Chapter 12
Camp Hell
As squad 16 sped down the dirt road to their new area of training, Reese was now looking at the map that was provided to him.
"We are currently 8 miles from our new location." Reese says.
"I hear a "but" coming." Kathrin said from the back of the truck.
"The but is that we are on our own." Reese says.
"What does that mean?" Jack says.
"It means that if we crash we have no back up they won't come out to get us." Crystal says back.
"So what is our biggest threat?" Jack asks.
"Grimm." Reese says back.
"Your orders?" Crystal asks.
"Keep your eyes on everything and fire if you see black and white with red eyes coming at us." Reese says.
Then they broke the windows out of their truck and started to scan all areas while Reese was driving.
After a few miles nothing happened.
"Um sir we got nothing." Jack says.
"Yeah same here." Kathrin said.
"Same." Crystal said.
"Keep looking, we are 5 miles out." Reese said.
Right as Reese said that the trucks on board radar picked up two objects coming up right behind them.
"Contact six'o clock what are they?" Reese says.
Kathrin and Jack then took a look and saw two very big Beowolf's hot on their trail.
"Two wolfs sir and they are moving like they are on drugs." Kathrin said.
Reese then looked in his side view mirror to see them closing in.
"LIGHT THEM UP!" Reese shouted.
BANG! BOOM! POW! BANG! BANG! BOOM!
Three of the four of the squads guns were firing at the wolfs, but the wolfs are just shaking it off.
"Ummm Reese we have a problem." Crystal said.
"What?" Reese asks.
"Well we are shooting at them but it seems that our rounds are having no effect." Crystal says.
"WHAT!" Reese shouts as he looks back.
And indeed the wolves were keeping pace with the truck, while the wounds they received were healing up.
"Well that's new." Reese says.
"What do we do?" Kathrin asks as she takes a shot at the kneecaps at the first wolf.
Kathrin's shot made it stumble but then its knees healed up and kept on running.
"Hold on taking a hard right." Reese says.
The truck then entered the corner at 60 mph, but thankfully everyone was holding on, but one of the Beowulf's jumped on.
"Unwelcome passenger, get him off." Reese says.
Jack then reached into his bag to pull out a very large handgun.
"What's that?" Kathrin asks.
"I don't know i just got it yesterday, but the dealer told me that it has superior stopping power." Jack said.
"Load that sucker and let it rip." Reese said.
And not to soon ether the Beowulf that was on top,and then it digged it's claws into the roof of the truck and ripped it off.
At that moment it made a mistake by putting it's head into the cabin to get to it's meal faster but it felt a muzzle underneath it's chin then nothing.
BOOM!
The large frame gun said as it fired.
The good news is that the wolf is now missing it's head.
The bad news everyone's ears are now ringing and now everyone is covered in the wolfs blood.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Crystal shouted.
"AHHH I DON'T KNOW!" Jack shouted back.
"WELL WHATEVER THAT THING IS, IT'S BAD FOR EVERYONE WITHIN A TEN FOOT RADIUS OF IT!" Kathrin shouted.
"GUYS SHUT UP WE GOT ONE OF THEM TO LEAVE US ALONE NOW ONE TO GO. Reese said.
Right around this point Reese then looked down at the GPS to see he was within radio distance of the out post.
"Mayday mayday this is squad 16 approaching out post, we are under attack by grim awaiting instructions." Reese said on the radio.
"This is outpost we are expecting you guys, how many grim are after you?" the operator asks.
"We got one on us it's a regenerating Beowulf and it's keeping up with us." Reese says.
"Lead it into the camp we have been trying to capture the pair out there for research purposes, lead it to us." the operator said.
"You got it. Squad don't shoot it." Reese said.
"WHAT?" The other three said simultaneously.
"Our orders are to capture it." Reese says.
"So non lethal shots." Crystal says.
"Non lethal that's correct." Reese says.
1 mile out.
"Do you see the outpost?" Jack asked.
"I see something." Crystal says.
Then the radio came to life.
"Squad 16 are you in a green truck?" The operator asks.
"Yep that's us." Reese says.
"The door is open come in at top speed." The operator said over the radio.
"Got it." Reese said as he hits the accelerator.
Now the wolf was losing interest from time to time, but Reese kept it interested by occasionally slowing down so it could catch up, then it got it's chance when the truck then slowed down for just a hair and it jumped on, and made it's way to the front part where it found one person in the driver side, then it flexed it's claws and took a swipe and got a hit, then before it could take another swipe it flew through the air and found it self inside a cage.
Reese then saw the buildings come into view with the gate open ready to receive them, but things have to happen in this case the same wolf then jumped on the truck and held on.
"Reese what do we do?" Crystal asks.
"Get down and stay down let it see the vehicle is still moving you guys jump I'll go last." Reese says.
Then they were about to enter when Reese felt a claw strike him across the his back.
"AHHH!" Reese shouted as he entered the compound then the squad then jumped from the truck and got out of the way, leaving Reese and the Beowulf on the truck.
Reese then saw the cage the compound guys set up in advance and drove right at it.
Then right as Reese jumped he got a good look at the beowulf.
It's jaws were wide open and they were in the position where Reese's head was just was, at the same time the wolf saw Reese jump before it could take a bite from him then it looked ahead to see a cage made just for it.
"Offfff! OUCH! AHHH!" Reese shouted in pain as he hit the ground.
"Nice work Reese, I initially thought you weren't crazy I didn't believe it, but here you are you are in a high speed chase with a grim on your tail." Someone said.
"Who might you be?" Reese said as he gets up from the ground.
At this point the rest of the squad ran up to Reese to see what damage he just got.
"Reese you just got three new battle scars." Crystal says.
"Crystal we can worry about that later, it appears our new commander is in front of us." Reese said.
Crystal then stood up and saw the commander looking right at her.
Then the whole squad then lined up next to Reese.
"First things first my name is commander Jake and I do not welcome you to well we don't have a name yet, but you can call it hell if you want." Jake said.
"That's very uniorignal." Kathrin whispers to Jack.
"WHAT! WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Jake shouted while walking up to Kathrin, at this point Reese realised that it's not going to be an easy time here in hell.
"Umm something about an unoriginal name for this place." Kathrin says back.
"Humm you think so eh?" Jake asks Kathrin.
"Well umm…" Kathrin was about to say.
SMACK!
Jake hit Kathrin so hard that it echoed throughout the camp.
"Well let me tell you something girl, we don't take things lightly here." Jake said as he raised his hand again.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Reese shouted.
Jake then looked over to see a very mad squad leader.
"Well looks like someone has balls, tell me why didn't anyone else come to her aid?" Jake asks.
"They were waiting for an order. But i'm going to say this once treat my squad with respect or their will be trouble." Reese says in a dead serious tone.
Then the whole camp started to laugh at them.
"Where you are your amongst the best of the best, you don't have a chance in hell to even take one of us down." Jake said as three guards came up behind the squad.
SNAP! That was Reese's Fingers snapping together.
Then in an instant Crystal, Jack, and Kathrin then delivered punches to the lower extremities that in turn made the guards drop to the ground, but instead the squad grabbed them and dropped to the ground with the guards on their backs.
Jake then found himself with a knife to his chin that Reese put there in a 1 second time frame.
"What was that about the best of the best, from the looks of it 4 of you could have been taken down." Reese said with a grin.
While this was going on another squad of 4 was watching this go down.
"That was impressive." one of the young woman said.
"Yeah lets see how they perform against us." said a young man.
Back at Reese he was now seeing that Jake at one point was all high and mighty, is now showing fear, just like Whitley.
"Stand down squad he gets the point." Reese says.
Then the rest of the squad then stood up with the guards still on their backs, they then let them go and what was holding the guards in the first place was that squad 16 was using bandanas.
"You guys are assigned to cabin 3, you got 15min to stow your gear away and report to the mess hall for dinner dismissed." Jake said as he walks away really fast.
Then the whole squad then turns around to see the four who were staring at them earlier walk away.
"Who are they?" Kathrin asks.
"If i had to guess squad 36 they don't look to friendly." Reese says.
"Come on Reese you don't know that." Crystal says.
"They gave us a strange look so I'm with Reese on this one." Jack says.
Squad 16 then took the time to pick up their gear that was strewn around on the ground, and then walked to their new home, where Reese then opened it up to find 4 beds but they were bunk beds.
"Well it looks the same except for the beds." Reese says.
"I get the top one Jack you take the the bottom one." Kathrin says as she claims the top bunk.
"Are you this hyperactive Kathrin?" Jack asks.
"Depends on the day." Kathrin says back.
"And is today one of those days?" Jack asks.
"Probably." Kathrin says back with a wink.
"You two are so weird." Reese says.
"Not as weird, when Crystal is looking at you." Kathrin says.
"WHAT? Ummmm I don't know what your talking about." Crystal says as her face gets a little redder.
Reese at this point was confused, but his thoughts were interrupted.
Knock! Knock!
"Enter." Reese said.
The door opens to show a young women in the doorway.
"Identification." Reese says.
"My name is Alice part of squad 36." Alice says.
"I'm Reese commander of squad 16, how may I help you?" Reese asks.
"I'm just here to say hi." Alice says.
"Alice time to regroup." Said a young man.
"Coming John. See you all in the training field." Alice says as she runs out.
"Humm she is interesting." Reese says.
Then the intercom came to life.
"Squad 16 report to the center of the compound for a care package from the Facility." Jake says.
Reese and his team ran out of their house to see a crate falling from the sky.
It was a really large crate then it hit the ground, with a note attached to it.
"Squad 16 here are your new equipment." W.
"What's in the box?" Kathrin asks.
"Well we will have to open it up later we got to report to the mess hall in 7 minutes, grab a corner and let's take it back to our house." Reese says.
Then squad 16 then grabbed a corner and started to run back to their cabin, once it was inside they made a mad dash to the mess hall, they made it just in time where commander Jake is making an announcement.
"So tomorrow morning we are going to hit the mud pits hard and fast, then we will run 5 miles around the compound with your light kit on every single one of you worms, then a basic handgun exercise, then we will have breakfast then for the rest of the day various exercises that any squad can participate in, that's all dismissed." Jake said.
Then everyone left the mess hall without a word spoken, on the way back to the cabin Reese took a look at the grim that they helped capture.
The grim looked back at Reese and just growled at him.
"Looks like it doesn't like you." Crystal says.
"Well I was just mere centimeters from it's jaws when I jumped out of the truck." Reese says.
"Yeah I saw that I was ….. concerned for you for a second when I saw that." Crystal says.
"Ohhh look looks like Crystal has a crush on Reese." Kathrin says.
"I do not have a crush on him." Crystal says while her face is redder by the second.
"I don't understand this feeling." Reese thought.
"Come on guys let's check out the box Winter gave us." Reese said as he continued forward to the cabin.
When they arrived back home The whole squad then got a good look at the box.
"Jeze do you think it's big enough." Kathrin said.
"Well it must be important if it's that big." Jack said.
"I wonder if it's a new weapons." Crystal says.
"Well i there is only one way to find out." Reese says as he hits the latches on the box.
When it opened up it contained suits and armor inserts and helmets.
"What is this stuff?" Kathrin asks as she picks one of the suits up.
"I don't know. Must be some prototype system that we can only wear." Jack says.
"I like the color all black with a little bit of red on the visor." Crystal says.
"Humm interesting. " Reese says.
At the bottom of the box they find a tablet that says "play me."
On the screen was Winter.
"Hello squad 16 if you are wondering what this care package is all about I'll answer it right now. What your looking at is the top of the line gear by Atlas Advance Research Labs code named Predator. It's an adaptive armor that works in all conditions from the heat of Vacuo to the cold of Atlas, and it can operate under water as well in the upper atmosphere when you have to drop into enemy territory. So first things first put on the helmet and it will turn on automatically." Winter says as the video pauses.
Then everyone looked at Reese for the order.
Reese then shrugged and put his on, then the squad followed suit.
When it was on his head it then turned on.
Predator helmet booting up….
….
…
…
System check complete.
User recognized.
User Reese.
Synchronising heart rate and other functions.
.
.
.
System ready.
It then showed them a GPS location of where they are and where his teammates are with their life signs and other things on the HUD.
"Now that you got the helmets to work now you need to put on your armor, it's different from using a zipper, it works by bonding to your skin." Winter says.
Then everyone's heart rate just went up.
"Now I know what your thinking "is it permanently attached to me?" The answer is no it can be removed but right now you need to put it on, so I recommend wearing your shorts and short sleeved shirts." Winter says as the video pauses again.
Reese then removed his helmet and started to put on his sports gear.
"Reese are you insane what if it goes wrong." Crystal says.
"Well it's been tested with several repetitions just to make sure it works, so I have no problem putting it on." Reese says as he puts on his helmet.
Then everyone else did the same.
"So how's it going to attaches itself to us?" Kathrin asks.
"Well I got a guess but I'll let the video do the talking." Reese says as he hits the play button.
"Now assuming that your in your sports gear, now hold up the suit to your body, then it will do the rest." Winter says.
Then ever looked at Reese and waited for him.
"Well down the hatch." Reese says.
Reese then put it against him and waited.
Then suddenly Reese felt it grab on to him, Reese then started to panic but remained still for the progress as the suit moved it's way around his body.
"This feels so weird, like it's getting to know you on a personal level." Reese says.
"How personal?" Crystal asks.
"Like it will know every inch of your body." Reese says.
"Great." Jack, Crystal, and Kathrin said at the same time as they put their suits against their body's.
It was the same result everyone felt weird about the armor but then before they know it the process is complete.
"Now move around." Winter says.
Then the whole squad then started to move their fingers then their arms then the legs.
"Now that everything is working I'm going to talk about some of the features on the Predator suit. First your helmets enhance your senses to that your on the same level of a faunas, but mainly enhanced hearing and night vision gear with thermal scanners so you can see in all helmets contain long range radios and an uplink to Atlas satellites for real time data gathering. Now the suit in it's plain state it offers excellent mobility and protection against small arms and knives, but when you need additional protection you have a variety of inserts to use ranging from small to heavy protection. I'll let you figure them out yourself for what works best for you. Anyway that's the basic rundown for the Predator armor so take the time to read up on the manual for additional information, so for now your orders are to keep it on you for the next 24 hours Winter out." Winter said as the screen went black.
Then the whole squad then looked at each other.
"Well time for bed?" Kathrin asks.
"Yep to bed." Reese says.
Then for the better part of the night the squad just stared at the ceiling wondering what this armor is capable of.
End