMP-1 and said, “Well, I saw it for myself because it flew in front of a distant cloud, but I saw it in the scope because it was marked.” Arcades was confused, “What do you mean it was marked?” The wolf replied, “The UAV had a box around it when I looked at it through the scope.” Arcades replied as he stepped closer to the wolf, “Really? The scope has an IFF system built into it?” Jason looked through the scope again, and he could still see the square displayed over the downed UAV’s location, “Yeah, it’s still there now. Come take a look.” Jason put the XMP-1 on safe before he handed it over to the fox, and Arcades looked through the scope for himself to see that the UAV was definitely marked with a blue square over it. The fox was surprised, “Wow. That UAV must be transmitting a signal that the scope can pick up on. We should take the scope off of the XMP-1 and use it for ourselves to spot any other UAVs that they may send. They probably weren’t expecting us to have this thing.” Jason looked at the XMP-1 that Arcades was holding, “Yeah? Well, how about you go and take it off now?” The fox looked at the hardware which held the scope on the top rail of the XMP-1, “I think it’s held on by hex screws. Can you go and get me a hex key?” Jason looked at the Mustang he was still standing behind, but he could not remember where he put the hex wrenches he packed, so he began to search.
As the wolf searched for the hex wrench, Arcades could see a few figures approaching from the road. Jackie spotted the figures as well, “Kurt, are those --” Before the vixen could finish speaking, Arcades shouted, “Jason, we’ve got company! They’re on the road behind you!” The wolf stopped his search, and he ran for the closest loaded weapon he had, the XMP-1, and he took it off safe. Before the wolf could sight in a target, he could already hear a couple rounds ricochet off of the pavement further up the road. One of the figures dropped to a prone position in order to avoid a counterattack, but Jason fired upon the other figure that was standing. After firing for a few rounds, the wolf could see that the human he was shooting at had just collapsed from his injuries. Arcades was not standing and watching; he was grabbing a weapon for himself. The fox settled for his trademark Salient GRY, and he pushed the G43 magnifier back in place so he would be able to hopefully see the targets he would have to dispatch. Arcades walked out into the open while still standing, a very risky maneuver on the fox’s part, but he was hoping that one of his adversaries would reveal himself to him. The fox looked through his sights, but he was not able to see anything. Not wanting to waste ammunition by just shooting at nothing, Arcades stepped behind the Mustang for cover in order to move out of the killzone for the time being.
Jason, on the other hand, was able to view his targets. The XMP-1’s custom scope developed by the Omega Foundation included hardware that allowed for the scope to use infrared light to improve low-visibility target acquisition. The technology was practically the same as what one would find in a night vision optic device, but it did not behave exactly like how a regular infrared or thermal scope functioned. In fact, one of the major differences was that the infrared targeted was digital rather than analog. Though it functioned a tad slower when compared to an analog system due to digital latency, the scope itself was able to identify individual infrared signals. Since the operatives were wearing infrared-reflective patches on their uniforms, the XMP-1’s scope was able to spot them. Of course, the grass and foliage did conceal the men, but when they made any significant movements, Jason was able to see their locations. The wolf aimed at an operative who was crawling towards their location, and he fired the prototype rifle. After shooting a few rounds, the man was no longer moving, and the wolf believed that he had successfully dispatched another target.
Arcades stood back up, and he looked through the scope of his Salient GRY again, hoping that he would be able to spot a target. However, Arcades could still not see anything at all. The fox watched Jason as the wolf continued to fire, and Arcades was beginning to believe that the wolf was just shooting at nothing. Arcades approached the wolf while still maintaining a low profile and asked the wolf, “Jason, what are you shooting at?” Jason replied as he changed his magazine, “I’ve almost got ‘em all. Hold on, mate.” The wolf dropped the empty magazine that he had just used, and he inserted another magazine into the XMP-1 before he pressed the bolt release button. With another round chambered into the rifle, the wolf fired a few more shots. The gunfire was too loud for a conversation, so the fox waited until after the wolf had finished firing. Jason spoke once he was satisfied with his results, “That should be all of ‘em.” Arcades looked back at the direction the wolf was firing in, but he could not see anybody at all, “What? Who were you shooting at?” Jason stood up and laid the XMP-1 back on the roof of the Mustang, “The Foundation bogan. They were out there.” Arcades shook his head in amazement, “Really? How did you see all of them? I couldn’t see a single one of them.” The wolf nodded towards the XMP-1, “Apparently that scope on that gun runs really good at night.” Arcades looked at the XMP-1, but he spoke in disbelief, “Really?” Jason nodded, “Yeah, for sure. Go and try it out, mate.”
The fox picked up the irregular prototype rifle, and he pointed the scope down range. Arcades was amazed by how much infrared light the scope was using to its advantage, “Woah. I see what you mean now. This scope will come in handy for us. We should put it on a gun that doesn’t weigh as much.” Jason looked at the Salient GRY which Arcades had placed on the roof of the Mustang when he picked up the XMP-1, “How about your GRY?” The fox considered the idea, but he still would have to get the scope off of the XMP-1 before he would be able to even use it on any other weapon, “We should figure that out later. We’re sitting ducks out here.” After Arcades thought about some more pressing issues, he decided that he would be able to divide their combined efforts to ensure that the most would get done in the least amount of time possible. The fox came up with a small plan in his head, and he relayed it to the wolf, “How about I load up a few more weapons, and you can go find those hex keys? When we get back on the road, we’re going to have to take a different route. We should probably head west and get to Mississippi.” Jason was not sure if he agreed with the fox’s plan, “Are you sure about that? Wouldn’t we have to go through Mobile before we would be able to get there?” Arcades knew that going through a populated city would likely spell trouble, especially if the Alabama Highway Patrol happened to stop him along the way.
The fox shook his head as an alternate idea came to his mind, “Well… Are we going to go back to Florida? It’ll be closer for us to go there.” Jason shrugged, “Why shouldn’t we? It’ll be better than passing through Mobile, right? Isn’t Pensacola a less populated city? We passed through there on our way to Destin, and it’s pretty close by.” The fox paused for a moment, but Jason spoke up again, “Kurt, you know we can’t stay here. Where else would you want to go? What’s the big deal with Florida anyways?” Kurt thought back to his previous experience with the state of Florida. In particular, he thought ab
out one specific experience which occurred back in 2018. Jason had a feeling he knew what was on the fox’s mind, “Kurt, that’s not going to happen again. We should be fine for the time being there. We’ll find a place to stay, and we’ll figure out what we can do. If it makes you feel any better, we can go to that one state that’s right above Florida and next to Alabama.” Arcades was more knowledgeable when it came to the geography of the United States, “Georgia?” The wolf nodded, “Yep, that place. How about we just get a move on now? I’ll go find that hex key for you. You should go and load up some of your guns in case we run into any more Foundation bogan.”
Arcades looked back at Jackie, and he asked the vixen what she thought, “So… Are you alright with going back to Florida?” The vixen gave a confident nod, “Sure thing, Kurt. I think Jason’s right. It would be better for us to go to a smaller town than a larger city. Besides, it would take longer for us to go to Mississippi than it would be for us to go back to Florida.” The fox walked over to the rear of the 4Runner after grabbing the Salient GRY he left on the roof of the Mustang, and he heard the vixen speak again, “We should be alright, shouldn’t we?” Arcades propped the Salient GRY up against the rear bumper of the 4Runner, and he began to take empty STANAG magazines that he would load. The fox did not answer the vixen, so Jackie asked again, “We’re going to be alright, right?” The fox paused for a moment, and he looked at the vixen. Arcades finally gave his reply, “Jackie. I promise that I will do everything I can, but I simply can’t guarantee that this will have a happy ending. I hope you know what I mean.” The vixen reached out and grabbed the fox’s left arm as he prepared to get back to loading the empty magazines, “I know you’re doing your best, and that’s all you can do. I’d rather be here with you than be out on the streets with absolutely nothing.”