by Tom Jones
After flying the drone back to the landing site, the two agents began packing up the UAV back into the trunk of the Ford Explorer. They would be sure to transfer over the flight data and recording to a memory drive in order to keep as proof that they put at least an effort to find the fox they were sent to locate. Packing up the drone took less time than deploying it, and the two agents were practically finished with packing up the unmanned aircraft after just a few minutes. After closing the trunk door, the driver and the passenger took their respective seats in the Ford Explorer, and they prepared to leave the area to continue their drive around the town. The driver spoke as he drove off, “Well… At least this day is about halfway done and over with.” The passenger replied, “That means we have a week minus half a day left.” The driver sighed, “This is going to fucking suck. Get used to this fucking town; we’re gonna be here for a decent while.” The driver pulled out of the clearing, and he went back on the road.
After a few moments, Arcades arrived at the same scene with the 4Runner. He was completely unaware that the very men who were sent to find him had just visited the very spot where he abandoned his Ford Mustang. Jason looked over to the right, and he could still see that the Mustang was exactly where they parked it, “It’s still there. That’s good.” Arcades parked directly next to the Mustang, and he turned off the SUV’s engine. The fox spoke to the wolf, “Go and get the tarp we got, Jason.” The wolf acknowledged Arcades and exited the SUV, “Sure thing, mate.” Jackie asked Arcades a question, “Can I stay in here, Kurt?” The fox nodded, “Yeah, this ain’t gonna take long. All we need to do is just cover up the Mustang, and we’ll be back on our way.” Arcades stepped out of the 4Runner, and he went to the trunk to retrieve the tarp. The tarp was an olive drab color, so it would be even less noticeable to passerbys once it was covering up the Mustang. Before the two anthros went to cover up the vehicle, the fox turned around. The wolf was wondering what Arcades was looking at, “What’s the matter Kurt?” Arcades replied after a brief moment, “Oh, it’s nothing. I just had a strange feeling that somebody was here earlier.” Jason smiled, “I’m sure plenty of people have passed this place by while driving out on the road. Prolly at least one person thought it would be nice to check the place out.” Arcades shrugged off his feeling and continued to apply the tarp and cover up the Mustang, “Sure.” As the two anthros successfully covered up the vehicle, the wolf spoke again, “With this covering up your car, I bet it’ll keep some curious people from moving in and checking out what’s inside if they can get a good enough look to see that something’s here.” Arcades decided that he agreed with Jason, “Yeah. It should work for the time being.” Since the tarp was applied, all that needed to be done was just to anchor it in place. The fox spoke to the wolf, “Go and get some of those anchor spikes. Let’s finish setting this thing up.” The wolf nodded.
Chapter 10
The Heist
A Mobile Task Group member adjusted the flat dark earth MICH 2000 he was wearing. Along with the helmet, the operative was dressed in the full uniform of a typical Canadian CDI contractor: A ranger green Crye-cut combat uniform, a flat dark earth LBT plate carrier, coyote tan boots, flat dark earth gloves, and even a Colt Canada C8 with flat dark earth furniture. All of the Mobile Task Group units wore the same uniform with khaki balaclavas, and they even wore flat dark earth ESS goggles to hide their faces. Though two of the units carried Colt Canada C8 AR-15s, other two units carried Kalashnikov Concern AK-201s since the AK-201 was a common weapon carried by CDI contractors operating in areas where 5.56x45mm was more common than Russian cartridges. After gathering intelligence regarding the patrol routes of CDI vehicles in the surrounding area of their base, the unit was preparing for an ambush in order to commandeer a vehicle to enter the base with. Since all of the four MTG operatives were dressed as CDI members, they simply had to wait for a CDI vehicle to approach.
“Alright. The patrol car should be approaching within the next two minutes. Get ready,” the fireteam leader of MTG Phi-8 spoke to the other three MTG members waiting for the ambush. After an extended moment of silence, the operatives saw a CDI-patterned VPK-3927 approaching their position. The infantry mobility vehicle was alone, but the Mobile Task Group knew that they would be unable to attack the drivers while they were still inside of the vehicle. They would have to wait for them to exit the vehicle before they would be vulnerable to an attack. They also wanted to preserve the condition of the vehicle so it did not look like it was hijacked by a hostile force. Phi-8-1 prepared to stand up with Phi-8-2 to begin their diversion, but they were waiting for the VPK-3927 to come closer before they decided to do anything. Phi-8-Actual looked over to his right, and he could see that the other two disguised MTG members were waiting in the grass on the other side of the road. They would come in and incapacitate the CDI personnel once they were outside of the vehicle and occupied.
“Alright, let’s go,” Phi-8-1 spoke as he began to walk out into the middle of the road. Phi-8-2 followed the fireteam leader, but both operatives kept their Colt Canada C8s held downwards. Phi-1-1 held out his left hand and waved to signal the approaching vehicle to stop. Fortunately for the Mobile Task Group, the VPK-3927 began to slow down until it stopped just in front of the two men standing in the road. Once the vehicle came to a complete stop, the CDI driver opened the door and spoke to the two men, “What’s going on out here?” Phi-8-1 kept his face fully covered as he replied with his cover story, “Yeah, they sent us out here to recover some debris from the aircraft that attacked a couple days ago, but the guys who dropped us off haven’t come back to pick us up.” The driver looked out into the field, but he could not see any remains of the MH-60X Stealth Hawks, “What parts did you get?” Phi-8-1 had to keep his story going, “The flight recorder. It was too heavy for us to carry back to base ourselves, so we were waiting for a truck to come by and get it. However, nobody ever showed up, so we had to walk back to base ourselves and get a vehicle.”
The CDI driver disabled the engine of the vehicle, and he undid his seatbelt as well. Stepping out of the vehicle, the driver tried to get a better look of the direction Phi-8-1 kept drawing attention to. The CDI driver shook his head, “I can’t see anything from here. Where did you say the flight recorder was?” Phi-8-2 looked past the CDI driver, and he could see that the passenger of the VPK-3927 exited the vehicle as well. Phi-8-2 walked over to the vehicle while Phi-8-1 continued to speak to the CDI personnel, and the human could see that there were no other people inside of the vehicle. Knowing that the VPK-3927 was empty, Phi-8-2 turned around and gave a hand signal to the other two MTG personnel waiting for the attack. The two operatives stood up, and they each removed a steel cable from one of their cargo pockets. The two operatives then split up, and they went to approach the CDI personnel from behind. While Phi-8-1 was still talking to the driver of the VPK-3927, Phi-8-2 moved over to approach the passenger. Phi-8-2 spoke to the passenger to keep him distracted, and also to prevent him from being able to hear Phi-8-4 walking up behind him with a steel cable in hand, “Did you see the attack go down?” The CDI contractor nodded his head, “Yeah, I was the one who first saw the helicopters incoming.” Phi-8-2 replied, “Do we know who was behind it yet?” The contractor replied, “We have no idea. So far, the investigation into the wreckage hasn’t yielded anything significant yet. We don’t have any leads, but we haven’t looked through all of the helicopters yet. I think right now, we’ve only searched one of them, but we couldn’t find anything. Maybe that flight recording box you guys found would have something interesting on it.”
Phi-8-2 looked through his ESS goggles, and he could see that Phi-8-4 was now standing directly behind the CDI contractor with the steel cable at the ready. Phi-8-2 asked one last question to the contractor, “Hmmm. What do you think they were after? Why attack a CDI base in the middle of Canada?” The contractor began talking again, “No idea. Perhaps they may be after the MAV-29, but that vehicle can’t be too special since it’s not even something
that’s directly supposed to be used in a straight conflict. Maybe they like the laser technology we’ve developed for it…” While the contractor spoke, Phi-8-2 nodded for his colleague to attack, “That laser was developed by CDI, and it’s pretty efficient for what it is. That middle compartment contains the power supply for it, and it’s able to --” The CDI contractor was immediately silenced as the steel cable was quickly wrapped around his neck. As Phi-8-4 pulled the table tighter to prevent the CDI contractor from speaking, Phi-8-2 turned around to see that Phi-8-3 was currently in the process of strangling the other CDI contractor. It did not take long for the two CDI members to lose consciousness, but the MTG operatives continued to strangle the two men even after they lost consciousness to ensure that they were dead.
After a good few minutes of strangulation, the MTG members finally released the steel cables from the necks of the deceased CDI contractors, and they checked their pulses to make sure that they were dead. With both of the men dead, the Phi-8-3 and Phi-8-4 dragged their deceased bodies out of the road, and they continued to drag them until they were a fair bit away from the sightlines of anybody who needed to use the road. Besides, the grass was tall enough to hide the bodies of the two contractors, so it provided decent cover for hiding the bodies. Before abandoning the bodies, Phi-8-3 and Phi-8-4 looked over the former contractors to see if they had anything worth taking; However, they were not carrying any equipment that would be of use to them. After all, they were wearing the same uniform and carrying the same weapons as they were. Though the two MTG members debated on picking up magazines held in the pouches of the contractors’ plate carriers, they decided against doing so. After all, they were not planning for a direct assault on the CDI base. Rather, they would not engage the CDI contractors within the base at all until they were in control of the MAV-29.
Phi-8-3 and Phi-8-4 returned to the VPK-3927, and they could see that their colleagues were already in the vehicle and starting the engine back up. Phi-8-1 was in the driver’s seat and Phi-8-2 was in the passenger seat, so the two remaining MTG members walked around to the rear of the 4x4 vehicle in order to board it. After walking to the rear of the vehicle, Phi-8-3 attempted to see if the rear door was locked, but to his surprise, the door opened right up. The two remaining MTG units boarded the vehicle, closed the door, and Phi-8-4 spoke on the radio to the fireteam leader, “We’re in the truck. We’re ready to go.” Though Phi-8-1 did not reply via the radio, he did reply by shifting the transmission out of park and accelerating the vehicle into motion. Phi-8-1 proceeded to perform a three-point turn, and he was able to turn the vehicle around to proceed back in the direction of the base. With a vehicle now commandeered, all they had to do was get inside of the base and locate the MAV-29. Finding the MAV-29 and driving it out would be the hard part. At the very least, the Mobile Task Group knew that CDI often would simply let vehicles inside without much scrutiny. The men monitoring the gates were primarily paying attention to see whether or not the vehicle was indeed a CDI vehicle or not. Not much attention was given to the actual occupants of the CDI vehicle, and the disguise the MTG unit wore was more than decent enough to fool CDI members.
Phi-8-1 could see the CDI base as he was driving on one of the lesser used paths which led to the base. Phi-8-2 looked outside of the reinforced window, and he tried to get a good look at the defenses set up by CDI around their own base. From what he could see, however, there did not appear to be many defensive batteries set up. Though there were a few guard towers with contractors walking back and forth here and there, there did not seem to be any batteries set up with the notion of an impending aerial attack in mind. However, Phi-8-2 was still on the outside of the base, so he still figured that he may not be able to see too much of the base without driving on the inside of it. The Majestic 12 did at least take a survey of the base from a higher perspective to find the different routes in and out of the base, and the entrance which seemed to be guarded the least was where the MTG was currently approaching.
A CDI contractor stood in front of the gate controls and watched as the hijacked VPK-3927 approached the rear entrance. The same contractor knew that he had let the same vehicle out of the gate earlier in the day, and he looked at the time he logged for the vehicle to leave to see how long it was gone for. Since the vehicle was out for about an hour, the contractor felt that it was just about time for the vehicle to return to the base. The contractor pressed the button inside of the command post to raise the gate, and he stood aside as he watched the truck drive by the gate and into the base. The contractor did look inside of the truck as it passed, but did not see anything out of the ordinary. After all, the two visible occupants of the vehicle were wearing the same CDI uniform that most of the personnel on the base wore. After the VPK-3927 drove through the checkpoint, the contractor pressed the gate button again to lower the gate, and he did not think anything more of the vehicle which he had just let in. With the gate closed again, the contractor returned back into his guard post and logged the time the vehicle returned. For all the entrance guard knew, everything was proceeding normally.
“And we’re in,” Phi-8-1 said as he gained some ground on the contractor who let them into the base. Phi-8-2 looked at the base again, and it looked much larger when viewing it on the inside due to all of the infrastructure built, “Shit. This place is bigger than I thought it would be.” Phi-8-1 took a left turn once he reached the end of the straight road he was travelling on, and he started proceeding forwards again, “There's no telling which building our vehicle’s in.” All Phi-8-2 could see were hangars and more infrastructure, “Maybe it’s in one of these hangars?” Phi-8-1 shrugged, “It could be, but at the same time, CDI has a runway at this base. There could be fighter jets in those hangars.” Phi-8-2 was not too happy knowing that CDI had a strong air force, especially since the Majestic 12 did not possess nearly as much air power, “How do we stop those jets from taking down the vehicle once we take it?” Phi-8-1 shook his head and replied, “You know, that depends on if we can figure out how to use the weapons or not. If we can, we can try and shoot them down, but if we can’t…” Phi-8-2 finished the sentence for his colleague, “Then I suppose we’re going to have to outrun them, and they’re jets.”
As the VPK-3927 slowly drove down the road behind the several hangars, Phi-8-2 looked at the various CDI personnel going about their business. The human commented on the other humans he was looking at, “Most of these guys aren’t even armed. You think we’d be able to go loud if we blow our cover?” Phi-8-1 saw a few armed CDI contractors as he drove, and he started considering the situation in his head before delivering his opinion, “It may be doable, but we wouldn’t be able to waste any time at that point. We’re already going to likely be going up against their aircraft, and going up against their ground forces won’t help us. Don’t forget that we’re outnumbered and outgunned. However, if we get that vehicle and get the weapons working, then they’re gonna be the ones who are outgunned.” Phi-8-2 saw that their vehicle had almost arrived at the east side of the base, “I don’t think they’re going to like it when they see this vehicle aimlessly roaming around out in the open.” Phi-8-1 agreed, and he turned right once he arrived at the east wall, “Yeah, but I’m still just checking things out.” Phi-8-2 was not comfortable with staying out in the open for long, “We should get this car off of their roads. They’ll eventually get suspicious if they’re not already. We’re just driving around aimlessly at this point.” Phi-8-1 turned the vehicle one more time, and they were now proceeding back in the direction of the aircraft hangars, “We’ll probably stop at that first hangar. We’ll go on foot from there.”
Phi-8-2 thought of a problem, “How are we going to get in the hangars? I don’t think they’re just open for anybody to walk inside.” Phi-8-1 did consider the objection, but he also remembered how relaxed the security was when they entered the base in the first place, “Maybe they’ll let us in like they did back at the entrance.” Phi-8-2 disagreed with the driver, “I’m
pretty sure the security wasn’t as stringent there because there’s really nothing special in plain view within the base. We still have to get inside of the hangar, and we don’t even know which one is the correct hangar.” With both the driver and the passenger still in disagreement as to how they would approach the situation, Phi-8-2 made a suggestion, “Why don’t we stop the car somewhere before they do notice we’re just driving around in circles?” Phi-8-1 looked around, but he could not find anywhere that would not be too suspicious for them to park, “Park where? I haven’t seen another car like ours driving around in the base. They’ll know something’s up if we just stop in a random spot.” Phi-8-2 pointed to the nearest aircraft hangar, “Just park there, and we’ll figure it out.”
Phi-8-1 did not like the idea of parking next to the hangar, but he did not have any better ideas. Though he was very hesitant, Phi-8-1 pulled the VPK-3927 over, and he stopped directly beside the hangar sitting almost in the middle of the base. Once the vehicle came to a stop, Phi-8-1 spoke over the radio to his colleagues riding in the rear, “We’re not getting out yet. Wait for my signal. Standby.” When the operative released the PTT button, Phi-8-2 spoke to the driver, “Did they not tell you the way inside the hangars during the briefing?” Phi-8-1 shook his head, “Of course not. You know, I don’t even think they know themselves if this prototype is still even here at this point.” Phi-8-2 did remember seeing the photograph of the MAV-29, “Well, it was definitely here a few days ago, and you’d think our UAVs would be able to see something that large leaving the area.” Phi-8-1 scoffed, “Yeah? And you’d think it would be better for the UAV to get a better image of the base?” Phi-8-2 remembered what happened to the last time MJ12 aircraft tried to fly close to the base, “They were still able to see those Stealth Hawks. It would be too risky to get closer shots of the base. Besides, if we don’t act now, they’d likely just move the vehicle out themselves, and then we wouldn’t really be able to know where they’re taking it.”