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Chapter 2- Grey

"Grid's C-5 through C-9, are known as the 'uncharted no-man's land' and house what civilized 'humanized' area's have deemed as 'undesirable's'." a Jet Black fox said into a boom mike headset next to his mouth, as he pawed over a satellite PDA and switching to various sepia colored maps with a clawed finger. The fox was know as Grey, he was a rare breed of a now extinct jet black fox with gray paw pads, ear tips and only a white tip on his tail. A ex-commander of a base know as Mark4 and now a commander of a 'Wasteland Army'. This fox was know for his "gray cloudy day" demeanor and his indistinguishable and easily recognizable gray trenchcoat and gray general's cap.

"Grid's 117 through Y-21 houses highly fortified 'human' army military bases and supply depots, through a direct assault or even a flanking aerial session would be suicide." Grey said once more, speaking into the boom mike again, which relayed to his Second in Command (SC). For days now he had been mapping out the wasteland of decimated, destroyed and unpopulated suburban area's that surrounded the greater Washington D.C area. Ravaged by years of "human military exercises and various combat wars" among their kind, had destroyed their suburban areas that housed their "less fortunate kind". Now all they held were half standing structures and various corrupt, "wasteland gangs". This fox was know for his "gray cloudy day" demeanor and his distinguishable and easily recognizable gray trench coat and gray general's cap.

"Grid's 117 through Y-21 houses highly fortified 'human' army military bases and supply depots, through a direct assault or even a flanking aerial session would be suicide." Grey said once more, speaking into the boom mike again, which relayed to his Second in Command (SC). For days now he had been mapping out the wasteland of decimated, destroyed and unpopulated suburban area's that surrounded the greater Washington D.C area. Ravaged by years of "human military exercises and various combat wars" among their kind, had destroyed their suburban areas that housed their "less fortunate kind". Now all they held were half standing structures and various corrupt, "wasteland gangs" and slaver clans. For now, he was riding in a "salvaged and build as close to specifications as possible" black-hawk helicopter,he had sent his squadron on a "recon/ Search and Destroy Mission" and a team of forty were spread out throughout the almost non-existent D.C. Suburbs. So far his squadron had encountered light resistance, but Grey knew that there were more and better equipped squads of "Human" soldiers, not that they hadn't been fighting humans to begin with , but humans had a funny way of thinking in terms of combat.

First, they send out little squadrons of well trained soldiers equipped lightly, out in the battlefield they meet our heavily armored and armed to the teeth "solders" and well, lets just say that they get put off of the map. So the human general and officer go nuts,get thrown off of their rockers and call in the big guns. But this war is different and compared to hitting a city or town full of regular building and ones that are marked with artillery strikes, the human military is dealing with a completely destroyed battlefield. Old lines and maps that existed, are completely useless and with satellite technology completely unreliable, our urban battlefield skills and natural hunter instincts play a defining role in the way we fight.

So while they are scrambling around attempting to locate us, we can take advantage of the situation and strike when they least expect it. But, unfortunately the humans knowing that they cant win, strike where we are most venerable, the bunker system that we call home. They killed us because we killed them, but now, were going to hit them where is hurts them most, The Washington D.C. "Capitol Building".

Home to the "human leader" know as the "President", the Capitol Building is a symbol of the free world, a symbol of the human nation and that my friends, is why we are going to hit it. Because the saying goes : "if you destroy there morale, you destroy their will and that is when you can strike".

But Grey was here to search for something, not play over in his head the two opposing armies that were at war with each other. He looked down at his PDA once more and with a clawed finger he played it over the screen moving a map around slightly upwards from the coordinates that he had previously read off.

"Sector Six, Grids D-3 to D-7 looks like the Capitol building.." Grey read off, only going on the basis of what he had seen in still photographs that were very old and dated back to the 1950's. Other than that, Grey was running on pure luck and even that was getting a bit strained. "I don't know if this is it, but I can gladly throw it up on the holo displays." he said speaking towards his squad mates that were behind him, transmitting the picture that he looked at on his PDA to the various holodisplays that stat right over the right eyes of each of his soldiers or any of his squad mates were wearing helmets with visors it would display across the whole inside of the faceplate.

One of the officers Matamori, a white arctic fox with a massive scar across his left eye and down his muzzle confirmed that what Grey had found and transmitted on the squads holodisplays was in fact the home of the human leader the "President" know as the "White House".

"Any thoughts on the best way of approach, Matamori?" Grey asked, zooming the picture in a bit more to bring the building into bear as he consulted a route of approach with his trusted squad tactician.

"Well sir, if you must ask, I would suggest the long route..." Matamori said, highlighting a path that Grey had missed altogether.

"and make the squad re-route? Matamori, were already a day and a half behind schedule and if we take your suggested path...I don't thing supplies are going to last.." Grey, said glancing wearily over his shoulder to his small hit and run small, pieced together squad of four that included him and Matamori, Ryder a green and black Fennic fox who Grey met in a small down know as Dragen just south of here after "accidentally" breaking up with his main division of soldiers and ending up there, and rounding up the team was a crimson colored wolf with a cross shaped birthmark in a patch of white fur by the name of Cross (by most of them called him by the nickname of Crimson) who was the teams sniper, infiltration and explosives expert.

Matamori sighed and shook his head "You forget we are soldiers Grey and also have forgotten your roots, if we run out of supplies we will eat what we catch re-routing would save a head on confrontation and also it would save some ammo so were not burning through it all getting there and when we get there have no ammo to take down our target"

Grey nodded as Matamori spoke "Yes, your logic seems right, alright lets re-routed and watch the tac displays, Home Base should be radioing in with information as we go, as they are watching our mics as we speak Matamori"

The black hawk made a sharp turn and follow the rerouted coordinates for sometime before touching down just around dusk about ten miles outside of their target destination. It was a forested area that Grey, Matamori, Ryder, and Crimson dismounted from the black hawk in, grabbed their packs and started to setup camp . Ryder had found some flint in his pack and using his knife they had gotten a small fire going. But once the black hawk started up, the fire was quickly blown out and left the four anthros fur fluttering in the wind. A poof of dust followed as the helicopter lifted off vertically, causing the group of four to cough and when it had settled everyone had to shake their fur from a light coating of dust.

Grey sneezed and covered his nose blushing, Ryder giggled at the squad leader and struck his flint trying to form a new fire. Crimson sighed and lit up a cigarette, took a drag and blew smoke rings into the air. Three more strikes of the flint and Ryder had caught a flame, within twenty minutes of harsh blowing and they had a roaring fire going.

Grey fished into his pack and pulled out some rations, a portable cooking set and some camping silverware. He looked around and noticed that Matamori was missing, not that it was not hard to spot a white arctic fox with tech gear and a large scar on his face.

"Somethings not right here.." Grey said, which caused Ryder to look over to him and droop his ears.

Ryder had a strange connection with Grey, he could always tell the emotions of his commanders and squad leaders. But there was something different between him and Grey , it was like he was connected by a wire to him emotionally. Cause no matter what emotion Grey was feeling, Ryder seemed to feel it twice as much.

"Commander, whats wrong? You seem distraught.." Ryder said, a bit worried at his commander who seemed to have underlying hints of distress and looked like something was missing.

Grey stood us and looked around, searching silently but frantically all around him from where he stood for Matamori. A switch clicked in his head as he pulled out his PDA and type in the number code and name of Matamori, searching for a GPS bead on him. He got one as it flashed just a couple feet ahead of him and elevated. He walked hastily and he suddenly had a flash of fear creep over him, Cross and Ryder sensed something was up in the way that there commander moved and subsequently followed him.

Paw on his weapon, Grey walked in a crouch wearily looking around, glancing at his PDA until he came up upon Matamori's location.

Right on top of the dot, but where is he?, Grey though to himself as he looked around with his weapon within a paws distance.

"Ryder, your whistle"

Without hesitation, Ryder fumbled with a small, single chambered whistle and with shaking paws handed it to the Commander. Grey inhaled and blew into the whistle, emitting a ear splitting sound at their hearing ranges highest frequency and it was great for finding squad mates but enemies with the right technology could hear the whistle and track onto your location in a heartbeat. There was some rustling above, Grey looked up to a few leaves falling from a tree right above him and a couple landing on his face causing him to twitch. But the rustling had also set Grey ears twitching and he growled a little, paw on his sidearm.

From the trees above leaves and bits of bark feel, as it appeared that figure was moving around above. But than a bit of what appeared to be white fur, peaked out from in the leaves and than a shadow was seen falling out of the top of the tree. Grey growled loudly and drew his side arm, but at the last moment he rolled away and almost laughed at the sight before him.

Hanging just inches from the ground was Matamori who was comically tangled in a shitload of climbing cables and ropes, slowly half twirling left and right as he hung there with his arms crossed.

"You ok, Matamori?" Grey said, holstering his side arm and giggling a bit as he walked over to the helpless arctic fox, as he began to untie him.

"Do I look ok to you commander?!" Matamori said with a grow and a sullen look on his face as he squad mates laughed a bit at the situation, everyone but Matamori finding it funny as Grey began to cut away at the ropes that held the helpless white fox.

Grey began his task of cutting away at the ropes that bound Matamori, avoiding most of the knots that were tied to tightly and instead focused on cutting the ropes that were simply tied. Grey cut through the three ropes around his legs, lowering Matamori closer to the ground so his head was slumped a little.

Ryder walked over and with the help Crimson, they propped up Matamori so that when Grey cut the ropes that were around the white foxes midsection and his arms, he would not come crashing to the ground and he would instead come gently to the ground through simple teamwork, thus improving the soldiers bond that held them together.

Cutting into the ropes that were stuck around Matamori's midsection and arms, and with Ryder and Cross levelly supporting the white fox, the ropes were soon gone around the white fox. Slowly lowered to the ground and released by his two supporting squad mates, the fox slowly got up with his ears splayed, tail limp and slightly tucked between his legs, Matamori stood there in embarrassment and slight shame at the predicament that he had gotten himself into.

Noticing the fox was just a slight bit under the weather, Grey walked over to him and patted him on the back, Matamori responded with a shy smile and his ears perked up a little, tail swaying as Grey walked away to stand in front of the squad around the fire.

"Alright, everyone gather round" Grey said, waving everyone around over towards the fire. "Ok here is the plan of attack.."

Grey pulled out his knife and using the fire as the main point, he began drawing out the plan of attack, he put Crimson on the left flank, using his PDA to mark out a rock out cropping that was elevated and offered a nice line of sight of the capitol building, Ryder was put on the same team as Crimson with him being a spotter for the marksman, Grey and Matamori were together and would be leading the infiltration as a two man squad, for them it was do or die when they got there.

The group broke and everyone knew there roles, Grey advised everyone to take concealed sleeping positions in case of enemy movement through the forest. Six feet deep foxholes were also suggested, which everyone agreed to but Cross, who took to the trees to stake out most of the night watching the tree line and above skies for enemy air vehicles.

With the plan set, the team dug the foxholes and Crimson took his elevated treetop position with a compact hammock he had packed with his gear, staking out for the night and watching the sky with a pair of digital, night vision and thermal binocs.

Ryder had dug an impressive foxhole, that was big enough for three men and scrounging around for a bit of camouflage, he came across a mass of sticks and created a large, bound cover for it and quickly nodded off underneath. Matamori and Grey's foxhole was much smaller than Ryder's, containing no more than enough room for the two of them to be close up against each other when they slept. Which was a good thing because Grey and him would be leaving last, plus Grey could use the extra "warmth" of a fellow soldier.

It was not uncommon for Matamori and Grey to be next to each other, they had started the whole "bunking and sleeping near each other" during boot camp when they were in bunks above and below each other. From there it had advanced from just being above or below each other to survival situations during mission where sleeping next to each other had guaranteed that if one of them woke up the other one would wake up at the same time. Which during times when they actually need to sleep, if one of the two needed to go do something the other one would have to suffer the unfortunate fate of waking up.

Something else had come with the two of them when they were deployed on a "Recovery" mission in a remote part of Alaska. It was when they were searching for a downed Satellite Orbital Control or S.O.C module and while in route they had set up camp. Conditions had become to near whiteout and had forced them to stop about forty miles from their target, camp had been set up and because of the freezing temperatures the two of them had bundled up close in the same thermal sleeping bag.

Matamori had been a little more adamant than Grey when they had awoken and had nuzzled the darn fox when they awoke. Grey had shifted uncomfortably but Matamori had exchanged kind and reassuring words into the foxes ear. Cuddling had soon followed and the two had fallen for each other during the course of the mission, but of course they still were soldiers and did what they did best, killing.

It wasn't an easy snatch and grab recovery mission as they had expected, they had encountered an enemy salvage squad and had later learned that it had been sent out by the Russians. With the human population of the free world shocked at the discovery of Russian military on their soil, the human leaders of "United States of America" had retaliated and numerous rumors had formed about Matamori and Grey claiming that the military had created "humanoid, beast soldiers".

Denying all alleged allegations, Grey and Matamori were sent to a secret facility located underground the outskirts of Washington D.C. There along with many others like Grey and Matamori, the facility had become a safe haven for their kind. As the wars of the human world raged on above, the facility bloomed into a full blown underworld city and slowly things died down above around the year 2013.

After 13 generations of being locked away underground, Grey and Matamori along with two generations of his and similar kind emerged from the underground city. The sight that they saw before them was a disappointing sight, the world especially around the Washington D.C. area was devastated and had transformed into a wasteland from the wars that had raged above.

Immediately Grey and Matamori had taken control of the situation, forming a small "wasteland army' from the weapons that they had scrounged from the world around them . Sometime down the road they scrounged the black hawk that had transported Grey and his current squad mates to where they were now.

Grey sighed and adjusted himself a bit, moving in his bag closer to Matamori hoping to gain a bit of extra warmth for the cold night ahead. Ever since the wars had ended, the wasteland's weather and probably the earth had been thrown out of whack. Nights had become colder and days had become hotter, it was almost like the wasteland had become like a desert.

The wasteland like the desert contained its own share of dangerous creatures from foot sized cockroaches to mutant humanoids that were either of military project origin or from facilities long abandoned ago when their human facility staff died off.

Matamori shifted a little towards Grey, he was asleep and could feel the warmth possibly an involuntary reaction that Matamori had suppressed from when he was a mere Kit. So Grey wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close, nodding off quickly into a deep sleep the warmth and tiredness of sleep overtaking him.