Fallen World: The Complete Trilogy

by Tom Jones

  Within a few moments of getting the L-ATV up to speed, the vehicle’s front left tire had been destroyed by the Super Hind, and the vehicle lost traction. The Security Chief tried to recover from the lost traction, but his efforts were not enough to save the vehicle. The L-ATV crashed directly into a tree, and the crash left the crew of four disoriented. The helicopter began to move in closer to the disabled vehicle, and the gunner of the Super Hind continued to fire upon the crashed vehicle in a few short bursts with the cannon. The gunner spoke, “That’s it. They’ve crashed.” The pilot looked at the pilot’s display, and he could see the disabled vehicle, “Fire a rocket at it. Let’s end those guys.” The gunner toggled the weapon system of the helicopter to the rockets, and he aimed the rocket pod at the L-ATV the best he could. The Super Hind was outfitted with rocket pods which were able to slightly align themselves on the hardpoints of the auxiliary wings to provide a more accurate shot in order to compensate for the inaccuracy and lack of guidance of rockets. The gunner asked the pilot before launching the rocket, “You think we can hit that from here? The rockets don’t have homing.” The pilot reassured the gunner once more, “For sure. Give it a shot.” The gunner fired the rocket.

  The rocket launched from the Super Hind, and it began to fly through the air as the exhaust outputted from the rocket lit up the night sky. The rocket trailed off-course at first, but it then turned around and proceeded to head directly towards the L-ATV. One of the ISG members opened the top hatch of the MRAP, and he looked upwards to see a rocket flying directly towards their vehicle. The ISG member knew he would not be able to flee from the vehicle in time. All he could do was shout in shock, “Oh shit!” Right before he could retreat back into the damaged vehicle and close the hatch, the rocket impacted directly on top of the already weakened MRAP armor. The vehicle exploded, and the blast was enough to kill both Nine and the Security Chief along with the rest of the ISG personnel riding in the vehicle. Rattlesnake’s gunner spoke after watching the results of the rocket he fired, “MRAP confirmed destroyed.” The pilot chuckled, “Heh, I told you you could make that shot!”

  The CDI operatives were almost done securing the compound. None of the anthros which they saw were still living, for all of them had been killed by the ISG. Rattlesnake was still patrolling the surroundings adjacent to the compound, but no further threats appeared. The pilot of the helicopter reported, “Vertex, this is Rattlesnake. No additional hostiles spotted. Area is secure. What is the status of the ground team? Over.” Vertex replied within seconds, “Copy, Rattlesnake. This is Vertex. The ground team should be almost finished securing the area. Maintain your current patrol pattern as they finish up. Standby for a sitrep.” The pilot looked past his flight controls to view the gunner, and he spoke to him, “Was that one car the only one that left the compound?” The gunner replied as he continued to scan the ground, “Yeah. It was just that one black MRAP, and that was it.” The pilot then spoke once more, “Alright. Keep your eyes open. We’re still waiting for the ground team to finish their sweep.” The gunner acknowledged the pilot as he looked back at the infrared viewfinder, “Got it.”

  “What’s the plan, Bobby?” Jim had asked the cat. Bocchino replied, “I guess there ain’t no way around it. We’re going to have to spend the week on the boat to get back to the States.” Jim reminded the cat of one other factor, “Aren’t we going to look for those other two anthros when we get there?” Bocchino remembered his original plan, “Yes, that’s right. We’re probably going to need their help.” Jim presented an objection, “What if they don’t want to come with us? What if they don’t want any part in this?” Bocchino looked downwards and sighed, “I don’t know, Jim. This shit fucking sucks.” Jim continued to look at Bocchino, and he also spoke again, “They’ve been in the Omega Foundation, and they’re even green tier.” Bocchino nodded, and he was beginning to lose some of his patience, “I know! Fuck… Dammit…”

  Jim could tell that Bocchino was irritated, but he did not stop talking, “I don’t know what they would be doing on their own but --” Bocchino cut the human off in the middle of his sentence, “That’s fucking plenty, dammit!” Bocchino looked at Jim straight in the eyes, and he began to rant, “Fuck, this shit’s been fucked ever since we got here. Man, it was a damn fucking mistake going here with Kurt in the first place. I could be home right now not worrying about this shit at all, but I’m fucking out here in the middle of Europe!” Jim shook his head, “Bobby, you shouldn’t abandon Kurt. Especially not right now.” Bocchino slammed his fist against the wall, “I fucking know, dammit!” The cat looked back at the human, and he could tell that Jim was waiting for Bocchino to say something else. Bocchino spoke after calming himself down enough to speak at a normal level, “Jim, I really don’t know what we’re going to do.” Jim replied to Bocchino, “We’re doing what we can right now. We’ll have plenty of time to figure this all out on the boat.” Bocchino remembered that the trip would take an entire week, “Seven whole fucking days. Can you believe that?” Jim shrugged, “Nothing we can do. If we were to take a flight, we’d have to pay even more to take those vehicles with us. This is the only way.”

  Bocchino thought about the vehicles which he would be taking over to the port in the morning, “We’re gonna have to get all that shit over there. How are we gonna do that?” Jim replied with a suggestion, “It’s very simple. I’ll fly you to the place where we have the Stealth Hawk and the two cars stored. You will take one of the cars to the port while I fly there. I’ll get there before you do, and when you arrive, you will have to drive me back there to get the other helicopter. And then… You’ll have to drive me back once more to get the other car.” Bocchino cringed, “You fucking call that shit very simple? What type of fucking shit is this? That’ll take all fucking day! What the fuck?” Jim shook his head, “Calm down Bobby. You have to realize that this is the only way we can do this without spending another fortune to have somebody come by and take the cars for us.”

  Bocchino stood in silence as he tried to come up with a better solution. The cat remembered that they had one other anthro with them, “Can we get Jackie to drive one of the cars?” Jim shook his head, “No, the problem with that is --” Bocchino interrupted the human yet again, “There’s always a fucking problem, now isn’t there? Well then fuck me! Dammit!” Jim was beginning to grow impatient as well, “Can you fucking let me finish, man?” Bocchino shot back, “Well I sure as hell would if your dumbass could fucking come up with some shit that actually fucking works in a reasonable timeframe.” Jim quickly fired back, “Look here, this shit ain’t gonna fucking change no matter how much you fucking make a big ‘ol shit about it, dammit.” Bocchino fueled the fire, “I’m making a big shit about what now? This fucking shit is gonna take all fucking day!” Jim did nothing to diffuse the situation, “Well let’s see you come up with a fucking brilliant idea!”

  The Prince of Sealand entered the room, “Blimey! Can you blokes keep it down?” Bocchino and Jim immediately stopped arguing, and they turned to face the Prince. The Prince spoke again, “What’s the big deal here, anyways?” Jim spoke before Bocchino could, for he knew the anthro would not say the right things to the Prince, “We don’t know how we can efficiently get two helicopters and two cars to the port in a reasonable amount of time.” The Prince considered a few options before he spoke, “Here, how about I come and help you out with that? Would that make things any better?” Bocchino said, “How are you supposed to do that anyways?” The Prince replied, “Jim can fly me to the place where you have the vehicles stored. Bobby can take one of the cars, and I’ll take the other car. I’ll then drive Jim back to the lockup, and he’ll fly the other helicopter back while I take the car back here.”

  Jim knew that the Prince’s plan was not too different from his own, “Well, that’ll still take some time, but it’s better than the original plan.” The Prince replied, “I didn’t quite hear your original plan, but I’m guessing that it’s basically what I said but in a few mo
re steps?” Jim nodded and replied before Bocchino could interject, “That’s right.” The Prince shrugged, “Well, you see, the thing is that there really isn’t any way to get around going back and forth with what we have. As far as I’m concerned, Jim here is the only one who can pilot a helicopter.” Jim said, “It would make two of us if Kurt was here.” Bocchino then had something else to say, “We would also not have to make any return trips if Kurt and Jason were here, either. There would be one man per vehicle.” The Prince knew that mentioning the two anthros would not bring them back, “We have to make-do with what we have. We don’t have Kurt, and we also don’t have Jason.”

  Bocchino was still unhappy about the fact that Arcades and Jason were both captured, “I should’ve ended those African fucks. Then, we wouldn’t be in this fucking situation.” Jim then said to Bocchino, “Are you sure that would be the best way to get around that?” Bocchino nodded, “Yeah, they’re the shits who fucking took Kurt away in the first place.” The Prince reminded Bocchino of the bigger picture, “Bobby, even if Kurt was here, you would still be waiting a week to get back to the US. Unless he decided to spend a large sum of cash on a plane that would be able to carry those four vehicles.” Bocchino shook his head, “Kurt would’ve probably chosen the boat as well.” The Prince nodded at the cat’s answer, “Yes, exactly. No matter the outcome, you would still be losing the same amount of time. The Omega Foundation would not be any different if Kurt was still with us.” Little did the Prince know, Arcades had already been captured by the Omega Foundation.

  The Prince decided to say another thing to the two, “You guys should focus on taking down Omega first, and then you can go look for Kurt. He would’ve wanted you to do that.” Jim spoke to Bocchino, “See, Bobby? That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you the whole time.” Bocchino did still feel guilty for letting Kurt get captured, “I could’ve stopped them from taking him.” The Prince wanted Bocchino to focus on the current mission instead of the previous mission, “Bobby, you’re only going to keep slowing yourself down if you keep focusing on that. Get it out of your mind and focus. You lads can go and find Kurt and Jason when the Foundation is no more.” Bocchino was not sure if he would ever see Arcades or Jason ever again, “What if we can’t find them? What if they just took them out back, shot them, and that was the end of them?” The Prince sighed, “You could carry on forever like that, mate. What you need to do is complete the mission; Then, regardless of the outcome, you can be rest-assured because you completed what Kurt and Jason came out here to do in the first place.” Bocchino frowned, but he basically had no choice but to accept what the Prince was saying to him.

  The CDI operatives looked at the deceased anthros which Omega had recently executed, and they were inspecting the way the anthros had been kept while in Omega captivity. One of the operatives commented on the sight, “They’re treating them with less respect than damn animals.” Despite the fact that CDI was an entirely human company, they still could tell that the anthros were not treated ethically. Another CDI member looked at a few of the devices which Omega used to sexually abuse the anthros, “Damn. This shit is something you’d hear about on the fucking internet. This place is a damn madhouse.” One CDI member picked up the XMP-1 off of a deceased ISG member, “The fuck is this gun supposed to be?” Another CDI operative moved over to inspect the weapon too, “I’ve never seen that before.”

  Nine’s office had been compromised by the CDI ground forces, and several of the operatives had already found evidence of other facilities within his office. A few of the operatives were looking at the corpse of the deceased gray wolf, “Look at this one. She took a bullet to the head. Looks like she didn’t have any way to fight back, either.” Another CDI member pointed out a detail, “Why is she here anyways?” One of the members took a guess, “What if she was being used?” Another operative pushed the fire selector lever of his AK-12 to the upwards position to safety the rifle, “What do you mean by used?” The first operative replied, “From what I’ve seen here, these anthros were fucked. Maybe this one was as well?” Another CDI member made an announcement from behind Nine’s desk, “Hey, over here. We’ve got something.” The operatives studying the wolf quickly moved over to check out what was going on. A CDI member grabbed a bunch of papers and placed them on the desk, “Look at these. These were kept inside of a padlocked cabinet. I used the bolt cutters, and I got into it.”

  The other CDI operatives picked up the papers, and they began skimming through them. A few of them discovered the locations of other Omega Foundation facilities, “This place is called Facility Nine? You mean to tell us they have more of these places?” Another CDI operative responded, “That last place we went to must’ve been a different facility. How many do you think they have in total?” A different CDI member approached Nine’s computer, and he visually inspected it, “Do you think that computer holds any answers? This place looks like it has something important to hide.” One CDI member nodded in agreement, “Oh yeah, just look at all of these dead anthros. Whoever runs this place definitely has something to hide.” One of the CDI members who raided Facility Five made a comment, “These anthros have the same collars the ones at the last place had.” The leader of the CDI squad spoke up, “Gather all of the intel. We need to get to the bottom of this.”

  Rattlesnake’s pilot heard another transmission from Vertex, “Rattlesnake, this is Vertex. Do you copy? Over.” The pilot replied to Vertex, “Copy, Vertex. Send traffic. Over.” Vertex gave the helicopter crew a situation report, “The ground team has successfully secured the compound. The mission has been accomplished. You guys can return to base. Over.” The pilot replied to Vertex, “Solid copy. We’ll be on our way. Out.” The pilot spoke to the gunner as he began to turn the helicopter around in order to head back to base, “We’re done here.” The gunner disabled his infrared viewfinder, and he disarmed the helicopter’s weapon systems, “That’s it?” The pilot replied as he began to make the helicopter fly forwards, “Yup. The ground forces have finished their mission. That means we’re done with our mission as well.” The gunner asked the pilot a question, “What do you think they found in there? This place was in the middle of nowhere.” The pilot did not witness anything within Facility Nine, “I have no clue. Maybe it’s like what we heard about the last place we were in.”

  The gunner was still curious, “Yeah, I heard those rumors too. Do you think they’ve got something similar going on in there? It’s operated by the same people, right?” The pilot replied with uncertainty as he continued to fly the Super Hind, “I don’t even know if the guys from the place we were just at are related to those guys from Salt Lake City. We’ll probably hear about the results of this operation sooner than later anyways. News travels rather fast around here.” The gunner looked out the window, and he could see the Mi-17s were already on their way back to Facility Nine, “They’re already coming back? Shouldn’t we be there to make sure they don’t get shot down?” The pilot saw the flight of Hips flying in the opposite direction of their own helicopter, “Who’s gonna be there to shoot them down anyways? They told us we could RTB because they’ve got the situation under control. They can take care of themselves.” The gunner acknowledged the pilot, “Yeah. I’m still wondering what all they found there.”

  Bocchino laid down, and he tried to get some sleep again. However, his mind continued to return to his guilt for abandoning Arcades. The cat shook his head while he closed his eyes shut and contemplated what he did and said to Arcades in the past couple of weeks. Bocchino began to regret some of what he did, even though he had already regretted leaving Arcades with mercenaries in Africa. Bocchino knew that he should focus more on the mission, but there was too much that happened to Arcades that he couldn’t help but think about what it was like to actually be Arcades. Bocchino remembered how the fox had voluntarily returned to Salt Lake City in order to infiltrate Facility Five for the second time, and he also knew that it was Arcades who had infiltrated the compound in the first
place. The cat began to wonder why it wasn’t him who infiltrated any of the Omega facilities in the first place. After all, it was Arcades who brought him along to Denver in order to infiltrate Facility Eleven, even though all Bocchino ended up doing was sitting in the getaway car. Bocchino realized that he actually did not do too much to help Arcades during his missions involving the Omega Foundation. Bocchino knew all he did was complain to the fox. When the cat thought about complaining, he was reminded of what he did to Arcades before they left to go to Africa in the first place. The cat shook his head as he regretted speaking to the fox in such a way, but he knew that there was nothing he could currently do to help the fox from Sealand.

  In a way, Bocchino was rather glad that he was not the one to enter Facility Eleven or Facility Five since he was not sure if he had the willpower to not kill everybody who was inside. He had indeed seen the video Arcades recovered from his first infiltration at Facility Five, and he knew that he would face trouble not killing all the humans and anthros alike in the facility. He knew very well of what happened at Facility Twenty-Four. Bocchino reckoned that he simply did not see the world in the same way that Arcades did, and the cat asked himself as to why he did not see the world like the fox did. The cat knew he worked the same job with the fox, but he couldn’t help but notice that both of them operated completely differently. Bocchino reviewed everything that happened from the Siege of Berlin to the current day, and he kept thinking about all of the people he had killed while Arcades did not kill anybody. Bocchino wanted to have his answers, but he was not sure how he would get them. The cat decided that he should just go to sleep for now; After all, he still had plenty of work to do when he woke up in the morning.