Reynard's Story – Part 3Ia – Storming the Castle

This is the ninth of nine sections of the Third Part of Reynard's Story – Piece 1 of 3. The King has released Reynard's greatest enemies and tasked them with unthinkable, the murder of The Fox, his entire family and any followers. So great was The King's desire for vengeance, he risks angering the entire Council, The Queen, Reynard and all his allies, and bringing war to the entire underworld. But the instrument of ultimate betrayal provides The Fox with a sliver of hope bringing a dire warning. Yet the challenge is immense as nearly three entire gang armies are brought to bear seeking the head of The Fox and any who stand with him. However Reynard, The King, and all others learn that the price of vengeance is quite steep indeed as such actions have great consequences.

I had planned on this final section being just one chapter, but as it became more and more involved I quickly realized it was becoming huge. I went ahead and finished it, ending with a single chapter longer than a large percentage of novels and most entire stories in the fandom. So I decided to split the 80K word chapter into three roughly even parts. I didn't want to do it, but it was better than expecting readers to deal with an 80K behemoth. Anyway, that was the reason for the delay. Because the entire chapter is written, I only need to finish the edits for 3Ib and 3Ic so they should follow within a few days of posting the previous one.

The finale of this section of the adaption borrows loosely from the original legend and the 1930 movie, but only in the concept of an assault on Reynard and his family. Most elements are specific to Zootopia, the modern time period and the different set of circumstances of this story.

The chapter is Rated M++ because it has a laundry list of nastiness as one would expect. There are endless scenes of an extremely disturbing nature, severe and copious violence, murder, visceral death, gore, torture, etc. Hang on tight this is merely the first of the finale's trilogy.

Zoodate: (-32 Years) (30 years before the events at the end of Zootopia The Movie)

As Reynard left his cousin Grimbeert's company, he immediately began yelling orders to his guards and security. By the time he had made his way to the estate entrance, he had his staff running in every direction.

Upon entering the estate, he met a very concerned looking Aza at the entrance. She clearly knew something monumental was occurring as the entire facility was abuzz with activity.

Reynard placed a paw gently up in the air to pause the torrent of questions he knew were dancing on the tip of his wife's tongue as he was currently on the phone with his executive assistant, "Tell me when you can get all my council on a conference call. Also call all allied district bosses and let them know I will be needing a conference call with all of them in about an hour. You set the time that all will be available and let me know."

Aza's eyes were wide with concern, but she patiently let her husband finish getting things in motion. Once he was done, he turned his attention to his dear wife.

"They are coming for us… tomorrow night. The King knows everything was a trick and also about the plunder of his personal treasure hoard, and has sent my enemies for us all. Grimbeert overheard the entire plot and came to warn us." The Fox informed her, not bothering to waste any words as time was short.

His wife knew this was the case and withstood the temptation to ask the hundreds of questions ready to burst forth, instead holding them for later as she knew how much preparation was required.

So she instead simply asked, "What do you need me to do?"

He smiled at her gratefully acknowledging her restraint and appreciating her strength of will for keeping calm under the extreme circumstances, informing her, "Gather the family together and run them through all the emergency procedures. But keep them calm most of all as panic and fear is our enemy. I will be with you all shortly."

She nodded her head and immediately set off to gather her parents, Marion, Nick and all her kits.

Reynard was then informed he had most of his council on the phone and informed them of the situation.

Sheba was the first to respond growling loudly, "I will rip them all into pieces and feast on their entrails!"

Reynard always appreciated the enthusiasm of the tigress, but now was the time was cool heads not threats. So he calmly informed them all, "The most important thing is that everything needs to appear normal here at the estate and in the entire district. We must not let them know we have any warning. I need all gang members we had already allocated to fortress defense smuggled in through the water entrance using the tunnel. They need to bring in all weapons, ammunition and supplies needed. Most things we already have prepared and stored here at the ready, but because of the size of the assault force, we will need everyone staffed for a category red event. Also I have called in all our nearby mercenary personnel to also arrive via the waterway tunnel as they will be employed as supplemental estate defense forces. Those mercenary forces too far away to get here tonight, but still within a day's range, will be called in to supplement Sheba and Rath's ranks on the perimeter. We have two deliveries scheduled for tomorrow which will arrive through the back entrance exactly as scheduled, however we will sneak in any additional personnel and supplies that we can't get in here tonight in the delivery vehicles."

Fortunately Reynard was one to plan for all contingencies, and this scenario had been pre-planned in detail. However it was more likely the attack would occur without any warning. In this event, as soon as any potential assault was detected, staff were ordered to defend the potential breach targets, while the estate went into full lock-down mode. Calls would go out to all gang forces, allies and mercenaries who would stage outside the estate at whatever was the weaker enemy position, either the main or back entrance, and force their way through securing that entrance, which would then be opened to allow them entry to aid in the defense of the estate perimeter. Also additional mercenaries, allies and gang members would be ferried in through the water entrance during this period. His forces had drilled for this event numerous times, and could mobilize to bring a heavy defense force to the estate very rapidly in case of attack.

However since they had notice of the assault and a rough timetable of it's commencement, Reynard instead decided to employ what he referred to as the spider strategy where he instead planned to draw the enemy into his web, and once they were committed to the attack, to close the trap on them. He would prepare all defense measures to go into activation right before the assault, bring in all defense forces under cover of the night and hide them inside the estate having them go over all the battle plans thoroughly and have them all well rested and fed beforehand. Sheba and Rath would lead a large contingent of outside forces consisting of gang members, mercenaries, former Kids and other similar friendly forces, which would be responsible for surgical strikes, sniping targets of opportunity, disruption of enemy command and control, destruction of any breaching equipment or forces, and numerous other methods to sandwich the assaulting forces in a vise so that they were being attacked simultaneously on multiple fronts. Their job would not be as much about killing the enemy force, as it would be able slowing and disrupting their assault, providing more time for the perimeter forces to deal with the breaching forces. The biggest danger would be if the enemy were able to establish a beachhead and freely enter the estate at will in huge numbers which would overwhelm the defense. The idea was that the outside forces would attack any such position from the rear forcing the enemy to worry about their rear flank, allowing perimeter teams time to converge and repel the concentrated forces.

Coal and Alexei would join Reynard inside the estate with Coal commanding estate perimeter forces, and Alexei focusing on Reynard and his family's personal safety. Reynard would command inside forces and the overall battle.

With the preparation and all the nasty surprises they had planned, it would seem Reynard would be in a strong defensive position. However Reynard and the others knew that because of these new circumstances, the enemy would have many advantages including overwhelming numbers, desperation, and protection from outside interference because of the assistance of The King himself. Reynard had never expected to face such an immense force, and without Grimbeert's warning, they would most likely have overcome his defenses quickly and gotten to him and his family before his gang and allies could have come to his aid, and everything would have been lost.

Reynard then reminded his lieutenants, "Make sure any visible movement is kept to a minimum in case there are eyes within the district. Everything needs to look completely normal so make sure normal guards are present and normal movement is observed. Prepare all the forces and supplies in secret and make sure they are all well rested and nourished in case this becomes an extended conflict."

Rath spoke up in surprise, "Do you think this could last awhile?"

Reynard responded, "Well I am hoping so, as the longer we can extend the conflict, the better our position. The most important thing is withstanding their initial assault as it will no doubt be fierce and massive. We will need to try and make the price of that opening be extremely steep indeed, because if they continue sending their entire force in mass, we will be quickly overrun. However, if their losses are catastrophic, it should give them pause and force them to rethink their approach. Mammals will begin to question their loyalty and dedication to the goal if they see all their fellows slaughtered before them. Much of the fight itself will be psychological in nature. We need to make sure they know that any who take up arms against us will be met with blood and brutality."

Sheba growled loudly, and Reynard could sense her grinning through the phone, "Don't worry Boss, I will make sure they all regret the day they were ever born! I will paint the streets with their innards and blood, and feast on their flesh!"

Reynard smiled thinking of how pleased Sheba and his mistress would be about the coming events. But the rest of them knew the potential devastation and losses they faced. Toward this thought, The Fox decided a warning to his enthusiastic tigress would be appropriate, "Shea, I know you dream of glorious slaughter, but it is more important that you minimize risks to all perimeter forces. I only want you attacking in situations where you have the clear advantage and minimal risks. It is more important you all stay alive in order to provide maximum distraction."

Rath answered Reynard's cautious advice, "Boss, I am sure Sheba is clear on what our mission is to be. She just wishes to express her fury at those who would do you and our district harm."

Coal chuckled at that, "That is certainly a polite way of expressing her opinion. We are all aware of the extreme care you have taken to minimize casualties on our side. But know we all are prepared to give our lives towards the defense of our district home and your family."

Sheba roared expressing her jealousy, "I wish I was in Lexy's place by your side as imagine the death and slaughter you will bring will be truly glorious!"

Reynard had to laugh at that, "Shea, I am hoping that you have all the action as what you describe will mean we will be quite overrun at that point. But I do appreciate your willingness to be here at my side. Just realize that we all have critical roles to play. Now I must get ready for a call to all my allies."

Coal had a thought on that matter, "Do you call them all to war?"

The Fox considered his question, "We will discuss it, but I am hopeful it can be avoided. However, we will prepare for that eventuality, and ready a first decisive strike to end it quickly if it comes to that. Anyway, you all know what you must do. Do not hesitate to call me with any questions. Good luck."

With that he ended the call. His meeting with his allies would not be so smooth, as this kind of scenario had not been planned in detail with them as it had with his own forces. It seemed The King was trying to avoid an all out war, and Reynard agreed that this would be disastrous. But if his position was in jeopardy, and the enemy tried to press their attack with reinforcements or movements against other parts of his or his ally's districts, he would not hesitate to declare open war and seek to utterly destroy any who stood against their interests with no mercy, restraint or remorse.

In the time before his meeting, Reynard answered his staff's many questions and issued orders concerning the movement of forces and supplies, as well as preparations that must be finished before the light of day. Defense forces and supplies had to be rapidly moved within the facility in secret, traps needed to be prepared for activation, defense equipment needed to be loaded and tested thoroughly. It was an organizational nightmare, but fortunately contingencies for everything had been well planned in advance.

Once Reynard's got all his allied district bosses on the phone late that night, he laid the situation out for them all. Understandably they were furious and wanted to go to war immediately.

Sweet Lou the Jackal, Reynard's longtime ally and boss of the Rainforest District, was the first to speak up furiously voicing his opinion, "Such actions are outrageous and unforgivable! We need to plan a counter-strike on all their districts to draw them away from their attack in order to defend their home territories."

Felid Surepaws the Snow Leopard who was known by his nickname Felgrand, the new boss of the Meadowlands District, had been a friend and colleague of Reynard's for many years as a lieutenant to the former boss. Reynard had pushed the snow leopard to encourage his former boss to clean up their district and prevent the kind of abuses that regularly occurred in other districts throughout the kingdom. The Fox had helped to encourage this practice by conducting many profitable joint ventures with the former boss, but they were not always completely successful in keeping the boss from overlooking abuses in his district. Now that Felgrand had taken charge, things in the Meadowlands were run quite similar to how Reynard ran his district.

While not so thirsty for war as Sweet Lou, Felgrand echoed the Rainforest District boss's opinion, "If we allow them to strike at another boss like this, it sets a dangerous precedent. An attack against you Red, in your own home no less, is an attack on us all. How can this not be a declaration of war?"

Rikki Tikki the Mongoose, boss of the Downtown District and recent ally of Reynard, was quite bloodthirsty with regards to the matter. As he was known for being small in stature, but extremely quick, viscous and deadly, his ideas seem to follow a more subtle and brutal path, "I say we strike at each of their families in return. If they are willing to come at you and yours in such a way, they can expect no less a response to their own. Such soft targets would be easy to strike brutally and quickly. Also if each of us struck one of their districts in secret while they were engaged at your estate, we would quickly take control of each one. The other option is for all of us to collapse on the enemy from all sides as they gathered to strike your estate. We would quickly slaughter them."

Reynard realized that the mongoose had excellent tactical ideas, but such brutal methods might cause more problems for them all in the long run. The Fox was also loathe to sink to the level of involving innocent families and children in the situation. However if he felt it would help protect his family and district, The Fox would not hesitate to give such an order. But Reynard saw no benefit to such an attack, only numerous downsides.

So his carefully measured response to his allies was thus, "Because of The King's involvement in all this, I feel such actions may be premature. He acts without the support of The Council, and will greatly anger them as soon as they hear of this. If we were to take any warlike actions, they may go hard on all of us as soon as they become involved. However if we play it correctly, the blame would all fall on our enemies and The King, leaving all of you as favored in the eyes of The Council for your restraint. Now this does not mean that you would be idle in your actions, as I have great need of your aid. Sweet Lou and Felgrand, I would ask that you have much of your forces gathered along the borders to the Docks District once they finished their staging phase. I will need you to seal off the borders so they can not escape or gain any reinforcements. If they wish to press the issue, you are free to execute them at will as long as you hold to your own district borders. Rikki, I would invite much of your forces as guests for a party I will hold on a flotilla of ships in the harbor tomorrow evening. You will need to create a blockade along the Savanna Central waterway border as well as cutting off all traffic in the harbor forcing any reinforcements to only come from the land which Sweet Lou and Felgrand will have completely blocked."

Sweet Lou was the first to see the wisdom in Reynard's plan, "You set a trap for them quite tightly. Once they are engaged, they will be unable to flee or gain reinforcements. But what of your ability to withstand such a force? Surely you need help with defense."

Reynard had considered the additional numbers his allies could provide, but he had decided the other was a better option, "If things get bad, we may need to call your forces in to create a distraction and force your way through them to aid me. But the mammals I will have here all know their purpose and job. They were all trained and chosen to work together perfectly. Having additional forces who are unfamiliar with the defensive measures could cause more problems than value, and could potentially fall prey to the traps and cause friendly fire situations. Once they know that reinforcements are not coming, and that their way of escape is blocked, this hopefully will give them pause before continuing the assault. We will call The Council as soon as the assault is underway bringing up the possibility of war. That should cause them to act swiftly to put a stop to everything and desperately attempt to gain control of the situation. Shortly after we call The Council, I would have all three of you also call The Council requesting authorization to enter the conflict and retaliate against the other districts. The Council will wish to deny your requests of course, but it will provide strong motivation for them to side with us in the conflict for acting with restraint and seeking proper guidance through them. This brings them to our side, and makes The King and our enemies traitors in their eyes."

Even Rikki Tikki could see the wisdom in such a plan, "Your plan and reasoning is brilliant as always Red. I only worry that you will be unable to contain their assault. I would have you remain in contact with all our forces so that we may all converge on your position and aid you in the conflict if necessary. I plan on having my forces on the flotilla all armed and ready to help your defense at a moments notice."

Reynard had to agree that Rikki Tikki's request was prudent, but he cautioned him, "I would only ask your aid as a last resort. The potential of your people falling victim to my own defenses, or being attacked by one another or my own forces during the chaos of battle is great. One thing I may need is a clear path to send my family and allies through your lines to protection if we are forced to flee our position."

Reynard's allies assured him that should the need arise, they would prevent any pursuit, and keep his family as safe as if they were their own. His allies then went to prepare things on their end, but all agreed to tell no one, not even their lieutenants of what was to occur. Each boss would act as if they were performing readiness tests and training, and nothing else.

Later he met with his family in the living room where the grandparents were playing games with the kits while Aza and Marion looked on. All turned to Reynard with anxious faces as he briefly updated them on the situation.

Marion picked Nick up and held him in her lap as she voiced her opinion, "Renny, Nick and I have nothing to do with any of this. We need to go join John in our apartment until this is all over."

Reynard patiently considering his sister and calmly responded, "That is not advisable at this point Sis. These enemies of mine are truly desperate and would attempt to use anything they could to their advantage. They would most likely take you, John and Nick as hostages the instant they knew about you. They would attempt to use you to force my hand to try and secure your release. They would not hesitate to kill some of you or do horrible acts to you to try and force me to their will. It is the same reason why it would be equally dangerous to have Aza and kits leave my side right now. I have extreme defensive measures at the estate designed to protect you all for exactly this kind of situation."

Aza spoke up then assuring her sister-in-law the truth of Reynard's words, "Marion dear, Renny has prepared a special safe room to hide us all away where we can wait in comfort with supplies and full monitoring of everything happening during the attack. It even has entertainment as well as emergency escape routes. He has plans for every possible scenario."

Marion was angry and scared and lashed out at her brother, "Just like he planned so well to have my Nicholas and your Scarlet and Crimson taken with their lives held hostage? He can not protect us from everything!"

Reynard was hurt by his sisters words, but knew she was just frightened, "Sis, please just believe that I would want you and Nick to be in the safest place possible. At the moment, that is by Aza's side."

He then gathered Aza's parents, Clarette and Occi, who had been keeping the kits occupied, "You two however should be safe to leave. Because Occi is Isengrim's brother, it is highly unlikely they would ever risk taking you two, especially if I have you under my allies' protection. While they may risk a move on Marion and Nick in such a situation, the risk would not be worth the unlikely reward they sought. Would you like me to have you taken out and hidden in secret with my allies?"

Clarette and Occi had a brief discussion which only lasted a few seconds before Clarette responded, "I thank you for your concern for our safety, Red, sir. But we have been separated from our daughter for far too long. We would rather die than ever be separated from her and our grandkits ever again."

Clarette and Occi hugged their daughter with tears in their eyes, and she returned their hug in kind whispering to them that they were always welcome by her side.

Occi then shook his head expressing his disbelief, "I can't believe my brother would attempt something like this. He must be crazy!"

The Fox tried to explain the situation, "Isengrim and the others are in a desperate situation. They see this as an all or nothing proposition, and will hold nothing back. I only hope that your brother has the balls to come for me himself."

Aza got fire in her eyes at this suggestion echoing her husband's desire, "I certainly hope so as well. I have quite a welcome for him myself." She said through clenched teeth uttering a low warning growl.

Reynard nodded hearing words that he expected from his darling wife, "Now that all that is settled, I want to go over everything that has been planned for you all, and all contingencies. Please feel free to ask any questions."

He then went over the plans for the next twenty-four hours. After he finished, his eldest kit Titian as well as Brick came forward declaring, "Dad, we wish to fight! We can help!"

They then demonstrated their abilities and determination waving their play swords around quite enthusiastically.

Even little Crimson began waving a small play dagger around yelling angrily, "BAD BAD MAMMALS! BAD MAMMALS DIE!"

Reynard stifled a laugh quickly projecting a serious expression as he addressed his three exuberant sons, "Boys, I have a much more important mission for you three. I need your help keeping your sisters, mother, aunt, cousin and grandparents safe. You need to help keep them calm, and if they feel protected by you all, I am sure everything will work out fine. Do you think you can do that for me?"

All three kits nodded enthusiastically ensuring their father they had accepted their mission, and would do everything in their power to keep everyone safe.

Reynard then had final words for them all, "I know you are quite excited at the moment and tensions are high, but you all need to get plenty of rest tonight. I have had bedding for all of you moved to the basement play area. This is a precaution in case something premature occurs so we can quickly move you all to the safe room. You need to stay close to each other at all times so we don't have to search for anyone in case of an emergency. Pack everything you will need for travel, but realize it needs to fit in a small case only. Most things you will need will be provided where you would be going if it is necessary. I will provide you all warm drinks and other things to help you all sleep and reduce your anxiety shortly."

With his family members taken care of, the busy fox then left to attend to the hundreds of other preparations he needed to make sure went smoothly.

Maupertuis was a sizable estate located on the middle eastern island in the Docks District where the Vine Street subway junction was located with a primary stop on the Zootopia Loop as well as well as an end stop on the Docks District Circuit of the subway. The island was simply called Vine Island. The estate was located in the northeastern corner of the island in between bridges connecting it to the Rainforest District on the north and east sides. Both bridges led into main roads connecting the quiet residential areas surrounding the estate. It had two primary walls facing into Vine Island. The main entrance was located on the western wall and the back entrance on the southern side. The walls also extended partway along the water side with an open section which opened onto a beach with docks and boats and a water wall which extended all the way to the bottom of the surrounding waterway. It was into this opening that numerous boats were ferrying gang members, mercenaries, equipment and supplies for defending the perimeter throughout the night. The docks were covered and led to tunnels into the estate so all this movement would be unobserved.

Once Renard had purchased the estate, he had added numerous security measures. Those included twelve meter high walls surrounding the property with rolls of razor wire on the top inner and outer sections. The outer appearance appeared to be of a decorative stone and brick wall, but it hid a latticework of reinforced steel and conductors which were monitored at all times at the two guard stations next to each entrance and the internal security monitoring station inside the estate. Any breaks or damage to the walls would be instantly detected by any of these locations. The entire fence could be electrified in sections to various levels. Typically during the evenings it was turned on to a low non-lethal level which would only disable those coming in contact with it. However in emergency situations it could be raised to lethal levels. The walls were fortified such that they could withstand high speed impacts from large vehicles. The two gates were made of thick flexible sections of reinforced galvanized steel with titanium alloy supports. In addition support beams could be extracted from beneath the road behind the gates and connected to the gates providing massive strength to prevent any breaching or pulling of the gate from it's supports. The guard stations were essentially fortified bunkers encased in concrete with thick transparent plastic windows. Guard stations were armed with weapons, numerous defensive measures, and feeds from various cameras placed around the estate.

All power to the estate, walls and guard stations were run from underground cables with redundant systems. Backup power systems and generators were available to handle indefinite power outages if necessary. Panic warning systems were in place in case of any suspected breach attempt which could instantly activate lethal defensive systems and secondary perimeter systems. It would also alert the main security at the estate as well as support personnel outside the estate.

Reynard had designed the estate to be a balance of beautiful livable space, and a fortified secure compound. The security measures were designed to be as attractive as possible, but they hid extensive improvements including providing all windows and doors in the estate with reinforced steel which could be automatically moved into place sealing all possible entrances as well as monitoring for any attempts at tampering or breaches. Outsides of the estate were treated with fire retardant material. Numerous traps and defensive measures were hidden, but protected from any accidental activation.

Once Reynard was satisfied that all personnel and equipment had been moved inside for that night, he then ensured all his defense forces were being housed in the large ballroom and many storage and extra rooms on the basement levels. It was important that they be well fed and crystal clear on their positioning for the conflict, had all equipment at the ready, and then provided comfortable sleeping rolls and bedding. For Reynard wanted to make sure everyone was as well rested and prepared as possible. They were all ready to move into defensive positions at a moments notice although it was highly doubtful that Isengrim and his crew would attempt anything until late that night. The Fox knew that his enemies hoped for a quick quiet attack with minimal witnesses. He assumed they would try breaching at a few points and then force a large force through once they had some beachheads, quickly attempting to storm the estate. They would assume they had surprise and overwhelming numbers. However the surprise was his, and he hoped to decimate those numbers as much as possible.

Once all the defense matters were covered, Reynard instructed all his available staff to collect anything breakable and valuable and pack it safely into secure storage areas. By the time of the assault, the entire estate would seem quite bare.

Sheba, Rath and their forces were similarly prepared in outside positions near the estate in numerous hideouts. Many of the homes nearby were owned by Reynard for housing his staff working at the estate as well as several of his former Kids. Those homes were all filled with most of those who would be participating in the crucial perimeter strike force. Each tested the new two-way scrambled communicators to make sure they would be fully in touch with each other during the battle. Then Sheba made sure everything was prepared for her so she could dress and be ready for battle in a matter of minutes.

The huge tigress lovingly checked the custom armor her boss had created for her for just this occasion. It was made from an incredibly strong yet lightweight polymer with flexible joints and extra reinforcement for her head, chest, shoulders, back and the tops of each of her paws. She could even knock someone out just using the back of her paw while wearing it. She had tested this and many other features to make sure it did not hinder her movement in any way. Sheba was thrilled she could even run on all fours and leap completely unimpeded while wearing the lightweight armor. It would stop most any projectile weapon and glancing blows or direct punctures from most bladed weapons. Reynard had warned her that it only offered partial protection against crushing blows, and she would still be vulnerable to a direct puncture with a sharp pointed blade or spear by someone incredibly powerful like Alexei.

But the thing she loved the most about it was that her boss had the armor painted to match her fur patterns exactly so she looked like a hulking naked monster tigress while wearing it. She very much admired the look in the mirror and hoped to leave such a lasting final impression on many enemy the coming night.

Reynard had armor made for his entire gang and mercenary force in case of a war. Given the threats he knew he potentially faced over two years ago, he had purchased a factory far to the south which could make armor as well as specialized plastics for many other purposes. In fact much of the spikes and other materials he used for all the traps were made using these much less expensive plastics rather than using metal. He sold these items all around the globe using his shipping concerns. Most of his forces were armored in primarily vital areas without complete custom body armor. Only the top leaders of the mercenary forces like Jasper, himself, Alexei, his lieutenants and about fifty of his most elite combat fighters had such custom fitted armor due to the enormous cost of such a set. However none had such a fine set as that which was made especially for Sheba as the great tigress was a very special case.

While all the forces to be involved in the evening's activities slept throughout the day, those others who would be primarily monitoring the rest of the district that night all moved about the day in shifts so that nothing would look out of the ordinary from a normal day in the district. Jasper and a few other mercenaries that could not make it the previous night were smuggled in during the day in the laundry and supply truck that had scheduled deliveries to the estate that day. They also brought in over ten thousand additional rounds of ammunition they had stored for war in case the conflict became extended. Much of the ammunition was prepared for the auto crossbow ballistas, but there were plenty of rounds of arrows, crossbow bolts, throwing spears and numerous other ranged missiles for an extended conflict.

That evening Reynard made sure all his forces were well fed, had emergency field medical kits, and all the weapons and supplies they would need. He had all perimeter traps activated once it was dark enough, and had the external fence set to lethal electrocution levels. Forces then began to move into place in small groups so that it was not very noticeable in the dark. His team of snipers and roof defenders then moved into positions armed with long-range spyglasses checking all positions outside the walls and the waterways looking for any suspicious activities. They were armed with a variety of supplies for a whole host of possible needs.

Reynard ate dinner with his family, Jasper, Alexei and Coal trying to keep topics to pleasant subjects which was quite difficult given the current circumstances.

However his son Titian couldn't contain his youthful enthusiasm and blurted out, "When are they coming Poppa?"

This resulted in many pained expressions from his mother, aunt and grandparents, but Reynard gave his young son a genial smile and responded, "Most likely not until after midnight son. They will want the streets to be clear with minimal witnesses. However we needed to be ready early in case they decided to move prematurely."

Coal chuckled adding, "The waiting is always the hardest part. Once the action happens, the time for contemplation and dread is over."

The Fox's middle son piped up, "I hate the waiting! They need to just get it over!"

Reynard considered his young son's words and chastised him, "Brick, as a thief you have to learn to have the greatest patience. I once had to wait hidden in an estate alcove behind some old furniture in storage for two full days when the family came home early, and I had no clear escape route. Fortunately I had some emergency rations and water which I made last. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it is something you have to get used to in that profession."

Jasper added his own two cents, "As a mercenary, most of the time you spend is waiting around for something to happen. It is just part of the job. We always learn to get rest and a hot meal whenever it is available as we never know how long we may have to go before we see another. We also learn to nap in place until we are called into action and then to be ready instantly."

Marion wasn't pleased about all the current talk appearing quite agitated, "How can you all be so placid and blasé about such topics? You have mammals coming to kill us all and you act like it is nothing! How can you all be so callous and serene?"

Reynard chuckled at his sister attempting to put her at ease, "It is good to see your many years of reading have paid off dear sister." At that Marion scowled quite intensely at her infuriating brother. He continued, "What would you have us do Sis, run around screaming at the top of our lungs that the world is ending and we are all doomed? They come or they don't. We survive or we don't. The die is cast and we must merely wait and see where the pieces end once the dust settles. It does no good to worry about things out of our control. Either our planning and preparation is a success, or things will go another way. Just know that everything is planned to keep you all safe and unharmed. Speaking of that, it is about time all of you gather your things and prepare to be locked inside the safe room."

Rose then spoke up, "Is it like a treasure vault like in your stories?"

The Fox smiled at his little daughter picking her up and placing her on his lap, "Not exactly sweetie. No jewels and treasure ever had it so good. You have snacks and refreshments in there. You have restroom facilities, couches and pull out beds. There are books and toys and a video player with movies and television. You also have screens to watch everything going on outside the room. There are many other things for you and the adults to do together such as playing cards and games. There are a couple computers as well with games."

Rose got a big smile and hopped up and down exclaiming, "It sounds like the most fun sleepover ever!"

All the adults laughed at this with the exception of Marion who was shaking her head wondering how she ended up in this crazy family. The group then was escorted down into the basement where they entered the hidden safe room which had been stocked and prepared for an extended stay of several days if necessary. He said his goodbyes to each of his kits and his nephew and then released them into the room. The kids ran around excitedly examining all the supplies and toys while Reynard said his goodbyes to his sister, wife and in-laws.

Little Scarlet left Nick's side to run to her father hugging his leg which was always the signal she wished to be picked up. Her father obliged her request and she hugged him tightly around his chest instructing him, "Be safe daddy. Come back to us soon."

He kissed his daughter and let her know, "I will do my very best. I wish to be back with you all more than anything in the world. I love you so much."

He then gently placed her down to run back to Nick knocking him over and laughing as they ended up in a tangled mess.

Reynard was about to leave when he felt a tug on his pants and found his little son Crimson looking up at him with those intense blue eyes of his. He picked his little son up and the little boy stared deep into his eyes with an intense somber glare and then fiercely said, "Kill BAD MAMMALS! KILL ALL!"

The Fox was shaken by the vehement intense declaration of his young son. His few words always struck to the heart of the matter. It always unnerved him that such a young child could seemingly cut past all the niceties and platitudes one would use in situations like these to keep everyone calm and controlled, and declare with certainty the mission and task ahead.

He kissed his son rubbing the fur on his head and simply responded, "Aye aye Captain Crimson. I intend to."

He then gingerly handed the young boy to the eager arms of his beloved wife and kissed her deeply. She told him in a gentle voice, "Be strong Renny. And come back to me in one piece very much alive and breathing."

He smiled at his wife and simply responded, "Yes, dear."

With that he locked his family into the hidden safe room. Only those inside with the proper code and release sequence could open the door now without a massive effort. His family now locked away in the safest vault possible, Reynard prepared to dress himself in his armor and prepare himself for the task ahead.

As soon as Isengrim and Bruun arrived back at their gang headquarters, they called an emergency meeting of all their lieutenants and senior staff explaining the situation to them. Tybalt went to see Friese the Arctic Fox, the vixen leader of the Tundratown District. She had a personal beef with Reynard for invading her district during both his major operations over the past two years to rescue the children and innocents being abused and harmed. These operations were costly to establish and had accounted for a large part of her revenue. She, like the other leaders, would be quite happy if Reynard no longer walked the earth.

The decisions that they discussed were not entered into lightly as they all knew the likelihood of casualties was quite high going after Reynard in his own home. They may have the element of surprise and superior numbers, but they knew The Fox didn't have the reputation he had for no reason. They were well aware he would have many nasty surprises awaiting them, and had very sophisticated security and security personnel. The other danger is that whether they killed him or not, his gang and allies could arrive quite quickly and would certainly retaliate with deadly force. Reynard's gang was known for being the most loyal of any in the entire underworld.

Their hope was to gain access to Reynard quickly and kill him, and then take his family hostage using them as shields and bargaining chips to exchange for safe release from the combat area. It was believed that their superior numbers, and the offer of the exchange of The Fox's family could allow them to minimize the bloodshed. The King may desire the death of The Fox's entire family for some reason, but they were mainly interested in the death of The Fox. However if his bitch wife was killed as well, they wouldn't lose any sleep. The kits could be problems eventually, but Isengrim and Bruun figured by the time they were, they would probably be ready for retirement anyway. Exchanging them for the safe return of their forces would be acceptable. Isengrim also didn't want to see harm come to his brother and sister-in-law no matter how estranged they were. Ideally Reynard and his wife would be dead, and his relatives, Aza's parents, would raise the kits instead. Reynard's sister and her spawn were merely bargaining chips, whether they lived or died mattered not to The Wolf or Bear.

The desperate situation of the three carried the day as all forces decided they would undertake the mission. Each force would contribute approximately 150 members to the assault. Isengrim and Bruun would have most of their forces from their own gangs with a few additional friends and associates that had a reason to want to get even with Reynard for one reason or another, or owed the district bosses favors. Tybalt was able to gain commitments of 75 members of Friese's gang as well as 75 additional forces from mercenaries he hired. The wildcat cleverly offered the promise of a large future payment, but gained their commitment by assuring them they would have the first right of looting The Fox's estate after the operation was complete. The concession was an easy one for the wildcat to make considering he was primarily interested in completing The King's mission and not worrying about the spoils of war.

For none of the three were under any illusion that they were not committing war, and the potential fallout could be disastrous as Reynard's allies could easily become involved in the conflict and a kingdom wide war could break out. They could only hope The King knew what he was doing, and would convince The Council to step in and stop such an escalation. It was very dangerous committing so many forces to such an operation as they represented over two thirds of Isengrim and Bruun's gang. They were leaving their own district's wide open, and if Reynard's allies were to quickly recover and join The Fox's gang members who had come to the aid of their leader, the number of casualties could be enormous. It was Isengrim and Tybalt's hope that such a hastily gathered force would be unorganized, and their fully coordinated well-armed group could successfully repel any such attacks.

They had quickly and miraculously compiled a force of over 450, the largest single force ever gathered in the history of the underworld. Now the problem of deciding on a strategy was undertaken by Isengrim, Bruun, Tybalt, two lieutenants of Friese, two leaders from Tybalt's mercenary force, all Isengrim and Bruun's lieutenants and council members who could add anything to the discussion, and a couple friends with organizational or combat expertise. They quickly compiled any information they had on Reynard's estate and its defenses, the surrounding area, and the equipment and weapons they had at their disposal.

Unfortunately the only solid information they had were plans filed with the city before Reynard purchased the property. They were not naive enough to think Reynard had not made significant changes to the property in the time he lived there. This was the primary concern as the grounds were certain to be filled with additional dangers and security not visible from the outside. Their plans for the inside of the estate were also assumed to be incomplete as they imagined The Fox had added a multitude of traps, security, secret rooms and passageways throughout. Their spies had observed numerous contractors and equipment coming and going in the estate over the years. They knew of a few of the rooms, passageways and traps by bribing or threatening some of those working at the facility, but most of those doing the construction were private mercenaries of Reynard himself, or his staff or gang members. So they reasoned only a small fraction of all that was actually inside was known to them.

They entertained a whole host of ideas on a means of attack. While many of them had promise, they were rejected for numerous reasons primarily because they did not fit the criteria of the assault which was to be fast, subtle and simple. Detonating explosives in the middle of a suburban neighborhood in the middle of the night tended to attract a lot of attention. However they agreed to bring some construction explosives for some limited and emergency uses. Stealing a large construction crane or equipment to load with attackers and dangle over top of the fence sounded like a promising idea except that it would be about as subtle as a dancing elephant in a small room. Anything that could be seen from far away and so noisy would be like shouting a message to every corner of the kingdom. There was another idea of using construction equipment like a wheel loader with a backhoe and a small hydraulic excavator to attempt to dig a hole under the fence. The problem with this was that it slow, noisy, attracted a lot of attention, and complex. The other issue is that it would expose the attackers to many potential deadly attacks including having the hole doused with flammable liquids and lit on fire.

Ideas that did receive approval included using numerous portable lightweight ladders affixed with thick rubber on one end to get over the razor wire and avoid the electrical current running through the fence. They had considered attempting to cut power to the estate, but they were informed that the lines were deep underground. They would have to cut off power to most of the Rainforest and Docks District to accomplish this, and they suspected Reynard had anticipated this possibility and had backup generators. They also approved a couple more subtle pieces of equipment that might draw less attention like a utility truck with a loader bucket which could be raised above the wall, and attackers in the bucket could lower themselves with ropes. A firetruck with a ladder that could be extended over the wall could act as a bridge for attackers to climb across and lower themselves. This and the other ladders they had available were not strong enough for large mammals like elephants, rhinos, hippos, polar bears and similarly sized creatures. However they already had several plans regarding the perimeter attack for these large mammals.

One unique option they had available was using something that had been developed for quickly getting over fences called a CATapult. It was so named because those using it would usually be feline mammals as they had the best chance of surviving a large fall with minimal damage. It would fire up to medium-large sized mammals high into the air towards a target based on adjustments on the device. They had four of these, and planned to make good use of them as they met all the target criteria for the assault.

Another inventive idea was stealing one of the gondolas commonly used in the adjacent Rainforest District and sailing it high over the estate and lowering a team from it onto the roof of the estate. There they could attempt to find a roof entrance and also rappel down the sides of the building to find an opening in a window or balcony. Even if anyone saw the gondola flying over the area, it would not appear that unusual as they were used to ferry commuters from the Docks District at Tujunga Island to the south not far away. This one met all the criteria and was approved with gang members sent to scout what would be required to steal one.

They also approved 'acquiring' some heavy-duty vehicles that could be used for ramming the fence or gate, supply and passenger vehicles, and improvised firebombs. They also would attempt to steal a city utility and sewer truck and send a team to explore the utility tunnels under the estate. They had city plans for the tunnels, but were concerned with what Reynard might have hidden and activated in these tunnels once the estate was on alert. They would send this team in advance of the full-scale assault as they would be unnoticed from the surface, and would only appear to be a work crew for the city.

The other large issue was how to move such a massive number of mammals to the area without being noticed. Some like the gondola and underground team would be unobtrusive, but they could not drive them all up and park them outside. Some could arrive in the vehicles they had selected for the operation. Others could arrive in vehicles and park in the nearby residential area and then wait out of sight until given the go signal. A large potion of the assault force would arrive via the transit system getting off at the nearby Vine Street Station and wander the streets toward the estate posing as residents coming home from a night of entertainment downtown.

The leaders assigned teams to begin gathering the vehicles, equipment, weapons and supplies needed for the operation. They then planned the sequence of attack, contingency plans, command and control hierarchy, team assignments and the numerous other details required to pull off such a large-scale complicated assault. Considering the incredible time constraints and the many limiting factors, including the need for swift completion and remaining relatively unnoticed, Isengrim and Tybalt were quite pleased with the final plan. Now they tried to rest up for what promised to be an eventful evening.

Isengrim, Bruun and Tybalt waited with their commanders and part of their forces in the support vehicles in the northern section of Bruun's Savanna Central District. Their fake utility vehicle was parked on a side street near the estate, but out of sight, with work barriers erected around the tunnel entryway to complete the illusion that there were a maintenance team from the city. The gondola team had successfully hijacked their vehicle and were prepared to launch on the signal. The majority of the forces were currently en route traveling along the subway arriving at the Vine Street station in staggered waves and slowly making their way into position.

So far their spies who had been watching the estate and Docks District, as well as the activities in Reynard's allied districts, hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. The only thing of note was that some of the forces of the Rainforest and Meadowlands Districts were performing joint training exercises, but everything was quiet in Reynard's district which was the most important thing.

The team on their two amphibious assault boats reported a large party taking place in the harbor on a large number of boats as they passed the southernmost islands of the Docks District. But other than that, their approach to the northeastern channel of Vine Street was uneventful, and they positioned themselves in the waterway just to the east of the estate beachfront ready to move when given the signal.

Isengrim the Wolf was informed that all teams were in place. He then ordered his group of vehicles to move forward along the western highway connecting Savanna Central to the Rainforest District as they headed to the Marshland junction. He had them staggered to not draw too much attention blending with the current traffic heading along the route. It was most important that the lead vehicle not to be delayed as he wanted them to the back southern gate by 11:20 PM. He called to his airship to load up and position themselves to the east ready to move. The Wolf then ordered the divers on the aquatic team to begin their diving mission. The underground team was then ordered to begin exploring the tunnels underneath Reynard's estate.

Tybalt the Wildcat appeared incredibly nervous, and Bruun the Bear just expressed a low grumble, but Isengrim felt relief. This massive effort accomplished in such a short time frame seemed to be working perfectly so far. The weather was cooperating, with the skies partly cloudy and slightly crisp, but otherwise perfect. The theft of the vehicles had gone quite well with minimal hiccups. Movement at Reynard's estate, the Docks District and The Fox's allied districts all seemed to be normal with nothing indicating they were expecting company.

The size and complex nature of the assault with such massive numbers was unheard of in the history of the underworld. Even the complicated assaults Reynard pulled off two years ago was done with a small fraction of the mammal force Isengrim currently commanded. And he had pulled this off in only one day! He only worried about what surprises Reynard might have in store them, the response of The Fox's gang and allies once they learned of the attack, how The Council would react to this clear violation and warlike action, and how quickly he could get to The Fox and kill him and capture his family.

The Wolf was under no delusion that he would avoid significant casualties. Facing Reynard himself and whatever staff and guards he had available would be a deadly task indeed. Isengrim was hoping they could just rush and overwhelm them before The Fox could do too much damage. If he had a good amount of time to plan this operation, he would have chosen a much more covert plan which would allow him to sneak a hidden mercenary force posing as delivery workers, utility workers, caterers, construction workers, or one of numerous other possible means, and have them disable the doors to the estate and take the guard stations, opening the gates and then jamming them so they could not be closed. They then could quickly drive a whole assault team in through the gate and quickly gain access to the estate. The other possibility was using a large number of air vehicles and having a group of mercenaries parachuting in to access the gates and estate entrances accomplishing the same thing. A third option would have been slowly establishing a hidden tunnel underneath the estate and then quickly pouring an assault team through to take the guard stations and gates allowing for a mass assault in under a minute. However all of these options would have taken a long time to plan to perfection. There was too high a probability of these going horribly wrong if slapped together in a few hours. The likely result would have been that Reynard was alerted to their plans in advance and called his allies and gang in immediately. All of them would have been exposed and surely hung for committing unprovoked acts of war. Isengrim chuckled to himself that he had certainly been provoked a multitude of times, but not in any way The Council would accept was any justification for his actions.

His front delivery vehicle was now crossing the southern Vine Island bridge from the Marshland and approaching the rear gate. His underground team was nearing the tunnels under the estate. And his underwater aquatic team was ready to start cutting the water gate. The air team was holding position waiting for the signal to move.

Isengrim had his other gang members and forces located at the major roadways ready to disable any ZPD vehicles attempting to approach the combat area. They had already taken the precautions of sabotaging every ZPD vehicle at the two closest city police precincts. The ZPD usually tried to avoiding any gang activity in the outer districts, but there was not much chance of them turning a blind eye to an event of this magnitude. However any city forces that attempted to interfere would be highly discouraged from that act. If it took the death of a few of their officers for them to get the message, so be it.

They were now approaching the Vine Island bridge with the main force of vehicles and the delivery vehicle was now at the gate. The time was 11:18 PM and everything seemed to running as smoothly as possible. The delivery plan was unlikely to work, but if it did, this whole thing would be a piece of cake and be over in no time.

At 11:18 PM a delivery truck drove up to the southern gate at Maupertuis. The truck had the name Panda Furnishings along the side. It appeared to be a truck similar to those that had made deliveries the previous week. However if one looked close enough, they would have noticed it had a raised tarp on top of the truck.

It drove up to the guard station, and a bored looking red panda driver yelled through the speaker that they were there to drop off a partial delivery of furniture and decorative pieces that were ordered. The driver had a large musk ox and yak sitting next to him all wearing the uniforms of Panda Furnishings with the patch showing a giant panda smiling and extending his arms to the sides in welcome.

The guard at the gate, a surly looking elk, informed the red panda, "We have no deliveries scheduled tonight."

The bored panda gave the elk a grimace, "I was just told they had forgotten to deliver a few pieces and we needed to drop them off quickly. They had to be back-ordered. We have a satisfaction guarantee to deliver any items like this as soon as they are available."

The elk glared at them with displeasure, "Well call and get prior approval first, and then come back. We don't let unscheduled deliveries in."

The red panda smiled smoothly as if he was a con artist, "Ah come on, we came all the way from the warehouse in Sahara Square. Just come out and check the contents in the back if you have any questions. They said they wanted these pieces delivered as soon as they were available. You know how these guys are, always wanting everything right away."

The elk seemed to consider the panda's proposal, but then appeared to reconsider, "Well we have procedures in place for a reason. They are sticklers for following all the rules here. You know how they are. If they learned I let an unscheduled delivery in, I would lose my job."

The red panda nodded his head accepting the elk's position, but then seemed to have an idea, "How about you check out the cargo anyway, and then inform them inside what we have waiting to be delivered while we call for approval?"

The guard station was essentially a sizable bunker made of concrete on both sides of the wall. The guard could enter and exit on either side through thick sliding steel doors. There were small windows on all sides of the station made of very thick unbreakable transparent plastic. One guard could exit the door to inspect the vehicle prior to opening the gate while another manned the station as per procedure. Deliveries such as laundry services, food deliveries, furnishings or the many other regular deliveries, were usually arranged in advance unless there was a hastily gathered party or similar event. Regular visitors like John Wilde could arrive unannounced, but were still inspected and verified carefully.

While the red panda's offer was quite persuasive, any such action as inspecting an unscheduled vehicle was strictly prohibited for exactly the reason the red panda was hoping his argument worked. It was possible for someone to try and prevent the outer door from closing properly if they placed a strong block or similar device in the way before it closed fully. How this could be done if no one was near the door was a mystery. Unless of course you considered the lightning fast stoat and gray fox hiding under the tarp directly beside the door ready to drop and dart for the door the instant it was being opened. Not to mention the heavily armed assault team also hidden next to them and in the back of the truck ready to kill the elk and any guard inside and force open the gate and jam it to prevent it from being shut.

In fact Reynard was even known from time to time to have vehicles and even friends of his try and enter without ID or proper procedure just to test that his security was the best anywhere. Also considering that The Fox happened to have his most trusted and experienced guards working the gate this night, and this ruse was not going to work. The elk working happened to be one of Reynard's early Kids who he saved from death and horrible abuse. The elk in question would follow The Fox into the very gates of hell without a seconds pause.

But the experienced elk did not wish to alarm this group of swindlers who very much was ready to slit his throat at a moments notice. He instead just played it very cool responding, "I sympathize with your situation, but if I make another single mistake, they promised to make sure I would never get a job guarding anything but some trash at the city dump. I can assure you that things smell much nicer here. Just go get a bite to eat at the all night diner near the Vine Street station, and tell your damn bosses to get approval first."

The red panda realized that this was not going to work, and if they tried anything it would expose their whole plan. So he sighed and pretended to accept defeat and asked his buddies if they wanted anything to eat. They then turned around and headed back toward the group of vehicles approaching the estate from the south.

Isengrim lamented the fact that if he had proper time to prepare, he could have hijacked one of Reynard's authorized deliveries, or bribed or threatened one of The Fox's vendors to setup a delivery for them. However given the rushed planning, this was impossible.

What The Wolf didn't know is that the ID's of valid delivery personnel were checked by Reynard's guards and verified prior to any inspection. The experienced guards were also experts in sensing anything not on the up and up, and they would have had the truck back away from the gate prior to any visual inspection. But Isengrim's subterfuge would have possibly worked for many other less vigilant operations around the city.

When The Wolf heard that the delivery ruse had failed, he sighed. He hadn't expected it to work on Reynard's guards anyway, but it would have certainly made everything so much easier if it had been successful. He then got on his communicator and told all his other forward teams, "GO NOW!" And with that, the operation to kill Reynard was underway.

The first indicator something was wrong came from his underwater team. This was followed shortly by a disturbing report from his underground team. Then the final confirmation of The Wolf's dread came quite visibly and spectacularly to everyone.

As his team of a beaver, elephant seal and otter began cutting the links connecting the water gate using underwater cutting torches with the elephant seal using a large heavy duty unit on the thick connectors, suddenly two large 2m spears embedded themselves into the elephant seal's neck and head. Even with the creatures thick neck and large head they were fired at close range from Reynard's mercenary seal and sea lion team who pulled a second weapon and shot a spear completely through the skull of the beaver killing him instantly. The otter managed to reflexively avoid taking the second spear in his chest twisting out of instinct and was rewarded with the spear embedded through his arm and side instead.

The elephant seal bleeding profusely through his wounds seemed confused not realizing what had happened. By the time he dropped his torch and began swimming back toward the boat, he had another spear in his head and side fired at point blank range from the seal and sea lion who had swum up to the water wall firing through the holes mere meters from the bewildered elephant seal. The otter attempted to flee swimming with one arm managing to somehow avoid two spears fired at him. In the seal's and sea lion's defense, the water was dark and the otter was a small target in the water especially as he swam away with only his webbed feet visible. The elephant seal was not so fortunate as he was quite easy to hit point blank considering his size and previous wounds, and the mercenaries quickly finished him off reloading all their weapons.

When the profusely bleeding otter arrived back on the boat babbling incoherently, it took awhile for the team in the boats to understand what had happened. They attempted to remove the spear and stop the bleeding of the distraught otter who kept screaming about lightning quick sea monsters. The team managed to patch him up the best they could, but were clearly shaken as they reported back to Isengrim. The Wolf only wondered at how Reynard had guards waiting in the water just in case something like cutting the sea gate was attempted. The Wolf then sighed once again informing his boat team they would have to do things the hard way, and ordered them to prepare to try to ram their way through the wall. He sorely wished to avoid this as most likely he would sink one or both of the boats even though they had thick hulls. Also the guards at the water gate would surely be reporting the incident to the estate security in moments.

The underground team had found a passageway under the estate following a map. However suddenly large bolts shot from the front and both sides of the forward team slamming into the badger, groundhog and prairie dog instantly shredding them spraying blood all over the walls. The rest of the team froze staring in disbelief with their mouths agape as the horror that lay in front of them finally registered and then began screaming. The leader, a rabbit named Cavador, was the only one who noticed that the projectiles seemed to sense their heights, and only fired as high as the tallest mammal. He then reported to Isengrim informing him of what had occurred.

This was the second problem The Wolf had received, and it came almost the moment after the report of the underwater failure. Isengrim had suspected The Fox would have the tunnels booby trapped, but this was quite a sophisticated trap. It probably had pressure sensors to fire on a large area, but the ability to determine the heights of the targets was quite unusual. He considering trying to have them sprint across it, but had no idea what lay beyond it. Disarming it would take time he didn't have, however he had a few good ideas and got on his communicator ordering a couple specific mammals to go down and help. He told them he would send them a couple trailblazers to find the traps and another mammal loaded with objects to keep tossing on the trap until it appeared to be out of ammunition. He now had five killed and one out of commission, and the operation had only just begun.

As the airship team flew overhead crossing the waterway between the Rainforest District and Vine Island, they began lowering the ropes they would use to scale down once they were over the roof of the estate. As they crossed the sea gate and wall of the estate, they began to climb down the ropes. They noticed quite a large number of figures and movement in front of the beach and near the walls, and shouted up to those still in the ship to report what they had seen. But before anyone could report anything, they began to see tiny balls of fire approaching them. Seconds later they realized the little balls of fire were actually flaming arrows fired from far below which sailed over their heads and embedded themselves into the helium and hot air filled ballonet sections above them. Apparently these arrows were coated with a flammable gel which instantly spread over the surface and inside the ballonets upon impact, which quickly caught fire burning rapidly. The flaming blimp was quite a spectacular sight and lit up all the area under it. However those both inside and frantically attempting to climb down the ropes were more interested in the fact that they were plummeting toward the ground rapidly. But they didn't have much time to think about this as the airship slammed into the side of the estate and crashed into a spectacular ball of flame on the ground next to the estate's main building. Forces on the ground immediately surrounded the balloon, but if anything was alive under the ship when it crashed, it wasn't for long as everything promptly burned to a crisp. The teams on top of the estate fired high powered foam from fire extinguishers down the side of the building on anything burning that was touching or near the wall.

Isengrim didn't need his communicator to know what happened to his airship team. It was seen from most everyone in the surrounding area. This only confirmed the growing dread The Wolf had been feeling as the reports were coming in. Reynard must have had some warning that they were coming, and had additional defensive forces at the ready.

Now how many, or what they were, was quite questionable. But it was too late to turn back now, and with a heavy heart he ordered the commencement of the main assault. All vehicles were now driven into the area in front of the estate, and all hidden forces made their way to the staging areas quickly unloading all the weapons and equipment. Isengrim knew it would not be long before Reynard's entire gang, his allies, and The Council would be aware of what was occurring here. He would have to hope they could establish an unimpeded entry quickly and throw everything they had at it.

Sheba was not a happy kitty as she watched the hundreds of assault forces emerge from the shadows of the nearby neighborhood and run to arriving vehicles spreading before her boss's estate. She had so many perfect pouncing opportunities as they had all just stood there like juicy morsels waiting to be devoured. But she was under orders from Rath and Reynard to stay hidden and not touch them until they showed their cards. Resisting leaping into the middle of them and shredding as many as she could get her paws on, took every bit of willpower she had. Most of the fools were not even armed! They had planned to obtain their supplies from the arriving trucks. It would have been so easy to tear them apart.

But she finally understood the reasoning of Rath as they had the positioning and her forces didn't. Most of her group had to remain in the buildings or far back on another street. They couldn't risk allowing the enemy to detect their position. Surprise and the unknown were their biggest advantages. Her boss had told her that hers was to be a surgical strike force providing psychological attacks as well as physical. She preferred the physical to the mind games that The Fox always loved, but when he described her as a terror team the likes of which no one had ever imagined in their worst nightmares, she began to feel a lot better. He told her he wanted the enemy cocksuckers to wet themselves and look around constantly in utter dread of what might come out of the shadows.

Speaking of shadows, it was time for there to be darkness. She signaled to her team to cut the power to the surrounding streetlights in the neighborhoods around the estate. They didn't needed to blackout the whole block, just the power feed going to the external lighting. She saw some of the enemy look around when the power was cut, but then go back to their preparations. The fools probably thought the lights were cut by their team. Sheba planned on modifying that belief very soon.

While the estate itself was well lit, the areas along the walls, especially around the gates, had protected lighting to prevent it from being disabled, and the areas ten meters from the walls and beyond were now very dimly lit. To their credit, the enemy had thought to bring portable lighting which they were now setting up in two locations, one a short distance from the southern end of the west wall, and another on the western end of the south wall. Those appeared to be their main command locations as most of the vehicles and a large clump of forces milled around between the areas.

Sheba smiled a huge toothy grin thinking of the glorious fireball she had seen in the sky a couple minutes before. She hoped someone got that on tape as she would love to play it on a loop on her VCR. She knew her boss recorded all security footage, but didn't know if he had such a view from his cameras. It was an ingenious idea of theirs though, and would have been successful if ranged forces hadn't been waiting in hiding below. She knew their defenders had a long burning fire gel they could put on the ends of the arrows and light on fire, but this was for other purposes the invaders would soon discover. But it had been repurposed as anti gondola defense.

The enemy did seem to have several surprises that disturbed her. First were the oval shaped platforms being wheeled around and placed around 10m from the walls of the estate, two spaced in front of the southern wall, and two along the western.

"Rath, you have any idea what the fuck those things are? They look like platforms of some kind with handles to grip on and a pad for feet. I saw one of them lying on one testing it." Sheba growled in frustration to her co-leader who was commanding the perimeter forces to the west.

"We had a bat scout report they called it a CATapult as he passed over. He also reported they had sent additional forces to that underground utility area just southwest of you. You should probably send a strike team there and hit them the moment we execute a strike on their other forces. Our bat scouted the best vantage points on the nearby homes, and I am setting up our archer snipers on each of those. Do you have your bee bomb ready?" Rath informed her.

She had a team attach an enormous slingshot in a nearby dark area. It was something they had used for their amusement in the past, firing uncooperative smaller mammals through the air experimenting to see if they could hit the padded areas accurately. It was amazing how quickly someone would tell them the information, or agree to their terms, after being shot long distances through the air. They had gotten pinpoint accurate based on weight, force and angles. It seems the nerds were good for something after all. Anyway, their most accurate team members had a collection of goodies to fire into the middle of the command and control areas. She wished she could have come up with this plan, but credit went to Rocky. The raccoon seemed to have a genius mind for mischief and was always thinking outside of the box for the numerous heists and cons Reynard planned. Apparently he also had a great mind for sabotage and disruption. The raccoon had wanted their bat spies to drop many surprises on the enemy, but the amount of weight even the largest bat agent could carry and be able to fly well was not much. Rocky had used bats to drop off mice and other tiny mammals into difficult places for spying or disabling traps. It took an incredible amount of trust for the mouse to trust the bat though. Fortunately they had not had any fatal mistakes so far in their previous attempts.

Sheba replied to the lion, "Yeah, we are ready to hit the southern group. They should get a nasty surprise when they land on them."

Rath then shared an observation that was a concern for her as well, "The firetruck and that utility vehicle with the bucket concern me the most. They can just hold the ladder over the wall and keep dropping attackers inside. The same goes for the utility bucket."

The tigress was not happy about these developments and responded growling, "Not much we can do about those at the moment. The good thing is that only a limited number can use those at a time, and it will be a slow process. Perhaps we could use the slingshot to hit them with a firebomb. The thing that concerns me the most is all the ladders they have. They seem to have heavy rubber protection on them to prevent electrocution."

The lion agreed with her assessment, "Doubt a firebomb would do much to the vehicles as they are not very flammable and could be put out quickly. We can try and focus on taking out the ladders and forces on the far ends of the wall, so our guys can focus the defense along the middle. They have moved some of those CATapults to the far ends of the wall. They are testing them now, firing dummies over the wall. It seems they can fire mammals over the wall. I suppose they can use it for ones that are light enough and are able to handle a fall from such a height. I say we try taking out one of those first."

Sheba growled her agreement, "I want one of those. I have some ideas of my own about what to do with them. I am getting my people in place for simultaneous attacks. We should be ready in a minute or two as most are already near those positions. Contact me when ready."

The tigress then ordered her forces to prepare for a strike attack all along the end of the southern wall, the underground utility tunnel and a ranged attack from the slingshot team. Rath would do the same along the western wall. As she raced into position near where they had placed the CATapult, she saw they had just successfully fired a leopard over the wall. About the time she guessed he would have landed, she heard a horrible scream. She grinned at that. Apparently the leopard had found one of her boss's welcoming gifts. She could see the others crowded around the CATapult looking quite upset by the fate of their leopard friend as they frantically talked on their communications devices. This was the perfect time. She was informed everyone was in place.

The CATapult team was still arguing with each other pointing over the wall. Sheba grew impatient and called Rath, "We need to go NOW! They are distracted."

Rath quickly answered her, "My group will be ready in seconds. You can go."

Sheba didn't even bother to answer back. She didn't have to be told twice and instantly switched to her teams channel issuing the order, "Ready all. GO GO GO!"

And with that all the waiting was over. She sprinted at full speed towards the CATapult team with others of her team at her side. The fools were still arguing and trying to adjust the settings on the platform. When she was just under ten meters from her target she pressed off the ground with all the strength of her back legs for a mighty leap. She flew through the air with one thought on her mind, landing with claws out into largest mammal, a large male lion. Her claws sunk into the surprised feline's chest and he was knocked backward taking her full force which drove her claws incredibly deep into his chest. Her other target was the exposed neck of the cat sinking her fangs into it. But the large mane of lion gave it some protection and so she instead sunk her claws into the exposed belly ripping downward shredding flesh.

The lion recovered enough to move his paws to try and push her off, but she pulled out a long dagger from her side sheath and stabbed it deep into the cat's belly and ripped upward with all her strength disemboweling him. He roared and tried to hammer her, but she didn't even feel anything through her armor and pulled the knife out jamming it into neck of the lion embedding the deep blade to the hilt. Judging from the surprised expression on the lion's face, she decided to ignore him as a threat and turned to her left stopping the blade coming down at her with her left forearm. She decided instead to use her natural knives and jammed the claws of her right paw deep into the neck of the puma ripping to the left. She then sprang forward clamping her jaws onto the neck of the shocked cat driving him backward with her superior weight and strength.

Sheba didn't bother to wait to suffocate the puma as she had lots of mayhem on her mind, and simply twisted her neck and lifted herself backward ripping the cat's neck apart. She didn't bother to admire her handiwork as she quickly looked around to see the other enemies near the CATapult were down, but instead spotted a terrified looking wildebeest quickly climbing one of the ladders placed against the estate wall. She jumped up and instantly sprinted on all fours leaping into the air colliding with a wildebeest landing on his back squashing him against the ladder. She then kicked off his back while holding onto his shoulders with her claws yanking him off the ladder backwards. She landed on her springy legs, but the wildebeest was not so fortunate as he slammed his head and neck into the ground. Before he could recover, she was on him in an instant jamming her claws into his sides and sinking her fangs into his neck ripping and tearing. Blood gurgled out of the gaping wounds in his neck as he fought to breathe, but it did not last long as Sheba pulled another knife and jammed it under his chin and through the top of his skull.

She instead looked up to see there was no enemy left standing near their position and ordered her team to grab all the ladders, the CATapult, and bodies, and quickly retreat back into the darkness. Her team didn't bother to question her orders as they began dragging everything quickly away. She retrieved her large knifes from the skull of the wildebeest and the neck of the lion tossing him and several other bodies on top of the CATapult and wheeling it quickly away into the back streets. Apparently none of her team had sustained any serious injuries. That was over far too quickly. I hope the other teams were as successful.

The small team assigned to take out the underground easily took out the two guards left to guard the entry to the tunnel. Four knives came sailing out of the dark embedding themselves two each into the gray wolf and buffalo. They then charged the two and quickly dispatched them, but the buffalo was able to get a call off for help. But help would not be coming in time. Then they went below and tried to locate anyone in the tunnels, but could not see anyone, and realized that the tunnels split off in different directions and they could easily get lost down below. They called in to Sheba to report their status, and she told them to grab the bodies and communicators the enemy were using and return to her. When asked about the tunnels, she informed them that they were booby-trapped and there was nothing to do about those wandering around down there except to hope they all ended up as trap bait.

The slingshot team had successfully fired their little package and it landed near the center of the southern group of mammals releasing a huge nest of angry wasps into their midst which proceeded to take vengeance on anything and everything they could sting. A few seconds and adjustments later, another such nest landed to the right of the first breaking the thin seal around the nest and releasing a swarm of seriously pissed off wasps that had been trapped all day in this bag and were looking for payback. As if that wasn't annoying enough, they lit the delayed fuse and then fired an improvised large homemade stink bomb to the left of center. The team were able to admire a few movements of the chaos they had caused watching mammals scattering every direction swatting wasps and coughing and gagging, before they packed up and quickly left the area regrouping with the main force.

Sheba checked in with Rath reporting the success of their strikes, the number of victims, the minor injuries sustained, and the fact that they were now able to listen to the general communications of the enemy forces. While they couldn't hear specific orders from the enemy commanders to their specific teams, they could listen to the general chatter. She got a toothy grin hearing them speaking of ghosts out of the shadows striking and taking their allies and leaving no trace. They kept screaming about enemies appearing from all over, even in places they hadn't even been. It sounded like Rath's snipers had several victims of their own as casualty reports about several dead or injured from long range arrows which came out of nowhere were heard.

The snipers were now firing at will into the chaotic clusters of enemy forces who were currently busy avoiding wasps and the smoke as the snipers attempted to inflict as many casualties as possible and cause panic. Rath informed her that they had similar success, but had an ibex former Kid who was badly injured when a panther had clawed him down the sides. The ibex had been overexuberant and had run ahead of their normal gang members who had combat experience and armor. Rath recommend to Sheba that any of those unarmored and inexperienced like most of the former Kids and citizens of the district, should remain in more support positions helping more with removal of the equipment and bodies. The lion informed Sheba they had also captured one of the CATapults and removed it and the bodies to a safe position. The tigress grinned as she shared her ideas for what they could do with these a bit later.

After bringing down the airship in a hail of flaming arrows, the ground team left the burning and now smoldering wreckage of what was left of the airship assured that anything that had been alive was now a charred mess even if it had survived the crash. One guard was left nearby watching just in case, while the others took their previous positions reading themselves for the assault they knew would be coming shortly. Certain sections of the estate were intentionally left dimly lit while others well lit. Those defenders with excellent low light vision such as most felines, foxes and opossums as well as a small group with night vision goggles, prowled these dimly lit areas in the hopes that their enemy would think those areas vulnerable and send in mammals nearly blind into a killing zone.

The defenders were well aware of the demarcation line between the trapped area around the walls, and carefully stood just behind this awaiting any movement along the estate walls. The bat scouts radioed that the enemy were spreading out along both the southern and western walls with ladders insulated against electrocution. They also informed them that they had some sort of devices to send attackers flying over the walls, and to be prepared to converge on any of these attackers hitting them before they can recover from the rough landing. Coal told them that the enemy was looking for a weakness in the defense based on their positions in order to concentrate their attack on positions where they had the most success. The defenders strategy was to make sure they had no such position as they readied their support vehicles armed with auto ballistas and protected defender carriers to any areas needed. Using this defense strategy, just a relatively small number of defenders could cover the large areas along the walls. Those on the estate roof were carefully monitoring all wall positions for any movement. Each section of the wall had an assigned number so those monitoring any movement could call out things like "2 on A13" and "3 on B20" with the letters indicating which wall was being attacked. Those away from the convergent points of the walls only monitored warning channels on their specific wall in order to reduce any confusion.

The bat scouts seemed to suggest they were setting the ladders and projectile devices called CATapults for a simultaneous strike as many were waiting at the bottom of the ladders for a signal. A couple of test fires of the CATapults sent bags over the walls in four sections. However these landed in the trap zone which should provide a nasty surprise to any using these devices. The bats called out the location of each wall section where ladders were located and ground forces were readied in each of these areas.

There was a report that a couple of ships were attempting to ram the water wall which protected the dock and beach of the estate, and some forces positioned along nearby walls which had no ladders shifted over to repel any forces that might break through. Several enemy vehicles were also being positioned with ladders and buckets extended across the gate walls. Bat scouts reported the buckets and several ladders were being positioned over the main and back gates with an obvious attempt to try and open them and take control of the guard stations. The support vehicles were quickly positioned behind each gate which were locked tight into place using heavy duty steel supports extending from beneath the road and locking into place along each gate. Even if Reynard's forces wanted to open the gates, it would take quite awhile to do so at this point. Each gate created essentially a door as there was a high support above each gate which sat flush with the gate and was high enough for a large truck to pass under. The wall then extended above the support bar with razor wire loops at the top at a height matching all the other walls.

In order to make it over the walls and razor wire, the ladders had to extend over eighteen meters. Those making it to the top of the ladder could then attach a rope and lower themselves on the other side or attempt to jump off. However such a drop for a normal mammal would most likely result in injuries, and any mobility issues in attack forces would likely end in a fatality. So when the go order was issued and all attacking forces began climbing up the ladders, most lowered a rope ladder over the other side. However once they were fully over the wall, they found themselves being peppered with multiple crossbow bolts and arrows. As soon as any attacker appeared over the wall, a high beam spotlight was shone on them and the ladder, and it then became time for target practice. Many of those jumped off in panic only to find the landing even harsher than they expected as razor wire had been extended in a lattice work from all walls for ten meters inside the wall. Any landing let out blood curdling screams of pain and agony as they were shredded to pieces.

Once it had turned dark that night, automatic pulleys slowly pulled rows and rows of razor wire from coils hidden at the base of the walls. Several more rows were pulled across below this wire on the ground so that it created a latticework of death. This system would normally be activated if any gate breach was detected. It only took a two minutes to fully engage, but Reynard had all of them engaged as soon as it became dark enough that evening.

Several attackers managed to lower themselves on the rope ladders despite being hit with multiple bolts or arrows. However once they got to bottom, they realized they now had to deal with the nasty surprises below. More attackers were continuing to come down the ladders and they finally found themselves leaping off and having the lower section of their body sliced apart. Many were hit at the top of the ladder and simply fell plummeting to their deaths. The lucky ones were hit and fell backwards only landing on the ground below the ladders. Coal issued an order to not fire at any attackers until they were on the inside of the wall as he didn't want any of those shot ever coming back over.

The first four felines fired from the CATapults all landed within the razor wire range and the screams and yowls of the victims turned the blood of those nearby cold. The sound of such agony and horror would make anyone sick. After the first launch, no others were launched from the far ends of the southern and western wall due to the perimeter defense team. But several other launches were detected from the central sections with the flying assailants landing on a trajectory past the razor wire and right into the spike pit trench that was dug all along the gate just past the razor wire. Normally this was covered and appeared like a road around the estate wall, but the panels could be removed to expose a spike pit. Reynard had ordered all panels removed after it had turned dark adding essentially a five meter shallow moat around the inner perimeter. The defense forces positioned themselves just behind this pit firing powerful crossbows and arrows into the numerous enemy attempting to cross over the walls. The CATapult teams seemed to adjust their settings and launched their passengers at a height and angle so that they landed approximately twenty meters past the wall, but those landing were in a bad way either being knocked unconscious or sustaining crippling wounds and were easily dispatched without any effort. A few smaller felines like an ocelot, wildcat and serval survived the fall intact, but were chased around the grounds and eventually cornered and killed.

Those attacking the gate areas seemed to have better success as they could cross the wall and land on the roads leading into the estate instead of the field of death as the defenders called it. However several rows of spike strips and piles of four sided spiked caltrops were placed in the landing area beneath the gate area waiting for them. In addition, those areas with concentrated numbers breaching the walls were met with high powered auto ballistas firing rapid-fire crossbow bolts being fed in with ribbons from the portable defense vehicles. Between the auto fire ballistas, the many defenders armed with crossbows, and the others armed with knives dispatching any attackers falling to the ground, the dozens of attackers coming over the walls were mowed down and dispatched in no time.

The defenders at the back gate heard several loud crashes as the sound of steel straining and screeched filled the air. Apparently two enormous bull elephants were slamming into the gate in an attempt to knock the gate down. But they soon realized that the supports behind the gate were preventing any of their attempts from being successful. This was the same thing the group at the main gate was discovering as they attempted to ram the gate with a large SUV at high speeds. Both gates buckled under the enormous power being brought to bear against each metal structure. Coal issued orders to teams at both gates as the defense teams knew this method of attack would be a likely possibility.

At the back gate the assault team decided it was a better strategy to attempt to pull the gate out of the wall instead of ramming it attaching hooks to the ends of the gate and connecting them to harnesses for the elephants to attempt to press away from the wall. All of a sudden a slick liquid was sprayed under the gate on the road under the feet of the elephants. The same was being done to the large vehicles attempted to pull the main gate. The elephants decided to turn and pull the chains as the slick liquid did not bother them as much pulling. However once they turned to face the gate a white stream of foam came shooting from both sides of the gate hitting each elephant in the eyes blinding them. Then the slick liquid was sprayed into the air covering both elephants as well as the vehicles pulling the main gate.

Isengrim and his other commanders were having a bad evening so far as all their probing attacks at all points along the walls were quickly resulting in casualty after casualty. Apparently the area past the walls was a field of death. After the simultaneous first wave of his attacks resulted in a pile of corpses for his forces, his water assault team was having problems breaking through the water barrier, his gate assault teams were being mowed down as quickly as they could cross the barrier, his CATapults were only resulting in failure after failure, and he had unknown enemy forces outside the walls appearing out of nowhere and slaughtering his isolated teams and raining pain and death on them from out of the darkness, he decided to change tactics. He could not simply bum rush the enemy overwhelming them. If he continued with this strategy, he would have no forces left to assault the estate even if they somehow made it to it.

So he then instead focused his efforts first on attempting to bring down the gates rather than throwing his people over the walls only to be massacred. If he could get them down, he could drive vehicles right up to the estate and pull off the doors to building throwing everything he had inside overwhelming any resistance. So he sent an elephant team to hit one gate while he used large vehicles on the other.

He learned that his underground team had been attacked, and he sent the special supplies and additional personnel they requested as well as a strong defensive force. If the gate team failed, this team might be able to have some success. The fire engine ladder had possibilities, but it would need to be coordinated with another attack as it would be simple for the defenses to easily focus their fire on any coming down the end of the ladder even if it was over the safe zone inside the walls. Those making it down from their utility bucket were having the same problems as those coming down the ladders dealing with the death maze below and ranged attacks on all sides.

The Wolf also readied a last ditch effort that he feared he would need to use. It would draw a lot of attention which he was trying to avoid, but he may have to accept that it was unavoidable. He would have to see how the gate teams did first, before making that decision. At least the wasps and smoke bombs seemed to finally have dissipated. It was annoying having to keep undercover to avoid being hit by errant arrows whizzing through the air. He had sent out teams to try and locate the snipers, but either they found nothing, or they never returned or made any report and were presumably dead.

He had called into his and Bruun's teams still inside their districts and told them to bring some reinforcements and heavy construction equipment, wheel loaders with a backhoe, a hydraulic excavator and anything heavy duty enough to knock down a wall. The time for being subtle was past and he was getting desperate. He also had Bruun call his remaining forces to bring any heavy-duty powerful thick-hulled ships they could locate to try and knock down the water wall and assault the beach entrance to the estate.

So now he watched as the gate attack commenced and his elephant and vehicle teams were attempting to pull the heavy gates from their supports. He was positioned near the elephant team and heard they had sprayed a slick liquid on the ground which was causing some traction problems. Isengrim moved closer to get a better look at the situation and suggested they try pulling to each side instead using the ground next to each side of the road for traction.

As soon as the elephants turned to face the gate and began pulling on the chains, some kind of a foam stream came shooting out of the narrow gaps along the gates hitting each elephant in the eyes. The Wolf thought it was smart to try and blind the pachyderms, but they could still pull just fine. Then a spray came shooting out of the same gaps coating each of the huge elephants. Isengrim failed to see the point of spraying them down with the slick substance until he saw two flares tossed into the air over each side the gate heading toward each elephant.

NOOOOOOOOOOO! Insengrim frantically got on his communicator, but before he could get a word out both of the huge beasts burst into flame and the road and air itself in the entire area became an inferno. Each pachyderm screamed in impossibly loud immense torment causing those nearby to cover their ears as well as bodies to protect themselves from the intense heat. Then The Wolf found out the reason the elephants were blinded as each broke free from the chains and began charging wildly in all directions, one toward his group near the west wall and the other back toward his position. Those who were attempting to extinguish the fire engulfing the huge mammals were thrown aside, and his team was attempting to dive out of the way of the charging balls of flame and charred flesh, but many were not so lucky and several were crushed in their fiery wake. The screams and smells of burned flesh caused The Wolf to gag as he assessed the mayhem witnessing the crushed bodies of his forces as well as the smoldering remains of the two formerly mighty tuskers.

Then The Wolf realized he had forgotten about the other gate, but looking over at the burning wreckage of the vehicles that had been attempting to pull the gate, it seemed their fate was quite similar. Isengrim cursed himself for not considering this defensive move, and decided it was time to ignore subtlety and go for brute force. He ordered the truck he had prepared as a last resort backed against the section of the wall the shortest distance from the outside and the front door to the estate. He waited a few moments for his forces to clear the area running in all directions as fast as they could. He then calmly pulled out his remote detonator, switched it to active, turned away under cover flicked the protective cap off and pressed the red button.

BOOOOOOOM!

An earth shattering explosion rocked the entire area as the demolition explosives he had wired and placed inside the truck went off in spectacular fashion. He had wanted to avoid using this as it would be heard for a vast distance around even far into the neighboring districts. If the residents of the nearby neighborhoods were not aware something was going on outside Reynard's estate before, well they certainly would know so now.

Isengrim quickly ordered hooks placed upon the ripped sections of the fence to begin pulling the opening wider in order to drive vehicles through the hole. However in his hurry he failed to warn the mammals attaching the hooks, and a jackal and horse who attempted this got a rude awakening and were fried to a crisp by the still electrified fence. The Wolf shook his head in frustration as the sickly smell of burnt flesh wafted through the air to his nostrils. Well he heard his water assault team had finally broken through, and he now had a hole in the frustrating wall. His underground team was also having success, but he had no idea how long it would take them to possibly make a difference.

Damn! There was another of those bats flying around spying on them. He had ordered them shot on sight, but hitting them out of the sky was quite difficult as they tended to stay out of range of anything but a high powered arrow. And he had been wasting ammo trying to pick them out of the sky. He ordered the idiots with hooks to use insulated gloves to attach the hooks to the wall. He then ordered the fire engine ladder and buckets to position themselves near this opening, and to prepare vehicles to drive through. It seemed these idiots could not ever think for themselves. He now focused his attention on this breach in the wall and gathered his nearby teams to prepare for the concentrated assault.

Things were finally going his way. That was until he begin to hear screams of horror and angst from his milling forces. Now what? It was then that sky began raining nightmares of epic proportions upon them all.

Sheba wondered what was holding up her team attacking the new group at the tunnel entrance. The bat scouts reported that a large group of enemy forces had been seen moving to the area and driving some vehicles there carrying supplies. She had sent a team to dispatch these new groups, but they reported they were having problems. The tigress arrived on the scene and immediately saw the problem. The opposing forces had emptied the vehicles of whatever cargo they contained and turned them on their sides creating defensive walls. The enemy were all protected behind the makeshift walls using ranged weapons such as knives, arrows and crossbows to hold off any attempts to get near their position. Her team had already sustained two injuries. Fortunately their armor had protected them against the defensive onslaught or the number casualties would have been far greater.

She ordered a team to use shields to move close to their position and toss some special gifts into the midst of the enemy. She had some nice improvised firebombs and stink bombs to show them. Rocky had even made some acid bombs that could be tossed inside burning any exposed fur and flesh. She had smoke bombs tossed in front of the areas where her teams were approaching to give them additional cover, and had them move in and begin tossing all the bombs over the barricades.

Sheba was expecting lots of screams and enemy forces running away from the area giving her ranged forces easy targets to pick off, but the only sounds she was rewarded with were shouts of warning from the forces. Once the smoke cleared, she saw from the glimpses of the enemy that they were now wearing gas masks and some kind of protective clothing or covering. Damn they are getting smarter. She preferred stupid enemy. They are well defended here.

She then ordered a bunch of the little bags of flammable liquid Rocky had provided them tossed onto the vehicles and surrounding area. Then after a shot with some flaming arrows the area ignited into a wonderful fireball. She could feel the wave of heat slam into her, thankful for her armor which prevented her fur from being singed. However it seems whatever the enemy were wearing helped to protect them from the flames, and they put out the fires quickly with fire extinguishers. It was then she recognized the things covering them. They were wearing the protective uniforms and breathing masks of the ZFD (Zootopia Fire Department).

It made sense as they seemed to have one of the ZFD large firetrucks for use on tall buildings as well as some emergency support vehicles with them. How frustrating! She considering rushing them and risking significant injury and death to her team, but Rath had called requesting a joint strike. So Sheba ordered a few of her group to watch them and constantly harass them, hitting them with ranged weapons whenever they could. She would leave them be for the moment.

On the way to meet up with Rath, they ran into some hapless enemy gang members searching for snipers. Sheba didn't bother issuing any orders. She was pissed and frustrated she couldn't get to the enemy tunnel team and took it out on the poor Barbary sheep sprinting and pouncing landing atop the surprised aoudad. She loved the looks of terror on their faces when she surprised them.

Sheba landed on the sheep with full force knocking him backwards a fair distance, and didn't waste any time as she ripped his throat out with her claws and fangs. She then rolled off the arruis and hit his fleeing partner, a large capybara, with a large throwing knife. Unfortunately she was not so skilled with throwing knives as Reynard and Coal, and it had merely landed hilt side, but she had thrown hard enough to throw the huge rodent off balance and he tripped slamming into the wall of a nearby house. It was enough time for her to sprint in his direction slamming into him. She proceeded to rip him apart with her claws removing one of his arms and disemboweling him rather quickly and viciously. This is what I live for! Forget ranged fighting, it was the up close and personal stuff she enjoyed. In fact she was enjoying it so much, she realized she had been drinking the chigüire's blood and gnawing on his flesh. She heard a group of bodies around her gasping as she looked up, her faced covered in blood and gore, and gulped a tasty bite of belly meat and liver down before realizing where she was.

"Sorry, got carried away." Was all she could really say.

Her team just nodded in response with uncomfortable looks on their faces. Ah well, she had a reputation to uphold anyway. This ought to help give any who thought to question her orders something to think about.

Sheba then grumbled regretting leaving such a tasty meal, and ordered, "Take the bodies and put them with the others and then meet up with us. We might have need of them."

After a short jaunt she found Rath and about twenty of his group. Once she had her team assembled they had a force of nearly forty. The lion must be planning on something quite exciting finally. She had had to satisfy herself with killing the errant enemy wandering around looking for snipers, and a few small groups that had gotten too close to the fringes of the neighborhoods. It was not nearly satisfying enough as the enemy forces seemed to now be staying clumped together in the well lit areas. They were also getting better at shielding themselves from arrow attacks. She still enjoyed listening in on their communications as they complained about shadow creatures emerging from nowhere dragging their friends to their doom.

Rath looked up at her in surprise when she arrived next to him. She then remembered her whole face and part of her body was covered in blood and bits of capybara and several other species which had been unfortunate enough to make her acquaintance.

"Looks like you have been busy." The lion stated simply.

"Not nearly enough." She growled back.

She hoped the lion had an effort worthy of her attention finally. She wasn't really the strategist that Rath, Reynard and many of her boss's advisers were. But that was okay, because he had many of those types and none like her. Reynard proudly reminded her of that often, saying he never wished her to try and be anyone other than who she was. So many throughout her career had attempted to restrain and alter her nature, except The Fox who embraced it and found uses for it whenever possible. It was never close to nearly enough, but at least he made the effort, unlike anyone else. For that she would always be grateful and loyal to him. She didn't really have the temperament, patience or restraint to be a boss like The Fox. She would have gotten in trouble constantly attacking any of the fuckers that stood against her. There was a good reason she was never brought to court. It would have been quite difficult to stop her from killing most of the two-faced backstabbing dishonorable cocksuckers there. She had no idea how Reynard could put up with being around them and talking with them amiably. She would prefer biting their heads off and sucking on their squishy insides.

Apparently Rath had been busy planning a creative attack on a large group of enemy forces that were collected twenty meters or so from the edge of one of the south western neighborhoods. Since the enemy had been avoiding separating into smaller groups and wandering close to the darker areas, it was time they took the fight to them. Now this was more like it! Finally she could try satiating her bloodlust.

Once she fully understood the plan, she informed her slingshot teams about what they needed. And once the two groups were in position at the edge of darkness, the slingshot groups began firing canisters into the midst of their target releasing a thick white smoke. After a few more canisters landed and the area began to be obscured, she ordered a charge and their force came pouring out of the darkness with death on their minds. Those without armor were ordered to carry out ranged attacks with crossbows, help wounded, and drag out dead. Those armored charged into the midst of the confused enemy seeking to paint the streets red with blood.

Sheba charged into the group on all fours leaping high into the air taking at least four of the confused enemy off their feet. She then wasted no time slashing, clawing, biting, stabbing and tearing at anything that was not dressed in the protective armor of her boss. She roared in glory enjoying the expressions of those near her who she promptly shredded.

Blood, gore, body parts, entrails and limbs filled the air. Confused shouts, screams and terrified sounds just served to drive her bloodlust more and she started attacking any who attempted to flee pouncing on them, hamstringing them, tearing at their legs, snapping their backbones. How dare they try to escape me! She then rended anything that seemed to be remotely still living. Bison, antelope, puma, yak, fox, coyote, wolf, cheetah, it mattered not. If it resembled a mammal, it was going to die horribly. She was busy ripping the throat out of a large ox when she saw a target worthy of her attention.

A massive grizzly bear was knocking into her allies, forcing them back. She thought at first this was Bruun, but saw the bear appeared to be too young to be the boss. But his roars and power were impressive. She grinned a wicked smile and charged at the bear leaping high into the air surprising the massive beast who barely turned in time as she collided with his upper torso knocking him off his feet. Sheba had tried to tear his throat out, but he rolled knocking her off him and slammed her with his massive paw. It lifted her up in the air knocking the breath out of her. If it had not been for the armor she wore, she was sure she would have suffered serious internal injuries. As it was, she was badly bruised, but she barely noticed it as she dove under the bear sinking her jaws into his leg and jamming her razor sharp claws into his crotch.

The shocked bear roared in pain hammering her back with both arms attempting to snap her spine. He would have been surely successful if she did not have reinforced armor on her back. She heard numerous projectiles whizzing above her as her forces attempted to take the beast down with bolts. But they only seem to annoy the bear as he tried to lift Sheba to body slam her. But Sheba was an experienced fighter enjoying sparing against the biggest and baddest around as she released her hold on his leg twisting vigorously and slipping from his grasp, clawing his injured leg, and maneuvering behind the bear then springing up grasping him around the neck pulling herself up and clamping her fangs into the side of his neck.

While the astonished bear attempted to shake her free, she removed a large dagger from her side and began jabbing him in the side rapidly. The violent shaking was painful, but she held tight with her arm held taut around his neck and fangs tearing his neck as she plunged the knife deep into his rib cage numerous times counting to herself to distract from the pain as he thrashed in desperation trying to shake her off. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen… She felt herself begin to fall backwards and released her grip from his neck and jaws and rolling in one motion barely in time as the huge bear fell on his back. She immediately rolled back atop his chest plunging her knife deep into his neck repeatedly. Apparently it was unnecessary as he appeared to be dead, but Sheba wasn't satisfied until she had nearly decapitated him.

She attempted to wipe the blood from her eyes that had spurt out of the bear's neck, and saw the area appeared to be free of any standing enemy. The others had run off in terror in all directions. Her forces were busy helping carry injured off and dragging the dead enemy into the darkness. She caught her breath and helped her stronger team members remove the bear. She ordered the bodies piled up. She then got on her radio issuing orders to her waiting team members who told her they were ready to commence operations.

Rath came over looking worriedly at the bloody mess of a tigress before him as she was covered completely in blood and bits of fur and flesh. But she smiled answering his unasked question simply grinning wide showing him her teeth and fangs telling him to bring her the other bodies. He looked at her questioningly as she radioed to Coal her intentions. The panther seemed to like her train of thought and prepared to execute her part of the plan. A few minutes later they heard a huge explosion from near the gate and saw that it appeared the enemy were successful in blowing a hole in the gate. While the enemy busied themselves with the hole in the wall, she decided it was a perfect time for a distraction.

Finally, the object she was looking for arrived and she made the proper adjustments loading it up with a body. She took a knife splitting the lynx from his cock to his neck and launched the cat at maximum force high into the air at the main body of the enemy. She marveled that at maximum setting the CATapult was quite useful for sending her delivery packages to Isengrim and Bruun. Another body came flying out of the air from her teams position to the south.

Rath then wondered, "Sheba, what are you doing? Why are you cutting them?"

Sheba gave him a toothy grin, "Boss said we were a psychological attack force. I am just following his orders. And they spread out a lot better if you help to open them up a bit."

She began firing split bodies as quickly as she could raining torsos, limbs, organs, entrails, blood and gore, bloody fur and everything else upon the grouped enemy. She had her people slice open large animals like a hippo and the bear into large chunks so they reach maximum height to land in the midst of the enemy.

Rath and many of those with him stared at the tigress in revulsion, but her own forces seemed content to ignore the horror as they were more frightened by the tigress than they were disturbed by her task. Besides, most of them still had adrenaline and bloodlust pumping through their veins from their massive combat. Others of Rath's team begin adding piles of bodies from their early efforts. Sheba was quite satisfied at the large pile of bodies as she had plenty of ammunition to continue for awhile. She noticed some enemy forces looking toward her position and the other CATapult, but they seemed to think better of attempting to engage either force in the darkness of the neighborhood. Too bad she thought.

Finally! She saw what she had wanted as small round objects began to sail over the walls of the estate landing in the midst of the enemy.

Rath looked curiously at the objects and had binoculars brought to him, "What are those?"

Sheba didn't need binoculars to know what they were as she responded, "Heads."

"What!" The shocked lion answered her.

"That should give the enemy something to think about." The tigress responded grinning as she continued launching bodies.

The perimeter defenders were just finishing mopping up the deadly confrontation at the water as one of the boats continually ramming the water wall had finally bent it enough to make it through.

The enemy had then transferring the rest of their forces across the water wall and into the boat that had made it past and then all moved forward landing on the beach. But there the enemy found they had to deal with a maze of razor wire spread all along the beach. As they attempted to cut their way through, the defense forces peppered them from all sides with crossbow bolts and arrows.

A few of the enemy did make it through a narrow passage they had cut in the wire using the bodies of their fallen as shields. But by the time they got to the end and were reading themselves to make a mad charge to the estate, a portable vehicle with an auto ballista arrived waiting patiently for them. Upon seeing the ballista and defensive forces arrayed before them, they attempted to surrender. But as soon as they presented juicy targets, they were mowed down mercilessly. Reynard had ordered there was no surrender, no leniency or pity to be had for any who wished him and his family harm. Any enemy close to the estate was to be executed as quickly and ruthlessly as possible.

They were just mopping up, making sure all the bodies were really dead, and reconnecting the razor wire, when they got a call over the radio. Coal had issued a strange order, he had his teams retract the latticework of razor wire long enough to retrieve the bodies of the enemy dead before re-enabling it. All the bodies were to be decapitated and the heads collected. They tossed the heads from bodies on the beachfront and all others collected into the back of one of their defender carrier vehicles. That was when there was a large explosion from western section of the wall as the bat scouts reported they had set off a huge blast which was detonated from a truck full of demolition explosives. Apparently the wall had been breached and Coal had extra forces, from the walls which were being ignored, loaded into his roving vehicles and all sent to the breach area.

Once all the heads were collected, Coal ordered his strongest to begin tossing the heads into the enemies midst. An elephant, enormous bear and huge tiger then began tossing the heads high into the air aiming at where they thought Isengrim and Bruun were located adjusting their aim based on the reports by the bat scouts. Coal then had his forces prepare to deal with the large ladder being extended over the breach area as well as the vehicles and assault forces sure to be following.

Isengrim tried to ignore the raining bodies and heads littering the areas all around his grouped forces. Tybalt looked sick and had already vomited several times. Bruun was simply continuing to growl in increasingly seething anger. The rain of death and horror had started shortly after a sizable group of his forces were attacked. By the time he got control of the scattered remains of the group to try and organize a counter strike, it seemed the ghosts or shadows, as his frightened forces were calling them, had disappeared back into the cloud of smoke they had set.

And now this shadow force was raining the bodies and heads of their comrades onto them completely demoralizing his entire contingent. He would need to take their mind off the onslaught with the focused attack on the wall so they didn't get too fixated on the fact that their brethren were being scattered in pieces all over them. Whatever sick mind of Reynard's group had thought of this tactic was truly demented. It was ghoulish and twisted to the extreme, but highly effective as his team were very disturbed and terrified, looking in all directions for monsters out of the darkness to attack them.

The Wolf had never thought attacking Reynard would be easy. But he never imagined it would be anything remotely close to this madness. It seemed a fairly small force of The Fox spread out all over was outmaneuvering, destroying and thoroughly demoralizing his huge force which was now not quite so huge anymore. But they still had the numbers advantage, and he decided he would need to focus and protect them better. Because as their fear of Reynard's forces grew greater than the fear they had of what Isengrim, Bruun and Friese would do to them if they disobeyed them, he would soon reach a point where they would turn and flee rather taking their chances with their leader's wrath than certain death at the paws of Reynard's demented and brutal forces.

Once the hole in the fence was large enough, he left the vehicle that pulled it away from the wall connected, and then rigged a large truck to barrel through the hole at full speed. The momentum of the vehicle carried it through the mess of razor wire until it crashed into the spike pit. He then had gang members use pieces of plywood as improvised shields with connected makeshift handles on the inside holding them over other strong mammals who were pushing the ladders across the wreckage of remainder of the razor wire and the spike pit. However the defenders on the other end seemed satisfied to force the ladders back and down into the pit. They were not going to let them create a bridge over the pit.

Once they had several ladders laid on top of the razor wire, he sent several teams with improvised shields climbing forward and cutting the large pieces of the razor wire with large wire cutters. It was a slow process as the passageway was only so wide, and it took numerous mammals to hold shields while others worked cutting the wire. Anytime any portion of them was exposed, they were hit with numerous bolts. The other problem was that they were constantly being doused with improvised fuel bombs which were set ablaze with flaming arrows. Numerous members of the assault team fell when those with a flaming shield had to remove the board to have it put out with large cloths and foam. They then found they were having success by soaking the shields in water and protective foam prior to using it.

The best climbers of his crew were making their way along the fire ladder above the combat area. However several tried to stand while climbing across and were struck in the head by the bats flying over. Several lost their balance and plummeted to their death into the mess of razor wire below them. From that point on they were instructed to lay flat on the ladder at all times. They had to crawl with improvised shields under them to avoid being hit with ranged fire. Once they got to the end, they were able to lower a bridge ladder, but any that attempted to climb down were quickly shot and fell to their deaths.

Finally some of their teams made it to the vehicle in the pit and began returning limited fire at the defenders who backed away under cover. They then began handing whatever they could find along the chain of their force filling the pit next to the truck. The easiest resource available was quite grisly as they used the numerous bodies of their fallen to toss into the pit filling it. They then moved the remainder of the ladders through the hole laying them across the somewhat cleared field of battle and across the pit now being supported by the bodies and rubble inside. Plywood was placed over the ladders creating an improvised road. They had also attached fire hoses to nearby water outlets and were dousing the entire area in water to prevent the defenders from being able to use firebombs. The body of the truck in the pit offered excellent cover while their own forces were able to hold the defenders at bay.

Finally they began driving a few vehicles over improvised road dousing it in water to test its viability. Once they were satisfied everything was solid, a whole train of vehicles were prepared, and they readied themselves to make a charge using the vehicles to run down the defenders and drive up to the main entrance of the estate. As they began their charge driving over the bridge, the nearby defenders took cover behind their vehicles armed with the auto ballistas. So the convoy just ignored them as they drove across heading up to the front of the estate. They then backed a truck full of explosives against the front door which seemed to be sealed with a metal structure. The drivers of the truck then ran for cover although one was cut down from a nearby auto ballista which had followed them to the front of the estate. Isengrim then set off the charge with the remote detonator.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

Everyone instinctively ducked for cover and then all looked up expectantly at the smoking charred mass. Once it cleared, initially it didn't seem to have damaged the door, but on closer inspection it had loosed the gate and exposed its moorings in the concrete structure around it.

They used the vehicles as cover allowing their team to connect chains to the exposed metal struts. But that is when their team discovered the numerous defenders on the roof who doused everyone below in a thick pungent liquid followed shortly by a couple of flares igniting everyone and everything in the area into an inferno. Those on the ladder climbed off and they attempted to drive the firetruck through the breach and managed to get it up close enough to the fireball near the door to attach a hose and use the stored water in its tanks to put out the vehicles and ground that were on fire. They then used the improvised shields doused in water above and to the sides of their forces to attach several chains to the structure. They were hit numerous times with the thick flammable liquid, but the defenders were having a difficult time lighting it. The shields that caught on fire were tossed into the grass to smother the flames.

It had taken an untold number of casualties, vehicles and a great amount of time, but now they were finally about to breach the fortress. But then Isengrim heard something on his radio he had not expected and quickly issued orders splitting his force. As soon as the vehicles at the front door were able to pull out the structure in front of the main door, they began to take axes to the door chopping it apart. He then had part of his force cross the improvised bridge heading towards the front door to the estate with the second part heading quickly south.

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Final Author Notes for the Chapter:

I wanted to make a few interesting observations about the assault on Reynard's estate.

While this takes place in a modern time period (The technology level of the late 1980s), realize that because Zootopia had a very limited history with military conflict and warfare, a great deal of the siege devices and equipment developed for warfare would not exist during this period.

Things such as:

Trebuchets

Siege Engines

Cannons

Pistols

Guns

Military equipment

C4

Grenades

Flame Throwers

And similar items would not have been developed. This made the assault on Reynard's fortified estate quite unique as it became a mix of modern devices with many primitive ones. Thus we see a great deal of creativity with things such as mounted auto ballistas on vehicles used to move defenders and the mounted weapons around the estate grounds, smoke bombs, bee bombs, firebombs, stink bombs, etc. The only explosives would have been primarily used for construction and demolition.

The other unique aspect was the wide variety of intelligent sentient species of mammals with a wide range of special abilities and characteristics. Many of these were put to use in this chapter (bats scouting overhead, elephants attacking the gates, felines flying over the wall, pouncing tigers, etc) and will be more widely explored in the next chapter as the assault of the main estate building continues. I had thought of using giraffes and having smaller mammals climb over them and jump over the wall, but realized Reynard would have made the outer walls high enough to prevent that. Also if primates had existed, they would have been able to quickly brachiate and swing from things such as the fire engine ladder extended over the wall. An assault method such as firing an extremely long cable with a grappling hook and attaching it a building or higher structure could have been used with apes, monkeys and lemurs quickly brachiating across and dropping down into the estate grounds. A team lowered from the airship and landing on the roof of the main building could have fired a similar cable over the wall and setup something similar. However many of these such devices would have required specialized development and planning.

The original legend text and 1930 movie both had many references and elements which inspired the entire assault. In both versions The King allows Reynard's enemies to assault his home. But in the original legend Reynard only had his family helping to defend his home. In this modern adapted version, Reynard commands a wide range of forces and has many allies. Because the assault would result in a large number of casualties and risks regardless of whether Reynard had been prepared in advance, his enemies needed a great deal more motivation than in the original legendary versions. And thus everything needed to be amped up and heightened to a much greater degree resulting in a king out for vengeance and enemies facing death, desperate for a reprieve and chance to strike at the enemy who had manipulated them into that position.