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**SEXUAL CONTENT WARNING**

This story contains scenes of consensual sex between a male human and a female Utahraptor. Consider yourself warned.

Do not read if it is illegal in your area or you are underage.

I am not responsible for any damage or international incidents as a result of this story, to include mental and physical. Keep track of your own children parents.

I Copyright the RSH, soldiers and characters affiliated with the RSH and Spetsnaz, The NSO, and any (fictional) references and policies by all involved parties.

Any similarities of actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

No Utahraptors were harmed during the creation of this manuscript.

However, several remained for 'study' on a strictly volunteer basis ;).

***Updated***

This is a REWRITE of my original series 'RSH' that premiered on Yiffstar almost five years ago. Now, we're back and better than ever.

Get ready for RSH in Realtime!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RSH-Beginning

Looking back, few believed that the Russians could do what they did after the fall of the Soviet Union nearly twenty years ago. The majority of western citizens believed themselves to be on top of the world, far away from the poverty in the former Eastern Bloc and the political unrest that lingered within. This majority tucked the Russians into the back of their minds, too poor and too primitive to challenge the technological might of the western world. They were the ones that were shocked the most in a particularly cold October in 2010.

Like the rest of the world, Americans first learned of the plight of the Russian people months before, when a strange disease destroyed almost all of the country's crops. Rumors spread like wildfire that the Russian Government had been experimenting with chemical weapons specifically designed to take out food sources when an accident occurred, spreading the extremely contagious crop-killer into a nearby farmer's field. Transportation saw to the rest, as vehicles moved from place to place, the spores traveled with them, destroying most of the country's agricultural base nearly overnight.

As these rumors became common knowledge, riots broke out throughout the country almost as fast as the food supply diminished. To help quell the riots, military forces of the Russian Federation were dispatched all over the country to help restore order. However, the people would not listen. The masses called for blood as widespread starvation struck the poor and less-fortunate, bringing death to their streets and into their homes. It was a fuel tank of exploitation that was awaiting the slightest spark.

Russian Army Ground Forces General Aleksi Efremov stepped forth with a solution. The General captivated hungry Russian audiences with promises of setting things right, and so he did. Weeks after the breakdown of order, military trucks were rolling through every town and village loaded with enough rations to feed the people for months. General Efremov became a celebrity overnight, and the people stood behind him as he demanded the resignation of the current Federation government.

Western Intelligence Analysts looked upon the situation with uneasy vigilance, knowing of Efremov's hard-line Communist beliefs. They knew all too well of his influence within the military, and that he had the support of all six Russian Ground forces districts and their commanding officers. Their fears became a reality on the twelfth of October, 2010.

"For too long the people of our great nation have wallowed in the mud that is a capitalist society. They are denied even the basic needs to ensure a prosperous and happy life by a government too corrupt to witness their plight. I call upon the citizens of this great nation to support us as we take back what is rightfully ours by casting the capitalists from their throne of power. Together, as a unified body, we shall lead this nation into a great era. An era where our children can play in an environment where there is no poverty, no jealousy, and no denial of their basic right to life. I, General Aleksi Efremov, pledge to uphold this standard for a unified Russian people under one power, one banner, and one loyalty. I call for the resignation of the current administration by the first of December, 2010. If this is not the case, we will be forced to liberate our people from the tyranny that grips our land by force."

All of Russia gathered behind their hero General, watching the Kremlin with an iron gaze. As Efremov looked out upon his followers, he poised his army for all out war. The soldiers, thankful that their families were alive and well, stood behind him to the death. Everyone was kept on edge as the deadline slipped closer and closer with neither side slacking on their resolve.

As midnight on December first approached, the eyes of the world were staring at Moscow as well, awaiting the battle that they knew would come. They didn't have to wait long.

As the Kremlin clock struck midnight, the heavy artillery crews on Sparrow Hill answered the confirmation call of their battery commander with a speed only eagerness could bring. The guns boomed, firing on already pre-designated targets throughout the city with no prejudice whatsoever. Tanks rolled through Red Square, making short work of the Kremlin Guard's Armored Personnel Carriers with rounds from their heavy five inch cannons. The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed was pockmarked with shell holes, pouring smoke into the night as the fires were brought under control. Spetsnaz and Motor Rifle troops advanced towards Lenin's Mausoleum under heavy automatic gunfire that came from the remnants of the beleaguered Kremlin Guard. Several Attack wings of Mi-24 attack helicopters from Army Aviation bombarded the Arsenal building with their rocket pods, striking a vital hit on the Kremlin Guard command center minutes after beginning the attack.

Inside the Council of Ministers building, a very different scene was playing out as Army Spetsnaz held the entire cabinet, including the president, at gunpoint. It only took a single count to know that everyone was present before the entire cabinet was silenced with rifle bullets. In a few more hours the streets were absent of gunfire, and only the sounds of celebrating civilians could be heard. The scene was the same throughout the country.

Televisions around the world echoed the new and resounding call over the whole of Russia. The president and parliamentary body had been 'detained' and a new government under military appointed leadership had been installed. Russian soldiers erected the blood-red flag of the Soviet Union above red square, and the chorus of the old Soviet Anthem rang through the smoke, fire, and fog of the burning capital city. The next morning, military recruiting offices were overwhelmed by the number of citizens rushing to do their part.

The events of this day ushered in a new era and awakening for the world, and the prelude of worse things to come.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

One year later.....

Sergeant Jayson Redfield couldn't help but feel like his life was a bad movie, with strange occurrence after strange occurrence marking plot points throughout. His partner further helped to solidify that fact with the simple basis that she wasn't even human. The command team that chose Sergeant Redfield for this special 'honor' didn't ever deem it necessary to tell him how she had been created, but he didn't really question it either. All he knew, as that she was the scientist's equivalent to a Utahraptor, the fabled 'Super Raptors' of Jurassic Park and other science fiction of his teenage years. Jay saw their ordered pairing as every little boy's dream, and he took advantage of it to the fullest extent.

Jay's partner was useful in more ways than Redfield could ever hope to count, and their intensified training since the reinstatement of Communism in the former Russian Federation had shown him just that. The mature Utahraptor female could navigate without a map, call for artillery, find buried landmines, track and detect soldiers, be tactically effective in both offense and defense, and protect her Guardian whenever possible with an arsenal of natural deadly weapons.

When the NCO had first heard that description, he had figured that an engineered soldier would be completely devoid of personality. Their four years of education was an equivalent of a high school honors education, since engineered mental tendencies allowed for an almost three times faster learning ability. He had reason to believe that she was smarter than him on matters of the human species. A fact which no one believed until they met her in person.

"Jay, everything appears clear. I don't detect any Russians in the area and that armored patrol headed south. The wind is in our favor so far. If you're going to move, do it now." He heard Meryl's soft voice in his earpiece, and confirmed the message with a short wave.

A few meters away, he looked over her familiar form once again just as he had every day for the past year, taking in every detail as quickly as his thought processes would allow. Just by observing her complicated body language he knew what she was thinking, whether she was stressed, nervous, tired, or not fully aware. Even after spending so much time together, she was a creature so alien that her features amazed everyone that came into contact with her, including Jay. Everything about her seemed....fluid. Meryl's legs were the first thing he noticed when he met her, their heavily muscled girth displaying the prowess and power of an Olympic runner. The black stripes that ran along her back to the tip of her tail were very visible and added to her mean, intense image. Their camouflaging nature mixed with her stealthy prowess had Jay deem them her 'tiger' stripes. The sharply curved killing claws were tucked safely out of the way as she maintained her mission-serious demeanor. Her armor, olive-drab in color, contrasted heavily with her dark brown skin. The Kevlar device, custom made under top secret conditions, helped to protect her from the dangers of modern warfare while not being too much of a burden. The electronic-impulse belt on her neck enabled her possibility for speech, fitting snugly over her thick s-curved neck. The device added to her unnatural form even more, and made Jay smile as he watched the intersection through his binoculars.

On the other side of his gaze, the female Utahraptor's amber eyes moved over the crossroads with the precise attention to detail of a surgeon, noticing anything out of the ordinary. Every few seconds, her nostrils flared, analyzing the air for the scent of potential threats to her or her Guardian. Meryl sat back, satisfied that they were alone for the time being. The female knew she was an efficient killer, and the humans were relatively easy to track compared to some of the more simple animals in this particular part of the world.

"Okay, copy that. I'm going to set up near these pine trees, move about twenty meters to my left until you get a good position for a spot. I'll wait for your confirmation."

Meryl looked to the human that she had long ago classified as 'hers', noting his every movement as he slinked to the cover of the conifers. Redfield, with his dark brown hair cut into a regulation high and tight, was as easy to identify to her as one might associate with a member of their own family. Meryl's ever present curiosity led her to examine him at every opportunity. She could see his feelings through his brown-hued eyes as they looked back on her for reassurance. The Raptoress gave him the slightest of nods, ready to do what needed to be done.

"Range to crossroads three hundred meters exactly. Wind approximately three miles east."

In position with Meryl watching his back, the NCO could now fulfill his part of the mission. Jay set his M21 rifle on a convenient log and sighted down the scope, looking over his target area once again. The intersection was nothing more than a single old style streetlamp and a bullet riddled signpost that covered what used to be two roads. The once common thoroughfares were now barren and overgrown with weeds. The Sergeant looked down to his rifle, making sure once more that everything was in order. He didn't need a malfunction when it counted the most. A quick and quiet check of the chamber ensured that a round was seated snugly within. He adjusted the weapon to his shoulder and took up a good, comfortable position. Now, all they had to do was wait.

"Okay Meryl, let's keep it quiet until they get here. Let me know as soon as you see something." Jay whispered over the radio, letting his mind wander in an effort to past the time until the start of the meeting. Ever since the Russian annexation of Poland, the United States had kept a vigilant eye on all activities there. Pleas of Good Faith had settled the Americans to a peaceful standoff between the two, and the Russians had thus far honored their word.

Several terrorist attacks had swept through Germany in the past months, leaving many civilians and several military personnel dead or injured. The news coverage blamed the attacks on Anti-American groups trying to start friction in the now-volatile region, but Western Intelligence knew that the Russians were behind it. As the United States prepared for a fight that they knew was coming, the standoff escalated slowly to the breaking point. That is why Jay found himself in Poland on this particular evening, waiting for three Russian officers to meet and discuss their plans. Apparently they still relied on the security of their lines to keep them out of American gun sights.

The thoughts left his head, leaving Jay in the insect filled piece of a June evening. The Soldier glanced at his watch with just a small movement as storm clouds overtook the evening sky above them. It was almost time! The streetlamp flickered on, streaming an orange-colored light in a small circle around the base of the pole. Insects seemed to swarm it like magnets, flying in an aerial ballet around the bulb. Redfield felt the pre-combat rush of adrenaline as the scheduled time approached, pulling a sharpie out of his left sleeve and scrawling the time on his hand. It had been the quickest few hours of his life, and the Sergeant didn't want to forget any detail of this operation.

"Jay, there is a UAZ inbound up the eastern road, and a BMP up from the north! Standby for targets!" Meryl's voice shattered the silence of Jay's head, causing him to jump the slightest bit. The female had resorted to her trained script, giving information quickly and accurately as it arrived. He winked at her, knowing that she had detected the subtle movement even at that distance.

"Dialed for 300 meters." Came the response. At this distance, even a relatively inexperienced sharpshooter or a bad rifleman couldn't possibly miss. Even with the semi-darkness, they were pretty much right on top of them.

Two sets of eyes, one yellow and one dark brown watched as the UAZ-469 4x4 pulled up to the lamppost and deactivated its engine. Two soldiers wearing berets dismounted the small car and stood under the dim light emanating from the antiquated fixture overhead. They didn't look alarmed, after all, they were deep in New Soviet territory and completely safe in their minds. The BMP rumbled to a halt near the other vehicle, dropping a third officer off with the pair. The personnel carrier disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving its precious cargo behind.

Redfield watched the men through the twelve power McMillan mil-dot scope on the M21, noticing as every detail of his targets flooded through the magnifier. Their eye color was the first thing that they noticed to set them apart, and Meryl identified targets as such. One of the Russians had blue eyes, and the other two men had brown.

"Looks like these are our guys. I confirm a positive ID." Meryl chimed, mentally verifying the targets while analyzing every detail of the next few seconds and their possible outcomes.

"Good, then we might actually make it home tonight. I don't feel like going on an exciting romp through Soviet-held territory, as much fun as it would be." Jay whispered softly as he slid the safety off on the M21. The Sergeant could feel a bit of tension in the Utahraptor's voice, and he hoped in the back of his mind that she wouldn't freeze up on him.

"We don't have much time before they're done." Meryl whispered as she saw the behavior of the men appear is if it was time to leave. Jay slipped his gloved finger into the trigger well, bringing the crosshairs onto blue eyes. The man reached into his pocket and lit a cigarette, smoke dancing across his face as a joke was told. The men erupted with laughter, and blue eyes suddenly pulled a picture of a young lady from his pocket. The image elicited nods of approval from the other men. The crosshairs traced from the picture to his forehead as Jay corrected his aim. No doubt that in a few days, a now-widowed wife would be receiving a notice of the worst nature.

"Blue eyes is first." He quietly informed the raptoress, studying the man's facial features on the other end of the riflescope. The finger went back outside the trigger well as the rifle shifted once more, lest an accidental shot be fired. He mentally traced the .308's flight path into the Russian, and noted what it would do.

"Okay, range is three hundred meters at three miles per hour north/northeast now. Fire when ready. Get ready for the follow up shots on those other two." Meryl announced, once again giving him control of the situation as she prepared for something to go wrong. Her voice betrayed no thought to the matter at hand. Jay did not forget the fact that she was a predator by instinct. However, he did notice that she seemed uneasy at the killing of a human.

Blue eyes made a sudden movement for the door handle of the UAZ, throwing Jay off for a split second.

"He's trying to go mobile, take him out!" Meryl warned, urgency plastered all over her voice. She was prepared to move in on the target herself if the worst happened. The man got the door open just as Jay slid his finger onto the trigger, adrenaline pumping.

The modified short-pull trigger slid back, followed shortly by the heavy crack from the 7.62x51mm cartridge as it reached out from the muzzle of the weapon. Jay watched as the image in the scope blurred, blue eyes absorbing the round right in the center of his forehead. It was likely that the Russian didn't hear the shot that had taken his life. Jay quickly shifted the reticle over to the second man, putting a round through the center of mass of the man as he opened his mouth to shout. The rifle shifted for the third and final time, putting a round right down the Vermilion Line of the third tiger-clad Russian. The man hit the ground hard, resting next to his comrades in their final positions.

"Alright, good shots! All targets down." Meryl called, jumping up and retreating into the safety that the dense woods offered her. Jay picked up his rifle and ran into the thick coverage after her. He looked around, trying to account for his female as the adrenaline came to a point before dwindling off. The NCO pressed the push to talk button on his radio.

"Meryl, where are you."

Her head popped up from the brush to his immediate front, startling him as it usually did when the female decided to show off.

"Let's go home."

"I agree. Keep radio and noise discipline in place. You did excellent!" Jay instructed her as he produced a heavily marked map from inside one of his many pouches. The Sergeant looked over the penciled in lines, predetermined points drawn in for ease of evacuation. Redfield produced his grease pencil and consulted his watch, drew the final time down in an unused corner of the AO. 2147. They had completed their primary objective, and now had to cross back into friendly territory through a virtual no-man's land. Needless to say, Meryl was on point.

Little did the hunter pair know that they had been had. At the moment the first officer had died and went down, the transmit key on his radio was pressed by the weight of his corpse. The next two gunshots were heard at divisional headquarters, causing quite a stir amongst the command staff. Within thirty seconds, a quick response Spetsnaz team was loading into an Mi-24 attack helicopter that was already spinning up its rotors. The helicopter lifted off and headed towards the scene at top speed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jay walked along behind Meryl as she navigated through to the thick foliage, keeping her senses on the lookout for anything. He let his thoughts race, going over the details from start to finish with shocking clarity. In his eyes, the first mission in which his Hunter pair had partaken had gone smoothly enough. It had taken more time than they'd though to get into position however, but Jay attributed that to the walking insertion.

"It's going to storm." Meryl whispered, craning her neck and pointing her head skywards. Redfield nodded, taking a knee and bringing his M4 to his shoulder. He could see and feel the humidity building in the air. The last thing that he wanted to do was get caught outside in the storm, but it seemed as if the already paper-thin tables would turn against them at any second. The two looked to each other and shrugged, continuing towards the S4 firebase. The only thing two things on their minds was the days events and hot chow.

"Jay, freeze!" Meryl called in an authorative whisper, ducking under the cover of a half fallen tree. Redfield didn't see what she did, but he trusted her judgment. Seconds later, a series of high-speed rotors flitted overhead. The bulky figures of two Mi-24 Hind gunships slid by at top speed, sending a forceful gust of wind across the forest floor. As the sound faded, the two slipped away.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The beefy gunship came in low, swooping in with the fierceness of an angry dragon and dropping off the Spetsnaz soldiers in a little under four seconds. The men were on their stomachs on the damp ground and covering the treeline with their rifles as the Hind rocketed upwards, nose down in an attempt to regain speed. The Mi-24 then headed towards the border zone at a high rate of speed, searching for any slight bit of movement in the woods. The squad's RPK gunner was already set up, looking for any sign of entrenched sharpshooters. The Russians saw the three slumped forms of their comrades under the dull lamp, staring at the sky.

After forming a perimeter, the Russian troops gathered around the bodies, inspecting the work. Two officers had been shot through the head, and the other through the chest. The team immediately radioed back for instructions, and were ordered to proceed to the edge of the Russian sector in a searching pattern. A Russian colonel carrying an AKM confirmed the orders and began plotting the course on his map. The blue beret snugly fit on his head, the man finalized his plans. He glanced up at the sky, placing his map in his chest rig and vowing revenge.

++++++++++++

As Meryl and Jay came within two kilometers of no man's land, rain began to fall. Light rain quickly became a torrential downpour, turning the dry earth into rivers of mud and debris, and quickly made finding footing difficult beyond imagination. A coded beep and a voice shattered the silence in his head.

"Guardian two-two this is Pirate Lead."

Headquarters.

"Go ahead Pirate Lead." Jay answered, giving Meryl a sign to hold up.

"Guardian two-two, FRAGO*. You are to hold position and screen for enemy movement. Set yourself in small squad ambush position. Evade before daybreak and continue through no man's land at sector four one. Contact defense team Castle for clearance."

"Meryl! We will stop here until the rain abates, then we will continue home! Keep your eyes out for enemy patrols. We'll set up an ambush and bug out across the border before dawn." Jay called as they came to the crest of a hill. Meryl turned to him and nodded. They found shelter under the sweeping expanse of a pine tree and lay down in the warm, dry needles. The rain fell in sheets, shortening visibility to a few feet at best.

Meryl put her snout out of the green coniferous shelter and looked around. She stuck her long pink tongue out into the rain, hoping to catch a few drops. After a few moments, she pulled her head back in, satisfied.

"Wow, it is raining pretty hard out there." She said, snout glistening from the wetness of the precipitation. The Utahraptor had a strange expression on her face that Jay deemed was a smile. It was a combination of pulling up the corners of her eyes and the corner of her mouth to make an odd facial expression. Such a human expression from something so nonhuman, thought Jay.

"You bet it is, this storm wasn't supposed to hit us until tomorrow. Perhaps it'll let up soon enough, I don't think it can rain this hard all night." Jay said, pulling a poncho out of his rucksack and draping it over his combat gear. He set his helmet down and wiped sweat and moisture from his forehead. Meryl glanced at it without much interest until she noticed a glossy piece of paper that looked to be a photograph

Meryl stared, looking over the photograph in curiosity. She noticed the trim image of a Younger Redfield, clad in a black suit, white dress shirt, and a red tie holding the hands of a young lady that Redfield had never mentioned. The girl, wearing a champagne-colored dress, had long brunette hair and light brown eyes. From Meryl's observation, a pendant hung around her neck, it matched the dress that she wore. The female Utahraptor didn't understand humans and their formal dressing habits, but she knew enough to know that when they were dressed as so, something important was happening.

"Is she your mate?" She noticed a great sadness wash over Redfield as he looked down into the liner.

He hadn't seen her in years. The picture was from high school, back before all of this. He remembered her, her soft brunette hair to the comforting gaze of her hazel eyes, her skin so soft. He left her to join the marines with praise. She still wrote to him then. But when he was accepted into the RSH, he disappeared. He didn't know what happened to her, but he can't imagine now with her already fitful sleeping habits how she managed that. But deep down inside, he knew that she was still out there. After this whole thing was over, he would find her. That was his motivation to live. If he had only never been recruited. But then he would not be here, protecting a female of a different species, hunched under a pine tree in a forest in Western Europe. He wouldn't trade it for the world. He wouldn't trade Meryl for anything.

"No, I don't know what she is now. We split a time before I left. She wrote to me, but I don't know what happened. I basically disappeared when I joined the RSH." Jay said, holding his head low, his elbow resting on his knee as he held onto his forehead. He looked depressed as he replaced the helmet on his head with a slow, deliberate movement.

"I am sorry." Meryl said, not knowing that she had brought back some of Jay's fonder memories.

"It's okay Meryl, you have nothing to be sorry for." Jay whispered comfortingly as he turned away from her. He stared into the darkness, trying not to fall into sleep. Jay yearned for his cot and tent back at the S4 firebase, but he knew that he was far away from anything that resembled a tent.

He heard Meryl sigh a dreadful, disheartening sigh as he stared into the wet, scary woods.

+++++++++++++++

Jay moved his rifle to his shoulder and pushed through the door to the burned out schoolhouse, stepping through the thick, tar like ash and taking up a covered position in the corner of the main room. He bumped against something hanging from the ceiling. He gasped as he saw what they were. The bodies of children and adults swung lightly back and forth in the wind coming through the still open door. The Russians that Meryl and Jay had been tracking must have done it no more than an few hours before. The building was smoking from still hot embers and reeked of burnt flesh. Jay keeled over and puked, the acrid air intensifying the effect. He noticed several more bodies piled in a corner, several gouges carved into the wall by hands trying to escape. At least, that is how Jay rationalized it.

Jay heard a noise from the opposite side of the building and jumped. He looked and clutched his rifle even tighter as he wiped his mouth on a sleeve. A tall, dark-haired man stepped through the door on the opposite end of the dilapidated schoolhouse. He was wearing Russian camouflage and carrying an AKM assault rifle. Colonel's insignia shined from the man's camouflage collar. The soldier was over six feet tall, the epitome of the Russian fighting man.

Jay swung his rifle into line with the man's center of mass. This Russian's face was painted, the blue beret placed tightly over his shaven head added to the look of his invincibility. Jay watched the man coldly through the swaying bodies, his rifle never wavering from this new man's form.

"Who are you!?" Jay shouted to the man, whose brown eyes didn't waver behind his corrective lenses. The man didn't answer, he just cast a smile with his lips. He was holding something in his left hand, some sort of belt.

"I said, who are you? And drop that!" Jay yelled a second time, indicating to the object in the Russians left hand. The Russian soldier began to laugh. Not a normal laugh, but a deep down, evil laugh. Almost like a droning, sorrowful, insane sound. The man threw the belt to Jay, laughter becoming louder with each passing second.

Jay looked down, glaring at the belt as if it were a death sentence. Jay knew what it was, it was a speech impulse belt from a Utahraptor. Redfield was shaking as he picked it up in his gloved hands. Jay pulled off his gloves and caressed the machine-stitched nylon. He could feel the wetness, for it was soaked with blood, and Jay shook even more as he opened the flap on the inside. The red identification numbers stood out plain as day.

FUR3303789 MERYL. Jay read the numbers in disbelief, watching as the man became silent, still smiling with his pearly white teeth. Jay steadied his rifle again to his shoulder, and pulled the trigger. The rifle produced a click and was silent. The Russian turned and walked away, laughing to himself and shaking his head in disgust.

Redfield threw a cuss into the acrid, soot-stained air and turned the opposite direction. Jay's gloved hand worked the bolt on the M-21, ejecting the brass in the chamber. The unspent round glinted through the air.

As Jay looked up, he saw a shape curled on the ground a short distance away. Confounded, Jay glared at it. He was getting more frantic the more he concentrated on it. Jay realized the horrible truth, it was Meryl's body slumped in that short distance. The soldier pushed his way through the hanging bodies, covering himself with blood and soot in the process. He broke through the last line of corpses and ran to her.

"Noooo!" Jay collapsed to his knees and cradled her head in his hands. Tears were streaming from his face as he asked for the first time why it had happened. Meryl didn't ask to be here, but she was created for this purpose. How is that right? What right did the Russians, or even the Americans have for controlling her species? What right did Jay have to lead another sentient being to their death? What right did anyone have to Meryl or her species? And what about those people in the school, what right did they have?

Meryl's eyes were locked open in death, and the once yellow essence was now pale. Eyes that were so full of energy and intelligence were now empty. Her body was twisted, ripped through by the heavy caliber rounds from an AKM assault rifle. The rounds had pierced her armor on the right side, leaving their obvious marks where they had entered. How easy it had been for this one man to kill her where so many others had failed. He knew what was going to, what had to come next.

"Ch..." He heard the Russian soldier say, but it was fragmented by a loud noise.

He heard the sound of a Kalashnikov rifle being readied behind him, and he performed the sign of the cross. The pair was united for the last time in the pool of the once powerful female Utahraptor's blood. A single shot rang out as Jason John Redfield joined Meryl's lifeless body.

Redfield awoke with a start, whipping the cold sweat out from under his helmet liner. He hadn't dreamed in a long time, let alone a dream like that. It worried Jay incredibly. Whenever he dreamed, bad things happened.

It appeared to be in the early hours of the morning as Jay looked at his watch and began cursing himself for staying asleep. Meryl had let him sleep through her shift. Jay said to himself as he looked out into the darkness. The storm appeared to have intensified during the night, being joined by thunder and lightning to make one heck of a show for anyone trapped out in it. Jay loved storms, but he didn't like being trapped out in the middle of one, especially in enemy territory.

Jay though he heard something out there amidst the fury of thunder and lightning, but he dismissed it. Like the cracking of a stick somewhere out in the darkness. Another sound, much like the first, disturbed him. He heard it repeat itself as it grew closer and closer.

Redfield's already racing heart began to race even more as he reached to his side to tap Meryl, but she wasn't there. Jay became frightened, recalling his dream. Thinking for an instant that he had lost another friend in this awful war, he searched for Meryl's form amidst the still dry pine needles, finding nothing. He heard another sound behind him.

"Shh! Don't move." Meryl hissed, yellow eyes peering off into the woods in front of them. Her Snout was perched over Jay's shoulder, eyes focused into the darkness.

"What is it?" Jay whispered softly, hoping that whatever was out there wouldn't hear him. He was surprised they didn't hear his heart beating. Jay Redfield sure didn't miss it.

"Soldiers, about a dozen of them. I heard them step on a few twigs. This rain kills all scents, other words I would have smelled them coming a mile away. I don't know how they got this close to us, but I didn't even get the hint." Meryl said, also mentally kicking herself, not for sleeping too long as was Redfield's case, but for missing this obvious breech in security.

Jay turned and looked out through the darkness. A flash of lightning revealed a line of soldiers moving up the hill towards their position. He saw the helmets and wickedly black rifles. Jay tightened his grip on the rifle, hoping against hope that it wasn't special operations. He reached into his drop pouch and produced the worn set of ANPVS14 night vision headgear that he habitually carried. He strapped the black contraption to his head and activated it, twisting the lens into focus in a green sun.

Jay could see them more clearly now, with the aid of night vision and the scope of his M21 rifle. His worst fears were realized when he saw the painted faces, it was the Spetsnaz after all. Jay noted one Soldier in particular. He wore a blue beret, over six feet tall by Jay's estimation. An AKM rifle was held in his gloved grip. It was a colonel. Jay started to shake, noticing the crystal clear representation of the man in the dream.

Jay began to rise slowly to his feet. He wanted to put the other side of the world away from this mysterious figure with the painted face, but he knew that the best that he could do was stay low and quiet. That's not what he did.

"Meryl!" He whispered, "We have to move now! Spetsnaz!" Jay said, fear evident in his usually strong voice. Meryl responded with a nod, and shifted her weight to prepare for the flight. He kicked himself again, knowing that it was stupid to stop. He gave her a tap, and that was all it took.

Within seconds, Jay and Meryl were running at a breakneck speed through the forest. They ran, for the angels of hell were fast approaching on their tails. Jay could hear the shouts in guttural Russian as their pursuers realized that their quarry was in the area. The pair could see a clearing up ahead through the rapid flashes of lightning. As the two got closer, they could see that a raging river overtook the clearing. The tremendous amount of rain that had been falling for the better part of six hours had swelled into raging floodwaters. They had nowhere to go now, the Spetsnaz to their back, the river to their front, and indefinite numbers of the entire New Soviet contingent to their sides.

No one Jay knew ever met a Spetsnaz soldier, let alone taken one out, and he doubted his ability to outwit a whole squad on his own. They needed a plan, and fast. He suddenly, for some odd reason, remembered that Utahraptors could swim.

Jay Redfield ducked as bullets began ripping the trees around him to pieces. Pinesap, wood splinters, and branches were raining all around him, ripped apart by the Russian weaponry. The pair heard a loud POP! as a VOG-25 grenade out of a GP-30 under barrel launcher whizzed towards them.

"Incoming!" Meryl yelled over the din of AK-74's on fully automatic, diving to the side and rolling to avoid the deadly egg. Jay followed his partner.

The grenade exploded with a heavy thud, knocking down a few trees near the area of impact. A piece of shrapnel the size of a finger wedged into a tree next to Jay's head, still smoking from its violent entry. Jay stared at it in amazement, making the sign of the cross as he ran to Meryl, who, from the look of it, was wounded by several pieces of the deadly steel flechettes. Jay peered through the pouring rain at the approaching Spetsnaz and then to Meryl, who was whimpering softly from shrapnel wounds to the chest. They needed to get out of here. Jay recalled his dream as he put a round at an approaching Russian soldier. The .308 tore a hole in the Russian's combat helmet, sending him down instantly.

Meryl was losing blood at a breakneck rate, and it was beginning to stain the outside of her Kevlar. Jay knew that her armor was working to save her, automatic medical systems swinging into action to combat the wounds. The AMS computer, a small silver package under a ceramic armor plate was already pumping morphine into her body. The armor was also monitoring her vital signs, which in turn were sent back to the RSH base station at sector four firebase. They were probably having a fit over the new readings. If his tactical radio were authorized, they would for sure be calling him over the battlenet. At least her armor could sustain her for the next few hours, until they could get to someplace safe.

Jay called Meryl's name as he looked her in the eyes, which were far off in shock. She didn't respond. He needed her up, needed her aware, and most of all, needed her to push herself into the raging river of floodwater. A Russian PKM machine gunner had locked their position and began tearing down trees as Jay called her a second time. He had to get her out of her daze. The trees were literally exploding around the pair, enough woodchips to line central park were piling up around them. He had to do something fast.

He fired a few rounds in the direction of the Russian machine gunner right before he slugged Meryl in the face with a closed fist. That got her attention. She looked at him, a mixture of pain and sudden anger as he yelled instructions.

"Meryl! The river, push yourself into the river!" He yelled directly at her as he fired three rounds at the PKM gunner as the man was trying to reload. Meryl moved her feet, kicking her sprawled body towards the river. Jay ripped off his NODs, throwing it aside as the light from the engagement became too much to take. He heard a splash as Meryl succeeded in pushing herself into the raging water.

Jay emptied the remaining rounds from the M-21's magazine at the charging Spetsnaz. He then dropped the rifle and ran for the river, knowing that he couldn't swim with the heavy piece. As he reached the river, another loud POP! was heard from behind him. Another grenade whizzed through the air towards his position.

He leapt into the river without much thought, the deadly VOG-25 detonating where he had just been seconds before. Bullets pursued him as he clutched Meryl's now-unconscious form, floating with the strong, deadly current to wherever the outcome.

Now, the danger wasn't from Russian troops, but from strewn debris from the still heavy storm. If Jay had a free hand, he would have crossed himself again. The river was flowing, miraculously, out of the Russian sector. For the first time in a long time, Jay wondered if he would live to see the American lines again. As he dodged a low hanging log, he began to think.

Would he make it out of here alive? What about Meryl? The American positions, would they fire upon them? Jay could see the clearing for no man's land fast approaching. The trees on either side were zipping past at a decent rate of speed, and the daylight became brighter and brighter every moment.

No man's land was a torrent of shell craters and machine gun emplacements on both sides. At this point, Jay was more afraid of the American defenses than the Russian positions in the woods. He had no choice but to cross, however. He had to make it up as he went.

He cradled Meryl's head in his hands as she came too, barely staying afloat as he watched the craterous expanse of no man's land through the trees, getting closer and closer by the second. The river was slowing down as it wore a path through a crevasse that had been carved by the running water. Meryl gasped for air as she became more fully aware, keeping herself afloat by kicking lightly. Jay yelped as one of Meryl's claws brushed the side of his leg, ripping a hole through the camouflage fabric, scratching his soft skin.

"Sorry, it was an accident." Meryl said with a pained smirk on her face, most certainly getting revenge for being punched in the mouth.

"Meryl, that was harsh. Welcome back to the real world indeed." Jay said, grumbling. He watched the low-hung bunkers on the other side, hoping that their machine gunners would attempt to identify their target before banging away with the entrenched .50 caliber weapons. Meryl and Jay would stand no chance of being found, let alone getting back into friendly territory should they be engaged by those guns.

"What's the situation?" Meryl asked, looking around to the woods surrounding them. She was in pain, and Jay could see a red trail following her through the water. She was still losing blood at an alarming rate.

"Well, do you want the short or the long version?" Jay asked with a smile, fighting to keep his head above water. He was worried for Meryl, who was still bleeding. The shrapnel didn't appear to be too deep. He could already see from her removed look that she was a little out of it. He was trying to cheer her up with humor, to a surprisingly effective result.

"Short preferably. That would be the best if we are where I think we are." Meryl said, coughing and looking around with a maddening look in her eyes. She must still be loopy from the morphine, thought Jay with a look of humor.

"Well, we are about to cross one of the most heavily defended pieces of earth in the modern world. This is about the time that we cross our fingers and claws, then hope that the sentries are not heavy on their triggers." Jay said, looking towards the opposite woods as they entered the clearing into no man's land. The water moved steadily forward, getting shallower and shallower.

As the pair neared the woods, Jay's knees rubbed the dirt of no man's land. The river was no more, they were now sitting on muddy land. Jay kept his head low, laying prone to earth next to Meryl's body. Meryl and Jay were still a good twenty yards from friendly positions, but that is twenty meters covered by snipers, artillery, machine guns, and the occasional visiting armored vehicle. They were still up a creek, literally. No man had touched this dirt for the better part of six months. The mere thought of that made Jay feel just the slightest bit uneasy.

"Meryl, I hate to break it to you, but we are out of stream." Jay pointed out, not to Meryl's amusement as he looked at her.

Meryl's armor was matted with blood, but she was conscious and looking down at it with a terrified expression. The shrapnel had gone in under the ceramic plate on her right side, ripping the Kevlar and sinking a piece of shrapnel beneath it. Jay unhooked her armor and pulled the heavy wear up, viewing the extent of the wounds. There was a piece of shrapnel imbedded in her side similar to the finger-sized piece that had narrowly missed Jay's head about a half-hour before. He looked up at Meryl.

"Castle, Castle this is Guardian two-two." Jay called over his radio, noting a second later that it was inoperative.

"Meryl, your armor has to go. It will put too much strain on the large piece of metal in your side." Jay said, getting ready to pull out the plates from their protective pouches.

"I like this armor, and there is no way in hell I will let you take it off of me." Meryl said, sounding very human as she made a mock expression of anger. A shell whizzed overhead, detonating about ten meters from the pair's position. Jay came to the conclusion that Meryl was doing this to give him a hard time. Her sense of humor was oddly twisted that way.

"It is weakening you too fast!" Jay argued, head down to avoid the fire.

"Loose the plates then!" Meryl yelled, getting agitated that she was still caught out in the open and driveling over armor plates, as much fun as it was irritating Jay. Redfield pulled all of the ceramic plates from their pouches and piled them nearby. Meryl was now over two hundred pounds lighter.

"I had better take mine out too. I can run faster without them." Jay said, pulling the Velcro on his body armor.

"You leave yours in! That is the last thing I need is to have to get to know another human." Meryl yelled angrily as she tried to get up from the ground while staying as low as possible.

"Okay, fine! Meryl, now seems like a good time to leave." Jay yelled as he leaned against Meryl's left side, helping the Utahraptor to her feet. Another shell exploded near them as the artillery kept up the bombardment.

They took off in tandem for the American-held forest. The distance seemed endless, but they were closing decently fast. A wave of green tracers tore into the ground at their heels as the Russian gunners spotted them and ranged in on their positions. Mud and water flew up into Jay's face as he ran into the safe confines of the woods. He tripped as if something had pushed him and stumbled through the treeline. Meryl, even in her injured state, closed the distance faster, and stood waiting in the dense woods. She had an odd way of smirking, using her eyes to evoke facial expressions, and she was making a liberal display for Jay to see. She thought it was funny.

Jay was thankful that Utahraptors could take such an enormous beating and still hold up. Heck, some of her muscle tissue was hard enough to stop bullets from entering into other more vital areas. Painful, but it is better than the alternative. She was holding up at least.

Jay stood and brushed himself off, watching as marines approached their positions with rifles raised.

"RSH!" Jay yelled, waving his hand in the air and shouting. The marines slowly lowered their rifles, but kept their fingers close to the triggers as they approached.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Colonel Gabriel Antonovich Revedov wiped a spot of mud from the receiver of his AKM rifle, which was scratched and worn from heavy use. The weapon was solid and dependable, never failing in operation and lethality. Much like its operator, who stood firmly with the twelve other soldiers in his unit. The rain was hampering the search for the insurgents that struck several hours earlier, but he would press on regardless.

"We couldn't find a golf ball on a golf course in this rain, let alone two American Special Force soldiers." The colonel muttered to himself, slowly stepping over a fallen log. These men were good, he thought, covering their tracks well. After the engagement, they just disappeared.

"They can't be far now comrade colonel." Said the radio operator with a reportive tone. Revedov knew the former militsiaman as Krenne, and he served as the radio operator for the elite Spetsnaz unit.

Revedov sighed as he stopped atop a hill above the raging river, not too far from no man's land. The blonde-haired colonel moved to the cover of a lone conifer, wiping the rain from his watch face. The unit they had engaged was oddly different from all others. Revedov had hunted other SF units before, but none like this. Out of the corner of his eye, the colonel noticed a long piece of shrapnel sticking from the base of a tree.

Revedov muttered tired profanities to himself almost silently as he wiped his eyes with gloved fingers, hoping to find those responsible for killing his comrades. Three of his close friends, gunned down without a chance to fight. Thankfully, the only injury from the firefight was a man knocked unconscious by a bullet that entered his helmet. The colonel shuddered at the thought of another of his comrades dead. A tap on Revedov's shoulder brought him out of his imaginative state.

"Comrade Colonel, I found something you should see." Another man, named Mikhail Semerov, the light machine gunner carrying an RPK-74, whispered into his ear. Revedov watched as the short man swung his RPK on its sling, glistening in the rain.

"Very well, make it quick Mischa." Revedov whispered back, walking through the rain to a spot guarded by several soldiers. On the ground right in front of him was a large footprint. Three toes shaped like a W were imbedded in the mud, right next to the raging river of floodwater and a fallen M21 rifle. Revedov produced the AKM's solid bayonet from its sheath and looked at the print again.

"What is that?" Revedov whispered in the still-pouring rain, bending down and probing the mark with his bayonet. The colonel cocked his head in wonder, and glared onwards into the storm, shaking his head in disbelief. He had seen a strange creature during the firefight, but something wasn't right.

"I don't know, what do you think it is sir?" The soldier asked, obviously puzzled.

Only then did it dawn on Revedov that he had seen these tracks before.

"They did it! They actually did it!" Was all Revedov could mutter, shaking his head repetitively. A small smile crossed his lips as he looked for a third time. He only saw those tracks once, during the winter six years before at the slaughter on the Kamchatka peninsula.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Captain Revedov, continue on course east and you should come across the outer perimeter of the base. Be careful, as there are reports of heavy contact throughout the area. Your orders are to secure the exterior of the base, and proceed down to the top-secret section. Deadly force is authorized. Be advised, there is no contact with friendly forces in the area. Be on the lookout for a Spetsnaz commander that was on base at the time it went offline." Command echoed over the radio to Revedov, who acknowledged the orders with a grim 'affirmative'.

The young Captain, along with his squad of heavily armed Spetsnaz, picked their way towards the Base that involved his current orders. All that Revedov knew was that shortly after the beginning of Operation Northern Crossing, someone broadcasting on a military frequency began a mayday hail. With the Spetsnaz on Northern Crossing being the closest ready unit to the scene, Revedov's team was immediately pulled from the training exercise to active duty. Before he knew it, the Captain and his men were in the ammunition tent turning in their blanks for live rounds, and were onboard a troop helicopter within minutes. Now, here they were in the middle of Russia's biggest game preserve, cold, and in combat.

The night had fallen cold and heavy, with a thick snowstorm presiding over the landscape and harsh wind biting at any exposed skin. The Spetsnaz were warm in their fur parkas, but sometimes even those weren't enough to keep out the harsh wind of the Kamchatka peninsula.

"Comrade Captain, we're getting nothing but white noise from the base. Nothing has changed." Krenne reported, noting the still intermittent pops of gunfire from that general direction.

"Krenne, get on the command frequency and inform them that we are in position and moving towards the facility, ETA twenty minutes. Semerov, move up to our right with that RPK and give us cover." Revedov ordered, gesturing with an outstretched hand towards a raised patch of ground that made up their right flank.

He looked back at the rest of his soldiers as he adjusted the AK-74SU on its sling. The runty little carbine was thankfully light, and Revedov knew how nice that was. He pitied Semerov and his RPK, but he knew how much worse it was with the PKM. Even he wasn't the only one. They each carried an assortment of night vision equipment, short range burst-transmission radios, ammunition, grenades, food, water and other miscellaneous gear. The Captain knew all of his soldiers were the prime of Russian mothers, trained hard for the rigors of army life, and he knew they could all handle themselves no matter the weight of their weapons and gear.

Soldiers like Vasily Aitmatov, the quiet man from Sevastopol. Evgeny Bazhov, the large son of a farmer from the Ukraine. Ilia Akhmadulina, the only female Spetsnaz in his division and just as tough as any of the men on his team. On top of all of this outright toughness, she maintained the sleek beauty of a pristine civilian. Gennadiy Bek, the keeper of the SVD Dragunov, and the team's long rifle specialist. Andrey Barkov carried one of the team's three Saiga 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun.

As the team picked through the dreary woods, watching the snow swirl through the pines, and listen as the gunfire drew down and finally cut out all together. Through the conifers, they could see a glow coming from the massive magnesium lights of the perimeter.

Soon, the Spetsnaz came to the edge of a valley with the base in the center. Bek peered through the scope of his SVD as the squad spread out in a security formation. Revedov pulled his binoculars out of the leather case and peered over the base. The barracks were on fire, and several blood-spattered corpses littered the concrete around the perimeter. He shifted his binoculars to the control room windows, and he wasn't quite sure what he saw.

The florescent lights were flickering, and nothing could be made out clearly. Though, in the flickering, Revedov though he saw a strange shadow. He saw the shadow move, and it immediately filled him with fear. The shadow was of something he had never seen before.

Revedov motioned for the team to move down over the perimeter and take up positions in the base. They all pulled their overwhite hoods over their heads and moved up against the perimeter walls.

With a quick movement, they entered the base through the main gate and took up position behind the guardhouse. The team made entry, feet crunching through the snow and AK's up at the high ready. They found three dead guards in the guardhouse, shot in the head.

As Revedov stepped out onto the front steps of the guardhouse, he noticed some odd prints in the snow that headed towards the control tower. They resembled a 'W', and were rather large, leaving a deep imprint.

"Check the remaining buildings for survivors. I will go for the control room. Barkov, Krenne, and Aitmatov, follow me at a distance in case there is a surprise waiting." Revedov peeked his head into the guardhouse door and said, getting acknowledging looks from the Spetsnaz, followed by a nod as they contemplated their orders.

Revedov moved tactically towards the control building, following the 'W' prints and ghastly remembering the shadow that he had seen just minutes ago. His adrenaline started pumping as he approached the wrecked door of the center. He hit the wall next to the entrance and quickly surveyed it. The heavy door was bent in and ripped off of the hinges, and the 'W' prints disappeared inside. Revedov's heart was pumping as he pushed the carbine in front of him, using it as a shield for the fear that was contained inside this building. He had faced countless enemies, killed several. From terrorists, to Chechnyan rebels, to petty criminals, but he was used to knowing what he was going to find. So many times had he been able to drive the sharp point of a knife between the shoulder blades of a man. They had been totally unsuspecting as him and his team snuck in and laid waste to everything in sight. Whatever he had seen was spooking him.

As he pushed through the door, he was met with a gristly scene. In the likewise flickering florescent lights, Russian soldiers were strewn about the corridors, ripped and bleeding. Blood covered the walls, and the scent of spent cordite hung heavy in the already acrid air. Revedov bent down and rolled one of the soldiers over, recoiling at the sight before him. The man had a large triple slash across his stomach, and his Kevlar armor had been ripped partially away. Revedov dropped him and recoiled back, hearing the clinking of spent shell casings against his boots. He bent down and felt the barrel of one of the AK-74 rifles that was lying on the ground, still warm. Whatever happened to these soldiers didn't happen long ago.

Revedov pushed open the door to the stairwell, almost yelling out in fright at the sight of a Russian Soldier swaying from the second floor railing by his equipment. On closer inspection, he had a single puncture wound to the back of the spine. The Captain brushed past him and paused at the control room door. Looking down to ensure that his selector was set in automatic, he placed a boot into the door's handle and sent it flying open.

Captain Gabriel Revedov found himself face to face with the same monstrous shadow that he had seen from the outside. The shadow looked just as surprised to see Revedov as Revedov was to see the shadow. He saw its features for a split second in the flickering florescent lights. A Dinosaur?

He brought up his AK74SU and squeezed the trigger, sending 5.45mm cartridges flying. He could see sparks and dust from the ammunition hitting it but not sending it to the floor. It was as if it was shrugging off the bullet hits. All of a sudden, from across the room came the controlled voice of a man speaking English.

"I have it! Let's go!" Shouted the man as he leapt through the shot-out control room windows and onto the roof of the lower floor.

The shadow turned, and in what seemed like half a second, propelled itself through the control room windows, following the soldier. Revedov's AKSU came up empty as he ran to the opening. A shouted curse and a frustrated throwing of the weapon to the floor revealed a corpse with an AKM at his feet. He stomped the dead man's hand, breaking the bones and freeing the rifle from the man's vice grip. He brought the Kalashnikov up to his shoulder, meanwhile clicking the selector to single. He peered down the sights at the fleeing creature, squeezing the trigger once. He felt the sharp recoil of the 7.62x39mm cartridge. Revedov could see the creature jerk, but it kept going. Oh well, it felt that one, he thought.

He heard a noise behind him and swung the rifle to bear, only to bring it to the face of Krenne, the radio operator. Slowly, he lowered the rifle, sagging to the floor.

"Did you see that Krenne? Whatever that thing was, it killed everyone! And, I know you aren't going to believe me, but it looked like a dinosaur." Revedov blubbered, not able to control his emotions. He turned his attention away and started to pull the chest pouch off of the man that had been holding the AKM. The Captain had a death grip on the weapon, and would not let it go.

"I saw it Comrade Captain, are you okay?" Krenne responded, worried about his commander.

"Krenne, call the gunships, tell them there are two contacts heading east from the base. Everyone else is dead, over. Ensure that command has a situation report soon." Revedov ordered hoarsely, getting to his feet and peering into the darkness.

"And what is the situation, Sir?"

"Unstable. Extremely Unstable."

++++++++++++++++++++++

"Sir, what are you orders?" Corporal Mikhail asked, changing the subject. He looked directly at his Colonel in the growing daylight.

Colonel Revedov thought for a moment, briefly looked back to the mark, definitely a footprint, and spoke in a low, decisive tone.

"Recall the probes, and get me General Katov. Call back to base camp and tell the 7th armored division to begin refueling and reloading their tanks. Tell the rest of the Spetsnaz troops that are staying at our camp that they are now under my command. I need them to be loaded down with all the combat and survival gear that they can muster, and to be prepared for a long stay. Tell Kavno and Radchek to warm up their Mi-24s, and to rally some troop transports and more gunships. Tell them that Colonel Revedov authorized it with the support of Commander Katov." Revedov shot off quickly at Krenne, who was rapidly changing the dials on his radio. He had a look of franticness on his painted face.

"Comrade Colonel, here is command." Krenne said as soon as he finished dialing in the frequency. Revedov hurriedly snatched up the radio mic and put through his verification.

"This is Katov, and you better have a good reason for interrupting my sleep." A tired, angry voice came over the other end. Revedov knew that he had woken the General up. The Colonel could barely contain his excitement. The FSB, well, the KGB once again had been looking for this for a long time.

"General Katov, this is Colonel Revedov, I found it! I found what we have been looking for!" Revedov excitedly rattled into the field phone. Colonels didn't normally wake up Generals and get away with it.

"Found what Comrade Colonel? Do me a favor and calm down!" General Katov said slowly, still wiping sleep from his voice.

"I found it! Kamchatka!" Revedov nearly yelled into the receiver.

"It cannot be!" The General stuttered, not believing that Revedov really found something of such importance.

"It is Sir!" Colonel Revedov said, containing his excitement only because of the presence of his men.

"You are the only one that , so I have no choice but to put you in charge of finding them. Either destroy or capture the specimens. The Americans have a hardened base in their sector, I want you to start your search there. It is technically neutral, but it is a US military base. In light of this, you have all of the armor, air, Spetsnaz, artillery, and assets under my command. Report directly to my staff headquarters. Find them! I will call the Center and get final authorization." General Katov yelled, now with no trace of sleep evident in his voice. He was obviously excited too.

"Once I have authorization from Moscow, I can invade Germany at sector four and attack a neutral installation?" Revedov asked in disbelief, speculating an international incident even bigger than World War Three. Usually, it was a general that took care of those kinds of things, not a colonel. Looks like that pig-of-a-general Katov wanted someone to blame if things went downhill.

"Exactly so comrade colonel!" Said General Katov with a firm tone. That was it then, Germany it was.

"Secure that weapon and prepare to return to base! We have planning to do!" Revedov yelled to his men, already calling for evac on the battalion frequency. He was nervous about this whole situation. What would his wife think? And his daughter? She would learn about this in school someday, and she would view her daddy as the man who invaded the free world. Revedov shook his head, knowing that no obedient Russian soldier should ever question orders. It was a good thing he was on the right side of the coup.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

At 2100 on Tuesday, 21 June 2010, an RSH team lead by Sgt. Jayson Redfield and followed by FUR 3303789 Meryl successfully infiltrated NSO controlled territory at grid designated by S7 P1 (map included) with intent to kill New Soviet officers (42nd armored division) linked to troop movements and insurgencies on US troop locations. At 2147, the RSH element succeeded in neutralizing said officers and returning by preplanned route (see map reference- included). All three targets in the area are confirmed KIA. During bad weather, the RSH team was forced to stop pursuant to Pirate Six, during which the element came under attack from quick-response Spetsnaz troops at approximately 0500 local time. During the ensuing engagement, FUR 3303789 was wounded lightly by shrapnel. Sgt. Redfield determines two Hostiles KIA and one Hostile WIA in return fire. Following contact, Redfield and FUR 3303789 exited NSO held territory and made contact with non-affiliated Marine unit. Redfield and FUR 3303789 returned to border post C2 in sector 4 at 0746 on WED, 22 June 2010. FUR 3303789 has purple heart paperwork for wounds received.

Redfield put the finishing touches on the situation report E-Mail and moved his mouse pointer to send, distributing the mail to all of the official cadres. He hated writing these things, but the soldier knew not to question military procedures. Oh well, Redfield thought, it isn't that bad. Somewhere, Redfield's wasted situation report, coupled with innumerable tax dollars, was keeping someone employed. In the next hundred years, when information from the RSH was unclassified, maybe it would go into some textbook.

Jay spun in his chair to face Meryl.

The large female lay on several standard issue blankets with her eyes closed, heavy breaths and slow, heaving chest movements indicating that she was asleep. Jay was glad that he dug up those blankets from the rear-services supply depot a few days after the pair's transfer to the quiet German border. He didn't want the female sleeping in the mud now did he? Also, after seeing their muddy accommodation, Jay had also promptly redistributed a truckload of pallets, making a floor for their tent and keeping the pair's belongings from the mud. He could still remember the fat rear-services captain in the driver's side mirror, standing in the middle of the road, red faced and sweating profusely as Jay drove off with a five ton* truck loaded with the pallets in question. They eventually found it parked in a military lot in Bad-Moskau, completely empty.

Redfield brushed aside some dust that was collecting on the field desk next to his military laptop, and finally defeated the little dust-bunny devils that were plaguing everything in sight. He retrieved a rag and fixed the rest of the annoying powdered gunk; a mix of dirt kicked up from the passing of vehicles and ever present CLP from weapons maintenance.

Jay twiddled a pen in his fingertips as he looked around on the firebase message board, making sure that nothing was directed towards him. There had been a massive uproar and reaming posted on the board as a result of the stolen five ton, even though everyone knew that it was one particular pair that partook in the great endeavor. The base commander came to the tent a few days after wondering where Jay obtained the precious ammunition pallets that now also made a nice walkway for the battalion TOC*. Jay, needless to say, flat out denied any involvement with the five ton, but could not explain where the pallets had come from. The base commander, anxious to forget about the situation, said that Jay's answer was good enough for him, promptly telling the fat rear service POGs* that no one on his installation knew anything about a truckload of pallets. Of course, the base commander also secured several for his own use. Personally, Redfield didn't understand why the most powerful military in the world had to worry about the insignificant wooden ammunition pallets. Oh well, let Rear Services try and take the bed from a half-ton, sentient killing machine.

Jay cursed as the pen fell from his grasp and landed in the mass of papers and other military objects that littered the field desk. He lifted a stack of miscellaneous crumpled field reports under which the pen disappeared. He looked down in the cranny, seeing several photographs, and his pen on top of them.

"There you are!" Jay said aloud as he picked up the pen, looking at the picture below. Meryl's yellow eyes stared back at him from the past. And right next to her brown form, his own did the same. Jay thought of the eeriness of the photograph. There, Meryl stood among the conifers in the woods, the sun streaming through and highlighting small spots on her picturesque body. Jay and Meryl had taken this picture a few days before they were activated. It was an object that Jay could be court-martialed just for having. Silly, but Jay knew that someone would eventually come looking for the pair regardless of whether or not Jay had a photograph of Meryl.

He felt something deep within him whenever he looked at the picture. Jay didn't quite know what it was, but he felt it whenever he was around Meryl. Something about working with the Utahraptor made him intrigued to stay. Jay had always felt something since he first met her. He had, after all, been with her for everything that had ever happened to her. Her Injuries, failures, successes, and her infinite quest for knowledge were all events he had witnessed. The most interesting time for Jay was when Meryl was going through her Breeding Cycle. During this time, Jay was inebriated by the very pheromones that she emitted. It was also during these times that Jay had dreams of Meryl and him together. He enjoyed the dirty dreams, but he knew they were wrong for him. Meryl would probably kill him, let alone let him do anything. She was following instinct, not love.

"Love does strange things." He muttered aloud, glancing in no particular direction while he reflected on previous dreams.

He felt something deep within him when he looked at the picture. Jay didn't quite know what it was, but he felt it whenever he was around Meryl. Something about working with the Utahraptor made him intrigued to stay. Jay had always felt something since he first met her. He had, after all, been with her for everything that had ever happened to her. Her Injuries, failures, successes, and her infinite quest for knowledge were all events he had witnessed.

Jay was afraid of getting to know Meryl when he first saw her those long two and a half years ago. The young man at first blamed it on the fact that she was a totally alien species. Humans CREATED her. It was against Jay's beliefs for man to create life, but he was charged with protecting her existence. At least she existed to be good. Though, the possibility for personal good or evil remained all too real. How easy it would be for Jay to pull his pistol and put a round through the top of her skull. Jay glanced at the black pistol that sat on the corner of the desk. With the full metal jacket .45 caliber bullet entering her skull, Meryl would die instantly, not even knowing that he had done it. He picked up the .45 caliber pistol and looked at Meryl, fidgeting with the empty pistol. She was sleeping peacefully, unaware.

In the time they had to get to know each other, he had done most everything with her, and tested what the Army had taught him at the nearby ASC. He hunted with her, observed her in training, watched her sleep, eat, and finish education. They put them through rigorous teachings in history, military tactics, and various important social issues. It still struck Jay as something strange, and not possible, but it happened. He had reason to believe that Meryl was smarter than him in the matters of his own species. Jay laughed quietly as he conjured up an image of Utahraptors trying to squeeze into desks in a school classroom. He shook the thought from his head as he reloaded the pistol before placing it in its holster, remembering to ensure the safety was on. Jay knew that he didn't have the right to take the life of a sentient creature, much less his friend.

The one problem Jay saw with the Utahraptor's endless intelligence and will to learn was the potential to build. Jay was concerned that Meryl's species could and would develop political ties, but he couldn't dwell on that. He wouldn't want Meryl to be a machine either, but if raised wrong, something is bound to go wrong. The job of speculation however, is left to the politicians that would and already were secretly protesting the existence and financial responsibility of the RSH. In the mean time, Jay decided that he would let the political windbags do what they were best at. Nothing.

Redfield remembered what they told him at the ASC so many long nights ago that the Utahraptor is never to be doubted in combat. Meryl could outrun, out jump, and possibly even outthink many of the soldiers on the battlefield. She could feel positive or negative energy and this, Jay believed, gave them the will to succeed or fail. She new everything the military field books did, and could call shots with artillery or find mines, but could she last in the psychological arena? This question would leave Jay to ponder.

Jay turned around for the second time with this last thought and looked at Meryl, who was vegetative on her blankets. Her snout was rested against the olive-colored fabric, and the image of a Utahraptor sleeping curled up like that made Jay imagine a dog sleeping by a fireplace not unlike his own back in the states. He didn't want anything to happen to her, like what had happened a day earlier. But at least they both had the know-how to survive out here in the midst of certain death. The pistol secured inches away didn't enter his mind, and it didn't clear his holster either. He had to keep it loaded, per protocol, but he wanted to make sure that no accidents happened.

It made Jay laugh, that here, right under the nose of the Russian military, that they had preformed their training. That whole program had taken place no more than two miles distant, at the first ever RSH training center. The ASC 'Haven' facility, as it was so known, was thought to be neutral ground as highlighted in RUS1. RUS1, a treaty signed by the NSO to prevent further hostile action in Europe, dictated neutral and safe zones for both sides. Of course, it was never intended that the Russian army would invade Poland. The decision to put it this close to the polish border was one more of money than intelligence, but at least it was secure. At least, it was when they built it. Jay Redfield wasn't so sure anymore.

The small but fortified ASC complex, little more than a group of squat buildings and an antiaircraft battery fell in this boundary. The center was home to almost three hundred soldiers and support staff and served as the primary training facility for new RSH personnel. Haven was also designed to negate dependence on stateside genetics facilities. The dependency on these was dangerous, that if word leaked to the press that it was going on in the US, there would be hell to pay in public relations. The public didn't want to hear about a government "freak" project. Press photographers had almost already compromised Meryl's existence on several occasions, and the RSH didn't want any more. Every soldier on the European theater's first line of defense knew of the RSH, but they were sworn to secrecy, so Jay had few worries.

Temporary facilities for education, training, along with troop barracks, computer terminals, and some of the most advanced security and defense technology in the world were present. Jay enjoyed the many months that he spent in the facility, sharing all of the comforts of home, including a hot shower and bed quarters.

There, Jay had been indoctrinated into the fundamentals of tested techniques, and he learned how to care for Meryl in every way possible. It was a big responsibility, but one Jay accepted without thought.

In light of this fact, the Haven facility is equipped with a fully functional hatchery and the technology to monitor every Utahraptor's individual development, growth, and vital signs. Jay knew nothing of the process by which they were created, and he didn't really want to know.

The soldier sighed with stressful exhaustion as he stood up from the chair in which he sat. He walked over to Meryl's sleeping form, looking over her toned muscles and all of the small details of her body. He noted her mouth hung slightly open, and her tail curled up around her front. Redfield, remembering his dreams, glanced under her tail, sneaking a naughty peek for himself. From the lips he noted just the slightest bit of moist pink. As he lay down next to her, Jay was filled with a complete and inner peace.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jay slowly explored Meryl with his hands, rubbing her tense leg muscles and points where her skin was especially sensitive. Her underbelly was particularly soft and sensitive, a lighter tan than the rest of her body. Her breathing intensified as Redfield traced his hands along where her legs met her body. Meryl whimpered softly to him as he moved lower, soft human fingers caressing the base of her tail. She laid her head on his shoulder, inhaling his rich human scents and shivering as they mixed with the sweet smell of the pines that surrounded them.

The sun shone through the cracks in the trees, and the constant booming of artillery did not exist around them. Just the sounds of the birds singing and insects chirping to surround the pair. Here, they were away from civilization, away from the military, away from law, and away from the fighting. All the pair had was each other.

Jay moved skillfully, exploring with his hands and slowly working his way down towards her sex. The female lay on her side, soaking up some of the sun and enjoying Jay's impromptu attention.

She gave out a chirp as he found her soaked entrance, lifting her leg to give him better access. Jay played his fingers over her pussy, seeing a small amount of deep-hued pink revealed by the spreading of her leg. He moved both hands down and rubbed her lips together, getting a gasp in the process. Meryl closed her eyes as he inserted a finger lightly into her, finding it tighter than he expected given her size. She let out a low rumble as he found a spot which she particularly liked, and one that she could never find or get with her tail.

He bent down to her, shifting on his knees for a better opportunity for tongue to knead further. Meryl moaned deeply shivering with delight. Jay could see her smiling with those deep, attractive eyes. As he undid his trousers and spread her apart, she nodded to him eager and hungry for his thick manhood. Jay grasped his length down and pressed against her sex, caressing her with his maleness and torturing her with pleasure. She gave him a death glare, finally getting him to enter her.

As Jay guided himself in with one hand, he added his own mock-sneering at Meryl, and in turn, got a squeeze that surprised him thoroughly. She was surprisingly tight for her size, and Jay noticed that she was also amazingly textured. As he took the first thrust in, Meryl craned her neck and looked him straight in the eyes. He felt as if she could see through him and observe the love for her that resided deep inside his heart, and that she loved him just the same. Her eyes were half shut in ecstasy, and he could feel and see her quivering under him. As he looked past her hindquarters, he could see her muscles quake and ripple underneath her thick hide. Jay could describe her skin feeling only like soft leather after being rubbed down with saddle soap.

His thrusts kept up their steady, rhythmic pace as Meryl squirmed underneath him. Jay could hear her tail as it swished around in the pine needle bed that they were currently occupying.

He smiled at Meryl, whose eyes were now closed and whose head was moving in slow, jerky movements in the throes of bliss. Jay felt Meryl reach her orgasm as he continued his movements, getting close to his own.

As he pumped her even harder, it only took a few more seconds before he treated the Raptoress to his seed. Meryl threw her head towards him and he gave her a deep kiss on the front of her muzzle, which she happily returned with a soft lick to his cheek. He could feel her climaxing again as he pulled out, watching the final shudder and the first opening of Meryl's eyes. Redfield slid into her powerful arms and clutched her tightly, pressing his ear against her chest and listening to the quick thumping of her odd heartbeat.

As the pair fell asleep, Jay looked up to the cloud covered sky, grinning eye to eye.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jay awoke in early evening after a short nap. He found himself next to Meryl, who was still sleeping comfortably. She would need all of the sleep she could get, and that was evident by the field dressings that were still placed over her wounds. After one last quick glance, he turned and brushed through the tent flap and out into the cool European evening.

Redfield walked along the muddy ground behind the German Bundeswehr Leopard 2 A6 EX tanks that lined the German border to the east, thinking about his incursion into Poland and the latest dream. So far, Germany had not been heavily invaded from the east, and the Leopards were part of the key to its defense. Antiaircraft emplacements, anti-tank mines, and various other defenses lined the German border in this sector. Then again, the Russians had no reason to invade Germany, they got what they wanted. He surveyed all of these emplacements through the fog and humid dimness of late evening. The grey sky was limiting visibility on the ground in front of him.

Jay was interrupted from his musing by a sound. He could have sworn he heard something out in the fog, like the revving of an engine out in Russian territory, but it was brief, and only for a second. He stopped, bringing his worn, scratched field glasses into position. He didn't see anything but dense fog and a few hulking silhouettes of the ever-present hedgerows. Redfield replaced the glasses and stared for one last second. After all, the minefield here reveled the one on the 38th parallel between North and South Korea, so he thought he was safe. Besides, they always heard engines in Russian territory, and it was usually just the heavy lift salvage trucks and Ural 4320 transports.

Any Russian armor that would attempt to invade this pocket would first have to pass through three quarters of a mile of anti-tank ditches, mines, and hedgehogs. After that, dragon's teeth and moats were dug in behind walls. Then, after concertina wire encased ground, the line of leopards could engage any armor in the open. Counterbattery artillery was in place, as well as .50 caliber machine guns, Avenger launchers, and M61 gun emplacements to protect against aircraft. The bunkers were made from reinforced concrete and formed an interconnecting tunnel system between one another.

Meryl and Jay were currently camped out in tents a mere seven meters from the entrenched Leopards, which were manned at all times. A line of ash gray concrete bunkers protected them from direct fire. The RSH pair felt pretty secure in the squat German base.

It had been several days since their vacation in Russian-held Poland, and Meryl was recovering at a speedy rate. She was already pretty much back to normal. After acquiring new ceramic plates for her armor, she was moving about without problem.

Jay leaned up against a Leopard and looked out over the open expanse of defenses, hoping that he could stay safe for even a little longer. He saw beautiful yellow streaks ascend into the sky of dusk, wondering by what phenomenon of nature that could happen. Wait............those weren't natural, he though for an instant. He watched as they began their hurtling descent towards the border. Those were rockets!

"Incoming! Take Cover!" Jay yelled at the top of his lungs, diving underneath the nearest Leopard and hoping against hope that the tank was not hit. He watched from underneath as German soldiers dove for the cover of concrete blockhouses and earthworks. The first volley hit with a thunderous earth-shattering explosion, hitting a small group of parked F350 support trucks. These light vehicles were sent up in a plethora of flames and explosions, and wouldn't be functioning further for the remainder of the war. The eerie silence that followed the volley of rockets was short-lived.

Jay crawled out from under the Leopard, partially awaiting a second volley, and partly just wanting to look around. Aside from the trucks, the base was only cratered, no buildings, and thankfully, the tent that Meryl was in, remained unharmed. Jay saw the tent flap move as Meryl poked her head from it, no doubt looking around.

"Meryl! Get ready to move!" He shouted, holding his M4 in his right hand and motioning to several German soldiers as he spoke. It was then that he spotted the parachute off in the distance.

"Take cover!" He shouted again, watching as the bomb floated downwards, leaning as the wind miraculously blew it away from the border outpost and out over the minefield. It was a good two thousand meters off by the time the weapon went off.

The concussion put Jay on his face, turning the world black for a brief second as debris rained down on top of them. Redfield stumbled to his feet, looking out over the expanse of no-man's land. It was nothing but a giant fire.

Jay wavered back and forth, attempting to recover from the massive concussion as the ground continued to shake. Not lightly, but an actual earthquake of a shake. Jay turned and raised his binoculars into the fading grey east. What he saw made him nearly feint.

Row upon row of Russian armored vehicles, green hulls and foliage-clad turrets, partially hidden in the fog, rolled towards their position. Several BMP armored personnel carriers fired long strings of C-4 explosive into the already-damaged minefields ahead of the tanks, clearing corridors for the Russian armor. Tanks of all types and sizes, such as the venerable T-72, T-80, and T-90 models all pushed through the flames. Behind the tanks, Jay could see hundreds of Russian Infantry soldiers dodging through pockets of flame.

"Defensive positions now!" Jay ordered, charging his rifle. The Germans and Americans scattered, manning their positions with renewed vigor.

"This is it!" One of the Germans yelled in heavily-accented English.

"Yes, this is it." Jay said to himself.

BMP armored vehicles preceded the Russian tanks with large bundles atop their squat hulls. Jay brought up his binoculars and looked at the Volkswagen-size groupings of logs and debris.

"What are those?" Jay wondered aloud, staring still through the binoculars as the Russian tank crews dropped the bundles into the trenches and created a bridge for the heavy armor. Jay cursed as he fumbled for the radio mic on his chest, they needed backup and he needed it now.

He finally retrieved the small receiver and brought his shaking, dirt-encrusted hand to his mouth. The young soldier called out to command in a frightened voice.

"Pirate Six, this is Guardian Two-Two. German Border in sector four under massive New Soviet armor and infantry attack. I count well over a hundred tanks and a ton of soldiers. They have penetrated the minefield and trenches, repeat they are inside the first defense grid! Requesting air support! This is S4, Commencing engagement." No sooner did Jay release the PTT button than one of the Russian tanks hit a mine, which caused it to go up like an overcooked baked potato.

"Roger that Guardian Two-Two, hold as long as possible. Good luck, out." RSH command answered back, indifferent, yet reacting to the size of the force they were facing.

"We are going to need all the luck we can get." Jay yelled to no one as he heard a volley of thunderclaps and the flashes of lightning from the Leopards. The brutally observant Redfield decided that this wasn't the wisest place to be, especially when the Russians returned fire. He preformed the sign of the cross as he took off in a dead run for the tent in which Meryl was.

He reached the shelter and hurled himself inside just as the first volley of return fire from the Russian tanks smashed into the German positions. Several caught on fire, and a few were grazed by the Russian projectiles. Jay watched as the crews bailed out of the burning hulls. Those shells that missed went on into the forest, detonating harmlessly in the masses of trees. Several German soldiers were also quick to find shelter in the tent.

The Germans began firing faster, and Jay could feel the heat radiating from the gun barrels even through the thick tent fabric. Jay listened as the Russians began to fire from their turret-mounted machine guns on the border outpost. Heavy caliber rounds punched holes in the top of the tent, and everyone inside dropped to the ground, terrified. The Russian machine guns were accurate and deadly, threatening to reduce the base to shreds. Jay needed to get Meryl out of here, and he needed to do so fast.

"Meryl! We need to evac the border post now! I want you to go out through the woods, and stay low until you reach the rally point. Take those soldiers with you! You are in command!" Jay yelled, charging his M4 and peaking out through the tent flaps.

He saw German soldiers lying in the dirt, some crying out, and some laying still. Several wounded Germans were dragging an MG-3 machine gun on a tripod into position to engage the Soviet troops. Jay turned away and looked to Meryl.

"Time to go Meryl!" Jay yelled back through the din of heavy gunfire. The German soldiers readied their G36 Rifles and pulled up the rear of the tent. They held it up for Meryl, who exited quickly. She was remaining low, just like the several soldiers that followed her. Jay noticed, somewhat oddly, the rippling of Meryl's muscles as she ran for the cover of the forest, soldiers in tow close behind. He watched until the soldiers were out of sight.

Jay turned away and watched the events unfold through the tent flap. The German machine gun team was firing from a crater, ripping into lines of advancing infantry with their fast firing machine gun. There was a blinding flash of light a few seconds later, and the machine gun and its operators disintegrated in less than a second. Jay was thrown back into the tent, landing on his rear. He threw a cuss into the stale, dusty air.

Redfield gathered himself from the position that he had been thrown into by the explosion and ran from the tent, brushing past the flap just as it exploded in flames behind him. He ran along a small support trench to a crater that straddled the arc of Leopard tanks. Machine gun rounds whizzed past his head with distinct snaps as he leaped headfirst into the crater, grabbing his radio mic with his left hand. The dusty M4 Rifle in his right hand, he began to take into effect the planned defense strategies.

"Lord, this is border three, artillery support requested on Sector four, grid three-two. Mixed package, one Mark to confirm. Enemy in the open!" Jay yelled into the handheld microphone, watching the advancing lines of NSO armor.

"Roger that border three, we'll warm 'em up. Call adjustments as needed, Over." The artillery unit replied, firing a marker round. Jay watched as a yellow puff signaled the landing of the marker right in the middle of the advancing Russian force.

"Confirmed! Right on target! Fire for effect!" Jay screamed into the mic, already hearing the whine of artillery raging overhead. The high-density explosive artillery shells, lobbed by the behemoth self propelled artillery and field guns alike, landed between the tight-knit Russian tanks. The groups of tanks were set aflame and several exploded in blinding white flashes. Undeterred, the armor continued to roll through the flames of their burning comrades.

More artillery began to pour in as Jay adjusted the fire, sweeping in the deadly rain over the Russian tanks. From the German battery of Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers high-explosive shells lanced through the darkening sky, creating a firestorm and a deafening roar of explosions. Jay watched, covering his ears against the abuse of the artillery as HE shells destroyed armor and infantry alike. Jay looked away as he saw tank crews aflame, screaming and running through the firestorm. Somewhere in the German lines, a Sniper with a PSG-90 silenced the crewmen with a single round to the head.

Jay stood up and let out a loud cheer as the Russian tanks shifted into reverse in an effort to get out of the storm of steel. The artillery suddenly stopped falling, and Jay noticed that the distant booms had ceased to be heard.

The Spanish soldier again crossed himself as the now cratered border zone became devoid of the few remaining Russian tanks. The sound of retreating diesel engines in the fiery dusk was a welcome one. The cries of wounded dying Russians permeated the night air, and Jay soon turned his back on the battlefield, intent on finding where Meryl had run off too.

"Border to Lord, we have repelled the first wave with your fire. Thanks for the rescue. Out." Jay called to the artillery, thanking them for their explosive rain. As a result of the 'rain', hundreds of charred tanks now lay rest in the border field. Little did Jay know, 'Lord' had been completely destroyed by Russian Aviation, and no one on the other end ever received his transmission.

"Guardian Two-two, Guardian two-one element safe at neutral Haven. Orders to rejoin have been issued, they are sending a slick out for you, over." Meryl chimed in over the tactical radio, having been safely evacuated to the ASC.

"Roger that Guardian two-one, see you in a few. Out" Jay responded, slinging his M-4 and putting his binoculars back into their worn carrying case. He walked past the burning pile that was their tent and regarded it meekly. Jay cursed as he thought of getting another laptop from supply.

The sound of an incoming UH-60 Blackhawk drew him from his stupor, and he climbed aboard the helicopter without question. After telling and retelling the story of the brief (but insane) Russian attack, the Blackhawk lifted forward. Jay noticed that the night was brightly lit by the blazing fuel cells of the Russian tanks. It was eerily beautiful, but Jay knew that hundreds lay dead or dying out there amidst the ruins.

+++++++++++++++

Guardian one to Phalnax, commence fire on all aircraft with priority to gunships. Those Hinds will rip you apart!" Jay called, switching to the AA frequency. Those helicopters were his biggest worry. He heard the fabric-ripping sound of the Phalnax emplacement over his radio as it ripped rounds at a camouflage-painted Mi-24. The gunship sputtered and increased speed towards the ground. Jay saw several soldiers duck as the burning helicopter, split at the tail boom, blew over their position and crashed into the forest beyond. He got up just in time to see one of the electronically controlled turrets be destroyed by several Russian AT-6C Spiral anti-tank missiles fired from another Hind. Jay saw multiple flashes under the wing pylons of the other Helicopters, and immediately gave the take cover command down to the ground. His ears popped as a volley of 57mm unguided rockets smashed the base to pieces. He saw as German soldiers flew, some dead, some dismembered, from their various positions. The larger portion of the base was leveled in less than ten seconds by the vicious rocket strike.

The young Spanish soldier was thrown from his position, dazed from the explosion. What had happened? Jay thought, not seeing or feeling his legs present below him. Suddenly, a Russian soldier hovered over his position.

The soldier was oddly the same, yet oddly different from the colonel in the dream, showing only GRU patches on his shoulders. OSNAZ? Jay thought as his vision became blurry. The sergeant heard the sound of a pistol clearing the leather of a holster, and the readying lurch of the cool metal slide. Meryl's dead eyes stared into his as the soldier placed the pistol against his skull.

He saw the pistol flash.

"Ah!" Jay yelled as he lurched awake from the clarity of his dream. He was on the roof of the ASC, which was under a blackout status. Air defense grids were in full operation, and Redfield listened to the nervous chatter of the air defense gunners as they ran through their checklists over and over in the darkness. Jay could see some of the weapons in the spooky red glow emanating from the border. Every few minutes, an illumination round from somewhere down the rooftop glared overhead, giving everything a mysterious white glow that became a playground for shadows. Several times Jay nearly sounded the base alarm at several of the moving dark splotches that contrasted with the clear-cut ground.

For the rest of the night, Redfield was puzzling over his dreams. The dreams with Meryl and the dreams of these Russians were getting more and more prominent.

"What do they mean?" He asked silently, clutching his rifle in his arms and staring off into the darkness.

++++++++++++++++

Jay watched on the border post monitors as Russian tanks breeched the outpost from the east, under the cover of Mi-24 gunships and Mi-17 troop transports. The Russian armor, belching black smoke and rolling right over the wrecked hulls of the German Leopards, took up positions on the ruined ground. Once the tank crews were certain the area was secure, the Soviet tankers popped their hatches and began to celebrate, waving their arms in the air and shouting. Laughter could be heard, and Jay snarled in disgust, looking briefly away from the video monitors. How could they be happy after doing something like this? The result of this could start a new world war for crying out loud! How had it been this easy?

Several of the German armor crew lay wounded not far from the sitting Russian vehicles. Soldiers began debarking from their squat-hulled BMP troop carriers and getting situated. Tank crews, anxious to survey the extent of their handiwork, slid down from their tanks and began to appear from the small ports in the armor. Several of the crewmen began taunting the Wounded Germans, prodding at their wounds and verbally abusing them. Jay thought he saw something move down there in the base.

Small arms fire erupted from the surrounding shell craters and pillboxes, hitting the Russians in their exposed states. The German soldiers that were trapped in the base were retaliating in their comrade's defense, killing every Russian that dared to expose themselves. Several German soldiers stormed a T-90UK Command Main Battle Tank that was attempting to escape. They clambered aboard and killed the driver, who was the only surviving crewmember after the fusillade of automatic weapons fire. The Germans climbed into the Russian monster and buttoned up, effectively hijacking the vehicle. The Russian infantry was thrown into sudden disarray as an idling T-80 exploded in flames as a result of a shell from the liberated T-90's main gun. The Russians climbed aboard the captured tank and attempted to force the hatch with gunfire and a pry bar from one of the tank's turret buttress toolboxes. The tanks still in Russian hands were not risking their main cannons, not in that tight of a group of friendlies. The turret turned unexpectedly and knocked a Russian tanker off the engine compartment of the tank. Soldiers were throwing fragmentation grenades on top of the armored vehicle, but they detonated harmlessly, making a fireworks show more than anything. The captured T-90 reversed and fled into the forest at full speed, running over the unconscious Russian tanker and destroying another T-80 in the process. Several sabots whizzed past them, narrowly missing the vehicle. The remaining Germans kept the Russians distracted so that their comrades could escape. The survivors cheered as the tank disappeared into the dark forest in a cloud of exhaust and cannon fire.

The German soldiers, emboldened by their comrade's dastardly escape and armed with state-of-the-art G36 rifles, fired at the infantry that had dismounted from the BMP personnel carriers. Several Russian soldiers twisted and fell in agony as the Germans placed round after round into them. The sound of twelve cylinder diesel engines and gas turbines revving resonated in between gunfire and grenades detonating. That meant only one painfully obvious thing. A shell detonated in the air above the German positions, meaning that a T90UK was remotely detonating HEF rounds. The Russian tankers were attempting to flush the Germans out. The German soldiers, in a classic German answer, responded by firing a Panzerfaust Three rocket into the T90, setting it aflame.

The Russians were soon regaining their composure. The tanks began firing NSV machine guns into the positions of the German troops as they gunned their engines, killing a few and maiming others. One of the Russian T-90s rammed a German machine gun position, which kept firing on the infantry even as the tank ran over them.

The fusillade of automatic weapons fire died down quickly to a few pops, then to silence, with only the sound of the idling diesel engines and the chopping of the troop helicopters to be heard. The German BGS troops had succeeded in bloodying the eye of the Russian invasion force, getting one small act of revenge for the fall of the border.

The whole fight was over quickly, but the Russians had lost a large number of men in that short time. They had not expected that situation, and they paid for it with their lives. That consolidated the first Russian screw up for Tuesday, 23 June 2005.

As the Russians collected all of the weaponry strewn about from the engagement, they consolidated their forces and prepared to press deeper into enemy territory, using the border post as their HQ.

Judging by the nervous radio chatter, the Russians were staging similar attacks all over the German border, most ending in the same result. However, a few outposts were forewarned and were holding, despite Soviet pressure on all sides.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Colonel Revedov stood idle, grasping the sling on his slung AKM and watched the 2S19 howitzers move into position. Apparently, an OSNAZ colonel by the name of Nymev was on his way down to take over the Invasion.

Revedov was picking through the remains of the base when he came across a small picture lodged beneath a burned and destroyed laptop. The device had blocked it from harm, and the colonel pulled the photograph from where it lay. It was a picture of one of the creatures and a human. Coincidently only eight miles from where his friends had been killed..... On the back, he saw the inscription "Jay and Meryl '09".

"I'll get you Jay and Meryl, and I will make you both pay." Revedov muttered, pocketing the photo and staring at the wreckage in contempt.

To be continued......