Big Game Hunting
I stare at the photos Tanya sent me after we finish our discussion. It almost looks like whatever killed them tried to cut through the hard armor and had to settle on the soft armor. It’s intelligent which makes it easy to catch because you can play mind games on it.
“Alright zombie Bate ready to actually be bate for once” Sergeant Frank sighs “Yes sir I assume you have a solid plan” I shrug “Probably. But you know how well plans and the enemy mix so instead trust the man by your side and your training”
I check my external microphone is off and signal for him to do the same “We’ll make it look like we are splitting the patrol by about a block, keeping a building between us. We’ll use Sherman’s sensor sweet to keep an eye on the surroundings, it’s worked so far, and once we see something move in on you that’s not human we’ll drive through the building and if all goes to plan run it over enough to capture it but not kill it”
Frank nods “Honestly not terrible the most glaring problem is the reliance on the sensors through all this shit but I guess that’s what the Mk1 eyeball is for” I laugh “It never fails” I pause and notice it’s getting darker soon to be pitch black “we’ll split up in the morning sergeant organize the watch”
The night passes with only the baleful wail of the wind. Everyone was on edge. We eat a quick meal, each of us hunched over to protect it from the ash as best we could.
Finally, we split up and I have everyone turn on their camera feeds to everyone here and officers at the impromptu base. Ever since my watch the hair on my neck has been on end. Something is stalking us.
We fake a patrol the entire day with no sightings but I still have that feeling. At dusk, I recall the other squad and we eat and sleep in shifts.
It’s the third day now and there haven’t been any other attacks on the main unit but Tanya has also halted patrols. They are just throwing punches back and forth with the Nato artillery. Nothing serious.
I still feel like something is watching and I know it’s not a drone because Sherman has been keeping his sensors peeled. Dusk is encroaching and still nothing. I get ready to call back zombie bate when I spot a flash of movement.
I spin around to look raising my rifle when I’m launched back through a wall. Again. I hit my head hard and feel a little dazed but adrenaline drowns it out and I’m climbing out of the hole I made.
What I see amazes me. It looks like a fifteen-foot-tall lizard but I know it can’t be a reptile due to the cold. It has a long tail ending in a point or blade and has digitigrade feet and huge claw-tipped fingers on the hands.
Sherman is rotating the tank and the rest of the squad is staying on the other side using it as a shield. I take a second to look for my gun when zombie Bate emerges from the house that separated us. With a swift move from the beast, it rips one’s arm off and nearly disembowels another.
“Fuck it” I mumble to myself and sprint at it pulling my knife. Its back is turned to me. I leap through the air and land on its shoulders holding one of its horns. It tries to shake me off with no success. I punch it in the head with my robotic replacement and it seems to have some effect.
I pull back and hit it harder again and again as it desperately tries to reach up and throw me off. I throw a final haymaker landing it with a resounding crack and the creature slumps. “Quick bring over some plastic” referring to some plastic explosive. I’m handed a satchel and put it on around the horns and on the head fitting the detonator deep. “Barbosa what do you need to stabilize them” I point at the two injured men.
I check who’s injured. A corporal is the one missing an arm and Frank is the one in critical condition. “Jed help him. Brick grab the tow cables and bring them here” Jed jumps to assisting Barbosa and Brick brings over the heavy cables.
With his help, we heave the arms behind this thing and bind them tight then move to the legs and eventually get it in something resembling a hogtie. At this time I stand up and take a step back with some slight disbelief. We actually got it alive and it was able to get through our armor joints like paper.
I feel a jab in my neck and see Barbosa standing next to me “I’m starting to think you want brain damage you get one of these nearly every mission” Jed quips in over the comm “Nah he just needs a padded helmet” We all burst with laughter.
After a moment I stop and stare “So and suggestion on how to get it back I don’t think dragging would be advised” Sherman pops his head out of the tank squints at the thing then hops out and closely inspects it. After a few minutes, he declares “We can probably hang it from the barrels and if er careful we won’t fuck ‘em up”
No one else has an idea “We’ll give it a shot but the second it compromises the barrels you drop it” We spend over an hour slinging the tied-up creature to the barrels having to rotate them behind the tank making for an interesting picture.
“Alright, everyone onto the tank” We all climb aboard and Sherman speeds away. I definitely owe Frank a beer but seeing as he’s terrible bate I think it evens out.
We ride on the track pods and Sherman weaves through the burned-out city. I take the ride back to appreciate the republic's advancements. Real armor to protect its sons in battle, not a single plate that might help you. And modern vehicles and a willingness to scrap an old design for a new one instead of forcing stopgaps onto a chassis older than the men designing the additions. That all said I’d love to see an American tank navigate instead here at this speed.
We are inside friendly lines in less than an hour. The men cheer as we approached and gawked at the creature. We turned off the live feeds once we captured it but despite that the base knew exactly when we arrived. Several medics get our wounded onto stretchers and take them away and I wave the rest of zombie to go with their squad.
Tanya Ivan and some others approach us “Fantastic work and an especially impressive job to not have any fatalities. Now let’s bring it over to that larger tent. Leave it tied up” The last part is obvious. Sherman drives it over and backs it in settling it down.
Tanya raises her voice “Everyone on the far wall you may watch but you are prohibited from approaching. You may pass on requests but may not perform them yourself” She waved at me and we look closer at the thing. It almost seems to shrink away.
“Tell me major” Tanya starts then pauses a moment before continuing “Does it look intelligent” I look at its face seemingly engineered to be a brutal killing apparatus and I see a glint in the eyes. I think possibly in understanding of its surroundings and predicament. “I’d say at least that of a dog but if you're going to grow a killing monster you’d want it to be able to understand orders. It was also stalking us and attacked the main group, not the bait in a gambit to throw us off”
She nods. “Can you have Jed come in it’ll likely only understand americanese” I radio him over and a few minutes later he slips in. “Translate for me please private” he nods and I hear a click of his external speakers “You can relax we aren’t going to cut you open… slowly open your mouth then close it if you understand” To most everyone’s surprise it actually does. I can feel the evil smile coming from inside Tanya’s helmet.
I’m interrogating a fucking animal. This is ridiculous. That was before it showed it understood Jed. Now I have a crazy idea. No that doesn’t convey the sheer absurdity of it. “Jed ask it if it can speak” Griffin and Jed look at me for a moment before Jed complies. All the people who investigated the bodies are on the wall and they look curious.
Everyone’s expression immediately turns to one of shock when the thing speaks. Not well but it speaks “me can speak” it almost sounds like a child. my eyes are huge then I let out a cackle. Oh, this changes everything. I kneel down in front of it causing it to shrink back. “How old are you? Do you have a name”
It tilts its head “N-name” it questions “Green men call me DC-5-55” I shake my head “That’s a serial number anyway how old are you” I feel some rage building up inside at the fact someone would grow these things just to throw them into our guns. “Do not know” it finally answers.
One of the veterans raises a hand. I nod letting them speak “I believe we have some lab equipment in the bunker below in working order we can figure out if this is fully grown or still an adolescent as well as other paths of inquiry if we can get a blood sample,” I think for a moment “alright but it’s pretty docile at the moment so you get one attempt if I see any of you trying to collect samples or experiment without my expression permission I’ll feed you to it” the one who asked nods and I swear a few others are sweating heavily now.
I turn back to the creature “Alright one of the doctors is going to take a small amount of blood if you keep calm I’ll find you something tasty that’s not a person” Its eyes dart around “Will hurt? Me not like hurt” I tilt my head and click my radio telling them to start “It shouldn’t hurt… do you like hurting others” I ask genuinely curious if this is a fully bread psychopath or not.
The answer kind of surprises me “m-no but green men hurt me if I don't” Interesting. The man manages to gently pull a vile of blood and withdraw the needle without causing problems. “If you behave and don’t try and leave or hurt others we won’t hurt you” Its eyes light up “Are there others like you” Now for the meat of this, not that this hasn’t been fascinating.
“Many others like me they don’t like to hurt or be hurt” I stand up and walk for the tent opening waving to Griffin the head vet and Ivan. Once we get a decent ways away I turn and stop “It seems NATO can’t even make a killing machine in a lab correctly they made fucking pacifists” Everyone nods and the vet speaks up “It is a fascinating subject to be sure” I glair at him through my helmet which he seems to feel.
“What they have done is a crime against sentence. They grew it only to enslave it to die in droves” Griffin adds. I nod approvingly. “I believe they will deploy more and we can use it to our advantage. We will talk to this one more to get a better understanding then if we see any others preferably before they attack we will offer them a way out. They are acting like a wounded cornered animal”
I radio over to Bear. I hope what Ori has told me about him is right. “Could you do me a favor and bring a dead animal to the tent Sherman dropped off the package” With that I led us back in. The creature looks around with more curiosity now.
A few minutes later Bear walks in with a dead and cleaned sheep. I hold up a hand for him to pause “You have to promise to behave while you eat alright? We’ll undo your restraint” I fully trust Bear and Griffin to put it down if it tries anything. Hell Griffin covered its head in explosives so with a press of a button it’s dead. “Me promise”
The tent is tense as me Jed and Ivan release the cable and once they fall off we step back. It waits a moment then stands up and stretches. Not menacingly at least intentionally. It was simply moving stiff joints. It sits down more comfortably and waits. I wave Bear forward and he hands it the sheep which the creature accepts gently before biting deep into it.
All of this has shown incredible amounts of restraint or maybe a lack of interest in harming us in the first place. “Bear you're now it’s guard no one touches it without my permission and it doesn’t leave this tent without my permission. Ivan organize watches to work with Bear and a food schedule with the vets to keep it alive. I then turn to the creature “I’m going to call you Fünfur I don’t do serial numbers” I get the feeling the 104th just got essentially a family dog.
It's a few hours later and I’m looking over some reports while eating before I intend to get some rest. A wrench in the form of Ivan walks in, however. He stands just inside my tent waiting. I sigh and set down my tablet. “What do you need, take a seat” he moves stiffly to the chair and then sits ramrod straight. “Mam if I could ask a candid question”
I nod wondering why he’s so serious right now. “Why have you been defending my people when we are supposedly at war” There it is, I’ve been waiting for this. “See Ivan we wage war on states, not people well not normally plus you surrendered remember” he takes off his gas mask as the air inside the tents is tolerable.
“I still don’t understand how you can shift so quickly” I shrug “If one doesn’t adapt with haste in a war they die. Your people were no longer an obstacle to roll over so we shifted targets and as I’m not one to slaughter civilians I conscripted your soldiers to move them for me with the added benefit that they actually listened to their own soldiers instead of throwing bricks at occupiers”
He’s about to protest again but I stop him “Look if you really think it’s that big of a problem just declare that all those under your command and any who are willing are ceding from the Russian Federation and creating your own government, one that wishes friendly relations with mine” he raises his eyebrows “I can do that” I shrug again “who’s going to stop you the Russian military”
He slowly nods “I uh thank you I have a lot to think about” he gives a Russian salute and then leaves. I’m about to finish my dinner when Griffin walks in. “What the fuck do you need Griffin” he stops and I can see the gears turning as he thinks about whether he should escape now. Evidently, he doesn’t and he takes a seat.
“How’s your eye” I decide to throw what little protocol we have in the 104th out and eat anyway talking with my mouth full. Griffin doesn’t seem to mind. “It’s stopped hurting I’m off the pain meds. I’m planning on melting down my old visor into a glass eye” he gives a slow whistle “Sweet” I frown he’s here for a reason but he’s beating the bush.
“Why are you here Griffin I’m certain you're exhausted” he shrugs “Shure am but I wanted to check in on a friend first. From how irritated you are I’m guessing you haven’t slept much and were about to when me and Ivan stopped by” I nod while eating. “Alright then push more duties off onto your aids it’s why you have them and rest more. They will understand and probably want you to anyway”
I just silently eat and he sighs “You’ve always been stubborn” he pauses studying me for an uncomfortable amount of time “You actually died didn’t you… that burn isn’t natural it’s definitely a pattern too” I set down my plate loudly “your right. Your intuition is too sharp sometimes” he finally takes off his helmet.
He looks at me with soft eyes “So who’s right did you see God” I burst out laughing “Is that what you came here for” he quickly denies it “I was just asking while I was here” I think to myself and come to the conclusion that if I had to tell anyone it would in fact be griffin “well if you must know they are all wrong”
Big Game Hunting
I stare at the photos Tanya sent me after we finish our discussion. It almost looks like whatever killed them tried to cut through the hard armor and had to settle on the soft armor. It’s intelligent which makes it easy to catch because you can play mind games on it.
“Alright zombie Bate ready to actually be bate for once” Sergeant Frank sighs “Yes sir I assume you have a solid plan” I shrug “Probably. But you know how well plans and the enemy mix so instead trust the man by your side and your training”
I check my external microphone is off and signal for him to do the same “We’ll make it look like we are splitting the patrol by about a block, keeping a building between us. We’ll use Sherman’s sensor sweet to keep an eye on the surroundings, it’s worked so far, and once we see something move in on you that’s not human we’ll drive through the building and if all goes to plan run it over enough to capture it but not kill it”
Frank nods “Honestly not terrible the most glaring problem is the reliance on the sensors through all this shit but I guess that’s what the Mk1 eyeball is for” I laugh “It never fails” I pause and notice it’s getting darker soon to be pitch black “we’ll split up in the morning sergeant organize the watch”
The night passes with only the baleful wail of the wind. Everyone was on edge. We eat a quick meal, each of us hunched over to protect it from the ash as best we could.
Finally, we split up and I have everyone turn on their camera feeds to everyone here and officers at the impromptu base. Ever since my watch the hair on my neck has been on end. Something is stalking us.
We fake a patrol the entire day with no sightings but I still have that feeling. At dusk, I recall the other squad and we eat and sleep in shifts.
It’s the third day now and there haven’t been any other attacks on the main unit but Tanya has also halted patrols. They are just throwing punches back and forth with the Nato artillery. Nothing serious.
I still feel like something is watching and I know it’s not a drone because Sherman has been keeping his sensors peeled. Dusk is encroaching and still nothing. I get ready to call back zombie bate when I spot a flash of movement.
I spin around to look raising my rifle when I’m launched back through a wall. Again. I hit my head hard and feel a little dazed but adrenaline drowns it out and I’m climbing out of the hole I made.
What I see amazes me. It looks like a fifteen-foot-tall lizard but I know it can’t be a reptile due to the cold. It has a long tail ending in a point or blade and has digitigrade feet and huge claw-tipped fingers on the hands.
Sherman is rotating the tank and the rest of the squad is staying on the other side using it as a shield. I take a second to look for my gun when zombie Bate emerges from the house that separated us. With a swift move from the beast, it rips one’s arm off and nearly disembowels another.
“Fuck it” I mumble to myself and sprint at it pulling my knife. Its back is turned to me. I leap through the air and land on its shoulders holding one of its horns. It tries to shake me off with no success. I punch it in the head with my robotic replacement and it seems to have some effect.
I pull back and hit it harder again and again as it desperately tries to reach up and throw me off. I throw a final haymaker landing it with a resounding crack and the creature slumps. “Quick bring over some plastic” referring to some plastic explosive. I’m handed a satchel and put it on around the horns and on the head fitting the detonator deep. “Barbosa what do you need to stabilize them” I point at the two injured men.
I check who’s injured. A corporal is the one missing an arm and Frank is the one in critical condition. “Jed help him. Brick grab the tow cables and bring them here” Jed jumps to assisting Barbosa and Brick brings over the heavy cables.
With his help, we heave the arms behind this thing and bind them tight then move to the legs and eventually get it in something resembling a hogtie. At this time I stand up and take a step back with some slight disbelief. We actually got it alive and it was able to get through our armor joints like paper.
I feel a jab in my neck and see Barbosa standing next to me “I’m starting to think you want brain damage you get one of these nearly every mission” Jed quips in over the comm “Nah he just needs a padded helmet” We all burst with laughter.
After a moment I stop and stare “So and suggestion on how to get it back I don’t think dragging would be advised” Sherman pops his head out of the tank squints at the thing then hops out and closely inspects it. After a few minutes, he declares “We can probably hang it from the barrels and if er careful we won’t fuck ‘em up”
No one else has an idea “We’ll give it a shot but the second it compromises the barrels you drop it” We spend over an hour slinging the tied-up creature to the barrels having to rotate them behind the tank making for an interesting picture.
“Alright, everyone onto the tank” We all climb aboard and Sherman speeds away. I definitely owe Frank a beer but seeing as he’s terrible bate I think it evens out.
We ride on the track pods and Sherman weaves through the burned-out city. I take the ride back to appreciate the republic's advancements. Real armor to protect its sons in battle, not a single plate that might help you. And modern vehicles and a willingness to scrap an old design for a new one instead of forcing stopgaps onto a chassis older than the men designing the additions. That all said I’d love to see an American tank navigate instead here at this speed.
We are inside friendly lines in less than an hour. The men cheer as we approached and gawked at the creature. We turned off the live feeds once we captured it but despite that the base knew exactly when we arrived. Several medics get our wounded onto stretchers and take them away and I wave the rest of zombie to go with their squad.
Tanya Ivan and some others approach us “Fantastic work and an especially impressive job to not have any fatalities. Now let’s bring it over to that larger tent. Leave it tied up” The last part is obvious. Sherman drives it over and backs it in settling it down.
Tanya raises her voice “Everyone on the far wall you may watch but you are prohibited from approaching. You may pass on requests but may not perform them yourself” She waved at me and we look closer at the thing. It almost seems to shrink away.
“Tell me major” Tanya starts then pauses a moment before continuing “Does it look intelligent” I look at its face seemingly engineered to be a brutal killing apparatus and I see a glint in the eyes. I think possibly in understanding of its surroundings and predicament. “I’d say at least that of a dog but if you're going to grow a killing monster you’d want it to be able to understand orders. It was also stalking us and attacked the main group, not the bait in a gambit to throw us off”
She nods. “Can you have Jed come in it’ll likely only understand americanese” I radio him over and a few minutes later he slips in. “Translate for me please private” he nods and I hear a click of his external speakers “You can relax we aren’t going to cut you open… slowly open your mouth then close it if you understand” To most everyone’s surprise it actually does. I can feel the evil smile coming from inside Tanya’s helmet.
I’m interrogating a fucking animal. This is ridiculous. That was before it showed it understood Jed. Now I have a crazy idea. No that doesn’t convey the sheer absurdity of it. “Jed ask it if it can speak” Griffin and Jed look at me for a moment before Jed complies. All the people who investigated the bodies are on the wall and they look curious.
Everyone’s expression immediately turns to one of shock when the thing speaks. Not well but it speaks “me can speak” it almost sounds like a child. my eyes are huge then I let out a cackle. Oh, this changes everything. I kneel down in front of it causing it to shrink back. “How old are you? Do you have a name”
It tilts its head “N-name” it questions “Green men call me DC-5-55” I shake my head “That’s a serial number anyway how old are you” I feel some rage building up inside at the fact someone would grow these things just to throw them into our guns. “Do not know” it finally answers.
One of the veterans raises a hand. I nod letting them speak “I believe we have some lab equipment in the bunker below in working order we can figure out if this is fully grown or still an adolescent as well as other paths of inquiry if we can get a blood sample,” I think for a moment “alright but it’s pretty docile at the moment so you get one attempt if I see any of you trying to collect samples or experiment without my expression permission I’ll feed you to it” the one who asked nods and I swear a few others are sweating heavily now.
I turn back to the creature “Alright one of the doctors is going to take a small amount of blood if you keep calm I’ll find you something tasty that’s not a person” Its eyes dart around “Will hurt? Me not like hurt” I tilt my head and click my radio telling them to start “It shouldn’t hurt… do you like hurting others” I ask genuinely curious if this is a fully bread psychopath or not.
The answer kind of surprises me “m-no but green men hurt me if I don't” Interesting. The man manages to gently pull a vile of blood and withdraw the needle without causing problems. “If you behave and don’t try and leave or hurt others we won’t hurt you” Its eyes light up “Are there others like you” Now for the meat of this, not that this hasn’t been fascinating.
“Many others like me they don’t like to hurt or be hurt” I stand up and walk for the tent opening waving to Griffin the head vet and Ivan. Once we get a decent ways away I turn and stop “It seems NATO can’t even make a killing machine in a lab correctly they made fucking pacifists” Everyone nods and the vet speaks up “It is a fascinating subject to be sure” I glair at him through my helmet which he seems to feel.
“What they have done is a crime against sentence. They grew it only to enslave it to die in droves” Griffin adds. I nod approvingly. “I believe they will deploy more and we can use it to our advantage. We will talk to this one more to get a better understanding then if we see any others preferably before they attack we will offer them a way out. They are acting like a wounded cornered animal”
I radio over to Bear. I hope what Ori has told me about him is right. “Could you do me a favor and bring a dead animal to the tent Sherman dropped off the package” With that I led us back in. The creature looks around with more curiosity now.
A few minutes later Bear walks in with a dead and cleaned sheep. I hold up a hand for him to pause “You have to promise to behave while you eat alright? We’ll undo your restraint” I fully trust Bear and Griffin to put it down if it tries anything. Hell Griffin covered its head in explosives so with a press of a button it’s dead. “Me promise”
The tent is tense as me Jed and Ivan release the cable and once they fall off we step back. It waits a moment then stands up and stretches. Not menacingly at least intentionally. It was simply moving stiff joints. It sits down more comfortably and waits. I wave Bear forward and he hands it the sheep which the creature accepts gently before biting deep into it.
All of this has shown incredible amounts of restraint or maybe a lack of interest in harming us in the first place. “Bear you're now it’s guard no one touches it without my permission and it doesn’t leave this tent without my permission. Ivan organize watches to work with Bear and a food schedule with the vets to keep it alive. I then turn to the creature “I’m going to call you Fünfur I don’t do serial numbers” I get the feeling the 104th just got essentially a family dog.
It's a few hours later and I’m looking over some reports while eating before I intend to get some rest. A wrench in the form of Ivan walks in, however. He stands just inside my tent waiting. I sigh and set down my tablet. “What do you need, take a seat” he moves stiffly to the chair and then sits ramrod straight. “Mam if I could ask a candid question”
I nod wondering why he’s so serious right now. “Why have you been defending my people when we are supposedly at war” There it is, I’ve been waiting for this. “See Ivan we wage war on states, not people well not normally plus you surrendered remember” he takes off his gas mask as the air inside the tents is tolerable.
“I still don’t understand how you can shift so quickly” I shrug “If one doesn’t adapt with haste in a war they die. Your people were no longer an obstacle to roll over so we shifted targets and as I’m not one to slaughter civilians I conscripted your soldiers to move them for me with the added benefit that they actually listened to their own soldiers instead of throwing bricks at occupiers”
He’s about to protest again but I stop him “Look if you really think it’s that big of a problem just declare that all those under your command and any who are willing are ceding from the Russian Federation and creating your own government, one that wishes friendly relations with mine” he raises his eyebrows “I can do that” I shrug again “who’s going to stop you the Russian military”
He slowly nods “I uh thank you I have a lot to think about” he gives a Russian salute and then leaves. I’m about to finish my dinner when Griffin walks in. “What the fuck do you need Griffin” he stops and I can see the gears turning as he thinks about whether he should escape now. Evidently, he doesn’t and he takes a seat.
“How’s your eye” I decide to throw what little protocol we have in the 104th out and eat anyway talking with my mouth full. Griffin doesn’t seem to mind. “It’s stopped hurting I’m off the pain meds. I’m planning on melting down my old visor into a glass eye” he gives a slow whistle “Sweet” I frown he’s here for a reason but he’s beating the bush.
“Why are you here Griffin I’m certain you're exhausted” he shrugs “Shure am but I wanted to check in on a friend first. From how irritated you are I’m guessing you haven’t slept much and were about to when me and Ivan stopped by” I nod while eating. “Alright then push more duties off onto your aids it’s why you have them and rest more. They will understand and probably want you to anyway”
I just silently eat and he sighs “You’ve always been stubborn” he pauses studying me for an uncomfortable amount of time “You actually died didn’t you… that burn isn’t natural it’s definitely a pattern too” I set down my plate loudly “your right. Your intuition is too sharp sometimes” he finally takes off his helmet.
He looks at me with soft eyes “So who’s right did you see God” I burst out laughing “Is that what you came here for” he quickly denies it “I was just asking while I was here” I think to myself and come to the conclusion that if I had to tell anyone it would in fact be griffin “well if you must know they are all wrong”
