Chapter 315. Fluffle Danger.
“Major Finley, what’s going on?” I asked.
“We’ve got a new system-related outbreak we’ve got to deal with. Late this afternoon, a group of hikers at the Acton Wash Wildlife Sanctuary were attacked by monstrous animals. Two of the hikers were unfortunately killed, but the other pair were able to fight off the creature with their walking sticks.
“Hearing the initial calls, it was apparent that this was something integration related so we sent a team out to reinforce the first responders and to make sure that those first responders were ones already read into the program,” Finley said, pausing to check something on his phone after it beeped ominously at him.
“So, what kind of wildlife are we talking about?” Elliot asked.
“Hang on a minute, there’s some new intel coming in,” Finley said.
“Rico, do you think the integration is happening?” Elliot asked me.
“No, if this is just an isolated thing, I doubt it. I kind of expect the actual integration to be a bit more than some wildlife attacks on the outskirts of Los Angeles,” I replied. I had never heard of this wildlife sanctuary place, but it had to be close enough to haul us and the armored vehicles all the way to it on trucks.
“Sorry about that, we have found a possible source of the problem. As far as what attacked those hikers, it was rabbits,” Finley said, distracted by reading more information on his phone as he spoke with us.
“Rabbits? If a pair of normies with walking sticks were able to take one out, this doesn’t sound too dangerous. Why roll out all of this hardware instead of sending just me and Rico in?” Elliot asked.
“That’s what we tried to do, there were two other summoned beings nearby that were first pulled in to deal with the situation. They were backed up by a few police officers that knew about the system. They proceeded to sweep the wildlife sanctuary and look for any additional threats.
“We lost contact with them thirty minutes later. The last image we got from their body cameras was a swarm of these rabbits attacking,” Finley said, pulling up a picture on his phone to show us. I could see the image of a rabbit jumping toward one of the police officers.
In the image, the officer was firing his pistol, and I could see serious-looking wounds on the rabbit. The rabbit itself was the size of a large dog, and instead of the cute bunny teeth, this thing had razor-sharp carnivore fangs. To top things off, the rabbit also had a set of pointy antlers it was aiming at the officer.
“Nasty, how many of these things do you think there are out there?” I asked.
“No idea, and we also have no idea how many of the rabbits have turned into monsters. The team noted several normal jackrabbits during their search, so we’re hoping it’s not as bad as it could be. Even so, we’re not taking things lightly, hence the platoon of Bradley’s and MRAP’s.
“The sanctuary is sealed off by troops and law enforcement, but we’re stretched thin as this is a huge area. We’ve got drone support and they’ve taken out at least a dozen of the creatures that strayed toward our lines. So far, the bulk of the monsters seems to be remaining inside the wildlife sanctuary, but it’s only a matter of time before they run out of food there,” Finely explained.
“Not only that, leaving these system mutated animals alone will likely allow them to spread in number, and probably gain XP if they’re out hunting stuff,” I offered.
“Yes, and here’s a picture of the latest drone thermal imaging. Do you see that herd of rabbits? Look at what’s in the center of them,” Finley said. I could see at least a dozen mutated rabbits in the thermal image, and there, in the center of the rabbits was someone standing. There was a human there with them, and they weren’t attacking him.
“Uh, sorry to be that guy, but a group of rabbits in the wild is called a fluffle,” Elliot said.
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“What? Really, I thought it was a warren,” I said.
“No, a warren is where they live, the nest. The domesticated ones are a herd, but in the wild they’re called a fluffle. What, my mom had me watch a lot of Animal Planet when I was a kid. Some of it must have stuck,” Elliot said apologetically as Major Finley glared at him.
“I don’t care what they’re called, we’re going to kill them, and then deal with whoever that is,” Finley said, pointing at the man.
“Is it possible that human is one of the first team sent in?” I asked.
“Maybe, which is why we haven’t just dropped a Hellfire missile onto the group. Here’s the plan,” Finley said, pulling a paper map of the area out for us to look at.
It turned out that Elliot and I weren’t the only summoned beings joining the operation. There were two other groups of three that had joined up with similar military forces. One group was being used to reinforce the perimeter, and the other was going to sweep the park for any additional mutated rabbits or other threats.
My group was going to push directly toward the human and the large group of, well, I guess it’s a fluffle, of rabbits around him. The trip there took just over an hour and as we rolled, Finley tried to keep us up to date on any changes as we approached. Elliot found some body armor and other tactical gear in the back of the SUV, and I merely summoned my armor, complete with Melvin’s armor reinforcement.
“I hope I can find something like that the next time I’m in Somhagen,” Elliot said as my gear instantly equipped onto me.
“You’ll get plenty if you keep scoring high on your summoning ratings,” I replied. Our comms headsets that tied in with the Infantry platoon we were going in with. The platoon were the ones that Elliot and I had been training, so everyone was familiar with not only how the system shenanigans worked, but also what our individual powers and abilities were.
Even if their modern weapons were somehow shut down by spells or abilities, the men were all trained to use a backup melee weapon. Some wanted to use the bayonet on their rifle, but others preferred something more substantial. Machetes and tactical tomahawks were popular choices. One guy even carried around a gladius on his pack.
Our platoon would have two Bradley IFVs and two MRAP vehicles. That would give us armor and firepower, allowing me and the troops to move in on the objective in relative safety. I turned down the offer of a rifle, but did go ahead and take one of the M9 pistols and a few spare mags.
I’d trained with pretty much all the usual suspects as far as military firearms went by this time. Despite that, I was more comfortable with the pistol and wanted to have an easier time reaching any of my consumables without a larger weapon getting in the way. Elliot also took a pistol, and though I knew he was trained, it still worried me to see the often-rash young man armed.
It was really kind of a silly fear. After all, Elliot threw around fireballs and the like for his living, so a pistol was pretty much a downgrade in threat. This new world that I was a part of was going to take some adjusting to. I worried about the other people who would soon learn of what was happening. At least the summoned beings had some time to prepare and train in relative safety. The rest of the world was going to just get dropped right into the hot grease with this whole integration thing.
“Get ready, I’m going to split you two up, so all our summoned beings for the strike team aren’t in the same track,” Finley ordered as we pulled off on a dirt road and stopped. The sounds of the armored vehicles firing up roared out into the sparse scrub and desert-like environment I found myself in.
“Rico, this is your ride. First Sergeant Novak is in command, but he’ll defer to your expertise on anything system related. You’ve worked together so I don’t anticipate any problems,” Finley said as he gestured toward one of the Bradley’s as the vehicle’s rear ramp opened and a team of soldiers rushed inside. I was seated by the door, with the first sergeant directly across from me. Four other men were inside with us, as well as the crew. The door buttoned up and we began to roll.
I had to say the ride on a Bradley wasn’t exactly comfortable, but I was glad to see that they had somehow found time to install a monitor for us to watch the gunsight camera through. Having an “expert” on the system related threats must have warranted the quick upgrade to our ride.
“Rico, this is just a normal day at the office for you, isn’t it?” One of the soldiers joked. I sort of expected the first sergeant to snap at the man, but he seemed to realize that the nervous soldiers needed a bit of a distraction as they headed into the unknown.
“Pretty much, but remember, I don’t respawn out here. I doubt anything the system is throwing at us is going to be too powerful, given we haven’t even started integration yet. We’ll just have to worry about numbers. Top, if it’s okay with you, we’ll have my minions lead the charge, they can’t get hurt for real, and they’re rather effective,” I suggested.
“Roger that Rico, but if I give an order, follow it. You may be system enhanced, but if the platoon has to pull back, you don’t want to be left on your own or have one of our soldiers risk their lives to retrieve you,” Top replied.
As we moved over the scrub brush and dry soil of the wildlife refuge, I kept my eye on the monitor. We were heading directly toward the ring of mutant rabbits and the human they were surrounding. What I would find there wasn’t likely to be pleasant, but I was the one best equipped to handle the problem.
This wasn’t some other world where I was summoned for a dispute or entertainment. This was Earth, and I’d do everything that I could to defend it.