The rustling sound of footsteps is heard, as a young soldier sprints through the forest towards the sounds of gunfire.
"Cole, we're getting our asses kicked over here, where the hell are you!" Noah yells into his radio amidst the chaos.
"Almost there, hang on." Cole responds back picking up the pace continuing to make way through the woods. As he rushed forward, the sounds of gunfire were now accompanied by the screams, shouts and explosions of death and destruction. Climbing up a small hill, he arrived at the edge of the forest.
Unslinging his rifle, Cole takes cover behind a downed tree witnessing the enemy close in on the compound's walls. Pulling the charging handle he directs his rifle towards a reptilian fur closest to the compound. Taking a small breath Cole exhales as he finishes lining up the shot.
The rifle cracks to life as Cole watches the reptilian's head jerk to the right and fall to the ground in a small pool of blood. Quickly switching targets he picks off another two unsuspecting furs both dropping dead where they once stood.
"On our flank, left side!" An anthro shouted before a red mist flew out from his back. Multiple furs turned their attention to Cole. Raising their weapons they fire towards him.
Quickly reacting Cole drops his rifle and pushes himself away from the log onto his back as a storm of lead is unleashed upon where his head once was. The bark on the nearby trees splinters off as bullets smash their way into them.
Adrenaline kicks in as Cole reaches back for his weapon, peeking over the log he sees two furs, a wolf and what seemed to be a black leopard coming closer up the hillside.
"Come on Cole, think fast!" lowering his head to remain somewhat hidden from the approaching anthros. Cole's gaze turned to the rifle's fire selector. Flipping the switch to automatic, another spray of bullets flew over head smashing into the trees once more. Cole raises his weapon over the tree and unloads the rest of the magazine, a yelp of pain and a thud are heard as Cole's assault rifle runs dry. Quickly swapping out the mag and slapping the receiver shut Cole slowly stands up, weapon drawn to see a wounded wolf crawling away on his stomach.
"Where did the leopard go?" Cole pondered to himself while watching the nearby trees and rocks that could have been used as cover. Having scanned the area quickly two times over, his gaze soon returns to the helpless wolf as he continues to crawl away. Raising the rifle to the wounded creature, the crack of the rifle is heard once more as he blows a hole through it's back. The wolf cries out in pain one last time before his body goes limp.
"YOU SON OF A~!" the leopard roars as she reveals herself from behind a tree, her weapon pointed towards him. Before she could fire her weapon Cole had already put two rounds into her chest, her body fell back and rolled violently down the hill.
After the two were dealt with Cole returns to his position and resumes taking out fur after fur. The fight went on for another ten minutes as He emptied three out of four mags that he had.
Ejecting the second to last mag a sudden whistle echoes out. Cole's eyes shot up towards the field and watched as the enemy began to retreat. The area goes quiet as the wind starts blowing a small cool breeze. A minute or so passes by and all that can be heard is the gentle wind, Cole rises to his feet and starts towards the compound walls.
Crossing the battle torn area the sight of furs lying about the field brought an eerie feeling. Cole had seen worse, but it made no difference to him, a corpse was a corpse. waving a hand in the air Cole signals one of the three soldiers on top of the wall guarding the compound. One sees him almost immediately and calls to have the front gate opened. As the gate opens a familiar white skull mask appears from behind the gate and begins to walk towards him. Cole reaches up and removes his mask leaving only his balaclava.
"I think that marks the fifth time I've had to come and save your ass this month." Cole teases removing the balaclava shortly after.
Noah just shakes his head. Cole knew that Noah hated it when He taunted or teased him but just because he didn't like it, didn't mean he wasn't gonna do it.
Noah removes his mask revealing his short black hair and dark brown eyes, traits they both obtained from their father. "If we didn't have to do the hard jobs every time, maybe I could come and save yours once in a while." He replies smiling.
Cole gives a small chuckle and rubs the top of his head messing up his hair a bit. "Don't forget someone has to keep an eye on ya."
"Whatever." He says, swatting the hand away from his head.
Cole began to look Noah over, checking if he had been wounded in any way. But the fact that he was standing and willing to crack jokes back was good enough for him.
"Boys I have an assignment for you." says a somewhat familiar voice on the radio.
"Copy we're on our way" Noah responds with a small grin.
Chuckling at the familiar voice Cole lightly taps Noah on the shoulder as they walk towards a large building in the center of the compound. The building itself had a radio tower that was damaged in several places but still stood nonetheless. arriving at the building a familiar face walks out holding what seemed to be a metallic case.
"Hello Hector." Noah says, grabbing his attention. Hector turns to face the two with a smile that quickly fades once he looks back into his hand at the metallic box.
"Guys as much as I want to smile and thank you for kicking those bastards off the doorstep, we have another job." Hector states clearly.
"What do you need?" Cole asks curiously, eyeing the box in his hand.
"This here boys is a data server from one of Blackburns little secret side projects." He says holding up the device.
"Our job is to get this server out of the country and on a boat to intelligence teams in America." As he finishes his statement he hands it to Cole who stashes it into his bag.
"Wait, you said our job?" Noah's question brought a smile to Hector, Cole had already figured it out and just rolled his eyes at his brother.
"I'm going to accompany you on this one so it will be like old times, got to make sure you knuckleheads don't die." He says with a small snicker.
Giving a small laugh, memories flashed in and out of Cole's head reminding him of how close a friend Hector truly was to the pair. The man practically taught them everything. Survival, how to shoot, some would say he raised them, but because he was around the same age as Noah, he basically grew up with them.
"Where's the extraction point, can't really just swim there you know." Noah questions sarcastically.
Hector turns his attention to Noah then gestures to the jeeps behind him. "We'll be taking a drive down out of the valley, the extraction point is just south of the last bridge about a mile or so past that."
"That easy huh, well then when do we leave?" Cole asked folding his arms.
"We're leaving in thirty. Prep any gear and weapons you need I'm goin' to have a cig." Hector walks away pulling out an old box of cigarettes and a tiny container of matches.
Cole quickly looked over himself to see if there was anything he needed, opening up the mag holsters. He was reminded that he was on his last mag.
"I'll be back, got to go restock." Cole attempts to give Noah another rub on the head to mess with his hair once more, to which Noah swats the hand away again, Cole gives another chuckle before leaving.
Walking down to the armory Cole pulled out the empty magazines while grabbing a small box of ammo, while stocking up the memory of the two he killed flooded his mind. The memory of the panther rolling down the hill plays back in his mind over and over again. The same memory played back for the wolf as well.
"I baited him." Cole thought to himself as he recalled the tactic he used to kill the pair. It was unfortunate that the situation called for a cheap solution but he couldn't stay disappointed. It was either he killed them or they would kill him. loading up the last mag and storing it away with the others. Cole looked at the overhead clock of the armory to see he'd been grabbing ammo for almost twenty minutes. "They must be waiting at the jeeps."
With that in mind He hastily grabbed his mask and proceeded to leave the armory. Back outside Cole jogs back to the jeeps and returns to Noah and Hector.
"Ready to go?" Hector asks, throwing away whatever was left of his cigarette. Cole nodded in response to his question.
"Alright let's get goin, hop in the back Noah's driving on this one." Hector then opened the door to the front passenger seat and sat down.
As Hector climbed in, an officer came out from one of the main buildings "First platoon mount up and move out!" He shouted.
Cole jumps into the back right behind Hector and pulls his balaclava out of his pocket, the soft fabric felt great as it slid over his face. Noah started the engine. Cole unhinged his mask from his belt. The mask itself was scratched and its black paint was slightly stripped here and there, but it's cold black eyes still remained. He slid the helmet on over the balaclava and faced the rest of the team.
Another soldier climbs inside our jeep and straps in. Nobody seemed to notice the newcomer aside from Cole. But as he boarded he lost interest "the more the merrier" he thought. The other jeeps start up and form a line behind the group. Noah drove down towards the main gate and waited for it to be opened.
While they waited Hector's radio shot to life.
"radio check this is Phoenix actual, Highlander zero-one do you copy."
Hector clicked a switch on the side of his mask triggering the microphone. "Highlander zero-one here, go ahead Phoenix."
"Highlander, Gryphon two-seven is on route to the LZ south of the bridge, status?
Hector looks back at Cole who taps his bag with the server inside.
"Package is secure on route to Extraction" Hector responded
"Phoenix copies see you soon Highlander, Actual out."
A few moments pass by and the gate starts to open for the group to drive out. There wasn't a road, but Cole knew his brother well enough that the ride wouldn't be too miserable with the rocks and divots.
"Highlander, Gryphon two-seven here be advised we are tracking hostile movement about two miles out from your location and approaching fast recommend you hurry your ass out of there, over."
"Didn't we just drive those bastards off?" the soldier speaks out.
"Understand we are on route to the LZ, don't be late." As Hector finishes he grabs his machine gun and rips the charging handle.
"What's coming?" Noah asked curiously.
"It's Blackburn..."