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Hellhounds: Dylan's Fireshow (Part 1)

We spent the next several hours inside the safe house watching television, making jokes or chatting about all the speciesists located in the Valish Quadrant, joking about how they hate us for being able to make our own body heat. Of course, Smart-ass tended to go a bit far with some of the jokes, and we quickly changed the subject before all of us started fighting and biting each other like a pack of wild mutts. I was glad he didn't bring up the yenas again. The LAST thing any of us wanted to hear was him blabbing about all the immigrant yenas who kept invading different sectors of Lupus. Some of them wanted to become window wipers, whilst others wound up become notorious international criminals. But we'll talk about the yenas another time before I start rambling myself. So, we stayed inside the building all day, although I noticed something was wrong with Denton. He seemed to be quiet that day, almost as quiet as Zepher. But I figured he was still pissed about Fenrir nabbing the target before he had the chance to, so I ignored it. Eventually, night rolled around, and a couple of us squeezed in another nap before it were time to head off (although I'm sure Smart-ass was masturbating, and Zepher was busy sniffing his shoes again). When it was early in the morning, we changed into our dark green camouflage uniforms and black boots and requested a chopper to fly us over the area. It was dark after all, so no one would see us parachuting into the Quadrant, as opposed to actually trying to land and having the SAMs take out the chopper in the process. I'm sure the pilot managed to lie his way out of explaining to any of the scalies why he was roaming around in the area, but the important thing was that no one spotted us.

Valish Quadrant isn't as bad as Unstable, at least, if you're not a furry it ain't. I still don't know how it happened-maybe there was some rebellion against us canids or something-but the area was overrun by thousands upon thousands of scalies of all sorts. Valish Quadrant wasn't some peaceful city like Unstable used to be, and there were no genocides that happened overnight. Before the lizards took over, the area was nothing more than a series of swamps and forests, and the occasional wide-open plains. My guess is that they took the quadrant over to make it their ideal headquarters and defense line, and for a spot of relaxation, as all gators and turtles seemed to head into the quadrant to rest in the swamps like it were a Jacuzzi. I wasn't surprised that one of Dylan McServo's warehouses was installed there, considering he was one of the head officials in the area. McServo, in the simplest way to describe him, was an Iksar hothead with olive scales on his body and pale green ones on his abdomen, soles and underside of his tail. He was Irish even though he didn't have much of an accent and he had severe anger issues. Rumors went around saying he shot a guy for spilling a glass of milk because he was in a bad mood that day. I didn't blame him though, not with the way this world was at the time. Besides, he spent the first two years of his life in the military cleaning latrines. Doing a shitty job like that (ignore the pun) for so long would make anyone furious. I'm not sure what happened afterwards. All I know is that he went into battle, and the higher-ups were so impressed with his body count and his badass attitude that he got promoted. Eventually, he gained the rank of General, and commanded an army of thousands of Iksars. His family wasn't any different; his nephew Kyle spent his time hacking into other armies' defenses like a cyber terrorist, and his brother Lenny actually supplies his brother with weapons and new technology he buys on the black market.

We arrived at the warehouse after spending twenty minutes treading through the forests. The facility was much larger than we anticipated, and even though it was the middle of the night, it was still active, infested with Iksars wearing dark brown camouflage. We managed to see a large box truck enter the premises through a sliding gate, which slowly slid shut after the truck driver headed near the building. The colonel sighed and examined the compound with his binoculars while Jakob started to scope out all the snipers on the rooftop. Riesling grumbled to himself.

"So what's the plan boss?" asked Denton.

Riesling put his binoculars back down. "Okay, you, Zepher and Donnie head up that ladder over there and break inside the warehouse through the roof. The rest of us will sneak in through the back door."

"Great, I'm paired up with the fat one and Ass-breath."

Riesling bashed Smart-ass in the nose with his rifle.

"Shut up, less you want them to hear you mouthing off. If those Iksars spot any of us and the alarms go off, it won't be long before we're surrounded by thousands and thousands of scalies, so perhaps it'd be best that we do this slowly and quietly, savvy?"

Denton looked at the colonel and raised an eyebrow.

"Savvy means 'understand,' Denton." said Smart-ass, carefully.

"...I knew that."

"Sure you did." he muttered under his breath.

"Jakob, you stay outside and monitor the perimeter, warn us if you think reinforcements are coming."

"Gotcha." said Jakob, already running into the forest to find a good vantage point.

"When that truck over there leaves the compound, we'll assault the warehouse. Ready?"

Everyone nodded and stared at the box truck as it slowly drove out of the gates and down a dirt road, disappearing into the night.

"Go!"

The six of us quickly slid downhill and sprinted our way towards the warehouse before any of the spotlights caught us. Luckily, some of the guards were tired and not paying attention to us (plus our camouflage helped us blend in a little). While Denton, Zepher and I hid underneath the ladder, the others continued to head forward until they arrived at the back entrance. Zepher grunted and jumped up, grabbing the ladder's rungs and climbing his way to the top. Denton and I did the same, and quietly followed him as he reached the top. There was a sniper posted right in front of the ladder on the roof, as well as the other side, so we had to stop climbing so we could take them out.

"We got two snipers, one of which we can't get to. Help us out here Jake." said Zepher.

"Okay, I got a lock on him. Blue guy smokin' a cigarette?"

Zepher took a small peek on the rooftop before lowering his head before the sniper saw his ears. "Yeah, that's him."

"Okay. We gotta do this simultaneously. On your mark."

Zepher took out his knife with his right paw and slowly climbed up another rung, ready to hop onto the roof so he could pounce on the Iksar.

"Do it."

Jakob shot the blue Iksar in the chest. After his partner saw blood spraying all over the rooftop before his body tipped over, Zepher jumped onto the roof and tackled the Iksar before he could radio anyone for help. Then he stabbed him in the back of his throat.

"We're clear. Look after Colonel and the others. We'll handle things on our end."

"You got it."

Zepher removed the knife from his victim's neck and Denton and I hopped onto the roof with him. We walked around the cement briefly before spotting the skylight that led into a room filled with wooden crates and boxes. Denton kicked at one of the panes three times before it shattered and sprinkled glass on top of the crates. We jumped through the broken pane one by one before raising our suppressed assault rifles and aiming it at the door in front of us.

"Where do you think the weapons are?" I whispered.

"Why you askin' me? I'm the dumb-ass in the group, remember?"

"Um...okay. Zepher, what do you think?"

"I say we kill everyone in our way until we find them."

I sighed exasperatedly, realizing that I got paired up with the wrong Hellhounds. Someone began to open up the door, but before he could enter, Zepher took out his knife again, sprinted towards the door, and stabbed the Iksar just below his chin. He grunted and coughed up blood before Zepher hauled his body inside the storage room. He instructed Denton to pry open a crate, and once the lid was off, he dumped the guard inside, and Denton slid the lid back on. We got over the sudden encounter and left the storage room, entering one of the freezing corridors. Denton covered the rear and Zepher took care of the front. I was in the middle of our pack, covering the left and right whenever we passed another corridor intersecting with ours. Towards the end of the corridor were two doors going towards our left and right. The left door had nothing inside of it short of more supplies and weapons. The right door had three guards inside who was busy playing poker around a circular table. One of them slammed down what appeared to be the winning hand, but the Iksar sitting across from him slammed his knife into the table, the blade only a millimeter away from delving into the winner's finger.

"Are you cheatin' again Baxter?"

"That's ridiculous! I have three aces Joe! At least have the decency to lose like an Iksar, and not some goddamn mutt!"

"Uh-huh. Sure. It's funny, cause I have two aces, Baxter."

"Yeah, I got one too. ...Wait, what the hell?!" shouted the other Iksar.

"That's six aces Baxter. Now you tell me, since when did a deck of cards have six aces in it?"

Baxter looked at Joe and the other Iksar, who were looking at him with fixed stares. They didn't look angry, but something told me one of them was seriously having trouble restraining himself from ripping out Baxter's throat. The cheater quickly stood up and walked towards the door.

"I'm gonna-I'm gonna go check on the circuit breaker, see what's up with these flickering lights."

"You do that Baxter."

Immediately after Baxter left the room, Zepher pinned him against the wall, took out his knife and stabbed him in the temple. Unfortunately for us, the door had a see-through window on it, and Joe's partner saw what he did.

"The fuck?!"

I quickly rushed over to the door and bashed it open with my shoulder. Just as Joe and his partner were about to shoot me, I shot his friend in the chest three times, and hit Joe just below the kneecap. He shouted in pain, before I tackled him to the ground, breaking the wooden table in the process. Joe tried to fight against me, but I took out my handgun and pressed the barrel against the side of his head.

"Don't even think about it."

Joe stopped moving.

"Now, I'm gonna ask you a simple question, and if you don't tell me what I want to know...well, you've been in the military long enough to know how this works, right? So, you mind tellin' us where McServo's little horde of weapons are?"

"Fu-"

I didn't give him time to finish, and shoved the gun inside his mouth, making him gag and cough a little.

"Let's try this again, and this time, I'll just blow your brains all over the floor. Now, where is his stash of weapons?"

Joe coughed a few more times, but eventually, he muttered something and I took the barrel out of his mouth.

"There's one right through that door, one on the floor below us, and the rest are in the atrium."

"That's better."

Just when I was about to get off the Iksar, his walkie-talkie crackled.

"Joe, come in. What's your status?"

I swore under my breath and snatched the radio off the floor, placing it near his mouth before pointing my handgun at his head again.

"Tell him you're fine, and that you and the boys are just playing cards."

He glanced over his shoulder at me, as though to say "Fuck you" again, but I pressed my gun against his head harder and made him listen.

"Do it. Now."

Joe hesitated at first, but eventually opened his mouth and began to speak.

"We're just up here playin' cards Gerry."

Gerry chuckled. "Baxter tryin' to screw you guys over again?"

"You have no fuckin' idea."

"Awright, well, try not to kill him if you catch him cheatin' again."

Joe glanced over at Baxter's corpse. "...Little late for that, boss."

"Hehehe, well I hope you guys didn't rough him up too bad this time! I'm gotta scope out the perimeter again, think I saw someone tryin' to sneak in the back doors. I'll check in on you in 15 minutes."

"Okay."

The radio crackled again and I threw it against the wall, shattering it into several pieces. Before I even had the chance to get off Joe, Zepher shot him twice in the abdomen with his assault rifle, spraying blood into the air. I shouted with surprised and got off his body, aiming my pistol at Zepher, thinking that the enemy was trying to hit me but missed. Zepher lowered his rifle and grinned slightly.

"Christ, you don't ever miss an opportunity to kill someone, do ya?" I asked.

"No."

"Well, at least he told us where the weapons are. C'mon, let find 'em all and set the charges before we're spotted."

I stepped over Joe's body and headed into the other room across the hallway. As I opened up the door, I noticed that there were actually quite a few boxes containing assault rifles and pistols and explosives. I opened one of the crates and found a whole assortment of C4 explosions. I grabbed a few blocks, as well as the detonators and remote that activated them, and stuck a block against one of the crates before sticking a detonator inside.

"That's one down."

I walked out of the room and rejoined Denton and Zepher, inserting myself in the middle of our trio and covering our 3:00 and 9:00. We reached the same intersection we passed before killing Joe and his cohorts, and I gestured for Zepher and Denton to go left. We started to head down the hallway before hearing a toilet flush. I aimed my M4 at the door in the middle of the corridor and shot the Iksar walking out of it a few times in the stomach. Then I stormed inside the bathroom and gunned down the Iksar using one of the urinals before he spotted the body. Lucky for us, no one was in the stalls.

"Clear." I whispered.

We started to head down the hallway again until we finally reached the end. Zepher opened up the door and checked all around the room he was in, staying ever alert in case an Iksar snuck up on us. We had just entered one of the warehouse stairwells, and Zepher began to head down to the floor below him. As we got up there, we heard a few Iksars chatting amongst themselves and hid as they walked past the doorway. When they were gone, we resumed heading onto the floor. Unlike the previous level, there were several Iksars in the vicinity. Three were up ahead blocking the hallway as they leaned against the wall talking, one was busy pacing back and forth inside the cafeteria, and another two were watching television inside a room to the right of us with the door wide open. It seemed like there was no way for us to get through the level without arousing suspicion, at least, until I saw the circuit breaker on the wall in the left corridor.

"Before you start doing what I know you're about to do, look over there Zepher."

Zepher glanced at the circuit breaker. "So?"

"So if we cut off all the power then they'll be confused when it becomes dark and we'll have time to slip right past them. All we gotta do is jump onto that pipe running along the ceiling and use it to shimmy our way to the end of the hall."

"Like in Splinter Cell?"

"Pretty much Denton."

"Even if we get to the end of the corridor, where are the weapons gonna be? And won't they notice that someone unscrewed the panel?"

"Something tells me it's on the room on the left side again. We'll sort all that out when we get there. And it looks like someone already did, so they'll just assume someone's been messing with the breaker and accidentally cut the wrong wire."

"If you say so. Let's do it."

I'm sure Zepher wanted to gun down all the Iksars right then and there, but he knew the colonel would have his balls in a vice if he fucked up the mission due to his bloodlust, so he decided to go with our plan, and we quietly headed for the circuit breaker. I stood in front of it and turned around, checking to make sure the Iksars were still busy watching television. They were, and I proceeded to pull a few wires away from the breaker, yelping when they created a loud zapping noise and a few white sparks fluttered to the floor. The power went out immediately, and one of the Iksars watching television shouted with frustration and stood up. The three of us immediately jumped up into the air and grabbed the pipe with our paws. Zepher was the first one to hoist his legs up and clutch the pipe with his boots, followed by Denton and myself. Pretty soon, all three of us were crossing the pipe, using our paws and feet to crawl along it.

"Goddamnit, the power's out again! I'm getting sick and tired of this dump!" shouted the Iksar watching TV.

"Why doesn't Gerry just call an electrician to fix this place up?"

"You know how long it would take for an electrician to get down here? Not to mention I'm sure he'll be wondering why this warehouse is full of illegal firearms and a bunch of lizards armed with AK-47s."

"Well, how are we supposed to do our job if we can't see then?"

Another Iksar sighed heavily. "Relax guys. The circuit breaker probably blew another fuse. I'll check it out."

We carefully turned to our left, still clinging onto the pipe, and continued to shimmy our way over to the end of the corridor. Our eyesight wasn't perfect, but we could tell when and where some of the Iksars were going. Two of the three blocking the hallway moved down the corridor to go check out the breaker as well, and the other guy looked like he was having trouble staying awake.

"Damnit, someone pulled some of the wires out of the breaker!"

"Again? I already told Baxter not to mess with that!"

"Well, obviously he didn't listen. It's bad enough the guy always cheaters in poker; the least he could do is clean out his ears!"

The Iksar sighed exasperatedly. "Fuck it. Let's head downstairs and get some flashlights. Warren!"

The Iksar leaning against the wall beneath us snorted loudly and shook his head.

"Huh? Yeah, what?"

"You're the only one with a flashlight so you stay up here and guard those weapons. We'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Warren nodded and took out his flashlight from his back pocket while the other soldiers headed downstairs. He whacked the light against the wall when the batteries died and the light went out, but eventually, he got the device working again. Before he had the chance to look up and spot us, Denton grabbed his head and jerked it sideways. He let out a loud, but very short squeal just before we heard his neck crack a few times. The three of us dropped down from the pipe and Zepher ran over to the storage room and kicked in the door. Meanwhile, Denton and I picked up Warren's flashlight and body and hauled him over into the weapon's room and threw his body over a stack of crates. Denton shined the flashlight at one of the crates while I kneeled down and stuck one of the blocks of C4 to it and inserted the detonator.

"Two down."

We stepped out of the storage room as quickly as possible and entered the stairwell yet again, heading down two floors until we ended up in front of a door that read "ATRIUM" in large, black letters. Zepher pushed open the door and we stepped into the spacious area just before the rest of Warren's friends managed to spot us. Zepher and I hid behind a large metal crate while Denton crouched behind the one across from us. We were standing on an elevated platform walkway, and all the weapons we had been searching for were on the ground level, packaged inside giant wooden brown or red crates. Some Iksars were busy pacing around on the floor, others were walking back and forth on the platform we were on, and some were lifting and moving the giant crates with the forklifts. There were definitely too many soldiers for us to take on alone, and at the time I saw no way to maneuver around the atrium without being spotted.

"Colonel, where the hell are you?" I whispered in my earpiece.

"Still in the back entrance. We haven't found any weapons crates so all of them must be around your position."

"Yeah, we found 'em, but we have a problem."

"What?"

"There's too many soldiers in the area. I don't think we can set the C4 without being spotted."

"You don't think you can, or you know that you can't? There's a difference pup."

"You told us this would work out much smoothly if no one found us, and if this whole area gets alerted we're fucked colonel."

"How many hostiles are in the area?"

I peeked over the metal crates and briefly skimmed the atrium. "No less than twenty."

"Then you should be able to find a way to conceal your presence until you reach the weapons. You're not as cunning as Smart-ass, but I'm sure you'll figure something out."

"And what if I don't?"

"You've got Zepher with you. I'm sure his sadistic nature will be brought about should anything happen, and I know he's just dying to kill every last Iksar in this building."

I sighed. "Right."

"We're heading over to the west side of the compound. Rendezvous with us when you've planted the bombs."

"Yes, sir."

I exhaled loudly and looked all around the atrium again. There was absolutely no place for us to hide or move without being seen. It was like we were trapped. I knew that blowing our cover and killing all the Iksars would've been a helluva lot less time consuming, but I didn't want to jeopardize the team just because I was too damn lazy to find a way around the enemy. That's when I looked up at the ceiling and saw the lights flickering again. I grinned.

"Okay, here's the plan: when the power goes out, we're gonna hop over this railing here and land on the ground floor. Then we're gonna maneuver through the darkness and find some cover to hide behind when the lights turn back on. From there on out we should be able to sneak our way past the guards until we reach the cache in the middle of the room. If anyone spots us, we'll kill them before they raise the alarm. You guys ready?"

Zepher and Denton nodded. I stared at the lights for several more seconds before they finally fizzled and went out. A few of the Iksars groaned in a frustrated tone, and I jumped over the railing and landed on the floor, followed by Zepher and Denton. Lucky for us, there wasn't a soldier standing right below us.

"Shit. Gerry! The power's out again!"

"When the hell are you gonna get someone to fix this place up sarge?!"

"I'm tellin' ya, we can't have any electricians snoopin' around the warehouse, less you want someone to find all these weapons!"

"We can't work in the dark either Brummie!"

"Then get out your flashlights an' stop whining!"

The Iksar who was busy shouting at Gerry grumbled loudly and took out his flashlight. Unfortunately for him, Zepher walked right behind him and snapped his neck before he could turn it on. He hid his body behind what appeared to be a large stack of boxes. We resumed traversing around the ground floor until the lights flickered on and Denton and I realized we weren't behind any cover. Someone gasped loudly and looked in our direction.

"What the hell?!"

Before we could be identified, the lights went out again. Both of us scurried over to a pillar and hid behind it just before the lights came back on.

"Hey...did you guys see that?"

"See what?"

The brown and yellow Iksar who spotted us scratched his rough, scaly scalp in confusion.

"I dunno...maybe the lights are messing with my vision."

Denton and I sighed with relief, only to realize that Zepher was nowhere to be found. However, we heard a muffled scuffle in the distance and saw the burly werewolf wrestling around with a light green Iksar, covering his mouth with his paw. Then he took out his knife and slowly slit his throat. He promptly rolled his body underneath a table and crouched down behind a pillar. The lights began to flicker once more, and some of the soldiers groaned, knowing they'd be trapped in the dark soon.

"Here we go again..." mumbled one of them.

And then the lights were cut, and we were off once more. There were already two bodies on the floor, one of which was bleeding, so we figured it'd be best if we just go ahead and make a run for it. Zepher and I managed to reach the stockpile with ease, but Denton bumped into one of the guards and knocked him down. The Iksar caught a glimpse of Denton's tail with his flashlight, but he didn't have the chance to tell anyone before I shot him twice in the chest. I stood in front of the munitions and hastily took out my C4, jamming the detonator inside and sticking it onto the side of a red box with an explosive and flammable caution sign on it.

"Okay, all the charges are set. Let's get the hell outta here." I whispered.

Of course, our luck just had to go bad precisely the moment we stood up to leave. As the lights came back on, a green Iksar pacing back and forth near the alarm system saw us, three fur-ridden canines invading their territory. I don't think he even cared that we were enemy soldiers. The second he saw the fur on our bodies, he went apeshit.

"HEY!"

Denton was forced to gun him down, shooting him numerous times with his assault rifle. Our guns were suppressed, so no one heard any of the shots, but just as the Iksar died, his finger spasmed and he ended up shooting a few rounds into the air from his AK, which wasn't silenced. The Iksars saw us trying to escape, and someone managed to set off the alarm. That's when all the chaos began, and we were ducking and dodging bullets in no time. We paid no attention to the enemy soldiers or the deafening sound of the alarms, as most of them would be dead soon. Once we successfully entered a corridor outside the atrium, Denton slammed the door shut, and resumed sprinting down the hall with us.

"Blow it up. Blow the charges now!"

I took out the remote controlling the detonators and pressed down on the red button. After it beeped, the three of us shouted and were thrown off our feet from the force of the explosion. The highly explosive boxes triggered a catastrophic fireball that shook the entire building. About a dozen or so Iksars were killed by the blast, and all the munitions were destroyed in the blink of an eye. The door went flying as it was blown off its hinges, letting in all the heat and smoke from the atrium. We coughed a couple of times and turned around to see if the blast had taken out all the soldiers pursuing us. All we managed to see were flames spreading all around the room, and a few Iksars who were either dead or struggling to stand up. Unfortunately, the alarm was still going, and we knew that everyone on the base either heard or felt the explosion, which meant backup was gonna be there soon.

"Come on, get up! The whole base will have been alerted by that blast! We gotta rendezvous with the colonel now!"