~An Honest Request~

April 30th
2:23 pm
The Pentagon - Lower Research Labs, Floor 2
Jeremy "Dirge" Dakol

"So, thanks to the corpses you were able to recover, I have had major advances in our understanding of these demons." Sonata began, as I stood around a table with an open 'archangel' corpse with the rest of my squad. Angel, due to the nature of her injury, was still wrapped in gauze, but could move around. It would be a while longer until she was fit for active duty, however. She placed a tray next to the demon's body, and it carried two small organs; one red and one blue, both looking akin to a small kidney. "These glands are the most troubling factor."

"How so?" Skye asked.

"The glands were recovered from immature 'hellhound' demons." She said, referring to the ones we first encountered. "The glands are impervious to all forms of influence, save for one. And it is different for the colors. The red glands have only suffered tissue damage from doses of radiation, but the blue ones… they have taken tissue damage from the bio-foam in your medkits."

"It's wounded by something that heals you? What the fuck…" Raiden muttered. Angel nodded in agreement.

"How does the knowledge of the glands effect our combat against them?" Angel said, looking quizzically at the blue one.

"Nothing yet, but if the glands were to be in a mature specimen… well, they could cause the entire creature to attain the effects of the gland." That could be a problem. We don't have handheld access to radiation, and we'd have to give up a canister of medicine to kill the other.

"How about our guest and captive?" I asked. "I think Kat has been a help in solving this mystery."

"She has, I have to admit." Sonata continued with her speech. "She came up with the idea to try the bio-foam, after all. Dante, on the other hand, has been uncooperative since his retrieval, shall we say, and has shown me the middle finger of his right hand fifty-four times." She adjusted her lab coat and grabbed the tray, taking it away from the corpse of the demon. "However, because of this, I make a simple request for you all."

"What would that be?" Angel asked. "You want us to search for a mature 'hellhound' that has one of these glands, I'm guessing?"

Sonata nodded. "I want you to bring me back a specimen that has the gland, is mature or is close to it, and keep it alive." Her request hit us like a nuke.

"WHAT?!" Everyone (even Skye) exclaimed.

"Well, our understanding of, and therefore combat effectiveness against, these demons would improve dramatically if I had a live specimen to… examine." She said the last word with a small amount of sadistic lust. As much a benefit to the team she is, Sonata scares me sometimes. "If you do this for me, we'd fare better against the demons as a whole."

"…When do I get my cyanide pill..?" Skye wondered.

~Two days later - Pike's Peak, Colorado - Operation "Hell's Coming Home"~

"Drop in three… two… one… mark!" I shouted, as Raiden and Skye joined me in our descent. Angel was still not cleared medically, but was to be released from the infirmary in a day or two. The mountain we were landing on had recent Demon activity, and we were expected to capture one of these things alive. Sometimes I just love my job.

We hit the ground just above the tree line. Air was thinner this high up, and I felt the effects of the different elevation almost instantly. My breaths were longer, and I could tell Raiden wasn't used to the high altitudes pretty easily. He proceeded to retch and vomit up his breakfast behind a rock. "Remind me not to have beans before a drop." He muttered, taking out his weapon.

"You were the one who insisted on having them." I reminded him. I tapped the radio on my head. "Sonata, this is Dirge. We've made landfall, and are proceeding to investigate the area for 'hellhounds'. Copy?"

"I hear you loud and clear." Her voice said. "If my predictions are correct, you'll know the correct specimen by fur color. The red-gland species should have a reddish or brownish hue, while the blue-gland species should have a bluish or ghostly white appearance."

"Copy. I'll send a visual when we get one." My hands instinctively brought up a weapon other than my trusty shotgun. Missions that require long sight distances, like this search-and-capture one, require a scoped gun. And so, the SVU-AS marksman rifle was a good counterpart to my usual KSG, and the 4.5x zoom scope fulfilled my lack of ranged combat.

We started to climb up the mountain, eyes and ears open and alert for any activity. A little ways from the peak, Skye nudged my shoulder and pointed to a small depression in the ground. 'Hellhounds' could be seen in the ground, feasting on what used to be the local wildlife. True to Sonata's prediction, there was one in the group that had blue-tinged fur. I indicated it to my comrades as Skye took a photo of it and sent that to Sonata. "There's our target. Any ideas on how to knock it unconscious?"

"Let's make things go boom." Raiden offered, pulling out a grenade. "If they can only be hurt by medicine, then the explosion from a grenade shouldn't hurt much." Before I could tell him how dumb his idea was, he pulled the pin and threw the small egg-shaped explosive at the demons. The explosion wiped out a few of them, and the others now had their attention on us.

Skye and I quickly shouldered our rifles and fired, taking out as many as we could. Raiden hurled another grenade before pulling out his own weapon, and fired upon the advancing 'hellhounds'. When they actually reached us, only our target remained. It was unscathed from the grenade explosions and gunfire.

"Any ideas?" I asked as it howled, spinning in the air before shooting itself at me. I dived out of the way, only to hear it roar in frustration when I got back up. Raiden was on top of it, pinning it to the ground.

"Call in the evac, we got the damn thing. Sonata owes me a drink when we get back." He said. The demon under him writhed around, but stayed put. Skye came over and bashed the stock of his sniper rifle into the side of its head, knocking it out.

"Sonata?" I said into the comm. "We got one. Mission accomplished. Just don't expect us to do this again anytime soon."

"Copy that, Dirge. I'll only ask after this one… expires." I shook my head, amazed and angered by our scientist.

~Mission Accomplished~

Operatives/Allies Lost/Wounded: 0
Civilians Killed: 0
Demons Killed: 14x 'Hellhound'
Demons Captured: 1x 'Blue Hellhound'
Collateral Damage: Minimal

Overall Rating: Excellent