# RSH Lucky Seven- Chapter 5- Blood and Steel

Author: Arrowpone
Tags: Alternate Reality, Human, Raptor, Realistic, Romance, Sci-Fi, Story Progression, Violence (Not In Yiff), War

Imported from SF2 with no description.

            Readers,  
  
             I hope I have found you well! Hard to believe it's already almost the middle of April.   
  
             It's been another crazy month for me. I've moved back to Ohio to take care of my parents, and I spend about three weeks here before going back to my home in southern Indiana for a week or so at a time. It's a hard adjustment, but one that is working, as it were. It has taken a lot of getting used to, but such is life, I suppose.

            If you guys notice any GLARING errors or anything in this chapter, shoot them to me in a PM so I can get them corrected. As always, I appreciate your nice messages, comments, questions, and votes. It definitely helps me to write when I know people are enjoying themselves reading it!

            For some reason, despite having things already planned for this chapter, I changed it no less than five times. It seemed like no matter what I wrote, it didn't fit. I finally got it to where I liked it, and I hope you do too!

            Enjoy!  
  
             ~Redfield

++++++  
 Chapter 5

 

_Burgruine Weissenstein_

_June 27th, 2011 2045 Local_

_Staff Sergeant Jacob “Six" Dixon_

_NCOIC, Pack Lucky 7-7_        

 

“Alright, kids! Listen up!" Jake announced, quieting the low hum of conversation that drifted through the normally still air of their underground living arrangements.

Every one of Lucky Seven's members had stirred from their slumber around dinner time, taking a moment to catch up with each other for the first time since they split for the mission to Grafenwöhr on the night of the war. They were happy, despite the situation surrounding them, and now that Jake was back, there were smiles aplenty. Even Elisa, her hard visage unbreaking since the assault on Pressath two nights before, had shown the beginnings of a Utahraptor smile. Her eyes had turned up in mirth when she made Danielle Austin's cheeks red with embarrassment.

Jake could only guess what she said.

_All was right with the world. Well, as right as could be expected, given the circumstances._ Jake thought, looking to where Angel lay next to him, watching the proceedings with her own happy smirk. He ran a hand down the back of her neck, earning a comforting croon, before turning back to his subordinates.

The space beneath the castle was crowded tight, the raptors weaving their tails through all available space, much to their human's chagrin. Doc Pintoe had already tripped over Foxy's tail in the low light, laid out in its usual annoying way, which was across the aisle. This had caused no end of amusement for all, and even Jake had managed to choke out a few pained laughs before the throbbing ache in his side put that to an abrupt end.

It had been a busy day once Jake had left Doc's tent, walking as much as possible on the Latino Medic's orders to avoid blood clots in his legs. Of all the ways to go, the senior NCO was sure that a pulmonary embolism as a result of said blood clots would be a tad anticlimactic considering their current situation. Dixon had also been placed on a light duty profile, basically confined to the castle and command area until his wounds healed. Angel would run things in the field in his stead, and he would be stuck in the rear doing radio watch.

He hadn't been stuck on Radio watch since he was a Private First Class, and in the middle of Nowhere, Afghanistan!

One good thing had come from it, however. He'd managed to reestablish contact with Mole Base and got an update on a great many things that had happened in his absence, many of which he was getting ready to share with his pack. They'd not had the proper channels in place for Angel to take on his role to communicate with RSH Command, and that had been a mistake.

Just how big of a mistake, time would tell, because RSHCOM had just gotten their own house squared away and started issuing orders again. They'd operated autonomously in the German countryside for so long, that they'd overlooked the coordination requirement that a full-scale invasion would take with their home base. They'd also overlooked the possibility that their commanding NCO would drop in the first day or two, and Angel would have to take his place. Reuben had assured him that nothing had come down the pipe, but Jake couldn't stop kicking himself.

No matter how much experience that all the soldiers that made up Lucky Seven had around the world, working with sentient non-humans was still difficult to grasp. It was hard to place, at least in Dixon's mind, that Angel and all her other Raptors knew the procedures involved better than he did. He'd already made a silent vow to correct those shortcomings, especially considering the free time he'd have for the foreseeable future to think about it.

The nature of warfare that he'd known since he joined the US Army six years prior had changed drastically. From his inception, he'd learned FOB based warfare, patrols against insurgencies, winning hearts and minds, and the like. Now, with a full-scale invasion by an opposing Army, the field manuals from the eighties and early nineties had to be cracked open once again.

The NCO imagined that back home, the tan range targets (lovingly referred to as Achmeds by military personnel) were being pulled back in favor of the green, vaguely Russian-shaped 'Ivan' targets that he remembered from basic training. The whole army was back training to fight the Warsaw Pact of old, and he couldn't help but feel like they were woefully unprepared.

There were no FOBs to retreat to now, no dining facilities with foreign KBR workers serving fresh food, no scalding-hot showers and semi-clean shitters to finish out the day after a long mission. No PowerPoint briefings put together by the S-2 shop reporting a few tracer rounds that were seen by some checkpoint or another on the route between bases. Nothing about the last two wars held true in the new theater of Germany, save for the fact that the incoming ordnance was still deadly.

This time, it wasn't some farmer paid a few bucks to spray a thirty-round magazine at a US Convoy in the middle of the night. It was trained soldiers in working equipment, with the combined arms fury of air power and artillery behind it. That was to say nothing of all the electronic interception equipment, special forces, rotary-wing aircraft, paratroopers, naval infantry, and a hundred other different tools that said opposing army possessed.

It was beyond surreal, and it made Dixon nervous to think about. And having a nervous commander would not do at all.

The second thing that had come out of him being on radio watch was still up in the air as to whether it was good or bad. He'd been able to use the castle's large monitoring set to pick up the mayday communications from a battered remnant of soldiers from Grafenwöhr. They were nearby but were also being actively hunted by Russians. They were also running dangerously low on critical supplies and ammunition.

It was good in the sense that friendlies were alive, bad in the sense that he had to expose the pack to danger to help them. Such things, he supposed, were not able to be helped. It was wartime, after all.

“Ahem!" He heard Danielle clear her throat in the back. He'd been daydreaming…

The NCO answered her with a nod, turning to more fully face the pack on the chair in which he sat. Angel perked up as well, lifting her head up from where she'd laid it in her forepaws. Jake's neck strokes had been effective at putting her nearly to sleep.

If there was one thing that a raptor was good at, it was sleeping.

“First off, I hope you guys are feeling better. I know you haven't had a break since shit popped off, and there is nothing that could have helped that. Thanks for bustin' your asses." Jake started, a stack of papers in his left hand crinkling noisily in the quiet bunker. “I've gotten a chance to get some intel from RSHCOM."

“You mean no more continue as planned messages? That's a shocker." Reuben said from the front row, Adine chuffing in a raptor approximation of laughter from behind him. The sound was a bit…unsettling, but the other raptors found great amusement in the varying reactions it garnered from their human partners.

“That's right, we've got an honest-to-God mission now. But, before that, congrats are in order to the Pressath team." Jake said, shuffling through his papers until one came to the top, handwritten notes in black ink staring back at him. He was too busy looking down at his paper to see the smile drop out of Ellie's eyes. “You guys bagged the theater commander and his escort when you nailed that helicopter."

“Did they have a file on that guy?" Madison Woods asked, jotting down a few notes in her green-colored waterproof notebook. She kept meticulous notes on the happenings in the AO, as did all the other human members of Lucky Seven, lest a pattern emerge from it that they could not see before. The raptors did not need notebooks, and could not seem to understand why their humans had to write literally _everything_ down.

“They did, as a matter of fact. And since you stole the guys wallet like some common scoundrel, it didn't take long to find. You short on cash, porn star?" Dixon laughed with a wince, retrieving a small red book with gold lettering on the front, along with the man's wallet from the breast pocket of his uniform.

“That's what I asked her!" Foxy's deep, honeyed voice spoke up from the back of the room, earning him a smack from an unamused Madison. He chuffed his own laughing imitation, prompting an echo from Adine. The cringe on Woods' face was worth it.

“Great minds think alike, Fox my boy," Jake nodded, holding the small red booklet open and revealing a picture of the officer in pressed military uniform. The man's internal passport, something carried by all Russian citizens, was extremely informative.

“His name is Yunus Kornilov, formerly of Army Group West and the head of the Thuringia Area Command. He's been on the hard-liner watchlist since before the whole of Russia went tits up, so congrats, you bagged a real asshole, Madison."

“He looked important, and so did his escort. My pleasure." Woods answered, writing down his name in her book next to a depiction of the late colonel's rank.

“The other guy is a little less known. A smaller target, but also an important one. He's an acting company commander in the 76th Guards Air Assault Division. We don't know which company yet, but they'll let me know when they find out. Ellie, I'm still working on that map case, but it's a gold mine of info. Just the maps in it have given us several new targets of opportunity, so good job to you as well."

Elisa nodded, half listening as Jake went through the list of interesting items. Her eyes were focused on the tourist map of Thuringia that was posted on the wall behind the senior NCO, more specifically, on the town of Pressath. The young Russian's blue eyes stared back at her from that map, startling a quiet breath out of her as she tore her gaze away. She caught sight of Doc Pintoe looking to her, his head tilted questioningly. The raptoress nodded to him before turning her head back to Jake. She took pains to purposely avoid Pressath on the map this time.

Foxy and Madison had noticed as well, sitting closest to her, they could both hear her sudden exclamation of breath.

The pair shared a look that spoke a thousand words, a slight nod from Madison vowing to deal with it later, before turning their attention back to Dixon.

“We've got a few housekeeping things to take care of before we start really bringing the hurt." Jake said, glancing at his papers again, oblivious to the traded glances in the back of the room.

“I came in contact with an element of troops from Grafenwöhr while you guys were asleep. They're hiding in a forest to the northwest of Neusorg, trying to stay out of sight. I need you guys to get up there and support their extraction, or their rescue, as the case may be. Adine, Elisa, and Foxy, you're going. Keep the idiot humans with you safe, please."

“When do we leave? Any known enemy presence?" Reuben asked, his pen poised to write in his own notebook.

“As soon as this briefing is over, that will give you enough time to get in position. RSHCOM hasn't yet been able to get us any solid intel, but they were able to give us some generalities. First Armor is mixing it up to the west of Neusorg with elements of the Second Guards Tanks. Second Guards is also heading north towards Leipzig and Hof on a main supply route that cuts directly through town. They haven't stopped yet, nor has any presence been seen in the city, but you can expect a scattering of airborne troops in the area. The VDV dropped a heavy concentration of men and supplies in Neusorg, so I'd expect them to be running frequent patrols. Expect movement along that road all night, both by supply trucks and tanks."

“Adine, Stay off the road." Reuben ordered without turning around, smirking as the raptor snapped him on the shoulder with the end of her thick tail. That earned a needed laugh from the rest of the group, and even Adine smiled despite the joke at her expense.

“It only happened twice." She said, indignantly.

“Third time's the charm, Adine." Jake responded, dropping the papers onto the desk in front of him.

            Reuben nodded his head, satisfied. Sounded like he was going to have to fly this blind, too. That was par for the course.

            “What's the other housekeeping bit?" Angel asked this time, trying to catch a glimpse of the marked-up map that lay on the desk in front of Jake.

            “I'm glad you asked, Angel! Thanks for volunteering. We need to finish digging the space for Doc down here. I figure you can put your claws to good use."

            Angel scoffed as the rest of the pack laughed once more, rolling her eyes as Dixon outlined the far less glamorous task.

            She'd most certainly rather be on the mission.

++++++

_In the woods west of Neusorg, Germany_

_June 28th, 2011 0330 Local_

_Elisa_

_Delta, Pack Lucky 7-7_           

 

            “Not to be the damp noodle, but we could go a lot faster if you didn't carry so much shit." Elisa growled, pausing as she turned to wait on her guardian for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. The raptor's tail twitched behind her in the usual whip-like motion, sweeping the air silently back and forth in agitation.  

“Tell it to the Army, Ellie. Also, it's wet noodle, but you're not Italian so I don't expect you to understand pasta." Danielle laughed quietly, crawling over a fallen tree to catch up to her raptor.

“You'd just make me carry your stuff anyways, so I would be wise to not complain too much. And another thing! How you humans eat that processed grain, I will never understand. It's not healthy."

“Elisa, I made one comment about you carrying a fifty. One! That doesn't mean I am going to make you carry my entire kit." Danielle retorted, stopping next to the raptor. The female's neck was curved in the usual s-shape, head cocked to the side as she stared at her guardian with an unamused look in her eyes.

“That's how it starts. One item, then three, then the whole thing. You've already loaded me down with explosives." She groaned, turning to look at the four twenty-pound satchel charges tied securely to the sides of her armor.

“I'm amazed that the Russians don't kill us both listening to you bitch. And, for the record, pasta is delicious."

“I can't get that lucky. I've made three circuits around this forest and I haven't found anything. No scent trails, no patrols, no signs at all. Not even a cigarette but or a piece of trash. I might have to go run out in front of a tank on the road to get the job done. I can't even find a friendly unit to accidentally shoot me! And no, pasta is a crime against nature. You have canines, so you're clearly intended to eat meat. I want _that_ on the record."

“You're a crime against nature, but I still keep you around. And stop trying to one up Adine's near-miss trophy, it's unbecoming." Danielle shot back, a sharp smirk tilting one corner of her mouth that she knew would infuriate the raptor. Ellie was only half-serious at the worst of times with her criticisms, but for whatever reason, that smirk got all the way down to the depths of her psyche and annoyed her beyond all measure, which is why Danielle made it a point to use it.

No quarter to the enemy, after all. 

Elisa opened her mouth to retort, rows of sharp ivory teeth glinting like knives in the waning light from the moon. The raptoress didn't get her comment out, however, before she was interrupted by a faint scent on the wind that caught her attention.

“Never mind, they're here. They aren't close, though. Off to our ten o'clock, probably about seven hundred meters, given the amount of dilution."

“Ours or theirs?" Danielle asked, immediately facing the indicated direction. As much of a hard time as she gave the raptoress daily, Danielle knew better than to question her abilities when it came to business. She nodded slowly, her gloved finger resting just outside the well of the M39's trigger guard. The time for jokes was over, and the time to work was here.

Danielle had only barely felt the change in wind, noticing only because of the shuffle of the leaves in the trees above them. If there was one thing she knew about Thuringia, it was how unpredictable the winds were in the low hills. She knew that the raptors were extremely in tune with everything around them, but it still amazed her every time Elisa found something with her nose alone. Had the wind been right, the raptor could have detected them over a mile away.  

 “Theirs. That grease smell is so sharp it's like an active radio beacon to their position. I smell a tank as well. One of the big bastards with a jet turbine. Wait, make that three tanks." Ellie said, moving to the edge of the stand of trees to peer out into the clearing, noting the slight downhill slope to the next tree line. The meadow was calm and quiet.

“And any sign of our friendlies?"

            Before the raptoress could answer, the heavy cracks of gunfire started as though they'd been scripted in advance. Danielle could hear no less than three machine guns of at least .50 caliber, punctuated by the thunderclap of tank cannons.

            “I'd say wherever those rounds are headed, if I was to guess." Elisa said dryly.

++++++

            Elisa was not near as intimately familiar with Russian tanks as Adine was, having not nearly been run over by two of them, but she knew enough to be dangerous. Mainly, that knowledge consisted of knowing she'd have to peel the steel sardine can open in order to get at the soft humans on the inside.

            Elisa _loved_ sardines. Especially the ones in the mustard with the little…

            _Focus!_ She mentally chided herself, focusing back forwards towards the gigantic muzzle flashes of the tanks. Now was not the time to get distracted by such things, no matter how magically delicious they were.  _ _

            The raptoress had advanced along the rear of the Russian formation, using the natural defilade provided by a slight, rolling rise to the enemy's five o'clock. Her packmates moved alongside her, no further than seventy-five meters away, communicating not with their radios, but by subtle, instinct-driven movements of their heads and s-curved necks. Adine stuck with the rightmost position, lining up on the behemoth T-80 tank that Ellie had first identified as soon as she'd detected the enemy. As the pack's beta and the leader of the hunting party, it was Adine's right to take the killing blow on the biggest, most dangerous prey. The two older tanks, both model T-72s, were Ellie's and Foxy's responsibility.

The attack plan was unspoken, the hunter-killer instincts of the Utahraptors had already decided on the best course of action even before the humans had gotten the full picture. They were in their element, and even though their prey was a damn slight deadlier than the herbivores that were hunted by their long-dead distant cousins, none of the raptors showed any sign of worry. Their humans were advancing from the north end of the defilade, ready to respond with their limited supply of anti-tank weapons should their raptors fail in their initial assault.

The Russians were spread in a large, half-moon formation, using the naturally hilly terrain this side of Neusorg to keep any wayward enemies from getting a line of sight on more than one of their positions at a time. They were hammering away at the tree line, so they obviously found something that they didn't like.

 She could hear the distinct thunderclaps of the 125mm tank cannons getting closer, interspersed with the thumping of heavy caliber machine guns. The heavy fire overshadowed the numerous cracks of small arms, and even a blind man couldn't miss the green tracers shooting skywards as rounds ricocheted up and away from their intended targets. The smoky haze had been quick to overtake them, carrying with it the smell of battle that they'd become all too familiar with.

Ellie was focused. She'd pushed the thoughts of the Russian kid down to the bottom of her subconsciousness almost as soon as the briefing had ended, covering them up with the mission at hand. Her arid hide blended in perfectly with the nighttime shadows, not a hint of reflection visible off her tough, marbled skin. She'd not endanger her pack with her own weakness, not for anything.

The raptors all stopped at once, turning uniformly to face the same direction almost as if choreographed to do so. Each reached with their left forepaw and pulled the igniting pin on the satchel charge that was tucked under their right arms, the carrying strap slung securely over their necks. Each would deposit said charge into or on top of their assigned tank, as they'd trained to do. With that action they were committed, the time delay fuse burning away quickly in its shielded sleeve.

The Russians had a fairly relaxed perimeter, the infantry focused only on what was happening to the front and nobody facing the rear. The few sentries that were supposed to be pulling rear security were all watching the fireworks in the opposite direction and didn't ever notice the three raptors descend upon them from the darkness.

That brief period of undisciplined behavior would cost them their lives, and they didn't even have a chance to realize it.

Elisa hit hers like a dump truck, slamming into him at a full run, not missing a beat as she kicked him to the ground with her outstretched left leg, stride remaining unbroken. As her foot crushed him into the ground, she flicked her scythe-like killing claw, making sure he'd stay down in the off-chance that a half ton weight stomping on his vital organs didn't already do the job. The crack of his whole ribcage and sternum went unnoticed as well, her mind focused too much for the amplified sound to even register as important.

The raptoress didn't slow down, covering the ten-meter distance to the rear decking of the tank in three strides of her heavily muscled legs. The jump onto the vehicle was effortless for her, less than a third of what she could accomplish from a dead sprint, but the footing was odd. She felt the engine air intakes bend inwards beneath her feet, not intended for dinosaur footholds, before she climbed onto the turret using the rear sponson boxes for grip. They creaked and groaned at the stress of the heavy saurian form, distorting downwards and providing a testament to the quality of the original factory welds that held them on.

The Russian tank crew was unaware of the disturbance above, focused solely on the combat action forwards.

They'd been on duty nearly twenty hours, having been diverted from combat patrols near Grafenwöhr and tasked out to the local commander in Neusorg. He'd had them running ready alerts all day, backing up his overtaxed infantry any time they saw something that looked suspicious, clearing the area in question with their powerful, French-made thermal gunsights. The last wild goose chase had been anything but, and a pitched battle had kicked off just before they'd gone off duty for a much-needed rest.

The interior of the tank was stifling hot, some heat bleeding through from the idling diesel engine, and some coming off the rapidly cycling breech of the main gun as it sent rounds down range. The commander's and gunner's hatches were propped open, and the driver had cycled the diesel engine air intakes to pull from crew compartment air as though the tank was fording a river. The V-12 diesel powerplant, a giant air pump by principle of operation, was allowing the cool night air to cycle through the tank and helped to stave off the majority of the sweat, but it left them vulnerable to an attack from the top.

“Right thirty, Sacha! HE-Frag!" The Russian commander yelled, observing the rounds impacting in the wood line. He reached to his right, fighting for space in the blue-lit interior of the tank, and pressed the button next to the vehicle intercom control, pausing the autoloader mid-reload cycle. He reached down and stuck his fuse tool into the nose of the round, twisting the fuse to the fragmentation setting before allowing the autoloader to ram the two-part munition home.

“Gun ready!" He called over his intercom, letting go of the talk switch before pressing his eyes back to his periscope to follow the main gun's new trajectory.

            Atop the vehicle, the crash of the tank's main cannon punched Elisa in the chest as another round lanced downrange, the burning hot trail of the shell disappearing into the trees directly in front of the Russian attack force before exploding in a brilliant shower of sparks. The flash was blinding, spots adorning her vision as she shook her head to regain her focus. She'd never been that close to a tank that was firing before. The raptoress was glad that they'd decided to don their communications headsets before they left the castle, their built-in noise-cancelling features blocking out all the harmful noise.

            Elisa sneezed as the puff of smoke from the tank's bore-evacuator hit her, the wind conveniently carrying it right into her face. She dodged to the right of the turret as a small, round hatch in the center popped open, ejecting the rear stub of a propellant cartridge out into the night. The tank lurched underneath her as the main cannon reset back into position with the tank's primary gun sight, the turret spinning slowly as the gunner adjusted his fire.

Not wasting any more time, the raptor pulled the Russian commander out through his odd, clamshell-shaped hatch with her forepaws. Elisa brought her foot forward, silencing his hoarse scream with her right killing claw, ripping his spine out from neck to buttocks. She dropped the man back into the tank right as the gun fired again, thrashing her neck and dropping the already primed satchel charge in right after him.

The raptoress didn't stick around to see the man's body get eaten by the massive autoloading mechanism as it cycled another round up from its storage carousel, the solid chain rammer trying to feed both the next HE-FRAG shell and the remains of the commander into the five inch cannon's breech. She instead slammed her right foot on the open commander's hatch, breaking the locking mechanism that was holding it open and jamming it shut before jumping off to the right rear. She pivoted on her feet, ignoring the choking black puff of exhaust from the tank's side exhaust port as she pushed for distance away from the steel beast.

It was about three seconds shy of the satchel charge detonating when the gunner realized that his autoloader had malfunctioned, bringing his eyes away from the tank's gunsights to see that the formerly white interior was now stained red. The autoloader had turned into an abattoir, shredding what was left of the tank commander's broken body in its metal jaws. He opened his mouth to scream for the driver, but it was already too late.

Twenty pounds of C4 detonated in the turret subfloor, right smack dab in the middle of the only partially depleted ammunition magazine. Seventeen rounds of ammunition and their accompanying powder charges went up before the first words could leave the man's mouth, instantly vaporizing the crew in a blast of shrapnel and superheated flame.

Elisa threw herself down to the ground behind the crest of the rise just as the hollow thump of the satchel charge echoed over the din of combat, her clawed feet ripping up the earth below her as she slid to a stop. Her clawed forepaws reached up and covered her eyes, pulling her head close to her armored chest in what resembled a human fetal position. She could feel the scalding heat from the twin jets of fire shooting upwards like a hellish blast furnace as the T-72 exploded in a shower of burning fuel and ammunition. The raptoress peaked out from between her fingers as another blast rumbled along the ground, almost missing the sight of the tank's several-ton turret flying through the air like a child's toy.

“Elisa, ok." She called calmly into her radio as a rain of tank pieces dropped around her, glowing red thanks to their explosive departure. Her other two packmates responded the same way a moment later, signaling the next phase of their hunt.

The raptor rolled to her feet, tail snapping behind her as she broke into another run, this time headed for the exposed Russian positions on her tank's left flank. The burning ruin of the T-72's hull was on her right side, highlighting the confused Russian troops as they looked towards the burning hulk of their support.

Elisa took note of her communication's headset sound amplification feature activating, the rushing of the wind as she ran the only sound reaching her sensitive ears. It was as if the whole world had come to a stop in a matter of seconds.

No gunfire could be heard from either side as everyone took a moment to try and figure out what had happened. She could hear the snaps and zings of machine gun ammunition cooking off in the raging fire, and the call of Russian voices, but nothing more. Just that empty, hollow wind.

She slid to a stop again no less than twenty feet from the nearest Russian troops, dirt and mud flying from her feet as they interrupted her half-ton body's forward momentum. Her heart was beating frantically, the adrenaline of the hunt rushing straight through her body at the speed of light, each frantic movement from the terrified humans in front of her happening in what seemed to be slow motion.

Once more, the enemies of her pack were there. Intruders to their territory. A danger to her family!

The corners of her vision turned that same pulsing red, the ripple of power running out to each of her limbs like a 10,000-volt electrical shock. Her claws flexed unconsciously, two scythe-like points ripping the dirt savagely with each flick as they searched for flesh to rend.

Gone was the mind that bantered with her guardian human, smiling in secret so as not to ruin her steely reputation.

            Instead, Elisa the hunter was present. Her blood boiled with expectations of the carnage to come. She would teach the intruders why they should never have bothered to violate the territory of her pack. She would show them once again the true meaning of fear!  

Elisa brought herself up to her full height, head pointed skyward, before she let loose a roar that seemed to shake the very air around her. The raptoress' vocal chords vibrated violently, the screeching sound loud enough to force her audio amplification to once again cut off to protect her hearing.

The reaction from the Russian troopers was instant, heads snapping back to search for the sound that seemed to be straight out of hell itself. They saw the vague shape of the creature, lit by firelight from their burning tanks. The colors were too subdued to make out much of any detail, but the flash of ivory teeth, shining bright with saliva, only helped to compliment the glowing orange eye-shine of the monster's binocular vision. Not unlike a cat's eyes in a camera flash, they showed no pupils.

One second the nightmare creature was there, and the next second, it was gone.

Order broke in the Russian ranks almost immediately, with men rushing every which way in an effort to put distance between them and said nightmare. Men that had been triumphant in their search for a bedraggled American force only minutes before, acting against the enemies of their motherland, now scattered like a bunch of scared mice.

The six ahead of her stood and turned to run, leaving everything from helmets, rucksacks, and the occasional rifle behind in their flight. The soldiers did not see the other two raptors coming from the left and right, a blinding display of teeth and claws in what was a textbook hunting ambush.

Adine and Foxy hit like a bomb, pouncing two down into the dust in little more than the blink of an eye. The frantic shouting was drowned out by the tearing of kevlar and the soft, thwacking sound of claws rending flesh, followed by sound not unlike a running hose as bright red arterial blood spilled. Elisa met them in the middle with her own pounce, catching two men in the neck with her forepaws, leaving both men's heads barely hanging on by a thread as they fell.

She turned her body like a ballerina, aiming at another soldier to her left, pushing past Adine in her rage. The beta raptor snapped her jaws closed with an indignant screech, the solid Snap! of all those teeth immediately jarring Ellie away from the human. The message from the big, beta raptor had been clear.

_No! Mine!_

Elisa jumped away, snapping her own jaws in begrudging acknowledgement before turning and moving off, the beta raptor's claim on that particular kill undebatable with one of her rank. In doing so, she saw the other half of the Russian platoon to the right of the burned-out tank and smiled inwardly. The raptoress barked twice, getting Foxy's attention over to the new threat, before she started towards them at full tilt.

The scene that followed was more of the same. The flickering firelight made the details sparse as Elisa moved at a speed uncommon to even most raptors, her lithe frame showing off the advantages that went along with it. The ripple of muscles and the screech of her voice told everyone in earshot in no uncertain terms to whom this territory belonged.

And just like that it was over. The raptoress stood stock still, scanning the surroundings with her powerful senses as she scanned for more threats. Prey was known to get violent when cornered, and she wouldn't let any harm fall to the hunting party from injured and dying prey.

Several barks from her beta got her attention, Adine trotting up to where she could see the two of them, her posture alert but not indicating further danger. Elisa answered with her own set of barks, nodding her head as the hunt leader turned and stalked in the opposite direction.

It was only then that she noticed the radio squawking in her ear.

“Ellie, It's Texas. You guys okay down there?" The voice of her guardian faded in, the hazy red corners of her vision falling away as she came back down from her high.

“We're clear here, Texas. All green." Elisa called over her radio, keeping the shudder from her voice as she stepped away from the remains of what looked to be six men, all in various twisted and broken poses on the ground. She ignored the blood running between her toes, taking several steps back before turning away.

“Yeah, all green from me." Foxy responded, his voice deep and steady as always. She could see the male from where she was, the slight nod of his head very humanlike as he spoke.

“Yes, all green." Adine confirmed before abruptly shutting off her mic. Elisa could see her stalking through the bodies nearest her, checking for any signs of life that she knew she wouldn't find.

She approached the still occasionally popping hulk of the tank, giving it a wide berth and trying not to silhouette herself as she made her way back over towards the rest of her pack.

She looked at the various pieces on the ground, using them to focus and get her breathing back down to normal levels. Like the counting exercise she knew Angel used when she was stressed, Ellie was cataloging the size of the debris from small to large, trying to guess what part of the tank each jagged, smoking piece of detritus had originated. She needed to maintain that focal point, to keep everything in order. She needed to drown out the sight of those frightened blue eyes staring back at her from Pressath. They'd come forward after the sounds of battle had faded, ready to judge. Ready to stare holes through the one responsible for their end.

“Alright, gang! Let's move up on the wood line, humans first! We'll see if we can't get those troops to not shoot us in terror after seeing…well, that." Reuben laughed uncomfortably, indicating to the platoon sized element, plus three tanks, that lay dead around them. She could make out the obvious discomfort in his voice but tried not to think about it. The raptoress couldn't help but notice the undercurrent of fear that was present there as well.

She ran her eyes over one last piece of that ill-fated tank, trying to push Roo's fear from her thoughts.

He was a pack member.

Her family.

Her friend.

What reason did he have to fear her?

She did what she had to do to protect the pack! She did what she had to do to protect him and everyone else!

_They were the enemy!_

“Elisa, you coming?"

Ellie continued to stare at the last piece of debris, her brain repeating the same phrase over and over.

_I was Justified!_

“Elisa."

_Justified!_

“Ellie!"

“Yeah?" Elisa responded, looking into Danielle's light brown eyes, which stared at her worriedly from underneath the brim of her MICH helmet. The raptor could see the worry in them, but thankfully, noted the absence of fear.

“You coming?" Texas asked again, nodding her head in the direction of the woods.

Elisa internally kicked herself, knowing that every red flag was going off in her partner's mind, but nodded in her freakishly human way.

“Yeah, let's go. Those soldiers aren't going to save themselves."

“Good, I didn't want to have to deal with getting to know a new raptor if I left your ass here." Texas said quietly, the attempt at snark falling flat. Both could tell there had been no heart in the statement, and they both just let it die on the cool night air.

Austin turned and began walking towards the wood line, M39 rifle tucked tight in to her right shoulder at the low ready. Ellie made to follow her, but took one more moment to glance back down at the piece of debris that had held her attention.

It was a man's hands. They were charred jet black, more like charcoal than actual flesh, with the remnants of gloves peeled away like a burned banana. Bright white bone stuck through in the places where the force of the explosion had stripped the skin, muscle, and fat bare, highlighting each finger in the dirt below her. They gripped what looked like a video game controller, and Ellie knew that they were the gunner's 'cadillac' controls for the main cannon in a tank. On the middle finger of his left hand, past more peeled away glove and bone, was a bright gold ring.

Elisa recoiled as if shot, turning and running to catch up to her human without another word.

Texas looked over to her one more time before turning and refocusing her attention forwards.

Ellie couldn't see anything through the blue eyes that silently judged her.

_I was justified!_

_ _

To Be Continued…

  

 

 

 

           

 

 

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/zeRQ7xg1
Part of the series RSH- Lucky Seven
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