GANG of HOPPERS
My brothers and I in the ZooKzin War
by Dori Hopps
Written by Dan Rush
(c) Zootopia 2016 Walt Disney Cooperation
(c) Alex Gray from Harmarist Sheath & Knife comics
Chapter 23
Madagascar part 3
January 11th, 2042
Zootopian Task Force Julian
March Column "Gouge Out"
Madagascar
seventeen miles Northwest of the port of Maramanga
fourty two miles Southwest of Bongalava
7am outside the village of Mahanoro
Outside of the port...Mahanoro was the first city or town like village we'd come in contact with since the start of the Great Eastern Sea offensive. Of course the road we were running on had to go through Mahanoro which meant the Kzinti had to be occupying it with some strength. Our column was safely back a half a mile to where we could just make out the buildings through the morning dust clouds and the heat rising off the ground, it was going to be another "bunny bun ball smoker" of a day.
Owen and some of the other company Sargents were clustered around Captain Oakley and some of the officers from the other companies with hand tablets and paper maps cooking up a plan to bypass the village or take it. The drones didn't see anything heavy in the village like tanks or artillery pieces...then again they can't see everything...you don't know what the Kzinti did to the buildings, most of them only three stories tall.
Our wolves were drooling for a flight, they wanted to get naked, go feral, charge the place and let their teeth do the talking. A wolf might be fast on all fours but a rifle bullet from a well disciplined Kzinti would null that odd nicely so no...we weren't going to let the wolves have their fun.
We're not going to bypass the village either, not wise to leave Kzinti in your rear to cut off your line of supply or come up your tail to rip you to shreds. So assault will be the plan and by far not done swift nor recklessly.
Owen comes up to the jeep from his meeting and starts giving orders...
"Nori? gather up your squad of shooters. Powen? The Captain's giving you a squad of "sharpies" (sharp shooters). Dori? You and another corps-mammal will hang with us, preferably a rabbit since we're all rabbits on this one."
"What are we doing?" Nori asked. "So I'm dropping the wolves and badgers from my squad? That leaves me, Willard, Bennie and Templeton."
"We don't need too many and we don't want anyone bigger than a rabbit." Owen said as he laid a map out on the jeep hood. "This is a "bee hive kicker" to see what we're up against and to neuter as many as we can with long range fire. It's going to involve absolute fire discipline from everyone and I want you all to enforce that. Nori? Powen? discipline...no shooting unless there's no other choice or you have a solid target that's a sure one shot, one kill. It's a quiet recon sweep from the start and nothing more till I say. At some point? When the time is right? I'll spot for the Priest guns and we'll drop snit on the cat's fricken grapes."
We all nodded..."This heat's going to make everything a bitch Owen." I said wincing. "Water's our handicap here."
"Can't be helped." Owen replied. "Everyone's going to have to super hydrate before we push off and take mini-sips as we push up. The heat will give us one advantage...the reflection and refraction coming off the ground will mirage the snit out of the Kzinti's vision. To add to their frustration? We're ditching our uniforms and heavy packs and wearing only our desert boonies, amo fannies and fundoshi. We pack Light and move rabbit skipping fast."
Ori snickered..."Fighting naked? Love that idea."
"You would you silly bastard." I snorted at Ori. "I certainly don't want to look at your hairy nude butt all day."
Nori snatched me by my shirt. "You stay by my squad."
"Yes mother." I huffed.
So...we threw off our uniforms, organized our stuff into smaller "fanny packs", wrapped our "junk" in khaki colored"fundoshi cloths" and organized around the jeep with the others who would make this daring (yet totally crazy by some of our thinking) "Hash hair run" around and close to the "Vill" of Mahanoro. Believe me when I tell you a rabbit looks hilarious in a desert "boonie" and a cloth diaper...
"I'm going to chaff in this." Powen huffed as he played around with his fundoshi. "Gonna be a bitch trying to focus and shoot while my junk is being rubbed raw."
"Well focus harder." Owen snickered. "I don't want to die because you sacrificed me to save your nuts."
So besides our brood we had seven other rabbits in our merry band of dirt eaters. Nori's three rabbits...Willard, Bennie and Templeton. Powen's three sharpshooting bunnies Simpkins, Templehoff and Whipkins and my bunny medic from Aiden, Lolcer Braveeye.
We set our watches to match each other, locked and loaded our weapons, checked one last time with Captain Oakley and off we bolted in our feral forms at 0820 (8:20am) into the scrub, dirt and slow rolling rises and depressions between us and the "Vill" in a "rolling Slinky" fire team maneuver with six running forwards to a spot to aim and ready fire until the other six ran through their position and took a spot about fifty yards in front and the process repeated itself.
Once again...Zootopian Medics were not to engage in offensive warfare. We were restricted to defense actions so even if our fellows were blowing holes in snit in front of us, we medics had to sit and suck our paw thumbs until we got fired upon or the Kzinti decided to charge our little group and then the restrictions were off.
I bounded over Lolcer and smacked him off the head as I passed him up and followed Nori to a dirt eating slide over the Madagascarian sand. We were now eight hundred yards from the "Vill" in a dry river bed depression that covered ourselves well from the eyes of the enemy.
Owen was still in feral form as he stood up tall, his ears popping up for a moment to gauge things on the wind. The depression wall hid most of his body as he stared into the distance towards the "Vill"...
"Snap, Snap" Owen snapped his paw fingers at Powen and my brother hopped up to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders as Owen explained things to Powen who nodded at every detail.
"Where do you want to set up?" Owen asked.
Powen scanned the ground around us and pointed his paw to the left. "That rise about three hundred yards off should give us good coverage of the ground."
Owen gave Powen's head a pat and my brother snatched his three sharpshooters and took off towards the hill rise.
"Snap, Snap." Owen snapped his paw fingers at Ori and my brother came running up and wrapped an arm around Owen's shoulder as Owen pointed around the view to the right...
"How many rockets did you bring with you?" Owen asked.
"I dragged six tubes." Ori replied. "I also got my 203 grenade gun with ten rounds, six "grape" grenades and my M-1 Magnum carbine."
"Best guess?" Owen asked. "What do you think?"
Ori pointed off to our right. "See that there? There's a good stretch of almost flat land about three hundred yards over there. If they have armor in the village? My guess is they'll try to bring out those cheesy tanks to flank us on that flat. Same if I wanted to send troops to bum rush us on the flank or run past our positions and come up behind us."
Owen petted Ori's head. "Remember now? Fire discipline. Be aware of your amo and please be careful?"
Ori hard patted Owen back and took off in feral form to our right.
Nori came up to Owen but Owen stopped him with a paw to his chest. "You're good where you're at. Going to need some protection once we kick in the front door."
Nori turned to his little band and pointed a paw finger to the dirt where they quickly joined around him with myself and Lolcer...
"On me...stay on Owen." Nori huffed to us.
I chirped. "Are you sure you're not going to send someone to back Ori?" I asked Owen. Obviously I was a little concerned, always was with Ori's often odd behavior.
"Not worried at all." Owen replied. "He understands how serious this is, he won't cut up on us." I watched my brother slowly climb the slope of the dry river bed we were all huddled in and when he almost got to the top lip, he whipped out an "S-Scope" from his fanny belt, extended the scope tube and stuck the upper bend over the top of the lip...
"Nori? Come here, I need a radio-mammal." Owen asked.
We all spread out to Owen's left and right with Nori sitting down to Owen's right with Owen's field radio in his paw and a pad of paper balanced on his knee...
9am in the morning and already it was hot as fluck and the sand fleas were ravaging us all. I slowly went from bunny to bunny spraying "Deet" over our fur coats to keep us from going insane bitting and scratching ourselves silly...
"Everyone sit still?" Owen said calmly as he scanned the "Vill" with the "S-Scope"..."Yup...Infantry." He snorted. "Must just be getting up too because some of them are in formations doing calisthenics. Report infantry present, Nori."
Nori called back to the column..."Gouge Out, Gouge Out. Hoppy One, Infantry present in the "Vill". Stand by."
"Call Powen and Ori, let them know." Owen said as he continued to remain fixed on his scope for a moment. "Ok? Someone else look, let's have fresh eyes on this...Templeton..." Owen ordered Templeton to the scope and the light grey colored rabbit Corporal scanned over the "Vill"...
"Artillery piece in one of the buildings Sarge...I see a tube." Templeton said as he waved a paw at Nori. "Map?"
Nori whipped out a map and laid it on the slope where Templeton fingered the location of the artillery gun. "Looks like it has an 88 flash suppressor on the end of it? I think? You know? Looks like a sideways football?" He described to Owen.
Owen patted Nori on the shoulder. "Report eighty-eight by "his" map numbers Nori." He said. Owen then turned to our other "BAR bunny" Willard and pointed down the length of the dry river bed. "Will? Go about seventy yards down that way and find a place to park if you can stay out of the sun. Watch that end of the bed for any trouble and be patient ok? No shooting off unless you need too." Owen ordered.
Willard giggled..."Sarge? You just told me not to "jerk it"."
"Slap!" Owen slapped Willard off his head. "Get moving wise tail?"
"Got it Sarge!" Willard replied with a snap salute and off he went running down the bed as we kept our attention focused on Templeton...
"Why don't we just plaster the fricken "Vill" with a Bun-Truder strike?" Nori huffed. "Why do we have to do this silly "dope on a rope" snat Owen?"
"Because the Bun-Truders are busy over Mattaking and there's not that many to spare." Owen replied. "I'd like to throttle the Alderman back home who thought too many airplanes would bring about the end of the world..."
I sighed..."You don't think that maintaining a low carbon output is a good thing."
"Not when we're trying to fight a bunch of savage tigers who don't give a damn about a carbon foot prints Dori." Owen snorted back at me.
"Mind keeping the chatter down?" Templeton snorted..."Oh snit...tank...make that a pair of tanks."
Owen quickly got off his cranky attitude..."Tin cans?" He asked.
"Well?" Templeton replied. "One's a "tin can" One of those light tanks we en counted back at the port. The other's a bit more substantial? Looks a little bigger with a bigger gun."
Owen took the "S-Scope" and looked for himself.
(Note: What Owen sees is a German Panther II Gustov or "G" Model tank schemed in Japanese jungle splotch camouflage)
"That's pretty stout." Owen huffed. He took a moment to think before he turned to Nori...
"Tell Ori we have armor in the "Vill" and then tell the column...one "Tin Can" and another tank that's bigger with a bigger gun. Tell Ori the larger tank is first target. If he has to fire on it? kiss it in the tracks."
Nori called Ori..."Ori? Two tanks in the "Vill", a "Tin Can" and a bigger one. Owen says the bigger one is the priority target...kiss the tracks."
Ori replied. "Take it out by the tracks. Copy." Ori replied.
"This is getting boring." Lolcer huffed in my ear.
"Enjoy the peace while it lasts." I replied. "If you want? You could find a place to "snug" a nap and I'll wake you when the snit starts?"
Lolcer smirked. "No thank you. I don't want to wake up to find my head cut from my neck by some cat box sniffer. I know these Kzinti love to take bunny skulls as trophies."
That's how the morning evolved. Owen or Templeton spotting things in the "Vill", Nori radio'ing all the interested parties with the need to know information and me and Lolcer squatting in the dirt picking our fur or biting ourselves because of the fricken sand fleas.
Nori had sent his other "shooter" Bennie, a chocolate colored rabbit, on a quick run down and back on the opposite end of the dry river bed from where Willard was and now Bennie was coming back in a sort of quick "low knee" hobble run where he crashed into me!
"Boof!" I flopped backwards onto my butt..."What the heck?!"
"Snit! Doc?! Doc?! I got bit by a snake! Fluck!" Bennie yelped as he held the ends of a quickly applied tourniquet to his left leg to slow the run of any poison in his blood stream.
"Great." I thought. The last thing we needed, not like I have any snake antidote in my aid pack right? "Can you describe the snake?" I asked as I lowered Bennie to the ground and checked the leg for puncture wounds...sure enough, the snake just had to get in a good set of fangs.
"Well he wore a three piece suit, smoked a cigar and was quite charming...like frick! no I can't!" Bennie snapped. "I was too busy wanting to get distance Doc! Damn! Go to war only to die by a stupid snake bite?! Frith of Inlay and Prince Rabbit are going to laugh in my face!"
Lolcer slapped Bennie off the brain bucket and pointed into his snoot. "You shut the frick up and stop screeching! If you bring the "Zints" on us?! Now...calm down and tell us what the snake looked like?"
"Uh? Black and yellow striped? Stripes going from head to tail ways kinda?" Bennie sighed with a worry on his face. Me and Lolcer looked at each other as if the black rabbit of Inlay was going to show up to collect his property.
"What?!" Bennie worried, his lips quivering. "What? Am I gonna die or what? Guys? What?!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk...Lolcer said. "Poor devil huh Dori?"
"Oh yeah..." I replied. "Absolutely tragic case here Lolcer. I'm so sorry Bennie...your bunny balls are going to turn black and drop right off in about fifteen minutes."
"Hope you enjoy being a female there Ben?" Lolcer said mournfully.
"What are you guys saying?! I'm dead ain't I? My nuts are going to decay and fall off?! Really?! OH Fri!" Bennie was going to panic until I slapped my paw over his mouth and pushed him onto the sand...
Owen gave me a look of a potential butt kicking..."Dori? Stop flucking around and making a fuss? Stop teasing the poor bunny!"
I looked at Bennie, smiled and gave him a forehead kiss..."It's alright Ben...that was just a desert Garter snake you pissed off. It's not poisonous."
"Oh...you fricken douche bags!" Bennie snapped! "Fluck you Doc and Fluck you too Doc!" Bennie snapped. "We're out here in the snit and you want to be comedians well...fluck you both!"
"Sensitive." Lolcer snickered as he patted Bennie's back.
"Well I'm glad it wasn't poisonous." Bennie softened as he sat next to Nori.
It was about 12:45 or so when Nori holding the radio started waving his paw around..."Everyone shut up! Go ahead Powen?" Nori said as he had Powen on the radio at the other end...
"Snit! Owen?" Nori yelped at Owen. "A fricken "Zint" patrol of "six sticks" is walking close to the bed...30 yards out...70 yards from us and closing from Northeast to Southwest." Nori quickly clicked the radio dial setting..."Willard? Willard this is Nori, get your butt back to the center point right now!"
"Check that!" Owen snapped! "Tell him to stay put! Find the best cover he can!"
"Willard?! Check that! Go to the ground, find some cover!" Nori told Willard.
Give me the radio nori?!" Owen asked.
Owen pointed me and Lolcer to take a squat behind a large bolder on the other side of the river bed and have our weapons ready to go as he called Powen...
"Pow Pow? This is Owen, we have a "six pack" patrol closing in on our location. Can you drop them using silencers into the river bed?" Owen asked as he pulled back the bolt on his Thompson sub-machine gun.
"Already have them squared up." Powen replied. "But it would be better if you just avoid contact and let them roll by Owen."
Owen replied. "Oh sure...we'll just ask directions to the nearest Pawmart store so we can hide in the fricken toilet stalls Powen."
"Allow me to give you a reasonable solution." Powen replied. "Just sit tight and don't freak out."
Owen looked at Nori. Nori looked at me. I looked at Owen. We all looked at each other and then Nori shook his head..."Oh Frith...he's about to do something crazy...isn't he?"
It was crazy indeed...perhaps? but Powen probably stayed so perfectly cool and calm over it that it enhanced his performance. After all, if you're a ten foot tall predatorial Tiger and you see this nice juicy rabbit waving his rump and flashing his fluffy white tail at your puss? You'd go after him without a second thought...right? And that's what happened with those Zinti cats...once they saw Powen's "Tail-lights last gleaming" they abandoned everything for a tasty treat of sweet rabbit!
We heard a lot of snarling and growling and then we heard the heavy falls of big murderous paws tearing up the sand...little by little we heard a few less paws...then a few lesser paws...then a few lesser paws more and then...silence.
It felt like forever before Powen's voice cracked over the radio..." You're fine. You may resume your regular scheduled program."
Owen asked..."What did you do?"
"Why should you worry about it?" Powen replied. "Everything is clear for now...at least until they realize their patrol has gone missing."
Owen returned to the "S-scope" and scanned the land around the river bed. Sure enough? No bodies, no Kzinti patrol, no signs of anything amiss.
"Told you his behavior always gave me chills." Nori huffed. "Swear to Frith Owen? If he takes up butchery as a profession? You better check the food you get at the supermarkets."
By 13:50 hours...Owen felt he'd collected enough information to wait for a decision from the "backyard brass" on the next course of action...obviously the next course was going to be to "kick over" the bee hive...
"Everyone sit tight and be ready to take care of any customers that come your way." Owen said as he spoke into the radio to Powen's fire team and Ori who sat on our left and right flanks. Nori and his rabbits were all together now around Owen adjusting their rifle sights and peaking their heads up over the lip of the river bed to get their "lines of sight" established.
"Go easy on the amo, no "rocking" and throwing rounds away." Nori said as he gestured to me and Lolcer...
"I'll let you two know when you can come in. Pretty sure we'll need two extra guns unless the column comes screaming up our tails once the "Gun Bunnies" start throwing artillery over our heads." Nori said as he ran his rifle brush through his BAR rifle one more time before he charged the bolt with a chambered round.
That's when Owen called a halt! "GOUGE OUT HOLD! GOUGE OUT HOLD! CHECK FIRE!"
Nori snatched Owen by his shirt..."What is it bro?!"
"Civilians." Owen sighed back..."Damn it...they have civilians." Owen watched through the scope for a bit before he slunk back from the side of the bed wall and pushed the scope into Nori's chest. Owen stood by himself for a moment to collect himself...obviously he had become seriously upset and with good reason.
What Owen didn't tell us is what he saw that confirmed the situation. The Kzinti had some of King Julian's subjects, numbers not known then but certainly a good size of them in the village. Owen had caught in the "S-Scope" sweep the Kinzti having their "usual fun"..."Usual fun" meaning they were playing a brutal chase game with a little giraffe until they had enough fun of it...then they killed it and tore it to shreds in from of its' parents...
Then they shot the anguished mother in the head and tore her apart.
Then they beat the husband, clubbing him with their rifles until they ran bayonets through his body and hoisted him into the air until he bled out.
Things had gone from simply rolling these bastards over to...well...obvious complications.
"Are we going to just sit here and debate?!" Nori huffed at Owen. "Damn it Bro? The longer we stew, the worse it will get! We need to risk it and roll these bastards!"
"And kill who knows how many civilians in the process?" Owen huffed.
"And if we don't move now bro? More of them will be lunch meat!" Nori complained.
"There has to be another way." Owen said as he returned to the river bed wall and scanned over things again with his "S-Scope" until he reached for his radio again...
"Gouge out...Gouge out...Hoppy One...give me Captain Oakley." Owen spoke into his radio.
"Hoppy this is Oakley. What's the "Sitrep" Sarge?" Captain Oakley asked.
"The "Vill" has an unknown number of civilians Sir." Owen said as he looked through his scope. "They must be in one place by what I'm seeing and I hope I'm guessing it right? Request we launch a diversion attack to draw as many of the Kzinti out as possible while my crew attempts a rescue to get the civilians out of the fire zone...Copy?"
"Copy." Oakley replied. "Be patient."
"Sir?" Owen replied. "We must expedite. No doubt they're killing them Sir for food, we must act now...copy?" Owen enforced.
"Stand by." Oakley replied.
Nori huffed as he got next to Owen..."We're going to go in there and pull those mammals out?"
"The column can stage a diversion attack which will draw the Kzinti away just enough for us all to race in and get the civilians clear before our "Gun Bunnies" drop their snit on the Zint's heads." Owen looked around, especially at the flat ground to our right. He switched his radio dial and called Ori...
"Ori? There's civilians in the "Vill" and we might try to get them out. Don't know how many tanks they have but do you think you could bottle them up?" Owen asked.
The radio was silent for a moment...
"Will have to crawl up their tails but yeah...I got a place to "neck em" between buildings." Ori replied.
"Move and take care." Owen replied.
Owen switched his radio again..."Pow Pow? Civilians in the "Vill", we're going to try a rescue if I can get the column to do a diversion on our right flank..."
Obviously the plan was affirmed by the sudden arrival of some wolves who came sliding down the river bed wall to join us, two full squads of sixteen wolves led by Gunny Aluka from Tundra Town...
Powen replied to Owen..."We're going to displace and draw fire to the Northwest about seventy yards out."
"Take care of yourselves." Owen said.
"No sweat." Powen replied with his usual calmness.
Gunny Aluka slapped Owen on the shoulder..."What you got Sargent?"
"Unknown number of civilians under the Kzinti in the village. Want to try a rescue with a diversion to draw the Zint's to our right. Two tanks that we could see plus one field piece, an Eighty Eight in this building here." Owen pointed out the known situation on a map. "I have three sharpshooters on my left flank, a rocket bunny on the right flank who's going to try and bottleneck the armor. I have coordinates for the field piece but I don't know if they have artillery deeper into the "Vill". Since you're hear "Guns", you have authority now."
"Nah...you're doing well there Sarge. Where do you want us? I have two rocket wolves, three BAR wolves, Three grenadier, the rest rifles."
Owen grabbed his tactical map and laid it on the floor of the river bed..."Your two squads will hold here but your rocket wolves will shift right to cover this section of flat run and the road to our right flank, that's where I placed Corporal Hopps my rocket bunny. I'll take my crew and we'll assault the left flank once the diversion force has the Kzinti moving to our right. Your squads just need to hold fire until the right moment. When the Kzinti realize we're penetrating their right flank on our left...they'll try to come back across the front of the "Vill", the shortest point between two lines right? That's when you fry their tails."
The Gunny nodded and growled in reply. "Sounds solid to me. Sargent Ekoltz!"
The Gunny's "second in command" came up to get his orders and went back to brief the two squads of wolves...you could tell by their panting and licking of chops that they were tasting blood in the air.
Owen went back to his radio and got Captain Oakley. "Sir! We're getting set up...can we get a bomb drop on this eighty eight piece in the "Vill" or a drone strike?"
"Already put in the request. Waiting on the reply but be prepared to move if we don't get the support, all our air assets are supporting the Mattaking line, that's the priority right now." Oakley replied.
"Nori!" Owen yelped for my brother. "Nori? Take everyone else and shift left towards "Pow Pow" (Powen)...take Dori with you. Lolcer?!"
Lolcer Braveye came up to Owen..."Lolcer? You stay with Gunny and his wolves, be their Corps-mammal."
Lolcer nodded and went over to the wolves as Nori grabbed me by my arm...
"Come on. Owen?" Nori asked Owen. "You're staying to spot for the Gun Bunnies?"
"What else?" Owen replied. "You and Powen take our crew into the "Vill", find the civilians and get them out of there. Come on Nori, don't coke and jerk around. And take care of everyone."
Nori slapped my shoulder and we were off running over the river bed to Powen on our left flank in the "Bunny hop jump" with some going forward and stopping to cover the run of those who covered their run. We covered the ground in five minutes and soon ran up the side of the river bed to join Powen and his "shooters" at the ready as we waiting for the kick off shot...
Powen waved a paw to get our attention and patted his wrist watch with up-raised paw fingers..."Five minutes...five minutes...we got a Bun-Truder inbound with 500 pound bounbs, he's going to waist that field piece in that building. The column is moving up on our right. We wait for Owen's signal and then we go."
Nori patted the dirt..."Watch out for mines...What about em- placements "Pow Pow" you seen any?"
"Already sighted in." Powen replied. "I counted three "nests" on our side. One in the ground at fifty yards, two on the buildings at seventy and ninety yards. That's the machine guns I could see."
"Fricken open ground." Nori snorted. "This is going to be interesting."
"If the diversion goes well?" Powen said calmly. "We'll be on their asses before they can turn on us. I figured out where they're keeping some of the civilians, was pretty obvious. They're keeping them close to the "kitchen" if you get my drift? That's three hundred and fifty yards, follow my paw."
Nori laid his head over and sighted his eyes down Powen's arm...not to be sarcastic, it's the best way to get your bearings and figure out where the "pit falls" might be as you take off hauling paw and tails over the dirt...
Just then...the low sound of a jet flying high above us "bounced" all our ears and every rabbit clutched his weapon tightly, gritted his teeth and waited for the moment to descend like waiting for the roller coaster car to top over the crest of the highest hump...
Didn't take long...the shrieking came from over our heads, grew louder and louder as the very dirt around our feet began to bounce upwards from the shock waves expanding out from the falling bombs...
And the building that held that eighty eight millimeter artillery piece flew apart in all directions as the bombs scored a direct hit!
End of Chapter 23