Guardians: Chapter two
#3 of Guardians: The First Cycle
Guardians:
Chapter Two: The Gladiator Job
It was early morning; the sun still had a few hours before it rose. A group of seven furs were unloading items from the back of two hummers, a Ford E-van sat right across the street with antennas and a satellite dish in it. In the thick gray mist that clouded the area, one would think it was only a group of furs and scales packing up from a party almost. A red dragon watched over the proceeding and shook his head,
"Sain, we don't need a rocket launcher. Vance has got C4 and that's all you'll need aside from a few grenades." He watched the blue dragon, as she shrugged, "We don't want to harm the objective alright?"
Sain put the rocket launcher back in its case opting for two MAC-10's and a M3 Shotgun. She clipped a few grenades to her belt and slipped her bulletproof armor on.
"Okay then boss." She slipped her helmet on and put the visor down to check her COM unit, "Gleets. Gleets can you here me?"
There was static on the other end for a moment as the rabbit in the van connected his microphone up,
"Loud and clear." He replied in his unusually deep voice for a rabbit, before he continued in his Russian accent "Have everyone else check their units too please."
Sain didn't reply to him and instead motioned for everyone to check their COM units.
"Vance, reporting,"
"Ziggs, here,"
"Swanson, ready to go,"
"Greg, let's do this"
"Raaz, I'm here"
"Alyx, set,"
Gleets nodded,
"Alright that's everyone. Alyx, sir, can we go over the plan one more time please?"
Alyx took out his modified FAL rifle from the hummer and checked the scope, bipod, and silencer before replying,
"When the objective comes out from his next fight, we're going to come into his cell through the ceiling, and extract him. I'll provide sniper support where possible. Sain and Greg will take point and the infiltration team, Swanson will accompany them in case he's needed, Raaz and Vance will guard their rear. Ziggs will wait right outside of the exit point and take the team and the objective away from here while me and Gleets rocket off whoever tries to follow." He slung the rifle over his shoulder and picked up a .45 semi-automatic pistol, "Remember the guard in there have all the reason to kill us if we're found, get in there quickly, get the objective and get out. Understood?"
"Yessir!"
"Of Course!"
"Affirmative!"
"As always sir!"
"Yeah..."
Alyx nodded,
"Alright let's do this," He motioned for the team to get into their positions and began to climb up to where he was going to snipe. Ziggs got in one of the hummers and drove off toward the huge concrete building that was once a football field. Alyx went prone at the position he'd chosen two days ago,
"Come on then... Let's see what happens." He looked through the scope on his rifle to find whatever guards there were and to occasionally check the infiltration team's progress. He moved his scope over Sain and stopped for a moment as he felt something pull at his heart. He shook his head and made sure to pay attention to the operation for now.
. . .
Zighz slumped against the wall she'd been thrown at and stayed there for a moment trying to find her breath again, she watched as Craight struggled with the Rhino. The leopard had his claws sunk deep into the rhino's throat as it a tried to break free of him. After a moment Zighz got back up and shook her feathers before leaping back at the rhino stabbing it in the side with her beak.
"Hey, Craight they're cheering for you, you know." Zighz screeched at Craight indicating the crowd around the arena. "Do something impressive!" The hawk shook her head and leapt back to watch as the leopard pulled the rhino of its feet and he quickly stabbed the rhino with a metal post that had been thrown into the arena. The rhino let out a long gurgle as the blood flowed from the hole in its neck. Craight sprung back off of the rhino and licked the blood from his paws,
"Impressive enough Zighz?" He shook his head scattering droplets of blood and twitched his right ear, having found a new nick in it.
"Not really." Zighz laughed seeing Craight's expression change.
"Let's see you do better." Zighz nodded as their new opponent, a lion, came out. The lion roared at them and charged, Craight simply backed away to watch Zighz. As the lion was nearly on top of her she ducked down between the lions legs and flipped him over as he came over her. While the lion was still in midair Zighz smashed its spine with a quick peck by her sharp beak, before kicking the already dead lion away.
"How about that?" She grinned as much as her beak would let her. Craight just stared,
"You'll have to show me that later when we're back in the cells."
Zighz nodded,
"But first, let's get through this."
Craight pulled himself low crouching on the ground waiting for their next opponent. But for him the next opponent never came, one of the guards that ringed the arenas leveled his MP5 and tore Craight apart, as an announcers voice boomed out,
"Craight is removed from competition for failure to participate!" The crowd cheered as the guard continued to tear the leopard's body into meat. Zighz stared and fell to her knees,
"No..." A guard walked up and grabbed her, dragging her out of the arena as tears fell down her face, "Craight... NNOOO!!" She jumped up and smashed the helmet of the guard that held her, and began to run towards the guard who'd gunned Craight down before another tackled her to the ground and injected her with sedatives.
"Craight... N-nnn......" The world faded to black and the last thing she felt was guard picking her up and hauling her off the arena's field.
. . .
Zighz woke up in the small cell that she and Craight shared. She looked around at the one small mat for a bed and a chair in the corner. The metal walls were pretty much uniform except for the marks she and Craight had put to keep track of their opponents taken down; they'd reached fifty-seven before he was gunned down.
"Craight..." Zighz put her head in her hands and cried, her friend was dead, gone forever. She sat there for god knew how long before something caught her attention away from her sadness. She looked up and jumped seeing a blue dragoness and a gray wolf in the cell with her. The wolf quickly placed his hand over her beak,
"Quiet, we're here to help." She noticed both were dressed in military gear and armed to the teeth. A spark of fear shown in her eyes as she thought it was the executioners come to kill her like Craight had been. She bowed her head,
"Just finish me, don't act like you my friends I know who you are."
She felt a harness put around her torso and she opened her eyes confused, the dragoness tightened it and motioned to the ceiling as someone pulled her up through a hole in the ceiling.
"What?" The wolf hung on the cable above her and jumped through the hole,
"Shaddup. We don't want this to attract anymore attention than necessary." Sain snapped at both of them.
Zighz was pulled through the hole and set down next to another blue dragon, His scales were darker and he had the medic's insignia on his suit as her crouched next to the hawk.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" He whispered as he pulled out a medical kit
Zighz shook her head,
"Nothing physical that you can help with."
The dragon put his kit away, and the dragoness jumped up through the hole,
"Vance," She looked at the gray wolf, "Get the hole patched up quickly, we're gonna move through the planned route, meet us at the Ziggs hummer."
The Vance nodded and immediately began to patch the area. The dragoness turned to Zighz,
"You can walk and run right?" When Zighz nodded she continued, "Good then, you'll follow me and Raurian Swanson here." She motioned to the medic, "Greg, Raaz, and Vance are going to cover us until we get to Ziggs, who is, by the way, your ticket out of here, understand?" Zighz nodded and stood slowly she shook a little, she was finally getting away from this place it would seem. But, not without her husband, a tear fell down her cheek and she felt a scaled hand on her shoulder the voice of Raurian,
"I extracted you're husband already. He's alive, but just barely. You may be able to at least tell him goodbye." They began to jog forward the dragoness turned her head,
"Swanson is the best medic out there; your husband will be in good hands once we get back to him."
Zighz felt completely confused but followed through the attic of the cell complex. The dragoness shot a few guards who appeared with a silenced pistol. After a few minutes they got to a black hummer. The dragoness opened the door and motioned everyone inside. She closed it behind them and turned around hearing gunfire and the shouts of guards. She drew out the M3 and waited, as the shouts grew closer.
Soon Vance, Raaz, and Greg came running out spraying bullets behind them as they ran. Ten or so guards came out and one of them immediately fell over sniped by Alyx. Sain shot two of them down in one shot with her shotgun as Vance crouched down next to her and took one of her MAC-10's having run out of ammo for his, he blasted a few more of the guards down as the other got in the hummer, Sain shouted to him,
"Get in! I'll cover you," Vance jumped sideways into the hummer as Sain released a few more shots into the guards before stepping in the hummer herself. She watched the rest fall to Alyx's sniper rifle through the window and grinned wolfishly.
"Go." Ziggs stomped on the accelerator and they took off bullets ricocheting off the armor of the back of the vehicle. Sain chuckled and took her helmet off and picked up a radio,
"Gleets, get Alyx and let's move, we got the objective out." A grenade exploded behind them and the Hummer lurched, as they hit the pavement and roared off down the road leaving the building behind. Vance pulled out a detonator and told everyone to look behind them as he turned the key. Zighz looked behind her and smiled in satisfaction as the entire building went up in a yellow-red explosion. She turned to Swanson,
"So when can I see my husband?" She asked sounding worried.
Raurian Swanson smiled and listened through his COM unit before replying,
"He's just stabilized; he should be okay if everything goes well. Granted, it may be a long while before he can move entirely; but he'll live." He paused, "And to answer your question, soon, very soon." Zighz sat back into the seat she was in and sighed feeling free for the first time in a long time.