Superiority Chapter 4
#5 of Superiority
Superiority
Chapter 4
This was the longest ride he had ever taken.
David was on a Marine transport jet. After the draft was initiated, he was transferred to service in the Lupine Marine Corps.
There were several disgruntled wolves around him. Some angry, some afraid. David was angry himself, but knew that for the good of Lupinus, the draft was necessary. A sentiment not shared by most of the wolves in the compartment with him. An MP already had to discipline one large wolf, who refused to sit down. They made it well known that serving wasn't an option. At least you only had to serve one tour.
The rest of the MP's spent most of their time comforting the smaller wolves, usually former civilians that weren't familiar with fighting. They were terrified, having been removed from their safe, secure lives, and sent to the front lines.
David, along with the other wolves on this flight, was headed to Alaskan-Yukon Frontier Defense Base Seven. To prepare for what seemed like inevitable war with Canada.
It was hell on this flight. David didn't know how most of the wolves on this flight were expected to fight, if they couldn't hold their composure on the flight to base.
David tried to remain still, to avoid drawing attention from the larger wolves, who were defensively sizing up everyone around him.
He looked out the window. He could already see the alaskan coastline. The jet must be going very fast. They had just left the Denver airport a little over an hour ago.
"Hey, you're in my seat." A larger wolf said to David. Referring to his comfortable window seat.
"I don't think so, buddy. Back off, before I call an MP." Was Davids quick reply.
"How dare you, you little shit." Said the larger wolf suddenly reaching out, and grabbing David by the throat.
David kicked the larger wolf swiftly between the legs, and watched smugly, as he dropped to the floor.
"I'll kill you, you litt-", was all the wolf on the ground could say before an MP's taser hit him in the side.
David quickly collected himself, and sat back down. After witnessing this conflict, most of the other wolves quieted down, and sat calmly.
David wondered how they were expected to be able to fight the canadians, if all they wanted to do was fight each other.
Less than an hour later the jet landed at the base. David couldn't help but admire the fortification. There must have been at least thirty AA guns, even though there were no real walls other than a six foot chain-link fence.
David was assigned to a small tent, near the edge of the base, that he shared with four other new recruits.
As he unpacked his belongings into the footlocker at the end of his cot, one of the other wolves came over to introduce himself.
"Hello, my name's Private Morris. But you can just call me Bill."
"Nice to meet you, my name's Private Nosov. You can call me David." Was his reply.
"Do you know where the mess hall is? The base director gave me really vague instructions, and I haven't eaten since this morning." asked Bill.
"Yeah, I passed on the way here, just head left out the tent door, and take a right once you pass tent C-8." He replied.
"Thanks." Said Bill, before quickly leaving.
"At least there's someone nice I can talk to on this base." Thought David.
It was a lonely night on the base that night. Searchlights would pass over the tent every few minutes, or so, keeping David awake. Bill had already somehow fallen asleep, so David no longer had anyone to talk to.
He spent hours just staring at the canvas roof on the tent. He hoped they had something to cover the fabric on top if it snowed. Which it did. The canvas kept most of it out, but every few seconds, David would hear a drip of water somewhere in the tent. It was driving him crazy. He rolled over onto his right side, and glanced at his watch. Three-thirty. He had an important meeting tomorrow with his commanding officer, he needed to get some sleep.
After a few more minutes he finally dozed off, sleep felt good.
He was rudely awakened by a loud whistle, the following morning.
"Get your asses out of bed you worthless recruits!" Yelled Lieutenant Sanford. David's commanding officer.
David glanced at his watch again before quickly jumping out of bed.
Five o' clock. He had less than two hours of sleep. He was used to more sleep than this, but he wasn't about to show weakness in front of the rough looking lieutenant.
"Names maggots!" yelled Sanford as he walked down the line of drowsy wolves in front of him.
"Private Jefferson, Sir!"
"Private Clinton, Sir!"
"Private Richards, Sir!"
"Private Nosov, Sir!"
"Private Morris, Sir!" replied the young wolves.
"Aww, are you ladies tired? Good! Maybe if you get through this, you'll go to bed earlier you pieces of shit!" Said the lieutenant.
"Now you all know why we're here." Said the lieutenant, without yelling, for the first time. "The higher ups predict war with Canada. But since they haven't made a move yet, we can't act."
"Now I know you're all probably disappointed by the draft, and that's understandable. But the first thing I want to get through to you hard headed recruits, is that disloyalty will be considered treason. Meaning, you don't give it your all, or if you go AWOL, You will be treated as a war criminal. Giving me the authority to shoot your sorry asses on sight."
"With that clear, I want all of you maggots to head to the firing range, and speak with Gunnery Sergeant Wilkes. He will give a refresher course to those of you who are not familiar with standard issue weapons, to the firing, and 'safe' use of these devices. Is that understood?"
"Sir, yes Sir!" Replied the wolves in unison.
It was dark outside. All around him, David could hear the yelling inside all of the other tents. "I hope they're morning people." David thought to himself, somewhat amusingly. He was still tired.
The firing range was on the other side of the base, a large AA gun looming ominously behind it.
"Admiring the Armament, are you boys?" Said the older looking Gunnery Sergeant.
"Two hundred millimeters on the large barrels, and forty, on the wolf-operated side turrets."
David couldn't help but be surprised. They must be expecting something huge.
"Now! To the reason you're here." Growled Wilkes. "This here is the standard issue Lupine Defensive Systems Research Department Model Five. You will get very comfortable with this weapon today. It fires a Nine millimeter round. You can alternate between fully automatic, or semi-automatic."
The young wolves all stepped forward, and picked up their weapons.
"The magazine will hold thirty-five rounds, and is very easy to reload." Continued Wilkes, before showing them the proper reload technique.
"Now. Do any of you have any fighting experience?" He asked.
" I am a former officer for the Human Refugee Testing, and Extermination Agency. Collection department." Said David. Private Richards, and Jefferson quickly shot him dirty looks.
"Excellent. At least I have one recruit who isn't wet behind the ears." Replied the Sergeant happily.
"Now, I have business to attend to. I would like for you to practice firing for forty-five minutes, and then retire to the mess hall for breakfast. Can I trust you to not shoot each other in the foot?"
"Sir, yes Sir!" They replied in unison.
David was surprised at how well the gun handled. There was no recoil at all. If he didn't hear, and see it, he would say the gun wasn't firing at all.
"You were a collection officer?" Asked Bill, as they were reloading.
"Yeah, not the most noble of professions, but it payed good, and I was serving my country." replied David.
"You're a lot different than I would imagine. A friend of mine back home, who used to be human, made you all out to be monsters." Said Bill, still surprised.
"I can understand that." Said David. "I sometimes thought of myself as a monster."
"And why is that?" Asked Bill.
"Not really so much for the collection. But for what I had to do to the ones I couldn't collect." Said David, a hint of regret in his voice.
"I had to kill a lot of them. The longer the searches went on, more, and more humans had radiation sickness." Said David, almost more to himself. "You can't cure radiation sickness."
"Is radiation sickness really that bad?" Asked Bill. His fascination growing.
"I didn't think it was that bad. Until about a year ago. I ran across seven humans. As I got into range, and looked through my binoculars. They weren't moving, but I could plainly see their labored breathing." said David, trying to remember, without actually thinking about it.
"I radioed into base, and told them that all targets were sick." Said David, as he paused to reload.
"They told me not to worry. They would take care of it. Three minutes later four Extermination department officers came in, and just slaughtered them."
"Oh. That's where the monster reputation comes from." Said Bill, His excitement dying down.
"Yeah." Said David, as he put his weapon on safety.
All five wolves walked back to the tent in silence after that, and dropped off their weapons in their footlockers, before heading to the mess hall.
They ate quietly, for the most part. Occasionally Bill would make a comment on something, but other than that, they just pondered their situation.
Shortly after they finished, Lieutenant Sanford entered the far side of the mess hall.
"I need the worthless pieces of shit from tent C-Eighteen here Right Now!"
David, and the other wolves immediately complied and followed him outside.
"Richards, Jefferson, Clinton, I want you to report to the base director for janitorial duties." Barked the Lieutenant. "Morris, Nosov, come with me."
Wondering why they were singled out, David, and Bill obediently followed.
"Now I want you boys to know you were selected for this assignment specifically because we had nobody else. That, and you show the most potential out of the C tents. Which is saying a lot. Satellite imagery can only go so far. We need a ground view of a canadian installation not far to the northeast of here." said the Lieutenant, surprising David.
"This is a simple scouting mission. I believe you recruits can handle that." Said Sanford, before handing them their mission briefing.
Cold.
David hadn't moved his hand to a different position on his model five in nearly an hour. The rest of it was just so cold. His thermometer read 251.6 K. Too cold. Right now he'd be happy if he could just move his legs better. There were fires all over the place back at the base, concealing how cold it actually was.
"Maybe the sun will come out." Said Bill jokingly.
"I wish." replied David with a laugh, as he pulled out his binoculars. The canadian base was in view.
"Nothing out of the ordinary." Said David. "Not much activity, but there are a couple of humans crawling out of a trap door every so often." That slightly alerted David, but he was happy they had something to report back to base.
"Good, you got the report ready? I'm freezing out here" Said Bill, his voice shaking.
"Yep, let's get the hell out of here" Replied David, as he put his binoculars back in his snow camouflaged bag.
It was a long trip back to the base, but Sanford seemed to be in a better mood, when they gave the report.
"Hmph, at least they aren't mobilizing. The trap door is a bit alarming, but that's not for us to worry about. We'll let the higher-ups sort all that out." Said the Lieutenant.
"You've done good, you may retire for the day."
David, and Bill eagerly walked back to the warmth of their tent.
Sleep was going to feel so good.