Johannes tried to rest his eyes, most of the humans had left, leaving only a small number of guards. The pain in his chest and head prevented him from relaxing. He restlessly turns in the bed, his legs still strapped down, trying to find a comfortable position but unable to. He opens his eyes looking at Ubel, still unconscious, and then to the guards. They looked back at him, resolute and vigilant in their job. Just then an idea came into his mind. He reaches to his Ismount on his left arm and adjusts it, turning on the screen. He presses a few buttons on the screen, holding down the last one, activating the silent SOS beacon. A guard noticed that he was fiddling with it, “Hey! Stop that.” Johannes stops and raises his hands, not letting the Ismount translate first. The guard then grabs his arms and takes the Ismount off.
“How do you turn it off?” the Guard asks.
“I won’t be able to talk to you” Johannes responds.
“I don’t care, turn it off” the guard gives it back to Johannes, and he turns off the translator function, leaving the beacon active. He hands it back to the guard and pockets the Ismount returning to his post. Johannes allowed himself to relax now, he set his head back on the bed, and attempted to get some rest.
Just after he started to fall asleep, he was awoken by Ubel’s panicked voice saying “Where am I? Johannes!”
“Calm down, they captured us when the gunship crashed.”
“The humans?” Ubel said while one of the guards approached and attempted to talk to him, but the translator on the Ismount was still off.
“Where are the others? Adis? Irham?” Ubel said confused, “Why am I tied down and you aren’t?!”
“I don’t know where they are, I just saw them take me and you.”
“Fucking company couldn’t get us a damn varlet. My fucking everything hurts”.
“You’ve been out for a while. Take it easy, you probably hit your head good”.
“Shit, I feel like my head is going to explode, I think my leg is broken too, and these damn ropes don’t help” Uble grunts as he tried to readjust.
The guard who took Johannes’ Ismount handed it back to him saying something, Johannes took this as him telling him to turn it back on. “They have no idea what we are, just stay calm I don’t think they’re going to hurt us” Johannes says while turning the translator on the Ismount back on.
“It’s on” Johannes says as he straps it back on his wrist. The guard grabs it off his wrist and brings it over to Ubel. “Hey, it can hear the both of us from here, bring it back”.
“How about I stand here” the guard says standing in the middle of the room halfway between Johannes and Ubel. “Fine” Johannes says knowing that the guard doesn’t like him.
Arthur comes back in the room, first looking at Johannes, but then to Ubel. “What’s your name?” Ubel says nothing, looking at Johannes.
“Telling them your name doesn't count for treason” Johannes says.
“Ubel” he says as he tries to face away.
“I tried to get them to give me the med scanner, they won’t let me use it” Johannes says to Ubel “Look uh, what’s your name?” he says to Arthur.
“Arthur”
“He’s hurt bad, just let me scan him, I promise I won’t try anything”. Arthur thinks for a second, considering his offer “Get him the scanner”.
“Doctor, what if he goes for a weapon” a guard says.
“I don’t think he will.”
A guard finds the scanner and brings it over to Johannes and hands it to him. “I have to be next to him. It won’t work this far away.” The doctor gets the scalpel he used to cut the ropes earlier and walks over to Johannes “We’re going to have to tie you back down once you’re done”.
“Understood”.
As Arthur cuts the ropes the guards ready their weapons, expecting Johannes to jump at them. Instead, Johannes waits for a second after the ropes were cut and slowly gets off the bed. He stands up, and as he puts his weight on his feet recoils. His ankle is sprained. He tests standing all the way up, and then slowly limps over to Ubel. He walks past the guard with his Ismount, the human now fully aware of the size and bulk of the aliens. Johannes towers over him with a full head and has bulk along with his height. Johannes leans over Ubel and turns on the scanner.
Starting with his head Johannes works his way down slowly, stopping over his chest and leg. “Yeah, you have a massive concussion, your back is broken, along with your ribs and leg. You’ve got internal bleeding, but it’s not a lot. You should be fine for a while if you don’t move too much”
“Is there anything we can do?” Arthur asks.
“I don’t want you to do anything. You’ll probably just do more damage.”
Johannes then turns the scanner on himself, confirming what he already believed, a concussion, broken ribs and tail. He doesn’t say anything, and just looks at the scanner.
“What about you? What does it say?” Arthur asks.
“Broken bones, concussion.”
“Johannes, am I going to die?” Ubel asks in a somber tone.
“No”.
“If we don’t stop his internal bleeding he will die” Arthur butts in.
“I won’t let you operate on him”.
“You have no say about what we do” The man in the camo says as he returns, “Why the hell is he untied?”
“I untied him” Arthur says.
“Why the hell did you do that?”
“This one, Ubel, he woke up and we wanted to know how he was injured. Johannes says that he doesn’t trust us to know how to help him, and I think I agree”.
“Get him back on the bed” the man in camo says at the guards. Johannes limps back on the bed careful not to sit on his broken tail. The guards get more rope and tie his legs back down. “How hurt is this one?”
Arthur responded, “Pretty bad, he has internal bleeding, if we don’t fix it soon, he’ll bleed out.” Ubel grimaces looking at Johannes. Johannes gives him a determined face back. The man in camo leans over Ubel “Got any last words, maybe some locations, movements?” Ubel says nothing, only baring his teeth at him.
“Well, if he’s going to die anyways why don’t you cut him up and see what he’s made of”.
“You will not touch him” Johannes says sternly.
The man in camo walks over to him and says, “What are you going to do about it?”
Johannes, knowing he cannot really do anything, sits back.
“Well doctor, here’s you chance, try to stop the bleeding” the man in camo says as he starts to walk out, “Maybe after we save his life, he might tell us something”. As he leaves the room, Ubel says “Johannes how long, do you think?”
“For what?” Johannes asks.
“For me”.
“I don’t know I’m not a doctor.”
Arthur interjects “I promise I’ll try my best”.
“That’s reassuring” Ubel says dejectedly.
“Alright, before I do, can I ask a few questions?” Arthur asks.
Ubel looks away, accepting his fate. Arthur looks at Johannes, saying “Internally, how similar are we, am I going to find everything in the same place”?
“I’m not a doctor, uh, I think so, but not everything.”
“I’m assuming we can’t give him blood”.
“No, I don’t think so”.
“I wonder, can you give him blood?”
“Uh, I don’t know if we have the same type”.
“What about your scanner, will it tell us?”
“Uh … probably? I don’t know how to use it like that, I’ve only been trained using the scanning function”.
Arthur hands the scanner to Johannes “Let’s try”.
Johannes scrolls through the functions on the scanner, looking for blood type. After some fiddling, he scans himself, then looking at the screen he points to the top portion. “Here it displays the type”.
Arthur looks at it, and unable to read what it says “Ok, how do we test his?”
Johannes hands the scanner to Arthur and says, “hold the trigger and point it towards him, when it beeps bring it over to me.”
Arthur does what Johannes says, he scans Ubel, then returns to Johannes. He hands Johannes the scanner and Johannes looks at the screen and sighs. “What is it”?
“We’re not the same type.”
“Maybe you are still compatible, some human blood types are compatible with each other.”
“No, it says we’re not compatible”.
“What about Anesthesia will it work on him?”
“I don’t know.”
Arthur opens his hand expecting Johannes to give him the scanner. “I hope you know that I don’t want to hurt him, but if he does have internal bleeding, we have to try to stop it.”
Johannes doesn’t respond but looks at Ubel. Ubel is visibly dejected, apathetic knowing that if they do nothing he will die. “I’d welcome your help, but I don’t think anyone else would like you out of your bed” Arthur says. “Is he your friend?”
“Yes, he’s my comrade, we are in the same squad.”
“I’m going to go and prepare, why don’t you talk to him” Arthur leaves the room, leaving Johannes and Ubel with a couple of guards.
“I wish I could stop them” Johannes says.
“It’s alright, thanks for trying”.
“We’re going to make it out of here”.
“I hope so”.
The guard hands Johannes the Ismount, telling him to turn it off. He does so, and just as he does, a few humans in white clothing come in the room, grab Ubel’s bed, and wheel him out of the room.
As the Varlet transports and Solvig gunships swarm the crash site like a flock of vultures, A wolf looks out and can see still smoking remains of the downed gunship, but no he saw no bodies. Another wolf with white fur peers out the side next to him, “Shit, that looks bad”. They landed feet from the gunship and spread out clearing the area to ensure no humans had remained. The two wolves head straight for the gunship. As they approach, they see blood on the snow, and spent casings, but no bodies or equipment. The wolf with white fur sticks his head inside the gunship, but much like the outside there is no one, and everything that wasn’t nailed down was gone, “Sir there’s no one here” he says removing his head and looking back at the other wolf.
The other wolf walks over and sticks his head, but sees the same thing, “Damn”. The wolf with white fur trudges through the snow towards the front of the gunship and sees that the cockpit’s emergency escape was open, and much like the cabin, was empty “Pilots are missing too”.
“Svein, surely in a crash like this you’d have some casualties.”
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“Yes Lieutenant, solvigs crash harder you’d expect most of the occupants to be severely injured if that trail like that” Svein points to the long trail the gunship left in the ground as it crashed.
“So where are they?” the Lieutenant asks.
“Maybe the humans took them” the Lieutenant and Svein look to fox who walked up to them “They did shoot it down, right?”
“Corporal, do you see anything?” a sergeant says to a wolf holding binoculars.
“Nothing sir” he says quickly scanning their surroundings looking for heat signatures” “No one’s here.”
“What about tags, anything from Beta company?”
“No sir, just ours”.
“Shit, alright Bleecker get over here” the fox heads towards the Lieutenant again “set a detonator”. The fox says nothing and approaches the gunship. He steps inside and sets multiple charges, one in the cockpit and one near the engines, and another in the cabin. “Everyone mount up, there’s nothing here.”
As the Lieutenant steps back in his transport, a corporal looking at his handheld scanner explains “Lieutenant! There’s an emergency beacon that just went up, west of here!” The Lieutenant steps back down from his transport “Bleecker hold on those detonators” he says walking over to the corporal. The coyote corporal hands his Lieutenant his scanner and points west “Over there, I can just pick it up, it’s from an Ismount, could be a survivor from the crash”. The Lieutenant closely inspects the scanner. He presses a few buttons, and then looks at his Ismount, confirming that the coordinates had been sent. He then hands the scanner back to the coyote and heads back to the transport whose engine has already started.
“Var three, Sols one and two I’m sending you coordinates were taking off now and heading there now.” The occupants assigned to the varlets and solvigs rush in” Just going to do a fly over, see if there’s anything there first.”
The V-TOL engines of the gunships and transports roar and turn west as they gain in altitude. “Stay low, the humans already got one” the Lieutenant says. The two solvigs and varlets speed past the flat farmland, and quickly come upon rolling hills, which soon turn into mountains. The Lieutenant keeps his eyes on his Ismount, watching the blinking red light made by the emergency beacon get closer on the map. Over their radios, the occupants hear “Incoming, brace” from the pilots as they activate countermeasures. The primitive anti-air missile gets fooled by the countermeasures and explodes harmlessly behind the AirShips. One Solvig peels off and engages the target that fired the missile, firing a missile of its own. There is a large explosion, followed by very fast firing from its cannon. When it is done, it returns to the formation.
“Hey pilot, we already know the enemy is here, just to fly over of the coordinates. And make sure your scans are on, I want a layout of the place. We aren’t going to land” the Lieutenant says.
“Sir what about the survivors?” a wolf next to him asks.
“We’ll come back; I don’t want to set down in an enemy controlled LZ that we know nothing about”.
The solvigs and varlet fly over the coordinates, and as they do small arms are fired from the ground towards them. They pass over the coordinates and circle back, heading back to the crash site. The Lieutenant looks at his Ismount, at the scans already sent to it, and sees that the coordinates at which the beacon was located were fortified. The scans indicated it the perimeter was manned, but dozens of personnel had heavy equipment and vehicles. The wolf next to the Lieutenant leans over and spies on the Lieutenant’s Ismount. “Shit, maybe you’re right”.
“If there are survivors from the crash, we’re not getting them out with one squad. Solvig 3, Varlets 2 and 3 mount up and return to base. Sergeant Witsohn, when you are clear out, set off the detonators.”
“Yes sir” the sergeant who remained at the crash site says over the radio.
The President takes a sip of his coffee, as a general gives a report about the losses they’ve taken on the big screen of the meeting room of the bunker. He tries to pay attention, but he has not slept for more than two hours since the invasion started a week ago. Morale in the room has obviously shifted from determined to apathetic in the long week that has passed. He can make out a few words at a time from the general, “New York, Boston, the whole Northeast down to Norfolk is captured” and “Washington is surrounded, but they haven’t entered”.
Another general asks a question, but the president zoning out didn’t comprehend it. Multiple heads turn to him looking for an answer. “Sorry, can you repeat that”?
“Relocate, do you want to relocate, we can direct our remaining air power to force a gap so that we can relocate into the interior” asks.
“No, they’ve already proven that they can destroy anything they want to, there’s a reason why they haven’t touched D.C.” The president says.
“And are just going to sit here and find out their plan?” some politician who made it down with the president asks.
“If they wanted us dead, they could have destroyed all of D.C in their first wave of attack. They have a plan for us, let’s try to exploit that. While we’re still here, Americans will fight.” The president says, with a regain vigor.
“To what end, why don’t we surrender now, give us favorable terms” the politician says.
“Absolutely not”.
Outside the vault door Gunshots interrupt their conversation. Everyone around the table stands up, the few numbers of soldiers inside the bunker ready their weapons. They can hear screams and banging from outside of the door. As the gunfire dies down, they can hear the plasma weapons of the Eckzahn overpower it. And just as it started, the noises stopped.
“Sir, we need to get to the tunnel, we can use the other bunker.” A general says, as they all rush towards the tunnel. They attempt to open it but find it unresponsive to the code. They attempt the manual override but find the vault door itself stuck. As they continue to open the door, they begin to hear what sounds like a welding torch from the main door. A soldier runs back to the door, and sees sparks coming from the door, “they’re cutting open the door”!
“How? That thing is rated for nuclear bombs!” the politician asks.
“Is there a hiding alcove in here?” The president asks one of his secret service members.
“No sir”.
All they could do was watch as the sparks worked their way around the door, cutting a large hole through the vault door. As the makeshift door was completed the sparks stopped. Everyone in the bunker hid behind whatever they could find, chairs, overturned tables, and other miscellaneous items. A loud creaking and a high pitch screech were heard as the vault door separated from hole cut in it, the hole cut was being dragged out.
A loud thud echoed throughout the room as the thick metal fell to the floor, quickly followed by gunfire from the soldiers and secret service inside the room. The politicians including the president hid closer to the walls and floor as both bullets and plasma bolts whizzed past them.
The president watched as one by one his personnel were shot, leaving burns on their clothes. The gunfire died down as he heard shouting in a language, he did not recognize fill the room. Another volley of gunfire erupts, followed by a larger one of plasma weapons. He doesn’t dare peek his head up. An Eckzahn soldier, a wolf, wearing armor covering most of his body appears around the corner and points his weapon at him. The soldier shouts at him and he throws his hands up showing he is not armed.
A secret service member who until then remained hidden, leans around the corner and shoots at the soldier. The bullets from the pistol bounce off the armor of the soldier, and he quickly turns around and shoots the secret service member with his plasma weapons. Two more Eckzahn soldiers appear from around the corner and surround the president. They speak to each other, as one lunges for the president, and violently puts him to the ground handcuffing him. “Please, I surrender, I am the president.” They don’t seem to acknowledge him as they stand him up. When he stands up, he sees his staff butchered, some shot others beat up. The two Eckzahn soldiers practically carried him out, leaving the rest of this staff inside the room.
“Where are you taking me?!” The president says as he passes dozens of aliens squeezed inside the tight corridor. No one answers him, as the two heavily armored Eckzahn soldier hand him off to more lightly armored soldiers. They force him to kneel, one fox wearing what looks like a beret bends down to look at him he holds up some sort of device with a picture of him on it. He says something to the others, and they pick him up. He feels something jabbed into his neck, and he quickly loses consciousness.
Johannes was awoken by the gunfire, even through the many thick walls, he heard people yelling and running through the halls. He looked at the guards standing in the room, one was talking on his radio, while the others moved closer to him. The guard who took his Ismount, tossed it to him. He subsequently turned on its translator.
“What did you do?” the guard said.
“Me? I’ve been sitting here” Johannes says acting like he didn’t know what was going on.
“How did you alert your people?”
“I didn’t?” Johannes says praying the translator would mask him lying.
“This thing isn’t just a translator, it’s a communication device, right? You told your people where you are” the guard quickly walks up to him.
“No, it just shows friendly positions on the map, comms goes through another device” Johannes said hoping this half-truth would help him.
The man in camo walks in the room again, seeming angrier than last time. “Major, I think the alien used his ‘translator’ to give away his position to his people” the guard says.
“I wouldn’t doubt it” the major says as he violently grabs Johannes’ Ismount and throws it on the floor “destroy it”.
“Wait- “Johannes said, but the translator didn’t have enough time to translate what he said before one of the guards shot it. After it was destroyed everyone in the room froze for a second, no one talking or moving.
Johannes leaned back in his bed knowing now he had no way in communicating with them, and that the emergency beacon was destroyed.
The guards and major yelled at him, but not knowing what they were saying he just responded, “I cannot understand” and “you destroyed my translator” repeatedly each time they seemed to ask a question. Eventually Arthur comes into the room. Johannes sees him and the major get into some argument, but he is unable to get the substance of it, he figured they were arguing about the destroyed Ismount.
Johannes asks Arthur over, and points to where Ubel’s bed was and says, “What happened to Ubel, is he ok?” emphasizing ‘Ubel’ hoping the doctor would recognize his name.
Arthur spoke to him with words and gestures he did not understand, but since he went on and on, Johannes assumed that things did not go too well.
Without his Ismount’s translator, Johannes was helpless to just watch the humans argue. Arthur would go back to where all the equipment they took from the crash and rummage around in it. Johannes watched him toil through it but never found what he was looking for.
Johannes had now gone about two days without any amount of good sleep and tried to tune them out in an attempt to rest, but the major and Arthur never seemed to stop. Johannes heard the argument pick up again, causing him to open his eyes and see what the matter was. Two of the guards had grabbed Arthur and were dragging him out, the major followed them after staying for a second to give Johannes a look.
Exhausted, Johannes closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep.
At what felt like the next moment, Johannes woke to an alarm blaring. He sat up, looking at the door, through the windows in the door, he could see people running past it. The guards in the room approached him, weapons in a low-ready position, they seemed to ask him questions. Johannes didn’t bother answering them, knowing they wouldn’t understand anything he’d say.
As gunfire started to be heard again, one of the guards went to the door, peeking his head out. As he opened the door, it got louder, but Johannes also heard the sound of plasma weapons. His ears rotated to try to figure out where and what the fight was. A guard next to him saw his intrigue and pushed him back in the bed. Johannes didn’t understand his words, but he definitely knew what he meant. Another guard got some tape, and together with the other, tied his wrists. Then they took some spare rope and tied him to the bed.
Johannes tried to be small, knowing that at any moment his comrades would come through the door. The guards in the room yelled at him, no doubt threatening his life, as more soldiers came in the room. Two of them picked up Johannes by the stretcher he was attached to, and they took him to the door. The now two dozen strong unit of humans carried him deeper into the base, passing both soldiers and humans in white clothing.
They took him to a small room, with a bright light, similar to the one he was just in. As he entered, he could see Arthur, who was surprised to see him. Next to him on a table was Ubel, he was not moving, and covered in blue a plastic sheet. The soldiers set Johannes on the ground in the corner of the room. One stood next to Johannes, looking like he was ensuring he didn’t try to escape, while the rest exited the room.
Johannes tried to look at Ubel, but his vision was blocked by the soldier standing next to him, and a bad angle from the ground. The soldier saw him looking, and subsequently kicked him right on the nose. His head recoiled to look in the opposite direction, and his eyes started to water from. Dazed, he remained looking away for a second.
Arthur seemed to scold the soldier for his punitive action. He pushed him out of the way and knelt down to Johannes. Johannes looked up and saw Arthur directly above him. He patted Johannes on his head like a dog, trying to comfort him. Johannes was not pleased and bared his teeth at him. Arthur took his message, and backed off, returning to the table.
Minutes passed, as the sounds of gunfire, plasma weapons, and explosion got closer. As it did, Arthur and the soldiers in the room got visibly more nervous. The soldiers in the room flipped tables and shelves creating improvised covers. They got behind it, when one plasma bolt went straight through one of the thin walls and made a large burn mark on the back wall.
Hails of gunfire came from the hallway just outside. Johannes assumed they had fortified this position to protect him and Ubel from being rescued. However, the gunfire was soon overwhelmed by plasma weapons. More and more bolts went through the wall, while the soldiers inside the room with him hid behind cover.
The soldier who was standing over him crouched down behind an overturned desk and in front of Johannes. Three human soldiers ran into the room, two of them hit by plasma weapons, and joined the others hiding behind cover. They seemed to argue amongst each other. The fighting outside died down, only occasional gunfire and plasma weapons were heard.
The door to the room swung open, and Johannes watched as an Eckzahn grenade fly through the air. He looked away, hoping it wasn’t a fragmentation grenade. It had just hit the ground when it exploded, a concussive wave tore through the small room rattling its occupants including Johannes.
Second felt like minutes as Johannes laid on the ground, muffled gunfire and plasma weapons just barely getting into his ears. His vision was blurred, as he felt a great weight fall on top of him. He was blinded, and everything felt fuzzy, he wondered if he had been killed. A moment later he came to, and realized it was a human who had fallen onto him after being shot.
The human was removed by a familiar canine face. Johannes was still somewhat dazed and couldn’t tell quite who. Two more Eckzahn soldiers came over and cut his restraints and picked him up. When he stood up, he saw that most of the humans were on the ground, while a couple were standing up, hands on their heads, including Arthur. He saw three Eckzahn soldiers removing the blue cover from Ubel, and Johannes attempted to break from the hold of the two who were helping him walk.
“He had internal bleeding!” He said stumbling his words, “The humans tried to fix it, is he alive?”
“For now,” one of them said as a medic pushed his way through the crowed room and took out his scanner and began scanning Ubel. Satisfied that Ubel was receiving proper attention, Johannes allowed the two to continue helping him walk out, his hand holding his chest. They got him out of the room, and then sat him down in the hallway. There a medic knelt down and asked him “Are you hurt?”
“Broken ribs and tail, and a concussion, gods my head hurts”.
“I’m giving you Lysostin for the pain,” the medic said while jabbing him with the spray, “Were you on the Solvig that crashed?”
“Yeah, there were more, like six of us. I don’t know where they are”.
“That’s alright, were going to get you out of here” the medic said as the Lysostin started to kick in. Johannes’ pain was greatly relieved, as he felt more and more loopy.
The medic ordered “hey you to, this one need to go” at two passing soldiers carrying a stretcher”. They stopped and laid the stretcher down. The medic helped Johannes get on, and the two picked him up. The medic told the two “This one is from the solvig crash, get him out of here.”
They hurriedly carried him out. They passed squads of Eckzahn soldiers, some guarding intersections, others running to reinforce teams pushing farther into the base. The two soldiers carried Johannes outside where they set him into an awaiting medevac Varlet. As they sat him down next to another wolf, one of them told the attending flight medic “Hey, this one is from the crash”.
The flight medic knelt over Johannes and asked, “From the crash?” as he scanned him “Are there more of you?”
“One, that I know of” Johannes said as Ubel was brought on another stretcher and laid down next to him.
A medic jumped in the helicopter after Ubel and explained to the flight medic, “The humans cut him up, small internal bleeding and multiple fractures, Head trauma, he needs to go now.”
“I agree”, the flight medic says as he scans Ubel himself.
“Pilot, let’s go!” The flight medic says, and the pilots with the engines still running throttle them up, lifting the varlet off the ground. The medic who brought Ubel in jumps out just as it takes off. Johannes finally relaxes, with the help of the Lysostin.