by Tom Jones
“Alright mate, it looks like we’ve about everything we really need, right?” Jason had asked the fox once he looked himself over again. Arcades replied, “Just about. We still need to make sure we have our concealed carry licenses. If any policemen search us, they wouldn’t be too happy finding these weapons on us if we were not carrying our license cards. They would surely detain us, and we need those guns to protect both ourselves and Jackie. She’s with us now, so we have to do what we can to protect her. Stay here. I’ll go and get my license.” The fox went back to the driver’s seat of the 4Runner, and he made sure to be as quiet as possible so as to not wake the vixen who was still asleep. Jason waited where the fox asked him to wait, and he saw Arcades as he returned. However, the wolf did not see Arcades carrying anything extra, “Did you get your license?” The fox nodded, “Yeah, it was in my wallet. I went ahead and just put my wallet in my pocket. I made sure to grab some extra cash as well. Let’s try and not pay with credit cards for the time being. I’m not sure if the Foundation is able to track that kind of stuff, so I’m not going to take any chances. If we think that they wouldn’t be able to trace that, then we can ease up, but for right now, I’d rather not give myself something else to think about.”
Jason thought about where he kept his license, so he went into the Mustang to look for his wallet, “I guess I’ll go find where I put my wallet.” Arcades excused the wolf to go and search, “Sure thing.” As the wolf went to look in the Mustang, the fox looked up at the sky and could see that it was fairly early in the morning. He figured that he only got a couple hours of sleep during the last night, but he knew that there had been worse nights for him in the past. Arcades was quite surprised to see that Jackie had not awoken due to the search for everything he had to grab from the vehicle, and he began to wonder when the last time the vixen had gotten any sleep. After all, she was practically homeless when they found her. Though unfortunately for the vixen, the three of them were all now practically homeless after the Foundation attacked. Arcades took a deep breath as he thought about the loss of his home, and he was unsure of what he was going to do next. However, the fox had to make sure that he was safe where he currently was before he would be able to do anything. He was not sure how long he would have to wait before he would be able to drive his two cars back on the road again, but he at least had a place to come back to for the time being. He would rather live in his car than live on the streets. Besides, he had all of his weapons spread across his two cars.
The wolf finally returned holding his wallet, “Alright mate, it looks like I found it. How much cash should I have in my wallet for the time being?” Arcades needed to know more information before he would be able to give his judgement, “How much money do you have in there right now?” Jason replied, “About five hundred dollars in cash.” The fox shrugged, “Hmm… Well, that should be enough. I don’t think we’d have to spend all of that in just one day. We just need to make sure that we conserve our cash. We don’t want to waste it all, and that also goes for our ammunition as well.” Jason put his wallet into his shorts, and he asked the fox the same question he asked him previously regarding their preparedness, “Well… Is this all we need now?” Arcades told the wolf one more thing he had in mind, “We need communication. Though we will be sticking together, we still need to have something to contact one another just in case we get separated or lost.”
“We need phones?” Jason asked. Arcades shook his head, “No, not phones. The Foundation would maybe be able to track those. We should remove the batteries from any smartphones we brought for right now; we don’t need the Foundation tracking where our vehicles were left with GPS.” Jason had an objection, “How can you be sure that the Foundation is even tracking us like that in the first place?” Arcades replied before he opened the front door again, “I don’t. I’m just trying to play it safe.” The fox grabbed the Kenwood NX-5400 radio which he had in his vehicle, and he showed it to the wolf once he closed the door behind him, “We should use this. Though it does have GPS, it’s encrypted. You have the one in your car, so you should use that.” The wolf went back into his own vehicle to retrieve his own radio. It was not long before Jason noticed something about the radio, “Uhh... Kurt?” Arcades acknowledged the wolf’s plea for his attention, “What’s the matter?” Jason looked at the radio and spoke, “This radio has a pretty long antenna. How are we going to conceal these radios?” Arcades was already in the process of working on the solution, “Hmmm… I think I know what: We’re likely not going to use these radios that often, so we should just keep them with the antenna off when they’re not in use. Only when we get separated should we put the antenna back on and use the radio. Stay on the same frequency we’ve been using, by the way. If we get lost, all we need to do is just turn on the radio after putting the antenna on. We’ll be able to let each other know where we are. We won’t even have to worry about this if we don’t get separated, so let’s try and stick together.”
Jason watched as the fox put the partially disassembled radio into his other pocket, and the wolf followed suit after he removed the antenna and turned off the radio for himself. Arcades had one another thing to say to the wolf, “Also, make sure you keep in mind that you should always keep the radio off before you put on the antenna or take it off, and you shouldn’t use the radio without the antenna since you could damage the radio.” Jason gave a nod, “Got it, I’ll make sure to keep that in mind.” With the two anthros now ready for the time being, Jason had one more question to ask the fox, “Kurt, what are we going to do for Jackie? Are we going to give her any of this stuff?” Arcades’ face indicated as if he was making a difficult decision, “Well, the problem with that is that she’s not really familiar with this stuff, and it would be a bit counterintuitive to try and train her out here. Besides, she’s here because we agreed that we’d protect her. We shouldn’t encumber her with stuff that’ll weigh her down. That’s what men like us are supposed to do. We’re supposed to carry the load for the women.”
Jason remembered one thing which the fox did not address during this informal briefing, “Hey Kurt, shouldn’t we have multitools as well? We could perhaps use those if we need to.” Arcades nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. How could I forget that?” The fox went back behind the still-open 4Runner, and he dug into one of his utility bags before he pulled out two matching multitools. The multitools even featured a flashlight on the end of them. Arcades handed one of the multitools to the wolf, and the fox pocketed the other. Arcades, figuring that he finally had everything he needed, closed the rear trunk door of the 4Runner, and he did so in a quiet manner as to not wake Jackie. The air was relatively cool, so Arcades closed all of the doors since he did not believe the car would get hot enough to do any damage to the sleeping vixen inside. After closing all of the doors, Arcades walked back to Jason. The wolf now asked, “Well, Kurt. We’ve everything we need, so what are we going to do now?” Arcades took a long exhale before replying, “I wish I knew. That’s something I haven’t figured out yet. Let’s wait until Jackie wakes up. How about that?” Jason made a suggestion, “How about we get something to eat? We have some food in the car that we brought.” Arcades did not realize it before, but he was starting to feel a bit hungry himself, “Yeah, let’s get something to eat.”
“You’re telling us that the Mobile Task Group was unable to capture the fox?” A human replied in disbelief as a Knights Templar agent told him the news. The agent nodded and spoke again, “Yes sir. We also lost our UAV that we were using to track him. His current location is unknown, and we are unsure of whether or not he is still in the state of Alabama.” The Majestic One shook his head in disappointment, “Dammit. We fucking lost him.” The Templar agent stood still as he waited to see if The Majestic One had anything else to say. As he waited, he looked around the room, and he noticed many esoteric symbols and artifacts that only advanced members of the Illuminati would be able to recognize the meaning behind. Like with all of the higher-ups, the agent knew that t
he esoteric symbols held a rather dark spiritual meaning behind them; a meaning which would be Satanic by definition. As The Majestic One sat in thought, he heard an alert go off on his desk. The human checked the alert, and he saw that he was getting an incoming call from another member of the Majestic 12. The Majestic One looked over to the Templar agent, and he dismissed him from the room with a hand signal. The agent left the room, and the human accepted the incoming call.
“We have found new intel regarding Castle Defence Industries,” the caller spoke. The Majestic One was curious as to what was discovered, “Do tell. What have we found?” The caller replied, “We have reason to believe that CDI is in construction of their own version of the XVP-1 from parts and plans recovered from Facility Zero.” The Majestic One was hoping for good news, “Shit… Do we know how much they have completed?” The caller said, “We are currently unsure, but intel suggests that they are planning to mass produce a smaller variant derived from a reverse-engineered XVP-1. We believe that they may have one model almost complete and a second one in production, but we do not think either of them are combat capable as of current.” The Majestic One decided to relay the information he had just received from the Knights Templar, “Do you remember that fox that we were trying to capture?”
The caller was aware about the plan to capture Arcades, but he was not up to date with specific details, “Yes. Do you have an update on the situation?” The Majestic One replied, “The Knights Templar sent a Mobile Task Group unit to capture him, but the fox escaped.” The caller, not knowing the evidence left behind, was not initially too concerned, “Did we lose any members of the MTG in the mission?” The Majestic One reluctantly replied, for he saw the mission’s result as a humiliating defeat, “The whole unit was lost. Not a single one of them made it out alive, and the fox is nowhere to be found now. We don’t know where he is.” The caller realized that evidence may have been left behind during the attack that would potentially compromise the Illuminati if it was located, “Fuck. That means we have two problems now. We have this fox who knows about us, and we also have CDI building their own version of the XVP-1. I called because I was going to ask if you would agree with our plans to send a Mobile Task Group to the base in order to destroy the production vehicles. CDI has gathered way too much hardware for our likings.” The Majestic One considered the overall situation, and he figured that it might be more beneficial to get rid of CDI’s newer vehicles instead of hunting down a single fox for the time being. The Majestic One asked for more details about the CDI situation, “Where is this base located?” The caller replied with the details which his superior requested, “Northwest of Montreal, Canada. They must’ve started production there after they obtained the parts and blueprints from the Omega Foundation’s facility in Devon Island.”
The Majestic One decided to agree with the plan to assault CDI’s base, “We probably should do something before they start mass producing their own Dreadnought. Even on a smaller scale, they would still be dangerous if they’ve been able to reverse-engineer our laser technology. We must stop them before this vehicle becomes combat operational. We don’t even have a new XVP-1 to replace the one the Omega Foundation made for us yet. With the loss of the Omega Foundation, we’re now way behind on our plans to build an army of enslaved anthros to start our conquest.” The caller spoke again, “We are planning on sending Mobile Task Group Sigma-5 to CDI’s base to carry out the destruction of their new vehicle; they are the closest MTG that’s currently operational. Unless you have any objections, then we are going to deploy the unit.” The Majestic One did have one objection, “Make sure that CDI, or anybody for that matter, can’t trace it back to our organization. I don’t want another incident to occur like the one that happened with that fox.” The caller acknowledged the order before hanging up, “It will be done.” After the caller hung up, The Majestic One began thinking again about how to capture the fox. Though the attack on CDI may be a higher-profile attack, it was ultimately a retaliatory attack in response to CDI’s multiple attacks on the Omega Foundation back in 2028. The hunt for the fox could wait for the time being.
“Are you feeling any better after eating that, Jason?” Arcades asked the wolf who had just about finished his meal. The wolf looked at the fox and replied, “A bit. Has Jackie woken up yet? She’s been sleeping in there for a while, hasn’t she?” Arcades looked out of the window of the Ford Mustang he was sitting in, but he could not see the vixen in the passenger seat of the 4Runner. The fox commented as he moved his head around to try and see if he could not see Jackie from a different angle, “I don’t see her there. Where did she go?” Jason was confused, “Hmm? She’s not there?” The fox shook his head as he stepped out from the Mustang’s passenger seat, “No, I don’t see her.” When Arcades stepped out, he could see Jackie was making her way around the back of the 4Runner. The fox spoke to the vixen first, “When did you wake up?” Upon closer visual inspection, it looked as if the vixen had just awoken mere minutes ago. Jackie did speak after a brief moment of silence, “Just now.” Arcades replied, “Did you have a decent enough night after we lost the guys chasing us?” The vixen nodded, but she did not say anything. Arcades moved closer to Jackie, “Jason and I are having breakfast right now. Are you hungry for anything?”
The vixen blinked a few times to clear her vision, and she was able to see the fox a bit better after doing so. When the fox mentioned food, Jackie realized that she was starting to get a bit hungry, “You have food?” Arcades smiled and replied, “Of course. We brought enough to hold us for a month, and we can make it last longer if we’re decently conservative with it.” The fox stepped aside, and he held out his hand in the direction of the Ford Mustang, “Step on up and I’ll give you some food.” Jackie approached the car, and Arcades was already moving to the trunk where some of the food was kept. The vixen looked around the surroundings, and she could see that it was still fairly early in the morning. Though the sun was out, it was still rising. It looked as if it was about seven or eight in the morning, so Jackie tried to do some mental math to determine how many hours of sleep she got the previous night. Before the vixen came up with an answer, she heard Arcades speak as he held out a water bottle, “Have some water.” Jackie took the bottle and returned with her gratitude, “Thanks, Kurt.” Arcades replied as he continued to sift through the contents of the trunk, “No need to thank me. We’ve agreed to protect you, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
“The hangar’s open, and there’s nothing blocking your way. Accelerate slowly and proceed forward about fifty meters before stopping on the taxiway. Over,” The mission controller spoke to the pilot of the MAV-29 ATACV, the vehicle developed by CDI based on the blueprints of the Omega Foundation’s XVP-1. The Multirole Assault Vehicle 29 Articulated Tracked Armored Combat Vehicle was considerably smaller than the eXperimental Vehicle Project 1, but it still carried enough armament. Unlike its spiritual predecessor, the MAV-29 had only three compartments rather than four, and each compartment had one large track on each side to more evenly distribute the mass of the vehicle. The tracks were still capable of turning, but they could not turn a full 180 degrees. Instead, they were only capable of turning to a maximum of 60 degrees in either direction. The vehicle itself was definitely substantially smaller than the Dreadnought; its size was more comparable to other tracked articulated vehicles, and the vehicle itself bore many similarities to a Vityaz DT-30. Unlike the DT-30, the MAV-29 was built specifically for combat: Its first compartment was mainly made for the pilot, but it had a Shipunov 2A42 mounted on the roof. The second compartment was dedicated to housing CDI’s laser weapon system based on the Kratos AN/SEQ-3 LaWs. However, CDI’s laser system, designated the ACLS-2, was developed entirely by the company. The All-weather Combat Laser System 2 externally resembled the AN/SEQ-3, but it was able to be mounted on smaller vehicles such as the MAV-29.
Due to the ACLS-2’s need for a great amount of power, the second compartment was practically dedicated to housing the
device and supplying the power required for the laser’s operation. The final compartment was used as an armored troop transport, and it was capable of carrying twenty-four infantrymen. Though the current model in use, the Arvak, featured the troop carrier, CDI did have plans to make another variant of the MAV-29 which would replace the troop carrier with another compartment dedicated to offensive armament, but the compartments would be interchangeable with the MAV-29 models. Like the XVP-1, the MAV-29 also featured reactive armor all over its hull, and it even had a trophy system installed to intercept incoming projectiles in order to further preserve the integrity of the MAV-29’s hull. The pilot of the MAV-29 finally replied to the mission controller as the flat dark earth vehicle began to pull out of the hangar, “This is Softshell: Copy all. Moving to location. Standby.” The mission controller, who was seated in the aircraft control tower, was able to see the MAV-29 as it proceeded down the taxiway.
The vehicle stopped when it arrived at the destination given by the mission controller. Once the vehicle was in its place, the pilot spoke, “This is Softshell. I have arrived at the waypoint marker. Awaiting instructions for weapons testing. Over.” The mission controller spoke to the MAV-29 operator before changing frequencies, “Standby, Softshell. Confirm that your ACLS is operational.” The MAV-29 operator did not reply back to the mission controller; Instead, the second man in the vehicle, the weapon systems officer, pressed a few buttons on his control panel that would test the laser system by directing a small amount of power to the laser. As the system cycled, the operator looked at the digital display, and he could see that the diagnostic test of the laser was proceeding without any errors. As the WSO continued his onboard system check, the mission controller spoke to the pilot of a Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout, “Peafowl, proceed to the area of operations and hover within view of the MAV-29. Over.” The Fire Scout’s pilot replied, “Copy, command. I am moving to the operations area. ETA two minutes. Standby.”