13 Degrees of Separation

by Hechtl, Chris

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  The resistance as the elder called them received grim news, most of the neo dogs on the southern continent had been gathered up and exterminated. More than one Neo's ears were flat, fur bristled at that news. Some who were afraid for their lives and their future gathered their young and fled further away from the packs and danger. Others though, some who hadn't come forward now did, knowing that they had no recourse, they had to fight to survive.

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  Word from the towns spread to them slowly through the net of listening posts. Towns people were occasionally sent out to gather wood and materials. Ever fearful after hearing what had happened, they did it as close to the town as possible, thus cutting back on the cover around the perimeter of the town over time. A few however were deliberately encountered by a lynx who encouraged them to go further afield for their materials. When they did so they found a neo there to debrief them quickly as they exchanged goods and intel for gathered wood and supplies.

  The gatherers warned them of the pirates efforts to reeducate the surviving population. The young and able bodied were being shipped as time permitted to the coast to reeducation camps. Those that fought the pirates were killed. All weapons were banned. Anyone too old or sick were either killed or left to die alone. Any who were caught helping them were severely punished.

  The resistance recruited a few humans native to their world. They were cautious, only exposing themselves to those they knew were native to the planet. Whenever possible Cali or Moreta vetted them. They found that many were too scared to fight back, but some weren't, they'd lost friends and family and were grimly determined to avenge them. Cali had a couple teenage friends from other posts who came in and joined the cause. Others stayed in place but funneled back information and materials. The Elder cautioned them, “I'd rather grow to trust these humans slowly. It is too easy for one of their number to be taken hostage. Be on the alert for that.”

  “What do you mean grandmother?” Blizzard asked slowly.

  “If the pirates get wise they may try to recruit one to lead them to us. Or they may take someone's family hostage and force a human to lead them to us.” She cautioned, looking her students in their eyes. “Smell each for signs of fear or strange devices. Do not lead any to a base, stay only as long as you must and no longer. Move quickly, but wisely. Remember we are the hunted as much as the hunters here.” The resistance members nodded their heads or flicked their ears in acknowledgment.

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  Sabu, a snow leopard was eager to hit the enemy. They'd strafed his mother killing her. He'd yowled in frustrated rage over that. His kit sisters weren't so eager to get revenge at first, but when they found that the elder was teaching them the old ways, the ways of technology, they had reluctantly started to participate.

  Leopards had the rare ability to cloak. It was a great advantage in the stalk, but it took its' toll on the user. Only a handful of Neos had the ability, none did it as well as the black wolf clan did. However they had decided to disappear into the forests instead of helping to fight in the resistance.

  Shanti, his sister, was nearly an adult, and now eager to prove herself better than her older brother. Their good natured rivalry in their youth had been fun but now it was time to set aside such things and work with maturity to a better future. Shanti of course didn't see it that way, she chafed at his over protective attitude and his desire to protect her and their young sister Rah.

  Sabu's ears flicked in annoyance. She didn't understand he wasn't just protecting her, he was protecting them, their people. Not just Neos but leopards. They were sparse now, with mother gone there were even fewer leopards on this world. Their clan was a dying one, their grandmother had warned him. Already his sisters had mates. He had been told, but he refused to tell them that. Heaven help him when they found out... and if they ever found out he was complicit with the decision... His claws flexed into the bark of the maple tree. It was a sugar maple and it's sticky sap clung to his claws.

  Irritably he flicked at them, then licked trying to get the sticky sap off. The fur around his fingers would be matted and irritated if he didn't. He picked at it for a while with his teeth and almost missed the pirate patrol passing nearby.

  They were getting better, he thought, sitting still. His breath slowed as he concentrated, readying the cloak in case of need. He was perfectly camouflaged in his hide, but if they had the hated heat detectors he could be in trouble.

  Sure enough one brought them up and started to scan around them. By the time he looked at Sabu's tree Sabu had entered cloak. He held it, holding his breathing as the man methodically checked and then checked again. After a long moment of staring at a moose off on the other side of the creek he stopped and put the device down. “Nothing,” the man said, waving his soldiers on.

  Tiredly they trudged on, moving with fatalistic movements. They'd forgotten their fear as annoyance at being cold and wet had penetrated their thoughts. When they were gone the leopard smiled a Cheshire grin and then pulled out a mirror to signal a report of their passing.

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  Moira was taking more and more time training and refining her tactical training. She singled out some students for additional training, sometimes the quicker witted ones to take on new tasks... and sometimes the slower ones who were having trouble with even the simplest tasks set to them. Those that had trouble she taught to either run gear for the others or had them placed in other supporting roles.

  Several times their noses found tracking devices in goods they stole. They turned this to their advantage, setting up several ambushes. After the second ambush though the enemy commander got wise and just strafed the tracking devices location. After that they immediately crushed the devices the moment they found them.

  Teaching her smarter students entry tactics was difficult in the woods. She'd tried to game out a room with trees but her brethren just didn't have the imagination to understand. Fortunately, Cali had come to the rescue. She and Blizzard had woven sticks and branches to form loose walls and doorways. She'd also encouraged some to try the shooter games and watch replays in the shuttle. Bridging the gap in understanding was the catalyst needed the elder realized, grateful again to the little human.

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  The elder watched her people become more comfortable and familiar with the captured weapons and technology over the ensuing weeks. She made sure some of the hunting weapons were sent out to help bring food for the fighters. She was amused about how they loved the hunting rifles. They were difficult to handle, after all they were built for humans, but the scope and range were great things to many of them.

  Keeping up with the maintenance of them would be tricky with their hand paws though she realized. Cali and Moreta were frequently asked to help clean the slide and tricky areas where the Neo's couldn't reach. Cali was ever patient, showing them tricks to get into tight areas. She and Moreta found make up tools and distributed eye liner brushes and other tools to help clean hard to reach areas. The packs had bows and slings, but the rifles were a step beyond them.

  She's just glad their aim was improving, they would need it soon enough.

  They still used the bows and sling shots when silent kills were needed. It apparently frightened the Pirates, not being able to pick up a weapon, the silent death that stalked them whenever they left the safety of their perimeter. They made certain to hide their tracks and remove the bodies, saving the precious arrows for later.

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  Cali helped where she could, studying, gathering intel, interpreting, vetting new people, creating maps, cleaning or repairing weapons and technology, or most importantly... teaching. She felt exhausted and exhilarated all in one. She didn't get a chance to be on the front line but she was doing many things she realized were just as important.
Susan was held back. She went with the cubs and helped manage the crèche in a nearby system of caves. Cali tried to visit her sister periodically but knew her heat signature going to and from one location or another could give things away so she was ever cautious and tried to limit her visits.

  Cali's lessons on technology helped immensely. She was ever patient even when her students weren't. She carefully drilled them on how to open locks, use tablets, and use the weapons. Most of her students didn't know how to read, but over time they could recognize basic symbols. A few of the quicker students picked up on how to read a map and how to use sensors.

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  Moreta convinced the elder to let her walk to the town the pirates were using as their primary base. Reluctantly the elder agreed. The girl dressed in a borrowed parka and trudged through the snow up the main road. The plows hadn't plowed it, the pirates had killed the oxen used to clear the roads. The equipment sat there, rusting under the slowly melting snow. She shivered, not from the biting wind but from suppressed fear as her eyes noted the guard stations.

  The guards were bored, blowing on their hands, slapping themselves to keep warm. They were angry at being outside, fearful at what was killing their fellows. Being exposed was a necessary evil, but one they didn't have to like. A tall male challenged the girl. The girl gulped and begged for food and medicine for her ailing brother. She rubbed her belly, padded to make her look pregnant. The man shoved her, gruffly telling her to move on, they had no charity here. She turned, stumbling away into the snow pretending to cry as she moved. She was careful not to move her head as her eyes darted to the slightly open hangar. A man came out, stomping his boots and cupping his hands around a lighter and cigarette in his mouth. She turned away so he would hopefully not take an interest in her. Her turn was fortuitous, her roving eyes found the drainage ditch that led to the battered farm building.

  When she returned to their lines she was shivering. Not from the cold, but from fear of what could've happened. But when Blizzard looked at her she smiled a feral smile.

  “Got it?” Blizzard asked.

  “Yeah but... Not here,” the girl said nervously. She turned, nodding to the others as they moved off into the night.

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  Moreta provided an intel briefing, using a map she'd drawn on the tablet as well as a mock up of the town she and Cali had made out of rocks, sticks, and plastic pieces the shuttle replicator had created for them. When a few of the Neo's couldn't grasp the idea of the model they had them kneel at eye level and look at it again. A few caught on or at least pretended to do so. Bengali commented about looking down on a valley from a ridge line. This finally got through some of the more stubbornly thick headed ones and they caught on. The elder sighed and then laid out their plan.

  “This is going to be different. Always before we have hit from darkness, or from the cover of a storm. Now the enemy is wise to it, they stay awake during these times and are on higher alert. But they cannot be on alert all the time, even they need to sleep. So, we will do something bold...”

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  Using the cover of a drainage trench Moreta had pointed out, they moved in small groups as close as they could to their target. A pair of cloaked snow leopards crept out, they moved slowly in the daylight under their cloak, unsure that this would work. They tried to avoid moving their heads and moving from cover to cover, theirs was an imperfect cloak at best, relying on cunning and speed to get them into striking distance.

  Which was exactly what they did. When one bored guard turned the corner to take a leak Sabu tore his throat out with his taloned claws. The man fell to his knees, clutching at his throat. Sabu propped him up there and moved on.

  His sister Shanti killed the second guard and the way was clear. She carefully checked for the cameras she'd been taught to look for. When only two were found she smiled and decloaked under one, pointing up to it. Her brother snarled and pulled her behind cover.

  When the signal was given by team two who were providing a distraction attack, team one broke into the giant farm building the pirates were using to store their precious shuttle. A klaxon alarm blared until Bengali shot it out. A pair of techs came running putting parka's on. They were quickly dealt with. The group broke down under the stern guidance of the elder. She ordered them to take what they had on the lists and move on quickly. The elder set her remaining stock of explosives to cover their tracks. She made it out of the building just as the rear guard of pirates realized that they had been duped and turned on the shuttle building. Rounds stitched the ground near her as she zig zagged around snow covered equipment and then dived into the ditch. She grinned and palmed her implant, with a coded thought she sent the activation charges. She covered her ears and opened her mouth in anticipation, knowing better than to look.

  “We got it didn't we? Didn't we? Where the hell is it?” a soldier said, moving cautiously to the elders position.

  “Shit Mick! Check this out! They screwed with the shuttle!”

  “Ah man! The boss is going to have our balls! How the hell... Wait what's that?” one soldier pointed to a strange green block. The rear guard arrived at the building just in time for the charges attached to the fuel tanks of the shuttle to go off. The elder grinned as the explosion rocked the area. The echoing boom and two hundred meter high fireball made the Neos stop and gape and then cheer. She smiled her feral smile and got to her hands and knees and began to crawl towards Blizzard.

  “I may be getting too old for some of this but not that!” Moira laughed, flicking her ears to her granddaughter. Blizzard returned the laugh.

  Pyotr and some of the other bears complained about carrying the weight. Bengali snorted at their amused charges of racism. He shifted the 200 kilogram package he had on his back meaningfully. Pyotr looked his way and then snorted. “There better be some vodka in all this or someone's in trouble,” he growled.

  “At least spring is finally coming,” another bear said, nodding to a flower stubbornly poking out of the snow. “Sort of like us isn't it? Clinging to life, thriving against the odds?” the bear asked, rubbing the blond patch of fur on his chest.

  Pyotr snorted, eying him. “Who asked you?” he growled, plucking the flower and then eating it. He tossed the stem over his shoulder and kept going.

  “That's Pyotr, Russian to the heart, no soul,” the other bear sighed and moved on.

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  'Commodore' Patterson snarled, hands on the desk in front of him, gripping it as if it was a lifeline. He felt he was swinging over an abyss and wasn't sure where he'd gone wrong. It was a simple thing, his first command, his first conquest and first major step to flag rank. He had been Admiral Cartwright's chief of staff, a captain until he'd been frocked for this command.

  Admiral Cartwright had seized upon the idea of taking and holding Antigua when they had picked up word of the prize, Patterson would seize their assigned objectives, covering his ass and keeping the door open in case the prize was a rumor and nothing more. From the look of things and how badly they were going his last as well.

  They'd done so well! They'd had the planet under their boot in minutes and yet now... He rubbed his brow and sat back, angrily flopping down into his chair. He had planned this carefully, pitched it beautifully to the Rear Admiral and his staff so skillfully. A simple job, with minimum resources they could take an entire system and cleanse it of the hated alien and Neo filth. They would blood their troops, training them and indoctrinate others to the cause all at once. After all, Kathy's World had few visitors despite its' location, and since it's climate was in an ice age the people were hardy survivors. Most of the food was grown on the equator, seize that and hold the high ground and it was all over for them except the dying.

  There were also reportedly thousands of Neos on the planet, anthros that kept to themselves and thus would be easy targets for hi
s men. Sport, hunted prey, only they had turned the tables and his men were now the hunted.

  He didn't understand it. It just didn't make sense, how they turned the tables so effectively. They were crude, grubbing in the mud, yet they were winning! He had started with two thousand soldiers, all trained in various degrees. Granted most had never seen combat, but all had the minimum training. It should have been easy for them to pick off the flea infested creatures they were after all little more than animals!

  But no, and now here he was. He'd drafted some of the ship's personnel to fill in his gaps but the ship's captain had flatly refused any more after the last fiasco. They had none to spare the bastard had said coldly. None to waste he'd pointed out. Patterson snarled again in memory of that cold contempt. The bastard didn't know what he was going through! He was safe, sitting on his bridge watching the world spin below without any idea of the real world events going on! Sure hind sight showed him all the things they'd overlooked. Losing a shuttle and its' crew was bad enough. Casualties in the town had been worse. But it was the shuttle that could spell doom for him, such things were not to be risked.

  What was he going to do? He thought, rubbing his brow again and then sitting back with an angry sigh. He had to do something, but what? Obviously the sensors were next to useless, the Neos were ghosts, blending in with the other animals on the planet. Turning some of their people was out, none had come forward with news despite offers of a reward and threats of reprisals.

  Yesterday his field commander Brinth had instituted firing squads for those who spoke of the Neos. The first six had been dispatched with ruthless efficiency but instead of cowing the resistance the crowd had watched the traitors deaths and turned accusing eyes on their liberators! Maddening!