by Tom Jones
“Bloody hell… There’d be no way in hell he’d be able to get that job done.” The Prince knew that he was still letting Jason, the fox’s wolf colleague, stay at Sealand for the time being since Arcades brought him to the fort. He wasn’t even sure why the wolf was even bothering to still stay, for the Prince felt that the wolf also considered the chances of the fox to return. They ranged from extraordinarily slim at best to plainly impossible at worst. The human kept the wolf in his thoughts, and he remembered that he had not even seen Jason interact with him for a good while. The Prince knew that Jason could not leave Sealand without a boat or helicopter of some kind, and he knew that both means of transportation were unavailable to the wolf. The fox was the one to fly the helicopter to Sealand in the first place, and a boat would take some time to reach the micronation in order to let the wolf go. Even if Jason were to leave Sealand, he would not have anywhere to go. He did not even live in the neighboring United Kingdom.
Thinking about the helicopter which suddenly showed up at Sealand a couple days prior, the Prince remembered that the HH-60 Pave Hawk was still on Sealand’s only helipad. The helicopter was out of fuel as well, and a machine weighing in at seven metric tons would be a definite hassle for the human to figure out how to remove it from Sealand. The Prince hoped that Arcades would return just to fly the helicopter away, but the Prince knew that it wouldn’t be that easy. The Pave Hawk still lacked the fuel necessary to fly to the mainland United Kingdom, and the Prince was unsure as to how he would be able to have it refueled. After all, Sealand was practically located between the border of the English Channel and the North Sea. The only solution he could devise would be to have a boat with the necessary fuel sail all the way out to Sealand from the mainland to fuel the helicopter. It would be a very costly expense for a commercial fisherman to undertake. The Prince began to think about Jason yet again, and he knew that the wolf was showing signs of depression since Arcades had left. The human began to feel sorry for the wolf, but he quickly remembered that humans were not really supposed to feel sorry for members of the Anthro sapiens species.
The Prince looked at his computer screen again after finishing his thoughts, and he looked back at the date and time that his computer displayed. The clock read only a couple minutes since he started his moment of reflection. He then remembered something which he forgot to do that morning. The Prince needed to check Sealand’s email inbox. The Prince logged on to his email server, and he opened the inbox within the same minute. The Prince already noticed that he had at least one new email, notated by a red mail icon. The Prince opened the unread emails, and he immediately noticed an email that was titled, “Mission Accomplished”. The human was in disbelief for a moment, and he was not even sure if the email was about what he was just thinking about. Feeling curious, the Prince clicked on the email, and he saw that there was an image as the email’s attachment. Skeptical about what could be hidden within an email’s attachments, the Prince decided to take his chances out of sheer curiosity.
The image loaded, and the Prince immediately recognized the two anthros that were in the picture. One was a tall black and white fox while the other was a short tabby cat. In the background of the photo was the remains of a destroyed building. The Prince was not sure if the remains were that of the Omega Foundation’s secret facility, or if it was something else entirely. Nevertheless, the Prince stared at the image in astonishment. He had no idea how Arcades was able to pull the mission off, but he did see the cat that was in the same frame. The Prince remembered the cat’s name, and he then remembered the last time he saw the cat. However, the last time the human saw the cat in person was when he verbally cursed the fox and seemingly abandoned him. He was surprised to see both of them together again.
The Prince assumed that Bobby Bocchino decided to end up working with the fox again due to pressing circumstances. When the Prince remembered the cat’s name, he tried to remember what the fox’s real name was. After a few seconds of thinking, the human remembered what the fox’s name was. The Prince spoke aloud to himself again and shook his head in astonishment, “Kurt Hofmeier… That damn fox is a bloody madman to have done that all by himself.” The Prince finally remembered who he needed to relay the information to. The human picked up a handheld Motorola radio that was standing on his desk, and he spoke into the microphone while he held the PTT, “Sean, can you go tell the wolf to come and see me? I have something to show him.”
“Yeah, if you keep going straight, we’ll make it there,” the fox spoke to the human and the anthro that were on the boat with him. The human was the first one to ask a question, “Kurt, where are we exactly supposed to be going?” The cat answered the question before the fox could, “Some rusty shack on concrete that’s in the middle of the damn ocean.” The fox frowned as he looked towards the cat, “Come on Bobby, is that how you’d describe it? It’s called The Principality of Sealand.” The cat replied as the fox looked back to the open water, “Sealand… It ain’t even land. The damn thing is made out of rusty iron and weathered concrete. I’m surprised that shit’s still standing.” The human spoke again, “Bobby, is that what it is supposed to be called? Sealand?” Bocchino answered the question without looking at the human, “Yeah… It is, Jim.” The human had another question, “Why couldn’t we just fly there? Nothing’s wrong with the helicopter we took with us.”
Keeping his eyes on the water, Arcades answered, “We already have my Pave Hawk that’s on the helipad, and they’ve only got room for one helicopter.” Jim shrugged, “Well, I guess we can take that one back.” The fox nodded as he continued driving the small boat, “That’s right. We just need to get it fueled first.” Jim raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean fueled? Does it not have any?” Arcades replied to the human’s question, “We kinda ran out of gas. We had just enough to make it to Sealand from Ipswich. That’s where we originally landed in the first place.” The fox wished that he was wearing his Oakley glasses, but he had left them on the fort with the rest of his equipment. Jim was now beginning to see something far off in the distance, “What’s that place over there? Twelve o’clock from us?” Arcades replied before Bocchino could, “That’s Sealand. That’s where we’re heading.” Jim asked the fox another question, “What do we need to get from there besides that helicopter?” Arcades replied, “All of my stuff. I didn’t bring any of it with me. I went into that facility with practically nothing on me. We also need to pick up a friend of mine.” Jim asked the fox one last question since he did not know about any other friends or acquaintances which the fox had, “Who’s your friend?” Arcades answered, “He’s a wolf, and he is awaiting my return.”
Jason walked into the Prince’s computer room after Sean escorted him to meet the Prince. The wolf entered the room and asked, “What do you need to show me?” The human turned to face the wolf that was standing a few feet away from him, “I’ve got news for you.” When the wolf heard these words, he began to think about Arcades, “Is it Kurt?” The Prince couldn’t stop himself from smiling. Jason immediately knew what the Prince had news about, so the wolf asked, “Is he alright?” The Prince scooted away from his desk to let the wolf view what was on the screen, “See for yourself, mate.” The light gray wolf stepped forwards and looked at the computer screen. He recognized Arcades and Bocchino, and he also recognized where they were standing in front of. The wolf displayed a genuinely happy smile on his face, and he spoke, “He made it! Is he coming back here?” The Prince shrugged in response, “I don’t know about that. I mean, I would expect him to come back, but it doesn’t say anything about when he would return. At least we both know that he’s not dead or anything.” Jason nodded, “That’s a huge relief.” The wolf looked at the picture, and he tried to remember the last time he saw the fox in person. Jason asked the Prince, “Say, when was this picture sent?”
The Prince shot a quick look at the timestamp that was included with the email before speaking, “This was sent last night it looks like; However, time zones are diff
erent, so I’m not sure exactly what time it was over there when he sent it.” The wolf studied the image again, trying to decipher when Arcades sent the email including the image. “It looks like it’s daylight, but it also looks close to sunset.” The Prince shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine.” When the human finished speaking, he heard the Motorola radio on his desk sound after a brief second of static, “Your Highness, there is a small boat approaching Sealand.” The Prince picked up the radio and proceeded to ask, “Who’s aboard the boat?” Sean replied by speaking into the radio, “Come and see for yourself. I think you’ll recognize them.”
“How are we supposed to get up there?” Jim asked Arcades. The fox replied, “They have a crane up there that they can use to bring us up.” Arcades looked up at the platform as he saw three figures emerge from the building. The fox recognized all three of them. Jason was the first to greet the fox by shouting from where he was standing on the raised platform, “Kurt! Welcome back! I’m so glad you made it out of there alive, mate!” Bocchino and Jim both looked at Jason as the wolf continued to shout to the fox. Jim was next to speak, but he did not yell, “Hey Kurt, I’m not sure if this is the best place to talk from.” The fox smiled as he looked at the human, “Yeah, you’re right. Here, they’ll let us up in a moment.” Arcades replied to the wolf with his request, and he made sure to speak loud enough for the people on Sealand to hear him, “Hey, can you guys let us up there?”
Sean moved to the crane’s controls, and he started the crane. After the crane spent about a minute starting up, he extended the crane’s arm downwards towards the water in order to set the platform that the boat would be able to ride on as it would rise onto Sealand. The crane’s attached platform entered the water, and it was sitting deep enough for Arcades to drive the boat on. The fox gave the boat throttle, and he was successfully able to seat the boat on the canted platform. Once Arcades was in place, he waited a few seconds for Sean to lift the boat up with the platform. The fox held onto the side of the boat as it began to ascend, for he did not want to fall in the water. Bocchino and Jim did not hold onto the boat. Rather, they only stood straight up and watched as the platform continued to rise higher and higher all the while mechanical noise from the crane itself continued. The fox looked at Sealand’s large concrete support bars that securely held it above water, and he was impressed with how long the water fort was able to stay standing. He knew that the British Armed Forces no longer had any use for the forts since there were no more German U-Boats that were threatening the British mainland. Finally reaching the top of the fort, the fox looked straight at Jason, who was eagerly awaiting his return.
The wolf was now standing at the ledge which the boat had been hoisted to. Feeling that it was now safe to disembark from the small boat, Arcades was the first to exit the boat. Immediately upon stepping onto Sealand’s main deck, Jason wrapped his arms around Arcades’ remarkably thin body and embraced him. The fox let out a small chuckle, “Heh, I don’t think anyone’s ever been this excited to see someone like me before.” Jason pulled himself closer to the fox as he replied, “I’m so glad you made it back, mate.” Arcades finally was able to hug the wolf back after Jason realized that he was holding the fox’s thin arms down. Arcades spoke again, “I’m glad I made it back here, too.” Bocchino stepped on the deck with Jim, and the cat passed by Jason before stopping to look at the two reuniting anthros.
The Prince of Sealand and Sean were the next to gather on the main deck after they came back down from the crane controls. The Prince looked at the cat, “I didn’t expect to see you back here.” Bocchino shrugged, “What can I say? I guess I go where he goes. I seem to make it out alive that way.” The Prince remembered what happened mere days ago, “I hope you don’t call this glorious nation what you did before.” Bocchino shook his head slowly in a halfway genuine manner, “No, no. I wouldn’t do that. Not again, at least.” The Prince detected sarcasm in the cat’s voice, but he decided to let it go. Bocchino’s thoughts on the aging sea fort were not worth getting angry over. The human then directed his attention to the human that he had not seen before, “Who’s this guy?” Jason finally let go of the fox after embracing him for a solid minute, and Arcades introduced the Prince of Sealand to Jim, “That guy’s name is Jim MacReady. He’s a former Omega Foundation pilot. He’s joining us since he defected from the Foundation.” The Prince raised his eyebrows as he studied the navy blue flight suit that Jim was wearing, “Damn, really?” Arcades nodded and replied, “That’s right. He flew the Stealth Hawk that you saw on the video during my first infiltration of the facility. We brought it here with us.”
The Prince looked around, but he did not see the helicopter Arcades mentioned, “What? Is this thing bloody invisible? Where is it?” Arcades shook his head as he realized the Prince was starting to become confused, “Oh, no. We have it at CDI’s base.” The Prince scratched his neck, “I thought Castle Defense Industries didn’t want to work with us? We went there just a few days ago, and you remember how they ran us out, don’t you?” The fox looked towards Bocchino, and the cat began to speak, “I stayed behind, and I ended up convincing CDI to help out. If I’m gonna be honest, then I think that me spending the extra time to convince them was the best thing I did. I really don’t think Kurt would have been able to make it out of that madhouse if we didn’t intervene.” The Prince looked at the cat, and he could tell that Bocchino was wearing khaki and green combat attire, which was very similar to the uniform CDI operatives wore.
Bocchino looked up at the helicopter that was still parked on the helipad when Arcades landed at Sealand a few days ago, “By the way, Kurt arranged for some guys who are going to be coming over tomorrow to fill up the helicopter. I guess you can say we’ll be staying here until that happens.” The Prince turned back around, and he saw the Pave Hawk that was on the helipad, “Right… Well, I guess you all can stay tonight. Probably for the better, too. I’m not sure how much Omega knows, but I wouldn’t want to risk something happening if you guys left right now.” When Arcades heard the Prince mention Omega again, he turned to Jim and asked, “Say Jim, what does Omega know? Do you happen to know anything about that?” The former Omega pilot answered, “As far as I know, word about you guys has not left Facility Five. I guess you can consider yourself a ghost again, Kurt. Unless the Site Director told some other facility elsewhere.” The fox wanted some reassurance, “How likely is it that word has already spread to other facilities?” Jim shook his head and shrugged, “I really dunno, Kurt. Alpha-Omega team is still alive, and they were the first ones to see you. They lost one member on the train mission that you guys pulled earlier last week. They’re the guys who you ran into at Facility Eleven and at Hong Kong. However, they don’t know your name, or at least they don’t know you the last time I remember. They were not at Facility Five when you were there.”
Jason remembered the train mission, and he did remember shooting a human, “Uh… Did you say that the Alpha-Omega squad lost a member on the train mission?” The human nodded after he directed his attention to the wolf, “That’s right. They only have seven members now.” Jason remembered what the human that he killed was wearing, “I shot somebody that was wearing blue and black on the train. All of the other guys I saw were wearing that light gray camouflage.” Jim displayed a look of impressment on his face, “Looks like you were the one to down him. You must’ve caught him off guard or something. Those guys are some of the best operatives that Omega could find. Most of them are from Delta Force, DEVGRU, and the Air Force PJs. Omega typically pools from US Special Forces groups to supply men to that unit.”
The Prince of Sealand had something to comment, “Wait, hold on there mate. The Omega Foundation has been gathering elite operatives from the United States?” Jim looked at the Prince, “Yeah, that’s correct. Before I was in Omega, I was a pilot for the US Navy. I flew MH-60 Sea Hawks during some military operations. One of the SOCOM guys who joined the Omega Foundation found me after I was discharged, and he in
vited me to fly for Omega. I didn’t think much of it at first, but they later had me transporting anthros that they had captured. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to do it at that point, but I knew I couldn’t tell anybody about it. They kept an importance on secrecy as a huge part of their operations.” Arcades became curious, “Is Omega directly involved with the US Government?” Upon hearing the fox’s question, Bocchino rolled his eyes as he muttered under his breath, “Ah shit, here we go again…”
Jim halfway squinted as he thought about all of the people from Omega that he knew, “Ehh… Not exactly. Omega is more or less looking for people who are good at keeping secrets. SOCOM is a good place for them to look as many of the members are highly skilled, and they are typically willing to keep secrets. After all, many of them were already involved in secret raids and other operations anyways. They’re more or less used to keeping things on the secret side. However, that just goes for the Internal Security Group since many of them are former US military members and former PMCs. I’m not too sure about what goes on in Omega’s other departments. They don’t tell us ISG guys about what happens outside of the ISG. I also don’t really know who makes up their personnel for their overseas facilities. I didn’t spend much time at their other facilities, and they never toured me around their facilities. They mainly had me carry ISG members or captured anthros around.”
