Warrior Clan: Chapter Three: Nightwalking
#3 of Warrior Clan
Hi! Here I am again, with the third chapter of "Warrior Clan" up my sleeves. This is a very short chapter, where the destiny of Jake and CIS 43 will change forever. The forth chapter is under production and will be up shortly. In the meantime, enjoy! Haraio Warrior Clan: Chapter Three: Nightwalking Jake sat slowly up in his bed and blinked a few times, then he looked down at the young female fox who lay close into him. Christina looked so sweet and innocent as she lay there, with her arm around his bare chest and a happy smile covering her muzzle. Jake sighed. "What a crappy world it is, when teenagers like her have to fight for their life.", he said to himself, as he carefully lifted her arm and slid out of the bed. He sat on the edge of the bed for a moment and looked up at the clock over the door. 4:22 AM. He groaned to himself as he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep anymore. He got to his feet, picked up his pants from where he threw them the evening before and put them on. He also put on a clean shirt from his closet and his boots, before he slipped silently out the door. He walked through the corridors, passing mech-crews and builders busy fixing the various damages from the battle, from hanging lightbulbs back up to repairing collapsed walls. After a few minutes of walking through the base, Jake found himself at the entrance of the Hall of Honour. Jake nodded to the two guards on each side of the door, who nodded back and pushed the door open, before one of them ran off. Jake took a deep breath and walked through the massive double-doors. His footsteps echoed loudly as he entered the gigantic room. The Hall of Honour was a massive cave, located at the very back of the base. In the center of the room was three large blocks of black granite. Over the smooth surface of the stone there was written names, the names of every furr lost during the last eight years, they be Warriors, Battledancers, Warpriests, pilots or other members of the Warrior Clan. Jake walked slowly across the empty room and up the broad steps, towards the larger block in the middle. All the Warriors who had fallen was written here, grouped in their teams. Jake quickly found Squad 43, with Jamie's name. Above his name were two others, earlier squadmembers who had died during the first year, before Jake joined in. Jake put his paw over all three names and bowed his head in respect, tears welling up in his eyes. He sank down on his knees, his finger still touching the inscriptions in the smooth rock. "They were great heroes, all three of them.", said a gentle voice behind him. Jake spun around, then sank down on one knee when he saw who it was. The furr in front of him was a tall, slender fox with shining red fur, dressed in a long, purple robe with golden edges. His face was full of scars, yet very handsome and in his belt hung a longsword with golden handle. "High-patriarch Ramòn," said Jake and bowed his head. Ramòn just smiled and waited a few seconds until Jake had got to his feet before he spoke again. "I told the guards to look out for you, I need to talk to you. I know that this might not be the best moment to talk to you about this, as you have just lost a teammate and a friend, but this cant wait," he said with a serious voice. Jake nodded and walked over to a small stonebench, where he sat down. Ramòn joined him and took a deep breath before he spoke: "The humans are building a base a few kilometers from here. We dont know what it will be used to, might be an ammo dump, monitoring station, anything. Still, we cant let them build so close to us." Jake stared at the fox with a puzzled look. "I see, but what do that have to do with us?" The fox smiled. "Your team is by far the most promising of our CIS-teams. Trust me, I know.", he said with a slight grin. Jake looked if possible even more puzzled. "What?" "Oh, Jamie didn't tell you? I was the leader of Squad 43 the first year, and Jamie was my second-in-command. Then I was picked out to be commander of this base, while Jamie got to lead the squad." His face suddenly got serious again. "The thing is, Jake, that all our elite-teams are busy, so what I'm asking is if your team will become a taskforce. It will be dangerous, but you'll get additional training and our newest equipment." As he saw the uncertainty in Jake's face, he chuckled. "Go talk to your squad, and if you guys want the job, come to the armory around six AM to get your equipment and training." Jake nodded and ran out of the cave, towards the barracks. * * * The door to the barracks flew up and Jake entered the room. He walked over to Dania's bed and poked her to wake her. Dania grunted something and rolled over, out of the bed. She hit the floor with a low grunt and opened her eyes to stare blamingly up at Jake. He chuckled. "Hi Dania, are you awake?" "Of course I'm awake, you clod," she mumbled smilingly. Jake smiled and walked over to Chris' bed. Chris was snoring so loudly that it was weird that the others wasn't awake already. Jake smiled and poked the black-fured wolf. Chris' paw jolted up, grabbed Jake's shirt and pulled him down. "This better be important," growled Chris and opened his eyes. "It is, now get up.", said Jake assuringly and tried to jerk his shirt loose. With a sly smirk, Chris let go of his shirt, sending Jake backwards to the floor. Jake chuckled and crawled back to his feet, dusting himself off. "Ok, enough fooling around. Help me wake the others." As Dania walked over to George's bed and Chris over to his brother's, Jake headed for his own bed. Christina was still sleeping peacefully, for a second Jake actually felt bad about waking her, but he pulled himself in and poked her gently. The fox twitched lightly and turned the other way. Jake was about to poke her again when he heard the loud clang of metal on concrete and an angry yell behind him. Jake turned around to see Richard lying on the floor beside his rolled-over bed and Chris standing over his brother, smiling evilly. Jake laughed and Richard sent him a blaming look. Jake shrugged and sent Chris an approving smile, before he turned to Christina, who had woken from all the noise. "What's happening?", she asked. "Yeah, what's happening?", asked Dania and Chris in unison and stared at eachother for a moment. Jake sighed and sat down on his bed next to Christina, while the others gathered around. "Ok, here's the thing. I went to the Hall of Honour to have a moment to think and bumped into High-pathriarc Ramòn. He asked me if we would like to become a taskforce and sabotage a human base a few clicks away. We will get new equipment and more training, but it will be more dangerous.", he said and looked at the rest of the group for reactions. They all looked back with uncertain faces, but a grin spread across Chris' muzzle. "Let's kill some humans.", he said said and held out his large, black paw. Richard sighed. "Well, if Psycho is going, then I also have to go, to protect the humans from him.", he replied, friendly punching his brother's shoulder and placed his paw next to Chris'. Dania smiled at Jake, one of those 'you're not going without me'-smiles and held her paw out too. "Never say no to a fight.", snickered George and let his paw join the others. "You can always count on me, Jake.", said Gary. Jake looked at Christina. She smiled and held out her paw. "Always with you." Jake sighed and smiled to his team. His team. It still felt a little akward to call it his team, even if he was the leader. THEIR team. "I guess it's agreed, then.", he said and placed his paw on the top, touching all the others. They all smiled approvingly back at him. They just stood there for nearly a minute before Richard finally broke the silence: "Sooo, now what?" Jake shook himself out of the trance and looked up at the clock over the door. "I guess we better get going, we're supposed to be in the armory around six." They walked out the door and headed left, towards the armory. * * * As they entered the armory, a large room crammed with weapons, small vehicles, armour and lots of other stuff, they got down on one knee in front of Ramòn, who stood there talking to the armory-sergeant. He was a tall, kinda thick grizzlybear with a kind and enthusiastic smile. Ramòn smiled and looked at Jake, who nodded. The fox smiled even wider. "I'm glad you reached the decision of taking this mission, it's very important. Everyone, this is sergeant Bailey.", he said and nodded towards the bear. Bailey smiled and nodded at them. "He will be supplying you with the necessary weapons and equipment. Afterwards, meet at training area #1 for all-day training. Additionally, one of you will get intensive computer training. I bet that'll be you, Richard.", Ramòn said and smiled at the wolf, who blushed slightly. "You have your orders. Good luck.", he said and turned. "Yessir!", they said in unison. Ramòn chuckled lightly and walked out the door. They all turned to the bear, who smiled wider and began showing them their new stuff. "First, this is your new armour.", he said and picked up a thin, camo-green armourplate. "It's a bit more resistant than the regular one, plus it's camouflage-colored. It won't help you much in this mission, except for when you're outside the base, it's much forest around there." Jake picked up the armourplate and tried it against his chest. It didn't fit very well. He looked at Bailey. "It's self-fitting, right?", he asked, receiving a nod. "Oh, I almost forgot." said the bear suddenly and wacked himself on the forehead with his paw. "While we're on the term of camouflage, you're getting new camo-clothes instead of the rainbow-suits you're wearing now. They're more resilient and has a built-in temperature system. I think you'll like them." He pointed to the wall, where seven camo-colored suit hang. "Right, what's next?", said Bailey to Jake, who looked at the sickly eager smile on Chris' muzzle. "I think we'll go right for the weapons.", chuckled Jake lightly, accompanied by frantic nods from the wolf. Bailey smiled. "I was hoping you would say that. Right, first something for you, ...Jake wasn't it?" Jake nodded. The bear held forth a thick, rectangular blade, the edge lined with sharp points, like a chainsaw. At the bottom was a long, thin handle with pawguard. At the bottom of the handle was a string with a with a ring. Jake looked questioning at Bailey, who smiled. "Hold it steady, and pull the ring." Jake picked up the odd weapon and tugged lightly at the ring, and suddenly the blade came alive with mechanical roar, the sharp points beginning to run along the edge with terrifying speed. Jake looked at Bailey with a 'what the hell?'-look, and the bear snickered. "Chainsword. Standard equipment of special-squad leaders." "Nice, but what about the rest of us?", asked Richard with an envious look at the chainsword. Bailey picked up a small sylinder from a table and gave it to Richard. It was about 30 centimeters long and looked like some sort of handle, with a small red button. "Step a bit away from the others and press the button.", Bailey instructed. Richard did so, and suddenly the handle began to increase in length until it was nearly as tall as himself, with a long, thin metalpoint in each end, sharp as a needle. Richard looked at it in astonishment and tried a few stabs in the air. "Battlespear. As I'm sure you can feel, it weighs nearly nothing at all and is very easy to handle.", said Bailey to Richard, then he threw a casual glance up at the clock above the door and gasped. "Shit! We're running out of time...Let's look through the rest of your equipment. You'll all get regular blast grenades as well as shock grenades, electric detonators that will paralyze living enemies and destroy all electric equipment, except yours of course, since your equipment is shock resilient. Your rifles will get attachable sniper-modifications and silent ammo, you'll get medical equipment and other valuable tools when working alone. Everything is packed into those backpacks," he said and pointed to seven small backpacks lined up against a wall, "along with your parachutes." "Thank you, Bailey.", said Jake and shook the bear's paw, who smiled. "Good luck, you guys." "Ok guys," Jake said to the others as they grabbed their backpacks, "let's go get some training with this stuff!" *** 11.th of March, year 9 AT (After the Treachery), 10.00 hours *** The howling wind washed over them as they sat near the open door. Everyone was wearing their new suits and backpacks and their rifles rested in their nervous paws. The co-pilot looked back at them and smiled assuringly. "First time? Dont worry, it'll go smoothly, just pull the 'chutes after ten seconds." "Ok, we're here. This is as close as I can get you! Good luck!", said the pilot and turned on the green light above the door. Jake turned to the others and smiled warmly. "For Malvon, and Jamie." Then he leapt out of the door. * * *
"In loving memory of Jamie"
- * * Well, another chapter done. Thanks for reading, and please leave a vote and/or a comment. Cheers! Haraio