BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 40
 

Elias, Rovi, Randal, Saul and Cerise looked at each other as their DataComs all chimed simultaneously. Cerise had linked their units with those of Erwin and Aran so if anything happened they could all be notified at the same time, no matter where they all were, saving precious moments in case anything happened.

  “There’s a gunship moving in across the valley,” Erwin said from his vantage point on a ridge a little over a mile away. “Are you expecting guests?”

  “No. We aren’t,” Elias said, standing up and moving to the window to peer out. “Are there any identifying marks on it?”

  “Negative. It looks like someone went to a lot of trouble to spray paint over the numbers. Hold on…” There was a brief moment of static before the human spoke again. “They’re making a turn towards the cabin. Looks like you got some people very intent on causing serious harm on their way to you. ETA is about ten minutes.”

  “If you don’t see anything that identifies them as SPF or Dennieran authorities, you’re free to go hot,” Rovi said as he gave Elias a pointed look.

  “Copy that. We’ll know in about two minutes.”

  Less than a minute passed when the groups DC’s chimed again. “They aren’t friendly,” Erwin informed the rest of the furs in the cabin. “I’ll see what I can do to slow them down. Get the others to safety.”

  Rovi was already moving and hustled to get Sharan, Keena, Dona and Cerise out of the cabin with the kits. “Go to the cave near the waterfall,” the fox told his family as Elias and the others slid their armor on and began checking weapons. Rovi looked at Cerise and Keena. “I’ve taught you what to do,” he said with a nod and approving look. “Watch out for each other. All right?”

  Cerise nodded as she holstered her pistol. “You take care of yourself, Daddy. I love you.” She gave her father a quick hug.

  Keena followed suit as Cerise kissed Elias.

  From the direction of the ridge where Erwin watched the valley below came several loud reports as the human opened fire on the gunship.

  “Go! Now!” Elias ordered the females. He then turned and took position near the door.

  Pala led the entourage as Cerise and Dona had the kits while Sharan and Keena took charge of Gey and Celia, disappearing out of the sliding glass door and melting into the woods behind the cabin.

  Erwin’s fire was joined by Aran and Randal’s. Risking a look, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, Elias opened the door and watched the aircraft move closer towards the cabin as a door gun opened up and hosed the ridge where the human had taken up position. The rounds struck the wooded area causing small explosions, the distance causing the events to appear out of sync with the sounds.

  The gunship looked like a large lifter design, though instead of having fan nacelles for lift and thrust, this unit had hydrogen powered turbojets. The aircraft had a long armored body, and as Elias watched, several individuals dropped from the middle compartment to the ground below on tethers.

  “You have seven hostiles in the grass,” Erwin said over the open DC channel that linked him the others. “I don’t have a good angle on them. I’m relocating. Back in position in a moment.”

  “Worry about that gunship,” Rovi said. “We can handle the others.

  The first hostile came around the nose of the Binfurr VTOL, the tiger scanning the area around him before hunching over and sprinting for the cabin.

  “Not today,” Elias said, taking aim with his SMG and hitting the tiger with four rounds.

  The feline dropped, then stirred and scrambled for cover, letting a stream of suppressing fire rip from his assault rifle.

  “Crap! They have armor!” the fox informed the others as stray rounds slammed into the side of the cabin and sent splinters flying.

  Rovi and the others opened fire as more hostiles emerged and ducked as return fire chewed into the cabin. The older fox looked at Odette. “Slide that box over here!” he ordered the female bear. He nodded as she pushed a long plastic crate towards him and grabbed the handle, yanking it closer. Staying below the edge of the window, Rovi tripped the latches and pulled out a magazine fed grenade launcher.

  The 30 millimeter unit only held five rounds, but it had sufficient capacity for what he had in mind.

  “Elias! Where are the bulk of the hostiles?”

  The fox took a quick look around the door jamb before pulling back. “Looks like most of them are around the Dragonfly and jet.”

  Rovi didn’t use the sights at all as he set the muzzle on the window sill of the section of wall he used for cover and repeatedly squeezed. The stubby barreled weapon chunked! three times followed by three muffled pops that landed around and between the aircraft that were parked next to each other.

  “I wish I had something other than gas meant for crowd control,” the black furred fox said.

  “Anything’s a help at this point,” Sonja said risking a look outside.

  The sound of breaking glass in one of the rooms down the hall sounded between moments of gunfire and Sonja spun, aiming her weapon down to cover that portion of the cabin’s interior. A figure looked out of the doorway that had been occupied by the twins and Sonja fired a sustained burst that dropped the shadowy form. Without hesitating, knowing that their adversaries wore body armor, the spaniel leapt from where she was and rushed down the hallway, bringing the solid stock of her SMG around and catching the cougar that had entered the structure on the side of the head even as feline tried to recover from the impact of the rounds his body armor had stopped.

  Even as Sonja took care of the intruder, the rest of the crew became involved in a pitched firefight with the others that remained outside while Erwin, Randal and Aran did what they could to slow the gunship down. Despite the rifles they used, the gunship had been designed to withstand heavy fire and sensitive areas were equipped with heavy armor, including the cockpit.

  Randal saw that the hostiles that had dropped from the troop compartment were getting close to the cabin, hardly slowed down by the gas grenades that someone inside had used. He swung his rifle and sighted on the attacker that was trying to make his way around the back of the structure and fired once, seeing the individual crumple a moment after his finger stroked the trigger. He swung his rifle onto another target when he heard a series of high pitched whistles a moment before the ridge above him erupted in fire as the gunship let go a salvo of incendiary rockets into the cover of trees and rocks.

  Even at this distance the wolf could feel the heat from the resulting explosions and covered his head as small rocks and bits of burning wood rained down on and all around him. Before debris had finished pelting his hiding place, Randal was up and moving to another location, the tarp that Erwin had provided changing color as he moved, the mimetic fabric reacting to shade and sunlight to provide substantial camouflage.

  Before he could get into a new position, fire from the gunship spanged the ground around him, sending chips of rock, plant matter, bits of metal from the bullets and loam in the air. Randal moved faster, running down the slope of the small mountain faster than was safe, though the possibility of breaking something was moot when compared with the prospect of being chewed to pieces with gunfire. The wolf saw a small depression ahead of him and leapt for it when the shockwave of an explosion held him in the air for a moment before throwing him backwards into a tree.

  Looking up in shock, Randal saw an expanding fireball where the gunship used to be. Howling through the flame and debris were two fighters with the SPF insignia on the wings and forward fuselage. They continued to streak past the wreckage, their high-pitched howls turning into thunderous roars as the sounds of the engines echoed of the walls of the valley and surrounding mountains.

  Following in the wake of the fighters came a light cruiser with the SPF Sword and Star shield painted in gold and silver on the side of the dark grey hull. As soon as the ship moved over relatively flat ground it began to extend gigantic landing tracks. Several panels opened up along the lower section of the hull and officers in full battledress lined up along the edges, dropping to the high grass of the meadow as soon as the vessel settled.

  “Drop your weapons and surrender!” a voice said from the ship’s external speaker system. “This is the SPF cruiser Patriarch. All hostiles will stand down and surrender or we will open fire!”

  The attackers tried to withdraw to regroup, but a salvo of pulse cannon fire in their direction of retreat halted their progress and boxed them against the advancing contingent of armored SPO’s. Seeing that there was no escape and to fight was futile, the attackers dropped their weapons and held up their hands, letting themselves be taken into custody.

  “Rovi, take care of things here,” Elias said as he stood from where he’d been taking cover behind the wall of the cabin. “I’ll go get the others from the cave.”

  The black furred fox nodded, pulling out his personal DataCom and sent a message to the cruiser that there were innocents and SPF personnel in the cabin.

  Sprinting out of the back door, Elias ran through the woods to the small cave that was hidden behind a waterfall less than a half mile from the cabin, his only thought and concern being to get to his mate and children.

  “Cerise!” the fox called out as soon as he drew close enough to see the thin cascade of water. “Cerise! It’s over! Sandy’s here!”

  Pala and Cerise slipped out from behind the curtain of water, relief in the vixen’s eyes as she saw her mate approaching. Cerise started to grin a moment before the expression fell from her face. Before she could call out a warning, Elias fell forward.

  It felt like he’d been punched in the back and all of the strength seemed to leave his legs. The ground rushed up to meet him as the sound of a gunshot registered in his ears. He tried to roll over, loam and dirt in his mouth and the taste of blood mingled with it, while trying to free his weapon from under his body.

  Cerise had her pistol in her hand and fired three times, dropping the lynx that had shot her mate even as Pala emptied half of the magazine of her own SMG into the feline’s body.

  “Elias!” she screamed, running to the fox that was writhing weakly on the forest floor. “Elias!” She dropped her pistol as she skidded to a stop in the leaf debris, her hands going to his shoulders to roll her mate over. He looked up at her with slightly dazed eyes and tried to give her a smile, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth and into the fur on the side of his face, while even more foamed from his nose.

  Cerise loosened the straps on the body armor he wore, seeing the small hole that was punched through the front panel. Once that was open, she peeled away his shirt underneath, exposing the sodden red fur of his chest. Blood bubbled out of the perforation while bright crimson fluid flowed freely from the exit wound. The vixen hastily put pressure over the wound.

  His mate’s efforts were futile as Elias tried vainly to draw in a breath and coughed, the action bringing more of his vital fluid to his mouth. He felt her take one of her hands and slide it underneath him, trying to find the point the bullet had entered his back. “It’s okay, Elias,” Cerise said softly, tears running down her face to fall and mingle with the fox’s blood. “You’re going to be okay. I’m not going to leave you.”

  The vixen kept saying the same thing over and over, almost like a mantra, willing her husband to stay alive.

  Elias looked up into the green eyes that had never ceased to thrill him and smiled. His vision began to darken around the edges so it seemed as if the female that had so readily ensnared his heart appeared to be the only thing that mattered in the universe, the brightest point of his existence framed by darkness.

  Then again, as far as he was concerned, she was the only thing that mattered…this little vixen and the two children she had gifted him. He lifted his arm, struggling as it felt as if the appendage were weighted down with lead, and touched the side of her face.

  The past year with her had been a gift the likes of which he felt he hadn’t deserved. Elias had once offered everything he had to whatever gods there were if he could just meet her after seeing her image on a video screen. But more than that had been given to him. They had fallen in love, had been married, and even been blessed with two kits that were the most marvelous things in creation as far as the fox was concerned.

  Now it looked as if the time for him to pay had come at last.

  His eyes rolled upwards and closed as his hand fell limply to the moss and soil of the forest floor as Cerise let a keening wail loose to the canopy of trees above her.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.