Hellhounds: Control of Unstable (Part 1)
#3 of Hellhounds
Hellhounds: Control of Unstable (Part 1)
I didn't get much sleep that night. After everything Zepher said, I couldn't stop wondering if the entire team was about to walk into a grave trap, or if we were going to do something that would bring about the Apocalypse for Lupus. I was also still freaked out by Zepher, and didn't want to sleep anywhere near him that night, so I slept on the couch with the lights off. I only got four hours of sleep before the colonel woke up the entire squadron, shouting at us to get off our lazy asses for the next mission. We got our weapons ready, got pumped up for the next job to pull off, and headed into our Humvees so we could drive down to the nearby airfield. All of us got into a tan chopper, and pretty soon, we were flying towards our next destination. Our handler wanted us to head over to the city of Unstable to give a battalion of soldiers some backup so they could regain control of the town. That was our secondary objective, anyway. Our primary one was to eliminate a furry who went by the name of Tenny Maltowzer, who just so happened to be the lieutenant leading the assault against the battalion we were supposed to support. As always, we didn't ask why or how, and knew that it had to be done if we wanted to get our money. Besides, it was "all for the greater good," so we had no reason to question them. I just wished they deployed us somewhere else besides Unstable. The city was once thriving with all kinds of horses big and small, young and old. But when the Genocide Wars were brought about shortly after the leader of the world was assassinated, Unstable was one of the cities that were hit hard. No one knows how it happened, but it only took four days for the city to be turned into a desolate wasteland. Soldiers invaded the town overnight. I'm not sure which faction it was, but we all suspected Commander Zeo's private army of tigers. Hmph, army may be putting it lightly. What they did in the city was savage, and all the furries were butchers. They killed all the stallions first, hanging them from the ceiling, decapitating them in front of their families, setting them on fire, pulling them apart after tying their limbs to two trucks and then driving away-pretty much any sick form of torture you can think of, they did. When all the stallions were gone, those who still had a heart left in them murdered the foals quickly and only raped the mares once. Others found it fitting to mutilate their genitals and bury the foals alive after bashing their skulls in or forcing them to watch as they raped their mother (or father, as I heard many of them were targeted too). When all the dust cleared, the city was left with nothing but thousands, possibly tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dead corpses. The mares who survived were either sold into a trafficking ring, or entered a deep depression and became homeless, or were driven insane. The stallions who were turned into gelding wound up committing suicide after a few months went by, and those that weren't probably suffered the same fate after watching all their friends and family die so gruesomely. As far as I know, no foals survived the slaughter.
The genocide of the city was one of the reasons why I decided to join the military, especially after the disturbing images I saw on the news. Not only that, but I remembering hearing about a few friends who were vacationing in the city when the massacre happened. To this day, I still haven't heard word from them, and even though they weren't equines, I can only assume the worst. Now, Unstable's nothing more than a deserted town that looked like a nuke might've hit the area. All the buildings are tattered, ready to break down-some of them actually have just toppled over on a windy day. The city wasn't completely ruined after the massacre; just the furries there. What really fucked up the town was the dozens of factions of soldiers who invaded the run-down city over and over and over again. First the roos came in, hopping their way into the city about a year after the massacre. Two months later, the coons snuck in overnight and killed all the marsupials and took over the town themselves. Half a year later, a group of fighters bombed the city, and the coons who survived knew the city wasn't worth dying for, so they left too. Then the dragons started to seek expansion, and thought Unstable was a perfect place to hold up. This went on for years, and after each bloody battle, the city would become even more damaged than it already was. What used to be a jolly town full of equines is now a world of sorrow occupied by soldiers who have no problem shooting you on sight, no matter what species you are. I haven't been to Unstable in a while, but I'm sure the same shit is still going on...
I sat in the chopper keeping a firm grip on my M4 rifle, waiting for the helicopter to land in the desolate area. I could see a few other choppers hovering towards the city as well, carrying a squadron of wolves with them to provide backup for Lieutenant Strang's forces.
"Thirty seconds!" shouted the pilot.
The Hellhounds and I checked our firearms one last time to make sure everything was in order before sitting and waiting with anticipation. We were soon over the outskirts of the city, and the deafening sound of gunfire and explosions could be heard below us. Jakob and I managed to catch a glimpse of an RPG hit an adjacent chopper and blow it to smithereens, sending all ten wolves inside to their deaths.
"Damn. I'd hate to be those guys, eh Donnie?"
I didn't respond.
"Ten seconds!"
We were hovering over the landing area. I could see other helicopters landing and offloading more troops to support Strang's battalion. Some of the started sprinting for cover, while others were gunned down not even five seconds after leaving the chopper. Eventually, our chopper touched the gravel, and we were ready to roll.
"Go, go, go!" shouted the colonel.
All of us jumped out the helicopter and started sprinting.
"RPG! RPG!"
I almost shat myself when I heard those three letters, three letters that could strike fear into any soldier, no matter how big or small. Our team wasn't even five feet away from the chopper yet when I heard the loud whoosh, and jerked my head left to see that an enemy just fired a missile from his rocket launcher.
"GET DOWN!"
I tackled Denton as hard as I could and both of us shut our eyes as we landed on the ground. The missile made contact with the chopper we were just riding in, creating an explosion so loud I went deaf temporarily. I could feel the heat from the blast, could smell the fire and burning metal. It was like I was in Hell for a brief moment. But the one thing I noticed about explosions is that they only lasted for a few seconds, and once the fireball's gone, you're back in the game. Denton and I lay there on the ground for seven seconds, and then looked at what was left of the chopper and stood back up. Lucky for us, the only casualties were the pilot and co-pilot. Jakob immediately sprang into action and rolled along the gravel before equipping his Dragunov. He found the assailant who fired the RPG in a matter of seconds and quickly shot him in the chest. Recovering from yet another near-death experience, Denton and I started to run down a gravel road alongside the dozens of wolf soldiers in gray camouflage uniforms, similar to ours. The enemy decided to rear in their ugly heads and started shooting at us. All of Tenny's soldiers consisted of tigers wearing dark grey and sand-colored camouflage uniforms. I quickly took cover behind a dumpster along with Denton while some of the others rushed the enemy. Aiming down his sights, the colonel shot a tiger in the chest three times before rolling out the way and hitting another tiger in the face and neck. He quickly hid behind a building once the enemy spotted him and returned fire. I peered behind the dumpster and saw a tiger hiding behind a telephone pole across the intersection, wagging his tail and keeping a firm grip on his rifle. I shot him in the tail and watched as he swore out loud and briefly stumbled from his hiding area. I promptly planted four in his chest. Immediately afterwards, I swore and crouched behind the dumpster as a hailstorm of bullets were fired my way. Noticing how easy it was for the bullets to penetrate through the weak metal, I quickly ran over and hid behind the building adjacent to the one the colonel was planting his wall against. A few soldiers tried to rush the three tattered buildings across the street, but all four of them were gunned down by all the tigers hiding behind the walls and dumpsters. Another squadron tried to rush the building as well, but once two of their wolves were shot in the forehead by two separate snipers; it became clear that we were pinned down and needed support. Riesling peered behind the corner of the wall and immediately jerked his head back when two bullets ricocheted off the concrete, almost taking off his nose.
"Jakob we could really use your help down here!" he shouted into his earpiece.
"I'm on it, sir!"
We waited impatiently behind the buildings, watching as all the other soldiers were screaming at each other to take cover, before I heard someone grunting a few feet from where I stood. I caught a glimpse of Jakob hopping off one building and landing onto another, rolling along the roof and panting as he looked for a nice spot to take out the enemies.
"In position!"
I exhaled and peered behind the corner again, trying to find the two snipers who had us pinned down. Lucky for me, Jakob found one of them before I did, judging by the loud sound of his rifle cracking as he fired off a shot. I finally spotted the second sniper, and three seconds later, he spun around and fell on his back, dead after Jakob shot him in the head.
"Snipers neutralized!"
"Good. Let's move!"
Colonel sprang from his hiding spot only to immediately have more bullets rained down upon him from the soldiers waiting inside the buildings. He promptly swore while firing a few rounds and ran over to where I hid, panting heavily.
"I never said the area was clear, sir."
"You're a fuckin' comedian. I always wanted to have two smart-asses on our team!"
I sighed heavily before another soldier started straining as he dragged a wounded wolf behind the dumpster and hid.
"WHERE IS THAT GODDAMN HELICOPTER!!?!"
"Say that again soldier?" said the colonel.
"There's supposed to be an attack chopper here to help us out if we're pinned down! I called for it ten minutes ago!"
"It's a war, soldier! By now you should know that things don't go according to plan! Now just sit there and be patient; they should be here soon!"
And so we hid and waited, listening to nothing short of the sounds of bullets whizzing by us and soldiers from other squadrons shouting to take cover. It wasn't until about a minute or 90 seconds later that the chopper finally arrived, and we all felt a wave of relief washing over us. We looked up at the attack chopper as it flew above our position and hovered in mid-air. I could see the turret underneath the chopper whirring and pretty soon, it began to fire hundreds of bullets at the three enemy buildings ahead of us. The soldiers didn't have a chance, even behind the walls they were using for cover. The turret's bullets pierced through the concrete and obliterated the soldiers' organs and flesh and bone. After gunning down a majority of the tigers, the chopper fired two missiles, and two of the buildings went up in flames, showering blazing concrete and wood and gravel down onto us. The Apache chopper fired two more missiles, and the remaining building went up in flames as well, leaving nothing in its wake but more flames and acrid smoke. The tigers who hadn't been killed from the turrets wrath surely perished when the missiles were fired. The chopper had finished its job and began to fly away to go help another sector in the city.
"Everyone move! NOW!" shouted the sergeant leading the squadron hiding with us.
The sergeant's squadron and our team began to sprint through the intersection, ignoring the thick, choking stench of the humid smoke all around us.
"Stick close to me hounds! We're gonna rendezvous with the lieutenant!" shouted Riesling.
"What about the target, sir?" shouted Fenrir.
"If we have Strang and his wolves fighting by our side, we have a better chance of taking over Tenny's fortress."
"Sure, colonel. You just wanna help Strang so we get paid a little extra for savin' his ass." said Smart-ass.
"Like none of your mercs want another fifty grand in your bank accounts? Just keep your mouths shut and follow me!"
Smart-ass shockingly didn't deliver another retort, although I'm sure he was dying to. We trotted behind the colonel as we ducked and dodged more bullets fired from the enemy soldiers. After taking out the buildings, the colonel sprinted down an alleyway until we arrived at another four-way intersection. Up ahead was a tattered skyscraper that nearly burned to the ground years ago, and a road leading straight to the ocean. We paused for a brief moment before the colonel gestured for us to go left, and we did. We ran into seven soldiers who were walking backwards and firing their weapons at opposing canine soldiers. All six of us (I couldn't find Jakob, and assumed he was hopping from rooftop to rooftop looking for a nice vantage point) raised our assault rifles and gunned down all the soldiers before they could react. We paid no attention to their corpses, nor did we stick around for the squadron under fire to thank us, and continued to sprint forwards. A wayward soldier rolled out from a pitch black alleyway and attempted to take us out, but Fenrir quickly shot him in the chest three times. Zepher didn't take any chances and assumed he had friends, so he fired several bullets into the dark alley erratically. Several grunts and groans were heard, followed by four thuds.
"CLEAR!"
Zepher regrouped with us and we were running yet again. The colonel took a sharp left and headed into an abandoned building with no doors or windowpanes. Judging by the deafening ruckus up ahead, Riesling assumed that the lieutenant, or some of his chief officers, was close by. We ran straight forward through all the deserted houses until we arrived at the scene of the shootout. The colonel pressed his back against the wall and peered around the corner, sneaking a quick peek at the fight, a one-sided fight, rather.
"Shit! We got a BTR."
All of us groaned with frustration.
"How many soldiers?" asked Denton.
"I counted twelve. Alright, we gotta do this fast. You, Zepher and Smart-ass stay down here and take out the soldiers. Donnie, Fenrir and I will get on the rooftops and regroup with Jakob, provide cover fire and see if we can find a rocket launcher."
"What if you can't? You know those pussycats make their BTRs impervious to grenades, and we don't have any claymores."
Fenrir shrugged. "I got a few blocks of C4. If you guys draw the BTR's attention away from me, I'll run up and stick one on the back of it. But that's only if it's necessary; I don't feel like getting my ass shot up by that giant gun."
"Why not? With how fat your ass is, the bullets will be absorbed by your buttocks."
"...Seriously?" asked Denton.
The colonel promptly bonked Denton and Smart-ass on their noggins with the butt of his rifle.
"YOU PUPS DONE HORSING AROUND?!!?"
"OW! Yeah, colonel, we'll stop. ...Don't know why you hit me though."
"Because you're an idiot. Now, let's move!"
Denton, Zepher and Smart-ass ran out into the middle of the road and started shooting some of the soldiers in the back, while the colonel, Fenrir and I rushed up the stairs. We saw Jakob panting as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop and headed in our direction. I looked down into the street and saw Smart-ass and Denton shoot two tigers in the back four times before rolling for cover when some of the other soldiers began to realize they were being flanked. I yelped once two bullets zoomed past my ears and looked straight ahead to see tigers on the rooftops across the street crouching and standing up to shoot at us. I took a few steps back before looking through my scope and shooting one tiger in-between the eyes. Then I hit another target twice in the torso. He tried to get off one shot before dying, but all he could do was cough up blood and fall to his knees. Nevertheless, his comrades spotted us and opened fire, and we were forced to take cover near the ledge and lie in a prostrate position. Fenrir peered over the ledge to see if he could get a good shot, but he was greeted with more bullets. We lay there and crawled around trying to take out the enemy without being spotted for about twenty seconds, and then heard someone grunt and slide along the roof until he rolled around next to us.
"Nice to see you guys up here for a change." said Jakob.
"We're pinned down, and Zepher and the others are assaulting the BTR! Mind giving us some covering fire?" I shouted.
"Can't! I've been tracking a group of soldiers with heavy weaponry; they have RPGs! If they get to a spot where they can view the battalion from the rooftops, they're not gonna stand a chance! I gotta take 'em out before that happens!"
"What the hell are we supposed to do until then?!"
"Give me covering fire while I hop over to that rooftop and find a spot to take out the hostiles!"
"You want us to give you covering fire?!" asked Fenrir.
"GO!"
Jakob stood up and starting running over to the other rooftop. I groaned exasperatedly and started to shoot over the ledge erratically alongside Fenrir and Riesling. I knew we didn't hit anyone, but the enemy was convinced that we might've hit them by mistake, so they hid anyway. I ran out of bullets and ducked so I could reload.
"In position!" said Jakob over the earpiece.
The sniper looked through the scope on his rifle and found the squadron of five tigers carrying the rocket launchers with them. He shut one of his eyes and zoomed in until he got a good angle on one of their heads, and then he fired off a shot. Blood and brain fragments sprayed all over the other four tigers, and they began to panic once their team member was taken out. While panicking, Jakob seized his window of opportunity and shot another tiger in the nasal cavity. The enemy finally discovered that a sniper was among them, and started to run to a different location. Jakob groaned and removed his sniper so he could stand up and start sprinting and jumping from rooftop to rooftop yet again.
"Damnit, they're relocating! I'm goin' after them colonel!" said Jakob over the earpiece.
"What about us? We still need that cover fire Jake!" said Fenrir.
"Smart-ass isn't the only one on the team with a brain! You guys figure it out!"
"Goddamnit-ZEPHER! Change of plans! Go inside one of the buildings and find a way to the roof so you can take out the tigers who have us pinned down!" said the colonel over the earpiece.
"Aye, sir."
I still couldn't see much of anything since I was still lying on my stomach waiting for the bullets to stop, but after 30 seconds, I already knew full well what Zepher was up to. Zepher rushed up the stairs and quickly jumped over to another rooftop, rolling along the concrete until he was a foot away from a soldier shooting at us. The werewolf grabbed the tiger and used him as a shield before taking the pistol out of his front pocket and aiming it at the other tiger on the roof. Shouting commenced, and the tiger wound up shooting his buddy several times in the chest with his assault rifle. Zepher quickly dispatched of his friend, and his shield. He tossed the pistol aside and hopped onto another rooftop, taking out his knife after rolling and slicing a tiger's Achilles tendon wide open. Zepher was moving so fast it didn't even look real. The tiger yelped and stumbled on the rooftop, only to be stabbed in the back of the neck. Zepher hid behind a metal crate once they saw that the werewolf had penetrated their defenses. He waited calmly until the tiger used up all the bullets in their magazines before standing up and taking them both out. One of them was shot in the Adam's apple, and he gurgled loudly as torrents of blood shot up into the air. The other was shot in both of his eyes, and his forehead. Had I been standing next to Zepher, I would've seen him grinning maliciously. There were only two soldiers left on the rooftops across from us. Zepher retrieved his knife and panted as he ran over to the other roof and tackled one of the tigers. He shot the other one in both of his kneecaps with his handgun before he could take a shot at him before he began to drool and stared down at the feline he was on. The werewolf opened his maw wide and snarled viciously as he bit down on his throat. The tiger started screaming for help and thrashing his paws around, praying for someone to help him, but the other tiger was too busy groaning from having two bullets lodged in his kneecaps. The soldier Zepher was on let out a gurgled moan once the werewolf pulled out a large chunk of meat from his neck, and he snarled again as he began to noisily smack on the flesh. After he gulped it down, he walked over to the wounded soldier and kicked his assault rifle away, before kicking him over so he was looking up at Zepher. The werewolf smiled evilly as he stared down at the tiger, who muttered soft pleases of mercy. But Zepher merely responded by raising his right leg and stopping down on his face with his boot. The werewolf growled levelly upon hearing his skull shatter and seeing blood pouring out of his orifices, and he slowly removed his boot and looked down at the tiger's mangled face. Any normal soldier would just shoot the tiger in the forehead. But Zepher wasn't normal, not one little bit.
"Rooftop's clear." he said over the earpiece.
"Good, now give us some cover fire! The BTR has us pinned down!" shouted Denton.
Smart-ass and Denton were hiding behind a concrete column as the BTR and the remaining soldiers fired hundreds of bullets at them, just waiting for one of them to trip and fall so they could tear their bodies to shreds. Lucky for them, there were four of us on the rooftops who had clear access to the enemy. The colonel and I each took out a soldier standing next to the BTR by shooting them in the torso and ribs, whilst Fenrir let off three rounds from his rifle, each hitting a tiger in the midriff. The remaining four tigers knew they were being ambushed by assailants on the roof and looked up to see us aiming our guns at them. Zepher shot a tiger through the ear and the rest of us ducked yet again when the BTR and three soldiers sighted us. We promptly army crawled on the roof as the army vehicle fired at us, but Zepher kept the situation under control. He switched from pistol to his M4 and immediately fired several rounds into a soldier's back, making him scream as he fell forwards and died. The other two tigers began to panic, realizing that they were the only ones left, and backup was several yards away.
"Donner, we need backup! Call for back-UGH!!"
Donner's partner groaned once Smart-ass shot him three times in the stomach.
"SHIT!"
The final tiger was taken down once Zepher threw his knife into the back of his head. Now that all the soldiers were dead, we could finally work on the BTR itself.
"Jakob! Have you come across any RPGs yet?!" I shouted.
"Negative! Still tryin' to take out the rival RPG squadron!"
"What about you Zepher?"
"No!"
Riesling sighed. "We're goin' to Plan B! Smart-ass! Denton! Draw the BTR's attention towards you so Fenrir can set the C4!"
"Roger that!"
Denton and Smart-ass stepped out from behind the column they were hiding behind and started to fire at the BTR relentlessly, creating an uproar when their bullets ricocheted off the metal. They wasted about fifteen bullets each, but the plan worked, and the driver of the BTR turned the turret so it was looking at Denton and Smart-ass now. They promptly ran for cover again, only this time they hid behind a bar inside one of the local pubs. While both of them ignored all the chunks of wood and glass raining down upon them as the BTR's turret wrecked the bar, Fenrir took a few steps back, preparing to run off the roof and jump onto the ground. He took out a block of C4 and holstered his weapon, and then sprinted forward and jumped off the building, landing on the gravel and rolling to break his fall. Lucky him, the buildings we were on weren't even twenty feet high. Fenrir got to his feet and ran behind the BTR. He slammed the chunk of plastic explosive on the back of the machine before carefully inserting a thin detonator into the explosive. Once it was set in place, Fenrir turned around and sprinted away from the BTR, just in time for the turret to turn around.
"TAKE COVER!" shouted Fenrir.
Zepher, Riesling and I threw ourselves down on the rooftops while Denton and Smart-ass remained hidden behind the bar. Fenrir hopped behind a titanium crate before taking out the charge to activate the detonator. He pressed down on the large, glowing red button and watched as the C4 exploded. There was a small explosion at first, something that sounded like a grenade going off. But half a second later, the sound of the explosion was amplified threefold, as well as the force of the intense fireball. The BTR was blown to smithereens, incinerating all the soldiers inside in a matter of seconds. The turret was blown off the BTR, as well as a few wheels and red hot chunks of metal. After witnessing the fireball drift up into the atmosphere and quickly disappear, I got to my feet and looked down to see that the BTR had flames dancing all around it, and was emitting more acrid smoke and the smell of hot metal.
"BTR's neutralized! Let's move hounds!"
Zepher, Riesling and I jumped off the rooftops and regrouped with the others on the ground, and Zepher retrieved his knife yet again. We looked all around to make sure an enemy patrol wasn't spying on us, and then we headed over to the squadron of canine soldiers the BTR was assaulting.
"I bet those tigers sure are fired up about me blowing up their BTR." chuckled Fenrir.
"Fenrir, how is that even remotely humorous?" I asked.
"Ah, you guys will never understand my humor."
"Of course we won't. You don't have any humor and you never will." said Smart-ass.
We continued to trot along the gravel until we finally caught up with the squadron of wolves facing heavy resistance from Maltowzer's soldiers. There were about seventeen of them, all barricaded behind a thick wall. A few of them were on the rooftops as well, trying to find a way to flank the enemy, but all of their plans had failed so far, and they had lost many wolves in the process. Lucky for us, Lieutenant Strang was one of the seventeen hiding. Our squadron had had many run-ins with Strang in the past, usually on siege missions or Special Ops. assignments that usually ended horribly. We all knew who he was; he was the only gray wolf we knew with four scars around his face and eye.
"Lieutenant Strang!" shouted the colonel.
We rushed over to Strang and his wolves and hid alongside the wall, and I peeked around the corner to see how many tigers were in our way. I was able to spot two of them before they returned fire and nearly shot my nose off.
"Never thought I'd be glad to see your ugly mugs again! Any longer and that BTR would've cut us to pieces!"
"Yeah, nice to see you too, lieutenant. What's the situation?"
"We can't get passed those machine gun nests they have deployed near the city hall, and there appear to be snipers posted in the adjacent buildings. Everytime we try to flank 'em, the sniper end up taking us out! Not only that, but we spotted a few tigers with RPGs a few minutes ago."
"Our sniper's takin' care of them; you don't need to worry about that. You got any smoke grenades?"
"We had smoke grenades, but most of us used all of them when we got into the city. Trust me colonel, this city was thriving with tigers until our battalion showed up...and we sure as hell had more wolves with us." said one of Strang's wolves.
"You're saying all seventeen of you are out of smoke grenades?!"
"I don't see your team carrying any either, colonel." retorted the lieutenant.
"A few of us did have smoke grenades, but the ones who had 'em are all dead now." said another soldier.
"Their bodies nearby pup?"
"Yeah, the rooftops, but you can't get up there without one of the snipers taking off your head. That's the problem here!"
"There is no problem pup! It's very simple: all we have to do is take out the snipers, acquire the smoke grenades, toss a few out into the street and at the machine gun nests, and head over to city hall." said Smart-ass.
"That's suicide!"
"Yeah, I don't expect a majority of you to make it, but some of us will, and that's the primary building we need to take over if we want to gain control over the city. Besides, I'm sure Lieutenant Maltowzer's hiding in there somewhere, and I'm sure we're not the only ones who want to nab that S.O.B."
"He's got a point, sir. We've been searching for this lieutenant for months; this is our only chance to get him before he disappears for another six months."
"Hmm, you're right soldier. How do we take out the snipers though? We don't have air support or any tanks."
The colonel chuckled. "Relax, lieutenant. We have a sniper of our own."