A.N. Hey there. I would like to dedicate this story to bothDeafstalker and Shinigamilover2 They have stuck with me since I started writing and have encouraged me in many ways. So, the next book in the story of Battleground: Jasper! This will be the conclusion of the battle for Earth. In later books they will head off to conquer the alien... oops spoiler. Anyway, in reviews please make a guess as to who the aliens are and why they have attacked, if you get the species though you'll probably get the reason. Wow... Longest Authors note I've ever written. And I'm STILL talking. Thank you for your extended support and I will send a Preview of the next chapter to anyone who reviews.
Battleground: Jasper!
Book Two: The Truth.
(Formal Cover Edition)
Chapter One: Joy.
Kate's P.O.V.
I was worried, Humphrey still hadn't woken up. It had been three days since we had first arrived here, and Humphrey was healing... very slowly. If we had some proper medical equipment it would go quicker. But, the only place we could find a Quick Heal Station was at Jasper City Hospital. I was willing to take the risk but no one else was. I knew why though, the enemy had set up an HQ on the 34th floor of the building across the street. The hospital's roof was always guarded by Snipers, the entrances were blocked by soldiers. The only way in was to blast your way through either of them, but you couldn't do that without alerting the HQ and having every soldier in the city after you. It seemed impossible but, hey love had gotten me this far, at least Humphrey was still alive.
Unknown P.O.V.
It was a slow day. The things that inhabited this planet hadn't put up much fight today. I was on the 34th floor of a local office complex. This place wasn't too important. Hell, I'd opted to just nuke the place and be done wit it. But noooo, it was Strategically important! I rolled my eyes, this was just another back-water assignment on another back-water world. Oh well, like I hadn't gotten used to that in the last decade of military service. Due to the effects of a chemical compound called BE-3C The life span of a normal person was a century and a half. I decided that today I would go for a walk out on the roof. When she stood up and walked towards the elevator no one noticed the small opening hole in the chair she had been sitting in facing the window.
Oh look another Unknown P.O.V!
Shit! I thought as my prey stood up and got in an elevator. I switched to my X-Ray scope and watched her progress up to the top of the building. I talked into the mic. on my chest and the thin but super-strong, cloth-steel cord attached to my harness started reeling in to the winch on the roof of the building. Much faster than the target's elevator. When I got close enough I grabbed the ledge and a black-gloved paw stuck out to give me a hand up. "Thanks." I grunted as I pulled myself up with the help of the other paw. "Did you kill the Bitch?" I hated it when they talked like that, even if it was the most despicable woman in the world you still don't insult a woman. We're assassins but hey, we can still keep a respectful attitude. I just shook my head though and lay down on the edge of the roof. Waiting for my target to arrive on the roof.
It only took about half a minute. I quickly drew a bead on her and decided it would be quicker and easier to take a headshot. I lined up the crosshairs and made adjustments for wind and distance. I made a quick apology to the one whose life I was to take. I twitched and a high-caliber round passed across the street and hit but not where I wanted it to. A soldier had crossed the path of the bullet and as it was said, had 'Taken one for the team'. The bullet was instantly fatal, but passed through to my target but about two feet below where I had aimed. A wound opened in her stomach and came out through her hip. In shock the commander of the enemy forces in the area just stared at the gaping hole in her hip and the smaller hole in her stomach. Then, the shock wore of and she fell to the ground. It was more painful this way but it would do the trick. I knew she would die, the blood-loss would take care of that. But I felt a connection to her and people like her. Ordered to some god-forsaken place and forced to do something. She had been a soldier like me. "Pack it up we're going home." I said as I walked towards our transport.
It was a gunship, stealthy and silent it could cloak using the same technology as the Prowler assault vehicle and the Harbinger stealth tank. Unfortunately, that wouldn't really help with the sky-full of enemy aircraft. The other reason it was a gunship, it had big guns. The top was black so that anything that caught it unaware wouldn't be able to see anything. The bottom was blue, for the same reason. However, the middle was neither, it was a deep fiery red, with two meanings. One, danger to our own people and Two, Go to Hell to anyone else. This was kept up by the no less than five weapons batteries situated on the hull in varying places. Each had two missile launchers, a laser, and a plasma cannon. The one on the top, belly, and nose each had a special weapon. On the top was a projectile AA cannon, on the bottom a bomb module, and imbedded in the nose was prototype particle gun. The weapon extended back a few feet into it's own generator, if it was hooked up to the main battery it would fry the whole aircraft. Not something anyone wanted to do.
It would be a fight, but it wouldn't be long. One way or another they would go out of here. Everything was packed up in the cargo hold and we took off. The first to notice us was a little recon plane flying big circles around the area. It didn't explode from the AA shot, it just disintegrated is the best word, but still not quite right. This drew the attention of almost every other plane and ground cannon in the city. Someone came up and sat in the co-pilot's seat next to me and put on the headset. It was my brother John. "Hey, I know you don't feel good about what happened back there. But Mark, you know we have to do stuff like this again. Think about what they've done to us. All the women and children they've killed how many more they will kill before this is over. That was just one step closer to defeating them. We at least have ships in orbit now. They don't, if you have to... do it for Lizzy okay?" Lizzy my daughter, this war had claimed many lives. Including the mom she never knew, my wife that I had loved to the fullest extent of my heart, taken by the cruelty of one of the enemy soldiers who killed her, and laughed.
She had died in my arms, tearing away everything in my heart, everything but the compassion I reserved for Lizzy. She was two years old, and would grow up in the middle of a war with no mother. I was shaken from my thoughts by a loud explosion and a shudder went through our ship. That was a close one I thought. Now was not a time for thinking and I hastily set a group of maneuvers that would swing our nose into firing position six times. "Okay I'm gonna switch the firing controls over to you John, be ready and take as many shots as you can." I began the twists and turns as more missiles and bullets flew in. Each time the viewport slid around to the enemies behind us several bolts of pure white struck out with pin-point accuracy and blew away wings and weapons on the enemy craft lighting the outsides up from the heat of miscellaneous particles forced together and expelled from the nose of the gunship. They backed off a little to give themselves more room to move around. So I took a chance, right as we were about to swing around again, I pitched downwards and brought the top battery to bear in all it's underestimated glory. The enemy planes had begun to dodge the expected particle bolts, but they never came. Instead the 6000 RPM Anti-Air cannon began spewing as many rounds as it could on full auto. Dodging the much slower particle bolts and plasma bursts was a whole different story than trying to avoid the wall of depleted-uranium non-explosive rounds tearing through the air towards them.
The planes tried to reverse into more appropriate patterns as the wall of metal slammed home. I'm sure it was hectic over there as they tried to make out alive through that hail. The plasma and missile arrived after that, but we were already gone. We had activated the stealth plates and were soaring away. It would take us a while to get back but we would. There were few pockets of resistance left in the North American continent. But, our little group had heard that there was one in Jasper that was pissing the hell out of the local headquarters. We were gonna find them and hook up with that group.
Kate's P.O.V.
It was early, the soft light of the shuttle was very easy to look through though and since I spent most of my day in here I was used to it. A small sound drew my attention, it wasn't really heard as much as felt. A rustle of fabric. Humphrey was tossing and turning in his unconscious sleep. I went over and lay down wit him, wrapping my forelegs around Humphrey. My head was snuggled into his chest fur when I felt something. I brought my head up and Humphrey's eyes started to flutter open. He moaned, it wasn't exactly pain. More like the groan of someone who had been sleeping on a hard mattress, which he had been. When Humphrey's eye's opened and adjusted to the light he started to cry. "Kate? Is it really you, or am I in yet another dream?" He was awake, I wrapped him in a hug as tight as I could, and whispered in his ear, "No, not another dream. This is real." I had tears in my eyes but I didn't care. Humphrey was awake and I was overflowing with joy.
I pulled away from the hug and kissed him right on the lips. If this was a dream, than it was the best in my life. The kiss lasted for at least a minute, then someone giggled. I turned around and there was Lily, standing in the door laughing her head off. Then Humphrey lifted his head and Lily stopped laughing. "This is definitely not a dream, if it was then we wouldn't have been interrupted." he looked at Lily in a way that said, "Please leave and close the door behind you." Lily left and did indeed close the door. I leaned back down and gave Humphrey one more kiss before he started drifting off to sleep again, but this time a real sleep. Kate was there to sleep with him until the sun was high in the sky.
Wow it's been a while Humphrey. How do you feel about your current position? "Holy crap that hurts. OHHHH! I have a killer headache! Ok then, you heard it folks right from the wolf's mouth. We now return you to your normal programming.
Humphrey's P.O.V.
I woke up and saw Kate sleeping beside me, I could remember what happened when I first woke up. I didn't want to wake Kate up, so I just lay there and watched her sleep. When she finally opened her eyes I was looking right back at her. I was lost in the depth of her eye's, I wanted to stay here forever and never move. But, the door opened and a figure stepped in and started talking. "I heard you were awake from Lily but I didn't quite believe her so I figured that I should come in and check on you." I knew the voice but couldn't quite place it. The light was turned up so that the new person could see better after just coming out of the sunlight. "Oh, I see your busy I'll come back later." The person was Nicole. One of my officers, she was my navigator. But if she was here too than...
"No, it's okay. I've been asleep long enough. Nicole, what happened to the ship?" She explained what had happened to me and the ship. It was a pretty long story, at least half an hour. Kate had gotten up and changed in the washroom. I just lay there listening to the story until someone burst through the door. Oddly, it was Eve Is the whole family here? I thought. She was panting like she had run a long way to tell someone something.
She looked kinda like when she had chased that guy's car all the way back to his house because he had messed with Kate. Now everyone knows that Eve makes creepy threats. But not many know she will follow up on them. She had told this guy that if he ever tried to touch Kate again she would rip off his wolfhood and shove it up his ass. Well, on foot she chased him all the way to his house, and was about to do that until Kate and Winston stopped her about an inch from the targeted appendage. Kate had told me that story after we were married. About an hour after Eve threatened to rip my throat out and stuff my eyeballs in it if I hurt Kate. I had taken this threat as a joke, until I was told this story at which point I avoided Eve for about a week.
But she was here now and had something to say. It wasn't a threat though. " There are- some people- who want to- talk to you- Nicole..." She said between pants when she got her breath back she noticed I was awake and said, "Oh, Humphrey your awake. Then I guess your in charge now?" I looked at Nicole and asked for what I really needed right now. "I'm gonna need a cane, because I'm not sure about walking without support after being unconscious for a while. By the way, how long was I out?" "You were out three days" Kate said as she walked out of the washroom in a clean set of clothes. Wow, that's a long time. I thought as Nicole grabbed a metal bar with a curve at the top and handed it to me.
"Okay then lets see what these people have to talk about." I said as I swung my feet over the edge of the cot and stood up. Eve and Nicole turned away and I didn't understand why. Kate looked like she was gonna explode in laughter and pointed down at my body. I followed her finger and realized I was only in my undergarments. The skin under my fur turned red as I hurriedly rushed into the washroom. The first set of clothes that popped to mind was my uniform, and I selected that from the list of garments available. A panel slid open, revealing the uniform and the hat I had selected to go with my standard outfit, except on ship where I had my GI admirals cap. (GI stands for Government Issue if you didn't know that.) The Nano-tech suit had repaired itself, and my hat which was a beautiful almost emerald green beret was undamaged. The traditional blue of the pants stood out but looked good with the pure white of the shirt. The tunic to cover the shirt matched the pants, except for several spots of red sprinkled around on it. Blood, both mine and others. Since it had already dried it wouldn't come off until this got a proper wash so I began getting dressed. A few minutes later I stepped out again, and limped to the door. I stumbled as the sunlight streamed through into my eyes, but as I was about to fall a helpful paw slid around in front of me. I knew who it was without even looking and I slipped my free hand over Kate's shoulders as the other two followed us out. I murmured a thanks in Kate's ear before giving it a small nibble. Making her giggle in delight. "Okay Eve, lead us to these people who want to talk please."
Kate's P.O.V.
My mother led us to a large clearing with a big aircraft in the middle and a bunch of smaller ones around the rim. Three figures stood outside the large craft. Two adult males and a female pup. As we got closer Humphrey stopped, I didn't know why until I looked at him and his eyes were wide. Humphrey's mouth had dropped open far enough that you could see every single tooth and even back into his throat. When he regained his composure Humphrey raced forward as fast as he could on the cane and yelled two names. "Mark? John?"
Cliffhanger kinda sorta, so how does Humphrey know Mark and John? I hadn't really planned on that but it threw in an interesting element and a cool twist. Find out in the next chapter, A terrible secret. Ok, bye! But, I would like to thank Deafstalker again for keeping with me through the whole first book and keeping my spirits up enough to write this one.