Wolf Pack_Invasion and Conquest

by Rob Buckman

  “Look, we can join forces and get the hell out of here to somewhere safe, or to wherever you are going.”

  “Well, one of us needs to get the hell out of here. The UFMs… the aliens will send backup soon, and then you’ll be in deep shit. Hope you have a lot of those new stringers with you, you’re going to need them.” That was greeted with silence, but he did see movement towards them. A couple of carefully place shots told the individual he’d been spotted, and what to expect if he continued moving. Decker swished to the general push frequencies and hit the encryption button.

  “Wolfman to Echo Team leader.”

  “Echo Team leader actual - go.”

  “Grace. I need you to get Echo team moving out to the snowmobile workshop and finish loading the supplies on the sleds. We need to bug out of here on the double. Be careful when you move as these bad guys have good sniper rifles.”

  “Ten-four Boss man - on the move.” Knowing Grace Lowery, she wouldn’t hang around. They only had a small window of opportunity to bug out before Colonel Dickhead had his people work their way round behind them. After that, they were fucked.

  “Hey, SAS. You sure we can’t work out a deal here?”

  “A deal, like in me taking orders from you and giving you my weapon?”

  “Well, no, but something like that.”

  “Then you must be smoking whacky weed if you think that’s going to happen.”

  “Think you’re a hard ass, don’t you, you pommy faggot.” Decker didn’t answer. If the man actually were an ex-navy SEAL he'd know that tangling with the SAS was a losing proposition, even if he didn’t believe they were SAS. From his point of view, it wasn’t a win-win proposition. He might win with superior numbers, but how many would get killed doing it? He was also under the gun where the UFMs were concerned, as he had no way of know if, or when they’d send more bio-mechs or troops. Snow began falling again and slowly got thicker. This was good and bad as it cut down on visibility on all three sides, his, the Colonel and the UFMs. It was time to move.

  “Wolfman actual to all Team leaders.” He waited for them to check in. “Start leap frogging your teams to the snowmobile garage and be prepared to bug out. Time to make like the good shepherd and get the flock out of here.” All he got back was a lot of laughter. It was getting hard to see the heat signatures through the falling snow, and Decker started getting nervous.

  “Time to go, girl.” He whispered.

  “On your six, boss.”

  Decker stopped by his rack and rolled up his sleeping bag. It only took a few moments to strap it to the top of his Bergen and stuff his mess kit into a side pocket. Joann shrugged her’s on and Decker helped her put on the Ghillie suit, checking her over for fit and cover. She did the same to him and they were soon ready to move. Decker did one last check of the batteries, finding them both at three quarter charge. That was good enough for several hours of active cammo and long enough for them to get out of here. Even so, Decker took his usual precaution exiting the building, keeping low and moving slowly. It was well he did, with his concentration towards the bad guy’s position; he scooted around a corner and ran smack into a bio-mech.

  Joann bumped into him and let out a small squeak. Instinctively, Decker fell more than dropped to the ground and froze as the mech spun around, heart pounding and weapon coming up to fire. What it was doing here behind the building was anyone’s guess, but from the look of all the churned up snow, Decker got the impression the thing was stuck and didn’t know how to get out of here. Backing off and pulling Joann with him, he settled down by the building wall several feet from the mech to study the thing. That it hadn’t detected them or opened fire told him a lot. Joann nudged him and he felt her put something in his hand.

  One look and he smiled. She’d handed him one of those throw away cameras they’d found, and taking care he used the whole roll to snap pictures of the thing. Each time the camera clicked the mech would swing around as if seeking or scanning for a target, its arms coming up ready to fire it’s built in weapons. They swung back and forth but didn’t lock on to them. The only odd thing he noticed about the mech was the soft humming sound it emitted that changed frequency, as it swung around. What that indicated he didn’t know, but it was something to remember. Maybe the boffins up at ‘Norden’ could figure it out. Settling his nerves he grabbed Joann’s arm and pulled her along with him down the narrow alley between the buildings and around a corner.

  “Oh god! I think I peed my pants.” Joann murmured, still shaking.

  “You and me both, girl. Let’s try the next building over and let me look before we go round the corner this time.”

  “Should we go back and blow the thing up?”

  “Nar, let’s leave it for Colonel Dickless and his troop of happy wankers to play with. Come on let’s move.” They made it to the garage without further difficulty and switching off the active cammo he looked around.

  “Everyone here?” He asked.

  “All present and accounted for, sir.”

  “Good.” Decker hopped up onto a nearby bench. “Heads up people. Things are going to get a little tricky. Colonel Dumbass and his little band of dickless wonders are now working their way into the base. I doubt they will leave anyone on the road behind them such as stragglers but I’m not taking any chances. The plan is for us to head due south across the valley floor to the foothills. Once we reach them, we’ll turn west, hugging the lower slopes as they should have fewer snowdrifts. We’ll follow them west until we meet up with route 108 and head down it back to I-395 and Norden. Any questions?”

  “Riding order?”

  “I’m not sure what to expect, so as usual, Alpha Team will go first to cut and scout the trail. The rest will take up their assigned positions as usual until we meet up on route 108. Take it slow and easy people.” Decker just hoped three days of training and driving the snowmobiles was enough. “I’m not sure how long we can use these, so let's make the most of it while we can. Either way it will get us closer to ‘Norden’ a lot faster.” That brought a small cheer from the Pack. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Joan coming out of the girl’s toilet, looking a little sheepish, so maybe she had peed her panties. That bought a smile to Decker’s lips thinking he’d tease her later.

  “What about the wolf pack… Goldie?” CC asked.

  “Goldie, Max and the pups will ride on the sled with Doc Mason and Andrea. The ride might be a bit bumpy, Doc.” He smiles at the look on her face. “The pack should follow, but if you see any of them get stuck go help them if you can, and try not to get bitten.” That bought a few chuckles. By now, the wolf pack had accepted the humans, and a few had even become attached to individuals. People feeding them little extra tidbits of food didn’t hurt either.

  Decker pulled his ski mask down, and pulled his helmet on before wrapping a thick wool scarf around his lower face as he mounted his unit. Even with the mask, helmet, scarf and thick gloves he knew it was going to get cold, so what else was new, it wasn’t as if this was the first time he’d frozen his butt off in a good cause. Starting the engine, he signaled everyone to start, knowing the moment they did the sound would draw attention, but there was no help for it. Hopefully Colonel Dickhead and his merry bunch of wankers were more interested in searching for them back at the housing units. By now, the snow was falling thick and fast, reducing visibility to a few yards and within an hour, there would be no tracks to show where they’d gone. Decker opened the throttle and roared out of the garage and across the old parking lot, feeling elated at being on the move again.

  As the last snowmobile roar out of the parking garage towing its sled loaded with supplies, equipment and people, a shadow detached itself from a snow mound that was once a car near the open doors to the garage. A moment later Colonel Remington appeared as he switched off his stealth, swearing a blue streak. He flicked the safety on his automatic weapon off and on a few times, half thinking about shooting the last rider off the snowmobile, and then thought better of i
t, wishing he’d taken the shot at the leader of this bunch when he had the chance. What stopped him was the surprise he felt seeing the rest of this bunch really was all women. From the way they handled themselves and their weapons, shooting their leader would only have got himself shot to bits, active stealth or not. The big guy leading them might be SAS as he said, but there was no way the rest were, but the question was, what the hell was this all about, and why go to all this trouble to get to ‘Norden’. That was at least three hundred miles from here, as far as he knew, and not much there to speak of, unless this guy knew something about the place he didn’t.

  “Colonel, there’s no one here.” A voice whispered in his ear.

  “No shit, Sherlock! Can’t you hear it? They bugged out on snowmobiles.”

  “Christ, I wondered what the racket was about. Orders?”

  “We need to get out of here ourselves before more alien assholes show up.”

  “In this weather?”

  “I wouldn’t bet of what those motherfuckers can do.”

  “We did find one Bot stuck in an alleyway and blew it to hell and gone.”

  “All the more reasons to get the hell out of here. Load up the Robo mules and meet me back up I-395.”

  “Ten-four. Should be loaded up in less than ten and on our way.” Colonel Remington took one last look around the garage, smiling slightly. Whoever the leader of this band was, he knew his stuff. Using the snowmobiles to make distance was smart.

  “Hey, Colonel, where we headed?” His top sergeant called back.

  “A place called ‘Norden’, up near Truckee from what I can make out.” A few seconds of silence greeted that.

  “‘Norden’ … what the hell is there?”

  “Got me, but that’s where this bunch of girls is headed.”

  “Girls?”

  “Yeah, surprise, surprise. This guy wasn’t lying, he had about seventy women with him.”

  “You’re shitting me.”

  “Wish I was, Top, but that’s what I saw.”

  “Why the hell would someone other than a raving lunatic drag seventy odd women along with him, and why would they go?”

  “Can’t answer that, but tell the guys not to fuck around with them, they are all armed to the teeth and look ready to use it.”

  “Women…”

  “Don’t go there, Top. We have a few tough ladies with us remember?”

  “Yeah, I know, but seventy trained female soldiers. That’s hard to believe.”

  “Looks like this guy has been training them on the march, and doing a good job from what I can see. They are well organized and look to know what they are doing.”

  “I’ll pass the word.” While he spoke, Colonel Remington trotted back down the road, unseen under the blanket of snow, and if not for the snow depth marker poles alongside the highway, he’d probably have walked right off it without even knowing.

  His wrist compass gave him a rough heading and twenty minutes later, he met up with his troops, all two hundred remaining that is. He gritted his teeth thinking of the loss of his people to the aliens who had been dogging them from Mammoth. The ones who died, beside the stinger crew didn’t have active cammo and paid the price when the alien aircraft swooped down on them. How this SAS guy managed to hide his people this long was a mystery, and one of these days, if he lived long enough he’d have to ask him and find out. By the time they got lined out and ready to move, the thickly falling snow had obliterated any sign of the snowmobiles passage. Not that it mattered now he knew where they were going. There were only a few routs they could take unless they wanted to go over the mountain to the coastal side of the Sierra Nevada range. He doubted they’d do that and just head on up 395 to Lake Tahoe. He mounted the headless Robo-mule and hit the start button, glancing over his shoulder to see the rest following him.

  “Go active cammo from here on out.” Now all the stupid ones were dead there was no need for the old UHF radios and they could all talk on the TAC frequencies.

  That simplified attack orders and stopped all the confusion with untrained people. He was a little surprised they couldn’t pick up on the frequency the SAS guy was using, but without the command code for the frequency hopping encryption software, not unusual. Forty-six odd, headless robo mules following in line, twenty of them carry the wounded and injured, the rest loaded with supplies as they walk back down I-395. Now it was time for them to hide, not fight, and with their active cammo on, it just looked like a long line of odd-looking animals walking down the road. It hadn’t taken long for him to realize the aliens were only shooting at people standing, walking, or running around, never at the many different animals wandering the countryside. His people had learned quickly, but the damn civvies just couldn’t get it and paid the price. They’d also learned not to shoot at the alien aircraft as that brought immediate retaliation and death, but again it was hard to convince the civvies, who just wanted to hit back any way they could. In this fight, only the strong and the smart survived. What pissed Colonel Remington off the most was the leader of that bunch, because of him and his little bypass run up I-395 pass Mammoth, it had bought the aliens down on the town. What was left of Mammoth was now a smoking ruin, and only a snowstorm sweeping in had permitted him to get his people out, but it had cost him. A lot of the civvies ran after them, bringing the alien aircraft with them. He thought he’d lost contact with them until one of those spiky balloons came over and caught them out in the open just west of Picket Meadows. It wasn’t long before two alien aircraft showed up and began strafing the road. Once the big boys showed up he didn’t have any alternative but to use the stingers, and paid the price. He’d lost six good men because of them and the damn mechs.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN: CARSON CITY

  The Pack hopped their way up I-395, Walker, Coleville, Topaz Lake, Dresslerville and Gardnerville, stopping where needed to rest and repair the snowmobiles, scavenging for food and supplies as they went. A few times they ran into scattered bands of people, and once or twice had to fight their way through if they barred their way. The team got into one major battle just outside Minden, Nevada where highway Route 88 joined I-395. The locals barricaded both roads, and by the look of the burned out cars and trucks they weren’t fussy about who they took down. Decker didn’t bother finding out the why, once Alpha Team radioed back the information about the roadblock.

  “Baker and Charlie Teams take your alternates and work your way through town, and flank the roadblock. Wait for my signal and hit them hard.” The girls grinned and checked their weapons. By now, the teams were a well-oiled machine and didn’t need a lot of unnecessary instructions. Decker left the details to the team leaders and concentrated organizing Echo and Delta Teams.

  “Hold your team back in reserve so we don’t get taken from the rear.” Dennis Michelson nodded, not that she liked it. She and her Team would much rather be up front and taking down the bad guys, but they all knew how important it was to watch their rear.

  “Ten-four, Boss. We’ll watch your cute tail. Don’t want Joann chewing us a new one if anything happened to you.” She chuckled. Joann gave her a dirty look, but smiled to take the sting out of it. Decker just sighed inwardly.

  “Grace, hold Echo team here and take up a defensive position to watch our ride and supplies. We don’t know how many tangos we are dealing with here, and who knows if there are more of them hiding out in Minden.”

  “Ten-four.” She answered smartly.

  “Max, stay!” Decker orders seeing his big friend and constant companion hovering around his mate and her pups. Max ‘ruffed’ and shook his head, whining softly as Decker took off with his ten-man quick reaction team. They would be the bate for the trap but with their alien body armor they felt pretty secure. It was an edge the local bad boys wouldn’t expect.

  Spreading out on either side, with Decker in front in the lead, they marched up the center of I-395 as if they owned it, active cammo off and looking like hairy, white ‘Wookies’ from Star Wars. Everythi
ng about them, from the way they held their weapons at the ready, to the way their heads kept swinging back and forth looking for trouble said they were not to be fucked with. If anyone was watching, they saw no sign, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any. Decker looked left and right, smiling slightly at what he saw. These were no longer the frightened, no nothing bunch of girls he’d met back in Tehachapi, but seasoned warriors. They acted and carried themselves like soldiers and he was proud to go into battle with them, knowing they had his back. If something should happen to him, he knew they’d carry on to ‘Truckee’ and ‘Norden’ and kill anyone that got in their way. As they came up to the junction, and the pile of abandoned and burned out cars, Alpha team came out of hiding, and fell in on each side, and moved into position as if they’d practiced it for ages. At five hundred yards, his TAC radio came to life in his ear.

  “Charlie Team to Wolfman - We count twenty-six tangos behind the barricade, Boss.”

  “Any resistance?”

  “Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

  “Good - wait for my signal. Maybe we can do this all nice and friendly like, and avoid a firefight.” All he got back was a snorting laugh.

  “Bravo team here - we copy Charlie team’s transmission and it about the same on our side. We’ve targeted the tangos on this side behind the barricade as well, and will drop the hammer when you give the word.”

  “Ten-four - Joan and Kim are on over watch.” Decker didn’t slow the pace and marched up to the barricade through the mist and light snow as if he owned the road.

  “Mason, you see what I’m seeing?” Jackson Pruitt called from behind the roadblock as he looked over the top through his field glasses. The falling snow and mist made it difficult to make out who was coming at them.

  “Fuck yes!”

  “What you make of it?”

  “Not sure… looks like a bunch of fucking snowmen coming towards us… no wait, they could be military by the way they’re spread out. Hard to tell at the moment.” Mason eyed the approaching group, not liking what he saw. It was one thing to stop and rob people traveling up the road, and another to take on military people, if that’s who they were. On the other hand, they could be just a bunch of marauders pretending to be soldiers. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t run into people like that before. The odd hairy clothing they were wearing had him bothered, colored white like it was. It made it hard to see them. Whoever they were, they marched towards them and into his trap. Military or no, either way they were in for a world of hurt if they wanted to play hardball. The extra weapons wouldn’t hurt his situation any. He expected them to slow as they approached but didn’t. They just kept marching towards them as if the roadblock didn’t exist.