by Charles Rye
"What the hell was that?" Soraf growled.
"Something just hit us‚" Aurelia straightened in her seat and glanced out her window only to be blinded by headlights, she held up her hand to shield her eyes.
"Everyone okay?" She called to the others, jumping from her seat to check on them.
"We're fine," Soraf called from her seat towards the back of the bus.
"Let go of us you cock suckers!"
Aurelia heard Royena and Sif shout just outside the bus.
She snatched up her gun from beneath her seat and raced out of the bus, running to where she saw Royena and Sif's Jeep.
Her gun raised before her, she inched closer and closer to it.
Caliphar was suddenly by her side, armed with his M39 EMR.
"I said let go you sick fucks!" Royena yelled a loud fierce growl low in her throat.
"I'd listen to her if I were you," Aurelia hissed, firing a warning shot at the soldier's feet.
The masked soldier had his arms wrapped around Royena's upper body, pinning her arms against her sides.
Another masked soldier had Sif's arms behind her back, tied together by rope.
The fur on Sif's neck was standing on end as she just stood there, growling angrily at the soldier.
"And I would listen to her if I were you," Caliphar spoke, raising his gun at the soldier holding onto Royena.
Aurelia and Caliphar keeping the soldier distracted gave Royena a chance to wrap her tail around his legs, rapidly flicking her tail sideways causing the soldier to fall backwards and lose his grip on her.
"Thanks for that," She grinned at the two of them.
"I am sick and tired of you and your abomination friends evading my men. I had to do something about it myself,"
A man appeared from behind the bus wearing a military's general uniform beneath a leather trench coat.
"What the fuck is it with you freaks and military gear?" Aurelia remarked rolling her eyes at the man.
He slowly approached Aurelia and gazed into her eyes.
"Because we are governed by the military, my dear one," He spoke softly stroking the fur on her cheek.
She struck him in the gut with the butt of her gun, growling at him defensively.
"Feisty, you'll be fun to break," He chuckled darkly.
"Something's gonna break but it won't be me," She hissed firing a round into his knee.
"You little bitch!" He yelled angrily at her, raising his hand at her.
Caliphar stepped in between them acting as a natural barrier, the barrel of his gun pressing against the man's throat.
"Touch her again and I'll send a bullet straight through your spinal cord," Caliphar growled baring his fangs, staring the man dead in the eyes.
"Kill them all!" He directed his men.
Koriphus, Soraf, Roy and Zxeron all came running from the bus to surround Aurelia and Caliphar.
Royena had cut Sif lose and they quickly joined the others.
Caliphar squeezed the trigger, a bullet firing directly through the man's throat and out the back of the base of his skull, completely severing his spinal cord as he dropped to his knees.
Caliphar kicked the man straight in the face with his boot, knocking him onto his side into the wet sand.
"Anyone of you fuckers got the balls to fuck with me?" Caliphar shouted to the soldiers surrounding them, armed with AK-47s.
Several soldiers began to approach them, training their guns on them.
The lower halves of their faces covered made them look intimidating but they did not stand a chance one way or another.
"I can make this easy, you all get back on the bus," Royena whispered to them.
"Are you sure?" Caliphar whispered back.
"Remember what I'm packing in my Jeep?" She hissed to him.
He nodded and quickly ushered the others back to the bus, jumping into the driver's seat just as Royena jumped onto the steps, leaning out of the door with a remote control in her hand.
"Drive!" She yelled.
Caliphar slammed the gas pedal to the floor and sped off, swerving to get back onto the road.
Royena hit a button on the remote, a loud explosion echoed around them as the grenades in the Jeep were detonated by a special mechanism.
The explosion blasted the soldiers sky high along with the Jeep, Royena watched as they continued to drive away.
"What the hell was that?" Aurelia blurted looking at Royena as she strutted into the bus and sat down beside Sif.
"Your back-up, which you're welcome for by the way. Luckily Sif and I can get another Jeep," Royena replied simply, glancing sideways at her.
"I thought it was freaking awesome!" Caliphar exclaimed, catching Royena in the rear-view mirror.
"Thank you, someone liked my idea," She replied leaning back into her seat, crossing her arms behind her head.
"I think we're getting close to the construction site," Caliphar announced to the others as he turned off the road and drove through the muddy sand.
"How can you tell?" Aurelia asked.
"It's still smoldering from when I set it on fire," He replied with a chuckled.
He reached the site and put the bus in neutral, pressing the button to open the doors.
"Let's make this quick," Soraf said as she followed Aurelia off the bus, Zxeron trailing behind them.
Zxeron went ahead of them, running towards what was left of the guard station to sniff out any nearby enemies.
He turned to look at them, barking quietly to let them know it was safe.
"Good boy," Soraf smiled as she and Aurelia patted Zxeron's head.
Aurelia shined the light on her gun into the guard station and instantly spotted a medium sized safe, only blacked by ash.
"Found it,"
Soraf helped Aurelia lift up the safe and carry it back to the bus, Zxeron close behind them acting as lookout.
"Got it," Aurelia announced excitedly once she and Soraf had gotten it onto the bus.
"Awesome, let's get back to the hangar before we get ambushed again by those dicks,"
Nodding, Caliphar shifted into drive and sped off back to the road and followed it to the airbase.
Once they had returned to the hangar, Caliphar pulled inside and killed the engine.
Everyone got off of the bus and watched as Aurelia and Soraf carried the safe to the lock-up room.
"Damn‚ Aurelia's not gonna be happy about the damage those assholes did to her bus," Caliphar muttered as he inspected the driver's side, a decent sized dent in the middle just below the windows.
"We can fix it up, no worries. You get started on this old bird, I'll help them figure out what's in that safe," Sif said to him, patting his shoulder before dashing off to join Aurelia and Soraf in the lock-up.
Caliphar stepped up to the NH-90, scratching his head as he thought about what part of it to fix up first.
"Might I suggest replacing the windows first?" Royena suggested moving to stand beside Caliphar.
"Huh? Oh‚ yeah, I guess that's a good starting point," He chuckled glancing at the smashed in cockpit windows.
"I'll help, I mean how much different could fixing up a helo be from fixing up a Jeep?" Royena laughed as she led Caliphar and Koriphus to the supply room.
Koriphus glanced sideways at Caliphar, shaking his head as they followed Royena.
"She's kind'a cute, and that trick with the grenades was pretty awesome," Koriphus whispered to Caliphar.
"I suppose and yeah, it was a neat trick‚ but I kind'a think I'm starting to like Aurelia," He whispered in response.
"You boys do know I can hear you, right?" Royena suddenly spoke, gesturing to her tufted ears.
Caliphar and Koriphus exchanged a look of guilt before muttering a quick "Sorry,".
Royena chuckled to herself as they walked into the supply room.
"Here we go, windows that I believe should fit the cockpit," She said cheerfully, running over to a stack of glass leaning against the wall.
> The first piece of glass had a label stuck to it that read "Bullet proof".
"Those are perfect!" Caliphar exclaimed excitedly, wagging his tail.
Royena and Koriphus laughed at his reaction.
Koriphus glanced around the room and spotted some painting equipment.
Destruction and Reconstruction
"Any ideas on how to get this thing open?" Soraf asked as she, Aurelia and Sif stared at the safe.
"If it has a combination, we don't know it and if any of those soldiers at that construction site knew it, they're no help to us now," Aurelia stated the obvious.
"We could just use a power drill, this thing has screws holding the door in place," Sif announced.
Aurelia and Soraf looked at her, both feeling slightly embarrassed that they hadn't realized that.
"I'll go grab one from the supply room," Sif said with a smile as she walked out of the lock-up.
"What do you suppose is in there? I mean besides possibly more files and blueprints," Soraf pondered aloud, glancing at the safe.
"Maybe a damn map to wherever the fuck all these assholes keep coming from, that would make me happy as hell,"
"But I'll settle for files and blueprints to at least give us some sort of bread crumb trail to wherever these assholes are," Aurelia responded, resting her hands on her hips.
Moments later Sif returned with an electric power drill, panting slightly.
"Are you okay?" Aurelia asked looking at her.
"Yeah, just ran across the hangar from one end to the other‚" She replied breathlessly.
"Here," She added handing the power drill to Aurelia.
"Thanks," Aurelia nodded as she took the drill and kneeled down in front of the safe.
She began to unscrew the door, one screw at a time.
"So, how are the others getting along with fixing that old helicopter?" Soraf asked Sif.
"They're getting along well, your pal Caliphar found a mechanic's jumpsuit and is acting like a fool. That other one, what's his name? He's flirting with Royena," Sif answered, chuckling.
"Koriphus is flirting with Royena? Oh boy, she must be enjoying that," Aurelia laughed, unscrewing the final screw.
She set the drill down beside herself on the ground and carefully pried the door off the safe, laying it next to the drill.
Inside the safe were rolled up blueprints tied together by frayed rope stacked on top of a rather large pile of manila folders also held together by rope.
"Looks like we've got a lot of work on our hands, hope you two are ready for an all-nighter," Aurelia announced, glancing over her shoulder at Soraf and Sif.
"I'll get us some coffee," Sif replied before disappearing through the door again.
"What are those soldier dicks doing with all this stuff?" Soraf asked kneeling beside Aurelia, looking at the contents of the safe.
"That's what I intend to find out,"
"We've got our hands full for the night and so do the others with that helo," Aurelia said, wondering to herself how Caliphar and the others were doing in the supply room.
"I've been meaning to ask, why is Caliphar so eager to fix that thing anyway? It looked damaged beyond repair to me‚" Soraf said looking at Aurelia.
"Damaged beyond repair‚"
"I'll be right back!" Aurelia suddenly exclaimed running out of the lock-up.
"Where's the fire?" Sif questioned as Aurelia went running past her.
Aurelia skidded to a half and turned on her heel to look at Sif.
"C4!" She exclaimed, startling Sif.
"Do you have any?"
"Should be a crate or two in the supply room where the others are," Sif quickly replied.
Aurelia dashed across the hangar to the supply room and burst through the door, startling the others.
"What's the matter?" Caliphar asked as he and the others all turned to look at Aurelia standing in the doorway, panting heavily.
"I need a crate of C4, now!" She shouted.
"Whoa! What do you need that stuff for?" Royena quickly asked her eyes wide in surprise at Aurelia's request.
"When we spotted those jets today, we made a plan to damage them beyond repair when we found out who was using them and I just remembered,"
"Soraf reminded me when she asked why Caliphar was so eager to fix that helo when she said it looked damaged beyond repair," Aurelia explained.
"Sif said I could find a couple of crates of C4 in here, she said you'd know where they'd be," She added looking at Royena.
"Oh, right‚ they're under that canvas," Royena replied nodding her head at the far right corner of the room.
Aurelia dashed over to the corner, quickly finding two wooden crates hidden by a frayed canvas.
She tossed the canvas behind her and lifted the top crate, quickly carrying it out of the room making her way to the hangar doors.
She managed to open the left door enough to slip through it and make her way out onto the tarmac where the soldiers' jets were still parked in single-file.
"What in the world are you doing?" Caliphar shouted as he came running out of the hangar to find Aurelia standing on the tarmac standing beside one of the F-22 Raptors.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" She retorted, pressing a brick of C4 against the underside of the jet's wing.
"Uh, it looks like you're trying to get yourself and the rest of us killed,"
"I am not; I've handled C4 before and know we'll be safe inside that hangar when this goes off,"
She continued to apply C4 along the rest of the jet wing before moving onto the next jet in line, applying four bricks of C4 to underside of it near where the tired extended.
"Well if you're going to blow up a bunch of jets, at least let me help," He said coming to join her, grabbing up a couple bricks of C4 from the crate.
He walked over to the third jet and began pressing the C4 along the nose of the jet.
"What happened to being all concerned for our lives, hmm?"
"You're right; we'll be safe in that hangar. Besides, it's not like I'm going to let you have all the fun," He grinned.
They both went to reach for more C4 from the crate, brushing their hands against each other's and looked at each other.
"Well, I appreciate the help," Aurelia smiled, removing her hand as she grabbed several bricks of C4.
"Of course," Caliphar nodded, clearing his throat.
They both moved to the fourth jet and began applying the C4 on the underside of both wings, taking turns glancing at each other as they looked under the wings to press the bricks into place.
"Have you started fixing the helo?" Aurelia suddenly asked as they moved onto the next jet.
"So far I've just picked out new windows to replace the smashed ones of the cockpit, I sort'a got distracted finding this jumpsuit," Caliphar replied with a chuckle.
"It suits you," She smiled at him as they had moved to the sixth jet.
They quickly applied C4 along the sides behind the wings before moving onto the last two jets, Aurelia got the seventh and Caliphar got the eighth.
"That should do it, now to just wire it all together and get our asses inside that hangar before setting it off," She said with a satisfied grin.
"Already got ya' covered!"
Caliphar and Aurelia turned to spot Royena and Koriphus attaching wires along the jets where they had put the C4.
"Nice! Let's get inside," Aurelia called as they all quickly ran back into the hangar.
Once inside the hangar, they all gathered to peer through the crack in the doors watching in anticipation as Royena hit the detonator attached to the wiring connecting the C4 together.
An extremely loud explosion echoed throughout the entire airbase, which left a ringing in everyone's ears.
"I think we can safely say those jets are definitely beyond repair now," Soraf remarked as Royena opened the hangar door enough for them to all look out at the jets that were all on fire, smoke trailing high into the night sky.
"Now
can we get back to those files and blueprints?" Sif asked eagerly, turning to look at Aurelia.