Operator: Hudson James Weaver
Location: Undisclosed Location, Siberia
Time: 0200 Hours
Target: Objective Talon
Hudson's POV
Our pickup pulled to a stop a ways away from the ring. From the driver's seat I could see the large dome like structure from the lights it was putting off. It was crawling with guards, I could make out a few machine gun nests an a couple of Juggernauts.
“This is not gonna go over well”, Issac said from the backseat.
“Let's get it over with”, I said opening the truck's door. The freezing Serbian air caught me by surprise and bit through my thin clothing and made my hair stand on end.
“Whose bright idea was it to dress in this shit?”, I asked.
“Command's”, Wyatt replied, “cold much?”
“How the hell are you not freezing?”, I asked miserably.
“I grew up in Alaska”, Wyatt replied, “I'm used to it, John called me an Ice Cube for a reason ya know.”
“What the the hell ever”, I replied, “let's get to work, Issac what's the mission here? The quicker were done and gone the better.”
“To find and recover a dragon named Tyro”, Issac said dropping the tail gate on my pick up, “were also to rescue his mate and kids if we can, but he takes priority.”
“Before Emelia I never would have imagined dragon's existed”, Wyatt said.
I sighed. Emelia had disappeared shortly after John died and had left holes in our hearts, she had left without saying goodbye too. I missed her. On that day Raven squad was ripped into shreds. John's death had taken much of the will to fight out of us, but the final blow was Emelia's disappearance. We've continued to solider since that fateful day, hoping our friend would return to us. Twenty nine years later, her combat file reads “missing”.
Issac sighed, “Can't get her outta your head either?”
“Nah”, Wyatt said, “she saved our lives that day, then she just disappears, without even saying goodbye?”
“Can't be helped”,Issac said pulling his sniper rifle, a Remington 700 USR out of a duffel bag, “let's just focus on here and now.”
“What's our equipment?”, Wyatt asked.
“AAC Honey Badgers with thermal sights, foregrips and extended magazines”, Issac said, “our secondary’s consist of our B32Rs with suppressors, laser sights and automatic modification.”
“And some weird as hell ammo”, Wyatt said, “remember this shit?”
I leaned in. Issac was right. The .300 Blackout and 9mm ammunition was tipped with a needle. We'd found a large cache of the stuff years ago in Iran, but command never figured out what it was for.
“Let's not worry about it”, Issac said, “let's run our recon and get in there.”
Issac and I walked to a ridge and lay prone. Through thermal binoculars, I could see more heat signatures than I cared to count and one massive glowing dome behind the main arena. I guessed that it must be the cages where they kept the dragons. If it was then chances were good that's where Tyro and his family were.
“Large heat signature Issac”, I said, “three o'clock.”
Issac trained his rifle on the dome, “Target identified, let's get inside.”
We hopped back in the truck and retraced our route from the ridge down to the ring's parking lot. The parking lot was full of expensive cars from Hennessy Venom's to Bugatti Veyron's to SSC Ultimate Areo's.
“What ya think it cost to rent one of these boss?”, Issac asked.
“More than we'll make in our lives”, I retorted.
The doors to the ring were guarded by men armed with AK-47s and Saga Shotguns. They were dressed in black body armor and white fatigues. They held the door open for us as we walked in. The halls were lined with guards and rich looking people in suits. There was also the stench of waste and blood hanging over the entire arena, almost overpoweringly strong. It may have just been the stench, but I felt as if something was wrong, I couldn't put a finger on it, but it was there.
“We need to find the cages”, Issac said, “quickly, we have till the fights are over.”
I began observing my surroundings as I watched an awkwardly skinny woman walk with a female dragon into a back room. As the door shut, I saw another dragon in a cage.
I tapped Issac on the shoulder, “there, the cages are there.”
Issac nodded as we walked up to a guard by a door.
“The arena is through here”, the guard said opening a door for us, “hurry and take your seats as the fights are to begin in ten minutes.”
Issac thanked the guard and we walked into the arena. It was about 300 feet up and 500 feet long, my guess was to give the dragon's room to fly around. The area between the stands and the arena was made of inch thick razor wire with razors and barbs the size of my thumb and arms. The walls were made of what looked like boulders that were mortared together and there were Juggernauts armed with PKPs standing guard at the edges of the arena.
“They sure do make liberal use of Juggernauts don't they?”, I asked as we sat in the back row.
“No joking”, Wyatt said looking around, “think they'll be a problem?”
“Assuming Tyro fights for us”, Issac said producing a picture of a dragon who was built like a freaking tank, “no.”
“Damn”, Wyatt said, “where can I get abs like that?”
“Work out with me”, I said lifting my shirt.
“I'll die”, Wyatt said jokingly.
“Fights are starting”, Issac said.
I watched as two dragons walked on. One was a hazy green color and was a mess of scars, telling me he'd been here a long while. The other, a huge brown and gray one was bristling with body armor and spikes and had muscles that put even me to shame.
“There he is”, Issac said.
The dragon's said something in a language I couldn't understand before attacking each other. The green one lowered his head and charged. Tyro responded by waiting until the least second before leaping into the air and throwing all his weight onto the other dragon's back, causing him to face plant into the dirt. Tyro seemed to be pleading with the other dragon, just from the tone in his voice, but the green one either had an ax to grind with him, or had other reasons that drove him to attack again. Tyro met his attacker with a headbutt that caused his opponent to rear into the air. Tyro saw a chance and sized it, locking his jaws around the neck of the green dragon with a savage snap.
Something was off though. Tyro seemed as if he didn't want to kill this dragon. The look on his face said he wanted nothing more than to let his opponent go. The look, the seeming plea not to fight, the over all dragon. It all told me one thing. The one thing that kept me up at night. The one thing I'd wanted to know since the night of June 12th, 1999.
“Holy shit”, I said aloud.
“Badass isn't it?”, Issac asked.
“Issac”, I said, “Tyro....” I was having trouble getting the words out.
“What is it Hudson?”, Issac asked.
“That dragon”, I said, “is John.”
Issac went pale, he glanced down at Tyro and then at me, “that's MY little brother down there?”
I could only nod, still too stunned to do anything.
“We have to end this now”, Issac said reaching for his Honey Badger.
“No!”, I said in a loud whisper as Wyatt and I grabbed him, “there are Juggernauts everywhere, if we move now we'll die, we just have to do this by the books.”
Issac's eyes were filling with tears, “Hudson I can't lose him, not again!”
“Neither can I”, I replied, “but he'll lose us and possibly his life if we move now, just wait brother, there's a right way to do this.”
Wyatt and I calmed down Issac with some difficulty and watched the fight unfold. John, or Tyro, I wasn't sure what to call him now, had locked his jaws around the throat of the other dragon and wasn't letting go, despite what seemed to be pleas for mercy from his victim.
“This is so fucked up”, I said to myself, “John is being forced to kill his own and we can't do anything about it?”
The other dragon bleed to death as John gently set him down. Another dragon arrived. John seemed to plead with this dragon as he did the first one, but I couldn't understand their language, so I wasn't quite sure. There wasn't any attempt to speak on the part of the other dragon, he simply attacked. John grabbed the other dragon by his snout and viciously snapped his neck, carefully laying him down like he did the dragon before him. The look that covered his muzzle was one of guilt. I'd never seen him look so gulity before.
“That's my little brother?”, Issac repeated, over and over and over again.
Now the red and black female I'd seen earlier walked in. She was certainly being sarcastic with John, who had gone from looking gulity, to pissed beyond belief. When the red dragon charged him, John moved quicker than I could see. He pulled a long strip of flesh out of the side of he female dragon before tossing her like a rag doll into the wall and pouncing on her. The red dragon reached up and forced her claws into John's chest before slashing viciously across his back and sides. John collapsed and the female wobbled to her feet, laughing hysterically.
“I'mma put a bullet in your head bitch”, Issac growled reaching for his rifle again.
John said something and then the female turned around. John let off a deep growl and said something in that language again before jumping to his feet and closing the 100 foot gap between him and the female faster than you could shift a Bugatti. He grabbed her by the throat and gave a yank like none I'd ever seen, ripping the dragon's head clean off her body and tearing out a good portion of her spine, the collapsed himself. A few guys showed up and dragged him off.
“Let's go”, Issac said, “we have a brother to save.”
We got up and left the ring, entering the hallway where the people who had placed bets were collecting their money.
“Kick us off Issac”, I said.
'With pleasure”, Issac snuffed.
He yanked a knife from under his jacket and stabbed a guard right in the chest, twisting it and yanking it back out before pushing the badly injured man to the ground. Wyatt and I drew our Honey Badgers as a mass of AK carrying guards entered the hallways. I ducked behind a part of the wall that was jutting out and began picking off any targets that presented themselves.
“Check your fire!”, I yelled, “we got civies here!”
The hallway filed with he sounds of ricocheting lead as Raven exchanged fire with the Russian's in front of us. My weapon clicked and instinct clicked in as I flung the mag from my gun while simultaneously checking the chamber to make sure the weapon was empty. When I found it was, I slapped a new mag in and pulled back on the charging handle to bring the weapon back into battery.
“I think we just invaded fucking Russia!”, Wyatt yelled as we pushed forward.
More guards wearing body armor poured out of a hallway.
“Use tear gas!”, I shouted tossing one down the hallway.
It broke open with a loud pop and began to hiss as the gas poured from the canister. The guards began to choke and cough as we picked them off one by one. We pushed down the hall way and were nearing a door when it flew open due to an explosion on the other side. I was forced to my back by the shock wave as a Juggernaut packing a minigun appeared from the smoke.
“Juggernaut!”, Issac yelled, “Wyatt grab Hudson!”
Due to the ring in my ears, his voice was rather distant. I soon felt Wyatt size me by the collar and began dragging me. He pulled me behind a wall that had a slot cut into it. All I could think of is what if that Jugg decided he wanted to toss a chemical bomb down this hallway?
“If he throws one of those Chemical Bombs down this hallway were screwed!”, I shouted over the fire of his minigun.
There was a distant sound, like rolling thunder and the roof collapsed. Another clasp, the guard disappeared, nothing but red where he'd been standing.
“What the fuck was that?”, Wyatt asked in a high pitched tone.
“Don't matter!”, I yelled, “let's move.”
We ran down the hallway and entered the cages. I wanted to puke, and almost did, at the sight in front of me. Thousands of dragons had been chained up in cages. The smell of waste was awful and I could see many dragons from where I stood who were covered in it, malnourished and some even had barbed wire tangled around their muzzles.
“Take a good look boys”, I said lowly, “this is what happens when you let your enemy go unchecked for forty years.”
“Damn Russians”, Issac snuffed, “we should just nuke this rat hole and be done with it.”
“Look”, Wyatt said, “blood trail.”
Wyatt pointed to a trail of dark blue blood that lead to a large barb wire cage with six dragons. John, a female and four cubs and the female appeared as if she was pregnant.
“He's got a family”, Wyatt said.
“Base this is Raven 2-2”, Issac called, “requesting V-22 EER at our location, how copy?”
“Copy all Raven”, Overlord replied, “friendly Osprey inbound, ETA in 20 seconds.”
I began to pry open the cage as John's eyes began to fall shut.
“No!”, I shouted, “not again! I won't let you die! Not this time! Not again!”
There was another loud bang as the roof collapsed and our V22 hovered over the hole. With help from the crew, we hauled John into the Osprey and the other dragons followed. The medic's began their work as we lifted off.