-one hour later-
"HANG ON!" Noah yells as he swerves onto the road. Cole would have fallen out if Noah had turned any harder. Regaining his balance Cole's head darts back to see the rest of Hector's teams in the jeeps behind them.
Not far behind, multiple trucks adorned with the Blackburn insignia appeared. Furs stood up in the back of the truck, weapons drawn.
"Noah step on it!" Cole yells, unslinging his rifle off his shoulder.
"Just keep them busy, I'm going as fast as I can here!" He replies, keeping his gaze glued on the road ahead.
Cole raises his weapon and fires a few rounds into the front of the truck. His attempts at damaging the engine were proved futile as the rounds bounced off of the armor plating protecting it. continuing creeping closer, the truck passes one of the jeeps behind the group.
The truck pulls up side by side next to Cole and Hector, the furs inside the back opening fire. Ducking down waiting for the initial shots to cease, Cole raises his rifle and returns fire, gunning down the four in the bed of the vehicle.
After taking them out, Cole removes a grenade from his jacket's vest and chucks it into the passenger side window. The front of the truck explodes open along with the back end of the engine now engulfed in flames. Cole watches as the truck begins to drift left, smashing through the cliff side railing and off the mountain side altogether.
Noah looks back to see the truck fall over the edge. "Nice one Cole!"
Cole nods towards him before returning his attention to the pursuing vehicles. The squad enters a mountainside tunnel, still being pursued by two trucks. The first was attempting to pull up on the groups left while the second rams into the jeep behind them causing it to spin out of control and roll violently enough to throw one of the soldiers inside against one of the stone pillars holding up the tunnel like a rag doll.
"Truck moving up on the left! We're being boxed in!" The tag-along yelled.
The second truck moves in, attempting to trap them with the other. Quickly reacting Cole points his rifle at the front tire of the truck on the left. A sudden pop equivalent to a small explosion goes off from the tire as the truck loses control. The truck collides with the tunnel's wall and flips, causing the second truck to hit its breaks and flip itself.
"Karma's a bitch, ain't it?!" Cole shouts to the wreckage behind them.
A fourth vehicle pulls up but this one stays a fair distance behind.
'Why isn't it approaching like the other two?' Cole thinks to himself.
He stares at it confused until a shark anthro peeks from the back of the truck.
"RPG!" Hector yells.
Cole readied his rifle once again, ready to take the fur's head off of its shoulders. Pulling the trigger he was met with a heart-stopping click.
"Shit, get down!" He shouts as the shark fires the missile.
The missile hits the tunnel wall barely missing its target. The blast shook the Jeep as Noah swerved left to regain control after the explosion.
Reloading the rifle and slamming the receiver shut, Cole raised his rifle to the shark's head and pulled the trigger.
'Fucker.'
Shortly after exiting the tunnel, a helicopter flies overhead as the group is relentlessly followed closely by Blackburn's trucks.
"We've got more company! Troop truck closing fast!" The soldier next to Cole calls out.
Another Rocket-wielding fur appears on the truck. Cole shoots again and again, missing him entirely.
"Keep us steady Noah!" Cole demanded.
Noah doesn't question it and slows down long enough for him to line up a shot. Cole fires once more, nailing the fur directly in the chest.
"Got him, go go go!" Cole shouted while Noah stepped on the gas, beginning to speed down the road at a terrifying pace. The helo swoops down towards the highway and begins firing missiles at the convoy. One of the three remaining vehicles is hit and erupts into a scorching ball of fire, leaving nothing left of the team inside. The final truck kept its distance away from the groups as more furs began to rise from the bed of the truck.
"Take out that truck!; Shoot that tru-!" The soldier calls out before blood explodes out from his head, The body recoils from the shot as it collapses down into the vehicle. Cole readies his rifle once again ready to shoot only to be met with a burning pain in his shoulder.
His body jerks back from the sudden impact from being shot. He instinctively moved his right hand to his shoulder to put pressure on the wound as he cried out in pain.
"Cole!" Hector shouts. The engine roars as Noah floors the gas again. Groaning, Cole lifts his head back up to see the helicopter fly overhead.
"six o'clock high!" He calls out to the others.
The Hind unleashes a barrage of missiles onto the cliff side. Hector shoves Cole down into his seat with a hand on his head. "Stay down!"
Cole stays hunched down to avoid being shot again by the pursuing truck. Hector reached over to the wooden crate positioned next to Cole and ripped off the top covering. Inside was their own launcher with a few extra rockets to go with it.
Hector grabbed the explosive ordinance and positioned it towards the helicopter, Hector's missile whistled to life as it flew directly at the helicopter. The Helo evades the missile with ease but launches back a few missiles of its own hitting the road behind them. The trucks back off slightly as they enter another tunnel supported by columns and pillars. The right side of the tunnel was open to a lake of which left them all exposed.
"Helo, right side! Nine o'clock!" Cole shouts to Hector.
Cole helplessly watches as the helo fires and destroys the pillars one by one, attempting to bring the tunnel ceiling down on top of them. Noah speeds up once again desperately trying to outrun the collapsing tunnel. Hector continues to fire the rockets. while the other soldiers fire their rifles at the helo, but they miss as the tunnel's wall blocks their view. Exiting the final tunnel, the group sees the attack helicopter come back into view.
"Twelve o'clock!" Cole calls out once more.
Hector fires once again at the Hind but it avoids the missile. The helo appears to slowly leave.
"It's leaving?!" Noah says with a surprised tone.
"Must've run out of ammo! Good enough for me!" Hector states dropping the empty launcher.
"Yeah, lucky u-" Cole stops mid-sentence as he watches the chopper turn and face the bridge ahead.
"Oh, shit! He's targeting the bridge!"
The heli fires more missiles at the bridge, blowing the center to pieces that fall into the valley below.
"Stop the bloody car!" Hector yells.
The Jeeps tires screech as Noah tries to stop but it's no use. The Jeep rolls over onto its side, causing everyone inside to be thrown out landing on the hard asphalt of the bridge.
Cole's body aches all over as he struggles to get up, blood drips from his shoulder as it pulses in pain. Finally managing to stand, Cole manages to raise his good arm back to his shoulder to put pressure on the wound.
His eyes were blurry from the debris in the air which also made moderately harder to breathe, coughing out some of the dust in the air Cole walked towards a close figure that resembled that of a human. He continued to approach the figure who turned out to be Hector who was also recovering from the crash.
"You good?" Cole asks, concerned.
Hector nods his head as he grabs his machine gun. "Yeah I'm alright, how 'bout you?"
Cole offers a bloodied hand, assisting Hector back to his feet.
"Wait, where's Noah?" Cole asks, eyes darting left then right.
Hector's gaze immediately shot behind him towards the overturned Jeep. Noah laid on his back arms resting on the ground above his head.
"Noah!" Cole shouts trying to grab his attention
"Incoming!" A nearby soldier yells at the top of his lungs.
Gunfire erupts as bullets whistle all around. Cole's eyes fixate themselves ahead towards the multiple furs taking up positions at the end of the bridge. More vehicles arrive no doubt carrying reinforcements.
"Get him, I'll help the others hold them off." Hector says leaving off towards the rest of the team.
Adrenaline filled Cole as he darted over to Noah, bullets flew overhead, hitting the other Jeep's side door and the ground around the pair. Grabbing a hold of Noah by the collar Cole began to lug him behind the jeep using his good arm.
"Noah, come on buddy." He pleads desperately while dragging him to cover.
Laying Noah down and removing his face mask. Cole put a bloodied index finger under his jaw to check his pulse, to his relief Noah was still alive and breathing.
'Thank god.' He thought to himself.
Bullets continue to fly overhead as he positions Noah's unconscious body upright next to the Jeep. Cole's focus returns to the anthros who were slowly moving closer. He goes for his rifle only to be met with empty space on his back where it should have been. Briefly scans the area looking for his weapon but the only thing to see was the cracked asphalt and metal shrapnel from nearby cars.
'Son of a-' Cole stops as his eyes catch the Jeep's winch and tow cable slowly swaying from side to side. Looking back at the destroyed midsection of the bridge, a plan forms.
"Hector, I think I've got a way off the bridge." Cole states with a small grin.
—————————————————————
"Your objective is to eliminate or detain any and all hostiles within the area, my teams already have them pinned down."
The other anthros in the helicopter grab their gear and equipment. One of the two leopard anthros picks up a radio to respond.
"They have nowhere to run."
"Understood, Blackburn. We'll finish it."
"And Carter, I don't care how the job is done, so long that it is."
Carter puts down the radio as the other leopard walks towards him and taps on his shoulder to get his attention.
"Here, Carter." Emily says handing him his rifle, he nods in response taking the weapon. Flipping the safety off, he walks back to the other two sitting in the back of the helo.
"Thirty seconds." The pilot states on the radio. Carter walks to the back as a dragon anthro grabs his M4 rifle while the wolf grabs herself a sniper.
"Ready, you two?"
Both nod in response as they finish loading their weapons. Faint gunfire can be heard as the chopper makes its final approach onto a mountain side.
"I'm dropping y'all down here, happy hunting Viking."
"Copy, thanks again Viper." Carter responds.
"Anytime brother, give 'em hell for me."
A green light powers on as the back ramp drops open, Carter and the team rush out taking a knee as the helicopter flies off. The gunfire continued as the team made its way through the light foliage of the mountainous region.
"Sasha, find a vantage point and get me some eyes on their position." Carter ordered.
"No problem." The wolf responds by splitting from the group heading up the hill side.
"Emily, Mav, on me."
A bridge comes into view as Sasha arrives at a rocky cliffside, the wolf positions herself while Carter and the rest of the team meet up with Blackburn's soldiers. The team takes cover next to Blackburn's men as Maverick runs up to the nearest trooper grabbing his attention.
"What's the situation?!" Maverick demanded.
"We've got about a dozen no-furs on the bridge but they have us suppressed, we can't get close!" The soldier responds.
Emily turns to face Carter with an annoyed look. "Didn't Blackburn say they were the ones pinned down?!" She says, not surprised that the situation was the other way around.
"No time to ask questions." Carter responds, annoyed. He grabs his radio and looks to the rough cliff face behind them.
"Sasha, what are we lookin' at?"
"I've got eyes on about eight no-furs, small arms, nothing big except maybe one, two MG's." Sasha answers having just finished zeroing in with her rifle.
"Incapacitate the gunners and those around them." Carter ordered.
"Understood." Sasha responded.
Carter then turns to the soldier they had just spoken with. "On my order, we push forward a little at a time, understand?"
The soldier nods and relays the plan to the others. Shots ring out from behind as Sasha's sniper echoes throughout the mountainous region, one after another the gunfire coming from the bridge silences.
"They're down."
"Move up!" Carter orders loud enough for everyone to hear.
The anthros slowly edge forward, moving from cover to cover passing by abandoned cars, trucks and a tanker lying on its side.
"They're pulling the wounded back behind the Jeep at the end of the bridge." Sasha states with a chuckle. "Don't they know when to give up?"
"Nah, fuckers are too stupid to know when to give up." Emily says with a small laugh, while Maverick smiled and shook his head.
"Ain't really the brightest bunch, are they." Maverick chimed in.
Carter raises a hand to gather attention. "Pipe it down you lot, we're closing in..."
———————————————————————-
The last of Hector's men rappel down the tow cable to the ground beneath the bridge. Cole lifts his head just over the top of the jeep to see multiple anthros closing in. Quickly unholstering his sidearm he begrudgingly lifts the barrel to the jeeps gear-assembly holding the cable.
"Come on Cole, let's go!" Hector's voice echoes through the radio.
'Not this time old pal...'
Cole fires two rounds into the machinery holding the cable, the assembly shatters as he watches the cable slide over the edge and out of sight. Holstering the pistol Cole stood up, wincing with his shoulder still bleeding. Keeping a good arm on the wound he turns around and walks away from the edge.
"Cole, what the hell are you doing?!" Hector's voice a mix of panic and anger.
raising a blood-soaked hand to his headset, he grasped the radio wiring firmly and ripped it out.
"Col- " His shout cut to silence.
One of Hector's men laid a few yards ahead of Cole, it was easy to recognize it as the nameless soldier who rode with him on the way down, a small pool of blood surrounded his head. Cole flips the corpse onto his stomach hoping to find another weapon to help him hold off the anthros. However the only piece of equipment left on the body was a Flashbang.
Grabbing the grenade Cole quietly darts behind a car and unholsters his pistol once again. Footsteps accompanied by voices grew louder as they approached. Keeping his grip firm on the Flashbang he quietly yanks the pin out.
Cole lobs the grenade overhead towards the approaching anthros, a loud bang is heard followed by the groans and yells of blinded opponents. Stepping out of cover Cole directed the barrel at the nearest anthro's head and fired, the hyena's head jerks back before collapsing onto the ground with a thud.
Wasting no time to swap targets he unloads another two rounds into another anthro. The reptile screeched in pain before falling to the ground like the former.
Going for a third he pulls the trigger again, only to be met with a click. Flipping the pistol around in his hand, Cole chucks it as hard as his wounded shoulder would allow nailing the fox soldier in the face.
With no other option Cole dashes forward towards the staggered enemy and rams into his chest knocking the fox onto his back. hastily drawing a knife he pounces violently pinning him to the ground.
With one arm on his throat, Cole raises the blade well above his head. The fox gasps for air as he tries to remove the tightening grip from his neck but it was no use. Cole drove his blade deep into the fox's eye socket, his body fell limp as blood poured from his eye.
Ripping the blade from the skull, Cole stood up from the corpse. Blood soaked both the blade and most of his hand. Disgusted by the overwhelming substance, Cole wipes the blade on his sleeve.
A small glint draws Cole's attention, slightly turning his head. Cole squints trying to see what it belonged to. A single gunshot cuts through the air like razor wire.
The sniper's shot echoes as Cole collapses to the ground, his leg full of overwhelming pain. Dropping the knife in the process he held his leg with both of his hands as the warm red liquid began to find its way out. More movement could be heard as the anthros quickly advanced.
Hearing the movement grow from in front of him filled Cole's body with one last bit of adrenaline. Which he used to crawl away as fast as his arm could muster, dragging his cripled leg across the ground as he positions himself against a grey truck.
A lightheaded feeling engulfed Cole's mind as his body felt weak and drained of energy. He looks himself over while keeping the pressure on his wounds. his entire shoulder area was soaked in blood, while his right pant leg was slowly becoming discolored.
Resting his head against the truck he looks to the clear blue sky hoping it would be quick. Anthros encircled Cole as he lay against the stationary vehicle bleeding somewhat heavily.
"Keep this one here." One said, gesturing to him.
A lone leopard fur walked forward keeping his rifle trained on the jeep Cole had desperately tried to defend.
"Mav, you two get the others from behind the jeep." He orders while pointing at two of Blackburn's soldiers.
Cole turned his head to face the Jeep. A dragon with gray and yellow scales poked his head around and froze. Cole, in spite of his pain, couldn't help but grin at the dumbfounded creature.
"They're all gone!" He shouts to the others.
Two leopard anthros rush to see for themselves. One of the two shakes their head while the other curses out and kicks the jeep.
The grin only grew as Cole let out a small chuckle. The group seemed to overhear the small celebration as their heads turned to face him.
"What the fuck are you laughing about?!" A feminine voice from one of the leopards roars.
Cole's small chuckle turns to outright laughter as her frustration grows. The leopard stormed up to the dying human and raised her rifle, the barrel only a few inches from his head.
"Stop!" The other leopard orders. The anthro in front of Cole lowered her rifle slightly and turned to face the other.
"This little bastard just killed three of Blackburn's guys and-"
"Enough! He's the only one we've got alive and he's the only one who can tell us where they're going." The other leopard cuts in.
A wave of exhaustion shot its way through Cole's body as his eyes felt heavy. drooping his head down slightly to see a small pool of blood forming around his leg. Cole's head began to spin as his sight blurred.
——————————
Looking back to the human, Maverick sees the pool of blood expanding from his leg.
"Emily!" He shouts as the human's head droops into his chest.
Emily turns her attention back to the unconscious creature as it falls onto its side. Quickly throwing his rifle over his shoulder Maverick rushes over scrambling to grab his radio in the process.
"Sasha we need you down here, now!" He shouts into the radio.
"On route, three minutes." Sasha responds as the radio cuts to static.
The fleshling was covered in blood, almost head to toe. Unsheathing a knife He cautiously cut into the blood soaked fabric of his left leg. Ripping the material apart Maverick got a better look at the wound.
"We don't have three minutes!" Maverick yells once more into the radio.
Grabbing the human's arm he cut the entire sleeve away from his jacket exposing another small gunshot wound.
"Oh for fuck's sake." He says with a clear hint of annoyance.
Emily sets her weapon down next to the truck as she kneels next to the human.
"Give me his sleeve, I'll make a tourniquet." Emily says, holding out her hand.
Maverick shoved the sleeve in her direction, then got to work cutting off the other for his leg. The tourniquets helped with the bleeding but did nothing for the wounds themselves. Sasha had just made it to the end of the bridge when we finished applying them.
Cater grabbed his radio and walked off while the rest of Blackburn's mercenaries picked up their dead and equipment. Sasha had just made it to Maverick and Emily before grabbing her medical kit.
"Not a bad job on the tourniquets." Sasha said, keeping a straight face.
"But you should have tied them tighter." She finishes taking out a bandage wrap with some gauze.
Sasha stitched up the no-fur's leg before wrapping it with a bandage. She then moved on to the shoulder, upon inspecting the wound closer she pulled out a pair of surgical forceps and started to dig around which disgusted Emily. Sasha removed a medium sized bullet from the human before grabbing her sucher and stitched up the shoulder, after wrapping up the shoulder with gauze pads and another bandage wrap she was satisfied with her work.
"Next time I'll blow his head off." She says with an annoyed scowl. Sasha hated patch jobs, especially considering that more often than not she'd treat humans over fellow anthros.
Emily walks off leaving Maverick and Sasha to observe the human. Reaching down into his bag he removes a canteen, unscrewing the cap Maverick quickly downs its contents.
"Not bad."
Maverick looks at Sasha with a confused look.
'What was she talking about?'
"What?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.
Sasha gestured to the no-fur, Maverick turned his head down towards the crippled body and looked him over. Aside from the bandages covering his body there wasn't much to look at other than the mask.
"The mask?" he questioned.
"Well, that and the fact he killed three of Blackburn's mercenaries." She responded.
Maverick turns my head back to the three corpses lying on the bridge, all of which had been covered with a black tarp. His eyes darted through the three of them again before returning back to the human.
"He jumped them nothing special, 'sides, he's an idiot for tryin' to fight us off." He finished, leaning up against the truck.
Sasha looked down at the human one last time before gazing at the forest foliage. Emily and Carter came walking back.
"Viper is on his way back, we'll be out of here shortly." Carter says kneeling down next to the knocked out no-fur.
A few moments go by as we all watch Blackburn's guns for hire clean up the bodies from the road. Viper's chopper finally flew overhead as the heat started to pick up.
Sasha grabbed a stretcher from the helicopter as it hovered just above the bridge while Emily and Carter climbed aboard. Lifting the small no-fur onto the cot was easy.
"Mummy here sure is light." Maverick jokes.
Sasha smirked while shaking her head. After they climbed inside, the back ramp closed up as the helo started to take flight.
Setting the human down on the floor the crew straps in. Sasha sat alongside Emily who was busy talking to Carter. Resting his head against the hard metal interior of the helicopter, Maverick does his usual thing after a mission and shuts his eyes and pretends to get some sleep.
———————————————-
"Phoenix Actual, this is Gryphon two-seven we are R.T.B, have medical teams on standby."
"Copy two-seven do they have the data?"
Upon hearing the question Hector pulled down his headset's mic.
"This is Highlander, package is secure." He managed to get out.
"Understood, nice work Highlander."
The hold Cole's bag tightens as his head slightly lowers. A tear formed as Hector's eyes closed.
'He shouldn't have done that. I should have made him go first, it should've been me.' He kept telling himself.
Noah's head rested on his shoulder as he remained unconscious in the seat next to him. Hector opened his eyes to see the white mask that reminded him of its counterpart.
What would he even say, how does he even explain it? The questions pondered his mind as the minutes passed. Looking out the helicopter's window Hector watches the mountainous region slowly fade away.
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A/N: a well deserved chapter sorry 'bout the wait had lots of irl stuff goin' on. I Hope to update this more often.