After spending the night digging in and talking about nothing, they settled in. The maned wolf dug their fox hole deeper to avoid the chilling wind and hid in the now trench he dug. It was pitch black, and the wolf could not see anything through his visor, which would outline and identify any vehicle or person visible through the darkness. Throughout the night the maned wolf clutched his handwarmers and rarely stuck his head out. They were not expecting any resistance, so much of the rest of their squad were doing the same. They were told that they landed on the underpopulated farmland of “North Dakota” and shouldn’t expect much resistance from the local population.

As the sun rose, their diligence did not change much. Every once in a while, they’d see a vehicle on the road, but as soon as they shot at it, it would turn around and quickly leave. The cycle of waiting for hours, shooting warning shots at a vehicle, then waiting again became tiring as the frequency of the vehicles slowed down. On the third day they only saw one vehicle. The transports had left , and both of the squads who took over the missile silo became very anxious and bored.

As the wolf looked back, he noticed several of his squamates walking around and standing out in the open, talking. The coyote, his squad leader, amongst them. The maned wolf was sitting on the ledge of the foxhole/trench he built eating his field ration, not seeming too worried about any danger. “You know” the maned wolf says in between bites, “ If it wasn’t for all this snow, and cold, It'd kinda look like Camlip, Pankaniemi where my family is from.”

The wolf looks at him, “People get delusional the last stages of frostbite.”

“I’ve never been there, what about Bonnkau? You ever been there?”

“Once, as a kid. I don’t remember it.”

“What was it like?”

“Like flat? No there’s a lot of mountains. I think I’ve told you this before”

“Sure, but I don’t remember it”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere as flat as this wasteland.”

“How do people even live he-“

“Were packing up, the whole platoon is going west” the coyote said, walking past their foxhole.

“Fucking finally” the maned wolf said as he quickly stowed his grenade launcher and ammo, packing away his equipment in a hurry. The wolf was not so hasty, continued to look at the road. The maned wolf finished gathering his gear and started heading away. “Hey, Johannes no one’s coming. Pack it up I don’t want to have to stay here any longer than I have to”.

“You go ahead, I just have to carry this, plus the transports aren’t even here.” the wolf says as he lightly slaps his heavy blaster.

“Alight, sure bounding retreat, whatever” the manned wolf says while leaving, obviously ready to go. The wolf remained in his foxhole as the rest of his squad gathered, waiting for the arrival of their transports due any minute. The wolf could see them come in over the horizon, but as they got closer he could see that there was only one transport, and two gunships. They landed next to the small building, and eager to leave, Charlie squad, the one to take and hold the bunker rushed in.

“Where’s ours?” The maned wolf asks the coyote.

“We’re in the gunships”.

“Sir there is no room for me in there, it’s too small”.

“We could leave you here if you want” the coyote says smugly “lay down if you have to, but this is the ride we got”. The maned wolf looked over at the foxhole he dug to see the wolf finally getting out and making his way over. He got in the gunship and even as he bent down to fit in the door his ears dragged along the top of the door, flicking back into position as he got inside. He sat down on a seat too small for him, and attempted to sit up, but banged his head on the ceiling. 5 more of his squad mates squeezed in including the coyote all too happy sitting next to the maned wolf, accommodating his small stature.

The wolf reached the gunship, and looked in, seeing that it was now full. “It’s full go to the other” the coyote said. The wolf gave the maned wolf a glance before leaving and heading to the other gunship, which was similarly stuffed. He squeezed in the last empty seat and just a minute later they were in the air. The gunship provided less amenities as transports, the most prevalent of them being the noise. It was very loud, deafening. The gunships were not designed to haul troops for long distances, so the wolf hoped they didn’t have to go too far. Inside there were no windows or portholes, when the doors are closed you cannot see anything outside.

The ride was terrible, the gunship shook, and its passengers were bombarded we the constant noise of the engines. After a few hours they all were anxious to get out. Suddenly the gunship turned hard, throwing everyone inside. As they all repositioned in their seats a large explosion rocked the gunship, blowing one of the doors open. The passengers quickly regained their composure and held onto their seats. The gunship started spinning, the noise from the engines started to sputter then go out. No one said a word as they all braced for the impact.

The wolf was knocked out, his head being thrown violently against the wall.

The wolf slowly woke up, his blurred vison not able to make anything out at first. But soon instinct took over and he crawled over one of his limp squad mates grabbing his heavy blaster and then crawling for the door. He could see just light, as he squeezed his way through the half-open door. Outside he started hearing voices, some familiar, others not. But he was so disoriented he couldn’t make anything out. He attempted to stand but fell over clutching his blaster. His vision started to clear, making out small figures approaching them, but still he couldn’t make anything out.

He hears a blaster go off, then lots of small explosions coming from the figure’s direction. He recognized the sound from the training they received before the invasion, the sound of human small arms fire. He attempted to raise his blaster but couldn’t get it up. He none the less squeezed the trigger hoping by some miracle he’d hit something, but the bolts just shot up the ground next to him. His whole body hurt, and he had used all of his strength attempting to raise his blaster. He collapsed, falling over himself sliding down the side of the gunship until he hit the snowy ground. He then lost consciousness again.

When he woke up his vison was quicker to return to him, the sensation of rocking and bumping was the first thing he noticed, he was tied down in the back of a covered truck surrounded by humans. He could hear that they were talking, but they were mumbled words flowing together, not like he could have understood them anyways. Johannes, finally able to understand what was going on, grew terrified. As soon as they saw that he was awake he heard them laughing, pointing at him. It seemed like they were making fun of him, but of course he couldn’t understand what they were saying. All he could do with his arms and legs tied down was to bear his teeth. The humans continued to laugh, with one petting him like a dog. He snapped at his arm, almost biting it. The human jumped back laughing. One human got out some tape and grabbed Johannes by the muzzle. He wrapped the tape around his muzzle to ensure he wouldn’t bite anyone.

The laughter died down, but the unintelligible talking continued. The wolf was unable to be comfortable, not only were his binds very tight, but his chest hurt, and his tail was obviously broken. That’s not to mention the massive headache he was having. He tried to relax, closing his eyes, ignoring his captors.

After to him what seemed like hours of torture, the truck slowed down then eventually stopped. Opening his eyes, he sees the humans start to jump out of the tuck. He picks his head up and sees one pick up one end of the stretcher he was tied to. The human picks it up and the other end rises with it. He looks forward seeing another stretcher, with one of his squad mates tied on it, not moving. The wolf sets his head down. He looks over to his right to see a bunch of humans roaming around the lot, hanging around vehicles, some tending to them and others doing nothing. He heard some commotion, and then he saw many of them get up and rush towards him.

They swarmed him, each trying to get a look at him, some reaching out to touch him. With the tape on his muzzle, he couldn’t do anything about it. As they went through a door, he just then realized how much his head hurt looking at the sun, and now feeling the relief of relative darkness. The crowd was left at the door, now just a small number of humans escorted him. He attempted to keep his eyes open to attempt to figure out where he was going. Raising his head, the human to his right pushed his head back down.

The pain in his head was too much, he had to close his eyes. They went through another few doors, each time the wolf opened his eyes to figure out where he was, but each time he was confronted by bright white florescent lights and was forced to close his eyes. Eventually he stopped, opening his eyes he saw what to him seemed like a primitive operating room. An uncomfortable looking bed, bright lights, humans in white clothing wearing masks, and strange looking equipment. He looks over and sees his squad mate get loaded onto a bed opposite of him.

The wolf gets loaded onto the bed, the light above him blinding him. He is forced to close his eyes once again. He hears a lot of discussion, even arguing. He can’t focus on them, the pain overwhelming his senses. The wolf can see a small crowd of humans surrounding him, some with small arms, others with unrecognizable devices. He is startled when he feels something on his hand, he opens his eyes to see a human in white clothing approaching him on his right side. As the human approaches he says something to him. The wolf is unable to understand him, and with the tape still around his muzzle just licks his lips and tries to respond with something, but mumbles come out.

The human slowly reaches for his face, the wolf knowing he probably wanted to remove the tape around his muzzle looks away. The human slowly and carefully cuts the tape with a scalpel. As he finishes, the wolf opens his mouth and takes a deep breath, cut short by pain in his chest. He instinctively tenses up. The human says something again, it sounded like the same thing he said before. This time the wolf responds “I can’t understand you, you need to get my translator” but no one in the room seemed to understand him. Instead, everyone in the room quietly mumbled to each other seeming in awe that he could speak.

Frustrated, he sets his head back down and relaxes for a second. The human again says something, but the wolf didn’t even try to understand it, knowing it was not worth the effort. He looked down to his hands still tied to the stretcher lying on the bed. And motioned to them with his eyes and head, and then looked at the human saying, “You have to untie me, we can’t understand each other”. The human seemed to get what he was trying to communicate, but as he reached with his scalpel, an objection was sounded by someone in the room. The wolf witnesses them arguing, no doubt arguing whether untying him was a good idea or not. Eventually the objector seemed to be convinced by the human in the white clothing, and he started to cut the rope on his left hand.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The wolf relaxes, setting his head down. He knows he is powerless and cannot fight them. The human continues to cut the rope. As he finishes, he quickly backs away as the wolf stretches his arm and hand before setting it down on the bed. The human, after a pause, goes around to the other side, and does the same to the rope on his right hand. The wolf slowly, not to startle them, makes the motion of writing, one hand acting as the paper and the other the pen, “You have to get something I can write with”. The humans seem to get it and scramble to find the materials.

The wolf relaxes, knowing that he is making progress. The human in the white clothing hands him a strange looking stack of paper and what looks like a pen. The wolf attempts to write on the paper but nothing is being written. He examines the pen, unsure why it is not writing. The human realizes this and takes the pen from him. He clicks a button at the top of the pen, and a point comes out of the bottom. Then he uses the pen to scribble on the paper to show it is now working.

He hands the pen back to the wolf and he clicks the pen’s button a few times examining how it works. The wolf then starts to draw, being watched by humans on either side. He first draws a stick figure with ears and a tail. He then looks at the human who gave him the pen and points to the figure, then to him. The human nods, seeming to understand what he was trying to communicate. The wolf then draws a ling to the arm of the figure, to the wrist, attempting to get them to find his wrist tablet containing the translator. After drawing it, he clasps his wrist “I need my Ismount, it goes on my arm, I was wearing it when you captured me, it’s a translator.”

The humans seemed confused, which prompted the wolf to attempt to draw it on the paper. He quickly sketches an arm with a device with a screen on it, “This is what it looks like, you had to have found it on me, get it”. The wolf hands the sketch to the human, and he studies it. He brings it over to the crowd watching. They each take a turn looking at it seeming to discuss it. One human wearing white clothing gets excited and runs over to a tub, he opens it and rummages around in it. He finds the Ismount, looks over to the wolf pointing at it.

“Yes!” The wolf says he says excited, and motions for him to bring it over to him. The human begins to walk over but is stopped by another. The camo wearing human inspects the device, tapping its screen. “It’s a translator” the wolf says, knowing the translator was only as secondary function of it. The camo wearing human hands it back to the other, after finding no obvious signs it’s a weapon. The human approaches the wolf and hands the Ismount to him. The wolf quickly takes it from him and starts to press multiple buttons on the screen. The crowd restlessly shuffles and those who are armed ready their weapons. The wolf looks up, seeing some of the crowd at the low-ready position. He slows down not to frighten them.

He presses the final button and says “It’s not a weapon, it’s a translator”. Once he finishes, the Ismount speaks in their language, and the humans sit in stunned silence. The crowd lowers their weapons, and the tension in the room quickly eased as the human next to him says something, but this time the Ismount repeats after he speaks “Can you understand me?”

“Yes, this device translates to your language” the wolf says pointing at the Ismount. After the Ismount repeats what he said some of the humans laugh others still sit in stunned silence.

“Who are you, why did you come here?” Someone wearing camo in the crowd says. Recognizing him as military the wolf identifies himself “Lance Corporal Johannes Konradsohn 33rd Hopfengarten Mountaineer Division.” The humans process what he said for a second before one responded, “Lance Corporal?”

“Yes, that’s my rank. This device translates ranks, measurements, and other things like that to closest match in other languages” Johannes says.

“Why are you here, why are you invading Earth?” the same camo wearing human asks.

“I’m a soldier, I was ordered to.”

“Who gave you that order? Where are you from? How many men in your division? How many other of your divisions are there?” The man in the camo says stepping forward, taking over the conversation.

“I’m from Hopfengarten, a planet, I don’t know like 200 light years away.”

“How did you get here?”

“On a ship?” Johannes responds confused.

“Where is your ship? How many are there?”

“I’m not going to tell you about our fleet composition if that’s what you’re asking, not that you could do anything with it anyways” Johannes says laying back.

“So, there’s a whole fleet of ships out there?”

“Yes”.

“How many of you landed? What are your objectives?”

“I will not answer that.” The man in came grows frustrated, stepping forward. He leans in “You better, otherwise you’re going to get hurt. I don’t think the Geneva convention covers aliens.” Some of the humans in the room looked around worried, others seemed emboldened by what he said.

“I’ll tell you this, your cause is pointless, you’ll never win.” The man in camo walks back to Johannes and says, “Why’s that?”

“Your planet has 9 billion. The Eckzahn Union has 243 billion citizens.”

“You’re a soldier, right? So, you can understand me when I say I’d die for my country. I don’t care what the odds are. We’re not going to give up because you say so.”

“Alright, you’re fighting an enemy who could totally destroy you, you should surrender to preserve your way of life, before it comes to that.”

“Even the more reason to fight” the man in camo says proudly.

Johannes looks over to the other side of the room, looking at his still unconscious squad mate. A couple of humans are examining him, and one sticks something in his arm. “Hey! Don’t touch him!” Johannes yells. They stop before the translator can translate. “There should have been a scanner, uh, it has a handle like a gun, but it’s a medical scanner in the gunship. Let me use it on him. Don’t stick any of your primitive shit in him”.

“We can’t do that” the human next to him says.

“Don’t touch him, you have no idea how to treat us” Johannes says.

“How do we treat you? How different are you and I?” The man next to him asks. “My name is Arthur by the way.”

“I’m not a doctor, but I think we have the same organs, but don’t put any chemicals in him they aren’t going to work the same as they would on a human.”

“Are you injured? You were in the same crash as he was?” Arthur says seeming to be genuinely concerned.

“I’m pretty sure I broke a rib or two, and my tail, but if you get me that scanner, I could tell you for sure.”

“Absolutely not, if you don’t want treatment, you won’t get it” the man in camo speaks up, “although maybe if you also don’t want to answer my questions maybe we will treat you”.

“I’m not going to tell you anything”.

“Doctor, give him something for his pain, broken ribs hurt a lot.” Arthur looks at him, confused “Sir, I don’t know how he will respond to pain medication, he’s probably right when he says he’ll react differently.”

“That’s an order”.

“I’m not under your command, my patient doesn’t want to be treated, so he won’t. And it would be malpractice to give a drug to a patient knowing it will have unknown side effects.” Arthur says.

“It’s an alien who cares?”

“I’m not giving him anything that might hurt him.” The man in camo grows more frustrated saying “I don’t think you understand the gravity of our situation. We are being invaded by aliens, they have proven that they are much more advanced than us, this is our chance to learn about them, maybe find some weakness we can exploit”.

“Yes, but torture is still out of the question. You’re going to have to find some other way of getting your information.”

The man in camo asks, “Alight fine, are you willing to tell is how your laser guns work”?

“They’re not lasers, they fire plasma bolts” Johannes responds.

“How do they work?”

“You point at what you want to shoot and pull the trigger”.

“Alright smartass, I mean how did you construct them? the ammo, how do you contain plasma in the cartridges?”

“I will not tell you that”. The man in came returns to his frustrated state.

“Sir, I don’t think you’re going to get that sort of information out of him”.

Johannes responds, “I won’t, I’d rather die than give you any information that could aid your effort. You’re a soldier you’d understand.” Johannes and the man in camo stare each other down, both understanding each other, and their efforts. The man in camo steps back,

The man next to him, Arthur, asks Johannes “What is your planet like? Is it like this one?”

“It’s got a lot more mountains, it’s a mining planet, we export materials.”

“Who do you export them to?”

A bit confused by the question Johannes responds, “Usually just other planets in the Union, but sometime outside of it.”

“So, there are more civilizations besides your own?”

“Yeah, plenty”.

“How many? 10? 20?”

“Maybe like 50? I’m not sure, I don’t really think anyone’s counting that.”

“Why did your civilization come here, earth I mean, surely it existed much sooner than we did.”

“I really don’t know, I’m just a soldier.”

“You don’t know, or you don’t want to tell me”.

“I don’t know, but if I had to guess, it’s for your resources. Don’t know any other reason why we’d want to control a planet full of primitives.”

“You keep using that word ‘primitives’ are we primitive to you?”

“Yes, you don’t have ships, and your planet is still divided. That’s very primitive.” Arthur then changes his questioning. He asks Johannes “What exactly are you, what do you call yourself, your people?”

“I’m a wolf”.

“A wolf?”

“Yes.”

“We have wolves here, but they don’t look like you, well sort of, they don’t walk on two feet or talk.”

“What?”

“Someone find a picture of a wolf or a dog or something” Arthur asks to the crowd. They look around at each other, each wanting someone else to go. “And your civilization, are they all wolves?”

“No, the Eckzahn Union gives citizenship to all canines, but most of us are wolves.”

“Other canines?”

“Foxes, coyotes, maned wolves, like them. Hah you’ve probably never seen any of them either probably”.

“Oh no I have, but like our wolves, they don’t walk on two legs”.

“The translator must be broken or something. I was told only humans live here”.

“There are a lot of animals, but humans are the only intelligent ones”. Johannes looks at him offended.

“Are you calling me an animal?”

“No! No! I just mean- “A man in white clothing hands him a small device “Oh here good, look” he turns the device around showing a picture of a four-legged creature with the face of a wolf. Johannes examines the photo closely, grabbing the device from him. “What is this?”

“That’s our wolf.” Arthur says.

“That’s not a wolf, it just looks like one”.

“Alright, whatever you say”. Arthur sits back seeming to think about what to ask next. He sits up saying “Do you have a family? Parents? A girlfriend”. The other humans in the room groan seeming to think this line of questioning will be a waste of time.

“I have a wife and son” Johannes says while reaching in his breast pocket. He finds the picture he stored there and brings it out. He gives it a quick look before handing it to Arthur. Arthur looks at it. It is made from some resilient material, and features a female wolf with brown fur, and a small baby with dark fur being held by the woman.

“This is your wife?” Arthur asks.

“Yes, we’ve been married for three years, we just had our son before I got shipped out here.” Johannes says, hoping to gain some sympathy from the humans.

“How old are you?” Arthur says getting more curious.

“20, I married Emilie when we got out of secondary school.” Johannes feels his left arm but finds his arm band was gone. Panicked he says “My armband, its silver, please give it to me. My wife will kill me if I lose it, please”. Arthur gets up and heads for the tub of equipment they foraged from the crash. After a minute of carefully digging around he pulls out a light silver band with floral patterns big enough to fit around his arm. He turns around to see Johannes sigh with relief. “Thank the Gods.” Arthur gives it back to Johannes and he puts it around his arm and twists it around looking for some comfort. He leans back in the bed and closes his eyes, the pain in his head almost unbearable. Arthur notices this and asks, “Where are you hurting?”

“My head, I banged my head during the crash”.

“Would you like to rest?”

“Yes, please” Johannes says arm covering his eyes.

Arthur stands up and flicks off the lights leaving only a small number of lights. Johannes uncovers his eyes and looks at his squad mate, Ubel, still unconscious. “Doctor, what are you doing?”

“They’re injured. If you want any information out of them, you must give them some rest, show them that you’re willing to help them, then he might be willing to give you more”.

Johannes relaxes, looking at Ubel. He took this moment to think about everything that happened. How his gunship crashed, got taken prisoner. It all happened so quickly, he looks at the photo of Emilie, thinking about how he has to get back. Also thinking of Tahvo, wondering if his gunship crashed, or if he is in a similar situation. He looks around the room at several guards, looking back at him, all with a mean look on their faces.