Runners Chapter 3
Logan ambled through the featureless corridors that ran through-out the entire mountain complex, scanning the brief report that had what seemed to be thrown together. He flicked through brief paragraphs describing their body build and colours.
'It's a dragon?' Logan thought, still trying to fathom how the creatures could exist; let alone running wild in North America 'How am I going to tell the guys this?' He checked over his shoulder to make sure no prying eyes were looking and re-opened the file to go through the brief written description and photos obtained from the CCTV network center before the multimedia log was wiped clean.
He exited the tunnel network and skirted the edge of the main hanger, passing engineers mending chain-link fence next to the main entrance what seemed to be completely shut off and over guarded by multiple armored units and at least 20 odd soldiers.
"Wow" he muttered "Smart enough to get out of this 'top secret' base and they are now god knows where in Idaho" He scanned the text for the fourth time; for a military operation brief, it was ironically brief. There was no information on behavior, location or what they could do. It was like something copy and pasted from a website. To put it bluntly, it was a load of bull**** about how they are mythical creatures which can breathe fire and fly. The only help was the CCTV pictures which gave him a good representation on their scale against humans and their body build and appearance. He examined the pictures closely before returning all of the documents into the folder and turned his attention back to how he was going to break the news to his team on that they were going to start a wild goose chase around the mountains after some dragons: Not your average mission. But then again this isn't your average military base.
"Hey Sir, you okay?" Logan shook himself to reality when he realized he was stood next to his squads' Humvee with everyone staring at him in a peculiar way.
"Sorry" he said scratching the back of the head "I wasn't fully here, I was ... somewhere else"
"Meh, it happens to everyone" Moore smiled but the folder caught his curiosity "What is in the folder Sir?"
Winters looked down at the folder "That is information for our next mission, but I'm going to brief you somewhere else" he replied, earning a confused team "Saddle up!" The team once again hopped into the Humvee with Malarkey manning the .50 cal; Shifty, Moore and Heffron rode in the back seats while Webster drove and the Captain riding shotgun.
"So where are heading?" Webster asked
"You know where we came through, the large cavern" replied Logan
"Yeah"
"Head back towards it; there is a briefing room on the edge of the so called 'hanger' that we can use for the brief"
"Roger that Sir" Webster pushed the gear lever into place and the Humvee made its way back towards the hanger.
The once silent and sleepy base that they arrived in a few hours ago was now fully awake: large groups of soldiers rushing around, loading weapons and manning various posts along roads and key choke points. Various armoured vehicles had also emerged and were either patrolling the road ways around the base or reinforcing major choke points. Once they entered the hanger, they were met by a roar of engines as Ospreys and Apaches taxied out of hanger bays and parking on the tarmac near the landing and take-off pads.
"Wow, a lot of hassle for something" Shifty chuckled "I wonder if that thing we brought in had something to do with it?"
"Dunno mate" Heffron said "But it probably had something to do with that"
After another minute or two of driving, Webster pulled the vehicle up outside a doorway which headed up towards one of the many rooms that lined the wall of the hanger. "We're here guys, head inside" Logan ordered as he exited the vehicle, closely followed by Malarkey how had just jumped out of the turret hatch.
One by one, the soldiers filed into the doorway that was actually an elevator; Malarkey pressed the button marked 1 and the lift doors slowly closed and the soldier were dragged skyward under the influence that this mission would be like any other. A small ping indicated that the elevator had arrived and the doors opened to reveal a large room that had seating surrounding a strange table in the centre. Windows on the right looked out onto the hanger while the rest were barren apart from doorways and light switches.
"Alright guys, take a seat" Logan ordered "And keep an open mind because you are not going to believe half of this bull-"
-
The wind gently passed through the twilight as wild deer grazed in a small clearing in the vast forest as a lone doe grazed and foraged for what little food that she could find. She carefully paced across the highlighted grass, talking multiple mouthfuls of grass, flinching at every sound created by fellow wild creatures: natural and unnatural.
A large shadow stalked the doe silently through the undergrowth, carefully calculating its next move, not wanting to jeopardize its hunt. It pounced from the undergrowth with unnatural speed and quickly dispatched the doe. The dragon stood up triumphantly over his kill.
"Did you get it Rorick?" The green dragon looked over his shoulder to see a yellow dragon emerge from the tree line and into the twilight, closely followed by a slightly smaller red dragoness who plodded along heavily, leaning on the larger dragon for support.
"Yeah, I got it Krayt" Roderick replied "How is you sister holding up?"
Krayt turned his head to side "You okay Aurora?"
Aurora lifted her head from the dragon's side and smiled "I'm okay, apart from being tired-" She cut herself off when she felt her stomach rumble, emitting a low pitch growl. She immediately felt blood rush to her face causing her to blush, but to her benefit she was a fire dragoness it went unnoticed. "And maybe a little hungry…"
"Well then" Aurora looked up to see Rorick proceed to tear a hind leg of the doe and hand it towards her "eat up". She took the meat and looked at it with a blank face.
"Err, Aurora? You okay?" Aurora looked up to see her brother looking down towards her.
"Are we going to cook it?"
"No" Rorick said as he proceed to pull another large portion of meat from the doe and hand it to Krayt. "We can't risk gaining unwanted attention from a fire. Besides, I don't want to meet those things that we ran from back there"
"He does have a point sis, we can't risk being spotted by whatever they were back there" Kryat said "Besides, raw meat can't be that bad, right?" He looked over to see Rorick take a large mouthful of raw meat "He seems to enjoy it"
Kryat looked at the meat before nibbling along the edge. Comparing it to cooked meat, it didn't have certain qualities like the texture or flavor but the freshness of the just killed meat surely made up for it. He swallowed the meat and wiped his maw "Not bad" he said "Could be better, but considering the conditions, it could be worse"
"Yeah, we could be back in that …, that …" Aurora stammered, her voice frustrated.
"Underground Cavern?" Rorick finished through a mouthful of meat.
"Please don't remind me" Krayt, reminded by the memories, shook his head to clear his thoughts "Of that or those things inside there. But I wonder what they were?"
"What, those two legged things that looked like hairless cheetahs?" Aurora asked "I swear I heard one of them say 'Well there not human', they could be a human?"
"Possibly, but all I know for certain is that we are not in the dragon realms anymore and we should try and figure out how to get back" Krayt said "We should get going, try and get to …"
Krayt cut himself and looked to the tree tops.
"What is it Krayt?" Rorick asked. He too looked around the tree tops dumbfounded at his fellow dragon's sudden mood change.
"We need to move. Now!" Krayt shouted "Quickly, get into the forest"
Rorick just stood there as Krayt sprinted into tree line. What was that dragon on? He thought.
"Aurora, we need to go" Aurora's head poked up from the belly of the fallen doe, her face was covered in its blood.
"What's the rush?" She gave her brother a confused glance. "Can't we stay a little longer?" She didn't get a reply as her brother was now preoccupied. He had flown just above the forest so he could get a better view of the surrounding landscape. He heard a faint noise which completely alien to him. He hovered in position as the as the sound grew louder and louder.
"Can you hear that?" He shouted down towards Aurora. She raised her head from the carcass and listened to the forest around her, but nothing seemed to be out of order. She only heard the wind passing through the trees, making the leaves rustle slightly. Aurora was about to doubt her brothers reaction until she heard a strange sound. A sound that sort of sliced the air and gradually grew louder and louder.
"What is that noise?" She asked, but before her brother could answer, he suddenly pulled his wings tight against his body and dropped 40 feet to the ground. His legs shuddered upon impact with the ground but his supported his weight. His face was panic stricken as he turned to his sister and shouted "RUN, NOW!"
-
Two AH-64U Apaches roared over the forest at break speed. They had their orders: Find the tier 0 assets and force them back towards home base. If unable to do so, eliminate them!
The two heavily armed apaches roared over the tree tops, the pilots skilfully navigating the maze of valleys that made up the national park. Behind them was Ghost wing. 14 powered rotary wing aircraft made up of 10 Apache's and 4 Osprey's laden with a crack infantry platoon and been deployed to a 20km grid to search for the assets.
The pilot of the head of the formation, codenamed 'Ghost 2-1' was scanning the ground below him through a set of night-vision goggles. She flicked a small switch on her set of goggles to heat vision and valley floor lit up from heat signatures from various animals that littered her field of vision.
"Ghost 2-1 to Ghost 2-2, Please tell me you have found something. Over"
"Ghost 2-2 to 2-1, negative on last message. Just the normal bunch of critters. Over"
"2-2, our shift is nearly up and I've got deer on my LoS. Fancy some of that tonight? Over"
"That sounds good 2-1, we'll shoot a couple and get the V-22's to pick 'em up. Over"
"Okay 2-2, I'll get a co- hold on, it was taken down by, … What is that? 2-2, check grid 46-56-32, calibrate on 56 degrees. Over"
"2-1, what is that?"
Ghost 2-1 focused her goggles onto her target. Suddenly, one rushed off into the tree line and out of her vision. The other two just stood there for a few moments before one of them came directly into her helicopter. It was a dragon! But as soon as it appeared, it disappeared into the trees.
"2-2, please tell me you saw that?"
"2-1, I think we're gonna' have to call off that deer hunt"
"Roger that 2-2" The pilot pressed a button on her control column which allowed her to speak on an open frequency to all other forces out on patrol. "Overlord, this is Ghost 2-1. We have a code Alpha-Red in grid 46-56-32. Tier 0 assets have been sighted. How copy? Over"
2-1 waited for a couple of moments before her radio in her flight helmet came to life.
"Ghost 2-1, this is Overlord. Message received. Redirecting Echo and Sierra wings towards your location. You have your orders, happy hunting. You're weapons free. Out"
"You heard Overlord ghost Wing, Light 'em up!" She moved her cannon until it was pointing in the general direction and pulled the trigger. The nose mounted auto cannon released numerous tracers into the night sky and burst into the forest with big explosions. These rounds were quickly followed by dozens more from fellow apaches. "Ghost Wing, deploy ground teams! All Apaches, pursue targets and drive them towards Gird 0!"
The hunt was on.
-
"I really don't see the point with all this fancy trash, just give me my M4 carbine, my knife and some C4 and I could deal with this fiasco in a couple of days"
"Quit moaning Heffron, we all hate the situation we are in so can your moaning and shove it up your –"
"Hey Moore, turn on the radio" Moore looked over his shoulder to see Webster jogging out towards their new Humvee. All of the team were dumbstruck about their new pieces of kit that was installed to the jeep like reactive armor, high tech gadgets and a new rotary chain gun that replaced the .50 Cal which lead the troopers to the recent revelations that:
a) Dragons actually exist
b) The new high tech equipment was far too complicated for them to use
c) Malarkey is very touchy about the .50 Cal MG on the jeep
d) It takes 4 people to restrain Malarkey when he gets pissed off
"Why Gunny? We won't get reception out here!" Moore replied
"Not that one, the radio these guys gave us" Webster muttered something to himself but it was inaudible to the other occupants of the vehicles. Moore turned the knob on the newly fitted radio bolted onto the dashboard only to hear an unusual amount of radio traffic over one frequency.
"Wow, looks like shits going down guys" Heffron said but his optimism was short lived as they started to listen to the radio messages.
"Overlord, we have lost 2-4 and 2-9. Send medevac ASAP!" "Overlord copies all, medevac en-route" "All call signs, this Ghost 2-1. Target assets sighted, but they aren't coming quietly. We've lost two birds, request to fall onto code grey protocol. Over" "Negative 2-1. We need them alive unless it escalates to Defcon A-1 threat, then grey protocol will be launched" "Roger that Overlord, request all available units to converge on grid 46-56-32. The dragons are on the move bearing west 56 degrees. Out"
The soldiers sat in the Humvee in silence. All of the doubts were now diminished, dragons existed and were in the United States. They all sat in the Humvee still pondering in their own thoughts when Logan, flanked by Malarkey carrying the old .50 Cal with a couple of spare boxes of ammo, opened up the Humvee's front door.
"Right, we're moving out lads" Logan ordered as he proceeded to throw Moore into the back seats of the Humvee "Where heading to Grid 46-56-32"
"Isn't that where the gunship are?" Heffron asked
"Yep, we've been ordered by the guy in charge to head out"
Meanwhile, Malarkey had jumped up onto the roof of the Humvee and sat with his legs dangling through the turret hole in the roof with the .50 Cal mounted alongside the more advance replacement. As the Humvee's engine coughed into life, a group of battered soldiers staggered out of a door-way from the armory. Malarkey simply waved at the group who, in turn, swore and sneered at the soldier as the Humvee headed towards the exit of the base and out into the wilderness.
"Oh yeah, what is it with Malarkey and that .50 Cal?" Moore brought up as they drove into the night...