(A/N- This update took much longer than I would have liked, but here it is, finally.)

Chapter II: Heart of the Forest

"How did they even know we were here?"

After several seconds of conversation, Michael hooked up to an orbiting planetary satellite, which contained scanners that revealed every aspect of the planet's surface. "Alright everyone gather around."

"What's up Mikey?"

"Zach, I told you to stop calling me that. Anyway, this is where we are."

He tapped a screen that showed a large, heavily forested area, particularly a point on the inner southern tip. The APC hadn't moved an inch since our confrontation with the locals.

"This… is where we should be."

This time he pointed to the edge of the eastern part of the dense forest.

"Our objective…is here."

His finger moved to the heart of the forest, which on the map, shown as an almost black area, flooded with trees and other plant life. This certain point was only a few miles from our current position. After a moment of silence, I spoke.

"So what you're saying is that the hostile stronghold is literally right next to us?" A nod. "Well shit. Ditch the tank and we'll go ahead on foot."

"Sir, uh, may I make a suggestion?"

"What Xavi?"

"Well we are already this close, and our cover is already blown right? Why not just take the MX? It'd make this an easy fight. Plus, this will be all over a lot sooner if we just drive through the front door and start blowing everything to shit."

"You forget one thing. If we leave it here and proceed, we can regain some stealth. Besides, seven small targets are harder to see than one huge one."

"But one huge target with near-impenetrable armor and enough weaponry to take on a small army is a lot safer than seven animals with body armor and light weapons."

"Sure. It probably would save us some time, effort, and probably a little blood. However," I said removing a small pod from my pack, which contained a small targeting satellite. "…wouldn't you rather use this? Devastate the entire place in a couple of seconds. It might disintegrate a couple of trees in the process, but a hole in the middle of this forest would make for a nice area to put up a base."

Silence followed. Every eye was on the weapon in my paws. The life of the ten-pound satellite was simply to be destroyed. It would send a message to the Iron Maiden, a ninety-story tall Quantum-class battleship, which, on reception of the signal, was capable of launching a shower of several hundred small ballistic missiles (of course it would only fire a small portion of this for the immediate mission goal) at the area surrounding the pod. This, of course, incinerates the pod and anything within a two mile radius of it. The downside to the weapon was that it sent the signal about thirty minutes after setting it, forcing us to get the hell away before we go up with it. This unfortunate fate came to the new Omega Recon squad. Only one survivor was found, and even he died a week later from severe third degree burns and internal bleeding.

Zach's eye twitched three times before he snatched the device from my arms. "How 'bout it Xavi?"

The massive Komodo, after a period of thought, replied. "Yeah…I guess. We're gonna need a team to set it up though. Who did you have in mind Blade?"

"You, Me, and Trev."

"What about us, sir", Michael asked. "Want us to keep the engines running?"

"Definitely. You guys are gonna start shooting up the front entrance to the place with it. Thing'll cause enough noise to get every damn soldier they have on base back there. Then the three of us will go in through the hole (hole refers to any gap in defense that can be exploited). From there we will initiate the air strike. Pull back on my signal, and wait for the fireworks, got it?"

A chorus of yes sirs was the answer to my question.

"Then get moving!"

The two animals I had designated to come with me jumped off the tank, followed by myself, carrying the device in my pack. We began moving as the APC drove off into the dense forest. Xavier was about a quarter-mile ahead of us with scouting orders. We needed him too, the Fortunian fog had just settled in, and it was hard to see even ten feet or so in front of us. It wasn't much longer before our sniper had targets.

"Sights hot. Do I engage?"

"Hold fire. How many?"

"Wait a sec." He no longer spoke audibly, but he whispered, obviously counting. "Five sir."

"Take. Repeat, engage targets."

"Copy."

A second later, two half-suppressed gunshots rang out into the night air. A voice called out the word "Sniper", but before he could finish, another shot silenced him. What sounded like a machine gun began firing, masking any other sound in the area. After a short while it stopped.

"Xavi, status?"

"Targets…taken care of."

"Thought for a second that MG took you out."

"You know me better than that."

The husky standing next to me stifled a laugh.

I looked at him and he shrugged, still grinning.

"Did Trev just laugh at you?"

"Yeah I think he did. Keep the line clear unless you have something to report please."

"Sure. Sniper out."

"Now what the hell are you laughing at?"

The canine again burst out, and after catching his breath, replied. "Nothing…just that you've known us for seventeen years and you could possibly think that a lowlife machine gunner could take out an above-professional long rifleman with a knack for knocking peoples' brains outta their skulls."

"Ah, fuck you."

He smirked, but soon fell back into a more serious expression and abruptly shouldered his weapon, an SP-78 Railgun, and faced east. "Contact right!"

He blasted a slug through the animal, a young tabby, with enough force to pin him against a tree and keep him there. The feline looked straight down the barrel of the gun that would have killed him (had it's owner bothered to aim the gun at his torso). Instead, the projectile had nailed him to the bark of the tree through the right shoulder, causing him to drop his assault rifle, which now lay two meters in front of him. I approached the panicking cat, and nonchalantly struck up a conversation with him.

"Hi there. You're a sneaky one aren't you?"

The shaking cat simply looked at me, wondering why almost no pain came to his new wound. I continued.

"Maybe you can give us some directions. We're looking for whatever the fuck hole you crawled out of. Think you can help?"

The staring feline made no movement to assist me.

"Perhaps I haven't made myself clear. Where, the hell, is the biochemical facility that you have been ordered to defend?"

I was almost screaming, right into his face.

"Please don't kill me! It's one mile to the north. Can't miss it."

The tabby nearly broke into tears, as I gave our spotter instructions, which he confirmed.

"Relax, if we were going to kill you, he would have done that two minutes ago," I said, motioning to the neutral-colored dog next to me. "What's your name?"

"Logan, sir."

"Logan what?"

"Alfaro."

"Alright, Logan, we'll be back for you in about a half-hour, give or take. Stay here."

I said, pointing to the projectile lodged in his shoulder, and he attempted to pull it out, although it didn't budge.

"I don't think I could go anywhere even if I wanted to, sir."

"No kidding. Cut the sir shit. I ain't your commander."

"Okay s-."

Damned cat was lucky he caught the salutation, or he'd be missing limbs at this point. I hated being called that, it made me feel like a machine, and most of the men ever under me knew that. I stepped away from the tree and began walking again towards our objective, flanked by my second-in-command. A familiar voice came through my comlink.

"Blade, Zach here, uh, we have a visual on their front gate, it's sealed. Requesting permission to start blowin' shit up."

"Hold on a sec. Xav, can we confirm the location of the enemy structure?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," the sniper confirmed, "I think we should set up our distraction so they can get some men out of our way before we go in."

"Alright thanks." I tapped a few buttons on my communicator. "Iron Maiden, this is Alpha One, reporting that the operation is a go, stand by for air strike in…thirty minutes, give or take."

A gruff male voice chimed in. "Commander, affirming missile strike request. We will wait for the signal."

"Admiral Lancer, that you? Good to hear you breathing on your own again."

"Thank you, though it WAS your operation I was covering for when I got shot."

"Right, thanks for reminding me, the guilt was almost gone."

He chuckled. "Pleasure was all mine. Good luck down there."

"…Says the guy a thousand miles above the planet monitoring me." I laughed and thanked him before hitting the button on my communicator labeled 'DISCONNECT'. "Zach you have permission to execute your orders, repeat, the mission is a go."

"Roger that, we're movin' in."

I quickened my pace, as did the canine at my side. Soon the sound of gunfire and explosions rocked the dense forest. Ten minutes or so later, we caught up with Xavier, who had taken it upon himself to systematically end the lives of six guards. The sheer size of the lizard was only comprehensible when you were close enough to touch, as my six-three height paled in comparison to his near-eight. He slung his rifle over his back and shouldered in place, a K1 Submachine gun. After affirming that the area was clear, I handed him a small remote demo charge, and he walked to the wall of the enemy compound making sure the coast was clear, and activated the bomb, planting it on the side of the large base. He then stepped to the side and squeezed the trigger on a small detonator. The wall tore open, killing a soldier on the other side, a rat, as our sniper stepped through the gaping hole in the structure, firing at an animal at a computer, spattering blood onto the screen.

"Room clear, sir."

"Room?"

Trevor and I climbed through the destroyed wall, revealing the interior of a tall building, likely a guard tower. To no one in particular I asked, "Think this is close enough to set up the strike?"

The husky at my right looked around and said, "Nah, we need to get it out in the open anyway, so the positioning system doesn't get all fucked up – and I'm pretty sure these walls aren't wooden."

I put a hand against the wall of the tower. "Nah, it's entirely concrete." The corner of the tower away from the wall we destroyed had a security door embedded in the structure, made entirely of steel, and locked from the other side. A control panel with flashing red lights was attached to the door. I walked over to it and read its indicator, which said LOCKDOWN in large print. I called Trevor over and showed him the pad, which he analyzed quickly.

"Westex Security Model 3990, cheap and ineffective. Wanna see what's on the other side?"

"Yeah, breach it. Xavi, get back outside and make sure the area is clear."

Both animals replied positively. The sniper stepped back through the gap in the barrier, as my hacker began tapping at keys on the pad; gun still in hand, as I moved to the other side of the door. After an alert that the door was about to open five seconds later, I looked through the thermal scope on my rifle, which showed three heat signatures on the other side of the door. I rest the center of the scope on one of the orange-colored targets. Immediately as the door opened, I fired a quick three shot burst at a wolf, then turned and fired several more shots at the head of an ape, severing it. Trevor fired a slug at the skull of another animal, whose species was afterwards unintelligible, as the projectile completely decapitated it before I could see its face. I walked over to the wolf, who wore decently protective armor over his torso, although ineffective against the blaster bolts that my gun fired. He was still alive, though he was bleeding heavily from the stomach and coughing up blood due to the wound that blasted a hole in his lung. He lay on his back, staring me in the face. His eyes seemed to travel up and down my right eye, tracing the deep, ragged scar that ran through it. He stared at the damaged retina and pupil.

"You…you mother…fucker…"

The red-and-grey-furred wolf seemed almost familiar, almost as if I knew him. Then it hit me. He was an agent in the organization. I looked at the uniform he wore, shadow black, with dark grey body armor, characteristic of our sister support squad, Alpha/Special Weapons. His weapon was still in his paw, a recoilless rifle that was specially designed for infantry use, and a K3, the newer version of the SMG that Xavier uses, in his other hand.

"Fuck, how the hell did you get in here?!"

He replied between coughs, "I allowed myself to be captured a few hours ago…they left my weapons in reach…I picked the cuff locks…" At this point he lifted a wrist that bore a pair of handcuffs, with one detached. "Don't you…have an x-ray…scope?"

"They don't give us those (lucky bastard), except on sniper rifles, we have thermals…where is the rest of the squad?"

"We heard you guys…were already in action…sent me in alone to make sure you…didn't fuck up." He attempted a smile. I knelt down at his side, checking out his wounds.

"Well, we did fuck up, at least, I did. Not that you could have done anything about it." I placed two fingers on his wrist. "You're just damned lucky your commander is a telepath and a healer." His pulse seemed unfazed.

"No Shit…Can…you get a hold…of her?"

"Of course I can, dipshit. Hang in there. Trev, see what you can do." I tapped in a homing code on my arm-mounted communicator. Seconds later, the familiar face of a beautiful white-furred tigress appeared on the Hi-Def screen of the device.

"I guess you ran into Gabriel?" She said sarcastically.

"Not sure if that's a good thing, he's got three gunshot wounds now."

"Got a little trigger happy huh?"

"I never said I did it."

"No, but now I know you did." She smiled slyly. "Can't even wait for a door to open can you?"

I frowned at her knowledge, then sealed off my mind to her telepathy (did I mention I could do that?). The tigress on the screen winced and placed three fingers against her forehead.

"No mind-probing."

"That hurt."

"Are you going to get down here, or are you gonna let him bleed to death?"

She stared at me for a minute, then said, "That was mean."

"Get down here."

"Are you going to apologize?"

"I'm apologizing by trying to keep your squadmate alive."

"Say sorry," she said stubbornly.

The wolf lying on the floor yelled at the animal on my communicator. "GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE, KIRA!"

I sighed and said, "I'm sorry, now get your ass over here."

"Was that so hard?"

"Yes, and hurry up!"

"Be there in five."

I cursed under my breath. "I don't know if he has that much longer." I cut the feed and looked around the room. There were several computer monitors intricately mounted in the walls, as well as keyboards for all of them. There was a rack of weapons in the corner of the room, holding several weapons that would be considered sub-par to professionals like us, semi-automatic handguns, one or two pistol-like submachine guns, and some outdated rifles, along with a belt of plasma grenades. The room was longer than it was wide, and on the side to the left of the door we came through (which re-sealed itself for no apparent reason) was a window almost as long as the wall itself. I walked over to it and looked out, discovering that there was a far larger threat than we had originally anticipated. The window looked out over at least an entire klick's worth of land, all surrounded by a wall that was about five of me thick. There had to have been half-a-thousand troops in the courtyard, along with three L60 Hover tanks, plus a couple brigades of light vehicles and transports. In the center of it all was a very boxy building with three smokestacks rising vertically into the sky, and a reactor connected to the facility through a skywalk.

"Blade?"

I looked to my right and noticed Trevor standing next to me. "Look at that. What are they doing?"

I had failed to notice that the presence of soldiers was designated in one particular area. I looked to where he was pointing to see that the force that I mentioned exiting the compound through a side gate. Seeing all of this sent shivers down my spine. I instinctively tapped in a homing code on my communicator. Seconds later a tiger's face popped onto my screen.

"Yeah?"

"Mike, how are you guys doing?"

"Fine…Shields are down to fifty percent because we took a rocket in the back near the generator, armor is at ninety-eight…There's not much of a problem here, but the lack of infantry support is pretty suspicious."

"Wait a sec," I said, tapping in another number on the keypad and hitting the conference button. A black-furred vixen answered immediately.

"Yes, boss?" She said in her heavily accented voice.

"How's the inside?"

"You tell me." She rotated the camera, getting me a good look at the interior of a building. She was standing in a seemingly empty hallway, devoid of any color, not to mention life. "No life forms, whatsoever. What's going on?"

"Jan, get the fuck out of there, repeat, move to our position, NOW."

"Might I ask why?"

"Just do it!"

Seconds later, a small figure could be seen exiting the large building outside through a top-level door onto a balcony. The figure stepped up onto the railing of the steel ledge, and moved along the side of the building, hidden from the view of the soldiers below by the dark of the night, which was brightening by the second. She grabbed firmly onto a pole, and slid down until her boots hit the ground, then sprinted to the window I was at, which was apparently reflective, because when she kicked it in, she immediately drew her pistol and rested the laser sight between my eyes. Her eyes widened when she saw that I was not hostile.

"Oh, sorry, habit." She jumped down about three feet onto the floor, landed silently and approached me, gun still pointed at my head. "Now, do you mind telling me what in the darkest depths of hell is going on here?"

I responded unfazed, "To be completely honest, I have no fucking clue."

"Huh." She put her gun back in its holster, then cocked her head to the side to look over my shoulder. "Hey, Gabe, what are you doing here? And what happened?"

The wolf had propped himself up against a wall as close to the door and as far from me as he possibly could. His chest still bled lightly, but was tightly wrapped in bandages. "Hey…Ask this asshole…I still have…no idea."

Her head had resumed its normal position and she smirked at me. "Again?" She asked crudely. I shrugged. "He does this once every two months, at least."

She was interrupted by a knock on metal.

"Open up!"

Trevor began to walk to the door, saying, "I'll get it," before being stopped by me.

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't need to look pretty anymore."

I walked over to the door, and plunged my fingers between its two halves, ripping open a hole in the middle of it. I pried open the two plates of metal, almost effortlessly opening it. As I looked up, I was greeted by yet another gun barrel in my face.

I crossed my arms over my chest, throwing my rifle over my back on its sling. "Seriously? Who else do you think is going to rip a door in half with his bare hands, just to let you in? Not any terrorist I've ever met."

The shotgun removed itself from my head and gave me a visual on its snowy white beauty of an owner, accompanied by five other animals, including her brother, another white tiger, and a black bear known to his friends as Kent Brase (A/N it's pronounced 'brass', not 'braise' as a friend thought).

"I just wanted a reason to put a gun to your skull." In all fairness, she was quite honest. "Where is he?"

I pointed to the lupine leaning on the wall to my right, and she pushed past me and knelt beside the wolf, having him lie on his back. She placed her paws on his chest and closed her eyes. Her white fur began to glow bright blue, and a blinding white light emanated from her hands. Gabriel winced in slight pain as his wounds began to seal. After a few seconds, the light faded, and her fur returned to its normal color. She removed the rest of Gabriel's bandages, revealing that the wounds had been completely healed, with no sign of damage ever being done. He slowly stood up, and lingered a little bit before picking up his weapons. I looked at him.

"We cool?"

He glared at me. "You know I'm going to get you back for this right," he said, unholstering his sidearm. He raised the pistol with a rapid movement and put a double tap in my left shoulder, and I staggered backwards.

I recovered from the shots almost immediately and wrapped my hand around the gun barrel, bending it to the side and slamming the weapon into his face, which caused a deep cut on the top of his snout. I pulled the gun out of his grip and tossed it to the side. He leaned against a wall and gave me a death glare.

"That's enough, both of you," Kira shouted threateningly. "I don't want to have to have the two of you court-martialed."

I looked at her sideways and crossed my arms again. "I outrank you, that's not a threat."

"That doesn't matter, I can report you for conduct unbecoming to a Special Forces officer, and have you demoted or discharged."

I took a few steps toward her and grinned. "We both know you'd never do that."

She stared at me blankly for a few seconds. "Oh, shut up."

I laughed silently, and walked back to the observation window, taking the longest route around Gabriel. "What do you make of this?"

She stood beside me and watched the fleeing troops. "I have no idea. Maybe…you should contact command…"

I hit a button on my communicator and almost immediately got attention from a female officer, and good friend of mine aboard the Iron Maiden. "Blade, what is your status? Facility taken care of already?"

"Unfortunately no, Liz, I was hoping you or the Admiral could tell me what the fuck is going on down here. Take a look at this."

I showed her the mass of soldiers and vehicles leaving the area.

"Blade, get out of there, now, no time to explain. Forget the aerial bombardment, just get your people out of there."

"What is going on?"

"I just told you there is no time to explain everything you want to know. Abort mission, I repeat, abort. Command out."

"Shit..."