A/N: All of this is a result of my mind's irrational thought process due to extensive reading and listening to music, thus completely fictional. Go for Wolfheart "Zero Gravity" and continue reading.
Private First Class Nicholas Wilde. The fox tod rolled this combination of words in his thoughts once more. He liked the sound of it. Drafted six months ago after one of his acquaintances, a timber wolf named Greg, gave Nick a call and said that the army was drafting and smart guys like him were needed. At first, he was reluctant. There was a conflict brewing, and the tod was aware of that. Most of Zootopia was, with one of the current mayoral candidates, a pig, blaming predators for starting it, and thus trying to win several more voices from predator candidates. An interesting view on the things, in the fox's opinion, since most of the participants of the negotiations from the United States of Animalia side were prey species.
And yes, the representatives of the Vu Qang were also prey. Not much place for predators in a monospecie country. Vu Qang was populated by saola, a bovine specie, living on a large peninsula of the Asian continent, covered with thick forests. Nick was aware of that but he never really wanted to get much into politics, so he never watched after the development of the conflict between two countries that sparked due to Vu Qang's leader offhand remark about Animalia's rulers being weak and cowardly. This led to heated exchange of words, and this led to Animalia's representatives being threatened with rather real possibility of death. What happened later was mostly classified and kept away from the general public. The result of this though was that Animalia's has started economical blockade of the Vu Qang, and was preparing for a military campaign.
But back at Zootopia? Prey animals only became more and more intolerable towards their predator cohabitants. This was a time that went down in the unofficial pred story as the "late thirties", in reference to the rise in tensions between two groups during the great recession of the 1930-th. Nick faced even more prejudice than usual with him being born a fox. He was still trying hard to stick to his latest honest job of being a business analytic in one of the consulting companies. But the company had faced some troubles during those times, and a lot of the staff has been released. They were offered a chance to be reemployed once the situation within the market got back to growth, but even with a care package, that was not enough for the fox. He could survive for several months, which he did prior to receiving the call from Greg, but with no one willing to give him a normal job, and cons being out of question due to the tension, Nick was unsure what to do with himself.
He was a city mammal through and through, he was not confident he would be able to survive in a village even if the folks there were not as biased as the one's here, at the illustrious and lying city of Zootopia. Even though Nick claimed he was not going to let anyone get to him, the steady pressure, accumulated over years, slowly was draining even him. Maybe sitting at home several days straight with nothing much to do but mule over his worthless and unfair life so far was not helping either. In the end, that is why, when Greg told him that the army was drafting, the fox thought "why not?", silently packed his belongings, and left.
This is how Nick found himself in the ranks of State Defence Armed Forces infantry. After half a year of intensive training, he was given the PFC rank and transferred to Eastern Front Command. Which effectively meant he was sent to Vu Qang. USS Monitor was his transport, a destroyer class warship, sailing to their destination in a group consisting of four destroyers total. They were carrying around two hundred infantrymen, with around forty stationed on the Monitor. Most soldiers were of larger species, even though there were enough close to fox-sized species aboard too. But surprisingly, who Nick got close to, where a bunch of rowdy looking wolves.
He was skulking around the ship one evening, the thoughts that were haunting him during his last days in Zootopia returning in the lack of constant distraction provided by the arduous army preparation course. It was when he heard a sound that got the red fox's ears perking up and following in the direction from whence the sound came. The sound of distorted guitar, that was mostly used in metal genre, drew him closer and closer, while growing louder and louder. Nick really hoped for this to be what he hoped it would be. The tod was right.
Once he reached the slightly ajar door, the words started. Low growling voice of the vocalist had a pleasantness to it, but Nick could not recognise the band or who sang. Caught in the moment, the red fox closed his eyes and silently listened to the lyrics.
Something in those words, the way the music was played, the voice, something touched the deepest recesses of his soul and for a moment alleviated all the load from his heart that accumulated there. For the first time in a while, Nick felt that all was not that bad and he could go on the way he usually went on. Not letting anyone see that they got to him. He was not running away from the city. Not this fox. This fox was trying to find his place, and why the hell not in the army, if that was the place that would allow him to shine?
- You spying here, or what? - came a voice from above him and drew the tod back to the present. His eyes snapped open and he lifted his muzzle slightly up to see who he was talking to. Another wolf, though this one was covered in thick blackish fur and was a good deal taller than any other wolf Nick ever saw. Could be mistaken for a black bear actually.
- Private? You bad on your ears? - the subtle threat behind the tone of the wolf got Nick quickly pulling himself together as he understood that the figure in front of him was behaving not like your average frontline trooper. Though, he would not be able to tell his rank anyways, since the wolf was out of his uniform and too tall to tell from such a distance.
- No, sir. Was just enjoying the music and got distracted for a bit. Your sudden appearance did not help either. Sir. - Although they officially were not yet assigned to any squadron, and Nick was not that kin on controlling his speech pattern, he at least tried to show a modicum of due army respect.
- Enjoyed the music? Really? What's the genre, than? - the wolf's voice was laced with suspicion now, though lacking any signs of hostility, so Nick guessed his approach to the black figure was at least partially right.
- If I am not mistaken, melodic death metal. Took to the genre only a while ago, I am much more into the good old heavy, sir. Never heard the band or the vocalist before. - Nick was mostly sure about the genre, even though the tod knew not the name of the band.
- Heavy? I can full heartedly say I agree. And the band's name is Wolfheart. You might want to check them out when you get back home. Well, don't just stand here though, get in. The guys will be happy to have somebody new join them. And I have places to be. See you, fox. - With these words, the black wolf pushed the doors to the storage room open. Nick looked in, to see a bunch of mammals sitting inside, relaxing and listening to a couple of speakers set up in the middle of the space. Glancing back, the tod could no longer spot the black figure, so he just stepped in.
- A big bad wolf whispered in my ear there might be a secret meeting of a true mammal's music club here. Care if I join?
It was strange how one's love for heavy metal music could be a much more sure way to connect completely different mammals, than a dozen of multimillion dollar campaigns with loud slogans against prejudice, bias, and other vices present in society. Pred and prey species mixed easily within that company Nick discovered that night, and nobody cared about the fact he was a fox. For them, he was a fellow metalhead, no matter the species, favourite band or genre. The week he spent on the USS Monitor was probably the calmest and funniest during his adulthood. In the year that followed, and the conflict it brought, he always thought about that time with fondness, hoping that maybe, someday, things could be like that again. He just needed to survive the war. And if he didn't? Who cared.