by Tom Jones
The pilot congratulated the WSO for destroying the Stealth Hawk, “Fuckin’ A! Holy shit, that was fucking close.” The WSO continued looking at his targeting interface, and he scanned the ground with one of the alternate cameras to see if he could see any surviving infantrymen. However, it seemed that the CDI operatives who arrived at the scene with the lighter vehicles were already in the process of engaging the Mobile Task Group. Nevertheless, the MAV-29 began to turn around to drive towards the scene, and the WSO began to target the infantrymen with the laser. After aiming at the operatives, the WSO enabled the beam, and the targeted operatives combusted as the laser penetrated their bodies. The WSO commented as he watched the carnage unfold from his display, “Damn! The laser’s fucking them up.” The pilot continued to flank the Mobile Task Group, and he knew that the infantrymen would have a hard time stopping the MAV-29, even with anti-vehicle ordnance. Only a few CDI members were wounded by the Mobile Task Group, and the rest of the members only lasted less than a minute more before the entire unit was wiped out by a combined counteroffensive carried out by regular CDI infantry personnel as well as the MAV-29.
The control tower spoke to the crew of the MAV-29, “Softshell, this is control. All targets have been destroyed.” The pilot of the MAV-29 stopped the vehicle once more, and the WSO used the external cameras mounted on the vehicle to scan around and view the wreckage. The WSO spoke as he viewed the leftover carnage, “They sure fucked up the base. The runway’s going to need some renovation before it’ll be ready for operations again. At least it wasn’t too bad.” The pilot looked out the cockpit’s window, and he surveyed the surroundings with his own eyes, “Damn. Who were those guys, and what do you think they were after?” The WSO shrugged, “No idea. I’ve never seen them before, and I’ve never seen those helicopters.” The pilot remembered what he saw from the heliborne assault team, “They sure came out of nowhere, and they fucking tried to kamikaze us.” The WSO shook his head as his adrenaline began to calm down, “Shit, son… Good thing we made it out of that one.”
Jackie was just about finished with her meal that she ate in the passenger seat of the Mustang. Jason was still in the driver’s seat, but Arcades was standing outside of the vehicle; he gave up his seat for the vixen. The fox looked at the 4Runner which he drove in with, and he was beginning to come up with an idea. Arcades believed that the police in Alabama were likely looking for his vehicle, but he was no longer in Alabama. Since he was in Florida, he would probably be able to drive his 4Runner. After all, like all of the NFA weapons he owned, the vehicle was registered to the company; not to Arcades. The fox looked in the rear window of the 4Runner, and he was able to see all of the weapons he had piled up in the trunk. Arcades was taking a big enough risk already bringing all of his NFA weapons across state lines. Though the fox did have all of the licenses and tax-related nuances required to possess the weapons, he was not technically supposed to bring them off of company property. Arcades may have been able to bring the weapons off of his property in Alabama, thanks to their more relaxed regulations surrounding weapons, but he would probably not get so lucky in Florida. From an outsider’s perspective, it would appear as if the fox was trafficking weapons.
The fox returned to the Mustang, and he approached Jackie by walking up to the door which was already open, “How are you feeling?” The vixen drank from the water bottle, and she replied once her mouth was clear, “Better than yesterday.” Arcades gave a nod, “That’s good to hear.” The fox looked past the vixen, and he could see that the wolf was looking at him from the driver’s seat. Arcades directed his next question towards the wolf, “Jason, you’re all done eating, right?” The gray wolf said, “For sure.” Arcades asked the wolf to come with him, “I have an idea of what to do next. I’ll show you if you come with me.” Jason looked over to the vixen, and Jackie was looking back at him. The wolf spoke as he exited the vehicle, “We’ll be back.” The wolf did not close the driver’s door on his way out, and Arcades was waiting for the wolf to approach him. Once Jason stood before the fox, Arcades gestured for the wolf to follow him, and the fox led him behind the 4Runner.
Once the two anthros arrived at the 4Runner, the fox spoke, “Alright. So, I’ve been thinking, and I have an idea of what we can do while we’re out here.” Jason did not have any ideas for himself, so he was willing to listen to what Arcades had to say, “Yeah? Lemme hear it, mate.” The fox began to speak, “Alright. We have two vehicles. Both of them are currently carrying practically all of our possessions that we could fit inside of them, and most of that is tactical gear. Much of that equipment we’re already taking huge risks holding onto right now since we’re not a security company anymore. It’s not really the best situation in the world for us to bring those NFA items off of our property, let alone out of the state. Both of those vehicles are registered to our company, and not personally to either of us. That means that the police in this state would likely not know that the police in Alabama are supposed to be looking for the 4Runner. The Mustang has bullet holes on the roof, and that would likely elicit suspicion from people if they were to see it driving down the road. If the police were to pull us over with all of those NFA weapons in the car, then they probably wouldn’t be too happy even if I explain to them that we are manufacturers and importers of NFA items.”
Jason was still listening to what the fox was saying, but he was not sure what Arcades was planning on doing, “Alright. What’s your idea?” Arcades continued to speak, “I’m thinking that we should put everything we don’t need in the Mustang. We should keep all of our NFA items in there as well. We don’t want to be caught carrying those weapons in the event that we would be pulled over. We both have concealed carry permits, and the state of Florida does honor them. Our handguns that we’re concealing are not NFA items, so we’ll be alright provided that we have our licenses. We still cannot openly carry our weapons, but it would probably be better for us that we don’t. Even in places where open carry is legal, people still get antsy about it, and us being anthros would not help that sort of situation at all.” The wolf was starting to pick up on what the fox was suggesting, “Are we going to drive the 4Runner?” Arcades nodded, “Yeah. It’s not like we have any other options at this point. I want you to think about this as well: We no longer have a home to return to, and we have limited resources that would last us about a month if we were to hold out here. Either way, we’d be forced to do something to continue to sustain ourselves.”
Jason thought about what the fox was telling him, “Kurt, what about the Foundation? Aren’t they still looking for us?” Arcades nodded, but he had something else to say, “Yeah, but I’ve been taking a moment to think, and as of right now, I think I know how they found us. They most likely looked up information about the company, and they found out that it was renamed to Fox Armaments from Fox Security. The Foundation knew in the first place that it was us who broke into their black sites. Think about this as well: It took them about two years to make contact with us again, and that all started just a few days ago. I can all but guarantee you that it was that one guy who entered the store and bought that one Trijicon scope with cash. After all, that rifle you recovered had that exact scope on it. They only found us when we came back because we came back to the place they already knew we’d be. They no longer have that lead since we’re not planning on returning to our store. The only problem I can think of is that the police would find the bodies, but I think it looks like an attack. After all, those guys were kitted out, and they brought their own weapons. You left all of those weapons there. If they were to check the serial numbers, they would be able to tell that they would not come back to us. Still, we should not return back to Alabama.”
The wolf had an objection he felt that needed to be addressed, “Kurt, how do you reckon we’d still be able to support ourselves? We’re basically starting from zero, and all we have are in these two vehicles.” Arcades had already thought about the answer to the wolf’s question before he had even asked,
“If we didn’t bring all of those guns with us, then I would suggest that we would have to find a place to work. I mean, we probably will still have to do that, but we have plenty of weapons that we brought. Some of those weapons are worth a good deal of cash, and even if we don’t sell them at full price, we’d still be able to make enough money to last us for a good while. We would be able to lease a place for us to stay for the time being, and we would be able to think about it a bit better from there.” Jason glanced over to the pile of weapons in the 4Runner, “How are you going to sell all of those NFA weapons?” Arcades replied with the answer, “Only the lower receiver of any of those weapons is actually considered a firearm, and the auto sear is considered an NFA item. All we would need to do is just sell the parts separately. Think about this for instance: We have multiple HK MP5s, and people are willing to pay upwards of a thousand dollars just for the parts. We could strip all of those weapons and sell the parts, minus any specific NFA items such as auto sears. Afterwards, we can discard all of the auto sears and machine gun lowers into a body of water or somewhere. We wouldn’t technically be losing much more than we already had.”
Jason remembered the fox’s favorite weapon, “Kurt, you’d sell your Salient GRY?” Arcades sighed, “I really wouldn’t want to get rid of it… However, what’s more important? Me having that gun, or us all making it through this? Sometimes -- you have to make some sacrifices.” The wolf remembered another detail about the rifle, “It’s fully-automatic as well. Would you sell that in pieces?” Arcades nodded, “Yeah, I’d have to. I’d remove the lower and completely strip it, and I’d leave only the auto sear in the lower. Thankfully, I would be able to sell all of the parts to that without having to do any sort of legal regulation or anything. The only thing in the US that is regulated is the lower receiver of the firearm. The gas components on the upper are actually more expensive than a stripped lower.” Jason thought about the GRY some more, “How much do you reckon you’d get from selling it?” The fox replied, “At least a couple thousand. We have several guns we’d be able to sell for that amount of money. We could technically make it for a solid year if we were to sell only the German guns we have, and that’s just a fraction of our total guns.”
Jason felt that things were beginning to look up, “Yeah? Well, if we could make it for a year, then where would we settle for that amount of time?” Arcades shrugged, “I don’t really have any idea. I know you’d be living with me, but I’m not sure if Jackie would join our household.” The fox continued to add on to his statement, “Also, I think this means that we should probably abandon our little company. After all, I’m very sure that’s how they tracked us down to begin with. I sincerely doubt they’d go and look for everybody named Kurt Hofmeier in this country.” Jason shrugged, “Eh, I dunno, mate. How many people in this country even are named Kurt Hofmeier in the first place?” The fox looked to the side before looking back to the wolf, “Well… At this point, I’m hoping there’s a few more than just me.” Jason offered a suggestion to the fox, “What if you were to change your name? That’ll prolly be enough to slow them down or throw them off.”
Arcades considered the wolf’s idea, “Perhaps, but what would I even change my name to?” Jason looked at the fox and thought for a moment, “I mean, I dunno, but I’d suggest something that sounds English rather than German.” Arcades leaned up against the 4Runner and put the sole of his foot on the rear quarter panel, “Is there even an Anglicized version of my name?” Jason spoke again, “You wouldn’t have to change your entire name. You could just change your last name. I’m sure there are plenty of Kurts out here in the US.” Arcades asked for a suggestion, “Do you have any ideas for an Anglicized version of my last name?” Jason thought for an extended moment of time, and he finally delivered a suggestion, “How about if your last name was Heywood?” Arcades spoke the name aloud for himself, “Kurt Haywood. I mean, if I had no other option, I’d probably go with it, but I think we could go and figure out something better. At that rate, I’d change my first name and just call myself Conrad Haywood. Still, I think there are better options we can come up with.”
Jason shrugged, “Well, it is just an idea after all.” Arcades nodded, “Yeah, it sure is.” The wolf then had another thing to ask the fox, “So, Kurt. If you’re going to get rid of all of your guns, what are you going to do instead? I know how much you love your guns, mate.” Arcades looked towards the ground, and he looked at the wolf’s boots for a moment before speaking, “Well… I like the guns and all, but we don’t technically need them. You know what I mean? We shouldn’t be relying on them to save us; we have Jesus to save us, and He’s all that truly matters. We shouldn’t be putting our faith in something that cannot save us. You know, it reminds me of this one chapter from the Book of Psalms. It was talking about how people put their trust in idols and things that have no ability to even acknowledge the existence of people who worship them. Unlike the idols, God can see, He can hear, and He knows what we’re dealing with. We don’t really need those guns. After all, when we die, we’ll see each other in the New Kingdom when Jesus comes back to claim His throne.” Jason smiled, “That’s good at least.” Arcades nodded in agreement, “Yeah, it sure is. A place where there will be no more evil, and we’ll be able to live in peace with the Lord and all of His saints for all eternity. Eternity sounds like quite a long time you’d have to spend with me, right?” The wolf placed his hand on the fox’s shoulder, “I think it sounds like a good way to spend eternity.” Arcades smiled and replied back to the wolf, “You’re telling me.”
Chapter 9
Dealing in Resources
“Mobile Task Group Sigma-5 has failed the operation to destroy CDI’s new vehicle,” a Knights Templar agent reported to The Majestic One. The human did not know why the operation was not a success, “What happened?” The agent replied, “We do not know for sure, but we think they lost the element of surprise too early. When we flew the UAV around the area after the attack, we could see that CDI had the prototype vehicle outside of the hangar, and we were able to get a clearer image of it. We believe they used it to terminate MTG Sigma-5.” The Majestic One went to view the image that was sent to him, and he examined the MAV-29. Using the surrounding buildings and smaller vehicles in the frame as points of reference, The Majestic One realized just how small the MAV-29 really was compared to the XVP-1, “That little thing is CDI’s Dreadnought?” The Templar agent said, “Yes, sir.” The Majestic One continued to view the photograph, “I thought it wasn’t combat operational.”
The agent spoke, “We did not believe it was either.” The Majestic One knew that the failed attack would have the potential of leaving clues for CDI to trace their attackers, “And now we have two failed incidents. First that fox gets away, and now CDI knows that somebody’s interested in attacking them.” The Majestic One paused as he took a moment to think. The Templar agent only stood by and waited. The Majestic One finally spoke again after his pause, “How long will it take for us to be able to make artificially-produced anthros again? The Omega Foundation was successful with the project, but we don’t have that anymore.” The Templar agent replied, “Without a new template, it could take awhile, and we do not have any of the facilities we had to draw in new candidates for testing and evaluation. Besides, the fox broke into that facility first, the Omega Foundation’s Facility Eleven.”
When The Majestic One heard mention of Kurt Hofemier again, he couldn’t help but feel angry, “That damn fox is the reason why we’ve lost so much progress. We were so close! All we needed to do was just make a few more XVP-1s and an army of anthros, and we wouldn’t be able to lose. We would be able to turn all of the world’s nations to us, and we would start the New World Order that we’ve been trying to establish for so long.” The agent could not understand why Arcades was so important, “Why even pursue the fox at this point? Tracking him down has only led to him moving further away from us. You don’t even know if he would even be a worthy candidate for us to use as
a new template.” There was a great deal of anger on The Majestic One’s face when he replied, “Don’t you see? That fox still has what we can’t risk being out there: He knows about us and what we’ve been up to. He is the reason why the Omega Foundation fell, and we can’t just simply kill him and get it done and over with. He needs to pay for what he has done to our New World Order.”
“If you’re going to do that to him, then why bother using him as a template? Can’t we get another anthro from somewhere else for that?” the agent began to argue. The Majestic One shook his head, “That fox has a unique color pattern. He’s not just any regular silver fox. He has the pattern of a red fox, but he has black fur instead of red fur. We would be missing out if we were not to at least analyze his specimen while we’re at it.” The agent knew that they had few leads to go on to find Arcades, “But sir, where are we supposed to look? We don’t know if he even left the state or not.” The Majestic One gave an order, “Send small covert units to each of the surrounding towns and have them look for him over the span of a week. There isn’t much we can do besides that, and make sure they don’t even know who exactly the fox is. I don’t want word to somehow make its way to him.” The agent was a bit skeptical, for he did not think the field agents would be able to locate the fox within the timeframe, “And what if they can’t find him within the allotted time frame?” The Majestic One decided to accept that only so much could be done to find the fox, “Then I suppose we better just hope he doesn’t tell anybody else about us. We’ve dug quite the hole looking for him already, and we don’t need to make it an even larger hole. Especially since CDI now knows that someone is out there to get them.”
The agent was not sure what his superior had in mind to deal with MAV-29, “What are we supposed to do about CDI, anyways?” The Majestic One took into account the failure of the previous mission, “If we cannot destroy the vehicle, then perhaps we can take it.” The Templar agent was not sure how such a task would be feasibly completed, “I take it we would need a different strategy. The heliborne assault was unsuccessful, and it was previously unsuccessful when the Omega Foundation launched one against a different CDI base back in 2028. Perhaps they have too many air defenses set up.” Neither human was a witness to the assault itself, so they did not know that MTG Sigma-5 merely showed up at an inopportune time. Still, The Majestic One decided that a new strategy needed to be used to deal with the MAV-29, “We won’t be able to attack by the air, and there isn’t a body of water nearby for us to use…” The agent used the brief pause to voice his concern, “Sir, you’re not thinking about a ground assault, are you? CDI is known for having some pretty nasty hardware hidden in those bases. We do not have the firepower to compete with it. All we really have are aircraft, and many of them are not even capable for combat operations.”