Though it was 8:00 PM when Matthew got up from his nap, there was more activity around the base. Around Hellsing, there was only more activity at night before a mission. He carefully made his way through the base to a meeting point with Armen. More people looked at him, but not as many seemed afraid.

He soon arrived. Armen and two of his squads were already seated. Matthew found a place in the back and stood. Richard soon arrived. "Attention on deck!" Armen sounded. All present stood at attention.

"As you were," Richard said. The platoon sat, Matthew remaining standing. "We've got a recon mission tonight, and a new team member. I'll introduce him in a moment. First, we some of you know, we cleared out a Global Fang base several years ago. We left it standing and kept an eye on it. We've picked up activity from that base and we want to see what going's on. Your squads have been tapped. Lieutenant Armen?"

Armen stood. "Sir." He joined the Lieutenant Colonel. "Normal recon op loadout. Teams of three moving around the facility. Radio silence once we arrive. We get there, start the search, fifteen minutes later we pull out. Defend yourselves, but do not attack. We want this as silent as possible. We have a new guy on the team joining us on this op. He's a Hellsing soldier, but he's an American so don't worry about an accent. Matthew Jemeth." He gestured toward Matthew. The troops looked and Matthew replied with a simple hand wave. "He may be a vampire, but he's still one of us. Don't shoot him. First and second squads will break into search teams, I'll stay with the bird and monitor." Armen returned to his seat.

Richard stopped up. "Load up. Good luck. Dismissed."

The assembled troops broke into squads and left the briefing room. Matthew met up with Armen, passing by the civilian from earlier. The dark skinned man was leading one of the squads out, and if he'd had guns for eyes Matthew would've been a pile of dust. Matthew simply kept walking, trying not to notice. He gave Armen a confused look, looked at the civilian, then back to Armen. Armen nodded, understanding the question. "Let's walk and talk."

They started for the armory. "His name is Roland Mitchell. He was a member of a group called Night Shield before DPSD came along. Only civilian still working in the field and one of our more experienced members."

"How old is he?"

"Thirty-five."

"Okay… Why does he hate me without me saying a word? The whole vampire thing?"

"That's about it. It's nothing you personally did. He was about eight when his family was attacked by a pair of vampires. Night Shield countered, but they were too late. He lost his whole family, but he survived so they took him in. When DPSD formed, he went with them. He's gotta be the most anti-vampire person on this base. He's a good man, though. Don't give him a reason to attack you and he'll leave you alone."

"Forgive me if I don't find that very comforting."

They entered the armory. DPSD troops loaded up with their recon gear; M4 assault rifles, 9 mm berettas, ammo, night-vision goggles, and light body armor. Matthew walked to where his gear was staged, took of his jacket, and reached out his hand. He first put on the auto-mag's holder. The gun was at his right flank and several magazines at his left. The jacket went back on. He left Amenthyl and it's shield; too noisy and bulky to wear. Next came the holster belt with brownings and ammo. Then, the slimmed down backpack, Spitfire already attached. He slipped a utility knife into the pack. Lacking the sword, he might need a blade. He reached back, feeling spare magazines sticking out of the pack. He was ready to go.

He walked with Armen, joining the troops in their march. They entered a large hanger. Matthew's eyes widened. "What is that?"

"Our ride," Armen replied.

Hellsing had large, noisy, diesel powered transports to carry them around England. The DPSD had a lot more ground to cover. They used aircraft. Looking something akin to a video game personnel carrier / dropship, it had four wing / arms stretching out from the fuselage; two longer up front angled up and two shorter in back angled down. At the tip of each wing was a jet engine on a swivel mount. It had powered sliding doors on both sides of the personnel compartment with a corridor leading to the cockpit. From the angles and curves of the craft, Matthew figured the vehicle was stealth. Matthew, Armen, and one squad of troops boarded the craft. The second boarded another. Once all were seated, the doors slid shut and the engines powered up with a quiet whine.

The craft lifted, rising through a hole in the roof. The engines started to swivel, the craft slowly making the transition to forward flight. The ride was surprisingly quiet. Matthew turned to Armen. "Great soundproofing," he commented.

Armen shook his head. "Not really. It's a quiet jet engine technology."

"Really? Nice." He looked around the compartment. "Anything else you can tell me? I'm a fan of tech info."

"Sure," Armen replied. "We call her a Vulture."

"Vulture?"

"Yeah. Well… we use them to hunt the dead, so the name fit." Matthew shrugged and nodded. "Quiet jet and stealth technology, vertical takeoff / landing as you saw, and able to carry a couple fully loaded squads in a pinch. We're going further tonight, so gotta save on weight. One day the Army and Marines will use them too. Only problem is that she's subsonic. Can't find a way to dampen the sonic boom."

"Are Vultures armed?"

"They can be. There's a mount on the nose for a gatling gun and a couple side mounts for machine guns to cover the troops, plus underwing mounts for bombs, missiles, and the like. We don't arm them, though. With this kind of target, you need to go to ground combat."

Matthew nodded in agreement. The rest of the ride was smooth and silent, the troops quietly talking amongst themselves. Roland was first squad leader, so he rode in that Vulture. He avoided looking at Matthew the whole trip.

The Vulture started descending, soon slowing to a hover. It dropped to ground level and the doors opened. The troops quickly exited both craft and formed up. One Vulture moved off. "First squad, form teams. Conduct close-in recon. Second squad, move to the trees and cover. Matthew," he turned to the vampire, "do your thing."

"Yes, sir," Matthew replied.

"Roland, move them out. Hand signals from here on in. Meet back here in fifteen minutes."

"Aye, John." Roland turned to the assembled troops. "Stand by… Platoon, move out."

Silently, the group started away. Armen walked to the still waiting Vulture, grabbed a laptop computer to keep track of his people, and the aircraft lifted away. Matthew stayed with the group entered the nearby forest. Moving slowly and carefully, the DPSD troops walked through the forest to a series of buildings. Looking strangely similar to the DPSD base, minus the clearing, it was made of an office-like building, a vehicle hanger, and the top of an old missile silo. Matthew knew there were vampires there. He could sense them.

While Alucard was far superior, Matthew had skills of his own. Over the years, he'd gotten pretty good at hiding his presence, at stealth. He would get good practice that night. Masking himself, he continued ahead as the DPSD troops stopped to split and find routes onward. Wary of being detected, Matthew got to the side of the building. Next to him was a tree reaching the roof. He allowed himself a nod.

He knelt down and leapt up, using his enhanced legs to propel himself into the tree. Regaining his balance, he leapt again and gently landed on the roof. He hid in a shadow, looking across the roof. It was flat, stairwell access doors at two opposing corners. In the center was a glass dome; the room it covered was lit. A few rooms had skylights, many unlit. Matthew crept toward one, keeping both his mask and his guard up.

After making a throughout check of the window and room below, Matthew looked for a way to pry the glass up. He reached into his backpack, finding the utility knife. He thanked the whim that had him bring it. Opening the blade, he slipped its edge under the window. He was glad when no alarms tripped as he opened it. Matthew set his backpack in the shadows and slipped into the building.

He kept his pistols holstered, quietly stalking down the halls. At that moment, the building itself felt no different from any office building. But, he could still sense the presence of vampires. He approached the central domed room, staying in the shadow of the hallway.

Somewhere below, two people spoke. Vampires with the Global Fangs. Matthew listened closely, fixing on their voices. "You're certain the preparations are complete," came a woman's voice. "Lady Breka will not allow any lapses after what happened in England."

'Breka?' Matthew thought. 'She's coming here? We better not be here when she arrives.'

"Yeah," a man's voice replied. "We're doubling the guard. Sent for some more vampires from another base. They'll be here before Breka is."

"See that they are," the woman said. "And get some ghouls out to patrol the area around the base. Last thing we need is an attack right now."

"Will do. I was going to search the area personally in about a half hour. I'll take some with me and post them."

Luckily, attack was the last thing on Matthew's mind. He quickly started for the skylight. He had eight minutes to get back, and he didn't want to be late.

He escaped without trouble and rejoined the group as they assembled. The Vultures returned and picked up the troops. Both squad leaders boarded the head craft and gave reports to Armen. Both said, essentially, that little activity was detected, but further observation was warranted. Armen then turned to Matthew. "What did you see?"

"See and hear, sir." He explained how he gained access to the building and what he'd heard. "So if we can figure out which base they drew from, we might have an easy target to hit."

Armen nodded. "We do know of a couple possible bases. I say we go take a look." Carter, the other squad leader, nodded. Roland looked uneasy with the idea of getting a mission from a vampire, but in the end agreed.

Matthew raised an eyebrow. "Don't we need to report in and verify the idea?"

Armen shook his head. "I'm not sure what you've heard about the rest of the military, but we're probably different. Given the nature of our job, we're allowed to make things up on-the-fly when needed. So long as we all aren't killed and can explain why we did it, we'll be fine. Though General Oscar approves of missions before they first launch, so if we were there we'd have to get his go-ahead."

"Well, fine by me. I'm here to help you take them out, after all." Roland looked at him out of the corner of his eye for a brief moment, then looked away. The Vulture soon approached the first base. Matthew 'scanned' it with his vampiric sense. "Not this one," he reported. "Too many. Wrong mindset. Keep flying." Fifteen minutes later, they passed another. Matthew scanned it. "I think it's this one. Smaller presence and they're a little nervous."

"Sounds good to me," Armen said. "Pilot, take us down."

"Aye, sir!" the pilot responded.

The Vulture banked and dropped, landing a distance from the base. All the troops unloaded and prepared their weapons. Lieutenant Armen led them out after a quick briefing. Matthew used the short walk through the woods to prepare himself. His plan was to slip into his normal role of support.

This base had a clearing around it, and Matthew could sense that the Global Fangs had lookouts. "Doesn't seem like they're probing with a vampiric sense. Mainly working with eyesight… Wait a sec… Looks like we have a change of guard coming up. They're being sloppy… Might mean they're expecting us or they're really undermanned. I can't be sure," he reported to Armen.

"We'll go for the second option. How long to we have?"

"Not sure. Three minutes, maybe."

"Then let's move." Armen gave a hand signal to the troops. They ran across the field, their footsteps barely making a sound. Matthew kept his senses trained on the building, looking for any odd changes. He also tried spreading his mask over all the troops to give them that much longer before detection.

This base was a single building, a combination of an office, barracks, and garage. This time, he could see a road stretching into the woods. The DPSD troops arrived at the building's wall without incident. They located a door, and one of the soldiers picked its lock and disabled its alarm. They quietly slipped into the building. Second squad stayed on the ground floor. First squad, Matthew with them, started for the stairs. Matthew drew Spitfire and loaded a magazine. He stayed near the front, ready to shoot anything inhuman. DPSD troops flung open doors as they passed, but continued after seeing no occupants.

The corridors were partly lit, more than bright enough for a vampire and just too bright for night vision goggles. As they approached a double door, Matthew held up a hand. His spidy-sense had just flashed a warning. There were vampires and ghouls in the next room, and they were ready for the human intruders. He whispered the report to Armen, who signaled his troops to make ready. Then, Armen gestured to the door. Matthew understood.

He stepped up, brought up a foot, and kicked the door off its hinges. Spitfire came up, and Matthew found his first target. He squeezed the trigger.

A stream of 223-caliber bullets lanced out, catching a vampress in the chest. She fell to ash before she even had time to scream. Stepping in and to the side, Matthew saw more streams of bullets streaking into the room, vampires and ghouls falling all around as they tried to counter the superior foe. 'Hmm. Didn't exactly leave their best and brightest behind,' Matthew thought. He emptied his magazine and reloaded, trying to keep you his fire. He winced as a bullet sliced across his right upper arm, but still he fired. Under the combined fire of DPSD humans and a Hellsing vampire, the Global Fang forces stood no chance. Soon, all was quiet. For a moment.

"We need backup!"

Armen looked at his troops. "Move out! Downstairs!"

The panicked call had come from second squad. They were in the barracks / garage area and had run into another ambush, finding themselves surrounded and outnumbered. Matthew steered the troops around to flank the Global Fangs. Switching to his brownings, he made a flying kick at the door, breaking through and opening fire. Two vampires fell immediately.

Second squad had found good cover, but hadn't been able to return fire unless a vampire got to point-blank range. First squad's abrupt entry allowed second squad to exact revenge for their embarrassment. The remaining vampires did not last long.

They broke into search teams and made a full search of the building, finding no additional forces. "Great work, people," Armen said. "Though we got lucky with these ambushes. No losses. I think the staff will be pleased. Roland, Carter, I want you two to work up some anti-ambush training. First squad was lucky to have Matthew along to spot it, but we won't always have him around. Understood?" Both replied affirmatively. "Good. Let's get back to base. You've earned your beer for the night." That for a reaction from the troops; smiles, nodding, and more than one "whoo!". The Vultures returned, troops loading up. Many now give Matthew approving looks. He'd proven himself to them that night, that a vampire can be good. He could only hope that trend continued.